• Published 16th Sep 2016
  • 7,438 Views, 344 Comments

Consanguinity - D4ftP0ny



Princess Skyla, having escaped her own world after seven long years of toil, tries to adjust to having loving parents, a doting aunt, a few eccentric acquaintances, and, most importantly, a sister who wants nothing more than to share in her trials.

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Sister-in-law Synchronized Stressing

The night breeze was soft and warm as it rushed over Cadence’s body, its gentle touch teasing her tail and mane as she sat at the window of her chambers. The window itself was huge, at least compared to other windows in the castle, and came complete with a large raised bench that allowed a pony to stretch out and relax directly in front of it. It was an amenity that the Crystal Princess had grown quite fond of, and it was a place where she could often be found after a long day of royal duties.

Or after a long day of trying my best to maintain my composure, she thought with a sigh as she gazed out into the moonlight night. It felt like just doing that took all of the energy I had… and that’s really not something that I’m used to. She flexed her forelegs and firmly squeezed one of the plushy pillows that covered the crystal platform beneath her, the soft, yielding material giving her a satisfactory sensation of resistance while still collapsing beneath her grip. Normally I can speak my mind around Twilight, Luna, and Celestia, and Sunburst has become a pony we can rely on to keep our secrets, but today… She squeezed the pillow yet again as a wave of what she could only describe as nausea washed over her, a sick, warm feeling that made her want to groan in disgust. Ugh, it was all I could do to stay in there…

The door to her chambers creaked open, and the sound of a single set of hoofsteps entering the room caused her left ear to flick towards the sound; she did not, however, attempt to draw her gaze away from the city below her, its crystalline buildings awash in the silver light of the full moon, because she didn’t need to see who had entered. After all, there were only two ponies in the kingdom who would enter her chambers without knocking, and only one of those two had such broad, confident hoofsteps.

“Well, snowflake’s in bed,” said Shining Armor, his voice filling Cadence with warmth as he pulled the door closed behind him with an audible click. “She was a perfect angel, as always, though she was a little sad that you didn’t come to say goodnight to her.” His hoofsteps drew louder as he approached her and, in spite of her happiness at his presence, Cadence’s ears sank towards her mane and her brow knit into a frown at his words.

“I knew she would be,” she said softly, her words sounding as tired as she felt, “but I really needed some time to be alone after today…” She sighed sharply and pulled her eyes from the city so that she could turn them to her husband, who drew up next to her with a smile. “Do you think Flurry will understand?” she asked, her heart clenching in her chest. She rarely – if ever – missed out on sending her daughter to bed personally. Even if the day had been filled with royal petitions, visits from dignitaries, and dinners with nobles, Cadence always did her best to make sure that Flurry Heart went to bed with a healthy dose of parental love, so missing a day like today set her already frazzled nerves even more on edge. To her relief, however, Shining just chuckled and gave her the lopsided grin that she’d fallen in love with.

“I know she does. She said to tell you goodnight from her, and that she hopes you’ll feel better in the morning.”

Cadence relaxed on her cushions as a weight lifted from her chest, though it certainly wasn’t the whole weight. “I’m sure I will,” she said softly, her eyes moving back to the city outside her window. “Today was just too much for me, that’s all. An uncomfortable afternoon to end seven days of worry and stress…” she sighed, “…and, even though we won’t have all of our answers until tomorrow, I’m sure that just knowing we’ll get them will help me feel better.” She felt the cushions shift as Shining climbed up onto the platform with her and, after a few moments of shifting and shuffling, she felt the warmth of his body as he nestled against her left side.

“It’s been a pretty weird week,” he agreed, his words gentle in her ears. “Everything was fine and normal, with normal Crystal Kingdom things to do and take care of… and then suddenly there’s Skyla.” He sighed and nuzzled Cadence’s cheek with his muzzle. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I…” Cadence’s ears folded back against her mane, “I’m not sure I do… or rather, I’m not sure I should at this point.” She turned her eyes back to her husband and met his gaze, her wings rustling anxiously against her flanks as the emotion and anxiety of a week’s worth of worrying stirred inside her. “I’m trying so hard,” she admitted, her words barely louder than a whisper as her throat tightened against the restless, acidic tasted that rose up from her stomach and threatened to overwhelm her. “I really am, Shiny, but…”

The unicorn stallion nodded as her words trailed off, and before she could continue he leaned over and pressed the side of his horn against hers, his nose gently touching her own.

“All right, take it easy,” he whispered. “Take a deep breath, songbird. Deep breaths.”

Cadence nodded as much as she could and complied, her eyes half closing as she took in a lungful of the clean night air with a hint of Shining Armor mixed in. The presence of the stallion soothed her agitated spirit in a way that nopony else’s ever did, and not for the first time the Princess of the Crystal Kingdom thanked whatever powers that watched over them that Shining Armor was her husband. I’m not sure I could have made it this far as Princess of this kingdom without him, she thought as she took another deep breath. She let the breath out slowly and drew in another lungful of air before opening her eyes once again, her ears rising from out of her mane as she relaxed.

“…thank you, Shiny,” she muttered as she pressed her head against him more firmly for a moment. “I needed that.” She sighed and sat up straight once more, removing her horn from his and turning her eyes to the city once again as she looped her left hoof over his right. “And I suppose that you’re right,” she continued. “It’s high time that we did have a talk about… Skyla.”

Shining nodded, the movement teasing the edges of Cadence’s peripheral vision. “I know I said I’d wait until you were ready to talk about it, but I’m afraid time’s running out.” He squeezed her foreleg with his own. “Twilight’s going to figure everything out by tomorrow, and if I know my sister she’s going to have a list of things that can or should be done with Skyla, according to what she finds. That means that by tomorrow, we need to be on the same page so that when she brings these things up we’re not arguing with each another while arguing with others.” He chuckled, bouncing Cadence’s smaller frame on the cushions. “Try saying that five times fast…”

The pink alicorn sighed. “I know… and I know that you’re right… but where do we even start?” She shook her head, her eyes never leaving the night outside her window. “It’s not every day that some filly bounces out of a mirror and says that she’s your daughter, but not your daughter… I mean, how are we even supposed to act around her?” She turned her eyes back to her husband as the volatile mixture of worry and anxiety rose in her chest yet again and caused her words to shake as they left her lips. “I know we were putting off discussing this until we had more information, but now that we do have more, it’s like the decisions we have to make are even further away than before…”

“Yeah, you’re right,” muttered Shining as he shifted even closer to her, his white coat pressing and rubbing firmly against her own. “The more I think about everything that Skyla said, the more I feel kinda sick to my stomach, y’know?” He offered her a tiny, sympathetic smile. “I’m willing to bet that it didn’t exactly make you feel good, either,” he whispered. Cadence inhaled sharply as her throat tightened, and after a moment she nodded.

“You’d win that bet,” she breathed, her ears twitching as if they longed to dive into the safety of her voluminous curls. “Hearing her talk about the world she’s from… it was heartbreaking.” She scooted a little closer to Shining and extended her left wing, wrapping her feathers around the stout frame of the stallion. “To hear about how awful we are in that universe… I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her. I mean, I worry and fuss about sending Flurry to bed without a hug!” She sighed and glanced down at her hooves, their edges lost in the fluffy pillows around her. “I just can’t imagine treating our daughter like that… it made me feel sick to my stomach… and my heart.” She winced and allowed her ears to dive to safety as the feelings that had filled her during Twilight’s questions came flooding back into her: anger, fear, disbelief, and the unmistakable pangs of sympathy all whirled around in Cadence’s head and heart, clogging her already crowded thoughts with a fog that made thinking all but impossible. She sniffled as tears sprang to her eyes before sighing. “I just want to help her, Shiny,” she whispered shakily. “She’s all alone, now…”

Shining Armor’s hoof squeezed her own beneath the pillows, and she felt the heat of him as he pressed a kiss against her cheek. “Don’t worry, songbird,” he whispered, his dulcet tones dulling the emotional whirlwind that filled Cadence, “that’s what I was thinking, too.” He sat back a little and sighed as Cadence looked to him once again. “I didn’t want to say that’s what I wanted because I didn’t want to influence your decision, but now that I know that’s what you’re thinking too, well, I guess there’s no point in hiding it anymore.” He turned his gaze out the window as his brow furrowed and his eyes grew serious, and Cadence had to admit that he looked very princely when he was serious. “I don’t know what Twilight’s going to say about Skyla tomorrow,” he admitted. “I don’t know what she’s going to say about how Skyla’s presence is going to affect our world, or even if she’s going to say that it’s safe for her to stay here at all.” His lips pressed into a thin line and he squeezed Cadence’s hoof again. “All I know is that Skyla needs our help and our support no matter what happens… but if she’s going to stay in this world at all, she’s going to need more than just friends.”

Cadence’s eyes widened and she felt a single beat of her heart resonate throughout her, as if Shining Armor had strummed a single string on a harp and let the note echo in an otherwise silent room.

“Yes… yes, you’re right,” she said softly, her heart suddenly pounding in her ears as she stared at the stallion she loved. How does he always know what I’m thinking? It’s got to be some kind of unicorn trick that he’s not showed me… “She’s going to need a lot more than just friends... but…” She sighed. “Do you think we can be more to her? I mean, I haven’t gotten to spend more than a few minutes alone with her at any given time. It’s like she’s actively avoiding me, even when I go out of my way to try.”

“Yeah… she hasn’t seemed super enthusiastic about spending time with me, either,” admitted Shining as his ears flopped back against his mane. “Even when we got to spend some time together we didn’t talk at all, and she left as soon as she could.”

Silence welled up around them again, the cloying soundlessness filling Cadence’s world until she thought she would drown in it. Even the sighing of the wind through her open window tapered off into quiet, and only the occasional noise from the city below fractured the bubble that surrounded the couple. Cadence’s wings shuffled against her sides as the hopeful part of her, sparked to life by Shining’s words, warred angrily with the part of her that wanted to simply give up instead of finding a way to help. Eventually, however, she cleared her throat loudly before sighing.

“Well, I suppose we’ll just have to try harder in the future, then,” she said, shattering the bubble around them. Shining’s gaze returned to her, and she gave him a smile. “If we’re serious about helping, then it’s probably not going to be easy…” she squeezed his hoof, “but it’s going to be worth it if we can help her, even if it’s just a little bit.”

“Yeah… I don’t suppose it’d be easy to go to a world where everypony you knew was different, but looked almost exactly the same.” Shining shook his head and blinked, his expression moving from natural into absurd so quickly that Cadence’s right hoof shot to her mouth as a giggle rose in her throat, the first genuine laughter that she’d tasted all day. “It’d be enough to make anypony’s head spin, much less a filly like Skyla,” he said with a dramatic and comical roll of his eyes.

Cadence’s giggle rose into a laugh as Shining smiled brightly at her, and as the waves of mirth filled her, she felt some of the trepidation and fear that had filled her heart melt away. She pressed her hoof to her forehead for a moment as her laughter receded before dropping it back to the bed with a loud whump, her lips curving into a smile that warmed her from nose to tail.

“You’re right about that,” she agreed. “She’s got a lot of baggage from her world riding on those tiny shoulders of hers, and if she’s ever going to be happy here then she’s going to have to let go of the past and move forward.” She sighed. “But is she going to let us get close enough to help? I mean, from what I understand, her parents look exactly like us. That might make things… a little awkward.”

Shining smiled. “She’s warming up to Flurry Heart well enough,” he said with a minute shrug. “The two of them are hardly ever apart anymore, and Skyla doesn’t seem to mind that much at all. For Celestia’s sake, I’m sure that when I go to wake up Flurry in the morning, she’ll be down in Skyla’s room.”

“Have they been staying in the same room all week? I told Flurry to give Skyla her space... but I understand what you’re saying.” She gave Shining’s hoof a squeeze with her own. “We’ll try to work from where Flurry’s gotten us. I’m sure that together, we can show her that we’re nothing like the ponies in the world she came from.”

“And maybe someday, she’ll be ready to accept what we want to give her.” Shining returned her hoof squeeze before leaning forward and kissing Cadence lightly, his lips pressing softly against hers for the barest of heartbeats before he pulled away and sat up straight with a smile. “That reminds me, Sunburst told me about the information he found.”

Cadence’s eyes went wide and she shifted on the dais, moving her body away from Shining so that she could turn and look at him squarely. “He did?” she asked, her wings shuffling against her sides. “But he said that he’d wait to tell me directly!”

“Well, that was initially his plan, sweetheart.” Shining lifted a hoof and pressed it gently down onto Cadence’s hooves, which she had pressed together and pointed towards her husband. It never ceased to amaze her how big and powerful his hooves looked compared to hers, despite the earth pony traits that she possessed. It’s no wonder he could pick me up and throw me, she thought. “He told me to let you know that he was sorry he couldn’t tell you himself, but he knew that he’d be locked away with Twilight and Starlight for most of the night and didn’t want to risk missing the chance to pass it on to you in any way he could.” The Crystal Princess’ mouth pursed into a petulant pout, but she knew her heart wasn’t in it.

“Well… that’s fine, I suppose,” she said after a moment. She shifted her right hoof out from under Shining’s enormous one and placed it onto his, her smile returning and her eyes shimmering with excitement. “So? What did he say?”

Shining barked a laugh and shook his head again. “I swear, Cady, you can change moods faster than the winter wind can change direction.” A frown teased Cadence’s brow at his words, but before she could object to what he’d said the stallion sighed and smiled at her disarmingly. “He said that there would be no problem in us adopting Skyla if we wanted to.”

Now her heart swelled in her chest, and she grasped his hoof tightly with her own as she pulled herself towards him. “Really?!” she whispered, her voice soft yet sharp. “No problems at all?”

“Nope, not one.” The stallion grinned. “In fact, he said that now that he knows that she’s not tied to the Crystal Heart back in her world, we could even have a Crystaling for her,” he snorted, “except maybe without the whole breaking the Heart and almost losing the kingdom part… that part wasn’t fun at all.”

Cadence laughed and rose to her hooves, her wings extending away from her as her mane draped across her right shoulder. “That’s great!” she whispered, her words muted as her heart swelled in her chest. “We… we could officially make her a member of our family, and make her an official Princess of the Crystal Kingdom, all in one fell swoop!” She hopped down from the dais and took a few steps away, her hooves clopping loudly in the silence of the room. “I… I can’t believe it! That’s so perfect!”

“Well, yeah, I suppose it is,” said Shining as he, too, rose to his hooves and hopped down onto the floor, “but you have to remember that all of that has to be Skyla’s choice. We can’t force her to do it, and I’d even be uncomfortable suggesting it to her until we were sure that she even wanted to stay in the Kingdom.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to stay in the Kingdom?” Cadence turned on her hooves and frowned at Shining, the bubbling feeling inside of her dimming somewhat as the stallion sighed again.

“We have to think about how she feels, Cady,” he said gently, his hoofsteps clopping in deep, resounding notes as he moved towards her. “She was pretty much a prisoner in this castle in her own world, and we were her jailors…” He stopped in front of her, his gaze meeting hers as his ears twitched. “I mean… do you think you’d be able to go to a world and suddenly be bestest-best friends with Chrysalis? Or Tirek?”

Cadence’s ears drooped as the thought of running into a version of the Changeling queen or the centaur that desperately wanted to be her friend popped into her mind, and after a moment she shook her head to chase the images away. “No… I guess that’d be harder to do than I’d like to admit,” she said softly. Her ears flattened against her mane, but a determined frown creased her forehead before she could give in to defeat. “But that doesn’t mean Skyla will have the same problems,” she said. “It’s possible that she’ll still see the castle as familiar ground and want to stay here as she adapts to the new world, right? Especially since she and Flurry are such good friends already.”

Shining nodded. “Well, that’s a good possibility, yes. She does seem very comfortable here.”

“Then I say that tomorrow, we let Twilight and the others know that we’ll gladly let her stay here with us if she’d like to,” said Cadence as she took a step towards Shining Armor. “You’re right about one thing, though: I don’t want to overstep my boundaries and become an abusive figure like her mother was.” She winced at the comparison, but shook her head and continued. “We’ll let her stay here until she decides she wants to move on,” she added, “with no obligations or ties to us unless she absolutely wants them.” She smiled charmingly at her husband. “Does that sound agreeable?”

He nodded emphatically, his short hair bouncing wildly out of place despite the limited nature of his movement. “Absolutely.”

Cadence giggled lightly and kissed the white stallion on the cheek. “Flurry really does have your hair,” she sighed. “I’m going to start putting you in charge of her daily brushings so you can see what you’ve cursed our daughter with.”

Shining Armor threw his head back and laughed incredulously before turning his gaze back to Cadence, a mischievous glint shimmering in his eyes. “Well, if that’s how this is going to be, I’ll make sure to let you deal with one of her next temper tantrums… since, you know…” Cadence felt her cheeks flush as her eyes widened, and to her chagrin Shining mimicked her expression in such an over-the-top way that the alicorn couldn’t keep the anger that had flared up inside her from sputtering and going out.

“Shining Armor!” she half-gasped, half-laughed, “you… you’re an absolute cad!” He laughed loudly and stepped forward, pressing his chest against hers.

“Yeah, but you still love me,” he murmured against her cheek, his breath tickling her coat as his velvety soft nose rubbed against her. “Just like I love you, despite the fact that you can be a total drama queen sometimes…”

Now Cadence brushed her lips softly against his cheek. “Thank you for talking with me about everything,” she whispered. “And I know for a fact that you love it when I’m dramatic… it gives you a damsel in distress to rescue.” He chuckled, the sound reverberating in the room around them.

“Well, what can I say? My name is Shining Armor, so I guess it comes with the territory.”

The Princess drew her head back and looked into the eyes of the stallion she loved once more, her heart filling her smile as she grinned up at him. “I wouldn’t have you any other way,” she whispered. Her eyes softened and she glanced over at their large bed, its sheets immaculate and unmolested. “Maybe… I can offer you some other kind of territory that you might enjoy..?”

Shining Armor arched an eyebrow at her, and his lips curved into a lopsided grin. “Are you suggesting to me what I think you’re suggesting, Princess?”

Cadence bit her lip sensually and nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving his. “Oooh yeah, baby… I am…”

“Going to bed early?”

Cadence’s nod became emphatic as her mane slowly bounced out of place. “Uh-huh,” she whimpered. “Can we please…? I’m so tired…”

The stallion laughed and kissed her on the cheek once again. “C’mon, let’s get tucked in. Everything else can wait until the morning.” The pair turned and moved towards their bed, their sides bumping against one another affectionately as Shining’s horn lit up and began turning out the lights around their room one at a time, slowly but inevitably plunging their room towards moonlight darkness. “I wonder if Twilight’s going to stay up too late,” he muttered as his magic turned out another lamp. “It would be just like her to stay up and then be an absolute mess the next day.”

“Oh, I’d say that’s almost one hundred percent guaranteed to happen,” agreed Cadence as the light dimmed, a yawn chasing the end of her words. “But she doesn’t have a daughter to worry after in the morning, so she’s allowed to stay up just as late as she pleases.”

Shining laughed and turned out the last light before snagging the edges of their blankets with his magic. “And she’ll do exactly that, I promise you. Especially with Sunburst and Starlight there with her.” Cadence pulled her side of the blankets down with her magic and the pair crawled into bed together, their legs intertwining as they scooted as close to one another as they could. “Heck, I bet that they’re having a great time, too. Reading and discussing science that would make my head hurt just thinking about it…” He smirked up at the ceiling. “I bet they’ve already figured everything out and are just goofing off right about now…”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Twilight Sparkle massaged her temples with the pads of her hooves as she sighed in vexation, her head pounding so hard that she felt certain that it would split open if she removed the pressure from the sides of her head.

“For the last time, Sunburst, there’s no way to test whether or not Skyla is a physical risk to this dimension!” she muttered, her words feeling rounded and much more sluggish than she thought they should be. “According to our research, if she was an immediate threat it would have been because of an incompatibility with the energy and magic of our world as compared to the magic and energy of her world, and she would have exploded upon entry.” Twilight dropped her hooves back to the desk and directed her gaze to the stallion who sat across from her, her eyes feeling grainy and achy. I swear if he brings up Starswirl’s Transitional Theory one more time…

“But Starswirl’s Transitional Theory states that-,” the unicorn began, his glasses sliding much farther down his nose than he would have normally allowed so that he could look over the tops of them at Twilight, but the alicorn raised a hoof and waved it frantically at him.

“No no NO, we’re NOT going through this all AGAIN!” she snapped, her brow furrowing until she thought it would leave permanent marks on her forehead. “We’ve been THROUGH the Transitional Theory front to back, and the only way to test it is if there is a copy of a pony in BOTH WORLDS. Skyla, as far as we know, only existed there, so we can’t test the theory because she only exists here now, meaning that she should be totally and completely safe since she didn’t EXPLODE WHEN SHE GOT HERE!” Twilight banged her hooves onto the desk in frustration, causing a stack of books to slide to one side and spill across the paper-covered desktop. “Celestia and Starswirl were able to prove it because they went back and forth to Good King Sombra’s world countless times over years, and even then it was little things that tipped them off.” Twilight’s magic snagged a copy of The Principles of Space-Time Equilibrium and held it up in front of the stallion as she pointed to it with her hoof. “The Transitional Theory states that the very act of passing back and forth is what draws the worlds together, like passing a magnet between two pieces of ferrous metal. The more passage back and forth, the closer they get. Skyla’s already here and isn’t going back which means no passage between worlds which means no magnetic effect which means NO PROBLEM!” She dropped the book back to the table and sat in her chair, her chest heaving and her mane in disarray from what felt like hundreds of hours of reading and discussing. I don’t remember this being so hard when I was a student, she thought as Sunburst crossed his hooves over his chest. I used to stay up for days on end reading and writing papers! What’s happened to meeee..?

“But the Transitional Theory also states that Starswirl didn’t know what would happen if a pony was placed into the world and simply left there,” insisted Sunburst, his eyes bloodshot and weary. “It could be like magnetizing the whole other world so that the collision happens that much faster.”

“Again, there’s no way to test that,” said Starlight from the chair at the end of the desk to Twilight’s right, her mane looking as disheveled as Twilight’s felt, “but I think that another book might hold the answers to that question.” The unicorn mare rubbed her eyes with a hoof and picked up a book next to her with her magic, though Twilight noticed that the magical aura shifted in color several times as the book wobbled in the air. “How to Safely Punch a Hole in Space states that if her means and method of travel were sufficiently precise and prepared, then her presence here – especially considering that there is no double of her in this universe – shouldn’t make any difference to our world at all.”

“But that only works if it was an alternate universe and not a parallel universe, Starlight.” Sunburst poked at the copy of A Beginners Guide to Alternate Worlds with his hoof. “An alternate universe is one like the one that Sunset Shimmer went to, where her presence has had no effect on the world at all… well, except for the damage she herself has done to it.” He adjusted his glasses and snorted disdainfully. “Honestly, how could a scholar and student of Celestia take a powerful magical object into a world without magic and cause so much trouble?”

“Don’t drag Sunset into this,” growled Twilight, her eyes narrowing. Sunburst sighed heavily and waved a hoof.

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry – but she is a good example of what I was talking about. Even with a portal between this world and that world, that world has never begun to affect ours or vice versa.” He held both his hooves up in front of him vertically so that both mares could see them. “If it’s a parallel universe, then it was never meant to cross paths with our own and Starswirl’s Transitional Theory applies. Meaning, of course, that as travel is made between them they get drawn closer and closer together…” he began to move his forelegs towards one another in increments, but before he could continue talking Twilight sighed loudly.

“And eventually they’ll begin to overlap until just one, weird universe is left over with unknown consequences to both, yes, we remember from the LAST time you talked about it.”

Starlight dropped her book back to the desk before dropping her head onto the book itself, her eyes glazed and exhausted. “Then how in the name of Tartaurus do we figure out what kind of world she’s from?!” she whined. “You got all that information from her, Twilight! Can’t you figure out whether it’s an alternate world or a parallel one?!”

Now Twilight’s ears folded back into her messy mane and she turned a glare towards her friend and student. “Well gosh, Starlight, I really wish I could,” she hissed, “but unfortunately, it’s not like we could go skipping across universes to find it and conduct tests, now is it?” She pushed a book out of her way and glanced down at the pages upon pages of notes that she’d made during their study session, all of which had ink blots and hasty notes scribbled in every conceivable location. “Maybe you don’t remember how much trouble you caused by jumping through time like you did, but trying to do something like that again would be absolutely nuts, not to mention dangerous beyond-,”

Suddenly, Sunburst sat bolt upright in his chair as if he’d been electrocuted, scattering a few stray papers away from his hooves and causing both Starlight and Twilight to gasp in fear.

“THAT’S IT!!” he shouted, his voice causing Twilight’s head to throb so painfully that her eyes jammed themselves shut as she winced.

“Aaaagh!” she moaned, her hooves darting to her temples again. “Shhhhh!! Don’t talk so loud, you big idiot!”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry, Twilight,” came Sunburst’s voice through the vibrating blackness of Twilight’s world, “but I just had a- well, I think I- oh, where’s a quill?!” The rustling of papers filled Twilight’s pounding head, and it was only after a long moment of intense self-motivation that the alicorn managed to open her eyes, where she found Sunburst frantically scribbling on a piece of paper with a quill. “I had totally and completely forgotten about your time-hopping, Starlight!” muttered Sunburst with an almost mad scientist like glee. “I had completely forgotten, but now that I’ve remembered…” His quill danced across his paper, sketching out complex equations that whirled with Starswirl’s magical theories into a miasma of math and magic that made Twilight’s late night head absolutely spin. She blinked heavily and brought her eyes back up to Sunburst, who was practically glowing with renewed determination now that he had a lead to follow. He’s… he’s actually pretty cute, she thought, her teeth nipping at her bottom lip as she stared. Especially when he’s being all… thinky nerdy brainy about stuff…

“All right, I’ve got it.” Sunburst slapped the quill down onto the desk and sat up straight once more, his magic glowing brightly as it snatched up the paper he’d been writing on and presented it to the mares one at a time. Twilight shook her head and squinted at the paper, but whether it was due to the late hour or Sunburst’s atrocious penmanship, she couldn’t make heads or tails of what he’d written. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to matter to Sunburst, who plowed on without hesitation. “Because I’d forgotten about Starlight’s time traveling, I’d completely neglected a third possible option for the type of world that Skyla had come from – a type of world that is governed by different rules than the other two!” He pointed to the bottom of his page with a hoof, his eyes glowing with excitement. “The alternate history!”

Starlight stared at him blankly. “Sunburst… that’s what we were saying earlier. That it was an alternate history… and it took you this long to figure it out?!” she growled through gritted teeth. Sunburst shook his head vehemently and tapped the paper frantically.

“No no no, Starlight, listen – this is much more important than you think. See, what I neglected to take into account was temporal anomalies, like Starswirl suggested in his Gravity Waves book.” His hoof moved up the page to a complicated series of equations. “When you and Twilight were bouncing back and forth in time, you were stirring up some unbelievably strong ripples in the time stream. Not only that, you effectively stopped time up at the moment that you kept traveling back to… so, like any other kind of stream…”

“It pushed backwards,” muttered Twilight, her eyes widening as her cobweb-strewn brain slowly creaked into action once again. “That’s what happens when you dam up a stream – it floods behind the dam!”

“Precisely!” squeaked Sunburst happily. “So your leaping through time caused a backwash into the actual time stream itself, and when that happened, the stream burst its banks and presto,” he pointed to another spot on his paper, “a new alternate history is born.”

Starlight stared at the paper and Sunburst, her eyes wide and her mouth open slightly for several long seconds before she finally blinked and gave her head a slow shake. “But… but that’s impossible,” she muttered. “I planned everything so carefully… the spell was perfect… and I didn’t go back a thousand years, only a few… how could it have possibly affected something so far back?” She gave hear head a shake that was much more firm and determined, and when she refocused her eyes on Sunburst they were full of anger. “That’s impossible. There’s no way that I could have done that!”

“But you did,” insisted Sunburst as he placed the paper back onto the desk. “Your careless time jumping created countless alternate futures, didn’t it? Well, it stands to reason that some of those probably had alternate histories, as well. Time’s a weird thing, Starlight, and you can’t always predict how it’s going to react when you go splashing around in it.”

“But… but I…” Twilight felt a pang of sympathy as the fire in Starlight’s eyes flickered and died out, and with a shaking sigh the unicorn mare dropped her gaze back to the desk, her eyes empty and unfocused. “That’s impossible… how could it…?”

“The good news is that this revelation makes things relatively simple,” said Sunburst, turning his attention back to Twilight. “If it’s an alternate history, then it branches out from our own ‘mother’ time stream. As long as our history continues on unbroken, that world will do so, as well. The best news here is that because it is an alternate history, many ponies who exist here do not exist there, answering the question of incompatible energy: there is no Skyla here just as there is no Flurry Heart there, but because both princesses are of Shining Armor and Cadence’s bloodline – and alicorns, to boot – then our timeline will reject neither of them because of their compatible energies.” He pushed his glasses up towards his eyes, his left eyelid twitching slightly. “And, as stated in How to Safely Punch a Hole in Space and Portal Mirrors, an alternate history – which is, indeed, a type of alternate universe – is much more stable thanks to its branching nature from the main time stream, so Skyla’s transition here will have no effect on our world or her home world.” He sat back in his chair and dropped his hooves to his side as he heaved a sigh filled with relief so profound that Twilight couldn’t help but relax as well. “Oh sweet mother of Celestia that feels good!” he whispered as he closed his eyes.

“And what about a possible invasion?” muttered Starlight, her eyes never leaving the spot on the desk that she’d chosen to stare at. “Shining Armor asked for… a report on that, as well…”

“Simple. The connection between our worlds – the actual transporting magical force – was only open for a few moments. She had a vague connection for almost a year, yes, but the chances of that leaving a lasting trail of magic for somepony else to follow is slim to none.” Sunburst sat forward and tapped the cover of Portal Mirrors again. “Like poking a needle through gelatin and then removing the needle, it would be all but impossible to find the same connecting thread to get to our world from there without the same means that Skyla used to locate us.”

“How did she locate us?”

“Her dream,” answered Twilight quickly, her scholarly spirit pressing her forward so that she could add to the discussion and not be left out by Sunburst’s theories. I’m not going to be left out just because he thought of it… and because I’m tired… and because… um… She shook her head sharply before turning her gaze back to Starlight. “Skyla mentioned that she saw Flurry in a dream, and that was how she knew we were here.” She shrugged. “It might not seem like much, but knowing what you’re looking for is the first rule of teleportation… so I suppose the same theory could apply when you’re taking a blind shot through the multiverse.”

Sunburst shrugged. “So unless anypony else has a random dream about a pony from our universe, there’s no way that they could find us. That works for me!” The stallion slid off of his chair and staggered as his hooves hit the floor, his cape swaying around his hooves as he made his way towards the door. “That was some good work tonight, ladies,” he said over his shoulder. “I… I’ll see you both in the morning… or… later this morning…” He grabbed the doorknob with his hoof and yanked the door open, tossing a smile over his shoulder to Twilight as he staggered through the door. “Good mornight!” He waved and was gone, with the skittering, staggering sound of his hoofsteps in the hallway to prove that he’d actually started walking away and not simply passed out in the hall.

“Well, that was certainly productive…” muttered Twilight sulkily as she too hopped down from her chair. She stretched her legs and extended her wings to their fullest, stretching as many muscles as she could before relaxing with a loud gasp. “Oooh, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow… maybe I’ll just take the train back to Ponyville instead of flying…” A yawn rose in her throat and forced its way out between her teeth, filling the alicorn’s world with blackness and the roar of rushing air for several long seconds before it subsided. “Oh I am one tiiiiired Princess,” she murmured as she turned towards the door. “C’mon, Starlight – it’s time for us to hit the hay, finally.”

She took a step towards Starlight and the door, but the unicorn didn’t move. She simply kept staring at the papers and books in front of her, her eyes wide and unseeing. Twilight frowned at her, and after a moment of silence she extended her left wing and passed it in front of Starlight’s eyes twice, her feathers rustling together as she did so.

“Hellloooo, Equestria to Starlight,” she said loudly. “Let’s get out of here and get to bed! We’ve got a pretty long day ahead of us tomorrow too, you know.”

Starlight blinked slowly in the face of her wing, but to Twilight’s surprise the other mare made no move to rise from her chair. Instead, the unicorn slowly shook her head, her eyes still locked on the desk.

“I did this…” she whispered softly enough that Twilight barely heard it. “Her future… her past… they… they’re all my fault…”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Whoa, now wait a second, Starlight… that’s not… that’s not exactly fair, okay?” She took a step towards her friend, but Starlight held up her left hoof into Twilight’s face.

“Please, go on to bed, Twilight,” she said, her voice wistfully soft and empty. “I… I’ll go in a few minutes…”

“Starlight, I don’t think-,”

“Please… just go.” Starlight dropped her hoof back to her side and turned away from Twilight so that the curl of her mane hid her face, though not before she saw the tears begin to flow down the unicorn’s cheeks. “Please…”

The alicorn hesitated for a moment, but her complete exhaustion made the prospect of doing anything but sleeping seem like an impossible one. With one last glance at Starlight, Twilight Sparkle hurried to the door and out into the hallway, her hoofsteps quickly filling the long passage as she made her way towards her bed and what little rest she would be able to get… and as she reached the end of the hall, she heard another sound filter into the empty spaces between her hoofsteps: the slow, rhythmic sound of crying.

Twilight winced, but her hooves continued to carry her towards her rest as her heart began to ache just as much as her head. I’ll talk with her tomorrow… I’m sure things will be better in the morning.