//------------------------------// // Six Days Earlier... // Story: Double Trixie Trouble // by PrincessColumbia //------------------------------// Six Days Earlier… The Great and Powerful Trixie grumbled sleepily at her new hands. Between them was a bowl full of some form of over-cooked flakes coated in something that wasn’t quite sugar, but sure wasn’t honey, then slathered in a nearly equal amount of milk...a milk that didn’t quite look right, no matter how much she squinted at it. Once she had decided that the human excuse for breakfast cereal was only barely acceptable (and, were she entirely honest, probably a LOT better than she normally ate out of her wagon while touring), she moved her attention to her magically granted new digits. It took some getting used to, seeing them wiggle about on mere thought from her. I’ll have to practice my writing with them, she mentally grumped, If yesterday is any indication, I’ll be needing to sign many, many forms while I’m here. Her attention was drawn away from her fingers by her trans-universal doppelganger entering the kitchen. This (much YOUNGER darnit!) version of herself yawned briefly. This at first seemed to be her only concession to waking at the early hour of (she squinted at the clock, a cleverly made affair designed to look like a cat with a wagging tail as a pendulum) six in the morning. “The shower is free, if you need it.” grumped the teenager, “Try not to use all of Trixie’s shampoo!” The slightly huffy way the girl gathered her breakfast supplies and not-quite stomping about the kitchen told the transformed pony that the girl wasn’t any more of a morning person than herself. She took a moment to shovel the last of the overly-sweet cereal into her mouth and stood and stretched. Muttering her thanks to her look-alike, she made her way to the bedroom she was sharing with the other houseguest. Twilight Sparkle was, apparently, a fitful sleeper. When they had started their evening in their new (if temporary) home, the brainy girl had tucked herself neatly under her covers on the camping mat on the floor of the bedroom belonging to the student Trixie. By the time morning came, she had kicked all her covers off and wound up with one leg draped over Trixie’s hips. This had actually been what woke Trixie up shortly before her younger counterpart’s alarm clock had gone off; Twilight’s awkward position had pinned Trixie’s legs and cut off the circulation in the one nearest to Twilight, causing Trixie’s leg to get the pins-and-needles “falling asleep” sensation that left it numb. Once Trixie had extricated herself, Twilight had tossed and turned, finally settling into a sleeping position that didn’t quite turn into a fetal curl, what with her flank propped up in a singularly uncomfortable looking position. Trixie smirked, allowing the slight flush to creep into her cheeks. Hanging out with a gryphon hen who shared her appreciation for the “fairer sex” had also expanded her general attraction index, to the point where she found she could appreciate this somewhat simeon form on her frenemy’s double, especially with a secondary sex characteristic being presented as it was. Of course, thought the illusionist, It does help that the mirror rewired our brains a little to make it easier for us to be attracted to these forms. “Yo, Sparkle,” announced Trixie to the sleeping girl, “Time to get up.” With a snort, the high school girl jerked awake, tumbling over on her side and flailing her arms. “Mrmfmmflfrm…” she muttered. Leaving the purple girl to her struggles, Trixie started to disrobe. The clothes she had been lent by her younger self seemed a bit over the top for going to sleep. Then again, they were pretty much naked apes, so the lack of fur on all surfaces probably made it somewhat difficult to deal with the inevitable temperature shifts that would happen in the night. She had finally gotten the pants off when Twilight caught her attention. “Have you seen my glasses?” Trixie looked over to see her roommate squinting at everything, groping around on the floor near her pillow. A quick scan of the room revealed them to be about three feet from where the purple girl was feeling around. Without thinking, Trixie waved her hand, startling herself when her unconscious action produced the usual magical halo that she would normally expect around her horn to spring into existence around her fingers, a matching illumination lifting the glasses off the floor. Grinning smugly, Trixie guided the glasses over to Twilight’s searching hands. Twilight gripped the glasses gently, opening the arms and sliding them onto her face, “Thank you so much, I feel blind when I’mWHOAH-MY-GOSH YOU’RE NAKED!” Trixie blinked in confusion and glanced down at herself, “Well, yes. What’s your point?” -~<@>~- The Somewhat Uncomfortable and Confused Trixie watched her younger self practically doubled-over in laughter, Twilight sparkle blushing so hard her skin had gone from purple to fuchia. “What is you human’s obsession with wearing clothes, anyway? It’s like you’re trying to hide your bodies!” This just made the laughing louder, now accompanied by a singularly undignified rolling about on the ground. Twilight cleared her throat, “It’s...uhm...a social adaptation, brought about by a mix of grouping instinct, climate shift, and survival adaptation. It’s theorized that initially our species…” she was silenced by a blue finger to her lips. “It was a rhetorical question, Sparkle.” Trixie lowered her hand, “An actual question would be, why are we just standing in front of...uh, Trixie’s house?” she nodded her head at her still-laughing counterpart. “Oh! That’s easy!” smiled Twilight, “We’re waiting on the bus.” “The...bus? What does an artificially constructed mana channel have to do with us standing outside of a house at 6:30 in the morning?” It was Twilight’s turn to blink in confusion, “Uh, what? What’s a mana channel?” The unicorn sighed as she dredged up knowledge from memory that she hadn’t had to use since leaving Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, “It’s a pathway that’s been artificially formed, usually by a unicorn, to transport mana from one locus to another. They’re traditionally made using crystal, but I heard recently that some archives recovered from the Crystal Library had a less time consuming means of production that produced carbonized microstructures that resemble piping. It’s supposed to make the manufacture of a mana channel easier and on a much smaller scale.” Twilight thought that over for a moment, “So this ‘mana,’ it’s a form of energy?” Trixie nodded, “It’s one of the five fundamental forces to the universe.” Twilight’s eyes bulged slightly, “Your universe has FIVE fundamental forces? This one has four!” some dots connected in her brain, “Wait, did you say you’re people have developed a cheap and easy way to mass produce carbon nanotubes?!” “Oh my god, you two are such nerds!” complained Trixie’s younger self. Glaring slightly at Twilight, she said, “Why couldn’t you have just said that a bus is a vehicle, like a large car?” “Ah!” Trixie exclaimed in comprehension, “And a ‘car’ is one of those self-propelled carriages.” she pointed to a passing SUV. Twilight nodded in reply, and Trixie continued, “So how did a ‘large car’ get the same name as a system to transfer information between systems?” Twilight paused again, “Transfer of information...so, wait, a mana bus would be like...I GET IT, BUS!!!” this time Twilight collapsed to the ground in loud laughter, and once again Trixie stood confused, this time joined by her younger counterpart. After a moment, the younger Trixie just grumbled, “...nerd…”