Celestia opened her eyes. In a way it was a relief—but in a different way, it was a terrible disappointment.
She was in a bed, wearing a hospital gown, and a machine was slowly beeping next to her. She had an IV in one of her legs, linked to a bag of fluid.
“Sister?”
Celestia turned so sharply she nearly passed out. Luna was sitting beside her bed, along with Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie.
“Luna!” cried Celestia, sitting up suddenly.
“Sister, be careful! If you move to fast you might be spilt—”
Celestia threw her front legs around her sister, hugging her tightly.
“Luna, I thought you were—I thought you were—I thought I had lost you!”
“I am right here, Celestia. I have not gone anywhere, nor will I ever.”
“You collapsed,” said Twilight, adjusting her glasses. “Outside the schoolhouse. You just passed out, and the situation was pretty bad, but we got you. I think you’re stable.”
“But what about the fight?”
Twilight and Starlight looked at each other. “Fight? There wasn’t any fight. Why would there be a fight in Ponyville? It’s always peaceful here.”
“But Silver Spoon, and the battle, and she was casting magic—”
“Silver Spoon is an earth-pony. An especially minor one. And a filly. There’s no way she could use magic.”
“But I was there! THERE! And there were two Twilights, and one was named Yelizaveta, and Trixie exploded but she put herself back together and...and...” Celestia groaned. “This sounds like I’m crazy, doesn’t it?”
“No,” lied Twilight.
Celestia looked up suddenly. “Except it did happen.”
“Celestia, I was there—”
“No. You were on a friendship mission.”
Twilight scrunched. “Well I got back, obviously.”
Celestia glared at her, then slowly turned herself to a sitting position on the bed.
“Princess, be careful! You’re still sick, you can’t—”
“Twilight,” said Celestia, softly and in her firmest and most motherly tone. “Or should I say Wolf?”
“What in the world do I have to do with wolfs? I don't even like wolves, they're scary, and they have an irregular pluralization—”
“Do you think that I am stupid?”
Twilight's eyes widened. “Princess, I would never say that, I couldn’t—”
“Then why are you treating me like this? Twilight, I thought I had taught you better. About how important it is to be honest.”
“I am being honest! Starlight, am I being honest?”
“Sure,” said Starlight. “Princess, I was right there. Nothing happened at all. You just fainted and had a weird dream. Surely.”
Trixie moaned loudly. “Don't call the princess 'Shirley'! And for her BUTT’s sake! We’re not going to make any progress if you keep interfering with the progression!”
Both glared at her. “Trixie, shut it! NOW!”
"Trixie will shut Trixie's various orifices when Trixie pleases and not before!"
“TWILIGHT.”
All eyes turned to Celestia. Some of those eyes were especially wide and nervous.
“Y...yes?”
“Stop trying to gaslight me, you’re bad at it. You were never a good liar and never will be.”
“I’m not gaslighting you, I promise—”
“Twilight. Starlight. Trixie. This is a DIRECT order from your Princess. Tell me the truth. NOW.”
Twilight and Starlight both shivered severely, although Trixie did not react in the slightest.
“Crap,” said Twilight. “It really does...I don’t know, I can’t even describe it.”
“It’s terrifying,” agreed Starlight.
“It actually works?” said Trixie. “Ha! Now you have to do it!”
“We don’t,” snapped Starlight. She looked up at Celestia, and then groaned. She looked to Twilight. “What do you think?”
Twilight winced, unsure of what to do.
“Twilight. Starlight. Please.”
Twilight let out a long sigh. “Alright.”
“Thank you. I’m your friend, Twilight, even if I'm also your Princess. And possibly god. We need to be truthful with each other.”
“I know,” groaned Twilight. “I’m sorry, Princess, I’ve been a bad friend. But...”
“But what?”
“We have to be very careful,” said Starlight.
“Why?”
Starlight and Twilight looked at each other, then at Celestia.
“You’re not actually in Ponyville,” said Twilight. “Ponyville isn’t a real place.”
Celestia shuddered, not willing to take that as a confirmation as to what she already knew. “Then where am I?”
“On a near-derelict battleship moored outside of Neo-Hoboken. Or...sort of under?”
“Now you’re not even trying to lie well. There’s no way that’s a real place name. What fool would name a place ‘Hoboken’? That's a terrible and mean pun.”
“She is not lying,” said Starlight. “We really are there. At this very moment. I'm looking at it. What you see here is actually a simulation.”
They paused, as if waiting for some stunning expression of confusion.
“Well, yes,” said Celestia. “I figured that was probably the case.”
“You WHAT?!”
Celestia shrugged. “Twilight, it’s pretty obvious. In fact, It’s mostly a relief. I thought I was going insane, but it makes much more sense this way. But that’s why I can tolerate you three, isn’t it? You’re the only real ponies here.”
Twilight looked bashful, but Starlight just nodded. Then she spoke, slowly.
“Would you like to see what we really look like?”
Celestia smiled. “More than anything, Yelizaveta.”
Twilight and Starlight looked at each other and nodded. Then their shapes both distorted—and as they flickered, they instantly changed.
The one that had been Twilight was now clad in white clothing that looked something like a robe or dress, one that was surprisingly well fitted. The design itself was complicated, but simple in other ways, with some parts seeming to sit over an internal vest. She had a hood over her long braided mane, and she smiled out from below it. Her eyes were still covered in a pair of large, black-framed glasses.
Starlight, likewise, became a version of Twilight Sparkle as well—but a very different one. One clad in black, with a jacket over a tight-fitting suit of armor and plated leggings on her rear legs. Her irises were extremely dark, with perfectly spaced pinpricks of light forming a ring around her pupils. Her mane was cropped shorter, and she wore several piercings in one of her ears. Her face was crossed with a strange black line, as were her front legs, almost as though her surface were somehow mechanical. What attracted Celestia’s eyes the most, though, was a small piece of jewelry hanging from a fine chain around her neck. A silver letter “t” with a second diagonal line through its base.
“Don’t worry,” said Yelizaveta, her voice that of Twilight but with a strange and exotic accent. “I am not one of the bad ones.”
“Your voice...where are you from?”
“Moscow.”
“But you are not a cow.”
Yelizaveta shook her head. “No. It is a city in Belarus.”
"Well, how is that even a pun then?" Celestia sighed, and turned to Trixie. Trixie smiled, still being an ordinary Trixie. “And you?”
“Trixie’s form is a little bit too severe for you in your current state,” said the white-clad Twilight. “You’re mentally fragile, and she might be too much of a shock.”
Celestia stared at Trixie. “You’re not a pony at all, are you?”
Trixie shook her head. “Nope.”
Celestia turned back to the Twilights. She noticed that their lapels had pins on them. One one side, the Twilight in white wore a silver leaf, while the one in black had a crossed "V". On the other side, they each wore identical pins depicting a white pentagram backed by three silver lines. The center of the pentagram had a symbol in the middle that Celestia did not recognize that looked like a system of several right-angle hooks arranged around a central axis.
“In our world...the real world…there’s not just one Twilight Sparkle. It’s more like a surname. There are millions of us. My name is Virginia Twilight Sparkle.”
“Oh, come on,” said Trixie. “You legitimately have a right to call yourself WOOLF! MAJOR WOOLF! Come on, it’s so much cooler!”
“Trixie, if you call me ‘Woolf’ one more time, I will take my hoof and shove it in your orifice!”
Trixie smirked. “Which one?”
Virginia blinked. “There’s...more than one?”
Yelizaveta put her hoof on her forehead, shaking her head. “Oh you sweet little innocent bud...”
“And there are Celestias too?”
“Yes,” said Virginia. “Other Celestias, and others of every other kind of pony.”
“Then why can’t I remember them? Surely I had a family, and friends...”
The ponies paused. Yelizaveta spoke first.
“This is your situation. I am doing my best to phrase it in a way that will not injure you. There was an accident. You were badly damaged. Your personality could be salvaged, but not your memories. We placed you in this simulation so you would have a place to recover.”
Celestia paused, feeling from the tone in Yelizaveta's voice that they both knew the same thing. “But I’m not recovering, am I?”
Virginia and Yelizaveta looked at each other.
“No,” said Yelizaveta. “You are still very, very sick. And we are doing our best to help you from our end.”
“We have been using the simulation to assess your mental function,” continued Virginia, “and to try to keep you comfortable. But the injuries are severe and your mind is slowly...well...”
“Falling apart,” said Trixie.
“Trixie!”
“No,” said Celestia. “Give it to me straight. I need to know. Even if I really, really don't want to.”
“You’re still dying,” said Trixie. “Just in a way you didn’t expect. The fact that you’re rejecting the simulation is not good. It should be seamless. Perfect. Except we don’t really know what any of that means.” Trixie shrugged. “This has never happened before. We’re in totally new territory here.”
“So you’re bad at your jobs?” The ponies looked ashamed, and Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry. Look at me lashing out at you when you’re just trying to help me. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay,” said Virginia. “We’re all sorry for putting you through all that.”
“Trixie is not sorry. Trixie lacks the capacity for empathy.”
Celestia ignored that. “Then what happened? With that Silver Spoon?”
“Lucience,” sighed Yelizaveta. “She was...a friend.”
“She was no friend, Yelizaveta. I'm something of an expert on the subject.”
“I know.” Yelizaveta sighed, then looked up at Celestia. “Her and I both trained under Candace Cadence II. Yes, I know. It's a stupid name, but she's one of the most brilliant scientists to ever live. And also a self-hating sadist. Lucience is a technomancer, like Trixie. A really, really powerful one. And the fact that she was here is not good.”
“Why?”
“It means more might come,” admitted Virginia. “And it means time is running out.”
Celestia shivered. “I see. What can I do to help.”
“Help?”
“I’m not some invalid. I’m a princess. How can I help?”
“I don’t know if you can,” said Virginia, thinking and adjusting her glasses. “We can do our best to plug our security holes, but now it’s just a matter of getting you to recover as fast as possible. That’s our only concern.”
“I can’t have you risking yourself, Twilight—I mean Virginia—”
“You don’t have much of a choice,” said Yelizaveta, sitting and crossing her line-marked forelegs. “Because we are not abandoning you.”
Celestia looked at them, and then to her sister.
“They are telling the truth,” said Luna. “But how you go onward from here is up to you.”
Celestia paused for a moment, then stepped out of the bed.
“Celestia?”
“I feel so much better,” said Celestia. “But right now, I’m nopony at all. Just Celestia. Strange how that's a paradox, isn't it? I need to know who I am. Specifically. I want my memories back, and I want to get back home. I’ll do whatever it takes.” She nodded to the Twilight. “Thank you, Virginia and Yelizaveta, for your honesty. It means so much to me.”
They both smiled, and they both looked exactly like Celestia expected Twilight to look. Now there was just two of them, and it was even more adorable than just one. As her sister would likely have said, the fun had been doubled. At least conceptually.
Celestia was still dying, and time was still running short. But she was no longer so afraid—and for the first time, she was filled with beautiful hope. She walked out of the room and toward the kitchen; for the first time in what seemed like years, she was in the mood for cake.