The Day of Endless Writing

by Bootsy Slickmane

17: The End [Sad Dark]

"It's been a long journey, Spike."

"It sure has, Twilight." Spike turned his tall form to the purple alicorn standing next to him. "Any regrets?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "A few. Nothing I can't live with, though. You?"

Spike sighed, turning back around. "A couple, yeah. I never really had the time to do a lot of the things I wanted to, for one. And... well, you know. Rarity."

Twilight nodded again. "I'm sorry, Spike."

He waved his long claws dismissively. "I got over it a while ago; don't worry."

Twilight turned, looking over her shoulder. "What about you? Any things you wished you'd done differently?"

Sunset Shimmer stepped up next to Twilight, her wings rustling against her ribs. "Yeah, I do." She huffed briefly. "Got a stack big enough to fill a file cabinet. Doesn't matter much now, though, does it?"

"I suppose not," Twilight said, facing forward again. Silence gripped the trio for a time, until Twilight commented, "I'd ask what we should do from here, but I don't think there are a lot of options left."

"No kidding," Sunset agreed. "Not much left to do but sit back and watch, I guess."

Spike settled into a sitting position on the grass, though he still towered over both the alicorns. "You know, I gotta say that I never thought it would end like this. I was betting on something else entirely."

Sunset shrugged. "Makes sense, though, right? That old metaphor about fire cleansing stuff, right?"

Twilight scoffed. "I'm not sure they meant that literally most of the time."

"Like I said, it doesn't matter much now." Sunset took in a deep breath, holding back a cough from the ash entering her lungs. "I suppose now would be a good time to apologize...."

Despite the situation, Twilight giggled a little. "I think you know that I forgave you for that whole Element of Magic fiasco a while ago. I barely even remember the whole thing, honestly."

"I do, so just let me say it, okay? I'm sorry."

Twilight reached a hoof up, wrapping it around Sunset's withers. "I forgive you."

For the first time in years, a genuine smile came to Sunset's face. "Thanks. Goodbye, Spike. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle."

"Goodbye, Sunset," the other two said in unison.

The three turned their eyes back to the inferno before them, and watched the last of the world that they knew burn away until only they remained, and then there was nothing.

Comments

[Cerulean Starlight]

Wow. Wow. 9,500 words in a day?! Congrats!

Besides "Dinosaurs", "Bling", and "Jellybird" (their humor was just . . . off the mark, for me) and "Got the Music in You" (the idea didn't get any time to flesh out, and it's an idea I've personally already read a couple times before), every one of these stories achieved its purpose impeccably. The comedy is side-splitting; "Archer is Best Background Filly" is so nice it can be given no description more fitting than this emoticon: ; "I Think Something's Wrong with My Sister" and "Stopping for Gas" are each in their own way a captivating and thoughtful snapshot. . . . My favorites were "To Be a Princess" (oh man, I really felt the horror there) and "Hay Burger" (absolutely hilarious! And Diamond and Silver Spoon do have a point! It's very kind of them to give Scoot the respect she deserves! )

The Terrifying Tale of the Prissy Ghost

Huh! A throwback to season one! After a while, you kinda forget about those quaint little stories from way back in oh-ten.

"Scrappy, no!"

[Bootsy Slickmane]

5116994
Thanks. Most I've ever written in such a span of time. It really drained me, though. I cringe at reading some of these, but I swore to never edit them, so the errors will remain.

Heh, yeah, the dino one, the bling one, and the jelly one certainly weren't my best. The music one was one I'd been meaning to get down for a while, but yeah, it didn't really get the time and space it needed. The Archer story was one of the ones that was invented wholly on the spot, inspired by an argument about the character in a skype chat. The one about Sweetie finding Rarity, well, that one had been one my list for a while, along with "To Be a Princess" and "Hay Burger."

I was surprised that I couldn't find any other stories about the Prissy Ghost. Figured that would've already been done on this site.

Just had the briefest urge to write about Scrappy's Rampage, but nah.

I actually share your favorites, here, along with "Solstice." That one was written as soon as the idea popped into my head while listening to the Evening Star song of the same name, and I'm currently working on turning it into a longer story.

[Bootsy Slickmane]

5195560
Yeah, kind of a reversal, there.

5195611
We may be the only ones to laugh at this one, yeah. This one was an idea that had been sitting around my notes for a while.

5195637
Hehe, indeed he did.

5195670
Unless there's a pizza on the way.

[superfun]

These were all pretty great.
Have you ever considered doing full length sequels to some of them?

[Bootsy Slickmane]

5714619
I absolutely have. I'm actually already working on a full-length version of Solstice. Were there any in particular that you felt might be good candidates for expansions/sequels?

[superfun]

5714689 "To Be a Princess" and "The Terrifying Tale of the Prissy Ghost" for expansions.
"I Think Something's Wrong With My Sister" and "She Owns the Stage" for sequels.

[Bootsy Slickmane]

5714710
Notes made. They are on the list of stuff to write. Sadly, the list is huge and I haven't been writing much lately. But they're there, and they already have a foundation laid, so it shouldn't be all that hard.

[superfun]

5714777 Can't wait to see them.

[Bootsy Slickmane]

8197704
Swimming in milkshake does sound kinda fun. I might want some swim goggles, though.

As for the horseshoe, I always figured that Scootaloo didn't actually lose it at all (and probably doesn't even wear horseshoes, indeed) and just told Snails that to keep him busy. Little did she know what that would lead to. Though, I could totally see Snips and Snails having rambling conversations about such stuff while they work. Hmm. That should be a Nothing Happens fic, someday. Just the two of them chatting at Hayburger.

8197711
Not so much bad as... hmm, how to put it? I mean, I'd been writing stories on and off for 17 years when I did this particular experiment. I'm not sure how much experience you have with writing, but I know it took me a long time to get to this point. Writing and posting fanfiction here certainly helped me along and made me better faster, though. Getting direct feedback from multiple people is really useful. However, yeah, it's kinda scary to put your work out there to be judged by everyone. Just something one has to deal with and get over, I guess. I don't know of any shortcuts for it.