A Sign-Off
The day of the Emperor’s arrival
As stressful as the job of Captain of the Royal Guard could be, Shining Armor had to admit that the job did come with benefits, like his own personal coffee supply. It was part of his morning ritual: he put the coffee on as soon as he woke up, then brushed his hair and put on his dress jacket just in time for it to be done. The warmth of the drink was almost enough to pull him together in the mornings; the caffeine did the rest. Silently, he praised the all-powerful, awe-inspiring magic of caffeine as he walked down the palace corridors.
Something definitely didn’t seem right to him, though. As of late, there’d only been three others around, but the hallways of the palace were teeming with activity, with a guard posted on nearly every door. Maybe Celestia had been training others and made Skipper the new commander, but he doubted that Skipper would have taken to it so quickly.
As he reached the barracks of the Day Guard, which were understandably empty, he saw a letter on the bed that Skipper had, until recently, occupied. Underneath it were a few other letters, none of which were labelled at all. He didn’t know what to think, so he picked up the stack and took them back to his office.
Celestia was waiting for him when he arrived. “Ah, Shining Armor,” she started. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. It’s to do with Cloud Skipper and Midnight Blossom.”
“Yes?” Shining asked. He was starting to get confused.
“They won’t be taking any more rounds for a while. Neither will Gilda. There’s been a complication, and they’ve had to disappear. But the Guard is back to full strength now, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“What happened to them? They were pretty important before...”
“It’s a long story, but you might be able to learn more if you open those letters.” Magically, she picked up a letter-opener and passed it to Shining. He cut open the first letter, which was written in a neat, if cramped, script:
Dear Shining Armor:
I wanted to thank you for how well you’ve treated me over the past few months, but I’m unable to do so in person. Something’s come up, and I’m not sure if I can explain it. Somepony... or someone, rather, told us that the timelines are frayed, whatever that means. He said Celestia would know, and he’d explain to us later.
Though for now I’m not going to exist in this world, in my heart, I know we’ll meet again. You might not recognise me, and I probably won’t know you right away, but I hope that won’t make our reunion any less meaningful. Goodbye, and thank you.
~Midnight Blossom
“The timelines are frayed?” Shining asked.
“Time flows like a river, splitting into tributaries. Sometimes, the tributary that one lives in can get out of control, and has to be dammed off for everypony’s safety. I imagine the story you knew of Skipper and Midnight was such a situation. But there’s still more letters to open.”
She picked up the second letter off the floor, and Shining opened it. This one was written in a loose, almost childlike manner, as though they hadn’t had to write before:
I’ve never been good at saying goodbye, so instead, I’m going to tell you, and myself, that this isn’t the end. We’ll all come back for more, because that’s just what we do.
“Who wrote this one?” Shining asked. “I can barely even read it...”
“I believe it was Cloud Skipper. He never had much of a reason to learn to write before.” With that explanation, Celestia opened the third letter. It was written in a language he didn’t understand, so he passed it to the princess to translate:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hardly anything ever wraps up with a neat bow. Stories are left unfinished all the time, and all we can do is find our own forms of closure. It’s probably no comfort to you, but I hope you find some closure from our story.
May the wind be ever under your feathers, even though you don’t have any.
“May the wind... That’s a griffon thing, isn’t it?”
“Correct. Gilda gave me the same salutation before. But we’re still not finished yet.” The fourth letter seemed almost mechanical in its print:
Take care, my old friend. I’d hate if you were unable to match wits again.
Shining shuddered at the statement, throwing it away harder than necessary. “Is that all of them?” he asked, and Celestia nodded. “So what do we do now?”
“Live as we did before, with a full Guard and no Nightmare Moon to worry about. Life goes on, as life always does. But just in case, for their sake, don’t forget the two Guards who held Canterlot together at the seams during the longest night of the year.” Shining nodded slowly in understanding. “Now, come with me. We mustn’t keep the Emperor waiting.”
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I will continue to watch, see what you do next.
...
...do not like.
Then again, you didn't write it to make me happy
Alright, so you put together a remarkably thin and threadbare explanation for why you wanted to stop this fic....which I can appreciate far FAR more than a simple authors note of "yea, not going to write any more on this, sorry". I was rather looking forward to confirming whether Scootaloo was related to Cloud Skipper...or not....but hey, you can't win them all.
You really want to make the nerds happy, include some references to Dr Who. Not sure exactly what, maybe an extra letter, or a funky dream that shiney woke up from, even a glimpse of Dr Whooves in the hallway or something, i dont know.....anyway, that's just me being silly :-)
Well done, I'll keep an eye out for future releases from you
5109927 I don't remember any Dr. Who references. Probably an accident, but I hope that doesn't make it any less fun.
Is this the tale of the original midnight blossom? If so is it okay if I use midnight blossom in some of my works?
5299838 no its not ill send you the link of the original story in pm if you like.
5315115 sure. that'd be cool
5942009 I'm not actually from North America, if that helps.
Cancelled?
6430929 Remake/reboot/reason to despair for creative industry coming soon(tm).
6431603
Okay okay :)
In this case , im gonna read it
7081994 Wait, when did you get here?
I mostly wrote this stream of consciousness. I never planned anything, and somehow enough people enjoyed my disconnected lunacy to get it featured twice.
7086678 With any luck, he should get a lot better at that when I post the new one.
7093942 They didn't know about it. It was done in secret by a group of ponies who wanted to change the world. Having an unstoppable warrior was part of that, and so they sent a lot of ponies through the wringer, both those who signed up for fame and glory, and those who weren't given a choice.
Skipper was the one who survived it. It wasn't long after the Prince's death that the raid took place.
Maybe that was part of the plan too; to trim the fat of the group by having them arrested at the scene. I guess we'll never know for sure.
Oh wow. I know you're writing a retcon story, but based on this sign-off...it'd be awesome if Cloud Skipper, Midnight, Gilda, and whoever the fourth pony is actually remembered everything that happened here, but were the only ones to remember. Actually, that's exactly what the Persona 2 duology did, though in that case, it was JUST the main protagonist of Innocent Sin who remembered that game's events when the party was forced to pull a Starlight Glimmer on themselves to prevent the end of the world, having utterly failed in the timeline where they did meet up and become friends.
7093949 That's not actually what's gonna happen in the remix/remake/reason why I still can't forget these two, but it's a nice thought. Maybe one to take up for yourself; I wouldn't be against a 'sequel' being made by someone else.
(The fourth is Cumulus, BTW.)
I've said on multiple occasions that my OC would have enough connections to this plot that it'd be interesting to see what he'd do in this world. But given his immense power compared to ponies (and really just compared to ponies; he'd never survive DBZ or Bleach), it'd be one of those cases where including him would almost instantly solve the conflict. I highly doubt Cumulus and his goons would survive against him, and he'd be able to enter Cloud and Midnight's minds to deal with Nightmare Moon (and most likely make her his @#$#@, if not outright absorb/shatter her). I avoided this problem in my own fic by having the villains be from his world (no, he's not from Equestria. Or our Earth.), so they're all at his level.
7093953 I wasn't thinking of doing that, since, like I said, my OC could just clean up the mess, but there is a period of time when it could work. See, when I wrap my own fic up in a few chapters, he's going to run off to the EQG world (and stay for about a year to take part in a Persona fan game I'm working on). I had wanted to make a parallel story to that fan game to check in on everypony and wrap up some loose ends, but until now, I hadn't really had a proper plot.
7093998 Was the characters being in the EqG world the solution that you were thinking of?
I considered doing an EqG version for a while, but I've settled on just staying with the ponies as they are. Besides, I've wanted to do quadrupedal martial arts for real for a while.
7094042 Not so much the solution I was thinking of as something I was going to do anyway. I've had that Persona game planned for a while now, and I've already done some serious work on it.
7094042 Actually, I have another idea for a sequel, but it's a bit convoluted and involves other ideas I have. I'll try to give the cliffnotes:
Over a year after Daniel leaves for the EQG world, this guy (let's call him Clementine) uses the magic stealing pendant Twilight made to take the Mane 6's magic. In the months after, before Daniel (my OC) finds him, he uses the magic for illegal human experimentation. When Daniel finds his facility...he kills all the test subjects, mostly out of self defense. The sole survivor is a subject codenamed Azrael, whose experiments induced alicornhood.
The sequel idea starts with Azrael. For what seems to be no reason, he heads over to Equestria, where Cloud Skipper and Cumulus have already regained their memories of Knightmares. As he gets caught up in the battle between the two (along with Midnight and Trixie), it becomes apparent that Cumulus has gotten a rather useful Number 2 from this dimension, who's doing a considerable amount of work toward their goal compared to his other goons. This pony turns out to be...Azrael's Equestrian counterpart. The bigger reveal, though, would be that Azrael knew about this guy, and he came to Equestria specifically to take out his other self.
At the climax, the other Azrael would betray Cumulus for some greater power ("This is what you wanted, right? A world where the strong take from the weak?"). After that power is defeated, the two Azraels would have one final duel to finish things up. (Think the final battle between Raiden and Solidus in MGS2.)
7119094 Well, I won't object to you borrowing Cumulus, and the guy who I borrowed Skipper and Midnight from hasn't gotten back to me in over two years about them. So I don't really have any problems with that; I just need to actually read your story first...
Just something worth noting: Cumulus isn't just a manipulator. He's also a very experienced fighter. Skipper's muscle memory might not be up to par if he's just starting to remember what happened, but Cumulus, as a long-term soldier, would only need to know how to apply the experience he's already gained.
7120602 Interesting. Keep in mind, though, that all of this is still in the idea phase. I've still got stuff to write before I can get to this idea.
7120602 What'd really be interesting, though, is putting Cloud Skipper's memories from this story into a version of him with a completely different backstory and set of circumstances. If you've seen any more of Equestria Prevails' artwork, he (or she, I don't know) has shown Cloud Skipper to be the sole normal pegasus in a family of thestrals, including his younger sister, Florence. I think it'd be interesting if that Cloud Skipper, who's had a much better life, suddenly got all the memories of your interpretation.
7122212 Yeah, I wrote this before looking at any of the other pictures going into his real backstory. This is practically an AU of the NRG AU, so that would lead to some interesting things happening.
Of course, he could still have been in that kind of family when he was younger. Maybe something to keep in mind myself...
7123475 Just to ask, what's NRG?
7124254 New Royal Guard. The universe that the original artist created, and only ever gave us glimpses into.
7124765 Yeah, it kinda sucks that Equestria Prevails didn't make a full on fanfic fleshing that world out, though I'd argue that the world in Knightmares is just as interesting.
7124795 Well, with any luck, the way I'm doing the sequel could easily lead into the real thing, just on a slightly different angle between the relationship between Skippy and Midnight (which can't easily be made into a nickname.)
Here's something I found interesting as I finished my recent fanfic, and I don't know if your story inspired this or if it's just another coincidence. (Probably both.) Cumulus wanted Equestria to fall into anarchy to have his perfect world, where the strong take from the weak. At the end of my story, between the scars left by the disaster that takes place in the story and Equestria merging with the opposite morality version from the Reflections arc of the comics, that version of Equestria becomes the world Cumulus envisioned. Once I get another good story idea (that won't necessarily have anything to do with your story), I'd like to write a fic about Twilight, Celestia, etc. trying to restore order to this new merged world, only to realize there's no peaceful path to that order.
7128590 Could be interesting. But you'd need to put a lot of effort in to make it believable.
7131688 I know. I actually think I've had this problem before even reading Knightmares. This new post-apocalyptic world is a fountain of creative ideas...I just need to come up with some.