Similar to how the meeting was going on the other side or the portal, the six mares were sitting in groups of two and talking. Both Rarities were seated in her own and Applejack’s seats, The Fluttershys were seated in their and Pinkie’s, and Pinkie and Twilight were watching from the princess’s and her dragon assistant’s seats. Of course, the young drake’s throne was proving to be a bit of a tight fit for the party planner. “Wow, Spike’s butt is really tiny.”
“I think it’s just throne, Pinkie,” Twilight remarked with a raised eyebrow and smirk. “Still, It’s good that this is going smoothly.”
“That’s good and all, but,” the party planner put a hoof to her lips, “Shhhh! I wanna hear what they’re talking about!” Pinkie whispered loudly before she leaned over the table with a rather large cone held up to her ear. This got her an eye roll from both Twilight and the Rarities the pink mare was leaning towards.
With a chuckle and a shake of her head, the younger Rarity turned back to her counterpart. “As I was saying, your dress back when you visited was absolutely gorgeous, now that I’m actually taking the time to think about it.”
“To be fair, the portal made that dress, not me. However, your attire was equally impressive for the limited resources you have. ” The older fashionista added with a smile. There was a glint in Rarity's eye as she thought back. “To remain suitable for a school environment and still be elegant is truly a magnificent feat. It makes me happy to know our skill is worthy of being in two dimensions.”
A sigh prompted the high schooler to lower her head a touch as she looked at her forelegs. “It’s a shame we let Sweetie get to us the way we did. I can’t believe I would stoop so low as to harm such a work of art.”
The equestrian unicorn’s ears splayed back as she glanced towards the window with an air of irritation. “Don’t carry all the blame. She may be cute and innocent to everypony else, but we of all ponies know just how crafty that little filly can be.”
A small laugh escaped Rarity as she looked up at her older self. “True.” Her smile returned, she thought of another topic to discuss, since her sister was brought up. “Sweetie has been getting rather skilled at making animations. I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t tried to make any with her friends yet.”
Confusion bloomed on her face as Equestrian Rarity put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Animations? Are those like the slide reels I saw the weather team using in a meeting a while ago?”
The young unicorn’s jaw fell slightly as she blinked in surprise. “Equestria still uses slide reels?” She leaned back and glanced at the crystal walls, making a note of the crystals lighting the room. “I... well I suppose if magic exists then technological development would take a different direction. To imagine a world without such grand and elegant movies...”
Rolling her eyes, Rarity shook her head at her younger counterpart. “We do have feature films, but those are of actual ponies performing for the camera.” She leaned in and had a small, yet giddy smile on her face. “Now, do pray tell. What do you mean about Sweetie Belle being a good animator?”
The high school unicorn rubbed her chin in thought as she let out a small hum. “I can try to elaborate on that I suppose.” Rarity perked up with a smile and turned to the larger unicorn. “Since you have film reels, I think I’ve found a way to explain this adequately. Imagine that instead of ponies being the ones in front of the camera for your films, pictures rapidly switch instead. And as the pictures move, someone is saying the lines that the characters shown at that moment are supposed to be saying.”
The older fashionista frowned, thoughtfully looking to her counterpart. “And that helps make a film? It sounds like it would require a terrible amount of drawings to do that.”
“It does, but that’s how Sweetie’s been spending her time when she’s at home, and apparently in detention, seeing as our parents still have her grounded from using the computer, and the school still has her and her friends going through another five and a half months of detention as punishment.” Sighing and shaking her head, Rarity could only remember the number of them she’d bought for herself, only to find each one completely filled two days later. “I can’t count the number of notepads that girl has used up.”
“How would a notepad help?” Rarity bounced in her chair as she turned to the human-turned-unicorn. “Oh! Does she draw a picture on each page and flip through them?”
A quick nod and smile were her answer. “Exactly that.” An annoyed frown grew across Rarity’s face as a specific detail bubbled to the surface of her memory. “Although recently I found out she recorded our, er, little spat from your visit.”
The older mare gasped with a hoof to her mouth. “No!”
Rarity leaned to the side with a sigh as she looked away. “Unfortunately, yes.” with a small grunt, she flopped across the cutie map and pressed her face into the crystal. “She used it to get access to the computer from me under our parent’s noses. Then she transferred her sketches onto there and started making an animated version of our fight.”
A wry smirk crossed her lips as Rarity looked at herself pouting on the table. “Clever filly.”
The small white unicorn’s pout deepened as she glared at a hologram of Carousel Boutique. “Too clever, if you ask me.”
At the same time, Twilight turned her attention to the two Fluttershy. The two pegasi were holding some small dogs, gently petting them both skillfully and clumsily, much to one of their dismay.
The corgi in the visiting Fluttershy’s hooves yelped, making her jump in her seat. “Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Wiggles. I-I’m still getting used to having hooves.”
Mr. Wiggles let out a few whines and a yip before Equestrian Fluttershy nodded with a small smile. “He says it’s okay, but please be careful with his tail. His wife got mad at him yesterday.”
The smaller Fluttershy’s ears perked up as she looked straight at her counterpart. “You can understand them? I... I usually have to infer from context.”
A small laugh escaped the caretaker’s lips as she focused on the Pomeranian in her lap. “Mostly. Sometimes I need some clues myself.” She nodded her head to the two listening in on Rarity. “Twilight, before she became a princess, helped me figure out how I was able to. It’s something about my magic field. I, um, don’t remember the specifics.”
The teenage pegasus hid behind her mane for a moment, petting Mr. Wiggles. “Do... do you think you could teach me how? A-and if not that, how to use my wings?”
Fluttershy looked nervous when her counterpart asked, making the poor pegasus start to wilt. She leaned over and waved the smaller pegasus over and spoke softly into her ear. “I’m not sure how Twilight would feel about this, but stretch out your wing towards mine.”
“O-okay?” Confused, the smaller Fluttershy concentrated on her back muscles. It took a moment, but eventually, she managed to get her right wing to extend. When she did, Fluttershy was startled by the size of the limb. “Um... are they supposed to be this big? Twilight's wings don’t seem to be this large compared to her.”
Giggling, Fluttershy extended her wings and made the younger her gawk at their size. “We’ve... always had bigger wings than other pegasi. It’s, um, one of the reasons I was getting bullied in school.” She paused and put a hoof to her chin. “And probably why Rainbow first started hanging out with me. I think she was jealous and thought by being near me her wings would grow to match.”
“That’s... startlingly similar.” The younger Fluttershy paused for a moment, recalling how much taller she was to her Rainbow when they first met. Four inches is a rather noticeable difference between six-year-olds, though that might have just been because of Rainbow being short. She frowned and looked at her new wings for a moment, before looking back to her older self. “Um, why wouldn’t Twilight be comfortable with this?”
Fluttershy blushed as she smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I guess we got off on a bit of a tangent. It’s just that since you’re technically me, but from the other side, I figure nopony could have done this for you yet, and I’m not sure how Twilight would feel about using any magic like this.” Gracefully, Fluttershy brought her own wing over her younger self’s wing. “Close your eyes, and focus on the feeling in your wings.” There was some hesitation, and she smiled softly. “Don’t worry; Mom taught me how to do this properly.”
As the younger Fluttershy closed her eyes, she did as she was asked. At first, all she could feel from her wing was the soft down of her older counterpart's feathers. There was something else there, but it was hidden underneath the layers of the soft downy feathers. “I... can feel something?”
From in front of her, she could hear her counterpart. “Try to focus on it.”
Nodding, she focused on the feeling. It took a moment to find it underneath the downy softness, but when she did Fluttershy lost herself in it for a moment. The sensation was so calming, the human-turned-pegasus felt like she could go to sleep right then and there, yet it also made her more awake than anything she’d ever had. The most accurate description she could think of was a river flowing through her very bones.
With a shake of her head, Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked at her wing, only to see that while hers was still outstretched, her older counterpart had already retracted her own. The feeling, however, was still coursing through her wings. “Wow, this feels so, wonderful. What did you do?”
Smiling, the Equestrian nudged her counterpart’s wing closed. “I used some of my magic to help open up the paths in your wings with how narrow they were.” With a small blush, she looked at her own wings for a moment. “My mom had to do the same thing for me when I was a filly. It’s a common problem for the mana paths to be too narrow with wings that grew too fast.”
The young pegasus looked at her wings with wide eyes, giving a quick flap and almost toppling herself over. She was in awe until a thought graced its way across her mind. “But, if this was something your mom did for you, then why wouldn’t Twilight approve if it was to help?”
Fluttershy went silent. For a few seconds, she contemplated whether or not it was a good idea to delve into the topic, before sighing and looking sadly back to her young counterpart. “There... are some ponies who look down on doing this. Mana Stimulation is considered standard medical practice, but there was a school nurse that did it without proper training and,” Fluttershy looked away, hair falling over her eyes to hide the tears threatening to spill over, “it brought a bad light upon the medical community for a time. Especially anypony who knew how to do it.”
The younger Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth, as a small surge of fear passed through her. When she could see a tear trail down the Equestrian Fluttershy’s face, she hopped out of her seat and quietly moved over to her older self. “Have you talked to Twilight about it?”
Fluttershy shook her head softly. “I’m not sure how to bring it up. Since she’s a princess now, her opinion on matters like this hold so much weight, and I don’t want to put that on her.”
Scuffing a hoof on the floor, Fluttershy pushed a lock of her hair out of her eyes and looked up at the older pegasus. “Um, it sounds like it’s really bothering you. Maybe after we finish, you can talk to her about it?”
Wiping a tear from her eye with a small smile, the older Fluttershy nodded. “I think I’ll do just that.” The two glanced at the other four, seeing both Rarities in a tizzy over something Pinkie did, and Twilight trying to defuse the situation before a small giggle escaped the two pegasi.
“It’s a good thing we’re the quiet ones.”
“Mmhm.”
As she walked down the halls of the castle, Starlight was nervous. She could have sworn she could hear someone following her, but every time she looked over her shoulder, there was nobody there. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down and focus on the contents of the book she had read earlier while it was still fresh in her mind. “C’mon, Starlight, take it easy. None of them suspect a thing.” Peeking into the room next to her, she hummed before shutting it again. “Bathroom, which means my room is...” trotting four doors down the hall, she pushed open a different set of doors and smiled. “Ah Hah! Found ya.”
When the door closed behind her, the halls were silent. A second later, three fillies tumbled out from within one of the other entries, along with a bunch of buckets and mops. “Ow.”
“Whose bright idea was it to spy on Starlight again?” Scootaloo muttered as she pushed a mop off of her head, while still pinned under Sweetie, and on top of both, Applebloom, who had brought a pair of saddlebags with her.
Thankfully for her, Applebloom got off the top of the pile and frowned as she removed the bucket that had landed on her own head. “It was mine, and Ah’m telling you, she’s acting weird! Has been ever since she showed up in Ponyville a month ago.”
Sweetie rolled off of Scootaloo’s back and helped her friend up. “Maybe she’s just embarrassed about what happened when our sisters met her before?”
“You mean that whole equality cult thing they were talkin’ ‘bout?” At their nods, Applebloom shook her head and frowned. “Nah, it’s somethin’ else. I mean, just take a look at all the stuff she’s been doing lately.” She dug into her bags and pulled out a book. “See, just look at the title.”
Sweetie squinted and rubbed her chin as she leaned in. “Magic for Beginners: A Complete Guide for the Aspiring Foal?” She blinked a bit before sitting in confusion. “Didn’t Twilight have me reading that during Twilight Time?”
Applebloom raised the book triumphantly. “Exactly! According to AJ, she was able to pull a pony’s cutie mark off of their flanks!” She lowered the foals book back into her bag before pointing at the door to Starlight’s room. “So why would she need a book for teachin’ foals if she’s that good at magic already?”
Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head and looked up in thought. “Didn’t she get amnesia or something?”
Sweetie nodded and stood up. “Yeah, She spent days in the hospital after they found her. It was like she didn’t even know how to be a pony and kept trying to eat bushes for who knows how long.”
Applebloom started to wilt in her confidence before an idea came to her. “But what if she did it on purpose?”
Scootaloo raised a skeptical eyebrow at her friend. “Why would she almost starve on purpose?”
The farm filly pointed a hoof accusingly at the door. “To get close to our sisters and take them out when they weren’t looking!”
Shaking her own head, the rambunctious pegasus pointed at her friend. “That’s what you’re coming up with? Next, you’ll start telling me there’s two of me!”
As the two continued to bicker, Sweetie looked down the hallway and did a double take at what she saw. “Um, girls?”
“Oh please, like that would ever happen.” Applebloom paused and looked down in serious thought. “But that might be true for Starlight. What if she found some way to clone herself and left the copy here as a distraction?”
Sweetie stood up and tried to get their attention a little louder this time. “Girls?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and facehoofed. “Bloom, you’re sounding crazier than Time Turner did when he started running around about his latest invention for the third time this week.”
Rolling her own eyes, Sweetie took a deep breath and turned to her friends. “GIRLS!”
The two stopped arguing and turned to Sweetie to ask what was wrong when they too froze at what they saw.
Or rather, who.
Applebloom stood there, gawking at her counterpart from under her deer hunter cap and brown plaid jacket. “Wow... do ah really sound like that?”
Scootaloo nodded, nearly knocking her bowler hat off her head. “Yeah, kinda.” She scratched her shoulder some and shrugged.
Sweetie Belle had sparkles in her eyes and a broad smile, barely holding onto her phone, somehow, and biting back a squeal. “Oh my gosh, I look adorable!” The five fillies all looked at her for a moment, and she shrugged. “What? I do!”
The door they all stood before burst open, and a glowering Starlight stepped out. “What is going on out-” The moment Starlight looked down at who was outside her room, she paused at the sight of six crusaders, eyes shrinking to pinpricks. “NOPE!” With speed rivaling Rainbow, the door slammed shut, and several locks could be heard.
Both Appleblooms sighed and shook their heads, before speaking in unison. “Well, that’s just great.”