//------------------------------// // Librarian Twilight Inspires A Rebellion // Story: Librarian Twilight's Plan Gets Bodychecked By Rainbow Dash // by SoloBrony //------------------------------// Twilight hummed a satisfied little tune to herself as she watched Discord and Celestia play a round of her new game, 'Free Will is Boring'. The guards participating (all blindfolded, of course) seemed to be having fun, and Pinkie Pie was going ballistic. "Despite the major setback of Discord being more interested in who created the game than who hosted it, it would seem that 'Operation: Being Nice to Discord' was a success. The Twilight Empire grows!" Rainbow Dash, sitting on the hill next to Twilight, snickered. "Empress Egghead, where lay our next conquest?" Twilight sighed. "Daa~ash, stop calling me that." "You name the operations!" "You told me you liked 'Being Nice to Discord!' " "I thought it was a funny joke. Like, not putting his operation in code, just spelling it out. It kinda got old." Twilight pouted, but then became thoughtful, putting on an imperious air and funny accent. "The 'Egghead Empress' is considering your inquiry, lieutenant Dash." "Why do you say it like that, anyway? 'Lef-tenant'?" "That's how they say it in some parts of Equestria." "But if I'm the lef-tenant – oh, can Tank be the rightenant?" Twilight spluttered, losing her persona altogether. "Whuh?" "Well like, it'd be weird to have a leftenant's lieutenant, right? So he should be the rightenant, the leftenant's right-hand man!" Twilight just stared at Rainbow for a few seconds. Dash, for her part, maintained a perfectly innocent expression, right up until both of them started laughing. After a few moments, Twilight relaxed, taking on a slightly more serious demeanor. "I actually did have an idea for what to do next, though." "Oh really?" Rainbow took on the persona of 'Lieutenant Dash', a battle-hardened veteran of the Friendship Wars, which primarily took the form of putting on an eyepatch. Twilight fluffed up her wings and took on her imperious air again. "Indeed. For you see, your empress has been troubled of late, lieutenant. For all that we have made great gains in Equestria, I fear we are quickly approaching the day that there will be no more friendship problems to solve. Dash smirked. "For all our progress, Empress, I feel that day is still well o—" "Silence!" Twilight picked up her prop cane with her telekinesis, floated it to her hoof, and brandished it wildly at Dash, causing the pegasus to have a giggle-fit. Twilight heedlessly pressed onwards. "Do you insinuate that I am incapable of winning this war once and for all, lieutenant?!" Dash considered that for a moment, totally breaking character. "Weeeell, I mean, we are doing a pretty good job. I mean, I guess we could get around to all of Equestria, if, like, other ponies started to do the same sort of thing. Err, Empress." Twilight smirked. "Very good, lieutenant. This war will be won yet, but then, what shall we do? If we will someday conquer the entire world, then we must look... beyond our world!" "... Huh? You mean like, make friends with aliens?" Twilight snickered, dropping the cane and accent. "No, Dash, I mean the portal. The human world. There's something that's been bugging me." "Right, I knew that. So what's on your mind?" Dash flicked off the eyepatch as she spoke, smiling idly at Twilight. Twilight simply couldn't tell if Dash was bluffing or not. "W-well, I've noticed something that bothers me about the way Sunset Shimmer behaves. I mean, I know you don't know her personally, but she sorta reminds me of you in how she stands up for other people; that aggression can get ahead of her, though. Remember how I told you she felt awful for yelling at the other Twilight after the big race?" Twilight was recounting the story as she had been told it by her friends from the other world. Dash pondered for a second, before suddenly lighting up in recognition. "Oh yeah! That was the race where the other me body-slammed a giant evil plant, right?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes, but—" "That's so awesome! I was worried other-me wouldn't get a chance to throw down with monsters or anything, since the human world is apparently all boring. Man, if I ever meet her the first thing we need to do is throw down." Twilight just stared at Dash, her expression a mixture of bemusement, amusement, and disbelief. Dash noticed the look and became somewhat sheepish. "Uh, but... yeah, Twilight, I remember. She felt really bad because she blew up on the other-you, right? Even though the other-you nearly, like, got people eaten by a giant plant?" Twilight nodded, relieved to be back on track. "That's right. Hearing that bothered me, but I wasn't sure why. I've given it more thought, though, while going over some of our old discussions in the journal. What I've noticed is a trend where Sunset seems to... well, just accept criticism thrown her way, and seems to judge herself really harshly, but she's a lot more lenient towards others than she is with herself." "Isn't that normal? Pushing yourself to be a better pony – or, person, I guess?" "I don't just mean she has higher standards for herself. She actually seems to think that it's okay for other people to treat her more poorly than they treat each other." Dash looked stricken at that, glancing off to the side. "... Oh. So that's how it is." "Yeah. I think I really started to suspect something like this last year. Sunset started sending me messages about a terrible event happening at Canterlot High..." Twilight recounted the story of 'Anon-a-Miss', an anonymous online poster who shared the secrets of everyone at Canterlot High. While no one knew who the poster was, people suspected Sunset Shimmer, and turned on her, including her closest friends. While the human Rainbow Dash had seemed hesitant to accept the idea, she still joined the others in telling Sunset she wasn't welcome among them anymore. It was only when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had admitted to being the ones responsible that things had returned to normal. Twilight was so consumed with her explanation that she didn't notice the gradually darkening expression on Dash's face. "... and so I've come to think that it's also certain events, not just people, that are mirrored between dimensions! Oh, but I'm getting off-topic; so, that's what really got me thinking that Sunset didn't really stand up for herself, maybe because she feels so guilty over what she did before. I've got a plan to fix that, though!" Dash looked up from the patch of grass in front of her that she had been glaring at for the past few minutes. "Already?" "Well, it's been bothering me for a long time, actually. I just wasn't sure what to do about it. Now, here's what I was thinking..." Twilight took on her normal conspiratorial grin and leaned in close. Dash normally loved this goofy part of their routine, but her heart just wasn't in it, this time. She leaned down to listen as Twilight spoke. "So, Sunset needs to learn to stand up for herself, right? But she still stands up for other people, so all we need to do is put her in a situation where she will stand up for someone else in her position! I was thinking I'd contact the other Twilight, and see about arranging some kind of... I dunno, maybe some kind of faux fight between us, where Sunset thinks I'm berating the other Twilight for what she did? What do you think?" To Twilight's surprise, Rainbow Dash leaned back away. She almost looked pained. "Twilight, why does Sunset need to change her behavior?" "Wha-huh? Uhh... I thought I just explained that?" Twilight was off-centered by Dash's sudden retreat and manner; Rainbow had never gotten so serious at one of their Friendship Counsels before. "It doesn't sound like Sunset's just being a doormat, Twilight. What you're saying makes it sound like she... she doesn't really care about herself." Twilight looked puzzled, but nodded. "I suppose so... so you don't think my plan will work?" "Of course it won't work! She'll defend somepony else because she cares about them! The only way she'll care about herself is if her friends convince her she's worth something!" "Wow. Rainbow... that's a really good analysis. How did you figure that out?" Rainbow began stomping the dirt in front of her as she spoke. "Because I am super, super angry at the others for not doing anything about this! I mean, did they even apologize to her after that whole 'Anon-a-Miss' thing?!" "Huh? Uh... I actually don't know. She didn't say." Dash groaned and dug into the ground with a hoof. "And you're telling me that there's another me out there who just let this happen? And you think we're the same?" "Whoa. Rainbow, you really need to calm down! I mean, you're just hearing one side of the story, here – second-hand, at that! I'm sure there's more going on." "Oh, right, so you're going to say I need to 'get all of the facts before I act', right?" "Well, yeah." Dash pointed a hoof down at the game Celestia and Discord were playing in alarm, and yelled "Look out! It's a coop detat!" Twilight looked in confusion, and a second later, said "It's pronounced 'coo day tah', Dash—" Looking back, Twilight realized that Rainbow had raced off in the direction of the mirror portal. "Oh. Oooooh. Well... ponyfeathers."