Life is pretty good for Twilight. Equestria is at peace and her relationship with Celestia makes every day a little brighter. Yet when she begins having strange, vivid dreams about a future where Celestia has been replaced by a mysterious Queen, Twilight can't help but wonder what those dreams mean for her own actual future.
Written for the 12th Twilestia contest.
Edited by the ever-excellent Jordanis.
Technically this is a sequel to Never Meaning to Send, Chocolate Fluff, and Stepping Off, but just in that they share the same setting, not that any of those are required reading to enjoy this.
Cover image by MagnaLuna
Chapters (1)
I had a good laugh at the bit with the rune.
The rest of the story was fun too, I look forward to seeing more of this 'verse.
8606244
Thank you!
I think this is absolutely one of your best, SPark. Holy cow. Just... this hits me in all my soft spots.
8606326
Aww, thank you. That's high praise, coming from a writer of your ability.
Darn it SPark, another great Twilestia fic from ya. Faved.
I really look forward to even more.
8606489
You say that like it's a bad thing!
Wow, nothing else i can say. This is magnificent. I will generally like any Twilestia, but this truly does deserve it.
I might be wrong but i think i found a typo.
8606521
Not a typo, just a weird bit of archaic grammar. I like to write my Luna so she tosses in bits of ye olde speak here and there.
And thank you! I feel like this is one of my better ones, so I'm glad that other people like it too.
good story, I had feeling aurora was going to be they daughter or somehow twilight mess something up and the two of them got fuse togather
Ngawww the feels! ❤
8606732
Thanks! The cover art I used was labeled as a fusion pic, but honestly I had a hard time finding a picture I could use! Not a lot of good art out there of Twilight/Celestia next gen ponies, and I don't currently have the funds to commission one, alas.
8607000
Thank you!
Wow. I'm not much of a shipper (except for Raritwi; Monochromatic has pretty much converted me there) but that was a really cool story. I still somehow hate the idea of them replaced, though, even by their daughter. Oh, but what I meant to say was that the description was so interesting I had to read this even though I wasn't super interested in the ship! And I'm glad I read this, even if I guess I always want everything to stay the same when it's happy. This is beautifully written!
8607150
I figure it was probably a welcome retirement after a very long rule.
Bravo, SPark!
Is it weird that this random little detail delighted me?
Also, Future Twilight, stop encouraging your kids to mess with the timeline!
8607284
Writing it delighted me! I had fun putting in lots of tiny little bits of worldbuilding in this one.
God I love this and hate this.
It's so rare (I find anyways) to find speculative fiction about Twilight and Celestia and when/if they have a babbu in the future. And you wrote a grandslam as far as Im concerned with this topic.
But now it's over and I feel like a man who ate a whole box of chocolate at once and the disappointment is real.
8607309
It does seem to be uncommon! I could hardly find any art for it either. It's weird, they're such a popular pairing, but nobody writes then with kids.
Excellent. It's been a lovely trip.
(Just one minor thing that bugged me. It bugs me in a lot of fics.)
emerged a few minutes later wearing a simple dress in amber voile that draped and flowed over her figure, leaving one shoulder completely bare in a way that was far more tantalizing than nakedness ever could be.
Ponies are naked all the time, and Celestia usually doesn't wear any more than Dejah Thoris. Twilight knows precisely what's under there. More importantly, Ponies don't have shoulders, at least the sort you hang dresses off of.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Points_of_a_horse.jpg
(And that's true of cartoon anatomy, too. High heels, too. How does that even work? And what use are they when there are no calves to throw into definition?)
There is a tendency when writing romantic stories, I find, in which the author tends to forget what species they're writing about.
8607370
orig00.deviantart.net/20a4/f/2014/181/f/c/rarity_gala_dress_mlp_by_octaviamelodymlp-d7ompr0.png
Blame the show for putting them in heels, if you're going to blame somebody, I didn't invent the idea.
And they do have shoulders, hanging dresses from them or not, which can be left bare by said dresses. I said shoulder, I quite meant shoulder.
Their being naked all the time was, in fact, rather the point of the "more tantalizing" line.
You had me till here - "But as for why I sent these dreams to you... You suggested I should, Mother"
But...why? The implication is that this is a bootstrap paradox where the future Twilight sees only arises because in the future she told her daughter to send the runes. I guess I was hoping for more of an explanation as to why this was necessary.
Ah well, that's just me wanting an explanation for everything. Still a lovely story.
8607478
Eh, not all things need tidy explanations.
Though in my head it's mostly just that Aurora wanted to do it, being curious about past Twilight, and Twilight heard the idea and agreed she should, because she has the kind of organized mentality that likes neat closed time loops.
This was quite lovely. At first I thought Twilight and Celestia had somehow merged to form Aurora (using, I dunno, some convoluted magicky process), and so the “daughter” bit actually took me by surprise, which in retrospect it probably shouldn’t have. (Though I guess that may count as “merging”, in its own way.) Anyway, this was fun to read, and as has been said above, I’d very much like to revisit this ’verse at some point.
Quite cute ending. Though I honestly can't see Twily leaving space untouched long enough for that to happen. Else, perfectly believable. And I can see she got her wife's sense of humor with time
Not the ship I usually board, but this was still a lovely cruise. Sci-fi is an all-too-rare treat on Fimfiction, and this had some lovely optimistic scenery porn.
My only concern is that some of the bygone nice things are Twilight's friends. It's kind of tragic that the Princess of Friendship only seems to see three or four people on a regular basis at this point in her life. Aside from that, again, lovely stuff. Thank you for it.
8608519
Honestly I feel like the "old Ponyville crew" have regular reunions of one kind or another, (as if Pinkie Pie would ever let them not!) but even in the show as it is now, they're obviously beginning to go off in different directions in their lives. I'd have written more friendshipping in, (and I tried to nod to the fact that Twilight does try to keep those bonds alive by putting in the one bit with Spike) but it was already 10k words long, which is about twice what I was going for when I began this thing, and since it would have been entirely extraneous to the plot itself, it seemed like it would be just padding.
8607478
May have been a future where Twilight didn't want foals. She was on the fence about it to begin with, remember. Could go either way.
Maybe Aurora made sure her future would be prevalent through a predestination effect. Who knows, that's for you to decide if there was a more serious point or not, or if Aurora is destined to happen and just wanted to send some love and understanding back her mother's way.
8607401
I don't really recall that picture: where is it from? Could be fan art, could be Hasbro promotional, etc. But if it's actually from the show, ponies wearing heels, like Equestria being OK with Ponies selling themselves into slavery, is a bit of worldbuilding I'd prefer to disregard.
Hmm. Did Polynesian men find their women more alluring as soon as the missionaries made them cover up? Needs more study!
And the dresses aren't hanging from their shoulders: they're hanging from their withers.
8609099
It's from the show. That's Rarity's gala dress in season one.
And yes, they're hanging from their withers, but they can still totally leave their shoulders bare, you know. I said shoulder! I meant shoulder! It's not my fault if you read shoulder and thought withers.
8607184
Good point!
Now that was some lovely Twilestia, with bits of awesome Equestrian Space Program future sprinkled throughout. Good job!
Still no idea where Celestia is......
8619506
"I believe she is in Ponyville with you."
Flat out told us where.
8621283
i meant in the dream
8621494
That was in the dream and referring to the dream. In the waking world they were both in Canterlot.
I enjoyed reading through this story, took comfort in the pacing, soaked in the details, and grinned at the relationships. I liked this Twilight and all of the other characters. And I wanted to discover the answer to the central mystery. The ending made me smile. It was an easy upvote and Favorite.
Then I saw the Author’s Note. Thank you for the shout-out to Teatime. It gave me a warm feeling to know I something I created helped, however indirectly, to inspire your creation of such a lovely story.
Well, what can I say about this?
Simply put: this was pure fun to read! Everything was just write.
7/10. Quite solid. A thoroughly bitchin' Twilestia story. Quote me on that, if you want.
8609108
Will there be a sequel?
8633024
There will probably be things in this general continuity, because I like TwiLestia and this is sorta my "standard TwiLestia setting", but I don't know if I'll do a direct sequel to this one specifically.
And... another one of your stories goes on my favorite list!
8659786
Huzzah!
Wow, really interesting story, I like it. I do hope you write more in this universe though, I'd love to see an exploration of Twilight's relationship with Celestia, it's rare to see a fic do it well, and of course seeing them move towards having children. And of course since Aurora is in their future, is this future now certain, or is it possible that it might change now that Twilight is aware of it? Or perhaps it'll happen now that she's aware of it. This is certainly fertile ground for many interesting stories, but if this is all we get, I can be satisfied with I suppose.
8608519
8608519 wrote : " My only concern is that some of the bygone nice things are Twilight's friends. "
I read a fic once where Twilight discovered how to stop, and even reverse, aging. Maybe she did here as well. Everypony she knew could still be alive.
Wow. Wow this was good.
To give a more detailed review-I loved the relationship between Twilight and Celestia. I loved how Twilight fretted over choosing a dress for their date. Even after all this time, she still wants to be perfect for her. I loved how Celestia teased her and supported her. Aurora sounds like a fascinating character, I'd love to see her again. (Is it odd I'd love for a fanfic of her hanging out with her Best Cousin Friend Forever Flurry Heart?)
I really hope you continue this
An odd frame.
And somehow, somewhere, Starlight Glimmer shuddered - not knowing if it was an omen of good or ill fortune.
Great tale. And a nice little piece of world building, too.
Thank you.
Is there a sequel...?
9059157
Alas, no.
I can't say I'm a fan of Twilestia, but my curiosity drove me to read this by simple expedient of pretty artwork and how such a child could come to be.
...I now realize the last part never quite got an answer.
The story itself was kinda cute and the little tidbits on government, habits, or subtle interactions were fun to read.
On a final note, rather than the cutie mark described, Aurora made me think of a mark consisting of an aurora band in the colors of Celestia's similarly ephemeral hair with tiny six-point stars scattered along it. Though, I suppose that may not fit her position as Queen of Dawn as well.