Equestria is a land of rainbows and pastel-coloured ponies, where friendship is a tangible force and villians are redeemed as often as they are defeated.
It is truly a land of magic, but even more than that, it is a land of stories, from the mundane anecdote between friends to the world-spanning epic. And every story has a happy ending.
But a happy ending doesn't always mean a happy beginning, and it certainly doesn't mean a happy middle. Celestia has manipulated Equestria for over a thousand years to ensure that the dark times are as short and as painless as possible - though doing so may mean breaking every one of the tenets of harmony she preaches.
When faced with a choice between seeing Equestria fall to darkness with the promise of salvation, or fighting to stop the catastrophe by sacrificing the guarantee of a happy ending, Celestia holds the fate of her little ponies in her hooves as never before.
A behind-the-scenes look at Celestia and Luna's actions throughout Season Three.
The whole point of that 'test' was to intentionally make Twilight disobey Celestia, to get her to make her own choices instead of those of her mentor. She did pass, though not with flying colors.
Looks promising.
2200461 Ehhh, I guess? I suppose I can see where you get to that conclusion, but it wasn't the impression I got from the test. *shrug* Well, that's the whole point of fanfiction, isn't it?
2200472 Why thank you :) Hope to live up to that promise.
2201580 You, good sir or sir substitute, are good for my ego
I wonder if Celestia is making a mistake here. The reason why the alicorns using their power to alter ponies' destinies would "break the stories" is, despite their power and experience, they are not omniscient or all-wise. Yes, things could go to hell the way Celestia describes but there is also the possibility that Twilight will fear the power of the Dark enough to deny it for the rest of her life. Or there is the possibility that, in the end, Celestia has underestimated Twilight's will and her control and that maybe, just maybe, there is one other who can master the dark as she herself has done.
The point is that she doesn't know. She doesn't know how the Stories will progress and how they will end. Because of that, breaking the Hall's magic is that much greater a calculated risk.
Nice suggestion about where the stained glass windows come from and what they represent. I don't think I've seen this idea before and, as you can probably guess from my comment, I find it fascinating. I'll be looking out for further instalments!
Mind. Blown!!!!!!!!!
I love it! Keep going when you have the time!
2201839 You make a good point there - Celestia doesn't have any direct proof that something's going to go down like she says - but with a thousand years of experience and a being tied into the windows...
Basically, imagine for a moment you've seen a prologue to a new story being posted up here, with the story of "The Crystal Empire". The author is well known for writing sprawling epic dark adventures. While there's not a lot of information about the story in the blurb, the prologue makes special mention that Twilight has used the dark and corrupting magic, and not used its counter.
It's possible that the story is going down a different path, but anyone who reads the prologue and knows the author is going to be pretty damn sure what's in the future. The first thing that happens after the prologue may very well be a timeskip of a month, a year, ten years. Something else entirely might start happening and the dark magic might not be the focus at all at first, but you don't write in a hook like that and then never use it.
Admittedly the metaphor breaks down if I try to take it any further than that (such as Celestia's influence on the script), but it still illustrates the problem - the stories will happen. The price of a world where everything is stories is that everything is stories, and it's not even that the world setting is going to let the opportunity slip by, it's that it would never have been created in the first place if it wasn't going to be used. The only way that would happen is if this story was instead about, I don't know, some sort of overseeing manipulators and their reactions to such a possible threat, rather than the threat itself.
But I'm glad you enjoyed it. :) Further instalments will be happening quite soon!
Out of curiosity and off topic, are you the same BenRG who wrote "Team Rocket Neo" back on fanfiction.net? Was always one of my favourite pokemon epics :)
2202347 Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to fimfiction! :) Always heartening to be someone's first favourite. There'll be more coming up soon!
Very interesting concept for a story, kind of a more introspective take on the "Celestia isn't telling us everything" angle...faved!
MOAR?
PLEASE
Oops. Okay, here we run into a serious problem. When one honestly believes a catastrophe is going to occur every event becomes a sign that the catastrophe is coming. The problem is that Celestia is now reacting with incomplete/inaccurate information and is making her plans based on that rather than get accurate information first. IIRC, the Alicorn Amulet is with Zecora; although she could easily overpower the Zebra and take it back, the point is that the incident has actually undermined Twilight's unthinking trust that magic is an all-purpose tool, communicated very strongly the dangerous and inherently corrupting nature of dark magics and has taught her to instead use her wits and other resources rather than raw power to solve her problems. So, the story moves on; Twilight is actually moving beyond the potential to become a power-obsessed dark witch.
I'm not sure if this was in the canon episode, but didn't Twilight arrange to have the Mirror Pool sealed up?
At this rate, Celestia is going to start jumping at shadows (and is already doing so), assuming everything that happens to Twilight is drawing her closer to the Dark. Personally, I think it will take a very, very big incident now to make Twilight do something like use the Amulet or dark magic. Ironically, it may yet be that Celestia herself provides that trigger.
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Yes, I am the BenRG from Fanfiction.net.
2203439
Thanks!
2204544 That's the effect I'm going for! =D I always like thinking of Celestia as a benevolent manipulator, but it's sometimes hard to justify that with the whole magic of friendship thing...
2206400 Working on it! ^_^ But it won't be for a little bit yet, unfortunately. Work work and all.
2206859 Heee, you're really making me flesh this out :) Thank you.
Yes, at this point Celestia is panicking with incomplete information. She doesn't know yet that Zecora has the amulet - as far as she knows it's tucked away somewhere in Twilight's library ready for further study. And she will find out all the facts she can before she actually makes any move, let alone one as drastic as breaking the stories.
She could overpower Zecora and take it back, but the problem with this is that the amulet is effectively 'in play', now. If she brings her power to bear on it too overtly, flying in with the sun at her back and taking it directly, she breaks the script - Alicorn ex machina, removing an active plot hook from the story.
Of course, there are countless ways she could do it more subtly and stay within the bounds of the story, but the problem with that is that by definition this will not take the amulet out of play. For example:
- Celestia arrives personally, using 'in character' power levels, and takes the amulet. Result: Zecora tells Twilight what happened, Twilight freaks out that she didn't tell Celestia, suddenly Celestia is 'in play' as well in this story and her actions become far more restricted.
- Celestia sends her royal guard to take the amulet. Result: Same threat as above, with the added possibility of one of the guard turning out to be a traitor and stealing the amulet away.
- Celestia sends a thief to steal the amulet. Result: Something horrible happens to the thief on the way out of the forest, the amulet is lost in the Everfree.
- Celestia uses magic to teleport the amulet back to her. Result: Zecora or Twilight use magic to trace the lost jewellery, rightfully concerned that it might have been stolen by more dubious means.
Of course, Celestia has a millenium of experience, the resources of a nation and the power of a god, so she could come up with a thousand other plans that I probably couldn't concieve of (and once she stops freaking out about it, she'll probably fill another one of those tomes with exactly that), but the thing to remember is that none of these will take the amulet out of play. The amulet is still part of the story, and any attempt to remove it will simply result in changing what role it has - all she can do is try her best to determine what part it plays, and do her best to minimise the damage or, if she can play her cards just right, make it work for her instead of against her. (And if she's really lucky, she might find a way to destroy the damn thing in the process.) However, as you mentioned, Celestia has to be extremely careful with her manipulation to avoid being the very trigger that starts Twilight down the path to darkness.
Similarly, yes, Twilight did arrange to have the mirror pool sealed up. All we saw on screen was her blocking the entrance with a giant rock, but even if there was a more magical component to the sealing, if anyone was likely to be able to break the wards she put into it, it's her. The pool is now in play too, and as a far more neutral-flavoured place of power, Celestia and Luna almost certainly have a book dedicated to finding a way to make it a tool against the coming darkness rather than for it.
However, all in all, you are correct that the events of Magic Duel should give Twilight a healthy respect for dark and corruptive magic, which I may not have taken into account fully in this. Again, Celestia is mid-panic and short on information here at the moment, so she's in a bit of a dark mood and her predictions reflect that. But one way or other, the story isn't over yet, and there still has to be darkness before the light shines through. The one thing that Celestia knows will never happen is "And then Twilight ignored the dark power for the rest of her days." - because quite frankly, that wouldn't make a very interesting story at all. It may very well take a very big incident to make Twilight use the dark magic - but the story will make sure that sooner or later, that incident comes to pass.
And as is beginning to come to light, the threat of darkness isn't the only reason Celestia is considering breaking the stories, even if she's not prepared to admit that even to herself.
And finally, awesome. :) Thanks for writing some excellent work that entertained me ten years ago! =D Damn it's been a long time since the pokemon fanfic days...
Just caught this. Is it tons or tonnes? I know tonnes are real things, but I get confused. Sorry to be so picky!
I love this chapter! Good job!
I have to say that I'm really impressed with this story. Usually Celestia is into some sort of manipulation but I think this is one of my very favorite 'necessary evils' story.
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2218003 Must admit, caught me off guard with that, and I originally just thought "eh, it's a british-spelling-ism and I'm Aussie, deal with it" - but I got curious and a quick check of the dictionary advises that a 'tonne' refers to a metric ton (IE 1000kg) as opposed to the imperial ton (2000lb)
So, it is kind of a british-spelling-ism, but also a metric-ism, for double the shunning of the American standard. :)
2222041 And you, sir or madam as you may be, have just made me decide I want to write more tonight. Flattery will get you everywhere, or at least improve productivity =D
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Celestia has come to one critical realisation: If you don't know if a move will work or even if it will benefit you, you shouldn't make it. The Hall is clearly a mystery to them and they truly don't know if any of it can be stopped (or what would happen if they do) then it's best not to take the risk. There is no telling what may be hiding behind the curtain.
I wonder... was Discord's 'reform' and Twilight's ascension moves in the game? It occurs to me that there are other ways to direct the story. For example, use a Code: GEAS-style scenario with a dark messiah (casting Twilight in the role). There are other options but that one strikes me as an obvious one.
2229895
Who says she has made the decision to not move? Perhaps she's simply come to one of the most important realizations of all :
When the rules of the game aren't fair, cheat.
So this is how she justifies Discord's reform and Twilight's alicorn form. Excellent. Can't believe this gem got by me. I am loving the introspection of the world here.
Well the chapter was good, but I noticed that there wasn't really any spot where you left the dream and yet at the end of the chapter they where 'clearly' out of the dream. Other than that though, great job.
Seemed fine to me. Bring on Discord.
Sometimes the only way to avert disaster is to court greater disaster. If Celestia is right and Twilight's downfall is foreordained, then they will need powerful pieces to resist her - Discord is the most powerful piece imaginable.
Luna is right in one important way, though: Binding Discord to the fate and destiny of one mortal pony - Fluttershy - necessarily must have consequences that are incalculable.
I think this chapter was fantastic. I especially liked the nightmare scene at the beginning, although all this talk about Discord is fun (cause he is my absolute favorite non-pony character) and I still just can't get over this amazing story concept.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbvmbhHmXD1rscqtf.gif
Introductory scene may have been slightly inspired by this picture.
*Wanders off whistling 'It's What my Cutie Mark is Telling Me' innocently*
It's intriguing, though I am a little confused - it seems to imply Celestia -isn't- breaking things, yet at the same time she's talking about this one being the Final Tale.
Is she just...turning things off, so to speak, temporarily?
I think I agree with Celestia's two central justifications for her actions: (1) That the Narrative Causality is depriving ponies of their free will and that, ultimately, being without it is better and (2) she's personally paid too high a price trying to keep the endings happy and needs to end this before the cost is her soul.
2384000 She's determined to break the stories, but plans to do so after the coronation is complete. Hence, the ascension of Twilight to princesshood will be the Final Tale (after all, if you're going to break it, you might as well milk as much awesome out of it as you can before you do) and then she's breaking it. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
2384008 Man, after all the arguments you put towards Celestia not breaking the stories in the earlier chapters, now you're saying she's doing the right thing? XD
I'm glad you approve though, though I'll be very interested to see your opinion on the epilogue...
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My arguments weren't against breaking the stories, my arguments were against her interpretation of where it was going and whether Twilight was foredoomed to fall to the Dark.
2384039
Ah-hah. That's much clearer, then!
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.
Hooray. I enjoyed the ride. I unique take on the world indeed.
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!
I liked this optional ending way more than the previous one, you have my congratulations on a story well written.
I like it, especially with the "optional" ending.
Ok, I really, really liked this. It's consistent and quite well-written and deliciously meta and self-referential.
Thanks for the great story.
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.
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. :)
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!
This part:
This part is truly excellent, and makes a very good point.
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.
All this speculation of Twi using the dark magic for innocuous things sounds a little harsher after the season 4 premiere... at least there has to be a happy ending, right?
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.
sight
And a very nice story.
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*
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!
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.
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...
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.
I love Warehouse 13!
