"Nopony exists but you, and you are but a thought."
Twilight's life as she knows it harbored a sense of security, but all that changes when Princess Celestia then arrives to deliver a message. To reveal the truth about Twilight's world that the mare's conscious mind has long since forgotten.
As her memories return, she is forced to come to terms with the fact that she was never Twilight Sparkle at all, but rather a structured thought experiment whose knowledge expanded through lives she herself requested to live in order to harbor a greater understanding of existence.
But sometimes there's one life among many that's the hardest to let go of...
Inspired in part by a "Three words" game in The Writer's Group, and Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger".
Edited by Breath of Plagues
So yeah, I decided to go for a bit of a more surrealist story this time.
And for those who don't know what Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger" is, it's a story, but also an animated segment from the film "The Adventures of Mark Twain", and that was what partially inspired this.
I'm confused.
And now you can go into the mindwarp where she is Asteria wondering if she is actually Twilight Sparkle imagining herself to be Asteria... you evil author you.
There's a lot of room for emotional manipulation in this story.
4662039 After seeing that, I want to go home too.
This is a vary good story so far.
Hope to read more soon.
Interesting conspect. Should be fun to see where this goes.
A mere thought experiment invovling possible higher authorities with a test gone horribly wrong?
Mmm, cue the Inception, because we must go deeper.
Favorited and upvoted. Well done. Well done, indeed.
At first I thought of something like this:
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/224/2/5/comic__the_twilight_show_by_sophiecabra-d5avc4x.png
But it seems that we need to go deeper...
Well this is interesting.... I'm very interested to see how this goes from here, both to see what Twilight/Asteria's 'true life' is like, and how she deals with the change. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of this!
I'm immensely happy to see a philosophical piece on this site, as there are far too few. You're a fan of metaphysics and Kant's theories of reality, I see.
It will be interesting to see which theory you use to explain this story, and how "Asteria" reacts to it. Your writing is pretty solid too, which makes this even better. Some of your sentences are a little wishy-washy, but that's fixed with experience. Got a like and fave by me.
Coincidentally, have you seen the movie Waking Life? If not, it may give you a little nugget of inspiration for this fic. Look into it if you haven't seen it!
Keep it up. I like this.
My brain has exploded after reading this.
Bloody hell
MOAR
!!!
4663552 DINKLEBERG!
4670865 Yes I am Dinkelberg and I am cosplaying Rainbow Dash and you can't stop me, muahaha!
4670954 you ruined DINKLEBERG says howdy neighbour after times dad says his name
4670957 That's because I'm actually Queen Crysalis but don't tell anypony
Problem with Solipsism is there can be no surprises. You can pretend to be surprised but you can't ont-AH GAD DAM A RAT
*smashing noises*
This is my kind of story.
Finally, we have creativity at work!
4672781
Indeed it does. You have my thanks for drawing my attention to it.
Woah, that. That right there, was a good story. It made me think really deeply.
4672653
Shush, you are just looking for someone to replace Derek.
Geez, how long has this been in the backburner? Quite the old story ID number there.
Anyway, I'll have to give this a look.
4677021 *looks at username*
*starts singing the Dr. Who theme*
Dum dum dum Dum dum dum Dum dum dum DUM dum dum Dum dum dum Dum dum dum Dum dum dum DUM dum dum
Bew weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
4670963
*GASP* 
4735390 Dum dum dum!
And then Twilight was the Emergency Medical Hologram.
4662039
Well, no sleep for me tonight!
You have my interest. Go on.
Well... this is something.
Count me hooked.
...You know, even though both Twilight's narration and the tags seem to refute it, this still feels like it could be merely a horrible nightmare brought on by all of that pondering weak and weary upon a midnight dreary.
4879280 I totally caught that reference to The Raven there!
This was... Wow... I have to admit, the concept and execution totally caught me by surprise.
Then it refused to release me until I fan's and upvoted. Just... amazing work. Looking forward to (hopefully) seeing more!
MORE, soon, right???
4877421 The irony in using the "ST:V" reference there is that the Doctor was quite content being a sentient computer program.
Twi needs to stop being angsty and just take over the Matrix.
4667308 She has no true life. Everything is an illusion.
She is actually just a story being told on the Internet...
(I mean, why not? We're already into the sheer madness that is modern philosophy.)
4877464 Totally fits your profile picture too!
But other than that, author you have intrigued me. Please, continue on...
...
I mean it. If this dies like so many other wonderful fics, I will die with it.
4889326 Glad someone got it.
4889331 You went full-meta. Never go full-meta.
4890830 Once you start introducing doubt, there's kinda nowhere left to go but all the way down the rabbit hole.
And end up in Newark, NJ...
4892345 And that's why you never go full-meta.
4897188 Full Meta Jacket?
Full Meta Alchemist?
I could have fun with that...
We're going to see more of this awesome story soon right?
4883155 Thanks!
4884745 Soon, yes!
4889326 Nice thing is you're going to be seeing more of Twilight's "Asteria persona" soon... she'll have a few shocks to deal with...
4890211 I don't plan for it to die... just plan it out carefully...
5040303 Yup!
Considering how next chapter we'll see more of who Asteria is, I want to make sure I got it perfect.
5063600
Awesomesauce! I'm eager to see what you come up with.
5063610 Let's just say... remember that "Mysterious Stranger" video above? There'll be stuff like that...
5095642
*evil grins* That'll be interesting to see.
Well, got another familiar character this time and a few hints about Asteria's personality that'll be explored in more concrete detail next chapter!
I had been thinking for a while of how I wanted Asteria to look, seeing as she has clear differences from Twilight and has... psychological issues, I wanted her off-the-wall mis-matched appearance to reflect that.
Also, the part at the beginning where Twilight first wakes up was inspired by Mewtwo from the first Pokemon movie.
Hope you enjoyed! And stay tuned next chapter for the more... well, Mysterious-Stranger-side of Asteria.
It's getting interesting...
For some reason, Asteria actually having a physical body surprised me- "structured thought experiment" seemed more nebulous somehow. Still, the rate of explanation/exposition is less frustrating than usual in this sort of story.
How delightfully mind-bending, bringing the "Element of Honesty" in like that- I'm looking forward to seeing the traces of Asteria within an addled Twilight!
I wonder... what's changed, and what remains?
5157069 And it shall be more so...
5157087 That will be elaborated on later—she basically started out as that kind of nebulous force (there'll be a bit of a showing of that, don't worry), her current form is basically what she accomplished through a huge amount of identity tests. Hence Celestia saying she's looked that way she is currently for a few weeks rather than her whole life.
5157091 Yeah, I figured bringing AJ in first would be a nice contrast considering Twilight/Asteria isn't sure what's real in the first place at the moment considering the amnesia.