//------------------------------// // Chapter 21 // Story: Twin Twilight Tales // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// Hearts and Hooves Day was the happiest day of the year for new couples. And possibly the most depressing day of the year for ponies who found themselves involuntarily single. There were only a few days to go, and Midnight Twinkle had not found a date. This was unfortunate, as she had told Princess Cadance that she had asked a colt out, and now she was expected to at least put in an appearance with him. That didn't mean that she didn't have a way out of this. She just had to be clever and consider all of her options. "Okay, option one," Midnight said. "A combination of illusion or enchantment spells to make Mom and Pink Mom think I have a date with me. With the right suggestions and a good cover story, it could even work. Assuming either of them is even vulnerable to mind-affecting spells." She bit her lip. That wasn't a sure thing. Princess Cadance was an alicorn. There were rumors going around that she was almost immune to normal spells, and if Midnight tried anything strong enough to put a dent in that, there was no way it would be stealthy. "Option two," Midnight said. "Actually ask a colt out. That is by far the most dangerous option in the long term. What if we don't get along?" Midnight started pacing. "Or worse, what if we get along really well, get married far too young, and then I find out that he's actually more interested in bowling than hunting monsters?!" She shook her head, balling up that paper and tossing it aside. "That one's a last resort at best. But this third option..." Midnight scratched her chin. "Summoning a succubus. It would only have to pretend to be a pony for a little while. It would really be there, so I wouldn't have to worry about an enchantment failing to take effect. I might have to pay it, somehow, which might not be terribly pleasant. As long as it doesn't ask for my soul it could be worse." She started tracing around the spell circle diagram she'd copied out of the Umbranomicon. "What am I thinking?" Midnight huffed, throwing the paper away. "Even if the castle wards don't completely prevent demonic summoning, I'd be in like a million kinds of trouble if I tried summoning a demon again! Mom was so angry last time, and all I did was have Glorthex the Devourer do my math homework for me." She sighed and picked a crumpled paper off of the ground. "I guess I'm gonna have to do this the hard way." Twilight Sparkle had never thought about Hearts and Hooves Day except as one of the more annoying days on the calendar. It wasn't that she minded being alone – on the contrary, being around other ponies could be mentally and physically exhausting. No, the problem was that it disrupted her schedule with a meaningless holiday that she didn't participate in. The Summer Sun Celebration was fun. Hearth's Warming was great! But what wasn't great was having ponies constantly remind her, intentionally or not, that she was fifteen and didn't have a date. "I mean I'd go on a date if somepony asked," Twilight mumbled to herself, as she drew a straight line on some scrap paper, trying to busy herself by following the rather elaborate instructions Radian Edge had given for drawing an improved telekinesis spell rune. "Twiwight?" Spike asked, from the other room. "Um... How much fire is too much fire?" Twilight scrambled to her hooves, grabbing the bucket of water she always kept nearby. She couldn't wait for the week to be over and for ponies to go back to normal. "Yeah, okay, so look," Midnight said, her wavy mane hanging loose around her head. "I need a date for the holiday, and I know this is sort of last minute, but as long as you aren't doing anything, maybe we could hang out?" "Uh, well," Sunburst coughed. "I don't know, uh..." He wasn't sure which of the twins he was talking to. He wasn't even sure which would be worse. "What, are you saying I'm not good enough?" Midnight frowned. Her hair started moving a little on its own, like a breeze was going through the school corridor. "No, that's not it!" Sunburst said, quickly. "Then what is it?" Midnight demanded. "If you've got a marefriend, just tell me. I won't hold it against you. I mean I admit this is last minute, so it's not all your fault." Sunburst twitched at the presumption that any of this was his fault. "I used to have a marefriend but we sort of drifted apart after she sent me this crazy letter about cutie marks-" "Great! That's in the past! I'm not crazy at all!" Midnight smiled. "I've even got certificates from experts that prove it! So just, uh, I don't know. Figure something out and get back to me." She winked at him and walked away, quickly turning the corner so she could talk to herself. "Hah! All it took was a little confidence and... three tries," Midnight looked at her checklist. "That's not bad at all. With a little more experimentation I can probably come up with a sure-fire way to get a date that anypony could manage. I mean, I could if I wanted to." She blushed, looking around. "One step at a time, Midnight." Twilight frowned as she looked at her overstuffed saddlebags, then took everything out of them for the third time. She was sure she could fit everything in if she packed it optimally. The math said it had to be possible. Of course, the math also said that she shouldn't have been able to eat three hayburgers at once, but she'd won that bet. "Maybe if I start with the largest book, then the smallest, then the second largest..." Twilight started sorting the books. "Hey!" Sunburst said, from behind her. Twilight jumped and dropped the books, her neat piles spilling everywhere. "Woah. Sorry. Let me help you with that." He picked them up for her, putting them in her saddlebags. They fit the first time. Twilight's eyebrow twitched. "I was thinking," Sunburst said. "I guess I might have come off as a little rude before." "Okay?" Twilight shrugged. "I mean, I don't have a date for Hearts and Hooves Day, and I know what it's like. So I figure we can at least have a good time together. You'll be at the castle, right?" Twilight blinked and nodded. "Great! I've come up with some plans like you asked and we can meet at the Sugar Torus at noon." Sunburst smiled. "I'd tell you more, but I kind of want to keep it a secret. Oh and, uh, kinda keep it on the down-low. I've heard that ponies who try and date anypony Celestia has her eyes on kind of... end up getting scared away." "...Right, secret," Twilight nodded, too surprised to do anything else. "It's a date!" Sunburst bowed politely and left the room. Twilight stood completely still for exactly three hundred and twenty four seconds, the exact amount of time it took for her brains to completely reboot after a crash so hard that she briefly saw her life flash before her eyes. "I have a date," Twilight said, slowly. A smile started to appear on her lips. "I have a date!" She paled, the smile fading like the hopes of a prisoner being led out into the light only to see the noose. "Oh no. I have a date!" Midnight lingered near Sunburst's locker. Not that she was nervous or anything. She was just coincidentally there even though her own locker was... well, technically she had a locker somewhere, but she'd never bothered using it. Extradimensional storage was just so much more convenient. "Hey!" She said, very casually, when Sunburst came to get a few things. "So what time were you picking me up?" She saw confusion cross his face, and for a moment she felt paralyzing fear in her chest. Had he somehow forgotten her? Was she forgettable? Did he think she was joking? "I thought I already told you," Sunburst said. "We can meet at the Sugar Torus at noon and go from there. That's okay, right?" "Right, right," Midnight coughed. She made a quick note so she wouldn't forget. Had he mentioned it in passing and she'd missed it? She did miss things, sometimes. Especially when she was distracted by other things. "I'm just feeling scatterbrained. I misheard you last time and wanted to make sure." "Oh, okay," Sunburst smiled. "Hey, did you do something with your mane?" "Huh?" Midnight touched her long, wavy mane. "Oh, yeah. I started using different hair gel. Mom let me borrow some of hers. Turns out the stuff I had been using was flammable, which isn't a good combination with fire spells." "You didn't get hurt, did you?" Sunburst asked, concerned. "No, no." Midnight waved off his concern. "It wasn't a big deal. I had to lop off a few inches and use a hair growth spell to fix it. It's still a little messy. Maybe I should go to the stylist before the date..." "I'm sure you'll look great either way," Sunburst said. "I'll see you later, okay? This is sort of last minute so I need to make sure everything's ready with the plans I made." "Oh, right, of course," Midnight laughed. "I'll see you then." She trotted off, smiling to herself. This was all going perfectly! "You can't wear black on Hearts and Hooves Day," Cadance sighed. "It's not a festive color!" "But I look good in black," Midnight said. "And it's my favorite color." "There are plenty of other colors you'd look good in," Cadance said. "In fact, I think the best would be-" "Pink," Midnight sighed. "You're going to say pink." "I might have been about to suggest a different color," Cadance said, defensively. Midnight raised an eyebrow and looked at the pink pony princess, sitting on her pink bed, in her pink room, in a castle which was only painted white because Cadance wasn't in charge. Cadance sighed. "Okay, fine. I was going to say pink. But you've got a pink streak in your mane. It would work out just fine." "We can compromise," Midnight said. "Black with pink ribbons." "Well... pink and black do go together," Cadance admitted. "And a splash of color would help keep it from looking like you were going to a funeral." Midnight picked out a black dress and tried it on. "This one's a little tight." She started taking it off. Cadance stopped her. "It's supposed to be tight, to show off your flank," Cadance said. "Trust me. You've got beautiful legs, so you want a tighter fit to show them off." "I bet you say that to all the fillies," Midnight said. "Midnight, please," Cadance huffed. "You know full well I also say it to all the colts. I am a very discriminating pony." "I think you're the opposite of discriminating." "Don't let your mother hear you say that," Cadance said. "Now, maybe we should put up your mane. I know you like leaving it loose, but on a date it's practical to keep it away from your face and neck." "Why? To show off my excellent vertebrae?" "No, so when your date comes in close for a kiss, he doesn't get a mouth full of your mane." Cadance put it up, tying it into a bun with bright pink ribbon laced around it. "There. Very refined." "I guess," Midnight shrugged. "And I think we need a little more, just in case. An extra layer. It adds mystery." Cadance picked through the clothing the maids had set out. "Ah, perfect." She pulled out a half-cape of black lace with pink hearts sewn into some of the panels like stained glass. She helped Midnight put it on, and it hung loosely, just to her knees, almost like a wide scarf or mantle. "There. Now it's perfect," Cadance nodded. "An extra layer is always important so you have something to take off without losing your outfit completely. And since it has black and pink, it ties the outfit together." "You planned the whole thing out in advance, didn't you?" Midnight asked. "Maybe." Cadance smiled. "I might have had an outfit or two ready for my little Midnight's big first date." Midnight sighed and blushed. "You're the best, Pink Mom." "I'm not wearing black, Mom," Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's a date, not a funeral." "Not a funeral unless you get home late," Twilight Velvet corrected. "If he doesn't have you back by ten, they'll never find the body." "I don't even live at home anymore!" Twilight blushed. "I just came to pick up an outfit." "And you're going to get one," Velvet smiled. "Did I ever tell you about how I met your father in a cafe in Roan?" "Is this the story with the weird monsters again? Because there were a bunch of factual inconsistencies in your descriptions and I'm pretty sure I can prove they never actually happened. Plus when I asked Dad he says you met at school." "Your father doesn't have a sense of adventure," Velvet huffed. "My story is much better, so it's true. Besides, he married me so he's obligated to agree that I'm always right." "Except about this dress," Twilight said. "I was thinking about wearing pink instead." "I suppose," Velvet sighed. "But pink is a rather strong color. It's really more appropriate for stallions. Maybe a soft cornflower blue." "It's Hearts and Hooves Day, Mom. Pink and red! It's traditional! I have it on my checklist!" Twilight held up her scroll. "Alright, alright," Velvet said, taking a step back. "I know better than to argue with a checklist. I lose every time." "Exactly," Twilight nodded. "I have just the thing," Velvet said, going to her closet and taking out a hanging dress. It was mostly pink silk, with an underlayer of white. A few sequins were sewn strategically around it, creating eye-catching sparkles without making themselves obvious. "I've never seen this one before," Twilight said, tilting her head. "I haven't worn it since Shining Armor was born. Back then I was in shape." She huffed. "I could probably still fit into it if I wanted, of course. I'm as healthy as a horse." "We're all as healthy as horses. Where does that saying even come from?" "Oh, is this a fact that I know and my little Twily doesn't?" Velvet smiled. "There was a plague in Zebrica that affected zebras but not ponies. Celestia sent some of our best doctors and nurses to help, and for a lot of zebras their first impression of a pony was that we were in perfect health even when everyone else was too sick to get out of bed." "Interesting," Twilight muttered, filing the fact away in the vast library of trivia that filled her brain. "But this dress doesn't have any red. There needs to be red for it to be traditional." "The red shows up when your date gets you home late or makes you cry," Velvet muttered. "Mom!" Twilight huffed. "Fine, fine. I'll get the jewelry box. I'm sure I have a few garnets you can borrow." "Thanks, Mom." Twilight smiled. The Sugar Torus had sprung up one day as a rival to the ancient institution known as Donut Joe's. Where Donut Joe's had survived unchanged for as long as anypony could remember (even Celestia wasn't really sure when it had been built – it just seemed to appear one day and have always been there), the Sugar Torus was a temple to the newest and best ways to turn flour and sugar into fried food. The whole place was chrome and glass. Visible through the windows (very intentionally visible) was the assembly line. A newly patented donut-making machine took hoof-mixed dough in at one end, turned it into rings, then took them through a vat of sizzling oil before passing them through a waterfall of sugar glaze. Watching the donuts being made was almost half of the point of going to the Sugar Torus. "Twilight Sparkle?" A very familiar voice called out. Twilight turned from watching the assembly line to look. Midnight walked towards her with the easy grace that Twilight envied, her flank swaying in a perfect sine wave. "I wasn't expecting to see you outside your room on Hearts and Hooves Day." "I have a date," Twilight said, smugly. "A very nice stallion asked me out. Did you have to threaten somepony to meet you here, or did you just sneak them out of Tartarus when Cerberus wasn't looking?" "Mm. The latter does sound like an exciting first date, but no. I did ask somepony out. He should be around soon." Midnight stepped up to the window to look. It was almost hypnotic, watching the donuts cook. "Who is it?" Twilight asked, curious. "You'll find out when he gets here," Midnight said. "What about you? Honestly, I'm surprised you decided to date a stallion. I just thought you preferred mares. You were always looking at Lyra's flank..." Twilight blushed. "No I wasn't! You're just projecting because you were raised by a pervert." "I can't argue with that," Midnight muttered. "I asked Cadance for dating advice once and she told me that I should play for both teams." "Play for both teams?" Twilight tilted her head. "But that would probably be a violation of your contract with one or the other sides. And what if they have games scheduled on the same day?" "Never mind," Midnight sighed. "Look, let's make a deal – I won't interfere with your date, you won't interfere with mine." "Agreed," Twilight nodded. She raised her hoof and they shook on it. "But for the record," Midnight whispered. "I did consider summoning a succubus, until I realized Cadance probably knows all of them on a first-name basis." Twilight laughed quietly. "Let's wait inside," Midnight suggested. "We can sit together until our dates show up, and we can see who got the better stallion." "Okay," Twilight nodded, smiling. Sunburst smiled to himself. Nothing could go wrong. He had a date with a mare, all his plans had come through, and the pegasi had made sure the weather was great today. There was a quick shower scheduled for later, but that was only to cool the day down and provide a nice buildup to some kind of special surprise (probably the same surprise they had every year - a rainbow made custom-order in pinks and purples). He'd picked the Sugar Torus because he knew they did a good lunch there. He wasn't sure if a haybacon hayburger with glazed donuts for a bun was exactly date food, but it sure wasn't every day food, so it was as good of an excuse as any. Two tickets to a jazz theatre had been easy to get, and jazz was sophisticated enough that even a high-class pony couldn't argue, while being casual enough that they could still relax. It was something his roommate, a cute colt – wait no, nice, not cute (he was a colt, after all) – named Stardust. Stardust had even been nice enough to take him there and pay for dinner, just so he could see what it was like and make sure he'd be comfortable. It had been a really great time, though of course it hadn't been a date, because Stardust had been a colt. Sunburst adjusted his tie and opened the door. Nothing was going to go wrong today. As long as he kept repeating that, it would come true. He walked in and heard a voice call out for him. No, two voices. He turned, and saw two, identical, fillies standing up and waving. For a brief moment. Then they turned to each other and glared. That was when Sunburst knew he was going to die. "What are you doing?" Twilight demanded. "That's my date." "No, he's my date!" Midnight said. "I asked him out!" "But he asked me out!" Twilight said. The two fillies, who were essentially identical to a casual glance, glared at each other for a long moment. "I'm not going to just let you steal away my date," Midnight said, firmly. "Since he asked me out, it means he only accepted because he thought you were me," Twilight retorted. "Besides, why would he want to date a copy when he can date the original?" "Oh that's it," Midnight huffed. "No one calls me a copy!" The air filled with the hum of magic. Most ponies in Canterlot were unicorns, largely because there was no room for urban sprawl and the ponies who owned the land had owned it for so long that the original copies of the deeds were written in Horse Latin. Because of this long history of magically talented and sensitive individuals, there were all sorts of formal and informal rules about using magic in public. Using powerful spells in public was a lot like shouting - other unicorns could feel it even from rather far away, it was distracting, and it could be a bit rude. Of course, shouting in public was perfectly acceptable in certain situations, such as when entertaining others with a performance or when one's life was in danger. To put it into terms that anypony could understand, the amount of magic welling up from Midnight and Twilight was like ponies shouting with the force and volume of a jet engine-powered chainsaw. It was dangerous in every way that could be imagined. Even the non-unicorns quickly realized something was wrong when the building started vibrating. "I guess there's only one way to settle this," Midnight said, narrowing her eyes. "I guess so," Twilight agreed. One of the more formal sets of rules that had been developed in Canterlot regarded magical dueling. The rules for dueling were intricate and designed both to protect the ponies involved and everyone around them. Without restraint, a powerful unicorn could accidentally cause a huge amount of property damage. The problem was, neither Midnight nor Twilight had ever actually learned the rules for magical dueling. There had, of course, been plenty of cases where two powerful unicorns had fought each other without rules. Most of the time, this resulted in maps being changed to reflect a new crater where a town had previously been. Twilight started charging up a spell. Midnight did the same. The smartest ponies in the building were the first ones out of the door, the rest following. With a shared magical pool, the question of endurance wasn't one that would factor into the equation. Both of them would run out of magic at the same time. Therefore, the winner would be determined by the pony who was able to grab and use as much of that magic as possible in the time before it was exhausted. Midnight threw a target-seeking bouncing-betty fireball at Twilight. Twilight's spell came a fraction of a second later, a wave of cracking energy that sublimated solids directly into gas. The spells collided, and what would have been a massive, earth-shattering explosion got sucked sideways by the one force neither Twilight or Midnight would have expected. The donut machine. Right under the 'Flim-Flam Industries Patent Pending Donut Maker 2000' label was a siphon that collected magic. Both spells, along with the majority of magic that Twilight and Midnight had available at the moment, got sucked into the machine and vanished. "What?" Twilight blinked. "Uh," Midnight frowned. "What happened to my spell? The building shouldn't even be here." "Thankfully, it failed," Twilight said. "I can't believe you'd cast something so reckless." "And you think your spell was any better?" Midnight asked. "It wouldn't cause collateral damage," Twilight retorted. "It was a disintegration wave!" Midnight yelled. "A very clean one," Twilight replied. A red light started blinking on the donut machine, and an alarm sounded, blaring in time with the flashing light. Somewhere inside the complicated thaumechanical device, white lights flashed, and steam started pouring from an unseen source. A sound like pressure building in a boiler started rising in volume, the donut machine itself shaking. The donuts coming out of it started becoming more and more irregular. "I think we should leave," Midnight whispered, backing towards the door. "Uh. Yes. Leaving." Twilight agreed with her rival, backing up with her and unable to take her eyes from the machine. It sounded a lot like the wailing of the imprisoned daemons in Tartarus. "I think that large input of magic might have damaged the mechanism." "No kidding," Midnight said, as she took cover just outside the door. Twilight did a quick scan and paled, then started running. "Where are you going?" Midnight yelled, as Twilight ran past her and across the street. "It's gonna be big!" Twilight screamed. "How big?" Midnight asked, following her. When a mage was running from something magical, a wise pony did their best to keep up. "Big!" Twilight said, her eyes wide. The windows of the Sugar Torus blew out, and the inside was filled with flickering white light. Midnight looked back just as the roof started peeling away, falling into the sky as if gravity had been reversed. Swirls of unrestrained magical energy wisped into the sky. "We're going to get in so much trouble," Midnight hissed. Celestia sipped at her tea. She hadn't spent Hearts and Hooves Day with anypony in so long that many of her subjects thought she was a virgin. The rest of them thought that her Royal Guard was secretly a harem. The truth, as in most things, was somewhere in-between. The tea came back to Celestia's lips, and the ground shook under her. Her expression froze in a familiar placid mask, and her ears perked up as she listened, weaving a few spells to try and subtly detect what was happening. It was entirely possible the castle was merely settling - the foundations had seen heavy work after Twilight and Midnight had both had magical surges seven years ago. "Princess!" Raven, one of her attendants, ran into the room. "There's some kind of giant pillar of light coming out of the city!" "Ah," Celestia sighed. "It's one of those days, then." She stood up and walked with Raven towards a room with a view of the disaster. "Princess, do you know what's going on?" A few other ponies were already there, on the edge of panic. "Interesting," Celestia said. She sat down to watch. "Aren't you going to do something about that?" One of the nobles asked. "I'm going to see how this one plays out," Celestia said. "This isn't my fault!" Twilight said. "The donut machine was clearly very poorly designed! If it had been designed with the proper safeguards, it would have failed by dumping its magical store into some kind of stable grounding material like a flawless diamond!" "It was a donut shop, Twilight! They can't afford diamonds as big as your stupid head!" Midnight snapped. "It's still a bad design!" Twilight yelled. Midnight pulled Twilight into cover behind a newspaper stand. "Okay, look, we need to fix this," Midnight said. "We fix this, we at least get in less trouble than we otherwise would. Right?" "Right," Twilight agreed. She peeked out at the white light. "I think that's a class-three cross dimensional tear." "Any idea what's on the other side?" "The other side," Twilight said. "Yes, thank you," Midnight rolled her eyes. "No, I mean... the other side." "Oh," Midnight said. "That's... really bad. I think it counts as necromancy." "It will definitely lower property values," Twilight noted. "But at least it's not a portal to the Abyss or Pandemonium." "I think the building is actually keeping it contained." "It's the chrome," Twilight said. "It can be used as a substitute for silver for a lot of binding rituals. But it isn't a perfect circle, so it won't last that long." "...We'll have to use Star Swirl's Banishing Gate," Midnight decided. "That's a tenth-circle spell," Twilight said. "Neither of us can cast that!" "Each of us will cast half of it!" Midnight said. "Then it's only like... a fifth-circle spell! That sublimation spell you cast was at least sixth or seventh, so it should be easy to manage!" "Two unicorns can't just cast half a spell each and expect it to work," Twilight said. "The magic won't create a complete circuit. We'll just have two unstable, half-broken spells that will blow up in our faces or make things worse!" "Two normal unicorns can't," Midnight agreed. "But we're not normal. We've got the same cutie mark and the same magical pool. Our spell should be able to come together on its own. It's like how the Princess told us that we were stronger when we worked together!" "I–I have absolutely no idea if it'll work or not," Twilight said. "It's risky and stupid." "Just like me! But it's also an experiment, and requires precision so we get it right the first try." "And that's what I'm good at," Twilight muttered. "So how about it? Willing to give it a try?" Midnight asked. "Fine, but if anything goes wrong, I'm throwing you into it," Twilight said, standing up. "How do we divide up the spell?" "You start from the master rune and go clockwise. I'll go counterclockwise. We should meet around the middle." "Okay. We should be on opposite sides of the building to maximize the chance that this spell actually does what we want." "That means we'll have to cast without seeing how the other is doing," Midnight noted. "Right, so there's a timing issue," Twilight noted. "If we had watches..." "Which we don't. And we can't just do a silent count. My casting is faster than yours." "It's only faster when you're using a familiar spell." "Says you," Midnight stuck out her tongue. "We'll have to use something else..." Twilight looked up. "Okay. That tower. The top should be visible on both sides of the Sugar Torus. We'll each cast a shifting lights spell on it. Green when we're in position, changing to yellow when we're ready to cast and then red with a ten-second countdown when we start casting." "Great, only a million ways this could go wrong," Midnight sighed. "What do you figure our chances of success are?" "What was your grade in Calculus?" "I got a 'B'." "Then you couldn't understand the number." Twilight's ears folded back as the wailing increased in pitch. "And it's getting worse by the minute! We need to hurry!" The two young mares ran to opposite sides of the Sugar Torus, which was starting to collapse and deform, the chrome bubbling and blackening. Twilight looked up at the tower, a green light popping into place. She put her own light up and shifted it to yellow after bracing herself. Midnight's light went right from green to red. Twilight gasped and started casting, throwing the runes together. She should have known that Midnight would throw caution to the wind. She could feel it. The spell. Both halves of it. It was just like the first time they'd really connected, when they'd flared and gotten their cutie marks at the same time. The magic connected them, like they were two trees growing from the same roots. The spell came together easily. Midnight pushed Twilight along to complete the circle before it could collapse, and at the same time Twilight felt herself correcting the minor mistakes Midnight had made putting her half together. It wasn't like two ponies working together, but like one pony being able to focus on two things at once. Midnight blinked as the moment ended, the spell erupting into being. A rift formed around the Sugar Torus like a seam coming undone in the fabric of the world, and the donut shop dropped through into a sea of alien stars before the gate sealed itself again. Midnight looked across the now-empty lot at Twilight. "We did it!" Twilight yelled, happily. They ran towards each other and embraced and, just for a moment, both of them remembered the unity they'd shared. "Uh... wanna hit up Donut Joe's?" Midnight asked, blushing and pulling away. "I don't have anything else to do today now that my date's gone." "Where did he run off to, anyway?" Twilight asked. Sunburst was in a dark place. Not as dark as where the Sugar Torus had gone, but certainly a lot smaller, smellier, and made of cheap sheet metal. That is to say, he'd taken refuge in a garbage can. "I'm never going out with a mare ever again," he swore. "They're all insane!" "So there you are," Sunset said, as she walked into Donut Joe's. Midnight and Twilight looked up from the booth they were sharing. "Oh, uh, hi Mom," Midnight blushed. "You're in a lot of trouble," Sunset said, sternly. "Do you have any idea how much property damage you caused?" "It wasn't her fault!" Twilight said. "It was a malfunctioning donut machine! And also my fault. But mostly the donut machine!" "An entire building is gone! Vanished! X-zoned!" Sunset said. "Do you know how hard it is to fill out paperwork for the insurance on that? They don't like to hear that the business was sent into another dimension!" "Sunset, shhh!" Cadance whispered, as she stepped around her, an expression on her face like a predatory cat. "That's not important." "Cadance—" "It's Hearts and Hooves Day, which is officially unofficially my personal holiday," Cadance said. "So I get to decide what's important." "Millions of bits—" "Not as important as this. Look!" Cadance grinned. "Twilight and Midnight! Midnight and Twilight! On a date!" "W-what?!" Midnight sputtered. "We're not on a date," Twilight said. "We're not," Midnight agreed. "We had a date. Each of us had a date. Dates that weren't each other. But after the accident, they ran off." "And then we came here for coffee and donuts," Twilight added. "Because it's been a long day and it's only like two in the afternoon." "Of course," Cadance smiled, coming closer and slinking lower until she was eye-level with the surface of the table and looking up at Twilight and Midnight. "Then you won't mind if Sunset and I make it a double date?" "If that's what you really want to call it," Midnight sighed. Cadance and Sunset got into the booth, the two lavender unicorns moving over to make room, ending up sitting quite close to one another. "So, explain to me," Sunset said. "How exactly a donut machine caused the biggest cross-dimensional rift in centuries." "Well, it kind of started with a colt..." Midnight started.