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would agree, for it is a good joke on those with issues with Eternal.
I was actually two chapters away from the end of Eternal when the (hacking? or whatever it was) happened last night. I suddenly felt this acute feeling, like I was the butt of some cosmic joke - you don't smash the DVD player right as someone's about to find out that Darth Vader is Luke's father! So fortunately, I got the link to the GDocs version from this story just a few hours ago, and finished it.
And honestly...what Device Heretic has created is a masterpiece that digs deeper into the true subtleties of emotion than any other story I've ever read does. Not fanfic, story. (I'll be the first to admit that I don't read as much as I should, but point stands) I'm actually kind of glad I was forced to space out my reading between yesterday and today, or else I might not have been equipped to deal with the immense emotional gravitas of the final chapter and epilogue. I cried and I'm not afraid to admit it, but now...I more or less feel at peace, with myself and the world. It's an air of sheer serenity.
And this story is a very interesting take on it, and I wholly agree with the message you've presented.
Fiction matters, and art in general matters. More than most things in the world, I think.
I bucking love this fandom so much.
>>252138 His epilogue alone robbed me an entire day of emotional stability. From 2 AM to about 8 PM I had to be careful about my thoughts, or I'd spontaneously burst into tears again. It was hard to explain to my friends and family that my distress was caused by "pony fan fiction."
Had he not initially separated the final chapters and epilogue, my whole weekend may have been nothing but weeping in a corner.
Edit: Pony fandom is best fandom.
Eternal is an amazing story exploring the relationship between Twilight and Princess Celestia. If you read this story, you've unfortunately spoiled yourself a bit, but it is still definitely worth your time (a lot of your time, it's a very long story). It was published on this site, but due to trolls, it has been unfortunately deleted. The link at the beginning of this story will take you to where it was archived on Google Docs.
As for this story... the thought of Twilight Sparkle herself going through the feelings I had, the thought of every story happening somewhere... this story evokes a lot of emotions from me, just like the story it is about, and I call that success.
>>252494 Right? That's practically my view on fiction. That if it's written...it exists, somewhere. And I love the idea, mainly because of some of the ideas I've written and wished were real. Unfortunately, that means I'd have seen my own death a few times that were dreams written down.
This story was excellent. I haven't read Eternal, but I don't think I need to, in order to connect with this story. This was wonderfully written, emotive, and very sweet. Thank you for writing this.
Eternal is a fanfic that was originally hosted here on FIMFiction. However, some parasprite hacker has compromised the author's account. He's been harassed up and down the Internet, and we may never see him again, which is a crying shame.
However, fans have mirrored the story. You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mb29QAKEAPzg_AKuKngglnc1dTAC-YvDPUsCX1inn4I/edit
@Skywriter: This is beautiful and wonderful. Be proud.
OMG this is such a good cap-off to Eternal. I was really emotionally fragile after finishing it and was still trying to come to terms with the heavy feelings that it evoked in me when I read this. I can say that this story has given me some much needed and very satisfying closure on my whole Eternal-emotional-floom-ride. thank you for such an awesome story and perhaps one of the most touching themes of fiction in general; that what we read and write matters. you sir, have made a good-'un.
I love how, despite her reliance on the Royal Canterlot Voice, Luna is the more easygoing of the sisters. I really want to see whether Celestia is able to unwind if she goes out incognita.
I read Eternal last week, and it was absolutely incredible. Any fence-sitters (I'm looking at you, >>253278 and >>253188 ) would do well to try it out. The plot takes so many expectation-defying turns, and the Scope of the story is blown open multiple times, kinda like the last chapters of Lewis' The Last Battle, where the world is an onion but each layer further up and further in is bigger than the one before it.
Before this, the only "Characters read fanfiction!" stories I'd come across were mere tongue-in-cheek drabbles, that never took themselves seriously. This has changed that. Multitudinous ovations to you, good Sir.
Image: http://images.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw2135_small.png
Wait, what? Eternal is down? *checks*
This. This is why we can't have nice things.
Fortunately, I'd already saved everything too, but I think something went wrong with my copies. So I went and saved all of the Googledocs too (and thanks for providing them), but BOY did that take a while.
Your own story was good, but the meta-fictional interactions are causing a snarl in my mind. Possibly with my Suspension of Disbelief, I don't know.
Eternal has permanently changed my perception of the words "faithful student", "perfect", and, well "eternal."
So I can say with a steadfast certainty that device heretic has left a lasting impression in my mind with his stories. It is not often that a story will leave me so emotionally moved that the mere mention of such related words would send shivers down my spine.
Stay strong device heretic.
And Skywriter, thanks for bringing the readers' attention to Eternal with your own work. Eternal is a story that deserves to be shared.
This is a nice tribute to a wonderful story that deserved all the praise it got. I haven't been moved by a story, especially a fanfic, like that in years. I still hope (and believe) that "Eternal" and its author will be back some day (hopefully with a new story in pack 
), once the troll(s) have moved on.
>>252970 If any fanfiction deserves fanfiction, its Eternal.
Or maybe Airshipping is Magic, but that's a whole different affair.
Also, because it's required...
If you want a download, you can get a pdf of it at: http://maximillianveers.deviantart.com/gallery/32043513#/d4qvqih
About half way through the story I realized the pun in the title. 
I can't think of anything eloquent or interesting to say, so I'll just say that I'm proud to be in a community with such amazing authors. This will probably be on EQD within the week, and if there's any justice in the world it will get a 5 or 6 star archive rating.
In any event, nice job on the story Skywriter. I probably shouldn't speak for Device Heretic since I've never met the guy, but I'm sure that reading your story put a smile on his face, just as it did mine.
-Shotdown
It is about bucking time. Celestia finally making the time to be with her friends, with no forced dictum to preventing her from enjoying herself, without it being some third person 'feeling good for others', without allowing herself to be a full participant. I know of no fictional accounts other than those trollestia/molestia abominations that allow her to cut loose. I feel a new dawn has risen on Celestia fanfics. TY Skywriter: Revolution begins with someone with a vision so that others may also see a new path opening for us all to take. Well done.
Image: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lupb490hcW1qc5eem.gifFirst I need to get this off my chest:
I've never read Eternal. I don't plan to read it either. Not because I don't think it would be amazing. But because I don't read something just because it's "good". There are a LOT of amazing books, fics, movies, etc that I haven't and won't partake of. I like what I like because I like it and I make no apologies. Nor do I believe I "better myself" by experiencing amazingly wonderful things I have absolutely no interest in.
That said:
I read this fic because it is a fic about the characters in the fic relating to fics about themselves. Not because of it's inspiration, nor it's content. Just it's premise.
And as if in validation of my personal philosophies, that is exactly what I enjoyed about this fic. The premise.
The inspiration "Eternal" from what I was able to infer from this story's references is definitely not my kind of fic.
The content... The characters and characterizations, plot, events, dialogue and themes... Good, but not my cup of tea. (I will say your dialogue has gotten way better since Observatory Hill.)
But the premise. The concept of the characters reading fiction about themselves and experiencing themselves vicariously. Of them taking stock of themselves weighed against the fictive alternate versions of themselves. Being motivated to change their lives based on the lives others have dreamed for them. Seeing themselves as we see them.
That was...
Well... Refer to the image above.
Hi guys. I'm... overwhelmed by the response to this story, and I'm pleased to see a lot of love for "Eternal" in the comments above as well, because in an absolutely one-hundred-percent literal sense, this work would not exist without that one. I just can't respond to all of you in person, as I have a webcomic that I'm behind on, damnit, but I thank all of you for your kind words. Thank you all.
Yeah, for about five hours, I was all noble and pious and all "I want the work to be judged on its own merits so I will publish pseudonymically" but when people started actually liking it I was all like "Screw it, free traffic". So die all my high ideals. But I'm keeping the Skywriter handle because I've always wanted a real honest-to-God code name. It makes me feel like a trucker back in the days when truckers were pop-culture heroes instead of merely country music protagonists.
The automatic "No, thank you!" response is so overused at this point so to have robbed it of all meaning and impact when presented in isolation, so at the risk of getting overly baroque, I'm going to have to ask you to imagine me delivering it while staring with manic intensity at you and possibly clutching your lapels to boot. Which is admittedly a little creepy of me.
Image: http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/8fbd6909e0aed816ce5bc7f5eb0ee702/63114%20-%20bedroom_eyes%20big_boy%20caption%20flutterbitch%20flutterbrute%20fluttershy%20macro%20sexy.jpg
Pretty sure you do, since device heretic is higher profile and thus making out with him is more of a draw. Alternatively, I might make it one of those wacky first person/second person fics, in which case I'm not sure which one of you gets to be narrator and which one is "you."
On a completely unrelated note, I'm going to be needing some... intimate measurements. PM work for you?
"Eternal", as mentioned previously, is a lengthy and quite powerful exploration of the relationship between Celestia and Twilight several years after the events depicted in the television program. My own short story above, written in response to that one, is nested in the framing device that "Eternal", or something quite like it, exists as piece of popular fiction within the world; the characters, having read "Eternal", discuss the effect it had on them. So not a sequel, as such, but spoiler-y inasmuch as my characters chat about events that take place in the parent story. Hope that's clear!
First of all, I'd like to thank not only the author of this wonderful story, but also to the many people who've commented on it, for had it not been for them, I'd never gotten around to reading Eternal. I must say, as others have previously stated, no doubt, that it was far better than quite a few books I've read in the past, and the first "book" in a long time that I haven't been able to put down until I'd finished it. On a separate note, I must admit that I've never been so good at coping with the death of a beloved, albeit fictional, character, and that this story has reassured my faith in the product of my many wakeful nights of thinking over the read events and fighting the sadness that change may sometimes bring.
It's also the same universe as Observatory Hill so there are references to the relationships established in that too.
It's easier with fanfiction. You just have to watch next week's episode.
I've only ever cried over the death of one fictional character. In a novel. When I was younger.
Nice. I'm glad I read Eternal first, as it made this story more meaningful, but I can tell it would have been pretty good regardless.
The only flaw? It's too short. You'd be surprised at how many people want to read about Princess Celestia just going out for dinner with friends. But it does have a nice ending, so you're forgiven.
This was so deliciously meta. Way to make me feel good about all the time I spend reading fanfic instead of more economically productive things!
I think I've read every fic mentioned in the story, but the name of the one where Luna disguises herself as moonbeam escapes me at the moment. Anyway, loved it and now I read ALL your stories 
EDIT: Of COURSE its called "Moonbeam" 
I noticed that on the writing of it, but instead of trying to rework the plot timing (something that would have lessened the impact), I decided to turn it into a stealth joke instead. There's a couple of those. I'm still waiting on someone to win the "I Played That Too" achievement for finding the Portal gag in "Beloved".
I love meta stuff. It just elicits my gleeful pleasure in knowing "the real truth" and seeing the story know it too, sorta...
But thats NOT why I loved this. I cried in Eternal, just like she did. So... I suppose in a way, this story could have very easily been called "Catharsis" because this is similar to my own reaction. All literature is at heart didactic... and sometimes what we learn is how to feel. Eternal was like that for me. I cried, a lot. When I was done I thought, long and hard, and I sorta did what Twi did: I realized that I had grown apart from people and I corrected that, renewing friendships and relationships. Because.... a fictional story got a hold of my heart.
This one did too. I felt almost like someone had written a story about me. (which sounds strange... haha) Thank you! It conjured up a lot of those old feelings again.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
'live fast, die young, leave an atomized corpse'
-*Chuckles* Just so.
even as my inner self pounded the floor with one hoof, laughing hysterically at me.
-Because she under-estimated Twilight's psychological resilience?
"Pinkie even went through this phase where she would hobble up to me and complain about her Navicular Disease in a creaky old voice, then laugh and run off. It got a little wearying. But she moved on."
-Psychologists would call this "roleplaying" I think, and certainly "desensitization"... Pinkie has an intuitive understanding of SOME areas psychology* or her parties wouldn't be so fun for such a varied variety of ponies.
*And disastrous weaknesses very near to those towering strengths. One more argument for her being on the autistic spectrum. Alternatively, all her social skills come from her cutie-mark (but that seems backwards to the way cutie-marks work) and she never learned any others because she had that crutch to lean on.
"That's the reason I read all these books about me!" said Twilight. "I don't want anything to take me by surprise.
-Part of the reason I believe that sci-fi (and other fiction, but mostly for the moral and psychological aspects), has it valuable role... "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" prepared the minds of man to grasp the idea of a long-stay submarine long before the technologies used in WWII ever came about, let alone submarines that didn't have to surface for air. Ironically enough, the language used to describe the Nautilus's power-plant could be interpreted to mean it is running on hydrogen fusion. Einstein hadn't even been BORN...
"I want to know what it's like to have children. I want to know what it's like to be a colt. I want to know what it's like to have wings.
-At least two out of three of these are within Twilight's power, and the other is quite possibly. Children will take time (but she can foal-sit for the Cake's and/or later the Armor's, although if Cadence is immortal they might wait on the foals so long that Twilight might beat them to it.). Wings... well they aren't very GOOD wings in some regards, but she has both the most gentle and the most intense teachers available(granted Fluttershy doesn't have the raw strength to be a spotter if the wings go poof), plus the right connections she could hire a tutor and expense account it... although she is so humble, even your more discerning take on Twilight might not ever think of it. I say "more discerning" as a contrast to common idea that Twilight has never really clued in to how much political authority she has as the personal "trouble shooter" of one of the diarchs (and the other one OWES HER FOR HER SOUL).
You don't deserve her, said my inner self.
No, I agreed.
-This is just her normal internal dialogue, not a conversation with a semi-seperate entity, right?
"I was crying because it's one of the happiest, most triumphant things I've ever read!"
-Thought this was a possibility soon after I saw her crying. In retrospect the flowers may not have been entirely random, and her overall attitude towards life suggests that it would be tears at the beauty... or at least ENJOY a sad passage.
and our friendship becomes something of legend,
-
They got scared, and hurt, but they came through it together, and were rewarded with the happiest decades of their lives together. And I know it's not going to be like that. That it's never going to be like that.
-It might be a little selfish of Celestia, but it COULD be BETTER than that. She would have to do two things, one difficult, one dangerous for Equestria. The difficult thing would be to let Twilight in a little more. Tell her of her fears and insecurities. The dangerous one would be to let her sit the Sun Throne while Celestia was still in Equestria (or in her upcoming absence or some other absence when Luna WAS still able to handle the sun?). It might show too much favoritism, thus inciting jealous or people trying to bug her for immortality, or achieve it in problematic ways, it might be selfish of Celestia towards Twilight (being prepared for a pain doesn't make it not a pain)... but as far as I can tell, it would WORK. And it DOES seem to be Twilight's fate in any case. It may be her fate to become immortal BEFORE Eohippus is on his deathbed, so that she can still be around when he IS (he might stick around a century or three still).
I did want to spend time with my friends. And that means you, too."
-Yes... Maybe she SHOULD carve out some leisure time in her schedule to be with Twilight. It is a very rare opportunity, and they shouldn't waste it. Even if Celestia doesn't open up about her insecurities it could be good. I can't quite think what they would DO that wouldn't slide into something academic or magical enough that the student-teacher relationship might ruin the fun, but I am sure that Pinkie could come up with something.
"Dinner," she said, almost automatically. "Qilinese tofu, sweet-and-sour style. You, me and Luna.
-Well, that is a good start. not sure how well the conversation will work out, but then again Celestia IS a master planner, and Twilight DID want to talk at the Gala "all about magic and what I've learned and seen", so it shouldn't be TOO disappointing. Even if it is, it should serve as a starting point for creating the sort of relationship they both could benefit more from.
Luna keeps talking about how much she wishes you would join us sometime, after all."
-Ah, makes sense, even if it never shows up in the show. Then again this could be happening after the latest episode (including the fact that that is a moving target) or it could be of screen (much like Shining Armor was).
Every night after we get done stargazing together.
-Oh, DUH... you already had it covered...
You thrice-damned hypocrite, Celestia, she said. Is there any pony in this entire kingdom to whom you haven't lied, in one way or another?
-See, this sort of thing is a pet peeve of mine... she wielded the Element of Honesty against her sister, and perhaps against Discord too. To me, at least one of them, and preferably, both should be a true Paragon of each of the Elemental Virtues. Of course, I have heard that the Mane Six don't really stick to there Elemental Virtues in the show (although I couldn't name a specific time off hoof). I will grant you that Celestia is MANIPULATIVE as all get out, but she never outright deceives to do so that we have seen. I realize that fanons vary but I needed to get that off my chest.
It's not typical!
-What does that have to do with anything? I guess it relates to projecting a reassuring image, but... that is why she is allowed to keep secrets. And besides which, it could be a GOOD thing if it got out, for the same reasons that what happened at the Gala could be good for the nobility.
Another Celestia, divided from me by a shell even more impenetrable than the one that separated Eohippus from Equestria; a shell that nevertheless, through some miracle, could be pierced by nothing more than a mass of wood pulp and ink and dreams.
-I said this earlier, with much less poetry.
And then karaoke!
-That was a little out of place... but then again this is Equestria where grown ponies bob for apples and play pin the tail on the pony (that last bit may just be Pinkie Pies tendency to plan parties for six year olds and still make them awesome... although the actual wedding reception looked NOTHING like the pre-planning... maybe it was actually the bachelorette party?). It also occurs to me that it seems to me that Celestia would have the voice of an angel, and Luna that of a virtuoso opera singer (and not JUST Wagnerian Opera). No real reason for it, just seems likely. Modern music might or might not give them trouble, but either you get funny (as usual with karaoke) or a chance to have an awesome private performance, which is good for both singer and audience.
"My aura of cosmic purity converts all toxins to distilled water at my merest touch, alcohol included."
-Interesting take...
And you can't sing worth a damn
-That works too, especially for this sort of fic that focuses on her feeling (perhaps with good reason) that she has to hide her flaws.
I leaned in close to the open copy of Eternal.
"I don't know if you can hear me," I whispered. "But… thank you for what you just did."
-I was going to repeat this to her, and the one from the show, but then I realized it makes more sense to thank Faust (except that she has enough of that sort of spam in her various in-boxes), and you. I KNOW they exist, and the fictional characters don't (not that talking to a fictional character can't be useful).
Wow! Thanks for the amazingly thorough rundown! A point that I want to specifically talk more about:
>It's not typical!
-What does that have to do with anything? I guess it relates to projecting a reassuring image, but... that is why she is allowed to keep secrets. And besides which, it could be a GOOD thing if it got out, for the same reasons that what happened at the Gala could be good for the nobility.
Yeah, it really good be a good thing. As for the line motivation, I always read this line as Celestia being absolutely terrified about connecting too strongly with Twilight and making up lame excuses to herself about it. Poor old Celestia doesn't want to open her heart, I think...
And yes, Celly's inner critic was laughing at her because she was making such a big deal about how horrible and soul-wounding the Big Secret was, only to have Twilight say, effectively, "Oh, is that all? Yeah, I kinda figured."
Finally, yes, karaoke, because the whole universe is so schizoid as to "when" it's taking place in terms of our own timeline, I thought, what the heck.
Thanks again!
Yeah, whenever I am not dog tired or in SERIOUS need of relaxation I tend to leave comments on most fictions I read.
Also, a clarification since I phrased things in an ambiguous way. I didn't mean "out of place" in the sense of anachronism, I meant "out of place" as in it didn't sound like the other two items on the list.
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