//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty One: Of Stalking and Talking 
// Story: That One Time: Two Princesses Enjoyed Their Harem Honeymoon 
// by TheCrimsonDM 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Twenty One: Of Stalking and Talking


Written by TheCrimsonDM


Twilight could say many things about today. She woke up, got cleaned, spent some time with her loved ones, ignored Celestia's chastising remarks about the event yesterday, and was doing her utmost to relax by reading books in the first floor library of the Bluebird manor. She also vaguely remembered Pinkie Pie noisily dragging a minecart into the mansion. She remembered tampering with the break and writing a personal message to the pink mare, it was the least she could do.

What she did not expect was for Pinkie Pie to return home, not only with a smirking Fluttershy, but also a meek and shy Trixie seeing the fact that their cutie marks had swapped only made Twilight's enjoyment of today's events sour. Then hearing about the cult of equality and this Starlight pony, was only worse.

Twilight leaned back in her chair and snorted. "So, you've been up to your old tricks, Trixie?"

Trixie lowered her head and hid behind Pinkie. "P-please, d-don't yell. It always scares m-me."

Fluttershy wrapped a wing over Trixie's back in a defensive pose. "Yeah, and it hurts me too. I mean seriously, half our friends ruined Trixie’s first show in Ponyville and then you sent her off packing all alone and homeless, twice. That's like, so unfair. She’s my idol."

Trixie gasped. "Idol?"

Twilight groaned. "Why have their personalities changed?"

Pinkie shrugged. "I mean, when you switched our cutie marks we didn't change."

"I changed reality, not you. What I did was far worse and created at least three different split timelines. I just hope that we get married in all of them."

Pinkie smiled. "We didn't, but it's a nice thought."

"Anyway, I think I know what happened here."

Pinkie blinked up at her. "You do?"

Twilight pointed to the coffee pot. "Get me a cup of coffee. Yes. Thank you." She took a sip and smiled warmly around it. "You know how to make it just like I want it."

Pinkie Pie giggled. "See, and the years of stalking all of my best friends finally paid off."

Ignore the crazy. Actually, don't ignore the crazy. They were married now, she was going to have to confront the crazy. But not now. "Okay, so it sounds like the spell was to simply remove a pony's cutie mark and lock it away. You disrupted the spell, stole the cutie marks... somehow, and then put them on the wrong ponies. In theory if the spell had finished, their personalities wouldn't change, maybe their skill points or class features, but that's it. Now though, their personalities are all wrong."

Fluttershy leaned forward and gave Twilight a wink. "I'm pretty sure I can still do a few tricks."

Twilight ignored that. "Trixie, how are you feeling?"

"I'm sc-c-cared."

"Why are you scared?"

Trixie swallowed and tried to hide even more behind Pinkie. "Y-you're here."

Twilight had to pause at that. "You’re scared of me?"

Trixie nodded. "Always have b-been."

Fluttershy's ear twitched. "The great and powerful Fluttershy isn't scared of anything and never will be."

Trixie explained. "F-Fluttershy's scared too. That's how I act when I'm really scared."

And suddenly Twilight felt like a wall of realization slammed down into her. She’d made horrible mistakes, but now, at this moment with a Trixie who was forced to be openly scared and humbled by Fluttershy's personality mixing with her own, well... it was clear that Twilight was perhaps not as good to Trixie as she should have been. 

Fluttershy was right.

"Trixie, I'm sorry. I've done wrong by you, and I want to make amends for it. First I'm going to fix this cutie mark problem, next I'm going to be your friend."

Trixie sniffled. "B-but you might get mad at me if you fix it. I d-don't like it when you're mad. I want you to b-be happy."

"It'll be awkward at first, I'm sure, but I'll do everything in my power to help you understand how friendship works and to be the best friend you've ever had."

"You can't b-beat Starlight... but okay."

"Starlight stole your cutie mark."

"She asked me if I wanted that. And I said yes to support her."

Oh, this was more complicated by the second. Still Twilight knew her plan. "You'll be my pupil, Trixie. Just like Celestia taught me, I'll teach you. Just... don't expect to marry me."

"I-I wanna marry Starlight.”

Well okay then. Trixie, her new pupil, was in love with the potentially super evil villain. One who was certainly going to be powerful. Twilight had never heard of a spell that could remove and mix cutie marks like that, but it had to be stopped. Starlight's ideology made her dangerous. There was value in different opinions and beliefs, but thinking it was okay to steal cutie marks was a problem.

Fluttershy was wearing a sly smile. "Hear that, filly. You'll get to spend a lot more time with me."

Twilight glared at Fluttershy. "We're fixing you, and you're apologizing to me and everypony."

Fluttershy shot the glare right back. "Oh yeah, and why should I? I don't belong here anyway."

"What do you mean you don't belong here?"

"I'm just too amazing and graceful. So other ponies end up blundering around me and getting hurt. Since I'm clearly so benevolent I will leave this group before any more ponies get hurt around me from their own actions of existing around my amazingness."

"Grrr," Twilight couldn't help it. Her mood was being soured.

Fluttershy fluttered her eyes a few times. "At least I'm being direct. Instead of just manipulating all of you like I usually do. Pffft, I used to be pathetic."

Okay this was going on too long. She needed a princess, a bigger princess than her to fix this. She was about to get up when Trixie spoke up. "What Fluttershy's really saying is she feels really bad about hurting somepony, she plans on leaving before she hurts anyone else because she's sad, and she's owning up to manipulating somepony for her own gain and apologizing for it."

Twilight blinked and stared dumbfounded at Trixie. "W-what? How did you get all of that from Fluttershy being a total bi-best friend."

Trixie offered a warm smile. "I am fluent in Trixie."

Well... okay, Twilight was starting to pick up on this with a translator here. Maybe Trixie wasn't such a bad pony and more of badly at talking to ponies.

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Fluttershy's totally a tsundere now."

Twilight scowled. "No she is not. And I want her to go back to being my little dandere pony."

Pinkie cooed. "Awww, me too."

Trixie was looking around at all of them. "This f-f-feels awkward."

"That's because it is." Twilight let out a quiet sigh of defeat. "Let's get Luna's help with this. She's an expert in dark magic that messes with your hearts and minds."

Fluttershy snapped. "She is not. She is beautiful and pure and innocent. You're an expert at dark magic."

"Only the kind that kills, Fluttershy. Only the kind that kills." Twilight said almost cheerfully.

Considering what Luna did to her mind before the wedding, if anypony could fix this mess it would be her. Even if Fluttershy didn't want to admit her precious perfect princess was skilled in the darker arts. Now the question was, where did Luna go?

The air next to Twilight rippled and slowly dark blue fur revealed itself as out of the nothingness Luna appeared. "I have been watching you this whole time. Pinkie is quite right. Stalking ponies does pay off."

Twilight gasped. "Watching me, the whole time?'

Luna nodded. "Yes, and sitting right here next to you."

Twilight leaned back and let out a pained groan. Twilight had been here for hours. Since she believed herself alone she allowed her body to make some rather un-lady-like noises, in addition to speaking aloud a few very personal and not quite inappropriate for conversation sentences. Reminder to self, you are never alone, be paranoid, very, very paranoid for the rest of your unnatural immortal life.

Luna stared at the two mares in front of them. "Well... this is quite the mess. I can't fix it."

"Great..."

"But, I don’t have too. We should just ask the mare who did this to fix it for us."

Twilight glared up at her. "How would I even find this Starlight pony?"

There was a knock at the door. A loud, unfriendly knock. Trixie jumped and slid under the coffee table hiding. Fluttershy turned to face the door and stuck her wings out to their full length. "Bring it on, Nopony dares to interrupt Twilight."

Luna's horn lit up and the door opened up. Pinkie giggled nervously. "Oh, Starlight, just the pony we wanted to see..."

Starlight stood there looking really out of place. "Hey, yeah, my group members all ran away from me, and you stole my marefriend. Can I have her back?"

Luna smiled. "Come on in, pony of lovely weird cult behaviors, and you shall get your love back. She's hiding under the table right now."

Twilight groaned. "Today just keeps getting worse."