8 - True Epilogue: Experiment Extant
Epilogue: Experiment Extant
It is only when you have the courage to face yourself that you will finally be yourself.
In the quiet silence of the Great Crystal Castle of Friendship, Twilight sat on her throne and sent the last of the petitioners away with a sigh.
When the doors closed with a gentle clang, Twilight took the opportunity to look outside. The skies were filled with the wonders of modern technology. It seemed like everyday something was made anew, something was crafted, or solved, or reinvented. Her ponies had an innovative optimism about them that had swept through the populace. She had smiled, waved, contributed even, but her heart was not in it.
She trudged her way back to her room, a simple room that housed a small observatory from which she could gaze at the sky and lose herself in her thoughts. Tonight, she was not in the mood to stargaze, read reports or be productive. She just wanted to sleep. She just wanted to fade away, perhaps to dream?
She eased open the door and stumbled inside, kicking off her hoof covers with a faint clang. She shrugged off her heavy regalia that she despised and threw it on her desk with an disinterested clatter. Twilight stretched out her wings, and checked them, as she did everyday, for tiny flaws or ragged feathers. After identifying a few and plucking them out, like Rainbow had told her a long time ago, Twilight turned to her bed.
Then she paused.
Something was wrong.
She turned back. The crystal was still glowing. That meant the microverse was still running. With a sigh, Twilight considered the crystal, weighing whether she should terminate the experiment or freeze it. She tried to imagine what Celestia would have said. She tried to draw up her friends from the edges of her mind. Her true friends. Friends from this universe. But they slipped away. She only had memories of what was recent. Visiting the microverse had contaminated her memories of her real friends.
The idea was laughable. All she wanted to do was re-experience time from the past, but she ended up corrupting her own links. Her most precious memories, things that couldn’t be regained. She didn’t have a save state for that, she couldn’t go back to her own past. As time wore on, it became very clear that her memory, like everything else didn’t last forever. Except her. And she was tired.
But there was a feeling of freedom, like letting go and moving forward, even if it did mean cutting herself away from the binds of nostalgia she had wrapped herself up in. It was necessary, and they had made it very clear that she did not belong. Maybe, subconsciously, she knew it and she was only deluding herself? Perhaps...
With a grim smile, Twilight bid farewell to her experiment.
The experiment need no longer be extant, she noted in her diary. Experiment terminated.
Her horn glowed, charged with purpose.
Then a flash lit her room.
And all was silent.
————————
I came out first, alone. My friends would arrive soon, I was sure. What I didn’t expect was where I was. The floor seemed to be made of crystal. It seemed clear at first, but because it extended so far, the crystal took on a bluish hue that was somewhat disconcerting to stare at for a long period of time. I felt like I could get lost in the depths.
Then I heard a squawk, a scramble and a yelp that sounded familiar.
Across the room, full of weird astronomical star-gazing paraphernalia was Twilight. Future-Twilight. Twilight-of-this-universe-Twilight. Her eyes were wide, the whites showing as she pressed flat against the wall.
“W-What are you doing here?!” she squeaked. “H-How?”
I was about to reply when another flash lit the room and something hit me in the head. Something orange. I wobbled a bit, and shook my head as I heard a mumble.
“Ow! Gees, Twi’, can you make our landing a little softer? Where the hay is everypony else?”
Future-Twilight stared at Applejack like she was a ghost risen from the dead. “Applejack? No, you’re not her. Just a saved state, not real, not real.”
What was she mumbling about?
“Hey can you—”
Another flash lit the room, Fluttershy tumbled out, thankfully missing everypony, but colliding with Future-Twilight instead.
“Oof! Eep! Oh! I’m so sorry! Are you alright? Uhm, Twilight? No wait…”
“I’m fine, Fluttershy,” she said and eased herself away from her. “You how can you— I don’t—”
She didn’t have time to say more as Rarity and Rainbow tumbled out together in quick succession. By that time, we had wised up and dodged them, but Rainbow took a full face of a bookshelf, while Rarity got lucky and hit the mattress instead.
“Ow!” Some books tumbled down and hit Rainbow as well. “A bookshelf?! Why does Rarity get the bed?”
“Oof! That was simply—why these sheets are delightfully tasteful.”
Applejack glanced their way and chuckled in amusement.
“Not funny, AJ!”
“It sure is sugarcube, I was wondering where you’d land, but luck ain’t by your side at the moment.”
Future-Twilight reared up on her hooves. “Would somepony please tell me—”
Another flash, this time Pinkie came tumbling out, after performing an impressive somersault and a flip. “Weee! Oh, can we do that again?”
“Not now, Pinkie,” I said. There was something else, I was forgetting something, but what was it? “Uhh, is that everypony?”
Twilight looked like she was about to blow. “You brought everypony here? Why? How?”
“To talk to you, of course,” I said. “You left without even explaining everything.”
Twilight shifted her hooves. “I did, in the letter.”
“You think that’s good enough?” I shot back.
Twilight’s gaze swept around the room, as if she were suddenly concerned with what she should say. For some reason, my friends being here was putting a damper on her usual confidence. She looked lost for the first time I’ve met her.
“It’s complicated,” she finally replied.
I wasn’t having any of that. “Oh please, spare me that. I got everything.”
“You shouldn’t be here, you can’t be here, how could you even be here?”
Before I could say anything, a final flash lit the room. Wait, that was—
I ducked, and none too soon.
“Wha—” Twilight began, before getting a face-full of Star Swirl’s Addendum. The book itself, though it claimed to be an addendum, was about eight hundred pages long. It was a pretty thick book, so I didn’t envy Twilight getting hit in the face with it. Now, as a bonus, Twilight wasn’t really in my future, so I wouldn’t have to worry about a book being smashed into my face. So seeing this in action actually brought me a small amount of unexpected pleasure.
Serves her right. Then I withdrew the thought. Horrible as she may have been, taking pleasure in seeing another pony in pain wasn’t really the path I wanted to take. Especially if it lead to her. With us all gathered here and Twilight groaning on the ground, I decided to start the conversation.
“So I think that’s everypony,” I said. “We’ve come to you, since you didn’t want to come to us.”
Twilight picked herself up slowly, all the while staring at Star Swirl’s Addendum. Something finally clicked for her and she lost a bit of her panicked attitude, though her stance didn’t relax from being guarded. “You’re here,” she replied, “but the book never contained anything about traversing back.”
“Yes it did,” I said, “there was a passage about anchors. That’s how you got back, I just followed it, that’s all. It didn’t require too many modifications, even though the rework was slightly experimental.”
Twilight eyed us warily, like we were a nest of snakes she had discovered in her room.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” she repeated.
I could feel my cheeks twitch. We are here. Deal with it.
I took a deep breath. “That doesn’t excuse you,” I said. I looked around. “Where is it?”
Twilight looked surprised at the abrupt change in subject. “Where’s what?”
“Don’t play dumb with us, where’s the microverse?” I pressed, stalking forward.
Twilight straightened, her back was to the wall, but she didn’t balk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She must have been as poor a liar as I was, because her eyes flickered down before snapping back up to me.
I turned around, searching the floor and found the softly glowing crystal. I picked it up carefully, examining the smooth surface and the intricate structure beneath it. How could such a small thing contain a whole universe? I knew the theory of course, you could encapsulate it with higher dimensions, expand space as you saw fit and then you had an infinite playground to mess around with, but holding it in my hooves just felt surreal.
Everything I knew and loved, minus us, the travellers, were contained in this small sphere. I gripped the ball with my hooves, then passed it to Applejack, who held it firmly to her chest, giving me a look that showed she understood the significance.
I sighed, then turned back to Twilight. “I want to know your reasons,” I said. “Not just on paper, but your real, true reasons.”
Twilight stared back, but didn’t say anything. She neither looked angry, sad, nor defiant. She just looked… tired. I bit my lip, and turned back to my friends. Fluttershy was also biting her lips in consternation, Rarity had gotten off the bed and just stared at Twilight with a mixture of pity and sadness, Rainbow was simply stoic and Pinkie just shrugged, gesturing for me to do something. Applejack was preoccupied with the crystal, her eyes wandering the surface before they met mine.
“It’s… a lot,” she whispered, pointing at the crystal. She lifted it up as she offered it back to me. “I-I think you should take it back, Twi’.”
Confused by her tone, I took back the crystal and peered into the depths like Applejack had. Around the swirling surface, misty lines and whorls of energy danced across in mesmerising patterns. All of a sudden I had a swooping sensation, like I was drawn into the depths, it pulled me in, and I felt like I was falling through the vastness of space. Then suddenly, green and blue filled my vision, and I saw the detailed landscape of Equestria.
With an effort, I tore my eyes away and blinked at the sudden collapse of my perception. I glanced back at Applejack who nodded at me. Wow… that was…
“Huge,” I mumbled, disconcerted. “I could see Equestria, but suddenly I had a sense of everything, like before when we began to travel.”
Future-Twilight peeled herself off the wall. “All of you shouldn’t be here. I can’t let myself sink back into my own indulgences. You must leave, go back.”
“Why?” I shot back. “We’re not simply indulgences! We’re thinking, living beings!”
“You’re a saved state. A saved state isn’t—”
“Alive?” I snarled.
“Hang on, hold on Twi’,” Spike said, waddling forward.
“Wait, when did you arrive?” I blurted. Oops, I forgot about Spike.
Spike bore a wounded expression. “I came out the same time with you. You didn’t notice?”
I shook my head mutely.
He sighed. “Probably because I was the only one that wasn’t catapulted out of your weird spell.”
“Hey,” I grumbled. “That spell did pretty well for something that I didn’t test.”
“Well done,” Twilight interrupted with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Now that her initial shock wore off, she seemed to regain a bit of her authoritative aura. “Now you must go back.”
“No,” Rainbow said, taking her attention off me. “We’re here until you’ve sorted out your thing with Twilight.”
She shot a glance at Rainbow, then turned back to me, as if I were the only pony in the room.
“Go,” she said.
“Hey,” Rainbow growled angrily. “Don’t ignore me!”
“Sure as hay, that ain’t nice of you to ignore your friends,” Applejack pointed out.
Twilight turned to them. “That’s not fair,” she said. “You can’t do that to me.” She muttered something I couldn’t quite catch.
“Do what, dear?” Rarity asked gently.
Twilight backed away, edging to the door. “You’re all— I can’t—” She tried to open the door, but I was ready and slammed it back shut. Twilight whipped around. “Stop that! I don’t want to have a discussion with my friends. They don’t matter. They can’t matter. They’re not real!”
“What’s not real?” I snapped. “We’re real, how can you say otherwise?!”
“Because my friends are dead! Everypony is dead! Everypony I love is dead. Only I’m alive. It’s just painful keeping up the façade in that little experiment. It was fun at first, but they just remind me that they’re not here. It’s maddening. It’s madness! It’s terrifying me.”
“What?” I couldn't make sense of her rambling.
“Just let me go,” she croaked, tears spilling out. “I can’t face them again. Not after what I’ve done, not after what I would have done.”
I felt a trickle of unpleasant dread work its way down my spine. Twilight shot a quick look at her desk. She tried to hide it, but she was too late. I made my way towards it…
Twilight appeared in front of me, blocking my way. She had teleported from her spot by the doorway.
“Move,” I said.
“No,” she whispered. “There are things that are best left unknown.”
“Not this time,” I said, then teleported myself in front of her.
At such a short range, teleportation was a risk, but I was willing to roll the dice. I glanced at the desk where a book lay open, with dated entries. It disappeared before I could focus on it more, but I caught enough to send tingling numbness coursing through my nerves.
“Experiment terminated?” I said in a low voice.
Fluttershy gasped. Applejack glanced at me in surprise, then narrowed her eyes at Twilight. Rainbow looked at Twilight accusingly, and looked ready to launch herself across the room. Rarity had a disgusted look on her face, while Pinkie stared at the floor, her face hidden.
“It’s not what you think,” she whispered in the murderous silence.
“Tell me, then,” I said, eyes drilling into her own, “what I’m supposed to think?”
Twilight shied away from my glance, but didn’t move from her spot. Again, she simply looked like the weight of the world rested upon she shoulders. In a way, it did.
“I was going to freeze your microverse and bury it deep. My experimentation had reached the limits. I thought about destroying it. You wouldn’t have felt a thing, but I couldn’t do it.”
“Couldn’t do it because you didn’t know how, or because you realised you were wrong?”
Twilight shrugged, clutching her other foreleg to herself. “Neither, Twilight, I simply lacked the courage.”
There were so many things wrong with that statement, I didn’t know where to start. This… prankster, this idiot, this playful spirit, was more different than I thought. She was a gulf apart in my understanding, but that didn’t mean that she was justified, or that I wouldn’t be able to set her straight.
I paced around the room, deep in thought. It was good that she didn’t decide to simply destroy the universe, but it was troubling that she didn’t seem to find a reason why that was wrong. It all stemmed back to her warped views about us. To her, it was like we were copies. Things to be simulated, reproduced, and rewritten or destroyed at will. She didn’t believe we were real.
I gestured to my friends as we gathered together. I glanced back, seeing Twilight hunched off to the side, looking more miserable than ever.
“What do you think?” I said. “We need to find a way to convince her that we’re real.”
Applejack sucked at her teeth, tilting her head in consideration. “I don’t know, Twi’, ponies just know when something is real and when it’s not. It ain’t difficult, you know it here.” She tapped her heart.
“You can’t win over Twilight with that kind of logic,” I pointed.
“It’s not about logic,” Rarity said. “It’s about feeling.”
Fluttershy nodded. “She’s using logic as an excuse,” she said quietly. “I feel like she’s just hurt on the inside.”
“Maybe she needs a good kick in the head,” Rainbow muttered. She glanced around, then rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean literally.” She paused. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“We need to overwhelm her,” I said. “In one move she won’t be expecting.”
“She kind of freaked out when she saw you brought your friends?”
Pinkie grinned. “I know what she needs,” she said with a devious smile.
“What?” I asked.
Pinkie cocked her head. “Isn’t it obvious? She needs a hug.”
I blinked at her incredulously for a few moments, then I grinned so hard it hurt my cheeks.
“Oh, Pinkie,” I said with a laugh. “That’s so crazy it actually might work.”
——————
I approached Twilight with a purposeful stride.
She met me with eyes devoid of emotion. For a few heartbeats, I saw the depth of age concealed within her mask of blank outer emotion. Then it was gone, and she merely stared at me, waiting for me to say something.
“We’ve decided to go back,” I said abruptly.
Twilight’s mouth fell open. Inwardly, I added that to my sadly lacking column of wins, but we were having a good run.
“You’ll just leave, just like that?” she said hopefully.
“Yes, on one condition,” I said.
Twilight looked at me, then glanced warily at my friends who wore satisfied smirks.
“What condition?” she asked cautiously.
“That we give you a hug,” I said casually.
“W-What?” she spluttered.
“Well, I guess you haven’t been the best pony in the world, but in the end, you’re still me. What’s important is that you understand that we’re real, we exist, and that we’re something you don’t just throw away.” I glanced around. “We don’t really belong here either, the same way you don’t belong in our universe. We should go, but not before we know you won’t do anything rash.”
“Giving me a hug isn’t going to change my mind,” Twilight whispered.
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug, “but what are we going to do? Anything I come up with isn’t likely going to persuade you through your wall of reason. If I know myself, you’ll have rationalised every little argument you can think of to guard against our words. Simply put, I’m stubborn, so I know you are too. What you need is something to break past that. Something to remind you of what’s important.”
“It’s not going to work,” she insisted, but this time she broke eye contact.
“Well, we won’t know until we tried,” I said with a wry smile. “Spike, girls?”
I wrapped my hooves around the alicorn and pulled her into a hug. Fluttershy joined, and soon after everypony else had circled around and drawn Twilight into a tight hug. Feathers and hair and hooves stuck out in all directions, even sharp claws, but I ignored them and hugged her tighter. It was like hugging granite, but I didn’t mind. This was the best we could do.
When we finally broke away, Twilight was trying very hard to bore a hole in the floor just by looking at it. I smiled weakly, uncertain of whether our plan succeeded or not. Twilight didn’t move, nor did she speak. When nothing was forthcoming, I shrugged and made for the crystal sitting on her desk.
“Come on everypony, let’s go home.”
“Wait.”
I froze, then turned back.
Twilight was still staring at the floor, her feelings a mystery.
“Yes?” I prompted, causing her to look up.
Eyes stained ochre met mine. “Maybe stay? There’s no rush to go. M-Maybe for some tea?”
She sounded so awkward I had to stifle a laugh.
“We can’t be here for very long, we don’t—”
“Twilight,” Rarity said, “we should give our host a chance to be hospitable.”
“But…” I looked at the others.
Rainbow shrugged. “I didn’t eat anything today, I could use some grub.”
“Tea would be nice,” Fluttershy said.
“Wouldn’t turn down some tea,” Applejack added.
“Tea would go well with the cake I brought!” Pinkie exclaimed. She brought one out of her tail. I put aside thoughts about eating cake with Pinkie’s tail hair in the mix.
Spike shrugged and smiled, but didn’t say anything.
“Ah yes, right, a few hours more won’t hurt,” I hastily amended.
Twilight perked up slightly. “Really?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah,” I turned back to my friends. “Can you all go ahead? I just want to… talk to myself for a bit.”
When everypony except Twilight left, I closed the door and stared at her.
“You must think I’m evil,” she muttered.
“Evil? Not really. Misguided? Definitely. I guess it depends on the perspective.”
“I’m sorry,” she said slowly. She winced. “It’s… a little hard for me to say that.”
“I can tell,” I said wryly. “Come on, the others are waiting.”
Twilight stopped me with her hoof. “Just like that? Weren’t you going to say something too?”
“No, I just felt you wanted to, so I stayed behind, that’s all.”
Twilight considered this and for a very long moment lay silent.
“Can you forgive me?”
“No,” I said finally, watching her sag. “The hardest thing to do is to forgive yourself. I’ve been so disappointed that I don’t even know if that’s possible.” I took in her tortured look and eased up a bit. “But who knows, maybe I will...” I trotted towards the door and turned around with a sly smile.
“...in the future.”
The End.
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Hmn.
This is actually a much better epilogue.
I look forward to the next arc some day ^_^.
Well, it DOES give closure... But I still think we want more XD if you believe it's appropriate, though, you could end it here. Future Twilight has faced what she has to, what the future brings depends on them. You could tell that story, or leave it to our imagination.
Your choice, as the author. We still want more anyway, we're readers after all
Hm, I do enjoy this much more than the previous epilogue. Enough to change my dislike to a like. Any expansion on this would be appreciated, but now as it is it feels more like a completed story.
I know criticism can be hard to accept sometimes for everyone, so thank you for taking the time to consider the criticism from your readers on the previous epilogue. I look forward to what you'll write next.
This is the right kind of open ending.
Thank you. This version , in my opinion, is much more fitting. It does give us more closure.
Yes, I think this concludes things a lot better.
What was the original epilogue?
Anyway, this story seemed kind of all over the place. I mean, we start of with Future Twilight wanting Twilight to get out more and have fun, then she's just teasing her a lot, then they do the prank arc, and then there's the plot dump with the letter. The letter only told us things we should have seen happen. Yeah, we saw how different the Twilights are, but we didn't see any interactions with her friends to drive home how lost in her created world F!Twilight has become. I think a lot less time should have been spent on that prank.
And Twilight's reasons for going to the macroverse were weird. At first it looks like she wants to apologize for how she treated herself, but once they get there, she's happy to see F!Twilight hurt and almost immediately goes on the aggressive. Plus, seeing F!Twilight appear as a fragile child as opposed to a centuries old ruler took away a lot of the power she appeared to have in the previous chapters. She's practically the god of their universe, and demonstrates how much she knows and her abilities to her "past" self, but all it takes is a slight verbal scolding from a copy and she's basically wetting herself. Plus the whole Spike literally out of nowhere was absolutely unnecessary.
I can't say the story was bad, but it has a few flaws in my eyes, and such a waste of potential plots. How does Twilight deal with the fact that she's in a universe created by another her? How do her friends react? The Princesses? I feel like more development was given to F!Twilight and she wasn't even the focus of the story. I feel like everything could have been given a lot more depth. So yeah, while it definitely doesn't deserve a dislike, I can't bring myself to like it either.
But really, what was the first epilogue?
6978885 The original epilogue cut off at 'And all was silent.'
I also think this is a good open ending. Thank you
this is an ending worthy of the story you wrote good sir and it leaves it open for either you or others to expand the story.
I am sad to see this story end, it was a very good read, one of the more interesting ones I've read on here and as I said, this ending is proper for the story.
good luck I your future writings and maybe we shall meet in another story some day. till then I say good day and happy writing.
I really enjoyed this chapter and the ending ^_^
This is much better. It gives closure to the story while still leaving it open enough for any number of future paths. The way the story ended before I didn't even like it, but this, this made me give a thumbs up because it finally tied things together.
This story is in my all time favorites now :)
...you still forgot to explain where the future selves of the Royal Sisters came from...
Maybe Future-Twilight is living in a microverse herself, owned by the Sisters? When she saved the state of her own, it copied the 'future' visits from the elder Alicorns?
I feel like if Past-Twilight mentioned what Celestia and Luna said to Future-Twilight, it would prompt a spit-take and some mild panicking.
Now this works much better. If you want to leave it here that would be a much easier pill to swallow. Good stuff and I'm also glad Twilight didn't immediately bury the hatchet. Future-Light may be damaged but she still needs to shake the cobwebs from the social center of her brain.
Okay thank you for the continuation, and if you want to leave it here and make it completed im pretty sure most people including me are totally okay with this epilogue. Its still open, gives chances for future fic if you wanted, and you do still get your original epilogue by having the microverse still destroyed.
Hope we werent so pushy, we are as readers is only here for criticizing stuff and discuss the story with each other. The way in a sense some people including me wanted more of the story felt like what the Harry Potter fans did towards J.K rowling regarding the new "novel" or was it a play because we want more and stuff.
Good job btw, you dont need to hear it from me, but hey some people like being praised so yeah Good job, awesome story
This ending makes much more sense.
It gives us a look at Future Twilight's inner workings...her pain and struggles, and let's the readers see what her socially awkward nature was hiding.
It also leaves the story open...either for a sequel or simply for aesthetics.
This is a beautiful ending, and even if you ultimately decide not to pursue a sequel I will still look forward to more of your stories...when you have the time of course.
Thank you for all your hard work.
I like this better, but that "Maybe I'll forgive you in the future" speech makes me want you to continue it. When you can, of course.
Time to see if I can pull of some time shenanigans in the comment section.
6981466
6981486
And the end was just the beginning. . .
6981483
And the beginning was just the end. . .
6978885
First one was the same but ended at
"And all was silent."
6981486 6984218 Mmkay. Not that hard to do
6984216 I mean really, its not that hard
If you ignore the original meaning of the song and apply the lyrics to this story
Then this song.
Would go good as some credits music .
(Also pretty good for the story as a whole)
Or maybe spring yard zone from sonic 1...
Great story! I haven't had that much of a good reading in a long time . Thank you.
Well... while I didn't mind the original ending (I can't always expect having everything explained) this certainly added a lot of closure the story was missing.
In my opinion though, the story could end here completely and that'd be absolutely fine.
That being said, I don't have anything against this being expanded upon. Under one condition though - don't make it forced.
As I said, the story already has a pretty good closure, so adding another arc just for the sake for adding another arc would do more harm than good.
I started reading this with the expectation of it being like the comic. Then you went and slapped me with depth and philosophy, and I just rolled with it. In the end, a very different story then I expected, but the story I got just so happened to be of the type I really enjoy. That being said, I'd still love to see a purely comical version of this that plays out like the comic. The two kinds of stories I like the most are waxing Pony Philosophical and pure comedy with no fucks given.
6978885 Your thoughts on this story are basically the same as mine. Like you, I can't bring myself to either give it an upvote or downvote. This fanfic had some interesting ideas, but the tone and plot were all over the place, resulting in an inconsistent and somewhat unsatisfying tale. What was the point of the prank? Why would Future-Twilight be so invested in the other princesses when she could prank the real ones any time she wanted (or can she?). Shouldn't she have been a lot more invested in her 5 (or 6) friends whose real-life counterparts are dead? And yet they barely see her.
Also, for me, a better ending would have been for the M6 and Spike to decide to stay in the real world, based on the logic that it would be best not to return to a micro-verse that can be frozen or reset on the whim of a mad goddess. Then Future-Twilight would be forced to deal with the consequences of her little experiment.
Oh... My... Gods...
Cheeks are running down my tears !!
7004989
t.
I read random funny storys and I go Holy
Very interesting story, I love the twist you've given it. It's refreshingly unique from all I've read so far. ^^
Though I was really starting to panic for Spike before he appeared half way through the chapter. :p
I greatly prefer the new ending. The problem with the original was that it was just too divergent. It could have worked out like this, or future Twilight could have ended the microverse, suppressed any feelings of guilt over doing so, and continued to slowly destroy herself.
I'd have been satisfied even if it ended with past Twilight emerging, and the two facing each other. The important thing was that future Twilight wouldn't be able to just brush away everything she had done as it being a self-indulgent fantasy, that she would be somehow forced to confront that there were things other that herself that were meaningful.
6979641 Future Twilight mentioned having shown the microverse to the celestial sisters so more likely than not those visits were involved in the exhibition.
Ah i finally found this again!
I forgot what this story was called and searching timetravel on this site is just impossible
I think Older Twi needs a hug AND a song!
Anyways, I put this on my reading list when it was only 2 or 3 chapters, and I really wish I read it sooner! I like how this kind of evolved into it's own thing, springboarding off of the comic's depiction of Future-Twi and into a story of it's own that went deeper than I anticipated. If you're going to write a sequel, I'd be all for it. I'd love to know if Older Twi or the young mane 6 will come into visit in the other's universe, and many other things, especially if they could get the microverse to become it's own independent alternate universe!
I seriously can't wait for the next arc. This is a really good story, and I really hope you implement the follow up to this ^_^.
Ah, I see... It was a little like having a scrap-book of old photos from a time you remembered fondly, and you were spending too much time obsessing over old memories. But then some of the photos of your long-dead friends came to life, and now you'll have to watch them grow old and die again, unless they go back into storage in their photos.
Personally, I suspect the real-universe's scholars of history and antiquities would be chewing the furniture in frustration if they didn't get a chance to interview living copied personalities recovered from an ancient time.
There is no way I would leave my universe's fate in the hooves of a mare who could end it all at the drop of a hat. One bad day, one single decision, and everything is gone. I can't imagine this ever ending well for 'past' Twilight. Her best bet would be to figure out a way to sustain her universe, to put it somewhere future Twilight cannot reach.
Would they be able to take the crystal back with them? Have their universe within their own universe.
Bwaaa
Is this a reference? I remember this line from somewhere, though that somewhere might be this story after all.
It was good.
Resolution would have been nice, as well as closure, though I don't mind.
It was fun, and I hope Twilight loosened up.
This was delicious. Thank you Sunny.
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I am unsure about this as well. I had suspected that it wasn't a future version as such, but not that way.
There's also too much missing. What happened to the other princesses? I am also suspecting that her friends are dead by that point, which is sad, but are there even any other inhabitants of that realm? Did she even understand the spell? Was the universe frozen, or did the viewing window just stay at the same spatial coordinates at what was actually a true alternate universe?
Do they truly go back to the pocketverse (presumably they visit now and again, though), or do they invite TwiPrime back in to stay, or evacuate everyone and cause TwiPrime to freak out?
Possibly the most thought provoking AU that I have read.
Very good.
What an odd ending.