//------------------------------// // Ch. 05; After Dinner // Story: A Short Visit // by Dorath //------------------------------// The two Twilights rushed to the living room, where they found a beaming Mission clinging to the legs of a very confused Police Lieutenant Shining Armor and Principal (formerly Dean) Cadance Mi Amore, “Twily? What’s –,” Shining started to ask, before the fact that he was looking at two of his little sister left him gaping, his mouth moving, but with no words coming out, as he tried to process what he was seeing. Cadance, having been exposed to more of the magical weirdness that was going around Canterlot these days, was quicker to recover than her boyfriend, “Ladybug? Is there anything you’d like to tell us?” The Apple’s and the rest of their guests migrated to the living room to listen as Twilight and Twi’ explained everything; cross-dimensional duplicates, species changes (a revelation which had both Shining and Cadance staring as they tried to wrap their minds around it), temporal variations resulting in different ages (with Sunset hurrying them through that part as quickly as she could manage) and ending with the current visit. “I see … it really sounds rather like something from out of a fantasy novel, doesn’t it?” the principal said, exchanging bemused looks with Shining, before her lips curled in a grin, “Of course, you know what this calls for.” Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, Clap your hands and do a little shake! Amused grins and friendly giggles filled the room as the others watched Cadance, Twilight, Twi’ and Mission perform their time-honored ritual. “Ya’re grinnin’ like a loon, ya know,” Apple Bloom observed as she gave Revan a small jab with her elbow. “Because that never ceases to be adorable,” the Jedi replied, “Trust me, it’s even cuter when ponies do it.” “Wait, it can get cuter?” Fluttershy asked, fanning herself, “Oh dear ….” “Well c’mon in an’ grab a chair,” Granny said, waving the two inside, “Pinkie Pie, bless her sugar-addled heart, made sure we got plenty of desert ta go around.” “So, what brings ya’ll buy?” inquired AJ, after everyone had gotten a slice of pie and settled into the living room. “Twily forgot her allergy medication,” Cadance explained, holding up the bottle of pills, “So Shiny and I offered to drop them off while we were out,” turning back to Twi’ and Twilight, the principal shook her head in amusement, “So, my little ladybug’s counterpart is a princess, a scholar, a national hero and a librarian! I always knew she had the potential to be great,” she smiled, ruffling the bespectacled girl’s hair, before turning her curious gaze on the one-eyed woman, “And what do you do, Revan?” “Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that. I headmaster and teach at a small school, do some work as a government agent on occasion, that sort of thing.” Revan’s restrained reply clearly didn’t satisfy Twilight, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Sunset and Rainbow, who were all making various encouraging gestures, while Pinkie bounced slightly in her seat chanting “Tell them, tell them, tell them --” Shining raised an eyebrow at the girls’ behavior, “So, I take it that there is something else you want to add?” he asked dryly. “Apparently,” she replied, raising a hand to levitate over another piece of pie before she turned back to the dumbfounded policeman, “I think they want me to tell you about how I’m a retired Jedi and a former Sith,” Revan grinned slightly as Shining’s expression went from shocked to elated at sharing a room with someone from out of one of his favorite franchises, “Personally, I don’t quite see what the big deal is, but then I’m still trying to cope with how my entire race, culture and history are a popular fiction on this side of the Mirror.” Shining turned to Twilight, “Is that why you borrowed the original trilogy today?” he inquired eagerly. “Original trilogy?” Twi’ looked up enthusiastically, “So there is a sequel?” “Prequel actually,” Rarity replied, “And it wasn’t well received by everyone,” she added. “The prequels never happened,” Rainbow declared adamantly, while Shining nodded in agreement, “There are only three Star Wars movies.” “Thank you for illustrating my point, Rainbow.” The conversation had been going on for a while, and wandered through several topics, when Shining caught the Jedi’s attention, “A word, please, Revan?” the blue-haired man asked, nodding to the front door. With a shrug the transformed twi’lek joined him on the porch, Big Mac quickly following on their heels, too Shining’s confusion. “Let me guess,” Revan chuckled as she looked the two over, “You,” she pointed at Shining, “What to give me the ‘don’t ever hurt her’ speech because Twi’ is your little sister’s doppelganger and you’re feeling all big brothery and protective, while you,” she pointed at Macintosh, “Want to give me the same speech because Twilight is like another little sister to you. Despite me and Twi’ having been married for years. Am I hitting near target?” the two men blushed slightly under her smirking gaze, despite towering over the one-eyed woman. “We really that easy ta read?” “Hey, I do know another version of you guys,” Revan replied, slapping the farmer on the shoulder, “And the both of you have always been the protective types.” She leaned forward while stage whispering to Big Mac, “Shiny’s double practices his ‘terrorize the suitor’ speech in front of a mirror for when his daughter starts dating,” giving the flummoxed Shining Armor a cheeky wink, she continued in a normal tone, “Don’t worry, Cadance thinks it’s cute.” The policeman chuckled, “You’ve been through this a few times, I gather.” “Considering how big our family is, we’ve started scoring people on their ‘talks’,” Revan observed, “Blueblood actually has one of the higher scores.” Seeing Shining’s surprise and Macintosh’s confusion, she explained, “Back through the Mirror, Blueblood is, to quote Rarity, ‘a poncing twit and a prat’, but he’s very devoted to his family, and when Shining and Cadance started to get serious, he decided to have the ‘talk’ with Shining, who was bigger, stronger, and a cadet in the Guards at the time,” after sharing a brief laugh with the two men over her little story, the Jedi grinned at them, “So, we good?” Macintosh and Shining exchanged glances and then nodded, the three of them walking back in to catch the tail end of the current discussion, something about a movie starring a murderous sheep. Seeing Revan’s confused look, Twi’ explained, “Fenton, Death Sheep from Tartarus is coming out in a few months, and Apple Bloom and the others are planning to catch it.” Spike scratched at an ear, “Isn’t that the movie AJ, RD and Pinkie were going to see this weekend?” “Wait, ya got magic, an’ flyin’ ponies, an’ aliens, an’ ya get tha movies faster too?” Apple Bloom crossed her arms in a pout, “Ah think somebody’s playin’ favorites.” Later that evening, after Shining and Cadance had left, Granny, Macintosh and Apple Bloom had retired to their rooms, and Mission and a (grumbling in protest) Spike had gone to bed, the nine women gathered in the living room to continue their evening. “So, what’s next?” Revan asked. “Well,” Twilight pushed up her glasses as she replied, “According to my guide book the common options are movies, boardgames, telling ghost stories, makeovers, gossiping and pillow fights.” “Guide book?” Twi’ glanced up curiously, “Would this be Slumber 101: All You’ve Ever Wanted to Know –” “— About Slumber Parties (But Were Afraid to Ask),” the scientist finished happily, “Yes, do you know it?” “I used it to plan my very first slumber party back when I first moved to Ponyville,” the princess answered with a grin. Fluttershy raised her hand diffidently, “Um, c-could we, maybe, not have any ghost stories? Please?” “And no asking Revan for war stories either,” Twi’ added, “We can save those for another time, okay?” After the others eventually agreed (but not without some grousing from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie), Revan spoke up, “Well how about another movie, then?” her proposal quickly accepted, she continued, “What should we watch?” “An action flick!” Rainbow and Applejack immediately declared. “How about a nice romance?” Rarity suggested, with Fluttershy nodding along eagerly. “Comedy!” Pinkie insisted. “Girls, girls!” Twilight stepped into the nascent dispute, “How about a comedy-adventure, with romance? Something that is eminently quotable for our guests to remember?” “What’ve ya got in mind, sugarcube?” The bespectacled girl reached into her backpack and pulled out a DVD case, “The Princess Bride.” After watching the movie, and Twilight promising the enthusiastic Equestrians she would use Applejack’s computer to download it into Twi’s tablet, and engaging in a pillow fight (which Fluttershy won, to the surprise of all, including herself), the young women were beginning to burnout from their long day, and they settled down to relax with video games and gossip. “Really, Twi’? Not a single suitor before Revan?” Rarity asked as she brushed out Fluttershy’s hair, “I find that hard to believe, darling.” “Well … there might have been one or two others, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I’m not always that good at picking up on social cues,” the princess admitted with a faint blush, “But after Revan and I became a serious thing, they backed off like gentlecolts.” “Well, except for that Patrician bastard,” the Jedi grumbled. Sunset looked up from the book she was idly flipping through, “What’s this now?” “A few months after our marriage, Duke Patrician showed up in Ponyville in order to ‘woo’ me,” Twi’ sighed, “I honestly don’t know what he was thinking, or why he waited almost a year after I ascended to start ‘courting’ me, either.” Applejack glanced back from the video game she was playing against Rainbow with a raised eyebrow, “Ah could hear tha quotes in there. What exactly did this Patrician feller do, anyway?” “Let’s see, on the first day he barged into our home, which, since it doubled as the town library was somewhat excusable, but still rather rude, treated Spike like a servant, and declared that he was there to sweep me away to a ‘proper life in Manehattan, away from this miserable backwater and its plebeians’, and then he started going on and on about ‘cementing the union between our great houses’ and ‘the further glory of Equestria’. It took nearly fifteen minutes before I could explain that I had no idea what he was going on about. “And do you know what he said? ‘Why, our marriage, of course,’ like it should have been obvious! And when I protested that I was already happily married, he started on this rant about how it was a ‘meaningless political arrangement’, and how I ‘belonged to Equestria’ and everyone would understand I should be with him and not ‘some alien nobody’, and that my entire marriage to Revan was just a ploy by the Crowns to keep her technology under Royal control! And he never, not once, actually asked me to marry him!” “Wow,” Sunset blinked at the princess, “That’s some loony conspiracy logic right there, to even think Celestia would do something like that ….” “You gave the cad a piece of your mind, of course,” stated Rarity. “I didn’t get a chance too,” Twi’ giggled, “Spike suddenly had a ‘coughing fit’ and sent Patrician running out of the library with the tip of his tail on fire.” “Hah!” the athlete chortled, “Bet that got him out of your hair!” “Unfortunately, no,” the Equestrian groaned, “It did keep him away from the library, at least, but he spent the next three days hounding me whenever I was in town, being extremely condescending to anyone he talked to who wasn’t me, while bragging to them about how he was going to marry me and take me away to a ‘real’ city, still without ever bothering to actually propose to me. And he tried to have the Mayor declare Spike a rabid animal that had to be put down for ‘assaulting his person’!” Fluttershy’s jaw dropped, “He didn’t!” “He tried,” Twi’ said solemnly, “But Mayor Mare told him that if he felt he had a legitimate complaint, he could lodge a report with the gendarme like anyone else. Although,” the transformed alicorn giggled, “She did thank him for letting her know that Spike needed to see a doctor about allergies before he accidently damaged anything important.” Pinkie popped a s'more in her mouth, “So, how did you get rid of Mister doody-head?” “That took a bit of work actually,” the princess admitted, “After that first day, he made a point of never doing anything that could even potentially be considered illegal, and just being insufferable and pompous wasn’t sufficient grounds to run him out of town, no matter what Rainbow Dash said, and since he never did go to the gendarme, it would have been easy for him to play off his ‘request’ to the Mayor as ‘just talk’ … so, finally I broke down and asked the Crusader’s to deal with him,” Twi’ admitted, blushing deeply. “The who?” Twilight asked. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Revan explained, “Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, Ponyville’s resident bundles of well-meaning chaos, mayhem and tree sap.” Applejack blinked up at the one-eyed woman, “Tree sap?” Twi’ shrugged, “I don’t understand it, but every third or forth of their little adventures that they go on, they come home covered in tree sap … even if they were just off learning to bake. “Anyway, by noon the fourth day, Patrician had packed his bags and boarded the train – and was covered in tree sap,” everyone broke out in a spate of chuckles. “Were where you during all of this, anyway, Revan?” Fluttershy finally managed to ask as her giggles faded. “Me?” the Jedi leaned back against her wife’s knee and stretched, “I was down in Mexicolt helping with a chupacabra outbreak. The first I knew of any of this was coming home and seeing Twi’ treating three extremely smug looking Crusaders to milk shakes.” “So,” Pinkie leaned forward eagerly, “How’d they do it? How did they get Patrician-I-don’t-ask-Permission to stop being all nuisancy?” “I don’t know,” the princess admitted, “Whenever I ask them about it, they just rub their hooves together and cackle … actually they’ve gotten rather good at creepy cackling, which is rather unsettling of itself ….” “Thank you, darling,” Rarity groaned, “Now I’m going to have dreams of a creepy, evil, cackling Sweetie Belle, and she’ll probably be wearing some absolutely tacky witch costume.” “Sorry.”