Epilogue
Twilight
I knew getting back to Equestria was going to be interesting, considering how much I had to explain to everyone. The instant Rising opened the portal, I realized it was going to be even more difficult than I’d expected.
Celestia and Luna were waiting for us at the old ruined castle, each of them decked out in their arms and armor. They must have detected the magic of the portal Rising had created, because rank upon rank of the Royal Guard had gathered and were ready to meet any oncoming threat.
My friends were there too, even if Rainbow looked like she’d snuck out of the hospital with all the thick bandages covering her head. My personal guards were on the scene too, though it was hard not to notice that Twinkleshine was leading them instead of Storm. My captain’s absence was an all too painful reminder that solving this peacefully and with everyone happy might not be that easy, especially if she’d...
I didn’t have time to worry about that. Both of the Royal Sisters’ horns lit up the moment Rising and I emerged from the portal, and Rising came to a halt. Rising’s gaze swept over the force gathered to fight her, though whatever she was thinking was hidden behind her metal face. We had left the undead Rainbow and Rarity behind both to help de-escalate things, and make sure they didn’t get hurt. If things did explode then there was a good chance Rising would survive to return to her phylactery and rebuild her body, leaving me and Starlight to explain things. That idea seemed even wiser as we faced a full army ready to attack the perceived invader.
Celestia leveled her horn on Rising. “Release Twilight Sparkle at once, or—”
I placed myself between the Celestia and Rising to stop anyone from throwing the first spell. “No! Wait! Don't attack! Please!”
Celestia didn’t immediately attack, but she and her sister kept her guards up. “Twilight! Are you alright?”
“Yes, everything is fine.” I took a deep breath and tried to make my tone and body language as calm and reassuring as possible. “We talked it out. There's no reason for a fight.”
Rainbow’s bandaged head twitched at the news, and her voice came out even raspier than usual. “So you blasted her with the rainbow lasers and we're supposed to be friends now? ‘Cause after what she did, that’s not good enough!”
“Not exactly.” I rubbed the back of my neck, knowing that I had several awkward conversations to not look forward too. “We came to a kind of agreement. We're still hammering out the details, but Rising's agreed to let me and Starlight go.”
“Surprisingly,” Starlight said as she took a few steps from Rising. “But yeah, things seem to be working out now.”
“I see.” Celestia frowned as she studied us through narrowed eyes. Her gaze turned to Rising, and the scrutiny intensified for several seconds before her eyes snapped wide open. “Sunset? But ... how? I just finished consulting with Archon Shimmer, and she’s already preparing a force of her own to assist us. But ... I would know her magic anywhere.”
Somehow, Rising grew even stiller as she stood, meeting Celestia’s gaze. Considering what she’d told me about her timeline’s Celestia dying to save her, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she felt. “I was Sunset Shimmer once, long ago.”
Celestia slowly released whatever spell she’d been holding. “I have a feeling this is going to be a very long story.”
“I can explain everything.” I gave everyone a smile that didn’t feel natural. “If we can keep anyone from blasting one another before I finish the story, anyways.”
Celestia slowly nodding. “Come here, Twilight. You too, Starlight.” She eyed Rising. “Assuming that will be okay.”
Rising didn’t immediately respond. I’d noticed that she wasn’t quick to talk, probably a result of only being able to talk to two other people and the state of her world. Why rush a conversation when you had forever to talk? Not to mention it wasn’t hard to see why Rising was being careful with her words when she was being faced down by an entire army all by herself. Especially considering who was at the head of that army. But Celestia wanted a response, so I placed a hoof on Rising’s shoulder to try and reassure her. “It'll be okay, I promise.”
Rising looked down at me before returning her gaze to Celestia and the army behind her. “I am trusting you to do the right thing.”
I patted her shoulder before nodding for Starlight to follow me. We trotted until we reached Celestia and Luna. My friends started running over, but Luna stopped them short with an upraised hoof. Celestia immediately started scanning me for magic, first for compulsion spells and then other forms of magic that might have suggested something was up.
“Relax, it's me,” I assured them.
Luna started scanning Starlight as well. “We apologize for our caution, but we must be sure you are sound of mind and body, and that the fiend is not attempting to pawn off a fake onto us. She attacked Ponyville unprovoked and hurt a great many ponies. Regardless of whatever understanding you might have reached with her, that is not something we can easily forgive.”
“It's ... a bit more complicated than that.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead as a wave of guilt washed over me. “A whole lot more complicated.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Then by all means, explain why a lich who appears to be my old student attacked Ponyville with an army of the dead.”
I explained everything to them, what happened to Rising’s world, her reasons for coming to Ponyville, and the results of the trial.
Applejack blinked a couple of times. “Hold up now, are you sayin’ that hogwash they were spewin’ was actually all true?!”
“In a way, yes.” My ears flattened. “I never intended to hurt them, but none of us really understood the mechanics of Starlight’s time travel spell. In the heat of the moment I didn’t stop to think about all potential moral implications of altering time, even if it was just setting it back to the way I thought it was supposed to be.”
“This is mostly my fault.” Starlight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “I should have known better than to mess around with time travel in the first place. Especially when I’d gotten into a fight with ponies claiming to be time travelers who’d come back to stop me from causing damage by time traveling.. I ... I was so mad at Twilight that I didn’t even think about any of that. Though it’s kind of weird that they didn’t mess with history by time traveling ... though I suppose I didn’t really pay attention to the warning anyway. Still, you’d think...” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. All I can say for certain at this point is that I’ve just collected myself another sentence of lifetime community service.”
Rainbow glanced at Rising and rubbed her heavily bandaged head. “No wonder they fought so hard. I don’t know what I’d do if everypony I knew got hurt like that.”
Rarity frowned. “Though they still shouldn’t have taken things as far as they had. Ponyville’s a wreck, we all got terrorized, and innocent ponies got hurt. Maybe they had their reasons for what they did, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”
My heart clenched as I thought about all the ponies that had been hurt because of my mistakes. “I know. Rising's agreed to make reparations for her attack on Ponyville, while I've agreed to help her repair her world.”
“Reparations?” Rainbow’s wings twitched as she glared at Rising. “Yeah, just helping to pay the repair bill isn’t gonna be good enough.” She took a deep breath. “Storm’s dead, Twilight.”
It felt like I’d just been kicked in the gut. My knees wobbled and I fell to my haunches. My friends moved to stabilize me before I fell over completely.
Storm was dead.
No. That couldn’t be right. I know the doctors hadn’t been optimistic, but Storm was so strong ... I’d been sure she would pull through.
My eyes clenched shut as they teared up, and I started sobbing. Storm was dead, and it was all my fault.
There were so many things I could have done to avoid this. I could’ve handled Starlight’s time travel differently, so Rising’s splinter timeline never got caught in the crossfire. I could’ve refused to have any guards in the first place. I could’ve faced Rising right away instead of standing back. I could’ve ... I could’ve...
But I hadn’t. And now my friend was dead.
“Take me to her,” Rising said. I blinked the tears out of my eyes to see Rising standing near us. “I can see to her, as well as any of the other recently dead.”
Luna bared her teeth. “Our dead are not to be desecrated by your necromancy, lich.”
Rising shook her head. “Of course not. I have had several centuries to study the boundary between life and death, and it is far more flexible than most realize. So long as the tiniest spark of life remains, however faint it might be, I can restore it. Please, give me the opportunity to show my good faith.” Her head fell slightly. “It was never my intention to kill any beyond the two criminals I sought. Though we did all that we could to avoid needless death, there is no such thing as a bloodless battle.”
Was this true? It seemed too good to be true, but if she could do it... I looked to my other princess. “Please, let her try.”
Luna looked to her sister, and after a moment where they locked eyes, Celestia nodded. “Very well. Consider this a chance to prove your good intentions. Be aware that although we have agreed to a truce—our vengeance will be swift and terrible if you abuse our good will.”
“We will be watching closely,” Celestia said. “Though I hope you will show yourself to be the student I once knew.”
Rising froze for a moment before nodding. “Of course. Lead the way.” Celestia and Luna fell in on either side of Rising, both of them keeping a careful eye on her as they guided her towards the palace. My friends helped me to my hooves and supported me as we followed.
The walk through Ponyville was almost surreal. Rising’s forces might have tried to avoid causing too much damage, but there were still a lot of homes and businesses in ruins. Not to mention what she’d done to my palace. The sight of it listing to the side with a massive gaping hole in one side made me wince.
Things didn’t get easier as we headed to the castle infirmary. I knew I should put on a face of firm serenity or grim resolve as we passed by wounded ponies, but after all I had been through, I just couldn’t hold back the tears. So much needless pain and suffering, and no small part of it was my fault. I might very well have stopped and broken down right there if it wasn’t for my friends being there to keep me going.
We stepped into one of the infirmary’s private rooms. Storm was lying unnaturally still on a bed, her eyes closed with Cloud and Star watching over her. Blossomforth sat next to Cloud leaning her head against her, and Fluttershy immediately went over to both of them when we arrived. Star’s shoulders quivered with silent sobs as she stared at her dead sister.
Fluttershy’s arrival snapped them both out of their grief, though when they looked up, the first thing they spotted was Rising herself. Cloud darted in front of her lovers and brandished her wing blades while Star snapped out several daggers from within hidden sheaths in her armor.
“You bitch!” Star snarled. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll kill—”
“Whoawhoawhoa!” I teleported between them before things got out of control. “It's okay! There's no reason to fight! She's here to help.”
Star clenched her teeth. “HELP?! She killed my—”
“She is not dead,” Rising announced over Star.
Cloud blinked and her wingblades lowered a hair. “What? But...” She glanced at Storm as she lay silently on the bed.
Star opened her mouth to protest, but Luna raised a hoof to forestall her. “Be at peace, Lieutenant. Everything will be well.” She narrowed her eyes at Rising. “One way or another.”
Once Rising was sure she wasn’t going to be attacked, she went to Storm’s side. Cloud and Star held their weapons close at hoof in case Rising pulled something, which I couldn’t exactly blame them for. I really wanted to trust Rising and believe that Storm would be alright, but if she betrayed me ... well, all my sympathy would be gone.
Rising touched her horn to Storm’s forehead and cast an immensely complicated spell, the likes of which I had never seen before. I could tell it was something like necromancy, but without the sort of cold sickly sweetness feeling I’d felt from most of her spells.
Storm jerked and gasped a lungful of air. Her eyes shot open and they darted about the room.
“Storm!” I cried as I rushed to her side. Star and Cloud were just as eager to get there, and all three of us wound up crowding around her. She was alive! Rising had actually done it!
Storm’s voice came out very raggedly as her eyes fell on me. “Highness...”
I took her hoof and squeezed it. “I-I was so worried.”
Storm squeezed my hoof back. “Are ... you okay?”
Star snorted, wiping her eyes and trying to put on a shaky smile. “You big stupid skunk. You nearly die on us, and the first thing out of your mouth is asking if she's okay?!”
“Duty ... first,” Storm said, her voice weak.
“I'm alright.” I sniffed and Rarity handed me a handkerchief that I blew into. “Especially now that you're alright.” Storm’s eyes fell over Rising and she stiffened. I placed a hoof on her shoulder to make sure she didn’t try and bolt up and hurt herself. “Whoa, it’s okay. She isn’t here to start a fight.”
Storm settled back down, even if she wasn’t quick to take her eyes off Rising. “It seems I missed a great deal.”
“We’ve ... figured out some kind of truce,” I told her. “We’re still working on the details, but the fighting is over.”
Storm smiled up at me. “I knew you would find a way. You always do.”
That was a nice thing for her to say, though I wondered how true that was this time. So many had been hurt because of my actions, but all I could do was press forward and try and make things better. At least Storm hadn’t died. Even after everything she’d gone through, I don’t know if I ever could’ve forgiven Rising for killing one of my friends. Or forgiven myself.
Rising turned to Celestia. “If you will, show me to the other dead, and then the wounded. Once I am done we will sit down and take a full account of the damages caused by the attack, as well as outlining how Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer will make amends for their actions.”
Celestia nodded slowly. “Follow us.” She looked to me, and her eyes softened. “You can stay here for now, Twilight. I think some time with your friends will do you good.”
“Thank you, Prin—Celestia.” I took a deep breath. “And thank you for helping Storm, Rising.”
Thanking her was hard, even if I was grateful. After all, while I appreciated her saving Storm, my guard captain never would’ve been in danger in the first place if not for Rising’s attack. I was still mad about that, but far more than that I just felt ... hollow, and very tired. What would be the point of getting angry? We’d both done a lot to hurt each other, and it was time to heal those wounds instead of making things worse.
“Of course.” Rising watched me for a moment before nodding. “We’ll talk later. There is a great deal we need to discuss.”
Celestia and Luna escorted Rising out of the room, leaving the rest of us to talk. Once they were gone, Cloud let out a long sigh. “Sounds like we missed a lot. I’d ask if you blasted her with the magical rainbow, but I’m pretty sure if you’d used that she wouldn’t still be a flaming skull-headed lich.”
I ran a hoof through my mane as I felt a little bit of the tension leave my shoulders. “A lot happened, yeah. Rising and I talked everything through after she captured us. Now we’re ... addressing the damages, you could say.”
Star frowned at the doorway Rising had just left through. “Sure looks like you worked out something if she's going around healing the wounded. I mean, I’m happy to have Skunky back, but it’s still weird to have some lich who just attacked us walking around helping now.”
I sighed as I summoned up the energy to explain what happened again. “Turns out she was right, while also being wrong. You remember that misadventure when Starlight attempted to change the past? That both created and destroyed her world.”
Cloud thought about that and winced. “Oh. That’s ... yeah.”
I bowed my head and sniffed. “I'm going to do what I can to help her and her world. It was part of our agreement, not that I don't want to help them anyways after what I did.”
Storm squeezed my hoof. “You will succeed.”
“I sure hope so.” I sighed as I felt like I could sleep for a week. “A lot of damage was done to their world. The oceans are all frozen in time, so just about everything is dried up into a grey wasteland. Then there’s tons of damage from the time storms and other temporal anomalies, and with most of the water locked away just about all the plants and animals died off. We’re talking about a project on a scale almost unimagined before.” I bit my lip. “I’ll probably never be able to fix it completely, at least not in my lifetime, but I can at least help them get a good start.”
“How can we help?” Storm asked.
I squared my shoulders as I did my best to sound confident. “I've got some ideas. It's not going to be easy, and it's going to take a lot of time and resources. But then, the most important things are rarely easy.”
Rarity
For the first time in goodness knows how long, rain fell on the ruins of Canterlot.
It truly was impressive how far we’d come. With sufficient time, resources, and determination, anything was possible. Especially now that Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were making good on their promise to help us with the recovery. Sunset was the most brilliant mare I’d ever known, but sometimes the best way to solve a problem was to get an outsider’s perspective. Not to mention all the resources they had access to by virtue of being in an intact Equestria.
We’d gone through a few changes over the years. Now that we didn’t need to worry about wars and bringing murderers to justice, Sunset and Rainbow had finally allowed themselves a chance to relax a bit. In Sunset’s case, that led to a most welcome makeover. Her old body had been quite effective when it came to filling our enemies with dread, but we hadn’t needed to do that for years.
Naturally, I’d had a hoof in helping with her new design. Gold plating gave her a far nobler appearance, not to mention it let me soften her features until they were almost the ones I remembered from when she’d been alive. I suppose I could have asked her living counterpart to serve as a model, but then she didn’t look like the Sunset I remembered. The one whose side I stayed by for all those long years, watching her grow old and work herself to death trying to restore our world. It truly was heartening to see her finally making progress.
Someday I would have to work up the courage to let her know how I felt. Neither of our bodies really felt the same biological urges that controlled the living, but that just made the emotional ones all the stronger.
Thankfully, Rainbow had agreed to her own changes as well. She had gone through a similar transformation as Sunset to gain herself a metallic body. It had taken quite a bit of work, but with light-weight metals and ferromancy we had made a body that both increased Rainbow’s performance while still letting her look like herself. Though if I’m allowed to say so, we made her new body even more dashing than the last one. We’d colored her mithril frame in the same cerulean blue her old body had been, and in addition to her mane and tail, her wing feathers were also rainbow colored.
It made me so happy to see Rainbow finally be proud of her appearance after so many years of her neglecting her looks because she thought it made her a more efficient flier and fighter. I knew from first hoof experience how gaustly it was to be a half-rotting zombie, and wouldn’t wish that one anyone. Really, Rainbow was made to show-off, and it was a delight to get to see her fly around proudly like she was always destined to.
My own changes were rather more subtle. By and large, I was quite pleased with the changes becoming a vampire had done to me. It was certainly better than being a zombie, even if my appearance did lack the natural vitality of a living body. Most of my efforts had gone into appearing more like a living pony, and while it took quite a bit of magic to pull off, overall I would say I had succeeded. My mane now grew out naturally, my skin had taken on a more healthy living tone, and my coat glistened without needing too much in the way of care.
Sunset drew me out of my thoughts when she spoke. “It looks like they succeeded in breaking the oceans free.”
I followed her gaze to admire the touches of carefully nurtured green that had already returned to the city. “It's beautiful, isn't it? If it wasn't for our trips to the other Equestria I think I might have forgotten what rain even looked like.”
There was much I had nearly forgotten about. The heady liquid smell of humidity in the air, the feeling of the rain pattering along my coat, the sensation of my mane becoming slick with water. It was strange how much I’d missed when I could no longer had it. When I had been alive I had often considered the weather to be an annoyance, something that risked ruining my mane or outfits, not to mention the risk of getting my hooves muddy. But when the weather had broken down along with everything else, I realized just how beautiful the rain was, and deep in my heart I had missed it terribly. Now it had finally come back, like so many things we had lost.
Rainbow’s eyes swept over the skies. She had been a weather pony once, ages ago, and I could see she was appraising the weather. “It is pretty great, though without any weather pegasi we're probably gonna get some crazy stuff. Lightning storms, hail, sleet when it gets cold enough—all sorts of stuff that might damage what we’ve been building.”
I frowned as I considered but a few of the many problems we were facing. “Yes, the pillars that we've set up are weakening the time storms, but they haven't stopped them in all the far corners of the world.”
Sunset shrugged. “Still, it's progress. Especially now that the seeds we got from Equestria will start sprouting en masse.” She waved at the fields beyond Canterlot where the seeds had been planted. “That will do a lot to start to repair the ecosystem, along with the precipitation.”
“I sure hope so.” Old memories of Ponyville drifted into my thoughts. I remembered the sights, sounds, and smells of the farming village as ponies went about their work. An ache formed in my heart as I remembered a time my old and long gone friend Applejack had invited me to her charmingly rustic farm, with its wonderful apple orchards. I wanted that type of thing to return to our world. “Though I must say, part of me would feel better if we had some good earth ponies to help grow seedlings. It really is hard to beat the skill of a good farmer at growing anything.”
“The skellies seem to be doing alright at it,” Rainbow said. Indeed, in many cases we had literally turned our spears into plows, and our army had been turned to the work of repairing the foundations of our world. We had gotten quite good at using our skeletons for any number of tasks, and that experience was paying dividends now. Even if part of me looked forward to the day we could retire our undead workers.
Rainbow flew out, cupping the rainwater in her hooves to look at it. “Though yeah ... even if we make the world green again, it's still gonna feel pretty empty.”
Sunset tipped her head to the side as her eyes seemed to focus on something very far away. “We could always make ponies.”
Seeing an opportunity to tease Rising a bit, I started fanning myself as thought I had been flustered. “Goodness, darling! You can't just make an offer like that out of the blue! What would others say if they heard such a thing?”
Sunset’s shoulders jerked a bit and she turned her head to me, not immediately replying to my comment. It seemed that I had caught her flat-hoofed with that one.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes at me in a flat look. “Pretty sure she didn't mean making ponies that way, Rares.”
I covered my mouth with a hoof as I tittered. “My apologies, but I do like to tease Sunset now and again.” I smiled up at Sunset, and a strange sensation that I couldn’t quite put my hoof on fell over me as I thought about the idea of repopulating our world. “Not that I don't think she would make for a fine mother some day.”
Sunset spread out her now pegasi-like wings as she looked over the ruins of Canterlot, no doubt seeing the endless possibilities now spread out before us as we repaired our world. “I suppose all three of us would be parents in a sense.”
Rainbow’s nose wrinkled up. “Uh, can you actually just make ponies like that? I mean, we’d have to do something really fancy to repopulate the world, especially when we’re all post-equinus.”
Sunset shook her head. “Not yet. But given sufficient time, resources, and determination...”
I nodded in agreement. “Our dear Sunset is a genius, after all. And Twilight and the other Equestrians have been quite helpful. I have every confidence they can pull off another miracle. Look at everything we’ve already accomplished.”
A smile crept onto Rainbow’s face. “Yeah, that is true. And it’d be really awesome if we can do it. After everything else, that should be a snap.”
“I’ll bring it up during my next meeting with Twilight,” Sunset said. “Might as well get the ball rolling on that now that the ecosystem recovery project is well under way.”
“That sounds like a fine idea to me, darling.” A flight of fancy overtook me, and I wrapped a leg around Rising’s while leaning up against her.
Rising arched her eyebrows before her face relaxed into a smile. She wrapped a wing around me, and as always I relished the closeness. “Yes. I think the way forward to a better tomorrow has never been clearer.”
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Alright. This was good.
Also, is there any way we can get a picture of the new Rising, Rainbow, and Rarity? I like the description, but I'd still like to see one.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Hopefully she isn't this universes Captain Jack Harkness now.
Talking instead of fighting, so far so good.
Yep.
Oh shit. You guys really did it. Holy shit.
Oh, but Rising is probably about to reverse it. That's cheating, but also a bit traditional for someone wearing Shadow's Armor.
Yep, cheating.
That is what Twilight does.
Hard work comes naturally to Sparkles.
That was fast. Though maybe there's been a time skip.
Nice.
Alternatively, bring in already living settlers from Equestria.
And think of all the centuries you wasted on revenge that instead could have been being used for rebuilding.
Storm got better. She was only pining for the fjords.
it was good ending, it almost had everything I wanted. They could save those from other doomed equestrias that was like theirs but didn't have op ponies to get shit done. Since their equestria are destroyed they're not going to be too picky with where they live plus it'd be quicker until they get the spells needed to spawn ponies of their own.
Oh thank God it all turned out all right ;-; I nearly had a heart-attack when it looked like Storm was gone for good
9933307
Those timelines don’t exist anymore. This one only survived because it’s Celestia sacrificed herself to keep it from being erased.
9933411
well there's always orphans, they're already homeless and this would be providing a service to the community.
On the matter of other equestrias, I was referring to time travel to before those equestrias were destroyed however then remembered time travel if done half-assed never turned out well according to movies and what happened here.
Is it weird my first thought once this was over was that Cloud probably dragged Fluttershy, Blossom and Twilight away to their house and no one saw them again for a week? I feel this is a justified assumption.
An alright ending for a somewhat-less-than-mediocre story. Oh, well, at least it's better than it could've been.
The thing that I hate, though is that Storm died for, like, two seconds, only to be immediately brought back to life. Yeah, I guess it's fitting for a character wearing Shadow's Armor to cheat death, but that doesn't mean it's not an incredibly cheap writing tactic. Killing off a character only to bring them back to life seconds later, with no consequences or setup anything, is just bad writing. Yes, Rising is an established necromancer. HOWEVER, I was under the impression that ponies she brought back would be empty husks (the skeletons), and she could only "fully" bring back Element Bearers (since Rarity and Rainbow were the only ones who ever regained sentience), and even then, not completely. And what, now she can suddenly bring back random ponies with no consequences?? And it can't be Shadow's Armor, either - if your soul gets tied to it even after death, wouldn't Storm be hearing other voices besides Shadow's? Unless there's been no ancestors wearing it since her, that seems to be the case. I also doubt she was still wearing the armor while being treated and after "dying." Killing off Storm would have been such an interesting change in dynamics, and considering how the author has been completely fine with killing off major/important characters (or just ones that readers love and sympathize with, like Radiant, Nimbus, and Sierra from The Lunar Rebellion) before, I have no clue why he didn't do so now!
Killing a character off only to resurrect them RIGHT AWAY cheapens death in a story. Now, whenever someone else dies in the story (barring those set in the past, obviously), and they aren't brought back, I'll just be sitting here wondering why they didn't just contact Rising, or why this character doesn't have the same right to live as Storm or whoever else died in this story's mini-war.
Sorry for the giant block of text, but I just can't understand why an author who usually makes good-to-great stories would suddenly write one that has quite a few plot holes and, quite honestly, amateur writing mistakes.
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Something I forgot to mention: so, did Twilight not tell the rest of her friends that her original timeline was destroyed and the one we're reading about now is a new one? No one commented on it, even though you'd think they would be pretty shocked and confused about it. Also, I don't know about anyone else, but if I suddenly found out my best friend, a person I'd befriended and become close with, was replaced by an alternate version of them (even if they still acted and looked the same), I'd be pretty freaked out if it turned out to be true.
Please have them comeback. I can't wait to see what these "Post-Equines" accomplish!
Uh-huh. Sure. I knew it would be reversed. There's no way that drama bomb's getting detonated in the epilogue of a minor spinoff. Kinda pointless, really. At least I can keep calling it lich armor, given every character who's worn in this setting has been dead before coming back to life again. At this rate, it's going to turn into some kind of necromancy dark magic artifact.
I also feel like it would have been way more poignant and fitting for zombie Dash, Rarity, and Sunset to finally die at the end, having found peace after accomplishing what they always desired--the restoration of their planet. Them living on for eternity, doomed to never find the rest they need, in a rotting timeline that may implode in on itself the second the main timeline leaves since it evidently violates all rules of time travel isn't nearly as nice of a way to end it.
I was so scared that Storm would die, after reading chapter 7 I lie awake that night worried for her life. And yet I have to say that I really don't like that she was just brought back to life. I love Storm but either A: Kill her or B: have her injuries be severe but she survived. Don't try to have both that's weak and I'd actually prefer her to be dead, even though I love her.
I have to agree that Storm's brief shuffle off the mortal coil felt a little cheap. And the story still has that unpleasant tang of forced miscommunication. And I really have to wonder about the timescales involved in freeing the oceans and so forth; has it been months? Years? Decades? None of the ponies in that last scene age; I have no idea if this ends up being Twilight's life's work or not.
In all, this was a gripping concept with an agonizing execution. It's still good material, don't get me wrong, but the story stops feeling organic after a while. Which, given how we're dealing with a cyborg lich, is admittedly kind of appropriate.
9933676
It's been some undetermined amount of years. Rarity says she, Rainbow, and Sunset changed "over the years". There's our vague sense of time.
I'm glad to see the Rising Fire thing concluded finally (its been a subplot through this 'verse for several years) but considering the consequences, its a bit hard to see it fitting into the overall Winningverse. Like Starlight said, this is yet another lifetime of community service for her and something like fixing up Rising's world could or would be a somewhat major project for decades to come, on top of everything else Twilight was already working on as a Princess of Equestria.
At least Starlight admits her fault and brings up the weirdness of time travel (not sure Rising's previous appearance would count as the same time travel Starlight used or a different version considering it sounds like dimensional travel too). And whether its hinting towards something or just another time travel headache in general.
Though Storm's death felt a bit gratuitous. I can see Rising having enough knowledge to fix up the recently dead (Storm was only mostly dead, not all dead) but that much medical knowledge could change Equestria a bit too.
Oh well, whatever, its nice to see Rising get a happy ending finally after all those years for her. Too bad Archon Sunset didn't show up. Back then she probably had some suspicions about Rising's identity too but probably wasn't enough time to tell Celestia to watch out for probable the alternate universe lich version of her (especially without confirmation).
Wouldn’t the Hippogriphs/Sea ponies still be around? Since the oceans were time locked I’d figure anything caught up in the oceans would be stuck in stasis.
If Rising Fire is luck maybe a few ponies were diving when the spell was cast.
I’d also think that some of the Dragons survived possibly via hibernation. I mean they eat gemstones and swim in lava
Well, that definitely didn't go the direction I thought it was going to go and that's okay. Tip of the hat to the unexpected. However, I honestly felt this to be one of your weaker stories and you are a fabulous writer. Your Freeport Venture work is amazing. I wish I had a physical copy of Northern Venture so I could keep it handy. I just feel this story didn't add anything to the overall universe you have built nor did it draw any thread to close. Still look forward to what you produce next.
Here is hoping that some ponies and other beings got time locked in the time storms. It would help repopulation efforts
The last two chapters felt like a bad end to one of the most important plot lines of the Winningverse. I mean the entire life of Starlight is because of Rising Fire and this is how it ends? Plus Rising and the others forgiving feels weak, as well as Twilights reaction. If I learned person that killed my family, friends and everyone I knew did it by accident I would still hate them forever because of the act, no matter the intent. And if I learned I accidently killed 7 billion or so lives I wouldn't ask to be forgiven I would beg to be punished for my horrific crime, not just as community service but executed or life imprisonment. Plus them creating new lives won't bring Sweetie Belle, Celestia, Cloud Kicker or anyone else back so I see no reason that Twilight and Starlight should be forgiven.
9934457
Because alive they can make some manner of reparations for their actions. Killing them won’t accomplish anything either, at least now there’s the possibility of life in their world again.
9934577
Ok keeping them alive makes sense but the fact Rising, Rarity and Rainbow forgave Twilight and Starlight seems unbelievble even if they decided not to kill them. And once again I can't see how Twilight can live with herself after this, she killed 7 billion or so people! If she's not in shock unable to move for the rest of her life, or begging to be executed after she tries to heal the world, or something like that then she doesn't truly understand the depth of her actions. Like I imagine if Twilight accidently killed one person she'd beg for punishment such as life imprisonment(even though that isn't the proper punishment) or be to shocked to move. And when you increase that 7 billion, Twilight should not function ever after learning what she did.
9934727
I imagine the lifetime of penance helping rebuild the world she accidentally destroyed (under fairly understandable circumstances) helps her cope. And I don’t get the impression Rising and the others forgave Twilight and Starlight, I just think they don’t actively hate them anymore after hearing their story and Twilight’s apology. I doubt they’ll ever be friends but it makes sense to me that they’d prefer the chance to restore their world rather than just kill two more ponies and make all their friends and families sad.
9934917
It’s less a matter of forgiveness than realizing that getting revenge on them would be pointless.
9934917
9935016
It's not their actions that confuse me its how they act. Rising and the others are to calm and willing not only to make peace but act peacefully. With Rarity in the end she actually seems somewhat grateful. I would think her thoughts would be something like "Those accursed monsters fixed a tiny bit of the damage they caused in the end" rather then "oh I'm so grateful we got another prospective on the situation, that really helped fix the oceans."
Also my problem that's just as big is the fact Twilight mostly shrugs off killing 7 billion or so people. She acts like she did something bad and wants to fix it but not something of that level. If I learned I'd killed 7 billion people I wouldn't be able to function, with maybe being able to scream for my own execution. Twilight is to calm and rational when learning what she did, trying to find a solution, instead of what any reasonable person would do which would be just shut down. I guess I could see Twilight trying to fix their world but only on the promise she will get life imprisonment or execution afterwords, not mercy.
9935016 Why would revenge be pointless? So Twilight and Starlight didn't intentionally murder nine worlds, but those worlds are still dead and it's still their fault, "I didn't know" does not remotely cover crimes of that magnitude. So Twilight's additional resources means that basic life can be returned to dead!world, it's still a planet-wide graveyard, just a nicer looking one.
Yes, if justice had been visited on Twilight and Starlight, then everyone in dead!world would still be dead, but instead they get "reparations" and all of those people are still dead. What's the difference? No justice for the wronged and Twilight & Starlight walk free.
I realize that dealing with Twilight and Starlight as they deserve would prevent the writing of any future Winning!verse stories so you couldn't do that anyway, but I really can not see how Twilight's offer of help is worth more than justice to the dead!three, especially since the only pony that offer actually helps is Twilight (who gets to feel like she's "making amends" despite doing nothing of the sort). The dead!three are still undead, still existing with all of the mental and emotional injuries they suffered because of Twilight and Starlight's actions, still alone except for each other and the corpses of the entire world, and nothing Twilight does will "help" any of that. Her execution would at least give them closure and justice for all the dead.
9935913
This.
A satisfying end to a thrilling story. Keep up the good work.
9935913
The only purpose punishment t serves is to prevent the crime from occurring again. Some people can move on from trauma by seeing harm befall someone; but it's far from the only way and it's definitely not healthy. Doing further harm to Twilight in this context is totally useless.
While this was a lot messier than any of your other work (you killed off Storm for five minutes?) I really liked that ending.
9936680
Again yes but Twilight's reaction makes no sense, while Rising, Rarity, and Rainbows attitude also make no sense. Twilight should be in shock and/or begging to be executed(or life imprisonment not asking for forgiveness and mercy.) And when they are done with the diplomatic talks Rising and the others should be filled with hate. I mean Rarity at the end seems thankful! Thankful! To the pony that killed everyone she loved and knew for fixing a small part of the problem.
Yeah, I'm also in the camp that Rising and co were way too forgiving, and Twilight way too reasonable. Despite our antagonists here yammering on about their dead world without end for a trilogy of stories now, I really don't feel like anyone here grasps the magnitude of what happened.
9936680 By that logic, even if Twilight and Starlight had intentionally murdered all nine world, but had no intention to do it again, than they should not be punished because it would "serve no purpose" because the crime wouldn't occur again.
9937760
...yes? Literally yes?
9937760
I mean, if it was intentional they'd have no reason to believe her...
Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It's got an incredibly strong premise, and the actual battle is pretty cool, but I think my main problem with this story comes from the fact that the central conflict is so complex and gray that the neat and tidy ending we got doesn't feel earned. To have a story with a global genocide as the driving event conclude with every character on both sides getting a happy ending just doesn't feel sincere to me. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I was sure that the only way that this story could have ended was with the permanent destruction of the undead trio. Centuries of despair of such magnitude could only lead to true insanity, and that seemed to be the direction we were being led, what with the trio's single-minded obsession with bringing to justice the perceived criminals responsible, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that Twilight and Starlight had no idea what they did. But the undead trio seemed far too reasonable for beings who had to endure the death of their world and live for centuries on its decaying corpse without even their core humanity intact (well, you know). That they spent centuries preparing for every possible version of this eventuality and letting their hate for the supposed perpetrators grow over the years only to just let it all go because they didn't anticipate the possibility of Twiggie and GlimGlam feeling remorse... I don't know, I just don't buy it. Again, maybe I'm just cynical, but I feel like anyone who's gone through what Rising and co. have gone through would be too far gone to be rational on the matter of their world's destruction.
9938044 So, all perpetrators of a "Crime of Passion" should be released (regardless of the assault, rape or even murder they committed), because since they didn't intend to commit the crime in the first place, they have no intent to commit the crime again and punishing the perpetrator would "serve no purpose", and just buck the victims?
Sorry, I don't think we'll ever understand each others viewpoint on this one, so I will wish you a good day, and happy reading.
9939649
I already pointed out that you need a reason to believe won't commit the crime again, I'm not an idiot...
This was good. There's a fair number of reasonable complaints in the comments, and I admittedly agree quite strongly with the sentiment that one particular pony should have stayed dead, but beyond that I thought it was pretty damned enjoyable. She can always choke to dead on an apple in an epilogue to the epilogue, though, so perhaps it'll be a double twist.
Man the comment section is somehow worse then journey of the lesser lights how are they gonna top this
So, I reached the end.
Honestly, I'm happy with it.
I understand a lot of the complaints that the happy ending felt forced. If I'm being honest, I agree, it was, but it was the only way the story could have been written.
On the one hand, the time that it would take to really "reasonably" address the ethical and psychological ramifications of the setting would make the story absurdly bloated. You'd have to double or even triple the length of the story and just fill that with justification, and even then, with the differing moral views of the individual audience members, you'd probably still wind up with a significant portion who didn't feel the arguments held water.
On the other hand, this story couldn't have a sad ending. It would destroy the Freeport/Winningverse utterly. Whether Twilight and Starlight got away or were executed, it would bring a moral transgression into the setting that would be too huge to ignore. Rising's forgiveness was the only way they could ever carry on without their characters being tarnished beyond saving.
So, in summary, not perfect, but I had fun and I think it did well for what it is.
You know, I actually liked this story, it was an interesting source of character interactions and the action was great, even if we understandably didn't get a fight between Storm and Revenant Dash, which would have been cool. But that sort of got me thinking, especially after Storm's brief-death experience at the hooves/fangs of Vamparity.... Storm kinda gets her flank kicked a lot. I mean, I get it, she fights a lot of extremely strong opponents as Twilight's bodyguard and Shadow's Armor clearly doesn't make you invincible.... but is anyone in-universe catching on to this? I brought this up all the way back in To Serve and Protect, and it feels even more relevant after everything Storm's been through, are any baddies catching on to the fact the current wearer is beatable. It's one thing to know that wearer's have historically been killed, but I imagine history has a way of mythologizing them for lack of a better term and making the prospect seem more daunting. Storm provides a clear example that Shadow's Armor is beatable given sufficient creativity and/or skill. It just seems likely some potential ne'er do wells may hear word of all this eventually and start to reevaluate their chances (or alternatively, after this experience in particular, that Storm may start to have doubts about her own worthiness). I know its probably a little excessive to write this whole speal about what's probably a fairly minor thing in the grand scheme of things, and I'm definitely not trying to detract from this story, which I really did enjoy, but this has been niggling at me for a while and this brought it back to the forefront of my thoughts and I felt the need to put it out there. As always, I'm a fan of your work and I can't wait to see more!
9935913
9936182
That's how I see your point of view.
10018785 You'r entitled to your own opinion.
But Twilight and Starlight perpetrated multiple atrocities each dwarfing anything in human history (which is saying something), "I didn't know" is neither justification nor mitigation, especially since some of their victims are still around, still suffering, and are fully deserving of justice upon Twilight and Starlight, and Twilight's "reparations" are not justice for nine worlds worth of murder victims.
You say that makes me a sadist ... fine. I can live with that.
10019043
I suppose, for me, justice should be about preventing harm and healing, not trying to (and in this case quite futilely) equal it. Sometimes, preventing harm means cutting away something like a cancer but Twilight is not a continuous threat.
Starlight’s status is debatable.
But what does need resolving is the absolute bullshit rules time travel functions under. Like, that needs to be studied and steps taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Edit: I should also add, sorry for jumping straight to indirect name calling. The topic of rehabilitative/reformative vs punitive justice is a particular hot button for me.
10019043
Of course you can. You're right, and that means you can be as horrifying s you want and it won't matter because you're right and they aren't.
10023876 I'm sorry, but I fail to see how my stance of assumed rightness is any different than yours, other than which one of us is "right".
10019431 No problem, everyone has their hot buttons and I just tripped over one of yours is all.
And yeah, Starlight's "reformed" status is rather up in the air, isn't it? Trixie (of all ponies) seems to be a good influence on her, but even then Starlight backslides so very easily ....