Arc One - Epilogue
A veritable mountain of paperwork loomed on the desk in front of Celestia, causing her to drop her head onto its wooden surface with a loud thump. “I hate paperwork…”
“Princess, did you not remember that you would have to fill all of this out should you get personally involved in any military action?” Blend comically asked, taking a small amount of personal pleasure at Celestia’s plight.
“It should be illegal for me to have to deal with this much paper just because I got involved…” she sighed, picking up the first page and looking at it closely. “I mean, this is ridiculous. This paperwork has a table of contents section… that covers the first seven pages!” she hummed, slowly flipping through the first few. Her eyes fell on a page and caused her eyes to widen in shock. “This claims I must sign my name three hundred and twenty-seven times! Preposterous!”
Laughter rang out from Blend, who had nearly collapsed at the sheer absurdity of it all. “P-princess, if you think that is bad, your sister has even more paperwork than you do. It will go by quicker if you just pony up and get started already.”
As Celestia picked up the first of many papers, her mind couldn’t help but drift back towards the strike on Gilded Gleams’s mansion, and just how much it had impacted everypony’s lives.
Twilight sat on a couch, eyes closed as she let out a long sigh. “Cadance…” her mane was unkempt, eyes bloodshot, and deep bags were underneath them. Cadance had to force down the urge to run to her side and just hug Twilight. She was here as a patient, not her sister, sadly.
“Twilight, you need to talk to me, otherwise I can’t help you with anything…” she sadly said, trying to keep from fiddling with her hooves as she kept her gaze level on her sister. Celestia had come to her out of desperation, not wanting to have it known that the newest princess had literally had a mental break. After being told what exactly had happened, she had immediately accepted her aunt’s request.
Cadance sighed as Twilight continued without saying a word. At least, when she had her episode, Jason had been there to protect her. He had managed to save Celestia before, too. Although she had not met him more than two or three times, she felt that they all owed him a great deal of debt for keeping two of her family members safe. She nearly jumped as Twilight finally began talking.
“Well, I guess it all started with that night at the library…”
Spike struggled with a large stack of papers, finally inside Luna’s room. Thankfully, she quickly relieved him of them, gasping them within her magic and settling them down on the table. “Curse this blasted bureaucracy! Before my banishment, such an event would simply have been met with feast and revelry, not mountains and mountains of paperwork!”
He chuckled, failing to suppress a laugh as Luna began to tear into the latest stack of paperwork. Spike’s mood fell as his mind drifted to Twilight, who he already missed. He had wanted to go with her, but Celestia had convinced him that it would be best for it to just be her and Cadance in the Crystal Empire for a little while. Even Shining was still in Canterlot, having remained behind to help mop up any lingering elements of the cultists.
“So, Luna, why all the paperwork?” he asked, trying to tear his mind from the depressing thoughts.
“Apparently,” she began, more than a little ire in her tone as she continued tearing through the papers, “underneath Tia’s newer government, anytime we get involved we have to justify ourselves. US! Justify our actions? Bah! Waste of time is what it is. I should be helping Captain Armor finish mopping up those idiots, not here dealing with paperwork.”
Luna continued her ranting, pointing at each page as she finished it. “This worthless one is explaining why I went on a military venture. This one is…” Spike listened to the useless information as Luna rambled on, slamming each piece of completed paper on the desk, one after the next.
Shining Armor sighed as he looked over the latest report. They had identified thirty seven cultists from the initial search prior to their assault on the mansion. The after-action report listed thirty six ponies in all, of which only four had been taken alive. With one still at large, he had been coordinating the search effort for them.
Standing up, he walked over to the balcony of his room that overlooked much of Canterlot city. He felt a longing to be reunited with Cadance. While Captain Stone had returned from his time off, he had deferred resuming his post until this matter was resolved, leaving Shining the acting Captain. Somewhere out there was the one pony who kept him from returning home, and he was going to find them.
As the sun was rising, he thought of Twilight, his precious little sister. She had been put through so much in such a short time, and had never had any sort of training to deal with it. While, thanks to his years in the guard, Shining slept just fine after taking down criminals, what his sister went through tore at his heart.
“Take care, Twily…”
A figure stirred in the bed, wings and arms splayed out. With a yawn, she slowly opened her eyes, taking in the rising sun, visible from the balcony. Carefully, she watched her arms as she took in the sight of the phoenix laying on the bed next to her. She reached out and tenderly picked him up.
His eyes slowly opened, a small squawk of discontent coming from him. “Jay, wake up, lazy.” he made some more noises, causing her cheeks to flush crimson. “Were you always that colorful with your language? Seriously, Jay, just because you’re stuck as a phoenix for a little bit of time, it’s not the end of the world.”
He just glared at her, but remained content to stay in her arms. “You know Celestia is looking into what exactly happened. The only thing she was able to figure out is that you transferred most of your magic to me when you saved my life…” she smiled and simply hugged him tighter, “and that it may just be a matter of time until you can reincarnate back to how you were.”
Jason let out a series of angry sounds, causing Philomena to laugh, an almost musical quality to it. “Relax, Jay, just look at it this way. You get to see how I’ve experienced things for awhile, yes?”
END OF ARC ONE
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This..is awesome. Keep up the awesome work...
Now, BACK TO THE SHADOWS WITH MEE!!*hiss*
I've not even read this yet, and my evening has been made.
Say It updates, surprising even me there, and not an hour later, space, YOU update!
Edit - Post Read - I think you just confirmed what i thought several chapters ago on who the romantic interest was. I have to say, if i'm right Space... you win all the internets. Ever.
yes
You keep spoiling us like this and we'll come to expect it.
Great job btw, really wrapped up your first arc nicely while leaving interest high for more.
Well, I suppose that's one way to avoid writing any cursing.
BEGIN WITH ARC 2!!!!
i want to read more awesomeness
Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the prettiest bird of all?
Jason now with fiery hair, or Philomena in far more fair?
Sun and moon in endless chase, for the burning through paper race?
No matter now to twilight case, and loves kind and healing face?
For the dark it dwells in silence stark, and the light need rally with courageous hearts.
But lovely act 1 end! Really looking forward to act 2.
Why do I get the feeling that the one that got away is going to cause so much trouble in the near future?
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
I gotta say I love the relationship of Philomena and Jason. Its refreshing and tastefully done! Keep it up.
In before Jason x Philomena ship.
Which I honestly wouldn't mind.
3220916
you should have said
But lovely act 1 end. act 2 our way you must send
3220960 Nicely added!
3219927
Glad to hear it. It's been one hell of a fun ride so far.
3220484
Yes. Yes it could.
3220796
Fucking awesome, ain't it? This became the plan day two of writing the story...
3220820
Yikes, might have to back off on the publishing... Don't want folks to think averaging 3.6k words a day is normal for me. Still trying to figure out what drugs someone slipped me.
3220904
Yeesh, calm down. I'll get to it when I get to it. I may or may not have a blank document currently labeled Chapter 7 that I may or may not begin writing in tonight. However, my unread later has gained +100 chapters since I started this writing spam, so I may need a break to start playing catch up. I've only taken 2 days off this month, I think I can afford a few more.
3220916
That was lovely. Thumbed that comment up so hard I might've busted my touchscreen. Glad you've enjoyed it so far.
3220918
The one that got away? Nah, NEVER! I mean, that'd be too obvious, right?
3220926
Thanks a lot
3220942
We shall see.
3220967
i have my moments
....just wish they happened more often
3220484
This merits another reply. I have been writing Philomena as, at the least, a minor support character. However, with Jason unable to speak, and only Celestia and Philomena able to interpret his words, guess who's gonna step up into the spotlight?
Oh, fun. If Philomena was a prankster before, imagine her with fingers...
I am eager to know just how the the others react to the Philomena/Jason switcheroo. And what Jason will do now that his communication methods have been nearly completely severed...
i.imgur.com/ZzHt5zL.gif
You beautiful, beautaful, evil person you
JasonxPhilomena OTP. xD
...oh God, I wonder if that would count as beastiality... *shudder*
3221067
And also... how would Twilight react to the fact that she'd basically been passed by for a magic bird.
3220981 I have the rare moments where my muse will shine, but may the day be great to you.
I WAS RIGHT, THEY SWITCHED SPECIES! Now, to wait for Jason to become a winged human again, and get together with Philomena.
3221071
Especially when you get electromagnetic propulsion into the mix. Swords generally aren't magnetized, and thus can't be launched from a railgun.
3220981
(Yep, had to) that-it-probably-needs-its-own-new-adjectives-to-describe-it day.
Yep. I've been having a bad day in my normal gaming, but with pony? Been one so awesome
Jason is the phoenix and Philomena the human now. Knew it.
I await arc 2.
Meh, look to be honest the number one thing about this story that turns me off is how you continuously shit on Twilight for unknown reasons.
1. Twilight is suddenly Xenophile
Why? What sort of relationship did he and Twilight have? Why/How would she be interested in him? I'd believe you if you didn't drop the bomb that Jason wasn't into ponies. I mean Jason spends 1k+ years as a sole human devoid of the touch of the opposite sex and he's fucking fine with this and has no romantic/sexual feelings toward ponies in the least?
2. Twilight suddenly not caring about killing people
Really? She had a fucking breakdown when she finished off a guy who was going to die probably seconds later anyway. But no she decides it's a good idea to run head first into a building full of enemies with no plan and proceed to actually kill people. WTF? And while we're on the subject that brings us to my last peeve.
3. Twilight's friends have no fucking role
At all. I mean Seriously? Twilight's breaking down they're just sitting around doing nothing about it? No scenes of them talking to her, comforting her or anything. "Just let her throw herself into the books, she'll be fine guys." "Oh, she's running into a mansion full of ponies bent on killing her without backup? No thanks, we'll just sit tight, she'll be fine." Do you really think RD would let that happen? Hell, do you think that Shining would let that happen?
I understand you needed a way for Jason to get mortally wounded to reincarnate again but couldn't it have been done without spreading your cheeks and shitting down Twilight's throat?
And sowe see the love interest now
3220986 I will say it Philomena needs more face time on this site....... No wait she needs more face time EVERYWHERE!
3221246
It just.. happened. I've never been one to really focus much on the Main Six outside of Twilight. It's well known she's both naive and neurotic. In this case, she was a victim of circumstance and plot points. Everything that happened to her helped move a point along that was related to Jason's story.
Plus, the focus is/was/always will be on Jason. I didn't spend a lot of time shoving backstory down everyone's throats, because, well... get too bogged down in the past and the present comes to a standstill. This is, at least the first arc, a heavily action/adventure focused story. I couldn't afford to stop things down so much to show everything else some might've wanted to see.
As far as the Twilight, Jason, and xenophile bit... Jason's not interested in ponies. Even after such a long time on the planet. Is it odd? Maybe. Is it a far stretch? Not really.
Also... have you ever personally written an action scene? With five, six, participants, it already sucks. Add in Twilight's friends, and good lord... not something I wanted to subject myself to.
Anyways, sorry that you disliked how I (ab)used Twilight, but as the writer, it's the decision I made. I had a goal in mind, and that involved keeping the focus on Jason and away from anyone else, and all that jazz. I can tell you I'm done dumping on her, she's served her purpose and will be back and healthy later on to resume a minor support role.
3220981 Dude, your unread 100+ has nothing on my 1161 unread chapters and 1341 tracked stories.
3221446
dude my unread is over 3K and over 60 pages of stories
3221500 I must try harder then.
Jason "squawk squawk squawk" (there shall be many painful bite marks on Celestia and twilight till i am back in my own body MWHAHAHAH!)
Philomena "oh Celestia this gonna be a long day"
images.sodahead.com/polls/002301067/4242950654_youve_got_to_be_kidding_me_thumb_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg
Plot twist: They all turn into manticores.
I LOVE THIS.
Alright I'll admit being a phoenix could lead to some hilarious hijinks. Hmmm, a romance with Philomena is something I didn't think about. Now she's part human he might start seeing her in a different light. I'm also thinking Philomena is gonna have trouble adjusting to a human body. Heck she's never even wore clothes in her life. Unless she picked up a bit more from Jay.
3221862
Why not bears?
i39.tinypic.com/10pdhtc.jpg
Well....... I plan on waiting it out regardless, and I only started reading this yesterday, proving you had me hooked straight away :D
Even though it was a bit confusing at first now that it has been clarified my mind is still doing this
*BRAIN UNABLE TO PROCESS INFO
BRAIN OVERLOAD!
BRAIN V.15.99 HAS CRASHED
BRAIN SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED!
SELF-DESTRUCT IN... 5...4...3...2...1...
BRAIN V.15.99 HAS BEEN BLOWN
3222518
Do you mind elaborating a little bit on what was confusing or hard to follow? Other than that, your brain going boom... mission achieved!
3222606>>3221071
When unintentional typos end up being badass... I'll have to go through and fix that at some point... Thinking of just tossing Arc 1 into a folder in GDocs and giving the link and hoping the readers'll do it for me... Wait, that's kinda lazy, huh. Damn.
3222518 ah thats why. you had an outdated version of brain. we are now in Brain V. 18.90
>>spacecowboy
thank you for making such a great story cant wait for the sequle and as alwas have fun whats the point in growing up if you cant be childish sometimes
3222553
It wasnt confusing im just saying that is how i was the last chapter but added my reaction to this chapter into it
3222615
You just made my day and it just started
So, riddle me this... Am I the only furry on this site? Since I considered Philomena a love interest since the start, (Though I thought it would never happen) does that make me weird? Meh. If I'm weird, all 200 something of my furry friends are too. Anyway,, keep going, it's a great story, very nice 'plot twist' (Hehe), and if there's sex in it, all the better! If there isn't, strong innuendos will do
3220986 So Philomena isn't the love interest?
3221500
I love how that turned into some weird e-peen contest. xD
Not trying to mock you, I have 1800 unread chapters lying around myself, and this is after I pruned out a bunch of stories like... a week ago? It's just, I generally think of this as "OH GOD I AM SO FAR BEHIND," so seeing people look at it from the other angle just tickles me. :P
If this turns out to be Jason X Philomena, that may be the most creative ship I've seen in months.
3222951 i agree
3222967
How can you disagree? It's not even an opinion.
Read his comment and tell me again how you can disagree. He said that it could potentially is the most creative ship HE has seen in months. That's not an opinion, that's a statement of fact on his part. If he, however, said that it is the most creative ship ever, then you could disagree. But as he doesn't, you can't.