9. My Epilogue
One month later…
I finished chewing a bite of salad and swallowed it. “You should have seen it, Celestia had this vein bulging out of her forehead so big I thought she was gonna pop!” I chuckled, and looked across the table at my date.
Thunderlane was smiling as he finished a hay burger. “I’m just glad she’s let you out of the castle so we could go on that date you owed me.”
“Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to this. Did you check on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle like I asked in the letter?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Their sisters must have had a hard time giving them the truth like you asked, but they seemed to be doing okay. They’re looking forward to visiting with you when you get back to Ponyville.”
“Thanks, but that may be a while,” I replied.
“Exactly how much trouble are you still in?”
We were sitting at a cafe in Canterlot enjoying a nice meal on a sunny day, and I was finally free to go out of the castle without an escort. “Well, I think she was more worried I was still under some spell or something. Celestia couldn’t figure out what to charge me with, apparently nopony has successfully killed themselves and lived before. Once she calmed down though, she told me that while she did not approve of my choice, it was mine to make.”
He nodded and took a sip of his drink. “Well I guess that’s a good thing. Any idea how long until you can move back to Ponyville and carry on with your life? Your next date could be back at my place, if you wanted…”
I nodded and glanced back at the castle. “You know, it’s weird having two sets of memories. As Scootaloo I might have hurried back to Ponyville, but as Dash I have a duty to help Twilight through this.” I turned to Thunderlane. “I’d really like to keep seeing you if you don’t mind traveling to Canterlot.”
“I’d do that for you. So how is Twilight?”
I pictured her in my mind, hair frazzled and with a dejected look as if she had just flunked a math test by forgetting how to do addition. “She’s… in pain. She remembers all of it, Celestia says that is part of her punishment. Her part in killing Scootaloo to save Dash, all the ponies she let down. She even remembers Dash dying, from her perspective, and Scootaloo’s, and Dash’s. Every memory she transferred is there to stay…”
“Wow, that sounds pretty dark.”
“Yeah, but Celestia says she will only learn from this if she doesn’t run from it. I’m more worried about what happens the next time she loses a friend, like from old age and there’s no shortcuts to save them…” I finished off the last bite of my salad.
“I want to be there for Twilight, and Celestia has agreed to let me stay at the castle to comfort her. The element of loyalty still works and I think that with a little more time I can use that to convince Celestia to forgive Twilight.”
Thunderlane smiled, “that’s very loyal of you… Dashaloo.”
“Dashaloo?” I tilted my head and thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure I like that nickname.”
He smiled, “maybe it’ll grow on you.”
“And maybe I know where you live…” I tried to give him a mean stare, but burst into laughter a moment later. He joined in on the laughter.
Thunderlane waved to a waiter so we could get our check. As far as first dates go, this had been quite pleasant.
Six months later…
As I approached the library with Twilight, she stopped and stood there in the crisp autumn air. The sun had just set, casting a long shadow across the town.
“You okay, Twilight?”
She nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat. “I… I haven’t been back in six months, and I might not be back so soon to see my friends if it wasn’t for you, Dash.”
“Hey, anything for a friend.” I nudged her on the shoulder, “just no necromancy.”
She giggled and smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek. “We, uh, better get inside. I’m sure Pinkie is waiting with a surprise party…”
“Oh no, how ever did you guess…” I pantomimed shock as we walked up to the door of the library.
Right on cue as Twilight walked inside, Pinkie jumped out from behind a sofa shouting “Surprise!” There was a large boom and confetti filled the air, followed shortly after by Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike walking out.
The first thing they all did was gather around and hug Twilight. I could see she was barely holding it together at the sight of her friends after so many months. I joined in on the hug and we held her for several minutes until she spoke.
“I’m so glad to see you all again,” Twilight said.
“We’re all happy that Celestia is lettin’ ya move back home.” Applejack released her hug, followed soon by the others. I stayed near Twilight’s side to give her support in case she got overwhelmed.
“Yes, I just need to visit Canterlot on the weekends… but I can live in Ponyville again. Dash was really adamant that the best thing was for me to be around my friends.”
“Dash has been writing to us and telling us all about your lessons with Celestia on dealing with grief,” Spike explained. “And we all had something to tell you.”
I smiled, knowing what was coming.
Rarity stepped forward, lifting up Twilight’s chin since she’d been fixated on staring at the ground. “Twilight, darling, we all talked and we forgive you.”
Twilight sniffled and nodded her head.
“And the next time any of us lose somepony close to us, we’re going to help each other get through it together,” Fluttershy stated.
I put a wing over Twilight’s back. “And I forgive you, Twilight.”
She started to sob which sparked another round of hugs from everypony.
One year later…
Thunderlane and I reached room number fourteen at the retirement home. “I’ve visited her often, and there’s no telling if she’ll be lucid or not. Just remember what we went over, she’ll appreciate us spending time with her even if she doesn’t really understand that it’s us.”
He nodded, his wing still over my back. “I’m happy you’ve invited me to come along and meet her.”
“Yeah, she’s the last family I had so I wanted her to meet you.” I knocked on the door and pushed it open.
Sitting in a wheelchair beside the bed was my Aunt Lofty, the last of my surviving family. She was pushing some puzzle pieces around a table top as she worked on piecing it together, one of the last things the mare was capable of doing without assistance.
“Aunt Lofty?” I said, walking into the room followed by Thunderlane.
She looked up at me, her eyes a little unfocused. “Oh? Who’s there? Have you seen Scootaloo? She was supposed to come visit.”
I nodded. “It’s me, Aunty… Scootaloo. There was an accident and…” I gulped to swallow the lump in my throat.
“Oh you’d like her, such a smart filly. The sweetest little thing, probably off adventuring with her parents…”
Thunderlane gave me a squeeze with his wing. He could tell how hard this was for me, I had told him before what it was like to try and reconnect with a pony who could barely remember my visits. To Lofty, I would forever be the little filly she had lived with in Ponyville before her mind had started to go.
I went over to her and gave her a long hug, letting go after a minute to smile at her.
There was a flash of recognition in her eyes. “Scootaloo? My you’re all grown up!” Lofty said. She was smiling brightly, eyes focused on me. “And I love what you’ve done with your mane.”
I choked back sobs. “Ahuh, I am Aunty… I’m all grown up and one of the elements of Harmony…”
“Oh I always was so proud of you, I knew you had it in you to grow up to be just like that Rainbow Dash you always looked up to.” She wiped a tear from my cheek. “And who is this handsome stallion?”
I had to take a gasp of air to try and fight back the tears. “Aunty… this is Thunderlane, we wanted to invite you to the wedding.”
She waved him over and gave him a hug. “Now you listen here Thunderlane, you take good care of my little Scootaloo. I’m so proud of the mare she’s become. I won’t be around forever to tell her, so somepony needs to remind her of that every single day. You understand?”
He nodded, “Yes ma’am.” He gestured me over and the three of us embraced in a long hug before I finally let go.
“Oh, hello there.” Aunty Lofty was looking right at me again. “Are you the new nurse? Why don’t you and the orderly help me with my puzzle for a bit. I’m expecting a visit from my little niece, Scootaloo. We can work on the puzzle until she gets here.”
I could only nod as I went over to sit at the table and spend some time with my Aunt. While she wasn’t looking I wiped away the last of the tears staining my fur. “Come, Thunderlane, let’s help with the puzzle.”
He sat down at the table with me and we began working on it together in silence. I put a wing across his back and he put one across mine. My Aunt was right, she wouldn’t be around much longer. But whatever happened, and despite all I had been through, I was truly happy. I had friends, and I had a stallion I loved, that would help me through whatever came.
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10051294
Looks like today's your lucky day
Eight-year update... I don't even know what this story is.
10983421
Ironic with that profile pic.
Still say to Celestia, SHUT UP.I WAS NEVER YOUR CHOICE.
10983433
I'm afraid you've lost me.
10983545
To give spoilers, and I mean massive big honking spoilers that you shouldn't read if you want to read this story with the intended effect.
This is a story about Rainbow Dash dying in an accident. Twilight went kind of insane because of it and ended up concocting a plan to bring Rainbow Dash back to life by more or less turning another pony into her. The catch was, if I remember correctly, that it had to be someone both willing to do so and who knew Dash very well for it to work. So she went to Scootaloo and asked "Hey, do you want to die so that I can bring Rainbow Dash back to life?". Scootaloo said yes, and then Twilight did it and pretty much nuked everyone's memory of the event (I think, it's been a while for me too) even including Scootaloo 2.0: Franken Rainbow Dash's memory of it and the whole story is a big mystery about the whole affair.
So, in short, it's ironic that you forgot about (or never knew in the first place) what this story is about when you have a profile picture of Rainbow Dash paint sluicing off of Scootaloo since that image could be seen as a metaphor for this story.
If this ever happened I would let Rainbow Dash die
huh wow! The fic noone ever expected to see update updated. It was a good epilogue and just what this needed.
10983586
I'll eventually get to all my stories to evaluate if I missed anything, luckily this one was already complete and just missing a bit of closure so it was a quick fix compared to the others (which are mostly incomplete)
10983578
It's always interested me how Twilight would deal with immortality and death. She's probably twenty-something in the show and suddenly has this vast magical power, but isn't mature enough to know how to let go of her friends when they inevitably die... she could have made a lot of better choices than she did.
10983421 10983559
I barely remembered the story either and I wrote it. But yeah, ironic for the spoilery reasons you pointed out. I'm sure your memory will come back to you soon.
10983590
If I'm being completely honest brain death of any kind means in all practically the person you know has died. I'm okay with pulling the plug if someone is totally brain dead and there are no known ways of reviving them and that is if it's an absolute, not like if there's already research into fixing what happened but if it's an unknown and there are no ways of reviving them.
I'm not saying that to be heartless I'm just saying that it causes other people pain to see someone like that.
I still liked the story I just disliked the setup and what happened. Truly it's a little too grim in my case in a little too morally black for what Twilight should be.
10983559
Ahhhhh.
Wow, this night I happen to be up at this time and accidentally click on the front page instead of my feed, and here's this staring at me when I could have sworn it was complete! I thought maybe it was being rewritten, but it's nice to just get this additional bit of closure. This really affected me for a while back in the day!
10983676
It was complete, but I loved it when I reread it and wanted to add a little epilogue for the people that asked. I'm glad you were able to get a bit of closure. Sad stories have always affected me too.
I like the idea so maybe I could do more sad stories like it in the future. I never wrote anything from season 5-9
This was one of the first fics I read and I really need to read it all now
An interesting, horrifying conundrum. I think letting Scoots go was the only option. The story's a bit unclear on what was transferred and why, but established that the only consciousness there was and could ever be again between the two bodies came from the body on the bed and had left it behind. What claim there is to the body is all hers.
Her swiftness to decide to make with the worm food was viscerally horrifying, and I don't think the scene would've worked had it been any other character in the show than the one with the greatest body issues. As it is, nice job, though the addition of the pillow was a bit much. There's a deep-seated horror to smothering anything with a pillow that I think would've put her through the wringer, even though she knew intellectually she was only killing a piece of meat.
The unclearness on what was transferred and why is frustrating, but in an odd way also satisfying. This is such a murky, yet insanely intricate topic that it kinda feels right to not have the answers, and to see characters having to make decisions without having all the answers, either.
Twilight, though? Stripping a kid for parts and not bothering to wait for what she could lie was a yes? Well, she's gotta be rendered unable to do that again, so her horn's gotta go. She could tell others to do it and instruct them how, so out come her mouth and limbs. Oh, and the vocal cords. People have communicated with a lot less than that - one person even dictated a book by blinking one eyelid! - so remove her eyelids, wings, ears, and tail. Her eyes can stay if they can be paralyzed to the point where she can't point or focus her gaze. Maybe fuse a few vertebrae to be on the safe side.
This way they can still wheel her out to use the Elements of Harmony, since she cares so much about that.
I'd get a restraining order so Twilight can't come within a mile of them so she can't use them for 'brain replacements' if the same thing happens to AJ and Rarity (who WOULD rather die than let their sisters be used that way).
And here I thought the story was done. Now I’ll have to download the ePub again.
Can someone recommend another story with this concept? please
Good way to end it
10989468
The only other thing I wrote involving a mind in another body is Dash of Humanity. It's more of a comedy and less of an existential crisis like Shattered Prism was.
11002055
Thanks
11002371
I'm grateful you are writing again
11002753
Thanks, it's meant a lot to have people excited to see me again.
Ah, he started his own theme park, I see.
11053403
Good catch.
I should edit more carefully on surprise epilogues to an 8 year old story heh.
I decided to give this a reread, as one of my favorites, to find a new epilogue chapter, eight years after!
It certainly shows the age difference, time has certainly influenced the writing style somewhat, but even after all this time, the author managed to stick true to the details, and provide a heartwarning conclusion to what was previously a much more abrupt, though still excellent, end.
Honestly, in a way, the epilogue takes away a little bit from the story, in that the reader isn't left to interpret the outcome, yet it adds back, by patching holes in the post-story in some of the best ways, even if they were mostly non-issues within the original scope. Mostly, because without it, the Thunderlane romance side-arc kinda got introduced, then neglected.
I might not be left as floored at the end as the first time I read it, my mind might not drift back to the possibilities weeks later, but in return, I get a wholesome recovery arc, and attention paid to a previously incomplete romance, so it's still a 10/10 from me.