Chapter 7
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“No!”
The young princess stirred from sleep, slowly opening her eyes as she pushed herself up, rubbing an eye with a fist.
“I’m not… Leave me alone!”
Looking up, she could see her older counterpart thrashing about in bed. Spike was looking at her, then herself, a worried expression on his face.
“You can’t!” the sleeping girl moaned, her voice filled with sleepy terror.
“What’s happening?” the princess asked as she got up, Spike hopping up onto the bed of his owner.
“Ever since the Friendship Games Twilight’s been having nightmares,” the dog replied, moving over to his owner, putting a paw on her shoulder and shaking it, only to back away as she swiped her arm in her sleep, nearly knocking him off the bed.
Frowning, the young girl grabbed the other’s arm and started shaking it. “Twilight? Twilight, wake up!”
“YAH!” the older girl screamed in terror, sitting up and waving her arms around.
Her younger counterpart and dog were knocked aside, both tumbling to the floor.
“Stay away!” Twilight yelled, panting heavily as she opened her eyes. “Don’t… you…”
She paused, her breathing still heavy, seeming to realize she was in her room. Looking around, she saw both her dog and young temporary roommate sprawled on the floor either side of her bed.
“I… what?” she looked between the both of them, before worry entered her eyes and she hurried out of bed. “Oh my gosh! Spike! Twilight! Are you both alright? I’m so sorry!”
She held her dog in her arms before hurrying around the other side of her bed and helping the little princess up.
“Sure,” Spike said groggily. “Just tell the room t’ stop spinning.”
“I’m okay,” Twily said, though the teen noticed her holding her right elbow and tears welling in her eyes.
The teen looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to… I just…”
“Having a nightmare,” the child got up and nodded. “I understand. When I was little, I had them too.”
Twilight pouted. “Technically speaking, you are little.”
The young girl paused, before holding up a finger in a lecturing manor. “True, physically, I am currently younger and smaller than you, but when it comes to which of us has lived longer, I technically am older than yourself. Anyway,” her expression softened, “you were having a nightmare. It seemed bad.” She gave a light smirk. “Kindergarten?”
Twilight blinked. “Wait. How did you…?”
Her younger self folded her arms. “I’m you, remember? Pretty sure we both had the same problems as foals.” She blinked, before shaking her head. “I mean kids.”
Twilight and Spike chuckled, before the former’s expression saddened and she sat down on her bed, stroking her dog. “No. not kindergarten. I’d honestly happily take those nightmares.”
Twily looked up at her, before getting up on the bed to sit next to her double. “Wanna talk about it?”
The other shook her head. “No, I… I’d rather not.”
There was silence for a few moments, before the younger looked to her, a small smile on her face. “Would it help if I slept with you?”
The teen blinked, looking down to the little royal. “Huh?”
Twily smiled. “When I was a foal and having nightmares, Mom and Dad would let me sleep with them. It helped stave off the nightmares. I could do that for you, if you want?”
There was silence again as the two looked at each other, before the glasses wearing girl gave a small warm smile. “I’d like that.”
Letting go of Spike, she and the child moved back to the covers and got under them, the purple dog settling at the edge of the bed as the two girls snuggled under the covers.
As she lay her head down on the pillow, Twilight looked to her double, who gave an adorable yawn as she closed her eyes, almost seeming to fall asleep it once.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile. Leaning forward, she kissed the now sleeping child on the forehead and whispered, “Thank you, Twilight.”
With that, the trio all joined each other in the land of dreams. No more nightmares were had that night.
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“When I said I’d be happy to help, this isn’t what I meant!” the miniature princess pouted, her arms folded as she stood in front of the gate to the fenced off area of the park.
She was wearing a puppy dog costume with a sign around her neck saying “Futtershy and Twilight’s Doggy Daycare. A fun day for your pooch and that’s no looch”.
“What’s wrong with our Doggy Daycare?” Fluttershy asked, before looking worried. “Oh, it’s the slogan, isn’t it? I knew I would choose the wrong words.”
The costume girl quickly waved her arms. “No, no, Fluttershy. The slogan’s fine.” She smiled. “Actually, I have to commend the word choice. It’s not too easy to spot to the naked eye, so customers will look it up and actually learn something too. By that viewpoint, it’s very clever.”
“I agree,” Twilight smiled. “I couldn’t have chosen a better slogan myself.”
Fluttershy smiled, before looking confused. “Then… why aren’t you happy?”
The little girl’s smile fell. She pushed open the gate, closing it and she pointed at herself. “I did not sign on to dress like a foal when it isn’t even Nightmare Night. I look ridiculous.”
Fluttershy gave a light giggle. “Aw, but you look so cute.”
A yip caused them to look down at the fluffy little Bichon Frise at the little girl’s feet.
Fluttershy giggled again. “Fifi certainly thinks you look adorable.”
“Uh, is this where the Doggy Daycare is?”
The little girl froze in place, her eyes going wide with horror. That voice… Not him!
“Hey, little one,” she turned around, but made sure to keep her head down, thanking Celestia that she hadn’t taken the hoodie off. “That’s a cute outfit.”
She replied simply by barking.
“Uh, okay then,” he looked to Fluttershy and held out a lead that connected to the collar of a small Boston terrier. “This is Banana.”
The dog yips and Fluttershy smiles, leaning down and petting the puppy. “It’s very nice to meet you, Banana.”
While Flash and Fluttershy talk, Twilight notices that her customed double was nowhere in sight.
“Spike,” she said, looking down at the purple dog, who paused his sniffing of Banana’s buttocks to look to his owner. “Can you find my double? She seems to have wandered off.” She frowned, scratching her chin. “I wonder why.”
Spike nodded, putting his nose to the ground and began sniffing. He frowned, before following the scent, it leading to towards where the group of dogs that had already been brought for the Doggy Daycare were playing, but stopped and looked around in confusion.
He looked to his owner and shrugged. “Her scent just stops here. I dunno what happened.”
Twilight frowned in worry. “She has access to her Equestrian Magic, so maybe she levitated herself out. That would explain why her scent stops so suddenly. I hope she’ll be okay.”
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The Alicorn in a human body currently dressed in a dog suit ran. She didn’t even know where she was going, but she kept running.
Flash almost saw her, like this! She couldn’t let that happen. She had to keep him from seeing her as a child. It was too terrifying to think about how he’d react.
Would he laugh at her? Would he see her as nothing more than a child for the rest of her life? Would he…?
Her downwards spiral of thoughts was halted when she slammed into someone and fell back, landing on her backside, the motion causing her hoodie to fall back.
“Hey, watch where you’re go… Twilight Sparkle?”
She looked up to see a pair of human girls she didn’t recognize. One had a skin and hair colour similar to Trixie’s, but her hair was in a pair of ponytails. Also, unlike Trixie, she was wearing orange glasses slightly similar in design to the princess’s own human counterpart.
The other was a girl with a light-orangey-pink skinned girl with two-toned blue hair cut a bit shorter than Rainbow Dash’s and was wearing goggles above her eyes.
Both were wearing uniforms similar to one she’d seen in her human self’s wardrobe.
“What the…? How’re you a kid?” the girl who didn’t look a lot like Trixie asked, staring down at the little girl in shock, before cocking an eyebrow. “And what’s with the dog costume?”
The not Trixie girl cocked an eyebrow. “Did you mess with Equestrian Magic again and this time instead of turning you into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart, it turned you into a child.”
She looked from one to the other in confusion, before it clicked. These girls were wearing the same uniform as her double had, so they must go to the school she did before transferring to CHS and knew her from there and… wait. What was that about her human counterpart turning into a creature that tried to rip the world apart?!
“I’m not Twilight,” she said, getting up and dusting herself off. “At least, I’m not the Twilight you know.”
They both looked to each other, before returning their gazes to her, the not Trixie girl cocking an eyebrow. “Then just who exactly are you? There aren’t two Twilight Sparkles.”
That actually got a giggle out of the princess. “Actually, yes, there are.” She looked around, before her expression turned to worry. She was in such a rush to get away from Flash she didn’t pay attention to where she was going and was now lost. “And would you mind clarifying what you mean when you said my double tried to rip the world apart?”
A few minutes later, the unlikely trio were seated outside a café in town. The two older girls had coffee, while the princess had a strawberry smoothie.
“Wow,” the purple girl said, looking down. “That’s just… wow.”
“Shouldn’t that be our line?” the sporty girl asked.
The trio had exchanged information, informing the other what they were oblivious to.
The girls were Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat, both of whom had been classmates of her double, but hadn’t really been friends with her due to how the former Principal Cinch had run the school and taught them to think.
“This is just insane,” Indigo Zap said, looking from the little girl (no longer wearing her dog costume, which was safely tucked away in Sugarcoat’s side bag). “So, you’re telling me that place we were seeing through those opens were that pony world and there’s pony doubles of everyone in this city?”
The little girl was shaken from her musings, before shaking her head. “Oh, no. not just ponies. Many people in this world have counterparts in my world that aren’t ponies, but different creatures altogether. Three boys at CHS, for example, are Diamond Dogs in my world.”
“Diamond… Dogs?” Indigo looked very confused, before she put her head in her hands. “The more questions that get answered, there more questions turn up.”
The younger girl blushed, hunching down a bit. “Sorry.”
“Perfectly fine… um, Your Highness,” Sugarcoat said, not sure how to properly address the child version of her previous fellow student. “This is just a lot to take in. Your world is clearly very different from our own in more ways than we originally guessed.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Sugarcoat. But, you don’t have to address me as Your Highness here. In your world, I’m just another girl.” She pouted, looking down at herself. “Though I’m not normally a foal.”
Sugarcoat looked like she was about to ask what she meant by “foal”, before it seemed to click and she shrugged.
“Um, might I ask what you two were doing before we ran into each other?” she asked, looking between the two of them.
Indigo Zap grinned, though it seemed a little sad. “I’m going away for a few weeks on vacation with my parents to visit my aunt and uncle, so Sugar and I were getting some final time together before then.” She looked sadly to her friend. “Really wish I wasn’t. I love my rels as much as the next person, but I really wanted to help raise the money.”
The younger of the trio paused in sipping her smoothie, looking to the two of them in surprise. “You’re going to Camp Everfree too?”
That caused confused frowns to form on both girls.
“Everfree?” Indigo cocked an eyebrow, before shaking her head. “No, the money is so our school can have our Spring Dance on a yacht.”
The little girl smiled. “Wow. Your school would do that? Even my school didn’t have celebrations like that.” She frowned. “Then again, I don’t know if they did, since I was Princess Celestia’s personal student and joined her at official events instead.”
The two girls looked at her in confusion.
“Since when is CHS’s Principal royalty?” Indigo asked, before dawning came to her expression. “Oh, you mean your world’s Celestia.” She laughed, before looking uncertain. “Man, this two worlds thing can get a little confusing.”
“In answer to your question, no,” Sugarcoat said, sipping her coffee. “Back when Cinch was in charge, such things never would’ve happened. She’d have seen it as a waste of important resources that would be put to better use improving her own reputation. And Principal Cadance isn’t just letting it happen either. She says she’ll allow it, something Cinch never would have, but we, the students, need to raise the money to rent the yacht ourselves.” Then under her breath she muttered, “Though we probably would’ve had the money in the school’s budget if Cinch hadn’t wasted so much of it over time on her rep.”
There was quiet for a moment, before Indigo blinked, an uncertain expression coming over her face. “Uh, I just realized, we’ve been chatting for a while… do your CHS friends know where you are, um, Twilight?”
The young girl blinked, before her eyes widen. “Oh my gosh! I just ran off without telling them where I went! Other me must be freaking out! I have to let them know I’m okay! But, I don’t have a phone. I’ve never needed one before because I live in Equestria. What am I going to—?”
“Done.”
The two other girls looked to Sugarcoat, who was putting her phone back in her bag. “Huh?”
“I just texted Twilight. She knows you’re with us. It’s fine.” She smirked. “You really are a double of her. You freaked out just like she did whenever she had a big test at school.”
That caused Indgio to have to try holding back a snicker, covering her mouth, while the little girl’s face when red and she puffed her cheeks out and folded her arms.