This story is a sequel to The Ghost of Coltistrano: Restless Peace
The horrors of the Crystal Empire are behind them, when a tenuous peace maintained by thin bonds unraveled at the mere mention of age-old pains, but the world has fallen silent. Every rumor, every whisper, pulls Silver Spade along the trail of his own mistakes, guided by his guilt, into a trap not even he can prepare for, leaving those around him to ask the most terrifying question: can ghosts die?
The kindling has been set. A flame of vengeance stands at the ready. The blaze will swallow all our heroes have built unless they can stop it. It's the end of Equestria's haunting legend, and the birth of something more.
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This is it, the final installment of The Ghost of Coltostrano! What a ride this series has been, and one I never expected to make it this far. I want to give a special thanks to Odd_Sarge for supporting the series since the beginning, and to the ever-talented Siansaar for their work on the cover art.
Thank you, all!
Heck of an entrance, in more ways than one! I think you may have forgotten to bump this to a Teen rating.
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Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up, I absolutely did.
Really wonderful breakdown of how the story is going to be moving forward from here. I also love all the prose to bits. I'm especially fond of the rapport Silver shows here: he has a lot he's fought for and rightfully earned.
Silver himself has come a very long way, too. Really satisfying perspective.
Powerful words and actions at work, here. The flow between scenes is great, and there’s a lot of impressive dialogue that I can definitely see setting the tone for the rest of the story. A lot of decisions to be made, and here’s hoping that they keep on keeping on as right calls. Hard, but ultimately right.
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You're gonna enjoy the next couple chapters, then
The prose here is just great. There's so much setup that goes into the drift between action and exposition and it really gets wrapped together with how vivid the scenes are presented. Definitely seeing more of the hard choices to come as Silver starts to grow out into his final sense of character.
Ha, now he's going to owe her one more thing.
It's funny to imagine just how much has been taken from the princesses during their tenure. Luna's relatively lax level of care might be for show, but it's still amusing: "Ah, of course, another priceless artifact... that's not so priceless." It definitely comes with the territory of being dulled to material possessions.
These last three chapters are just... wow. Wow.
Incredible delivery.
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Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the sequence.
An escalation to the fullest extent, and beyond.
I don't think I can understate just how critical things have been upscaled. It's very thrilling and satisfying to see things crumbling and going the way they are, especially as it provokes a lot of characters into emoting in a way they usually wouldn't.
Absolutely loved the conversation in the last half.
The way Gilda's handling all of this hits just right...
And as expected, recon never is quite just recon!
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Thanks! Definitely one of the more delicate moments to get right for her character.
Good grief. I really needed this chapter. It reminds me so much of the start of all this: it's amazing how well all the themes brought down by Darrox's life and teachings are coming together.
I don't know, they seem pretty dynamic to me!
It's really refreshing to see him like this, now. One might even say he had some new life breathed into him!
Loved the guerilla esque combat they were going through, and the new state of the city.
Perfect.
What a reunion. Each one of the scenes here manages to be even more mesmerizing and active than the last. It's fantastic to see the town we all know put against the backdrop of all of this conflict in a way that shows their unity.
It's honestly refreshing to have a bit of whiplash from the others he swore to protect. I can understand their plight, and I do feel Silver is getting a lot more than he's owed in this return, but none of them had any control: things weren't guarded enough, and there were consequences.
It also comes with the territory of having your identity revealed. This is one of Silver's more vulnerable moments, and I greatly appreciate seeing him brought down to the same level as those not quite as wise.
Ultimately, I do hope the refugees come back to the pony path, and not put an end to this in the way they'd like. Sure, it'd solve one part of the problem, but it's not the full solution.
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This was definitely a difficult chapter to write. This whole "transition" was delicate, especially with balancing everyone's stake in the situation, and ensuring it felt authentic.
Brilliantly fucking written chapter.
I love this story and I love this series so damn much.
I am super enjoying the ramp up to the climax. There's such great description and characterization at play.
What a wonderful, wonderful story.
There's a great breadth of goodness to take away from this series. Foremost, it has an excellent cast of characters. There were a lot of moments that I'd have liked to see built upon, especially with this final story's development and quite rapid growth. But I can't really say it would have been healthy for the pacing; as it stands, the story is an engaging flow of action and suspense.
The prose is another thing certainly worth noting. It really plays strongly to the roles adopted by Silver, Rarity, and co. I loved seeing Glint and Abby expanded upon to such a high degree, and I don't think I would have felt so strongly for them were it not for the great descriptions established in the prose of the moment.
Thank you very much for writing, and I hope to revisit for this series and anything else you write.
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Absolutely!
I really wanted to focus on the character moments and the evolution of Silver's character into becoming his own hero without weighing the story down with unnecessary detail. Abby and Glint are exceptions because I felt they definitely needed a little something extra.
Who knows if there'll be more. I've got a few ideas floating around in my head which might make it into their own stories, but I feel this trilogy is strong enough without adding anything more to it.
Thanks for following along!