Celestia's True Form

by SpiritDutch

Thricelight Confessions

“Understandably, I’m a little confused.” Twilight plopped down into a sitting position. “The mare I knew and loved, who I revered and wanted to emulate my whole life, is me.”

“No, I’m not.” The other Twilight said, a hint of annoyance infiltrating her voice. “I’m me. You’re you. We’re both Twilight Sparkles.”

“And that shouldn't be physically possible.” Twilight pointed out. Confusion gave way to the next closest emotion, amusement. The absurdity of it! “Ha! But there you are! Ooh ooh, I know, you’re from the future! I made an improved time spell and came back to be my own mentor!”

“Twilight, you’re just not getting it.” The other Twilight turned to Luna. “She’s just not getting it!”

Luna shook her head. “You haven’t done a good job explaining it.”

“I didn’t explain at all! I’m getting interrupted by asinine remarks like how this shouldn’t be possible!” The other Twilight was, Twilight was beginning to notice, a bit of a dick. “Twilight, you are the Twilight Sparkle of this Universe. I, however, am the Twilight Sparkle of a different universe.”

“But I touched you. We didn’t obliterate each other.” Twilight laughed. “Besides, you’re bigger than me, and ostensibly you’ve been here in this dimension for a thousand years. You can’t be from a parallel universe.”

“Did I say parallel?” The other Twilight arched a brow.

Twilight stopped laughing and thought about it. “I guess you didn’t.”

“That right I didn’t. Because I’m not.”
The other Twilight cleared her throat and launched into the explanation.
“You weren’t completely off the mark when you said I’m from the future. I am a Twilight much much older than you. I was born in my universe, lived my life as a unicorn then alicorn, and survived through to the universe’s end. Not wanting to freeze in the slow heat death of all physicality, I started wandering between universes before I settled down into this one, approximately a thousand years ago. I adopted the role of a critical entity this universe was missing: Its Celestia.”
She exchanged looks with Luna. “But please don’t ask what happened to the original Celestia.”

“Okay… See I was about to ask if every universe has a Celestia that is actually a Twilight Sparkle in disguise, but you answered that.” Twilight gnawed her bottom lip. ‘So, other Twilight-”

“Hold it right there. There’s naming conventions. The oldest Twilight in a universe is the Oldlight.” The other Twilight/Oldlight pointed at herself. “The youngest Twilight, usually but not always the one native to the universe, is the Newlight.” She pointed at Twilight. “The rest are Middlelights.”

“Naming conventions implies organization. You being here isn’t a cosmic mistake. This happens often.” Newlight inferred. “Just how many Twilight Sparkles are there?!”

“Infinite. Obviously.” Oldlight snorted. “Cosmic meetings and gatherings happen often enough. There’s an infinite number of universes after all. When and where more than one Twilight meet is all random supra-quantum physics and nth-degree statistics.”

“Oh.” Newlight mewled. Her head ached. She understood well enough but didn’t want to believe. “I was having a difficult place sorting out my feelings in regards to my mortality before, and this isn’t helping. So, um, who else travels between universes?”

“Twilights.” Oldlight said.

“J- Just Twilights?”

“Yup. Some freaky types of energy and particle also pass between universes, but that’s neither here nor there.” Oldlight shrugged. “What can I say. This existence was made for us.”

“So everything I’ve done ever done, all the joy and struggles... It’s just something that infinite other Twilights have done?” Newlight laughed again, but it was one of despair. “It’s not just that my love and my dreams are meaningless, but I’m meaningless too. I’m just another iteration of some kind of…” She stared at her hooves. “Cosmic aberration!”

“Kid, calm down.” Oldlight said.

“I’m meaningless.” Newlight whined, burying her head in her hooves. “I’m meaningless! I’m meaningless! I could do more than has ever been done before and it would be pointless in the face of infinity!”

“Good god Twilight, pull yourself together!” Oldlight grabbed Newlight by the shoulder and shook her. “You think that every other Twilight isn’t confronted by the same question?"

Twilight sniffled. “No.”

“Of course not. We all have to come to terms with it in our own way. We make our own meaning.” Oldlight said. “Do you think your life would have had more or less meaning if you weren’t a Twilight Sparkle, destined to transcend this universe?”

“I- I- I guess... “ Newlight sighed. “I don’t know.

“If you were one of your friends- Rarity for example- The facts and questions remain exactly the same. You’re not much different from every other sapient creature on this planet. You are one of infinite. It’s up to you to make your meaning. “ Oldlight reclined against the marble mantle of the fireplace. “It’s sweet that you crafted your dreams to dreams of love.”

“If ultimately futile.” Newlight nodded slowly. “I get you. I get you. It’s all a bit sad though. You’re old-”

“I survived the heat death of my universe, so yeah, I’m pretty old compared to most things that exist.” Oldlight agreed.

“Most ponies only need to make a lifetime’s worth of meaning for themselves. How can I contrive BILLIONS of years worth of dreams?” Thinking in terms of billions of years was impossible for the young Twilight, at least in terms of personal experience. You could measure many things in billions, from atoms in a certain mass or the number of stars in the sky. Years? Twilight thought about everything she’d done in the past year. She moved to Ponyville, fought and defeated countless villains, and become an alicorn. Multiply that by a billion or two...
“I’m going to pass out.”

“I’ve heard that happens.” Oldlight ribbed. “These little Twilights are honestly cute, trying to comprehend it all.”

“That’s mean, Oldlight.” Luna protested on Newlight’s behalf. “She just became an alicorn five hours ago.”

“Hey, hold on a minute.” Newlight interrupted. “Luna, what do you think of all this? You’re going to die, and the much younger princess is going to live past the end of eternity. How can you be so calm?

“Ah, I have had my time to cope with it as well.” Luna grinned. With a puff of smoke, there were three Twilights in the room. “Greetings. I am Middlelight.”

Newlight smacked her forehead against her hoof. “You’ve GOT to be kidding me.”

“Yeah, don’t ask what happened to the original Luna either.” Oldlight chuckled.

Author's Note:

**Cosmic Moth Noises**

Comments

[SvenFoxx]

This is so absurd... and yet, I laugh. I think I saw a concept similar to this once, but I can't for the life of me recall what story it was.