Chapter One Hundred Thirty Five
Chapter One Hundred Thirty Five
Coming face to face with two Twilight Sparkles definitely wasn't what Rarity had expected to encounter when she set hoof in the library. But that was exactly where she found herself right now.
"My goodness," she said to herself as she all but stared at the two almost identical lavender ponies practically standing side-by-side next to the table in the library's main area.
All that she'd been intended to do when she'd come over today, was inquire about the training dummy that Celestia had promised to send over to her. And while she knew about the existence of Twilight's alicorn counterpart, she hadn't anticipated meeting her in such a disorganized, haphazard fashion. But now that was neither here nor there, as they each looked at one another.
"Forgive me for staring, darling, I simply didn't expect to be encountering you like this," she stated as her lessons in etiquette made themselves known again. "I believed we'd likely meet eventually, but I thought there might be more fanfare involved."
"It's alright, I understand," Princess Twilight replied. "The fact is I'm sort of taking a break from all the work I've been doing at the palace since I got here. A mare can only spend so long, sitting and writing about hypothetical crises, before needing to get away from it all."
Twilight nodded in response. "Ulquiorra sort of browbeat her into providing a head's up about potential problems we might face down the road, based on what she experienced in her own reality."
"And used my own words against me while doing it," Princess Twilight added. "Well technically the words of my other self here, but that's essentially the same thing."
Rarity frowned and nodded in agreement. "Yes, that certainly does sound like something he would do. I apologize for him, I honestly do. I'm certain that he means well, he's just... a highly dedicated professional when it comes to Equestria's safety. Little things that we might consider important are rather trivial to him."
"He's getting better about it," Twilight added, "but it's a very slow learning process for him. And for us."
"For us?" Rarity asked curiously as she turned her attention to the Twilight that she knew.
Twilight nodded. "It's been very slow, and very subtle, but it's been happening regardless. For better or worse, everypony that's had an extended period of interaction with Ulquiorra, has started to pick up on and adopt at least some of his traits for themselves. Some with his manner of speech, some with the way he thinks and deduces, and some... in how he's very serious about tending to business."
Princess Twilight suddenly felt the need to gulp uneasily.
"Is that some sort of polite euphemism for killing without a second thought?"
Both Twilight and Rarity looked away from each other and toward their companion, not entirely certain about just what to say in response to the question.
"Do the ponies in this world actually have to kill?" Princess Twilight asked uneasily.
"It's complicated," Spike stated bluntly as he made his presence known to the rest of the group while exiting the kitchen. "Nopony in our group has actually been forced to do any actual killing; not yet anyway. Ulquiorra's been taking care of that himself. But when Nightmare Moon was back wreaking havoc on everypony, we were all ready to kill her ourselves. Hell, some of us actually did a couple of times.
"Celestia hit her with a death beam that could just about kill Ulquiorra. Luna went full-bore on brutality. Twilight tried turning her into a pin cushion and electrocution via lightning. Rarity stabbed her in the guts, and Fluttershy choked her out and snapped her neck. If not for her ability to respawn an undo everything we did to her, we might not've needed Ulquiorra like we did."
"Spike, you're really not helping," Twilight spoke up, before letting out a frustrated sigh as she looked back to her currently terrified counterpart. "Look, Twilight, I don't know what things are like back in your reality. But here, a lot of good ponies were pushed to the breaking point by Nightmare Moon's return. She spent months subjecting us to targeted harassment and terror; not just me and my friends, but a lot of ponies who we didn't have any connection to.
"We're also pretty certain she's the reason we almost got eaten by a dragon, and why the changelings made a second grab for Equestria when they did. She was throwing one crisis after another at us, and feeding off of our fear to make herself stronger. Our circumstances forced us to take a lot of actions that none of us are particularly proud of, simply because we had no other choice in the matter."
Princess Twilight could do little more than listen and be horrified -even repulsed- by what she was hearing them speak about so freely. Had this world already fallen so far from the teachings that'd held Equestria together for so long? Had Ulquiorra been responsible for it all? Or had this reality already been corrupted by the "shifting" Applejack had spoken of, and his presence just blended right in like it was no big deal?
"This world is worse off than I thought," she muttered, perhaps louder than she'd intended to. "I know that Equestria isn't perfect and has problems, just like everywhere else does, but how did things ever get to be this bad?"
"In simplest terms, multiverse theory just doesn't care," Twilight replied, opting to keep the profanity to a minimum in light of her counterpart's current mental state. "There's no way of ever knowing just how many differences there are between our reality and yours, just like there's no way of knowing which one of our realities would count as a prime reality from which all others spawned. For all we know neither of us are. That's kind of why none of us really want to think too hard about those sort of implications."
"Yeah, I can understand why," Princess Twilight replied and nodded, desperately trying to keep her brain focused enough to not let such thoughts inside.
At this point Rarity cleared her throat. "However, there is a light at the end of this very dark and depressing tunnel we currently find ourselves going down. Despite the divergence our world has apparently taken, we've never truly lost sight of what's most important to us. The bonds that we've forged have seen us through some truly horrific times, and I dare say they're even stronger than ever before. Why, it was these bonds of friendship that motivated Discord to bring Ulquiorra to our world in the first place, after recognizing the fact he wouldn't be able to help us with the coming storm on his own."
At this, Princess Twilight couldn't help but give a little smile in response.
"And as Twilight said, he is learning. Why, it wasn't all that long ago that he was taking part in a snowball fight in the aftermath of the windigoes returning," Rarity continued.
"Wait, what? Hold on a second, the windigoes came back?" Princess Twilight asked.
"I'm afraid so," Twilight replied. "It wasn't even a month after Nightmare Moon's defeat, and the running theory is that the lingering strife she generated was just enough to let them reemerge to fill the power vacuum caused by her subsequent absence. What's interesting, however, is exactly how things played out at the time. Unlike the historical accounts of tribalism, ponies were at war with one another even in their own tribes, and outright disregarding tribe loyalties based on their own individual friendships with one another."
"... Huh..." was all Princess Twilight could say in response. That was certainly something at least. "That's good to know then."
There was far more going on here than she'd anticipated, and now she was having trouble keeping track of everything. But at least everything had turned out alright.
"So you said he actually took part in a snowball fight? That's something I'm having a hard time picturing, based on what I've seen," she admitted, opting to change the subject to something she hoped was a little less intense.
"Yeah, you're not kidding," Spike agreed. "Pinkie sort of started it, but I don't think anypony expected him to actually go with it. He just stood there all stoic and whatnot with snow on his face, then he slowly wiped it off, and then scooped up a handful of snow to compact and fling right back at her. She didn't even have time to scream before he beaned her right in the forehead and knocked her right into a snowdrift! And after that it was sort of everypony for themselves."
Princess Twilight snorted in response as she tried to stifle the urge to laugh. The mental image was just too ridiculous.
"He was picking ponies off as far away as two hundred yards with some of his throws, just to prove that he could. And he was going easy on us, so we wouldn't be too sore to assist with snow cleanup duties," Twilight stated. "Frankly, it was some of the most fun that I never want to have again."
"You should've seen it," Spike added, unable to suppress his grin as he spoke. "He sniped her right square in the butt while she was running away. So she turns around and scoops up a couple hundred snowballs worth, ready to cluster bomb him into oblivion... and she can't hit dick because he's moving around at supersonic speeds that'd make Rainbow Dash green with envy!" he concluded as he was consumed by a fit of cackling.
Twilight frowned in response, annoyed at how much Spike was enjoying a laugh at her response. Well two could easily play at that game.
"I don't recall you doing much better in that regard, little brother," she replied as she grinned, and turned to her counterpart. "To his credit he at least had the bright idea to not stand still while Ulquiorra was picking us off one by one. Not that it did him much good, though, because he thought he could parkour his way out of the way and ended up catching a snowball right in the dick for his troubles."
Now it was Spike's turn to stop laughing as he frowned, all the while folding his arms across his chest and all but exhaling steam through his nostrils as he glared at Twilight in response.
The two glared at each other in annoyance, neither one of them willing to back down, and making the tension in the room feel almost palpable to Princess Twilight. It was enough to make her wings twitch, almost afraid of what would happen.
And then the two broke into laughter as they looked at each other, leaving her confused at just what was going on.
Looking over to Rarity didn't help her any, as her expression and body language went a long way to suggesting this was all just perfectly normal for her to witness. Whereas she would be mortified if her Spike had talked to her like that!
Maybe she should've just stayed at the palace. She could've talked more with Tempest and Grubber. She could've examined the technology of the airship better. She could've done anything other than witness her counterpart expressing profanity and hostility to those she was closest to like it was no big deal! She didn't care what Princess Luna said about friendships, this was getting too out of hoof for her!
At this rate she didn't know how much more of this she could take before it all became too much for her to bear.
It was right around this time that the library door opened and Rainbow Dash made her way in.
Princess Twilight wanted to facehoof so hard, certain that this wasn't going to end well as everyone in the room looked towards her, as she looked back at them in confusion.
"Rarity," Rainbow Dash spoke up, "am I hallucinating, or are there two Twilights here with us?"
"You're not hallucinating, Rainbow Dash, there really are two of them at the moment," Rarity confirmed.
"Right. So... who met her first?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"That would be Applejack. So you know what that means, darling. Pay up please."
Rainbow Dash just sighed in response. "I'll get it to you tomorrow. You know I'm good for it."
"Say what now?" both Twilights asked in almost perfect unison. Which just prompted them to look at one another, before the alicorn gestured that she was deferring to the other.
"Could somepony explain what all of this is about?"
Rarity shrugged in response. "Well, darling, ever since Discord decided to go and drop the news on us about multiverse theory being confirmed as real, Rainbow Dash and I have had a little wager going on to help distract ourselves from all the existential sort of fear that such news tends to bring about."
Rainbow Dash nodded. "See, we knew that if alternate Yous existed in the multiverse, it was only a matter of time before one of them found her way here to this reality. So Rarity had the idea to bet on who would be the first to meet her. Obviously it wouldn't be fair to bet on ourselves, so we bet on our friends instead. She picked you and Applejack while I picked Fluttershy and Pinkie."
"I'm really not sure what to actually do with that information right now," Princess Twilight admitted, before looking back to her counterpart. "Our friends were betting on us?"
"It sure looks that way," Twilight replied. "Alright, so you had two-thirds of our group covered, but you left yourselves out. What would've happened if one of you met another of Me first? For that matter, what if Spike met her first and not any of us?"
"Wait, you're not upset about this?" Princess Twilight asked.
"Why should I be? Unless the bet was for an obscenely high amount that might hurt one of them, it sounds like it was all in good fun. Plus like Rarity said, existential fears and all that. You need something to distract you from something like that," Twilight pointed out.
"Quite right," Rarity agreed. "As to the previous matter, we agreed that if Spike met the other You first, we'd let him have the twenty bits we had wagered. If it was one of us then that would be considered a tie and who won the wager would depend on what species the other You was at the time."
"Just to make things interesting we each picked four species at random, pony and non-pony," Rainbow Dash explained. "I wanted to pick alicorn, but Rarity beat me to it. Which was a dirty trick because, let's face it, Twi', you're a shoe in to ascend one day."
Twilight and Rarity both had to bite back the discussion they'd had with Celestia just days earlier on the subject, knowing that if they didn't it could risk complicating matters beyond what they already were.
"So then, Other Twilight. How long have you been here?" Rainbow Dash asked, her tone far more pleasant than it had been just a second ago when she'd been grumbling about the conditions of the wager.
"Just five days so far. But I still don't know how I got here, or how I'm going to get back to my home reality," Princess Twilight replied.
"Are we really calling her that? "Other Twilight?" Rainbow Dash, darling, that's positively demeaning," Rarity stated, barely aware of what'd just been said.
"Well what would you call her then? I mean, they're both Twilight, so how're they supposed to know which one of them we're talking to?" Rainbow Dash asked.
The room suddenly went silent as the question hung in the air, with none of them really certain just how to answer it.
"I'll admit, I'm at a loss on this one," Princess Twilight admitted as she shook her head. "I don't really want to be called "Princess Twilight" the whole time I'm here. And anything with "Twilight" in it, while accurate, could be problematic if we're both outside and around others at the same time. What I need is a different name entirely, but a name that would make sense; not just something completely random and hard to remember."
Again the room was silent as its occupants tried to come up with an answer on just how to proceed, each of them either lost in their own thoughts, or looking to another in hopes of something being presented.
"I think I've got it!"
Finally it was Rainbow Dash who broke the silence first.
"Those Neighponese graphic novels that Fluttershy likes to read. What's that genre where the main character winds up appearing in a fantasy setting as the main character?"
"Isekai?" Spike asked.
"Yeah, that one! Wait, that's the word? I thought it started with an "I" and not an "E"," Rainbow Dash stated.
"It does, but that's how it's pronounced," Twilight confirmed, "I know that's not how it looks like it would sound, but that's how it it regardless."
"Well crap. There goes my idea," Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance.
"Not necessarily. I'm kind of curious to hear what you had in mind," Princess Twilight stated.
"Alright, but this is gonna take a lot of explaining to make sense," she huffed. "Spike, could you fetch me a pair of readers? This is gonna take some Big Brain Energy and I need to get into the part."
The others watched curiously as Rainbow Dash licked her left hoof and ran it through her mane, apparently doing her best to slick it back and tame it somewhat, as Spike brought her a pair of black-rimmed glasses with tape wrapped around the bridge so it'd be cushioned while resting across her muzzle as she fidgeted with them to get them just right.
"Alright," she began once she was satisfied with their placement. "In any given foreign work when the language is translated, there are going to be names, terms, and other expressions that just don't adapt over properly. So when this is done, changes are made for simplicity's sake, with the term either being swapped out entirely, or replaced with a shortened and simplified term that's more phonetically friendly with the target audience's language.
"Take the word "isekai" for an example, where the first letter might be pronounced with a long "I" sound like its appearance would suggest, giving us "Iseaki" rather than "Esekai". Now, depending on how a pony may pronounce the word, they might put extra emphasis on the S that simply isn't there, and pronounce the word as "IZekai" instead of what it's intended to be. Three syllables is a bit of a mouthful in any pronunciation, so following the trend of adaption this could be shortened to just the first two syllables and give us "IZE". If we were to place a different emphasis on the first letter, that being the short as opposed to long "I" sound, then we would have "Izzy" instead."
The others remained silent as Rainbow Dash concluded, before taking the glasses back off and shaking her head to return her mane to its previous style.
"But now that I know I've been reading the word wrong this entire time, that idea won't work," she grunted as she held the glasses back out to Spike.
"Nono, it's alright! I'm... genuinely impressed by the amount of thought that was put into that just for the sake of justifying a nickname," Princess Twilight admitted.
The Rainbow Dash back home certainly wouldn't have invested that much time and effort into something like that. Not that she knew anyway.
"It's certainly not a bad name. I think I could make it work," she said further.
"So... you're going by "Izzy" then?" Rarity asked.
"Unless anypony has any better suggestions to go with," Princess Twilight replied and shrugged. "And Rainbow Dash did put in the effort to explain her idea. It'd kind of be a shame to let that effort go to waste for nothing, don't you think?"
"It's certainly an unconventional name by pony standards. But then again Ulquiorra's probably even more unconventional. And these are unconventional times we find ourselves in," Twilight noted. "If you're alright with being called "Izzy" then that's all that matters. So allow me to be the first and say welcome to Ponyville, Izzy."
"Nice to meet you, Twilight, I'm sure I'll love it here," the newly designated Izzy stated in response as she reached out to shake hooves. "Yeah, that's definitely going to take some getting used to. But I think it'll work just fine. Now we can at least tell one another apart when we're talking."
"As long as you're comfortable with it, darling," Rarity added, not really sure what else she could say right now.
Rainbow Dash, however, who was presently as proud as a peacock at her suggestion being run with, did have an idea on what to say right now.
"So, Izzy, whadda you wanna do while you're in Ponyville?"
"That's a very good question. What I'd like to do is take a stroll around Ponyville and see how it compares to the one I'm used to, and spend time with my friends' counterparts. But at the moment all that I really want to do is just stay here at the library for a while and bask in its familiar comfort once again. Along with performing a little science; I want to see if going by my new nickname will let Twilight and I correspond directly, rather than having to use Spike as an intermediary," Izzy explained. "To the best of my knowledge, the flame network has never been used to communicate between two individuals with the same name, so whatever results we get could prove to be quite interesting."
"That does actually sound very interesting," Twilight concurred and smiled.
"Nerd stuff then," Rainbow Dash surmised. "Alright, look, it's not that I don't wanna hang out with an alicorn version of one of my best friends or anything like that. But you're talking homework and I'm all nerded out for the day. So I think I'm just gonna blow for the time being. I've got other stuff I could be doing right now."
"That's fair. What we're going to do is probably going to be highly technical, and I don't think many outside of the academic field would find it all that entertaining to watch," Twilight stated.
"Oh! Um, Rainbow Dash. Before you go, I've got a question if you don't mind?" Izzy spoke up.
"Sure. What's up, Izz'?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well I was just wondering what brought you to the library in the first place? It's pretty obvious you didn't know about my being here, so it likely wasn't me. And if you had something you needed to talk to Twilight about, I'd hate to make you feel like you couldn't do that," Izzy explained.
"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me!" Rainbow Dash stated as she turned her attention to Twilight. "The straps on Tank's backpack are getting kinda worn, especially where they rub against the edge of his shell. If I bring it by could you and Spike overhaul them? Maybe include a new quick release buckle in case he ends up getting stuck in a tree canopy again?"
"I think that can be arranged," Twilight replied and nodded, not seeing why it wouldn't be a possibility.
"Awesome, thanks!"
Izzy felt the need to smile in response, relieved that Rainbow Dash's problem was something rather simple that didn't require an immediate response to resolve before it could turn into a crisis.
"Okay, we can get that taken care of first, because it should be the simplest. Then we can see how well the flame network actually works with nicknames," she stated. "And then, depending on what time it is, maybe I could see the notes you have on Ulquiorra so I can be brought up to speed on him?"
"... What're you talking about?" Twilight asked.
"He said you had detailed notes about him and his physiology, and that you might be willing to share your findings with me if I asked," Izzy explained. "So I'm asking if I could see them. I'd like to not be the odd pony out, just because I'm from a different reality."
"Well I'm certainly not above sharing information. But I don't have anything like that," Twilight admitted. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I've certainly asked him to teach me more about what makes him tick, to see if any of his abilities could be adapted to ponies. But he's been rather tight-lipped about the inner workings of his physiology; once when I tried to ask about how he could instantly regenerate a severed limb, he told me that trying to figure out the mechanics behind the process might break my brain."
"You don't have any notes?" Izzy asked. "But he said that you... did... wait, did he give me the brushoff so I wouldn't bug him? Did he play me?"
"Maybe?" Spike asked, uncertain himself.
There was a look of confusion on Izzy's face as she blinked at the realization, before it morphed into a look of anger as she grit her teeth and growled.
"That jerk!" she shouted. "That... that-"
"Asshole," Rainbow Dash offered.
"Yes, what you just said!" Izzy agreed. "He's one of those, just like Princess Luna said he was!"
Rainbow Dash couldn't help but chuckle in response. "Looks like our Princess friend here just got her own little baptism by bastard. Just like the rest of us did."
"So it would seem," Rarity noted. "Don't worry, Darling, we've all been there. You eventually get used to it."
Rainbow Dash nodded. "After a while you just sorta stop noticing. Or you learn to brush it off and get better with snappy comebacks, whichever comes first."
That advice wasn't nearly as comforting to Izzy as she'd hoped it would be. If anything it just told her that she was in for a rough time during her stay here, if their reactions were any indication of what awaited her.
"He could've just told me to stop being so nosy and I would've respected that," she stated, "he didn't have to lie to me like he did."
Twilight reached over with her right hoof and gently patted Izzy's withers.
"I agree he could've gone about it better, but I can't really blame him for not wanting to let us in on how he operates. Right now the information of his physiology is pretty much proprietary to himself, and himself alone. Us asking him for details about his inner workings might be interpreted as us asking him how to best kill him if we ever had the need to. If I found myself in such a situation, I can't say I'd be too eager to volunteer that information either."
Izzy slowly turned to look at Twilight, slightly slack-jawed in response.
"... I never really stopped to think of that before. I guess I can kind of see that, however. That actually makes a lot of sense. I can't imagine how uncomfortable that line of questioning might've made him. Ugh, some Princess of Friendship I turned out to be. I never even stopped to think that he might be interpreting my question in such a way."
"It's safe to say we've all been there," Twilight replied as she smiled to the realization being had.
"That really doesn't make me feel any better," Izzy grumbled. "I never meant to make him uncomfortable, I just wanted to know more about him."
"Oh believe me, you're not the only one," Rainbow Dash replied. "He's got this technique called "hierro" that condenses his mana into his skin and makes him all but impervious to injury. He says I do something similar anytime I do a Sonic Rainboom, but I'd just about kill to learn how to do it on command. Do you have any idea what sort of a game changer that could be for my stunt flying? If I lose control of a new stunt I'm practicing like the Corkscrew Rainboom and see I'm gonna crash, I could just harden up just before the point of impact and walk it off like it's nothing!"
Rarity did her best to not giggle in response to Rainbow Dash's present fangirling antics.
"... That actually could have some benefits," Izzy admitted.
The idea of procuring Ulquiorra's techniques for her own use hadn't really occurred to her before. And it certainly hadn't been what she'd meant at the time.
But if it could be done... maybe it was something that would have to be looked into whenever she returned to the palace. If he was willing to share, of course. Maybe if she offered to share more information about her own reality, she could take it out in trade?
"Definitely look into the application of equivalent exchange once I get back," she thought to herself.
"The possibility of learning about his techniques and their applicability in pony life is definitely an interesting premise, I don't deny that," Twilight admitted. "I don't know if it actually can be done, but that's what science is about; seeing how things work and don't work. Take his absorption of mana for instance. The spells for how to pull mana right out of the surrounding area are available, and not all that difficult to perform. But as far as I can tell they only work for revitalizing a unicorn's exhausted magic, they can't convert mana to sustenance and take the place of food.
"I don't know if such a conversion process can be achieved, but I'd like to at least try and see if it's a possibility. I mean, I already cracked the code behind his sonido technique, so..."
"Wait, wait, wait! Hold up, time out," Rainbow Dash stated, before gesturing towards Twilight with her right hoof. "YOU learned how to do sonido? You figured out how to travel from Point A to Point B in the blink of an eye without teleporting, and you didn't even tell me about it?"
"What I learned is why I couldn't tell you, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied defensively. "Yes, technically I know how to use the technique, but that doesn't mean I can use sonido; not like Ulquiorra can anyway. What I can do is only a pale imitation of what he can do. I honestly don't think the pony body can make use of it like it was intended to be used."
"Are we talking about enhanced speed?" Izzy asked curiously.
Twilight nodded. "Drastically enhanced speed. But by itself, speed of that degree is more a hindrance than anything."
Rainbow Dash growled under her breath, but said nothing just yet, as she waited to see just where this was going first.
"Yes, after a lot of experimentation, I've figured out how to identify, decipher, and utilize the mechanics behind Ulquiorra's sonido technique; he doesn't use magic, but the mage's sight spell helped in uncovering a lot of relevant information about the technique. I was more or less able to reverse engineer what I didn't have, going by what I did have.
"And yes, I've figured out how to use it for myself, which technically allows me to move faster than the speed of sound. Which is all good and fine, but the drawbacks for a pony using the technique are numerous. Just for starters, I'm moving at speeds faster than the pony eye can detect and the brain can process. I literally can't see anything at that speed, except for what I was looking at, at the time I utilized the technique. That image becomes frozen in my vision, and doesn't go away until I exit sonido. You don't see where you were traveling until you reach your destination, meaning you can't see what might be in your path. It's very disorienting to basically blink and be in a completely different location."
"Oh dear. That does sound like a problem," Rarity noted.
"It really is," Twilight replied and nodded. "But that's only the start. The next problem is that I can only travel in a straight line, and only in the direction I happen to be looking in at the time. I can't change course mid-travel because my mind can't process the necessary information to attempt such, nor can I overcome that forward momentum while I'm in motion. Super speed without super reflexes is a hazard, not a help. If I tried to sonido my way across Ponyville and accidentally crossed paths with a wall or a tree that I didn't see and account for the position of, I'd go from Twilight Sparkle to Twilight Splattered in zero point two seconds flat."
Rainbow Dash cringed hard in response to that assessment, suddenly very grateful that Twilight hadn't told her about her discovery until now.
"Add to that is just how little good the technique can do, even when all the factors are favorable for its use. Because of the dangers involved with such rapid movement, and the limitations of the pony brain, I can only safely travel for short distances. Six feet away per use is about the limit of what I can safely achieve without running into something, disorienting myself, or putting undue physical strain on my body. As it is, sonido is more parlor trick than practical for a pony to use.
"I honestly don't know if I've simply recreated an imperfect knockoff version of the technique, or if physical shortcomings simply hinder its use. Because if it's the former then maybe more information can resolve it, but if it's the latter then there's really nothing that can done to improve the situation."
Izzy really hadn't been expecting to sit through all of that, nor did she really know what to think afterwards. Glancing at the others, it didn't seem like they were any better off than her in that regard.
The more she got to know about this world, the more she realized just how unlike her own it was.
"... I don't know how applicable this is," she eventually spoke up, "but my first night in Canterlot I sort of saw him just floating in mid air like it was nothing in order to retrieve a book from a high shelf in the library. A friend of mine back home was pretty big on self-levitation, which might be similar to what he was doing. If you'd like I think I could teach you how to do the same thing."
"Izzy, are you saying that it would actually be possible for Twilight to fly without wings?" Rarity asked.
Izzy nodded. "Pretty much. Twilight, you, or anypony with the skill to perform a basic levitation spell. Even Sweetie Belle could learn it. It's just a matter of being able to focus through the sensation of weightlessness."
The explanation about how self-levitation could even be used in tandem with more offensive and defensive spells, based on what Starlight Glimmer could do, never got past the planning state. Rainbow Dash had practically been right on top of her in a heartbeat.
"How soon can you start?"
The sheer amount of enthusiasm in that simple question was a lot more than she'd been prepared to encounter.
"Well..." she paused as she glanced around the room towards the others, hoping one of them might be able to come to her rescue. "I guess I could start giving them the basics while you go get Tank's backpack so it can be worked on?"
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash announced and pulled back. "I'll be back in two shakes of a pony's tail!"
Before any of them could speak up she was already out the door and gone in a cloud of disturbed dust left in her wake.
"That didn't go at all like I'd expected it to," Izzy admitted as she turned to face the others. "I'm really sorry about that. I honestly didn't mean to get you involved like I did. She just ambushed me like that and I just...panicked."
Rarity simply shook her head and smiled politely. "It's quite alright, darling, we all know how Rainbow Dash can be. And if we're being perfectly honest, I'd much rather we be facing her as she is currently, than when she's consumed by those existential terrors we discussed. Even if, in her case, those terrors largely revolve around the worry that she's an inferior copy of her hypothetical "real self" somewhere in the multiverse."
Twilight nodded in response. "Shallow though it may sound, it really is a sort of disturbing that's not easily moved beyond."
"I never said otherwise, darling," Rarity quickly pointed out and huffed. "I can understand the sort of dread she's experiencing, and I sympathize with her; the worry that your entire life is nothing but a lie, formed from memories that aren't even your own but somepony else's? It can be downright terrifying to experience, especially late at night when you're trying to sleep. I just wish that, once in a while, she'd come up with something different to vent her worries about. That's why I was so glad when we had our little wager going on, it made all the speculation about unknown possibilities fun rather than frightening!"
"Oh..." Izzy mumbled slowly, even though she hadn't been a part of the conversation.
At this point, Spike poked at her flank to get her attention.
"Did your Rainbow Dash ever bite Nightmare Moon in the face?" he asked
"What? NO! Why would she do something like that!?"
"Because ours sure did," he stated, unable to suppress a gin as he spoke. "She was kicking the crap out of Nightmare Moon after she showed herself, and then chomped down on her horn hard enough she had her rolling around on the ground, screaming in agony the whole time!"
Izzy did a full-body flinch in response, feeling phantom sympathetic pains at Spike's account of events that transpired. And while she had no love for the identify of Nightmare Moon, she wouldn't wish that sort of pain on anypony. Especially not when it'd been Princess Luna the entire time.
"Spike, why're you telling her that?" Twilight asked.
"Because it's only a matter of time before our Rainbow asks Izzy how she stacks up to the other Rainbow. So she might as well know ahead of time, so she can do a proper compare and contrast without getting caught off guard again," he quickly pointed out.
"You know, that might not be a bad idea," Izzy admitted. After how easily and how quickly Rainbow Dash had taken her by surprise just a minute ago, being prepared for the hypothetical next time would be a good thing. "But first, I need to ask a question."
She then turned her attention to both Twilight and Rarity.
"Would either of you actually like to learn how to fly?"
High above Canterlot, atop the tallest tower of the palace, at the point of the tallest spire, Ulquiorra stood.
Far removed from the prying eyes and ears of interloping ponies who would see fit to approach him without a second thought, he stood. All the while silently watching, observing, sensing and above all else, contemplating.
Exactly what he was contemplating at the moment, and what the full extent of his contemplation was, was ultimately anypony's guess at the moment, as they had no way of conferring with him. To say nothing of actually being able to find him. Assuming anypony outside of a select few would actually care to try and do just that.
But such matters were of no importance; not to him anyway. He had his duties, he had been assigned his orders, and he ultimately knew what it was that he had to do.
"Discord."
And under the circumstances he currently found himself in, that necessitated unconventional channels being given serious consideration.
"I know that you can hear me right now. I know that you're eavesdropping every time your name is so much as mentioned in passing. So I know that you'll hear when I say I'm faced with a problem that I can't do on my own. I need your help."
If he were a prideful being like certain other Espada, it would likely be a different matter.
"Well, well, well. Now this is certainly an interesting turn of events we find ourselves in, isn't it?"
"You're far too easy," Ulquiorra commented as he slowly turned around to face the avatar of chaos that currently hovered behind him. "Had you resisted another five minutes, I would've actually said "please" in an effort to get you out here."
"Oh? Well now this must be very pressing if you're willing to use pleasantries like that," Discord commented with a smirk. "So, my dear Ulquiorra, what can I do for you?"
"Princess Celestia has tasked me with a new duty in light of certain recent developments I find myself wholly unequipped to address on my own. To find out just who and what I really am, before worrying about whether or not it's something to be concerned about. And to learn about what makes the real me, not the Aizen-approved version of me," Ulquiorra explained.
"Oh really now? How very interesting!" Discord stated in a tone that was difficult to tell if the enthusiasm was genuine or fake.
"We will not be tending to any of that today," Ulquiorra replied flatly.
"I'm sorry, what now?" Discord asked, suddenly finding himself very confused about what was going on.
"Questions relating to what is my true nature do need to be answered at some point in time. And based on previous conversations during our last meeting, you would likely have a better grasp on those answers than anyone in this world," Ulquiorra admitted. "But at present time there are other matters to tend to. Matters that Princess Celestia has neither authorized our involvement in, nor even knows about what we will be doing."
"Lad, at first you had my curiosity. But now, you have my undivided attention," Discord replied, his tone suddenly changing from amused to serious. "So we're going to pull a fast one on ol' Celly, are we? Marvelous, simply marvelous! So what're the details? What's my little Espada got up his sleeve?"
"We've received intel that a villain named Tirek managed to escape his imprisonment in Tartarus. You're going to work whatever chaos magic is necessary to find his location, and I'm going to kill him before he can pose anymore of a threat than he already is," Ulquiorra stated.
Discord suddenly grew quite quiet in response, his face an unreadable mess as he just sort of started in response, drumming his fingers together.
"You want me to help you stop a villain... and you call that pulling a fast one on Celestia?" he eventually asked.
"That was your interpretation of what was said, not mine," Ulquiorra pointed out.
"Listen, lad, I'm all for keeping these ponies safe from serious threats; threats that would utterly ruin my own amusement and fun. But why exactly should I be getting involved in this matter, and trivializing my vast chaos resources on something as straightforward and orderly as chasing down villains and criminals?" Discord asked.
"Because if you don't, I'll tell Fluttershy about your involvement in last week's incident," Ulquiorra warned.
Discord gasped in surprise. "You wouldn't dare!"
"In a heartbeat," Ulquiorra confirmed.
At this, Discord could just groan and sigh in response. "Fine, fine, I'll go along with this, even though it sounds like an utterly boring outing if you ask me. But now you have me curious; just how did you know about my involvement in that little escapade?"
"You just told me about it," Ulquiorra replied.
There was a brief pause, before Discord frowned hard in response and grit his teeth at the realization he'd just been played, rather than being the one who did the playing. That was just plain unacceptable.
But Ulquiorra had actually requested his assistance, and he had agreed to provide him with that assistance. For better or worse that was where he found himself right now.
"Fine then," he grumbled, folded his arms across his chest, and huffed in annoyance.
"Let the fun begin," Ulquiorra replied.
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It is really interesting how, despite being in a more downfall version of Equestria, Princess Twilight's counterpart, friends and Princesses came out more "mature" for lack of better term. Hard times do make strong ponies, it seems.
Ulquiorra playing Discord like a fiddle was so amusing, now onto some "fun".
I didn't tilt on the nickname you choose for Princess Twilight, until your A/N. Then again, I personally wasn't swayed by G5.
On another personal note, if I had to choose a nickname, I would go to the meta and called her Midna.
Random pony:"He has a snowball, RUN EVERYPONY FOR THEM SELF". *Take cover*
Ulquiorra:"let's the fun begin"
*HEADSHOOT*
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Ah yes the Twilight Princess....clever but I dunno if that twi has the figure to pull that name off.
Jokes aside very good chapter, it was fun to see the various interactions between Izzy and this version of her friends. Also Discord getting played by our boy is always funny.
Izzy, never enter a battle of wit's with Ulquiorra, you won't win.
Have they explained to Izzy just what Ulquiorra is yet?
Thanks for another excellent chapter
I feel like you took the name from g5 and bullshat until it vaguely fit
Found it a bit silly that they went for calling the other Twilight "Izzy" instad of calling one of them Twilight and the other Sparkle. But overall a good chapter.
11552435
11552559
Classy.
11552547
Pretty much.
11552712
She already knows full well what Ulquiorra is; a friend, a protector, and the biggest asshole in Equestria.
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I'm trying.
11553006
I have a feeling you might be right.
You have no idea how much bullshitting it took to make the explanation into something that Rainbow Dash might say in one of her brief moments of brilliance.
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Well this way they can experiment and see if the use of a nickname will allow two identical ponies to communicate back and forth via the flame network, or if they both still count as one individual.
11558644
Does she know he used to feed on souls and still retains the capacity to do so again?
Our dear Ulqy is starting to feel feelings!
How proud I am!
Oh yeah, I'm reading this
I like that you included Fluttershy being a manga fan here, not to mention Twilight managing to make an imperfect Sonido knockoff
I also like how Ulquiorra duped Discord into helping him.
That was a good line
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I fully intend to get back to updating this story again. But at the moment I've run into a little side-project that's proving to be fun to write.
11624027 No rush, man. If anything, I took my time before binge reading the last three chapters this morning.
The video doesn't work in Texas
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Just more of Youtube being Youtube...
And the fact that the Element of Loyalty was rendered unusable by Nightmare Moon's torture, thus rendering the Elements as a whole weakened and forcing the others to compensate with more direct and brutal means, something Princess Twilight has never truly had to deal with.
"The most fun I never want to have again." That is an ingenious line and I need to remember it. XD
Somewhere in the infinite cosmos, a green man felt a niggling feeling at the back of his mind that wouldn't let go. He knew that feeling...and it infuriated him. In a moment of overwhelming frustration, he shouted loudly to the skies. So great was his anger that his gruff voice pierced dimensions, causing it to echo from the clouds above Ponyville. The only thing the residents heard was one single word, which would quickly go down in infamy...
"DOOOOOOOOODGE!!!"
Frankly, I would have settled for Princess or maybe Sparkle as Izzy's nickname, not...Izzy. x3
Also is that really the story behind why the writers of G5 named a pony Izzy?
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I don't know, but it's funny.