Tapestry: A World Apart

by Star Scraper

Ch.00: Equestria and Eternity

A thousand years later, and in a world where Equestria still reigned, crickets filled the warm night air with life. Their rhythmic chorus was interrupted only by the hooting of distant owls and the gentle, periodic billows of warm breeze.

Twilight traveled through a lush field, tall grass reaching almost to her winged shoulders as she walked next to Rarity. The horizon was rimmed by thick forests, with the gentle glow of Ponyville to the east. The clear sky sparkled with a million glistening diamonds of light, and a faint, glowing milky river of yellow.

Her heart pounded and she constantly thought of what she'd say, only to find her thoughts became a confused mess of trying to explain something so profound that words were inadequate, then starting over. But it was too important to not say.

Sure, the world will go on just fine no matter what I say here, but... She bowed her head. That's just it. The world will go on no matter what I say.

“Is this where we're going? We're quite far off the, uhm... developed path,” Rarity commented.

Twilight looked around. At this point the glow of town was below the horizon. She nodded, “this will do.”

“So what is it you wanted to talk to me about? All the way out here?” she asked, uncertainty edging in her voice.

“Well... It's just...” Twilight started hesitantly as they both sat down, looking down at the town with its gleaming crystal castle. “We've spent all day just exploring the place, and you've been taking all kinds of notes and inspiration for your designs from the new castle -”

“Oh, yes, it's absolutely marvelous!”

You've only said as much about a dozen dozen times.

Rarity continued, “And thank you yet again for letting me come out – it's such an inspiration! An achievement – a beautiful work of fine art! It's amazing! And so well-deserved, I should say, too, defeating Tirek and all.”

“Well that's just the thing...” the new princess started again, “The new castle is just a reminder. The Golden Oaks is gone, now, and... I've just found out I'm going to live a very long time. Thousands of years, maybe. And in just a few years I moved from Canterlot, made you and the rest of the Elements as friends, lost the Golden Oaks, and my entire life has been under twenty years long. But thousands..."

Twilight looked at the town glowing below. "If this is how much the town has changed in just a few years -” she pointed at her new castle amid the thatched roofs, “-then what will it look like a thousand years from now? Or five thousand? Ten?”

She looked to Rarity, her ears flopping down, “How can I find meaning in any of this? The castle may be beautiful, but... It's not going to last forever. Everything I know and love will come and go many, many times. And the whole thing just has me thinking of mortality, as well. Golden Oaks wasn't destroyed – Golden Oaks died. The Golden Oaks was alive – sometimes it felt as though it sang with the legends of all who had lived in it before - it was ALIVE! - the glorious creation of a family line of wizards and artists, the life work of Oak Blossom, completed by her daughter, only a century ago. And now...

"It's gone.

"So what was all of that for? To just be wiped out in an instant? All those lives and legends - unique journals it housed... now gone forever, as though they'd never even lived, with nothing but some rough drafts of only what I could remember of them left. And yet that just reminded me how so many other ponies never even had journals in the first place for me to make rough copies of. All lost in that instant from one stupid blast from Tirek that could've gone anywhere else...”

She looked up to the stars, continuing, “And everyone I love is going to die, just like the Golden Oak. How can I find meaning in life for centuries after I've buried everyone I know and love dozens of times over? I could write biographies of you and the others, but not of everyone. Not forever. And even those biographies won’t last forever. And someday even I will join all of you. I don't want to cease existing – but the alternative is literally infinitely more overwhelming than living ten thousand years – living forever in an afterlife? What will make life worth living, then?”

Rarity turned to her. “Well, you've got a lot longer to figure that out than any of us, dear,” she commented with a subtle hint of envious annoyance.

Twilight met her eyes, “Well, I'm not ungrateful for the longevity. It just... brings a lot of issues to mind that most ponies never bother worrying about."

The alicorn again faced the glowing town below. "Most ponies have their lives and their life plans and that's it. But all of my life plans I had and the very way I think of and see myself is entirely different than a year ago. And I guess I'm just wondering where to go from here. Where I'll end up. And if I do live forever... how that will be tolerable.”

She paused for a second, seeing something sad and dark in Rarity's face. She set a hoof on the shoulder of her mortal friend. “I will always remember you. All of you. Your great-great-great grandchildren will hear the stories of how great you were,” she tried cheering her up with a little smile, a twinge of regret hitting her about putting the weight of her alicorn existential dread on her unicorn friend.

Rarity snapped out of her odd look with a smile and a blush, gently taking Twilight's hoof off of her shoulder, “Now, now, I couldn't be that amazing...”

The princess cheered her friend on, “Together we've saved Equestria – about 3 or 4 times, now! They'll teach about you in schools! I'll bet Sweetie Belle will even study a chapter on you and the rest of our friends. And hey, all day you were the one telling me not to be so modest about the castle!”

She chuckled in response, twirling her mane's curls in her hoof while averting her gaze. “Oh, if you insist...” she looked back at Twilight, “but I think I see what you mean now. I can't imagine what it'd be like knowing you, Sweetie Belle, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy would one day just be some ancient, historical figures in a textbook...”

“Well, I don't even have to imagine it,” the hint of annoyance was now in her voice. She looked back up to the stars, her tone becoming gentler. “It's weird. Even I will live a short time to pony civilization, I hope. Even I will one day be nothing more than a legend – no matter what I do. Newer atomic theories tell us even the stars themselves will one day burn out, that just – it was kind of shocking to read, but it makes sense. I can see it was inevitable, now. Nothing lasts forever.

"I guess realizing I'm going to live so long just... Brings that to the front of my mind. Everything that matters, everything I've ever known and loved... Less significant to eternity, than the meal I ate three months ago for lunch is significant to my life. And knowing that...” She looked down at the grass again.

How many life stories are buried in this field, lost to time and history? And no matter how many times I save Equestria, someday I'll join them, and it'll all be forgotten, like it never even happened... Friendship, knowledge, science, ponykind, and the stars themselves... all just as gone as the mice and gnats that died in this field.

This time she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned to meet Rarity's eyes again.

“I don't know the answer to all that, Twilight. But you have something to live for now, don't you? Don't you care about us, and Equestria, and learning? And Spike's going to live just as long as you, won't he?” she asked.

“Yes. I do care. But... it's just... it's becoming harder to. And yeah, me and Spike... Well, all we know is dragons can live more than two to three thousand years. Their culture is so violent we don't know if they can live longer than that or not, but if their legends are true they can live past ten. But I'm very grateful I'll have him around for a long time, either way...”

“Well, just think about that! Don't worry about the bad stuff too much or you'll always be in this dreary state of mind. You've got to live for your ambitions! Maybe my business won't last forever and my dress designs will be forgotten, but that doesn't mean they don't matter, does it?” her comforting smile was tenuous.

“No, but it means one day... they won't. And neither will Spike, even. I'm going to go to the old castle of the two sisters tomorrow, and it's just such a poignant reminder of it all. There aren't even records of how that castle is laid out anywhere, and it was the royal palace of Equestria for centuries, but everypony only seems to care about the Canterlot palace...”

“Well... the Two Sisters themselves are still around,” Rarity offered, her hold on optimism weakening.

“Yes, but like Spike, even they won't be, one day. Even they will one day be like a mouse that died in this field a thousand years ago, utterly forgotten and nothing to eternity...”

They sat in silence, Rarity looking down. Twilight looked up at the stars as the crickets chirped. A gentle breeze washed through the tall grass and over them.

Twilight's ears perked as she heard her friend sniff.

Rarity smiled, then finally spoke, her voice strong and determined yet gentle and shaking, “I love Sweetie Belle. And my parents, though I understand I'll outlive them. And I look forward to creating for the rest of my life, and even meeting some princely stallion someday to make vows with... Just this morning I woke up to the sweetest sound or Sweetie singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', it was... Indescribable!”

Rarity's tone darkened, and her smile faded “But I guess you're right. What if I lived for so long that creating got old? And I'd outlive Sweetie Belle and her music and her great-grandchildren, and my own future husband and our great-great-grandchildren...”

Twilight looked down from the stars at her dejected friend.

“I'm sorry, Twilight, I really don't have an answer for you,” she admitted, her ears going limp on the sides of her head, then perking up as she continued, “surely Celestia can help you, though? Maybe she won't last forever, either, but she lives much the same way – over a thousand years and through the ages.”

“We talked about it. She said she couldn't tell me – that it was something I had to discover for myself.”

“Hmm. Well, I really hope you find out, for your sake. To be completely honest, I'd really rather just worry about the Boutique and creating than what will be left of it all in a million years,” she respectfully admitted.

“Well, I'd like an answer sooner than later...” Twilight sighed, her own ears now flopping down.

“And I...” Rarity's voice tapered off, hesitating as she carefully assembled her next words, “I'd really rather just take it one day at a time. After all, that will never change. I'll get to wake up to Sweetie's music, make some beautiful new designs, and the sun will always rise in the morning, darling.”

Twilight cracked a smile at her, friendliness in her voice, “I'm sorry if it's all so heavy, just... Even if you can't answer my question, and would rather not even ask it, it'll still help me a lot if you keep being you, ‘darling’.”

They both smiled at each other, then giggled.

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

Damn depressing subject-matter, don't dwell on it too much or you will lose yourself to despair.

[Antiquarian]

And that right there is why it's vital to have your happiness tied to that which is transcendental. Justice, Love, Right, Truth, things of that nature. As a believer, I point to God. For non-believers, I point to Plato, who talked about God as being that which is perfectly Just, perfectly Good, perfectly Beautiful, etc. The eternal, which does not pass away. If your happiness is about something that's bigger than you, bigger even than the world, then it's untouchable, even in the midst of utter pain. If happiness is bigger than the world, then it can coexist with grief and remain strong. At least, that's how I try to live, and I'm pretty happy, despite constant struggle in my life.

[Star Scraper]

9687597
Hmm. I'm somewhat familiar with Plato's ideas, though my only exposure to him has been somewhat negative - namely, the implication that there's always something wrong with what's physical, and my particular theology sees things a bit differently.

Instead of seeing the physical as profane because it isn't the perfect platonic ideal, the Latter-Day Saint theology focuses more on the alignment of physical things with that platonic ideal, if you will, as being something that makes the physical things sacred. Maybe I'm misunderstanding my own theology, as I've never seen it articulated quite like that, but in practice it comes off as our human bodies, for example, being flawed, but sacred, and Jesus still possessing a physical body, whereas most sects believe He doesn't because there's something profane about being physical in Plato's philosophy(?).

But I have been becoming somewhat a fan of what Jordan Peterson describes as God being something emergent, and I think building off of that idea I've come to somewhat converge on Plato's idea of a perfect Ideal. I don't understand it very well, though, my exposure to the idea has been brief so perhaps it's not what I think it is.

It is interesting how many schools of thought seem to arrive to the idea of some dichotomy of physical and non-physical. A plane of material, and a plane of ideas, if you will.

AI and neurology are rather fascinating in sort of bridging the gap in-between the two, though - that ideas themselves are emergent from physical reality. I can say I've been toying with reductionism for quite awhile, and at this point I'm beginning to think it's correct, but misleading in that it creates a false idea of what "truth" is. Terry Pratchet called the idea of Justice, for example, a "lie" just as untrue as Santa, merely because there's no such thing as a subatomic particle - or some physical thing called a "Justice". I find that absolutely appalling. There's not even such thing as a subatomic particle, if you get down to it - particles are merely a physical model physicists create to understand the universe - to be able to make predictions from some set of initial knowledge.

So yes. There's not any physical object called a "justice". But to say it's a lie because of that is so misdirecting and misleading I'd even call it evil, to call justice some mere lie. The distinction between phenomenon and noemenon itself is "merely" an idea. Raw reality itself is nothing more than a barrage of sensory experiences, or qualia. We form concepts to make sense of those experiences, and if a concept allows us to make accurate predictions from accurate knowledge, then that concept is true.

Is there such thing as quantum fields that permeate the universe? Are particles "really" particles and waves at the same time? Is there such a thing as time? Is spacetime really a curved hypersurface? If these descriptions allow us to make accurate predictions from sufficient foreknowledge, then yes, I'd call them "true", and the truest models of reality we have to make predictions with, until we make a better model that makes even better predictions.

Hah, you got me going a bit just by mentioning Plato and sharing some thoughts I've been working on for months and years. Thanks for the opportunity.

[stemo]

9707766
I would find that justice and such notions as you mentioned when Antiquarian was saying things that are transcendental. Interestingly enough other animals abide by some sense of justice and comradery and such. Like ants that form colonies to survive through the power of superior numbers and other pack animals that form social groups. It is within evolutionary 'progress' that some species pick these up to better help them survive, in the grand scheme of things then justice, love, truth, etc. these things come as emergent of the reality we live in and as a result are eternal to that. Even in another hypothetical reality these values are useful for society and individuals, as a result they will never truly go away just be absent until another species comes along and discovers them for themselves.

The issue I guess that some people would have with serving better virtues like these is that they are extremely departed from what gives each of our lives meaning, sure you can attain some meaning to your life story when you work to discover the truth, love someone/something, work to dish out justice, et. but justice, love, truth, etc. will continue on without you, someday Albert Einstien will be forgotten and it would be possible that some aliens in a far away star will never hear about him as long as their civilization lives. This is what is why people want to live forever, their story can be heard by more and more, there is greater meaning to their life waiting around the corner, etc. It's just really hard to admit that no personal story will continue to exist forever.