Gleaming Shield was now standing at the Canterlot train station looking across the tracks as she reflected on her. She was standing there with her long blue mane and tail with her cutie mark of a shield with a tiara in the middle, standing proudly on her rump. Many ponies who walked by bowed to her, but she simply waved a hoof, not really trying to draw attention to herself. She turned to see her sister Twilight, who was walking back and forth muttering to herself about how Shining was late as usual. The white-coated alicorn just rolled her eyes and replied, "oh come on, Twilight, stop worrying about it; Shining and Cadance probably had some things to do at the Crystal Empire."
"Well, unlike my brother, I performed all my royal duties before leaving; why can't he ever be proactive?" Twilight snapped as she spread her wings out.
Gleaming came over to a bench and patted the seat next to her, and offered. "Oh, come over and relax. I'll give you preening before he arrives."
The violet alicorn cheeks flushed red as she walked over and sat next to her older sister. "Well...I can't say no to a preening...Rainbow Dash started to give them to me, and Fluttershy heck, they've even been fighting over who does it better."
"I bet, I um learned it's a way for ponies to show their affection...so don't take it the wrong way." Gleaming explained as she went about cleaning the dirt and plucking bent feathers from Twilight's wings. She was quite careful smoothing the feathers out gently.
As the white-coated mare went about her preening as time went on. Twilight was relatively relaxed, and she couldn't help kick and moan a little as Gleaming hit sensitive parts of the wings. Twilight looked upwards as she asked, "Hey um...seeing you've been a princess longer than me...um...would you mind giving me pointers?"
Gleaming chuckled at the question as she had finished cleaning Twilight's wings. "To be fair, I haven't officially been a princess long myself. But I'll give you some advice...but you're not doing so bad without me."
"Well yeah, but still just getting to know how to deal with politics is something you seem to do better than me...and since Celestia is no longer my mentor, I feel…" The violet alicorn whispered under her breath and held it for a second Gleaming saw that she dearly missed having Celestia be there for her.
"You feel like you need guidance?" The princess of Guardianship replied curtly as she sat back, finishing the preening.
Twilight then took a strange book from her wings and held it up as she proclaimed, "Yeah! I even picked up this odd book at the enchanted bookstore."
Upon seeing the enchanted tome, "How to train a princess," Gleaming quickly exclaimed. "Oh, you don't need that, um...you shouldn't get books from there. I mean, who knows that that will do to you."
The violet alicorn rolled her eyes as she replied back, "trust me, I know, Spike's crazy comic book recently took us into a weird dimension where we played as the heroes."
"Huh…" Gleaming mumbled as she took the book from Twilight she was and replied. "I'll...um, have Celestia analyze it just in case it doesn't do anything crazy."
"Right, good point…" Twilight sighed. "I tried analyzing it myself, but it seems fine to me...but your right, better be safe than sorry."
Shining's train finally arrived, and he and his wife came off. Gleaming ran over and gave her "twin brother" a hug as Twilight stomped around, seething in anger. "Seriously! Where have you been!? We've been waiting for you for hours!"
The prince just rolled his eyes and snapped back. "Oh, calm down, we missed our first train because we had some last-minute issues giving Sunburst his duties while we were gone."
Cadence chimed in after her husband. "Right...though I think he was a bit rough, I'm sure Sunburst will do fine!"
She then rushed over to Twilight, and the two performed their dance; then she squealed and enveloped Twilight in her wings and cried out. "Oh, it's so great to see that you're an alicorn now! I'm sure your sister may have tried to explain how to be an alicorn princess, but I have more experience than her."
Gleaming rolled her eyes ever since she became older, Cadance. She had this rivalry of being "Twilight's big sister." Still, the white-coated alicorn was more excited to meet her twin brother than battle with Cadance. The two hugged as they walked off down the road. It was uncanny for most ponies to see the two together; they were almost identical in every way except, of course, their gender and cutie marks. They eventually made it to their old family house, where Twilight Velvet and Night Light greeted them.
"Oh, I love it when you two are together!" Velvet cried out, making the two groan.
Twilight just snickered behind a hoof. "Sometimes I wonder if they were really the same pony? You sure one of you isn't a changeling?"
"Haha, very funny. "Gleaming snapped sarcastically as she was then escorted to her old room. It was almost exactly as she left it so long ago. Then they went to the dining room, and there they enjoyed a home-cooked meal of green bean casserole and drinking wine.
Gleaming woke up as if she was shaking in her bed from a long dream and was looking around the room. The mare looked around, somewhat confused as she was a bit unsure of where she was; for a moment, she looked up to see she was in a room with two ponyquins, one with a set of armor, there were posters of royal guards all over. She turned to see a closet full of various dresses and uniforms plus tons of awards on a shelf and a bookcase. The mare blinked as if she woke from a long restless dream. The white-coated alicorn slowly got up, flexing her wings, and yawned as she stretched her limbs. "I think tonight is the night…"
She slowly got up, admiring her room. This was where she lived for almost her entire life...she now had lived a full life, which was rather odd, especially during her younger years. But overall, it was a wonderful life, and she was somewhat satisfied with how things turned out. She slowly got up and squeaked, seeing that Twilight was sleeping next to her. The white-coated mare paused as she stared at the younger alicorn. Twilight sparkle laid there in a blissful sleep looking relatively peaceful laying there. Gleaming nuzzled her and gave her a kiss on the cheek; she was, in fact, her younger sister. She then slowly tip hoofed out of the room and then went down the hall. It was rather uncanny seeing her in family pictures of various ages from her foalhood next to Shining as they grew up together. Then there were ones with the two and a baby Twilight Sparkle and her in her teenage years. She was in a soccer uniform, graduation outfit, and armor when she first entered the royal guard. She was, in fact, given the title by Celestia, the princess of Guardianship. Basically, she was promoted to "princess" of the royal guard after Shining left to become the crystal empire prince. The mare snickered as she saw pictures in her coronation armor. She decided to go in armor instead of a dress, and she was looking rather stoic beside her, feeling like she was being crushed under a weight of pressure. Everything about her life and how Gleaming was born an alicorn and her parents being confounded, to trying to be a role model for Twilight despite her little sister outpacing her in all her studies and then saving Equestria a few times over. It was all somewhat crazy thinking that all of this happened over the course of twenty-five years; in fact, she could feel her face burning as she entered Shining's room. The stallion was up with his wife sleeping at his side; he looked over with a tired smile and greeted her in a whisper. "Hey sis…"
The mare stood there in the doorway; she wanted to tell this to him for years...but she never dared to be too scared to think she was crazy. But this might be the last time she saw him, and she wanted to at least tell him the truth as she whispered, "Hey...um...I need to tell you something I...um...not your sister…"
"I know.." Shining replied as he sighed, "you're basically a clone of me."
"How do you know!" Gleaming cried out, being somewhat surprised at the response.
He put a hoof to his lips and then pointed at Cadance Gleaming nodded as he continued, "I know...because Luna held the subconscious of me until now….time works differently in that dimension and can be altered using her magic from what she told me anyway...basically, for her and me, it's only been a few moments since you left to live a life basically."
"So...this book is bound by that Luna's magic...did she tell you what she wants me to do for her as a part of our deal?"
"No, in fact, she didn't tell me much…" he held his head. "Ugh...but she did say that my consciousness from before merging with this new one would give me a massive headache."
Gleaming lit her horn as she helped ease her brother's pain. "That should help…"
She took out the book and a pen. "Um...just in case if I don't come back...um, thanks for being an awesome twin brother…"
"No problem, and I'm sure you'll be back. Your me...and if I know anything about you, don't give up."
"Right." Gleaming then took a quill within her magic and scrawled her name down; as the book glowed, she whispered, "I'm coming, Sunset, just wait a bit longer…" Magic tendrils swirled around her as she disappeared.
A few weeks of going through the princess academy…
Gleaming was now back in Luna's study; it was the same as before, cluttered, smelling like dusty old books. With a raining storm outside and sitting down across from her was the mystical-looking Luna. The princess in training cheeks flushed red as she whispered, "so... I'm back, huh?"
"Yes, you're even more capable than before and headstrong. I'm glad you rekindled your love with Sunset Shimmer as well." Princess Luna responded as she gave another nod and sipped her tea.
"Well, I did explain to her later that I was really created from Shining Armor's consciousness and literally traveled back in time and lived a life...it was rather confusing, but she accepted it."
Luna gave another and continued, "yes, it was, but you did it nonetheless, learning from your mistakes and not lying to her and plus being more upcoming with her during your time in Celestia's class... didn't expect you two to have sex so soon."
"The buck!? Why were you spying on me!" The white-coated alicorn shouted being auite angry Luna spied on her intement moments.
The princess of the night looked down at the younger alicorn seeming to not really care about Gleaming's question and replied, "let me ask you a question first, in your time living a life and knowing you would become a princess, did you ever use the information in this school?"
Gleaming paused before she responded throughout her life; almost none of the information she learned in this academy was somewhat useful, as she admitted. "Not really...I mean, some of it was helpful, but most of it felt….I don't know... this entire school feels odd…"
Luna placed her teacup as she got more serious. "Right, the point of this school is not to teach new princesses; it's used as a tool for brainwashing you into what this imposter Lauren Faust believes in."
The white-coated alicorn gulped as she was now somewhat scared as she asked, "who is she then?"
Lightning flashed outside as the princess of the night continued, "she is an imposter and has created these books to lure young princesses in to have them brainwashed and manipulated. Then on graduation day, she'll plant her subconscious into your mind, and you would be under her control for all of eternity."
The princess in training rose up, seething in anger, and slammed a hoof down as she shouted, "And your helping her do this!"
Luna looked down with a guilty look on her face. She sighed, "in my universe, I wasn't evil...but some of my experiments into magic were quite unethical...when I banished my sister Celestia I became quite fascinated with magic as I lost the ability to wield the elements of harmony. I conducted experiments on my subjects. Many became insane or worse...when Twilight and her friends freed my sister from her imprisonment, and they learned what I've been doing. I was given this book as a way to learn from my mistakes...instead, I was trapped here and imprisoned. I, as the other Twilight and Celestia here, are not here by choice."
"Oh my Faust!" Gleaming wheezed as she sat down, blinking. "So, what do you want me to help you escape?"
Luna shook her head as she looked over and asked, "to kill the imposter and free us."
The princess of Guardianship shook all over as she stammered, "I...I...I can't do that!"
"Yes, you can; you're not brainwashed along with Sunset. You can pretend to graduate then attack her. She won't see it coming."
"Isn't she like a god here!? How would we even stand a chance to defeat her!" Gleaming shouted now she was frustrated and concerned.
Luna smirked, "if she were in the office, yes, but the graduation room makes her seem mortal she is as weak as an infant in there. You can strike her down easily with a simple beam spell. I can even give you an amulet to amplify your magic ability."
Gleaming looked down at her drink and sat there for what felt like hours. As a royal guard, if anypony dared attack Celestia or the subjects, she was willing to defend them…but kill? She never thought she would have to ever kill anypony…no, not even this imposter, she won't ever do such a heinous act as she stomped a hoof and replied in defiance. "I won't kill her."
Luna shook her head and replied, "You can't give her a chance to understand you're not brainwashed; if you try to simply capture her, she'll teleport you and Sunset to another dimension, and you both will be destroyed in seconds. The only way you have a chance of escaping is you taking her down with the element of surprise."
Gleaming shook her head as she was not going to back down from this. "No...I can't do that! I won't kill her; there has to be a way to capture her then talk some reason into her. You were given a second chance, and so did your sister? How is it fair to take her life without at least giving her a chance to stop this."
Luna paused; she seemed to be somewhat surprised as she whispered, "Maybe your right... I'll have you and Sunset talk it over, and you have access to this library. However, you have three days to make a plan if you can somehow capture her."
Gleaming stood up. "Trust me, we will," she got up and stomped off as she opened a door and saw Sunset standing there with a blush. "Um...you think we can do this?"
Gleaming just rushed over and kissed her before replying, "of course, I made it back here...now we also need Winter's help if we're going to have a chance to take this headmaster down."
"Hey, did somepony call for me!?" the goddess of winter exclaimed as she flew down and took her friends into a big hug. They all nuzzled each other as they sat together as Sunset turned to her and asked, "before we continue with talking about our battle plan? Tell us everything about your life? Don't leave any details out."
The princess of Guardianship gave a sigh as she sat down at the table with a steaming cup of tea in her hooves. "all alright, well, it all started when I was born…"