Twilight Sparkle feels like she's been waiting forever.
Alas, some things never change.
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- Member Since 18th Oct, 2014
- offline last seen Yesterday
Trick Question
Being against evil doesn't make you good.
Trick Question
Joined 18th Oct, 2014 ·
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I have to say, there are some days that I must unfortunately relate with poor Twilight here. Things I once took joy in feel empty, and I feel lost in the monotony of life. Day in and day out, the singular goal is to survive to see another sunrise, but to what end?
I feel this story goes well with Baal Bunny's Stupid Tree, perhaps even as a prequel to it. It's a good read which I highly recommend. (It was ranked 4th on the most recent pony Writeoff.)
Personally, I've had a few rough years back there, and I'd like to be able to wish them away or go back and fix things, but I can't. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure I'd want to. I've made it my goal to help others who've been hurt or are hurting, I fell so low, and I don't want anyone else to fall as low as I did. I guarantee I couldn't do that as effectively without the sense of empathy that I gained through my experiences, however painful they were in the moment. That is why I chose to use my experiences to reach out to others.
That brings me full circle to Twilight. It was mentioned in the text that Starlight has outgrown Twilight's tutelage much as Twilight outgrew Celestia's. But whereas Celestia was grooming Twilight to become a Princess, Twilight was mentoring Starlight in the ways of friendship. I see absolutely nothing stopping Twilight from signing on a new pupil. Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, yes, but she need not personally solve every friendship problem that arises. To say that she should is to focus too heavily on the "Friendship" part of her title. The "Princess" part of her title refers to being a role model for others to follow and allocating duties to others, teaching them about friendship in the process.
Sure, Starlight undeniably carries the Tree of Harmony's stamp of approval now, but it was Twilight's own decision to make Starlight her pupil in the first place. The way I see it, Twilight should probably reach out to Trixie or Moondancer, maybe even Lightning Dust, Flim and Flam, or Fluttershy's bullies, and help them to learn the Magic of Friendship, just as Starlight has.
7617485
I have intended that the story imply something very dark without actually saying it, but I'll leave interpretations to my readers.
I've got three theories so far. One, Twilight's actually dead.
The second is that her ascension came with a certain form of... stasis, if you will. That, as an Alicorn, she'll stop aging physically but her mind also freezes in a sense. That's what she subconsciously noticed about Celestia and part of her is struggling against it.
The third one is Twilight is alive, but everypony else is dead and she's using their corpses as puppets, fully in denial of the truth.
I also feel neither of these options is the right one.
I'm guessing that Twilight has depression. Things that used to bring joy no longer do, you're just going through the motions rather than doing things with actual emotion behind them. She's still (mostly) function, she just doesn't find joy in anything in life anymore. She can't even tell if she has a cold or not, because everything is monotonous.
And to make things even worse, her trusted mentor figure, the only one able to help her at all (she tastes her tea a little more around Celestia)- is telling her that she should just keep going on as she has. And simultaneously demonstrating how just going through the motions is all that's needed to comfort those around you.
And Twilight knows that she's not doing anything. She wants to do something. But she doesn't have anything to do, she doesn't have any effect on what's going on around her aside from just sitting there, nodding happily. Just like Celestia.
This is probably all wrong, but it was an interesting story nevertheless. (Though, 'airplane in an endless holding pattern' is quite interesting since there aren't really the airports/traffic control to have actual airplanes in holding patterns in Equestia... not sure if that means anything or if it's just using a simile that we humans would understand)
This seems like an important bit but I'm still grasping for the meaning. Curse you, Trick Question.
My brain wants to try to figure out the riddle behind this story. But part of my brain doesn’t want me to have that answer because it’s going to be too depressing. I can feel the wrongness, and not being able to tie it down is very creepy. At this point, I have to sleep on it.
Frivolous guess:
As Derpsby suggested, Twilight lost everyone she cared about, but instead of zombifying them, she has created replacement automata from common objects. Spike was made from a defective Keurig machine. Celestia is a bobblehead.
lyokopony has posted a review of Holding Pattern on Youtube, complete with his own fan theory take on its events.
The root of the word patience is the Latin patiens, meaning suffering. Patience is the capability to suffer, a patient is someone who suffers.
Provide consistency, perform your function to the world, be patient (suffer!) as your personality becomes irrelevant and repetition murders your mind and soul.
A change will not come. There is no way out of this holding pattern.
You will never know joy again.
Immortality is the most horrid fate conceivable.
I just can't seem to figure it out, and I am both impressed and afraid.
I've seen the emphasis on sameness and routine, but... I'm racking my brain, trying to grasp the meaning. However, this sentence intrigued me:
Hollow. Everything is routinely the same. Same old, same old. But hollow.
Because everypony around Twilight is actually dead? This is a theory, but I'm not sure. Has something happened after the battle with Tirek, that everyone died? But since Twi had all the alicorn power, she could've survived. However, the emotional trauma must leave her in denial and desperation. Her emotional state has been shattered. She can't go on adventures because her mind can't conjure an adventure to go on. All it knows is routine. In order to save her sanity her mind has masked the truth by continuing routine, which is supposedly comforting. That's one theory...
I see how it could possibly be she has depression, but that doesn't seem quite dark enough.
Another point: She's focused on the ponies close to her. The ponies she lost? Also, she's voiced she no longer feels much purpose. Perhaps she is subconsciously realizing nothing matters, because there is nothing? Tirek's goal was to destroy everything. Did he succeed?
Also, such fuss about tea. But when you're in such trauma, the little comforts matter. Twilight's poor mind is finding something, anything to grasp.
Sorry for the long comment. Also sorry if my theory is waaaayyyyy off. This fanfic is blowing my mind.
7619056
I missed that line. It’s horrifying and I’m sure it’s a key to the solution, but I still think I’m missing something.
Did Twilight die in the battle with Tirek, and this is her experience in Tartarus/afterlife? If so, why does she know about the Friendship Castle, Cutie Map, etc?
Did she lose her friends in that battle but best Tirek anyway? And the cutie marks on the map actually are marking burial sites, which is why she hasn’t seen them recently? And Twilight has gone insane as a result and will be insane forever? If so, and this is a regression into fantasy for her, why is the fantasy so dark?
Perhaps Twilight was mortally wounded in the battle with Tirek. She is on life support and being given bitter medicines as they try to save her. Celestia realizes that she cannot be saved, but the princess of friendship can’t be allowed to die, so a fake figurehead twilight is created and given enough of her memories to put up an appearance. Spike and her friends do not care to interact closely with this artifact and so keep their distance. Celestia also finds it distasteful to interact with it, but does it to provide consistency for the realm.
Last and most meta: MLP has come to a production close before season 7 and is in reruns, with no new episodes. FOREVER.
Mundane Theories From Your Local Fruit-Based Rush Song:
1- Twilight is having a mid-life crisis
2- Twilight has a cold.
2.5- Twilight is sick in general.
3- Twilight was knocked into a coma during/after her fight with Tirek, and due to her obsession with orderlyness and keeping things within the status qou, her mind is trying to keep her occupied, throwing it's best approximation of her friends at her. These friends have no real personality or unpredictability due to all their actions and reactions being a product of Twilight's mind, and thus, her mind tries to keep them busy and away.
7626051 I like the third one.
My framing is that Starlight Glimmer and all of the Bearers except Twilight are dead, and she's refusing to accept that. The map hasn't realised that they're dead either and is highlighting friendship problems that are never going to be solved. Either that, or they all died on the missions highlighted on the map.
Thinking about it, I still have nothing, the closest I can come up with is that twilight's a robot? would it be terrible if i just ask for the answer?
This line makes me think It's a situation like the one in Everything is fine
I think this is too confusing for me. These theories are interesting, but they all admit that they don’t know, either.
That said, I enjoyed 7618960 the most simply for creativity.
Is Twilight a functioning alcoholic?
I don't have a clue what's going on. But if your past stories is anything to go by, I suspect some sort of time traveling and/or cloning shenanigan is involved.
Celestia suggests patience, but what for? To wait until Twilight's friends are dead and she'll converge to fixed point and accept it? And what does whole tea thing mean?
I don't get it
7617569
Can you tell me what you intended the story to imply?
I don't know, it looks like good old fashioned anhedonia as a symptom of crippling depression to me. But I'm not sure about Celesita's response in that light.
Given the author and the story, I am pretty sure there isn't an actual answer about what happened.
But that is okay because there doesn't have to be one, a jumble of misfit nonmeaning that encourages a reread that accomplishes nothing more than the last reread is very fitting with the theme of failed repeitition.
I'm going to break with tradition and say that no one's dead. Instead, Twilight's ennui comes from ceding all initiative to her coffee table. The Map may be deliberately snubbing her in an effort to make her give herself her own missions... and Twilight, who has spent almost her whole life serving one authority or another and never asked for her own, doesn't see that. She's spinning her wheels precisely because she doesn't know what else to do.
Also, Celestia's been burning the midnight oil lately and keeps nodding off in spite of herself. Probably best to send Luna in to give Bookhorse a kick in the rear.
I don’t get it
8882950
I don't think this is it.
I remember this story the first time, but I didn't get it then.
This time? I'm fairly sure... The key is in Pinkie's reflection on Sunday comics. The comics are sources of comfort, wherein you meet a comforting consistency - as Pinkie says, no matter how bad things get in the comics, they never change.
Just like Celestia. And now, Twilight. Because Twilight notes she USED TO do things. And now doesn't. Why? Because that's the nature of Alicorn magic. Ascension appears to basically result in some form of same-ness that becomes innate to the pony, as they become a perpetual source of comfort for the rest of Ponydom. Becoming an alicorn is not a blessing, really, but a curse - because it locks you into this sort of hell of Sunday Comics-dom. Celestia can get kidnapped again and again, yes, but alicorn magic ensures she is rescued. But in return, well, she spends all her time smiling, and waving, and drinking tea, and nodding her head. And now? Twilight is beginning to realize, at least unconsciously, that she is doomed to the same.
And thus, the title.
You said pretty much the same thing about newspaper comics last year when we were at the Old Bag of Nails. Kinda messed with my head, 'cause I used to enjoy reading them, but I can't recall or find any examples of ones that were actually funny. Even Non-Sequitor's just sorta meh
8882950
I like the way you think, and it's a nice enough explanation. For one, it's different to the other conclusions, in a very important way - it holds some hope.
Clearly, tea turns alicorns into zombies. :V
This one's rating is fine.
Guess I'll tell you that in the comments of each story, that'll be easier to keep track of. :B