//------------------------------// // There is More than One of Everything // Story: Twilight Meets Twily // by Revan //------------------------------// Twilight grinned. Her brother and sister-in-law were going to be surprised about this, that much was for certain. Her next visit to the Crystal Empire wasn't supposed to be until after the Summer Solstice, but she had managed to wrangle some free time in her schedule, and had instantly teleported herself into their castle straight from her own - a feat only possible due to her alicorn magic and the existence of the map-table in her castle. She stretched out her wings, and then folded them once more. She walked up to the door that led to Shining Armour and Cadence's private living room and was about to knock politely on the door when she was startled to hear Shining Armor's voice. "TWILY???!!!" His voice was filled with what sounded like surprise and shock. Twilight was about to respond when she heard another voice reply: "Shining? Is it really you?" Twilight cocked her head at an angle, and frowned. She was completely certain that she'd never heard that voice before, but it sounded quite familiar. "Yes, it's me. What are you doing here? This isn't your reality!" Shining Armor sounded slightly panicked - which was VERY unusual. Twilight couldn't remember him sounding like that at any point in his life. "I know - but I don't know where else to turn to! I've scanned every book in the library, and there's no answers!!" The voice - which Twilight had now pinpointed as belonging to a mare - was filled with the sound of desperation. "No answers to what?" Twilight's emotions were now coming to a roil, and she didn't understand what she was feeling. She was now determined to know what was going on. "To-" "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!!!" Twilight demanded as she flung the door open with her magic and burst into the room. And stopped dead in her tracks. Shining had his head turned towards her, startled. "Twilight? Why are you here?" But Twilight barely heard him. She was staring at the mare standing in front of her. Twin lavender eyes gazed resolutely back at her own, and Twilight's mind went, This is... ME??!! This mare... was Twilight - but at the same time, she wasn't. She had Twilight's coloration and Twilight's cutie mark - but she had no wings, and her mane and tail was styled up like Rarity's. The strange mare spoke. "I presume that you are Shining Armor's younger sister. He has spoken quite highly of you to me." She extended her hoof. "I am Twily. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Twilight's mind noted that the mare's voice sounded like a cross between her own and Rarity's. Twilight numbly shook her hoof, then turned to Shining Armor. "Can you please explain what is going on here? And where's Cadence?" "I'm right here," Cadence said as she stepped out of the shadows. Before Twilight could ask her, she shook her head and stated, "And I don't have any idea what's going on, either." Twilight and Cadence shifted their gazes back to Shining Armor. Shining sighed. "It's a bit of a long story..." Ten Years Earlier... A younger Shining Armor was running as fast as he could. "Come on, come on!" he urged himself, his hooves pounding the icy snow. He had just finished a grueling Canterlot Guard training course in the icy north of Equestria. He galloped into the train station to get to the train that would take him to Canterlot - only to find, to his horror, that the train wasn't there. He looked around wildly. "No I can't miss the train!" he cried in a state of panic. "I'm sorry, but the 8:00 train to Canterlot just left," an old earth pony ticket seller in the ticketbooth said. Shining Armor wasn't going to give up. He needed to be there for his sister, Twilight, as she went before the board of judges that would determine whether she would be allowed into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. He channeled his magic, and began to focus on a teleportation spell... "And I found myself elsewhere." Twily interrupted him. "And that was right on top of me. Right after Flash performed her Sonic Rainboom, when my magic went into overdrive, BOOM, he was there!" Shining Armor nodded. "Everyone there thought that I was a creation of Twily's mind. When that world's version of Princess Celestia undid the chaos Twily had accidentally created, I was sent back here, on the Canterlot train platform. "But that wasn't the last time you saw her, was it?" Twilight asked. "No, it wasn't." Twily sighed. "I had accidentally created a mental link to his mind. We've talked to each other in our dreams for years, and have spoken about our lives at length." She looked at Cadence. "He's told me that you saved him from being permanently wed to a Changling hive queen, and that you're the best wife that anypony could ask for." Cadence let some of her tension relax, and smiled at Twily. "So that explains why you know each other. But why are you here?" Twily tensed. "Because I've accidentally screwed up my friends' destinies. AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX IT!!!" Twilight looked at Twily. "Did you cast an unfinished spell written by Star Swirled the Bearded the night before?" Twily looked a bit startled. "Yes, I did. How did you know?" Twilight couldn't resist grinning. "I think I know exactly how to fix this particular problem..."