This story is a sequel to Surprise Party
Change. It's the most constant and unyielding force in the world. It strikes without warning and without mercy, heedless of desires and opinions.
Twilight Sparkle is at the top of her world. She's found her place in life, made friends that love her, and her relationship with Applejack has never been better. But is she going to be ready when the changes come? Twilight enters a turning point in her life, and nothing may ever be the same again.
The answers to the future lie buried in the past.
The fourth installment in Single Point. Credit to Meta Four for proofreading.
Chapters (9)
With you, I wasn't sure at first whether that opener was a flashback or a flash forward.
Hmm, this will surely go some way toward explaining Rarity's pessimism regarding the relationship....
Ah, once again, a moment we would normally laugh at in the show or another fic even though it was kind of mean, and then you go ahead and deconstruct it.
Well, this... will probably end well, but it'll be a heck of a time getting there.
I really, really hope Twi doesn’t get too angry when she realizes AJ isn’t actually planning to propose soon. Just because “I’m judging you so hard for not doing something (even though I never asked you to do it and you never promised it)” pisses me off to no end, both in fiction and in real life.
I think Twi is gonna go all Princess Twi and Applejack's gonna chicken out thinking she's not good enough or something.
There should be a monologue of applejack when twilight sparkle was away.
Stupid AJ running Twilight off like that. Fix it!!!
Somehow I thought we would have to go through the drama of their relationship getting screwed up during the cutie mark switch. But no, we get to skip to brand new drama.
You and me both, Twi.
Not that anypony could have seen these circumstances coming. Except Rarity, apparently. And Apple Bloom? Might her previous AJ-related trauma be tied to Rarity's?
It’s nice that Twilight gets to be the reasonable one in the relationship for a change.
This is a cool series that i just started following and finally caught back up after reading the prequels
Man Rarity is gonna ruin Applejack's shit next chapter
And suddenly Rarity’s behavior in all the prior stories makes a lot more sense.
Mr. Sketch must have been an inspiration to young Cheerilee. She looked at him and just knew, That’s exactly what NOT to do.
Well, if Rarity and Applejack can bond over this, hopefully everypony isn't going to end up mad at each other over it....Just the Princess of Friendship having lost faith in most of her friends.
AJ went out with Octavia too? Curious how many times this has happened. I guess we're about to see the first one.
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He may be something of a jaded old jerk, but I like him already.
(And I don't suppose he's even alive in the present...)
ya know what, theres something i REALLY want to tell AJ, but i'm just going to wait until she's ready to do so.
Poor AJ... when it comes to conflicting stories, the first one past the post usually sticks... and it's usually the liars, or those with a more distorted perspective, who care the most about making it there. I wonder if we'll see any of those jerks in the present?
Looking forward to seeing what Celestia's up to. She's no more perfect than the rest of the ponies, but even in your world there's no way she's truly that dense.
Finally, progress!!! (In Applejack getting her head on bucking straight, that is.) Be interesting when she finally 'fesses up to Twi and tries to win her princess back. Twijack FTW.
Heh, interesting to see where Three Point is coming from. Doesn't make her less of a bitch- you taunt someone for years and then call her a creep?- but it's something.
Sheesh, it's like Applejack went through a whole story already to establish her identity, and we already know that it still won't turn out well. Though as much as I can empathize with Crystal, it really does come across that they wouldn't be compatible in the long term.
Applejack may not have been entirely herself- or possibly she was too much herself- at the time, but I can't help feeling that her and Crystal trying to defy Mother of the Year would have just made things worse. Not to mention they clearly weren't compatible in the long run, what with how dismissive Crystal was of... pretty much everything about AJ's life and world except for AJ.
What kind of "disruptive influence" was AJ supposed to have had on the class even when she was a good student? This is Ponyville, it's not like there's that big a social gap between her and the others. Meta was right after all, Cheerilee clearly took examples from Mr. Sketch of what not to do. Though admittedly- like Empty Chalice for that matter- you can almost see where he's coming from and that he's got at least halfway good intentions, just taking it to way unhealthy levels. Much like... hmm... every other character in this.
At least now we can move on to a different conflict, which doesn't seem like it can be dragged out for too long. But we'll see (seriously, even after binging on All-American Girl I have to say you rival Shinzakura's talent for wringing drama out of every angle).
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This is more than likely it right here. This appears to be a case of "instead of stopping the bullying and making the attempt to teach students to accept others that are different (or at least leave them alone because they are not bothering or hurting you), we'll just remove the one that's different from the equation." It doesn't really get highlighted, but AJ's three ex-friends bullying her for being gay more than likely didn't just stay between them, Crystal and Rarity. It more than likely was in front of the other kids and causing problems and making them have questions the "adults" didn't want to answer. The bullying was the actual disruptive behavior but was pinned on AJ because she was gay. It goes without saying that Mr. Sketch is a shitty teacher.
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There's that, but I didn't think it had been going on for "years" like was said.
I don't think anybody was prepared for that answer.
Wuh Oh, I dun rightly know if I wanna be here to find out.
Yeah, I had pretty much the same reaction as Twilight to Applejack's ex count.
Oh, Celestia
... and you were so close to staying out of the muck.
Well, that was never going to be resolved easily... most series would probably end a scene or two earlier, in the knowledge that even if things aren't as they were, everyone's willing to give it another go. But you're certainly not most writers. At least things hopefully can't get too much worse again, even with as much struggle remains. And Twilight's ultimatum at least makes it seem likely that they won't tread through this particular batch of horseapples again.
And hey, Celestia actually helped after all!
Where's Discord during all this didn't they reform him.
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Celestia can be a bit of dunce sometimes, her plans don't make sense and have so many fallacies.
I like the reference to the season 7 Ep 13 Perfect Pear, it really adds weight to the story, a past she remembered, she was not goign to make the same mistake as he did and abandon a family member.
Mr Sketch and Empty Chalice are the best villain I’ve ever seen in a mlp fanfic.
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Somehow I'm getting the same vibe, and I've been getting it since "The Crystal Ball".
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I've been ready to see it since forever. I just hope it's every bit as delicious as Celestia's breakdown in Twilight A's.
And then...
This reminds me of a yet another quote, this one from HPMOR -
As for the deleted comment thing - I derped and posted two, so I just rolled them into one.
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He reminds me of a certain professor Quirrel. Not of the HPTPS fame, of the HPMOR fame. If you like that kind of humor, I invite you to read it.
I read it in his voice... whatever his voice is... when I read it.
NOTE: I am about to read the next chapter, I haven't read it before. This is an advance prediction.
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I think she's trying to make a point. She's going to surround Twilight with enough artifacts and quirks of her friends to make her realize exactly how much she gave up by running away.
Or, as a backup option: she's going to surround her with that stuff to just plain make her comfortable, just as if she was surrounded by her friends. And it'll probably have the same effect.