Happy Endings

by Taranth

Epilogue - Happily Ever After (Optional)

Author's note: Please note, this particular chapter was not in the original plan for this piece. It's effectively an optional or alternate ending, which got into my head after reading some of the comments on the piece. It's still perfectly valid, though it changes things around significantly.

So if you don't like it, pretend it never happened. :) /lack of conviction

---

Luna smiled, as the colourful trail of Celestia's tail blended into the window, leaving shadows in their wake.

So... that's what it feels like...

Her smile cracked within seconds of Celestia's departure. It was all she could do to keep her feathers from shaking. Though she still had far more experience than any mortal pony, she had nowhere near as much as her sister, and Luna was certain it was only the distraction of the impending meeting with Twilight that had kept Celestia from seeing right through her.

Well, if one were sufficiently paranoid, perhaps the magic of the hall might have helped.

Luna felt more than sufficiently paranoid right now.

"I... I guess I'm going to have to get used to that, then." She said to herself, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Get used to what, then?" She nearly leapt out of her skin as the voice came from right next to her ear. She turned frantically, spotting the flash of brown but it always spun with her, until finally she growled, conjured a mirror from the air, and glared at Discord - whose head was poking through her mane as if it truly were a portal into space.

But even with this gross violation of her space by one such as he, she couldn't keep up her annoyance, and just sighed. "Lying. Lying to people I care about, about the things that matter most to them, right to their face. Breaking promises and betraying the elements. Just like my sister. And directly to my sister."

"Aha, so you've decided to go along with the plan, then?" In the mirror, Discord slithered out of her mane and through the reflective frame, leaving them together in the room again as he leant on his front paws with a smug grin. "I knew you'd see things my way."

"Oh, as if you weren't listening to everything she just said." Luna snarled again, but quickly slumped, looking utterly defeated. "Seeing you laughing with her was one thing... but to imagine I might be conspiring with you against Celestia..."

"It's hardly against Celestia if it's being done for her own benefit." Discord said, with a grin wider than his own muzzle. "What she wants most out of this is a happy ending. A thousand years of giving everyone else those endings, you don't think it's fair she gets one as well?"

Luna glared, taking a threatening step towards the Draconequus. "And what do you get out of this? Why are you so eager to see her happy? I'm still far from trusting you."

"What do I get? I get to play with Equestria!" He spun around, taking in the hall around him in a grand gesture. "And I'll get to play with her as well, naturally. Don't you worry a hair on your little he-- well, a star on your little head anyway, little Luna. I've learnt my lesson. Friendship and magic and harmony, woo!" He waved an excessively tiny flag with the symbols of the elements emblazoned on it. "I don't have to be the villain to have fun here. And after all, I'll have you to keep me in line, won't I?"

Luna groaned at the thought, covering her eyes with her wings as images of the centuries to come impressed themselves on her mind. She uncovered them quickly, however, when the next words out of Discord's mouth didn't have his usual mocking levity, but sounded quite serious.

"But we can both agree that the best thing we can do - for your sister and Equestria and ourselves alike - is to go with our plan, isn't it?"

The look of distaste on Luna's face was exquisite, as she desperately sought any other option, any reason to not go along with what Discord suggested. She truly had wanted to stand behind her sister, when she believed she was doing this to save Twilight, and Equestria.

Discord's plan had been tempting from the beginning, of course - the trickster spirit always knew what buttons to press, though at first she had rejected him outright. And she had promised her sister she would stand by her decision, that she would do what Celestia wanted...

But in the end... this really was what Celestia wanted, wasn't it?

She sighed.

"Let's do it, then."

~-~-~-~

The windows, the hall, the stories were a powerful magic, and they protected themselves, as Celestia had mentioned. There was always a way out, right up to the last moment. Sometimes, the way out got unpleasant, as a way to discourage the guide from ever moving down that path again.

A millenia and change previous, Celestia had come close to breaking the stories to save Luna, but had backed out at the last minute, and the result had been a thousand years without her sister. Perhaps that could have been significantly lessened if she had stuck to her guns from the beginning. Luna didn't know what the way out that Celestia had seen for this moment was, but she feared it would be worse still.

But the hall offered another way out - just, not offered it to Celestia. Indeed, for Celestia, it was more of a way in.

Luna and Discord stood before the window Celestia had disappeared into, and focused their power. The magic they cast was a fiercely complicated yet instinctive work, fuelled by their own powers but guided and shaped by the hall itself.

Luna's strength lay in dreams, in metaphor and prophecy, connection and desire, and here in the hall that power was at its strongest. And Celestia had just stepped into the window to greet her student - physically walked into the representation of the stories. The metaphor there was a strong and obvious one, easy to utilise.

Discord's strength lay in change, taking the properties of one thing and giving it to another, or changing something small and letting the difference cascade out. Within the stories his power lay mainly with changes to the physical, stretching to the mental and emotional if desired; but from here he had a grip on destiny itself - and while he could fling it around without care for the details leaving devastation in its wake - as Ponyville had seen - he had more than enough ability to do so more completely as well.

And Celestia wanted nothing more than to leave the hall behind, and see her happy ending.

If she had not desired it - or indeed, if she had even been aware of the plan at all - it almost certainly would not have worked, for the powers of the hall would normally only work on those within the stories, not those who wielded the hall's power itself. But with all the three of them together, the same goal in mind even if their paths were different...

It was a little too convenient, Luna thought. It all came together so perfectly, the pieces falling into place. Perhaps we're not as far outside the stories as we thought.

Perhaps this is how the stories truly protect themselves.

She realised she never did find out what happened to Celestia's own mentor. Maybe this is how all of the hall's inhabitants ended their wardship of the windows.

For a second she was tempted to break off, to stop the change out of spite, but only a second. Her sister had waited a thousand years for her happy ending, and now she could have it, one way or another.

As the spell came together, she met Discord's eyes, nodded, and pushed the magic forth.

The window solidified. In Ponyville, miles away, two Alicorn princesses materialised back into the world proper, one having gained a great deal, the other...

She let out a breath, looking at the image before her of Twilight, wings spread wide. A destiny rewritten, with no trace on the window to suggest the other destiny that had been overwritten beside it.

"How will it work?" She breathed, looking at Discord. He shrugged, looking uncharacteristically sober.

"No idea. My guess is, she probably won't remember most of it. Just enough to justify her decisions throughout the centuries. Prophecies she came across to thwart, patterns she recognises from experience. The hall, the pressure, the worry... she won't remember them."

Luna looked up again at the window, sadly. "Thank you."

"I could have left hints and dribbles that would have driven her insane, of course, but it wouldn't have worked if we didn't have her best interests in mind." He grinned.

"Happy endings." Luna nodded.

"Besides, tormenting her will be so much more fun if she's at her best."

"Just... give her a little while, alright? Prank me if you have to, but leave her alone for a bit." Luna whispered. "Just... I want to see her happy for a while. Really, properly happy, not just putting on a smile, for once."

"Oh, you know she'll never really be happy unless she's got a problem to fix. And I'll be more than happy in turn to oblige!" Discord laughed. "But I suppose I can go on a short holiday. This place is going to be getting ridiculously regimented with the coronation coming up. Bo-ring! I assume you can hold the fort?"

Luna nodded vaguely, still staring up at the window. Discord rolled his eyes at the lack of response, sighed, and clicked his fingers, vanishing.

Luna just stood there, still staring up at the window, the magic of the hall still strong, but even now she could feel the difference without her sister being tied to it. She knew it was only the beginning of a long road she had stepped on - without Celestia's support outside the stories, and with her strength within them, the tales to come would likely be far more worrying yet - though her sacrifice had ironically left her in the perfect position to nullify the tale of crystal darkness with Twilight.

But right now, she stood alone in the hall, tears trailing down her muzzle, thinking only of how she had cut herself off from her sister. After everything that had happened, she was actually the strong one, now. She had what she had fought for, so long ago - perhaps not the respect and love, exactly, but the power and focus that Celestia had achieved before her, that had been central to her jealousy and downfall.

She'd taken the power of her sister, and now sat alone where her sister had undoubtably done so a thousand times before, knowing she couldn't share it again with her sister - not without ruining everything she'd just done. The symmetry was just another suggestion that even the hall's keepers were still enmeshed in the stories.

But similarly, Celestia had finally gotten what she had fought for, for so long. Only time would tell if she'd made the right choice in the long run, but for now at least...

"Happy endings, big sis."

Luna smiled.

Author's Note:

Well, that's that over with :) Finally I've managed to throw up a complete piece of fiction I'm fairly proud of, even if it did get about 5% of the attention Being Special did. >_>

Next fic is already about 80-90% written and mostly just waiting on editry, so will hopefully have that up this weekend. A nice little dark piece revolving around Chrysalis and the changelings, probably about half this length all up!

Hope you all enjoyed!

Comments

[BenRG]

Hmm... A challenging ending.

Personally, I would have rejected any suggestion Discord made on the grounds that it was Discord's suggestion. However, Luna is older and smarter than me and Discord older and smarter still. Just because he is the God of Chaos doesn't automatically make him a liar. Indeed, the fact that the avatar of chaos and change was suggesting preserving a kind of established order must give great weight to his counsel. Never forget that chaos is a part of nature and, at least in this instance, you could argue that Discord was acting as the guardian of nature for I am not sure Equestria could survive without the Narrative Causality that is a key part of its reality.

I also suspect that Luna is right: This is how every Steward of the Windows has ended their tenure. When the weight and burden grows intolerable, their student secretly pushes them into the story so that they, too can have their happy ending. Perhaps, one day, millennia from now, it will fall to Twilight to do the same for Luna.

I know that you've marked this chapter as 'optional' but, for me at least, this is needed to wrap up the story in a way that makes sense and ties off the loose ends without metaphorically kicking over the table.

[Seether00]

Hooray. I enjoyed the ride. I unique take on the world indeed.

[BuffaloBrony]

To be honest - THIS is the ending that is/should be canon. (the lack of conviction ending is leaving it at the end of the last chapter)

Up until this chapter - I was watching this story because this story was uncommonly well written, and I rather enjoyed the core concepts. But for whatever reason - I never really LIKED the story as it was unfolding. The only way I could explain it is that didn't seem to have the proper resonance or weight. Celestia just felt "off" - not quite like the monarch who'd been doing this for a millenia already. It was good enough for a thumb and a watch - but I was kinda "meh" on it.

This chapter - however - pulled everything together thematically and finished it off with a lovely flourish. The "offness" of Celestia is easily explained when I realized that the magic of the Hall was pushing for THIS ending all along. It made sure that Celestia made the decisions she made to MAKE SURE she got her happy ending. In effect - she was the unconscious agent of the hall making sure the ACTOR (Celestia) was placed in the right place at the right time.

EVERYONE got exactly what they needed out of the story - which considering this is a story about building happy endings set in a universe about happy endings - fits just perfectly. Luna became the new story keeper (and respect and power), Discord gets his fun, Celestia and Twilioght both get their happy endings... It all just WORKS within the universal framework you created. (and I have to smile at the delicious meta-ness of it)

This just became a BIG fav a mine. Thank you for writing it!

[Iryelb]

I liked this optional ending way more than the previous one, you have my congratulations on a story well written.

[djthomp]

I like it, especially with the "optional" ending.

[GreyNoise]

Ok, I really, really liked this. It's consistent and quite well-written and deliciously meta and self-referential.

Thanks for the great story.

[Tchernobog]

This was a fascinating read! I love the idea of a greater power controlling them, and Celestia/Luna attempting to guide them through.

It would've been interesting to see the "dark" perspective as well. Might make for an interesting side story.

[Taranth]

2906673 Thanks for the thoughts, it's always fantastic to get a comment from one of the authors I've thoroughly enjoyed reading. :)

I was trying to consider what the 'original' path (actually breaking the stories) would lead to and had some ideas, but honestly they were mainly too depressing and, quite honestly, simply not very interesting. The world would be safe, the darkness would not consume the world, but a vast amount of the magic (figurative and literal) would be gone.

But quite frankly I wouldn't write stories from that setting, because that's the whole point. The stories are gone, replaced with the uncertainty and mundanity of everyday life, without narrative. :)

[Axis of Rotation]

Hmm, I must admit I'm at a bit of a loss as to which ending I prefer. The optional one has a bigger emotional punch to it and is bittersweet, thus giving me more feels, but the first I consider to be happier, since Luna and Celestia aren't separated by an impassable gulf, and dangit I like happy endings. Story-telling-wise, I think the second one wins out (doesn't mean I have to prefer it!), because it's stronger thematically. It sort of seals the themes you were playing with throughout the fic, that of a world which is run by stories, and shows its unbreakableness, because even when the warden of stories plans to break them she can't, so whoever could? Even those who run the stories aren't outside of them. They're all-encompassing.

So the second ending has a stronger feeling of finality to it, and you get a stronger sense of the message: Equestria is run by stories, and that's just the way it is, and will always be. So I suppose the critique in me prefers the second ending, while the insecure fanboy who just likes to read fics in me prefers the first as it doesn't result in a form of near eternal separation on some level, as well as a loneliness for Luna.

So overall, good job! I thought the ideas you presented were very interesting, and while normally I would have said your treatment of them was a little thin throughout the story, partly because it was a short fic and you only ever glazed over the events which were supposed to be key in the buildup to what Celestia and Luna were trying to prevent, you saved it with that optional ending, which like I said really brought things together (for me, at least), and made the story feel much deeper than it had up to that point (since the last chapter carried the message through events/actions, as opposed to the characters simply discussing them, as they had for most of the story; characters talking about themes or ideas never really gets them across to the reader, not nearly as strongly as the events of the story).

After having read the first chapter, I looked at the story page again and accidentally saw that the last chapter, which was labeled as optional, was called "Happy Endings", so I spent most of the story expecting a bad original ending

But instead I get a happy and a mostly happy but still bittersweet ending to pick from, and I'm completely fine with that

Keep it up!

[Flashbunny]

You know what would be interesting? If this was a cycle, where Luna and Celestia fell in and out of the Halls, each slowly getting sick of the manipulation and responsibility, the other easing them out. Luna never asked who Celestia's mentor was? Luna was Celestia's mentor - she just doesn't remember it.

Of course, I'm just a reader and simply throwing silly non canon (fanon?) ideas out. But hey, something to think about.

[Sarda]

I have to echo the sentiment that this is the proper ending. It more fully carries the ideas forward while simultaneously explaining a bit of the oddness of the previous chapters. Sure, it may not be a more immediately obviously happy ending, but with the hall preserved it guarantees that there will be one.

[bobbananaville]

Mind = BLOWN.
This story is completely terrifying. Just... It's disturbing and beautiful and so many feels what the hell are you doing to me. Wai.
*Favs and shelves it*

[Taranth]

5426851 Thank you very much! :) This is probably still my favourite out of my own stories, so it's always good to hear that it's made an impact.

Take care and happy holidays!

[DthWaker]

Twilight failed her test. And now... now she has the dark magic sitting in the back of her horn, and not the light magic to balance it out. And someday, she's probably going to start wanting to know more...
Looks at Twilight cast what appears to be light\harmony magic at a door that shows nightmares, right before the endless stairs (the ones going up, Sombra did like his stairs, didn't he?) If we add the 'missing' light, Twilight learning the dangers of dark magic from Trixie, and an overly paranoid Celestia I can see it working one of two ways, either the hall purposely pushed Celestia to abandon her position, or I have missed something somewhere.
Anyway an interesting story, not amazing, not bad, but with that little thing bothering me not more than good enough. Well time to go back and reduce the read later list a little more.

[Taranth]

5598272 Huh. Y'know, that kinda never really occurred to me. I just rewatched the scene...

The magic she's using is certainly different to her normal fare.... looks more arcane-y than harmony-y, though...

...And now that I actually go back and look at when Celestia's first demonstrating it, it does have the same effect as when she's showing off the shiny harmony magic being reflected across Equestria (for all that it appears for all of about three frames.)

...Well, crap. That's disappointing. Fic concept completely undermined. Well spotted!

Anyway, thanks for commenting and glad you enjoyed it apart from that...

[DthWaker]

5600154 Well, Celestia doesn't need to be aware of everything that has happened just because it did. If Twilight didn't though to actually mention that part of her 'test', and if the hall instead of what's likely to happen shows what it wants Celestia to react to, instead of undermining the fic it could simply change the meaning a little. The hall decided that Celestia needs to forget the hall and leave it to others and the best way to do it is show her something, even if false, that ultimately leads to her either 'breaking the hall' that would only change it's location and have to find a new caretaker, or controlling the events to the ending of the fic leaving Discord and Luna in charge, either way making Celestia forget about it... If it needed a reason, Celestia had spent far too long without a happy ending and it was time for one of her own. Or maybe it decided that if Twilight ascended Celestia would show her the hall, and for whatever reason it decided it didn't like that idea. Doesn't even need a rewrite for that to work.

[Stella Mare]

Welp. This was..I have no words to describe this amazingly full of depth story

[Taranth]

6210079 Thanks! :) This is still probably the piece I'm most proud of, despite its low view count... anyway, glad it entertained!

As is the Hall.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Ice Star]

But similarly, Celestia had finally gotten what she had fought for, for so long. Only time would tell if she'd made the right choice in the long run, but for now at least...

'For now' and 'time would tell' are honestly such frightening words in this story. Even though it closes with some ease, I'm still inclined to feel like the horror of an unhappy ending hasn't been shaken. Or maybe that's just my brain being very bad.

A nice, tense tale with powerful prose, divine plans, and sisterly drama to spare. It also hurt quite a bit, especially with that nasty hall. Of all the things to be a villain, I didn't expect it to be one of my favorite locations in the show.

The concept of the story's and how they impact the lives of those around them, along with the stewards, and really just the whole concept you've got here reminds me a lot of one in a series called The School of Good and Evil. After seeing everything play out here, there's more than a few eerie parallels and I can't help but feel that you might've been inspired by them? Both the hall and the books have a strong feeling of fairy-tale innocence and motifs that you've played a lot with here while giving some grimmer bits.