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// Chapter 01: Double-Vision 
// Story: The Angels have Landed 
// by Tarri 
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	Expanse of blue, and void of cloud. Not a breeze to ease the heat. A shortcut through a shaded alley was to much of a temptation compared to the open street. Why she wore shoes, she will never know - it had been like this a while. The days of spring were summer-strong, the blazing sun was early this year. At least the alley offered some reprieve, it never saw any sun during the day until high summer, when the sun was at it’s highest point, in the sky. She looked towards that sky, and wondered… would it ever rain again? It had seemed like such a long time.
“Is a little breeze too much to ask for?” She asked the universe. She stopped for a moment, wiping the sweat from her forehead - as if that would make a difference. Her clothing was already sweat-soaked in various places, and it was not a comfortable feeling. She had broken out the summer clothes and everything, and opted for the lightest outfit she could possibly find - well, until her older sister started making some suggestions.

“Siiiis!!” She had moaned. “It’s too hot to worry about fashion and stuff! I just want to wear something nice and cool!”
“Now, Sweetie Belle,” her sister had told her. “You can always dress for summer with style, and this dress and summer shoes will look darling…”
“I can appreciate the dress, sis… but shoes?” Sweetie Belle reasoned. “Can’t I wear sandals or something?”
“Oh, now this isn’t really fair on me,” her sister had responded. “You did say you would try these shoes as my guinea pig.”
“Only because you made me! Seriously, why do I have to wear these again?”
“Because you promised you would, remember?” Her sister told her. “And after all, you have had weeks to try them out… and I cannot afford to wait another day, I need to know if I can make orders or not.”
“Fiiine…” Sweetie Belle sighed. She wished she had done this when her sister first talked her into it - it was too hot for shoes, lately.
“The heat isn’t that bad, is it? I mean, I know it’s gotten a bit warm, but it is still only spring” her sister assured her.
“Well maybe someone needs to remind the universe of that,” Sweetie Belle huffed, blowing a little on a strand of her purple and pink hair which had strayed down in front of her face. 
“Well… that is true,” her sister acknowledged. “But for me… pleeeease..? You did say you would...”
“Okay…” Sweetie Belle sighed again. “But I’m taking them off once I meet up with the girls!”

“…if they haven’t melted to my feet, yet,” Sweetie thought. She continued down the alley. It was much more pleasant, that was for sure - although it did feel a little stuffy.
“Rarity would kill me if she knew I wore these shoes down here,” Sweetie Belle realised. It wasn’t as if it was going to make her change her mind - it was either alleyway express or a Sweetie puddle on the sidewalk, and she was sure that melting into a puddle was the more unpleasant experience. Besides, the alley wasn’t that bad, perhaps a few sandy grains, a few unkempt blades of grass, some stacked crates, an overflowing dumpster…
“Okay, it’s a disaster in Rarity’s world,” Sweetie conceded to herself.
She stopped suddenly next to the stack of crates. Something felt strange inside. There was something else here… someone else… it felt like she was not alone.
“He...hello..?” Sweetie tried to call out, as feeble as an attempt could be. It was quiet - too quiet. She could feel her hairs stand on end, and a cold shiver washed over her - though not the type of cold shiver she would have wanted, given the heat.
A sudden tap, followed by another tap, followed by two more taps in increasingly rapid succession broke the silence, followed by a rolling sound. Sweetie spun around, catching a paper milkshake cup on the ground, before it came to stop.
“Great, now I’m going crazy from the heat,” Sweetie Belle groaned, as she turned back around, her eyes meeting a child, standing right in front of her. She shrieked, her skeleton jumping from her body, and running for the hills. Her heart remained in her chest, however given the fact it was slamming about all over the place, she knew it was trying to make it’s own escape.
“What… don’t…!” Sweetie Belle tried to say, in attempt that it wasn’t very nice to give frights.
“Oh! Um… sorry!!” The child laughed.
Sweetie Belle regained a more manageable heart rate, and the blood began to flow properly once more. Her skeleton had also returned to her. Once she was complete again, she realised the child in front of her was not someone she knew.
The child stood perhaps four foot… four in height? Maybe five? Sweetie wasn’t entirely sure without some method of measurement, but definitely shorter, and definitely younger, that was for sure. She was also a girl, that seemed glaringly obvious, flat-chest as well, as one would expect from a child. She was possibly around nine years old, perhaps ten - but not older, Sweetie decided - that would seem absurd.
The girl wore a white t-shirt with a sleepy, smiling star on the front. She wore black shorts, and a pair of violet sandals. She had a golden-blonde colour to her hair, which reached to her shoulders, and her eyes had blends of blue and tinges of pink.
“I haven’t seen you before…” Sweetie Belle said. That said, there were probably a lot of people she hadn’t seen before, so it was probably sounded like an obviously stupid thing to utter, in hindsight.
“I’m new, we just moved,” the girl said, making Sweetie Belle feel a little less silly. “My name’s Starwishes, what’s yours?”
“Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie replied. She had also now noticed the girl’s accent - it was definitely foreign… kinda cute-sounding, in her opinion, but she could not quite pin where abouts in the world it was from.
Is it down-underish? No… not quite. But perhaps close? Or not? I don’t know! This was definitely going to drive her insane if she thought too much on it.
“You’re not from anywhere around here, are you?” Sweetie Belle asked her.
“Nope!” Came the response. Except… Starwishes’ mouth did not move when she said it. And it… came from behind Sweetie Belle. Sweetie turned to the direction of the girl’s voice, to find she was now behind her. She looked back to where she was, only to find the space no longer occupied.
“How… how did you get over..?” Sweetie stammered. One moment this girl was in front of her… the next, she heard her behind her, and she was there, and no longer in front of her…
“Um..?” The girl replied, a little confused. “I’ve been standing here a little while, now…”
Sweetie Belle looked again to where Starwishes was initially, then back to where she was now - except, she was no longer there.
“Are you okay..?” Starwishes asked, with a concerned look on her face. Sweetie Belle spun around again, and the girl was back where she was at first.
“I’m… fine…” Sweetie Belle answered. Was the heat of the day finally getting to her?
“Maybe you should sit down or something,” Starwishes suggested, although… had she said it? Sweetie could have sworn her mouth did not move. The girl smiled softly as she helped Sweetie onto the bottom row of crates. “Have you been out in the sun all day?”
A hand touched Sweetie’s forehead, but from behind her. She realised there were two legs on either side of her, dangling, and she looked up. Now she was above her, sitting on the second row of crates which were on top of the first. Sweetie looked back to where Starwishes had been before, but was no longer there.
“You do feel a bit hot…” The girl told her.
She is… is she TELEPORTING ALL OVER THE PLACE? Sweetie Belle thought to herself. It seemed ridiculous, she was just delusional from the sun. It was driving her crazy. Now she knew how it felt for Rarity whenever a speck of dust ended up on one of her dresses.
“How did you get up there so fast..?” Sweetie Belle asked. She had to know if she was delusional.
“I climbed up here,” came the response.
“But weren’t you down here just before?” Came the next question.
“Down there..? Hmm… nope, I wasn’t there…”
“But I am,” Starwishes’ voice came again, once again, from in front of Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle looked back up - nothing. No one.
“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??” Sweetie Belle cried out.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle, are you okay?” Came a familiar voice. Sweetie Belle looked upwards to an emergency escape platform, about a storey off the ground. The voice belonged to a girl with short pink hair who wore a black t-shirt and green shorts.
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie cried out, before stopping. What he she was a delusion as well? “Are you the real Scootaloo? Or am I really going insane?”
“I think I’m the real Scootaloo,” Scootaloo pondered aloud. “At least as real as you and your two new friends there…”
Sweetie Belle fell silent suddenly. TWO?
Sweetie Belle looked at Starwishes. She then looked back to where she thought she saw Starwishes, and a face was peering over the edge of the highest row of crates, with a sheepish grin. She then looked to Starwishes again, who was still present in front of her, then back again to the one on top of the crates above her.
“You’re TWINS??” Sweetie Belle realised.
“Yup!” Both Starwishes and her sibling chimed.
“I DON’T BELIEVE IT!! I AM GOING TO GO CRAZY!!” Sweetie Belle screamed.
“Whoa, hey, calm down, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo jumped from the platform, landing on the crates next to her.
“Do you have ANY IDEA how much I was freaking out??” Sweetie Belle uttered at Scootaloo. “I thought I was losing my mind!!”
“Yeah, I know, I saw the whole thing,” Scootaloo grinned.
“You WHAT??” Sweetie Belle screeched. “You were sitting up there, watching the whole time, and didn’t say ANYTHING??”
“Hey, come on, it was funny!” Scootaloo tried to defend herself. “I was going to say something - I saw you come down this way and I was going to call out to you, but then they showed up, and started pranking you! I couldn’t pass this up!”
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!” Sweetie screeched at her.

“Is she always like that?” One of the twins asked Scootaloo. Both of the twins and Scootaloo were walking together. Scootaloo had said they could join them, if they had nothing else to do. Sweetie Belle stayed behind a little, still in recovery mode.
“Nah… well, sometimes,” Scootaloo replied. “I guess it depends. So… twins, huh? That’s freaky!”
“We’ve been twins since before we were born,” Starwishes told her.
“That’s generally how it works,” Scootaloo said. “So what do we call you?”
“Well, that’s my brother, Dreamstar,” Starwishes introduced.
“And that’s my sister, Starwishes,” Dreamstar concluded the twin-side introduction.
“Really? You’re a boy?” Scootaloo noted, a little shocked.
“Which one of us?” Both twins asked, simultaneously.
Scootaloo stopped for a moment, and looked at the two. “Which one of you is which again..?”
The twins looked blankly at Scootaloo, before a mischievous grin slowly began spreading across their faces. Both of them wore the same clothes. Both had the same hair style. Both were identical in every way. Sweetie Belle saw Scoot’s expression, and cracked up laughing - she had finally snapped, it seemed.
This was going to be a long day.