Epilogue
Nine letters rested on the desk. Each was a scroll, sealed with wax and laid out neatly side by side. The seals were blank, but each had a name printed on the upward-facing section of the paper. One scroll read Mom and Dad, while the one next to it read Princess Cadence, and the one after that Shining Armor. The remaining six were the names of the Elements of Harmony, ending with the name of the Element of Magic. Twilight Sparkle.
The wax seal on the last letter easily broke, crumbling away as the scroll rolled open on the desk.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Princess Luna finished deciphering Starswirl’s spell a few months ago, and discovered why he went through so much effort to conceal it. It isn’t permanent. Even under ideal conditions, the duplicate can’t last more than a year, and there’s nothing Princess Celestia or Luna can do to help me. Starswirl must have been worried that ponies would use it anyway. Celestia said he was always mistrusting.
Things would have been simpler if I’d told you as soon as I found out. Things would have been simpler if I’d let you kill me on that first day. But I couldn't. I wanted to live, and I wanted to have time with my friends when they weren't pitying me. I know that isn’t fair. I know that this last year has been about my selfishness and your selflessness, with everypony bending over backwards to help me while you stand there and pretend I’m not turning your life upside down. I made it all about me.
But it’s not about me anymore. I didn’t write these letters so I would feel better. I suppose it’s cowardly to do the right thing once you’re not around to pay the price for it, but I do want to do the right thing. I want you to have your life back. I want you to have your name back. And I don’t want a funeral. I don’t want everything I was to go away and make everypony sad. You should have it, like it should always have been yours. Help Rainbow Dash train and hang out with her more. Get to know Time Turner better. Spend time with Princess Luna. She gives good advice.
It may seem strange for me to say that. We spent so much time trying to be different from one another, but now that I’ve got nothing left to worry about, that’s all starting to seem silly. You are me, if things had just gone a little differently. What does it matter if it’s me or you who does all those things? As long as one of us is around, for Mom and Dad and Ponyville and our friends, it can’t be as bad as that. I wish it could be both of us, but if it has to be one, it should be you.
I know that this is my goodbye letter, but don’t think of it that way. Nothing is going away but the relationships I had with the ponies around us, and those can all come back again. I feel like this year took something from us. Twilight Sparkle isn’t bitter, or angry, or selfish, or cowardly. She’s a hero. We took that from each other with our fighting, but now you can have it back again. Everything we are is yours, and I want it to be that way. I want you to be what we both should have been.
I wish I’d understood this earlier, but I want you to have my life—or whatever parts of it bring you joy. I want you to have everything. Because you deserve it, and I like you.
You’re a good mare, Twilight Sparkle. I wish I’d realized that sooner.
There was no signature at the end.
After a moment, Twilight Sparkle put down the letter. She turned to the window to watch her reflection in the glass. And, after a time, she cried.
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You actually killed off Twilight. I hate it when writers kill off a clone like they're not actually a real person. I thought this story was going to be different.
4720865
I assure you sir, I killed her off like she was a real person.
4720867 you certainly had the feels to go along with it!
Up to the last chapter and the epilogue, I felt that this was a very strong story. I can't help but feel that you lost interest in the story at that point, though, because IMO you certainly breezed through to a very easy, unsatisfying ending.
And by easy, I mean that you clearly chose not to explore much that could have been, and instead took a sharp downhill slide to an end that resulted in no emotional closure whatsoever after such a deep exploration of the difficulties the story put these characters through.
Maybe you lost interest, I don't know. If so, thank you for at least finishing this story and giving your readers at least that much closure. I really believe you could do much better, though.
(My thoughts and feelings before the end)
Hm...last chapter to what has been a roller coaster of a story. Like most readers, I didn't like the skip towards the end where it felt like the authors was trying to wrap up the story. Twilight and Sparkle could have had some grand adventures and major character building time but I also understand trying to bring the story to a close. I knew the ending was coming but that didn't make it any easier.
We will see how it goes.
4720950
UURRRRGGGGHHH! I'm not crying! Expecially concerning the death of a fictional character that I have come to know and love. This last chapter still leaves a torrent of raw emotions that continue to thrash around wildly. Unfortunately, I really can't say what would be the preferred ending, because either way there is no ending filled with sunshine and rainbooms.
Now what would be a he'll of a twist, tagged on as an alternate ending, is if Sparkled brought Twilight back.
4720867
When someone reads my work, I like to get their impressions of the writing. Writing is, after all, creating feelings and then trying to transfer them to others. Sometimes there's something lost in the translation, and without people giving feedback I wouldn't know it wasn't working. In that light, you might want to know the whole thing feels like the literary equivalent of bad store-brand ice cream. I know what it's trying to do, but all it does is leave an unfulfilled appetite and a bad taste in my mouth.
I can see what you're trying to write here, and it has merit. A minimalist ending with a full-circle feel, and emotional heartstrings yanked on for good measure. The problem is the presentation falls flat. If there was foreshadowing, it flew over my head until the last chapter, at which point it abandoned all pretense, turned into a cinderblock and braced for cranial impact at terminal velocity.
So, re: Killing off the Mirror Clone, I disagree. This feels less like a death and more like you're trying very hard to hit a reset button, and it just doesn't work for me. There are so many questions left unanswered here, I think it would have been better if you'd just abandoned the story before this latest bout of chapters. I don't feel like there was any foreshadowing of this at all, and that it was all just yanked out of a hat so you could say it was, in fact, completed.
There were a few things here and there that got addressed, but the big ones, like Celestia, Discord, and the fact that not-mirror-Twilight is more or less friends-by-inertia with the other elements at this stage, it feels like it would be better for her to just leave Ponyville and make a clean break.
I'll be keeping this in my favorites on merit of the earlier chapters, but this will be the first member of my hall of fame I gave a thumbs down to.
Well, that left everything unresolved. I'm sure I've read a story that had a more unsatisfying ending, but at the moment nothing really comes to mind.
I can't in good conscience leave my thumbs up on this story.
4720944
I agree. While I respect the author's desire to end the story, I do think that there was tons of potential wasted with all the buildup from everything before the last chapter and this epilogue. I am disappointed.
I have to admit, I was expecting there to be some big scene where they realized that they were still the same mare, that the spell had pulled out aspects of the whole to fill in the clone, making them two pieces of a whole. The scene with Celestia seemed to hint at that heavily. I can't say I'm happy with this ending... It doesn't feel like 'Sparkle' learned anything.
"So it goes."
--Kurt Vonnegut
I hadn't been expecting the epilogue to be so short... Really no more than the contents of Twilight's letter. As such, I guess I really don't have much to add myself. I liked Twilight's urging that Sparkle claim her relationships, but I don't know that it really feels "honest". I probably would have accepted this better had Twilight Sparkle woken up with both sets of memories and could truly see that the worst and best behavior of both versions of her were truly her own behaviors.
This feels like Sparkle got to see her life taken away from her, then "magnanimously" had it given back and now gets to move forward as a stand-in for the more well-liked version of herself. As mentioned, after a year of making all of her friends think of them as two separate individuals, I don't see Twilight easily moving back out of the shadow of her own reflection any time soon.
I'm disappointed that things came to such an abrupt ending, and not truly satisfied by the amount of resolution given, but I am glad to have some measure of closure at least. At its height this fic was a gripping and heart-wrenching read with some great characterization and clever ideas, so I very much enjoyed my time reading it.
Very sad ending. Amazingly well done.
So... Here's the big question in my mind: does Twilight recast the spell? She could even do it right now, before anyone else wakes up. But does she want to? Should she, morally, even if she doesn't want to? Would her reflection want her to, and how does that change things? What do the other people involved want, and how does that change things? And what about the chance that her reflection isn't "saved", that she'd just create a new duplicate rather than restore the old one? Is that risk worth it? What is the correct course here?
Of all of the stories on this site that I've been waiting for a _long_ time to finish, this one has proven to be the most worth the wait. Excellent story!
Well done.
You know what may be an interesting sequel, what is Twilight actually did figure out how to survive but chose to leave anyway to allow Sparkle to have her name and life back. Remember Twilight is technically also the Element of Magic so a new stabilizer spell wouldn't be unheard of. She decides in the end that she can't keep being selfish and rather than continue to live there she decided to change her appearance, set up the whole ending scene and leave to start her very own life.
In a way I kinda want to use that as my unofficial headcanon
4721021 The archetypical "great story with a faceplant at the end", for me, is "Of Mares and Magic". It's the story that taught me to almost never deploy my thumbs-up until after the story is entirely complete. Though it's actually not that bad if you know what's coming, you can just chop the last chapter and epilogue off of that one and it's a great story.
In all honesty I haven't read the last chapter or epilogue of this one yet, I had a bad feeling and decided to read the comments to see what general sort of thing lay ahead. I've long had an unfortunate combination of preferences; I love stories where characters get duplicated and have to face the practical and philosophical implications of that sort of thing, but the reset-button ending of killing one of the two off drives me nuts. It's like some sort of metafiction universal law ala Futurama's "Bender's Big Score" wherein the duplicate character has high concentrations of doom particles, it happens almost every single time.
Since I haven't actually read the ending I may be being unfair, but based on the comments I think I'll leave it at that and move on. I got my non-reset-ending double-Twilight fix from Perfect for Me and I guess karma must be satisfied. :)
4721443 In fairness to this story, I really really wish I could just revert my thumbs up back to a neutral. But since that isn't possible and thumbs up is very much no longer my vote, the third option is the only available option.
It was a great story, developping something sad around the "clone" thing that doesn't end in a Evil/Dark stupid cliché was very nice and well done.
I am kinda agree with the comments saying it could have get a better closure or more in deep of the consequence, I was expecting the Celestia side of the letter to have a "mature" point of view.
4721037
Not to mention the fact she was treated like crap the entire time to the point that Sparkle felt like leaving because she was nothing more then a shadow of herself, there's the confession to Celestia that got glossed over, the Discord discussions glossed over, the fact that Luna was tutoring the clone, and the fact that the rest would obviously be thinking original twilight did something and might infact hate her over it. Rainbow Dash was quite adamant about her dislike of original twilight and believes the worst of her when it comes to the clone.
Well, this story was powerful, and I'm glad that you finished it.
I must admit that the ending feels abrupt, but the very point of this story was for Twilight Sparkle to confront her various neuroses, and you got that two chapters ago. Your wrap-up feels abrupt, but not unnecessarily.
Only one point I believe you forgot: where's Spike's letter?
4721487
Yeah, things like this are why I don't distribute up-thumbs before the story is completed. This one is an old example from the wild days when such concerns were not on my mind, and got an up before it went down. Were it an option I'd much rather just give it a clean break and be done with it.
I loved this story, and I agree that some things were left unanswered.
Perhaps a sequel is in order?
4721526
Yes, I mentioned many of those same points last chapter... Those are all things I too am left wondering about. There really wasn't much here in this brief epilogue for me to add to what was said last time.
Part of my problem is that, again, I mostly cared about Sparkle. This ending feels like it resolved things for Twilight and did nothing really to bring the Sparkle side of the story to any real conclusion.
This ending feels realistic, to me. People die in unsatisfying ways at unsatisfying times, and Twilight Sparkle is selfish enough to insist on closure in the way she wants it, rather than also incorporating others' preferences. I suspect that Twilight Sparkle, after this experience, might be self-aware enough to realize that flaw, and grow there too. The funeral is for her and her friends, not the departed, and the departed shouldn't steal that from them too.
Conditioned on the reflection being doomed, three potential endings for the story seem worth considering. Chapter 10, where the original and reflection acknowledge their emotional problem and have hope,14, where the reflection's medical problem eats hope, and... let's call it '16,' where we learn how the original and her relationships changed as a result, all seem like natural stopping points. The first is happy (but the happiness won't last), the second is sad and uncertain, the third is certain, but likely sad (with perhaps some happiness). I said before I thought 10 was a good place to end the story, and I haven't seen much to change my mind; I also expect the reaction now is more negative than it would have been otherwise because of the time gap between the 'happy ending' and the 'sad ending,' and everyone is much more forgiving of a sad ending that turns happy than a happy ending that turns sad.
I'm still ambivalent about the story as a whole, because I'm so deeply bothered by the idea of a Twilight that hates herself. But I think it's been productive for me to think about, and so I'm glad you wrote this story.
4721007
It's almost as if a clever character wanted to keep something secret, and succeeded.
4721225
From how it worked the first time, that seems almost definitely what would happen- the new reflection would have the memories of the original, and the old reflection is dead and gone. If there had been a non-horrific way to do it, it's likely that Starswirl would have cast the spell every year.
4721443
I didn't get the "reset button" impression from the ending. Everything certainly isn't back to normal, and to me at least, I read the reflection's desire that there would be a reset button is evidence of how far they both still have to grow.
A lesson is learned, but the damage is irreversible.
No tragedy tag? Might want to fix that.
Enjoyed the story, but I would rather have seen a mention that the spell didn't care if Sparkle or Twilight be turned back to a reflection at the end of it. Then you'd be able to have Twilight make a big thematically appropriate noble sacrifice behind Sparkle's back and have more of a point to that year's worth of character development.
Also deeply peeved at the lack of awesome joint magical projects from seemingly abandoned foreshadowing.
4721713
She only learned she was going to die during the timeskip. Being able to hide it isn't even the point, it's that story-wise nothing turns around as a result of all this. As soon as the characters learn to get along (which was very satisfying to read) we get a timeskip where neither Twilight helped the other much and one of them's been willfully acceptent of her death (fix magic with magic, duh) for months off-screen. I get that the author wanted to end an old story, but all the potential for character growth of Twilight, Sparkle and friends was thrown out the window.
Really, if the author did always plan on it ending this way, then that just makes the entire story worse since it built such false expectations for so many readers. There's certainly way too much of the wrong kinds of hope in this story for any kind of build up to the "I'm going to die today" last chapter. And zero... anything makes the end feel clumsily tacked on.
Sorry, I rambled, but I just feel compelled to complain because I dislike it that much.
I don't suppose there could be an ending that satisfies everyone.
For what it's worth, it satisfied me. This was a quest (albeit an unwanted one) for self-enlightenment. The letter shows it was achieved, though hard-won.
data3.whicdn.com/images/65494845/large.gif
4721713
There's keeping secrets from the readers, and then there's using retroactive continuity. Done right, the first is the hallmark of a good author. The second is the opposite. One of the main ways to distinguish between them is how well the revelation is foreshadowed.
In an ideal world, readers ought to be able to go back through and pick out clues, go "Ah, it was right under my nose the whole time!", even if those clues are completely useless without the revelation providing the last piece, their presence distinguishes the well-kept secret from a retcon. I'm not getting that in this case.
4721845
Based on this, though, the issue becomes more one of pacing than foreshadowing, as there wasn't time between the secret's creation and the end of the story.
Yes this ending is sad but I think it's fitting. It's SUPPOSED to be sad. It's SUPPOSED to tug on your heartstrings and make you wish you could hug Twiglight Sparkle and tell her it's okay. It's supposed to make you want to dive into the story and change the ending. It's also realistic. Life isn't all happy endings no matter how much we all wish it would be.
Well. That was thoroughly depressing
There could be no other end.
And it was great!
In a sad, cathartic way ofcrse.
This ... I admit, felt profoundly unsatisfying. While it's nice to have closure on Twilight's side of things and getting to learn the truth behind her disappearance (which is, I imagine, as many of the readers guessed), that honestly feels like the least of the issues the ending should have addressed and there are still many issues up in the air that need addressing, before this story would feel like "complete".
Sparkle's relationship problems and abandonment issues are still there, chances are they are only going to come to a boiling point over this development at least short-term, and Twilight "giving" over her spot to Sparkle doesn't in any way fix the problem or offer a way to do so - it only makes it worse, if anything. Twilight doesn't really earn any browny points here as well, though at least she seemed to realize it herself, as there is nothing noble about pretending to do "the right thing" when that's your only option anyway, whether you want it or not. I wonder if it was more about making herself feel better or about encouraging Sparkle - due to the fact she was forced to leave anyway, I can't trust her sincerity.
I suppose it's fitting in a meta sort of way, considering this story has been all about Sparkle being screwed over and Twilight getting to play the martyr, and this ending fits right in to that. It's all about Twilight in the end and her feelings on whatever matter is at hand, with Sparkle having to bear the brunt of the aftermath, with there being no reason for us to conclude that things are actually looking up for her.
In the end, this feels like an unsatisfying ending because there are still a number of pivotal issues hanging over Sparkle's head and there can be no closure until those are solved, or even an indication of how any of that would go, with the gut feeling saying that the way is "down", not "up", but still no way to be sure.
This fic started off amazingly strong and featured great characterization and amazing depth of those involved, as well as well thought-out issues and tribulations such a personality and identity split could bring with it, and was great at provoking emotions, but these last two chapters honestly feel like the author got bored with the whole ordeal and hammered out a quick closure that doesn't quite live up to the quality of the rest of it, even if it is thematically fitting.
Of course some ending is infinitely preferable to no ending, but all things considered, unless a sequel of sorts is planned (in which case I will readily eat my own words), the way it ended felt hollow and unsatisfying, with most of the issues unresolved. Still, I had a wonderful time reading most of it, so thank you for that.
Feel like this story got backed into a corner. After the way this story was written to develop both Twilight and Sparkle each with their own issues, killing one of them off seems like set-up with no payoff, but after the last chapter, there was pretty much no way to save the ending, I think.
How did u get the sad and comedy categories? I cant do that for any of mine
4721007 I disagree with the idea that this story being abandoned is better than giving it an ending that is merely unsatisfying. I'd agree that I think the ending was so abrupt that it detracted from the story (lacking any reactions from the characters except a very little from Twilight), but it wasn't outrageously unfitting or anything that bad.
"You're good enough, you're smart enough, and, doggone it, people like you!"
P.S. Twilight and Luna were dicks. (For keeping it secret.)
Can someone with a better memory than mine opine on whether this still needs its Comedy tag? I mean, how much comedy is there relative to sadness and drama and stuff?
I guess I expected it with the party. But the reflection in the mirror suddenly still surprised me.
I personally would love a few clones of myself. I hardly think there'd be a lot of in-fighting. It'd be the best ever. Shit would actually get done!
I see people complain about the ending. If I were to complain, it'd be about the reconciliation being rather abrupt.
I loved where she beats herself to a pulp. It stretched my brain around a bit. I was aghast at her and felt sorry for her all at the same time.
Well. I think you succeeded because I always looked forward to seeing a new episode pop up!
It was an honor to read this. Thank you.
I do hope the author isn't getting miserable over the flood of negative comments to these two final installments, including mine. The reason why the ending is getting such strong responses is, after all, because the story was so strong and built such high expectations. This story was absolutely amazing for a very long run, and when I first saw it I ended up reading the first 12 chapters, over 100k words, in one day. It's just a shame that the ending completely cut off everything that made the story great :( I know, from earlier chapters, that the author can do better than this.
But, it's fanfic, and I don't get to say what the author has to do.
I still stand by all my predictions from the previous chapter's comment, and I do feel the sudden arbitrary time limit on the magic spell was a cheap way to try to turn what was clearly structured as a suicide into something else, and doesn't work. It was still clearly a suicide :P
well that was an ending i guess. really wish sparkle would just recast the spell.
Is anyone else reminded of the ending to Mass Effect 3?
Unlike some of the other comments, I don't mind the ending. It's just as valid as saying "Twilight and Sparkle lived together, as happily as they could, until the end of their days." My only complaint is how disconnected the ending felt. There is no feeling of time passing between the party and the implied demise of Twilight. Simply adding a couple of sentences at the beginning of the story to describe such would make the ending that much more satisfying. Especially if the description was something like, "Sparkle woke the morning after the party, to find nine scrolls on her desk." It would give the reader the realization that the party was actually a "farewell forever" party, and make the party chapter feel that much more profound.
There is something very realistic about this ending. Thinking again, there is something very realistic about every argument that fixed nothing, every step back in the relationships and every selfish act passed as selfless, in this story. I am really impressed with the feelings presented here. In reality closure is a rare gift and, after all that happened, I think is not a terrible thing we didn't fully get it in this ending. It feels bad, but I've felt worst, and I am just too thankful you finished this story in a way that, at least for me, seems right.
Again, thanks for finishing this, and sharing it in the first place.
Good luck with your other projects.
May she rest in peace.
This ending sent shivers down my spine.
Thank you for this wonderful story.
What? No. No, you can't end it like this, this isn't closure, this is Mass Effect 3 all over again! *bam*, THE END, so long and thanks for all the fish!
What about Sparkle's relations with her friends? A whole year of being ostracized to make her clone feel better and no resolution to that?
What about miss Loyalty, so loyal to her friend that she completely ignored her in her time of need?! Related to that, would the elements still even work? Since, you know, they require "friendship" and all those things that were kind of missing between them?
And what about Celestia? Emotional instability or not, Sparkle poured her heart out to her and she just spat it back in her face! You can't leave that unresolved!
And what does Sparkle do? Does she endure all possible future negativity and try to go on with her broken life? Does she just say "fuck it" and decide to leave?
This is not an ending! This is just chopping the story off!
Shit.
My thoughts on the ending are more or less the same as the other commenters, but I am happy you saw it through to the end.
Sadly, I feel the last chapter and epilogue of the story doesn't do the rest of it justice, for reasons which many commentators have said better than I can. Short version, a lot of stuff wasn't really addressed (especially the stuff with Celestia), or was addressed off screen during a timeskip, and the sudden death of Twilight had no real emotional impact on me.
Was I sorry I was along for the ride? No. The 11 first chapters were still brilliant, and I would still recommend the story. But the ending...yeah. It really does feel like you just wanted the story to be over :/