Six hundred years passed since Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, rose to the throne. She is dutiful. She is wise. She is watchful. She is miserable. The land bears the fruits of her tireless reign. The people are happy and flock to her court to pay their respects to their leader.
In the north, the Crystal Empire lay forgotten by Her Majesty Twilight Sparkle. Beyond that, a mountain range lay ignored by most, its secrets whispered by some. Twilight Sparkle knows there is a Question hidden inside that must be asked, but she is no foolish pony, and her duty is to her people, to Equestria. She does not step into the mountains. She does not follow the gnawing at the back of her mind to investigate their secrets. She does not venture through wind-blasted canyons and frigid reaches to try and glimpse a truth that escapes her.
All hail Twilight Sparkle! All hail the Princess of Equestria!
No wonder Celestia retired if this is what it's like to be the Princess.
What's happening to you, Twilight?
This...is a well-written story.
Can't say much otherwise, but I'll be tracking this.
I like the setup in this story. There's a chilling sense of dissociation about it, as if immortality has taken everything from Twilight, leaving her an empty shell; the clothes have no emperor.
It's way too early to tell, but if I were to guess I'd say Twilight will find her self on the mountain.
This is from adventure time I recognise the word
Good start!
Caught somethin'. There's two "the" in the sentence.
What happened to Twilight? Oh, now I really want to know. Good chapter!
Lots of silver and gold and stone here. There's riches in those mountains.
One minor correction: "treaty" applies to the other documents Twilight has to deal with in this chapter, but a book like that is a "treatise. Ain't English fun?
There's some good symbolism in this chapter, but I can only make wild guesses as to what it's all pointing toward.
Lilies are hard for me to parse, but some googling points toward the meaning of goddess, so combined with gold and silver (for sun and moon) I have have to imagine the book has something to do with Celestia and Luna. And Twilight seems almost lucid when she's admiring it. And of course the smell of a book would be an especially strong memory trigger for her. Twily is still in there somewhere, but lost and forgotten. Still, enough of her manages to come through to remember her friendship lessons when it comes to valuing something small and personal like making an appearance at a dance school.
The broken(?) clock really catches my attention. The old saying "even a stopped clock is right twice a day" springs to mind, but doesn't have an obvious relevance here. There's also the apparent timelessness of it, mirroring Twilight's own day-to-day experience which passes by in a blur. I have to wonder if the clock isn't broken, but just running so slow that a tick of the minute hand could take a millennium or more. And, huh, apparently 4 O'clock is the name of a type of flower that opens only in the evening.
...and a BTS song that's remarkably consistent with the mood of this story.
I feel as lost and confused as Twilight now.
Loving this story!
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Thank you! I hope it'll be to your satisfaction!
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Thank you! I feared that chapter would fall flat but it seems my fears were unfounded.
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Thank you! I'm happy you're enjoying it, and don't worry the confusion is intentional though everything should make sense eventually!
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English is very fun, like the plastic shell you need to cut with a chainsaw to get to the goodies that are inside.
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It's the good kind of confusion, well-deserving of the mystery tag. I love a story that forces me to think.
Enraptured with your style of writing so far! I’m excited to see where this story will lead.
Oooh, finally some clearer continuity with the last chapter, that's neat. But despite thinking about the night, Twilight avoids thinking about Luna... She goes out of her way to avoid the Crystal Empire without even a hint of Cadance? Hardly anypony has a name or a face, I'm just now realizing. There's her and Noble Duty and the rest are distant, indistinct figures. Oh Twilight, how did you end up so alone?
Twilight...
I love watching how this story unfolds, and the imagery continues to be great!
Living but not living,
moving without going anywhere.
Standing before the chasm of Eternity,
living in eternal boredom.
This is the meaning of immortality.
To watch forever as all you do,
to watch forever as all you know,
to watch forever as all you love,
Turns to dust around you.
You will grow tired of the struggle,
You will grow tired of the monotony
of the pushing ever onward.
But you can not stop the ever march called Time.
Eventually you will be driven to madness,
you will be driven to sanity,
you will be driven to loneliness
There is no happy ending
for there will be no ending to this eternal torment
called Immortality.
Weep for the Immortal,
for we know not what they endure.
When the last embers die
what will the immortal have?
Power is pointless in the face of eternity,
Money is pointless for it holds worth to only mortal fools,
Life is meaningless when it is eternal.
In the end all they are left with are memories.
Memories of better times,
Memories of harsher times,
Memories of loved ones lost.
Loved ones who are gone,
Loved ones who are forgotten,
Loved ones who are hated.
They are gone
but the immortal is still there.
And that is why the Immortal hates them.
The intensity of this chapter was AMAZING. So much to infer from Twilight’s struggle with “gold and white” and living up to expectations. Loving this so far, looking forward to more!
So glad to see this continuing!
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Apologies for having been on hiatus for so long, I'm happy to see people happy to see this story continued
Yessss, so glad to see this continue.
Read the entire thing in one sitting, eager to see where this goes! 👀
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"The clothes have no emperor" is brilliant
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Thanks, but I stole it from somewhere that I've since forgotten
Having read through all of this, initially I thought that Noble Duty might have been malicious or manipulative in some way. But at this point, I think that we're just seeing things through Twilight's severely broken view, and her issues with her duty are coloring the way the reader views her. Quite a fascinating story so far. Not quite sure what to think of it, but I definitely will be following it
That was a good chapter. Poor Twilight she's truly gone mad.
Just wondering; is this ever getting an update? Happy to wait patiently, but a few authors have noted that people aren't asking about updates to their stories recently, so I figured I'd at least ask. Good luck, and I can't wait for more :)