//------------------------------//
// 1.2 
// Story: The Goddess Within 
// by Bicyclette 
//------------------------------//

When the Goddess spoke to her, Celestia was embracing her long-lost sister.

It started as the embrace of a pony who truly believed that she had not seen her sister in a millennium. It ended as the embrace of one who knew that she had actually never met her sister before that very moment. That she wasn’t even two days old. But this did not change the genuineness of her tears of happiness even an iota.

She spoke to the Goddess, hoping to share in Her triumph.

“I am so proud of Twilight and her friends! I had no doubts. I knew they could defeat Nightmare Moon, just as Your plans had prepared them to do.”

The Goddess replied, as if to correct her.


it was over before twilight ever entered that room. My Sister had already received the message.


Celestia was puzzled. “The message?”

The Goddess continued. 


their backgrounds. their experiences. their bond. all of my efforts and manipulations, distilled and encoded into their very beings. My Sister did not need to see them glow and float in order to understand it.


The way the Goddess said “My Sister” made it clear that She was not referring to the juvenile alicorn who was weeping underneath Celestia’s chin right then. The same alicorn Celestia was keeping her wings away from during the embrace, lest she feel the cool metal underneath the layer of illusion.

“What was this message?” Celestia asked.

The Goddess replied.


a response in an argument between deities. one that I needed the past millennium in order to be able to craft. the ability to explain it to you is beyond even My capabilities.


In one moment, the Goddess had finally answered a question that past Celestias had spent a thousand years begging the universe for an answer to. “Why?”

The Goddess continued.


all you need to know is that it worked. My Sister finally accepted that She was wrong, and allowed Herself to be destroyed, after the appropriate amount of theatrics.


“Theatrics?”

The Goddess spoke.


to make what had just passed in the heavens legible for the mortals.


Mortals like Celestia.


the beings We sprouted from had always loved theater, haven’t you?


Celestia did not reply.

The Goddess continued.


I know the distress My decision has caused your versions over the centuries. if there had been a better way, I would have done it.


There was no apology, because it was not an apology.

But that did not matter to Celestia. She was just happy for her sister, who truly believed that Celestia was the same Celestia she had grown up with in the long-gone Equestria of more than eleven centuries ago.

That she herself was the same Luna.

At the very least, one of them was now free of the deity that dwelt inside her. Celestia looked forward to the day that she would be, as well. She wished the best for her future self, who would be the one to experience it.

Celestia died, relieved.