• Published 19th Jun 2016
  • 5,107 Views, 57 Comments

One Last Act of Tragedy - Majin Syeekoh



Every year, Twilight relives her greatest triumph―which is also her greatest failure.

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Synthesis

P’’C

The Princess of Friendship grasped Tirek and removed him from Equestria. And then she descended from the sky in a bolt of fire. She then rested twelve moons and awoke. On the dawn of the first day of the thirteenth cycle, Princess Radiant Dawn was born to the Princess of Love. And on the day the Princess of Friendship awoke, you shall light a candle to honor those who fell. On that day you shall prepare a great feast for your family. That will be the day you remember Equestria lived.[1]

[1] I did the best I could at the time, and that’s all anypony can ask for.


Twilight Sparkle closed the journal, took a deep breath, and smiled.

Now that that's done with, I can make it to Radiant Dawn's birthday party.

Comments ( 48 )

Interesting concept, but it felt a bit disjointed.

Some more detail regarding just how much time has passed wouldn't have gone amiss. As it is, Twilight could have taken three years or three millennia to let go of her grief, and it seems a missed bit of character insight that we get cheated out of which it is by ambiguity.

Again, interesting concept however.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319016 Yeah, I'll agree with you that it's a bit disjointed. I wrote it very stream-of-consciousy.


In my mind, though, the amount of time it took her to let go of her grief is irrelevant to that fact that she let go of it at all. Some people go entire lifetimes without letting go, after all.

Nice
loved the progression of her mindset over time

Interesting. :twilightsmile:

I do love the sense of progression and of the sheer magnitude of the choice Twilight made. As she noted, that one choice rippled across time. On a personal level for Twilight, it took a long time for those reverberations to dissipate into something she could live with. But time heals all wounds, and immortality gives plenty of time.

A very nice expansion to the Writeoff entry. It does leave some parts vague, but those aren't essential to the narrative. This is very focused storytelling, and it makes that focus a great strength.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319212 Thank you.:twilightsmile:

As for the tightness of the narrative, it wouldn't have been very tight at all if I had implemented all of the ideas I had. Figuring out which ones to keep and which ones to cut was rather difficult.

This is awesome! This whole concept shows how taking a life can change a psyche, and then how the ravages of time change even the perception of that. While some would say it is disjointed, I enjoy the way it uses the halting interruptions to give a deeper look into the occurring changes. It isn't some "psychology lesson", as some might expect, but uses something relatively simple to convey a personal take on a singular concept. Not sure how much was intentional, and how much was resultive, but it still comes off as a deeper story, no matter how brief it is. Well done. Onwards!

I really love the way this story is written, it is very unique.:twilightsmile:
Although I wonder what does the "P’’C" at the top of every chapter mean.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319286 It's shorthand for Praise Celestia.

hold on... She was willing to do a "take you down with me" on Tirek... but what about all the magic they had? Did Tirek dying release all the magic back to everyone he took it from? Did the other princesses take their magic back from the then comatose Twilight?

Please don't tell me equestria went a year without magic (day/night change, weather control, food growth) and that Princess Radiant Dawn is called that because that day marked the first dawn in a year.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319307 Well, one would assume that after Tirek was vaporized, the magic would return to its rightful owners having lost its previous vessel.

As for Radiant Dawn... she's called that for a reason, yeah.

7319303 The apostrophes actually being Yuds, I gather?

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319356 It's just an acronym.

7319362 As are two Yuds. That's how "adonai" is transcribed in the Torah scroll.

(You're getting credited with an esoteric religious reference. Just take it :twilightsmile: )

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319368 So I did the research, and it turns out that it could be rendered either with the apostrophes or without the apostrophes and it retains the same meaning. Rendering the apostrophes as Yods would defeat the purpose of using hashem, which is to avoid God's name, which YY is.

Well this was an interesting story. It is very vague and a little confusing. I like it though.
Nice little story.

-BFBL

This was alright.

Is Twilight immortal/have an extended lifespan in this 'verse because the fact that all of her friends and family minus Cadance and Radiant Dawn who seems too young passed away seems to suggest this.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319636 Yes, that would be a correct assumption.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319827 And baruch tihiye to you.:twilightsmile:

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7319842 I think Twilight learned from Celestia to let culture develop on its own.

short and, as others have said, a bit disjointed. I liked that though. Great story concept and follow through in writing.

What do you exactly mean by this?

The Equality revolution was halted in its tracks.

I don't get it.

When someone mentions the word Equality the first thing that comes to my mind is problems related to genders, but this is something different.

7320747 Starlight saw it and gave up on her Equality movement, she realized she had no chance of ever getting all of Equestria to share her way of thinking. Or something like that.
Kinda hard to make everything think you are all equal after possibly witnessing something like that.

This was a very interesting read, certainly different but enjoyable.

A far more enjoyable take on the Twilight kills Tirek instead story. Far better than the Twilight becomes an action hero story.

Good work, Maj.

7320747 That would be our lovable Starlight Glimmer, causing a rebellion with her weird anti-cutie mark cult.

Quite the interesting deconstruction on the rather cliche'd idea of Twilight Killing Tirek and coming out of it as a hero and saviour. People forget that such acts can lead to undesired emotions. Moreso for Twilight, whose whole MO now is to spread friendship. It is in her title, after all.

Awesome fic. An interesting premise, and one I would like to see you expand upon further.

The one thing I really loved, though, was the little rhyme in the description. That was awesome :twilightsmile:

i do hope that twilight isn't making these annotations for Radiant Dawns birthday gift?

repeating the same actions, year after year, but with more clues and insight to that fateful encounter?

how would dawn even bring up the possibility of getting help for her aunt, the most powerful being in equestira?

maybe im just reading this wrong.

Interesting.

I feel like more could be done with this.

Now I just wonder what hell would be unleashed if this Twilight were ever able to communicate with canon Twilight who was able to open the box and not murder Tirek.

Twilight did what she needed to do. Learning to live with that, however, is often easier said than done and always takes time.

Not a bad illustration of that thought, this story.

wlam #34 · Jul 5th, 2016 · · 4 ·

[1] I did the best I could at the time, and that’s all anypony can ask for.

Too bad we know for a fact that this is untrue, eh?

This is an interesting story, although I think I may be reading it in reverse compared to everyone else. For me, this isn't an a story about someone coming to terms with an act of heroism. It's about someone learning to rationalize their worst crime, so that the guilt will hurt them less. It's one of the first real steps down the road to hell. Makes it ever so much more tragic.

I wrote an awful lot of words about this story (far too many to fit into a comment here without someone complaining), and figured people here might like to check it out.

In all seriousness, I thought this was a fantastic bit of writing. It's probably going to become one of those fics I have on my mental rec' list for all situations—which, if I'm honest with you, is about the highest praise I can give :twilightsmile:

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7383723 That was a rather impressive bit of reviewing, and I appreciate every word it.

Your interpretation wasn't my original intention, but the very story you reviewed is exactly about drawing alternate meanings from the same piece of text so I have no choice but to accept it just at valid as mine. What appears uplifting to some is sinister to others, after all.:twilightsmile:

Two roads diverge in the wood and I...

Bippedy boop, here's your review...p?
Sorry, my rhyming skills have gone a bit sour.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

7867076 Thank you.

Much appreciated.:twilightsmile:

Every time I read this it gets better.

I do wonder: Why no such thoughts for Sombra? What happened with him in this universe? Or is the key difference there that no one knew the Crystal Heart would kill him? Or that he was never believed dead?

7320747
It’s referencing Starlight Glimmer and her attempt to make all ponies equal.

I quite liked this. Even in this format of brief snippets, you can see Twilight's progression in how she thinks about what she did. The contrast between the legend and reality was nice too. Really well done! I featured this on my podcast, Pony 411.

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

8228408
Thanks.

Much appreciated.:twilightsmile:

*thinks about it*

my head cannon on this is each of these are reports that she wrote further and further away from the event...the first one is shortly after this little poem was writen, maybe just a few years after she started the celebration up, the second one was maybe a decade or so later...and this last one several decades even, maybe a century if radiant dawn is an alicorn

each shows her slowly geting past what she had to do, the last shes long over it and hasnt got much left to say about it.

7365341
I don't agree with your post, but I can definitely see where your coming from.

Was that her writing it three different times at three different points?

Time heals all wounds.

Also, Cadance will probably have a dozen kids by the time Twi has her first kiss.

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