Epilogue
Most ponies didn’t realize that Princess Celestia had an office.
While the mechanics of government required her to listen to petitions in the throne room, most of the rest of the role of Princess involved paperwork and the nitty gritty of governance. For that, Celestia had her office.
Devoid of the usual gold and white accents of the rest of the palace, it was decked out in simple wooden paneling and red carpet. The shelves on the walls were full of curios and other little knick-knacks she had collected from friends and adventures over the years. Momentos of important times and important creatures in her life.
Sitting behind her desk, Celestia read the report for the third time, just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, for the tale that it described made little to no sense, even to a being as old and experienced as she. The information about the two thieves Pinkie Pie provided proved to be accurate and head lead a contingent of Manehatten’s guard- and a commander of her own royals- to the bank that was the target.
The description that followed more resembled a comedy of errors than anything else. The two thieves had been spotted trying to pick the lock on the back door of the building and had naturally ran when the guard swooped in. In their attempt to escape, the light blue pony of the pair had tripped over his own bag of tools. His partner hadn’t made it much further when a black cat of all things, charged across the alley, got tangled up under his hooves and made him crash into a nearby dumpster.
It had been that second thing that pushed the idea of the pair being surprising incompetent out of her mind. A conclusion that only grew as the report continued. As soon as the wagon had had gotten a few blocks away from the bank, there had been a sudden reversal. They had managed to swipe the shackle keys from the guards and escape, in a display that was anything but incompetent.
It was an odd coincidence to be sure, but hardly the first one that she had seen swirl round Nouveau Riche and his company. It had grown fast, becoming one of the largest banks in Equestria and invested quite heavily in real estate and railroads. One would expect that with such a varied investment portfolio, there would have been incidents of failed and backfired investments. It was, quite simply, the cost of doing business. But Celestia couldn’t remember Riche and his companies being caught in too many of those situations.
These could be more coincidences, of course. But there was also a chance that Nouveau Riche’s wild success in life had other origins. She couldn’t be sure, with what she had now. No.
This would take some investigation.
- - - -
“Pass me another slice of pizza, would ya Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked, waving a hoof for emphasis.
“Sure!”
Eight friends sat clustered together in the ground floor of Skitch-Sketch’s house. While the massive house warming party that Pinkie wanted had been shot down by Skitch, she had proposed another small movie night in its place. And the movie of choice tonight?
A human and two robot silhouettes dominated the bottom of the screen like they were in a movie theatre. And as the old Universal-International logo appeared on the screen, the human made a sarcastic comment.
“Doesn’t the fact it’s Universal make it international?”
Skitch chuckled at the joke. When one wanted a humor pick up, it was hard to go wrong with Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Sure, there was a chance that she might be the only one in the room to get the jokes, but she had just managed to earn her house back. She was entitled to indulge a little bit.
“Oh! I get it!” Twilight said, sitting up a little straighter. “It’s a play on words! Because it’s universal it would also include all nations and automatically be international as well!”
“Yup, Twilight, that is the joke,” Skitch smiled, snuggling down into her sitting pillow a little more. “By the way, thanks again for helping me move back in everyone.”
“No problem Skitch,” Applejack chuckled. “Glad ta see that you have a home again.”
Home. That word sounded really, really good to Skitch right now. A word that she had earned from everything she had gone through since The Collector had kidnapped her. While it wasn’t exactly the home she had been born in, earning a place in Equestria….
Well, it didn’t feel that bad.
Eventually though, movie night came to an end and everypony got up to shuffle back to their own houses. But to Skitch’s surprize, Twilight hung back after everyone else was out the door.
“Twilight? What’s wrong?”
“There was something I wanted to talk to you about. What happened with Quill….”
Skitch winced. “Yeah...that wasn’t my best moment.”
Twilight frowned. “It was a little more than that. You kept pushing him when you really shouldn’t have. Because you were drunk and venting about your home.”
“I...I couldn’t help it,” Skitch said, nervously shuffling a hoof. “He just stirred up so many emotions.”
Twilight smiled softly, placing a hoof on Skitch’s withers. “Well, I’d like you to do something for me, okay?”
“What’s that?” Skitch said, offering her own slight smile in return.
“I looked around. There’s a therapist here in Ponyville. Please talk to him. If you keep bottling up your feelings about what’s happened to you....well, I don’t want to think about what might happen.”
There really wasn’t any arguing with Twilight’s wide eyed pleading. So, Skitch nodded. “Okay Twilight. I will.”
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Going to grab a bite to eat, and the I'll give your story a read...
till then https://youtu.be/4zpYQJkBQp0
Hi there, Somey here. Since I did a wrap up for the other stories of yours I decided not to break tradition. The ending is as good as it could have been. Riche is a plothole. (the butt kind not the story kind) Quill needs some damn therapy, perhaps him and Skitch could go to the same group therapy for really lost causes. Can hardly believe there weren't many comments made about MST3000.
Ahem, now for the part you likely dread. I don't like how Skitch's scene with the parents went. For a first clash against those characters it feels bland and accomplished nothing. Perhaps on purpose, likely to setup for a much most substantial confrontation later on, but I dislike how it essentially could be removed from this story and it would lose very little. From there I feel there was little growth from Skitch as a character as well. We had her basically float through the awkwardness of semi-dating a guy, and a slight bit of permanently scaring emotional trauma, but in the end like water in a wave it is all back where it started really.
Anyways, I can't wait for the next one! Please I do enjoy these against all evidence to the contrary!
Well, this was another great addition to this series. Can't wait to see what's next for ol' Sketch.
Good to see another Skitchverse tale come to a close; I'm looking forward to the next one!
6815206
"Would the dancing Hitler's please wait in the wings? We are currently only seeing rapping Hitlers!"
6815404
Careful, you just might wind up drafted as an editor if you keep pointing out these legitimate issues that I've missed while writing.
Case in point, from my point of view, Skitch actually was in a better place at the end of the story, since she has taken a big step forward on finding her place in Equestria and Twilight is pushing her towards working out her problems. But, you know what they say about a writer being somewhat blind to their writing holes sometimes.
I'll aim to work a little harder on finding that right balance in moving her forward on the next fic!
6815830
6816297
Thanks guys! I got a few options and ideas on the next fic already. Just debating which one to pick overall.
6817403 Yea, not trying to be mean saying this, but that means all the seemingly consequential parts of this fic are then, Skitch's house is now for sure her's and that a line in the epilogue was said. Which ultimately means the part of this fic that really did anything was the house situation. Seeing as how you are going to have to reiterate the therapy thing when you address it.
Really there are a lot of understory stuff that has a lot of consequence really. Riche's part of this tale has perhaps far reaching effects on what will come later. Especially if he doesn't give up. He will now likely be more desperate. And Blueblood giving up the quest and while not fully in the Skitch Sketch camp. He does potentially owe her depending on how well the play does. From there Skitch earning a little good will from Celestia and Cadance doesn't hurt either. Since they really don't have too much reason to like her. Celestia's character is often shown as a motherly martyr, so seeing Skitch in a desperate situation would endear her to that sort of characterization of Celestia. Which I hesitate to declare is the Celestia you are using. However the power of laughter would definately earn her some Cadance points. (which I imagine as heart shaped stamps)
From there the character and potential future antagonist of Quill is more of the unseen motion of this fic. He is shown as smart but greatly misguided. He will make for an excellent villain for Skitch with her tenancy to jump hooves first into a situation rather than have a foal-proof plan. A luther to Skitch's Kent likely. Unless he drops several IQ from becoming a slight bit more unhinged.
Then there is Flash of course, he presents a lot of yet to be explored growth for Skitch. A stallion she doesn't quite feel uncomfortable around, and has a positive view of already. I am not in the camp of smashing them together and making them kiss. I would more like a sort of RomCom out of them.
ALL of those point though above save for the therapy and the house situation are story undercurrents though. The events of the story itself don't feel like they will have much impact outside of this individual story itself.
edit: well shit I just meant for a short comment... eheh.
I enjoyed that story quite a bit. It's nice to see it concluded as well. Skitch is at least moving in the right direction, finally.
6815404
Yeah, "plothole" doesn't really work as an insult here.
Might I suggest as an alternative, "dockhead."
6818851 it was a compound joke with the ()'s part adding to the attempt at humor. Dockhead while more thematically accurate wouldn't fit that extra layer of humor.
6818856
Are you sure? After all, if a pony has a dock for a head, what does that say about the rest of them?
6818859 I'm sure it'd be docks the whole way down.
6818867
Sure, we'll go with that.
7846110
Yeah, Cadance ascended a thousand years ago, not long after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire itself, and largely took up Luna's duties in the government after her banishment as "The Regent of the Night". Of course that had some side effects of its own. Perhaps the most important one being that a lot of ponies view Cadance as the actual legitimate second ruler of Equestria, since they've never known anyone else there.
As far as Skitch-Sketch laying out conflicts, she could. At the moment though she's kind of locked in a back and forth ethical debate in her mind on that. Is it right to effectively steer the fate of a country that way with future knowledge? ....Though I suspect that she'll go "Fuck the prime directive." and take that route after a little while.
Make a sequel about the crystal empire
Will the sequal have more on original Skitchy-Sketch parents and Skitchy-Sketch(aka Jake) try to amend their relationship?
Yay, thumbs up #100!
This was an awesome story, a great integration of Mr. Brooks onto Equestrian stage. Springtime for Sombra indeed.