Applied Starlight
written by Unknownlight
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I think Chapter 19 is an awesome chapter, and I'm pretty sure few would disagree with me about that. Now, before you downvote the story because of Chapter 20...
...I warned you guys. This story is a pretentious mind screw—I wrote it as one, and I always intended for it to be one. However, one aspect of this story is even more important than that:
This story is a puzzle. And the thing about puzzles? They have solutions. This puzzle in particular has multiple possible solutions, depending on how you interpret the events of the story (I'm a strong proponent of Death of the Author). For example, a simple solution would be "the events of this story were just Twilight's hallucinations, and the stars' first proposed theory was correct". With the exception of the four links at the end, that solution covers everything (but that's exactly why the end just has links—they can be ignored if your theory doesn't fit them). Wild Mass Guessing is more than welcome, and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!
I tried to make my own solution fairly simple to solve. If, for some reason, absolutely no one is able to figure it out, then at some point in the future I'll write a blog post where I explain my own theory and open the floor for questions. I'd like to give everyone a chance to puzzle it out for themselves first, though!
(EDIT: Here's the blog post in question.)
I hope everyone enjoyed reading Applied Starlight. I sure had a ton of fun writing it!
...I'm so confused....
I was very close to turning my upvote into a downvote with the "I'm Discord! And this is all my doing" thing... I kept going, however, and it turned out... Weird.
I have two main thoughts about this story. They're not so much as my ideas as to what happened so much as just things that I thought of while reading the end here.
One is that Twilight has always been controlled by the Narrator, so to speak, and the narrator wants to control what happens, but Twilight fights against that and breaks free in the end, returning to her own life where she is herself, back to where the Narrator simply said what happened as opposed to controlling it.
The second thing I thought of was the multiverse theory; that everything Discord/Starshine/Celestia's-inner-voice is true somewhere, but not necessarily in their universe, and that the thing that was true in their universe was the coma/hallucination one, and Celestia interpreted the memories she saw from Twilight as her own for just a moment, but nothing aside from that.
...You know, I tend to make a habit of avoiding things I don't readily understand. It is a mixed blessing, since I don't go for new things all that often.
That said, I am going to watch this thing like a hawk. This story was so far out of left field, it's been called out of bounds of Interestingville and into Pure Nutso City.
Oh, and when you do make a blog post about the solution, please tag this story so I can see it. Pretty please?
... my...brain...hurts...
Hm... I guess... it was probably a coma? Twilight hallucinating with a fragmented part of her, possibly her subconscious trying to keep her asleep so she wouldn't face Applejack?
But the links...at the end... confuse me.
I shall have to read this several times to figure it out I think.
Yup. Worth that extra 20 hours or so.
Yeah, I already favourited this work, and now I'm more than glad I did, even if it IS a giant, pretentious incomprehensible mind screw.
The biggest thing to note about that ending?
Chapter 19 called the rest of the story out on the use of "she" in place of Twilight, but "she" was used again in chapter 20. There's no defining who the "she" is. Which, of course, makes the fact that the author said "You can ignore chapter 20 if you want" just that much more ... liberating.
This is firmly a "Pick Your Own End" kind of story; It could be All Just a Dream, could be that the second world was just a dream, could be that it's all Celestia's dream, could be that Twi was in a coma, could be that Twi was just reading a book and "woke up" is a metaphor. Or dozens of much less pleasant endings, such as Twilight being re-written back into the false world by the spell she cast. But I'm not going to dig into those. Down that path lies madness, after all.
Now normally, I really prefer to have some kind of sense of closure when I'm reading a story, but in this case I can let it slide.
Good job.
An important thing to know about this story is that I never actually expected anyone to read it, let alone get as many comments and faves as it has. I was a complete nobody, with zero followers, with a first chapter that rambles on about nothing, and I posted the story so fast (only a little over a week) that it wouldn't have any time to gain a following even if a few people did see it. Had I known that people would actually read and be interested in this story, I wouldn't have written this ending. That's not to say that I regret it (I actually really like this ending, and I have no intention of ever changing it), but the next time I write something I'll be sure to, y'know, actually write something with closure.
Admittedly, I am a bit disappointed in myself that no one's figured out the final "plot twist" (if you can call it that) yet. I actually truly did intend for this to be solvable without help. Looks like I failed.
Oh well. I'll definitely be writing that blog post... at some point...
4593791 Mm. Sorry. Did you at least enjoy the experience?
4594059 While the "Discord" explanation is there for people who like it (though I don't know who would), I never took it seriously myself, and neither does the chapter.
The stars are screwing with Celestia, making fun of her and making up random shit because Celestia (and, by extension, the readers) didn't accept the stars' first explanation (the one that they want you to think is true). For the most part, the only reason the Discord thing is there is because I noticed that the stars' dialogue/narration sounds a lot like Discord, so I figured as long as they're spewing out contradictory theories...
4594084 Of course I will! And I'm very happy that you enjoyed the story, regardless of how weird it was.
4594095 If you really are planning to reread, my suggested chapters are 1, 2, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 and 20. Uh... good luck?
4594261 Thank you.
You're absolutely right, this certainly is a "Pick Your Own Ending" story. The links in Chapter 20 are meant to be clues directing the reader to the ending I picked, but even then it's not completely without ways to fudge the results to your liking, even if you go by my canon. Eh. I'm glad you enjoyed the story!
4594418
Okay, so it really was the stars? Hmm... Alright. At least it wasn't Discord.
Truthfully, I read it in a female/Celestia-ish voice until it mentioned Discord.
4594426 I kinda just read it... No voice to go with it, just... read it.
4594418
The problem I'm having is that I'm more than likely over-thinking this.
Every time I think I have the correct answer, I realize something else that introduces another potential ending.
Personally, I like the idea that the spell teleported her mind into the spellbook, but there are too many issues with that, and the ending isn't consistent with it.
I don't think it's something to do with some kind of mental escape, and I refuse to believe that the entire thing was a dream of someone higher up a ladder of dreams. (Nope, nope, nope, nope. No Inception BS here please.)
i would consider trying to figure out the mind screw of a story this is but i have more stories to read
Okay, I'll bite.
There are alternate universes piled on top of one another - 'turtles all the way down'. Each time you go down a universe, you get to a previous generation of MLP. Twilight managed to teleport herself to somewhere in between G4 and the previous generations, and in the void between them, she creates another universe to fill the space.
Every time she creates things, she draws power from the stars underneath the barrier. 'Underneath' is all the previous MLP universes, so when she creates her friends, they manifest with previous-generation aspects - Rarity a princess, Fluttershy a shutterfly. They try to take Twilight into Dream Valley, which, since it involves going 'downwards', I presume means they try to take her down into a previous generation. She flies up, however, and bursts through the barrier above, where the G4 universe lies.
The narration calls Celestia 'Starshine' because Starshine is the previous-generation pony Celestia is designed after.
... Something like that?
Edit: Spoiler'd :P
4594649 The "correct" solution to the story works from a purely in-universe POV. It has a lot of meta implications, yes, but everything is supposed to make sense in-universe. Keep in mind that my idea really isn't that complicated or mind-bendy—it was meant to be solvable, so it's not going to be that amazing or blow your mind or anything.
Pay attention to the links too, particularly the last one. The article of Starshine was (half of) what inspired the entire story, so it's an important one. Compare:
ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/819vyo87ARL._SX522_.jpg
mylittlewiki.org/w/images/9/9a/Starshine.jpg
Sections of that article are also relevant, from the subtle:
To the more explicit:
4594857 Thumbs up thumbs up thumbs up! =D Missing some details, but that's so awesome!
Though, if you don't mind, actually put that in spoilers. XD
Woo! I'm awesome.
Also, am I to presume that Starshine, of G1, sodded off on an adventure between universes and had so much fun she forgot about her previous life and became Celestia? Or something? There's probably more, but I should be in bed an hour ago. I have work in the morning, and instead I'm dissecting pony stories. God, I need to sort my life out.
Also also, is it significant in chapter 2 that no-one finds the idea of a pegasus mage unusual?
4594917 Yeah, I imagined Starshine physically moving between the universes. Again, there are some minor, extra details throughout that weren't covered by your explanation, but none of them are very important, so I'd rather just leave them without an explanation to see if someone else in the future ever notices them. You got all the core stuff right. Awesome job!
It really ought to be, but no. That was just me forcing my MLP headcanon into my story.
I've always liked the idea of all the pony races being equally capable of magic, and since complex spells seem to be based on theories and equations, then any race should be able design them even if they can't cast them. Since Starshine is canonically a pegasus, I used it as an excuse to shove that little worldbuilding tidbit in there.
4594865 Oh hey. I did not expect the one ending that I regarded as too absurd to be correct, to be the right one.
Shows what I get for hubris.
This story screws with my mind in some ways that it has awakened my inner child that used to love those stupid puzzles
, and if Twilight isn't in another universe (because then Celestia couldn't have seen what she saw), and Discord is not the mastermind, and Twilight doesn't have her brain fried, then... the stars lied in all the their theories?? 
Since I didn't read the last chapters (I was in school), I was thinking about the theories that the stars said in chapter 18 to Celestia about who they were. I am not really sure about the answer I came to... but I gotta say that it isn't Discord, this is more about common sense than something you can infere from the story. Come on! You can't fool the Elements of Harmony so easily, when he gave the collar to Twilight in Twilight's Kingdom as to show friendship, he really meant it!
I think the stars are a separate identity or somethin' chillin' in the dark depths of comatose lavender ponies, or waitin' in a friggin' book. Now, I think the stars only put Twilight in coma, because even if the theory of a Twilight with a fried brain is true, I don't think magical overload can cure it, and Celestia couldn't have done that trick with the dreamwalking spell in a friggin' fried BRAIN RIGHT??! (that, and being brain dead doesn't give you vivid hallucinations)
Stupid stars, maybe I am correct and they're just another entity that wants 'fun', that, or WE are THEM! OohohoOHhoh.
4595290
Well, hey, it's supposed to be absurd. I have the "Comedy" label on the story for a reason, y'know. One stupid thing I particularly like about the ending is that you just have to twist the wording around a little bit, look at a few things from different angles, and you can very easily reinterpret Chapter 19 to be about Twilight destroying G3. 
4595429 Ha, glad to hear it! That's what I was going for.
Again, this depends on how you choose to interpret the story, but in my mind: Eeyup.
Celestia actually outright says this.
The one that I consider to be closest to correct is the "applied starlight" theory. After all, the whole story is named after it. Notice how the stars were very quick to prevent Celestia from thinking about it too much, and immediately pointed out flaws and tried to distract her with other theories?
Oh gog it's over I can't even though ?
??
4595606
It's... so beautiful. That thought. 
Yeah, I'm keeping that one.
4595208
Damn it, now I'm going to have to look for the minor details too. I'm not getting anything done this week.
Soo 1-4-3. Pinkie says she said "I love you", and the letters of that phrase match the numbers she actually came out with. Perhaps the shopkeeper was saying something else when she charged one forty-three for the candy..? But probably not
. I presume they refer to pony generations, though - G1 Starshine, G4 Twi, and G3 newborn-universe. Either the order the universes are stacked on top of one another, or just a general reference to what appears in the story, or the generations that make up Twilight's universe.
Hey. Hey. Hey. You know what that universe should be called?
It should be called The Twilight Zone.
4599296 When I first wrote the story, the only instance of "143" was when Pinkie said it. It was only when I went back for editing that I realized there were more spots for me to throw in the number (Minty's scene, as you mentioned, and also the number of pages in the spellbook that Twilight mentioned in Chapter 2).
Is there any real purpose to the number being repeated multiple times? No, not really. I only did it because this story is a tribute to mind screws, and every good mind screw has an Arc Number. Look at LOST. It has six (six!) arc numbers that add together to form a seventh! If that show has so many, then my story should at least have one.
As for the "I love you" thing, I was originally planning for Pinkie to say something that rhymes with "one four three" like "fun for me!" (y'know, the classic sitcom exchange). I couldn't actually think of anything that fit the situation, though. At some point I discovered that "143" representing "I love you" is actually a thing, so that's what Pinkie ended up pretending she said because I thought it was funny.
Anyway, yeah. Once again, your first theory was actually the right one! You're awesome.
The number refers to the order that the universes are stacked on top of each other. G1 is at the top, followed by G4, followed by G3 (My Little Pony Tales is technically part of G1, so G2 wasn't included). The higher you are on the food chain, the more influence you have on the layers below you.
Why are the generations not stacked in release order? Well, like I've mentioned before, I wanted this story to work from an "in-universe" point of view as much as I could, so it shouldn't require knowledge of real world things like when Hasbro created each of the generations. Since I had to specify the order the universes are stacked anyway, and I wasn't including G2, I figured I might as well stack them in the order that's best for the story.
By the way, this setup is the key to understanding why elements of G1 leaked over to G4 in the story. Starshine is the most obvious one, but there's others too. The YouTube video is a link to the "Applejack is a silly pony" song and, from Chapter 18...
There's also Twilight herself. Remember, she's a G1 character too. Watch this video. Now, from Chapter 5:
This story has so many minor and stupid references that I'm pretty sure I've forgotten half of them.
By the way, did you read "Applied Starlight: Explained"? You're credited.
It was great story. At first I thought it is just another "Twilight had magical accident and everyone is sad" story but the more I read the more I was changing my mind. With eath new chapter it was getting better and better. And the last three chapters were pure mind blow. Right now I can only say that I loved the fight between Twilight and narrator.
This story deserves a fav.
4603013 Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed.
I was always kind of worried about how long a casual reader would be willing to read this fic, since the first two-thirds of it or so are little more than setup for the meat of the story that doesn't come until near the very end. 
Also, the final battle was by far the funnest part of the story to write. I'm glad it was good.
Applied Starlight
by Unknownlight
28,050 words (first 5,000ish reviewed only)
A pony wakes up in an empty void and discovers that it is infinitely malleable to her whims and desires.
A loving tribute to pretentious, incomprehensible mind screws.
Thoughts Before: This sounds somewhat like Equestria From Dust, a story I am fond of, and I'm always in the mood for a "pretentious, incomprehensible mind screw". The pairing of comedy and tragedy is always an interesting combination, though the author notes that this story was hard to properly tag. Oh, and short chapters. I like short chapters. Let's do this!
Thoughts During: The first chapter does a good enough job at capturing Twilight's high levels of adorkableness. Believable enough flashback Spike/Twilight dialogue follows.
Hey, this story is even making me giggle.
Well, I'm hooked.
Thoughts After 5000 Words: So far this alternates between flashbacks and Twilight figuring out how to warp nothingness. I'm really curious to see where this one goes. Given the tragedy tag, my guess is that Twilight finds in the book she is trying to open a spell that lets her cast herself into a universe of her own making, and since she can't get back home, she recreates home. We'll see. The author definitely can write well enough, and I'd strongly encourage them to write some more pony stories.
Verdict: If you like well written Twilight Sparkle and "pretentious, incomprehensible mind screws", you'll probably like this one.
Update: Having read the rest, yeah, "pretentious, incomprehensible mind screw" fits. Solid story. Similar to, but not quite as great or grand as the aformentioned Equestria From Dust, but still something worth checking out. I'd keep an eye on this author.
This is Super Trampoline's 3rd review. If you would like to request a review of your own story, please visit THIS BLOG POST.
4624460 Glad you enjoyed.
Having read the whole story now, do you still feel that Chapter 16 is a poor chapter because it diffused the previous tension, or did Chapter 18 (the chapter that 16 was setting up) redeem it?
If you're still waiting for a Zero Punctuation review I'll be with you in about a week and a half when I get my laptop back.
4848514 That would be awesome!
Thank you! 
4848528 Keep in mind it will be my first try, and I'm no Yahtzee.
If nothing else, this was worth the trip.
I'm going to let it rattle around in my brain for a while before I check out that blog post... even though I guess most of it was spoiled in previous comments.
Also (since I can't edit my comment for whatever darn reason):
4896100 Ha! Yup, yours is pretty much exactly the reaction I was going for.
I'm very glad you enjoyed it! 
Yeah, there's a few extra things explained in the blog post, but you can learn pretty much everything just by reading the comments. I was very happy to see that people figured things out my puzzles and I didn't have to sheepishly explain everything after the fact.
Okay, I... think I found this through the TV tropes MLP fanfic thread at the forums. And I'm glad I read this. Yeah, it's screwy, but not in a bad way.
I think Twilight simply had bad takeout.
4978020
Durr... I'm amazed that this story still has typos considering how many times I've reread it.
Thanks. Fixed!
Did you read the blog post?
I'm glad you enjoyed!
You...
Cheeky son of a gun.
As cool as this story is, I'm always seriously bothered when the author leaves it up to the readers to make up the missing half of the story, especially when said half holds most if not all of the really important bits. It doesn't help that this story is pretty mindfucky to begin with. I would very much like to know what exactly just happened.EDIT: Nevermind, read the blog post.
5251234 ...How did I not notice this?! I wrote this. I reread every chapter over and over looking for typos. Why did I pick cupcakes for Pinkie to want to bake? I could have had her talk about anything! How?!
...It's subliminal, I tell you. That story has festered its way into the deepest part of my mind...
5251312 I'm really happy that you enjoyed the story!
I'm also really happy that you pointed this out. This story was written from the very beginning to be "a loving tribute to pretentious, incomprehensible mind screws", and I mean that more literally than you might think. I've always been a fan of the "mind-screw" genre—when it's done well, it's just awesome and really fun to read. This story is my homage to the whole genre, and by that I mean it's literally a Greatest Hits collection of dozens of half-remembered scenes/concepts/references/ideas from years' worth reading these types of stories. Nothing in this story is original. I know I'm being a bit presumptuous to say so, but I like to think of this story as a bit like the Smash Bros. of mind screws.
Of course, one big problem with this is that I don't actually remember any of the stories that I'm referencing (it's all stuff that I read years ago and I don't know how I could even find any of them), so... yeah. Like I mentioned in my blog post, the only thing I explicitly remember is One Over Zero, which got an extended reference in Ch. 5.
Thanks for the compliment, but I understand why I was thumbed-down. If I remember correctly, I got my first two thumbs down when I first published Ch. 20 (I don't know about the recent third thumbs down, but I like to think that it's the same). And really, I don't blame anyone for giving a thumbs down to this story after reading Ch. 20. I adore how this story ends—it's the perfect cherry on top of my mountain of homages—but I'm perfectly aware that it's objectively an incredibly pretentious and unsatisfying ending that drags the whole story down with it. I don't care. I love it and it'll only be changed over my dead body, but I don't blame anyone for downvoting the story after reading. I kind of deserve it.
On a final note, I noticed you deleted two of your comments before I got the chance to read them. I know I'm being nosy, but it's painful for authors to see comments on their story that they didn't get to read.
If you don't mind me asking, what happened there? Were they just mistaken double-posts, or... what?
Thank you for reading! I'm very glad you enjoyed!
5251282 Goddamn do I love comments like this.
...When I started writing this comment reply, I intended to just briefly answer your questions and respond to your theories, but instead I ended up going into great detail about everything in this story, my own thoughts, and how it all fits together. I'm nowhere near done writing it, but now that I'm thinking about it I think this big explanation would be a lot better as a new blog post ("Applied Starlight: Thoroughly Explained") than as a comment reply to just you. I know that I love leaving things utterly ambiguous because it's blast to read people's theories, but that's something that's a lot more fun for the author than the reader. So yeah, I'm probably going to write a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the story soon.
That doesn't mean I can't give you some brief answers to your questions, though. Keep in mind that tons of stuff that would explain things were simply not included in the story because I wanted to leave things open to interpretation. Once I post a "big explanation", that'll basically remove all room for interpretation, which sucks, but it's probably what most readers want anyway.
It refers to the order the MLP Generations were created in-universe. More details here.
At this point in the story everyone Twilight meets is the stars in disguise. The stars need Twilight as the spark to create life in the new universe, so they allow her to freely play out her dreamlike whims as long as it doesn't harm their overall goal. Twilight got the idea of Rainbow stealing the moon from Pinkie's comment about it in Ch. 6.
Eh... she's not. This part is purely for the readers' benefit to realize that Applejack and Twilight have inherited aspects from G1 while the others are turning into G3. That same comment I linked to above has more details in its second half. I'll explain why this is important once I get around to writing the full blog post...
This story never truly breaks the fourth wall, and thinking in real-life terms actually harms your understanding of the story. In real life, G3 came before G4, but in this fanfic, it's the other way around. Remember: 1-4-3.
Backstory not actually talked about in the fic: Celestia once tried to separate herself from the stars' influence by transferring the stars' power into a book. However, she failed and only a portion of the stars ended up being transferred. All of her memories of the stars are now trapped in that book.
By the way, once I actually write this blog post, I'd like to PM it to you first, if you don't mind. I'd like to check to make sure that I'm not accidentally omitting something, or being confusing, or if you have any other questions that aren't explained before before I publish the thing. Is that okay with you?
One last thing:
That is awesome and I love it and I wish that I'd thought of it when I was first plotting the story. Unfortunately, I'd only ever thought of the links as things for the readers' benefit, not something that makes sense within the story.
I'm really glad you liked the story and I had a blast reading your interpretation of it—I can say with honestly that my own ideas are no better, so once I get around to posting my explanation don't be pressured into taking my word as "canon" if you think my ideas are stupid. That's why I left things ambiguous in the first place!
Thank you!
5251418 A singularity of turtles. Turtle-ception. We have to go deeper.
5251435 Glad you like it!
5251502
As I mentioned in a previous comment, I don't blame anyone for downvoting once they read the last chapter. I kind of deserve it.
5251732 Now that the story's on EQD, I'm planning on writing a far more thorough blog post that should explain pretty much everything. That'll happen... at some point... So yeah, look forward to that?
5251857 Twilight has always been our god. We've just never knew until now.
5253998
Aww, and I was so sure that was a subtle reference. Oh well. This way is a little more amusing, I suppose.
Also, how many real references/private jokes/easter eggs did you slap in? I caught the one about "Curiouser and curiouser" (Alice in Wonderland), "Who's a silly pony" and a lot of the G3 references (though they were actually part of the plot), the apple pie and sandwiches being repeated and the moon being stolen by Rainbow based on the "Everfree" chapter, but I feel like there are quite a few more I missed.
Curiouser and curiouser was a reference, right?
I was (mostly) joking. If people dislike it that's fine, and some people just don't like "pretentious, incomprehensible mind screws". Usually I just have a problem with people disliking things where at least some thought/effort was put in, without actually explaining why. Can get a little annoying, as it doesn't give the writers much opportunity to improve or at least understand why their work wasn't as well received as it could have been. I'm not sure if that was the case here, but I couldn't resist poking fun at those kinds of people anyway.
Well, they were normal comments- it's just that after reading the last few chapters and your explanations, they suddenly seemed incredibly stupid. I can only remember one, unfortunately, but I can assure you the other wasn't important (otherwise I probably wouldn't have forgotten).
"(On chapter 19- Glass): Wait, so there's a pony named Minty, Rarity is (still) a princess, and Rainbowdash is dressing in style?
...
I didn't realise this was a horror fic."
5255256
Oh god, way too many to count.
I'm pretty sure I remember
allmost of the ones that are relevant to the plot, but the list of minor unimportant stuff just goes on forever! Here's a particularly stupid one from Ch. 14:Remember that Rainbow Dash is talking to Rarity right now, and Rarity is now a princess. Therefore:
5254002 Seriously? I think it was brilliant. The fact that you not only provided us with a number of potential explanations for exactly what the hell was going on, but simultaneously discredited each one AND left every thing utterly open and unresolved.
Masterfully done.
The turtles bit was also good.
I'm of the opinion that writing a blog post explaining things would rather ruin the effect (this doesn't mean you shouldn't write it of course, just that I for one have no intention of reading it).
I particularly loved the final chapter, such as it is.
"Then she woke up".
...
'Then SHE woke up'.
We all see what you did there you sneaky you......
Just scrolling through the comments and noticing the many things I missed. I have to say that it's the little details that make stories like this such a joy to read, even when you don't know they are there. It's proof that you really put your heart (and your time) into this, to which I can only say, bravo sir.
.....
Or bravo madame, I don't discriminate.
5255868 Good news: Replies still work under spoiler tags. Though I have no idea why you put it in spoiler tags to begin with.
Thank you! And I'm happy you enjoyed it so much.
Unfortunately, nowhere. See, My Little Pony Tales isn't technically G2, it's actually still part of G1 (G2 was a short-lived series of toys that had more horse-like proportions). G2 has no cartoon of its own. I originally played around with ideas for including Tales somewhere in the mix (the stars split G1 into two parallel universes for...reasons...), but in the end I just threw up my hands and said "Screw it".
No one even knows anything about Tales anyway. When I make references to "Who's a silly pony?" or "Rainbow Dash always dresses in style", I can expect a certain number of people to get it, but there are no references to Tales that I can think of that anyone would understand.
So yeah. It's unfortunate, because I originally did want to include Tales somewhere, but...it wasn't meant to be. Tales is just yet another turtle floating in the vast singularity of turtles. Ask Tank about it, I guess.
5255986
That's actually a good thing I should mention in the intro to the post (whenever I get around to writing it): it's probably going to screw up the mystique of the story, so read at your own risk.
I love the last chapter myself, so I'm glad I've got at least one other person in the world who shares my opinion!
Do you know that (as far as I remember) you're the very first person to say that they actually liked the last chapter?
I kinda wish that I timed it now, because I'm pretty sure I might have spent more time trying to figure out what on earth I was trying to accomplish with this story (and puzzling out all the little details) than I spent, y'know, writing the darn thing.
I'm a "bravo sir", just to clarify.
I'm very glad you enjoyed! Thank you!
Oh. My. God.
Why can't every story ever written be as mind-bending as this one?! WHY?!?!?!
First page scanned, no mention. Here goes:
You do realize that a tragedy and a comedy are two different kinds of stories, right? A tragedy can have some comedic parts, but it's still inherently a tragedy. Likewise, a comedy can have tragic plotlines and scenarios, but is still inherently a comedy. Unless your story is specifically designed to be a perfect hybrid between the two, only one tag should apply. Used to be quite the topic to fuss about on this site. Not sure anymore, though - I don't much participate in the community anymore.
Just sayin'. I'm reading the story regardless of what you have to say or what you do with this information. Unless you remove it. Then I'm kinda SOL.
5258902
I'm glad you liked it!
I imagine that my brain wouldn't be able to take reading too many stories like this one.
5259273 I have no idea what genre this story is. No idea. I have a different view of it than most people (I'm currently writing a big blog post that'll explain what my goals were for this fic) but I consider this story kind of like... a big fat Take That, disguised as a parody of a tragedy, except written as if it were legitimately dramatic, except for the absurd moments that remind you that it's really not.
I don't know. I really don't know. I've given up. I mention in the description that my "ideal tags" are [Ominous][Puzzle] and [Parody], so... yeah.
To answer your question, though, I checked when I first published the story. Tragedy/Comedy is allowed because those are called tragicomedies. I don't think this is one, but it's slightly less inaccurate than other combinations of tags.
5259374
I never said I liked it, but whatever.
And I personally think the tags you used for the story describe it pretty well, actually. Just sayin'.
5259403 Well, you did favorite this story, so I sure hope that you favorite stories that you actually like.
For me, the only public bookshelf I have is "Favorites"—I keep the rest private because I don't think many authors would appreciate the bookshelves I file a lot of stories under. 
Oh, that's good! I was never really confident about that...
I think I understand.
I have a nice theory that would explain it, put it in a logical frameset and make it work out but at the same time I have no word to express the lie that the story tells.
My other theory:
Twilight created a miniature universe in her mind. Like Celestia once did. When she was part of Generation 3. All the way down to G1.
Is there an end? Maybe?