Bug in a Blizzard

by Paracompact

25. Epilogue

Sometime, weeks or months later—after I would personally see to it that Gloria be incarcerated at the closest thing the Equestrian juvenile detention system had to a supermax—I would be sitting at my desk late one night, staring at the ceiling, pondering the life that Scolus had lived and lost. If I could stare through that ceiling, I would be counting the stars in the sky that had all needed to align in order to inflict such a fate as his. It wasn’t a cosmic mistake—it was too perfectly awful. It could only have been divine intervention by a god far greater than Celestia and Luna, and far more sadistic.

Belief in a sadistic god was my optimistic heresy. It was the only means I had of retaining faith in the fundamental goodness of my fellow mortals. For I knew that Scolus's fate was not wrought by the stars, but by every person he had ever trusted.

---

He was betrayed by an escapee, the benefactor of his mercy…

Stung by a colleague and exiled by his own kind, who had no mercy of their own…

Perpetually abused and endangered by a malign savior…

Reported and rejected by the one he loved, and thought he understood…

Hounded until the end by the one who didn’t want to believe in him…

Lethally injected by the one who had believed in him all along…

With a poison concocted by a friend who failed to speak up.

---

If only one star could have been knocked out of alignment. If only he could have encountered any other creature in the world than Gloria while wandering through the wastelands, his story would have been happier. If only he could have encountered no one at all, and simply perished out there—an agonizing death by thirst and exposure under a scorching desert sun.

If nothing else, it would have all been over sooner.

Comments

[Bandit1990]

Dang, that's a bummer ending.

[a creature]

Nooooooo you monsteeeeer

26 chapters, right?

[Lunar-Flare]

I was afraid of how this would end. They did a lot of illegal things and could not just be let go, but I was not expecting death to be in the cards. This was a fun story to follow, thank you for it.

[Martydi]

I didn't exactly expect a happy end, but damn, this is more tragic than I could have anticipated. Poor Scolus, he really deserved better at pretty much every stage of his life. Holy fuck I want to stab Gloria with a plastic spoon for what she did. At least Bon, Grid and Zorn tried to help at the last moment. Good to see that they would perhaps accept Scolus for who he was, even if it was too little to late.

Though the story is still marked incomplete. Is there something else coming up, or is it just an oversight?

[Paracompact]

11249748

11249663

11249628

11249623

Huh, you're all right. Guess it still needs the last chapter :)

[origami]

The ending reminds me of Se7en

[Lunar-Flare]

11249755
I did notice the incomplete tag. This is the part where we realize he was idealistic rather than incompetent and staged his death at the end. Bwahahaha!

It does make you wonder why a changeling considered good enough for a thrice tasting seemed so inept at... well being a changeling.

[Paracompact]

11249811
Probably because his specialty is love farming, not infiltration and espionage!

[Always Breakfast]

Oof. And here I was kinda hoping they'd dose Gloria to stop her from interfering.

This was a ride. You did a really good job of making everyone just suspicious enough to keep casting doubt all over, whether by sabotage or...teens just being kinda dumb sometimes because they're teens and that happens lol.

Noticing the incomplete tag though...and remembering what Scolus said about the jelly keeping a reserve of magic that resists draining. Though I guess if he literally disintegrated in front of them that's a bit hard to take back.

[FanOfMostEverything]

... I'm honestly left a little cold. No one could have punched Gloria earlier in her manipulative little monologue? What, was it a toxic musical number? And dragging in Blanche... Well, it might not have done anything, but she deserved a chance to speak her piece.

Well, as you said, one chapter for every letter in the alphabet. Let's see how you close this out.

[Scyphi]

So yeah, already said my piece previous chapter, so y'all go back a chapter to read that if ya want...unless you're reading the master list of comments on the story, then I guess it would be just above this one...you know what I mean.

I'm rambling, I guess, at this point. I really was hoping for a good ending, but I can totally respect this ending as well. Life is cruel and unfair sometimes, and this is just one of those times. Far be it for a story to deny a harsh reality just because it is harsh. Sometimes readers need reminding of that, if just to learn how to be prepared for it, or to be better than that.

I guess what really irks me about it though is the fact that it's questionable whether or not any good came of it for anyone in the end, no matter how small, which I feel like should've still come out of this. Some clear moral for everybody to take away with, some attempt to resolve to not allow history repeat itself in the end...

Maybe in mysterious chapter 26, then.

[Gordon_Freemane]

Better be one hell of a twist coming up or I'm gonna be pissed.

[Changeling404]

I mean, with the wording, tense, and length of this chapter... plus the "26 chapters" thing... it's quite obvious... doesn't take a detective to put it together.