Back and Forth with Friends

by Purple Pony

Chapter 5

Author's Note:

Baby I'm back
You can blame it all on me

Seriously, I know it's been a year, and my name has changed, and I know it's just over a thousand words, but I swear I haven't forgotten about this story. At least I got something published.

In cased you missed the blog post, I'm going to be working on this story all through winter break. I may or may not finish it, but I will work on it all through the break. I haven't worked on it at all during college, so if I don't finish it over break, expect it to be finished next summer.

Anyways, on to the show!

“What’s with the glasses?” The princess asked the scientist.

The two Twilights were just starting to compare notes between worlds and seeing if there was any correlation besides the inhabitants. Naturally, the differences even between the counterparts were making themselves known. Such as the fact that one Twilight wore glasses, whereas one didn’t.

“These are for my nearsightedness. If I take them off, I can’t see more than a few feet in front of me. What about you? Why don’t you wear glasses?” The scientist asked the princess.

“I don’t need them.” Was the blunt response.

“Are you sure? You might be surprised by the results.” The scientist chose her words perfectly.

“Well, for knowledge’s sake.” The princess gingerly grabbed the glasses off the scientist’s face before setting them on the bridge of her nose. She then blinked. Twice. “Oh wow! Everything’s so clear!”

The scientist’s jaw dropped. “You mean you didn’t realize you had bad eyesight for HOW long?!”

“All my life! I just assumed it was normal. Clearly, I was wrong.” The princess replied with a wink.

The scientist groaned and rolled her eyes at the pun. “Har dee har har, sooooooo clever, princess.”

Deciding to ignore the sarcasm, the princess immediately called out. “SPIIIIKE!”

The baby dragon (but don’t tell him I called him that) immediately walked in. “You didn’t have to yell, Twilight. I was right outside.”

“I figured you were in your room reading a comic book.” The princess answered honestly.

The scientist stared at the dragon. The dragon that had the same colors as her dog.

“I had to be here in case something went wrong as a result of you two comparing notes between universes.”

“Like what?”

“The thought of you two trying to figure something out between universes which wasn’t supposed to be found, which could have blended our worlds together or just collapsed the multi-verse in on itself until all universes were destroyed.” Spike explained. Both Twilights looked at him as if he was crazy. “I read it in a comic book, sheesh.”

“Spike, really, what are the chances of that happening?”

“About as great as Chrysalis disguising as Cadence, or Tirek escaping Tartarus in the day that Cerberus was gone, or a pony being able to steal cutie marks, or the same pony being reformed after nearly shattering time, or Chrysalis capturing all of us except for Starlight, and then Starlight managing to defeat Chrysalis and convert the changelings, or the fact that you went to another world after your element was stolen and managed to win a popularity contest despite only being there for two days and then having to go back to defeat something StarSwirl the Bearded decided to chuck over there that was feeding off of the magic you and Sunset inadvertently brought there. Do you want me to continue, or have I fully convinced you that just because something is unlikely, doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to happen, especially when you are involved.” Spike finally takes a breath. “How does Pinkie do that?”

The scientist stared over at the princess. “That all actually happened?”

“He missed the fact that an empire reappeared after a thousand years, and he missed the fact that we stopped Nightmare Moon, but yeah, all that really happened.” The princess replied.

“And I thought my life was hectic. Trying to balance research, school, and friendship is really tough. I barely sleep some nights.” The scientist sighs in exasperation.

“Same here. I don’t sleep several nights a week, just so I can get some actual science done around here.” The princess echoes the scientist’s sigh.

“Science? You mean that science actually is a thing in a world where magic can break the rules?” The scientist asks excitedly.

“Why wouldn’t it be? There are rules, therefore there is science. Magic even follows its own set of rules.” The princess explains.

“I REEEALY need your help, then. We’ve been trying to experiment on us when our magic happens, but we can’t make heads nor tails of it. I want to get it figured out because not knowing something is KILLING ME!” The scientist cries out.

The princess smiles brightly. “I’d be happy to help! *gasp* Spike, set me up an appointment for the nearest ophthalmologist so I can get some glasses.” Spike nods and dashes off, eager to get his work done so he actually could read comic books. “So, when should I come over?” The princess asks.

“The equipment is at the school, so whenever this impromptu vacation ends would be fine.” The scientist answers. “In the meantime, there is still some comparing and contrasting to do.”

“Verily.”

---

“Wait, pony R. D. is a member of the military, and human R. D. is an athlete? How do those compare together?”

“I think it’s mostly just the personalities that compare. Both are physically fit, maybe aren’t the best students, love going fast and being awesome, and tend to charge into a problem head first. They probably can’t do the same roles because our worlds are just that different. The others just happen to be in roles that both worlds have.” The princess states.

“Fashionista, veterinarian, party planner slash assistant chef slash reality breaker, and a farmer. Then that leaves us, with you being a part of royalty, whereas I am just going to be a scientist, which can also be explained as a difference between worlds, as the country we live in doesn’t have royalty, and royalty can’t be earned by sprouting wings.” The scientist muses out loud. “Have you ever figured out exactly how Pinkie Pie works?”

The princess immediately starts backing away. “NONONONONONONONONONO NOT DOING THAT AGAIN NOPE SO MUCH NOPE! DON’T RESEARCH PINKIE PIE AT ALL!!!”

The scientist briefly considers asking why, then thinks better of it. “Okaaayyyy… what else can we compare?”

---

Sometime that evening

---

“Twilight! Are you here?” Starlight calls out.

“Yeah, Twilight. Can you hear us?” Sunset yells into the castle.

Spike walks into the entryway. “They’re in the research room.”

“Which one was that again?” Starlight asks.

“Starlight, you’ve been living here for several months now, you should know where stuff is.”

“I’ve tried mapping this place, but it doesn’t seem to want to be mapped.”

“Down that hall” Spike points “and take the third left, then the second right, and you should be there. Be quiet, I think there’s some hardcore studying going on.” Spike says with a shudder.

“Thanks for the warning.” Sunset says, before following Starlight down the hall that Spike pointed at.

After almost missing their turn, the two mares knock before opening the door to the research room. Hearing no answer, the two quietly open the door. Inside, the two Twilights are sleeping at the table, with one pair of glasses in the middle and several hundred sheets of paper surrounding the sleeping mares. Sunset and Starlight quickly retreat out of the room, before attempting to find their way back to their respective bedrooms.

It took almost an hour to find their rooms, during which Starlight and Sunset swapped notes with each other about their exploits.

Both quickly fell asleep once they found their rooms. It had only been a day and they had been busy exploring the town, with Starlight guiding and Sunset following closely. After having walked around all day, they both were extremely tired.

Comments

[Twilight_Shimmer]

nice update!

[titanhades70]

Starswirl himself prooves that Starlight can match and even surpass Twilight in magic. The alicorn excuse is officially dead.

In the actual series, Twilight was trying her hardest to stop Starlight. She wasn't holding back.

No matter what excuses people try to use, the series pretty much does say Starlight is as powerful as Twilight. Any reason people use to say she isn't are fan invented and have no bearing on the series.

[Noctis Prism]

Love it and the comparison views. I agree with Spike on doomsday possibilities.

[A.P.O.N.I.]

8619715
If I remember canon correctly, Twilight had more magical knowledge, and thus more options for how to use the power that she had. But yes, I agree, the show clearly portrays Starlight as having alicorn-level power.