Epilogue
The Everfree Forest passed by below. As forbidding as it looked, this high up Meg knew it was safe enough—and quite frankly, she was almost preferred the easily understood dangers down below to the asylum for the insane her home world had become. Almost.
Serrell had revealed all, triggering conniptions all around but few changed minds. Everyone stubbornly dug in, refusing to budge. Not even Andrew’s optimism could keep the convention from being shutdown, threatened lawsuits over broken contracts be damned. When the death threats had started to arrive, most of the senior staff who hadn’t already quit in frustration and disgust finally took that as a hint to do so.
Meg and Steve had briefly returned to their apartment to see what could be salvaged. There wasn’t much. Just about everything was either gone or trashed. Fortunately, Meg had taken to keeping backups of everything digital in Twilight’s castle; it had amused her at the time that her digital possessions could survive the literal destruction of the Earth.
Equestria was now their home, the asylum paperwork rubber-stamped by the princesses. What outrage that had stirred back in the U.S. was drowned out by everything else. At least word of that new portal had yet to leak to the public. Nonetheless, it was only a matter of time; Royal Guards had been posted in the cave. So far, all they had kept out were federal agents still hoping to take Meg into custody.
She took a quick look behind her. Nopony was following. Not that she was being watched or anything, but one could never discount the possibility of being spotted flying in a direction no sane pegasus ought to be flying. A certain rainbow-maned pegasus was too effective at traversing large areas. This was something she needed to do by herself, if only because it’d look even crazier than flying into the Everfree.
There it was, up ahead. The abandoned castle. And there, by its side—yes, she could just make it out. A gorge. She flew towards it. This was the most dangerous part of the journey: descending. Nothing would bother her at her destination.
Into the gorge she flew, and she spotted the cave. A welcoming soft glow emanated from it. Going inside, she glided, then landed in front of the Tree of Harmony.
She practically snarled at it.
“What do you want from me?”
The Tree was silent.
Of course it was silent. Even in that dream, when it was inexplicably in Tartarus, it never spoke.
She couldn’t be satisfied with that. When she was turned into a pony that first time, when she had been made magical, she had sensed something in that timeless instant, something harmonious. The tree in front of her was supposedly the very essence of it.
“Answer me!”
She shook her head. What am I doing? She half-expected the Crusaders to descend from the upper branches. Fortunately she was not subjected to that; evidence of some lingering sanity, she supposed.
She walked right up to the tree. As before, a faint shadow made itself felt of the harmony she had experienced while being zapped by the rainbows.
Well, it wasn’t as if there were any witnesses present.
“Answer me!”
Silence. She looked around. No dream Celestia to pronounce her doom. No flesh-and-blood Celestia, either, to express concern.
“It’s a tree of few words, you know.”
Meg exhaled as her head slumped. Slowly, she turned around towards the condescending voice. “Why are you here, Discord?”
He touched his paw to his chest. “Can I not have concern for a friend?”
“Do you still insist you weren’t playing the part of Future Meg?”
That had been Twilight’s conclusion. It fit the facts, after all. Even if Future Twilight learned to handle hyperspace, she couldn’t shape-shift to assume Meg’s human form. The same applied to any other alicorn, including any that had yet to ascend. Maybe Chrysalis could handle hyperspace, but… no. That she’d participate in something like this was so preposterous it wasn’t worth considering. So that left Discord, and if that had been Future Discord, well, that explained the behavior of Present Discord.
The draconequus did something completely unexpected. “That was really you. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He even carried out the motions.
“Why now? You wouldn’t Pinkie Promise before.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “You really expect a sensible answer from the Spirit of Chaos?”
“No,” she said, sighing, “I guess not.” Did it even make a difference? Could he truly be bound by a Pinkie Promise? “Are you finally willing to explain what you sensed about my future self that drove you away?”
He said, not unkindly, “You’ll find out in the due course of time.”
“Of course I will.” She looked back at the tree, recalling the first time she saw it. She hadn’t in many months looked at that selfie of herself and Twilight posing by the tree. Maybe… with Discord? No, he’d have to handle the phone, and that probably wasn’t a good idea.
Without turning around, she asked, “So why did you create those portals, all those thousands of years ago?” He hadn’t answered that question when Twilight had asked it, but there was no harm in her asking it again. Discord was not known for his consistency; he might answer this time.
“Why not? Things had gotten rather boring.”
It wasn’t much more of an answer than the one Twilight had finally gotten, but it was something. And it reminded her of something her future self had told her. “What if those portals had never existed? How would my world be different today?”
“I think that should be obvious.”
It should, shouldn’t it? Cause and effect, after all. “Well, for starters, the Greeks would have left us no myths about unicorns, manticores, hydras, etc. That would have affected Western culture down to the present day, but I don’t see…”
She face-hoofed.
“There would be no My Little Pony, because it was inspired by those myths. I wouldn’t be a brony. I wouldn’t have a Pinkie Pie doll; there’d be no Pinkie Pie dolls. Would Twilight and Rainbow Dash have even come to my world?”
“You’re thinking too small,” Discord said. “Many were affected by those portals. Many more were never born, while others were born in their place.”
Comprehension dawned on Meg. “The gene pool shifted as people emigrated through the portal. Even for those who stayed behind, if their children’s conception was shifted by even a day, maybe hours, they’d have different genes, grow up to be different people. And the differences would grow exponentially with every generation. After thousands of years…”
“After thousands of years, your world—or at least a sizable chunk of it—would be populated by a completely different set of people, living in societies that had evolved in different directions.” He clapped his paw and claw in glee. “The butterfly effect with a vengeance!”
Meg collapsed to her haunches. “I would never have existed, would I?”
“No. And you’re welcome, by the way.”
Yeah, right. As if he’d known those portals would have brought this world into existence, much less had known what would have existed in its place if he hadn’t created those portals. Which brought to mind other words from her future self: if Equestria never existed. How would the lack of portals have affected Equestrian history?
All the inexplicable similarities came to mind: language, dodos, Las Pegasus casinos, even electrical outlets. There could be no doubt: if there had been no portals, then Twilight and Rainbow Dash would not have come to her world, much less cross paths with a non-brony Meg—because those two would never have existed either.
But wasn’t this line of thought pointless? The portals did happen, the Greeks did leave behind those myths, My Little Pony did get inspired by them, and she had been born and had become a brony, and Twilight had also…
Unless.
No. The wave function collapsed, yielding this reality. Even if the many-worlds interpretation was correct, those other realities were irrelevant as far as this reality was concerned.
Nonetheless, any and all time loops that made this outcome probable had to be completed—would be completed, must be completed.
She looked up at the mute Tree of Harmony. With her luck, she probably created that tree in the distant past. “Discord, just how far back do these time loops go?”
There was no answer. She looked behind her.
“Of course you’re gone.”
She turned back to the tree. “Don’t suppose you’d like to answer that question?”
The tree continued its subtle, shifting patterns of soft illumination.
Meg shook her head. “I suppose not.”
There was no point in staying; she’d gotten what she needed, if not what she had wanted. Taking wing, she left the cave and rapidly soared to the safety of the sky.
As she flew over the forest, that question would not leave her alone. If Equestria never existed. Why would her alleged future self have raised that question if the answer was academic? Yes, she raised it because the quantum coin had come up heads, but that only meant that the time loop was more probable for the question having been asked.
Probably.
Sometimes random chance is just random chance.
Regardless, it still seemed like a big red flag; it implied it went way back in time.
Right?
Ponyville approached. She veered north, heading towards Canterlot, to check in with her brother’s family. Steve was also there, at Celestia’s School, helping Arcane Scroll make sense of the accumulating data on that star.
She spotted a cloud up ahead. Aware of the growing exhaustion in her wings, she headed towards it. That rapid ascent from the cave took more out of her than she had thought.
More words from her future self intruded: You need to keep that in mind. She already knew magic could override the laws of physics; what did that admonition mean? What laws would they need to magically rewrite in the hyperspatial void, and for what purpose?
She touched down on the cloud. As she rested her weary wings, tail twitching in thought, her eyes gazed upon the palace in the distance while other fragments of that conversation floated to the surface of her mind, raising question after question.
By the time she resumed flight, the absence of answers led to one conclusion, that it was imperative that they figure it out.
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I might just have to become a stalker for the continuation.
Well, I feel silly. Even though I read that a part 3 was coming and even the name of it I some how completely missed the words in between. I wonder if that's a medical issue?
they deserve this for being idiots.
I'm pretty sure I know roughly where part 3 is going, but it should be a heck of a ride getting there.
The two years between the last chapter proper of the previous and the first of this one or the same day from the last side chapter?
If the former, well... I don't know how much of the fandom will be around. But I do hope that, if you choose to stop writing in that time, that you post a resume of how this all would've ended.
If the latter, I think we all can wait at least a couple hours
So do they rewrite the universal laws to be that quantum super computer? I've thought for awhile now they go back in time to cause the old portals despite Discord's claim he did it cause he was bored, and all the similarities between the universes could loop into the explanation that they had to be that way for the loops to be started in the first place, cause without Meg at this point the universe doesn't exist as it does now, and we've already established that it has to exist as it does now by it's own laws, which they're talking about rewriting into what they are now. So Meg goes back in time and makes all this, but like every paradox I'm still left wondering what's the inciting incident because the loop sounds so extraneous and long how it starts should never have happened to begin with. You make a super computer because everything needs to be how it needs to be but it it needs to be how it needs to be because you made a super computer.
Did the humans that stayed in Equestria die out or got their descendants turned into other creatures?
I am not sure since they found mummified remains of humans but Tirek got turned into a Centaur.
Dang. My brain was just starting to hurt, and now this.
Thanks for writing. If this is a ride, I’m strapped in.
9577660
We don't have an explicit answer, but we've been given two facts. One is that the transformation spell preserves DNA to the extent possible. The mitochondrial DNA of transformed humans doesn't change at all. The other is that native-born pony mDNA is indistinguishable from human.
This strongly implies that in the past, at least one human woman was transformed into a pony mare. She had a daughter, who had a daughter, and so on until we reach Rainbow Dash (the first pony sequenced).
I don't want to get too far into spoilery speculation, so I'm leaving it at that.
Well, that was one heck of a ride, and it isn't over yet. I really enjoyed the political brouhaha bits of the story, even though this middle parter raised all the questions yet refused to answer any of them.
I, for one, can't wait for the final installment. But I guess I'll just have to.
I am rather interested in the accusation the FBI dropped on Meg, though. Is the criminal justice system just entirely ignoring where this alleged kidnapping took place? Because "I kidnapped someone who was in my own house, without invitation" sounds as weird on paper as it would in court.
Also, that portal... is going to have consequences. So far the score of keeping secrets away from the public isn't exactly stellar, so the world finding out about the portal is only a matter of "when" rather than "if."
And then lots of people, with all sorts of intentions, are going to want to go through.
9577658
Sounds like you and I share an understanding of what a Stable Time Loop needs to exist... the same cannot be said of everyone who uses that concept though. Still, it's possible that some individual decided that this story's Equestria and Earth would be better off if they were more similar to OUR Earth and CANON Equestria, so they made the initial change. They'd also have to make that magic leak, so that the locals would be directed to continue making that same change, thereby stabilizing the loop.
As for potential motives that mystery person would have that defined "better"... I don't think we can figure it out now. Perhaps it's as simple as the concept of MLP still existing in the unaltered timeline, and someone wanted it to be reality and/or wanted it to meet humanity proper regardless of consequences? Just because the myths wouldn't be inspired by Equestria doesn't mean that they wouldn't be inspired by something.
I too am curious about this. Because two years, especially here on the internet, is a long time
These stories have been really really good! I really hope we get the next one.
This was interesting, but increasingly exhausting as time went on. I thought Discord was fun in the first story, but at this point I'm sick of his smug hypocrisy and foggy motivation. The science involved is also much more abstract and much less fun than before, and having to do independent research to understand critical plot-points revolving around concepts that aren't well explained lost its appeal at around the halfway point. And the whole predetermination thing has basically sapped all of the drama out of proceedings; It's like Chekhov's Gun, only the "gun" is a literal deus-ex-machina. I'm kind of curious about where the show came from but, honestly, I think it's safe to assume it's something-something-time-travel.
I'm kinda done? I mean, I'm not particularly interested in what happens next. The only way I can conceive for this story to conclude will leave me even more unsatisfied than if the story had ended right here. I'm legitimately wondering where the story can go beyond simply returning to the status quo.
Well... that was a rather abrupt ending. And now it's two year wait for the sequel.
Overall, this was a pretty interesting story with a unique premise. It shows a fairly realistic depiction of what would happen if FiM cartoon that was assumed to be fictional crossed over into our world in a political thriller with mystery and sci-fi elements. But I think you got carried away with the time loops plot way too much instead of focusing on interactions between human world and pony world. The ending is also disappointing again, I was hoping for an explanation of the cartoon's existence but this story raises more questions than it answers.
It had an intriguing beginning, you could have developed the political and social front more from there but instead, the majority of the story is a mind screw involving time loops which has little to do with the current events surrounding the crossover. Granted, it was still an interesting read but I think the story's focus is misguided.
I think I'm done with this story. If you read a 180k word long sequel that leaves you with more questions than it could ever answer its just a bad story...
Interesting. Enjoy your break.
9578801
Eh, that's pretty common with second parters in a trilogy. Empire Strikes Back leaves you with a million questions as well, which Return of the Jedi tied up.
Though I did enjoy the politics and culture clash plotlines more than the time travel ones.
So many questions, I'm excited for more.
I'll wait.
Your explanation of General Relativity is the best.
Quantum mechanics was harder to understand, I'm not sure I got it right.
Destinies is my favorite POE-HiE story. Inevitabilities was a lot harder to... digest, but I still think it is really good nevertheless.
Welp fun times. Can’t wait for the sequel. Hurray for your story teaching me more about quantum mechanics and general relativity than any other single source of information. Gonna call it now, Meg becomes an alicorn. The smooze describes an alicorn with a coloration, that if the verbal slip ups are consistent match that of her. Meg acquires alicorn/discord esk power enabling her to independently enter hyperspace without any death, and interact with it. All while conveniently hiding her pony form by appearing as a human. Then there is the fact that discord says that she is not yet mature enough for lots of information, a specific phrasing that I only noticed him using specifically and repeatedly with her, that implies that she may become as such.
All this story does is show to think before you act.
Steve and Meg ignored the ponies warnings and went ahead with the change.
This is their own fault.
This was still a great story, but, did not enjoy it nearly as much as the last one, for a few reasons. It has a lot of interesting ideas, and using this to explore some quantum theory stuff works a lot better then it has any right too, but at lot of things just felt, either too forced, or too clearly the way they are just cause that's how the story wants them rather then because that's how characters and the world at large would react. And some of that is more the way the story focuses on things, but others, are just things that make no sense beyond 'the story said so'.
One of the biggest issues, especially near the end, was just... well shitty everything got. Everything going wrong, nothing good happening, and while I get going for a kind of 'Empire Strikes Back' middle part of a trilogy, end on things at their darkest so the final act can have a big rallying turn around, but this just, didn't pull it off well. It didn't feel like the story earned a lot of it's tension and the bad things happening, but rather it just pulled some Diablos ex Machina to get it to a bad place. Or it just did so in the most frustrating ways possible, where you aren't upset at the characters who did the stuff that was wrong, but at the story for doing that.
Big one is how everything about the convention turned out to be this huge shaggy dog story, none of it meant anything, it went nowhere, all that time spent for no pay off. It might as well have not even been in the story for all the impact it has on the actual plot beyond making the ending that much more unnecessarily grim. Doubly so when it makes no sense. Everything going to shit felt way too forced. As others have stated, this sort of thing would be getting plenty of added security from the local forces, cities LOVE conventions, they bring in ALL the money, and something like this? In a state like Cali? Yeah, they are going to want to make a good impression here and would be really damn helpful. Plus how large the issue was, but get into that later.
Then we have how the rest of the world might as well not even exist as for as the story cares, and no just a few lines about how the rest of the countries think it's all a hoax does not work, given they aren't that stupid, and it's easy enough to prove them wrong. This is massive, a world changing event, there is no way just one nation would be allowed to monopolize it without massive international outrage. The first thing that should have been done on making this public was Twilight giving a speech in front of the United Nations. An idea not even brought up.
Then you have how everything is going to shit in America, but as also brought up, there are plenty of other nations not full of redneck, inbred, xenophobic, religious nut jobs. You have a way to deal with nuclear waste and disasters? Japan would be tripping over themselves for that aid,they are still trying to clean up the Fukishima mess. Need a stable, not full of assholes nation to deal with? You don't even need to learn a new language, just move north a bit, Canada would also bend over backwards to help them out, just cause, well, it's Canada. But by far the point where this is the most suspension of disbelief breaking is with Andy. A major figure out of ancient Greek legend and history, who can shine a light on the early days of that nation in it's glory days, and not one single peep from the Greek government about talking to him?
Then the ending, where so much of the stuff made no sense. Why the hell are they trying to arrest Meghan? They've already investigated this, they have all the information, they KNOW she wasn't involved. Yeah, it's meant to be a trumped up political charge, but the FBI does not play politics, ever. They would not go along with this, and the asshole Senator had no grounds to do anything. The FBI is run by the Justice Department, which is part of the Executive Branch. Congress has no authority in stuff like this. At best he could raise enough of a stink to have the investigation reopened, but that would be a "Can you come in and answer a few questions?" level not a "You are under arrest" not to mention a fresh out of law school lawyer would be able to get her out of this without even trying, and with a nice fat lawsuit to boot. Meghan did nothing illegal here and there are no grounds for this, not to the level of 'need to give up living on Earth" level the story wanted.
Then you have all the talk of impeachment..... for what? What crime did he do? Where did he break the law in all this? Was it stuff that would hurt him politically, yeah, but he's about to be out of office on term limits, he has no reason to give a fuck. Then you have how it was established he had about a year and a half left, a year ago, meaning they are close to election time, which makes going through the impeachment stuff even more pointless given how long it takes. Most of the congressmen and senators would rather be out working on their reelection then stuck dealing with this. Plus, the only way it stands a chance of even happening is if his party doesn't control Congress. The only opposition we've heard of is one Senator.... the Senate does not determine if a President gets Impeached, that's on the House. And it requires a 2/3 majority of the Senate to then convict on the charges the House drew up. Yeah, it's not something that is even remotely feasible, especially for no actual crimes and this close to an election. Hell just look at IRL for how hard getting that done is.
Then you have how, apparently nothing but anti-pony assholes exist. Just, the overwhelming focus on the loud idiots, and not even a mention of the level of support they'd also be getting. Not just among Bronies, but just in general from people excited about finding other intelligent life. The negative response feels way to disproportionate for what is going on, and it's figure head is.... some cardboard, Roland Emmerich level politician asshole with vague motivation of just "I am evil so must be an asshole" The corrupt politician antagonists on Stargate SG-1 were more fleshed out and realistic then this guy. And his whole argument for shutting down Earth's bet hope of finding weapons and allies to prevent global conquest was "God will stop the invading aliens."
It's just, I get there would be tension, there would be those pissed off at this, but the story focuses on them way to hard and ignores any counter balancing force, making the few non-government, non-assholes we see into either greedy asshole of their own right trying to use this for their own ends, or well meaning but clueless people who are pretty much useless.
I know it sounds like I hated the story, I did not, it's got SOOO much good going on and is setting up for sooo much more. But, it's disappointing how it wastes so much potential, it seems like the story just wanted the Equestria and Earth meet plot to get a few humans into Equestria and introduce the high level physics knowledge, but now is trying to get away from it ASAP to focus on the time loops plots. And that's disappointing, but not bad in and of itself, but how it went about it is, with so many things just not making sense and being far to blatantly done because the story wanted them done, rather then because it would be realistic to happen.
The technical talk on physics, time loops, waveforms, etc. bordered on excessive for me. I think my eyes glazed over a couple of times. Joking aside I did find it distracting from the character play. That said I enjoyed the lore and world building. The intrigue kept me hooked. I hope Susie got to go to Dinky's birthday party. I was caught off guard as to how quickly everything "went to hell in a handbasket." Made the ending feel a little rushed. I like the story overall and I look forward to reading the next (final?) instalment.
Whew boy, didn't expect this as the cut off point!
Looking forward to
inevitabilitiesImperatives!*Last seen online 6 months ago
I hope everything is ok.
Love the writing style, and sophistication of the content. Another fantastic book in the series! I was on the edge of my seat, and enjoyed wrapping my head around the mathematics invoked.
Any news about the highly anticipated sequel?
10392789
Nothing. In the last authors note at the end of the epilogue, Sharp Quill suggested that the next part of the story would take about the same time as it did between Destinies and Inevitabilities. That was over two years between the two. On top of that he hasn't logged in in quite some time. So your guess is as good as mine.
I know this is pressuring, so I am sorry in advance. Is Imperatives somewhat close to being ready? I remember the author's note, and my query is coming at the end of a search of other incomplete series that, sadly, will never be finished for one reason or another. It has left me somewhat depressed, so I am just checking in.
11062589
I'm past the half-way mark, at 90K words, but there is still a ways to go. I won't predict when I'll finally finish it.
Just dropping by to say I loved this story and am eagerly awaiting the sequel. No pressure though! It'll be out whenever you're finished with it. The first two stories in this series have been very well written, and I'm willing to wait for the next story since I anticipate it will also be excellent.
Keep at it!
Hey Quill hope I'm not being rude but how goes writing on the sequel? Sorry if it is rude, I have a hard time telling sometimes.
11203313
It never hurts to be reminded that people care enough to ask
It's up to 125K words. I'm getting closer to the end, but still no prediction of a completion date.
Hey mate, how is progress on the sequel? I'm really looking forwards to the continuation of this story.
Funny that someone just today asked as well and I was scared of asking because this sort of work just suffers when rushed. I just finished reading both stories again a few weeks ago for probably the 5th time. But I am excited to hear if there has been any more progress since then! I am so excited!!! 😣
Regardless of where you are at I think I can say we all look forward to it and thank you for the stories you have given us so far!
11264605
11264204
It's up to 134K words.
Just finished rereading both stories, was a good duology, rip.
11436575
Check comments in the most recent blog. The sequel is getting close to being finished up.
Yeah it may have been some years but honestly the characters alone among other things have me invested still. Probs gonna do a reread soon again as well.
Update?
I can't wait until the next story!
11443792
The smooze hinted at a future alicorn that was colored "orchestra"
Kinda sounds like orchid... Which would be the color a certain human turned pony is
11473476
I was excited when I put that together in my first read through! This was especially apparent with future Meg being able to exist in hyperspace without a problem while even Discord is limited out there. I have no doubts she will ascend to an alicorn and that will lead to deeper understanding of how the quantum time loops work in this story. Maybe not in that order or maybe there will be no order at all since that won’t be anything like what actually happens… Lol either way I’m excited to find out!
So how close are we to the release to the sequel?
11519805
The end is in sight, but there's still a few months to go. Once I finish the draft, then comes the editing. Now at 155K words.
11520593
This is an incredibly well-designed story temporally, and I can’t wait to see its conclusion. Looking forward to Alicorn Meg and company going back in time to forge the stars and create Equestria.
11520593
11656076
Hang in there!! The first draft is complete (40 chapters + epilogue) and I'm now whipping it into shape. Maybe two more months, hopefully?
11657502
media.tenor.com/ApxBu1krFnIAAAAC/shaking-twitch.gif
11657502
Hey any news on the sequel? I think it has surpassed those two months