//------------------------------// // Twiley // Story: Crisis of Infinite Twilights // by defender2222 //------------------------------// "Oh, this is bad, this is really bad..." Scootaloo said, pacing in circles, her little wings buzzing in agitation. “Bad bad bad bad bad!” "Very, very bad!" Twilight echoed, looking around the library. "I am in so much trouble," Scootaloo whimpered, "You?" Twilight practically screeched, dropping a twisted piece of metal that had either been a picture frame or a wrench. "What about me? My brother is going to kill me!" "Don't worry, we can figure this out!” Scootaloo said quickly, looking around the room and trying to convince herself that things weren’t as bad as they appeared. “We just need to plan ahead… maybe divide the room up into sections and... wait, what are you talking about?" Scootaloo stopped and watched as Twilight took up pacing herself. "Why would your brother care?" "Why would he care?" Twilight cried out, her little body trembling in fear. "He is going to come home and see what I did to the library and he is going to be so mad especially since he told me the last time we crusaded that I needed to be more careful and he is going to ground me and I won't be able to hang out with you girls and I will NEVER get my cutie mark!" Twilight paused, her eyes shimmering with tears and her lip trembling. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" "Don't worry, Twilight, I'm a comin'!" Spike cried out, bursting through the blackened basement door. He swung a plunger wildly, the football helmet he was wearing dipping down to cover his eyes. "What evil did you unleash? I'll stop it! Let me at'em, let me at'em! Tadadadada! Dragon Power!" Scootaloo ducked down, dodging Spike’s attack and letting the baby dragon attack a coat rack (though maybe it was a good thing he attacked it; Twilight never wore coats so the presence of a rack designed for coats suggested something… sinister). "Wait!" Twilight said, her tears instantly drying up and a grin forming on her lips. She threw her forelegs out wide, gesturing towards the mess. "Maybe this is destiny knocking!” “Huh?” Scootaloo said, rubbing her neck to try and soothe the pain for the emotional whiplash. The purple filly was bouncing up and down in glee. “Maybe we were supposed to make this mess so we could clean it up. Then we discover we are really good at cleaning things and we get our cleaning cutie marks!" Filly Twilight darted over to a closet and yanked out a broom and dustpan. "CUTIE MARK SUPER CLEANERS! YAAAAAA!" Scootaloo watched all this happen, a bemused look on her face. Spike was thrashing about, destroying anything that had been untouched by the explosion while a filly that looked like Twilight ran after him, trying to clean up what he broke, shouting encouragement because, as she put it “The bigger the mess the better the cutie mark!”. ‘Try’ was the operative word, as Twilight's magical abilities had diminished as much as her body. Books were haphazardly stapled back together with two different covers, vases were reassembled looking like no vase Scootaloo had ever seen, and she was pretty sure that black paint was not a spot remover, despite how much Twilight sprayed it all over the walls (where she got said paint, no one knew). "Uh, Twilight... Twilight?" Scootaloo said, trying to get the filly's attention. "TWILIGHT!" "What?" Twilight said, stopping with her broom hovering in the air. "What's wrong?" "Why don't you, and Spike..." Scootaloo reached over and forced Spike to stop swinging his plunger around, "...sit down and we go over some things, ok?" “Did I get’em?” Spike asked, looking around at the carnage. “Wow… I must have messed them up GOOD!” “Yeah, you sure did. Now come on… sit,” Scootaloo said with a weak smile. Twilight quirked an eyebrow but trotted over and sat down next to Spike, who, upon seeing her, kept resting his hand on his head and moving it towards, Twilight, measuring their height difference (or lack thereof). "Now, why don't we take a deep breath and Twilight-" "Why do you keep calling me that?" Twilight blurted out. Scootaloo resisted the urge the scream (realizing how ironic it was for her, of all ponies, to be mad about somepony and their short attention span). "Call you what?" she asked, gritting her teeth. "Twilight. Only the princesses call me that." She screwed up her nose. "And that's usually when I've done something bad." “They do?” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, you know…” Twilight tried to adopt a voice that sounded like Celestia’s, “’Twilight Sparkle, what are you doing up at this hour?’. Or ‘Twilight Sparkle, the Lady of Zebrica’s chariot is not a toy!’.” Twilight shook her head. “Ponies only call me Twilight when I’m in trouble.” "What do we call you, then?" Spike asked, for the first time realizing that something was seriously wrong with his boss/friend/mother-figure/master/enslaver/hetero-life partner (it all depended on who you asked). "Twiley!" the fillyfied unicorn said with a grin. "My brother always calls me that and you guys just picked it up." "Ok, Twiley," Scootaloo said, feeling very awkward saying that name, "why don't you tell us all about yourself... tell us your life story." Twiley's brow furrowed. "Uh... why? You already know it." Scootaloo blinked. "Er..." "So you can try for your life-story-telling cutie mark!" Spike said, glancing at Scootaloo and giving her a not-so-subtle wink (it involved him slowly turning towards her, flashing a cheesy smile, and shutting one eye while saying ‘Wink!’). The pegasus glared at him, her mouth open to retort that no pony would be stupid enough to- "CUTIE MARK LIFE STORY TELLER!" Twiley screamed with glee. Scootaloo huffed. "We are not that easy to trick," she muttered, forelegs crossed over her chest. "Apparently you are," Spike whispered. Twiley cleared her throat. "I was born in Canterlot. My parents are Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Mom and dad do a lot of government work for the princesses… I think they are maids or something, I don’t know, it’s all boring stuff… so my big brother watches me most of the time... that's why I moved here when the princess sent him to Ponyville." "Sent him?" Scootaloo asked. Twiley nodded. "Yup!" She leaned in towards Scootaloo and whispered. "Good, good... keep pretending you don't know any of this! It's great practice." She pulled away and continued her story. "When I was just a foal my brother, Shining Armor, saw Princess Celestia raise the sun at the Summer Sun Celebration and that got him interested in magic. He studied really hard and got a tryout in front of the board of the Princess' school. I don't really know what happened, other than he hatched you there Spike and both of you went to live in the castle." Spike nodded. "Yeah, that sound's... right." It was so very odd for the baby dragon to hear this tale; it was a story he knew well yet the main players had been changed. "So then what happened?" Twiley got real excited, her body bouncing up and down as she told the next part. "I was staying with you and Shiny at the castle and trying to avoid the princess… she is kinda creepy, you know? Always hanging around, staring at me… one of the guards once muttered that she was a petal-file which is nuts because who cares about filing flower petals?” Twiley shrugged. “Anyway, my brother began to investigate the legend of Nightmare Moon on day and got all excites when it looked like she was coming back to take over the world.” Twiley frowned. “Uh, well not ‘excited’ like ‘yay, end of the world!’. You know what I mean! “When he told Princess Celestia she didn't believe him and told him he had to help set up the Summer Sun Celebration.. probably because she was too busy filing rose petals or something." Twiley's face screwed up in a pout. "I told Shiny we should just ignore that dumb-old Princess and go catch Nightmare Moon ourselves. He didn't listen, of course, so we had to come here." Spike shook his head, marveling at how different Twiley was from Twilight. “You… really don’t like Princess Celestia?” Twiley scoffed. "Uh, yeah. I mean, big deal... she raises the sun up. I could do that if I wanted to... I just don't wanna." She let out a stubborn huff, which covered up Spike's snickers. “And that other one, the pink one that is always eyeing my brother… mommy says she’s a cradle robber!” "So, what happened next?" Scootaloo pressed. "Well, first we ran into Pinkie Pie... she's a strange pony. She just screamed and darted away; we found out later she was excited since we were new and was planning a party. I told Shiny she was coocoo in the woowoo but he said that wasn't polite." Twiley scuffed her hoof against the ground. "He's always telling me to be nicer and stuff and I really try but sometimes it’s hard! It’s not my fault Diamond Tiara won't come near me! It was accidental magic that floated her into the potty and gave her a swirly, not me!" "Really?" Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow, wishing she could have sent that. Twiley flashed her most angelic look at Scootaloo... the orange pegasus could practically see the halo over her head (which was not a good sign… Halo-itis was a deadly scourge; get tested today). "Wow, it is weird to be on the receiving end of that," Scootaloo muttered before motioning for Twiley to continue. "So then we went to Sweet Apple Acres. I didn't want to stay, because I thought we should go bop Nightmare Moon in the nose, but Shiny said we needed to stay for lunch because “it is the nice thing to do, Twiley!”” The filly let out a scoff. “Shiny can be such a goodie goodie!” She looked down, biting her lip. “It wasn't... too bad... especially since that is when I met Apple Bloom!" Twiley rubbed her tummy. "Ugh, but I did eat way too much pie. Anyway, then we went back into town and met you and Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo stopped herself from frowning; when Nightmare Moon had appeared Scootaloo hadn't met Rainbow Dash yet. It would only be after the events became known to the public that Scootaloo would discover her idol. Tales of Rainbow Dash’s exploits during that crisis, followed by the Sonic Rainboom, would cement her at the coolest thing since ice cream sandwiches in Scootaloo’s mind. "She was doing some tricks and you were cheering her on. We... uh... we kinda got in a fight when I said my brother was cooler than Dash but we made up... right?" Twiley looked up bashfully. "Of course," Scootaloo said, giving the purple unicorn a hug. "So, after Rainbow and me?" Twiley began to rattle the events off rapidly. "Well, there was Rarity and Sweetie Belle... then we met Fluttershy who was out helping Pound." Twiley blushed a little and Scootaloo fought the urge to sing, "Twiley as a boyfriend"... mostly because as far as she knew, Pound wasn't a year and a half old yet. "They took us to the library where Pinkie and Pound's sister Pumpkin had set up a huge party for us! Shiny made me go to bed early but I couldn't get much sleep, what with every pony playing Pin the Tail on the Pony." The filly's face darkened slightly and she began to shift. "Then the bad stuff happened and we… well, you know… it was my fault we were taken." "Taken?" Scootaloo said. "By Nightmare Moon," Twiley said quietly, her jaw nervously working like she was chewing on a piece of gum. "She appeared out of nowhere and began to monologue-" "Monologue?" Scootaloo asked. "You know... I'm an evil villain, this is my evil plan, blah blah blah?" Twiley rolled her eyes. "Why do all villains monologue?" "Because it’s fun?" Spike ventured. “Hey, did she have big mirror wings and have a Trottingham accent?” Scootaloo clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Now that would be stupid.” Twiley looked down. "I tried to fight her magic when she grabbed me, but... Scootaloo, this isn't fun anymore!" Twiley looked up, tears in her eyes. "We said we were going to talk about this ever! You promised!” "Ok, ok!" Scootaloo said quickly, waving her forelegs in a panic. If there was one thing the orange pegasus couldn't handle, it was when fillies cried (or colts but the only time she'd seen that happen was when Snips and Snails had read that issue of Batstallion were The Colt Wonder died). "I'm sorry Twiley... please don't cry." Twiley nodded. "Oh... oh ok." She instantly perked up. "Hey, can we try our hooves at cleaning now? I want to see if I get a cleaning cutie mark... or maybe it’s specialized! You know, a dusting cutie mark or a sweeping cutie mark..." "Go ahead and get started," Scootaloo said, backing away. "Spike and I just need to... uh... come up with what story we are going to tell your brother when he gets here!" "Ok!" Twiley said happily, grabbing a dust pan with her mouth and trotting over to one of the smaller piles of rubble. "Probably shouldn’t use this.” She tapped her horn. “Ugh, this would be easier if I could use my magic... I don't get why Shiny says I can't use it when he isn't around... after all, I manage to blow things up WITHOUT it..." Spike leaned in close to Scootaloo, watching as the purple unicorn got to work. "Ok, this is seriously freaky." "I know! It’s like she's led an entirely different life!" Spike's eyes went wide. "Do you think she's-" "Do not say zombie," Scootaloo warned. "Have I really become that predictable?" Spike complained. Scootaloo rolled her eyes, watching as Twiley inspected a cushion that had several burn marks on it. She flipped it over and placed it back on the blackened chair it went on, hoping her brother wouldn't notice. "Something weird is going on though." "What do you think we should do, then?" Spike asked. "I think ponies will notice when they newest princess is spending her days in elementary school." "We'll just have to do our best to keep this quiet until we have a better idea of what happened. As long as the two of us are the only ones who know what happened-" CRASH! Scootaloo and Spike turned around, eyes wide as several ponies dressed in black catsuits leapt into the library, their horns glowing as they inspected the area. "I have two civilians Agent Coltson!” "Gas'em,” a balding stallion said as he entered the library. He was wearing a dark suit and a pair of sunglasses, looking around at the carnage. "It’s the cops!" Spike screamed, leaping up. "Quick, flush your stash!" He ran towards the bathroom, only to get caught in the grasp of a strong stallion. "Let me go, please! I was just holding that talc for a friend! I'll narc on him, if you want, just-" Spike never got to finish, as the stallion pushed a spray can in his face and blasted the baby dragon with a cloud of green fumes. “I didn’t… uh… in ya Rarity… swear!” Spike fell to the ground in a heap. "Spike!" Scootaloo shouted, darting towards the nearest guard and punching him in the leg. He let out a yelp and began to dance around while Scootaloo dodged the spellfire that was directed her way. "Twilight! Help!" Twiley nodded. "Cutie mark home defenders, YAAAAAAHHHH!!" She ran with her head down, her horn butting into Agent Coltson’s legs and sending him toppling down. "Get out of my brother’s library!" she shouted. "I'm afraid I can't do that, sweetie," a newly arrived dark blue stallion said. He was wearing a catsuit like the others, except over his he had one a long black coat. His right eye was covered by an eyepatch but his left, which was unblocked, looked down at Twiley, who'd stopped dead in her tracks. "Daddy?" Twiley said in shock before one of the agents gassed her. "Daddy?" Scootaloo echoed in confusion, only to receive a face-full of the fumes for her troubles. "Ugh... I... I... I'm comin' Elizabeth!" she slurred before crumpling in a heap.