//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Twin Twilight Tales // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// Twilight walked down the street, her mother holding her hand. She looked down at her feet, staring at the patent leather shoes she had been forced to wear. They pinched her toes and the bottoms were slick, unworn leather, giving her little traction on the pavement. “Are we there yet?” She asked. They’d had to park blocks and blocks away from where they were going, and the press of the crowd was making her anxious. It felt like they’d been walking for hours in the hot sun. “Just one more block, Twilight,” her mother said, squeezing her hand. “It’s a very important show, you know.” Something about the name sounded wrong, like music that was being played out of key. “I know, Mom,” Twilight said. “It’s one of the most important finds since the recovery of the Idol of Borealis!” Her mother seemed excited, but the whole thing made Twilight feel sick. Twilight couldn’t put her hoof- her finger on why, though. “Are you going to write about it in your next book?” Twilight asked. “I’ll have to see it with my own eyes first,” her mother said. “I pride myself on historical accuracy. If it looks good, I’ll talk to the museum director and see if I can’t get a few details they aren’t releasing to the public.” Twilight tried to listen as her mother led her up the stairs, but everything just seemed to blur together. The crowd of people around her - oddly alien, bizarrely tall - scared her. She clung to her mother. “Here we are,” her mother said, leading her to the front of the crowd, which was gathered around a glass case. “Can you believe it?” Twilight peeked out from behind her mother. There was something in the case, looking back at her. The lights shifted, and she finally got a good look at it. A purple pony, with dark hair, looking at her like she was some kind of monster. She raised a hand, and the pony raised its hoof, a perfect mirror image. It looked at Twilight and tried to say something, and she felt herself mouthing the words. “You don’t belong here.” Midnight grabbed the blanket over her, kicking and scared. She couldn’t get a grip on it. She couldn’t feel her fingers! She started crying, panic overwhelming her, until the blanket was pulled away and she felt herself drawn into a warm embrace. “Calm down. It’s okay.” Midnight looked around the room, still dazed. It was her room, in the palace. The hooves wrapped around her were warm and orange, holding her tight enough against Sunset’s chest that she could hear the heartbeat with her face pressed into the silky coat. “I just-” Midnight started, trying to put her feelings into words. “I was-” Her breath caught in her throat. “It was just a dream,” Sunset said. “You’re safe.” “No! It was- it was…” Midnight trailed off. The dream was already fading away from her memory. All she could really remember was how it made her feel. Alone. Like she didn’t belong. The ever-present worry that maybe she wasn’t real in some vitally important, inexplicable way. “It was a dream,” Sunset repeated. “It can’t hurt you.” She squeezed Midnight. The breathing and heartbeat and just not being alone helped wash away the last of the formless terror, leaving Midnight feeling worn out, like she’d worked herself to exhaustion instead of getting sleep. “I hate nightmares,” Midnight muttered. “I used to get really bad dreams,” Sunset said. “Even worse than yours. Sometimes Celestia would hear me and she’d come running to hold me just like this.” “Only sometimes?” Midnight asked, turning her head to try and look at her mother. “Princess Celestia is an important pony. She’d have more important things to do, or she’d have to be out of the country…” Sunset sighed. “I couldn’t always be the most important thing in her life. Her other responsibilities mattered too much." “But you’re important too,” Midnight protested. “I’m important to you,” Sunset said. “And you’re important to me. There’s not really much point wishing for more.” She sighed and squeezed Midnight one more time before letting go. “Now, since you’re awake, we might as well start getting you ready for your first day of school.” Midnight groaned. This wasn’t something she was looking forwards to. “But you and Princess Celestia can teach me instead,” Midnight protested. “Then I wouldn’t have to go, and I’d learn a whole bunch, I promise!” “I bet you would,” Sunset smiled. “But Princess Celestia thinks you need to meet foals your own age. Besides, magic kindergarten will be a lot of fun. You’ll be mostly playing and doing… activities…” Sunset wasn’t actually sure exactly what went on at a normal school. “The point is, you have to go, and you’ll like it.” “I don wanna,” Midnight muttered. “Yeah, but you’re going to anyway,” Sunset said, getting out of bed and dragging Midnight with her, the filly making a grumpy face as she was levitated across the room. “Give it a week. New things are hard at first, but it gets easier.” “But they’re prolly gonna make me do stupid stuff,” Midnight protested. “I wanna go with you and learn more apocalypse magic.” “I really shouldn’t have let you sit in on that lesson,” Sunset muttered, putting the filly down. “If you walk to breakfast, you can have Prench Toast and extra syrup. If you make me carry you the rest of the way, you get cereal.” “If I carry you, can I stay here instead of going to magic kindergarten?” Sunset shook her head. Midnight huffed. “Fine. Then I guess extra syrup will have to do.” She stomped towards the dining room with all the frustrated fury of a child, her night terror already forgotten. Magic Kindergarten was an important part in the development of any young unicorn, like flight camp for pegasi and whatever it is that young earth ponies do when they aren’t busy with manual labor. Twilight Sparkle was well aware of how vital this was. It would be the first line in her permanent record, the first thing the most important people in the world - teachers, principals, tutors - would see when they asked the question ‘who is Twilight Sparkle?’ Consequently, she’d arrived an hour early. None of the teachers had been there yet, but one of the janitors had let her in after seeing her waiting outside for ten minutes. That still gave her time to reread the textbook’s first few chapters and get the seat closest to the teacher’s desk. Everything was going exactly as planned. “What are you doing here?” Asked an older voice as the door opened. Twilight looked up at the clock. Only half an hour had passed while she had been reading. “I’m studying before class,” Twilight said. She looked at the older mare standing in the doorway. “Are you the teacher?” The mare smiled. “I’m Ms. Wormwood. If you’re here for magic kindergarten, I’m afraid you’re a bit early. I was just going to get the classroom ready before students started arriving.” “I wanted to make sure I was the first one here!” Twilight said, smiling. “Since I’m here early, I had a few questions! I was reading the textbook and it says that unicorn magic is called ‘true magic’, but that doesn’t seem right since magic is actually a type of energy that isn’t unique to any race or species.” “It sounds like you’re ahead of the book,” Ms. Wormwood said. “Don’t worry too much about it. In fact, I’m going to tell you a secret that nopony else in the class is going to know.” “Really?” Twilight’s eyes widened, sparkling in anticipation. “Just about everything in that book is wrong, in some way. Magic can be extremely complicated, and it takes a genius to figure it all out. If you try to explain things at that level, most ponies wouldn’t even be able to start learning.” She picked up her copy of the book from her desk. “For example, the book says that magic flows through your body to your horn, and briefly mentions leylines, but it doesn’t go into detail on how or why, because that requires explaining thaumatic pressure, which requires math you won’t learn until you’re in college.” “I saw some stuff about thaumatic pressure,” Twilight said. “There was…” She scrunched her face up. “A lot of symbols. There were numbers like regular math, but there was a triangle and a weird-looking letter E, and my big brother couldn’t explain it and told me to pick out a different book.” “That’s exactly what I mean,” Ms. Wormwood agreed. “But you can understand the basics without having to know all of those details. Like you can learn how to write without knowing how ink is made, or how a quill functions.” “But doesn’t that mean we’ll be learning it wrong?” Twilight asked. This seemed offensive on a basal level. “Some of it is simplified,” Ms. Wormwood said. “Like when you were learning to read, you started by learning the alphabet. You had to learn the sounds each letter made, then put them together to make words. There are words that don’t follow the rules, like how the ‘k’ in knight is silent, but you have to learn the basics before you start learning the exceptions.” “I see…” Twilight frowned. “Don’t worry. What you’re going to learn are the basic ideas and concepts of magic. You’ll build on them later. In fact, here’s an idea - why don’t you write down any questions you have during the lessons, and I’ll answer them for you after class?” “Why can’t you answer them during the lesson?” “I have a feeling you’re going to want more detailed answers than the others are ready for. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to get a few things from the storeroom.” Twilight nodded and rummaged around in her saddlebags when the teacher had left, pulling out a scrap of paper with a list written on it in crayon. She checked off an item near the top of the long list. "Meet the teacher," she read. "One down, ninety-eight to go." Midnight Twinkle was also aware of just how important Magic Kindergarten was. If she didn’t go, she’d get yelled at a lot, and she’d never get any dessert. She heard a bell ring as she walked into the school. That second serving of Prench toast had made her late for class! She was going to have to hope Sunset didn’t find out about this. Not that she ever didn’t find out. “Maybe she’s watching me with scrying spells…” She looked around, as if she’d see the spell hanging over her. “Well look at what we have here,” a pony snorted, his voice high and nasally, forcing the accent that the most entrenched of the nobility used. Midnight spotted the colt just before he pushed her. With her natural dexterity (or lack thereof), there was no chance she’d be able to save herself. She fell on her flank, saddlebags spilling everywhere. “Hmph. You must be one of the peasant fillies.” The colt looked down his nose at her. “Making me late for class, too. You should apologize to me.” Midnight stood up, looking at her spilled papers. She turned to the colt, horn blazing with energy. Ms. Wormwood was walking back to class when she heard a pony sniffling and papers shuffling. She put the box of crayons and paper down and trotted down the hallway towards the doors. “What are you doing here?” She asked, surprised to see the lavender filly she’d left in her classroom. “I was walking and this pony knocked me over and-” She sniffled, picking up scattered papers around her. “Don’t worry about that. Let me help you.” Ms. Wormwood picked the sheets up, stacking them and putting them into the filly’s saddlebag. “Not quite in order, but it’ll be easy to fix that later.” She led the filly back to the classroom. “I was just getting some supplies so we could start out with some nice pictures to practice telekinesis and-” She blinked, and looked at the seat closest to her desk. There was a lavender filly there reading a book. Wormwood looked down at the filly she was leading. Then back up at the one in the classroom. “Oh. Her.” The one at her hooves sounded annoyed and walked in. “Two of them?” Ms. Wormwood asked. She'd never learned any precognitive spells but some basal part of her awareness, the part that before civilizations had led to unicorns organizing their herds entirely on the basis of magical power, was extremely worried. Twilight Sparkle looked up and saw Midnight, her expression changing. Midnight looked over the room and after a moment, sat in the sole available seat, right next to Twilight. “Are you going to copy my answers?” Twilight asked. “Why would I bother? I have the best teachers in the world already!” Midnight huffed. “I’m just here because my mom says I need to meet ponies my own age.” "Are you going to try stealing their faces too?" “Girls, no fighting,” Ms. Wormwood said. She could at least deal with children being snippy at each other. That was normal. They just usually weren't identical. “Yes, Ma’am,” Twilight said. “Now, I have some worksheets and crayons for all of you,” Ms. Wormwood said, clearing her throat and addressing the classroom. “Today is your first day, so I thought the best way to start would be drawing a picture of your family. I want all of you to practice using your telekinesis to do it. Anypony having problems, don’t be embarrassed. We’re all here to learn.” She put a sheet on every seat until she came to one that had saddlebags at it, but no pony. “Has anyone seen Stuffy Nose?” She asked. “He was just here a few moments ago.” “He went to go to the bathroom, ma’am,” replied the colt in the next seat. “Is he… sort of blue, with an orange mane?” Midnight asked, frowning. “Yes,” Ms. Wormwood said. “Why do you ask?” “I put him in time out.” Stuffy Nose sniffled and looked down at the ground. The roof was awfully high up. Much too far to jump down from. “Help!” “I shouldn’t be the one who gets in trouble,” Midnight grumbled, as she spun a block around in her magic. No cookies at snacktime? Not even Celestia would be so cruel. “I was even really careful that I didn’t drop him.” “Now,” Ms. Wormwood said. “Does anypony know the word we use to describe how much magic is in something?” Twilight’s hoof raised a fraction of a second slower than Midnight’s. “Midnight?” “Thaums, short for Thaumaturgical Units,” she answered. “That’s right. And do you know the average Thaum count of an adult unicorn?” “Um…” She thought about Sunset. She was pretty strong. Maybe lower it by an order of magnitude? “Five thousand?” “Five- no, no. That would be far above average.” Ms. Wormwood coughed. “Anypony else?” “One hundred, exactly,” Twilight said, not waiting to get called on, too excited by the prospect of being right when her double was wrong. “That’s correct. The Thaum was originally measured as one percent of the power of the average unicorn. Of course, now we have a more objective definition, but it’s useful to think of the original definition, as it’s still relevant today.” She started lecturing on some point in the book. Midnight sighed, bored. She tried to follow along in her own copy, but the words were blurry and hard to focus on without it hurting her head. Midnight started drawing in her notebook, until her crayon broke. She frowned at it. She needed a blue one to finish Celestia’s mane… her eyes wandered over to Twilight’s desk. She still had a blue crayon. Midnight picked it up. “Hey!” Twilight hissed, grabbing for the crayon. It wobbled in midair, directly between them. Their identically-colored auras roiled as they met and fought for control. “Girls, no fighting,” Ms. Wormwood said. She reached for the crayon with a hoof and jolted back as a spark snapped at her hoof. “Oh no.” The cloud of mana built up around the crayon, discontinuities in the magical field sending out more sparks. Ms. Wormwood was not an inexperienced teacher, and she had seen plenty of minor magical disasters. Most importantly, she knew how to stop them. She reacted quickly, throwing a Dispel effect at the crayon. It was strong enough to break the grip of even an adult unicorn. It hissed as it hit the build-up of magic, evaporating like a drop of water on a red-hot skillet. Ms. Wormwood felt sweat drip down her face. Her reflexes were, thankfully, excellent, and her desk was sturdy and had a lead lining to protect the contents against divination spells. She grabbed the crayon and threw herself behind the desk to shield the children from the impending explosion.. There was a puff of heat, smoke, and blue pigment as the crayon sublimated. “I think it’s time for everypony to take a nap...” Ms. Wormwood groaned from under her desk. Cadance walked into the school, looking around. Sometimes she felt like this was where she belonged instead of going to Canterlot High - she barely had control of her magic, and her education back home had been spotty at best. Of course it would also take about a century to regain any authority at all with the nobility if she went to kindergarten as an adult. High school was bad enough. She couldn't even be entirely honest about her age or else- “Oh, Princess Cadance, what are you doing here?” Cadance’s train of thought derailed somewhere near self-pity junction. Her ears perked up when spotted Twilight Velvet among the other adults coming to pick up their foals. “Celestia asked me to get Midnight. She had to send Sunset out of town to deal with something, and she knows I’m good with foals.” “You don’t need to tell me,” Velvet smiled. “I know Twilight wishes you could babysit more often. It’s difficult finding somepony we can trust with her.” “I’ll try to make some time. I miss her, too. Honestly, she’s a little easier to handle than Midnight. They may look the same, but all you need with Twilight is a new book and she’ll be quiet for hours. Midnight gets bored with books and wants to try things. It’s… a lot more hectic.” “I’m sure she’s not that bad,” Velvet said, giggling. “No, she’s actually very sensitive,” Cadance said. “And she’s so cute with Sunset.” “Maybe the two of them could have a play date.” “I’ll talk to Sunset about it,” Cadance agreed. The two quieted as they walked into the classroom. The lights were turned off, and the foals were lying in the back of the room under blankets. “They’re so cute,” Velvet whispered. “I’m surprised they haven’t woken up.” “Drowsy Hooves’ Daydream Hex,” Ms. Wormwood said, from where she sat at her desk, a bottle of something green and made with herbs keeping her company. She nodded to Twilight Velvet and Princess Cadance. In a classroom, a teacher had authority far exceeding that of royalty. “Possibly the only spell powerful enough to make foals actually sleep through naptime. They won’t wake up for another hour.” “I’ll have to look that one up,” Velvet said. “Yes. Now, if you’d please?” She gestured towards the foals. “It has been a very eventful day and I really need to get back home and get a shower.” She sighed and looked at her stained coat. “Blue really isn’t my color.” Twilight groaned and rolled over in bed. It was oddly soft, and she felt like she was sinking into it. Even the sheets felt too smooth. She sat up, looking around blearily, the dreamless sleep clearing from her mind with the swift recovery that came with a sleep spell ending. “I thought I’d have to wake you up for dinner,” said a voice that Twilight didn’t recognize. She rubbed at her eyes and focused on the voice. There was an orange mare with fire-like hair looking at her. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked. It didn’t look like her room. There were a lot of strange things on the walls. They looked almost like… body parts. Her mind found the word after a moment. Taxidermy. She couldn’t even identify what she was looking at. A claw made of crystal. Jawbones from some kind of predator. Stuffed tentacles hung like party streamers. “I just got back. I almost got stuck in the middle of nowhere looking for the Hidebehind. I literally had to run to catch the train, so I could use something to eat. I think it’s just sandwiches tonight. Cucumber for me and turkey for you. I'll tell you the story over dinner.” “Turkey? Like the bird?!” Twilight’s eyes went wide with horror. “I figured you deserved a special treat for your first day at school.” Sunset pulled the covers off of her. “We can trade stories about how our days went. You wouldn’t believe the thing Celestia had me fighting today.” “I want to go home,” Twilight said. “...What?” “I said I want to go home!” Twilight repeated, louder. “Midnight, what are you even talking about? The palace is home!” “My name is Twilight Sparkle!” The filly started jumping in frustration on the bed. “Why am I here?! Is that copy trying to steal my parents again?!” Sunset froze in place for a moment, then growled and opened the door, yelling down the hallway. “CADANCE! YOU GOT THE WRONG ONE!” With no reply forthcoming, Sunset slammed it shut and turned back to Twilight. "So, sandwiches? I'll have one of the guards go and get your parents, but that might take a while and I'm sure you're hungry-" "I don't want sandwiches! I want my mom!" Twilight hopped off of the bed, moving with the scurrying speed possessed by all small, evasive animals. She shot right past Sunset and into the hallway beyond. "Hold on!" Sunset yelled, trying to catch up. She was well-equipped both mentally and physically to pursue and take down monsters, but harmless fillies were an entirely new and more difficult type of prey. And you weren't allowed to set them on fire, which invalidated most of her strat "No! You're not my mom! I want my mom!" She screamed, fleeing. Twilight spotted golden-armored ponies and ran for them. "Shiny?" She looked up at the guard. Close examination determined it was not her brother. "What's going on?" The guard asked. "She's trying to steal me away from my mommy!" Twilight wailed. "Oh not this again," Sunset hissed, as royal guards closed in on her. Midnight yawned and stretched, then frowned. The bed felt hard. She was used to sleeping on an enchanted cloud mattress, but this felt more like springs and fluff. Perfectly soft by a normal pony's standards, but Midnight had never lived by normal pony standards. The sheets were cotton instead of silk, warmer and more plush than slick. In summary, it wasn't her bed. It still felt comfortable enough, but not what she wanted. She sat up and looked around, remembering the lessons her mother had given her about staying calm in the face of the unknown. Instead of trophies from the various beasts Princess Celestia had tasked her mother with slaying for the good of Equestria, the walls were lined with bookcases. It was less like a bedroom and more like somepony had put a bed in a library. "Remember the basics," Midnight said, starting a mental checklist to keep herself calm. "Survey the area, discounting nothing." There were papers and notebooks everywhere, and a small chalkboard with diagrams that she couldn't make out from the bed. next to the bed was a nightstand with three books and, more importantly, a photo. Midnight picked it up and looked. It showed... well, her first thought was that it showed her standing with two ponies she didn't recognize. After a few moments, she remembered where she'd seen them before. "Twilight Sparkle's parents," she said. "O-okay. So this must be her room. She must really like reading." Midnight frowned at that. She'd never liked reading. Books were too boring and blurry. She got up and slid out of bed quietly. "Which means... they must have gotten us mixed up after the nap." She sighed. "At least I'm probably not in trouble." Midnight pulled at the doorknob with her magic. There was a crack as one of the hinges on the door broke free, making it swing open crookedly. "Twilight? Is that you?" Asked a voice from downstairs. "Be careful with the door. We haven't had time to fix the hinge after the accident." An accident? Did Twilight have those too? Midnight was always setting things on fire when she wasn't careful with her magic. Sunset said it was magical leakage because her spells weren't bound tightly enough. Midnight followed the source of the voice to a small room on the ground floor, still walking as quietly as possible. Dance lessons had helped a little, but having to trot around on marble floors in big, echoing rooms had done more to teach her how to quiet her steps. "Um..." Midnight pushed the door open with her nose, looking inside. Twilight's mother was sitting at a desk, typing and occasionally stopping to refer to hoof-written sheets. "Excuse me." "What is it, dear?" Twilight Velvet asked, turning to look. She had reading glasses perched on her snout. "I think I'm in the wrong place. I'm not your daughter." Midnight sighed. "C-can you please help me get back to the palace?" "You're not..." Velvet sighed and rubbed her temple. "I'm so sorry. I should have known something like this would happen if we didn't wake you up at the school." "I-it's okay," Midnight smiled nervously. "I-I just want to go home." "We'll get you home, dear," Velvet smiled kindly and got up. "I'll have Night Light go to the castle and get this sorted out. He'll get your mother and have her pick you up, okay?" "O-okay? Shouldn't I just go with him?" "I'm an author, dear," Velvet said, nodding towards the typewriter. "And I can see a comedy of errors from a mile away. If I send you with him, I know ponies will miss each other and one of you will end up getting lost and this whole thing will become a huge mess." "It will?" Midnight tilted her head. "Mm." Velvet nodded. "And more importantly, when you get lost the best thing you can do is to stay where you are. You know why?" Midnight shook her head. "Because the ponies that care about you are going to come looking, and if you stay somewhere safe, they'll have an easier time finding you." "I guess that makes sense..." Midnight said, quietly. "Since you'll be our guest for a bit, why don't I get you some snacks and something to read?" "Okay," Midnight said. "But, um. I don't like reading." Velvet blinked as if physically struck. "What?" "Reading is too hard," Midnight admitted. "It hurts my eyes." "Hm..." Velvet considered, then took her reading glasses and put them on Midnight before levitating a few pages from next to her typewriter over to her. "What about now?" "That's-" Midnight looked through the glasses, then took them off and squinted at the page before putting them back on. "That's amazing! Are these magic?" "No, dear, just a moderately strong prescription," Velvet laughed. "Poor vision runs in the family. I'm sometimes surprised Twilight hasn't blinded herself with how much she reads in poor light." "So I'm not even a good copy..." Midnight muttered. "Don't say that. You're a cute little filly. And glasses might make it a little easier to tell you two apart. They look adorable on you." Midnight blushed at the praise. "Would you like to see what I'm working on?" Velvet asked. "Nopony else has seen it, so you'll be my very first reader." "Really? What is it?" Midnight asked. Reading didn't seem so bad if it wasn't going to give her headaches. "A mildly dramatized retelling of my teenage years. I call it 'Twilight's Bizarre Adventure'. I might rename it 'Velvet Underground', though. Titles are always the hardest part of writing." Twilight Sparkle glared as she walked next to her father, Sunset Shimmer trailing behind them and nursing a few bumps to the head and cursing herself for being too nice for her own good. Next time she'd just throw the guards into the sun and let Celestia sort it out. "Twilight, please calm down," Night Light said. "It was an honest mistake." "She's just trying to steal you away from me!" Twilight huffed. "I'm not gonna let her take my parents." "Sure, and next she'll steal your horn," Sunset muttered, rolling her eyes. "Can she do that? Is it some kind of dark magic?!" Twilight looked at Sunset, eyes wide with terror. "I bet you taught her! You've got all those monster parts!" "They're trophies," Sunset said, defending herself. "It's traditional." "Traditional for who?" Twilight asked. "Evil witches?" "Monster hunters. It's what I do." Sunset raised her chin. "The Royal Guard hunts monsters," Twilight corrected her. "They hunt little weak monsters," Sunset counter-corrected. "I hunt the ones that the Royal Guard can't handle. It's a long list." Twilight huffed and turned away, hunching her shoulders and stomping towards her house. "Careful," Night Light whispered. "Her brother is planning on joining the Royal Guard. She doesn't like it when ponies speak poorly about the Guard." "I might be nicer if they hadn't just tried to bludgeon me," Sunset retorted. Tried being the operative word. They'd almost certainly make a full recovery. Twilight almost tore the front door apart as she rushed into her home, eyes darting from shadow to shadow, hoping to spot the imposter before it saw her. Her sensitive ears twitched at the sound of hooves on hardwood, and Twilight ran towards her mother's office, bursting through the half-open door. "Mom!" Twilight yelled, in a panic. "Don't let her steal your horn!" Two confused gazes settled on the filly, who was panting from the exertion that came with being on the edge of a panic attack for an hour. "I'm glad you’re home, Twilight, but really? Steal my horn?" Velvet laughed warmly. "That sounds like something I'd put in one of my stories." "You don't understand!" Twilight yelled. "She's evil!" She pointed at Midnight and gasped. "She already stole your glasses! And your story! Give those back!" "Twilight, I gave those to her," Velvet said, trying to calm her down before this turned into another one of the ironically-named and historically interesting craters that were scattered around Canterlot (most of them near Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns). "Why would you do that?!" Twilight yelled. "Because she needs them to read, dear," Velvet said, running her hoof through Twilight's mane. The over-excited filly started to calm down, pressing against her mother protectively. "Why didn't you ever tell me you needed glasses?" Sunset asked, as she entered the room. It hadn't been hard to follow Twilight, since she just needed to walk towards the screaming. "I didn't know," Midnight mumbled, blushing. "They look good on you, squirt," Sunset smirked, trotting over to nuzzle her. "And I see she's been spoiling you with cookies." "They're really tasty," Midnight said, offering one to Sunset. Before Sunset could take it, Twilight jumped between them, grabbing the treat and jumping on it like she was wrestling a dangerous artifact away from some evil overlord. "Those cookies were supposed to be for me and Shiny!" Twilight yelled. "Twilight, that's quite enough," Velvet said. "I won't have you being rude to our guests! Please go to your room." "But Mom!" Twilight gasped in shock. Had her copy already started controlling their minds? "No buts," Velvet said, firmly. "You can come back down after they've gone, and we'll talk about your behavior." Twilight stomped towards the stairs, pausing only to glare back at her doppelganger. Humiliated, defeated, hungry, all these things and more, Twilight knew there was only one thing that was going to make her feel better. Revenge. And cookies.