I love you so much! Twilight, you are my forever friend!
Thinking back on everything that has happened, I’m filled with deep Peace.
No, seriously! After meeting Faust, and meditating on everything that has happened to me, by me, and through me, I really see Harmony’s Hand in this!
I was wretched. I tried to sow discontent and sorrow everywhere I went. I fooled myself into thinking it was some grand plan my superior intellect had concocted. But deep down, I always knew it was my bitterness striking out at happiness wherever I saw it. I was miserable. And even if I wouldn't admit it to myself, I wanted everyone else to be miserable too.
When I stole your crown, ‘thinking’ I would somehow ascend just by wearing it, I was fooling myself again. I was so jealous of you. I wanted what I felt you had taken, I wanted to be a Princess by Celestia’s side forever. Seeing you with your crown and as an Alicorn broke something in me. My jealousy and hatred ate at me, until my thoughts were so scrambled I really believed I could take everything you had earned just by placing that crown on my head.
I was a fool.
And when you and your friends (now my friends too, THANK YOU for that!) defeated me with the Harmony that was always yours, always in your heart…
It stripped all the lies from me Twilight. I have honestly never felt so naked and alone as I did that night, looking up to you from that hole. I knew in my heart what I had done. I was covered in naked shame, with the knowledge that everything I had done had been in hate and bitter jealousy. I had sown disharmony with every action. I was evil.
I had no right to expect or hope for anything but damnation. When I looked up to you, when I told you I didn’t know there was another way, the last thing I expected from you was forgiveness. Twilight, when you reached out to me, when you pulled me up from that pit, and introduced me to the girls who are now OUR friends, you changed my life! Forever. Forever Twilight. You saved my soul! You were my saviour in that moment Twilight, and I am and will be FOREVER grateful to you for that.
Twilight Sparkle, APBFF, I owe you my life! Thank you!
Hehe. (Alicorn Princess Best Friend Forever!)
Knowing all that, and after what Faust shared with me, I can see Harmony working through everything that has happened to me. I see how my suffering has affected everyone around me, and how by the way I face my trials, others around me are empowered to face theirs.
Trixie finally knows peace and forgiveness, and can grow and move on from her part in this.
Dust found a reason to hope, and I hope has finally found peace.
Celestia has a healed heart. The hole in her heart has been made whole. Who knew it was shaped like a Sunset?
Luna has been a kindred spirit. In helping me to overcome my sorrows, she has been strengthened in her own battles. She really is a kindred soul.
The others are works in progress. But the work isn’t mine, it is Harmony’s. I am just her willing and grateful servant, happy to do whatever she needs, wherever she needs, knowing that I am helping others just as others helped me.
It fills me with such joy to say that!
And most of all, I‘ve realized that sometimes, even when life is at it darkest, the only thing left for me to do is face what’s before me, with a joyful heart. With my friends when I can. With Harmony herself always.
When I come to those places, and there are many now, where I can’t see a way around the hard road ahead, I know…
The only way out is through. And onward!
Your friend forever, Sunset Shimmer.
First again to comment on one of the chapters I see.
The above paragraph is, from what I can see, the main point of the entire story which means it is one of the most important quotes. This feels like soul-level wisdom to me and it's encouraging to realize it also came from you. This is the one time I heard the author's voice come forward the clearest.
I have something like that in the second to last chapter of Sky Dancer as well. The "moral of the story" sort of deal.
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/animaniacs/images/6/6f/Wheel-of-morality1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130429020648
Or at least one interpretation of it. All of our readers come at the story from the it own perspective which guarantees a unique journey for each. We, as authors, construct the road they willingly follow when they read them, but they can swerve, spin, and dance however they want along the road. It has its own meaning for them.
And for me? i see that the story is trying to show how everyone and every situation has purpose and value. The story is also about forgiveness and fortitude with a troubled past.
I wonder. When you first wrote this, did you think it might be the ending? Because it certainly feels like it should be.
11075482
As the author of this tale, I had a vision I wanted to share. I had a view I hoped to show others.
But like the teacher in Gibran's poem, I can only enlighten what others already know, at least to some degree. So I shared this in hope. And in the end, the visions are always seen from the steps taken by those who are reading the story. Their views may mirror mine, but they will be their own, unique to their experiences and perceptions.
As for knowing this was the ending? I always knew I wanted, I needed, to end on hope. I needed to let others know, they matter. Their experiences, their feelings, what they believe, that matters. And that whatever you do, that matters too, we are not islands, no matter how hard we may try to be. We have a purpose. We have meaning. And we all matter. No matter how hard our lives become or worthless we may feel.
If I left someone with that, gave some hope, some reason to live when there may seem little to none, then I am happy. I needed that, and finding it, I needed to share it. It can't be kept, it can only be passed on.
it's like I am reading some religious propaganda
11158786
Meh. It's a worldview, I stuck it in my fic. Free to mock it, stock it, or glock it. All good.
The ending felt rushed and didn’t give much detail. Dang, Sunset is a survivor!.
11586692
Yeah, but it's not the end of the story. There's a gap, then the story continues with the Railgun crossover, A Certain Magical Sunset which is planned to be a trilogy of books. The first one is done, the second is half written and soon to start releasing, and the last is planned out and unwritten.
And there are also the prequels, Tales of an Equestrian Battle Mage, and Through the Looking Glass and into Wonderland, both of which are concurrently being released.
Yeah I am being mocked for putting both prequels out concurrently. Sue me.
again, what? is she a slave to harmony now? is she a cultist now?
11688745
Yeah, true enough. This is the letter of a happy cultist that has drunk the cool aide. She's more believable in the follow on stories.