Twilight's Twinlight

by Autum Breeze


Chapter 5

Chapter 5


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I yawn as I return to the waking world and sigh as, again I see the whole pony thing was not a dream.

Grunting I get up and stretch, noting a second later that I’m doing it like a cat, before shrugging. I’m a quadruped now. Stretching like a human wouldn’t make sense in my current form.

I deadpan, however, as I take note that my wings are once again outstretched and that my covers are being held by them.

I turn my head, glaring at the covers, which are encased in a purple glow, before lifting off me and flopping onto the bed.

I hop down onto the crystal floor, before I realize something. Quickly glancing around the room, I see no sign of the purple pony who is my host.

So, if her magic hadn’t been the one to move the covers off of me... I’d done it? I’d used magic?

Feeling a thrill go through me, I turn back to my covers and try to move them with my magic again.

...

Nothing happens.

I frown. What I could do it before and now I can’t? I used it back before running into that Starlight pony and just again a moment ago, so why not now?

Do I have to wish for it to work?

“I wish those covers would move,” I say, while staring firmly at them, though it yields no results.

I’m about to growl in annoyance, I’m a bloody Alicorn like Twilight, shouldn’t magic come naturally or something, but am interrupted by a grumble from my stomach.

This pulls my attention for several reasons. One, I now notice I am really hungry. And, two, it had sounded like the kind of grumble you hear from a cartoon character.

“Well, at the very least, I’ll always know when I’m hungry,” I try to cheer myself up with.

Deciding the rant on why my magic isn’t working can wait, I push the door open (Spike had left it a tiny bit ajar so I wouldn’t be stuck inside due to not knowing how to move stuff with my hooves or magic) and headed down to the dining room. As I approached the room, I could hear the sound of voices, including Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie chatting as noises were made that indicated them sitting down and getting ready to eat were made.

“Should we not wait until Ken arrives?” Rarity’s voice asks as I get closer.

“Hey. The early bird catches the worm, sugarcube,” Applejack’s voice replies.

“But we’re not birds getting worms. We’re ponies getting pancakes,” Pinkie’s voice follows.

I have to pause right outside the door at that and face-pa—hoof. Either Pinkie Pie actually doesn’t know the meaning of that phrase, or she likes making dumb jokes.

“Who’s this Ken pony you’re talking about, Rares?” a voice I don’t recognize says. “Not to mention, what kind of a name is that, anyway?”

I push open the door and walk in. At once, all heads turn to me. While the others all look at me with smiles, I take notice of a pony I don’t know and can guess is the one who’d asked who I was.

She’s a Pegasus with a very light-blue coat and magenta eyes, with a Cuite Mark that looks like a rain cloud with a rainbow-coloured lightning bolt coming down from it. However, what startles me is her mane and tail colours. While I have come to accept that ponies have very bright and pastel colours in their hairs, this pony’s mane defies all senses of logic.

Her hair consists of six different colours, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. But, what is more logic-breaking than that is that they are each aligned in a straight line, one after the other. Then I remember, I caught a glimpse of this pony when I first got to Ponyville with Night Glider, but hadn't gotten a good look at the time, so I hadn't noticed just how her colouring looked.

That... it... HOW THE BLOODY HELL DOES THAT WORK?!

Of course, I don’t get to an answer this question, because the next thing I know I’m being slammed against the wall, with the rainbow-maned pony glaring at me.

“Don’t try tricking us, Changeling!” she yells in my face. “Twilight’s right over there, so whatever tricks you’ve got planned, forget—”

Thankfully she is cut off when a blue aura surrounds the mare and pulls her back, revealing four very displeased faces.

“Guys, what’re you doing?!” the blue mare cries, wriggling around in what I now see is Rarity’s aura. “We’ve a Changeling here and—”

“Shoulda known we fergot sumethin’,” Applejack rolls her eyes. “O’ course you don’t know, Dash, ya’ll were outta town yesterday.”

“What’s my being outta town gotta do with this?!” the Pegasus demanded, still fighting to break free from Rarity’s magical grip.

“This is Ken, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity says. “She arrived a few days ago after waking up in those caves Starlight Glimmer tried to take our Cutie Marks into.”

I inwardly groan. Really? The rainbow-haired pony’s name is Rainbow Dash? Why am I surprised by this? Seriously, why?

Rainbow frowns at me. “How do you know she’s not really a Changeling and lied about that?”

Applejack rolls her eyes. “One, Ah’d know if’n she’d been lyin’. Two, Twilight cast that anti-changeling spell o’ hers the moment we all saw Ken.”

Rainbow continues to frown for several moments, before grumbling, “Fine, let me down, will you, Rarity?”

The unicorn obliges with the Pegasus’ request, letting her down.

Once on her hooves again, Rainbow looks firmly at me. “Care to tell me just how you got here, then, Ken, if that is your real name?”

I can’t help rolling my eyes with the others at this. I open my mouth to explain, but another pony manages to beat me to it.

“Ken comes from a world full of humans, but not like the kinds Twilight met in that world on the other side of the mirror where Sunset Shimmer lives, but another one altogether. He was heading to school when one of those self-moving carriages slammed into him and for some reason woke up in the caves Starlight Glimmer ran into. Finding he’d turned into a double of Twilight. She then ran out after nearly losing her Cutie Mark to Starlight like we all did, found the town we helped, Night Glider brought her here and ran into Twilight and Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, where they found out she wasn’t a Changeling and Twilight said she could stay at the castle and now she’s living with us in Ponyville!”

I try, I really, really do, but I can’t help but just stare at the pink mare, with my mouth hanging wide open.

How... how could she possibly know all that when I’d not told her and know damn well the other few who knew what I could would have told her. But, not only that, how the flipping hell did she say all that IN ONE BREATH?!

Even in this world that defies so much logic that it hurts, THAT. SHOULDN’T. BE. POSSIBLE!

After several long minutes of silence, Applejack coughs. “Uh... how’s about we start breakfast? Don’t want them pancakes going cold, do we?”

We all agree, still slightly in a stupor thanks to... whatever the hell Pinkie Pie just... did and move to the table, Rarity and Rainbow indicating for a seat between the two of them, whilst Rarity levitates over a plate with at least five large pancakes on it, covered in what looked like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, whipped cream and sprinkles.

Not a combo for pancake toppings I’d ever heard of, but I’m willing to give them a try. After all, I’ve already learned several things I hated as a human I like as a pony, so why not?

So, we sit down and began eating. At once I found myself proven right. Pinkie Pie made amazing pancakes, not to mention the flavours of the different berries, whipped cream and chocolate chips blended into something I’d never tasted before, but made a mental note to try again in the future.

I couldn’t help inwardly chuckling at how Rarity was eating her pancakes in a more refined manner compared to the rest of us, especially Pinkie, who just buried her face in her pancakes.

I do note that all of them are somewhat chewing with their mouths open, even Rarity. I guess she would unwind at least a little in the company of friends.

"So," Rainbow Dash whispers to me after a bit of her pancakes, "you and Twi are the same in every way, huh?"

I glance at her, chewing slowly before swallowing. "Well, psychically and magical, I think so. I haven't really figured out how to use my magic yet, but when I first met Twilight, she did say it would make sense that, since I'm practically her double, I should have the same magical capabilities."

Rainbow just rolls her eyes. "And you talk like an egghead, too. You are her double."

I frown at that, but she goes on.

"So, we've now two Twilights cause of you?"

I give her a wary look. "Yes," I say slowly. "Why?"

Dash snickers. "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now."

I frown. Something about what she just said sounds familiar for some reason. I open my mouth to demand she tell me, by am cut off by the sound of Applejack swallowing loudly, cuasing me to glance her way as she licks her lips. “These are de-licious, Pinkie Pie.”

The pink mare raises her head, her face covered in whipped cream, giving her a Santa Claus like beard for a moment before she... uses her tongue to lick her whole face in a circular motion, before pulling it all inside her mouth with her tongue and gulping.

Okay. Is this pony meant to break every single law of physics? Is that her special talent? Can I please get an explanation here?!

“Thanks,” she says, pulling me from my thoughts. “Twilight spent all night helping me pick the flavour.”

Huh. So that’s where Twilight was last night.

I inwardly frown. Wait. How long were they picking? It couldn’t take that long just to pick a flavour for pancakes... can it?

“I kept think we found the right one,” Pinkie continues, grabbing several more pancakes from the plate in the centre of the table... with a number of pancakes on it that seriously makes me question how much found this town has to throw away on making pancakes. “But she insisted I make even more t’ try. And more, and more and more and more and more and more.” With each "and more" she adds four more pancakes to her plate, until it's a tower of pancakes. “It was like she never want’d ta—”

“Leave?” Fluttershy asked, being the first thing I heard her say since arriving for the breakfast.

“Exactly,” Pinkie said, a little more cheery than I’d have expected, before taking a bite out of some of the lower pancakes.

Ignore the physical impossibilities brain. Just ignore them.

“Eventually we ran out of time so we just went with Every Berry, Any Chip Surprise!”

Then the pink mare shot over to Rarity and whispered something in her ear before cheerily saying, “Somepony’s going to get a very special pancake,” before zipping back to her chair, whilst Rarity levitated a few pancakes up, as if looking for something.

“Up all night, huh?” Rainbow asked with a slight frown. “Is that why she’s so... uh... out of it?”

It’s only now I actually notice Twilight sitting in the seat between Fluttershy and Applejack and see she’s somehow sleeping whilst sitting up, before her head leans back in what, to myself as a former human, looked like a very unnatural position as she continued to give some rather cute snores. On top of that, her mane and tail are all ragged and covered in mud, with some twigs and leaves in them.

“Um, I don’t mean to sound unappreciative,” Fluttershy began, pulling all our attention to her, “but has anypony else noticed Twilight’s been a little too helpful lately?”

I blink, confused. Had she?

As I sit, the girls each talk about how Twilight had recently done something with them. Applejack and Rarity’s situations with this I knew, having gone to Sweet Apple Acres myself the day Twilight went to help out there and Rarity explaining what Twilight had done to me when she thought I was Twilight.

When Rainbow Dash mentioned Twilight racing her over and over again, I noticed where they were all going with this. Though, when she finished her tale off by saying she knew hanging out with her was awesome, I got the distinct impression Rainbow Dash has an ego, and clearly a big one.

“But it was like she’d rather keep losing than—”

“Leave?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah,” Dash nodded. “Who does that?”

We all turn to look at Twilight; right before she falls forward and snuggles into her pancakes like a pillow.

Okay. I’m not going to lie. It was really cute the way she did it, especially her expression.

Still, it didn’t change the fact that something was up.

“Not to mention she’s got an alien from another dimension that is a double of herself living with her and she’s not even trying to understand anything about me,” I put my own two cents in. “I mean, who tries all the stuff you girls were talking about when they could learn something like that?”

“Somepony who’s avoiding something, that’s who,” Applejack says, causing me to look in her direction... and be slightly impressed by Pinkie Pie flipped her plate, sending her pancakes into the air, before catching them in her mouth. The bulge in her throat as she swallowed them whole, however, made me cringe. “Once she wakes up, we’re gonna find out what?”

For some reason Pinkie follows this up by coughing, sending a spoon flying towards Fluttershy, hitting her on the forehead and than standing upright in the Pegasus’ pancakes, before shouting, “I win!”

This seems to wake Twilight, who sits up, somehow having gotten a pancake stuck on her horn as she sleepily calls out, “I’m pancake. I mean awake.” The anxious smile she puts on as she finishes just confirms Applejack’s theory a bit more to me, though it could easily just be embarrassment.

“Uh, Twilight, is there somethin’ you wanna tell us?” the orange mare asks.

Rarity’s aura took the pancake and lifted it off Twilight’s horn as the unicorn walked over to her. “You know we appreciate everything you do for us—”

She was interrupted when Pinkie Pie somehow bounced up from underneath where the pancake was, grabbing it in her teeth and going back down, but when I looked, she was sitting in her chair, chewing away.

“—and we simply adore having you around,” the unicorn conitued as if the... oddness that was Pinkie Pie hadn’t just happened, “but... we worry you might be... hm, avoiding something else?”

Twilight sighed. “Has it been that obvious?”

The others all look to each other and nod, Pinkie finishing her with taking a bite of another pancake.

“Not to mention I’ve not even seen you since I the day I first arrived til today,” I tell her, giving a bit of a worried look myself. “And I’m living in your house. The fact that Spike and I have barely seen you, when I’m a double of your from another world, which in itself should make you want to hang around, is kinda a clue something’s wrong, Twilight. Some... pony as inquisitive as you wouldn't just ignore something like that.”

Twilight looks down, her ears drooping. “I’ve been... the thing is... I know it’s silly but I... I’ve been avoiding... this place,” she finishes, motioning all around us.

Rarity reacts with shock before Pinkie Pie points out every reason Twilight might want to avoid the castle as if it was odd, like the high ceilings making one feel small, the cold floors and the long hallways, the latter of those being followed by her voice echoing several times.

The pink mare returns from the doorway and leans against the alicorn. “Okay, I get it,” she says in a way that means she actually does get it.

“The castle is amazing,” Twilight says as Pinkie backs off to give her some room and Twilight looks to the rest of us. “But it just...” she looks down sadly before sighing. “It doesn’t feel like home.”

Rarity, rather rudely in my own opinion, laughs it off, before saying all Twilight needs is to decorate the place.

I happen to know damn well that, moving into a new place, Twilight had every right to feel like she does.I myself had moved houses several times back home and it was never easy to just settle into a new place without some hesitations and, with Twilight’s castle being so big, simple decorating would be a very daunting task, Twilight voicing my thoughts moments later.

However, my annoyance at Rarity shifts when she tells Twilight she and the others would handle the decorating whilst Twilight went to the Spa (yes, ponies have spas, I really shouldn’t be surprised by this point, yet I am).

While the other agreed, I couldn’t help noticing something odd about Rarity’s plan for Twilight to visit the spa whilst they worked on making the castle feel like a home. She hadn’t mentioned what I’d be doing.

“Aw no,” the eighteen voice (or seventh since I have the same voice as Twilight?) makes me turn to see Spike standing in the doorway holding what looks like a blanket in one hand and a... plush toy version of Rarity in the other? “Did I miss the pancakes?”

He hurries forward, climbing up onto the table as he said, “I sleeplike a baby under that cold, caverness ceiling.”

A baby? I can’t help cocking an eyebrow at his choice of words... especially with what he had with him when he came in.

The little drake grabs two pancakes and was about to take a bite out of the two whilst holding them like a sandwich when Rarity, said, “Spike, I’m so glad you’re here.”

He pauses, looking back to her with a smile. “Really?”

Rarity nods. “Yes. You’re taking Twilight to the spa. Ken too.”

“Great, I’ve been meaning to get my claws done,” he replies, taking a bite out of his two staked pancakes, before noticing the others all looking expectantly at him. “Oh,” he says with a mouth full of pancake, “you mean now.”

He follows this by stuffing the two pancakes he had completely into his mouth, followed by four more, whilst holding another in each hand.

I feel a little revolted at the guy’s table manners and was rather surprised Rarity didn’t react to them herself.

As Spike leads Twilight out the door, I round on Rarity, my eyes narrowed. “Rarity, what in the hay—” did I just say hay instead of hell? “— do you mean by saying I’m going to the spa with Twilight too? I used to be a guy and I never did that kind of stuff!”

“Think of it this way, darling,” the white pony says, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Now you and Twilight can have that good talk you’ve been meaning to have with her, but haven’t been able to due to her being out so much since you arrived.”

I want to argue, but what she says does make some sense. Plus, maybe I can get my mane done a bit differently from Twilight’s while we’re there so ponies with have an easier time telling us apart. Do spa’s do that?

I sigh, rolling my eyes and smile. “Okay, Rarity. I’ll go. Just don’t expect me to go all...” Hmm. How best not to say I won’t act like a girl?

“Froo-froo?” Applejack and Rainbow suggest at the same time.

I blink, before nodding. That word sounded about right.

My piece said and done, I hurry out after Twilight and Spike.