//------------------------------// // Twin Revilations // Story: Celestia's True Form // by SpiritDutch //------------------------------// In stark contrast to the enormous crowds and great hubbub of the Coronation Ceremony a few hours earlier, Canterlot Castle at night was the most serene place in Equestria. The streamers, banners, and spilt drinks had been dutifully swept or mopped up, leaving the grand halls spotless under the scrutiny of the pale moonlight streaming through the elegant stained glass windows. “I always forget how beautiful this castle is.” Twilight said. She spoke at little more than a whisper, for even with her newly gained height she felt meek within the monumental architecture. “Princess, am I going to live here now?” “Only if you want to, dearest Twilight.” Princess Celestia smiled warmly. She had shed the use of the endearing ‘faithful student’ for a moniker only a little different, but much more intimate. It made Twilight’s cheeks burn every time she heard it. “Of course, that has been the case forever. My door has always been open for you.” “Y- Yes Princess.” Twilight’s blush deepened. Princess Celestia always seemed to trip into the rudest innuendos without realizing it. “I- I’m sure I’ll be here every day for the next few months, learning about what it means to be an alicorn and a princess.” Celestia nodded. “I will be happy to teach you. Could I also teach you what it means to be a Twilight?” “Uh…” Twilight wasn’t sure how to interpret that. “Could you repeat that princess?” “Oh, my dear Twilight, why must you be so formal with me? Should I address you as princess too?” Celestia tittered. “Oh? Oh! Sorry I didn’t even notice I was doing that.” Twilight laughed with her, her question forgotten. “It’s going to take a while to get used to everything.” She flapped her wings a few times. “Etiquette being the least of it.” “You will have a long time to adapt.” Celestia led them out off the main hall to the more cozy residences wing. They climbed up the staircase to Celestia’s chambers. “Yeah…” Twilight sombered. She didn’t want to bring up that morbid topics so soon. “A thousand years at least.” Celestia held the heavy door to her study open for the smaller alicorn. “A measly thousand years? My my Twilight, were you planning to live fast and die young?” “Huh? Thousand years… is... young?” Twilight bit her bottom lip. “Two thousand years?” “You give yourself too little credit.” “Five thousand?” “Dearest Twilight, you are being very conservative with your estimates.” Twilight felt very cold all of a sudden. “Princess I don’t want to play this game anymore.” Celestia hesitated, then smiled. “Yes of course. I should not have been so callous.” They trotted over to the fireplace, which Celestia lit with a spark from her horn. “Would you like to sit by the fire with me?” “Princess- Celestia, I would like nothing more but…” Twilight sighed. “I can’t right now. I should go. My friends-” “Your friends can wait, dear Twilight.” Celestia said, stern caution creeping into her voice. “Tell me why you shun my company.” “Shun your company? Princess I could never! I- I just-” Twilight took a moment to sort out her words. “I’m conflicted. I have so much on my mind! It’s not that I don’t want to. Actually I’d love to sit by the fire with you! But with everything going on, I’d be distracted.” “You’d love to sit with me.” Celestia echoed. “Twilight, are you afraid that you being distracted will ruin this moment?” “Princess!” Twilight’s cheeks burned. “Princess… This moment… I’ve waited for it since forever! If only I could give it everything.” “Dearest Twilight.” Celestia cooed. “You are always thinking. Thinking and Overthinking. You remind me of myself a bit. That is what I love about you.” “Oh Celestia!” Twilight burst into tears. She pulled Celestia into a tight hug and buried herself in the larger alicorn’s neck. “I’m so happy! I’m so happy you love me too!” “Um…” Celestia stiffened. “Twilight…” Twilight relaxed her hug, and felt slow pulled away. “C- Celestia?” “This is monumentally awkward, for a variety of reasons.” Celestia pursed her lips. “I kinda meant love in a platonic sense. “Oh.” Twilight’s poor heart, beating to the tune of pure love second earlier, was grinding to a stop. “Please please don’t get me wrong! Twilight, I adore you as much as it is cosmically possible for one entity to adore another.” Celestia was talking faster than Twilight had ever heard her talk. “But this… I can’t get romantically involved with you. That’s a no go. Red line.” She quickly added. “Or sexually. Yes, definitely none of that.” ‘Okay that’s fine. I’ll just break then. Bu-bye.’ Twilight's heart announced. “Oh.” Twilight said. Celestia watched Twilight’s stony expression for several minutes. “This… This is going to sour everything isn’t it.” Twilight blinked, coming out of her stupor. “Princess, can an alicorn kill herself?” She asked emotionlessly. “God damn it. I really mucked this up.” Celestia cursed, running a hoof down her face. “Listen, Twilight, I’m going to have to tell you the truth. I’m not who you think I am.” “You’re not?” Twilight asked emptily. She didn’t feel any drive behind the question. She felt empty. She was just asking because that was what was expected. “No. Twilight, dear Twilight, were i to reveal my true form you would understand why it has to be this way.” Celestia sighed. “I was... hinting and leaning into it, but obviously I have to just air it right now. Only one other pony on this planet knows the truth.” “That would be Luna I suppose?” Twilight queried. Celestia pursed her lips in thought. Before she did anything she needed to pull Twilight out of her funk. “Twilight, I don’t hate you. I said that I adored you and I meant it. But you have pent up your romantic desire on the me of your dreams to an unsustainable degree. Even if I reciprocated all I could ever do is disappoint you.” “That’s not true. Saying yes would have made me the happiest mare alive. Nothing could have brought me down.” Twilight sighed. “Actually I don’t think you presented a question that warranted a yes or no answer. But that’s besides the point. What I’m saying is that you won’t want me. Not after I reveal my true form.” Twilight blinked. Was that a challenge? “Celestia, even if you don’t love me back, you will always be the unhealthy infatuation of my dreams. No true form could change that.” “No, Twilight, I mean it.” Celestia said emphatically. “You really won’t.” “Prove it.” Twilight smiled thinly. “Oh dear.” Celestia shook her head. “I’m really doing this…” She took a few deep breaths to prepare herself. Twilight was self-assured. Nothing Celestia could change into could dissuade her from her love. Celestia could be a shriveled husk or monstrously deformed octoped with a thousand eyes and endlessly muttering mouths, and Twilight would still see past it to the soul inside. If she established how much she blindly loved Celestia, maybe Celestia would love her back. “Okay. Three… Two…” Celestia opened her mouth, then froze. “Uh, I’m going to need some moral support. “Princess you’re stalling!” Twilight stomped her hooves impatiently. “Transform so I can show you how right I am!” “Luna!” Celestia called out in a sing-song voice. “Oh Luuuuna!” “I’m here.” Luna burst into the room. “Sister, what need’st thou?” “Moral support.” Celestia said gravely. “I am about to reveal my true form to Newlight.” “Newlight?” Twilight’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Uhhhhh…..” “Sister I am here for you.” Luna pranced over to Celestia’s side. “Feel my moral support juju fill you will the courage you need.” “I feel it.” Celestia nodded aggressively. “Brace yourself Twilight, for my true form.” Twilight was expecting a rush of fire like a changeling, or for Celestia’s skin to bubble as she mutated. Somewhat anticlimactically, a puff of white smoke covered her and Luna. It dissipated quickly. For a split second, Twilight thought that she was looking into a mirror. What an elaborate prank, she thought. Or had Celestia become the mirror? But there was no mirror. She was staring at herself, but there was no border nor the telltale shimmer of a mirage or spell. Twilight laughed. She couldn’t figure out the joke. And it HAD to be a joke. Celestia had played with her feelings to the end of a joke. “Luna, is that me?” She stood up and trotted to the doppleganger. “How are you doing this?” She prodded the other Twilight. “Hooves to yourself missy.” The Twilight said in a voice like her own, but different. It was smoother, more gentle, but hauntingly obviously a mix of her own and Celestia’s. “Celestia.” Twilight was stumped. She genuinely didn’t know what to say. The confusion overloaded her brain to such a degree that the broken heart reset to factory default. “You’re me.” “No, I’m another Twilight.” The pony who had been Celestia elucidated. She stood up. She was not, on closer inspection, identical to Twilight. She was taller, and had flecks of black on her wing feathers and in her eyes. “I’m a Twilight Sparkle from another Universe.”