//------------------------------// // To Make A Dynamic Entrance // Story: It Takes A Princess // by Casketbase77 //------------------------------// Stillness and silence. That was what always remained while Creativa was away. Twiddle Spiral hated stillness and silence. It was like turning off a shower on a hot day. Or throwing off a blanket on a cold one. The environmental effects of Creativa’s absence always began immediately, and they only got more noticeable as the hours or sometimes even weeks went by. Not that showers or blankets were necessary when she wasn’t around. The weather stayed calm and the air got tepid. All surroundings lapsed to their median without Creativa’s energetic magic. Even now, her leaderless herd slept unsheltered under the pale stars. And tomorrow they’d all wake up without a drop of dew or speck of dirt marring any of their coats. It gave Twiddle Spiral fits, spending every moment coddled and sterilized. Twiddle rolled over to mush her face into the uniform, unscented grass. Not bothering to get up, she tore out a mouthful and watched achingly as the patch she'd bitten filled itself in, correcting the disturbance and erasing any sign of grazing. Twiddle wasn’t hungry and the grass was tasteless anyway, so she spat the trimmings in defiant disgust. They vanished before hitting the ground. Twiddle rolled back over and stared through motionless clouds at the constellations beyond. She could identify every one of them, since they were static year-round. Plus, she used to be a librarian whose job it was to know such things. She hoped to someday be a librarian again. On her own terms, though, not on Order's. Never on Order's. Twiddle Sparkle owed Creativa and Loopa a lot. That was an understatement; she owed Creativa and Loopa everything. Twiddle had been Twiddle her whole life, but she hadn't truly been herself, not whole and alive, until those two forces of nature arrived like a whirlwind to her nameless town. Her first lucid memory was of them galloping through the streets and the ground floor rooms of every building, trailing auras that brought color and animation to everything. Order appeared immediately of course, intercepting Creativa in the lobby of the library where Twiddle worked. She'd regarded them both in what Creativa later taught her was "awe." That feelign was then replaced by fear once Order snorted in disgust and lunged. Wit one claw, he pinned the Alicorn Of Chaos to the floor. With the other he snapped his horrible fingers and greyness seeped back into the world. And as Twiddle Spiral felt the new life snuff out of her home, as she witnessed the tips of her freshly periwinkle hooves returning to muted slate, and as she sensed the emotions she'd barely begun to treasure start leeching away, the librarian did something she'd never even been able to do before: She screamed and ran. Symbolically, Twiddle been running ever since. Even lying on this hillside, surrounded by fellow ponies she’d helped free over the years, she knew they were all running together. After fleeing the library on that momentous day, Twiddle only got as far as the end of the block. By then she was fully grey again, out of energy and uncertain why she'd left her assigned spot in the first place. And then she, the pony who would become Creativa's Faithful Student, turned listlessly around just in time to see her house explode. Gone was the tree and the library within, engulfed by a neutron blast of pastel seismics and rainbow fallout from Creativa unloading her entire Chaos capabilities inside an enclosed space. The eruption had been devastating. Cataclysmic. The most incredible thing Twiddle Spiral had witnessed. It didn't matter that Order, still standing in the blast’s epicenter, reversed the damage with another snap. Nor did it matter that Creativa flapped her mismatched wings and joined with her sister in a retreat so fast and far that another, slightly smaller Sonic Rainboom covered their escape. Absolutely none of it mattered because Twiddle Spiral was reborn the moment that initial shockwave knocked the breath from her chest. No way in Tartarus would she allow herself to go grey again. And so Twiddle had begun running once more, not just away from Order also towards those two shooting stars who'd given her a soul. It took a day and a half of sprinting to catch up, whereupon Twiddle collapsed to grovel at their pseudo-hooves and beg to help bring colors to the world. Which of course she did for several successful raids until that horrible day Order got his claws on Loopa and- "Hey Twiddle?" "Ack!" Twiddle Spiral sat upright, forehooves primed to spellcast until she saw the foal who'd addressed her. "Oh. H-hey Skits. You can't sleep either, huh?" Skitteloo wordlessly plopped down nearby and Twiddle draped her tail over her junior companion like a blanket. The filly always liked it when somepony did that. The two of them laid their heads on each others' respective shoulders and watched the unmoving sky for a few minutes. "I miss Creativa." "Me too Skits. But she'll be back. She always finds us again." "Things feel different when she's gone and I'm not grey. Bad different. I feel scared and tired all the time." "I know Skits. So do I." Twiddle's tail was a sensitive thing, and it could feel Skitteloo's undersized wings quivering underneath it. "Twi...iddle...?" Skitteloo was choking on either shame or fear. Probably both. "I've been thinking... maybe I don't think I want to run with you guys anym-" "H-hey squirt," Twiddle interrupted hastily, "Do you want to... see me do the thing I can do?" Twiddle flashed a smile that felt terribly unconvincing, but to her relief Skitteloo's face was less pained and her wings had stopped shaking. "Is... is it safe to do without Creativa around?" Nope. "Sure is, squirt. I'm her F-Faithful Student, remember." "And there's no way it'll make Order appear?" There was a very real hazard it would make Order appear. "Absolutely not. You have my promise." Twiddle Spiral fought hard to not cry when Skitteloo finally managed a thin smile. "Okay. I get to help, right?" "Of course." Twiddle rolled over onto her stomach and put her forelimbs out. Skitteloo did the same, making a perfect ring of joined hooves as they faced each other. "Alrighty, Skits. Pick a spot in the grass to focus on. It doesn't matter where." Chewing nervously on her own mane (impressive, given her pixie cut), Skitteloo stared hard at the featureless ground between. So hard her normally orange face darkened slightly from exertion. Twiddle meanwhile breathed softly and relaxed, ignoring the quiet snores of the ponies around them. Just as Creativa taught her, she quieted her mind, inviting in to any nearby traces of Chaos magic. The foothills of the Prancing Peaks weren't completely devoid of the energy Twiddle needed, but pickings were slim and an Earth Pony like herself had to be completely and utterly open to ambient forces if she wanted to spellcast. Just when Twiddle was starting to worry they wouldn't have enough juice, Skitteloo gasped at a tiny prismatic disturbance glowing faintly in the dirt. C'mon. Grow. For Skitteloo's sake. The nugget of matter obeyed, drawing itself up and flashing like strobe light. Then all at once it solidified. What remained was a squat, textureless cube no bigger than a pony's nose. Skitteloo's eyes were huge, fixed on Twiddle's triumphant creation. Twiddle meanwhile released her junior herdmate's hooves to sit up and peer around alertly. Seeing nothing, she sighed in relief. Order never wasted any time ambushing Creativa whenever she broke his rules and used Chaos magic. But Twiddle wasn't Creativa, and it seemed she hadn’t tripped any alarm. Relaxed at last, she looked back down to see Skitteloo hadn't moved. She seemed almost unable to believe the sugarcube they'd conjured together was actually real. "S'all yours, Skits." "Really?!" "Shhh. If you keep your whinnies down, sure. But if you wake anypony else, you'll have to share with them." Skitteloo snatched the treat and held it to her chest like treasure. It somewhat was, since Order never manifested anything for the ponies to eat other than grass. Twiddle was stunned when Skits tore the priceless prize in half and offered her a piece. "Uh... thanks very much squirt," Twiddle managed to mumble as she ate out of Skitteloo's hoof. It was so good. And so sweet. Twiddle couldn't help swallowing the entire snack without chewing. Then she mentally kicked herself for being so impatient. One day, if their tiny rebellion was successful, everypony would have all the real, satisfying food they could eat. But for now, Twiddle had exhausted her one time treat and was back to having nothing. Skitteloo had draped Twiddle's tail over herself again, but her mood seemed relaxed instead of anxious. The constellations above still hadn't changed (and never would at the pace the rebellion was going), yett something else about the sky noticeably had shifted. Skitteloo wasn't intellectual company, but Twiddle still felt like sharing a theory she'd been brewing. Faust alone knew when she'd have another quiet moment and an open ear like she had right now. "Hey Skits." "Mmph?" Skitteloo's mouth was too stuffed with her half of the sugarcube to produce a better reply. "You ever notice how the sun and moon are always moving across the sky?" Skitteloo shrugged. "Well even if you haven't, I have. And I've been wondering about it. How come Order still lets the sun and moon change when he doesn't let that happen to anything else? Not the seasons, not the weather, and definitely not the constellations, so why the sun and moon? I mean, he's literally got an emblem of the sun on his tushie. He could probably stop that one's movement if he wanted, so why doesn't her freeze it in place like everything else?” Twiddle wasn't even really addressing Skitteloo at this point. She was talking to the world itself because her thoughts had been cooking for far too long. They needed aired or they'd burst her from the inside. "I think I know what makes them special. The sun he can totally control. But the moon... I keep thinking about that one time he cornered us on that island. That time Creativa conjured a giant carbonated tsunami that actually managed to knock him over. If he controlled the tides, there's no way she would've been able to do that. Or what about that other time we got lost in the woods and Creativa called up a full moon help us find our way out. Order chased us all away, but that big shiny rock stayed full. He controls a lot. But he doesn't control everything." Twiddle's passion was dampening her eyes, so she paused to wipe them. And as she did, she became aware of Skitteloo's soft snoring. Rolling her shoulders, Twiddle Spiral tucked her limbs under her barrel and laid her chin in the grass. She'd said her piece. It didn't matter that no one heard. She'd still said it and no one could turn back time to make it so she hadn't. Twiddle closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, secure in her moon theory as well as the knowledge Creativa would be back sooner or later. It turned out to be sooner. A ear-rending psychic whip crack created a split in the fabric of reality less than a meter away from where Twiddle and her small herd had been resting. Then an energetic Alicorn tumbled through the rift. “Stars and garters!" Princess Luna exalted in rapturous glee. "Let no one disagree with the declaration that I am the most talented teleporter in all the multiverse!" One nearby unicorn - a thin, wiry colt who was barely more than a yearling - yelped in alarm at the massive stranger with powerful lungs. The rest of the herd, thoroughly awake by now, were too stunned to contribute anything themselves. Luna noticed one periwinkle mare glowering up at her defiantly. Her features were more motley than her obvious counterpart and although she lacked wings and horn, her bookish face was unmistakable. "Ha-HA! The dimensional twin of Twilight Sparkle! Charmed." The Princess Of Night bowed giddily in greeting. Twiddle Spiral cleared her throat to demand that the stranger state their intentions. She was interrupted by the same rip in reality opening one more time so Creativa could trudge out. "-pulse of Chaos magic we picked up leads right here," Creativa finished an unknown thought breathlessly. Then she locked eyes with Twiddle and cracked a weary smile. "No doubt that Chaos magic signal we picked up came from you, my Faithful Student. Well done. I knew you'd keep everyone safe." The loyal troupe stampeded to Creativa's side, braying with relief and celebration. Luna was in the air above the hubbub, her beating wings having saved her from being trampled. Being ignored was frustrating, but at least it had obvious cause. From Creativa to her ponies, a Chaos magic was shared. But a strangely positive kind, like the sudden dip of a painted brush in a water bowl. Neither the muddiness of the resulting mixture nor the clashing colors of its spreading tendrils much mattered. Only the fact they were here, flavorful and eager to be expressed. It was actually a bit dizzying for a Harmony user like Luna, so she had to land. "Settle down, my little ponies," Creativa gently commanded. Then she nodded to her descending companion. "I know you're all excited, but we have a guest with us and she's here to aid our struggle." The small herd regarded Luna. Murmurs were flavored by curiosity, caution, and hope. Twilight's double was frowning cryptically at Luna's cutie mark. The Moon Mare spoke the first thing that came to her mind. "Truth be told, I expected more than a baker's dozen of you." The ten or so ponies who were present shifted uncomfortably. Luna felt her face grow hot, but fortunately Creativa came to her rescue. "This is Luna, everyone. Princess Luna, I might add. I trust she looks familiar to those of you who’ve been with us the longest.” Twilight's double nodded, then gave a reassuring pat to the Scootaloo lookalike clinging to her leg. "Yes," Luna confirmed. "I've heard tell of one... 'Loopa' who is a kindred spirit of mine. I assure you all I am here to help rescue her." She ignored the incredulous mutterings and pushed forward with her impromptu address. "I have also heard tell of a particularly boorish draconequus making a rascal of himself. I daresay he needs taught a rough lesson." For the first time since she arrived, Luna saw Twilight's double crack a genuine, open-mouthed grin. Not even her own Twilight had ever given her such a look of confidence. "Right then," Luna boomed in her best Royal Canterlot Voice. "I once waited 1000 years for a fight with a sun mage. Let’s begin this duel with a bit more promptness, shall we?" Luna fired a signal flare from her horn, deaf to Creativa's panicked protests to stop.