Epilogue
Sunset Shimmer’s world twisted about, but it bent her less and less with every passing moment. Finally, it stopped just enough where Sunset could move on her own. She put her hoof—no, that changed into a foot somewhere along the line—forward.
Her foot hit concrete. At that, she planted her other foot on the concrete as well and looked up. She saw a black sky that faded into blue and, near the far-off horizon, red. A few stars poked their way through, and with each moment, more and more appeared out of hiding.
Her eyes drifted downward to find a sizable building arcing around her. The faded red bricks rose up higher than most buildings in Equestria. Canterlot High, in its own way, resembled a palace.
“And we were able to repair our float right in time for the parade,” a voice said. It sounded like Fluttershy.
Sunset’s eyes centered on the front steps. Several lanterns lit the features on several individuals. Several individuals that she recognized. Her best friends. While most sat on the steps, two of them sat on folding chairs that faced the center of their circle. She could see what looked like flat boxes lying around but could not tell what they were.
But at the very top of their circle, to her surprise, sat Principal Celestia who she shifted in her seat and smiled. “Well, I am very pleased to hear that, I’m sure Sunset would be happy to know you recovered.”
At once, five of them slumped in their seats. “Yeah…” Pinkie Pie said, voicing it for them.
Sunset chuckled to herself and stepped forward. “Hey, everyone,” she greeted.
The six humans before her whirled around in their seats. After a moment of taking her in, they shot to their feet. “Sunset!” they cried in unison.
“You came back!” Rarity exclaimed.
Sunset blushed. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be gone so long. It’s just… some things came up and I really had to take care of them.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “And here we were thinking about heading home for the night.”
Sunset frowned. “Huh?”
“Well,” Fluttershy said, “we’ve been here for a few hours already.”
“Sorry, Sunny,” Pinkie Pie said, pointing to a box on the ground, “pizza’s already cold.”
Sunset’s eyes drifted down to the boxes on the ground and she noticed the label emblazoned across their surfaces. …Right.
She shook her head, “What are all of you doing here? I thought being on the grounds at night was against the rules?”
“Which is why I am here,” Celestia said as she leaned against the handrail. “This has been a difficult time for all of us, but especially for you six. And they… they have come here practically every night for the past few days hoping that you might show up. And I can’t and won’t say no to that.”
Sunset held a hand to her mouth to hide her chuckle. But the red in her face gave her away.
“So, Sunset,” Rainbow Dash asked, “what all held you up so long?”
There was the question. Sunset grinned. “I was… on a very interesting adventure.”
“Yeah?
“We learned a lot about what happened. Actually, we kinda… sorta… shaped it. Really hard.”
They met Sunset with confused frowns and raised eyebrows.
“I mean,” Sunset continued, “time travel got involved… and… parallel worlds got involved… It was confusing at times. But we were there in those days leading up to Twilight going down.”
Rarity, after exchanging glances with the others, said, “So… you changed the past?”
Sunset shook her head. “No, it’s like… we were always a part of it. Is, was, will be.”
“Soooooooo,” Pinkie Pie began, “what? What actually happened then?”
Sunset felt a smile spread across her face. The smile showed her teeth, and behind those teeth, she tried and failed to stifle her giggles. With each moment, she lost more of her control, and her laughter grew in volume.
“Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia asked with a concerned tone.
Sunset beamed at them as her giggling continued.
Fluttershy gasped. “No way!” she exclaimed, pointing straight at her. “You can’t possibly say…”
Sunset nodded. “I can!”
Rarity’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Are you say—are you saying what I think you’re saying!?”
“We figured it out. We made it happen. She’s doing fine.” Sunset giggled. “She says ‘Hi,’ by the way.”
The humans before her jumped for joy and shouted all sorts of exclamations and cheers before finding the girl closest to them and scooping them into an embrace. All except Rainbow Dash who sprang up higher than Sunset thought possible and punched the air, and Celestia who stood with her arms crossed and with a grin spread across her face.
“That’s amazing!” Rarity shouted.
“Yay!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
Applejack broke her hug first and turned to Sunset. “That’s mighty swell! Ya gotta tell us all about it!”
“I’d be happy to tell you all about it,” Sunset said as she cracked a smile. “Just… not right now though. It’s a really long story and I’m—” she wiped away a baggy feeling in her eyes, “—about ready to pass out in my bed…”
“And,” Celestia interjected, “it is very late. So I’m going to have to lock the front doors up now.” She pointed to all the boxes and lanterns on the ground. “Set all of this in my truck,” she instructed with a knowing smile. “I’ll take care of it.”
The girls nodded and picked up several items and hauled them across the lawn. At that point, Sunset noticed the line of cars parked on the curbside. While she recognized the station wagons and compact cars, the pickup truck was unfamiliar. She headed in that direction with the folding chairs.
One by one, the six of them set the items into the back of the pickup and then gathered on the sidewalk.
Sunset turned to face them. “I can’t wait to catch up with all of you. I’ve… got so much to say. And I’m sure a lot has happened here too. I learned so much these past few days and I…” She looked between each of them, all of whom looked back at her with smiles on their faces. “I’ve missed all of you so much. It’s so good to be home with you girls again.”
And with that, her five friends drew toward her and took her into one large group hug. As they took her, Sunset could feel a warmth within herself, one which, somehow, she knew had been there all along.
As they broke, Sunset looked to the sky. “So… I might sleep in. Does three-ish tomorrow at the café sound good to everyone?”
They met her with a flurry of nods, “Uh-huh”s, and “Mm-hmm”s.
Sunset looked up as Principal Celestia approached them once more. Celestia paused as she noticed Sunset’s glance.
Sunset’s friends followed suit and looked up as well.
Celestia shook her head. “It would be unprofessional,” she asserted.
“Technically, so is this. Please,” Sunset pleaded, “we’ll buy, even. It’s the least we can do for tonight, I think.”
Even behind a stoic frown, Sunset could spot the twinkle in Celestia’s eye. “I’ll think about it,” Celestia replied. “You girls have a good night.”
“You too!” they all replied in unison.
As Celestia climbed inside her truck, Sunset turned to her friends. “I’m going to go get some shut-eye. See all of you tomorrow!”
The rest of them broke and responded with “Goodnight!”s of their own and then headed their separate ways.
Sunset watched as each of them filed into their cars (or, in Rarity’s case, hopped into Applejack’s car). With the roar of their engines, her friends pulled out and drove around corners, disappearing for the night.
Sunset turned her gaze toward the reds on the horizon. The picturesque glow of the ever-receding blue and red calmed her with its serenity. As a nightly wind blew through her hair, as a cool howl brushed past her, she knew that nothing could cut it. It was there just like on any other night. And just like it would be on nights to come.
After all, the full, lively twilight above her had to mean only one thing. Sunset Shimmer knew that much.
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Wow. Just wow. This story was one heck of a rollercoaster of emotions and complicated math stuff, and totally worth the read.
Huzzah for happy endings!
Great epilogue. Great story. Really hoping to read more from you in the future.
Yaaaayyyyyy
Now this is how you properly end a story.
Wow, what an amazing read, thank you so much for sharing this amazing story with us
I don't have enough words to properly describe how much I enjoyed reading it
Great story! This comment is probably nothing out of the ordinary, but I just HAD to give you my feedback.
This was quite an interesting premise.
I can't think of anything else to say other than, "wow!"
you really made me go down, deeper, then up, then lower, then to the stratosphere!!! this was quite a ride, not many fics can actually play with the time loop this perfectly!!! I will always treasure this fic as one of my top favourites
Ok, I added this story to my "Read it later" Bookshelf due to it's good reputation so far. Let's see if this story is really that good.
To be honest, I love well written sad stories, but I hate to upset myself because of them later on. A vicious cirlce.
This story is like, Inception levels of mindfuckery.
And I loved every single bit of it.
6343734
Trust me, you'll love it
Ok, Good thing I had spare time so I could rush this fic. It was absolutely amazing.
I enjoyed reading it every single second. Sadness, Joy, Relief, everything was there. The emotions, the suspense, everything was fullfilled and absolutely awesome. And you made a very interesting developing with this whole time travel, different dimensions...stuff (even though I still barely understand how it turned out that way at the end).
10/10, This was a outstanding rollercoaster of all the things I mentioned combined into one amazing story, which wasn't even really predictable imo. I mean, sure, if Twilight's death in the alternate dimension was supposed to be the ending, you would've ended the story some chapters ago, but still.
And you gave Sunset Shimmer some depth, since I think she has much potential for the actual show but because she only appears in the movies, this development doesn't occure quite swiftly. The only real downside (for me personally) is like I said, the understanding of this complex space time stuff. At the beginning it was comprehendable for me but up from a certain point, I just didn't get how this all works and makes sense anymore.
6346191 Ok, but do they just hear the voice somewhere in the room or does it come from the crystal ball? And that means that they can only hear her but not see her. However the crystal ball still needs to be nearby, otherwise the future Twilight cannot see or hear them, right? And at a certain point in the story, the ball showed Twilight just standing in the chamber. Why did it do so, I thought the past Twilight left it in front of the doors.
And when does Twilight managed to travel through time and what exactly does she do then, because all I could read was that she was there when the other Twilight was in the chamber, grinned and vanished. I tried to understand your diagram, but that didn't help me out either. All I know is that Sunset went back in time to let her copy a book she had, and that Twilight went back in time to...whatever she did that I missed.
...My Head...
I might reread this story, even though I won't enjoy reading it, just for understanding purpose
6346560 Not quite. If you are the watcher, you can move the view anywhere you want, conpletely independent of the crystal ball's location in the world below. You see and hear whatever is going on wherever your view is. This is why they can look inside the chamber even though the crystal ball is on the ground outside.
If you are the viewee, you can hear the layer above you via the crystal ball. That ball is what makes the sounds. Thus, since the ball is more or less speaking, the only way to hear the world above is to be near it. This is why that, even though they can see Twilight in the middle of the chamber, they can't talk to her.
I would definitely recommend a second reading! Or, at least, a read-over of Feedback (the chapter) and take it nice and slow~
6346603 okok, I reread the chapter and after a weak headache I think I understand it...most of it. So The Future Twilight went 18 days back in time and she could so because she died and got revived (so she could use the Time Travel spell) partly because of her part of the spell she (pre-)casted before she entered the cave 18 days ago, which she received from her friends which existed 9 days in the future at that point, and because of the 2nd part which Sunset casted on this pillar with Twilight after they entered the cave later on. So did she just pre-cast the first part, die and got revived from the 2nd part of the spell which Sunset casted? So the pre-cast lasted even after her death?
And if the Future Twilight tells the truth, she died and then immediatly revived? Or what exactly changed when she forgot the spell in the hourglass and remembered it so lately?
(Sorry if I bomb you with so many questions, I just want to understand this completely and maybe someone who has similar questions will read these comments so he doesn't have to ask you about that like I did.)
6346795 It's quite alright! I'm glad that you are asking these questions.
You pretty mich hit it right on the head. Twilight's part kills her, Sunset's part revives her. I wouldn't call it immediate though since it has a nine day latency.
As far as Twilight's forgetfulness, that is not a difference. We see that with a lot of things that what happens in one works happens in all worlds. Every Twilight forgets. It being different is an incorrect assumption made by our heroes
6346836 Ok, I think I get it now. So Twilight recovered after she got revived and around 9 days later she discovered the crystal orb and caught her friends solving the conundrum about where The Answer is located, inside the ball, because Sunset put The Answer in the Hourglass after they saved Twilight, so that Twilight could find it later on, to help her friends through the orb. Wow, my mind is officially blown...
Ok, but why did Sunset want Twilight to burn her book? I know she explained it to Spike but I still didn't quite get it.
6346898 Boom!
As far as the book goes, It prevents accidental use during the present. Sunset is making sure the old version doesn't jumble with the new version. Something like that~
Started reading this, and just couldn't help but binge read it whole. This was wonderful! I'll have to read it again later (and possibly more) as you definitely must do with good time travel histories.
I'm even tempted to suggest this to some non-brony friends that love time travel :)
6347490 Wow, so after comprehending all of this, I like the story even more
.
You made a cool story which isn't only emotional and suspenseful, but also makes sense with all the time/dimension travelling stuff.
Impressive!
6349802 I have to admit, this makes sense. But that's a minor issue, since after all noone really knows if there are infinite amount of worlds, it's just an assumption. We only that there are at least 3 above and beneath them.
...
I know what I am doing for a live read.
6349802
6349997
Ah, yes! I love speculating about this! What happens at the top? If there are infinite worlds, why is the book not complete infinitely?
Logic should dictate however that whatever world finishes the complete spell can't follow this series of events at all. But that could be hundreds of worlds away. Thousands maybe. Who knows? All that matters is that the beautiful time loop present within the story does have a locality. It could be that only several hundred worlds above and below follow this train of events.
But at the top where you have assembled all information? Compromise with the world above yours to start with no information.
Viola, you have just created a beginning and endpoint. That's more or less my running explanation. Although that... is something I reckon someone could write a story about.
6350074
If you do, let me know! I'd love to listen to it!
Time for a reread of this story! I am properly prepared with Rarity's ice cream and a box of tissues.
6350889 Here's hoping it's just as good as the first time, if not better!
Comment has spoilers. Do not read.
.
.
.
6350203
The multiverse you've established must be in some way limited. At least in the fight against the Nameless, there must be a top and a bottom.
There would also be a handful of other worlds that would be markedly different from the rest (which had their own subtle differences); namely, second from the bottom and a bunch near the top.
Second from the bottom must be different because it is interacting with the bottom; I have a hunch that Twilight died permanently in the bottom one, but it is hard to unweave everything to give certainty. The large differences would have been enough to get the proverbial ball rolling, since everyone would have noticed those differences and deduced an unstable timeloop.
Near the top would be different, because at that point the only remaining balls would be crossed ones, and so much more care would have to be taken.
What I've called 'the top', I suppose doesn't need to be a top. It's just that every world above it must be exactly the same, and probably doesn't involve finding any balls or maybe just the last few.
Some stories have unstable time loops (Hard Reset, etc), some have stable time loops (It's About Time). I prefer to call this a 'semi-stable time cascade'.
6352714 Very correct in that there must be a top and bottom. Also, semi-stable time cascade is a really freaking cool name.
I've never really set anything in stone since those far off worlds are outside the scope of the story. But it is so darn fun to see what could potentially be the truth!
Although I've just had a brainwave on this issue that might really hit the nail on the head. But I have to determine if it would actually work first. I'll probably comment again once I figure it out.
6352714 I lied and made an entire blog post about it instead.
6369890 I think there are more layers to this then what the characters yet know... Must finish the story. :)
Having been hooked in by the mentions in The Pinkie Parable, I put this on my reading list. Normally, I find I have to be the right sort of mood for reading certain story tags [Sad][Dark] being one - but the premise of this was enough I found myself starting on it almost right away yesterday anyway.
And you pretty much had me from the opening line, when you started with Sunset. (I'd not really looked at the character tags.)
Excellently done.
I don't think I can recall reading a story that dealt with both time-loops and alternate realities at once. (Actually, I think the only other story that got as... complicated as this was Hard Reset 2.) I always like to see a few stories that actually get into these sort of complexities occasionally. Anmd you handled it very well, because at the end I was still not sure whether we were looking at a closed loop, alternate universes or both or even whether Twilight would make it out at the end or not.
Have yourself a standing ovation my good pony.
I don't think I've ever stayed up this late reading a story. I'll probably hate myself in the morning, but itwas so worth it.
6392575 I I can kind of see where the italics might be an issue but I realized early on that it would work best in the long run. Can it be problematic? Maybe. As for everything else, I don't quite share the sentiments (I've maybe a dozen reasons why these first two chapters run as they do), but nonetheless I will take them into consideration.
Thanks so much for the critique. It was very much insightful!
>>RQK
It's been 3 weeks since I read this story and I have to say one thing. I think it traumatized me.
Don't get me wrong it's is a wonderful story! The best I've ever read! (and I've read Past Sins.) but even 3 weeks after reading it I find myself thinking about it and I just start crying. Thank you for writing such an awesome story.
6415147 I'm so happy to hear that! (Not the trauma of course, I'd be leery of that). Just knowing that my writing has had such a powerful impact is my end dream and seeing that that has happened is a type of wonderful that I don't even have a word for. I've said this before and I'll gladly say it again; I am so happy that you found the story so well!
6417894 Hi I just reread this
story again but I'm confused about the second last chapter...
When Twilight didn't replied for a while and said that "they left"
Who is they exactly?
You mind explaining?
6486798
If it read as:
would that clear it up?
6488201 Okay Thanks.
6415147
I think I know what you mean. It is called "post-series depression" usually. In your case it would be a post-book one but I think that doesn't matter. It occurs when you have read an amazing story, or watched an awesome series and you are sad that it is over.
This is one of the most surprisingly good fics I've ever read.
To be completely honest, for the first few chapters, I thought this story was going to suck.The use of italics to symbolize multiple things was a bit confusing at times. The first two emotional little prologues to each chapter came off a meldramatic. I was confused about what was happening, and the idea seemed a bit too farfetched.
But you proved you knew what you were doing, constructing a complex, smart story. This is extremely well thought out, with a complex starting point that comes together beautifully. many momeots just completely blew my mind.
I do think there are few ways this story could have been better. All things considered though, these were minor faults in the beginning, and they are overshadowed by the sheer genius of the rest of the tale.
I expected to be writing a negative comment, but this turned out to be amazing. Bravo!
6615429 So very glad to hear that it grew on you!
I very much think that I grew a lot as a writer during the course of this story, and it definitely shows. Even now, I've the mind to go back and perform some re-writes on those first couple of chapters because they feel a little... weak, when compared to the rest of the story. I might even do it too, if I end up doing after NaNoWriMo what I'm thinking of doing~
I feel like a cheap bastard copping out of giving you a proper comment but just imagine everything 6615429 wrote as he hit on precisely every point I wanted to raise and said almost everything I wanted to. I’ll append this though:
6671455
I appreciate any and all feedback that I get, so no worries! I'm so happy to hear that it surpassed your high expectations, which is really, in the end, the highest praise that you can give me~
Hmmmm, things I didn't like (reads notes) "Almost nothing." Well, that was fun lets talk about the good stuff.
As the recent season finale proved, if you aren't too careful with time travel then people will complain about it (Note, I loved the finale, but I know soe hated the way time travel was handled) This fic pulled it off perfectly, with each new revelation and nw answer pulling us deeper and keeping us more and more intrigued into what is about to happen. Any holes in the plot are filled in such a way that it makes rereading the entire story a pure joy to read.
The heartwarming moments and the friendship with our main protagonist served their purpose to help further the charaters and remind us wh we love them so much. This also helps to make the na,eless, a great analogy to the evils that the mane 6 fight. I.e no matter what they go through, no matter who they fight, they will win. They will work together an figure out how to beat down the villian with whatever they got. Becasue that is what friends do.
But, i think my favorite part, had to have been Sunset Shimmer. If Rainbow Rocks didn't already make me love her, than this fic certaintly did. Her ar was fantastic. We see her go through so much emotional moments, be it reuniting with elestia or discovering her new bond with her friends (That moral at the end made me tear up) Sunset shone through out the story.
Here is the first chapter of the live read
6701152 Have been following the read since episode 1. It was quite interesting to listen to, especially with the rare commentary here and there. Your supplementary written comments were also cool to read (and, generally, I figured out that with those comments, an episode was sure to follow). It's especially intriguing to listen to the whole thing since I have a strict interpretation of the story (I wrote the thing, after all!), and so how you presented some of the scenes surprised me. The voicework also helped put things in perspective too~
Thanks for the read! And again, glad you found the story so well~
I have a fair bit to say about this fic, some good, some not so good. Judging by your self-appointed 'the eternally in-progress writer' label, I'll go on the assumption that you're open to constructive criticism. So here goes.
Your lead-in scenes each chapter provide strong hooks for each said chapter, but do be aware of what each one is saying to garner that interest, the biggest elephant in the room being the Chrysalis scene. It was an interesting turn of events to see her pop up. I was curious to see what you would do with her. But then you never did anything to any noticeable extent. Never waste your reader's time, whether it be a superfluous scene, an unnecessary sentence about the weather, or even just that one adverb that doesn't really need to be there. If it doesn't advance the story, a character, or the story's setting/world in some meaningful way, it's not necessary. It all comes with practice, but simply taking a step back and considering how important to the overarching story some segment is helps keep the scope of your story the size that it needs to be.
On a smaller scale, sentence structure and word choice could have been better. There are numerous instances of repetition in your paragraphs, with some words and even whole phrases appearing in the sentence directly after one they were just in. I have to re-mention your usage of Lavender Unicorn Syndrome, as it's called in this fandom, wherein you describe a character by physical features (eg. 'the amber mare,' or 'the dragon') rather than by proper or pronouns. Pronouns are your friend! Use them!
On word choice, I often felt your wording to get a little technical and unimaginative ("The glass of the window nearby whistled from the light rain that hit it."). The less you try, the more bleh a sentence will be, like the quote in the previous sentence. The harder you try, the more awkward they get. It's a difficult balance learned through practice and a strong vocabulary. (Note, a strong vocabulary does not mean a purple one. I never once felt any tendency toward purple in this story, so you have that big advantage over a great quantity of people here on fimfic.)
The biggest word of advice I can give is to find yourself an editor. Someone that isn't afraid to point out flaws, construction errors, sentence parsing problems, pacing, and the like. There are far more typos in this story than necessary, such as missing words and punctuation, that which an editor could easily pick out.
That's the long and short of my criticisms of the story. Don't take them as any sort of failure on your part, as the story was engaging and your hooks tantalizing. I will never be able to remove my editor hat while reading a story, so I'm always nitpicking anything and everything I read to the point of self-exhaustion. But if there's one statement I stand by as a testament to a story's quality it is this: I read the whole thing.
Learning to write can be a very steep cliff to climb, no matter where on it we start. And I have to say you started pretty well up from the base. Don't you ever stop climbing.
I dare you to show me what heights you can reach.
6731953 Cheers for the feedback! Lots of juicy stuff there that I'm sure will help me in my future writings. Thanks so much for taking the time with those pointers. You can be sure that I will apply what I can going forwards!
6733110
Yes, interesting thought, isn't it? Though, with Discord being Discord, I imagine he probably took a sneak peak at the end too~
Just finished, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It's rare to read an internally self consistent time travel/universe story. Usually people muck it up. Granted, there might be some logical errors, but I didn't see any at first glance. To me self consistency is one of the most important parts of a story, so that raises my level of enjoyment immensely. It also had me guessing at many points, and even had some hard to see twists that didn't seem like they were written into the story, but the story written around them. Which is good.
Anyways, I'm too tired to relate my full thoughts, or even concentrate enough to remember them, so I'll end by saying I have decided to add you story to my Best of the Best bookshelf, which is only second to my Absolute Favorites bookshelf. Only about one in eight of my favorites make it. It's like me giving the story 4 stars.
6922586 I had two editors. Blame them!
In all fairness, yeah. There have been errors missed. I'm actually doing a pass of my own right now through the entire story in order to put all those nasty errors to bed for good. But it seems you enjoyed the story regardless, and that makes me very glad!
I decided to give this a reread just because it's been 6 months since it was completed, and wow does it bring back memories. This was one of the first few fanfictions that I've read on this site, and I just wanted to say thank you for writing one of my very favorite stories of all time.