"...and that's when you arrived, Your Highnesses." Starlight Glimmer concluded. She and the others had told everything they knew, only interrupted when Rainbow Dash and the medical team from Ponyville General had arrived.
Luna frowned. "This is most vexing, and very unlike Twilight." She commented, looking at Celestia.
"Very true, Luna." She agreed. "But, whatever happens, we will make sure they survive, no matter what." Celestia stated. "For one of them must be the real Twilight Sparkle, and therefore we must make sure they both live."
"Well, there's not much chance of anything else happening in that regard." Said Nurse Redheart when she came in at that moment.
The others crowded around, all asking questions. Celestia shouted out "ENOUGH! Let Nurse Redheart speak."
After everyone had apologised and backed away, Nurse Redheart said. "Thank you, Your Highness." Celestia smiled and nodded at Redheart. "Okay... from the doctors' examinations, both of the Twilights appear to be stable and now sleeping off whatever happened." She told them all. "They're both suffering from mild magic overload and mana depletion, but that is rectifying itself as we speak. But we have one slight problem." She looked at them all. "We can't tell them apart."
"Why not?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Can't ya just... I dunno, read their memories or sumthin'?" Applejack asked. "If'n they're not tha same pony, then shouldn't their memories be different?"
"We tried that." Nurse Redheart answered. "And even their memories are so similar, we can't distinguish between them. Physically, they are identical as well, even to their cutie-marks and Itineris patterns." She sighed. "They're literally clones of each other, made from the same pattern, as it were."
"Hmmm..." Celestia thought. "Starlight, you said Twilight said something about someone with a problem of having two minds and souls in the one body, and you deduced as she subjected herself to this... casting, that Twilight was talking about herself." Starlight nodded. "And in the middle of the casting, you saw two Twilights, but one was her old unicorn self; the other, an almost identical pegasus." Starlight nodded again.
"I've never heard of such a thing, Sister." Luna commented.
"Neither have I, Luna, but if Twilight was so sure about this that she would undergo such an almost insane... I hardly dare call it a cure, then she must have been sure it would work." Celestia stated. "And since there is now two of them, I would surmise that, perhaps, she was indeed correct."
"But how could that happen in the first place?" Starlight asked.
"There are several possibilities, but I hesitate to speculate at this time." Celestia answered. "But for now, we should work on getting them both back to health, then find out what happened that made them decide to take such a radical and dangerous action." 'And find out why it affected both myself and Luna.' Celestia added silently.
=======
I slowly came to, to find myself in a similar state to waking up first thing in the morning, or that's what it felt like to me. My body was completely relaxed and there was that slight euphoric state, with no real pain to speak of. That was something I was glad of, because I was expecting a massive headache, to be honest. But when I tried to open my eyes and stretch, I found I couldn't move. I couldn't feel anything strapping me down, just the sheets lying on top of me. I was glad to hear my heart beating and I could feel myself breathing, which was a blessed relief, but apart from that, I couldn't move a muscle.
There was the familiar sound of medical monitors beeping away around me, but since the sheets were very soft and had that slippery feel of silk, I figured that, if I wasn't in Canterlot Castle's infirmary, then I wasn't in hospital, either. "Probably one of the rooms of Twi's castle." I thought to myself. "Okay, if gross movements are too hard, let's try some small movements."
I tried moving a hoof, since I remembered I didn't have toes anymore. I grumbled to myself when even that proved a little too hard and nothing happened. "Great! Did things work, only to leave me paralysed in my new body?" I asked myself. "Oh Celestia! I hope Twilight's doing better than I am!" Sighing, I calmed myself again and thought about my pony body. "I can't panic. That won't help. Now, what could cause something like this? I hope it's only temporary." I tried accessing the memories Twilight had given me, and I found that all my old memories and the new ones were all intermixed now, as if they'd happened to me in a more natural fashion. That alone was even more confusing, but I was thankful that I had everything Twilight had given me, still.
"Okay. Smaller steps. Now, I don't have fingers or toes, so what muscles are small and easily moved?" I asked myself. I wandered my memories over the image of Twilight in my mind, and it hit me: Those big mobile pony ears. I relaxed and slowly let myself walk through my body until I could concentrate on where my ears were. I'd hardly been conscious of the way they moved about, seeking sounds almost autonomously, but I also knew I could move them if I wanted to focus on a sound. One ear was trapped under the side of my head, but the other was lying free, my left ear, I realised. I carefully focussed on the muscles that moved it and tried to make it twitch.
To some blessed relief, it took me several minutes, but then it moved. I carefully started making it move as much as I could and eventually, I could move it through it's range of movement. "Hmmm... this is strange." I said to myself. Then I found I could move the skin around it, feeling it tic consciously... and the sensation of control moved to one eyebrow, as I found I could make it lift and lower. "How interesting... it seems like... like a computer that's lost all it's driver software for it's peripherals. I can locate the peripherals of my body, but they won't respond, just like a computer booting up... for the first time!" It then struck me. "Of course! That's why moving around in Twilight's body was so easy when I was stuck in it. All her parts already had their 'software' map in place, and control of them had been switched over to me. That's why my autopilot software still worked in her body, because the instructions were simply interpreted by her long-established body-awareness software." I chuckled. "Gods-damn it. Who'd have thought I'd be using computer debugging principles to learn how to use my new body?" Relief washed through me and I relaxed almost totally, as the rising feeling of panic was flushed away.
But it was a lot harder than I thought, and debugging my new self was going to take quite a while, I could sense that by the little progress I was making in gaining control. "Hmmm... this is going to be harder than I thought... then again, I have all of Twilight's memories. I know what it felt like to move around in her body. Let's see if the memories will translate into moving my own. After all, they are essentially the exact same hardware. Okay, let's concentrate on the head and chest, so I can talk."
Things slowly became clearer as the haze of non-control slowly lifted. I could now hear voices moving around me, but the language was unknown to me... at least, I thought it was. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite understand the individual words. I grumbled and kept at learning to move and speak again.
=======
Twilight, on the other hand, slowly came awake at about the same time, but she had no trouble at all stretching and yawning. Then her demeanour brightened no end. She could move! Her body was hers again! She opened her eyes wide and lifted her head to look about. She recognised the Royal Guestroom instantly. The room resembled the Royal apartments in Canterlot, the only part of the castle to do so. She looked up to see she was in Celestia's bed. The beeping of medical monitors and the drone of hushed voices filled her ears as well, and she gazed across to Luna's bed... to see herself lying there in it. Twilight gasped and checked herself over, catching the attention of Nurse Redheart, as she lifted her wings and pushed the sheets back.
"Princess!" Redheart exclaimed as she rushed to Twilight. "How are you feeling?" Redheart asked as she started scanning Twilight.
"I feel... well, pretty good, actually." Twilight responded. "There's no headache, no stiffness. Apart from being a bit low on mana, I'm feeling like I just woke up from a long sleep." She told Redheart.
Redheart gave a big sigh of relief. "That's wonderful, Twilight." She replied, remembering Twilight's strict injunction that Ponyville residents call her by her name, not title, when in the village. "We'd thought something really terrible had befallen you."
"Yeah, it had." Twilight agreed. "Fortunately, I seem to have come through it without any complications." She looked over at her doppelganger, who was seemingly still asleep in Luna's guest-bed. "What about her?" Twilight asked.
"We're not sure." Redheart admitted. "She seems to still be unconscious. But she's stable, her breathing and heartrate are all normal for you at rest." When Twilight looked at Redheart with a querying look, she smiled. "We used your medical history to get a baseline to work from, Twilight."
'Ah." Twilight nodded. "Where's everypony else?" She asked.
"In the room opposite this one." Redheart answered, as Twilight stretched again. She started removing the monitor's contacts from Twilight as she moved to get up. "Even Princesses Celestia and Luna are here." She informed Twilight.
"Really? How'd they know something was wrong?" Twilight asked, as she made to stand.
"I don't know, I wasn't here when they arrived." Redheart answered as Twilight dropped to the floor. "Here, one last series of checks and you can go join them."
Twilight nodded and stood still, moving as Redheart directed her. Twilight knew Redheart was very close to becoming a fully-fledged doctor in her own right, so she was more than happy to let her check her over, rather than the other doctors.
"Well, if you were any healthier, I'd be out of work." Redheart chuckled. "One thing: Don't cast any really big spells for a while and limit your levitation. Your mana levels are still very low, so you'll need time and rest to build them up again."
Twilight nodded. "Right. I don't think that'll be a problem. I'm more than likely going to be exercising my talking muscles more than anything for a very long while for the time being." She told Redheart.
Redheart giggled softly. "Yeah, I can imagine everypony's going to want an explanation." She agreed.
Twilight sighed wearily. "Well, better get this over with. I can't keep Celestia and Luna waiting, let alone my friends." She said, heading for the door.
Redheart nodded as she headed for the still-bedridden second Twilight. "No, and I think this one's explanation is going to be wanted even more than yours." She thought out-loud, as she noticed the ear-twitch that was sporadically occuring on the other patient.
= = = = =
Twilight was feeling much better as she crossed the corridor and entered the parlour that she'd designated to service the Princesses when they visited her castle. Almost all the furniture was bigger than usual, to be comfortable for Celestia's bigger height and size. She grinned when she saw everypony was there, talking away in hushed tones to the point that they didn't see her enter. "Hey, everypony." She said in a bright tone. "Anypony miss me?"
All of the others turned to look at Twilight, and exclaimed "TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash was just barely beaten by Pinkie Pie in getting to hug Twilight first. Twilight found herself partially lifted off her hoofs and carried into the middle of the room, hugged by all, save for the Princesses, but they moved close as well and greeted her warmly.
Twilight laughed out loud as she hugged each and every one of them, even Luna got a gentle nuzzle on the side of her head, as touchy-feely as Luna ever got to anyone besides Celestia. The gaggle of voices all settled down as Celestia said "Come now, my little ponies, let Twilight breathe and tell us what happened."
Twilight grinned as she settled onto a lounge and took a deep breath. "Okay. You're probably all as curious as hay as to what's been going on." She started, to lots of nods and curious faces. "Well, since this morning, I've been sharing my body with someone else. Someone who, while she was friendly enough and wasn't trying to replace me, was stuck in there and was in control. Until now, you've all been talking to her, not me."
"Now that's a surprise." Starlight was the first to comment.
"Yeah, whoever she was she did a really good job of makin' us think she was ya, Twi." Applejack added.
"Indeed." Celestia then said. "Even I was fooled. Her reactions were very true to your nature."
Twilight nodded. "To be frank, I wasn't even awake for the first hour she was in control." She revealed. "I woke up to find things like this during breakfast. You would remember it best, Applejack. You were the first to ask if I was all right. That flinch was apparently due to me waking up inside myself and finding out I wasn't in control."
"So, how'd she get in there, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked. "And how'd she get control of you?"
"And who is she?" Rarity asked as well.
Twilight shook her head. "Well, neither of us have any idea how it happened. Plus, it seems whoever did it had selectively erased a good deal of her memories, not so much information, but any references to who she was or what she looked like were very expertly censored." She explained. "And no, before you go accusing him, I do not believe Discord had anything to do with this at all. While it sounds like something he might do, we both couldn't find any trace of him or his influence anywhere."
"That doesn't leave very many who could do such a thing then, Twilight." Celestia said. Then Luna got her attention. "Excuse us, we'll be back in a moment." And the Princesses rose and left the room.
Twilight found herself being snuggled by all her friends a few seconds after the door closed. She even held her forelegs out to allow Starlight to give her a big hug. "We were so worried!" Pinkie Pie said.
"Yes." Fluttershy actually piped up and said. "When we saw you split in two, we thought everything had gone wrong."
Twilight nodded. "Yes, well, the whole thing with the Elements was our last resort." She explained further. "After finding nothing in any of the books I knew had anything to do with anything even remotely related to this, We were willing to try anything. After she remembered that the Elements had separated Luna from Nightmare Moon, we decided it was worth a try."
"So, the whole thing about not being able to use the Element of Magic was a ruse?" Starlight asked.
"No, we really couldn't get the Element to work properly." Twilight replied. "Apparently our dichotomy meant it wouldn't activate properly, so we had to do it the way we did it." She concluded.
By that time, everyone had relaxed, and then the Princesses returned. "So, how is our visitor?" Luna asked.
Twilight sighed sadly. "I'm not sure. She hasn't regained consciousness yet, apparently."
Luna looked worried. "That is not a good sign at all, Twilight Sparkle. If you're conscious, then she should not be far off being so as well." Luna said. "Maybe we should go and check on her."
Celestia nodded. "A good idea, indeed, Sister." She agreed.
Twilight looked at the others, but they seemed content to stay there for the moment. "Y'all go, Twi. We'll stay here fer tha moment."
"Yeah, or it'll get too crowded in there if we're all in there at once." Rainbow Dash agreed, in a moment of rare lucidity.
Twilight smiled. "Thanks, Girls." She said appreciatively, and she led the Princesses through to the guest quarters her 'twin' was resting in.
=======
Things were still going really slow. I could twitch both ears, wince, I'd gotten my mouth to open and close and now I was working on opening my eyes. They felt like they weighed a ton, but I'd had hangovers like that before. Slowly but surely, I managed to get them to open. Luckily the lights were set low, so I wasn't dazzled.
I'd also managed to make progress on re-learning Equestrian. Twilight's lessons from her earliest memories were proving very useful, since she was a prodigy, I'd realised. In an hour, I'd gone from hardly understanding a word of what was said to understanding pretty much everything of what was said. I wondered if Twilight had gotten around to learning any of the other languages I knew, like Russian.
I looked about slowly, exercising my eyes and helping them to learn to focus again. I was definitely still in Twilight's castle, I could tell. The room might look like it was part of Canterlot Castle, but the furnishings were different, more home-made and very lovely in that style. Finally I got my eyes to be able to blink and focus properly, and I worked on my mouth, nose, tongue and throat. My tongue licked over my teeth fairly easily, funnily enough. Then I saw a face I didn't know looking me over. "Hello... can you understand me?" The mare with the nurse's uniform asked me.
I looked at her and flicked an ear.
"Does that mean yes?" She asked.
I flicked my ear again.
"I see. I take it two flicks means 'no'."
One flick.
She smiled at me. "Good. I take it you're having trouble moving your body about."
One flick.
"Hmmm... Do you remember what happened?"
I gave her another ear-flick.
"Do you remember who you are?"
I flicked my ear twice this time.
"I see. But you remember where you are?"
One flick.
"That's very good." She said. Then I managed to get my tail to flick as well. She looked back along me and then back at me. "More things starting to wake up, then?" She asked, moving and uncovering my tail. I gave it a slow swish. "Good. Keep it up at your own pace and I'll help where I can." She told me. I gave her one last ear-twitch and concentrated on getting my speech back, just as someone entered the room and she moved away from me. I heard voices, one of which I recognised as Twilight...
=======
Twilight preceded Celestia and Luna into the guestroom, where she saw Nurse Redheart sitting next to her twin, talking to her softly. The doctors appeared to have gone, she noticed. Redheart then rose and moved over to them. "Your Highnesses." She said, bowing to all of them.
"How goes it, Nurse Redheart?" Celestia asked first.
"I actually have some progress to report." Redheart reported with a happy tone. "She's awake, but is having trouble with her body, by the looks of it." She explained. "But she is lucid and can communicate to 'yes' and 'no' questions by flicking her ears; her eyes are open and she's trying to move her mouth and tail."
All three alicorns breathed sighs of relief, Twilight most of all. "That's good news." Twilight said to Celestia and Luna.
"Apart from that and her mana depletion, she's perfectly healthy, as far as the doctors could tell." Redheart added. "Dr Rubber Hose has returned to Canterlot, Your Highnesses, and Dr Steady Hoofs went back to Ponyville General for the time being. He has an operation to perform, but he has assigned me here until the crisis has been resolved."
"Excellent." Celestia said. "Then she is in the best of care. Hopefully she'll be out of bed fairly soon."
"To be honest, it might take a while." Redheart said, not trying to sound too enthusiastic. "Most of the muscle groups she's regained control of are minor ones, which is good, but it might take a while before she can use any major ones, such as her legs. But we shall proceed as quickly as she is able."
"We understand." Twilight then replied. "Can I talk to her?"
Redheart nodded and said "She's able to answer things, as I said. But try not to wear her out too much. I'm not sure how much stamina she has at the moment."
Twilight nodded in affirmation, then moved to be with her copy as Celestia and Luna talked on with Nurse Redheart.
=======
I had watched and heard all of this and waited for Twilight to come over to me. I was able to give her a nice smile as she came close and she returned it. "Hey there." She said. "Good to see you're finally conscious. I take it, though, this isn't what you expected would happen, being somewhat paralysed at the moment?"
I rolled my eyes, glad that I could do that, and gave her an ear-twitch in reply.
Twilight chuckled. "It seems you got more than you wanted: A perfectly unsullied body based on my own, as you desired. However, it seems that the operating instructions got left behind, I take it?"
I flicked my ear again, then twitched my tail.
Twilight nodded at me. "I see. But at the least, you did survive the procedure. And you got your wish that I'd come through it okay."
I smiled at that.
Twilight smiled back. "We're talking about ways to feed you. We might have to resort to a stomach tube, since we don't know when you'll be able to get up and about again. Does that bother you?" She asked.
I flicked my ear twice at that. I'd used one of those before. Then I tried saying something, as I felt my larynx seemingly tighten and loosen. "Roh-oh-oh-oh..." Was all that came out, and very softly at that.
Twilight's eyes opened wide with surprise, but she grinned. "That's... really good. Wow, you're really making progress." She told me.
I smiled and wagged my tail weakly, then tried again. "Roh-oh-oll mmmee oh-oh-oh-v-v-v-errr. Uh-h-h r-r-i-i-htt." I was barely able to say.
Twilight looked surprised again, but nodded. "Hey, can somepony give me a hoof here? She wants to be upright, but I haven't got the strength to levitate her at the moment." She asked.
Luna had been watching and she quickly walked over. "I can." She said as Twilight removed the blankets from me. I felt Luna's magic encompass me as her horn glowed and she lifted me into the air, as Nurse Redheart came over as well. They tucked my legs forward and to my sides as Luna slowly lowered me down onto my barrel, and I breathed deeper as I relaxed onto the bed again. My wings were drooping as well, but not lying on one of them was a relief, even as my head lowered down to a bunch of pillows Twilight had assembled for it. My neck still wasn't capable of lifting my head. "Thhhhh-a-an-an-k-s."
Luna nodded, her solemn face giving a bare smile as Twilight beamed at me. "I hope you get better soon, my dear." Luna told me. "I would talk with you again, sometime, as would my sister. We have much to discuss."
I closed my eyes slowly and just barely managed to incline my head forward, but when it got stuck there, Twilight had to gently slide my head back until I wasn't sitting with my muzzle buried in the pillows.
Luna bowed her head slightly in return. "Until you are better, then." She replied, and turned to head for Celestia.
Twilight climbed onto the bed and moved until she was facing me, the bed being huge enough to do so with clearance around us both. "Wow, you're really starting to get the hang of this, aren't you?" She asked.
I flicked once with my left ear and twice with my right.
Twilight giggled. "Yes and no, eh? I can understand your frustration. Going from a fully-functional body to this one must have been a huge shock when you woke up."
I flicked an ear.
Then Twilight became serious. "Having any doubts about doing it?" She asked me.
I flicked my ears twice and gave her a filthy look.
Twilight then smiled at me. "Glad to hear it." She said. "I just wish we'd found another way to do it, so you wouldn't have to go through all of this."
I just sighed softly, the gave her a 'yes-and-no' flick.
Twilight nodded, smiling softly at me, almost... fondly. "At least you're looking good." She said. "Do you remember seeing us in the energy field, when you looked like a pegasus?" She asked me.
I smiled and slowly said "Y-y-y-e-sss."
Twilight grinned. "I remember it. I think you looked fantastic." She told me. "I don't think I would have minded if I'd been born a pegasus... but I don't think I'd have become an alicorn by now if I had." She told me. "But you still looked awesome." Twilight grinned at me and I smiled back, my tail wagging a little bit easier now.
Then, to my surprise, Twilight moved forward and gently nuzzled me. I tried leaning my head into it, sighing softly. "Maybe you and I can become sisters." She told me. "I'd like a twin sister. I have the best big brother in all of Equis, but a sister would be fantastic, especially one who could understand me being me." She said softly.
I nodded slowly, then my horn gently contacted hers and there was a flash through my mind. I heard Twilight gasp, but she didn't pull away and I heard in my head "Huh?"
I grasped this hard. "Twilight?" I asked in my head.
"I can hear you!" She replied to me.
"And I can hear you!" I said at a normal tone.
I could almost feel the thoughts spinning through her head. Then it faded as she moved away slightly. "My horn!" Twilight said in an excited tone, and touched her horn to mine again. "Can you hear me, Sis?" She asked.
"Loud and clear, Twi." I replied.
"It must be our horns." Twilight said, her mental voice sounding so excited. "Maybe because we're literally copies of each other, our horns can act as a conduit."
"Good a theory as any." I agreed. "But I can at least talk to you properly now. That is SUCH a relief."
"Yeah, you're telling me!" Twilight replied. "What do you think went wrong?" She asked me.
'I think you're right with you saying this is a totally new body, with nothing but the autonomic systems fully operational yet.' I answered. "It's like I'm having to slowly work my way through its systems, activating the muscle groups one at a time. By the way, do you still have all my memories?" I asked her.
"Yep. Sure do, and some of them are bizarre, but some are so wonderful." She replied.
"Good. Look up computers again, as in problems with such." I felt her mental nod. "I think I'm like a computer with all the drivers for its peripheral devices deleted. Can you make sense of that?"
"Yes, actually." Twilight answered. "I know what you're referring to, from your memories. So, you're having to load the drivers manually, as in one at a time?" She asked.
"Yes, it's exactly like that." I confirmed. "I'm having to load the drivers by activating every muscle and muscle group one at a time, which is really slow, but it appears to be working."
"So I see. Pretty slow, but it is working, and that says you'll be up and about again before you know it." Twilight said with a smile. But then, she opened her wings up unconsciously and, to our great surprise, my wings opened as well. "Huh?!?" She asked, furling her wings, only to see mine do the same and not droop back down again where they'd been sitting.
"Do that again!" I insisted.
Twilight opened her wings to their full spread, and mine followed suit. She moved them around a bit, and mine echoed her actions precisely. "That's incredible!" She thought to me, as she furled her wings again and mine followed her actions again.
"Well, I'll be tarred and feathered." I said to myself, but she heard it too, and Twilight giggled. "Move your horn away. I want to see if it's made any difference." Twilight nodded, then I felt the link fade as she moved her head away from mine. I tried to feel my wings and the sensations were a lot clearer than they had been before. I carefully opened my right wing... and it moved. Nowhere was it as easy or precise as Twilight's movements, but it opened about half-way before gravity grabbed it and it drooped slowly to the bed. I grumbled audibly under my breath as I dragged it furled again against me.
"Definite progress." Twilight said with a grin. She slid back onto the bed and reconnected to me. "What's next?" She asked.
"Talking and neck/head area." I answered. Twilight nodded, and we spent the next hour working on me using my neck and being able to speak coherently and with some ease. Celestia and Luna had left by then, but now we could talk without being linked by our horns.
But I was also tired out and Twilight had felt that. "Hey, Sis, maybe it's time you rested. We've come a really long way in a very short time, so don't tire yourself out." She encouraged me. "We can work on other things tomorrow, like maybe your legs."
I looked at Twilight and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds great." I agreed. "Maybe I'll be able to get something solid to eat, too, and get to the toilet. I'll probably need it by then, once my digestive system wakes up." She gave me a smile, then nuzzled me again and this time, I was able to return her affection. "Hey, Twi..." I then asked her. "Why are you treating me like we're related, y'know, after everything I put you through?"
Twilight looked at me and thought about it. "I guess... it's because I know you." She eventually answered me. "I know almost everything about you. You're a pony of honor, and everything you did while you were me, you did to try and give me back myself, albeit without sacrificing yourself, of course." She looked at me again and gave me that fond look again. "I don't think you would betray me or do anything to harm me in any way, unless it was to save me from myself... and you'd expect the same thing of me, right?" She asked.
I smiled back at her, then nodded. "Yeah." I simply replied.
Twilight grinned. "And... I can feel something between us, too." She added. "I don't know what, precisely... but it feels like... we're bonded. I have your memories, you have mine. Can you feel it too?"
I pondered this. I closed my eyes and felt inside me. It was then that I felt it, and Twilight saw my horn-tip light up. She grinned and did the same. The fields mixed, and the feeling I got was incredible. As the Sparkle Stars in our cutie marks also lit up, I found I could feel her. I could feel what Twilight was feeling. Maybe it was because we were so close, but it felt like the description I'd read about the connection, the bond that twins sometimes shared. "I can." I told Twilight. "I can feel you."
"And I can feel you." Twilight replied.
"Maybe... maybe we are twins, after all." I suggested.
Twilight nodded, grinning. "Well..."
I giggled. "If you're willing to have me as your sister." I said.
Twilight stuck out her tongue, then giggled as well. "Like I would let you go out of my sight." She said. "You could ruin my reputation so easily."
I gave her an evil grin. "Oh yeah..." I agreed. "I wonder how many stallions I can do in one night?"
Twilight laughed at that. "If that's all you're going to do, I'm coming along!" She stated with enthusiasm. We laughed, then pressed our heads together. "Sisters?" She asked.
"Yeah, sisters." I said. "Oh boy! Breaking this news to your family..."
"OUR family." Twilight corrected me.
"Okay, our family... that's going to be something." I finished.
Twilight nodded. "Oh, and the pranks we can pull!" That got us laughing again.
"Gonna have to get Rainbow Dash, and good!" I agreed.
We sighed happily and settled down. "Okay, Sis. Get some sleep, and we'll continue tomorrow." Twilight told me. I nodded and she rolled me back over onto my side again, being careful of my wing, until I was settled comfortably. To my surprise, she gave me a soft kiss on my cheek, then said "See you in the morning, Sis." And exited.
I relaxed and smiled to myself. This day was ending a lot better than it started...
=======
Twilight sat in her study on the lower floor and thought about what had been happening. The situation was, as even her new twin sister had said, was unprecedented. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, which, considering the state of lore in Equestria, was almost unheard-of. Twilight's mind looked back, going back through everything she'd ever read about anything that might have been similar, and sighed with frustration when she found nothing that even came close to correlating with this event. But she also sat down and wrote everything that had happened down. She, Twilight Sparkle, would make sure that, even if nothing like this had been recorded before, that it would be recorded down this time, without fail.
As Spike served dinner, she smiled at him and said "Spike, bring your dinner in here. I want to spend some time with you."
Spike grinned. "Sure, Twilight." He replied, and came back with his dinner, a big piece of meat with a lot of gems on the side.
For some reason, watching Spike eat meat didn't bother Twilight anywhere near as much as she remembered it. She figured it might be because of the memories she'd gotten from... 'Ugh, I have to help her find a name.' Twilight thought to herself. She and Spike talked a lot as they ate. Twilight found out that Spike didn't really have a problem with there being two of her, now, and he understood the second Twilight wasn't actually her, even if she did act a lot like Twilight.
"Well, yeah, I know she's not you." Spike told Twilight. "I mean, she might look like you, but she doesn't act like you. And she only sounds a little like you, now." He detailed to her. "I mean, when she was in your body, I kinda figured out she wasn't you, but then again, sometimes you don't act like yourself either, Twilight."
Twilight snorted. "Thanks very much, Spike." She retorted.
Spike chuckled. "Want it, need it..." He simply said, making Twilight cringe.
Twilight sighed in resigned affirmation. "Yeah, I guess I can go overboard, sometimes." She agreed.
Spike nodded. "Yeppers, as Pinkie would say." He agreed. "But then again, it was everything she did right that really threw me. She was acting so much like you that I'd doubted my own gut instinct, and that says a lot."
Twilight nodded. "Yes, for her to make you do that shows she really was... I suppose you could say she was 'channeling' me." Twilight suggested. "Still, to fool even Celestia..." Twilight shook her head. "She told me how good her observational skills were, but I didn't believe she could take only minor things and get that good in less than an hour. Shows that I could learn a lot from her, I guess."
"You don't have to read a book to learn something, Twilight." Spike reminded her.
"Yes, advice that I really do need to remember." Twilight agreed.
=======
The next morning saw me working out with Twilight helping. What didn't help too much was Starlight walking in on us when we were on our backs, horns touching, waving our legs in the air like pedalling bikes and giggling like crazy.
"What in the hay are you two doing?" Starlight asked us as we burst out into real laughter.
"Well..." Twilight began, but I interrupted her.
"We found out that, if we touch horns, Twilight can send signals down into my body and make certain muscle groups work if she exercises the same ones on herself." I told an upside-down Starlight. "So, for the moment, she's giving my legs a lesson in how to move."
Starlight was lost for a moment there, I could tell by her eyes dilating and the vacant look behind them. "Did I break her?" I asked Twilight.
"Nah. She's just thinking things over." Twilight answered. "It happens to all ponies occasionally. If we get information that overloads our capacity to take it in and process it, we stop and work on it."
"I see. Gonna have to make sure I don't do that if I'm in the middle of combat." I replied. "That could be a death-moment right there, if I get a brain-fart like that."
"A what?" Both Twilight and Starlight asked at that moment, making me burst out into giggles again, as I stretched my legs on my own... which I found made Twilight do it as well. "Looks like this goes both ways, Sis." I said.
"What in the world is a brain-fart?" Twilight asked.
"Look it up." I told Twilight, then I crossed my eyes and let go a normal blast from my plot. "Okay... I think my digestive system just woke up."
"Eww!" Both Twilight and Starlight headed out of my new room at a fast trot.
"Hey! No fair! I can't move that fast yet!" I said as I tried to roll over and escape. Then I sniffed and blinked. "Okay, I keep forgetting there's nothing in my body yet to make smells..." Then I winced and curled into a ball as my stomach roared at me. "Ow! Okay! Definitely hungry now!" I said, as I uncurled and tried wriggling to the edge of the bed. I yelled in triumph as I made my legs work. "Now, to get onto my hoofs." I slid slowly off the bed onto my front legs and stretched them, wriggled them and slowly put weight on them. Convinced they were not about to collapse on me, I slowly slid forward until I had one back leg on the floor and exercised that, as Twilight looked back in. I gave my sister a grin, then carefully pulled my other back leg off the bed, keeping my rump on it as much as possible as I exercised my back legs together, then as Twilight walked in, I stood up completely.
Twilight grinned and walked up to me. "Wow, Sis! That's great. I didn't think we'd get that far today."
"Neither did I, Twi. I guess our little exercise session was better than I thought." I said, before I took a step and fell on my face. Twilight stifled a giggle as I grumbled. "Bleeding back legs..."
"Where?" Twilight asked as she looked over my still-vertical back legs. "Oh... the use of the word 'bleeding' as a mild expletive. I see." She then said.
I smirked as I struggled to my hoofs. "I see you're still assimilating my memories and vocabulary." I said to her as I got back upright again.
"Yes. I can see them all there, but it's... it's like the difference between seeing all the pages of a book at once, and having to read them to completely understand what they have written on them." She explained. "I still haven't read them all."
I nodded. "I know. I've only gotten past your tenth year myself." I said as I tried lifting my back legs one at a time and the opposite front leg with them.
"You've been going through ALL my memories?" Twilight asked.
"Sure. I'll never understand them if I don't." I explained. I stopped moving, then closed my eyes and concentrated. My horn lit up and I levitated myself and Twilight off the ground. We swung around to face each other, and I gently lowered us to the ground. As we settled, I blinked and my horn stopped glowing.
Twilight was amazed. "That's incredible! I didn't think you'd be able to control your magic at all yet."
"Remember, Twi, you're a magickal prodigy." I reminded her. "I have your body, your magic, and a lot of memories to work from. Plus it doesn't really take any physical effort to cast magic, so I found that my magic awoke a lot more easily than my physical body has."
Twilight nodded. "Yes, I can see that..." She said, her mind working.
I chuckled. I could almost hear the gears turning over as she ran on several tracks at once. While she was lost in thought, I closed my eyes and tried marching in place again. It didn't surprise me that I found it much easier now, my legs working in synch to move, but when I tried to move forward, they were reluctant to switch motions. Then I remembered what Twilight said. "Autopilot." I said softly, and looked at the door. I thought about walking out of it and my legs seemed to switch modes without conscious thought. I saw the room moving about me as I walked forward, slowly moving towards the door. I grinned as I walked out of it, to see Starlight in the corridor. "Hey Starlight." I said as I walked past her.
"Uh, hi." She replied as I continued to walk down the corridor, trying everything I could think of to NOT think of my legs walking under me. "Are you Twilight?" She asked.
I turned to look at her with a smile. "Nuh-uh." I said back.
Starlight blinked. "That's... amazing." She said as she walked alongside with me, keeping pace.
"Actually, my body's doing the walking for me." I told her. "All I have to do is keep myself from accidentally taking actual control of my legs or even thinking about it, and they seem to know how to move properly."
Starlight stopped and face-hoofed. "Of course!" She said as she caught up. "It's so ingrained that I don't think we ponies ever think about the fact that our walking motion's instinctive. It's only on rough terrain that we have to consciously place our hoofs where they have to be. Normal walking... we just walk."
"Yeah." I agreed as we moved around the circular corridor that went all the way around the second story of Castle Friendship. "So what did you want to tell Twilight?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh." Starlight blinked while still walking, then shook her head. "Yeah, Spike said breakfast will be ready soon, and our friends have turned up... well, all but Rainbow Dash." Starlight told me. "Apparently she went back to Canterlot last night. Something about getting a week's leave while you're convalescing."
I smiled. "She's a Wonderbolt, if I understand things correctly, right?"
"Yes. It's a big responsibility, considering she's the captain of her own recruit squad." Starlight answered me.
I nodded. "Something tells me I know what that's like... although a lot of my memories and Twilight's are still jumbled up in my head."
"How did that happen, anyway?" She asked.
"It was when we tried to call the Element of Magic's power when you weren't here." I explained. "The Element's power-up fizzled just before it energised up completely... but it seemed to be trying to merge our memories together. That didn't work out completely, but it did order our memories completely and transfer them over between our minds, so we both had all of each other's memories as well as our own, but in separate folders, if you can understand what that means."
Starlight nodded as we passed the doors to the Royal Guestroom. "I think I do." She replied.
I smiled. "Yeah... but it also had a negative effect, I think, from it fizzling right at that point. Twilight and I got the nastiest migraines after each attempt, which is why we gave up after two."
"Ohh, yeah, I don't blame you." Starlight agreed. "I remember a few botched spells and the after-effects. Never good."
"Yeah. Okay, I'm going to try and turn around now, to walk the other way." I told her.
Starlight nodded and moved back, watching as I turned my head to look back along the corridor and tried to turn without thinking too hard about it. Starlight gasped as I almost tripped over my legs, but after a shakey turn, I was facing back the way I'd come and was still upright. She grinned as she walked back over to me and we continued on down the corridor, circling the other way.
"Getting better." She commented.
I grinned. "Yeah. I should be ready for the Running of the Leaves this year by this rate." I said, chuckling as Starlight giggled.
"Want to try a trot?" She asked.
"I guess." I said. "That's a fast one-two gait, isn't it, not the steady one-two-three-four of a walk."
"That's right." Starlight replied, then she sped up and showed me, trotting around me as I studied her gait.
"Okay... looks a bit easier than walking." I said, and I closed my eyes and tried speeding up, counting 'One-Two-One-Two' in my head. What happened was strange. It felt like there was an almost-physical shift in my brain, as I changed gaits, Starlight staying on my outside to keep me from ploughing into the wall. I opened my eyes to find myself slowly jogging along at a steady rate, the motions quite easy. I could see myself jogging along from here to Ponyville with a music player going with a good beat. I grinned as I turned and looked at Starlight, who was jogging/trotting along with me.
"Hey! You're really picking this up!" She commented.
I nodded. "I've got a beat running through my mind, and I think my body's using it to go with." I explained.
"Good idea." Starlight agreed, as we went along.
"I only wish I had a portable music player with me. This would be so good to do outside." I said.
"You had such things?" Starlight asked.
"I remember them, yeah. Our technology in electronics and such things were really advanced. I don't know if I could really tell other ponies how they worked, the technology requires a huge amount of infrastructure and previous developments to reproduce at the levels I'm more familiar with." I explained.
Starlight sighed. "Sounds wonderful, though." She said.
"Yeah. There's so much I wish I had here right now. But with everything that's been edited from my memories, it makes so much more so... fractured and mushy." I snorted. "Sometimes I can't tell if what I remember is the truth or not. Well, not if it's true, but if it's completely accurate." I told her. "Funnily enough, the clearest things in my memories are movies, songs and music."
"Really?" Starlight asked. "That's... interesting."
I chuckled. "I guess I just really liked my music."
Starlight giggled as we came around to my bedroom again, to see Twilight looking out, her eyes wide as she saw us trotting along together. "Heya Twi!" I said as we went past her.
Twilight came out and raced along until she caught up with us. "How the..." She asked.
"Autopilot." I told her. "As long as I'm not really thinking about how I'm doing it, I can do it."
Twilight grinned as she fell into step. "That's amazing." She said, to both Starlight and myself giggling. "Score one for Pony physiology."
I nodded, then we came to the stairs leading downstairs. I was a little apprehensive as Twilight and Starlight steered me down them, but with us synchronised in-step, I just closed my eyes and let them guide me down the wide, sweeping stairs. As long as I kept pace with them and stayed with them, it all went so fast I was on the ground floor before I knew it. I stopped and looked back at the stairs, as Twi and Starlight turned around to face me. "That was just..."
"...Amazing." Twi and Starlight said, as I turned back to look at them and all three of us laughed out loud, together.
=======
We walked into the dining room to see four other ponies sitting around, enjoying lunch together. "Heya!" Everyone said together, then they got up as they saw me walking alongside Twilight and Starlight.
"Hey! Good ta see you up an' around, uh..." Applejack said.
I sighed. "Yeah, I know I don't have a name yet, but it's coming." I told her, and the others.
"But you're up and walking, and so well!" Rarity commented. "Such progress is to be commended."
"As the song goes, I get by with a little help from my friends." I told Rarity.
"Song?" She asked.
"Yeah, not one you know." I explained.
"Oh, I see." She said, clearly not seeing.
"But Rarity is right. You being able to walk so well is a very amazing thing." Fluttershy agreed.
I nodded. "Yep, I have to agree... well, as long as I don't think about it too hard." I admitted, before I ended up hitting my jaw on the soft, plush rug. Before everyone could rush to help, I waved them off. "No! No. I have to do this myself." I said, as I got my feet back under me again and stood up.
They nodded and we all headed for the table. Spike was bringing out lots of food and making a buffet banquet. He even brought me a covered bowl. "Here." He said, putting it down before me. "I got some of my meat and made you a broth." He said. "I hope you like it."
I took the cover off with my magic and breathed deeply. "Oh Celestia, that smells good..." I said.
"Somepony mention my name?" Came from the door, and we all stood as Celestia and Luna walked in. We all bowed deeply to her, and she gestured for us to stand. "Rise, my little ponies. It is good to see you all, especially you, in good spirits." I saw her look at me as she said the last.
"Thank you, Your Highness." I replied, bowing my head to her.
"Indeed. One would think that it wasn't you who was paralysed only a day ago." Luna added.
"Truth be told, Princess Luna, there's still things I haven't worked out yet, but the most important things are in working order." I explained, then my belly rumbled. "Yeah, and other things are making themselves heard."
Everyone giggled at that, even Luna. "Then by all means, let us eat." Celestia said, picking up a plate and assembling a salad for herself, as I started consuming the very tasty broth Spike had made me.
=======
Later, in a common room, we all sat down and both Twilight and I told everyone exactly what had happened to us, and how everything fit together. By the time we had finished, Rainbow Dash had even joined us and was listening intently.
"I see." Celestia said after we'd finished. "So... you have no idea how you got into Twilight, or why. Your memories are heavily edited, so you have no idea what you were originally or where you came from."
"Yeah, that's about the size of it." I had to agree. "I don't know if whoever did this intended me to take over from Twilight, to become Twilight, or if me being default controller was just a fluke, not that it matters now." I said.
"And you do not know who you are, either, or even your name?" Luna asked.
I shrugged. "I have a feeling I have a name, I just can't remember it." I said. "Mind you, it's only within the last hour that that feeling's descended upon me, so I'm not sure if it's valid or not."
"Ooh! Maybe we can give you a name!" Pinkie then butted in.
I sighed. "Pinkie. I'm not..."
"Oooh! Maybe... say Grape! Or Goober! Or Purple Haze!" She started firing off weird names.
Everyone was trying to hold in snickers, but I just got a bit fed up. "Pinkie! I don't need a name! I just can't remember the one I have!" I told her.
"But if you can't remember your name, why can't we give you one?" Pinkie asked, as the others looked on.
"Because, Pinkie... something tells me I know my name, it's just on the tip of my tongue and I can't seem to say it." I explained further, getting a little more exasperated.
"Oooh! Oooh! Can I see? Maybe I can read it to you!" Pinkie said, as she suddenly appeared before me and tried to open my mouth. "Now, stick out your tongue and say your name." She said with a grin.
"Pinkie!!" I tried to stop her.
"That's MY name, not yours!" Pinkie said. "But... if your name is Pinkie too, does that make you my sister instead of Twilight's?" She asked.
I face-hoofed. "Pinkie, my name is not Pinkie, or Twilight, or Purple Haze, or anything like that!" I almost yelled at her.
"Then what IS your name?" She asked again.
"I DON'T KNOW!" I yelled back. "Honestly, would I have spent all this time being as confused as anypony if I was able to tell you that my name is Stellar Light Sparkle?"
It took a few seconds to sink in, as I breathed hard. "Stellar Light Sparkle?" Celestia's voice broke through the silence.
Then, I realised what I'd said. "Stellar Light Sparkle..." Then I gasped, my eyes lighting up with white light as my cutie-mark also glowed a brilliant white. As the others retreated, I rose off the ground, my legs and wings going wide as my cutie-mark rearranged itself.
= = = = =
Twilight and Celestia saw it the clearest. The newly-named Stellar's cutie-mark changed, as the Sparkle Star shrank slightly, the white stars of Twilight's cutie-mark growing and merging to form a single longsword vertically behind the star, and a circle being drawn behind it filled in to become a silver-colored round shield with dark-blue edging. Then it flashed and Stellar was dropped to the floor again, barely catching herself with her wings.
Everypony breathed again, then Stellar smiled. "Wow... my own..." And her eyes turned up in her head and she fainted.
"What the...?" Twilight said, and she rushed over to Stellar. "What's going on?"
Rainbow Dash was out of the bedroom before anypony could even say anything, and Nurse Redheart was back with her within seconds, her hoof-held mana scanner out of her bag. She ran it over Stellar and grimaced. "Dammit!" She said. "Her mana levels have dropped to almost zero! She's dying!"