"So, you think we're gonna die tomorrow?" asked Shimmer as she laid beside Sparkle in their pod. "Honestly if given the choice between death and another night in this; I think I'll chose death."

"Telling jokes to overcome fear?" Sparkle asked without emotion.

Shimmer shrugged as best she could. "Eh, half and half. I mean, this really does suck. I'm cold, I got branches poking me in places a doctor shouldn't even go, and it feels like a coffin already."

"True," Sparkle simply replied.

Shimmer turned to look at Sparkle. "What's with you?"

"Is that a serious question?" Sparkle was getting annoyed with Shimmers attitude. "We just watched four people get murdered, well I guess five; one get possessed, fought off a legion of ghosts, and found out we were gods incarnate that have the entire fate of everything resting on our shoulders."

"Well the god thing came before the ghost battle," Shimmer corrected Sparkle.

"Seriously!" Sparkle exclaimed, exasperated at Shimmer's complete lack of concern at their current situation.

"Listen, I told everyone back at the mansion that I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown alright! I'm scared. I'm scared crapless. I don't want die and I sure as heck don't want everyone everywhere to die either. There's only two ways I deal with stress, joking and screwing. I doubt if you're up for the later, so I'm only left with the former."

"You guessed right," Sparkle deadpanned.

"Darn it. One of the few times I hate being right."

Shimmer looked at Sparkle and both started laughing. It felt good to laugh. Each had been feeling a growing weight on their chest. It had been crushing; a feeling of being pinned down and not being able to get up. Now each felt lighter, freer.

"So," Sparkle started after regaining herself, "let's say we survive this; what do you want to do with the rest of your life?"

"Hmm, well, since I'm a goddess, I'd like to make a planet of all hot chicks and call it Mufftopia. After that? I don't know."

Sparkle giggled. "You're really ridding that lesbian train for all it's worth huh?"

"Hey, I get heterosexuality shoved down my throat all the time. I think I can dyke it up every once in a while."

Sparkle raised her eyebrow. "Pun intended?"

Shimmer cocked her head and thought for a second. "No but I'll own it." They both laughed again and Shimmer asked, "So what about you? What are your plans?"

"Honestly," Sparkle said seriously, "I don't know. I wanted to be a research scientist - quantum physics. Now? I just don't know. Everything seems so small and useless. I've been to another dimension, teleported halfway around the world, fought off ghosts, and now I'm preparing to do battle with an extradimensional alien to stop the release of a bunch of Eldrich horrors. Where does one from that?"

"True," Shimmer said thoughtfully. "Also it'll be kind of hard to take orders from a boss knowing that you're a literal goddess."

Sparkle gave a quick snort. "Very true." Before she could say anything else, they heard Twilight yell "WHAT!" Sparkle and Shimmer exchanged looks and Sparkle said, "Sunset must've said something bad."

"Must have," Shimmer said craning her neck even though she couldn't see out of their pod. She then turned to Sparkle again. "So what do you think of your double?"

"I don't know. We're definitely alike in many ways but so different in others. I know she's older than me so that could be a factor in things. I would go with the Fun House mirror analogy but that feels too clichéd and easy. I respect her, look up to her, find her fascinating, yet find her a bit off putting. I don't know. You?"

"Pretty much the same. I look at her and think she's so smart and strong. She has a nobility about her but she's also really down to Earth and approachable. She gives me hope for me when I'm that age."

"The thing is, we're still only two versions of Twilight Sparkle. Out there, there are an infinite amount of other me's. I wonder what they are like, what bodies they have. Are the insectoid, fish, amphibian, maybe bird like, or even silicone based. Knowing for certain that other universes, other dimensions exist, I feel trapped being in just this one."

"Eum," Shimmer grunted, "I agree. We've touched the veil of reality and pulled it back to glimpse eternity."

"Wow! That's deep," Sparkle said surprised.

` "I'm not all sarcasm and tasteless jokes all the time. Most; but not all."

Sparkle smiled. Then she remembered something Shimmer had said back at the mansion. "Hey, are you really a genius?"

"Yep. Tested and verified. I'm guessing you are too."

"Affirmative. So, let me run this past you. Remember all the possible options I ran down that might happen if one were to try and change time?"

"Sure. All were distinct possibilities."

"Well, I just thought of another. I call it the God Author theory. It kind of goes like this - the reason a paradox is created when someone tries to change time is because they would be erasing the very reason that made them go back in the first place right?"

"Sure. If the reason never happened, they'd never would have gone back therefore never changing time and etcetera, etcetera."

"Exactly. We are finite beings who only know what we can experience. But an omnipotent being, a god, who has knowledge of all things, all possibilities, could change time since the time line they changed was only ever one possible outcome, no more real than any other. Sort of like an author going back and changing a story she's writing. Hopefully I explained that well enough."

"No, I get it. Yeah. The author is real, the novel is a complete work of fiction, a figment of her imagination. She could go back and change whatever aspects of the story she wanted to because the story isn't real to begin with."

"Um, yes and no. Just to an omnipotent being, no one probability or outcome would be any more real than any other."

"No, I'm get that. So potentially, since we are gods incarnate, if we could access the full Goddess Force, we could change time because we would know every possible outcome to begin with therefore there would be no, could be no, paradox."

"Yes! Exactly!" Sparkle squealed in excitement.

Shimmer frowned though as a new thought came into her head. "That begs the question then - are we real? Is anything real? Fiction can be written and rewritten because it's all fake. Are we fake? Just characters in someone's story? Are words and actions, even our thoughts; written and rewritten a hundred, a thousands times over?"

"As incarnates, we might be the only ones that are real to be honest with you."

"So everyone we know and love, and I guess hate and feel apathetic to for that matter; is just an illusion, a figment of our imagination?"

"Yeah, I guess. But then if you take that to it's logical conclusion - so were we. It was Celestia and Luna who were real and we were fake until the Goddess Force left them and came to us."

"So that would mean they are fake now too?"

"I guess. And we'll be fake again one day in the future as the Goddess Force leaves us for someone else."

They two just laid there, looking at each other as the full implications of everything they had said slowly crept up on them and opened up a myriad of other thoughts and questions. What is reality? What is thought, what is consciousness? Where, out of a pool of lifeless particles does life begin? A million and one concepts and questions ran around their heads; each one spawning a million and one more.

Eventually Shimmer frowned and said, "We should've just screwed."

Sparkle busted out laughing as did Shimmer. "No, that was never going to happen," Sparkle teased back. Both girls laughed again.

As they quieted down, Shimmer spoke in a new found seriousness, "So, back to my original question - You think we're gonna die tomorrow?"