My friends arrived over the next few hours. They stole in through the windows and the cracks, as each befitted their new nature. Rarity descended from the high ceiling on a cable of silk. She reached down with an endless leg to snag her necklace from the pile, and she stroked the amethyst set within the silver clasp like the face of a long-lost lover. Then she hauled herself back up into the shadows and resumed her endless spinning.
A dark shape blocked the light of the stars out the open window. For a moment it looked like Dash wouldn’t be able to fit in, but she managed to squeeze her wings through. They stirred a gale across the library, tossing books open and scattering pages like snow. She picked up her element in her beak and jumped to perch upon the highest bookshelf.
Fluttershy arrived like a dark, warm breeze. A sphynx with coral hair, she slid across the floor to rub against my side, marking me with her scent. She did the same with the others, even Starlight, and she jumped up to place a kiss on Rainbow’s beak. She flew up into the dark heights where Rarity dwelled, and I heard what sounded like laughter.
Pinkie Pie just walked in the door. She looked the same as I remembered, maybe a bit bubblier, if such a thing were possible. She snatched up her balloon-cut necklace, found a book of jokes from the children’s section, and settled in at my side. The scent of powdered sugar and caramel filled my muzzle when I leaned down to nuzzle her mane.
But most surprising was Applejack. She paused when we all turned to stare, and she shrugged.
“Rainbow said ya’ll needed me. Don’t say I never did nuthin’ for you.” She picked up her necklace, twirled it around her hoof, and sat in the center of the room.
I wanted to run over and hug her. To tell her never to leave us again. And also kick her for all the hurt she’d caused. I wanted to break that smug look on her face, and maybe break her wings, too. And I could – all the old rules were gone now. If she could burn down her home, I could… I could do anything I wanted.
The thought chilled me. I closed the book, closed my eyes, and tried to remember how life had been. When it was the six of us in the sunny light of a Ponyville summer, fresh from some adventure, without a care in the world except what joys tomorrow might bring. I held that image in my mind. I seized it like a precious jewel and clutched it against my breast, all but swallowing it. We would have that feeling again. We would have that feeling again. Soon we would have that feeling again.
The silence broke with a crack and a flash of light that left me seeing stars. I blinked them away and looked up to see Discord standing in the center of the room. A pained snarl twisted his misshapen lips.
“Look at you. How much you’ve changed.” He shook his head. “I never meant for this.”
I closed my book for the last time. If it still remained after we were done, it would go in the fire. “Do you know what you did wrong? I think I figured it out.”
“It was the archetypes. They were necessary, somehow. They bound ponies together into the idea of a pony, didn’t they? Without them you’re like balloons cut free from your strings, tossed hither and thither by the wind. Well, we’re going to fix that right now, Sparky! For once we’re going to put all those books in your head to good use and rebuild—”
“You’re wrong.” I had to raise my voice to break through his tirade. “We were all wrong. This whole time we were wrong.”
He squinted. The world seemed to squish in response, talls becoming short and narrows becoming wider. “What do you mean?”
I felt dizzy. The world leaned left and I tried to lean right, but that was wrong and I started to fall. Before the crystal floors could catch me, Starlight did. I gasped for breath against her shoulder.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered.
“Thank you.” I mouthed it back, unable to draw the breath to speak. She must’ve felt the way my lips moved against her coat, because she smiled and held me up. I lifted my head again to behold Discord.
“Let me ask another question,” I said. “Do shadows exist?”
“Of course they do.” He waved a paw. “This room is choking with them.”
“You’re wrong. There are no such things as shadows.”
He stared at me. A thick, heavy silence filled the room. It clogged my lungs like wet cotton.
“Yes there are,” he said. “Shadows exist. I can see them. I’m cold when I stand in them.”
“And yet, what are they? Only an idea in our mind. An interaction between a light source and an object. They have no objective reality, Discord. The reality is the sun everywhere else. Light exists, and where light ends, shadows begin. That is all they are.”
“Semantics. What does that have to do with archetypes?”
“Archetypes are like shadows,” I said. “We thought they were a real thing that tied ponies together, but the opposite is true – archetypes appear to exist because all ponies, at some level, are the same. But now… well, you cut us loose. The archetypes are gone not because you severed us from them, but from each other.”
“Luna was right all along,” Starlight said. Her wings buzzed as she looked around the library at my gathered friends. “We’re not ponies anymore, are we? We’re becoming something new.”
“Yes, well, that ends now,” Discord said. He stood to his full height and seemed to grow larger. As if he willed more of his being into existence. “We’re going to go back to the way things were. I’ll be the chaos, the interesting spark in your lives, and you’ll go back to being your plain little vanilla sacks of meat, deliriously grateful for the gift of my presence. Now, Sparky, if you don’t mind helping with those little jewels of yours.”
He raised his arms, and like the world was a puppet bound to him by strings, I felt the universe begin to shift. Something distant called to me. Called back to me, imploring us to return. We could go home again. I focused on the sensation, and the jewel in my crown began to glow with the light of harmony. All around me, the library filled with the light of my friend’s elements. I grasped the magic flowing out of us and directed it toward that beautiful calling.
It was there, floating in my mind’s eye. A beacon, a lighthouse guiding the way home. The path back stretched before me; I could even be rid of these wings if I wanted. Put everything back the way it was. A great, foalish smile broke out on my face. Giddy joy flowed through me like I was drunk.
We were doing it. We were going back. I turned to Starlight to tell her things would be alright.
Tears flowed down her cheeks. Her eyes were red. She looked at me and tried to smile back.
Odd. “Why are you crying?”
She shook her head and brushed her cheek with her fetlocks. It didn’t matter; new tears replaced the old just as fast. “I’m sorry. I’m just sad.”
Her words wounded me like a knife. I stared at her, bewildered. “But… things are going back to the way they were. You’ll… Trixie will be back, the same as before. You won’t need to be a changeling. We can be student and mentor again. Forever.”
“I know.”
I tried to push away from her, but I was too weak to stand on my own. Instead I turned, casting about for some other anchor. Rarity – Rarity had to be happy to undo this. She was twisted, deformed, a beast. I craned my head back to see her in her web, and saw her crying as well. It seemed her new eyes could still weep.
“Rarity!” I shouted up to her. “Look at me! You were beautiful once, and you can be again! You don’t have to be a monster!”
“A monster?” The light shining from her amethyst element dimmed for a moment. “You think I’m a monster?”
“Yes!” It hurt to say, but it was true. She was hideous to behold. No rational pony could disagree. “But you won’t be for long! We’re fixing you! You’ll be a pony again soon!”
Her legs twitched. One long, clawed limb extended itself before her face. “You’re right. I promised you I would help, didn’t I? But do you know what I dreamed of, at the very end, Twilight? I dreamed of being the best seamstress in the world. An artist. A weaver without parallel. And now I am. I’ve become what I’ve always wanted to be. Is that so terrible? So monstrous?”
I shook my head. Rarity was lost in her dream. But maybe the others weren’t. I searched for the glow of Fluttershy’s element in the shadows. She clung to the edge of Rarity’s web, hunched over. The curtain of her mane concealed her face, but I could read her mood in the cast of her shoulders. Her wings curled around her. She trembled.
“Fluttershy!” I tried to flap my wings to join her, but they were too weak to do more than stir a breeze around us. “You can’t want to stay like this!”
Her wings opened, and she stared down at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed and shining with tears. “I’m not afraid anymore, Twilight. For once in my life I don’t have to be afraid.”
“But that’s who you are! It’s what makes you special!” My voice rattled in my throat. I tasted blood in the back of my mouth. “You’re Fluttershy, the timid one, good with animals, shy around ponies! That’s why we love you! It’s why Discord loves you!”
“Maybe so.” Her eyes drifted to Discord for a moment, and I saw the indecision roiling inside her. “But I need to love myself, too.”
I reeled. Of all the setbacks I had anticipated, betrayal wasn’t one. But now even my friends turned against me. I stumbled and fell back against Starlight’s side. “It’s better this way. We can go back! We can be like we were before! Please! We can still go back!”
“Good for you, huh?” Applejack said. She wasn’t crying, at least. But I wasn’t sure Apples could ever cry. Her mouth stretched out in a flat line, neither a smile nor a frown, but conveying all her distaste nevertheless.
“You won’t get in trouble for the fire, I promise!” I would pardon her the moment we were done. I would rebuild her farmhouse plank by plank with my own hooves if I had to. “We can make it all again! You can go back to the orchard and your family! They’ll take you back!”
“Back to my cage, you mean.”
“It’s okay,” Pinkie Pie said. She smiled at me, but I could see the tears building in her eyes. “We’ll be fine.”
“Please…” I couldn’t be the only pony who felt this way. I couldn’t be the only sane one. The room spun, and I clung hard against Starlight. “Rainbow! Rainbow, tell them this is for the best! We can… we can watch you race again! We can help you be the best young… the best young flyer! Don’t you, don’t you, don’t you want to do that again?”
I stared up at her. With all my soul I begged her to agree. But she just turned away.
“Come on, Sparky,” Discord said. His sudden, harsh, masculine notes dragged me back to the spell we were casting. The magic still flowed through me, guiding us back home. All I had to do was follow it, and we would be done. “We haven’t got all day.”
I could see it. Like a sailor seeing a port rising from the horizon, I saw our past. It waited for us. All I had to do was follow the spell to completion. The elements would do the rest.
I held the magic in my heart. And then I let it go. A long wail clawed its way out of my throat. The glowing strands sputtered, faded, and died.
“What are you doing?” Discord demanded. His anger shook the room. “Help me, dammit! We can do this!”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted to cry. Part of me wanted to die. But that was the weak part of me, and it quickly fell back into the morass of unwanted thoughts in the dungeon of my mind. “I can’t. We can’t.”
“No. No.” Discord stood upright, looming above us. His voice shook the room. “This is not what I intended! If you will not help me fix it, then I will do it myself.”
He held up his hands, and I felt the world begin to tremble. It resisted him – Discord’s power was to bring chaos, not order. He could not merely snap his fingers and undo all this terrible work. But he was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He might have been able to do it by himself at ruinous cost.
I could have let him. I could have sat there, crying, and let him fix the world. And afterword, I could have told my friends it was for the best. And when they eventually agreed, we could resume our old lives, like nothing had ever changed.
All I had to do was wait. My dream would come true. And everypony else would… would learn to be happy without theirs.
No.
My crown flared with light again. All the elements did, and for a moment the library was lit as brightly as the town square at noon. It blinded me, but even blind I was able to grasp the magic that flowed from our hearts and direct it. I aimed all its power at Discord and let Harmony do its awful work.
A roar filled the library. The world quaked beneath us. A loud ring deafened me as the crystal walls cracked.
And then, silence. I pulled away the dark glasses and the blindfold covering my eyes. The few candles we had laid out were all the light that remained, but they blinded me. It was like staring into the sun. I squinted, waited, and let my eyes adjust as well as they could anymore.
A stone statue stood before me. Discord’s eyes were wide in disbelief. He stretched out a stone claw, as if to ward away our magic. You’d think he’d have learned by now that didn’t work.
“Welp, guess that’s that,” Applejack said. She stretched, pulled off her element and tossed it on the floor. “See y’all around. Or not. Later Dash.” Without any further ado she flew away, and we were one reduced.
Rainbow Dash left next. She squeezed out the window and joined the night. Fluttershy followed.
“Glad that’s over!” Pinkie Pie said. She trotted over and hugged me, then marched to the door. “Come by for some snacks, okay? I have special deals for princesses!”
And then there were three. Or four. I wasn’t sure if Trixie counted anymore. I looked up at the ceiling, where Rarity clung to her web.
She smiled down at us. “You know where to find me, dear. I’m not going anywhere.” Her legs worked, and she gathered the shadows around her like silk, cocooned herself within them, and she was gone.
I closed my eyes. It didn’t help. Even the shadow-cloying room was too bright. Only by staring down through the earth at the distant sun could I find any relief. It called to me still, soothing me. Even if I were blind I could see it. It was all I needed to see, I realized.
It was all I had ever needed to see.
“Fetch me thread?” I asked.
We spent hours together, Starlight and Trixie and I, reminiscing about our friends. We dared to guess what they might become, and we imagined the great things that awaited us all, while I sewed my eyelids shut.
The Archetypist
Oh....Oh my
Well this...
This was not a good end was it.
Oh dear.
oh what
9570273
I mean, depends on your perspective. It may not have been good for us, but was it good for them?
I can't say I didn't expect this ending style. With the whole the body changes the mind.
Discord makes a mistake, trying to give ponies more, something generous in his nature. And in the end, gets kicked to the curb when he tries to actually do a responsible thing and fix it. To keep chaos from spiralling out of control. Lovely Aesop.
If there was a sense of anything fixable, amendible.. Whelp, Twilight as our narrator tosses it out for shock value at best. Just one little final shyamalan twist.
If you wanted sympathy for discord, you got it. I feel sorry for him.
After all, there is nothing else worthwhile here but him in the end. Just a world of monsters, under the guise of 'harmony' as the story demands.
Dark fits this far better than drama. Oh well. It's been read. It's done with, and over.
9570283
No..No I don't think so.
Any ending that ends with our protagonist sewing her eyes shut, alienating one of her core traits of reading literature, is well wrong. Fluttershy is now eating animals instead of helping them, again, wrong. Applejack has now thrown away her familial love and responsibilities; wrong.
Or, should I say I suppose morally this is right? It would have been selfish of Twilight to ignore her friends protests, which I guess is morally wrong.
But it feels so wrong. Like Naturally wrong. Is that word?
Discord being betrayed by his own friends, trying to rectify his own mistakes, feels wrong, what a bad way to go. I knew it couldn't end well without a full reset, but this...its not right.
I am of two minds on this whole affair. This is very deserving of the dark tag.
9570283
The philosophies turn like spinning plates. The great ones of chaos have always been the most resistant to change.
Huh. Don’t really know what to make of this just yet.
I'm sorry, but ending it like this has totally sucked away my enjoyment of the story. Whilst I understand the appeal of a 'haha didn't expect this did ya' semi-twist ending, it's really just not for me. I really wanted the satisfaction of everything being put right again.
9570283
Not really. They all went crazy, in ways that were harmful to themselves and others, and were too crazy in the end to change back, so they petrified the last sane man standing.
Hmm. Well that was boring. Again, not really horrifying, just disappointing.
....yowza...
[brain scrambling intensifies]
Feel like something in the theme was lost here. Who we want to be, secret desires, those are dreams we have in daylight, awake. Dreams as we sleep are more nonsensical, they aren't solely depictions of who we secretly are or what we wish for, they aren't so neatly packaged and limited.
Though I am still wondering why Discord directed Twilight to The Celestial Messengers. Twilight's dream sequences were brilliant, some of your best.
Well that was a bleak end. Discord the Lord of chaos in the end was the only rational being in a world gone mad betrayed at the last by a wavering Twilight who could not resist her own self-destruction and the will of her friends.
Is Twilight now fully blind? Cause that kinda contradicts the earlier statement that no pony would get hurt. I feel that her scarring herself and desiring to go totally blind is a bit out of character if I'm being critical.
While yes ponies are changing, the rapidity of changes will only lead to the eventual end of all things. Dreams are transient and temporary things not designed to be permanent, the collapse of the world and its self destruction is the inevitability of the path Twilight has chosen.
That leads to my final point. I don't think this is real. This is a dream, the reason?
Luna.
Luna appears several times and dismisses the whole concept of the story on multiple occasions. She never seems to be concerned nor does she take an active part in the rest of the story merely being an interested observer which is close to her role in the show.
If dreams are the new reality, her role is meaningless, she seemingly has no control of these new dreams and no ability to influence the events of the real world. Why would she want that?
Simple, she knows it's just a dream and is watching.
She also disappears suddenly every time, when from canon she has no such power in the physical world, she probably does so in the dream world. The main reason I say this is because Luna talks about it in her final appearance, she says the events of the story are a 'great spectacle' and she would like to meet the person who has created it. Spectacle would indicate that this is some show to her, i.e a dream. Furthermore the complete absence of Celestia from the narrative except via symbolism is very much an indication in my mind that this is a dream.
Whose dream? I can't say. Though I'm leaning towards Discord. He even outright says it in chapter 1. It makes sense since this would be his ultimate desire, a world full of chaos evolving ponies all around him. He's the villain in his own dream because he's just kinda of messed up in the head and probably is amused at the irony of him being the voice for order in a world gone chaotic.
All in all, this was a superb story. I'm a bit weary of the ending. I felt Twilight gave in too fast and her blinding has left a sour taste in my mouth, it just doesn't sit right with me personally. This story gripped me throughly throughout and in my opinion it's very close to some of the best work on the site despite my very serious gripes with it.
Thank you for writing it and taking us all on this roller coaster of journey through it!
9570283
I wouldn’t say it was good for them. Things will continue to spiral out of control. Especially if ponies are no longer connected to one another like it claims, then there will be more and more Applejacks. No governing. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a schism between Luna and Celestia now. Not really a “Nightmare Moon vs Daybreaker”, but more they do their own separate things. Though one could argue that if things continue to change even further, there might not even be an Equestria.
Not a bleak future ahead, but certainly a darker one than before.
Yes, but you also ate Mr. Raven.
They waited too long and were too damaged by the broken new world.
9570294
Further on this point, the whole story has had Twilight standing by the status quo. Her embracing the sun was an illustration of her loyalty to Celestia and ultimately Equestria.
Twilight abandoning that and assaulting a friend she had been agreeing with only moments early seems like a drastic and unexplained change.
Twilight's loyalty is discarded because of what? Her friends would be upset at going back to their regular lives.
Yep, tragic end. I figured it would end poorly when it was announced it was ending in one more chapter.
I really expected Sparks to throw 'eating you friends' back at Fluttershy. Of all the pleas against this madness, I thought that one would have enough shock value to do some good.
It's a story about narcissism, in its way. Damn the world as long as you're happy. I very much enjoyed the read, but I am pretty sure I hate the characters? In the good way. It's not many stories that are willing to go with the bad end and leave the reader with bittersweet or worse feelings. It take a bit of bravery to do that.
Well written and tragic. It's not the kind of story you like, but it's the kind of story that has an impact. Kudos.
This...
This is the end?
I won't lie, this kind of ruined it. All the built up, all the drama, all the possibilities, just thrown away. Some things weren't even resolved. What happened to Celestia? What is Twilight's dream? What was that cult? I don't feel like enough was answered.
I'm sorry, I'm just disappointed. This ending felt rushed and just bad. Well written, but an unfulfilling ending.
The ending was certainly unexpected. I definitely feel for discord here. I was not expecting Twilight to betray him and Equestria.
Efh. Overall, I liked it -- the atmosphere in particular is incredible -- but there are a lot of niggling little issues here and there.
Twilight's objections to the changes are weirdly impersonal. Trixie losing her horn is bad because ponies don't lose their horns, not because Trixie takes great pride in her skills in smoke-and-mirrors and arcane magic both. Applejack growing wings is bad because ponies don't grow wings overnight (cough), not because Applejack is the earth poniest earth pony she knows and, under normal circumstances, wouldn't want wings. (Okay, that's a bit of headcanon on my part.)
Luna keeps saying Discord can't affect the dream realm. Except he can. In fact, Luna's presence at all feels ludicrously obligatory. I can understand that Luna is practically required in a story about dreams, but this is more, "Hi. Chief Dreamwalker here. Dunno what's going on. Bye."
Discord can't fix things. Except Twilight's actions in the climax rely on him being able to.
Twilight spends a large chunk of the story trying to find Discord, only to literally sit down and call him up at a cafe with only a vague idea of why she couldn't do that before.
The idea that archetypes are somehow tied to physical reality coming right at the end is... odd. It's like you forgot to put the connection between archetypes and the changes in earlier. Maybe Luna could've revealed it in her last appearance, then we could've had some reminiscing on what that actually meant and Twilight's decision at the end wouldn't have come so suddenly.
In the end, I guess I'd say I'm glad I read it, but I don't want to read it again.
The ending is chilling, but I can't find it in me to dislike the characters for their choice. Although they stepped outside the bounds of what is civilized, each became truer to their nature. To what they wanted to be. I think the tragedy isn't that they changed; people do that. Rather, it's that they drifted apart.
Dreams end. They need end because there is work to be done. Applejack should understand this in her nature. To be free is a dream. Dreams end.
Yowza, what an ending!
This story just kept me guessing, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It definitely left me with a bit of sadness for Twilight, but who knows what the further implications are for everyone else? Haunting, intriguing, favorited!
I have to say I loved this story and especially the way it ended. Luna does feel a bit underutilized but all in all I really liked it. The way you set atmosphere and the way you show Twilight’s mentality just kinda clicks with me. All in all 10/10 would dream again.
9570294 I have to disagree. This isn't about maintaining canon. It's about people.
Twilight's friends had found real happiness in the new selves they'd discovered. Everyone else that Twilight interacted with or saw also found new happiness, and Twilight realized all of this. To make things "as they were before" would only have brought everything back to the way things were but with all of the memories intact of how they had all finally found real happiness in their lives. They would be returned to the old days and forced into pony-shaped cages where they could see a future they'd experienced and wanted but could never experience again, not truly.
At the end, Discord was being just as terribly selfish as when he'd forced the change on everyone. Chaos god that he was, he wanted things to go back to normal as well, to suit himself despite the desires of everyone around him:
This is not benevolence and acceptance of people as individuals. It's selfish, scared, self-centered egotism, and – even if he has added some good things to his nature in the show – this has always been a part of his nature, in canon.
Literally by his own hand Discord lost his place in the scheme of things, because people became what they dreamed of being. His only path at that point was to selfishly return things as they were for those vanilla sacks of meat, or to move himself forward by taking away that happiness in creative, chaotic ways—and this time likely without the friendship that had held him in check, before. Maybe if he wasn't so afraid of being obsolescent, he could gain more than he lost.
I'm not saying I'm in love with the way things ended, but then again it's not a bad ending... and in fact despite Twilight's self-mutilation and AJ's being a complete @#%!!, it's growing on me.
As a whole we always resist change. The future is uncertain: too much change represents danger, but too little represents stagnation. But if everyone could find change in their lives that would bring them happiness without causing trauma to everyone else? I'd accept that. And if you think about it, we are already slowly slowly doing that in the real world. And while it's not the best world now, it's far better than it used to be for all of the people around us who have discovered their true selves and work to find happiness among those who consider themselves to be - and often decide what is - 'normal'.
Just absolutely fascinatingly terrifying tale. I loved every moment of it. Every word drew me further, every chapter pulled me in until I was fully invested.
It's a sad kind of story when you can see the end coming, and you can feel what it is going to be...but you hope for something different. Despite all of the evidence, you hope beyond hope that something will click in the heads of the characters, that some deus ex machina will fix all of it for these ponies who were so misguided.
It's a sad kind of story when it feels so real.
Thank you for this.
What a story.
I'm sorry, but this fell flat for me. I know Twilight made the decision as part of her own descent into madness, but still. Choosing not to hit the reset button because your friends are upset at the idea carries a lot less impact when at least two of those friends have demonstrated near-complete reversals of who they are. For Rarity, it may only be a matter of time, and who can even tell with Dash?
I think it's that drastic alteration of who Applejack and Fluttershy are that so disquiets me. It feels less like a transformation and more like the death and replacement of the original person. I suppose that says something about how deeply they buried their dreams under duty and fear respectively, but... well, "want" and "need" are two very different things.
And, you know, there's the potential dissolution of society as a whole as ponies lose the cohesive commonality that bound them together. It's not guaranteed, but the possibility's there. I suppose that may be the most disturbing thing about this story. Twilight may have rendered friendship impossible in the long run.
Of course, in a dream, anything can happen.
So yeah, I suppose I'm too caught up in what was lost to appreciate what might be gained. And I may need to take a long look at that attitude in several months given that "best ten years of my life" comment from last chapter. I may not care much for the destination, but thank you for the journey.
Well...i stayed for the ending hoping they they come to thier senses but it seems that no one did. Only real question is why did harmony side with them? Becasue it was thier happiness on the line? I don't think the elements work that way...least not to me.
This was a fantastic read. Had me hooked from beginning to end. Well done!
Remember when you said nothing bad happens to any of the characters in this story? Blatant, unapologetic lie.
I liked the story enough. I'm fine with it not ending as a happy go lucky "friendship is stronger than anything" type tale. It honestly ended the only way it could. Just on a personal level, I could have done a lot less with Twilight here. Her jealousy, general resentment towards Trixie (who didn't even do anything to warrant it here), neurotic obsession with what was right to her without considering anyone else's opinion until it was too late, sort of started to get to me.
Then you get to the fact that she more or less gets away with it. It's her problem she couldn't accept anyone the way they were becoming, then gets Discord involved and puts him in a position where he's trying to fix what he felt he broke. Then he gets screwed, turned to stone (with literally no one seeming to care) and then the worst that happens to Twilight is that she has to suck up that her friends are changing.
Not like I think she deserved to be petrified either, no one here deserved that. Just that I feel like Twilight would have been more sympathetic as a character if she were in Discord's shoes. She comes off as more stubborn than concerned the entire time. Meanwhile, all of this is Discord's fault. He carries the guilt of having fundamentally changed all of his friends. Had Twilight been dealing with that weight as opposed to "change bad, normal good," I would have felt for her more.
And then there's the characters. Namely, Applejack and Fluttershy. With Rarity, who probably changed the most out of all of them physically, the only thing really altered was her body. She was still Rarity. Which makes sense, since she wanted something material. And I get that wanting to be brave and strong would change a personality, but Fluttershy practically turned into new person. If bravery and strength turn her into the kind of person that would just leave while her friend is a goddamn statue, or do something Fluttershy would never have done and actively hurt an animal that trusted and relied on her, then yeah maybe this is all actually sort of fucked. Same with Applejack and everything surrounding her. Feeling trapped in her life as a farmer? Got you. Burning down her family's barn and being this dismissive towards her friends? She might as well have been discorded.
And on the idea that this new world didn't have to be anywhere close to canon is fine, but a journey to something new would have been better than the sudden and completely wild jumps we got.
Truthfully told, this is actually a tragic story of Discord. He is the embodiment of change, of chaos itself. Yet, when those he cares about changes around him due to his actions, he refuses to change with them. Instead, trying to resist and go back to how things were before.
Why was he not happy that Fluttershy is now able to finally love herself for who she is? For Discord to embrace that change of her would have been the real act of love. Did he even care how she felt? Or was he just motivated by petty greed?
It's telling how little Fluttershy felt of herself before. How long has she dreamed of becoming more than her shy archetype? I could imagine her wishing for it under a star, begging somehow or someway to finally move on from such crippling insecurities. Then one day, she wakes up and discovers she's no longer afraid. For the first time in her life, she can finally live her life the way she truly wants too.
And that's just Fluttershy and Discord.
Does Twilight sound like a "Rational Pony" to you saying this line? "You're a monster, we're going to fix you." Did she even think about how Rarity felt about the situation? About how despite this being what she's always wanted, she was willing to give it up for Twilight's friendship?
Like Discord, Twilight did everything she could to resist the change out of the fear she would lose her friends.
You can see Twilight is doing everything she could to deny the reality of what she was about to do. Grasping at excuses and lying to herself. There is only so much one can be in denial before it all falls apart, and for Twilight it was the realisation that she was about to rip all of her friend's dreams away from them, just to selfishly have hers.
So she did the only thing she could. She did what discord could not. She choose to embrace the change in her friends despite the grief of letting go to her past.
The loss of the archetypes is not the end of the world. It is merely the seed for change. And change never comes without pain.
I loved reading all the way to the end, but this last chapter felt rushed and with way too many questions unanswered.
Overall, however, still loved the story.
I feel like this should have been labelled Dark.
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No, no: Twilight mutilated herself Apple jack burned her house down, and Fluttershy is openly carnivorous. And we're still not sure what happened to Trixie.
They are happy because they are insane, and the magic is altering their ability to care about anything outside of themselves.
Hot take: INSANITY IS BAD.
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Why is everyone ignoring that they're demonstrably insane.
Oh, Applejack, you felt trapped. Wow gosh that's just the worst you burned a house down. You were not the only person who lived in that house. You ignored the people who were upset by this. That. Is. Bad.
The problem isn't an inability to accept change in the abstract. The problem is that this change is causing harm that people are overlooking because they feel good.
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That said (that they are all insane), when Twilight buckled at the end but the elements were already all in play and active, Harmony would have acted anyway. There is no way Harmony being given the chance would allow this to stand.
As an outsider who's only read the last chapter and its comment section, I can't help but be amused at how south some people's opinions of this work have gone. Granted, I'm incapable of viewing the whole picture right now, but that's the vibe I've been getting. To me, something just felt... off about that last chapter, and not the good kind of off.
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FanOfMostEverthing manages to go over all the thoughts I have much better than I probably could.
Today's Moral: No matter how beautiful the rest of the web you've woven is, you'll still get flack if the final few threads seem ajar.
...Then again, I've barely read this story, so take my words with several spoonfuls of salt.
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From the perspective of the characters in the moment, after they'd already been changed, this is the better ending. We obviously feel it's wrong as Twilight once did, but that's not who is making the decision. These changed characters don't want to go back to being normal, even if the normal version of themselves would have. I think new Twilight made the only decision she ever could have since when they all started manifesting their dreams.
What to say?
Personally I didn't know how it would end and I decided not to form an expectation so I wasn't disappointed. I actually liked the end for what it was. It made me think and it always a good thing.
I loved the writing style, that didn't change no matter how it ended.
I still do wonder what it was with that book that Discord shot, it did influence Twilights dream but I don't understand what it's role in the story was. Twilight had already been dedicated to Celestia, some might say fanatically so. So her dream also would have made sense without the book, so why?
Twilight took longer that I did to end up in the moral dilemma of what is "right". On one hand most people like things the way they were and in Twilights case she is looking at the new state being induced by chaos which is the antithesis to what she as Element of Harmony bearer stands for, therefore it's "wrong". But on the other hand isn't it "wrong" to not allow others to choose what they want to be specifically her friends... standing in the way of her friends' choices for who they are is the antithesis to what Twilight stands for as princess of friendship. At this point there was no morally "right" choice in my opinion. There was only the question of which way Twilight would follow the one of percieved harmony or the one of percieved friendship. I would love to say that I obviously would have gone for the freedom of choice aka friendship but I am really not sure if I'd have had the mental fortitude to go against my own wish of keeping things the way they were if I had been in her place. I noticed that a few chapters ago, Twilight seemed to have noticed that only just in this one. I do believe that Twilights determination crumbled when she saw that she could go back to being a unicorn which reminded her how it feels when a princess decides to change your body, your self because she thinks it's the "right" thing. From then on she really listened to her friends' feelings and came to the conclusion that she prioritizes their free will over harmony or destiny or whatever else reasons Celestia had back when she changed Twilight into an alicorn.
To form an opinion on the Discord situation is hard.
On one hand he is throwing a tantrum because things aren't going his way and when he tries to force things against the will of others, the elements stop him. That's what they do. Also he basically got punished for meddling with ponies with lasting effect despite being told not to.
On the other hand he sees his friends becoming monsters and wants to return them back. And he gets stabbed in the back by those friends. His first friends, the first beings he has ever trusted other than himself led him close to the one weapon that could effect him under the pretense of helping him but they attacked him instead, in the process breaking a promise they made to him (at least Fluttershy did). If that doesn't leave a deep wound and a lasting scar I don't know what will.
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I really truly like your take on this being a dream. Usually I dislike that as a cop-out but in this case it would make a lot of sense, would explain a thing or two and it wouldn't take away from the enjoyment of the story (in my opinion). Plus the moral questions posed still stand anyway.
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You might be overreacting a little bit here. Even if the are some runaways there are ponies who very much prefer having a running society and being part of said society. What good will a seamstress be if there is no society to appreciate her work? What good is a bakery if no one can deliver ingredients and there is no one willing to buy product? And the rest of the Apples seemed pretty distraught over not having a farm so I assume they would like to keep it running. Celestia has been wishing for Lunas return for a thousand years, I think it is safe to assume that she genuinely wishes to rule beside her.
Just because AJ went for freedom in a rather radical way, I don't believe that she is the norm here.
Society has to change, that is certain but as long as "ponies" allow beings in their midst that may not look pony but still kinda are at heart like Rarity then it will recover.
Fluttershy is a wierd case here though. She wished to be not afraid of ponies and social interaction, what good would that be, if she ran away from pony society? So I assume she still would stick around. However I don't know how her carnivorousness would effect that. Maybe as long as she isn't eating anything sentient...
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It doesn't matter if that's what people really are underneath because that underneath layer isn't the only part that matters. How we choose to act and the way we choose to present ourselves to the world are as much a part of us as anything else. Moreso, because it's the part we have any direct say in.
Who we dream we are is only the start.
At the end of the day, once you dive through all the words people throw up to make madness look nice and pretty, there's a simple truth: Hurting people that you don't have to hurt, for no better reason than it makes you feel good, is not right.
Also
We don't see anyone who doesn't act in that same general manner. And more tellingly, no one cares about the pain she caused her family. Everyone is wrapped up in the same empathy-less insanity.
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The same thing happened in the star trek episode Tuvix. In that episode a transporter issue merged Tuvok and neelix into one entity and it didn't want to be resplit. Only difference there is the crew didn't let it stay that way over the disagreement of the holographic doctor.
I think someone will tend to prefer the state one is currently in even when it is wrong.
Also, couldn't help but notice that the story ends with the main character blinding herself to everything except the beauty via mutilating herself.
I don't have any snarky comments, that last chapter is a great close to a horror story and I'm honestly beyond impressed.
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Applejack literally burned her family home to the ground with no repercussions. Rarity, when it was brought up by Twilight, nearly brushed it off as a minor thing. If anything, most of the ponies Twilight attempted to talk to, minus Starlight who seemed to be the only one to fully stay supportive of Twilight, more or less shrugged and said, “Well, she wished to be free from her responsibilities.” The key point here is that everyone is so entrenched and trapped within a dreamlike state that they begin to lose sight of not only who they are, but being blind to the dangers of this radical change, all the way to the point where Twilight simply gave up, falling into her own madness. It was ironic, because as she lost her sight, she saw the clearest of all of them, yet because her friends had become so entrenched in their dream, so to speak, she gave into her own. A dream to one person could be another’s nightmare. That’s why Rarity was sooo wrong when she earlier said they were separate.
Honestly my last comment sums up pretty much all I could say, it never felt like reading a story even a horror one. I'm not scared or sad or anything because I'm not invested in the plot or characters, I never got sold on them because of how strange they, particularly Applejack, act. And I didn't get hooked with the dream stuff since it caused terrible things to happen.
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At any rate, had I written the ending it would have gone thusly:
They invoke the elements.
Twilight changes her mind.
Twilight is unable to stop the elements from trying to fix things.
Everypony else is fixed BUT Twilight. They do not even remember that it happened but Twilight remembers everything and still has the eyes issue. At the end Twilight would be validated that it did happen by the fact that the Apple's Farmhouse is still burned down.
This story... is not really my cup of tea. A bit too dark, and a bit too much philosophical musing for my usual taste.
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Truth be told, I tried my hardest to ignore AJ.
The reason is simple: to me she was far too out of character to care for her at all. For everypony else their dream either aligned with their cutie mark (I'll get to why that's partially the case for Fluttershy later) or were independent of it. Except for AJ.
Raritys special talent of being a seamstress aligns with her dream, Trixies special talent for showmareship aligns with her dream of being better at it by not being a unicorn and still able to do it, RD is still flying fast as per cutie mark, Twilights magic cutie mark has nothing to do with her devotion to the sun (unless you look at the cutie mark story, then it may even align), Starlights magic cutie mark (or is it cutie mark magic cutie mark?) has nothing to do with her dream of being someone else (as I've interpreted her dream) but instead her past, Pinkie could be both or either depending on how you interpret her baking in connection to her cutie mark. The only exception is AJ who got her cutie mark literally for going back to the farm yet her dream is to get away from it. That just doesn't line up to me because I can't explain it at all. Not that she burned down the farm, the fact that she doesn't want to be there in the first place doesn't fit. Oh and her acting like a b!tch later doesn't defuse my impression at all. Way too ooc to be taken seriously, is how I deal with this subconsciously. So yes, I ignored her in my previous thoughts, except for saying that she is an outlier.
How the dreams effect each other is a whole different can of worms. What happens when another pony dreams of being "the best seamstress"? Would they also become a spider and have the same abilities as Rarity? What if somepony dreams of being a better seamstress than Rarity? It would be a paradox since one can't be "the best" at something when someone else is "better" at it. Or what would happen if Sweetie Belle dreams of having her "normal" sister Rarty back? So I am not touching that "one mares dream is anothers nightmare".
Concerning Fluttershy: she cares for a bear, she cares for Raritys cat, she cares for a Manticore, she cares/cared for a buzzard (that later almost became RDs pet), she must be aware of the fact that animals kill each other to survive. Even here she tells us that she is aware of some animals' need for meat, hunting and killing. Her dreaming of becoming carnivorous isn't that much out of character as she must have seen how carnivores act dominant towards their prey. The closest thing she has towards fearless friends are most likely her animals which means (not counting Angel Bunny) the carnivores. I don't think it's much of a stretch that she connects those two traits and dreams accordingly. Raritys habit of acting like a sexual predator whenever she plays up her confidence likely explains why Fluttershy was also so flirt... -ish? (What's the word?)
In short her dream of being less shy and fearless can either be seen as independent of her cutie mark or as aligning with it because she became closer to her animals by becoming part animal. This interpretation may be open for debate.
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Dreams are way more complicated than that, and I’d even make the argument that for a dream to not be able to contradict itself goes against the very nature of a dream. A pleasant dream can just as easily turn into a horrid nightmare at the drop of a dime, with no warning whatsoever.
I deliberately didn’t touch on Fluttershy in my comments, but I make the argument that she both became truest to, and yet also most betrayed, her true nature. Yes, she became more animalistic, but at the cost of breaking her number one rule: that her cottage be a safe zone for ALL animals. Yet she ate her own raven, and who knows how many other animals, to the point where by the end, almost none could found around her cottage anymore. She didn’t become fearless; she became a predator. She was almost more ooc for me than Applejack.
Rarity became even more obsessed with beauty, only instead of focused upon herself, she became obsessed with the beauty of her work. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to be the best seamstress at the end, as much as she was chasing after the beauty of her dream. An example of this is when on of Twilight’s visits, she commented on the absolute beauty of the dress, but Rariyt said it wasn’t quite finished. I honestly don’t think she ever would be, given the nature of that dream.
Ironically fitting, Pinkie ended up being the most “normal”. Simply because her dreams are the simplest. All she’s ever wanted was to make others smile, laugh, and bake. And so she gets her own bakery.
Likewise Rainbow dreamed of flying forever.
Pinkie and Rainbow are, perhaps, the only two (three of you count Trixie) who’s dreams cannot be contrived as harmful in anyway.
No matter how it’s twisted, Applejack caused willful harm on her own family, and only reluctantly even showed up at the end. Fluttershy turned on her own animals, going against her kind nature (kindness does not always equate timid, as she has portrayed before). Rarity’s endless pursuit of the most beautiful dress. And Twilight’s decline into the madness of her obsession with the sun, resulting in her self-mutilation by sowing her own eyes shut.
And let’s not forget her turning on Discord, who genuinely wanted to make up for his mistake.
Trapped as they are in this dreamlike state, their caught in the fantastical, unable to be true to themselves, and at the mercy of their own dreams. And if it becomes a shared dream...well, wouldn’t matter who was dreaming at that point. All would be affected.
A tragedy. A beautiful one. I think. An end where the changes are finally accepted, and the protagonist moves forward within the world.
What was this, pony against nature or pony against equinity? The antagonist would be what the pursuit of what is comfortable and familiar. Your stories always leave me with contemplation at the end.