Epilogue
Nightmare Base, lunar farside, twenty years later.
"Hey, Tumble!"
Anneal flinched, the muscle twitch enough to make his hooves leave the ground in the one sixth lunar gravity. He sighed and ignored the mare's shout, trying to recover his focus. Why did I ever tell her my milk name? The annoyance passed and he stared at the console, frowning slightly at the software's predictions. It was really pretty good, as it should be after all the years refining the models, but the slight deviation was getting larger as they approached activation of the containment systems.
"I said--"
"Yes, Pinion, I heard what you said. I'm a little busy right now, what do you want?" Anneal waved his head across the instrument panel, the orange glowing tip of his horn making the control systems glitter. Many of the functions were duplicates of those managed by other ponies at other stations -- the actual, important stations, controlling devices with actual, important functions -- but he had all the cameras. Nopony was going to let a barely adult colt get his hooves on anything vital, but he had the best view.
"I just wanted to see what you are looking at," Pinion said, sounding slightly put out. "They don't need me for anything now that our honoured guest is trying to break free, so I'm down in the bunker with nothing to do." She fluttered closer on dapple grey wings, the tiny motions all that was needed to hold her aloft in the low gravity. "This place is a bit oppressive at the best of times."
Anneal sighed and shifted over slightly, eyes flicking over to the big shield door that had sealed them in. There was a deadness to the whole room, only slightly alleviated by the presence of the other few ponies in this section of the independently hardened complex. "I know what you mean... and I'd appreciate the company right now."
"Do you think it will hold?" She gestured to the walls and their buried layers of spellcraft.
If we need the shielding, things have gone very badly wrong indeed! Anneal kept that thought to himself. "We'll never get to find out. What with the spellcraft Elements and Luna herself with the originals... Discord doesn't have a chance."
"Do you think we'll see her?" Pinion asked, a wistful tone in her voice. "She's not been seen in public for years. I've only seen her in documentaries."
"We have the best view in the house!" With a flourish, Anneal shuffled the video displays across the console, bringing one small window to prominence. "There you go. She arrived an hour ago."
Pinion inhaled sharply and crowded close, stiff feathers pushing him to one side and her muzzle practically brushing the centre of the curved display. It showed the central receiving plaza of the containment zone -- part display ground, part muster station -- full of ponies, zebra and gryphons. Amid the militaries of a dozen nations was a quiet multispecies group, surrounding a tall figure with a star-filled mane and tail.
"It is her!"
"Of course it is -- you did read the agenda, didn't you?"
"Yes, but I didn't really believe-- Who are the others? It's all ponies in the middle."
"The triplet with the chiropt are FOALs. They've got the real Elements."
"The pegasus with the pink mane? What about her?"
"That's Sunny, Luna's companion." Anneal said that with a shrug. "Whatever that means. She's been seen with Luna before, ever since Celestia passed."
"Huh, she was never in the vids." Pinion shivered. "Interesting choice of name, considering." She narrowed her eyes, switching her gaze from screen to Anneal. "That's... When were you going to tell me?" The excitement transitioned to outrage, her voice going up the registers.
"Shhh!" Anneal's ears flicked back but he grinned. "Keep it down, the booth soundproofing isn't that good."
Pinion's voice became a sharp whisper and she jabbed a wingtip at him. "That's your sire and dam, down there with Luna! Why are they here?!"
"Long story, which I'm not really allowed to talk about." And I'm sure there's more to it than I've been told. "They were on the Express, right when Discord was locked up again. Did some important stuff."
Sudden understanding dawned across the mare's face. "Your sire's mental condition... is... did it happen then?"
"A result of it. They are here as witnesses; Luna invited them."
Pinion's expression changed again, turning to something uncomfortably like awe. "Actual war heroes," she whispered. "Just wait until I--"
"Please don't," he said. "All they want is a bit of peace." He watched her internal struggle, knowing full-well that he was asking too much. This thing was just too big not to tell. "Tell you what, if--" Anneal looked at Pinion seriously, any good humour gone. He lifted a foreleg, prodding her with one hoof in time with the words. "--if you agree to keep this between ourselves, I'll introduce you."
"I've already met your parents!"
"To Luna." He wanted to smile at her shocked expression, but didn't. "After we're done here I'm meeting my parents for the tour, with Luna. I'm allowed to bring a suitable guest."
Pinion's expression shifted to one of joy. "You could do that?" she asked faintly.
"It's already set up... I was going to surprise you later, but since you are here." He gestured to the master clock, which was approaching the appointed time. On the main screen Luna and the rest of the group were on the move. "Anyway, back off a bit so I can work." She did so and he nodded. "Thank you -- and I'm serious about not talking. It will make my parents unhappy if this comes up in the news." Not to mention that it's covered by the defence of the realm act and it will get me into trouble. "And Luna owes my parents a favour." He gave her a meaningful look.
That seemed to do it. Her eyes stayed wide and full of excitement, but her ears drooped slightly. "Got it. Lips are sealed."
Anneal grinned. "Not trying to scare you--" Much. "--but this is important to me." On the screen the doors to the containment bay were starting to open. He gestured at the thaumic controls, horn flickering. The video windows moved again, bringing up a view of Discord ringed by concentric circles of spellcraft machines. "Right... show time."
===
Luna could feel a pressure in the air, a sense of something massive like a distant thunderstorm. Soon, she thought. I might not be able to feel Discord, but the machines are obvious. At her side, 'Sunny' stirred, her head coming up to point at the big door on the opposite wall. "Glad you came?" she murmured.
"Very much so."
There was excitement to her sister's whisper and Luna hid a small smile. After years of small problems it was nice to be asked to save the world again. "If the equipment doesn't work as intended, it's going to get very exciting very quickly," she said in her normal voice. Are you ready for that, sister? Twenty years in hiding down the drain.
"They will work, MIstress," Chirr said, bouncing up and down in the low gravity and making his panniers rattle. "If not, there's always..."
I almost wish... Luna looked at Chirr with her shadow sight, feeling the promise of power bottled up in the Elements he carried. "Let us hope not; Equestria is still paying for this base. It would be a shame to break it."
Chirr grinned, sharp teeth showing, but said nothing and stepped away from Luna, leaving her and Sunny at the centre of a circle of cleared concrete. Big enough that we might be able to avoid killing them in the first exchange. Just Sunny and I... I wonder what ponies will say about that.
The rumours had swirled around them both -- foal from a secret liaison, psychiatrist, Panopticon agent, lover, thrall -- but none had latched on to the truth. The closest anypony came were comments mentioning Sunny's colouration and how it matched the earliest known representations of Celestia, but even those went more towards how she was trying to recapture some fragment of her lost sister. The Triumvirate didn't know and the Panopticon denied all knowledge... but it was still a source of constant amazement that the secret hadn't yet leaked.
At her side, Sunny nudged her with a wingtip and she grunted, stepping towards the now opening door. "Right, let's see if all that money was worth it," Luna said.
"Not your money to worry about, Luna," Sunny said. Her voice dropped to a whisper almost to faint to hear and her lips were as still as a skilled ventriloquist. "Not that you ever helped me with the budgets."
"You enjoyed it, don't try and claim that you didn't. All those numbers and books to be balanced." Luna shivered, then opened a wing and spread it over Sunny's back, and they both entered the containment bay.
===
Anneal stared at the video feeds, arming the high-speed cameras and clearing their buffers. There were dozens of cameras focused on the bay -- wide-angle ones covering every part of the chamber, telephoto ones gazing at specific sections of Discord or the various machines surrounding him, hyperspectral ones operating from the vacuum ultraviolet all the way down to terahertz -- filling the local storage before being sent off to other servers over the horizon and up towards satellite relays and off towards Equestria.
Discord was there in the middle, as he always was, surrounded by cubic blocks of spellcraft machines. There were twenty of them attached to an icosahedral gantry around him, each inner surface polished to a mirror finish. Heavy cables snaked across the frame, plugging into the back of each module and vanishing into the floor, connecting them to buried homopolar generators and superconducting storage coils.
They glowed, subtle patterns of rainbow light, coiling and pulsing over the angular globe, filling the gaps between the gantry with a soapbubble film. "This is it," Anneal said, gesturing at the power display. "I've only seen this on video of the test rigs." The light brightened and brightened again, the various cameras either ignoring the light or filtering it to maintain a good image.
"Look at Luna," Pinion whispered. Her mane and tail, always in slow, constant motion, were streaming back from the containment systems, like she was standing in a gale. By contrast, Sunny’s plain hair barely moved; this wind was pure magic, a tiny leakage of the huge energies being marshalled. The soap-film thickened, becoming almost opaque like heavy stained glass, then abruptly exploded inwards and outwards at the same time. The inner spellshock folded around Discord, sinking into what passed for his flesh. The outer...
Anneal held his breath. Rumour coming out of the development teams said that if anything was going to happen, it would be now. Power levels were dropping as the machines returned to their standby state and everything seemed normal... Abruptly he grinned, leaning into Pinion to whisper in her ear. "What do you know, all the scientists were right -- it worked!" The grin faded and he stared at the little window showing Luna and Sunny. I could swear that I saw something--
She sighed and relaxed, all her tension leaking away. "It must have." She gestured at Luna again -- the ex-Princess had turned and was walking away, one wing wrapped tightly around Sunny. "Luna looks happy."
"Yes, she does," Anneal muttered, magic reaching for the playback controls. He spooled back through the feed from the relevant camera, frame by frame, watching as the outer spellshock rolled over Luna and Sunny. There it was, an odd pattern in the shock front, blurred and distorted by the speed of the event. The shape was achingly familiar, something he'd only seen in the history shows his dam and sire used to watch with sad expressions. Must be a better view. Pinion was asking him a question, but he was too focused and didn't hear her.
One of the high-speed cameras on the other side of Discord had the pair in shot, and he waited impatiently as the relevant tenth of a second of video was copied to his terminal. That was still over ten thousand frames, enough for four hundred seconds of normal recording, and it took a few moments to find the precise time point.
The individual frames were a little grainy from the enhancement required to generate usable images from this short a shutter speed, but it was perfectly clear. Where Sunny stood was the ghostly outline of another pony, as large as Luna and having both wings and horn. A faint echo of a mane streamed out behind the mirage, the mirror of Luna's.
"Rutting tartarus," Pinion whispered. "She's supposed to be dead."
"They never found a body..." Anneal swallowed. ...and she was hidden all this time. Celestia is ancient, she would have had a good reason. He felt his heart thunder in his chest and he remembered the warning he'd given to Pinion. ...and Luna helped her hide. "There's nothing I can do." No access, can't wipe the data... somepony will talk.
"Do? This is fantastic! Just wait until I-- oh."
"Exactly." He smiled brightly at her, eyes slightly wide with suppressed panic. "You want that meeting with Luna now? We can at least give them some warning."
===
Sunny was looking at her, head cocked slightly to one side, as they walked back out of the containment bay. "What?" Luna said.
"You're disappointed."
Luna sighed. "I could never hide anything from you."
"You're bored." Sunny nodded and looked away. "Me too."
Luna came to a sudden halt, waving one wing at Chirr's concerned expression. "Give us a minute, please." Chirr trotted off, taking position in the doorway and intercepting anyone trying to come the other way. "It's taken you twenty years to get to this point. What do you want to do, given your condition?"
"Discord was right, I think. This universe is a trap... it won't be long before our ponies can't grow any more."
"I remember Twilight's panic when she found out the universe was closed and finite!" Luna smiled, expression softening. "You have something in mind?"
"A project. Long term. Do what Discord wanted, only without killing everyone. What do you think?"
Centuries, I'd think. "Our world is happy... the war and our ah, departure brought pony, gryphon and zebra closer together. Your plan has worked and they've not needed us for years." Luna's ears twitched; there was a growing noise from the outer room and Chirr's voice was becoming louder and more stern. "Okay, sounds interesting. I think we should..." She trailed off, staring at Chirr and the agitated group he was holding back.
"That's Neighmann and Equilibrium, with their colt. What's got them so excited? Come on, let's go and find out." Sunny said, giving Luna a nudge.
=== THE END ===
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...and that's the lot, folks.
This story never attracted the attention the other two big ones did -- falling MLP fanbase numbers in general, perhaps, or maybe having a post-Twilight story with mostly OCs was always going to be a tough sell. I still like the thing, and there are bits of world building in there that I'm very happy with (and probably should have made more of).
I hope you all had fun, despite some of the bleak sections.
"Oh hey, A Method updated. I haven't looked at that in a while. How's it doing?"
"It's over. You haven't looked at it in over a year. Shame on you."
"Oh. Right. Whoops."
In all seriousness, my apologies on falling off the wagon. Congrats on seeing the trilogy through to the end. I'll give my thoughts as I read... when I read... whenever that may be.
10335979
No worries; I occasionally do wonder what happened to a lot of the folks who slogged through Wasp and never finished Final, or never made the jump to Madness. Readers who seemed very keen but just... vanished. Ah well, real life happens!
10335969
I'd say You did really well. I like your writing voice for the characters and the techno-magical vista of their reality is something i admire greatly.
Have been here since early chapters of Final Solution and very happy to have joined.
That was a great story and a sweet ending: they deserved it after everything they went though.
I don't know why this story never hit the kind of numbers your others did, but that's their loss. I've been here since 2013 and out of dozens of my favorite authors I still like your work best. And let's be clear, I'm not limiting the pool to just fanfiction.
I don't know what your future plans are, but if you've ever written or plan to write something outside this cannon make sure to drop us a line so we can find it. If you're interested, a significant chunk of the fans have migrated over to She-Ra on Netflix which shares enough in common with MLP to be a worthy successor.
Whatever you do next, thank you for writing this and best wishes for the future!
Been here the whole time!
I will admit I started to wobble in the early bits of Method, but it gelled and then it was smooth sailing.
This has been a really great series and certainly unique amongst the scifi pony stories on my reading list.
Thank you for a fine series!
So awesome! I do hope you write more in this universe. I look forward to reading it again!
10335969
Personally it was the OCs that kind of did me in. Partly that Twilight and pals were dead and gone, and partly that it seemed like Celestia and Luna weren't even going to be center-stage either. After reading early chapters, I kind of stopped, then came back near its completion and skimmed until the last third or so.
Still love the setting you built, and it was a lovely conclusion (even if it was briefly very sad).
If I'm understanding right, they just executed Discord there? Obviously it was the smart thing to do and fits how the ponies of the setting would approach the problem, but it still feels pretty dark to just kill him while he's helpless.
10336008 Season 8 and 9 happened.
The interest of many readers who enjoyed more... competent writing... fled the fandom.
I stayed to watch it all burn. And now, I shall burn the whole world and make it anew in my image. FOR I HAVE ASSUMED MY FINAL FORM AT LAST!!
This was a wonderful read. I'd love to see anything that comes after, but it's a satisfying story as-is.
10336451
I only read that he was trying to break free, so my assumption was just that they were repairing/reinforcing the bindings.
10336008
I remember it being very hard to read discorded Equilibrium after rooting so hard for her at the beginning. Between not having much of the old pov Celestia/Luna at the beginning, and then what happened to Equilibrium, I lost momentum as well for a bit.
And now on to Equestria Girls.
But seriously, I've been here since the original artwork of Wasp, and you have consistently been one of my favorite authors, which includes mainstream novel writers.
Please let us know if you have any future projects in whatever fandom, or non-fandom you choose to write in.
Thank you
10336008
For me, I read Wasp because, once the Fandom learned Gen 4 was ending, they started making 'best of' lists. Your story consistently made it onto almost every fiction list, so I gave it a try and ended up reading it and Final during my 12 hour shifts at work! I'm sure those that fell off likely just quit the pony life in general. You know they didn't have the benefit that I had of being able to read 6-7 years worth of work in just a few weeks time. Regardless, I'd like to say this work has been just as engaging as the other two, if not more so. There was a massive undertone of uncertainty that couldn't really be present in the other two because Celestia and Luna both needed to make it out alive. So even in the parts where I didn't know how they would manage, I knew they would figure it out eventually. This story though, I was so afraid almost every chapter after shit had hit the fan. I also greatly enjoyed seeing how far the ponies had come since the old days, and how similar yet different their arcano-tech was compared to those damn dogs (except for Korn, who still has my vote for being the most unfortunate soul in this universe). You've done great work my friend! I'm happy to have discovered these stories even so late into the game and I hope you had a good time telling it!
As a side note, Sunny Skies All Day Long is the first story I ever favorited, so I'll always give props for a proper reference haha.
Edit: I just looked and it's over 8 years of work. Jesus Christ. Does it feel like it?
There is some new folks too, like me : )
Amazing story, it deserves way more views and exposure.
10335969
I adored the first stories, and I love this one too! It's a shame it never got the attention it deserves. I believe I've left comments on the 'prequels' gushing about them a few years back... My opinion hasn't changed. Definitely some of the best stories I've read, and this, while different, is a wonderful successor to them.
Your writing is something I look forward to every time you update, even if I don't comment as much as I'd like to.
10336061
Glad to hear it -- I'm really a SF fan at heart, so it had to be technomagic or nothing. I suspect it's the science talking.
10336110
That's very kind, thank you. I have written other stuff, but it's probably only interesting as an academic exercise (many of the concepts originated in a set of stories I wrote relating to uplifted dogs who survived the apocalypse that killed humanity -- these were written several decades ago and 'need work'). I may revisit it (writing in your own IP has it's benefits!).
I'm a big fan of the She-Ra reboot -- some parts of it were jaw-droppingly good, even if I wasn't keen on the ending.
10336127
Glad to hear it! That's a long time to maintain interest; I can barely believe I managed it myself.
10336256
I probably will; there's a huge chunk of time between Final and Madness that really should have something in it. Quite what, isn't clear at this point; I have a few ideas that need to be thought over for a while (or I may just start writing and see where it goes).
10336451
Understood, and thank you for letting me know. I figured that was the case. In the end this is a fandom site so it really should be no surprise that folks really want to see the original characters! Cal is right, BTW, although it's more like prison maintenance than suppression of an escape.
10336473
Yeah, I've not seen them, either. Any time things go the 'school' route it doesn't bode well. I might try and catch the season openers/closers, which were generally more to my tastes in any case.
10336740
That was pretty mean of me; she was an excellent protagonist and I really enjoyed writing those chapters.
10336965
I'm glad you are joking! I like my horse girls on all fours (erm...).
10337072
It seems likely that folks just drifted away, as you say. Certainly the graph of views vs. chapter number supports this. People change, interests change, etc. Lack of plot armour: yeah, even knowing where it went, I still find this story a bit of a stressful read. Glad I managed to instil enough doubt! Sunny Skies All Day Long was also one of my early favourites; nice to see the reference was found.
As for time: honestly, it seems like forever. I'm just glad I finished the stories I set out to tell; so many great stories never make it that far.
10337080
The brave! The few! Nice to have you here, and thanks for letting me know.
10337219
Glad you enjoyed this one as well -- the question is 'what next'. Quite tempted to tidy up the early chapters of Wasp, as I'm pretty sure my technical skills improved (they feel a little clumsy).
I really liked the fact that everything was in-universe, so to speak. I think it is the only mlp scifi I have read that isn't crossover or human intersecting.
That makes it stand out in a good way.
Wait, Terminal Fault seems all in universe so far, but it is cyberpunk. Which isn't to say cyberpunk isn't scifi, but it feels... different than hard scifi, which I think this is what this series aims for.
I should say: I loved Celestia's idea at the end. That she would realize that Discord, in a roundabout way, had a point was great. A small pocket universe like theirs really does have a scarily low capacity for a world with better-than-Earth technology in a lot of ways. And the mention that Twilight had a freak-out over the discovery was cute (and made me sad again that she had no part in the setting's future).
I'm not going to lie, I genuinely considered not reading the rest of this story after Celestia's "death", even though I strongly suspected that Celestia wasn't actually dead. I don't like tragedies, and I avoid reading them, and while I suspected that Celestia might not be dead, if only because you're too good of a writer to put in a random main-character death from an accident right after Discord was defeated solely for some cheap "feels" — I didn't know that she wasn't dead, and the title of the last chapter definitely didn't fill me with confidence. I'm glad I decided to read the ending, and despite that this story never got the same heat the first two did, I do hope this isn't the last story in this setting, especially featuring the Sisters.
The one problem I have is Discord always being able to take over minds like that.
I mean, he's only a demigod.
But maybe that's just me, being omnipotent as I am.
Welp, that's a wrap. This was quite a trilogy, and I'm glad to have stayed to the end.
That cliffhanger of the last three chapters, for a moment I thought I would have to wear out the F key on my keyboard in memoriam, but the wording on their conclusion to the teleport accident was far too specifically worded for that.
It deserves a credits score worthy of a scifi.
Congrats on finishing another one!
I thoroughly enjoyed all the technology in this one. Aerial combat scenes were the most captivating to me. This is the first time I've seen electronic/radio warfare taken to such level of detail!
All the death that had gone down since the end of DoWaS makes me desire to just fork after the end of the first book and pretend the rest didn't happen in my imaginary world, but at least this ending puts me at ease.
By the way, do you remember that there was a translation of DoWaS into Russian? The original translator disappeared without finishing it and... I sorta hijacked his work and finished it. I loved the story so much I couldn't help myself. In retrospect I'm not sure whether that was a good thing to do. What if he did in fact intend to return but I scared him off? But anyway, just wanted to say there's an unofficially finished Russian translation of Days now. It's all there in the comments at stories.everypony.ru.
Well, that was masterful.
Showed the sisters would not ahy away from assisting their ponies, independence be dammed.
Tied lose ends, made an opening regarding the future.
Taunted us with possible miscontainment only to reveal it was Celestia's mask glitching.
10337583
Hard SF was certainly the goal -- as far as you can with pastel ponies, at least. As for 'no humans' -- yeah, there were more than enough species to choose from without even inventing other villains. The Dogs were perfect -- bipedal tool users that would allow me to get my tech fix.
10337785
It's even worse than Banks' Against A Dark Background. As for Twilight -- I do need to try and write something using more canon characters, so we'll see what we can do (I tended to avoid the well known ones out of fear of getting the characterisation wrong). I have vague plans for that freak-out!
10338259
Yeah, I know you wouldn't have been happy if she'd actually been dead. You are right, it wouldn't be a satisfying ending for her -- but I do have a real thing for realism, and stupid accidents happen. As the saying goes: "two people have a knife fight; one dies on the street and the other dies in the hospital." I was tempted, but in the end couldn't do it.
10338925
I really wanted to inject a lot of doubt into the reader's mind -- partially because this book gave me more narrative freedom than the other two, and partly because I still remember a bunch of complaints about "too much tension -- we all know they will survive"...
10339417
I remember being asked if I minded (of course not!), but I never heard any more. Well, you gave it nearly a year, and no one complained, so...? I'm happy to link the translation on the front page of Days. Ah yes, alternate endings. What would have happened if I'd not felt constrained by trying to like up with the show? Where would it have gone? That's a very interesting question, and you're not the first person to express an interest. I'm tempted to have a go (not sure how it would be posted, though).
10339662
So long in service -- how could they retreat completely? Glad you liked it, and thanks for letting me know.
Whew boy, the end has arrived. It's hard to believe it's all over. Definitely a good, if teasing, ending. (I say tease because of course I'd sit and read another installment regarding the new generation of OC's and the dimensional stuff lol)
Congrats on the year-and-change journey!
10336008
...ohno. were those other two stories important for this one?! 😱
10348471
Thank you!
As for the other stories (the previous seven year's journey...), no, they are not essential for this story (at least, you got this far without being hopelessly confused?). Having said that, you will have missed a few references and Easter eggs in this story that were based on the previous ones.
For example, this bit from chapter 33:
...the "Dawn War" is the story for the other two books. And if you liked Method to his Madness, you'll probably like Wasp and Final.
10351512
I'll get to reading them then! Also when lore tidbits like that drop in, my mind kinda mentally fills in the blanks, or just takes in the gravitas of the reference without having to know it personally. The tone it was said was pretty clearly written.
Plus I can suspend disbelief pretty easily when I'm engrossed in a story about mythical beings that know quantum physics against a deity trying to pop a soap bubble. So I won't question a historical reference too hard
Whelp, one journey begins, and a new one starts. I suppose I'll be peppering your comments section a bit more in the near future as I read through those.
10351551
It was written with that in mind, so I'm glad it worked.
I'm always interested to know what people think -- Wasp and Final were major parts of my life for what seems like forever!
Read the first two as they posted, then waited for this one to finish before reading them all in a row. That was a long week. Still, it's one of the far more interesting settings on this site.
Something that sort of bugs me however is how with their new level of technology, no one from the future ever dug up evidence of the Dog's civilization. They were basically a proto 40K hiveworld in terms of overbuilt fortresses after all it seems. I wouldn't think billions of tons of buried military hardware and fortresses would just decay in a few thousand years.
Now while I'd assume you are done with this setting, were they to successfully tunnel out into another universe, any thoughts as to where they'd end up?
10356284
That's quite the reading list!
They certainly know there was a prior civilisation -- thus the 'Dawn War' thing. As you say, 10K years isn't enough for everything to be lost through natural processes (especially as a lot of the stuff is very deep). That said: it's not as spread out as human civilisation (a few big arcologies rather than a lot of cities), and these were targeted by rocks from orbit, penetrating nuclear explosives and Celestia's stellasers, Stuff that got missed was systematically reduced by dragons hunting out good food sources (they like refined materials) and Luna/Celestia actively destroying stuff. Everything on the moon was pounded to magma when Gravity targeted the Hammer.
Not quite done yet. Hopefully I will answer your question then... (ie " when I figure it out").
This ending managed to pull me through so many stages of grief I was already on acceptance when that pegasus showed up to heal my soul.
You sir, are one of the fandom's greatest writers.
Well. That was interesting. Been some time since I read the previous books.
Hard to say why exactly the readership dropped so badly, but for some reason, this book just didn't hook me in quite as much as the previous ones.
Only thing I can say for myself, is that there's just a tad too much constant technobabble... I was nearly skipping the neverending, hyper-detailed descriptions of of all the actions of the various "smart" munitions by the end.
My favorite scientist makes another amazing story.
: yay:
I really enjoyed this.
It took me a while, but I finally downloaded the epubs of all three Soot-Covered World stories to read the first two (for the third time!) and this one all the way through over the last few weeks.
This is, without a doubt, my favorite sci-fi pony setting, and my favorite depiction of Celestia and Luna.
It was nice to see Discord get his comeuppance in the end. At this point, he needs to go blasting off again... on a plasma jet rocket tethered to his mismatched fangs, aimed for the heliopause.
10/10 way under appreciated
I was saving this up, and just finished it now. Very much enjoyed it, and am wondering if Celestia could safely make an open return after only 20 years. It does seem inevitable she'd be outed, either in the short term or a bit further in the future when some amateur reviews the footage.
The ?agent? running in the low-level infrastructure of the pocket Universe feels like a natural next plot point, if not actual antagonist, if they're going to get out. Then maybe something like a Greg Egan-esque propagating front of Equestrian physics? But perhaps there are structures capable of knowing joy out there, too, and they wouldn't appreciate being converted. In any event, I do hope you're motivated to write in this 'verse again someday, either in the future of Method or back in the time of the Mane 6 - or in the rich vein of time available between Final and the Mane 6. And thanks for a fantastic set of stories that have given me a lot of fun!
This whole series has been a great example of why I enjoy trying to read out of my usual genres. Though this is an AU, I would have loved to see your take on some of the other early show concepts: the Crystal Empire, Tartarus, and so on. I really enjoyed getting to see how things progressed after the behemoth that Final Solution was. Your blend of dark, gritty fuckin' hell and sci-fi has me hoping that more stories will be inspired by these, or that there will be more tales from you in the future. I'm glad to have kept up with this one.
This was a delicious and wonderful follow up to the previous two soot-covered world stories, and I enjoyed every minute. It's a huge inspiration to my own writing, and the level of detail is phenomenal, more so that it comes across as logical and relevant to what's happening. I love the 'magic=science' aspects of it, and the developments and conclusions that leads to.
Seeing Celestia and Luna at this kind of power, and being smart and intelligent in how they use their abilities is excellent as well. Discord was also delightfully evil and sinister, and the OCs of the cast were also all well rounded and memorable.
All the world-building was full of interesting little nuggets of info and references to things we don't see, but left me wanting more, and as with the previous two entries, I immediately am hungry for more from this setting and world.
An excellent story, and absolutely one of my favourites. Thanks for your work in writing it, and for sharing it with us.
The end of an era, I'd think. I'm gonna miss this world.
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your life to write these three stories. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading through them.
You can has review!
Astounding, Luna-tic, simply astounding. This trilogy was an incredible roller-coaster of emotion; so intense it was leaking into my IRL mental state. (I finished reading it months ago, but did not comment until now to let my thoughts settle.)
There is so much richness here!
Towards the end I was getting quite angry and distraught at what an @$$#0L3 this Discord was, and how poorly the ponies treated Luna. What finally leads me to forgive you (as if you would care, right?) is your devastatingly great ending. "Let's break the universe without hurting anypony."
Yeah.
I can get behind that.
Have you ever considered doing a collab?
There's a couple other high sci-fi pony writers.
Starscribe and GMblackjack come to mind.
Especially since you seem who is to burst out in the multiverse with the story
And I finally finished this, the third installment. I have the same feeling in my gut as I did when S9 ended, this has been an incredible journey and these three stories will always be my favorite on this site. Sad to see it end. :(