All for want of a nail
And All for Want of a Nail
Celestia lay asleep; Luna stood, marveling how peaceful the filly looked that way. 'An how much has changed in a single year, that we find ourselves in opposite places?' A smile crept across the midnight blue alicorn's muzzle.
A sudden burst of magic ended her reverie. In the corner a dwarf apple tree – gift of the selfsame clan – glowed softly; a flower bloomed, formed fruit, and ripened within the blink of an eye. Continuing to grow, it become translucent, glowing with a lavender light. A moment later it burst in a flash of light, depositing a unicorn of similar hue upon the floor.
The night princess didn't bat an eyelash, "What news, Twilight Sparkle?"
Twilight sketched a curtsy, "We defeated Discord, and…" she produced a glass flask from her saddlebags, "This was all we were able to retrieve of … whatever he stole from Celestia." The level of luminous sand within did seem less than when last Luna had beheld it. "I'm so sorry, it was broken when we found it–
"We had despaired of regaining any of Celestia's stolen time. You have done us a great favor in retrieving even this much; I thank you, as a sister, as a ruler, and as a citizen of the world." The alicorn bent her head nearly to the floor before accepting the phial.
"W-well, if you say so, your maj–
"Such formality ill suits the circumstances, Twilight Spa… Twilight. I entreat you: call me Luna."
"Oh, yeah… sorry," the unicorn ran a hoof through the back of her mane. "How are you going to…"
The flask, enveloped in a field of shimmering blue energy, uncorked and inverted itself, its contents dumped unceremoniously onto the sleeping filly. The sand fizzled with pastel light on contact with the alicorn, dazzling and brief. Celestia sneezed once, otherwise undisturbed.
"...oh." Twilight managed. "So... that's it?"
"Further recovery will take time."
Ponyville pulled itself back together. Overhead the weather team ranged, tracking down the few remaining clouds and poaching what weather they could from the Everfree. The rain would be sparse, but sufficient. In the town square, makeshift tents had been pitched to provide shelter as the hospital's staff, Diane, and any other ponies with relief training cared for those suffering from shock. Rarity insisted on helping, despite looking as though she could fall over herself at any moment.
Further afield, ponies of all ages searched for anypony who had become disoriented or lost in the bedlam. Rainbow Dash and Jackie monitored the Cutie Mark Crusaders, whose extensive experience with becoming lost, disoriented, and trapped afforded them insight about where to look.
They were pulling up a colt who had fallen into a dry well. Sweetie's heart sank as she noticed her orange friend's eyes on her. The unicorn tried to gesture for the pegasus to remain silent, but Scootaloo either didn't notice or didn't understand the gesture.
"Wow, congratulations Sweetie," the purple maned filly chirped, pointing, "you got your cutie mark!"
"Nnn–" it was impossible to deny it, the mark was plain as day.
"It looks like a bunch'a notes all strung together…" Applebloom chimed in, grinning fit to burst.
"...it's a 'bell chord', a kind of musical harmony." Sweetie muttered
Rainbow Dash frowned, catching the filly's expression and tone, "Hey, kid, are you alright? You sound kinda down for a filly who's just reached a major development in her life." Dash ignored the fisheye stare Jackie was giving her.
"I don't want it." the unicorn whispered. She might as well have screamed. Everypony stopped what they were doing to stare.
"What?" squeaked Scootaloo, "Why wouldn't you want your cutie mark? What have we been doing all this time if not–
"We've been having fun, going on adventures, been being friends – that's what we did!" Tears threatened from the musically marked filly. "A-and now it's all over, how can I be a 'Crusader' for something I've already got?" She didn't understand how the two of them couldn't see this as an ending, as a tragedy. They were supposed to all get their marks at the same time; one for all, and all for their cutie marks.
"Now that's just plum loco, Sweetie. We just make Twist an honorary member." Apple Bloom huffed.
"B-but…" Sweetie stumbled, loathe to let logic lead the discussion.
The orange filly frowned, "You're not trying to ditch out on us are you? You're not tired of us, ... right?"
"W-what? No! That's the opposite of what I meant – I – *hic*"
The two clung to her with desperate affection. Jackie herded the onlookers away to give the three some privacy – even dragging Rainbow by the scruff of her neck until the pegasus got the idea.
Hiding behind shrubbery to watch, Rainbow chuckled awkwardly, "Heh, kids; trying to hide their darkest fears and making things out to be worse than they are, huh?" She rubbed the back of her neck.
Jackie winced, "Yeah, assumin that if they disappoint folk they'll be rejected out of hoof, or that they never really had a bond in the first place."
Dash turned her head, "Um, I think I need to tell you and the rest–"
The earth mare shushed the pegasus, pointing.
Scootaloo broke the hug first, having a low tolerance for 'mushiness'. "Just so we're clear, I still expect you to help us get our cutie marks too." She grinned.
Applebloom snapped her tail at the pegasus, "what she meant ta say, Sweetie, is that we wanna be yer friends whether you've got a cutie mark or not–
Scootaloo sniffed, "Well, duh, of course I meant that. It goes without saying–
"If it went without sayin', that'd mean ya had used telepathy." Bloom rolled her eyes.
"That's just dumb, the town isn't wired for that." The small pegasus gestured generally toward Ponyville.
"What? Wires don't got nothing to do with it." The yellow filly was non-plussed.
"Sure they do, you can't have a telephone without wires. It's like… a law, or something."
"A telephone? No, ah'm talkin' about psychic powers."
"Uh, girls?" Sweetie tried to interject.
"Don't be stupid, those aren't real." Scootaloo pushed her head forward, shoving Applebloom back
"Ah know they ain't that was mah point!" The apple filly pushed back, their foreheads butting.
"You know what?" Scootaloo snarled.
"What?" the earth filly growled.
"I can't remember what we're arguing about."
Applebloom fell over, causing Scootaloo overbalance and knock into Sweetie, tumbling the trio into a pile. Moments later they were giggling and coming up with plans for their next foray.
A distance away, a blue pegasus rubbed her chin. "Well, that's a relief. But you know… that does give me an idea."
"Rainbow, sug', if you get those two loons in yer basement to build a psychic telephone, I will personally buck your hide from here to Tartarus." Jackie's expression was far less serious than her tone.
As the sun set, an adolescent white pony walked through the palace gardens, pausing before a rather inexplicable sculpture. Consisting of a mishmash of limbs and animal parts slapped together without consideration for symmetry or good taste. The figure held a large rock, and appeared to be either clutching or presenting the boulder, depending upon the viewer's angle. The mare paused, imagining various explanations for the statue's attitude, perhaps–
"What's that expression? 'Take a picture, it'll last longer'." Spoke a sardonic voice.
Celestia shrugged, "How long are you going to hold onto that burden?"
With a groan, the draconequus set 'Tom' down, pausing to regard his statue. "Well, thanks for the 'break', I suppose." He snorted.
"I was not referring to the rock."
"Hmm? Whatever. I have a few more ideas for next time – I was this close this time around."
The sun princess nodded. "You will have plenty of time to consider it. This universe is going to run its course before you get another chance."
Discord giggled, "And they –by which I mean 'I'– say you have no sense of humor."
"Discord, the point of this exercise is not for you to find some 'winning combination'… there isn't one."
"That's what you say." the serpentine apparition crossed his forelimbs.
"We have done this countless times. And you lose. Every. Time." The alicorn stalked forward.
"Well, you always stack the deck against me…" he sulked.
The pale pony princess blew a raspberry. "It isn't 'stacking', friendship is simply stronger than you are. In any world where my little ponies exist, they will overcome you… whether it takes them twenty two minutes or a thousand years, you never win in the end." The alicorn sighed. "And I have grown tired of waiting for you to see the point on your own."
The spirit of disharmony mulled this over. "So… you're saying that I have to watch the entire course of this universe before I get another chance?" He quirked an eyebrow, "Really?"
Celestia shook her head, "You have only been a prisoner of your own inability to adapt."
"Oh? Ok, I'm ready to change." Discord stood, looking expectant.
The day princess put a hoof over her face. "Discord, even if I believed you, that isn't how it works."
"Oh but isn't it, 'Celly'? Isn't it, though?"
The alicorn remained unconvinced. The draconequus sighed, "Whatever. I don't even care anymore." The etherial draconequus ran a claw through his beard, "Wait… we made a bet, didn't we?" A hint of a smile surfaced on his long face.
Celestia faked a look of surprise, "By Faust, I almost think we did." She let him have the moment.
At a snap of talons, conjuring a confection consisting of marzipan, meringue, mousse mousse, dandy doughnuts, and ephemeral eclairs. "Looks tasty enough, but why put yourself at extra risk for a snack?"
"Well, I have a feeling it won't be created this time around," the white mare looked the colossal confection over. "It is a paradox, the mare who crafts it is also the one who guarantees I get nothing but a taste."
Discord rolled his eyes, "I suppose we all have our trials. You've got what you wanted, so I take it this is goodbye?"
"Hmm? Oh, no, Luna was willing to try something a little different… this world already being a minor variation."
The spirit of chaos started, "Did you just… wait, what do you mean 'something different'?"
Celestia's horn glowed with a golden light, moments later Luna led a line of ponies into the yard. For the most part they regarded the statue, but the second alicorn and six mares at the front looked to the first to occupants of the clearing.
The spirit of disharmony slumped his shoulders, "They're all going to talk, aren't they?"
The sun pony's face was a mask of sympathy, "Twilight helped them write note cards." But her eyes twinkled.
Jackie shuffled her hooves, reached for a note, and tossed it to the ground. "I don't really need that, I've been thinking about this all day." She straightened the brim of her hat. "You have no power we didn't give you in the first place, Discord."
"In my case, I'd become so accustomed to the idea of being an outsider that I couldn't even let myself believe that there were ponies who wanted me around. The fact that I was afraid of losing that means that at some level I realized these really are my home, my friends, my family." She looked at a group of earth ponies near the front of the gathering, her smile small but genuine. "Now that I've faced that, I can laugh at my old fears."
Rarity nudged Diane, who trotted forward. The pink pony cleared her throat. "We are all creatures of many parts, and we may not like some aspects of ourselves. But it is only by acknowledging the existence of our true selves that we can evaluate who and what we are. In the end, we are both the best and worst of ourselves, and we spend our entire lives discovering what that means. What I am, what I could be, having seen these things… perhaps I can be kinder to myself, and in turn to others, for how can we love in others what we do not accept in ourselves?"
Twilight finished rereading her note cards, forcing herself to set them down. "The truth is that we rarely recognize the truth, and so easily become complacent to the lies we tell ourselves."
She took a deep breath and sighed loudly. "Sometimes we have to have our noses rubbed in an unpleasant reality before we even see it." She looked up, managing to catch both the statue and apparition with a piercing glare, "Honestly, I don't think I'm ever going to like you, but I can admit that my folly was of my own making. It isn't enough not to lie, withholding the truth is its own form of dishonesty."
Fluttershy sighed, getting to her hooves. "I didn't learn anything at all. But I did rediscover something I already learned before: if we want to be loyal to others, to serve our fellow pony, it is first necessary to treat one's self with the respect and goodwill we wish to express to and receive from others. I am as obligated to take care of myself as I am to help others, because how can I value them if I don't value myself?"
Rainbow looked up, rubbing the back of her mane. "So, yeah… I guess everypony pretty much addressed a lot of what I was thinking. But, my real lesson is that there's a difference between learning from the past and beating yourself up over it. Maybe we screwed up, maybe there wasn't really anything we could have done." The blue pony shrugged, shaking her head. "In the end, we have to live in the world that exists and keep moving forward. We can't hide from the past, but we also can't live there. To forgive is to give to the future, and I guess I have to look at the present before I can do that for others."
Rarity nodded. " *Ahem*, well said, Rainbow Dash. Hmm… It is difficult for me to express weakness, to admit my doubts, or feelings of helplessness, so please bear with me if I appear to prevaricate." The white unicorn drew in a deep breath before continuing, "There is no plan that has ever survived the field of battle, we must adapt or perish. Being well informed can be an advantage, but we cannot expect to know everything. A bit of perspective, a little distance, can be the most important thing."
She chuckled, wincing. "Before I begin rambling or lecturing, allow me to cut to the chase," Rarity jabbed a forehoof out, pointing like a spear, "Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony, we release you from our animosity." She shook her head, "Frankly, hating you is a tedious waste of energy and plays into your desire for… well, your namesake. Instead, I choose to believe that you are a sentient being, capable of making choices. As Jacqueline has pointed out at length, true chaos has no loyalty to either good or evil. We choose to believe that there is something worthwhile within you, that you are someone worth redeeming, because there isn't one of us who couldn't do with a second chance."
Celestia reached a hoof out to smack the phantom form of the spirit of chaos, who was loudly producing snoring noises. " *Zzz* – wha? Oh, yeah, friendship is tragic, or whatever. Have your little symbolic victories, tell me allllll about how you're bloodied but unbowed, then see yourselves out, will you?" He made a brushing motion with his talons.
"...Which is why the citizens of Ponyville have volunteered to perform the grounds-keeping and other duties of upkeep upon this portion of the royal gardens, and to have weekly visits with the petrified spirit of disharmony." Rarity concluded, grinning.
"...what?" asked Discord.
"...what?" echoed Celestia.
"A most... generous offer, Rarity. Perhaps you could have mentioned this previously?" Luna mused.
"Oh, is there a problem with our civic minded gesture?" The white unicorn batted her eyelashes.
The blue alicorn weighed the idea, "Neigh, I see nothing wrong. Sister, what say you?"
"I…" the white alicorn's eyes slid sideways to the draconequus, his head shaking vigorously. She grinned from ear to ear, "It sounds like a fine plan. A very generous gesture."
"Splendid, then we have only one more thing to do today… which I most certainly did discuss previously."
"Oh, I remember." The sun princess grinned in anticipation.
Luna examined one of the large rectangular blocks the ponies were positioning, "and these produce sound?"
Rainbow Dash finished passing out microphones and nodded, "You'll see." She grinned, a twinkle in her eye.
The spirit of disharmony eyed the instruments being set up, "You wouldn't, you couldn't, you-you can't." Moaned the draconequus.
"Can and will." Jackie grinned, tapping a microphone.
Stands were set up, music and lyric sheets distributed. The orange mare had it on good authority from her family that Twilight could play the piano, but the lavender mare refused to have anything to do with a keyboard. While Vinyl oversaw the hooking up of the audio system, Octavia ran herd on the assembled musicians. Eventually, everything was set up and as ready as it could be.
"One, and a two, and a one–two–three..."
"Hey, don't write yourself off yet...
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HOLY FRICK ITS OVER
The sarcastic feels are in the air! Good job on the story and thanks for all the fish.
Oh snap! That completed tag! Now I'm going to have to find the time to read this story again.
Congratulations on finishing the story. Can't wait till I find the time to read it now.
Greatest flaw ever for an incarnation of Chaos. Oh, the irony.
okay I'm a little fuzzy over whether at the end this is the "main continuity" six or "alt continuity" six speaking--- and whether this "alt continuity" is supposed to be a changed main continuity or a branch off the main... ? If that makes sense.
One thing I cannot forgive and forget though. The fact that you let it end without justice ever being done for Fluttershy and the rest of her crew from her disabled flight class. They got railroaded, cheated, and had their childhoods STOLEN... and in Derpy's case, their lives RUINED.... and never received so much as an apology for the injustice, much less the MEDALS OF VALOR they DESERVED. And worst of all, the instrument of that cruelty never paid a single gram of his karmic debt for it.
congrats mate you made it
Interesting. Will read later.
3816723
maybe that's the point?
it could be that this is like a sort of first episode and others or even the author could make their own stories of a minor variation.
3816731 which is which point?
That was a most enjoyable universe to have looked into. Should you ever feel the need to revisit this continuity, I would be most interested to see it.
3816777
that you could fix that minor mistake by making a sort of continuation of this story, but you know whatever.
Glad to have seen this to the end, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Looking forward to any sequals and spin-offs.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
No time to start reading this now, but I have marked it as "read later".
The idea of alternate lifes has REALLY sparked my interest, I love the concept of "What if event X never happened" stories where all you change is ONE major event and proceed with how the story would have been, instead of what actually happened.. Such as what this seems to be.
So I will definitely read this, and you can expect many comments from me along the way as I will
be writing my thoughts and feelings with each passing chapter, from beginning to end, followed by a "final thoughts" when I'¨m done reading the whole story.
An how much has changed in a single year
"Um, I think I need to tell you and the rest–
"what she meant ta say
And I have grow tired of waiting
"Oh, is there a problem with our civic minded gesture?" The white unicorn bat her eyelashes.
1. And.
2. Forgot your closing quotation mark.
3. Forgot to capitalise.
4. Grown.
5. Batted.
And here I thought she was going to use the Royal Canterlot Voice for that... but this is better
Now we just need a Luna-esque voice to sing this for real then you can just link it again and make it oh so more enjoyable
It's The Middle from Jimmy Eat World!
Perfect song to end this story!
Oh bummer and I wanted to read this,but since it's been processed in a factory along with wheat gluten...
I love the concept...the story is turning out rather nice as well.
3816902
This is 100% wrong. Thanks
1. Tis olde timey. Luna may be working on her vocabulary, but in the privacy of her own head she keeps a few of the old ways
2. I've seen it done both ways. But... you're right, I don't really like the way this looks.
3. This is part of the sentence.
4.
5. And this too, not sure what I was thinking.
Yes, that would be great. If you figure out a way we can arrange that, let me know
3816723 Those are ponies from the world this story takes place in. As to whether this is an alternate timeline, derailed history, or part of some serial progression of universes... that's up to you to decide.
3816884 Welcome welcome
I look forward seeing your opinion.
3816932 I have been waiting to use this song since chapter 2, so it's gratifying to know someone else appreciates it
3816966 Just scrape the sides a little, I'm sure it'll be fine
I wanna read the story, but,
there are WAY,
too many words.
I'm still gonna read it..
~Grr
Congrates! Let's throw a party for the end and one of the the best variant on the Mane 6 I've read! Bravo! I'll miss you, loyal and brave Fluttershy.
that was an awesome story!
s17.postimg.org/g45no7prj/Happy_Jelly.gif
I rely need to find a new happy reaction pic.......
"Rainbow Dash and Jackie monitored the Cutie Mark Crusaders, whose extensive experience with becoming lost, disoriented, and trapped afforded them insight about where to look."
Best line EVER. That idea needs to be used more often.
I liked it, but the idea that Discord never wins... well... is kind of disappointing, if you know there is no chance for the heroers to lose, only comedy can make the story interesting. That or making winning have a really heavy price to pay.
3816723 Yeah, that's so sad. It's so great that it doesn't work like that in the “real” world, where the do-gooders always get the respect they deserve, and the bad guys always receive justice...
...Oh, wait. That's not the real world at all. For someone named “RealityCheck,” you really don't have much of a grasp on how reality works.
Personally, I prefer to see that part of the story as one of Fluttershy's greatest life lessons: Sometimes people (ponies) who have wronged us never get their comeuppance. They can do horrible things to us and never have to pay for their crimes. And it's only natural to be upset about it. However, what's most important is not letting the wrongs they did to you become what defines you. Instead, you must work with what you have left to forge a better future for yourself and others who were similarly affected. If you keep focusing on what was taken from you, you'll never be able to build anything better. Even after everything she'd been through, Fluttershy built a new life for herself even when she had so very little. And that is why I find her to be such an admirable character.
...Yeah, I'd enjoy seeing that be the moral of an actual episode.
And
________________
made
____________
needs end " marks.
______________
I
my
____________
cap.
_______________
This is story was swimming during NMM, but now in this finale, it feels like it's floundering
Whew, good ride. Admittedly, the writing quality could really use some polish, but the "story" aspect of the fanfic hits all the right boxes.