The author's perspective (contains spoilers for The Chase: chapter 50 · 10:05pm May 23rd, 2014
“Celestia, if things fall apart, if things go badly I want you to know that the flock looks after its own. If you need Ponyville, we will be here for you, declared state of war or no,” Twilight offered. “But I do ask that the noble houses be dissolved. It is time for the old ways to be set aside and new ways to be discovered.”
Celestia’s eyes watered, and she began to sniffle. She tried to speak, stammered, stuttered, and then said nothing, but nodded her appreciation.
“You know Twilight, you never did properly declare a state of war,” Shining said in a low voice. “You seized control of Ponyville and raised an army, but you haven’t actually declared a state of war, at least not in the current legal sense.”
Twilight’s gaze dropped to the floor. Her barrel heaved as she took a deep breath. Her breathing ragged, she rose to all fours and crossed the room, stiff legged. She stood before Celestia and raised her hoof. “I am sorry, but this must happen for all of these changes to take place,” Twilight apologised.
Celestia, her gaze darting to Twilight’s raised hoof, nodded faintly.
Twilight brought her hoof to Celestia’s cheek and stroked gently with her fetlock, wiping away a tear that was rolling down. “When this ends, let us not be enemies,” Twilight offered, looking Celestia in the eye. “I believe this settles the requirement of “a hoof across the muzzle” for me to properly declare?” Twilight asked.
Shining Armor said nothing, but nodded, and Twilight Sparkle’s parents sat there, looking proud, all of them leaking liquid pride.
Celestia reached out with one foreleg and pulled Twilight in for a hug, crushing the smaller alicorn to her barrel. “I am proud of you,” whispered Celestia, her voice husky with emotion. Spike clung to them both, sobbing a bit himself.
I have to say, I am somewhat disappointed that nobody really noticed this. I placed a lot of feeling into these words, and waited for a hell of a long time to write them, and finally getting them out really felt good. They also mirror a place earlier in The Chase where Twilight slaps Celestia. I include a lot of subtle bits of character growth, so subtle sometimes that people miss them, and people accuse me of being too subtle. So I worry about these sorts of things.
To be quite honest, this was even more emotionally satisfying to write than the clop chapters for The Chase. I tend to write sometimes how I wish people would be. And I wish more people could be friends like these two. The world would be a better place.
I may have partially glazed over that section, but with you pointing it out it does make me realize something. Twilight is almost showed as thinking that Celestia can do no wrong, this just proves that she really is her own pony and is finally stepping out from under her mentor's wings.
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**Nods enthusiastically**
2139051 Dat's cute.
i noticed this part, i really liked it and it was well written. I guess no one pointed it out was because it is awesome like all your other work
I noticed it, but there really is not muchakat to say about it. It is a well written piece but the characters behave as one would expect them to in this trying situation. They are friends and they wish to remain so. Nothing needed to be said about it. ;)
I haven't read this chapter. Going to read it now.
Blame the human mind. The last thing one sees tends to be that which sticks out most in memory, followed by the flashy bits. Subtle, emotional scenes like this one in the middle of a chapter are going to get crowded out by brewers on the warpath, one teaching his children how to fuse atoms with their minds.
That said, this was a touching, powerful scene. My apologies for not commenting on it as such. I think my thoughts got snagged on the "liquid pride" reference, but that's a poor excuse.
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You only remember what happens at the beginning and the end, which is why I hide everything important in the middle.
It makes people scream, piss, and and moan that there was no warning or foreshadowing for a really dramatic event when it seemingly comes out of nowhere.
**Cackles madly**
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The highest form of trolling is doing nothing on your own, yet manipulating people into trolling themselves. I applaud you, sir or madam. (Fairly certain it's the latter, but one can never be too careful on the Internet.)
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You can see a picture of me with my beagle in my blog post.
24.media.tumblr.com/25851623c33c4c4cea8bf9268fc30d2c/tumblr_n61x1mOA3A1s9h6d8o1_1280.jpg
I'm derp eyed. This is why I love Derpy so much. We have something in common.