i see the cover image and think of Yoshihiko.

"A. Fucking. Table."

I laughed at that. I don't know if I was meant to, but I did.

So, are we gonna get a sequel?

So we have come full circle, it ended the way it started.

Dang, another of my tracked fics has finally come to an end. Good ending fight sequence, and I'm glad to see this sense of closure. Thanks for another wonderful story!

Complete? Well, that was a rather abrupt ending. I was expecting an epilogue of some kind.

10148400
Yeah, an epilogue is still planned; I just have yet to write it out. I'm still not sure if Pip should be redeemed or not.

10147457
Thanks dude, glad you liked it! This was one hell of a ride for me too, but I'm glad I managed to pull through for once.

10147222
A little ironic, isn't it?

10147112
For what it's worth, I did too
I'm not really sure what a sequel would look like, as the story is pretty much wrapped up at this point. However, I did toy with the thought of a prequel of sorts, set during the events of the previous 2 years. It might be interesting to explore the day to day life in Pip's slaver fortress.

10149213
Why is it tagged complete if you are planning to add another chapter?

10149213
For what it's worth, I don't think she should be redeemed. Not because what she did was "unforgivable" or something like that, but because she doesn't want to.

I read this story for the catharsis; when Velvet shot and tranquilized her I thought It was... very bad in my opinion. To disrespect your friend like that, to betray their trust, to in practice say "you are not capable to make your own decision, so I will do it for you". I also thought that Littlepip forgave Velvet a bit too quickly, not to mention letting Monterey Jack die. In short: there was a lot that rubbed me the wrong way.

It is funny thinking back at it: Littlepip wanted to save somepony against their will, and so did Velvet. So that would make a good contrast; what if Littlepip had saved Monterey Jack? Would he have forgiven her?

So to have Littlepip stand her ground, she wont forgive, she will not change because Velvet wants her to. Her forgiveness is something Velvet cannot force. It is also some sweet vengeance; even captured, Velvet cannot make her change, and to see her desperately trying and failing becomes the sweet nectar that keeps Pip going.

Then there are the levels of irony: Velvet wanted to help but made it worse, and Littlepip was supposed to be the element of sacrifice but her desire for freedom, control and respect turned her selfish.

But that's just me.

10149213

I'm still not sure if Pip should be redeemed or not.

Well, it all depends on how you define 'Redeemed'.

If by redeemed you mean she recognizes the error of her ways and stops being so cruel and sadistic, then I can definitely see that. If I'm reading this right, then she didn't necessarily want to become what she did, and still wants to, at least somewhat, help others. Maybe a bit of therapy, but I can see her become a bit of an Anti-hero of sorts.

If by redeemed you mean forgiving her friends, that's harder. They DID shoot her and, even if they didn't mean to, left her to die. Some things you just can't forgive, and that is likely one of them. Best case scenario, she would forgive Homage, since she wasn't fully involved in it, but even that seems unlikely.

Ultimately though, up to you.

10149213
Also, please don't redeem the monster. I hate that.

10149244
Well, just because an epilogue is planned, doesn't mean I'll pull through and actually write it, since I'm a terribly slow writer. And I wouldn't wanna keep people waiting for something that might end up not being published after all.
Plus this whole redeeming or not redeeming-conflict still has me scratching my head.

10180269
Well, you could always go the route of semi-reformation, so she admits that some of what she did was... incorrect, to some degree; But she is still sadistic and prone to cruelty, so they have to keep her on a short leash (perhaps literally).

That would be a good middle-ground, in my opinion.

10180326
You do raise a fair point.
Admittedly, my initial plan (when I wrote this whole thing some 4 years ago) was to have her fully redeemed and reformed, though going through the whole story again earlier today, I'm starting to notice just how much messed-up stuff she's done. Not to mention she probably suffered a bit of mental damage after all that's happened.
That said, I personally dislike "bad end" type of endings. I do like the idea of her being slowly re-integrated into society, maybe with the help of her friends, though the two major problems I have with that option are that:
a) I'm still not 100% sure how she'd feel about her friends after all this. Even if they """saved""" her, she'd probably have a hard time letting go of the grudge she holds against Velvet. Three years of constantly telling herself the same thing over and over again are bound to leave a mark of some sort
b) looking at plain and simple facts here - she is (was) a slaver; someone who enslaved (and killed) others for profit... and sometimes fun. This, even if she would go back to being a "good" character, would probably be something she'd have a hard time living with. After all, she has essentially given up the good fight, and picking it up again, not to mention living with the pony she used to be, might turn out to be more than she can handle.
Not to mention that her friends would probably need some time to digest these events as well.

Now, one option I considered was to have her leave her friends behind for their both sake - give them all some space to process all that's happened, and have Pip stray through the wastes by herself for a few years to come to terms with herself, and find out who she wants to be; if she can pick up the good fight again, or if she's better off living as a savage loner.

That said, while going through all those comments as definitely sparked my interest in this story, frankly, I don't think I have it in me to churn out another 50k words about what happened afterwards. This story was an incredible challenge for me to write, but I doubt I can pull it off a second time.

10181230
Ah, but you don't need to write 50k words. (In my opinion) an epilogue would be enough.

10181997
I'll look into it, though I really can't make any promises, sadly.

I like the ending. Feels like it can still continue

Damn, somehow I missed this... but I managed to finish this story at long last! And damn... like someone said before, it ended how it started, and to be honest I agree with some of the comments below.

Nicely done dude, nicely done.

" Surprise, bitch! "

I think a better one would be yippee ki yay motherfu****

Phew, so I've just finished reading this story (basically binging it, without a single pause because of how engaging it was since the first page and till the end) and I just want to say that you did an excellent job! The characters acted just how I would imagine them to behave in such a... unique environment, the location felt believable and definitely set the mood for the entire story and I personally couldn't predict how things would turn out in the end, almost expecting a bad ending with Littlepip finally getting her revenge or Velvet activating her collar just before the fight starts to take away the pleasure from the slaver mare.

At times I would mentally shout at the imprisoned characters so they would try harder to convince Littlepip, to use logic and facts, to try to prove that even if they were attempting to betray her, they wouldn't try to find her after so much time. That Littlepip knows herself that her friends WOULDN'T KILL HER and exploits it to torture them. I mean, c'mon! Don't you realize that it wouldn't work if they actually hated you!? If they actually wished you to die?

And I wonder what happened to Knucks and Cinder Block. Did they escape? Or did Cinder Block just stay in a now-empty prison?

Overall, it was a great read that I'll definitely add to my favorites! Thank you!

11472255
Aww, I'm glad you enjoyed the story! I actually did think about Cinder and Knucks would be up to now, and was planning to feature them in the second chapter of Not a Hero, should that ever come to fruition but left the ending to this story intentionally vague.

But yeah, thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it!