Chapter 5
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Night Light and Velvet paid no mind to the many people pausing and looking in their direction with puzzled stares. With a six year old girl sitting with them in the food court reading a book on advanced aerodynamics, stares were a given.
They were no strangers to random passers-by looking back at them in confusion due to having already gone through something similar with their own Twilight at the princess’s age… though the books were definitely more advanced that their Twilight had read at that age, so it was a bit funnier.
“It’s so fascinating,” the lavender girl said, pouring over the book’s contents. “In Equestria we really just fly with wings or hot air balloons. Our air travel is nowhere near to this level. The dynamics involved are astounding.”
Laughter caused her to look up to see the two adults smiling at her. Velvet nodded to her left. “Forgetting something, I see?”
The little princess looked to her right and saw a tray with food sitting next to her. There was a burger, potatoes fries and a soda, plus a small bag with a question mark on it.
Her cheek going red, she set the book aside and lifted the burger before taking a bite. At once, her eyes lit up and she began chewing with gusto, a bright smile on her face as she chewed with her eyes closed.
The two adults chuckled again. She was so much like their Twilight. So adorable at that age.
Velvet then paused, before looking questioningly at her daughter’s lookalike. “It still is so odd to me. Even though you’re a pony, eating meat isn’t frowned upon in your world?”
Princess Twilight paused from her ravaging on her burger, pulling it down to reveal large ketchup stains all over her mouth.
She gulped, grabbing her soda and sipping a bit before sighing and looked to her mother’s double. “Well, it’s not a common thing, but we do eat small amounts of meat every once in a while. We don’t need a lot of it though, so we mostly have meat offered for animals and foreigners, like the griffons.”
Night Light blinked. “Wait. Griffons? You have griffons in your world too?”
She nodded, taking another bite of her burger. “Shnot too weiwd to shee ponish eating meat wish dere mealsh. R’inbow D’sh,” she swallowed, “tends to have some at least three times a week. I myself have had to increase my own intake since becoming an Alicorn. Pegasi and unicorns burn up more calories than other ponies, Alicorns even more so.” She paused, cocking an eyebrow. “Though that’s doesn’t account for Pinkie Pie. Though, from past experience, I’ve learned it’s better to accept that and not question it.”
The two adults looks to each other, not really sure how to answer any of that.
“Mom? Dad? Phew. Glad I found you. Listen, can you tell me where to find—”
The voice caused her to choke, needing to thump her chest a few times to get the food down. The princess stared wide eyed at the human interpretation of her big brother, who in turn where staring at what he no doubt saw as his younger sister having somehow gotten even younger.
The two just stood there, staring at each other.
“And then I said “Oatmeal? Are you crazy? He then — Oh, hi, Twi… oh.”
They turned and Shining Armours eyes bugged out of his head, before his eyes darted to and from his sister to the ketchup stained faced miniature version of her sitting before him.
“I… but, what… how could… that doesn’t…” the white young man staggered, his eyes starting to dilute as his brain was overloaded.
“Well, this is awkward,” Dash murmured to Applejack, who nodded in agreement.
“Oh, Twilight, darling,” Rarity hurried over to the younger girl, taking the napkins from the tray and began wiping the lavender child’s face.
“Rarity! hey — wait!” Princess Twilight struggled against her now much bigger friend, trying to avoid to barrage of napkins.
“What’s going on here?!”
All eyes turned to Shining Armour, who was righting himself and shaking his head. He looked to his sister, before pointing to the younger version. “I came to apologize after seeing how Cinch forced you into the games, where I learn she also forced you to use magic and now I find out you used it to make a clone of yourself!”
At once, his sister’s eyes narrowed. “She is not a clone, Shining Armour! I would never use magic like that!”
“You used it to open tears in our world,” Shining shout back, causing her to wince. “Cloning doesn’t sound too far from that.”
“Now back off,” Sunset came to the glasses wearing girl’s aid as she shied away. “That’s below the belt, pal. Twilight couldn’t control herself back then. She was under the influence of stolen, unstable magic.”
“What would you know about it?” he asked, looking to her sternly.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “Because I’m magical too. My magic was part of the stolen magic. I know what it feels like to have that running through you. You don’t.”
“And you should show a little more respect to royalty!” Rarity said as the little girl batted her hands away, a small amount of ketchup still on her face. “I would have expected better of Twilight’s own brother.”
He blinked, before giving her an unamused look. “What? You think you’re royalty?”
Rarity shook her head, before indicating to the smaller girl still seated. “I am talking about her. You are addressing Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, the Princess of Friendship.”
He looked at her, clearly unsure whether Rarity was being serious or not.
“Whatever the case, for someone who wanted to apologize, you just made Twilight feel worse,” Sunset grabbed Shining’s attention again. He looked to see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy comforting their friend, who was wiping tears from her eyes.
Shining’s face broke and he moved to step forward, but then paused, looking down in shame. “Twilight, I… I’m sorry. I… I haven’t been the best big brother. I should’ve seen how uncomfortable you were and realized I shouldn’t make you feel you have to do something. And, after I heard the recordings of Principal Cinch blackmailing you, I just…”
His body sagged, his expression crestfallen.
“Wait. She was blackmailed, by her principal?! And you let it happen?!”
All eyes turned the tiny person the voice in question came from. She was staring both in shock and anger and the white boy.
Shining blinked, before looking to his sister. “Um, Twily, exactly who is this? Why does she sound and look just like you did at that age?”
“Don’t ignore me, BBBFF!” he looked back to see pure anger in the little girl’s eyes. “You’re sister was in trouble and you ignored it? At least my Shining had the excuse his mind was being zapped by a Changeling Queen pretending to be his bride! What’s your excuse?!”
Sunset blinked, before noticing the princess’s little hands glowing with her magic. Uh oh. I’d better stop this before things get really out of hand.
“Whoa-ho-ho-ho!” the voice caused her to pause and glance to Pinkie Pie, whom was bouncing up and down as if…
“Shuddering?!” Sunset’s eyes widened in horror. She looked back to the angry child, who was holding her hands up in fists now, everyone becoming aware of the glow of her magic.
“You let somepony hurt your sister when you could clearly see she was unhappy?!” Her eyes were daggers and they were aimed squarely at the white boy.
“Twily, sweetie, calm down,” Velvet said quickly, trying to stop things from escalating. “We wouldn’t want an outburst now, would we?”
“Ye-yeah,” Shining said quickly, holding up his hands in a calming manner. “Little girls shouldn’t have outbursts or —”
“I’m NOT A LITTLE GIRL!” the young Twilight screamed, going into the Canterlot Royal Voice, causing the room to shake and everyone to cover their ears.
As she screamed, Princess Twilight’s magic exploded from her hands, souring all over the food court.
People screamed, ducking and diving to avoid the flares of purple magic that were shooting in multiple directions.
“Twilight, no!” Pinkie Pie yelled, pushing forward and running toward her fellow Equestrian, only to end up running right into the path of a magical blast.
Pinkie jittered in place as the magic consumed her, the girl whom cast the magic staring with eyes wide with horror as her rage quickly fell.
Everyone else stared in horror too as the pink girl seemed to vanish with the purple light.
Princess Twilight’s magic stopped suddenly and she slumped forward, Rarity catching her. “Pin… kie…” she said in a very tired voice.
The magic around where Pinkie had been faded to reveal the girl was still there, though her hair was very frazzled.
She blinked, looking around at everyone in confusion. “How’d I get here?”
“Huh?” Sunset and Twilight looked to each other, before looking back to the Equestrian. “Pinkie, we walked here from the park, remember?”
The pink haired girl shook her head. “No I didn’t I was in Twilight’s library after visiting Zecora — Oh, did you guys know she’s actually a zebra in Equestria? Who’d have thunk, right? Anyway, she gave me a potion that I was going to use to prank Rainbow Dash so she’d sleep for a whole day, but just before I could splash her with a few drops, I got the shudders, dropping the potion and found myself here.” She looked around, before blinking in confusion. “Why’re Princess Twilight here? And why’s she a little kid?”
The princess heard no more as her exhausted body gave out and she went unconscious.