Epilogue; Aftermath
She Said No
Epilogue; Aftermath
Twilight Sparkle sat on her bed, staring out her window into the cold darkness of night. On the very edge of the blackened horizon she could still see the angry orange glow of the fires raging through Fillydelphia. A newspaper, tear stained and crumpled, lay discarded on the floor. Across the front page in large, bold letters was the headline, “Havoc in Fillydelphia; where were our heroes?”.
The solitary sound of quiet sobbing filled the crystal room, bouncing around the walls and battering Twilight's ears. But behind her sobbing she could hear another noise, a noise she knew wasn't there, but somewhere far, far away. The noise coming from the fires raging through the heavily populated down town district of Fillydelphia.
Twilight Sparkle could hear screaming.
Some in fear, some in pain, some in confusion, but all of them screaming. She could hear all of them. Feel all of them. Her heart ached a pain worse than any physical wound could hope to.
The pitch black room was illuminated briefly by a lightning crack of light and a thunderous boom. Celestia stood at Twilight's window, gazing out across the land towards the raging fires.
“Do you know why Fillydelphia is in flames?” She asked quietly, barely a hint of sadness contained in her tone.
Twilight sobbed harder.
“I thought as much. Do you know why I'm here?”
Twilight didn't answer for a few moments, before weakly shaking her head.
“I didn't think so. We managed chase off the dragon that was attacking, at the cost of many of my guards and innocent civilians. Just like the dragon itself, its fire cannot be touched by magic, and can spread to any material. Ponies are working around the clock to try and contain it, but I fear the fire will have spread to over half the city before this night is over. I left Luna at the city to organize a search and rescue effort, and I'm expected to be back there soon."
Finally, Twilight spoke in hushed, broken words, “W-Why are y-you here?”
Celestia took her eyes from the window and looked at her former student, huddled in on herself and crying openly on her bed. “Luna and I are the only two who know why it was the Guard and not you and your friends who opposed that dragon. We haven't told the populace anything, but I will not lie to my subjects, and if they ask I will tell them what happened this afternoon between you and I.”
Unable to say more, Twilight lifted the discarded newspaper in her grasp and weakly levitated it over to Celestia, who took it in her own magic.
“It seems they have assumed as much,” the older alicorn summarized, briefly reading through the article before tossing it onto the vanity against the opposite wall. “Have your friends been to see you yet?”
Twilight nodded.
“Did you lie to them?”
Hesitating, Twilight bit her lip before shaking her head slowly.
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I gather they were rather upset?”
“T-they left an hour ago, t-to help with th-the fire,” Twilight whimpered, finally forcing herself to sit up in her bed, wiping away the tears, both dry and wet, as more continued to fall from her eyes.
“Why did you not go with them? Are you still exercising your free will?”
Twilight cringed at the words, salt being thrown in an already festering wound. To her surprise, Celestia winced as well.
“I apologize; that was uncalled for. You had no way of knowing what would happen.”
“They... they told me not to come,” she admitted quietly. Sniffling loudly, Twilight asked again, “Why are you here?”
Celestia sighed, hanging her head. “I'm here to say I'm sorry, Twilight. I've known for a while you were feeling like this, but I didn't take action. Just like with Luna, so long ago, I thought you would pull yourself out of it. I could have saved you so much heartache and so many lives if I'd had this talk with you earlier.”
“You... you knew?” Twilight asked, eyes wide.
“Twilight, I have known you your entire life. I have watched you grow and learn and play. I watched as you made your first friends, and I hope to be there when you meet the love of your life. In many ways I consider you akin to my daughter, and I know you think of me as a second mother, not just a mentor. It would be rather shameful for a mother to not know how her child is feeling,” Celestia explained gently, finally peeling herself from the window and walking over to Twilight's bed, climbing on slowly and sitting next to the smaller mare.
“I made a mistake when I did not talk to Luna sooner, and as a result Equestria fell into a civil war, and I lost my sister for a thousand years. I did not learn from it, and made the same mistake with you. As a result, ponies have lost their lives and loved ones. Yes, Twilight, you made a mistake today, but the blame for your actions rests on both our shoulders.”
Twilight didn't respond, allowing the room to drift into darkness. Eventually, Celestia asked, “Do you regret your choice from this afternoon?”
“It's cost me my friends, my position as princess, and countless innocent ponies their lives. The guilt is eating me alive. Of course I regret it.”
“Do you still think that I consider you and your friends as nothing more than pawns and pieces of a weapon?”
Twilight didn’t answer.
“I thought so.” Celestia sighed, sparing a glance at the smaller alicorn out of the corner of her eye. With a gentle, fluid motion, she extended one of her large wings and wrapped it around the mare, completely covering her in a downy blanket of white feathers. “I can't blame you for that, either; I have not been the most... open with you and your friends. However, I ask that you believe me when I say that I consider every single life in this world sacred. From the ponies and the griffons and the horses who live here to the dragon flies and mice who inhabit our planet alongside us. The same is true for you and your friends, Twilight; I hold all of you close to my heart, and your pain is my pain.”
“My friends...” Twilight whimpered, looking out to the fires where her former friends were helping battle the blaze she had neglected to prevent. “Will they ever forgive me?”
“I... cannot say. If they can, it will take a lot of hard work on your part to ever earn their trust again.”
“I'm willing to do anything for them.”
Celestia gave a small smile. “I knew you'd say that.”
“And... if we can repair our friendship... would we be able to act as the Elements of Harmony again?” Twilight asked hesitantly, a slight waver in her voice.
“If you can earn their forgiveness, you truly deserve to act as the Elements. However,” Celestia paused, Lighting her horn briefly and bringing forth an object with a flash of teleportation. She levitated Twilight’s crown over to the pair. “It is clear to me you are not yet ready for the role of princess.”
“I... I understand.”
“Do not mistake me, Twilight,” Celestia added quickly,” I blame myself for this; I should have waited longer to give you Starswirl's journal. I never gave you a chance to truly enjoy life, and that is the biggest mistake I made with you. I let you discover the magic of friendship, and before you could even enjoy it I shoved your destiny upon you. From now on, you are just an ordinary citizen of Equestria.”
Celestia slowly retracted her wings from Twilight's back now that the tears had stopped. She stood from the bed and walked back over to the window. “You know,” she started casually, looking towards the fires. “The midnight train to Fillydelphia leaves in 45 minutes, and they could always use more help down there.”
Twilight's bloodshot eyes widened as she realized what Celestia was telling her. “You mean I should...?”
“The newspaper was asking where their heroes were. Five of them are there already; where's the sixth?”
Without waiting for another word Twilight shot off her bed, rummaging through her vanity for enough bits to buy a ticket. When she'd found all she needed, she rushed to the door, but stopped when it was held closed by a golden glow. She looked at Celestia.
“I'm leaving this with you,” Celestia said, placing the tiara on Twilight's vanity. “Come to me when you think you're ready to wear it once again.”
Twilight frowned. “After everything I've done... do I even deserve that anymore?”
“My mistake caused the corruption of my sister and a civil war, and I'm still a princess,” Celestia explained quietly. “One dragon attack you didn't even truly know about is hardly as bad. You have a long road of hard work ahead of you Twilight, but I know you can do it.”
Twilight gave a small, timid smile as her door was opened for her.
“Just... next time, talk to me about how you're feeling before a disaster comes, okay?”
“I will, Celestia,” she affirmed. “And... thank you, for everything. My entire life; I wouldn't be me without you. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Twilight ran over and gave the alicorn a tight hug.
“Good luck, Twilight. Now go; your road starts on that train.”
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I'm sorry but this chapter ruins the story, the first chapter leaves it shrouded in mystery on what they were need for not to mention they don't have the elements, they would be helpless against a dragon attack, not to mention how many plot holes it makes
4893601
The point of this fic was not the mystery I lef the first chapter in, but rahter the discussion on who was int he right in the first chapter. That is not at all ruined by this chapter.
No, they don't have the actual Elements anymore, but they have that rainbow-power whatever they got from that box-seed-thing, and last time there was a dragon the M6 were sent to deal with it.
One who makes claims without evidence has no ground to stand on. What plot holes? I'm fairly certain I was careful about that.
4893610 for example magic does not effect the flames, can't they just levitate a lake ABOVE the fire and release the spell or use a spell AROUND it to cut off oxygen?
Look I still like the first chapter and I'm staying faved for it so you don't need to delete the chapter but I personally don't like it.
4893622
Umm.. if you don't mind me asking, how is that a plot hole? Did I ever say that that couldn't happen? That being said, it can't; the fire is too big for a field to contain it and cut off the O2, since it can be seen all the way from Ponyville, and how strong would that unicorn have to be to lift all that water? Not to mention that much water would end up causing a lot of damage, and risking the lives of anypony in the area.
4893622 Or the pegasus could start a rainstorm over the fire. Also, I sorta agree with what you said about the chapter being a bit disappointing in comparison to the first. For me, though, it was more due to Twilight taking all the blame for the attack, and that mostly for one reason, when the paper said 'where were our heroes' I ended up thinking 'yeah, but where was your super powerful sun, or moon, alicorn that could easily defeat a random dragon' and then Celestia teleports in and essentially says 'you know all those people that died, yeah, that is ALL because you refused to do something I asked you to do' while completely ignoring the point raised in the previous chapter of 'why didn't you do anything' in order to avoid responsibility and continue to use Twilight as a pawn.
In the end, I suppose that the feeling this story gave me ended up being that Twilight can never stop being Celestia's pawn, which is kinda in opposition to the story I thought I would be reading based on the title, summary, and first chapter.
4893610 By the way, in the first chapter you wrote gimps when I believe you meant glimps. Just a minor mistake so figured you would want to know.
4893656
Fires can survive rain. It's not that hard, big fires to it all the time in real life.
But more importantly
Crap.
This is the wrong version of the chapter. I added something after this that says Celestia had teleported from the city, leaving Luna in charge of organizing the rescue operation and such.
I gotta go fix that real quick.
I wasn't sure about the first chapter... But the second? Yeah, that pulled it right back. A very harsh lesson to learn... but when you consider your feeling to be more important than other people's lives... that is when evil florishes. Because, at the end of the day, that is what evil IS: selfishness guised in some form, where you are placed above all others (you, your ideals, your goal... whatever).
Especially worth noting, since it made this more than the usual "teh authority figure tellin' me what to iz alwayz wrong/no-one tells me what to do" schick you often see (that annoys the CRAP out of me), into something far more genuine. Not something you see often, when you see the protagonist actually frack it up REALLY good and proper and actually seethe results of her actions. (I'm harping on Twilight here, since while I agree Celestia could handle things a bit better sometimes - and ESPECIALLY here (why in her own name did she just not say "giant dragon attack?"), I thought Twilight was more egregiously wrong.)
Excellent job.
Not what I was expecting - I was more expecting some sort of humour - but worth it anyway. (Actually, I was expecting pretty much exactly how the events played out in the end, only I had expected them to be played for laughs).
4893663 I'd been thinking more along the lines of the rain being started before the dragon got a chance to breathe fire, since Celestia knew about it in advance, and then keeping the rain going to reduce the chances of a fire starting/spreading as much as it would without it. Mixed with other firefighting tactics the collateral damage would be minimal, especially considering Celestia knew about it before hand and could convince civilians to evacuate. The attack seems like it was very poorly countered or prepared for considering how dangerous a single dragon would be to those trained to fight as well as an extremely powerful alicorn, a large number of dragons working together would be more understandable since they could have some occupy Celestia and the guards while the others attacked the town. I suppose I just don't like the tone for the ending when it feels like there was so much that could have been done that wasn't though that is, admittedly, just me and how I look at things. It is a well written and thought out story but it just wasn't for me, I guess. Sorry.
4893656 or jam a poison syringe down its throat while under a protection from fire spell, just because you can not magic directly on it doesn't mean you can't use magic at all against it
4893663 also why didn't celestia didn't send a letter to her asking her to help join the civilians in putting out the fire instead of wasting time talking to her while that fire is stil going?
4893637 that ALICORN could raise the sun, I think a pond would be easy, and it would still do less collateral damage then fire
Changeling invasion.
If they don't instantly forgive her when everything is explained and everyone has had a change to cool off, then they're jerks.
Also, in retrospect...a dragon attack? Really? Excusing Fluttershy, considering the Elements had been given back, what did Celestia expect the mane 6 to do (well, I guess that depends on how the author interprets the rainbow powers). Only Fluttershy and Twilight could have been of any real use, and Twilight no more than either Celestia or Luna. And if that's the case, Celestia should have just left and gotten Fluttershy. No need for Twilight.
Honestly, I'm disappointed. I could seen this going several directions, but this was not one of them. I never figured Twilight to be in the wrong here and this pretty much destroyed her for no other reason than she was showing that she wouldn't be controlled. I really wished it hadn't ended like this.
I really liked the first chapter. This one, not at all. It completely made the first chapter irrelevant.
The big point raised in the first chapter was that Celestia had the power to fix this on her own. Every major catastrophe the Elements have been called on to deal with was something she could have, and in the past would have, dealt with herself. And then you finish it with this? Celestia managed to deal with every other rogue dragon that had shown up for the past thousand years without help, and she could have done it again. Why didn't she?
Also, one last bit of plot hole: if the dragon is immune to magic, he would have been immune to anything the Elements could have done. You know, since they're magic. And it's logically impossible to assume that six ponies with no magic could have physically beaten a dragon that Celestia herself couldn't. ANd if they were supposed to "talk it down", I highly doubt that would have worked either if Celestia's thousand plus years of diplomatic experience weren't enough to get the job done.
Twilight chose to be free of Celestia's manipulations, manipulations of which she DOESN'T deny in this chapter.
She did nothing wrong, and I find it bizarre that after a thousand years, Celestia had no idea how to stop a dragon attack. There must have been hundreds before Luna returned, what was she doing apart from sitting on her...
Oh right.
In my opinion, Celestia is in the wrong here. Twilight wanted to be a scientist, but because Celestia 'knows all, sees all' she was 'groomed' to be a princess. Twilight had every right to say 'no'. Celestia had NO right to rip into her because she was defied for the first time.
That she sees her as her daughter only serves to rub salt in. For what mother decides their child's fate for them?
It's a parents job to guide them, to show them what options are there. But Celestia threw all of that aside and for what? Equestria?
Personally, abandoning her role as a Princess wasn't good enough. She should have done that AND left the country to get away from Celestia's scheming.
All in all, t'was a good story to make me think like so. But I strongly disagree with how Twilight was made to be the bad guy here. All she did was defy what Celestia forced upon her, there's no reason to be punished for the mistakes of her 'mother'.
Would it be safe for the five of the them to go to Fillydelphia? I mean, its residents would probabley blame them for not coming to their aid, they might even get run out of the city by an angry mob. Twilight had best tell Equestria that she alone, and not her friends are two blame.
Meh...Shitty epilogue. As if ponys do not have proper defences against dragons ansd other?
And Twi got manipulated again
Long description:
When I read the second "she" I was confused about who you were referring to. You might want to change that first "she" there to "Celestia".
4894034
fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/118666.png?1374295322
In truth, that's basically what I was thinking the entire time reading this epilogue. Can't make an omelet without breaking some - okay, in this case a lot of - eggs, Twilight.
4894023 I completely agree with you here. She had every right to deny what Celestia was shoving down her throat. It may be a tough decision but in the end my belief is that it is better to live a free life filled with the pain and consequences of your own actions then to follow a script someone else wrote for you and have everything go perfectly.
Not to rain on the parade, but I fail to see how a beam of concentrated friendship could stop a dragon. Plus, if dragons (as you say) are immune to magic then it would have made little difference if the Six were there considering the Elements of Harmony uses the magic of friendship. Also raises the question why dragons don't come into Equestria more often if they don't have to worry about magic based attacks considering their hides are thick enough to resist normal weapons.
But this part here is for Twilight. The thing about being a cog in the machine, is that the cog does not get the choice of leaving. It keeps turning until it breaks, or a better piece is made/found to replace it. To remove the cog breaks the machine and as we saw, the consequences are rather fatal.
Wow, that was... different.
I like it. Despite what the others may have put, I think this is a very logical direction for the story to have taken based on what happened the chapter before.
Well done, comrade. *slow clap* Well done.
4893907 I agree. I expected Teilight to be right in this circumstance, but what do we get? quite possibly one of the worst endings to a story, I have ever read.
4894018
Maybe Celestia should take the hint and turn the Guard into a vast, competent, well-oiled force able to protect the country from all menaces, being changelings or dragons, instead of relying in the same old Mcguffin to save the day.
How can they be the Elements of Harmony if they don't have them anymore
This was better, though.
You know, coming in, I expected to see another bash Celestia story and I skipped mof the first chapter. Then you gave me memories of one of my favorite Batman stories. So that made it better.
It's a shame you can't upvote one chapter and downvote the next. I've been Waiting for a story about Twily saying no to Celestia, that Alicorn has been controlling every aspect of Twilys life since that magic flare during the birth of Spike!
4894023
Here's how I see it.
Celestia, despite countless years of wisdom and knowledge tends to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. She tries to guide others on a 'proper' path but she fails to see how they feel or if they didn't want to go that way. She wanted to mold her so she could realize her potential but the ends didn't justify the means as to how she would groom Twilight into being a princess.
"All Evil needs to win is for Good to do nothing"
I see that's more or less the point you're trying to portray here, but given that there are three more alicorns, at least 10 unicorn mages in Celestia's school, and that, as Twilight said before, Equestria had to spend 1,000 years WITHOUT the EoH, I'm sure that SOMEWHERE there would have been a contingency planned against a dragon attack.
I won't unfave your story or give it a thumbs down, but this epilogue could have been better.
4894105
Debatable
Yes, I would say that its better to protect the world/my country over my dreams and aspirations. Thats what being a Hero is. Its basic empaty combined with the ability to do something. Were I in Twilights position, I would have gone, no matter how I felt about Celestia, because if i dont, then more people will die than if I do.
This is really all there is to this. People keep forgetting this line here:
“Please, Twilight; we can discuss these matters later, but right now I need you to-”
But no; apparently wanting to keep the people safe is second to Twilights hopes and dreams.
1. Prove she could have handled this herself.
2.Look at it like this: If Celestia was capable of stopping it herself, but instead choose to send The Elements, why would she do that? Hmm...Now, why would Celestia, Twilight's mentor, teacher, what have you. possibly send Twilight and her friends out to combat threats that she could handle herself? Could it be to test her? Could it be because she want to train her up for a higher position? Could it possibly be that maybe Celestia is preparing Twliight for threats to come once said higher position is reached?
Nah, that couldn't be it,
Bullshit. Twilight chose to say no; No one put a gun to her head.
Celestia didnt force anything, hell, she didnt make Twilight to anything! And as far as Twilight being "too young" That didnt seem to stop twilight from going and acting as an EoH any other time, so it sure wouldnt stop her now.
Celestia even said that they could talk about that later, so clearly she was at least willing to go over it at some point, but remember she also said that lives were at stake, to which Twilight proceeded to not give a shit.
She, at least in her eyes, made "her own choice" and surprise, surprise, look what it got her. If someone I trusted to act as an Agent of the State to protect the common man decided not to, during a crisis that he could have possibly prevented, I would have done the same thing, not because I want to one up them, but to make them see that there is a time and place for everything, but when lives are at stake, any grievance between us needs to be put aside, lest the incapable die because of you.
>You only use me as a tool, im not going to go help the people dying because you wont let me do what I want.
VS
>I want you to go keep people from dying, and we can discuss this later.
One ends with a possibly high death toll
One ends with a possibly smaller.
Gee, which one to pick?
Its less wants and more needs. Remember, Celestia and Luna both used the EoH once upon a time; but now neither of them do. You cant just put them on and fucking use them. Twilight and friends were chosen by The Elements to use them. If Any of the threats thus far were able to be handled without The Elements then yes there would be no reason to send Twilight and the rest, but here all we know is the Dragon is resistant to magic and Celestia, an immortal demigoddess who as manage to keep shit running for 1000+ years says that the Elements are necessary, then im going to assume that, as someone who once used them, would know when would be a good time to use them.
Because an event where significant threat at is going to end in the deaths in hundreds of people who cannot come close to protecting themselves, is the best time to deal with "Bawwww, you expect me to do my job".
I could easily see a series built off of this. Please, for the love of cake, continue.
... Sorry, but the Epilogue just... No. An Epilogue doesn't completely put things on its head, and disregard what the entire story was about. An Epilogue shouldn't really answer questions, or resolve much of the book's problems/whatever. You plucked up the same way that "Of Mares and Magic" plucked up. The Epilogue is supposed to be short, giving one last window view of the near future. A parting "Farewell", if you will. It (minorly) resolves a couple things the reader was MOSTLY sure were going to happen, but puts it to rest for certain.
(Example would be Harry Potter. We THINK we know that Ron and Harmione will get married, as would Harry and Ginny. We THINK that Harry understands and respects Snape now, now that he understands what his motivations were. The Epilogue proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that those things happened, but didn't really change the previous story at all whatsoever.)
Another problem is that people came into this expecting an EPILOGUE, not a second chapter/alternate ending. You need to clarify things better in the future. This is just like when people like me watched "Double Rainboom", being told it was a 'real episode', and being horribly disgusted and let down at the result, because we weren't told that the original purpose of said video was to imitate the animation technique/style/professionalism of the show, not make an ACTUAL episode that could be put into FiM.
All of that to say...
i.imgur.com/hSYDF.gif
All this epilogue does is raise the question; 'so how did Equestria survive a millenia running on just one Princess and no Elements of Harmony?' Because apparently everything gets torn asunder as soon as the Elements decide to not do anything. Is Armageddon coming or something? Because that would certainly explain why everything has started to explode after a thousand years of peace.
It also makes out Twilight to be some sort of self-serving monster for not charging headlong into certain death (again) at the drop of a hat. 'Oh, you wanted to do something in your life that I haven't told you to do? You horribly pony, look what happened! Now run along and get the Elements working again, I need you ready to fight as soon as possible! Chop chop!'
Look at all the hatred in the comments!
She said no, and what did she think would happen.
4894454
Exactly.
Further - a point to note.
If Twilight really didn't want Celestia telling her what to do... Then she never should have become her apprentice in the first place. You get the privileges, you get the responsibilities, too. (And her aspirations would likely have gone no further than a mostly-forgotten librarian who's lack of social skills would likely have prevented her from achieving much other than MAYBE academic notority; assuming she didn't spend the rest of her life locked up for being a danger or living the with the grief of permenantly turning her parents in plants or something, with that magical surge that only Celestia could calm.)
Twilight is only who she is now because of Celestia. She wouldn't HAVE her friends if not for Celestia, she CERTAINLY wouldn't be a princess.
So, yeah, she does not get to go "actually, now all my dreams have come true, screw you person who put me there and all the innocents who are going to DIE because I am having a fit about someone telling me what to do, you person who has (preportedly) being manipulating me" She has the power; so she has the responsibility to use it, whether she likes it or not; and she doesn't get to pick and choose when and where she exercises it.
(Well, she CAN and here she DID... But if she DOES... she's putting her own feelings above the lives of others, her own comfort as more important than doing something she doesn't want to do - and she can get to join me in the Evil side of the alignment pool. Which is fine, great good for her, go Team Evil - so long as she acknowleges that's what she is doing.)
Twilight now is in a position where, hard lines duck, she is obligated to go and do stuff when Celestia asks. (And if she really, really isn't prepared to do that, then she needed to go to Celestia RIGHT off the bat and insist that she isn't and gotten started on making sure somepony else could cover her arse. And be prepared to lose the all priviledges that go with that responsibilty to.)
It's worth noting that you will learn in life - and unlife - crap happens and sometimes YOU have to the one to deal with it, whether you want to or not, whether you want the responsibility or not and throwing a tantrum over it helps no-one. Life is not - and until that utterly terrible day when I'm finally in charge of everything - and never will be - fair. Hard lines; you just have to deal with the reality of that. Lashing out because you don't want to be told what to do by someone else is literally childish - it's the behavior you get from a two-year old. (And is pointless, since statistically NO-ONE reading this page - probably this site - will ever be in a position where they are ultimately NOT being told what to do in some form, by someone.)
The story itself is awesome and it raises a valid question.
The epilogue, though... 'Cannot be touched by magic'? Seriously? If that's not an @$$pull then I don't know what is. Not to mention that it completely ruins the message - circumstances may force you to be a hero only if you choose so. Otherwise it's just being played for fool.
Way to ruin a story.
Oh boy, the previous chapter, in actual fact, was something I liked and admired. Twilight finally standing up to Celestia, and saying no when the princess once again forced her to troubleshoot for her. Moreover, I was almost positive Twilight's friends would stand by her, and understand why she felt this way.
...then this chapter happened. Not gunna lie, ya pulled the rug out from under me. In this kind of sinario, I admit I'm not a good person. I'm the type, when I feel wronged, to go as far as to "Cut off my nose to spite my face." Not one of my better qualities, but I acknowledge why I do it and try to keep from getting extreme about it.
My point is, Celestia's explanation and apologies...I don't trust them. Hell, in this story I don't trust her at all. I mean, yeah Twilight and crew are impressive and have taken on a Dragon before. Thing is, they should never have had to. Celestia is ultimately where this all of the responsibility should be, and her insistence of forcing Twilight's Destiny into princess-hood and as a troubleshooter for the kingdom...well, this is the result. Moreover, how in the hell were the Main Six gunna pull this off? Super Rainbow Mode? Sorry, but I think the City would have burned anyway, only loosing it's defenders as well.
As far as I can say, this ending is rather disappointing. Not to say it's bad, but personal it doesn't sit well. All the same, you did good work and I wish you well in the future.
4893610
I'm surprised you're so pro-Celestia when the way you wrote the previous chapter seemed to put you firmly on Twilight's side.
4894549
Who's to say Twilight knew about the responsibilities when she became Celestia's student. And of course I don't know that any of Twilight's dreams came true except for being Celestia's student. She never aspired to be a princess, she was never interested in friends.
4894549
How old was Twilight when she agreed? Poor girl got imprinted by Tia's seeming perfection.
Oh, Princess might genuinely care for her, but still she has influenced Twilight's life way too heavy.
4893601
I agree -- this chapter ruined the story for me as well.
Why do you need the EoH on an ordinary dragon in a city like Fillydelphia? I would figure a town of that size could handle a problem of that type all by themselves.
Fillydelphia isn't even in the elements normal jurisdiction (at least THIS season -- next season that may be changing).
The EoH are for "special" problems where you need the power of friendship to deal with the issue, or for regional problems that impact Ponyville directly.
What a disappointing chapter.
I don't think I have to explain why that is. The comments below do that well enough for me.
to the author. Stripping Twilight of her title is telling everyone she did something wrong. Celestia said she would tell if asked. That's doing more than that. Of course you could argue that Twilight doesn't deserve the responsibility, but who says there's any responsibilties with just the title? Blueblood is a prince and doesn't seem to do anything
4894632
magically resistant fire. Maybe Rainbow Power is a step above the kind of thing normal magic can't stop
Did not quite like this chapter. The fact that two alicorns, with powers to move Celestial Bodies, numerous experiences with wars with all the nations, and races, couldn't stop a single dragon. And more than that, set it up so the blame would fall on Twilight. That's just F'd up to the extreme. Don't get me wrong, I like Tia and Luna usually. But come on, Celestia manipulates, controls, and basically nudges Twilight to the path she chooses for her. Twilight stands up for herself, and her friends finally. Then this chapter comes out and subverts that character growth ... don't know whether to be angry or not.
I mean you built up the first chapter of. "You are the ruler of this nation", "Equestria survived for a 1,000 years without the Elements, and thousands of years without Luna and Tia", "Ponies are resilient". Twilight worked hard, even though it hurt her to do so. To stand up for her freedom, for her free will that Celestia denied Twilight and her friends. You built it up so that finally two of Equestria's Deities who move the Celestial Bodies and have countless years of Wartime Experience couldn't deal with one bucking dragon / problem. We could see the Elements free and happy, living lives that they were too afraid to live. Just as you spent an entire chapter building up.
But instead you dump the whole, City in Flames. All Twilight's fault, her friends hate her now and everyone's going to blame Twilight for wanting to be free and her friends happy. While the two other Rulers dked around and heaped the blame on Twilight and the bearers [in a round about way] to teach Twilight a lesson. This chapter really does suck. Not grammatically, but like the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy with Howard the Duck Troll clip type of way. Seriously, how in the buck is this chapter believable? And not a total let down in every sense of the word? Anywho, not giving it a downvote, but the upovote and fav I was hoping to give this ... I just don't feel it anymore. Have a good day [not meant to sound as sarcastic].
4894681
I don't know how he could catch a gimp of a note.
Is this a one shot? Will we see a sequel that shows the consequences of her actions as the people are trying to rebuild, and trying to regain the trust of her friends once again?
4894676
Twilight simply picked the wrong time to fight her battle.
That was disappointing
2dramatic4me
I figured Twilight would have a more calm demeanor when getting into something so important. Not start shrieking like a teenager.
After reading the whole story, I thought about both sides of attack. Twilight does have a point that the Elements are holding them back, but Celestia has a point on helping the citizens. Overall, a well written story.