Epilogue
It had been long enough since Twilight had gone to her. Too long, maybe, but there had been a lot going on, and besides, Luna was making visits all this time. But Twilight knew these excuses were wearing too thin, so she powered her horn and slipped into the pocket dimension.
“Hi, Cozy Glow.”
The filly laid deflated on the floor, chin resting on her forelegs and ears drooping. Only her eyes moved to glance up. “Hi, Princess.”
Twilight walked closer and sat down before her former student. “How have things been going with Luna?”
“I don’t want to see her anymore.”
“No? What happened?”
“I didn’t like what she had to say. She scared me.”
“...Okay. I’ll tell her not to come back for now.”
“Good.” Cozy Glow shifted to curl inward, facing herself away from Twilight. The small filly’s attempt to make herself smaller might once have been cute and endearing, but now, all the awkwardness in the motion only highlighted how her legs had been growing longer. Soon she would reach the unwieldy stage most foals go through as they approach adolescence.
At the time they were each put in their respective pocket dimension cells, Cozy Glow had been physiologically older than Chrysalis, but by now, the reverse was true. It seemed time in Chrysalis’s dimension flowed more quickly than normal time, as if the changeling were eager to regain her lost adulthood and all the authority and self-sufficiency she expected would come with it. Cozy Glow, on the other hoof, was aging slower than she would be in normal time. As if she were desperate to hang onto her foalhood, the freedom of experiencing a world whose limits had not yet been discovered, whose callous disregard of any kind of idealism was not yet felt.
For all that Cozy Glow had done before her imprisonment, she was still, in her own way, innocent. She was also aware of the slipping away and dissolving of her own innocence, like sand falling through an hourglass, and she would choose to remain small and alone forever if it would only help her hang onto those last few, precious grains.
Perhaps Luna had shaken a few grains of Cozy Glow’s innocence loose, and that was why the filly sulked. Twilight was about to shake loose a few more.
“I just thought you ought to know,” began Twilight, finally breaking the heavy silence, “about Sombra.”
“I take it you’ve succeeded in taming him into a model friend and citizen? And you want to remind me you intend to do the same to me, huh?”
Twilight sighed. “Sombra is dead.”
Cozy Glow rolled over and finally met Twilight’s eyes. “What’d you do to him?”
“Exactly what he asked us to do. Sombra recognized in the end that there was no hope left for him in living. He had been serving evil for so long that he had become a slave to it, and when he finally realized that all he really desired deep down was peace and love, he had no power left to achieve that desire. So he asked Discord to take away his dark magic—which he knew would kill him—so he would be freed to think for himself in his final moments. There was relief in his eyes, right before they turned into ash.”
“...Oh.” The filly laid her head back down on her forelegs and stared at nothing. The heavy silence fell again.
Twilight eventually stood up, despite the weight in her chest. She felt so dry and hollow, gazing down at that forlorn filly whose past was condemned, whose present was an empty hole, and whose future was either the bleak wasteland of Forgotten, or a caldera that would scorch away her old self so that some self new and unknown could rise from the ashes. There was no easy road ahead for Cozy Glow, whatever route she took. “That’s all I wanted to say, Cozy. I’ll give you some time to let your thoughts settle before I come back, and I’ll tell Luna—”
“No!” Cozy Glow was suddenly alert. Then she looked away again, shuffling her awkward legs. “I changed my mind. Luna can keep coming. There’s still a lot I want to learn from her.”
A flicker of hope brought something of a smile to Twilight’s lips. “I’ll let her know. Goodbye for now, Cozy.”
“Bye, Princess.”
Once Applejack was in a stable condition, she left the Canterlot hospital and went back to Ponyville to finish her recovery among her family. Rarity had promised to come visit her, but so far, she hadn’t. It had only been a week since she left, and Applejack knew that the opportunities to see her marefriend would be fewer now that there wasn’t a weekly royal summons to tutor a dangerous villain. Still, one week of quiet and rest was enough to start feeling lonesome.
So when there was a knock at her door, Applejack felt a thrill of admittedly ridiculous hope. “C’mon in!”
“Applejack!” It was just Applebloom. “You’ve been in bed all day an’ I know you can’t move around too much with those broken bones, but you oughtta do somethin’! Won’t you come out to the orchard with me? I wanna practice my apple-buckin’ and you could coach me!”
“Why, you haven’t asked my help for anythin’ since you were right small! And you can buck just fine! What’s the deal?”
“Pleeease?”
Applejack relented and hobbled out after Applebloom on three legs, since the fourth was in a cast and sling while it healed. Fortunately, the walk to the first row of trees in front of the barn wasn’t very far. These were the trees on which Applejack herself had practiced her apple-bucking as a filly. “Alrighty then, show me what y—”
““SURPRISE!””
A large, festive banner and numerous streamers suddenly unfurled from the trees, and ten creatures erupted from the barn. At the front of the crowd was Rarity, but everycreature else was here too—Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Discord, and even Fio and Corey.
“Congrats on your relationship!” Cheese Sandwich exclaimed as he and Pinkie Pie bounded over to stand beneath the banner. It read “Applejack & Rarity”, with two little interlocking hearts for the ampersand. “I understand you two have been together for a little while now, but it’s new to us, so we wanted to celebrate!”
“Well, all that’s not really necessary, but it’s mighty thoughtful of you,” replied Applejack.
Pinkie Pie spoke up, loud enough for the entire gathering to hear. “We also wanted to celebrate everycreature while we could get you all together! Our little group of friends has been through a whole lot recently, and Cheesy and I wanted to give everycreature a chance to relax and find our smiles again!”
With that, a barrage of water balloons rained down upon them from the barn loft, soaking everypony except for Applejack and the mare at her side. The attackers turned out to be none other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders plus Granny Smith. Their assault must have been planned, for Cheese Sandwich had already rolled out a cart full of water balloons so the ponies on the ground could launch a counterattack. By the time the ensuing battle ended for lack of ammunition, there was hardly a face present that wasn’t smiling.
The only two frowns were mirror images, worn by the twins. Pinkie Pie scooped Fio and Corey up to personally attend to those frowns while Cheese Sandwich ushered everycreature else into the barn for towels and snacks.
Fluttershy looked over her shoulder at Pinkie Pie with her foals, but decided to leave the expert to her work. Fio and Corey had been generally moody and downcast in the last week. Of course they were sad to have lost their Father so soon after meeting him, but then they didn’t understand the depth of Sombra’s darkness. Fluttershy hoped they never would. However, they had seen how Sombra’s dark magic “sickness” cost their Father his life, and had been especially terrified of their own sickness ever since. Neither Fluttershy with her kindness nor Discord with his goofiness could ease Fio and Corey’s minds. If Pinkie Pie couldn’t bring them cheer, nothing but time itself would.
In the meantime, Fluttershy knew that she could use some extra cheer after all that had happened, so she turned her attention back to the party. Particularly, to its second host.
“How’s the wedding planning going?”
“Great!” responded Cheese Sandwich. “Pinks and I have yet to find a venue big enough to hold all Ponyville, half of Canterlot, and a few dozen other friends from my travels, but other than that, it’s coming together pretty nicely!”
“Oh my, that’s a lot of ponies! But I guess I couldn’t really expect anything less from Equestria’s favorite party pony power couple,” she giggled.
“Well, we’ve got to make our wedding stand out somehow! Word on the street is you and Discord flew to the center of the universe for some kind of extravagant, mystical, cosmic wedding, and how are Pinks and I ever going to top that?”
Fluttershy hadn’t been aware there were rumors. “But it wasn’t a wedding, not really! And even if it was, it isn’t a competition!”
Cheese Sandwich lowered his voice and leaned in conspiratorially. “I know that. Pinkie told me what actually happened. But I’m not exactly one to pass up such a great excuse to put together the biggest blowout wedding this continent’s ever seen!” Then Cheese Sandwich gave her a wink and bounded off to join the little group forming around Applejack and Rarity, calling over his shoulder “Try the cupcakes—I made them myself!”
Discord was hovering over the dessert table, just finishing his conversation with Rainbow Dash. “Fluttershy, have you tried these cupcakes?”
“Not yet, but I was about to!”
Discord popped one whole into his mouth and used their thought connection to speak while he chewed. Hurry up and get what you want, then, ‘cause I can’t stop eating them! They’re good!
Fluttershy selected one with white frosting and took a bite. Then her face puckered in confusion, and she stared at her cupcake in mild shock. “What is it?”
“A cupcake, of course!”
“No, I mean—what flavor? It’s bizarre!”
“You took one of the havarti ones. These ones over here,” Discord pointed to a different plate of cupcakes, “are brie, and those there are roquefort, and then feta, and these ones are my favorite—squeezy cheese!”
“So they’re all cheese… cupcakes.”
“Yes, and?”
Fluttershy took another bite of her havarti cupcake. Now that she knew what was coming, it actually tasted pretty good, for what it was. “I don’t know why I bothered to expect anything normal,” Fluttershy laughed.
“This Cheese fellow and I are going to be very good friends, I just know it!”
Discord and Fluttershy made their way over to the hay bales stacked into seats and sofas, where everycreature else had already gathered. Everycreature except for Pinkie Pie, Fio, and Corey, who were still outside but visible through the open barn door.
Rainbow Dash was in the middle of telling one of her spectacular tales of triumph and valor. Except this time, the subject wasn’t herself. “I’m telling you, she pulled an entire mansion out of thin air! But it wasn’t thin air at all—it was some weird, invisible stuff nopony’s ever been able to see before. And she converted a whole mansion and everypony in it from weird stuff to regular stuff so we could get inside! All without giving away our position! Twilight’s magical prowess truly knows no bounds! You really should have seen her!”
“Seen me?” challenged the flattered alicorn. “You should have seen you, Rainbow Dash! You chased that dark energy down for hours and never lost it, even though you had to stay above the sonic rainboom barrier the whole way! I don’t know how you didn’t collapse or just fall apart from the physical strain of maintaining that speed for so long!”
Applejack glanced at Rarity at the same time Rarity glanced at her, and she realized they’d had the same thought. “Wonder if all that’s got to do with harmony magic,” she mused.
Rarity nodded.
But Twilight cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Rarity and I used to try to figure out what special powers all our Elements gave us. You know, like how Fluttershy’s Kindness magic makes her take on physical traits of those she shows kindness to. Haven’t you ever got to wonderin’ if the rest of the Elements of Harmony did stuff like that?”
“I have,” said Twilight, “but I never did come up with anything I could really test.”
“We’ve certainly gone through some tests recently,” Rarity pointed out. “So what do you think now? Applejack and I always figured the magic of your element was extra-powerful magic. Do you suppose the Element of Loyalty grants Rainbow Dash something like superpony endurance?”
“But I still get worn out—uh, not often, but sometimes,” Rainbow Dash objected.
Twilight had lifted a hoof to her chin in thought. “Ah, but you’ve never run out of strength when we needed you! Maybe your Loyalty magic is that your physical endurance is enhanced whenever you need it to help your friends!”
“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash casually flexed her biceps. “I know my loyalty for you guys will never fail, but it’s pretty awesome to know my body will never fail you either!”
“Applejack, your Honesty magic!” Rarity lifted up one of Applejack’s arms and inspected it closely.
“You think you figured out what the magic of Honesty does?”
“Just think about it, darling! You said Sombra threw teeth and knives and spines at you, but look at you! You received broken bones and some internal trauma, yes, but not one single scratch on your skin!”
Applejack laughed. “You’ve gotta have pretty thick skin if you’re going to be honest with everycreature. Somehow I never realized ‘til now that might be literally true in my case!”
Twilight nodded her approval, but had gone suddenly pale. “Good thing, too. Do you realize what would have happened if he’d have gotten to your blood?”
Applejack shook her head at the same time Fluttershy startled and also went pale. She pointed to her left ear, which still bore the piercing from Sombra’s fang years ago. “He was trying to infect you with dark magic,” Fluttershy shuddered.
“You think he was tryin’ to make me a shadow pony?”
“No.” It was Twilight who answered. “You don’t have a horn, or even special Kindness magic like Fluttershy, to be able to interface with dark magic. If he’d succeeded at infecting you with it… It would have killed you.”
Applejack quailed as Rarity wrapped her arms protectively around her. “I should never have let him rile me up like that in our final lesson,” said the unicorn. “If I hadn’t left his room, maybe you wouldn’t have been in so much danger.”
“It ain’t your fault, sugarcube.” Applejack nuzzled her marefriend’s cheek. “You couldn’t have known. And you did come and rescue me afterward. Say! How did you get into Fluttershy’s cellar when it was locked up like that? The lock ain’t broken or nothin’, is it Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “It works very well. Discord had to make a new key for it so we could use those doors again.”
“Did you teleport?” Twilight asked Rarity.
“I can’t! Not like that, and especially not in the dark!”
“Alright, so you didn’t teleport,” Applejack assented. “But what do you remember from that moment you fell in? What were you doin’, or maybe, what were you feelin’?”
“I believe I was leaning on the cellar doors and crying because I was afraid. All I could think about was that you were down there, suffering all alone and maybe dying. I’m not really sure what I was doing the moment before I fell into the cellar because truly I had forgotten all about myself in my worry for you, Applejack.”
“Isn’t that what generosity is all about?” Rainbow Dash asked, through a mouthful of carrot cake. “Putting the other pony’s needs before your own?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Rarity,” Twilight interrupted. “Do you think you could conjure up those feelings again right now?”
“Possibly, but why?”
“I have a hypothesis, and I think we need an experiment.”
Rarity (and Applejack) expressed some concern, but Twilight was excited and insistent. At her instruction, Rarity backed up to the barn wall and filled her mind with all the most generous thoughts she’d ever had. As she thought, she pressed herself harder into the wall. Then she was falling backward, and there was muffled shouting, and Rarity suddenly found herself sitting in grass and staring at the bright red exterior paint of the barn.
It worked.
So Rarity thought again of Applejack and all she wanted to do and give for her strong, brave, beautiful marefriend. And she stepped forward, and she was back inside the barn, admiring the shocked faces of all her friends. “So that’s Generosity magic,” Rarity concluded. “But why?”
“I think I get it,” Twilight answered. “You were so concerned for Applejack that you forgot all about your own self, as if you vanished from the situation, in a way. It seems when you’re feeling so generous that you lose track of yourself, your body reflects that by temporarily translating to an immaterial state.”
“Well, whaddaya know, my marefriend’s a ghost!” Applejack draped an arm around Rarity’s shoulders and held her close against her side. “No wonder you have such otherworldly beauty.”
While Rarity blushed and the pair were locked in an affectionate gaze, Discord rolled his eyes. Ugh, couples, he thought to Fluttershy.
She stifled a giggle. You know we act the same way, right?
I would never! Discord scoffed, even as his tail wrapped itself over Fluttershy and he stroked her mane. “Well,” he announced aloud, “that just leaves one magical anti-chaos horse to figure out.”
All eyes turned to the open barn door, through which said magical anti-chaos horse could be observed. Pinkie Pie was dancing atop a wooden barrel, tipped on its side so it could roll, while juggling what had to have been a dozen apples. Her audience of two foals was quiet and unresponsive. They didn’t even laugh when the juggler fumbled, dropping the apples on her head and tumbling as comically as possible from the barrel.
Then the pink pony lying splayed out on the ground suddenly deflated like a balloon until it was a formless puddle. Fio and Corey stared in confusion until the real Pinkie Pie jumped out of the barrel waving her magician’s cape with a flourish. “TA-DA!”
Finally, the foals found their smiles again, and Pinkie Pie lead them laughing into the barn. Everycreature who had also been watching the ridiculous, impossible performance was laughing too.
Except for Discord. He was staring at Pinkie Pie with intense interest. When she arrived and presented his foals to him, he addressed her. “Pinkie, I think Fio and Corey would find it absolutely delightful if you turned the floor into polished peppermint candy.”
“Ooh! That sounds delicious! But I’m afraid that would take me a few minutes to do, and the peppermint might be molten for a while after I pour it out… That sounds like something you’d be able to do in a snap, though!”
“Hmm, yes, I suppose you’re right. But I can’t do a snap now that you’ve told me to. How about a little storm of chaos magic instead?” Discord blew some of his magic out into a swirling cloud above their heads and caused it to rain itself down. As it splashed all over the floor, the promised polished peppermint candy appeared, and Fio and Corey took off skating, their tongues gliding on the surface of the sugary floor.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie’s grin grew wider than her own face, and she vibrated faster and faster until she seemingly glitched out of reality altogether. She popped up from behind a hay bale. “Hiya!” Then she fell from the ceiling. “Whee!” Before she hit the floor, there was a splash and Pinkie Pie rose out of the punch bowl. The barn had become a giant, one-pony game of whack-a-mole, and the twins screeched with delight as they attempted to chase their unpredictable quarry. Evercreature else watched the scene unfold with a mixture of amusement, confusion, and awe.
After about a minute of pure visual insanity, Discord finally snapped, restoring the barn to its prior state, and teleporting his breathless, giggling foals into his arms. “Pinkamena Diane Pie! I don’t know why I never noticed! You channel ambient chaos magic!”
“I do?”
“You do! It’s clear you don’t generate it yourself, but when I cast a lot of chaos magic into the local atmosphere, you went utterly berserk! That was one of the most majestic things I have ever seen!”
“That must be Laughter magic, then,” Twilight laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”
The frantic chase of an impossible pony over a skating rink paved in peppermint, along with all the sugar consumption involved in that pursuit, utterly exhausted Fio and Corey. Almost as soon as the high of the hunt faded and their laughter grew quiet, they fell asleep. Discord smiled at the precious cargo in his arms. “Fluttershy, I think we’d better get the two terrors to bed.”
“Yes,” but I have a better idea. “Applejack, would you mind if we camped in the bat sanctuary tonight? Fio and Corey have had such trouble sleeping lately, and I don’t want to accidentally wake them with a teleport.”
“Ya’ll are welcome to use the guest room in the house if you want. Ain’t no reason for ya’ll to be sleeping outside.”
“Sure there is,” countered Fluttershy. “It looks like it’s going to be a lovely night, and who wants to waste such good weather cooped up indoors?”
Applejack shrugged. “Suit yourself. Sleep tight, ya’ll, and don’t let the vampire fruit bats bite.”
Everycreature bid them good night, and Discord and Fluttershy turned to leave.
I’m all for the change of scenery, Discord thought to his mate. But what was that about?
I just felt like sleeping like a bat tonight. She winked. It’s been a while.
“So Twilight,” Pinkie Pie started, addressing her remaining friends. “I know laughter is the best thing ever, but what did you mean by ‘Laughter magic’?”
“We were just figuring out that, as element bearers, we all have a special kind of magic unique to our particular element. Laughter apparently channels chaos magic, and as we’ve all learned, Kindness,” she gestured to the retreating pegasus beside her retreating draconequus mate, “shifts its appearance to assume traits of those with whom it’s shared.”
The friends all followed Twilight’s gaze and stared. Once Discord and Fluttershy were out of sight, Applejack quietly spoke. “Is it just me, or does Fluttershy seem… longer, somehow—just the teensiest bit—ever since that soulmate ceremony?”
Rarity’s voice was low too. “It’s not just you, darling. And do you know, Fluttershy told me she found a gray hair in her mane, but I’ve been watching, and I’ve never caught a glimpse of it.”
“You don’t think...” pondered Rainbow Dash.
Twilight smiled and shook her head. “Only time will tell.”
They found one of the taller trees toward the center of the orchard. Many of the vampire fruit bats were already awake and going about their business for the evening, so there was plenty of room in the tree for four somewhat larger creatures to sleep. Discord reshaped one of the branches to create a large, cradle-like bowl where the branch joined the trunk. He furnished this bowl with soft pillows and blankets, then set Fio and Corey inside. They hardly stirred, not troubled by the motion, and not troubled by any nightmares, either. Discord kissed the nose of each foal, then moved further down the branch so Fluttershy could perch and deliver her goodnight kisses too.
As the last rays of sunlight faded from orange to pink to mauve on the clouds, Discord swung upside-down, and his mate beside him. He hung by his feet like any good bat. Fluttershy, however, lacked the necessary grasping apparatus, so she hung by her long tail instead, which just so happened to put her face about level with Discord’s.
But something fell into her face when she swung upside-down. It was the necklace Discord had given her.
Discord chuckled as Fluttershy fumbled with it. “Would you like some help getting that off?”
“No!” Fluttershy held the pendant away from her face, looking surprised. “I don’t ever want to take it off!”
“Ah. How about this instead?” Discord touched the pendant, and it drifted upward against gravity to rest once more against Fluttershy’s chest.
“Thank you. Are they alright in there, do you think?”
“Oh, the gravity reversal won’t bother them. The inner sphere is gyroscopically stabilized, and I only enchanted the outer sphere.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Fluttershy held the pendant close to her face, squinting at it until her bat vision kicked in. “It went pitch black in here after I wielded dark magic. I think it’s starting to clear up again, but their voices have been quiet lately.”
“You can hear them?”
“Sometimes. But they’re so small, and they live on a faster time scale than we do, so I can’t really understand them. You told me the ecosystem changes to reflect the wearer. I hope the dark magic didn’t hurt them!”
Discord wrapped his arms around Fluttershy’s stomach and held her against him. “You’re recovering fairly quickly from that ordeal, aren’t you?”
“Well, yes...”
“So are they.” The tip of one of Discord’s fingers glowed like a candle, and he held it up to the pendant. The murky water was illuminated enough that, with Discord’s magnifying glass, Fluttershy could begin to make out some of the tiny creatures swimming around inside. Despite the lingering dark shade of their water, the fish were colorful! She saw pink, orange, white, lavender, cyan. A pair of burgundy and dusky lilac minnows chased each other around, until a gray snake-like creature emerged from a rock and chased them both.
One for everycreature I love most, thought Fluttershy.
My favorite’s the little worm-looking guy, responded Discord.
Fluttershy let the pendant fall back up against her chest so she could use her arms to give Discord a playful shove. I think my favorite might be the big worm-looking guy!
Really?
On second though, no. He’s too tame. I like my two unicorn flowers better. They’re much more exciting!
Discord’s mouth fell open. “Too tame”? Too—excuse me?
Fluttershy snickered.
The very nerve, calling the Lord of Chaos “tame.” I’ll show you tame! Discord growled (softly, so as not to wake the foals) and swiftly coiled his body around Fluttershy’s until he’d wrapped her up as a boa constrictor wraps its prey. There, what do you say to that?
Fluttershy bared her fangs and poised to bite. Is that really all you’ve got?
Discord donned a feral grin and fell to battle. The game only ended when they attacked each others’ faces and got lost in the kiss.
Drowsiness took them in the end. Fluttershy nuzzled under Discord’s chin and let her eyes slide shut. Good night, my love, she thought to him.
Good night. Discord squeezed her gently against himself, savoring the way her heartbeat rhymed with his, admiring the way her mane spilled gloriously toward the ground and glinted like a ghostly waterfall in the pale starlight. He looked up to the crook of the branch, where he knew the twins were sleeping soundly, and he imagined how Fiorello and Coreopsis, their little family flower garden, would grow and bloom and flourish in the years to come.
Then Discord closed his eyes and buried his face into Fluttershy’s strawberry-scented mane, and as his consciousness began to drift away into the night, he sent one last thought into her dreaming mind.
This is exactly how I want to spend the rest of my life.
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Thank you for a wonderful story and trilogy. This story really does tie in the other two stories quite well. The characters were true to their nature and the interplay between Discord, Fluttershy, Fio and Corey was a joy to read.
I liked how you expanded the magic of Equestria; with Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty and Kindness, each having their own magic separate to the Magic of Friendship, and how Chaos and Dark Magic fit into it.
How the conflict was handled. From the beginning, Fluttershy telling the team that Sombra was going to die and that they couldn't let that happen, to the conclusion having Fluttershy help Sombra decide its time for him to go was not something I had thought.
And the epilogue was less a final but an invitation for the reader to continue the characters story. Is Fluttershy becoming a draconequus? will Discord get his miracle? as Twilight said "Only time will tell"
11001379
Thank you for this kind review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the story! And yes, that was exactly my intention with the epilogue—there's space for you to come to your own conclusions. The future, whatever it may prove to be for Discord and Fluttershy, is an adventure they are fully equipped to face and enjoy together.
A beautiful ending to one of the best series on this entire website. It really highlights what makes fluttercord such a great pair and why with Discord, friendship AND chaos can both work to be magical.
And of course, love conquers all!
As for the open interpretation, hmm... I will have to think on how I'd want it it go.
I agree with dark-pony: I love how you further expanded the magic of the elements and it isn't just Fluttershy who has an extra skill from hers. And they all make sense, too! It would have been great in canon! Because it *works* with canon.
And the last scene had me swooning. It always has me swooning.
Thanks for writing this. It was a highlight of many of my days. I will most likely reread all three one day.
I hope you continue to write and create! You have a talent for it, and a wonderful imagination to boot!
11002901
Thank you so much for sticking with me through this whole series! Writing, as I'm sure you know, often comes with so much self-doubt, but it's amazing how fulfilling and motivating the thoughtful words of even one person can be. The primary goal behind this entire creative undertaking was just to scratch my own itch for Fluttercord content, but I am both delighted and humbled to think that my writing might have brought satisfaction to others, too.
This was also my first experience sharing my creative writing publicly. I don't know if I'll ever start another fanfiction project (not ruling it out, but there are currently no plans), but I fully intend to continue writing, and it's an incredible confidence boost to know that there are people out there who might appreciate the stories I weave. So thank you again for the part you've played in my creative journey. Your reviews and commentary throughout have meant so much to me.
11004117
I'm humbled and honored at the same time from this. I'm so glad that I could be that reader that stuck with you at the beginning as you wrote and finished it. You deserve a lot more of those than just me, in my opinion. I mean, this entire story was so well-constructed, with unique elements that made it stand out, such as the Mane Six having specific magic based on their element, and the shadow magic, and the Draconequus lore! It had so many layers, but they all interconnected and it didn't get too complicated, and I could just go on and on...
But in short, it was my pleasure entirely. This is one of my top all-time favorites.
Also, I'm surprised this was your first online work. It certainly doesn't read that way. I wish my first one had had this kind of quality. Heck, I don't think any of mine had this kind of quality! That's amazing.
Be proud, my friend. Be proud.
I’ve been binge reading this trilogy, and all I can say is wow! Just wow! The depth, the characterization, the dialogue is simply perfection. And the mane six possessing magic pertaining to their element, that was a stroke of pure genius! I can’t get over how well you capture Fluttershy and Discord’s relationship. It’s so sweet and adorable and I can’t get enough! Your writing style is so, so beautiful. You deserve all the likes and all the views! I hope you write more stories because you are incredibly talented, and this trilogy was fantastic!
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Thank you so much! I'm delighted that you enjoyed the story.
OKAY SOOOO
im normally not swept off my feet by discord interpretations but WADDYA KNOW? This fic series is pure gold when it comes to Discord, and when it comes to the fluttercord it shines even brighter.
the world building in this is exquisite and if you ever decide to create more fics in this series ill be eating them up like chocolate milk from cotton candy clouds. it really doesn't get much better than this when it comes to discord fics, or mlp fics in general.
hats off to you!