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// 1 Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot 
// Story: The Reunion 
// by Bronyxy 
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The lilac alicorn stood looking past the easel upon which a snowscape was beginning to emerge. Beyond was a scene matching that on the canvas in most important respects, excepting the six colts and fillies making snowponies who had only been thusfar downloaded from the artist’s imagination.

Some more paint was squeezed gently from a tube of blue and mixed with deft swishes of a paint brush with some white and a hint of grey to continue developing the benign moodiness of the winter sky.

The regular crunch of hoofsteps through the crisp coating of snow from behind announced the arrival of a primrose pegasus with pink mane.
“Hello Dusk” said the new arrival meekly.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming ‘Scotch!” greeted the prized student of Prince Solaris.
“That’s really nice Dusk. You’re getting very good at painting” he said with genuine respect in his voice “I like the detail on the young ones, all wearing their different coloured winter wrap-up vests.”
I would so like to see that happen” replied Dusk “It was quite an adventure we had with those mares when they burst through into our world. It’s been years now, and I just wish we could all meet up again.”

Butterscotch made a little whimpering sound, barely perceptible to anypony who didn’t know about how he had met the mare of his dreams only to have to see her disappear back to her own timeline once more.

Dusk put down his palate and brush offering a shoulder for his friend to lean on, an unspoken invitation which the timid pegasus gratefully accepted, leaning in to find comfort; the comfort he wished he could find once more in that beautiful sweet sounding pegasus mare, worlds away from him. More than any of them, Butterscotch had his caring heart broken by the chance encounter and necessary departure after only a few meetings, but how he played every moment over and over in his head, longing to relive the tenderness they had shared one more time. Even though it had been years ago, he still couldn’t help his eyes welling up with tears at the thought. Dusk spread a protective wing over him and gave him a hug, allowing a few gentle tears of loss to be shed where nopony could see.

Butterscotch wasn’t alone in his feelings; Elusive too felt equally strongly, albeit in his case from less of a perspective of unsullied innocence as he remained the focus of many mares’ attentions as such a handsome and eligible bachelor. Fluttershy on the other hoof had been Butterscotch’s first awakening into the possibilities of romance, and he couldn’t shake off the allure she still held in his heart, a draw all the more cruel with every passing day that they had not met up again.

Far away across the ether, a lilac mare comforted a primrose pegasus in just the same way, looking at the snowscape she had painted and the six fillies and colts playing in the snow; three pairs of juvenile ponies, sharing some remarkable familial similarities, save half were male and the other half female.

As both lilac ponies felt the same damp tears on their neck, both started to crystallise the same plan at about the same time; it was time to meet up again, and what better opportunity than Hearth’s Warming?


***


All the Princesses met with each other to catch up on issues of importance or interest from within their own realms, but none more so than those regularly coordinated by Celestia. It wasn’t so much born of her desire to micromanage, but moreover a longing to make a breathing space during a busy day where she could slow the pace a little and catch up with anecdotes from the close-knit ruling community. It was also a very good opportunity for a one-to-one over an unhurried cup of tea and inevitably some cake; Celestia’s one true weakness.

Twilight entered the reception room at the allotted hour, leaving her formality behind at the door and greeting her former mentor with a nuzzle and a kiss.
“Thank you for inviting me today Celestia” she said as she was ushered in carrying a rectangular package in her pink magic aura.
“You’re most welcome Twilight” she replied, her smile giving her voice a relaxing and reassuring timbre “What do you have for me today?”
“Well, Celestia; you remember that visit we made to Prince Solaris’ kingdom a few years back? Dusk and I happened to let slip at we both wanted to try a hoof at painting, so I wanted to show you how my technique is evolving.”

Taking care to hold it the right way up and the right way round, assisted by a big black arrow on the back saying 'THIS WAY UP' that she had stencilled on the wrapping earlier, she proceeded to divest the canvas of its wrapping and display her latest work to a delighted audience.
“That is most impressive” admired Celestia, taking in the subtlety of the tones and the textures of the brush strokes.Tell me more about the foals with their snowponies; did they pose for you?”
Twilight went a little red and hesitated slightly giving Celestia the best clue that she was on to whatever it was that Twilight wanted to discuss.
“Actually, you know three of them; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the other three are their colt counterparts from Dusk’s world.”
“Are they still called ‘The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ over there too?”
“Yes, yes they are, and we were very grateful to them for helping us while we were there.”

There was a brief interlude as Celestia served the tea and cake from a silver serving platter, a pause that only served to heighten Twilight’s tension, a cue that she was very bad at disguising, but one which the consummate politician could spot a mile off as if it were ringed with bright neon signs.
“Interesting why you should choose to include them as you haven’t seen them for so long” commented Celestia, observing her fellow Princess’s reaction like a hawk as she passed over the refreshments in her magic.
“It’s just that …” she stalled “Well, when we left, we said we would meet up again, and it’s been quite a long time now. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we miss them. Some of us more than others. Not only that, but the fillies have heard all about their colt selves and really want to meet them – we could consider it a friendship exercise!”
“And you are the Princess of Friendship, are you not?” interjected Celestia as Twilight’s words spilled out ever faster.
“Well, yes” she giggled nervously, rubbing the back of her reddening neck with her forehoof.

Celestia gave a genial snicker and looked Twilight in the eye.
“I trust you’re not going to attempt to travel by the same means as last time?”
“No, definitely not. There are so many different threads within each and every leyline that all point to different alternate universes within the ether, that I think we were really lucky to find our way safely back last time, so I definitely don’t want to take that risk again. It’s just … it’s just that you must have a better way of doing it or the friendship letter would never have got through last time.”

“If such a route into another world were to exist, it would be extremely sensitive and very carefully hidden or heavily guarded as a matter of necessity. Would you just expect me to simply give unfettered access to you and your friends, even if such a thing exists?”
“Well, when you put it like that, it does sound kind of a big ask …” Twilight tailed off.
“If, hypothetically speaking, there were such a route, then who would you choose to take with you?”
“Just five friends, the CMCs and Spike; ten in all …” she said grinning sheepishly.

“Twilight, you haven’t touched your cake yet” said Celestia, changing the subject.
“Oh, er, right …” said Twilight, thrown by the change in direction and suddenly noticing that her hostess had finished hers already.
“To make you feel more at your ease, I will just have to help myself to another slice” said Celestia eyeing the remains of the sumptuous gateau on the serving platter hungrily.
Twilight had seen her former mentor drool over cake before, and the sight of her expectation was a comic parody of the highest order; the accompanying facial expressions being something that Twilight enjoyed exploiting mercilessly during games of charades, but only when Celestia was not around.

With another especially large slice of cake before her, Celestia turned her attention back to her former student.
“A friendship exercise?” she repeated.
“Yes, that’s right; an opportunity to renew acquaintances and enrich each other’s personal development …” Twilight started off again, before being interrupted once more.
Celestia looked her straight in the eye, as if dissecting her very soul.
“Given that the two worlds exist to synchronise with and yet oppose each other, everything in one world has to have its equal and opposite double present in the other, the only difference being male and female. It is therefore impossible for one pony to go live in the other’s world without fundamentally disturbing that delicate balance in an act that would see the two worlds diverge until they pulled each other apart.”

“Fluttershy has been melancholy ever since she and Butterscotch parted, and that was only after they met a couple of times. If we allow them to meet more often given the understanding that they can never stay together, how much more heartbroken would she become then? Do you want to build up her hope by extending the tantalising prospect of further meetings, only to have to rip away from her the even closer relationship that would inevitably follow? And thinking about relationships, what about Rarity? She only came back because of a sense of duty to her little sister, as I recall.”

This outburst of condensed logic struck Twilight hard. She couldn’t very well allow all of her friends to meet up and exclude Fluttershy; that would be cruel. And what if Fluttershy and Butterscotch did rekindle their love for each other – did she have what it took to prise them apart again and possibly lose a friend? That would not play well for the Princess of Friendship, let alone the collective power of the Elements of Harmony. Whilst Rarity could be relied upon to be the first to get into a passionate clinch with her stallion counterpart, at least she had shown that when it was time to go, she did, however reluctantly, bow to the inevitable. But as Celestia had rightly pointed out, that was only to get back to her sister.

“Fluttershy is the major concern” said Twilight pensively.
“I agree, but Rarity should not be underestimated either; I am told by a very reliable source that she even prayed with Elusive to Prince Solaris for his blessing in union. Before going any further down this path, you must find out how these two would feel if they were to meet their male selves once more on the understanding that their relationship could never be allowed to become permanent.”
“So, there is a route between our two worlds then?” whispered Twilight, eyes widening.
Celestia chose not to respond, but instead launched into anecdotes from her Court, followed by further stories from the Realm of the Night and the Crystal Empire.

Entertaining was hard work, so Celestia cut the remaining cake in half and took one piece on her plate with another cup of tea, relaxing into the rest of the time she had with her former student. While she did offer the remaining piece to Twilight, it was politely declined, her guest fully aware that such an offer was never made with the intention of it ever being accepted; they both knew it was destined to be on the serving platter as Twilight left, but to have miraculously disappeared before the serving staff came to take it away.

When Twilight left, she accepted the problems that interdimensional travel could cause, but what made her buzz with excitement more than anything was the prospect that a route actually existed.