• Member Since 31st Dec, 2011
  • offline last seen Mar 15th, 2013

device heretic


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Many years after sending her beloved protege to Ponyville, unease sits heavily on Princess Celestia's heart as her relationship with Twilight Sparkle seems to have cooled despite all they've accomplished together. On the advice of her sister, Celestia sets out to investigate and resolve the lost connection with her most faithful student. What does it mean to be a Faithful Student...or a Princess of the Sun?

Earned a six-star rating on Equestria Daily and featured on its very own TVTropes page!.

Chapters (11)
Comments ( 794 )

Yay! It's back! Again! :twilightsmile::raritystarry::rainbowdetermined2::pinkiehappy::yay::ajsmug:

Maybe I can actually FINISH it this time, before something ELSE happens... :trixieshiftleft::trixieshiftright:

264867
See his blog. The poor author got hacked. (Twice!) Wiped out ALL of his stories and sent luid comments to his fans. (I was called the brittish word for cigarette.)

Thankfully the party responsable was found and dragged away by the cops. It isn't very Brony of me, but I find comfort in the idea of the ******* being someone's love monkey in the state pen.

eternal is so good it's going to be feature boxed three times

Excellent. Perfect, even. So glad it's back! :pinkiehappy:
So very glad to have device heretic back.

take my love, my admiration, and all of my approval.

I've heard nothing but good things about this story. Once I've got the free time, I'm definitely sitting down with a hot cup of tea to read it (as well as many refreshings of said cup :pinkiehappy: ).

I can honestly say, that this is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever read. All the nights staying up till five in the morning reading this have been worth it.

aww yeah its back!!!!!!!!


hey everyone lets get as many mirrors of this out there as we can in case this ever goes down again. I do not want to surf an internet that does not have " eternal " in it.

oh and if someone is reading this and hasn't actually read " eternal" , this is a legend , easily one of the " Big 4" ponyfics ( the others three being " Fallout : equestria" " past sins" and " my little dashie" ). DROP EVERYTHING and read this ASAP. your life will be better for it.

I swear, if I have to favourite and thumbs up this thing once again...

I'll gladly do it.

Re-re liked. Re-re faved. Take all of my love Device. All of it.

That ending makes me want to curl up into a ball and purr like a kitten. :twilightsmile:

265479
Heh. Not bad for a story that was writen to help the author cope with the delays between "Composure" updates... :scootangel:

...on THAT note, I really SHOULD read "Composure" as well some time. :derpytongue2:

265972
What he said, and twice as hard. :trollestia:

> Read Eternal
> Listen to Amazing Grace
> :rainbowderp:

:twilightsmile: Re-re-liked and re-retracked : ) :pinkiehappy:

I am so very glad to see this story back. When it was deleted I had just finished the last chapter and was about to read the Epilogue. It is a wonderful and moving story with amazing depth and feeling.

Wow. I just got the weirdest sense of deja vu ... :raritywink:

In all seriousness, it's great to see device heretic back on the site and great to see the return of what I am confident in saying is one of the most highly-regarded stories in the fandom - and for good reason.

And now I can get back to finishing it. Re-tracked, and, hopefully, soon to be favorited. Just five more chapters to go!

Thank you for reposting. It's a beautiful story.

Ah, yes! It's back! Now then,

I've actually wanted to comment on this work for quite some time, so I guess now is as good a time as any. I honestly don't know where to begin. This is one of the absolute best things I've ever read, and this includes non-pony, published literature. I remember reading the first chapter or so thinking, "hmm, not sure if I'll come back to this," but I did, and I'm certainly glad I decided to. The way this story progressed was just amazing, and how you hit flawlessly on all the different aspects of Celestia's rather complicated relationship with Twilight...just wow. The "dream sequences" were Twilight had to confront her fears/reality (and of course, that epic journey through Celestia's mind) were certainly interesting, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. You did such a fantastic job tugging at my emotions throughout this too, and I'm normally pretty stoic. The ending literally had me in tears. Bittersweet, but rightfully so, any other ending wouldn't have had such a profound impact.

Well done! I hope to be seeing more work from you in the future.

This chapter...just....wow.

You basically took the meaning of life as I see it, put ponies in it, and mixed it with Friendship, Love, Hatred, Resentment and every other thing you can think of. This truly is inspiring.

Also, yay! :yay:

that was... interesting, don't see that sort of things happen all that often. o.O

good story so far nonetheless.

Gah, for fucks sake! I've written two comments before, both prior to each deletion of this fic. I don't care at this point to even recreate it, so let me quickly say this: Thank you for writing this! It was an amazing experience, and I have placed the bookmark in my 'Archive' folder, a place where only 7 other fics reside amongst few hundreds I have read over the past year. Eternal deserves the spot- truly, and I thank you again.

whooooooooooooooo its back:pinkiehappy:

:yay: yay its back!

Now I finally finished the story. I can safely say the last chapter and the epilogue were simply fantastic. I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Everything....just...beautiful.

One soul. Two bodies. (I will use this again in the future)

Thank you so, so much for this story.

Thanks again Device for putting the story back up. I don't think I can put my words as eloquently as before, but it is truly a beautiful tale.

269412
"A true friend is one soul sharing two bodies" is a quote from Aristotle.

Liked and favorited again.

Device Heretic, I'm glad that your "hacker" troubles are over and that you haven't been discouraged from putting this brilliant piece of writing back up once again.

Epic story. The last 4 parts did not disappoint. This was a story I couldn't rush through, and so the last third made for one hell of a week. And because everyone in this fic makes a big deal about a few sentences :heart: I'm going to indulge myself and assume Twilight eventually succumbed to Braeburn's wiles. I'm not lying to myself if I believe hard enough it's a hidden hint!

This story was AWESOME! one of the better ones I have read! The only thing that I hate about it is WHY DID IT END SO SADLY :fluttercry: I cried for 3 days after reading this amazing story, and it still makes me sad! But it was soo WORTH IT! congrats on the epic story my good sir! :twilightsmile:

Have MUSTACHES! :moustache::moustache::moustache::moustache::moustache::moustache:

Alright, lets try this again.

Seeing as it's your first story, I hope I can give you some helpful pointers. Whilst the story was beautifully written, I feel as if at times the pacing was far too slow. It's as if you tried to describe far too much, dragging scenes out for much longer than they needed to be. Now, whilst that's not always a bad thing, when you have chapters of around 10,000 words and a significant portion of a chapter dedicated to a scene that goes on for a very long time, the story feels like it's progressed to a halt. However, you did make up for that by making the next scene progress much faster (generally). It's why I was able to finish the story so easily, the dips were always relinquished by the ups, and it kept me hooked. However, I won't lie when I say I did get a bit bored in those scenes that just never seemed to end and went on for far too long. My first comment (before it got deleted) I think described this much better. Not sure if I'm really getting across what I'm trying to say properly this time.

The only other thing I noticed was you tended to use archaic words that whilst I was able to understand, I know that the average reader wouldn't. Generally, if they're going to need to google a word you used, better to just replace it with a more common version of that word.

Other than that, a beautiful masterpiece of a story, especially for your very first one. Your descriptions and literary techniques flow marvellously together, and you seemed to pull off imagery very well; I could picture the things you were describing very easily. That's the biggest challenge for the average writer and you nailed it, in my opinion. The emotions you were conveying throughout were easily relatable and didn't seem far fetched for the characters you were portraying at the time, which is another thing the average writer seems to struggle with. I'm sorry for those personal issues that were affecting you recently, but I'm happy to hear that you kept writing and didn't let it discourage you. You have one hell of a talent, that with a bit of experience, could blossom into something special. Keep at it, man.

I think that was everything... probably not though. Ah well. :)

270570

Could you do me a favor-- because, as the author, I have a very hard time gauging this sort of thing, and feel like the whole thing moves at breakneck speed and never describes anything well enough-- and point out a few of the scenes you think went on too long? Preferably not from the first three chapters, because they're just...I know they're bad. :facehoof:

When this got deleted i immediately regreted not reading it.
But now i came back, favorited, thumbed and started what seems like a long journey to finish this awesome fic.
Thanks for reuploading this and i hope you dont get hacked again. :twilightsmile:

270582

No problem, I'll just give them a quick skim, seeing as it's been a bit since I read the story. Don't want my memory going fuzzy on me.

Although your points about never describing anything well enough is definitely wrong. Sometimes you described far too much to the point where I started to think it was becoming 'word soup' (I suffer from this problem too, funnily enough.) :P

Will get back to you soonish.

P.S. Don't call them bad; they're not. I was just emphasising the tiny niggles a bit too much, I think.

Pinkie Pie is the major of Ponyville...:pinkiegasp:
Scootaloo is a Wonderbolt...:scootangel:
Applejack and Rainbow Dash are a couple(...?):ajsmug::rainbowwild:
This is turning into something really amazing :trollestia:

EDIT: It really looks like Celestia is jealous of Twilight...

Back again. Bitchin'. AND it looks like the original URL... so now when I prod my friend to finally read it, I won't need to send her a new link.

It's kind of principle with me to not reread a story when I've finished it, which I set on myself after getting bored halfway through a reread of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... but this fandom, and especially this story, will force my hand, I just know it. Because put bluntly (I've used up too much eloquent praise), I FUCKING LOVE this story, and I would so love to have the honor of reading through it again. And again. And AGAIN. Hell, I should probably copy it into Word, print it and keep a physical copy. Partly to dodge all chances of past shenanigans recurring and ruining access to it (though $55,000 sounds like incentive enough to leave you alone for a LONG time), and partly because I'm curious to see how thick of a book it would be on paper. Plus, maybe my friend I keep mentioning can probably art up a fitting cover once she reads it, and I have another who works with binding in case it's that thick. Actually, the more I type about it, the better of an idea it sounds; the fear that you'd take issue with that is the one thing keeping me from doing it right this second, because I don't want to overstep any boundaries.

Crap, I'm babbling again. Why does no one stop me from doing that?

271627
>you propose a monument to my astounding greatness in the form of breaking a printer
>afraid I'd be upset

Yeah, no. Do your best. :trollestia:

271908
Oh my god. 646 pages, and all I did to it was fix some awkward alignment issues the transfer created. I've read Stephen King books shorter than this story.

...I may JUST have the paper for this if I do the no-shit-Sherlock thing and print double-sided. But that's not gonna be a fun conversation to have with my folks and/or shop teacher when I tear through all that paper and ink. And if I bring this into the graphic/printing press shop at my school, I'm gonna have a hell of a time explaining the My Little Pony novel I'm dragging in to get BOUND.

I'll need to bide my time, to my chagrin. BUT SOON.

272226
To be fair, it's 646 standard ruled pages. Stephen King novels tend to be word bricks, right-- tiny print, all close together.

At ~160,000 words, "Eternal" is approximately as long as "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". "The Stand" is like...500,000 words.

This. Fic.

This fic now joins Its Dangerous To Step Outside Your Door as one of my top fics. I'm a LITTLE sad that it didn't end with Twilestia romance, but I feel the fic really didn't need it at all, so good on you. I'm sad the story is over, but I'd LOVE to see a series of stories based around Dawnie and her training.

I was so relieved to see this come back on the site. The world needs this story.

I love how Luna apparently falls right into Caper Princess Mode. Somehow :trollestia: suits her.

272331

Oh, so that's where all my time went.

Holy crap, man. You pumped out a damned Harry Potter book in a couple months, and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever read, ponyfic or not.

Oh my...i am literally shaking right now
I can't believe what is happening.Celestia...will die? Twilight will take her place?
For Rainbow Dash’s part, she was…

…jealous.

I knew it! She is jealous of her protege!

I had only read the first part of chapter eight before it went down, and so was freaking out about having left the house instead of just reading the way through that day. Your attitude to the whole thing makes me feel better about it all; I was kind of worried (ie: :raritydespair:) it would put you off further writing, at least in FiM.

You may be new at writing (at least stuff for others to read) but your skill already shows greatly. This story has rocketed Celestia to the top of my list (she is saddest pony - she is best pony) and I've long been a fan of Twilestia (which this story isn't exactly is the romantic sense, but the emotions between characters is more important than anything). I for one liked the long and detailed conversations between the principles, and felt the speed only added to the weight of the words spoken.

This story's world may be finished with (in a much happier manner than I thought it was leading to - was a bit thrown by that), but I am slaveri- uhh... excited for anything else you put out.

(I used too many parentheses again, didn't I?)

Words fail me... (in a good way)

This was such a beautiful, beautiful, bittersweet story. I cried so many tears, my eyes actually hurt. Hardly a complaint, though. They were the sweetest tears I could have ever cried.

I...don't have words to describe what I'm feeling. I can say that I highly recommend this story.

....it made me realize I don't spend enough time with my friends. It made me realize I miss them so terribly much. I'm fixing that now.

Thank you. So many tears...so, so many tears....

I was listening to Adventures In Equestria a few times during the story. The song is sad and dark at times, mysterious, exciting, joyous, and moving.

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