Epilogue: Severed Links
Heads in the Cloud
by Present Perfect
Epilogue: Severed Links
"I'm pleased to see my trust in you was not misplaced, Twilight Sparkle."
Celestia greeted her with a warm smile and tea for two. Twilight, fresh from a happy reunion with her friends, Spike included, was grateful for the opportunity to unwind and relax. Still, as she spoke, her voice was troubled.
"I wouldn't go celebrating yet, Princess. If I'm being honest, despite understanding the gravity of all the secrets I could potentially uncover in the Cloud, the temptation to go back and learn more from Equestria's past is really strong." She gazed down at her tea. "I can't promise I won't use the spell again."
"I understand, Twilight," Celestia said quickly. "Though I still trust you, I can remove the spell from your mind, if it would make you feel better."
Twilight's eyebrows shot up. "What?"
Celestia remained impassive. "I could simply sever the link to the Cloud holding that particular piece of information."
"That's..." Twilight's eyes widened. "That's like what Catrina did to Rainbow Dash!"
"To a lesser extent, yes..." Celestia did not meet Twilight's gaze.
After a moment, Twilight spoke up. "What will happen to her, Princess?"
Celestia set her teacup down, regarding Twilight with the look of one who had wished a delicate subject had been left unbroached.
"I have had Catrina moved to a more secure holding cell, one designed for the sort of criminal Equestria has not seen in centuries." She let out a breath. "As for her mental state, only time will tell. When last I saw her, she was still murmuring gibberish."
Twilight frowned at her tea. "I feel sorry for her, for what happened to her people."
Images of the screaming feline head flashed across her mind. She saw in vivid detail the ichor leaking from the eyes, the nose and mouth. It had been so simple to command those cutie marks to attack; she hadn't even realized she was doing it. Her only concern had been for the information, the secrets. The thought of those hundreds and thousands and millions of secrets coming out into the open terrified her to the core. She had to wonder now just whose secrets she was trying to protect, just what it was she was willing to destroy another living being's mind to hide.
Twilight swallowed.
"I don't like what I did to her."
Celestia nodded. "What happened to her people is a regret I wish most wholeheartedly to rectify. I am saddened that she, who was so motivated to rectify it, will likely not be able to see the fruits of my atonement." Her gaze flicked up toward the ceiling.
"As for what you did, Twilight, I feel, given the circumstances, it was all you could do, for yourself, for your friends, and for Equestria. That you feel regret for it only means you possess the unique capability of caring for everyone, pony or otherwise."
Twilight looked up at her, brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Celestia smiled. "Only that you are one of the kindest, most loving ponies I have ever met, Twilight Sparkle. The title of Princess of Friendship suits you so very well. A dear friend once told me a good ruler must fear for her subjects. I've since come to understand that's simply a way of caring for them, and that is what is most important." She sipped at her tea. "You make an excellent Princess, Twilight."
"Thank you, Celestia," Twilight said quietly. The room grew calm, and she drank her tea until it stopped being palatable. She sighed.
"There's one more thing bothering me."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"The Cloud itself." Twilight frowned. "I mean... Three instances of a pony losing their connection to it in who knows how many centuries. It can't be a big problem. But it still makes me feel..." She looked up at Celestia, searching her face. "Like all the things I know aren't real. They're all stored up in some metaphysical cloud for whenever I need to remember them, and they aren't really a part of me like I thought they were. I read the book, and I know that's not really how it works, but..." She swallowed. "Was Catrina right about us? About why the Cloud exists?"
Celestia sipped at her tea a long moment before answering. "Think about it this way, Twilight. Before you knew of the Cloud, did your thoughts and memories seem real?"
"Well, yes, I suppose they did."
"Then they are." Celestia smiled. "Just because you know where they go when you aren't using them doesn't mean they have no meaning. Your mind is what placed them in the Cloud, after all. It has always worked as it needed to, and for your own sake, I recommend trusting it to continue doing so."
Twilight drew a hoof down her face, groaning and slumping to one side. "I can see why it made Sky Speaker go crazy."
She was quiet for a long moment before asking, "Princess, have you ever used the link-severing spell before?"
Celestia nodded. "Once, on myself. As I said, I understand all too well the temptations of the Cloud."
"You've never used it on another pony?"
"No, though I have suggested it to a few."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "And they all refused?"
Celestia nodded. "Nor would I use it on an unwilling subject, regardless of need."
Nodding a few times, Twilight set her cup down and stood. "In that case, I'm willing to trust you to help me trust myself."
"Thank you, Twilight." Celestia smiled, and Twilight relaxed.
On her way from Celestia's quarters, Twilight stopped when she saw a particular mare in Royal Guard armor.
"Lieutenant Sundance! Fancy seeing you here!"
"Your Highness," Sundance said, face drawn.
Twilight rolled her eyes and laughed. "It's like I've picked up a talent for running into Guards all the t--" She cut off when she realized Sundance was glaring at her.
"I don't know how you got into my head," the Lieutenant said through her teeth, "and I don't care if you are a Princess." She stalked forward, backing Twilight into a wall. "If you ever tell anypony what you saw in there, you. Will. Regret it."
The fire in Sundance's eyes, so like her namesake, struck real fear into Twilight's heart. She swallowed, nodding. "You can trust me to keep a secret. I Pinkie Promise."
Sundance backed off as Twilight crossed her heart, fluttered her wings, and jabbed a hoof into her eye with an exclamation of pain.
"Very well, then. Your Highness." Sundance saluted, turned on her heel, and stomped off in the opposite direction. Twilight waited until she was out of sight before letting out the breath she'd been holding.
"I think I'll need Princess Celestia to cast that spell again..."
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Overall I think the idea being explored worked really well.
Edit: Oye, repetitive comment is repetitive. You'd think five minutes wouldn't be enough of a gap in forget how you phrased something, but you would be wrong.
4754901
It's better than Epic Unicorn History's schedule. :B
I don't think editors in general are "a crutch", but this story turned out well. There's nothing that needs major revision.
4755614
That's not actually technology, per se, but natural antimagic crystals in the rock structure. You make a good point, though, that's a definite oversight on my part.
Great story. Makes you wonder how Twilight maintained conscious thought while in the Equestria Girls universe.
Funny, how I read about this just as I listen to a pannel at a convention with a guy mentioning something similar working in nature and the human psyche.
this is getting to be a very serious subject with very far reaching implications.
4773774
What con was it? :O
Awww, man. I was all set to give you mad props for Catrina and then you tell me it's a G1 thing...
Anyway. I'd have to say the lack of editing showed, mostly in the first couple of chapters. Nothing horrid, mind, but neither the flow nor the pacing were quite there – just a lack of smoothing. When your first sentence takes me three re-reads to realise there's a word missing... yeah.
What really did get me finally into it was such a simple thing that worked absurdly well. I'm not quite sure if you planned it that way, but the time delay on the telepathy managed to be be jarring in such a way that it actually dragged me into[/] the story. To me, that's a seriously fucking epic achievement. The story is totally worth it for that alone.
I must have missed something, though, 'cos I have no idea what the hell all this has to do with naming conventions.
4774303 Anime Festival Orlando. we recently had the guy who voices Ken on street fighter come and visit, I don't know if he posts pictures or anything, but he did take one of me and him with a Princess Celestia plush between us. He was also the one that Explained the theory of the human memory cloud. He's actually pretty cool.
4774839
All those scenes featuring ponies being born and, more specifically, named, are meant to suggest that the parents were somehow tapping into the Cloud themselves. I decided not to be very explicit about it, despite the idea being the impetus of the story, because that's not what this story ultimately ended up being about. :B Glad you approve of the telepathy thing, though.
Also what word is missing. D: I'm not seeing this.
I liked this story a lot. Reminded me of 'Fluttershy Goes to Hell' in many ways, although it was significantly less dark. Rarity's delayed telepathic responses were probably my favorite part of this story, and I don't really have any idea why.
4842025
It's probably 'cuz I wrote both and they're both short adventures. :B Folks seem to like the telepathic delay, and I wish I knew why. It's the kind of thing I should seek to include more often in stories.
This was good. I really enjoy magical theory as well as a good story.
Catrina ran into a classic problem: a Cloud full of vital business data, and no way to make sense of it! With an enterprise-quality suite of Big Data Analytics solutions, she could have been on her way to restoring the former glory of the Felyptian empire, rather than locked in analysis paralysis (and the Canterlot dungeons).
4971950
This is my new favorite comment. :D
4971950 And this is why all the fuss about the NSA thing is nonsense.
4741709 This story is clearly prejudiced against ponies!
If anime characters can have ridiculously large eyes and still have independent minds, so can little horses!
*leads protests, which quickly turn to rioting and looting... all according to The Plan..*
And after this Twilight comes across an artificial intelligence spy pony program known only as 'Project 2501'. She merges with it and becomes part of the Internet.
I liked this story. It ended up being much darker than the title and cover image imply, but not in a bad way. The sense of ominous foreboding in the earlier chapters is what I'll remember most.
As a technician, my mind also went immediately to iCloud/Dropbox/OneDrive et. al. I'm thinking Catrina must have guessed the security questions, they really should be using two-factor verification.
Keep up the good work!
4985216
Dammit, the MLP wiki took the info out. :| Bastards are trying to cover up the real and true name of the library!
Actually, until it's named in the show (haha, good luck!) it doesn't technically have a "canon" name. It's been called Golden Oak and Golden Oaks; Books and Branches was the first name, but it was quickly subsumed by the other two for reasons I don't quite recall.
4985923 Yeah, I was already familiar with Golden Oak(s). Only other name I'd heard was the Tree of Knowing. As for why it was replaced, I guess official merch trumps random thing on the Hub's website. The replacement's not bad. Kinda reminds me of Powerpuff Girls
4986373
It's all side canon, as far as I'm concerned, and therefore all equally valid. :B At this point, I think I use Books and Branches just to be different. (This is oddly one of the few times where I don't follow Word of Faust, and I have no idea why.)
4986378 Probably 'cause Books and Branches arguably sounds the best, though I do like Golden Oaks (not so much without the "s"). The Tree of Knowing might work better for Twi's castle. Not too fond of calling that the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom
It seems to me that Books And Branches might've been the former name of the library, and that Twilight renamed it Golden Oaks or Golden Oak after her arrival. we never have met the previous librarian...
5072368
I still say nothing about the Ponyville library has made sense from day one. I'm glad it's gone. :|
4986378
4986448
'Leaves and Branches' is clearly the best name, because it's a double library/tree pun.
Great world building! I love when previous generations are shown to be at least somewhat connected to each other because it makes he whole world feel more connected.
5337531
Though this story won't factor in, I'm working on a Grand Unified Theory of MLP that links all the gens. Interestingly, they aren't chronological.
5337541
Well, we all know that G3 comes after the Rainbowpocalypse, so that theory makes a lot of sense.
This was a pretty cool read.
5422700
holy shit c.c
I really liked this story; it had a very unique premise. I felt a bit put off by the intensity of the pacing, but that might be because I'm used to reading monsters like Austraeoh and Fallout: Equestria. I feel like if this were in the show, it would definitely be a season premiere or finale, but it seemed to be handled like a regular-length episode.
All in all, though, this was awesome! Although I wonder how those other two ponies got disconnected from the Cloud...
5647786
So I can write like the show writers then! :V Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you liked the story. I've got longer pieces in the works that will actually be able to take advantage of their longness, fear not!
5749266
This story is definitely too short. :B
I reiterate that which you already know: this story is too short. There's a lot of big material available here. Implications, tricks, tools and weaknesses and opportunity. This concept has all the potential of a sweeping, dramatic, morally ambiguous, controversial and thought provoking epic, and I feel like you let it slip between your fingers.
Still, I enjoyed it. Look for my review on Monday.
5752520
It doesn't matter anymore cuz it's dead >:D
5752663
Believe it or not, there's already more to it than what I'd had initially planned. :B
You can has review.
This was pretty good. I imagined the cat people from doctor who as Catrina, so yeah... this is good.
6516933
No character death, no worries. :)
6522561
"Golden Oaks" was not officially canon until the beginning of season five, after it had been blowed up. :V I still maintain that Faust called it Books and Branches before that.
Wonderful. Thought this might have gone a little longer, but good, and cute, nonetheless.
6522695 Read Lines and Webs and its sequels, written before season 5. As far as I can recall, the author, Airstream, calls it Golden Oaks. But we can agree to disagree!
6528912
I did say officially canon. The name appeared in side media, the books mostly, which is why people started using it.
And thanks! I agree it was somewhat rushed (I reread it just now and I would definitely do things differently to slow the pacing down), but I'm glad you liked it. :)
That was a lot of fun! Great plotting: It's nice to encounter a villain who can be (effectively) deceptive and manipulative. And a Gen 1 baddie, to boot!
6835473
Glad you liked it. :D That means a lot!
4844117
It makes the telepathy spell not completely sidestep the real problem (as teleportation easily tends to) instead leaving consequences for bein cut off from the physical world.
And, y'know, it means Catrina can ride rarity's connection before she can be told to cut it.
4773774
Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, yeah?
A good story, though the comment about it being one episode-length when it should be two feels right, too.
Though, I don't like the idea of "things one should not know" and that Twilight, in particular, agrees with it.
Catrina has been used in some other fics, or at least I've seen one that planned to, along with all other MLP villains. Seen any, yourself?
7469765
This was the first story I ever knew of that used Katrina. I wouldn't be surprised if there were others, even written before this, I just haven't seen any!
7469957
Bucking Nonsense's I'm going to Save and/or Destroy Equestria at least brings her up as a villain. I don't think it got to her. It's on hiatus.