Epilogue
Wiping her eyes, Twilight Sparkle thought about what it meant to keep a promise. For the past few eons, the words spoken by her nephew echoed in her head: “It hurts to commit to things.” He was right—he was absolutely right—and she was all too familiar now with the pain of committing to her actions. She had seen things… wonderful things… terrible things. She had seen equinity at its best, and at its worst. An endless number of heroes had paraded past, and a countless number of villains had monologued.
Now, she had returned, having reached the point of her own departure.
Any moment now, she would fulfill her promise that she had made to Sumac. Still wiping her eyes with her foreleg, she thought about her friends, those she loved more than anything, she thought about her family, all of them, and most of all, she thought of Spike. The little dragon that was her first best friend would be the first she would tell, after her reunion with her nephew.
A pale glow surrounded the book, and Twilight waited, still sniffling. She was free to resume her normal life now, to reveal herself, to be herself. She had shadowed her mentor to learn the job, she could even become paper now, a powerful conduit for the ink, and she had preserved the ebb and flow of magic. Grogar’s taint still persisted in the world, but the source of magic, the wellspring, inkwell, had been purified. The stories being written now would no longer be jotted down in corrupted ink.
It was time to return to the here and now, so Twilight did. The ink would continue to flow and the words would scribe themselves. It was best if Twilight distanced herself from the process, so everything would happen as it was meant to be, without interference. She did retain some small awareness though, and right now, the paragraph she had waited for was starting to form…
The book opened, motes of magic began to swirl about, and then Sumac popped into existence with a sound like a cork being unstoppered. He stood there, blinking, confused, and blinded. Twilight did not give him a chance to recover and she was on him in seconds, causing the colt to cry out while she swept him up into a crushing hug.
“HOW?” Sumac shouted, his wings squirming and fluttering against his sides. “You had to go back to the beginning!”
“I did,” Twilight replied, “and from the beginning, I came here.”
“I don’t understand”—Sumac’s voice was a whimpering whisper of confusion as well as pain—“you just left a few moments ago.”
“And time has looped around. Now shut up and let me hug you. It’s been a long, long time for me.” Twilight laughed—an almost strangled sound—and she fought back more tears. With her wings, she pulled Sumac as close to her as possible, and she pressed her cheek up against the side of his head. “Cadance was even younger than you when she defeated Prismia. Everything will be okay, Sumac, everything will be fine.”
Twilight sat down on the floor and pulled Sumac down with her. She clung to him, needing him, needing to feel the warmth of another living pony after her eons-long sojourn. The feeling of her castle beneath her, of having a physical body once more, it was all too much and her emotions became a roiling caldera.
“Are you immortal now?” Sumac asked in a ragged, worried whisper.
“I don’t know,” Twilight responded with all of the honesty she could muster. “I am not Eternity. For a time, I chose not to age, at least until I got caught up again. Now, I might. And once this body gets tired and needs its final sleep, I will grow beyond it. But I don’t know what that means, just yet.”
“I can still feel the ink, Twilight.” Sumac pulled his head away and looked into Twilight’s eyes. “I can still feel some of the magic. Will it ever go away?”
“No.” Twilight shook her head. “But you don’t need to worry. None of your plans will change. You will still become the pony that you want to be. That was Eternity’s final gift to you… I understand that now. She gave you enough of her power so that you could write your own future, your own destiny, so you can be happy. She did it because you made her happy.”
“I… don’t… I don’t know what to say about that.”
“The things I’ve seen…” Twilight’s words trailed off and she shook her head.
When words failed her, Twilight looked into Sumac’s eyes, peering past the darkened lenses of his spectacles, and staring into the pools of vivid, bottle-glass green. It was then that she saw it, the subtle change done to his irises and his limbal rings. The little lines and crinkles were stained with ink, as were the rings. Sumac, like her, had touched the very wellspring of magic, and had been forever changed.
“How am I going to explain what happened?” Sumac asked. “And you… how are you going to explain all of this? How will you tell everypony?” There will be so many questions—”
Twilight placed a hoof over Sumac’s lips, silencing him. “For now, we’re going to keep what happened to me a secret, okay? I’ve spent many long years away from those I love, and the last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of questions. I’ll tell them in time… once I’ve recovered. As for you, I suppose a little fuss can’t be avoided. I guess we need to talk about what to tell them.”
“Or we tell them nothing,” Sumac said in a low, flat voice. “I’ve been through a lot, and you’ve been through a lot, and if I’m to be completely honest, I don’t feel like answering a bunch of questions either. I just want my mamas. Especially Lemon. I need to say thank you a whole bunch of times.”
Twilight realised that Spike would have to wait a little longer.
“Come, Sumac… it’s time to take you home.”
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That story answered a whole lotta questions. It raised even more.
There will be so many questions. Hopefully Twinkleshine and Trixie don't get too upset.
Now begins Project Eternity, phase two?
And this story comes to an end.
And i like how Twi and Sumac are like "let's just keep it secret for a while" and they both already forgot he has wings right now.
Normally i would be frustrated that again we are left with more quetions.
But i watch steven universe bitch!!!
Twilight said she wanted to keep it a secret for a while, but Tarnish already knows, doesn't he? He has known ever since Skyreach.
You know, I always just assumed that all the modern alicorns were immortal, being that they ascended by receiving a piece of Celestia's soul, and in Sumac's case the power of another immortal alicorn. I also thought this was partially why Luna wanted Gosling to ascend.
8158983
He doesn't remember.
I have an inkling...
8159082
Ink-a-bink-a-bottle-of-ink.
8158919 Here's a solution;
Magic.
Over tooooo quickly is Sumac an Alicorn or not and how will everyone react... that is some gift Eternity gave him
8159120
Um, read the story. Don't skim. The answer is revealed multiple times.
Comment deleted
Yes tell them nothing will work so well when another Alicorn turns up. A proper Alicorn not what the Ascendancy had been making
8159129
8159129
Oh, don't worry. They'll be told.
But Twilight will ask for a little time to recover first. That's reasonable.
8159146 Just saying how well that would work overall. Just Sumac's mothers aren't to going to let it go without explanation. Thank goodness your Blueblood isn't the jerk he is in a lot of stories
8159163
Um, what does Blueblood have to do with anything?
8159165 simple jerk Blueblood would likely have a fit over another pheasant becoming an Alicorn
Sumac is the Alicorn of Embalming
So now that I've finished the story, can anyone give me the rundown on Radiant Hope? I don't really recall that character.
outsystems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/talking_to_alexa_one_eternity_later.png
I couldn't help myself.
8159240
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Radiant_Hope
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/TheWeedverse
She's popped up a few times in the Weedverse as a healer. PTSSFF and TMMTP as the most notable.
8159248
I laughed. For realsies.
Well.
I look forward to the next big full-novel weedverse story after this one in the timeline. Will there be one? You know, stories like Weed or VI or Skyreach or Mask? I love all the little short stories and novellettes that flesh out the weedverse, but the big ones contain so much delicious character.
Also, I really want to see Trixie and co reacting to Sumac coming home from visiting his aunt, just casually having grown a pair of extra limbs.
... actually, what would alicornication do to his already potent talent for grift? Sumac OP, nerf plz.
Hmm the Sumac that appeared from the future in the past warning about not destroying the string of the rainbow of darkness wasn't an alicorn IIRC so... was that because in the alternate timeline he hasn't got the wings or was it because he was hiding them?
8159864 I'd call it an alternate timeline now.
8159864
It was said that they broke that timeline off from the main one. It cost them the map, remember?
That timeline isn't played out completely though.
On the whole, this feels like a massive victory for the forces of good in the world. It'll probably make Twilight even more of a target for the bad guys than she already was, but she may also be more equipped to deal with any threats that might occur because of that on account of assuming this mantle of power. I'm particularly curious how useful the ability to turn into paper might be in a combat situation to prevent damage and/or recover from it. Could be a nice little trick to hold in reserve until just the right moment.
I'm also amused at how the relationship with paper and ink loving Seville might play out now that Twilight is paper and ink.
8160444
I had high hopes that somebody might make this connection. Thank you.
The feeeels!
8161143
Aww crap...
I thought that this meant that they weren't that connected...
8161173
Some are, some aren't. Did you see in the description where it says 'lore-heavy?'
8161181
I guess not, I think I'm blind.
i would like to ask you a question
8162491
Yes?
8162546
i assume that this universe you created is pretty well laid out
but what i really wanna know is how you write so fast
and if you have any plans to write an independent book
cuz if you do i would totally buy it
8163385 At this very moment there is 1,721,688 words in the Weedverse, not including Dear Aggy or Hindsight (apologies Miss Appolonia just wanted to do the sums on Kudz at the moment although not hard to figure it.). One other book I know that came from here in Fimfic is 205,000 words + or - so that equates to just a little over 8 solid tomes if stories aren't separated, decidedly more if separated. That one book I bought cost just over $20 AU ($15 US about) from publishers that printed at no profit as a fan based production. So if this could be achieved again plus freight would be somewhere in the vicinity currently of $170 to 200 Au ($120 to 150 US about) so far for the entire current Weedverse set. IF it could be done at no profit. AND there's still more to come.
Just some thoughts on it for friendly curiosity while dithering around.
8167526
... that looks like a large word problem explanation
but math makes me smile
8160466 Sounds like they may write a few short stories in the future.
(Sorry. Had to say it.)
8160466
Clearly he's going to rub on her spine.
Welp... now I feel a bit of a dingus since I've only really read the stories directly involving Surmac or a certain Pegasus prince... still makes a bit of an eye opener.
8512614
Fixed. Typos slip through.
Well at least I got some answers to my questions. Lol I get what eternity was going on about twilight in shyreach.
8160444
You'd think that. Then you remember that we're talking about Twilight and that it's only a matter of time before things are worse than before.
8776020
Look... please stop.
9515093
would likely not matter