//------------------------------// // Bringing Her Home // Story: Royal Blue // by iDeltaVelocity //------------------------------// Royal Blue Chapter 3 Bringing Her Home Royal Blue followed an upset Diamond Tiara through Ponyville. Most of their time was spent in silence, neither one uttering a single word since leaving the cute-ceañera, though on occasions Blue would try and find something to say that would lighten her twin’s mood. This was done to no avail. Diamond Tiara was still depressed about what happened between both her and Apple Bloom, even though she wouldn’t try to show it. She had too much pride for that. Blue never realised how important a cute-ceañera was to a pony. Being a Double, she found that she did not have the luxury of finding out what she might excel at, which she had to admit, was something she saw as an absolute advantage for Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo--and any other “blank-flank” that lived in this town. Her cutie mark, which was a flower the last time she checked, came predetermined when she was first brought into Equestria. As far as she knew, there was no way around it. Not that she knew of. I need to learn more about these cutie marks. Maybe that unicorn we ran into earlier can help me. Eventually she and Diamond reached a large mansion in one part of town. Blue gawked at it. It was pretty huge, and it must have taken so much to maintain it. “You didn’t have to follow me home,” said Diamond, as she and Blue trotted past the gate, and started down the path towards the house. The Double took another bite out of the cookie. “Where else was I suppose to go? It’s not like I know a lot of ponies around here. Well, aside from Twist. And Silver Spoon. And maybe-probably Sweetie Belle. And Archer. And Dinky. And--” “I get it,” Diamond Tiara interrupted her. “You’re starting to make a lot of friends, and I’m very happy about that. But right now, I just wanna get inside, lie down, maybe play some video games, and forget everything that happened today. Okay?” Blue thought for a moment and broke off half her treat, hanging the unbitten half to her twin. “Maybe a cookie will cheer you up.” “Gee, thanks…” Diamond Tiara took it, keeping the deadpanned look on her face. Blue was content that she had done at least something nice for her, even if it was something small. They made their way towards the stairs. Blue beamed a smile and blocked off Diamond’s path. “I’ve got an idea!” she said. “How about you and I race up to the door. That should cheer you up, right? I’ll even give you a headstart.” Diamond sighed. “As much as I appreciate what you’re doing, I don’t. I just want to be alone. Alright?” Blue acknowledged, letting her twin by. “Okay, then,” she responded, before her eyes lit up again. “But we can race later, right? It’d be so much fun!” They continued up the stairs, Blue following closely behind. They approached the door, but Diamond stopped just short of opening. “Oh no…” “What’s wrong?” asked Blue. “How am I going to explain you?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t think mom and dad are expecting me to bring another me home with me. I need a quick minute to think about this.” Diamond paced across her porch, searching for an excuse to give. She wasn’t sure they would believe that Sweetie Belle did it, not at the level of magic she was currently at. Perhaps she could use a magic artifact as an excuse—possibly as a contingency. “What artifacts do I know of so far?” she asked herself, thinking back to what Miss Cheerilee taught them in school. It was a lesson that, regrettably, she’d fallen asleep in. “Eh, I’ll just make one up.” “This place is huge!” She heard an energetic voice echo from behind her. To her dismay, she turned to see that Royal Blue had ventured into the mansion. Tiara’s mom was off work from the hospital at this time, and if Blue was wandering the house, there was a good chance she’d be spotted. “Blue! Get back here!” Diamond Tiara galloped after her, stopping before she was able to get too far inside. “What do you think you’re doing?” “Checking this place out. It’s big!” Blue inhaled and yelled, “Echo!” Diamond Tiara covered her mouth, shushing her. “Don’t do that! You can’t just wander off. What if mom or dad sees you? I need to keep you out of sight until I can come up with something.” “Diamond, sweetie? Is that you?” Diamond cursed silently to herself as a familiar voice echoed from down the hall. It was her mom. The sound of hooves echoed across the hallway. Diamond shoved Blue behind the wall, just as her mom, Nurse Sweetheart, appeared. “You’re home early. How was your cute-ceañera?” “Oh, you know. It was nice. I had a lot of fun with Silver Spoon and the others.” Diamond didn’t want to tell her about the small fight she had with Apple Bloom, especially when it caused her to leave her own party. “You must be tired, then,” said Sweetheart, “I’ll talk to you later.” Diamond nodded as her mom turned back to the living room. She then turned her attention back to Royal Blue, ushering her up the stairs. Diamond opened her door to her bedroom. It was large, and had a lot of stuff scattered across the ground such as toys and video games. “Your room’s really messy,” said Blue. Diamond rolled her eyes at the statement. As if her mom and dad telling her that wasn’t enough, now her own Double was beginning to say it. She personally didn’t think it was that messy herself. “You stay here,” Diamond ordered. “I’ll go get us something to drink.” “What am I supposed to do in here?” Blue asked. Diamond drew her attention to the various things around her. “You have toys and video games; pretty much anything that a filly could ask for. I even have some paper and pencils-” she pointed towards a table at the far end of the room, “-if you want to draw a picture or something. But just stay here and don't come out, okay? And stay quiet.” Blue nodded, acknowledging her orders as Diamond Tiara left, closing the door behind her. She looked around, considering the amount of options she had to herself. She never played with toys, or video games, and she had no idea how to draw… “Maybe I’ll take up drawing. Couldn't hurt to try, could it?” Making her way across the mess of toys, Royal Blue approached table and grabbed a pencil. She pondered what she could possibly draw, searching through her mind for anything interesting. “I got it!” “Okay, Blue…” Diamond trotted through the doorway, balancing a plate with two cups on her back, “Here you go. A nice, cold glass of- what the heck is that?” She found herself standing face-to-face with Royal Blue holding an extremely crudely-drawn picture in her mouth. It was… something that could not be transferred into words, literally. “Do you like it?” asked Blue. “I drew it myself!” “A drawing. Right…” Diamond took another glance at it, rubbing the back of her neck as she tried in vain to decipher what it was. “It kinda looks like a scuba diving iguana with a… pretzel on its tail?” “It’s supposed to be a dinosaur, silly. Can’t you see it?” No, I can’t, Diamond thought. “But what about the pretzel?” “Those are the spikes on its tail.” “And the flippers?” “Those are its feet,” said Blue, “Dinosaurs have feet, don’t they?” Diamond Tiara was left speechless, but nevertheless pushed the thought out of her head as she trotted to her desk. It’s obvious her special talent isn’t drawing. “Okay, then… while I try to process everything you put on that piece of paper, how about we have some lemonade.” Blue set down her masterpiece and followed Diamond to her desk. Her straw placed in the cup, she took a sip, savouring the taste as it invaded her mouth. “This is tasty. I like it. What was it again?” “Haven’t you had lemonade before?” asked Diamond. “No,” Blue responded. “Oh, right…” Diamond laughed meekly, which had caused Royal Blue to laugh as well, though a bit more vocal than her twin. The two of them finished their drinks and were now lounging around the bedroom. Blue’s picture was taped to the wall, a memento that she was a good artist, at least in her eyes, and she was currently looking around the room, at the toys and games scattered about. She thought about what else she could do to pass the time while she was here. She stepped on something and looked down to see one of Diamond’s video games under her hoof. She examined it. The game’s cover showed a pony in some sort of armour standing in front of a burning planet, with what seemed like an orange blade strapped to her hoof. “Hey, Diamond…?” “What…?” Diamond Tiara was lying on her bed, spending whatever time she had reading a comic book. “What’s ‘Mass Effect’?” Diamond hopped down from her bed and went over to Royal Blue. “It’s a game,” she said. Blue glanced at it and back at her twin. There had to be more to it than it just being a regular video game. “Tell me about it.” She sat down, ready to listen to whatever the pink filly had to say. Diamond put a hoof to her chin. It wouldn’t be as much fun to just tell Blue about it. If Blue was going to try and be normal filly, she had to experience everything firsthand. “How about I show you?” Everything started out well for Blue. There was a bit of exploration during the first part of mission, nothing too complicated. That was, until she finally ran into her first batch of enemies. They mowed out her teammate, killing him during the brief cutscene, and although Blue had managed to get past them, there were still more ahead that were causing nothing but trouble for her. “Hit the Geth!” Diamond sat beside her, eagerly directing her attention to the robot on screen that was trying to kill her. Blue, on the other hand, was experiencing trouble as she anxiously tried to spot her enemy. Her shields were all but destroyed, she was down to her last health bar, and her teammate was down. One hit from a plasma rifle and she was done for. “Where is it?” “It’s there, hiding behind the rock! Shoot it!” “Which button do I press again?” “Right trigger! Hurry!” In a flash, Royal Blue’s character was dead on the ground. The Geth had managed to get a hit off her before she had a chance to fire back. It happened so quickly that Blue wasn’t able to process it right away, though she could feel a bit of frustration. That single Geth stood between her and victory. “That was better than I thought you’d do on your first playthrough,” said Diamond. Honestly she believed that Blue would be taken out by the recon drones. “Can I have another try? Please?” Blue asked. She looked at her twin with puppy dog eyes. Unable to resist, Diamond Tiara agreed, and Royal Blue proceeded to restart the mission. A knock from the other side of her door caught her attention, drawing her away from the TV. “Diamond! Time for dinner!” her mom called. Diamond glanced at Blue, who waved her off. “You can go,” said the Double. “Besides, I still want to try to beat this.” “You sure?” asked Diamond. “You look a bit on edge.” “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” Blue assured her. Diamond, at first skeptical at her words, shrugged and went down for dinner. Royal Blue would be all right by the time she returned--she hoped. Heading downstairs into the kitchen, Diamond sat with her mom at the table. A plate of hay fries, mashed apples, and fried vegetables was set in front of her. She made a mental note to bring some leftovers up to Royal Blue. She wondered how her Double was doing in Mass Effect. Maybe she had finally managed to get past the first part of the mission. She heard the front door open and shut, and after a few moments, Filthy Rich trotted into the kitchen. He was exhausted, but relieved to finally be back home after a long day of work. “Hi, Daddy,” she greeted him. “Hey, my little princess.” Filthy Rich tossed off the hat he was wearing and gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead. “How was work?” asked Nurse Sweetheart. “Oh, same old stuff,” replied Filthy Rich, taking his seat at the table. “There’s always something going on. I’m just glad it’s finally over. Now I get to spend the rest of my day with my two favourite fillies.” “Oh, come on!” Their attention was drawn to a frustrated yell coming from upstairs. Diamond Tiara was beginning to grow nervous, knowing that Royal Blue was blowing her cover. “What was that?” asked Filthy Rich. He was about to get up from his seat to inspect when Diamond intervened. “I… think it was my TV,” she replied, hoping they would buy it. She wanted to keep them from finding out about Royal Blue as long as possible. “Seems a bit loud,” said Sweetheart. “You’re right. I’ll just go up turn it down.” As quick as her legs could take, Diamond hurried out of the kitchen and stormed upstairs. She opened her bedroom door to see Royal Blue, still sitting in front of the TV. She seemed like a nervous wreck, as if something had made her incredibly anxious. Her sky blue mane sticking out in some places. She was attached to her game, not taking her eyes away if even after Diamond trotted into the room. Diamond sighed at seeing her Double like this. It was a bad idea letting her try video games, she thought to herself. “Okay, Blue. I think you’ve had enough. Time to set the controller down.” “No!” Pausing the game, Blue turned towards Diamond Tiara. She was frantic, wanting to continue her playthrough a little longer. She was nearing the end of the first mission, only having a few more Geth to fight before it was over. “Just five more five minutes, then I’ll get off.” She held her right hoof in the air after saying this. “Filly’s promise.” “Blue…” Diamond took an unrelenting step forward, giving her Double a cold stare as held out her hoof. “Give me the controller. Now.” “Never!” Royal Blue snatched the remote and galloped away from Diamond Tiara, hopping onto her bed. Diamond facehoofed. Seeing her own Double act like this was embarrassing, though she was lucky nopony could possibly see this. “Listen, Blue.” she tried approaching her, not wanting to provoke the filly into doing something she’d regret. “Just try to calm down a bit. Don’t do anything you’ll—” She was interrupted with a pillow being thrown at her face. Diamond glared at Blue, who was still standing on her bed with the controller in her mouth. “You wanna do this the hard way? Fine! We’ll do this the hard way!” Grabbing the pillow, Diamond charged at Blue. She threw it; Blue ducked her head, inadvertently dropping the controller, and allowing Diamond Tiara to make a quick grab for it. “Hey! Give that back!” Royal Blue galloping after her, chasing Diamond around the room in an effort to get the controller back. “I’m not done with the game!” “You are when I say you are!” Diamond replied, keeping well out of Blue’s range. She hoped her twin would tire herself out if she kept at it. Her initial thoughts were wrong, however, as she was tackled to the ground. Filthy Rich flinched as he heard a loud thump from upstairs. “What in Equestria is she doing up there?” He and Sweetheart stood from their chairs and hurried up to investigate. They knocked on the door as they approached their daughter’s room. There was no response, instead they heard ruckus coming from the other side. It sounded like she was fighting someone. “Alright, Diamond-” he opened her door and trotted in, “-what is going on in—?” He and his wife stopped at the sight of Diamond Tiara wrestling with another pony who looked exactly like her. If it wasn’t for the sky blue mane, white coat, and purple eyes, they could sworn she was fighting a clone. Diamond looked up at her parents, no pony saying a word for what seemed like hours. A trickle of sweat dripped down her head as she stood. There wasn’t much she could say in terms to cover this up now that Blue’s cover was blown. “Diamond?” Sweetheart broke the lingering silence. “Who’s this?” Diamond Tiara stood, facing her parents with a nervous grin on her face. “Uh, Mom? Dad?” She hadn’t come up with an excuse yet, which only added to the awkwardness of the situation. “Did you know I had a twin?”