• Member Since 19th May, 2012
  • offline last seen Nov 17th, 2022

Decaf


"...he had a little bit of talent, and some of the concepts he wrote about were a little bit interesting. "

T

Twilight finds a book written by Celestia hidden in her castle, and plans to publish it. But as she tries to unravel its mysteries, she wonders who it was written for, and why.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 29 )

... Well, that was a thing. All I got from Twilight's rambling was Celestia vanished, and literally, nopony knows why or where to. And that Twilight found it 300 years after Sunbutt vanished (oh and that Luna is being a bitch to her, for some reason).

Or maybe I missed something. Rambling tends to do that.

Huh. That was... Y'know, I'm not really sure how to describe this.

I mean, I really liked it, but I can't shake the feeling I'm missing a piece of the puzzle. Perhaps that was by design, but either way, this story left me with a disconcerting sense of incompleteness — an unease exacerbated by the mysterious natures of Celestia's disappearance and Twilight's vague catastrophe. There's something here I feel you expected me to get, and yet I'm just not getting it.

That being said, by this point I'm just rambling. At the end of the day, my compliments must go to the author. You've certainly given me something worth pondering, that's for sure.
:)

I liked this story a lot.

It's different from most of the fimfics I see around here.

The Relatively Trivial Comments

Studies done by psychologists on the writing style of diaries found that, “…a staggering 88% of diary entries that recounted a specific event did not mention the setting the event took place in, unless the setting was important to the described events.”

Now you have me wondering if this is true, and if you've ever read about such studies.

would be classify as books for specialists.

classified.

she’s in another plain of existence.

plane.

Something Nontrivial

You done good. I don't know how many people will ever know it.

Of course, next week I might change my mind. I can only speak for my own self, right here, right now. That's the way life is, isn't it?

That was lovely. Thank you for it.

I liked this story - there's a number of macguffins, but they're there in my mind so that they don't distract from the theme of the story - that rulership is hard.

This is incredible. Thank you very much.

That is all I have to say.

I love the vibe of this. I can't explain it but maybe I'll understand in the future.

Wonderful little story! Love the concept!

Any thoughts on what, exactly, the Very Bad Thing that Twilight did was? I know you're trying to keep it mysterious, but you definitely piques my curiosity.

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Or maybe I missed something.

If I may: it appears that Twilight has just done something heinously evil, though she only hints at the event itself (which, she says, is why Luna is being b!tchy to her). Reading Celestia's book has helped her to make peace with the guilt, etc., that she feels, because she realizes that Celestia has felt that same way, too (after her banishment of Luna).

and weather she regrets them => and whether she regrets them.

Fascinating. I've said more than once that some one-shots read like the first or last chapter of the larger story. Here, we actually have the last portion of a larger story that still feels complete in itself. You say quite a lot through hints, excerpts, and subtext, and the overall effect is brilliant. Twilight is only somewhat more coherent than Celestia, sorting through her thoughts and regrets and presenting the conclusions only after thinking back on her mentor doing the same. Great work.

Also, "The sun hung in the sky like a sack of peanuts" has no right being as powerful as it is.

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Consider how Celestia's living memory is contained entirely in Twilight and Luna at the time of writing. Then consider who's missing from that list.

It may not have anything to do with Twilight's atrocity, but it makes you wonder...

That was really interesting, and it only hit me after Twilight said about her having done something terrible (which I really wanna know about but not know at the same time). It’s a mood that only a very specific person could understand. I could hear Twilight’s voice in every work, and it hit hard in all the right places
Very nice work, well done

Interesting, it left me wanting to know more about what was going on when it was being written both for Celestia and Twilight. It is the sort of text I would expect to find in an open-world video game when trying to work out what happened in the past.

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Here, we actually have the last portion of a larger story that still feels complete in itself.

So we have an.... Afterword? :trollestia:

Then consider who's missing from that list.

I noticed that too.

All good books (all good things written in words) deserve a second reading.

This is my second time reading through this story, the first time was this mourning, and this wont be my last time; perhaps not my last time this week.


you should know that whatever has happened, my faithful student, I understand the burden you bear. I know what you are going through. And I’m not the only one. Celestia has been there before and moved forward. I am there now and will move forward.

I have no doubt you can do it too.

Oh, to use words and touch the soul of another human.

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Yeah, as far as I can tell there are no clues about what she did except for "worse then sending your sister to the moon." Maybe the author doesn't even know. Either way, as readers we can only speculate. There is not much that is worse then sending someone to the moon. Death comes to mind. And there is one character I can see still being around that might propose a threat big enough to warrant this. Although you'd expect Twilight to be a lot more heartbroken about it.

Of course it could be many things. Legislation for example.

That final paragraph though... Celestia has done something she always regretted. Even though that has been resolved, she now disappeared. Celestia has disappeared. What is the burden Twilight is mentioning? Just the question of what to do with this book? That makes sense for Twilight and whomever finds the book after her. But I feel it makes less sense for Celestia. the reason why its so difficult is that Twilight can't ask Celestia if she would be ok with publishing or not. Same would go for whomever find the book next. But Celestia obviously doesn't have that problem.

If the burden is referring to Celestia banning her sister and whatever Twilight did, is moving forward referring to Celestia disappearing? That would mean Twilight is also planning to disappear. And she expect her student to at one point be in the same boat and tells her student she has no doubt she can do it too? That raises a whole bunch of other questions.

Probably thinking to hard about this, but meh.

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Thank you for pointing out those errors. I have just fixed them.

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Thanks for catching this.

Thank you all for reading, and a special thanks to everyone who left a comment. I enjoyed hearing what you all had to say. This story is much more successful than I ever thought it would be, and I want you to know that I don't take a single view for granted. I cannot overstate how grateful I am to everyone who chose to spend their time reading this. It means a lot to me.

Laughably out of character.

Really glad I gave this a chance, it's a superb think piece.

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I feel like everything you described is exactly what the author meant, for I feel identically.

Man this is difficult to digest. I feel for Twilight... A kind of depressive existential dread that has no possibility of a happy ending for her, Luna, Celestia, or Twilight's successor.

I do not know what this is, yet I feel compelled to upvote.

This little excerpt is a roller coaster form start to finish.

The fact that this is the equivalent of a random page torn out of a book, I have never been more enthralled to decipher more about the story around it from the very little details given. Truly, my head is spinning from all the subtle hints and assumptions that are made in the passage that I, as the reader, should know and understand.
The fact that Twilight apparently does some unspeakable evil, that Celestia is missing/gone away, that maybe Twilight has now joined Celestia and you have stumbled upon this book of meandering thoughts. Wouldn't it be cool to get some answers to those questions? Nah, who needs answers after a book of only questions is given?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Overall, I feel this story is very similar to writing a scary story with only two sentences. Short but it leaves me wondering for days.
10/10 would read again.

There's almost a faint undercurrent of light horror to this. Beautiful way of making the story feel like it's speaking from the dust.

Hello, a review to your story has been posted. I hope you find it helpful. :raritywink:

I loved this so much. I will also say that...it interests me that none in the refelection's of the text. (Twilight) thought say...raise the sun automatically. And are the star's real stars? So bring them out to automatically.

This not in actually knock on what I read. But More so about the greater imagining of the character(s). Alicornship only sells martyred and belief and commitment that ponies can not lead themselves. (They can be fine folk's indvidually)

This at the root of the woe that is alicorn fates ruling over these silly goober's. But I would say that folk's just in real life can get their eventually. So I suppose having it never brought up at all read's to me to think it is a unquestioned system. And they equally so lack a imagination to break out of the cycle of rulership and ruled.

Or is just allowed that one can do get great evil and get away with it? Or do all just assume it is tactical evil but whos to...this is truly evil?

I think story is also about first impression's and if you say hated celestia or loved her. This would be interesting not just as a narratively amazing story. Then their comes how folk's see Twilight?

Both what she did with the book and what she did? Is not what you based just as what you can imagine as what you are willing to allow yourself to imagine? Especially as someone who likes the character?

Princess Celestia once told me that books could be divided into three categories.

ooh, this is a good categorization system, much like Celestia, and feels vaguely Borgesian

“Words written for no reader are born to die,” she told me. “It isn’t murder to kill them without reading them. It’s mercy.”

a very cool line

The sun hung in the sky like a sack of peanuts.

i swear, i've seen a scene-setting opening like this a million times before, and it's ripe for a subversion by the in-story Celestia. and somehow it summarizes the feeling of the paragraphs following it in just one sentence, given what the reader knows and assumes about Celestia at this point of her life. very interesting!

It’s obvious this book is about her, but everything that happens to “The Princess” is rooted in mundanity. I can’t prove if it really happened the same way I can’t remember what I had for breakfast last month. To me, this focus on the small moments is the point.

this brings to mine something interesting i heard on a podcast about "hyperrealistic" autobiographical memoirs (analogizing from hyperrealistic paintings, not Baudrillard). that it seems relatively "straightforward" to write about extremely mundane events in one's life in excruciating detail. but to get to the level of detail where it feels that thoroughly realistic and mundane would require invention, because one cannot actually remember any particular scene or event without losing such details along the way. and so, what is the distinction between fiction and biography?

there's also the idea from the field of historical criticism that "history" is conjectures about the past that can be backed up by evidence. it' sa fascinating interaction

She tried to avoid flying when she could help it. Being off the ground wasn’t very fun. It was boring. The ground was reality. Reality. It sure does bite, sometimes, like little moths with teeth. Or maybe mosquitoes. That made more sense.

and Twilight does not see the metafictional beauty in Celestia portraying the act of finding a simile for an aspect of the world she does not care for, without much care? this is true art, and it pains me to see you depict her as such a fillystine. very out of character, literally unreadable (actually fairly in-character much to my chagrin)

Studies done by psychologists on the writing style of diaries found that, “…a staggering 88% of diary entries that recounted a specific event did not mention the setting the event took place in, unless the setting was important to the described events.”

ah Twilight, why can't a diary be written according to the conventions of prose? especially when one is trying to be all poetic and art about it like Celestia clearly is

If death never came for her, if the world as she knew it existed forever, did she have free will? Or had fate driven her every action?

Either way, she probably shouldn’t be eating strange mold off the walls, even if she was hungry.

haha, i love this paragraph! Celestia is a very fun writer, i like her style

Little of her brain is dedicated to her actions, with her internal voice instead focusing on a neverending ennui.

The only reason I know this is a work of fiction and not an accurate reflection of Celestia is because I knew her personally.

aww, a telling sign that Twilight is imposing her own previously existing interpretation of Celestia onto the text instead of letting it speak for itself. what is she, [INSERT COMMENTER YOU WANT TO JUST DUNK ON RIGHT NOW]?

There’s a romance to imagine living life forever listless, proud and lonely. I must admit I have a certain attraction to it.

same

(The twenty-thousand-word sentence from Rules for Rulers comes to mind.)

dangit now i really want to read the sentence! and also the book!

Rules for Rulers is not a guide on how to run a country, but instead a list of small breaches in manners that Celestia has done over the course of her life, and whether she regrets them. I’ve never been able to understand how this ties in with what the book is ostensibly about.

aww, and i am sure that she will in due time

Those who didn’t know her, (which nowadays is exactly everyone who is not me or Luna,) won’t have that lens.

ooh, from context i don't think Twilight is this long into her reign so this seems to be more a statement that only a few ponies from the modern era ever really got to know her behind the throne

Another small joy she stripped away for the benefit of others. She wondered how much of herself was left.

and the fact that it was replaced with the stained glass windows of various royalty-relevant events, this makes said window into a self-reflective symbol of the monarchy that closes it back onto itself instead of serving as a point of connection between the inside of the Palace and the outside world. great symbolism, very nice!

But if I somehow disappeared, and my student found it in this state three hundred years later, should they publish it then?

ah, so i guess i was wrong about earlier! that is quite a bit of time to pass for Twilight's own long experience with the burden of readership, the loss the mortal ponies she knew, and the ennui to not color her own interpretation of Celestia's works

I hope you will read it and see yourself reflected in these pages. For I think Celestia wrote this for me, and for you, and for whoever succeeds you in the future, all the way down the line.

in a way it is a blend of all three of the categories that the story starts by delineating, not meant to be "useful" to those who do not bear the burden of being the immortal Sovereign of Equestria

I have never felt more alone in my entire life. Who out there in the world can understand me? Luna has turned her back on me, and I don’t blame her. There is no one else who knows my pain.

and her having been the sister who was sent to the moon speaks a lot about the gravity of this undescribed event

If I were more spiritually inclined, I’d say that finding this book at this point in my life was destiny. It’s a nice notion, though in my heart I can’t believe it to be anything other than coincidence.

so very Twilight Sparkle, and i am the same way about such moments

First, I'd like to point out that at the moment, these words I write are dead. No one else has read them. If you’ve gotten this far, you have breathed life into them, transformed what kind of book this is. For that, I am eternally grateful.

a beautiful way to think of the act of reading another's creation, and a feeling that i agree with myself as a writer. both i and the site are still quite active, but one day it won't be thus, and the same could be said of any piece of writing, up to and including the classics of literature on a long enough timescale. and in this age we have access to so many dead words a million lifetimes of reading is not enough to give them the momentary spark of life that would honor their creators

I have no doubt you can do it too.

it's funny that the story begins with Twilight expressing frustration that Celestia's work lacks a narration or consistent style or overall discernible purpose, and ends with Twilight imposing a distinct purpose onto it, and re-enacting said purpose in her own direct message to her successor. and that actually fits the contrast in personalities between Celestia and Twilight perfectly!

in any case, excellent work. very Literature, which is something i always want to see more of

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