The Angels have Landed

by Tarri

Chapter 06: The Identity Game

“So, how about Saturday?” Sunny Daze suggested. The four friends were between classes, and had no real hurry getting to their next, since the bell had yet to ring. Their topics of conversation had been about their roller skating escapades the day before, and how they miraculously avoided the ICU. Now it came back to how the twins’ mother had suggested Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie coming over.

“This Saturday?” Peachy Pie asked. “Yeah… I’m not doing anything this weekend.”

“Then we should ask Mum and Dad,” Dreamstar said to Starwishes.

“Our first playdate since moving here!” Starwishes noted gleefully.

“Playdate?” Peachy laughed. “Who still calls them playdates?”

“Mum does,” Dreamstar and Starwishes replied together.

“Y’know… it’s kinda freaky when you do that,” Peachy smiled.

“Do what?” Dreamstar and Starwishes asked.

“That!” Peachy Pie said. “You two always seem to be in sync with each other or something… have you never noticed that?”

“We do?” The twins asked, before looking at each other.

“You just did it again!” Peachy Pie snorted. “Do you have some kind of creepy twin-telepathy thing going on?”

“I think it’s cute,” Sunny admitted. “It’s like a sign of your closeness with each other! You also have this habit where one of you begins a sentence, and the other one finishes it!”

“Yeah,” Peachy Pie agreed. “It’s like you know what the other is thinking… you never noticed that?”

“I guess not…” Dreamstar replied.

“Maybe it’s because we’re always like that?” Starwishes pondered to her brother.

“So… we don’t notice it, because it’s just a normal everyday thing?” Dreamstar continued.

“Yeah,” Starwishes replied. The two paused for a moment, before looking back to Sunny and Peachy. “Is it really that weird?”

“Well…” Peachy began. “Nah… I guess not.”

“It’s just something special you two have,” Sunny told them. The school bell rang, signalling the beginning of the next class.

“I guess we need to go to class,” Peachy observed. “We’re still up for this afternoon, right?”

“Yeah!” Dreamstar cheered.

“Of course!” Starwishes said.

The afternoon brought with it another skating session at the rink. The twins still had enough money from the day before, and they were determined to perfect their skating. They only wished they had their own skates…

“Dreamstar, no!” Sunny Daze called out. “Keep your…”

Unfortunately, Dreamstar’s rear met the ground. Sunny skated up to him, and took his hand, helping him up.

“I don’t get it,” Dreamstar said, confused. “I’m sure we were better at this yesterday…”

“This is only your second time!” Sunny told him. “You’re just not used to it yet.”

“Don’t worry,” Peachy Pie assured him. “Your sister has tumbled a few times…”

Dreamstar looked towards his sister, who was starting to lose control, before grabbing and flopping herself over the railing.

“HEY, STARWISHES!” Peachy Pie called out. Starwishes looked up, righted herself, and skated over to join the other three.

“I’m sorry,” Starwishes apologised. “I know I was better yesterday…”

“That’s what I had said,” Dreamstar told her.

“You guys will get the hang of it,” Peachy assured them. “It’s not like Sunny and I were pros from the get-go…”

“You bruised your butt,” Sunny smirked

“You crashed into a tree!” Peachy giggled.

“I can’t wait to crash into my first tree,” Dreamstar said, imagining his future skating achievements.

“I wanted to crash into that tree!” Starwishes objected.

“Nah, the tree’s mine!” Dreamstar said.

“Give me that tree!” Starwishes screeched, launching an all-out play-fight with her brother.

“No! Find your own tree to crash into!” Dreamstar refused, play-fighting back.

Forgetting that they were actually on wheels, the two lost their balance and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Sunny covered her eyes. Peachy took enjoyment in the free entertainment.

“I’m so glad I came here today,” Peachy gratefully said to the universe.

Sunny Daze once again helped Dreamstar up, while Peachy did the same for Starwishes.

“You know, Dreamstar, I can’t always pick you up,” Sunny told him.

“Haha… sorry,” Dreamstar grinned, a little embarrassed.

“Yeah girl,” Peachy said to Starwishes, helping her up. “Starting a scrap on a pair of skates isn’t really the smartest idea. It was pretty funny, though!”

“Hey…” Starwishes began.

“Hmm?”

“Just… you know which of us is which,” Starwishes observed. “You knew that was Dreamstar, and that I was Starwishes…”

“Hey yeah!” Dreamstar realised. “You haven’t gotten us mixed up!”

“Well, it was hard to tell you apart at first,” Sunny Daze admitted. “Like on the first day, especially…”

“But we figured it out,” Peachy Pie stated, with a proud look on her face. “And now we both know who is who just by looking at you!”

“Yeah but how?” Starwishes asked.

“That’s our secret!” Peachy Pie replied, divulging no more information on that matter. “Now… are we gonna skate, or are we gonna skate?”

“Skate!” Sunny agreed. Starwishes and Dreamstar looked at each other, perplexed.

“Come on!” Sunny said cheerfully, as she took Dreamstar by the hands, and dragged him away.

“Whoa!” Dreamstar uttered, as he was whisked from his sister.

“Ready to try again?” Peachy Pie asked Starwishes, holding out her hand.

Starwishes hesitated for a moment, her mind still on the previous conundrum, before taking her skating partner’s hand.

“Sure!” Starwishes nodded.

The twins really were improving. Not that it was by any significant level, but as their skating session went on, they both were becoming fairly confident they had gotten better than the day before at the end of it… and especially from the beginning of their second skating session, where they ended up falling all over the place.

“You two seem to be picking it up,” Celestialstar had told them, after the twins had arrived home. The two had wasted no time ditching their clothes - it was just too warm, and after all that skating, followed by walking home, they could have done with a wash. However this time, their mother made sure to tell them not to leave it on the floor.

“Sunny and Peachy say we’re doing really well,” Dreamstar said, sitting himself next to his sister upon the stool beside the bar after the two had deposited their clothes in the wash basket.

“And we only fell over a million times today!” Starwishes added.

“I think it was closer to a million and three,” Dreamstar corrected her.

“It sounds like you are having fun,” Celestialstar said.

“We are!” Both twins sang, with a smile.

“You two should have invited Sunny and Peachy over,” Celestialstar told them.

“They said they had to go home,” Starwishes replied.

“Oh but… they did say they could come over on Saturday,” Dreamstar said.

“Then Dad will have met them, too!” Starwishes exclaimed.

“Oh, about that…” Celestialstar began. “Your father will be out of town this weekend for work-related reasons.”

“Oh…” Dreamstar reacted.

“What time is he leaving…?” Starwishes asked, wondering if he would at least be able to catch them before disappearing.

“About 7:30 in the morning,” Celestialstar replied.

“Oh…” Starwishes responded.

“Sorry, you two…” Celestialstar apologised. “But you do know that there are things that he needs to take care of before everything has settled down.”

“We know…” The twins said.

“They are still welcome to come,” Celestialstar told them. “I will have some things I need to do as well, so I will be in and out. But I’m sure you kids will manage without me.”

“And then you come back, and found we have starved to death…” Dreamstar began explaining a very realistic scenario.

“Our skeletons lying there, on the floor,” Starwishes continued. “Still chanting and praying for the sandwiches that shall never come…”

“I’m sure you two know how to make sandwiches,” Celestialstar assured them. “Or do you want me to leave instructions on how to put a sandwich together?”

“We shall not sully our hands with such tasks of servitude,” Starwishes said, waving her hand dismissively and jokingly implying that a servant was exactly what their mother was.

“Grraaaaagh!!” Celestialstar erupted, beginning to run around the bar, indicating her twin spawn it was time to escape. She half-chased them across the room, and they disappeared in a flash through the sliding door, and jumped into the pool.
It was their only sanctuary from the mother-monster. They surfaced when they were sure they were safe.

“So… what do you think?” Dreamstar asked his sister.

“About Sunny and Peachy being able to tell us apart?” Starwishes responded. That was probably one of the best things about their relationship with each other - they tended to know what the other was thinking, or talking about. It made conversations, and pranks (more importantly) easier. In fact, given that they pretty much knew what the other was thinking at any given moment for the most part, many had even guessed that the two might be telepathic.

The twins swam around the pool a little, pondering the notion. Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie weren’t the only ones, but their classmates, and even some of the other students had started addressing them by name, correctly.

“You think they actually can tell us apart?” Starwishes asked.

“I don’t know,” Dreamstar replied. “Hardly anyone can tell us apart… even Mum and Dad can have trouble sometimes…”

“True,” Starwishes said. “But then, whenever we are home we are usually naked, so it’s not like they get us mixed up that often. It’s only when we are dressed that we can confuse them…”

“Yeah, I bet it’s our clothes!” Dreamstar logically concluded. “You have been wearing a skirt, I’ve been wearing shorts, that’s how everyone is telling us apart… I mean, it makes sense, right?”

“We’ve only been at that school for three days,” Starwishes reasoned. “There is NO WAY they can just tell us apart.”

“Definitely the clothes!” Dreamstar stated. “I can’t believe we didn’t figure that out sooner!”

“Well we usually wear the same clothes, anyway,” Starwishes said. “I mean, throughout that afternoon when we met Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, they couldn’t tell us apart at all, but we were wearing the exact same thing as each other that day.”

“Hey… what if we tested that theory?” Dreamstar suggested.

“What, both go to school wearing shorts?” Starwishes asked. “What about… if we just swapped places?”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Dreamstar began to grin, with a sinister twinkle in his eye.

“Oh… I love it,” Starwishes reflected Dreamstar’s expression. If there was ever a random spectator to this situation, they would have thought there was a mirror in the pool.

“So… shall we?” Dreamstar smirked.

“Yes, let’s,” Starwishes agreed.

If there was ever a need to complete the mood, there would be thunder and lightning. They did, however, put on a malevolent laugh. Their mother could only look on from inside the house, wondering in horror what kind of sinister prank those two were concocting now.
She decided that she did not want to know.

It was another heated morning the following day, which made Dreamstar glad they were going with their prank - Starwishes’ skirt provided more relief than a pair of shorts. With everyone thinking they had them pegged, and not getting them mixed up (at least, those that knew them well enough, especially Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie), they were confident that posing as the other would fool them easily.

Their parents seemed to notice something was up when they emerged ready for school that morning, however they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. A lot of parents can tell siblings apart, even when they are identical. Usually, however, the twin’s parents often told them apart simply because of lack of clothes around the house, making telling them apart when dressed a little more difficult. It usually took a little while, but even then, as identical as they were to each other, it seemed like they had their own unique tell that only their parents could see… well, their mother, mostly. Their father, less so.

“You think they’ll fall for it?” Starwishes asked Dreamstar. For today, she wore the same black shorts Dreamstar and her wore when they met Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, and the same kind of shorts Dreamstar wore on the first day of school.

“Definitely!” Dreamstar replied, with a grin on his face. Today, he wore Starwishes’ black skirt, which she had worn on the first day of school, as well as other unmentionables. Truth is, they did a complete clothes-swap for today.

“You know, you’re going to have to use the girl’s bathroom, right?” Starwishes smirked.

“And you’re going to have to use the boy’s bathroom!” Dreamstar reminded her, similar expression.

“Easy enough,” Starwishes said. “I’ll just use the toilets in the stalls, no one will know it’s me!”

“And I have to use the toilets in the stalls,” said Dreamstar. “No urinal, so no one will know it’s me!”

The two began giggling together, as they approached the school. Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie were waiting by the statue outside of the school for them.

“Hey! Dreamstar, Starwishes!!” Peachy Pie called out, waving. The twins broke into a half-run, slowing and stopping upon reaching them.

“Sorry we’re late!” Dreamstar apologised.

“Yeah, we got a bit held up,” Starwishes explained.

“Ah, that’s okay,” Peachy Pie said. “I only got here about a couple minutes ago.”

“I’ve been here five minutes,” Sunny Daze told them. “So it hasn’t been that long.”

“That’s good…” Dreamstar and Starwishes said, together in relief.

“So… yeah,” Peachy Pie began, assuming the position of getting the suggestion ball rolling. “As much as it’s a nice day, can we go inside, now? Gettin’ kind of hot…”

“It is getting hot already,” Dreamstar noted.

“I have no objections finding shade!” Starwishes voted for Peachy’s proposal.

“Beautiful,” said Peachy. “Let’s get moving, before the sun cranks up the heat any more.”

The quartet made their way to the front entrance, and began their way up the steps.

“So Dreamstar,” Sunny Daze began, turning to Starwishes. “You were great on the rink, you didn’t step on my feet once!”

Dreamstar looked at Starwishes, who was receiving his kudos. Starwishes looked to him, and they both fought back a smile.

“Hey, yeah,” Peachy looked to Dreamstar. “You too, girl! Didn’t have to scoop you off the ground as many times as I did on Tuesday! I reckon you two will be skating champs in no time!”

“Thanks,” Dreamstar and Starwishes said, unable to hold their grins back.

“Don’t look too proud!” Peachy Pie warned them. “You’ll still have to race us when you are good enough, and trust me, that day is a long way away!”

“It is…?” Starwishes responded.

“Don’t worry, you’re both doing great, don’t listen to her,” Sunny assured them.

The foyer was buzzing as usual with students, who were for the most part either tracking down their lockers, or conversing with their fellow peers. The lockers were where they were headed for now, first to Sunny and Peachy’s, and then to the twins. Sunny and Peachy traveled in front, to save the entire group mowing through everyone else in the corridor, while Dreamstar and Starwishes walked behind them.

“I think we were right!” Starwishes whispered to her brother. “They got us mixed up!”

“I knew they would!” Dreamstar whispered back. “Can you imagine the look on their faces when they find out we swapped places?”

“If they ever figure it out!” Starwishes replied. The two begin to snicker under their breath.

The day continued as much as they expected, each and every student who had been able to tell them apart before, got them mixed up. Dreamstar was always assumed to be Starwishes, while Starwishes was always assumed to be Dreamstar. No one questioned it, no one ever thought they might be wrong. But boy, were they all wrong! Throughout the morning, Peachy Pie and Sunny Daze would catch Dreamstar and Starwishes giggling to themselves, and while at first they passed it off as some little joke between the two, the more they giggled, the more curiouser Peachy and Sunny became.

“Okay, you two,” Peachy Pie finally brought it up. They were in the lunchroom, having their lunches, and the twins had been mistaken once again, and thus, laughing once again. Only, Peachy Pie and Sunny Daze had no idea why they were in such a mood.

“Hmm…?” The twins responded.

“You guys have been snickering all day,” Peachy Pie told them. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Dreamstar grinned. Starwishes snorted.

“Guys, what’s funny, seriously?” Sunny Daze demanded to know. She, too, had gotten far too curious about what was bubbling within those two.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Starwishes assured her.

Peachy Pie and Sunny Daze looked at each other, and Peachy Pie shrugged.

One of their classmates walked by, and noted them at the table. He greeted Peachy and Sunny first, before moving onto the twins.

“Starwishes, Dreamstar,” he nodded, first to Dreamstar when he said Starwishes’ name, then to Starwishes when he said Dreamstar’s name. Each of the four greeted him back. Once he was about five seconds gone, the twins cracked up into fits of laughter.

“Oh my gosh, seriously?” Peachy Pie cried out. “What is WITH you two today??”

“Nothing!” The twins cried, still hooting. You could see the tears in their eyes. Sunny Daze begin to catch the giggles, before bursting out into laughter.

“ET TU, SUNNY?” Peachy Pie cried out. She really had no idea what was going on. “Seriously, Sunny! What’s the joke?”

“I don’t know!” Sunny Daze confessed, while laughing. “I don’t even know why I’m laughing!!”

The addition of Sunny laughing made it even funnier, fuel to the fire, and it felt like everyone in the school cafeteria was looking over in their direction.

“Guys, please!” Peachy Pie pleaded, an involuntary grin starting the blossom on her face. “Everyone is going to think we’re crazy!!”

The trio suddenly stopped laughing… if but for a momentary pause. Then suddenly, all four of them suddenly burst into laughter, and it was like it was a roller coaster ride that could never stop.

“Oh my gosh!” Peachy Pie cried, between fits of giggles. “Please... stop!! We’re going to be thrown into a mental hospital!!”

This only caused them to laugh even more, and truly, some of the other students did wonder if they had gone completely crackers.

“In come the men in white coats!” Dreamstar cheered, painting their destiny, before the fits continued.

It was after a while they had decided to relocate, for several reasons. One being that they needed fresh air, another being that if any men in white coats that did come to take them away would not be able to find them.
They were now hiding.

They also tried to get past their insanity stage by trying to talk about other things.

“Have you guys ever played dodgeball?” Peachy Pie asked the twins.

“Dodgeball?” The twins enquired, both with blank looks on their faces.

“Wow…” Peachy Pie realised. “You guys have so much to catch up on!”

“But what is it?” Dreamstar asked.

“Basically, people throw balls at you, and you dodge them,” Peachy explained. “You guys need to know that for this afternoon.”

“We’re playing dodgeball this afternoon?” Starwishes asked.

“It’s our last class,” Sunny replied. “You guys do have your P.E. clothes, right?”

“Oh, yes!” Starwishes replied.

“Like we’d ever forget that!” Dreamstar said, eyeing his sister from the corner of his eye. She returned that same side-glance, with a small smile on her face.

“Hey guys, we need to go…” Starwishes brought up.

“Go?” Peachy Pie asked. “Where to?”

“To the bathroom!” Dreamstar rolled his eyes. “We’re starting to reach busting-levels!”

“Do you guys have like… syncronised bladders or something?” asked Peachy Pie.

“Actually,” Sunny Daze confessed. “I need to go, too…”

“Fine, well I don’t need to go, but I’ll offer my moral support,” Peachy Pie agreed, as they had reached the bathroom. She turned to Starwishes. “Hey, Dreamstar, you’ll be fine by yourself in that scary boy’s bathroom all by yourself, won’t you?”

“I’m the man,” Starwishes nodded, pretending to be awesome. Peachy decided to just nod back, because she could appreciate being awesome. She then pushed Dreamstar and Sunny Daze through the doors to the girl’s bathroom. “Don’t hold up the line, guys!”

Starwishes snickered a little as Peachy and Sunny had once again got them the wrong way around. But seriously, she had to go, so she played her part and wandered into the boy’s toilets.

“Hey, Starwishes!” Peachy called out, as she leaned against the basins, waiting for her female comrades (although one of them was secretly male) to complete their missions and emerge victorious.

“Yeah?” Dreamstar replied, from inside one of the stalls.

“How close are you and your brother?” Peachy asked. “I mean, seriously?”

“We’re really close,” Dreamstar replied. “We’ve been like that for our whole lives!”

“You two just seem to be in total sync with each other,” Sunny told him, from her own stall. “I don’t know if this sounds weird, but even now it feels really weird that you two are actually apart and in different rooms.”

“Hey yeah,” thought Peachy. “Do you guys like… freak out when you two are apart or anything?”

“A little…” Dreamstar admitted. “I mean… we can be in different rooms or be apart for a little while, but… then after a while we kinda get…”

“Anxious?” Peachy asked.

“I think I’ve seen it a tiny bit,” Sunny recalled, as a toilet flushed. “Like… now, when we are in different bathrooms from him. Well, of course we would be, but you know what I mean, right?”

“I guess I do feel a bit uneasy with… him not being here,” Dreamstar admitted, almost slipping up and saying ‘her’. He finished up and flushed his toilet, and emerged, victorious, from the stall. Peachy remained leaning against the basins, while Sunny was dealing to her hands. Dreamstar began washing his.

“I wonder what it would be like when you guys move out of home…” Peachy Pie wondered. “I mean… would you guys live together? Would you be able to live apart, in separate houses?”

“I don’t know…” Dreamstar replied. He began to wonder about it, trying to imagine him living in a separate house from his sister. The very thought of it made him feel very uneasy and paranoid.

Starwishes was already waiting for them when they came forth from the bathroom of which they had entered. It appeared she had beaten them in the race of loos.

“I win!” Starwishes claimed her victory.

“Boys are faster at going to the bathroom,” Peachy Pie told her, in an attempt to nullify the places of the races.

Dreamstar looked at Starwishes. Starwishes returned his look. The group began making their way through the corridor. The twins had so far had everyone fooled, and they were enjoying the sweet amusement fruit of the prank tree of which they had planted.

The last class of the day was now looming before them, as the four friends made their way towards the school gymnasium. The twins had at this point wondered how they would tackle the changing rooms, as it was not quite as simple as using the stalls in the bathrooms. The obvious tactic in this case would be to dawdle, to wait for all, if not most, of the other students to have changed and left the changing rooms before reaching the point of undress where a bulge, or lack thereof, could be noticed, IF it ever would be. Unless, of course, they didn’t have anyone change near them, then that would be easy. It was times like this that made Starwishes’ underdevelopment of her chest not an issue in any way - although both twins knew that in a short time, whether it be a year from now, or a few, that advantage when it came to sex-based identification trickery would become obsolete.

Starwishes entered the boy’s changing rooms after separating from her group, and proceeded to find a place to change. There were only a few boys there, the rest had already changed and left. She looked about, one boy had just finished changing, and jogged past her. A couple others were midway through changing, in underpants form. Another one was just starting to get changed.

She picked the corner, on the other side of the room, and began to change. She heard a few of the other boys rush out, and then the last, as she had reached that fabled underpants stage.

“Hey Dreamstar, you better hurry up! You don’t want to be the last one out!” The boy had urged to her, as he ran out the door. She finished changing into her P.E. clothes, a white pair of shorts with a blue tee.

In the girl’s changing room, Dreamstar, Sunny, and Peachy found a similar situation to Dreamstar’s female counterpart’s observation. Some girls were getting changed, though others were having little chats as they went along, slowing down their dress-speed a little. Some were jogging out of the changing room, others were still in transition between casual clothes mode and P.E. mode. Dreamstar wondered what would happen if suddenly they knew if he was really Dreamstar, and not Starwishes, as everyone was assuming. He decided to wander over to the far side of the room (like a mirror to his sister’s action), and start to get changed.

“So how exactly do you play dodgeball?” Dreamstar asked, as he started with his top, though also creating a situation to stall a little. “Apart from dodging the ball, I mean…”

“It’s really all there is to it,” Peachy Pie told him. She had already changed into her P.E. shorts, and was changing her shirt. Her chest had started to develop, he noted, and wondered when the same would happen for his sister. “You dodge the ball, you throw balls back. Don’t get hit, try to hit the other team. It’s really simple.”

“Well, there are some rules,” Sunny explained. She was a little slower than Peachy, and was less developed than Peachy as well. In fact, at a quick glance, it was almost like she hadn’t started, despite being older than Starwishes. Dreamstar realised everyone seemed to develop at different ages, and then wondered how long it would be before it would kick in for him and his sister - well, the overall puberty part, that is, the growth spurts, the body hair, all of that in general.

“I’m surrounded by children,” Peachy Pie observed, noting the fact that Sunny Daze, and whom she thought was Starwishes, to be both flat-chested.

“We’re forming an alliance,” Dreamstar explained. “We shall take over the world!”

“You’ll never stop the Boob Brigade!” Peachy claimed, in defiance. “Soon, you shall both have magnificent breasts, and will be assimilated into our ranks!”

“The thought of that is weird,” Sunny admitted, pulling her P.E. shirt over her head, completing the change. Peachy was already done. “The idea of me growing breasts freaks me out…”

“Well… at the rate you’re going, you’ll be flat-chested forever!” mocked Peachy Pie.

Peachy Pie and Sunny Daze were already done. Dreamstar had put his tee on - it was pink. The girls slowly began to make their way to the door, giving some time for Dreamstar to catch up. Dreamstar took the opportunity to pull down his skirt, and replace it with a pair of identical white shorts to which his sister had. With that, he was ready. He caught up to the other two, and then met Starwishes in the gymnasium.

“Hey Dreamstar, you ready to try some dodgeball?” Peachy Pie asked Starwishes.

“I don’t know…” Starwishes replied.

“Yeah, I’m still not sure,” Dreamstar added his concerns.

“I wonder where the teacher is…” Sunny Daze brought up. Upon taking note of Sunny’s question, the rest of the quartet noticed that they really were missing one teacher. The class at this time just seemed to loiter, as if waiting for a master to appear. After a couple of minutes, it seemed like that would not be the case, and the class was already babbling about a range of differing conversation topics.

“Maybe the teacher got eaten?” Dreamstar suggested.

“It’s possible,” Peachy Pie replied. The twins weren’t sure if she was joking or being serious. “This school can get pret-ty weird, I tell you.”

“He’s always on time,” Sunny Daze said.

“Yeah I know, right?” Peachy agreed. “Eaten, probably. We’re probably next.”

“Can I get everyone’s attention!” A new voice broke over the gabble. The gabble continued a little, dying down to only half-gabble. “HELLOOOOO?”

The attention of the class was brought to an older student, who was now standing in front of them. She had a rainbow assortment of colour in her hair, and despite being dressed for the class, she was most definitely not young enough to be in it. She bounced a ball occasionally with one of her hands.

“What’s Rainbow Dash doing here?” Peachy Pie asked rhetorically.

“Rainbow Dash?” Dreamstar and Starwishes repeated the name, in unison, before looking back to the rainbow-haired girl.

“Okay, guys! Listen up!” Rainbow Dash began. “You’re regular P.E. teacher had to go home - basically, he got himself injured pretty bad, and had to get himself checked out at the hospital.”

“Is he going to be okay?” One of the classmates asked.

“He’s going to be just fine!” Rainbow Dash assured them. “He just has to stay home and rest up a bit. On the downside, that means he is not here. But on the bright side, I’ve decided in all my awesomeness to take today’s class! I mean, I wasn’t about to let your class be cancelled, not when it’s dodgeball! Now… you guys DO know how to play, right? Oh, who am I kidding - you’d have to be living under a ROCK to have never played dodgeball!”

Dreamstar and Starwishes raised their hands.

“So!” Rainbow Dash continued, not noticing the two inquiring hands. “Who’s ready to get started?”

“How do you play dodgeball?” The twins both asked, after realising their raised hands were not noted.

The class was silent. Rainbow Dash froze momentarily in time. Her eyes were like saucers. She came out of it to find the source of her personal temporal pause.

“You… don’t know how to play dodgeball…?” Rainbow Dash asked, in a state of disbelief. Everyone who is ANYONE knows how to play dodgeball!

The twins looked at each other, turned back to Rainbow Dash, and shook their heads.

“Oooooookay…” Rainbow Dash responded, as if she had found a glitch in the universe. She walked up to the twins, and noted their statue. “Aren’t you guys… y’know, a smidge tiny for high school?”

“We’re bigger on the inside,” Dreamstar stated.

“We’re compact people!” Starwishes announced.

“Um… riiiiiiight,” Rainbow Dash responded, unsure what to make of their strange replies. “What do I call you two?”

“Magic Man!” The twins exclaimed. They then looked to each other, realising they had given the same name.

“You can’t be Magic Man, I’m Magic Man!” Starwishes began.

“No, I’m the one who thought of it first, I’m Magic Man!” Dreamstar protested. “You pick another name!”

“Why?” Starwishes argued. “I started saying ‘Magic Man’ a split second before you started saying it!”

“Na-uh,” Dreamstar argued back. “I have dibs!”

“No you don’t!”

“I do so!!”

The twins then broke into a scrap, although it was clear to see that the scrap was clearly friendly, and hardly, if at all, serious. Rainbow Dash, along with the rest of the class (some of them beginning to laugh), just stared at them, trying to figure out what the heck was up with these two.

“Is this normal…?” Rainbow Dash asked, desperately wanting an answer to that specific question.

“Sadly, yes…” Peachy Pie sighed. Sunny Daze was giggling.

“Alright, you guys!” Rainbow Dash said, picking both of the siblings off the floor, and keeping them apart. The twins hissed at each other and made cat noises.

“Fine…” Dreamstar surrendered. “You can be Magic Man. I’ll be Captain Awesome!”

“No,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Because I am the captain, and I am awesome. Therefore, if anyone is Captain Awesome, I am!”

After establishing the twins’ real names, as well as instructions as to how to play dodgeball (to which Rainbow Dash still couldn’t believe was unknown to them - although she supposed she could compare them to Twilight (a name the twins remembered from the first day), however then she discounted that possibility since Twilight would have read all about it), Rainbow Dash had begun dividing the class into two teams.

“Aww, man…” Rainbow Dash moaned to herself.

“What’s wrong?” Dreamstar asked.

“There are an even number of you guys here,” Rainbow Dash observed. “That means I can’t join in, it wouldn’t be fair, I love dodgeball!!”

The class looked at her.

“But y’know…” Rainbow Dash began, realising she might look a bit silly, and thus tried to save herself. “Being as awesome as I am, it wouldn’t be fair if I was on any of the teams! So that’s cool!!”

“Okay, so what team am I on?” Starwishes asked. She, her brother, Sunny Daze, and another student were still waiting for team placement. Peachy Pie had been assigned to the red team.

“Okay, Sunny Daze, right? Sunny, you go on the blue team,” Rainbow Dash decided.

“Okay!” Sunny Daze said.

“And Starwishes…” Rainbow Dash began, turning to the twins. She moved her finger between the two. “Which one of you is Starwishes?”

The twins pointed to each other. It could said that one was pointing to the real Starwishes, while the other was pointing to the fake. Rainbow Dash realised this was not going to work like this.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said, resorting to shirt colour. “Pink one, you go on the blue team, blue one, you’re on the…”

The twins waited patiently. Rainbow Dash was reconsidering her decision. She was not entirely sure if putting them on separate teams would help. True, it would probably be fairer if each team had an inexperienced player, but given that they were exact duplicates of each other made her think that this was going to give her a headache. Her head was already hurting. She wondered what Twilight would do, and then suddenly realised there would be charts and studies, research carried out, and all sorts of sciency-geeky stuff that Rainbow Dash had no understanding for. And just thinking of it was making her headache worse.

“No, you guys each on opposing teams,” Rainbow Dash decided to go with her initial thoughts. Fair was fair. “Pink one on red, blue one on blue.”

The twins saluted, before realising they were playing against each other.

“You’re going to die,” Starwishes told her brother.

“After you,” Dreamstar politely responded, ever the gentleman.

“Watch out,” Peachy told Dreamstar, as he joined the red team. “Everyone knows you are new, so they’ll probably try to eliminate you, first.”

“Thanks,” Dreamstar replied.

“Be careful,” Sunny told Starwishes, once she joined the blue team. “They’ll probably aim for you first.”

“Okay, thanks,” Starwishes said. She looked over towards the opposite team. She saw her brother, staring back at her, and Peachy Pie was next to him.

The whistle blew, and the game was underway!!

Both of the twins hesitated, unsure what to do, in that moment forgetting the first part of the game. Others rushed for the balls in the centre, and tossed them back to their respective sides, and the balls began to fly.

It wasn’t long before a ball was lobbed towards Dreamstar - it seemed Peachy Pie was right on aiming for the inexperienced players, first. Luckily, Dreamstar saw it coming, and managed to moved out of the way. Starwishes herself found a ball heading her way, but for her, she had even less warning.

The game took its first victim rather quickly - luckily for the twins, it was neither of them… yet. The eliminated team member from the red team was benched.

“Look out!” Peachy Pie shouted to Dreamstar, and Dreamstar turned just in time to see a ball fly his way. He literally jumped to the side, before falling onto the floor from lack of balance and ongoing momentum.

“GET UP!” Peachy Pie shouted in urgency, although the warning was too late. Dreamstar saw someone on the blue team struck out, just before a ball came to claim him. He was out already.

Dreamstar took his place on the bench, and watched as the others continued the slaughter. Starwishes was struck only seconds after Dreamstar took the bench - it seemed like all the pre-emptive warning regarding them being targets was not enough to save them… they lacked experience in playing the game itself.

Sunny Daze tried to dodge a ball, however it made contact with her chest. Not fast enough. She joined Starwishes on the opposing team’s bench. All that was left was Peachy Pie - well, Peachy Pie and a mess of other students. At least, to the twins and Sunny Daze, Peachy Pie was now their last hope.

A whistle blew, as a player threw a ball while out of bounds, and was instantly disqualified. Another player, on the red team, was hit by a ball, but Peachy then caught it, saving the ball’s target, and eliminating the player on the blue team who threw it. In a way, Dreamstar and Starwishes were kind of glad they were eliminated early on, because now they got to see how the game was played, without having to worry about focusing on staying alive themselves.

Their hopes died, however, when Peachy took a hit. She was eliminated from the game, which was a shame - she was one of four players left. She would be remembered, however. Lest we forget. She approached the red bench, and the student next to Dreamstar, as well as Dreamstar, instinctively shuffled to make room for her to sit down.

“Congrats on not being the first one to be out,” Peachy Pie said to Dreamstar.

“Why thank you,” said Dreamstar, who then looked towards Starwishes. “Next time maybe I’ll last longer than my evil twin.”

“He probably lasted longer because he’s a boy,” the boy on the other side of Peachy Pie brought up. He was a grey-haired boy who was wearing a yellow shirt with black shorts. Fire Ash, if Dreamstar remembered correctly… he had not really gotten to know him, yet.

“That’s stupid!” Peachy Pie protested. “You can’t say someone is better at something just because they are a boy! I lasted longer than you!”

Some of the others in the benched red team snickered, and Fire Ash decided to not try speculate further on it.

“Sorry, Starwishes…” Fire Ash apologised to Dreamstar. Dreamstar grinned at the sudden thought that he had that since he and Starwishes had traded places, that he was actually proof that Peachy Pie was right… insult to injury.

It wasn’t long after that the second round was about to begin. The twins both figured that it might be best to try go for offense, rather than just defence. The less attackers on the opposing team, the less balls they’d have to worry about.

The whistle started, and while Starwishes never managed to get her hands on a balls, someone rolled on her way, which she took without hesitation. She quickly skimmed the red team for a target, at first thinking about trying to go for her brother, but then saw another player not paying attention. She threw the ball at him, and missed. He hardly even knew he had been targeted.

Dreamstar, on the other hand, never managed to get one of the first balls, although he took the opportunity of claiming one which collided with one of his team mates. A chance to avenge them, Dreamstar thought, and took aim at a girl on the other team. He realised his aim was off once the ball was flying, but by dumb luck, the girl actually moved into the ball’s projectory, and Dreamstar became the first twin to score a hit.

Starwishes saw the hit, but hadn’t seen who threw the ball. Sunny recovered the ball, and threw it red-side, bouncing once, before being caught by Peachy Pie, who then through the ball back, knocking out another blue team member.

So far, Dreamstar was still in, lasting longer than the first round. He saw a ball hurtle towards him at the last second, and was hit, although lucky for him, Peachy Pie caught the ball before it hit the ground, eliminating the one who threw it. A ball bounced past Dreamstar, which he claimed, and then scanned the opposing team for a target. He was glad to see his sister was still in, so he threw the ball at her, and hit her.
Truly, beautiful sibling love.

“HEY!” Starwishes cried out, feeling betrayed by her own brother.

“Oh my gosh, Starwishes!” Peachy exclaimed, surprised. “I never thought you’d go for your own brother!”

“All’s fair in love and wa-OW!” Dreamstar responded, with the traditional yelp of being hit himself. And now he, too, was out.

Once again, the twins were benched.

“That was evil,” Sunny said to Starwishes, as she came to sit down next to her on the blue bench.

“I’m going to get that traitor,” Starwishes told Sunny.

The second round ended, and a third began. And for each consecutive round since, the twins found throwing the balls at each other to be somewhat therapeutic - for getting revenge on the other, and so forth. They soon realised that focusing on just each other was probably not a great idea, since they ended up being eliminated by other players because of it, so they began focusing on the game itself.

Rainbow Dash had declared the final round, since time was almost up for class. It was probably very well, since the heat of the day and the continuous play of dodgeball really did cause things to sweat up. None of the twins lasted long in the final round, Starwishes was out first, and Dreamstar only lasted about a minute longer.

Panting, both twins, deciding to sit on the same bench together, rather than in their respective team benches (since this was the last round), and watched as Peachy Pie made it to being one of the last three in the game. Sunny was with them, and commented on how it had become unfair, since the blue team had two players, and she was the last red. The game did not last much longer, leaving the blue team with the final victory.

“Okay guys, that was awesome!” Rainbow Dash congratulated the class. “One of the best games of dodgeball I have ever seen!! The sweat, the tears, the no mercy!!”

Most of the students mumbled. The heat had gotten to them after the continuous play, round after round. Some puffed, some dripped sweat on the floor.

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash noted, taking it as a response. “You guys did great, but I think SOME of you might need to hit the showers…”

The class looked to her, as if to wait her instruction. After all, she was in charge today. It just took a moment for Rainbow Dash to realise that.

“Uh… you can go, now!” Rainbow Dash told them, realising they weren’t leaving. “Seriously, you guys smell awful!”

The class made their way to the changing rooms, and the twins began to follow the mass.

“Hey, you two!” Rainbow Dash called out. “What were your names again? Dream and Wish?”

“Dreamstar and Starwishes,” Sunny Daze corrected her.

“You guys go ahead,” Starwishes told Sunny and Peachy. She figured if her and her brother were both delayed, the better chance they could get a shower. They were so hot and bothered, and semi-soaked in sweat, a shower would be magical before heading home.

“Not bad for your first time playing dodgeball…” Rainbow Dash said, coyly. “I mean, you guys didn’t start out great, but you really did start to get the hang of it!”

“Thanks…” Both twins said.

“Wow… are you guys like… telepathic or something?” Rainbow Dash joked.

“Sometimes,” Dreamstar replied.

“Especially when we have found a new victim,” Starwishes added. Rainbow Dash paused, with the kind of expression where she wasn’t sure what to think.

“O...kay,” Rainbow Dash responded. She decided to change the subject. “You guys know Scoot?”

“Scoot?” Starwishes asked, confused.

“Does she mean Scootaloo?” Dreamstar asked his sister.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash confirmed. “She’s a little buddy of mine!”

“Yeah, we know her!” Starwishes said.

“We met her just last Sunday!” Dreamstar told Rainbow Dash.

“I was wondering if you two were the two kids she met,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Really?” Dreamstar asked.

“How would you have known it was us?” Starwishes asked.

“Come on, like there would be any doubt!” Rainbow Dash said. “You guys are twins! New to town! It’s kinda obvious.”

“Well I guess that’s true,” Dreamstar grinned to his sister, who grinned back.

“Does she go to this school?” Starwishes asked. “We haven’t seen her since we started, we thought she might go here…”

“Yeah, but she’s in a different year than you two,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Also, she’s always hanging out with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and lately they’ve been hatching some kind of plan, I guess. Those three are always up to something! But you’re bound to run into her sooner or later.”

“I think those three think we’re little kids,” Dreamstar smiled, amused at the mistaken age.

“Yeah, about that!” Rainbow Dash began. “How old are you guys?”

“Thirteen,” the twins both answered.

“Wow. You really don’t look thirteen,” Rainbow Dash admitted.

“How old do we look?” Starwishes inquired.

“I dunno,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I guess I would say like… nine or something? Definitely not high school. Heck, not even middle school!”

“That Twilight girl thought we were in elementary school,” Dreamstar reminded Starwishes.

“Ha! Really?” Rainbow Dash asked, amused. “I wish I could have seen her face when she found out you were thirteen years old!”

“Actually…” Starwishes began.

“Didn’t the bell ring and we ran off to find the hall?” Dreamstar recalled. “I don’t think we ever told her…”

“Oh yeah, we didn’t know what an elementary school was, it’s like primary school,” Starwishes continued.

“I’m guessing you aren’t from waaaaay outta town,” Rainbow Dash noted. There was the sound of a vibration, and she took her phone from her pocket. “Gotta run! I have to meet my friends and it’s kinda important. Keep it up with dodgeball, and maybe someday you will be almost good enough to take me on!”

“Haha, okay,” Dreamstar agreed. Now they had two things to master, skating AND dodgeball!

“It was nice meeting you!” Starwishes said. “Thanks for the game!”

“Hey, no problem!” Rainbow Dash waved, as she began to run off. “I’ll seeya round!”

“She seemed cool,” said Dreamstar.

“Yeah, though maybe a bit vain,” Starwishes added. The two made their way towards the changing rooms.

“At least she… actually, no…” Dreamstar began. “She did think she was better than everyone else!”

“At least she was nice,” Starwishes said. “And not like those other people who thinks they are so great that they are above everyone and that everyone else is useless… she actually wants us to get better at it!”

“Yeah, so she will have worthy competition!” Dreamstar grinned. “I guess that’s her thing, she wants to be the best, but also wants a challenge… what happens when she really is the best?”

Starwishes shrugged. They parted ways into the separate changing rooms, hoping their little delay with Rainbow Dash was enough.

Dreamstar entered the girl’s changing room to find one of the girls already leaving. She passed him, left through the door, wishing him farewell as she did, and then Dreamstar found himself the only one left - the others had already gone. He wandered over to his things, and began rummaging through his bag, finding his towel, and placing it next to his bag, so that he wouldn’t have wet hands going through his things afterwards. He stripped his clothes off, walked over to the showers, and turned one of them on.

Meanwhile, Starwishes found the boy’s changing room void of life. Locating her own things, she proceeded to find her towel, and have her shower. She removed her t-shirt first, but just as she was sliding the shirt down her arms, she heard a bit of a commotion, getting louder, and then a bunch of boys burst through the door and into the changing room. Some of the boys looked at her, most of them taking a double-take. These were students Starwishes had never met, and she remembered that both she and Dreamstar looked feminine - they probably had to look again because at first glance they thought she was a girl (which she was).

The boys were wet, wearing nothing but their swimming togs and draped in a towel. Starwishes logically assumed they had been in the school pool.

“Hey,” one of the boys greeted to her, to which she sort of gave a blank slight-nod, unsure how to proceed. The showers were turned on, and a bunch of the boys began to wash themselves off, yacking and joking and laughing away. Starwishes pulled her P.E. top back over her - she was not going to shower with a bunch of boys, especially boys who she didn’t even know. Besides, it wasn’t like there was a free shower anymore - more boys than showers had arrived, and most of them were using them. Starwishes decided to leave the changing room as is.

Starwishes wandered over, with her things, to the girl’s changing room. From inside, all she heard was a single shower running - Dreamstar obviously had the place to himself. She decided that since everyone was gone, and the boy’s changing room was full, that she would just join him. It wasn’t like they had never showered before, after all.

“Hey, Dreamstar!” Came a familiar voice, right from behind her. Starwishes jumped from the fright, not expecting to find Peachy Pie still here.

“Peachy Pie!” Starwishes gasped, finding her breath. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“Haha, sorry!” Peachy apologised. “Aren’t you going to shower and stuff? I think you could do with one… where’s Starwishes?”

“She’s… in the shower,” Starwishes replied. “And I was going to have a shower, but a whole bunch of boys showed up and took over the changing room, and the showers, so… I’m going to wait here for my sister…”

“Oh yeah, that would have been the boy’s underwater hockey team,” Peachy Pie told her.

“Ah…” said Starwishes. “What are you still doing here?”

“Me?” Peachy Pie replied.

“Yeah… I thought you were going home?” Starwishes asked.

“Oh yeah, well I was supposed to meet my parents right after school, but after I had showered and stuff, I saw I had a message from them,” Peachy explained. “Turns out there’s no rush, so I decided to wait for you three.”

“Us three?” Starwishes asked.

“Sunny’s still around,” Peachy Pie replied, giving a quick glance around, as a soft pounding of feet made their way towards them. Sunny Daze had come almost as if saying her name had summoned her.

“Sunny!” Starwishes reacted, surprised.

“Dreamstar, hi!” Sunny replied.

“What are you still doing here?” Starwishes asked. Sunny Daze was still in her P.E. clothes, which seemed weird, since everyone else had already changed and left.

“I stayed behind to help tidy up,” Sunny explained. “Make sure all the balls are accounted, for, that sort of thing. Then Rainbow Dash stopped by to check if everything was in order, and asked me to take something to one of the classrooms before the teacher left, because she had to run and was late. So after that, I came back here…”

“Sounds like fun,” Peachy Pie said. “But you should probably change and stuff. Dreamstar and I are just waiting for Starwishes.”

“Oh, okay!” Sunny Daze said, noticing the sound of the shower running. “So Starwishes is in the shower?”

“...yes.” Starwishes decided to reply, with a smile. A smile that might have been a smidge sinister, perhaps.

“Oh cool,” said Sunny. She pushed through the door, and entered the girl’s changing room.

“SO PEACHY PIE,” Starwishes began, with an ever-growing smile of satisfaction on her face. “What are your plans for after?”

“Well, I still need to meet my parents,” Peachy Pie explained. She noted the change in Starwishes’ demeanor, and wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Dreamstar daydreamed as the water trickled down his body. He kept wondering about this weekend, about how they were going to have their first friends over since moving here. He wondered what kinds of things they would do - there was swimming, of course… they had a pool. An adventure in the forest was definitely an option, like an adventure, a quest. Video games… he wondered if Peachy Pie and Sunny Daze liked playing video games? Both he and Starwishes did, they always played together, unless it was a single player, in that case they had to take turns, while the other would watch.

He heard a slight jolt in the pipes just behind him, a second shower?

“Hi, Starwishes!” Someone greeted his sister. Dreamstar instantly turned around, his daydream world coming to a halt, and found himself standing right there in front of Sunny Daze… both naked as the day they were born.

Dreamstar was silent in that moment, standing exposed, without any sudden thought to turn or hide. Sunny, too, was silent, her hand still on the faucet, her brain seemingly stopped as if waiting for that single cue in the river of time to indicate a reaction.

“About 10:30, I think,” Peachy Pie had answered Starwishes, after being asked what time she thought she might be over that Saturday.

“Oh... my... WHAT??” Sunny’s shocked reaction came through from the changing room. Peachy Pie took that cue and dashed into the changing room herself, to see what was wrong, leaving Starwishes outside. Upon rushing in and finding Sunny Daze, standing there naked, half-wet from the shower she had just turned on, and one of their naked twin-friends, frozen in place, with an expression that seemed to say they had no idea what to do next. Peachy glanced down, and saw that ‘Starwishes’ had a penis.

“What…” Peachy Pie uttered, locked in a form of wide-eyed confusion. There was a moment of very awkward silence, which just had to be broken.

“Hey Dreamstar, have they figured out we swapped places, yet?” Starwishes blurted out casually upon bursting in and joining the group, with an almost evil smirk upon her face.

Author's Note:

Hopefully this chapter came out okay... I've been so drained, lately, so I am currently second-guessing myself at the moment and questioning my abilities.

On the bright side, Starwishes is an angel.
Maybe.
Okay, nope.

Comments

[markzilla6895]

Cute