Epilogue: Never Forget
Sunny kept her wings, and Sunrise did too. The light that had engulfed Starlight had swallowed all of Sundown, and when it was left some ponies were back to normal, and some weren’t. According to them, they were given a choice by a voice in their heads. Most of them chose to go back to normal.
Starlight missed the feeling of power from her horn and wings, but she smiled as she ran a hoof over her smooth forehead. Then grimaced as the van bounced, and she smacked herself in the face. She was still grumbling about it when Red, seated next to her, opened the sliding door.
“We’re here,” he said. “I’m surprised a dinky little vehicle like this even made it. It sure ain’t the Odyssey
The IS had been kind enough to lend them a van, but Starlight agreed that she missed the cushy seating and heavy shocks of the RV. Everypony piled out of the vehicle, and she followed them, setting her hooves onto the sand outside. She covered her face with one hoof to block out the sun in her eyes.
Gulls chirped and circled overhead, riding the cool sea breeze. Just beyond the van, deep blue water lapped at the sandy shore. The beach was empty so early in the morning, with only the seabirds and foam to accompany their little group. Sunny and Sunrise took to the skies, laughing and chasing after each other. Starlight rolled her eyes when she saw Sunny slap the stallion on his rump.
“I always forget what the west coast smells like until I come back to it again,” Red said. “It smells . . . clean. Like you can come here and be anypony, do anything.”
“Is that right?” Starlight asked.
He nodded. “It’s out here that I decided I was done taking anypony’s orders but my own, and started smuggling. Funny to come back to it now, after everything.”
“I’ve never been out here, you know.”
“Really?”
“First time going coast to coast.” She breathed in the air and smiled. “And you’re right, I can smell it too.”
Starlight reached back inside the van and pulled an object out of the box. She hefted it in her hooves and brought it over to where Red stood, by the water. It was a thick, ivory urn with brass handles.
She walked into the ocean until it was knee-deep, then stopped. “I think this is what he would have wanted,” she said. “I never really knew how he would want to be buried . . . I called my mom back at Lupine Falls, and she wasn’t up to telling me.”
“I think it’s fitting,” Red said, taking her by the shoulder. “He got you here, didn’t he? The way I see it, he wasn’t always the best pony, but he did what was right in the end. I think that counts for something.”
“I wouldn’t be alive if he hadn’t saved me.” Starlight opened the urn and bit back the tears that stained the edges of her eyes. “He did right in the end.”
She overturned the vase and watched the ashes fall out into the water. Soon, they were washed away by the endless waves, borne back ceaselessly into the great unknown. Starlight watched for a long time. The waves had a way of putting her into a trance, until her breathing matched the coming and going of the tide.
Beside her, Red stood firmly and looked to where she did. After a few moments, he asked, “What now?”
Starlight looked back at the van. The two IS agents had accompanied them to the beach. They were now playing with Dawn on the sand. The little colt wobbled on unsteady legs in the uneven terrain and giggled as he fell. Above them, Sunny and Sunrise continued to swoop and dive around.
She turned back to Red. “Well, the IS gave us just about all the money we could ever want to shut up . . . why don’t we use some of it?”
“To do what?”
“I don’t quite know.” She wrapped a hoof around his shoulder and smiled, looking out to the horizon. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
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Damn, I need to catch up! Last one I read was chapter 12!
I'll save it for tomorrow.
4016234
Well the good thing is, now you have the whole thing done and waiting to be read!
4016237 poor element bearers. They just can't catch a break in these post apocalyptic stories.
4016649
Exactly.
Can somone write a short summary of the whole Fic, i don't really comprehend what i read. but i know it was good
4016814 more or less, celestia and luna had a bit of a civil war, either again, or from some trigger, roped using the elements on the pony populace. The sentience to the elements decided all ponies were at fault, and basically used their bearers as meat puppets to wipe out everything, and everyone, but a single city, aka, zion. Cadence, being neutral, was willingly placed into the heart, to help guide them back out, supposedly, but threw a fate blessed spanner in the works this time, and stopped the elements from wiping everything out this time, at the cost of destroying them. Or at least its what I came across as seeing.
This is one of those stories where every chapter I think "I should thumb up this story" only to discover that I already have! Very well done, Toix. I can't wait to see what you do next.
Hooray! :D
Now this is an end i can get behind. Now if I could focus long enough...
Wait... did they not stay alicorns? Is life just going to continue as before? Will unicorns and pegasi be born naturally now?
And are the Elements of Harmony truly gone? Are they just biding there time? Or are they how they should be, awaiting the next set of bearers to be used for good?
I would still like to know which princess supposedly ordered their use, but I can't help think it was a lie from the Elements themselves.
Also, RedLight. Knew that was coming a mile off.
The princess that abused thier power was locked away inside teh Sun. So they couldve brought Celestia back.
As for the Elements, they became corruptd, and so failed, divided witin themselves.
With that money? Oddesy 2, explore the world.
And always, in the background, the magic that the Elements took away from the world, and locked away, is slowly spreading as dust high in the air, to rain out, and be taken up in grass and ground and plant and animal.
And eventally, somewhere, enough will collect that a new seed of elements will take hold, and sprout, and grow.
And Fruit.
4022562
4026736
So, uh, did I do okay?
4026788
You sure did. Average ratios are Views:Likes:Dislikes of 100:10:1, 10:1::10:1.
You got 10:1:: 20:1
Twice more people like you than not than average.
Hmm, I really need to run trough and get variance figures, but out of rougly 200 samples I should get a fair reasonable value.
And that, folks, is why we never allow our weapons to have built-in consciousness.
In other news though, I'm a little sad (though not surprised) the new Alicorns didn't stay that way. I mean, sure they're not cut out for the job (entirely), but we think it would make for a good sequel starter.
Keep going! ;)
4016649 It's... Perfect.
I wouldn't mind a little more explanation regarding the other ponies and Alicorns and what you believe the source/origin of the EoH to be in the context of this story.
4036474
I left it intentionally sparse
because I'm lazyto let your mind fill in whatever details it wants.4036516
In any case I could have sworn at least one of them (Sunny, Starlight, Sunrise?) had a horn before so why would she only have wings after. That little dream/mind scene things confuses me because while I suppose you could argue Cadence got knocked off or something it wasn't clear whether Celestia/Luna had actually moved on. Odd to think that the EoH were responsible for destroying in the millenia of progress in the name of progress (a.k.a. starting over), stupid enough to think that they/it had the right answer and so twisted up as to not realize it was harming the creatures it claimed to be bettering over some self-satisfying urge. Very strange.
Well then! I shall still be critical of you for it.
4041371
Heh, oops. Gonna go fix!
Well, I just found your story while searching for
clopJesus, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I love the idea of the Elements themselves becoming corrupted, and the true nature of ponies (love, kindness, compassion, etc) shining through and defeating the very elements themselves! Also, my heartstrings were tugged when you showed our beloved ponies from 100,000 years in the past, thankful for their salvation from the Elements. It got me right where you wanted me. Probably. You wanted me on the couch, right? There. That's where you got me.Wonderful story. Favorited. Liked. Followed!
4063585
Well I'd like to think it was the plot, not the references, making the story interesting...
Also, using "women" was essential to not sully the great song by The Eagles.
Not bad, Toix, not bad.
And I definitely vote for an Odyssey 2 in regards to what to do with the money.
4068559
I am glad you approve.
4086426
That was the point.
...eh. I'm sorry, I can't really say that I liked this story. I was willing to keep on reading. I was invested despite the artificial, blunt references to Star Wars and Firefly going on and the Jesus reference with the baby foal (I love naming chapter titles after songs, though.), but then the reveal came and the entire story fell apart. I was supposed to feel hope and excitement for the future and overcoming adversity, but all I feel is hollow and bitter now.
I can't suspend my disbelief that Celestia and Luna would have a civil war, for starters. That's bullshit. The Elements of Harmony deciding to destroy civilization and start over? Kind of bullshit too. You'd think they'd recognized that fucking genocide is antithetical to kindness, at the very least. When they started talking self-righteously, I was intensely annoyed, and not entirely at a character in the story. I just wanted the thing to fucking end at that point.
And what are we supposed to take away from the destruction of the Elements? That the virtues that the mane six hold dear don't matter and are weaker than the power of love? I've heard one crackpot fan theory that Cadance and Shining Armor were trying to usurp the mane six's importance or something like that, but this is the first time I've seen it actually happen in a fan work, and this is what it feels like to me.
I know I'm probably not making much sense and coming off like a crackpot asshole raining on everyone's parade right now, but that's what disappointment does to me. This had a great premise and you're a pretty decent writer. The pace was quick and it flowed smoothly the whole way through, but maybe it was too fast and left your new setting with little detail and impact on the reader. I don't know.
4133466
I just really don't care.
4134429
Sorry I was so harsh on this. I didn't mean anything personal with it.
4138167
Sorry I reacted badly.
3287292 Shadow Run is a turn-based strategy game that takes place in a cyberpunk future. Where magic has just started re-emerging; and along with it: trolls, elves, and the futuristic equivalent of wizards. A lot like what is happening in your story. I've never played the game before but I know the lore.
Not bad.
I wish I'd gotten to hear more of Tinker's story as well, but this is okay.
I feel like 100k years was to long. 10k would have been more than enough for this level of advancement. I think 100k would have them using spaceports and FTL rather than cars and ballistic weapons.
4184550
Well, I was going on the ponies being bombed back to neolithic levels. In our world, it was about 100,000 years from "modern" humans to the technological level we have now. Thus how long it is in the stories.
4289692
A personal favorite of mine.
4302241
Only you are the author job the joke. I guess that we 3 are smarter than everypony else.
God, this story was good. I recently finished it, and loved it.
In some ways I liked how it ended, but it also feels incomplete. It's not so much "open-ended" as it feels like this is only the first of many upheavals for this society... Like Starlight isn't quit done with her horn and wings, like Cadance and the mane 6 aren't quite done with this world. more stories are in this universe...just not here, not now.
That make sense?
4474964
It does make sense, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I purposefully left the ending open-ended, though not to leave room for a sequel. Rather, I wanted the reader to be able to imagine things that happen after the ending and to make up their own ideas and adventures for Starlight and the rest after the story ends.
Hrm. That was somewhat disappointing after a rather massive struggle just to finish reading it (it took me four or five tries to get through, which is not normal).
I think my problems with the story could be broken down as follows: various personages* holding the idiot ball (Noctilucent, the Elements, Celestia and/or Luna, the Bearers, bits of the IS); the rather jerky switch from the IS being the bad guys to the Elements being the bad guy(s); the idea of the Elements falling prey to basically a buggy program, when magic is usually (even within this very story) portrayed as more of a Do-What-I-Mean system than technology tends to be; and the ridiculously long hundred millenia between the apocalypse and the story. The last could use some more elaboration; basically, to actually push technology back to such an absurdly primitive level requires not merely taking away the knowledge of how to do just about anything (but without killing off all the ponies in so doing), but even taking away the idea that knowledge of how to do things better could exist, an idea that has been a pretty crucial part of a lot of cultures (i.e., the ones that progress in any fashion) for a very long time, and has never yet been lost once acquired. Honestly, even after doing that I'm not at all convinced that the ponies would take 100,000 years to recover to a level that is conveniently almost exactly the same as our own technology. It seems too pat.
It's not a terrible story, and the premise is, or was, rather interesting, but it doesn't really deliver fully.
*I refuse to say "ponyages", both because that is an incredibly stupid word, and because ponies are of course people too, same as any sapient being, whatever the shape — the common usage of people as synonymous with humans is solely because humans are the only sapient beings ever physically observed, but even in religion, supernatural beings are considered persons.
4826036
Eh. I put it 100,000 years because that was pretty much the prompt a friend gave me, and I made them have human technology because it was fun. I had a fun time writing it, and at this point have pretty much stopped caring whether people like it or not, as it seems to be divisive anyway. Glad you read it, anyway. Cheers.
2337088
This is actually one of the funniest comments I've seen you make.
2337085
2337088
I haven't read the story yet, but that oddly makes sense. If the covenant came, then that could explain the lack of magic. I mean, after all, I don't think Unicorns nor Pegasi could survive a glassing from a corvette.
Well, neither could earth ponies, but still...