Unkind Kindness

by jnzsblzs

Epilogue: On a dusty bookshelf

Some who are reading these pages may wonder what they might be doing in a book about the novel British trade regulations under Queen Victoria. The answer is simple, this is an obscure place. However it’s somewhat more than that. When whosoever finds this, it is my most sincere hope they will understand the monumental implications of my words. Therefore I’ve chosen a place nopony other than the most purely intellectually inquisitive would ever look for anything.

Until recently I would have never thought I would write these words down, but ever since my ninetieth birthday my health has been rapidly deteriorating. Feeling the soft arms of death wrap around my back as we slowly waltz into my coffin, I’ve started to feel the urge not to take this final secret with me. Contrary to romantic ideas however, the fear of death does not beget bravery, hence this roundabout way of preserving my knowledge.

Not exactly fifty years ago we were losing a war against a foe we could no longer even pretend to hope we could either overpower or pacify. Amidst these desperate times, Princess Twilight came to me with an idea. Rather, it was more of an idea of an idea. While our dwindling military couldn’t surmount any sort of offensive, our intelligence service found a possible weakness in their defence: It seemed feasible that our special agents could capture the Fallen Element of Harmony: Fluttershy. The question was, should that daring undertaking succeed, can we do anything with the reunited Elements?

Bothering with a lowly theorist like myself might seem far fetched even in the times we lived, but confidence was of the utmost importance. Thus the idea couldn’t have been circulated to the wider scientific community in search for an answer. However the princess read one of my earlier work on the topic, which theorised that the power of the elements were in fact not tied to any sort of intelligence as the prevailing narrative of the time would tell you, but to the bearers themselves. The spirit of harmony of course existed and it was undeniably an intelligent and self-conscious being, which possessed a certain amount of power, but whatever connection it had to ponykind, it was severed with the departure. For our purposes it could be viewed as dead. But had it ever been able to control the unimaginable powers of the elements itself, it would have never needed to choose the bearers as it had every so often. If you, my reader, subscribe to the idea of intelligent creation as I do, you can view this as a universal system of checks and balances. One voice guides, six hooves act.

Ultimately therefore our task was straightforward. Capture Fluttershy and convince her to act in unison with her former friends and in accordance with the will of the late Princess Celestia. Easier said than done, this would have spelled the end of our plans, had it not been for the single most intimidating pony I had ever had the privilege to meet. The head interrogator of the former ESS, the agent I only knew as “Comet”. Fitting name for such harbinger of doom. He was able to spin a web of lies in which our hopeless butterfly could only make one choice, one that today stands as the starting point of our calendars.

Regrettably what neither my terrifying co-conspirator, nor me and not even the princesses could see was the most basic of truths. Ponies were creatures of harmony. Once we murdered one half, and made an unholy mockery of the other, they suffered. What came after is well recorded in the history books. The death of the princess, followed by strife, infighting, the dissolution of Equestria into whatever many countries by ponies who saw themselves bigger than everypony else. Constant fear, and struggle for survival. The more I think the more I’m convinced that it all stemmed from the same act. Even if I thought we were doomed the moment we severed our connection to this mysterious Spirit of Harmony, I’d still be solely responsible for the death of ten billion humans by formulating the spell that was their downfall. Hardly comforting, even for a lie.

Such is my secret, dear reader. Sadly, however I cannot impart my name to you for I’m fearful of what vengeance the immortal memory may enact on my family should it ever learn I’ve put these words to paper. At least that is what I tell myself in order to justify my cowardice. In a misadvised moment of honesty however, I must tell you, I have long been undeserving of the name my parents bestowed upon me. I never could live up to it unlike so many throughout our history. Today marks the date I can finally shed this false identity, to die as the person whom I always meant to be. For I am:

The Architect of Destruction.

Author's Note:

Though the writer of the epilogue wished to remain anonymous, you can find his name imprinted on this note.

For the more convenient types here is the clue:
A bekezdések első betűit nézd jóbarát.

The other name in this chapter might be familiar to the whole none of you who read one of my earlier works: "Comet Sighted". I wanted to play with the idea that Comet from that story could be the same as the agent here, and if we squint a little bit, the timelines even sorta work out, but because I didn't really wanted to open this can of worms, I gave myself plausible deniability. (And yes Comet in C.S. is a unicorn, but as I have stated in the story, ponies are pretty good at transfiguration)

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

This is a alternate ending for Rated Ponystar's story Fallen Knowledge of that story is absolutely required to properly enjoy this one.

I'm not gonna lie, that sounds like a bad idea to me. Not everyone's going to want to read another story that isn't a sequel if they need to understand something.

[Sir Budginton]

I should not have read this story before going to bed. Fuck.

It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just going to pretend everything went well so I can actually get a decent sleep. Excellently written.

[jnzsblzs]

10943262
Not everyone is supposed to read everything I guess. This is a niche story, always meant to be one, but I hoped that for those who did read it, it would be enjoyable. If the like like-dislike bar is any indication, it was not. Oh well I guess, not all my stories are gonna succeed. I just wish some of the down-voters would share why they downvoted, but I reckon it's unreasonable for me to expect them to waste more time of their life on a story they already didn't like.

[jnzsblzs]

10943277
Thank you, it seems like those who I know that did finish the story all liked it. Granted, it's a small sample size, but still I wonder how many downvoters actually finished the story.

Not that I blaming them, if I can't write a story that's compelling enough for people to finish it, that's definitely worthy of a downvote, but I just wonder: If those downvoters who hadn't finish the story had finished it, would they have still downvoted it?

[Soaring]

Genuinely wonder why you thought pressing the publish button on this fic was a good idea.

[jnzsblzs]

10943789
I mean why would anyone ever press the publish button on any story? It seems a fairly pointless question to me. I enjoyed writing it and I thought some would enjoy reading it. And I was somewhat right, It seems a handful of people who genuinely enjoyed it, if nothing else it was worth it to make their days that much better.

Unfortunately it seems like more people did not enjoy it, and I'm sorry for wasting their time but ultimately as long as there is even a chance I made at least one person happier than they would have been otherwise I'm content with my success. Obviously I'm bothered by the fact that this story does not have the more widespread (relatively speaking) success of my other writings, but I'm a human I can make mistakes.

Should you be willing to tell me what your actual problems were with the story, I could try to learn from them, but even as it stands now I think I have managed to gauge what some of the problems people may have had with it. If no one is willing to waste time on telling me why my story wasn't to their liking, (which is a very respectable position imho) than I'm gonna apply my own conclusions about my writing on my next fic.

It won't be ideal, but what else can I do? I can't force people to tell me their opinions, and they don't seem to be particularly willing. (Well, they are through the ratings system, but as I have mentioned that has its limitations.)

But don't worry I'm not gonna disable ratings so you can all downvote it to your heart's content.

[Soaring]

10943884
Ironic.

[Muggonny]

10947279
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/494978787990175744/875515030366470154/unknown.png

[jnzsblzs]

10948099
As long as it makes it happy, I'm fine with it. In fact if that happiness is proportional to the amount of pity it feels, I wish it could feel more pity for me.

[FamousLastWords]

10948619

I wish it could feel more pity for me

Pity is for the weak. To truly be great is to rise above your challenges and do the best you can without excuses.

[jnzsblzs]

10948875
You're absolutely right, the hard boiled egg should rise above the its challenges and stop wasting his time by feeling pity for strangers, but since there isn't much I can do to make it do that... well I might as well wish it luck for whatever it ends up doing.

[kildeez]

Mate, you need to make it clear this is another alt ending. You're making people think this is an original story with no way of knowing how it relates back to "Fallen." Might explain your horrendous like/dislike ratio

[jnzsblzs]

10952190
Thank you for the advice, but I'm not sure how much clearer can I make than literally putting this in the story's description:

This is a alternate ending for Rated Ponystar's story Fallen Knowledge of that story is absolutely required to properly enjoy this one.

BTW how did you like it?