Life is full of bitter disappointments. Sometimes projects fail and dreams are crushed. Sometimes the day is not saved and the city is lost. Sometimes the ponies that you love die. Reality can be cruel and utterly heartless.
Most ponies simply accept this as the nature of things and move on. They grieve over their losses and try to build a better future. But one pony discovered that reality can be changed. With only a quill and a piece of parchment, anything that you desire can be yours. If you don't like reality then change it – or, better yet, build a new reality that is more to your liking.
After all, what's the harm? Everypony can finally get everything they ever wanted. No more limitations – just endless opportunity. What could be better than that?
And if this new magic ends up destroying all of Equestria, well, we can just write a new one. It's no big deal. Right?
[Characters and tags are for the story as a whole, not necessarily chapter 1.]
Wow, I can't believe this story hardly has any recognition.
Thought-provoking and scary. I look forward to reading more.
6607461
Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed it. I apologize for the long delayed response; I've been away traveling, and have found it hard to get back to this.
I would like to finish the story; it's just now getting started. There's so much more in the future!
this is getting funny but what wiil celestia say to twilight takeing over the land she would try and stop her right
6673682
Oh yes. When Celestia finally realizes what is going on she will try to stop Twilight, and there will be a big battle. I'm looking forward to that part of the story.
6676421 and banish her into the sun for thousand years until she find the new bears of harmony and purify twilight
hum somehow i think Starswirl is goanna corrupt twilight and have her do something bad
6694066
To be honest, I didn't realize anyone was actually reading the story. Interesting.
Starswirl is key to the plot; the ending is impossible without him. However, Twilight has already been corrupted. She has the most dangerous thing in the world: a friend who is completely loyal and who will do anything for her. Twilight doesn't have any defense against a pony like Sunshine. How can you say no to someone whose sole purpose in life is to give you anything and everything you want? Twilight will always give into Sunshine, and Sunshine is utterly ruthless and extremely clever. Just look at what she did to Rarity.
Starswirl is ruthless too, in his own way. We'll see him in action in the next chapter.
The real question is whether there will be any survivors at all. Things are not looking good for our heroes.
6695053 so if sunshine die twilight go'es on a murder spree funny
6695071
Well, think about it. Twilight has become very fond of Sunshine, and Celestia hates Sunshine with a passion. It's only a matter of time - perhaps a very short time - before Sunshine and Celestia butt heads. When that happens, I don't think Twilight will take Celestia's side, especially after what happens in the next chapter.
Celestia is going to find herself in a corner, and this time she won't be able to turn to Twilight for help because Twilight is now the problem. It's only a matter of time before war breaks out. Sunshine has vast power, and if she thinks Celestia is a threat she is going to act.
But it's even worse than that. Trying to kill Sunshine is useless because if Celestia did kill Sunshine, Twilight could always write her back into existence, along with an army and anything else she wanted. The only way to stop Twilight would be to change Twilight's mind or kill her. Celestia will find it very difficult to do either of those things.
6695119 just banish twilight for a thousand years and then poof use the elements and then we have happy normal twilight back again
sunshine the untimate mastermind goes on a mindless murderspree while twi is in her Castle sleeping
6714857
You are really keeping up with the story!
In the next chapter, Twilight has a big falling out with Celestia. (It was supposed to happen in this chapter but the chapter got too long.) After that, things start going downhill really fast.
6718277 hum sunshine what are you doing to twi
wona wants friendly twi back or else wona will blast her whit harmony and cuteness
...the plot thickens.
Well, I'm pretty sure I know what Sunshine will do, in response to this.
--------------
This is certainly an interesting story. Sunshine is a most intriguing villain...
Okay, so I know that this will never occur to any of the characters, but the solution is obvious. To me anyway. Now that I've thought of it.
Basically, the comic books need to have a sort of "parental control". That is to say, no book can be used during half the day. Explanation for those that ask why not? They have a limited power source that will only work for half the day (such as midnight to noon). That way, they still get Applejack, albeit not all the time, and Equestria doesn't get destroyed! Well, unless they need AJ for something during her "off" time.
I really over think these things
Also, great story!
6718866
Sunshine will do anything that she thinks will make Twilight happy. That's what makes her so incredibly dangerous (and that's why she's one of my favorite villains - she's very different from your run-of-the-mill badpony). There's going to be trouble - that's for sure.
Thank you very much!
6720802
See, that's brilliant! That is a really clever solution to the problem. I like the way you overthink things.
Coming up with a good ending to this story has been incredibly difficult. I've spent hours thinking about it. So far the story has presented two possibilities. Twilight wants to release this magic, unlimited, to the whole world, and use to to completely remake society. Starswirl is convinced that this choice will end badly, and wants Alicorn Applejack to go back in time and completely erase the magic from history. But what is Applejack actually going to find in the future? Is there - as you suggested - a third path?
I appreciate your comment. It's really helpful to know that readers are thinking about where this story is going.
Thank you!
hmm will she kill twilight now that she knows sunshine's true nature
...okay, I was wrong. I thought Sunshine would try to recreate Rainbow and Applejack and cover up what had happened... she couldn't recreate Starswirl properly, but she could recreate somepony who looks like him, and who has (say) all of Celestia's knowledge of magic, and as long as he stays away from anypony who knew the Starswirl clone under some thin excuse (like "seeing how the world had changed") he could fool everypony into thinking the Starswirl clone was still around...
...but it seems that Applebloom's arrival stopped that from happening.
6724840
You will find out soon! Unless something changes (which is possible), there are only 4 chapters left. The finale is approaching.
6724898
You are exactly right. That is what Sunshine does: she alters reality in Twilight's favor. She sorely wanted to do that in this case, but she couldn't pull it off. Too many witnesses. You understand Sunshine really well.
But in the end, things worked out even better for her. Sunshine had been wanting to get rid of Celestia for some time now, and she finally pulled it off. Sunshine now has Twilight all to herself and has cemented her position in her affections. There's nothing stopping Twilight from releasing her magic anymore - with whatever consequences follow from that.
Four more chapters and then we're done. This book is much, much longer than I intended for it to be.
6725928 kay
Wow. That's, ah, wow. I'm... I'm speechless. I'm also really glad that I followed this story. Thank you for this.
6726256
You are welcome! Thank you so much for the encouragement - it means a lot. It's great to know that the story is being enjoyed.
6727910
Of course! I am enjoying this immensely, and it gives me pony content when cannon pony is sorely lacking.
And thus, I say it again,
Thank you!
Hmm, Frosted Arrow makes a good point. About the corruptive influence that these could have. The key to fixing it would be to have consequences to prevent ponies from wanting to kill anypony in their comic. So, attack someone and you get a warning. Kill them anyway, something doesn't work for twenty four hours. Repeat offenders get a total of five tries, each time getting a longer time when they can't use anyone's comic, until eventually they are never able to use the comics ever again.
I thought about this for longer than was probably healthy.
Of course, Twi probably wouldn't do that as the solution since she's trying to punish Tia by making her alone. So, some other function could be blocked instead.
And, once again, thank you for this story, it is always a joy to read.
6738230
You are exactly right. That's brilliant.
Since you've put so much thought and care into this, I'm going to tell you something (hiding this in case commentors haven't read as far in the story as you have): before I wrote this story I plotted it all out, and in the original outline Sunshine was not a character. Her appearance took me completely by surprise, and she changed everything that happened after her appearance.
I do believe it's possible to create a workable society with this new comic magic; you've hit on a number of possible solutions. The great problem is that Twilight will never think of any of these solutions because of Sunshine. If a problem ever arises, Sunshine will find some way to hide it from Twilight in order to keep her happy. Therefore problems will get worse and worse. This is really going to be driven home in the next chapter, which I've already started work on.
I totally agree that there are solutions. I think this could be made to work. Whether those solutions will be found is the key issue.
Thank you so much for the encouragement and the comments. I can say definitively that if it wasn't for the comments, I would have cancelled this story. The commentors have given me the encouragement to see this through to the end.
Three more chapters to go, and then an epilogue. Almost there!
6739098 Yeah, I think I mentioned in my first comment on this story that I knew no one would ever think of it. Sad, really, but it is what it is.
The plot thickens... there won't be much left when AJ and Rainbow drop out of the timestream, will there?
6745143
I'm glad their existence hasn't been forgotten! Oh, what a world they are going to see. I'm just glad Applejack brought along a friend.
I've completed a draft of the next chapter; I'll post it after I finish editing it. The world of the future is about to be unveiled. I would not expect much in the way of happiness or bunnies.
Okay... I can understand both sides of this conflict. Twilight is, as Celestia realized, emotionally brittle. She doesn't know how to take a denial. So, Celestia should have told her that they could find her friends- the ones still in this time line, anyway. With all of them there, each one objecting to the comics for some reason or another, Twilight may have eventually been able to realize her mistake, and they would destroy the comics together. And, yeah, when Twilight found out the truth about Sunshine, she should have done something. Maybe one of my previous suggestions, especially since she would have been able to fix all of the comics in one fell swoop with the master. To sum, both of them are in the wrong here. I may have ragged a bit more on Celestia than I did Twilight, but I've been picking apart Twilight's side for a longer time.
Also, something that had been bugging me for a while now... where the heck is Discord? I don't remember him being mentioned at all in this story.
Finally, I tip my hat to you, kind author, for yet another thought-provoking chapter.
6749302
You are exactly right. That's what I was going for. Celestia really should have handled this situation better, but she was just too angry. If she had come to Twilight with her friends, as you pointed out, things might have unfolded differently. But Celestia was not in a happy place. There was a part of her that really did want to hurt Twilight and fight her.
One of the experimental things I'm attempting with this story is that I didn't want there to be a straight-up villain. There are no evil characters who go around doing evil things and plotting the doom of everypony. I wanted there to be a plausible, understandable reason for everything that the characters did - even Sunshine. Yes, characters may have ended up making terrible decisions that had awful consequences, but at least the reader can understand why they made that choice. Sunshine did terrible things, but she did it to make Twilight happy. She wasn't trying to be evil. Twilight did want to see Equestria fall into ruins, but only because she wanted everypony to live in a world without pain and suffering. All of the characters had good intentions; it just so happens that good intentions aren't enough to stop you from destroying the world. (This is different from every other story I've ever written, where the villain is out-and-out evil, and the good and upright heroes come along and squish the villain's plans.)
Early in the book, somepony accused Twilight of wanting to be like Discord and spreading chaos. That's the only mention. I'll make sure he has a cameo in the next chapter, so that gets covered. Thanks! (That's what I love about comments; they bring things like this up.)
You are welcome! I greatly appreciate the comment.
Can always count on Dumbass Dash to try and ruin something
Ah, so that's where Discord was! And, yeah, I hope that they work it out. Like Dash said, the magic isn't bad, but how it was used is. ... I wonder if Discord will remember their chat.
We're getting close to the end, huh?
6762111
That's right! One more chapter, and then an epilogue, and then we're done. We are close!
Welp, it's good to know that Applejack plans on keeping Equestria safe... But... If she is "incorruptible" then she is barely more than a robot. I mean, I understand that she's choosing to protect, but I think it will probably be the last true choice she makes. It's like... It's like she's giving up a piece of herself. I dunno... Maybe I'm overthinking it.
But hey, it looks like Equestria won't die in a hundred years or so, so that's good.
And thanks again for the story. I know I say that a lot, but I mean it. So, thanks.
6770689
I was hoping someone would bring this up! This is a really interesting point that is central to what this book is really about.
There are two different ways you could take this. On the one hoof, you could interpret this story as a cautionary tale on what happens if you invent an artificial intelligence. All of the clones in the story are really just AIs. They were written into existence, using something like software code, and that code completely governs their behavior. If you write the wrong rules, the AI will crash. If you don't enforce Asimov's Laws of Robotics (which Twilight is guilty of) then your robots may go off and do horrible things.
The Applejack clone essentially is a robot. When she was first created, she was just a shell; she had no opinions or personality. Then Twilight infused Applejack's mind in her and turned her into Applejack. The AI didn't choose that; it was chosen for her. The AI would now make the same sort of choices that Applejack would make because that is the design Twilight chose. But the choice was always in Twilight's hooves. None of the clones would ever have a say in who they really were. Even if they modified their code, it would only be within the limits of what their code already said.
In other words, the Applejack clone never really had free will in the first place. Twilight was the one who decided what she was going to be. Everypony blamed Twilight for creating Sunshine and forcing her will on her, but what Twilight did with the Applejack clone isn't really that different, is it? Twilight created both Sunshine and Applejack to make her happy, and imposed a predefined set of rules on both of them. All the clones were ever able to do was choose within the limits of their predefined parameters. (Remember, Twilight took a blank pony and forced it to be Applejack. The AI didn't choose that.)
So that's one approach to this. You could also look at this through a slightly different lens. In the realm of theology there is something known as a "fixed will". The idea is that some beings, such as angels, were given a choice: they could be good and remain angels, or they could be evil and become demons. Whatever choice they made would become permanent. They would still have free will, but it would be confined within the parameters of that first choice: the good angels would always choose good things, and the evil angels would always choose evil things. That first choice would govern the rest of their actions for eternity.
Applejack knows she is artificial. She realizes she is an AI. Because she was programmed with Applejack's values (which was Twilight's choice), she decides to protect Equestria. She freely makes that choice, but yet all she is really doing is living up to her original programming. In order to truly protect Equestria she knows she needs to be perfect and incorruptible. Since she's just created out of code, she can accomplish that. She can become the pony that the real Applejack always wanted to be, but was unable to achieve.
Applejack is giving herself a fixed will. Yes, that does limit her options, but did she ever really have options to begin with?
The ponies who are really giving up their options are the real ones, because they're handing their government over to an artificial intelligence. They are choosing to be ruled (to some extent) by a race of robots. It's true that these robots think they are perfect, but are they really? Applejack thinks she's incorruptible, but how does she define corruption? Doesn't that kind of matter?
I probably put way, way too much thought into this story. It has all kinds of themes running through it. (I'm a bit surprised no one has brought up Myst. Have the D'ni really been forgotten? What a pity...)
You are welcome! One more chapter and then we're done. In the next chapter we're going to jump far into the distant future and see how all of this turned out. I think you will find it... interesting.
Yup... You're right, that's very interesting. I mean, there are a lot of things I'd like to say about this. I just... Wow. So... In Sapphire's "galaxy" are there other species? Like... I dunno... Homo sapiens?
And, one last time, Thank you!
Wow, that is a nice ending. (I was half afraid he epilogue would be about the iron rule of Artificial Applejack over Equestrian history...)
6773497
Wouldn't that be something?
You're very welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. It's nice to have it done!
6773920
Thanks!
I wonder in what way those enchanted comics will possibly bring back Applejack.
6777213
That's the question, isn't it? Fortunately, the answer is near...
That was pretty funny, the princess of Apples, Dashie you little scoundral. Also I'm with Dashie on this one, the way it's discribed is just replacing Applejack with an exact duplicate, the real one would still remain in the after life.
6778058
Yup. This is actually a major plot point, and one of the key themes of the story. Twilight hasn't realized it yet (and won't realize it for a long time), but she just opened a really, really big can of worms.
We'll, Applejack sure took the truth of being a clone of a dead pony pretty well, and she's right. She looks like Applejack, sounds like Applejack, acts like Applejack, but she isn't Applejack. She's pretty much just a back up of Applejack.
6779217
You're exactly right. Since Applejack is the Element of Honesty, she realized that right away. But Twilight can't see it yet. It's going to take her more time to come to grips with the truth.
Twilight now has the power to create anything that she wants. The only problem is that the things that she makes aren't actually real - they're just copies. That's going to be more of a problem than she thinks.
So Twilight finally understands the Identity crisis the new Applejack is going through. Also, I can only imagine what Celestia has to say about this.
Oh boy, it's happening, Twilight will slowly abuse her new found power for selfish needs and progressively become the bad guy. She's even tempted to change the new Applejack into something that she wants.