Epilogue
✶ ✶ ✶
“This is perfect,” Twilight mused aloud as she lay curled up with Luna, bundled in a veritable nest of sheets and blankets. The room was a mess; the bed was broken, propped up against the wall, personal items were scattered everywhere and the walls were splintered with cracks.
It had been like that when they’d gotten there, honest.
Well, Luna had been the one to move the bed, as against the wall was the nearest to flat she could get it, but otherwise, it really was pretty much as-is; being half-collapsed and wrapped in a magic tree had a way of doing that to a palace. All of the other options they’d had for places to spend the night would have been… awkward.
“Hm?” Luna stirred, making a show of craning her neck around to look at the disaster around them. “What part of this is perfect, aside from the company? I daresay it’s barely habitable.”
“Habitable?” Twilight scoffed, burying herself deeper into Luna’s side. “It would take some creative paperwork to keep it classed as a structure; there isn’t even a ground floor any more, and I’m pretty sure the debris alone qualifies it as a hazard. I’d question the sanity of anypony mortal who even sets hoof in here, and a pegasus with a hardhat would still need liability waivers and decuple hazard pay.
Luna stopped and considered that for a moment. “Decuple?” she asked.
“Like double, but for tenfold,” Twilight explained, stretching her legs out.
“Ah,” Luna said. “But you did specify mortals, and we do seem to have a sudden glut of ponies not covered by such a term.
Twilight’s mouth curled up in a contented smile. “Well, that’s what makes it perfect,” she explained. “Only the ponies we care about can come bother us.”
Luna let out a put-upon sigh and pulled Twilight closer to her. “You’re not going to become a hermit, are you? I still think…” Luna paused, winced, and took a moment to collect herself. “It would sadden me if I was the only pony you choose to interact with. I have made that mistake, you know, and while I will not tell you what to do, I do believe that the most important part of living forever is to actually live forever. That, I think, is something that even my sister has not mastered.”
Twilight shifted herself to look into Luna’s eyes for a moment, sighed and rested her horn beside hers. “I promise not to become a hermit,” she said. “But I also don’t think that just dropping me on a throne like we did is a good idea either. I might not have been in a right mind… at any point since I became an alicorn, I suppose… but I don’t think the conclusions I came to were entirely wrong either. I always imagined myself doing that—taking up clerical and administrative work under or beside Celestia—but that was before I came to Ponyville and grew as a pony.”
“You would leave me to administrate this mess myself?” Luna teased. “What do you think you shall do, then?”
“I’m pretty sure that my just not being there will cut your workload in half,” Twilight shot back with joking self-deprecation. “As much as ‘studying friendship’ ranks up there with the Librararchy as far as legitimizing ridiculous things goes… it wouldn’t hurt to go back to it for a bit as a refresher. I think I’ll help build the new palace, for starters.” Twilight momentarily hesitated, and pulled her head back to look at Luna again. “You’re really okay with me not keeping you company at court?”
“You not having a throne does not mean that you cannot bring a lounge chair from time to time,” Luna said touching her nose to Twilight’s. “But yes, I will manage. It will give us things to talk about, and I have no intention of running myself ragged as Celestia does.”
Twilight kept her snicker as subdued as possible to keep from ruining the quiet mood. “A lounge chair, hm? Well, when you put it like that, I’d be a hypocrite not to take advantage of your offer since I told Applejack off for not being comfortable enough with my position to walk into court with a bag of popcorn. I’ll have to make sure my apology to her doesn’t involve reneging on that; we really need to get her more comfortable with grandiose places.”
“Perhaps involve her in the building of the new palace?” Luna suggested, thoughtful. “More than she already has been, that is, if you plan on keeping the tree.”
“I did always enjoy living in that old tree,” Twilight mused, glancing out the window that was mostly covered in the spiral of trunk that was supporting the remains of the palace. “Maybe that should be the library part of the palace,” she said. “Just one big spiral, with ladders on rails that go all the way up.”
“The contrast would be interesting,” Luna agreed. “Though expecting to be able to just use the thing as-is might be rather optimistic. Projects have a way of getting out of hoof.”
“Projects like ruling a nation?” Twilight retorted playfully, winding back to the subject of Luna dealing with things on her own. “You do remember that Celestia abdicated a lot of responsibility to us when it was us that was going to be handling things, right? She no longer has Harmony to take care of, but she should probably be taking some time off regardless, especially with how things turned out.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Yes, Twilight, I shall be fine. The government may not come out of our conflict entirely intact, but I assure you that I shall emerge victorious without needing to interrupt my sister’s mourning.”
Twilight blinked. “Okay, now I’m actually concerned-worried, not just doting-worried.”
“Oh, fie on that,” Luna said with a scoff. “It is natural for governments to go through periods of purging when the list of laws grows too long for any pony to know and managing them becomes untenable. It is like forest fires—if ponies do not clear the deadfall from time to time themselves, then fire and lightning will do it in their stead and all will be the worse for it. In the Griffon Kingdoms, revolution can be bloody and hard-won; here in Equestria, I expect Blueblood to throw a hissy-fit over parchment subsidies.”
Twilight considered that for a moment. “I’m pretty sure it’s the height of naïveté to assume any kind of revolution or reformation will be simple, but you can have your fun so long as you’re not late for our dates.”
“Oh?” Luna said, arching an eyebrow. “Are we dating, then?”
Twilight hoofed Luna in the chest with a smile. “We’d better be,” she snarked. “I’m pretty sure librararchies count as engagement gifts.”
“Ah,” Luna said, taking the hoof that Twilight had hit her with in her own. “But you returned that gift, did you not? Perhaps I shall have to seek out another such gift to replace it.”
Twilight looked away, blushing more out of embarrassment for her actions than Luna’s proposition. “That kind of backfired, actually,” she mumbled. “It turns out you can’t just throw away a nation like an engagement ring—there’s paperwork involved and you have to actually arrange to give it away to someone in whole or in parts.”
“Indeed?” Luna asked with a wry look. “That sounds like needlessly excessive bureaucracy if I have ever heard of it. I shall make it the first profligate law I prune, as an example to the others.”
“I’ve already waived my right to tell you what you do with Equestria, but at least don’t change the name, okay? We want Celestia to be able to actually recognize it when she comes back from her vacation.”
Luna let out a snort of laughter. “Please—as if she will be able to keep her nose out of it long enough to be surprised by anything. Just because she should take a long break does not mean that she will.”
“It might be different this time,” Twilight hedged. “She did seem to take what happened to Harmony a little harder than us. So did Discord, actually.”
Luna frowned, considering it. “I think, unlike you, who made some connection with her, and I, who immediately disliked her, Celestia had not yet decided how to feel about Harmony in the short time when she was with us. Do remember that you blatantly offered Harmony up as a romantic interest to Celestia not half an hour after Harmony tried to kill her, thinking her to be Solaria.”
“That was… not one of my finer moments, when you put it like that,” Twilight grumbled, following by lapsing into silence for a moment. “It’s obvious that neither of us thinks Celestia will be able to bring her back, isn’t it?”
“Celestia will, as she always has, succeed in what she sets out to do—but her success in this is only half of the matter. Harmony herself must want to live, and that is not always a simple thing.”
☼ ☼ ☼
As Celestia ascended the side of Canterlot mountain pulling a wagon of gold and jewels appropriated from the treasury, she couldn’t help but reflect on the matter at hoof. It was hard to believe that the pile of twisted metal in the saddlebags on her back had been any kind of pony, let alone an alicorn.
Her feelings about Harmony were complicated, but among them were guilts of several flavors. That the situation had broken down in such a way that Harmony had needed to sacrifice herself to save Luna in the first place felt like a failing on her part. She felt bad for being caught unprepared by Astri’s desperate escape, and that she hadn’t even borne witness to it was a particular regret.
These burdens, she was used to as much as one could be. She had lost—and failed—many ponies in her lifetime as a ruler of a nation. It was inevitable, and she could only endeavor that she would always do her best.
The fresh guilts that she wasn’t used to, on the other hoof, shamed and disappointed her. There were several of these, all mixed up around the fact that she did not entirely want Harmony back.
Part of it was simply recognizing that Harmony had not welcomed life to begin with, though that, perhaps, could have been overcome with time.
Another part was the simple pragmatic conclusion that the Elements of Harmony had been more useful and more powerful than the alicorn herself. Perhaps this was because she had needed the guidance of the pure of heart to truly connect with the purity of purpose that slept inside of her; if so, then that, too, might have been a path that she could have walked eventually.
If it had been just those things, part of Celestia might have shamefully hoped for the easier option, but the path forward would still have been clear; she would never have seriously considered anything else.
No, if all that Harmony had needed from her was a mentor and guide, she would have done her best and hopefully one day be proud of the mare that Harmony could have become—but that was not all that Harmony had needed from her; not according to Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia also felt guilty for the envy she felt for what her student and sister had, and while that, too, was a situation where her path was clear—if one that ached more than the others—it was also the root of her larger problem, because when Celestia reflected on the assertion that Harmony was her only option for romance, well… the only feelings she could drudge up for the matter were pangs of disappointment.
She didn’t truly blame Twilight her indiscretion. Certainly, she had not helped matters, but she would have inevitably considered it on her own, if only to distract herself from wanting what she could not have. Truthfully, she should probably thank Twilight, if only for preventing her from going too far down the rabbit hole looking for love in all the wrong places, considering that the list of otherwise eligible immortals included Discord.
Honestly, if Twilight had told her that Discord were her destined lover… well, she would have assumed it a joke, but it still wouldn’t have been as bad as Harmony. Discord’s antics made her feel like a parent with a rowdy child, trying to keep up, but Harmony just made her feel old—full stop.
Perhaps she was wrong, though. Perhaps Harmony would return and find wonder in the world; perhaps she would develop a biting sense of humor or become an incorrigible lech. One could say that this, too, was something that could be worked on—that they could fix.
But she shouldn’t—she couldn’t go into things want to ‘fix’ her. She could coax and guide a student to make them better to face the world, but she knew better than to try and change somepony so they might make a better partner for her. There was a small part of her that whispered in her ear to say that, intentional or not, this is what she had done with Twilight, and that would have turned out fine if not for matters that she could not have foreseen, but she quashed it with great prejudice. It was a line that she would not cross.
Shivering, she shook the idea from her train of thought. There was no point in tormenting herself drudging endlessly through moral quagmires when in all likelihood there would be no Harmony for her to pervert her mentorship of. She would find out soon enough, in any case; she had arrived at the summit—or close enough to it. The actual peak of the mountain was another few dozen feet up, but Canterlot mountain was as sharply topped as it appeared to be from a distance, and actually standing atop it, while satisfying a sense of drama, was not necessary.
The last time that Celestia had forced Harmony to manifest, she had used Canterlot’s largest telescope to focus the light of her sun in order to provide the power and environment that she had needed. This had been necessary because, unlike Luna, whose absolute control over her light had been shown the night previous, Celestia’s light became more of a thick, viscous conduit for her magic that she could only direct in heaving gouts of power when she took hold of it, as she had when fighting off the nameless dragon that Twilight and Luna had riled up.
What, then, was she doing here now? During her first, nearly disastrous attempt to create a body for Harmony, overexposure to Celestia’s magic had nearly killed the weakened alicorn, so what did she plan to do here, where her access to her magic was at its greatest?
Quite a lot, actually.
Her first action was to undo the harness and decouple herself from the wagon. Once she was free, she took a moment just to stretch and rest. With it being daylight, she could have simply remanifested herself as Twilight had become accustomed to doing, but for her, the relief she felt was worth the ache in her muscles it took to bring it about, and it wasn’t often she got a chance to experience it.
Once she was satisfied, her muscles cooling, Celestia walked around to the back of the wagon and made to undo the latch at the back. Somehow, it had stuck. Not terribly concerned, she turned around and gave the side of the wagon a good buck, successfully knocking the latch—and something else loose amidst an avalanche of riches that came pouring out the back.
“Oof, ow,” grumbled Discord as he pulled himself free of the surprisingly heavy mass wearing several necklaces, two crowns and somehow having found the gaudiest of rings to fit all the digits on both his lion’s paw and griffon talon. “I swear, this is the last time I ride coach.”
Celestia rolled her eyes, not terribly perturbed by Discord’s presence—which wasn’t a thought that she’d ever expected to have, but it was easier to entertain his sense of humor when he was no longer capable of turning the sky into blurple jelly when he was pitching a fit.
“Hello, Discord,” she said, welcoming him with as placid and serene a smile as she could manage, working around him to levitate the gold into a clean mound, plucking bits and bobs off of Discord as she went. “To what do I owe the pleas—oh.” Celestia halted her preparations and took a moment to look him over in a new light. “You… actually care about her?” she asked, caught somewhat dumbfounded by the concept, not just because it was unusual for him, but because he might actually be the only one who really, honestly did.
“Pfah! Me? Care? Don’t be absurd,” he insisted, waving the notion off like a bothersome fly. “But, ah, you know, since you mentioned it, I don’t suppose you’d mind if I stuck around and watched? Professional curiosity, you understand. In magic. I was quite the magic-dooer in my time.”
“Magic-dooer?” Celestia repeated, cracking a wry smile. “Is that a technical term?”
“Don’t listen to these kids nowadays with their horns and thaumamagical-whastsits,” he said, miming as if shoving the very idea away with his hands. “Real magic-doing comes from the spleen.”
“Not the heart?” Celestia asked, playing along.
“The heart?” Discord repeated, scoffing. “As if the heart ever has time for magic, always thump-ba-dumping—no creativity, no pizazz.” Discord sidled up next to Celestia and—to her stunned shock, since she’d thought him completely without his tricks—opened his chest just a crack as if it were a trenchcoat and he was selling watches. Inside, Celestia saw what looked like a stylized heart burning green with dragonfire. “No, my dear, the heart functions on an entirely different set of priorities.”
“I… see,” Celestia said, though she really didn’t. Her short briefing on Discord’s origins had been rather truncated, given Harmony’s presence at the time and her desire not to revisit past events. Clearly some important aspects had been left out. “In any case,” she continued, extracting herself from Discord’s personal space as he put his heart away. “You are quite welcome to watch my magic-doing, so long as you don’t interfere.”
“Interfere?” he asked, predictably feigning innocence. “Why Celestia, it’s as if you don’t even know me.”
Deciding that it probably would have ruined the mood if she’d pointed out that she really didn’t know him all that well, Celestia continued her preparations, shooing him away from the pile of gold and separating out the gemstones, using small applications of her magic to soften the fittings where necessary. When she was finally just about ready, she removed the saddlebags containing the damaged pieces of Harmony that Fluttershy had collected, thinking to set them away from her work area for the time being, and it was then that an idea struck her.
Looking down at the saddlebags floating in her magic, Celestia asked herself if this was really a good idea, ignored herself and held them out to Discord. “Would you like to hold her?” she asked. “I need her kept away from too much of my magic.”
Discord hesitated, but soon enough took the saddlebags from Celestia without a word. Sometimes, she thought as she watched him back away, it really was just like dealing with a rambunctious child. He was willful and prone to break his toys when he threw a fit, but not altogether a bad pony… dragon… whatever-thing.
Finally ready for the first stage, she pushed thoughts of Discord from her mind and pulled the thinnest strand of her magic from the sun as she was able and got to work fashioning something much like her original attempt—a golden sarcophagus imbued with her magic. The metal, saturated with enough power to destroy Canterlot, would make it impossible for any other magic to coexist, thus preventing any magical interference from outside the shell.
To this, she added the gemstones, lining the inside of it from wall to wall until it shimmered like a geode, each one enchanted with a particular spell attuned to her magic. The spell would crystalize her magic, containing and preventing it from damaging what would be placed inside.
Finally, quickly, as the cracks between the gemstones began to fill with crystalized magic, Celestia added more gold—a thick, heavy layer of it heated by proxy in a crucible and poured in by hoof so as to leave it as magically neutral as possible. This final layer all but filled the inside of the sarcophagus, leaving only a vague hollow pony shape that was not quite a mould in the center of it, shaped in such a way as to circulate the trickle of magic that Harmony’s remains were producing in the same way that Celestia had before. By the time she was finished, Celestia was sweating from handling the molten metal and was glad to step away from it, if only for a moment.
Wasting no time, she waved Discord over. “Quickly, we must place her inside and completely seal it. The remaining heat should do no harm.”
Discord looked dubiously at the contraption resembling both an implement of torture and something to bury a pony in, but didn’t hesitate in handing over the saddlebags and helping to arrange the remains of Harmony inside of it without simply dumping them in like a sack of plaster. Once that was done, Celestia did as she had said and shut the sarcophagus with a heavy, muted thud that was more felt than heard in the silence of the windswept mountaintop. Small additions of her empowered gold were made to ensure the seal, and then, it was done.
“And now?” Discord prompted.
Celestia let out a heavy breath and walked over to the wagon. Hopping up into the back with the slight help of her wings, she set about to find herself a comfortable place to sit. “Now we wait and see.”
And so they waited, and Celestia and Discord talked. It was an interesting experience for her, if a little frustrating at times, because of all the things that Discord was, he was never contrite or apologetic for anything he’d done. He was childish, but not a child. In fact, the more she talked to him, the more she thought of him instead as an old hermit that had long lost any care for the trappings of maturity, simple in his desire for novelty and so isolated that the concerns of others had ceased to register. She would almost feel guilty for sealing him in stone for a thousand years if not for the fact that his isolation had been measured in eons before she had even been born and he had not changed appreciably since—at least, not until he had lost his powers to Twilight’s ascension.
Now… she didn’t know what to think, or how to judge him. As he was not a child and had, at one point, known, understood and abided by the tenets of society, his actions could not be dismissed under the defense of ignorance. Being immortal, senility did not apply to him, but all the same, he had long since broken in ways and for reasons that he could not be blamed for. Responsibility for the actions of a drunk or otherwise mentally impaired pony’s actions sat squarely on the pony who had put them in that state, but assigning blame… wasn’t entirely the question at hoof. The question was what to do and how to treat him.
In the end, she failed to come to a reasonable conclusion by the time the sun was setting in the sky and she decided that it had been long enough. She waited for the next lull in the conversation, took a breath to prepare herself, and stood up.
“Is she…?” Discord asked.
Celestia hesitated, realizing that she had not really explained her expectations. “Perhaps,” was her vague response. “Normally I would expect a newly manifest alicorn to break free, but with how Harmony was, I can envision her waking up in an enclosed space and deciding to simply lay there unmoving. Alternatively, she may simply require more time; the magic that the remains were producing was quite a bit weaker than when she was the Elements of Harmony.”
When Celestia cracked open the sarcophagus, however, it became clear that Harmony was not simply waiting for them, nor did she require more time. What had formed inside the mass gold was… not an alicorn—not yet, though that was perhaps too optimistic a way to say it. The magically-neutral gold had been cannibalized like the white of a yolk, as it had been meant to, but what had grown in its place was a twisted and gnarled bramble, and at the heart of it, a seed.
Celestia look in a long, slow breath and let it out. “I’m sorry,” she said, and to her relief, she actually was.
“Ah, well,” Discord said, turning away from the sight while giving every impression that he was only mildly disappointed. “It was nice while it lasted.”
Celestia shook her head and let him be. She was, as she had expected to be, a little bit relieved. Things had just become much simpler for her.
They… had gotten simpler, right? True, a host of unappealing futures had just been snuffed out, but a greater number of uncertain futures had just as assuredly taken their place, and it was difficult to say if any of them were much better.
Presumably, they would have four alicorns once more, only this time instead of being faced with the moral dilemma of trying to change a guileless ancient alicorn to better suit her, she would have a foal; a blank slate who was completely innocent with only Harmony’s power to sustain her. Even if Celestia did not raise her, even if she somehow managed to avoid tainting their interactions with the shadow of what was expected to come later, this new alicorn would never be her equal.
Was that so important? It only took a brief look at the past to assure her that yes, it really was. As much as Celestia’s leadership and presence had been a stabilizing influence for Equestria, so, too, could its greatest crises and unrest be laid at the hooves of alicorns, and this was not even a trend limited to her own lengthy lifetime. What future disaster would she be inviting by bringing into the world a crippled alicorn? One who would be as a foal to her, yet expected to stand beside her not just as a ruler, but as a lover?
Celestia could no longer hide behind her innocence so long-held and recently lost; she would act appropriately as she always had, but her most recent experience with her ex-student had made it clear that she would never be able to look at this alicorn without searching and wishing for any sign of the feelings that both Twilight and Luna had agreed to be inevitable, even when the two of them were otherwise at odds. Indeed, what cruelty it would be if Celestia should have to retread all the issues that had troubled not only her relationship with Twilight, but her relationship with Luna as well?
Ah, but she was once again getting carried away with ideas of what might be. She had never used to do this, but then, she had never been so regularly conflicted over what she should or should like to do. She was not used to temptation; was it any wonder that her first reaction was to remove it as quickly as possible?
It seemed like so simple an idea at first, to make the two of them equal. Celestia did not know the story of the previous alicorn of the sun, but she did know that there had been four alicorns—that there were supposed to be four alicorns—and yet Twilight had referred to Harmony as ‘the last good that she’d had.’ If the scales had been thrown out of balance by her predecessor, then surely it was possible for her to correct them? Surely it was her duty to correct them?
There was just the tiny issue of what that might actually entail. There were many possibilities and many roads she could take to get to each one, but the consequences choosing poorly might take an age to surface and longer to be overcome; the world might not survive an outwardly-hostile alicorn, should Celestia’s actions here today create one.
Here today? Surely this was not so urgent, she told herself, and yet she knew why a part of her was pushing her to the immediate, extreme solution—because for something this important, she could not contaminate her choice with wants or wishes, hopes and dreams for what might be. She could not rely on things going right, or the truth of the matter never coming to light. Her choice would have to be unassailable and entirely selfless, and there was only one, truly selfless option—the coward’s option—to cast herself into the same role as her destined mate and let fate take its course.
It was not something she would normally do, and so the part of her that had come to that conclusion insisted that she could not go home to plan and to think. Doing so was the only reasonable option—but if this truly was the necessary path, then she could not afford to be reasonable here. She could not afford to calculate the pros and cons or gather more information.
It was a deceptively tempting idea, to simply not consider too closely what she would be doing. She’d had quite enough of her new habit of overthinking matters, so the idea that overthinking here would result in the wrong answer—well, it was more compelling than it really should have been. Ironically, it was not her compassion, her sense of responsibility or even her rationality that convinced her how foolish she was being—it was her pride.
Celestia had made many hard decisions in her life—made many sacrifices—and she had not relied on any mental gymnastics or avoiding the issue in order to do so. If there was a sacrifice to be made, she would make it, but only after giving the matter due consideration. This was not urgent; it was not a matter of life and death just yet. The only danger was that her conviction might falter—that too much time and examination would rob her of the urgency that would allow her to do what needed to be done—and at that, her pride rebelled.
No—no matter her frustration with these what-ifs and could-bes, she would not throw herself blindly into the unknown when she had both the time and the resources available to do otherwise.
✶ ✶ ✶
There had been a time in Twilight’s life when the idea of waking up to the sun on her face had been a pleasant one and the very idea of a lazy day in bed would have offended her, yet here she was on the second morning since her latest ordeal and both of those preconceptions were being challenged.
Truthfully, Twilight had planned on actually leaving bed this day, but not mere several minutes after dawn, nor at the incessant physical prodding of the sun’s hoof on her nose. “What?” Twilight grunted, attempting to project her grumpiness into a physical force—at least until it dawned on her that she was currently in bed with the sun’s sister. “C—Celestia!” she shouted, caught between indignant and embarrassed as she pulled the covers up over herself and Luna, who was slower on the uptake and only stirring due to the commotion.
“Oh good, you are awake,” Celestia observed with the faux-innocence of mothers the world around. “Now, Discord wasn’t very useful—”
“This surprises you?” came the automatic, nearly-incomprehensible reply from Luna as she snuggled into Twilight’s side, displaying the greater amount of practice she had in ignoring her sister.
“—but he was able to give me the general idea,” Celestia continued, doing the same. “All I should need to know is what it was that haunted Solaria after her genesis?”
“This little book club chat couldn’t have waited until breakfast?” Twilight whined, mostly for effect. “It was love. Luma and Vita loved each other and expected bliss in eternal unity or something, but all they got was for Solaria to feel like she had lost two lovers.”
“Hrm, so, likely full preservation of both minds merged in a complete enough way as to cause mental dysphoria…” Celestia mused to herself under her breath, beginning to pace about the tilted room. “But since the seed is a blank slate, there should be no appreciable degradation… Yes. Yes, that should work.” Suddenly, Celestia seemed to recall where she was and who she was with. “Thank you, Twilight, this helps a lot," she said, giving Twilight a beatific smile as she dissolved into a diffusion of sunlight that warmed up the room.
Twilight just sat there, her jumbled, half-awake brain trying to make sense of what had just happened. “I’m not sure exactly what that was, but I feel like I should be concerned.”
The hoof that wrapped around Twilight and pulled her back down onto the bed disagreed. It was very persuasive, and soon enough, all thoughts of Celestia’s cryptic visit were lost in the haze of more pleasant events.
☼ ☼ ☼
Celestia was concerned, but not entirely surprised to return to her chambers where she had left the Seed of Harmony to find Discord absent. Well, regardless, a quick check showed nothing amiss, so she supposed no harm was done. In the end, the two of them could converse civilly and even joke, but it would take a great deal of time and effort on both their parts to really connect with one another, and only time would tell if either of them would bother. A year ago, she might have considered it, but now… now Twilight could manufacture immortals on a whim if they should desire it, and there was, of course, Celestia’s current course of action, which she had to be getting on with.
She had to stop and ask herself if she was rushing things again, but with Twilight providing the final piece of the puzzle, there was actually little reason to wait. In fact, if her conclusions were correct, things should go quite smoothly. Publically, she might be seen to lose some stature, if only because it could be so easily explained away that it was not worth hiding, but the other matter should be quite easy to keep under wraps. Who knows? Perhaps she would even use the opportunity take some time off. Not the every other day that she’d actually be able to, of course, but enough to both get some time off and catch up on paperwork. It would be a novel experience, if nothing else.
In truth, there probably were some ponies that Celestia ought to warn, but she was not used to explaining herself, nor did she expect anyone to truly understand her feelings on the matter. It was not lightly that she considered taking the Seed of Harmony into herself, let alone then portioning her essence back out into two alicorns. From her understanding of the matter, the seed should leave her unchanged, as should the division. How was she to explain to anypony that the solution which she had come to accept would produce an identical twin… whom she was likely to end up involved with?
Celestia was not quite that much of a narcissist, she told herself, though if gender had not mattered for Twilight and Luna, it was quite possible that other barriers of nature and genetics would be equally as ineffective in preventing it. Truthfully, as much as Celestia did envy Twilight and Luna their relationship, she was expecting nothing of the sort from this. That, actually, was an attractive aspect of it for her, as it stripped all the awkward expectations from the whole affair—at least initially. And if things did develop between the two of them…? Well, if it came up—if she actually found herself desiring her other half—then it would be proof of its own validity, and she would not fight it.
No, she was most assuredly not going to be sharing her thoughts and reasoning with anypony else, and thus she could come up with no further reason to put it off. Lifting up the Seed of Harmony in her magic, Celestia took it over to her balcony overlooking the city of Canterlot, which she would soon be sharing. Carefully, she reared up and plucked the seed from her magic, shifting so that she could hold it tightly to her chest as she leapt out into the open sky, heading for the fresh sunrise.
In the ruddy light of early dawn, she failed to notice that the Seed of Harmony had acquired a warm, green glow that it had not had previously.
✶ ✶ ✶
It was nearly noon before Twilight and Luna finally managed to bring themselves to venture out into the outside world in search of coffee and a greasy, indulgent breakfast of eggs, hayfries and daffodils. As the two of them walked down the street, Twilight noticed that the ponies around them seemed to be more skittish and gossipy than usual, though she supposed that they had good reason to be, given recent events. Thankfully, Celestia would have been smoothing things over these past few days, so things shouldn’t have gotten too out of hoof.
Twilight hmmed. Speaking of Celestia, there had been that strange visit from her this morning; what had that been about? Twilight only remembered that Celestia had asked about Solaria and that it had concerned her at the time, though she hadn’t been able to puzzle out why before Luna had, ahh, distracted her. Well, in the light of day—and fighting down a blush—Twilight supposed that her concern must have been for what Celestia’s question implied. Harmony hadn’t wanted to be reminded about Solaria, so they had all agreed not to talk about her. If Celestia was doing so, then that probably meant that Harmony was gone after all.
With that matter solved to her satisfaction, Twilight set her mind to more immediate pursuits, such as the aforementioned coffee and breakfast, the lack of which, she supposed, was a valid downside to having a ruined palace that was all but impassable to mortal ponies. Nevertheless, it wasn’t difficult to identify a cozy little cafe with a rooftop terrace in the sun that would suit their purposes perfectly. Orders were made, stairs were climbed and soon enough Twilight was sitting back with a warm cup of coffee, languidly inhaling its aroma and letting it warm her up.
It was amazing what difference a change in perspective and not metaphysically torturing her soul on a regular basis could make on her outlook. Things were far from perfect and she had a long road ahead of her before she’d be able to consider things truly settled, but far from it being daunting and stressful, she was actually looking forward to it.
Twilight leaned back in her chair, looking up at the beautiful noonday confluence of the shimmering thermal bloom in the sky crossing in front of the great rainbow ring of light, bathing the entire celestial backdrop in a beautiful lightshow. Yes, come what may, she had a feeling that things were going to be just fi—wait, what?
It took a physical effort in order for Twilight to quite believe what she was seeing, and the impact of her hoof on her face that followed hurt enough that she almost remanifest herself to fix it, forgetting that she couldn’t do that anymore now that she was manifest purely from starlight. “Oh, Celestia, what did you do now?”
“Ah, yes, well,” said a rather moderately-sized Celestia, suddenly sitting to Twilight’s left at the table. “I believe that Discord may have neglected to mention a few things, though in hindsight, perhaps they should have been obvious.”
“He also,” said… another Celestia, opposite her twin at the table. “Appears to have gotten his own plan mixed up in mine, having had something of a similar idea, though I would question his motives if I believed him still alive.”
Twilight frowned into her cup of coffee, wondering just what had been in it. She took another sip from the cup, but it tasted fine, so she squinted and gave the Celestias another once-over. Nope, there were still two of them, each only about Luna’s size and now that she was looking closer, their features were a little strange. In spite of being closer in size to a normal pony, they still looked particularly svelte and a little angular, especially in the muzzle and neck. As Twilight was making her examination, quickly double-checking on the other pony each discrepancy she found, one of the Celestias shied under her scrutiny, self-consciously running a long, thin tongue over a line of deadly, sharp teeth. Somehow, it was only then that she noticed that both of them had slit-pupiled eyes.
Equestrias oldest, most traditional diarch was, apparently, now two-thirds of a triarchy and half-dragon.
“Oh, wow, the ponies are going to love this,” Twilight groaned, dropping her head onto the table and narrowly missing her breakfast, which had been delivered to the table at some point. Well, at least she had hayfries. Mm, they were good hayfries, too. “I am so glad this is not my problem anymore.”
“Twilight!” Luna objected, giving her her best doe-eyes and hamming it up. “Thou wouldst leave me to the jackals in mine time of need?”
Twilight quickly pulled herself off the table, waving her hooves in front of herself and licking a daffodil petal off the corner of her mouth. “Hey, don’t look at me—I’ve done enough damage lately! Alicorn or not, I’m pretty sure they’d actually revolt if I went back on my word and started hoofing out decrees again!”
“Yes, well, I am Nightmare Moon, and…” Luna gestured vaguely at her ‘sisters.’ “I am not entirely certain that they will not revolt regardless.”
“I mean, to be fair, you were planning a revolution anyway,” Twilight said, pointing at Luna with a hayfry.
Both of the Celestias seemed to find this very interesting. “Luna!” they shouted in unison.
The mare in question suddenly looked very sheepish, unsure which direction to look. “I prefer the word reformation, thank you, Twilight,” she said, shooting her marefriend a quick, deadpan look before shifting her attention back to the two somewhat irate solar alicorns. “I had just intended to prune a few laws—well, a lot of laws, but you did dump a lot of work on us, which, as it turns out, will just be me, so it is rather justified.”
After giving Luna moment to sweat, the two Celestias settled back into their chairs with a synchronized huff, their ire quelled. “I suppose it was about time,” one Celestia admitted.
“But I shouldn’t need to point out what effect that would likely have now,” said the other.
“Yes, yes,” Luna said, rolling her eyes as she sampled the plate in front of her. She had forgone her usual noxious order in favor of duplicating Twilight’s, and it was actually quite good. “I am the last hope for the traditionalists to cling to like half-weaned koalas; I promise that I shall only abuse this sacred duty for my own amusement in as covert a manner as possible.”
The two Celestias shared a doubtful glance.
“I can be covert!” Luna insisted, pouting indignantly.
Twilight shook her head at the sisters’ antics. “Okay, but seriously, does anypony here actually have any idea how we’re going to handle this?”
They all looked to each other for answers, but nopony spoke up.
The unofficial first meeting of the goddess council was not going well.
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Oof, there. I decided to mark this complete and will make the eventual sequel its own story. This is probably a terrible idea, as is marking it complete without some revisions and editing, but I honestly don’t know when revisions will come; oh well.
All mentions of Celestia’s gold being called “Ponythium” have been omitted from this epilogue. I completely forgot I wanted to change that.
9378540
Oh wow.
I'd been waiting to see this complete after the gap between chapters had grown somewhat long (see: ch 17,18,19). I was finding myself having to reread the whole thing to get back up to speed.
I now salivate at the idea that I get to experience the whole thing. 2019 is starting off on the right hoof.
It just occurred to me that this epilogue is kind of just 100% talking about what’s going to happen in the sequel. Epilogues are supposed to tie things up and give you an idea how characters go on to live in the future, right? I might have not done the first part of that properly…
The end of an era. I often wondered if I was going to live long enough to see this story completed, and I'm glad I did. Thank you for this. And for the sequel...well, the ride never ends.
I know that Alicorns in this continuity don't have a particularly strong sense of self, but...is Celestia planning to essentially commit suicide? Not sure how to feel about that.
I was quite surprised to see this story end, because while the climax is over, the story still feels like it has a lot to resolve. I guess we'll see how that pans out in the sequel.
Congrats on finishing this one, and curious on the continuation, But it was a fun as heck read.
This is why her idea scares me, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't want Celestia to sacrifice herself... I feel like I was just told a tragedy is about to happen, cue credits. Even if the tragedy is for some reason necessary, it's still tragic.
[Edit] That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy this! The Twilight/Luna part was fun, and it was interesting seeing what's being done with Harmony's remains, even if the conclusion of that part makes me scared for Celestia.
9378570
I wouldn’t say that alicorns have a poor sense of self so much as they have a poor sense of self-preservation. If Celestia had had time to actually consider her actions, she would have absolutely decided against what she did, but instead she convinced herself that no amount of questioning her actions was a good idea. She doesn’t really expect to die, which is evident in what she tells Discord, but her immediate, knee-jerk reaction is that she’d rather that happen than spend eternity obsessing over the ugly issues of she imagines.
This is what anti-intellectualism gets you.
Oh, wow! Strange to see this story completed. Sharing the Night was one of the stories that got me back into writing so long ago. In that regard it has had a huge impact on my life. Thank you so much for this story.
Wait, is that a complete tag? I never thought I’d live to see the day...
I have to agree with Cedric. I know this was particularly a Twiluna story, but the story ends with Celestia basically killing herself and the author calling her short-sighted and honestly kind of dumb. That leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, too.
9378599
9378659
Hrm. Perhaps I should go back and include a final scene with Twilight and Luna meeting Celestia and Celestia? I considered it, but it felt a bit too… “begining-y” for the last scene in the story, especially compared to Celestia flying off into the sunset.
Nobody, of course, cares about Discord.
9378684
Of course nobody cares about Discord; if he did anything important in the story, I don't remember it, lol. It feels like he just sort'a bummed about since he joined the cast.
It does make me feel better that you talk about it more as an 'Unchanged Celestia And Her Mentally Identical Clone' scenario, but it's still worrying for philosophical reasons. The ending scene as you wrote it implies that the Celestia we know isn't long for this world; it felt to me kind of like a cliff-hanger ending to a horror movie, which I don't think is what you were going for.
I had no idea this highly rated, long running story existed. I just saw it in the feature box today. I'm really interested in the history of the writing of this story. It's a Twilicorn started 9 and 1/2 months before the air date of Magical Mystery Cure. So along with that concept becoming cannonized, it's just breathtaking to think of all the STUFF that's happened since then. I feel the stretches of time by using the show's developments as a marker, more than reading the list of chapter dates. There was even a year long break, but you still reached completion. I'm more excited at the idea of being able to talk to you, Cast-Iron Caryatid, and your experiences with a long-running fan project for an ongoing property, than actually reading the story. Please don't take the wrong way though, I'm sure the story is good; it's just that it's being thrown onto my embarrassingly long "Read Later" list.
Sucks to be Discord. Also Astri.
Very nice. :)
Thanks for writing!
Not really how I envisioned this ending. Celestia doing... whatever she's doing... seems fairly odd.
I almost thought she'd somehow become the 'mother' to the seed, but her planning to go off and perform division after addition is... offsetting.
Was a fun run, but it definitely ended differently than I expected.
very good story.
Well done author.
9378718
...Especially worrying since for most of the fic Celestia was the only responsible and mentally balanced pony present. The populace is still getting used to Luna and has had multiple bad experiences with Twilight, so by changing herself into something else Celestia is removing the only pillar of stability they'd had. I'm surprised there hasn't been a "buck this noise, we're going back to Celestia" movement gaining traction since all of the shenanigans started.
My only real criticism of the epilogue is that Celestia does a mediocre job of justifying why she feels the new alicorn must be her equal. Your comments in the thread cleared that up (they don't have to be; it's just Celestia's hang-ups and over-thinking that cause her to feel that way). The real problem is that redistributing alicorn-ness has pretty much never ended up well, so Celestia is taking a very large risk with the safety of the citizens she ostensibly still cares about.
It wouldn't take much to address this (appropriate snark from Discord as a closing line might do it). Overall I've still very much enjoyed the fic!
I’ve been following this story for years, I’m now ready to finish it off once and for all! Thanks author, for this amazing work!
Well, that's a weird ending. For a few moments, I was expecting something involving Discord either fusing with or gestating the reborn Harmony. Instead, we get a view of Celestia that's... well, maybe she's always been damaged like this and we just didn't really realise or understand it. I didn't expect a sequel, but your mix of comedy and lore and drama is enjoyable enough.
Other things:
• No, Twilight, a tall tree would be an awful and exhausting library. Don't do it.
• I don't really understand what happened with Astri. Were there five alicorns for a short time?
• I'm kind of gonna miss Twilight's unique nature, though. I thought it was neat.
• I hope to learn more about the other Elements and what they've become in the sequel. For how huge and important that was, I would have liked for it to be less hemmed-in by the story which caused it.
• Being who I am, I wonder at the insistence on pairs. A trio of ponies can be every bit as strong as a couple. Maybe – and bear with me here, because it's kind of an out-there conjecture – just maybe the ancient alicorns were... well, wrong?
EDIT: Oh right, congratulations on completing this story! It's a heck of a wild ride and goes places I'd never expected.
...is the seed glowing green and warm related to Discords collapse, there, or something else?
9379277
9378718
9378684
AcademicPony's point is also vastly important, Cast-Iron. I know that in-story the gods are harkening back to a very Mt. Olympus dynamic, like they had as their original selves. "Meh, the people will deal with whatever we do." But then it felt like the story kind of went there? Celestia's been the sole ruler for a thousand years, she chose her people over her family when she put down Nightmare Moon. She has over a thousand years up on pretty much everyone in the 'using brain' department and an incredible amount of wisdom head and shoulders above the rest. I could buy her getting a bit foggy-headed when the subject of her own romance revolving around Twilight came up since it was new territory and putting her at emotional odds with Luna even when Luna didn't know.
But, as you said in the comments, she wound up pretty damn dumb for an immortal who could basically handle the world using her own nation as a power piece, who had to defend it by herself, keep everyone on the planet alive, and make her nation one of - if not THE most prosperous on the planet. Yet now she's just sort of, "Boy I've got hangups, I need to possibly die to fix this." Without a thought spared for her people who are going through what might very darn well be an apocalypse scenario for them. Moons showing up and getting destroyed, gods battling in the sky, castles exploding, cities exploding, new gods just streaking about the place willy-nilly, all of their pets are now Fluttershy, their heroes are basically gone and have been the cause of so much grief and confusion - the only stable pillar they had left was Celestia, the one they've ALWAYS had, always putting their trust in her to make everything right. To say she is the mind, heart, and soul of Equestria is not wrong.
Oops, she felt sorry for an alicorn who didn't even want to live, now she's gone and torn herself in half and become a teenager. I wouldn't be surprised if half the population just started taking cyanide pills at this rate. One goddess demonstrated that she could see and rip out their souls, and that their souls all belonged to her. One blew up a moon. And now the only sane one they could believe in may have just offed herself to make herself feel better about something that had nothing to do with her.
If this is the kind of decision Celestia makes, how could she have been this amazing ruler for a thousand years all on her own? How is it everyone loved her so much before the thousand years to the point Luna snapped? How is Equestria so prosperous and not conquered? She chose her people over her sister when she banished the Nightmare and now she doesn't spare them a thought let alone make her decisions based on their needs.
I... realize that this will be expounded upon in the sequel, but I feel like the execution at the end of this story could have been handled completely differently? I've got to throw my hat in with Cedric and Academic on this one. This is your baby and your vision, I can't step on your toes for this, and I have been here almost every step of the way and loved every chapter over the years I've been on this ride with you, but this is a serious sticking point. Right at the finish line, too.
9379401
I feel I need to clarify here that I'm not disappointed by the ending, just scared for Celestia's well-being — and that fear is predicated on something the author might not have even meant seriously.
Also, it's fun to read your comment as if you were one of Equestria's citizens venting their frustrations at recent events at a town meeting or something. They certainly can't vent them to their Princesses, last time a citizen did that he had his soul ripped out for a minute and made an example of. Twilight certainly hasn't improved their little ponies' trust in their rulers.
Something that'll have to be addressed in the sequel, I suppose.
Though if I'm honest, I'm hoping for more of 'A Sparkle-ling Perfection' first.
9379353
If I understand correctly, Astri was a part of Twilight Sparkle that went rogue. It got glossed over in most of the fic, apparently because Twilight forgot about it, but when Twilight manifests via stardust she's literally cutting out a piece of her mind and sending that to Equestria, rather than sending all of herself or sending a projection like Celestia and Luna do. That turned out to be exactly as unhealthy as it sounds, and was responsible for most of the shenanigans.
The "tumor" analogy that's briefly mentioned works fairly well for Astri, if I understand correctly.
9379401
To be fair, I can see how the ending as-written makes sense:
- Earlier in the fic, when she was outed as being a projected avatar (and a bona fide goddess) rather than a pony, the populace was shown to have gotten a bit frosty towards Celestia as a result. This could have gone in different directions, but in CIC's story, it looks like they felt hurt that she'd lied to (or misled) them about this, and her guard were offended that they were doing a pointless job (protecting someone who's impossible to harm).
- As a direct consequence of this, Celestia gave an "I'm so proud of all of you; I agree that I've been mothering you excessively, so I'll step back and let you do your own thing" speech. I'd expect governance to go to tartarus in a handbasket unless the government bureaucracy is more solid than we've seen, but that's up to CIC to interpret.
...between the two of these, while she loves the populace, she doesn't have immediate duties to them at the moment. (I just think they'd have taken one look at the state of affairs and asked for her back; but they apparently didn't.)
- Celestia in the epilogue (and in some of the romance turmoil prior to it) had been shown to be in emotional turmoil. Between that and what she's been told by Twilight (and Harmony) about how alicorns tend to act, it looks like she doubts that she can function over the long term going forward.
...so, the most charitable explanation I can think of is that Celestia doesn't feel that she can keep doing this for the next few thousand years, and is trying to change the situation (and herself) to get one that is sustainable. She apparently feels that the risks of doing nothing outweigh the risks of what she plans to do.
I disagree with her on that, but I'm not Celestia, and CIC has pretty much stated that Celestia may be wrong but is fully capable of fooling herself about it.
My criticism of the epilogue was mostly that the reasoning involved wasn't adequately shown, not that it couldn't make sense. Someone reading it should understand why each actor's actions seem like a good idea to them. CIC did an uneven job with this.
All I have to do to improve it is offer to spend a hundred hours going over the entire fic with a red pen, and convincing CIC that he wants me to do that and to spend a hundred hours of his own considering the feedback.
I suspect that we'd both rather spend the time elsewhere.
what were the names of the alicorns that merged to become solaria again
vita i think was one, cant remember the other but if celestia's plan works out as she has sugested shed basicly be those 2 reborn right?
9379508
a beter way of describing it is astri was twilights version of nightmare moon
9379448
i'm fairly certain your fears are justified, just as surly as the merger that created solaria 'killed' the 2 alicorns that made her up in favor of something new, likewise this split will in all likelyhood result in 2 beings that are no more celestia then twilight is luna, dispite taht they were both born from the same source of magic, the shatered fragments of the former moon
it all depends on what you think makes a person who they are
if its purely terms of memory and expereinces, at least one of the two beings created will retain a good bit of celestia's memories but will it be enough to give her the same attitude, the same personality, the same sense of 'self'...likely not.
This is like a firework display gone catastrophically wrong.
It started out amazing full of color and pizzazz but something went wrong and while it still enrapturing, it's for completely different reasons.
Nice time killer.
9379580
I don't think so.
With Nightmare Moon, and with Discord, the misbehaviour was from absorbing an outside source of both magic and crazy - a situation neither the host nor the material absorbed was prepared to handle.
With Astri, something that was already a normal, healthy, functional part of Twilight turned on its host and went crazy. Biological analogues would be a seizure (where part of your brain enters a feedback loop) or a tumor (where part of your body stops responding to the normal cellular regulation mechanisms).
If anyone's going to go Nightmare, it's the demigod Mane 5, as they too have absorbed that same external source of magic (and crazy). The hope is that because they absorbed a regulated amount under controlled conditions the "crazy" will be minimized; time (and the sequel) will tell.
I have this fic favorited so I could wait till it was finished and tackle it in one go, but it's not showing up in the lineup when I check my favorites list! I order by date updated, so it should be right near the top with the other December 31 updates, right? Anyone know what I might be doing wrong, because now I'm worried some of the other stories I've been waiting on may have finished and are just not showing up in my list!
Monotheism is only bad when your god is imperfect.
That's all y'alls fault for choosing flawed gods.
Fear not. I SHALL BECOME THE GOD YOU NEED!! ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!!
Anyway, as I expected, Celestia turned into a moron. I knew it was coming, because people can't seem to handle characters that are competent at their jobs and not out of their friggin' minds to the point of suicide.
Overall, I felt the story became bogged down some time ago, and the resolution totally fell flat to me as it all depended on 'sex' and very trivial relationships.
Yes, I know all about ancient gods and their obsessions. But those were flawed creations made for flawed humans. I tend to ask myself bigger questions about ancient beings with immense powers. How would they REALLY behave if the trappings of mortality fell from them? Would primitive impulses still continue when the neuroendocrine signalling responsible ceased to exist?
The characters eventually become less interesting to me that DBZ characters, because even in a silly power-trip cartoon like DBZ the characters realize there are more important things that getting it on.
After all these years... a cliffhanger ending, and a sequel.
You’re the devil.
9379689
technicly speaking, they actualy are all nuts now already, rarity even outright admited it during the fight with astri, astri at one point asks rarity if exposure to the stars has driven her insane, among other things, to which rarity replies in the afirmative.
9379984
so you 'wanted' the story to end? must not have enjoyed it as much as i did.
i find it fiting, the end of one tale is the begining of another, by concluding this narative the author removes the expectation of its story going on and frees up the sequal to move on to adiffrent thread, a new track...for example the next story could be a world spaning adventure instead of a romance/slice of life with some adventure elements
if you've ever read 'celestia changeling queen of equestria, and its sequal changeling queen and they abysal empress same basic idea, the first one was relativly low stakes and featured more mystery and intreage then anything else, the sequal was pulse thumping action, adventure and globe spaningly titantic battels, culminating with a fight between a demonic sea queen and a fucking old god [see hp lovecraft]
9379914
I tend to disagree.
consider for a moment this simple thought...celestia and luna were only a few years apart in age 1000 years before and yet that tiny diffrence, that SLIGHT gap made there way of thinking and ideologies 'so' diffrent that celestia could not understand luna well enough to see how much luna was suffering....same for twilight, as much as celestia cares for twilight the age gap prevents here from truely understanding twilight, the reason luna has an easier time of it is luna is 1000 years out of the loop, any knowledge she has outside of magic [which twilight is a master of] is outdated, she may as well be a foal in this time just as ignorent and curious in every way
now then consider celestia's delema here will be an alicorn that will be younger, more ignorent, and weaker then all the others
the risk here is simply too high, as astri proved the world can ill handel a mad god rampageing thru it
9380015 The assumption in most stories is always that Celestia didn't know Luna was suffering... but this is likely untrue.
We knew from the very first episode of the show that Celestia HAD tried to reason with Luna... and that was just a summary.
We also know Luna had some ill-defined 'dark powers' which had corrupted her.
Therefore, Celestia may have tried to help Luna, but the power infecting her addled her mind and prevented her from seeing reason.
Do we not see unreasonable people all the time, even in this world bereft of magic? There are millions on medications to treat diseases of the mind, and many suffer from mental illness which prevent them from making wise decisions. How then is it so difficult to understand that Luna's self-generated sense of persecution may have all been from her own pathological delusions combined with negative magical influence, and this caused her to reject any efforts to assuage the issue?
Even in the show, the Tantabus episode reveals that not only does Luna now accept and acknowledge absolute responsibility for NMM, but she STILL has issues with rationality, as when the blame turned inward her response was to torture herself... and almost create another dream monster.
I saw this chapter, and the complete tag, and yelled out HOLY SHIT. Now my daughter is running around saying "Holy shit, I'm sorry" because I apologised as soon as she started swearing.
Regardless, nice! Awesome chapter, awesome ending. I don't think the ending with Celestia was necessarily a downer ending, though I am excited to hear that there will be a sequel to the story. Will be awesome to see the aftermath.
I'm thrilled with how things turned out on the Twilight-Luna front - I'm glad to see how Twilight fixed herself and eager to see how events play out with her friends from here on out. And personally? I love your Discord as a character. He's got a backstory that I've never seen before, and it's fascinating - casts a well-known character in an entirely new light. The lore in this fic is incredible, and I salute you for completing it. But I'm going to join the pile in not being thrilled about this ending with Celestia.
Ignoring all ramifications of Celestia destroying herself, because I don't see division ending any other way and I'm loathe to let go of her character - Solaria, for all her many flaws, was the joining of the sun. Luma and Vita represented aspects of day, but their divine essences weren't the sun, they were its components. Maybe Celestia does need to split herself, but... I think the loss of that bright thing in the sky is a minor problem. I'm going to echo what others have said in this being strangely irresponsible for her.
9380297
Just as Luna and Twilight's rebirths didn't bring back the old night-goddess' specific domains or get rid of the current heavenly bodies, I feel Celestia splitting wouldn't bring back the old day-goddess' specific domains and get rid of the sun. The sun might change a bit, as Twilight's ascension changed the stars; but I don't believe it's guaranteed that the sun would just vanish. That said, if the split happens, I do hope Cast-Iron can succeed in making it unarguably apparent that Celestia is still the same Celestia, and not some new person that's been granted all of Celestia's memories. That's my only hangup.
9380067
yeaah your argument is kinda invalid here as your useing show cannon for it
this story was stated as a full AU from the outset, the charicters here are inspired by the show, but are not nessiarly the same in every way, especialy considered this story began to be written in 2012
9379997
Not what I said. Just been here since chapter one, and - even though the pace has increased - I don’t know if my heart can take this dying without resolution. I beg for more, but I need to know there will be more.
Seriously, this was once a fluffy looking tuna.
Excited scared.
Ohh. Wow not sure what to think but looking forward to more.
9380506
someone has been hiting the sauce i see, oy the celebration was yesterday, time to get back to the real world
or as real as us bronies ever let it get....oh hey pinkie, sure im up for another party next week.
9380397 I was just pointing out that it's the case with Celestia-Luna-focused fanfics in general.
Despite this being an AU from the start, at the end it still managed to fall into Celestia about to do something incredibly stupid and out of character EVEN FOR HER IN THIS AU.
Look at some other comments here. I'm not the only one who noticed.
There are very few alicorn-centered stories of the dramatic sort that manage to strike the balance and stick to it.
It's simply that people have a very hard time contemplating what the mind of a creature that's been alive for a thousand and more years functions like. It's just easier to assume they're crazy, because 'crazy' is something one can assume doesn't just go away by itself.
But how a SANE and RATIONAL ancient mind would work? That's practically outside the realm of all human experience and conjecture. It can and has been done, however, in many famous sci-fi and fantasy works: Gandalf, Yoda, The Face of Boh, The Ancient One. And both DC and Marvel have ancient creatures and entities spanning the whole gamut of personality archetypes.
I just find that it doesn't fit Celestia, who's somehow managed to rule a very successful and peaceful nation for a thousand years without going stark raving mad from the petty issues of the 'children' who bring the same crap up over and over each generation, immediately crumbles or has been hiding instability for so long.
In this, we can look at humans. Most can't hide psychological imbalance for more than a few decades before it destroys them, or causes them to destroy themselves. Holding it in for centuries? No, something would snap... one particularly bad day...
The mental fortitude required to endure for such a length of time in a pinnacle position of power is god-like all by itself!
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Ah, that would be the bit I failed to pick up on. Suddenly, everything Astri said makes a lot more sense. It also recontextualises the Gemini Incident dramatically because now it turns out that Twilight kiiiinda convinced an aspect of herself to commit suicide. Because she wasn't in dire enough need for a shrink already.
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I'm fairly certain that Gemini wasn't a part of Twilight; that Astri didn't come from Gemini, but rather is a part of Twilight gone rogue that had mistakenly taken on that identity; "I don't want to be Twilight, I refuse to even acknowledge that as a possibility, and Gemini was the only other recently-kind-of-alive night goddess I could be if I'm not Twilight, so of course I'm Gemini, it all makes sense!", followed by "Wait, the name Twilight gave that goddess (I mean, me!) implies something I strongly disapprove of applying to myself, I now suddenly know despite Gemini (I mean, me!) not understanding it before! Screw that name, I'm uuuuuh Astri." I actually don't know what the name Gemini implies. It was probably said back when Twilight came up with the name, but that was forever ago, lol.
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The general impression I get at this point is there's something like a "Law of Conservation of Alicorns", so there can't really be a fifth, even in part. If we accept that, then I don't think it's unreasonable to think of Gemini and Astri as similar beings with similar origin: as nascent schism personalities of Twilight Sparkle that she wasn't even aware of because she believed her penchant for casual displays of self-mutilation was just how she was supposed to be. Tumours tend to beget more tumours, and it would also explain how Astri was mistaken for Gemini when she first stepped out.
Now, admittedly, I'm making this conjecture without going back to reread that whole underground saga, so it'll probably be shot full of holes by any examination deeper than cursory, but it's still unsettling that it could even be read as plausible at all.
Hello again! Congrats on finishing this massive project. This was the first story I favorited after a long Christmas Eve of reading, and have eagerly been following since. And while I still LOVE StN, I have to agree with others that this ending isn’t what I was expecting. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, it just feels lacking in some areas.
To me the Epilogue is more setting up the eventual sequel (which I AM excited for) than giving the closure between Twili— aaaaaaannnnd I just read the new comment in the Author’s Notes. Sorry. Keep up the amazing work.
Plz b 2 for givegive bitchcomment.
Luv u Wolfponi