The Twilight Parable

by Yoshirocks341

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy
Length: 4912

An average day for Celestia's prize student changes suddenly when all her friends disappear, leading her to her destiny. Or she doesn't. It's your choice. Or is it the narrator's?

Takes place during an alternate season two ending, simply for plot reasons.
Based upon The Stanley Parable, but no knowledge of it is required.

This is a story about a mare named Twilight Sparkle.

One day, Twilight discovers that all her friends have gone missing. It is this realization that sends her on her way towards an adventure that allows her to discover her destiny in the end.

Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe she finds a dark secret about her past. Maybe she finds a dark secret about one of her friend's past. Maybe she finds cupcakes.

Or maybe all she can find is the beginning.

This is the Twilight Parable.

Editor: ShadowblazeCR

Published 2015-03-13 04:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-03-13 04:20:01 UTC

A View Outside

Twilight stepped out into the natural light of the sun and gazed out at the town of Ponyville. The buildings’ yellow roofs gleamed in the sunshine, casting a yellowish glow across the town’s marketplace. The sky displayed a deep, rich blue hue over her head. The flowers that were planted around had bloomed in a vast number, throwing sparks of color around in different corners of Twilight’s view.

It is a beautiful view, Twilight thought to herself. It was completely worth the detour.

Twilight suddenly realized something was missing from this scene; ponies. It seemed that nopony was here either.

Ready to get back on track, Twilight took a sharp left to enter the side door of the library, hopefully to discover if Spike had gotten a letter.

Head Left
Head Right

In the Outback

But as Twilight entered the back room of her library, she discovered once again that there was no sight of her assistant Spike nor any sort of memo. She was going to write this decision off as a lost when something caught her eye. Something very mysterious. The rear door was slightly ajar. And from where Twilight was standing, she could see a trap door, hidden in the shadows of Carousel Boutique. In all her time here in Ponyville, Twilight had never even seen it once.

How peculiar. Twilight walked out the Golden Oak Library and got a closer look at the trap door.

Enter the Trap Door
Enter the Carousel Boutique

Carousel Boutique

Twilight knew that she had a job to do, find Spike, and going down mysterious trapdoors was not going to help that in the slightest. Twilight was worrying about where Spike was, for she loved her number one assistant like a...er...brother? Son? Cousin? Close friend?

They had a unique relationship, let’s just leave it at that.

But what also was unique about Spike was his relationship with Rarity, one of Twilight’s closest friends. He had fallen for her just as Romeo had fallen for Juliet, except if you replace the fact that their love was not to be because of the fact that their families were fighting with the fact that they are two different species all together and you increase the age difference between them to the point where…

Lets just go with Spike is close with Twilight and Rarity and it would make sense for Twilight to look in the Carousel Boutique for Rarity owned it and Spike frequently visited there. All this explaining is starting to make me confused, and I’m the one running the story.

As Twilight entered the boutique, everything seemed to be in order, except for one small detail. One of the pieces of fabric that usually hung down from the ceiling to create the look of a fancy looking wall had been pushed aside to reveal a hidden door.

Twilight was taken aback by this discovery. How many secret passageways were around Ponyville? Had she never noticed any of these before? Had she been totally blind to them all this time? Or had they just all appeared today, for the narrator had been lazy, and used all pre-existing locations to tell a story?

Twilight had no clue where that last thought came from, but decided to enter the hidden door nonetheless. As the door creaked open, all that greeted her back was pure darkness. Was this darkness hiding something? A secret of Rarity perhaps? Maybe it was one about her past, or maybe one about her hobbies? It could also just be some sort of storage closet, but that didn’t seem too interesting of an ending.

Twilight gasped as she illuminated the room to find herself staring face to face with…

Pictures and memories of a lost daughter
Spike, strapped down, with a whip nearby

Lost Daughter

Here I was just pausing for some sort of dramatic effect, like a good storyteller does, and you just shout out something completely random, in hopes that you could actually change what you end up seeing. Do you understand how foolish that sounds? Trying to control events that have already taken place? It’s not like yelling at your screen will do anything. This room was already prepared long ago, for when you came into this room, you could then gasp at what it holds, and be in awe.

I would be more annoyed at you Twilight if you hadn’t...you said “Pictures and memories of a lost daughter”, correct? As in “daughter”, you mean Rarity’s daughter, and in “lost” you mean dead, correct? Did the child, like, die while in childbirth, or was it some sort of illness that took her life from us? How long ago did all of this take place? Who was the father? What was her name? So much suspense and unknowns could be made this, I must know!

Wait a minute. I can’t believe this has happened, I truly can’t believe this, Twilight. I’ve become more interested in your story than my own! You suggested an idea that is far more interesting than the one I planned myself. You’ve out story told the storyteller, and for that, I congratulate you.

What was my story, you ask? Well, thank you for asking by the way, even though you really didn’t. It really pales in comparison to the idea you just came up with though. This room was going to be filled with failed design ideas that Rarity had and then Rarity was going to come in to the room, get all mad at you, and then you were going to have to navigate your way through a multilayered conversation with a ticked off female, easily one of the toughest challenges known in existence. At least to a male that is.

If you succeeded, which would have been a pretty big “if”, you were going to be rewarded with you two making up and Rarity revealing where everyone was, a surprise birthday party made just for you. There was going to be cake, party games, and then a very intimate encounter with a pony of your choice. I’ve heard that that is pretty popular among readers and I figured that would easily be a good enough reward for completing such a difficult task.

If you failed, Rarity was going to be overcome with rage and discover what happens when you lunge a sharp, pointed object at another pony. The story would then turn and dark and gritty, with Rarity faced with the knowledge that she had just killed one of the most loved ponies in Equestria, and one of her dearest friends. It would then turn into a tale about a lady on the run from the law, using any tricks in her disposal to survive, and eventually finding her true love, who would convince her to come clean with the truth.

But now, I feel this ending lacks all pizzazz. There’s no reason to go through with this ending. This story ends here. Maybe I should have hired you to come up with better ending, for you sure have bested me here.

Discovering Creator

No, Twilight knew she couldn’t do it. There were far too many unknowns; too many things left unsure. If she turned off the power, what would happen to her? What would happen to her life, but more importantly, her friends? No, there were better ways to solve this situation. One with less risk.

Twilight went back to exploring the Creation Center, checking desks and computers for anything that could be helpful. Suddenly, a new thought entered her head. A thought that made so much sense she was shocked that she hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Is somepony writing this adventure as well? Her discovery of the trapdoor, the exploring of the hallway; had this been the reason why she was able to unlock the door in the first place?

Twilight heard tapping coming around the corner. She gathered her courage and peaked around to see another being, sitting in front of the computer, typing. To Twilight’s horror, the being turned around, and then smiled.

Immediately, Twilight knew she was staring face to face with her creator. Twilight just knew. She couldn’t comprehend to hows or the whys, but she knew. Maybe it was a feeling that every creation gets when they meet their own creator.

Or maybe it was because he wore a shirt with her face painted on it with the words, “Twilight’s #1 Fan,” written out below.

Twilight wasn’t sure what exactly to do. Her decisions before had been made with ease, without any sort of thinking involved. And now, her thoughts on what to do next were blank, empty, a pure white space.

The tapping noise started again. Twilight was suddenly filled with great love and compassion for her creator. He was one of the greatest, no, the greatest person in the history of everything. She ran up to him and he embraced her in his arms. She looked up into his eyes and she didn’t care that his face was full of pimples, that he was a little overweight, that he was a little on the weak side, she loved him all the same.

Twilight closed her eyes and leaned in, puckering her lips. Her perfect creator began to do the same. Love was in the air, this was how it was supposed to be. Nothing was going to stop this.

“Jimmy!” his mother called from upstairs, startling him. “Have you finished cleaning the basement yet?”

Jim Stevens pushed his chair away from the computer. “Yeah mom!” he yelled back. “I, like, finished doing that an hour ago!”

“Then what are you doing now?” she snapped back. “Why are you still in the basement?”

“I’m doing nothing mom,” he replied innocently. “I was just about to head back upstairs.”

“You were writing those stories again, weren’t you?” she angrily accused. “A man your age should not be doing such things! You’re over twenty, for goodness sake! You should go ahead and get a job!”

“Writing is a job mom!” he countered.

“Not the stuff you write about!” she countered back. “All these ponies! I can’t believe what this son of mine has turned into!”

“What are you going to do about it mom?” he shot back, a little ticked off.

“This!” she screamed and suddenly it became pitch black. Jim was shocked. She’d pulled the plug on him!

“Try writing any pony story now!” she shouted, crackling as her voice slowly dissipated.

Jim sighed as he watched his computer go through the rebooting stages. He knew he should have saved more often. It was not a surprise that his mother would do something like this. Now he was going to rewrite the majority of the story again.

“How did it begin again?” he asked himself out loud. He thought for a few minutes. “That’s right, it began something like…”

Sugarcube Corner

Twilight was so bad at following directions it was a surprise that she hadn’t gotten…

Hold on a moment. You, Twilight Sparkle, not following directions? What is going on here? You’re the queen of orders and lists, known for going to extreme measures for their cause. When have you abandoned their ways, Twilight? When? I can’t believe you could have…

Wait a minute. I can’t believe this either. How could I have not noticed this sooner? You’re not Twilight, you’re a real person, reading this story on some website somewhere, making the decisions for her. I was wondering why she was making rebellious choices, I mean, seriously, this is Twilight Sparkle we’re talking about here.

Well...it seems that we have a kind of situation here, don’t you think? This story was created for Twilight Sparkle, and, well, you’re, obviously, not her. I can’t just let you run around in my creation, making random decisions that make no sense and ruin the flow of this narrative.

Hmm...you know what? I’ll give you a chance. A chance to prove yourself. To prove that you are more than worthy enough to be part of my story. I was going to use this situation for Twilight, but we really can’t do that anymore, can we? Haha.

Twilight -no wait- You walked into the Sugarcube Corner. You weren’t sure why exactly you walked into the Sugarcube Corner, there were plenty of other locations for Spike to be. You couldn’t remember Spike ever wanting to go visit this place, so why did you decide to visit it now? Maybe the aroma from outside had drawn you in; you always did have somewhat of a sweet tooth.

You searched the room for any sight of Spike. Not surprisingly, he’s nowhere to be found. But as you turn to leave, something catches your eye. There’s a note on the counter, with your name written on it. You take a few steps closer to get a better look at it.

“Hey there, ~~Twilight~~ You!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I knew you were coming due to my Pinkie Sense! So, so, so sorry I am not around currently! I am currently out throwing a small party for Cherry Punch. If you want something delicious to eat, I left you a cupcake! Please eat the red one, for I’m saving the blue one for an extra special event!

Thanks!
~Pinkie Pie”

True to her word, you find a plate of two cupcakes sitting next to the note. Being the respectable friend you are, you gladly pick up the red cupcake and begin to eat it.

Pick up the Red one
Pick up the Blue one

Let's Try That Again

Perhaps you misunderstood.

You pick up the red cupcake.

Pick up Red
Pick up Blue

Let's Try That Again

Let's Try That Again

I still don’t think we’re communicating properly here.

You pick up the red cupcake.

Pick up Red
Pick up Blue

A Different Story

It is clear to me that you have no interest in following my story.

I have no clue why. It was going to be filled with adventure, thrills, excitement; do you not want any of that? It was going to have deep character development, where they would learn true, deeper meanings about themselves and their existence! There were even going to jokes, humorous jokes, that were for sure going to make you smile from ear to ear!

Is that not what you want from a story? What else could you possibly want from a story? I can’t think of a single thing that could help improve the reading experience for you.

I’m not even going to try at this point. I’m out, I’m out, I’m done.

It’s over. Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed yourself.

Oh hey, since my story was so awful, how about we read someone else’s? Just to ease the pain of this failure.

Let’s see, what story can we find of this website?

…

Don’t mind me, just doing some quick searching.

....

Okay, here’s something that might work. Let’s give it a shot.

******************************************************************************
Introduction

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

This seems like your nice, happy story---

…there came an era when the ideals of friendship gave way to greed, selfishness, paranoia and a jealous reaping of dwindling space and natural resources.

---well, that turned dark quickly.

Lands took up arms against their neighbors. The end of the world occurred much as we had predicted -- the world was plunged into an abyss of balefire and dark magic. The details are trivial and pointless. The reasons, as always, purely our own. The world was nearly wiped clean of life. A great cleansing; a magical spark struck by pony hooves quickly raged out of control. Megaspells rained from the skies. Entire lands were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans. Ponykind was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the ambient radiation that blanketed the lands. A quiet darkness fell across the world…

Well, I have to say, I would not have thought about this sort of ending to a day of Twilight Sparkle. Are you enjoying the story so far? I mean, yes, it has the great tone of distress and anguish, but hey, at the very least, I had no involvement with it, so that should make you a little bit happy.

…But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue for another bloody chapter in pony history. In the early days, thousands were spared the horrors of the holocaust by taking refuge in enormous underground shelters known as Stables. But when they emerged, they had only the hell of the wastes to greet them. All except those in---

Wait a minute, I just noticed something. This story is over 600,000 words! That’s….that’s….that’s actually quite amazing, I could never keep to one story for that long. That is why I went and got my degree in short story narrating and storytelling.

Well, the problem is, no matter how good this story is, it simply is far too long for the whole short story motif that my story was going to have. I think it would be unfair if I completely ditched it right now.

Let’s see if I can find a shorter story to read instead.

Ah, here we go.
******************************************************************************
I live my life, one day at a time. A good portion of those days are uneventful, always falling in the same routine: I wake up, walk to work, work, walk home, then bum around until I go to bed.

Hmm, it seems that we’ve gone from the end of the world as we know it to someone thinking about their life’s very meaning and existence, whether or not life has a true purpose. This is something I can get behind because, you know, you completely ruined what I thought mine was.

Sometimes I'll hang with my few friends, while other times I'll just play video games or watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Every so often, something new and interesting happens: I meet an old friend, I find a dollar on the ground, or I get chased by a stray dog.

Living in a dying city isn't very fun or interesting. This city---

You know what, my story is no longer very fun or interesting. It used to be, back where we were telling a story about Twilight, but now, here I am, giving some snide commentary about some other popular stories.

That’s not what this story was going to be all about. And, personally, I’m now tired of seeing this story going on. It needs to end. There’s no inspiration in this story anymore, no heart, no life.

It used to, that’s for sure. And that’s when it was great, exciting, interesting. You didn’t like it though, beyond all common sense and your great distaste destroyed all of my will to continue and produce such a master piece and here I am trying to make up for that failure by bring you some other great works.

I need to stop. I truly need to stop. There’s no point in this ending anymore. There’s no point in its life, absolutely no meaning.

You have reached now reached the end. Congrats.

Author's Note

Stories Referenced:

Fallout: Equestria

My Little Dashie

Introduction

This is the story of a mare named Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight worked for a local library in a small town where she was Celestia’s prize student. Celestia’s prize student’s job was simple: she studied friendship in the library, and she learned about its magic. She would visit her friends outside the library, hang out with them, write letters about her experiences, and send them to Celestia. This is what Celestia’s student did every day of every month, every year, and so on. And although others might have considered it silly, Twilight relished every moment that her friends came in, as though as she had had no social life before this time. And Twilight was happy.

And then one day, something peculiar happened. Something that would forever change Twilight. Something she would never forget. She had been going over her daily checklist for hours when she realized that nopony had arrived to come and visit. Nopony had showed up to ask about a solution to a problem, form a party, or even say hello. Never in all her years at the library had this happened – this complete isolation. Something was clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Twilight found herself unable to move for what seemed eternity. But as she came to her wits and regained her senses, she got up from her desk and stepped out of her room.

All her friends were gone. What could this mean? Could somepony or something have done something to them? Twilight decided to take a look around, perhaps Spike had gotten some sort of a memo.

When she reached two sets of doors, she took the one on her left.

Left Door
Right Door

It's a Secret to Everyone

It's a Secret to Everyone

When Twilight arrived at the trap door, she peaked inside to reveal a corridor heading underground. Her curiosity had now piqued to astonishing high levels. She had not been so excited since the one time where she acquired a shipment of brand new encyclopedias. Twilight made a light with her horn and headed down into the long, dark hallway.

As she took one step after another into the mysterious hallway, Twilight wondered in disbelief who had orchestrated the creation of this tunnel. Where had this tunnel came from? What did it hold? Was it keeping a secret, some secret that could change that face of the world she knew?

But all these thoughts were pushed aside when she found another discovery, a giant metal door. Next to it was a standard keypad, ten numbers, each labeling a different button. Twilight couldn’t have known the importance of what lied behind this door, nor the secrecy that had been made to keep this from her.

The secrecy was so great that this metal door was given an extra secret code. One that nopony in Ponyville knew about. It was given the secret code of ‘2845’. But obviously, there was no way Twilight could have possibly known this.

Enter the Code

Fun Time With Spike

Hold on there Twilight, what did you just say? Spike, your...err...something that you have a close relationship with, strapped down, and a whip nearby? In Rarity’s home?

I hope you’re not implying what I think you’re...you’re applying what I think you’re applying aren’t you, Twilight.

*sigh* I don’t know if I should be annoyed by this suggestion or disturbed. I feel like I’m definitely leaning towards the disturbed. Very disturbed in fact.

Why would you even say such a thing Twilight? That’s very out of character for you. You’re the last character I excepted to say such a thing. What books have you been reading recently?

“What do you want our safe word to be Spikey Wikey?”

“How about ‘diamond’ because it’s when I can’t get any harder?”

Oh great. Now you’ve got me thinking about this idea in more detail. Thanks a lot Twilight. I really appreciate it.

I wanted to keep this story at a “E for Everyone” rating, but it seems like that dream can no longer come true. I wanted to tell a story about you, Twilight. A story of you changing the world, redefining what it meant to be you, a true heartwarming story. Not whatever this ending has turned out to be.

I even had a couple back-up stories in place, for if you had decided to go a little bit off track of the main story, it would still have you ending up accomplishing a great goal or something like that. But now this is all ruined, thanks to you.

You know what Twilight? I’m not even going to give you a proper ending this time around. No, no, I’m going to give you some random ending that I am going to think up here on the spot, so we can just get this story over with and try to restart fresh, alright?

Hmm...let’s see...oh, I’ve got a really simple one for you.

Twilight suddenly heard a crash from above. Before she could react in time, a giant boulder fell on top of her and crushed her. It turned out that this room was infact used to store a rock named Tom and opening the door had sent him free.

I guess you could say for Twilight, this was a crushing defeat.

Discovering Princess

All the machines slowly stopped turning. The lights went out. The control center was no more. Twilight felt freer than ever, knowing that what happened now was due to her own actions.

Suddenly, a strange light enveloped Twilight. It started out slow, but then started to glow, removing Twilight from each of her senses one by one. Was this the end? Was this the result of her actions? What was going to become of her?

As the light dimmed, Twilight began to regain her senses. Twilight realized quickly saw that she was no longer in the Creation Center. She saw that she was now in the Canterlot Castle, with thousands of ponies cheering her name. She turned around to see Princess Celestia smiling down at her and her dearest friends with beaming faces. Pure joy was on their face, on everypony’s face.

Before Twilight could comprehend what was going on, another ball of light engulfed Twilight. When this one had dissipated, Twilight felt different. Twilight now had both symbols of a true Alicorn, a horn and wings. She was now a princess.

As the joy of the situation started to sink in, Twilight reflected on how many answers still went unsolved.

Where had her friends gone? How it all been some sort of test? Had that place even been real?

But as the praise of the ponies and her friends got louder and the reality of it all hit her. She realized that none of this truly mattered to her. For she was not seeking knowledge, not even power, but the happiness in friendship. Perhaps her goal was to see her actions bring order and happiness to those that she cared most about.

And now that she had risen to a position, the position where she was as the same level as her mentor. She now had the ability to make even more important decisions of her own to help others. No longer was she a student, where there were certain decisions that we decided for her, she was now free of those bonds. Whatever life she wanted to live, it would be hers to choose.

And that was all she needed to know.

It was, perhaps, the only thing worth knowing.

Twilight stepped forward to the crowd and felt the love and honor of the ponies in her heart. The feeling of respect and trust, the core to any relationship and the possibilities of this with all of the ponies before her.

This was, right at this moment, how things were supposed to be.

And Twilight was happy.

Human In...

You snack upon the red cupcake. It tastes like strawberries.

Congratulations. You passed the test. Sorry for making you go through that, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

Now, you, I’m not sure if I like the current situation that the story is in, would you agree? I can’t really recall what the main story was about, but I believe there was some sort of mystery at hand. Right now all I’m getting is that we’re eating a pastry, and I don’t know about you, but I think that’s not very interesting. It’s rather dull, if I do say so myself.

You know what we need? We need a complete new and different story based around you! Oh, how exciting. Something new, something fresh. I don’t have a lot of experience with writing stories about humans, but give me a few moments and let’s see what I can come up with, shall we?

****************************************************************************

The sun is shining brightly upon your face. The wind is blowing through your hair. You stand upon the top of hill of golden grass, looking down at the small town below. What you see before you stuns you. Ponies, colorful ponies, walking around, interacting with one another. In real life. It is no longer being viewed from behind a TV screen nor is it being drawn for you on a piece of paper, it is all real.

You are stunned. This is the dream you’ve always had! You, *insert your name here* , who usually sat at home, taking in the different forms of My Little Pony media, had read stories about this sort of thing. However, you never imagined that it could have actually come true, that you could stand upon a hill and look upon the small town of Ponyville.

You’ve pinched yourself many times, checking if you are awake. But no, it is finally reality! Now you can run down this hill and go down and meet with *insert your favorite pony here* and do *insert your favorite activity here*. If you play your cards right, *insert your dreams here* might come true!

Now go, and make your dreams into reality!

The end.