We were on the train back to Ponyville, Destiny Bond, Braeburn, Fluttershy and I. What's strange is that I couldn't remember the end of last night. I know I didn't drink anything, as I don't drink. My mane felt greasy as I put a hoof through it. I haven't washed myself for a while.
The usual chatter of everypony in the carriage surrounded the atmosphere, and I overheard Destiny ranting to Braeburn about how she's going to train to be even faster than Rainbow Dash.
"I am going to be the latest edition to the Wonderbolts, not her! I'm going to make my wings so powerful that nopony else will beat me in a race ever again!" Destiny shouted confidently.
"Uh, sure ya are Destiny, I believe in ya!" Braeburn encouraged assuringly.
A conductor came over to Destiny and told her to keep the noise down, and she retaliated with a "Hey I'm gonna be the best here, I can't be quiet!" and the conductor countered with an aggressive stare to make Destiny withdraw temporarily.
"Destiny, ah think we better jus' tone it down a little..." Braeburn suggested.
"Mhmm..." Destiny mumbled and sat back down from her high standing position. She started to look through her bag, and brought out half of her Paopu fruit to show to Braeburn after the conductor went off to continue his routine.
"This is the thing that made me and Blue friends for life." Destiny turned and smiled at me.
Braeburn looked fascinated at the fruit, and changed his view to Destiny's cutie mark. "So that's the thing on yer flank. Well whaddya know!"
"I got my cutie mark by...I'll explain at a later date. We don't have enough time on the train for me to explain the whole story. Besides, I got so much training to do!" Destiny exclaimed while fidgeting in her seat, but lowered her head when the conductor turned to glare at her.
I looked out of the window, and out of my partially blurred vision, I saw the sunrise flaring out of the deserted plains. In the distance, something caught my eye. Two ponies. Those ponies were…the ones from that photograph! I couldn't believe it as I gasped, attracting the rest of the passengers' attention. They looked in the direction that I was looking at, but nothing was there anymore, just unclaimed land.
I slumped in my seat until my chin touched my belly almost.
"What's…uh the deal Blue? You look awfully pale…" Fluttershy said with great concern for my scattered condition.
"Oh, well if you look at this photograph here…" I showed Fluttershy the evidence of my distress, "These two ponies next to us, I just saw them out on the horizon."
"I…I wonder what they were doing out there…wait, who are these two ponies Blue?"
"This pair is my and Destiny's substitute parents basically, and we haven't seen them since we were small."
"That is…strange, why in Equestria would they be out there?"
"I have no clue myself Fluttershy; possibly they were searching? Maybe they were trying to unite us with them again…"
I returned to a composed position in my seat, and stared at the top of the carriage for a while. I needed some fresh air, so I got up and went to the open area at the back of the train, and I leant on the railing. I shoved my face into my crossed front legs in sorrow. I need to manage myself better, as my thoughts and emotions have been all over the place lately. Well, they always have. And to think I was once a 'teacher' when I couldn't even teach myself the basics of pony behaviour. I can't cope sometimes, there's always the thought hanging in the back of my mind. Why can't all this be over? I just want to finish this whole thing, so I can live free, instead of being split into two forms. But when it is over, which form would I choose? Equestria is a nicer place, and I have currently living friends, and love, and the right place to be. On the other hand, on Earth I'm a leader of the "good" people, and we want to take over what now is a wasteland, destroyed by the decay of thousands of nuclear weapons flying everywhere. The apocalypse happened on that side, and Anne is on the verge of death. I concentrated my thoughts into a weak communication with my human mind. I saw Anne; she was in a coma. She was tied to a chair too, watching some sort of television screen. What she was watching was…this world? This form of me moreover? How can this be? I don't see any hidden cameras around my area or in the air as the TV was showing me on the train from a bird's eye view. The connection of minds was lost, and I returned to my current reality.
"Are…are you Electric Blue?" an unknown, but familiar voice said from behind me.
I turned around, and saw that it was Glais. Glais?! How…? I was more puzzled than angered at that moment. How the heck is a human in this world? And standing in front of me?!
"Before you get mad, I want to apologise. I want to repent after all these years of fighting. I want to get you to understand." Glais was solemn, very solemn.
"How…why? You're my worst enemy! I can't just forgive you; you were responsible for destroying most of the Earth's population!" I wanted to be as harsh as I could to Glais, even if he did look sorry for himself.
"That's not true. It wasn't me, even though everyone thought it was."
"What are you saying?! You're a murderer, you can't lie! We all saw the tape; we all witnessed you pressing those buttons to detonate those nukes!" I crouched slightly and prepared to charge at Glais.
"I want to tell you something. It will change your mind."
"T-tell me what? What kind of lie do you have for me this time?"
"I'm…not Glais. Glais was just an experiment."
"You…you're not Glais? Experiment? What's going on?"
"It was near the end of the natural world, which I hope you'll remember. I opted for this fancy programme to make you biologically superior, because I was reckless and tired of being the guy at the bottom of the pile at the time. Little did I know, this was a twisted social experiment involving the effects of certain chemicals with test subjects, including me. Every day, our group got an injection of stimulants each to "make you grow". What wasn't told to us was that it would change your personality and attitudes too. That turned me into something I wasn't, an evil man, corrupted by thoughts of world domination and collapse. When the research was over, we were all set free, and all of us caused chaos throughout the land."
"This…this is new…please continue…" I found it hard to believe what I was hearing.
"A manifestation of my old self still existed inside my brain, and since we had access to cloning machines, thanks to your contributions to technology, I cloned myself, and the 'bad' me was the product, taking that side away and leaving me to be the 'good' version. I labelled my clone by the name Glais, a rough translation of Latin for ice, because the bad me was literally made of ice."
"So…a clone of you destroyed Earth?"
"Unfortunately yes…Glais was too powerful to contain, seeing as he was raw evil. I'm so sorry that he put the world through all of what he did, and it's my entire fault because I was a stupid kid at the time."
"Hey…come on…I understand…I forgive you." I wanted to take back what I just said, but this real form of Glais looked genuine.
"Thank you…now, I should probably tell you my real name, and who I really am. My name is Caerula, and I'm your twin brother."
I stepped backwards until my flank pressed against the railings, and I struggled for breath.
"I…mastered a spell when I was in hiding on Earth, and now I can transform into a pony, just like you did." Right before my very eyes, a flash of light burst out of Caerula's mouth after muttering a few words, and shortly after the light had gone; I was looking at a male reflection of me.
"This…this is all so sudden…I can't hold on to this…" I started to faint, and I slipped to the floor.
"Wake up…wake up Blue!" I opened my eyes to see that I was in my own house, laid on my bed. Fluttershy, Destiny, Braeburn and Caerula were standing around me with worried looks on their faces. I looked at Caerula for a while, and closed my eyes again.
"Since you called yourself Electric Blue, I called myself Azure Spark, seeing as I'm your twin brother and all." Caerula sounded proud of himself for some reason.
"I…I don't know what to say…are…you're the only other blood relative I have here, and yet you destroyed a planet. No…Glais did. Not you…"
"Yes, you understand! Everypony here was told about my story too, and hopefully that should spread around."
"We made you a bath, if you want to try it out…we thought it would be good for you, as you need to relax and get yourself together…" Fluttershy put a hoof on my shoulder, and I got up to walk to the bathroom.
"Thank you everypony for your care towards me, it's good that I have friends like you." I announced before I shut the bathroom door.
I lifted myself into the bath, and felt the warm, bubble topped, lavender fragrant water capturing my body. I slid down until my head was just above the water, and I closed my eyes to soak in the soothing water. I could detach from my fragmented mind for a while so it can repair itself, and just…relax. For once, I felt at peace with the world. I could gather my thoughts about Azure Spark now, to comprehend what just happened. I have a twin brother now, one that I had falsely accused of being a master criminal of war. But his real self is just a duplicate of me in a way, with similar personalities to boot. The same cutie marks as well were interesting.
After an hour of recovery, I got out of the bath and towelled myself off. I felt my mane, and it was back to its soft state again. I opened the door of the bathroom and trotted slowly to my bed, where Azure Spark was still standing.
"Spark, what will happen to Glais?" I asked, still in a relaxed state.
"Well, now that we are united, we will take him down together." Spark seemed to be looking into the future.
"When might that be? Would you know?"
"Glais will tell us by bringing us back to Earth. That will happen in about a year or less."
"A year? Why a year, Spark?"
"Glais when I last saw him was weakened. I put all my power into making him fall unconscious or at least tried to, so now his magic is disabled temporarily. When he gets it back, he has to locate us again, and then drag us back there to kill us both. By then we would be able to retaliate and defeat him, just the two of us."
"Sounds risky, but I can trust you I guess, you are my brother and all…"
"Good. Your friends will probably try to help at that time, but don't let them, no matter what. We don't want any losses on our side."
"Alright, I got it. I just hope whatever plan you have will work…"
"Trust me; my plan will work when it's made. I'm your older brother too, and older siblings always know best."
"You have to control your pride Spark; it'll get the best of you…"
"I'm only joking Blue, if it's anypony who knows best, it's you."
"Ha ha, I can't say I'm not intelligent I guess…"
I sat on the side of the bed, and looked at Spark and the room for a while. "Say, what are you going to do now, since you're here?"
"Heh, that's a thought. I guess I will explore Equestria, learn its cultures and inhabitants, and then come to join you on your adventures sometimes." Spark sounded confident in his ideas.
"That sounds alright, I'd like you to come with me and Destiny sometime, and maybe we can learn a thing or two from you, because we might have missed a few things in our days of being fillies here."
"Wait, you were a filly? You grew up here? How can that be, Blue? It's only been a month since I last saw you!"
"I…I have no idea myself, maybe it was some sort of 'rebirth' process, maybe a time warp, who knows for sure."
"Hmm. We'll figure it all out along the way, but right now, we have to get on with whatever we have to do."
Our conversation broke away when there was a knock at the door. I went to answer it, and an unknown pony stood right in front of me.
"Another introduction today? Well, who might you be then?" I asked the maroon pony with her long, messy auburn mane, knowing that the house is getting crowded.
"My…my name is Twisha. I was wondering if you had a place to stay, since the other ponies in town had told me to go to you." This pony asked where to stay, and they said to find me? This is intriguing, because I don't have much space to offer.
"I'm sorry, let me invite you in. My name is Electric Blue just to let you know."
"Well, thank you Electric Blue." She gave a nervous laugh as I led her inside.
"Meet everypony else, this is Destiny Bond, Braeburn, Fluttershy, and Azure Spark. Everypony, meet Twisha, the next resident in my home."
They all exchanged their greetings with Twisha, and made her feel at home almost immediately.
"So, what brings you here Twisha?" I asked, since I might as well find out her reasoning behind coming here.
"Well, I came from Trottingham, in search of new prospects. You see, I had kind of a nasty family, so I didn't want to live there anymore. I heard about Ponyville, the friendliest place in Equestria, so I made my way here." She replied, with the same insecure manner that she had about her.
"I see, well at least you found a better place to stay, and hopefully my partners here and I will lend a hoof in helping you find your way."
"Thank you for taking me in Electric Blue, most ponies I saw on my travels only had bad news for me."
"I wonder why? It doesn't seem that you have a bad reputation…"
"Well…no, I never did anything to make anypony repulse me…" She definitely was hiding something from the way she was talking, but I will leave finding out what for later.
"It seems to be getting dark, so we might as well all hit the hay. Blue, do you have enough sleeping arrangements for everypony?" Spark asked me, unsure about my home.
"Of course, a bed for me and Fluttershy, a spare room for Destiny and Braeburn, and the sofas for you and Twisha. Don't worry; they are just as comfy as the beds I assure you." I replied, confident about my statement.
"Well alright. Good night folks!" Spark said before retiring to his allocated sofa. We all did the same for our own sleeping quarters.
"Good night Fluttershy, sleep well." I said while kissing her on the forehead before drifting off.
*Azure spark's point of view*
"Twisha, are you still awake?" I whispered to the pony across from me. No answer. I checked her cutie mark for a moment, and saw that it resembled a love heart with a curl at the bottom. Hmm, I wonder how she got that. A hopeless romantic maybe? I chuckled to myself quietly, and shifted myself into a comfortable position to sleep.
"Yes…yes I'm still awake, Azure Spark." Twisha very quietly replied.
"Oh, um…I was just checking if where you're sleeping is alright for you."
"Oh yes, it is very cosy, thank you for asking."
"You don't look so cosy, so let me find you a blanket." I got up wearily, and found a thick blanket in a nearby storage cupboard. I walked to Twisha, and neatly laid it over her. She smiled, and wrapped herself up in it. I laugh happily, and return to my sofa to sleep.
"Thank you Azure Spark, for the blanket. Good night to you."
"Ha, you're welcome Twisha, good night."