Graph Theory

by stillinbeta

6 - Glasses

Brrrrrrrrrt. Brrrrrrrrrt.

A half conscious Twilight used her wings to roll over in bed. “Five more minutes, Spike.”

Brrrrrrrrrt. Brrrrrrrrrt.

“Ugh, Fine.”

Twilight opened her eyes and did not see a purple dragon. In fact, she was alone in the room. Instead, a book emblazoned with a red and yellow sun was glowing green and dancing on her bedside table.

There wasn’t really a good way to be woken up early, but a message from a marefriend was certainly one of the better ones. Twilight rubbed her eyes with a hoof, then reached out with her magic to grab the journal.

Morning Twilight!

Twilight smiled, summoning a quill and inkwell. Hey you. What’s up?

The response was almost immediate. Not much. It’s not too early for you is it?

I was just about to get up.

Uh huh, sure you were. Here Sunset drew a crude face with a tongue sticking out. Has Spike shown up yet?

Twilight blushed. Alright, you caught me, I was asleep. How’d you know?

Your writing is terrible when you wake up.

Twilight flicked her eyes up at her earlier message. It wasn’t quite as bad as her handwriting, but it was definitely chickenscratch.

Worse, actually, if you counted the chickens Fluttershy had taught calligraphy.

Oh.

Don’t worry Princess. I think it’s kind of cute.

You’re kind of cute. Twilight underlined “You’re” several times for emphasis. That’d show her.

Touché.

It may have been Twilight’s imagination but she could have sworn that was the most sarcastic diacritic she’d ever seen.

I should probably get out of bed. We’re still on for tonight, right?

Oh, right, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m still coming, but Fluttershy can’t make it.

Twilight frowned. She and Sunset hadn’t had a date without Fluttershy in months.

Everything alright?

Oh yeah, it’s fine. She just has another date and this was the only night they could make it work.

Twilight restrained herself from chewing on her quill. Oh. I hope she has a good time, then.

You sure you’re okay, Princess? Fluttershy asked me to ask you first if it’d be alright.

It wasn’t okay.

Twilight felt a pit in her stomach. It’s totally fine. Tell her I want details next date, though!

There was a slight pause in the writing on the other side, then: She says it’s a deal.

Who’s it with, anyway? Anyone I know?

This time the pause was more than slight. A few dots appeared on the blank page, as if Sunset had put pen to paper then thought better of it.

Finally, a line wrote itself out. Yeah. It’s, uh, you. Our Twilight, I mean.

The quill tasted like ink, unsurprisingly. It wasn’t a good taste, by any means, but it was familiar. Comforting, almost.

Oh.

Ugh, I knew this was a bad idea. I’ll tell her to cancel and come talk this over with you.

It was a bad idea.

No, it’s fine. I’m just surprised! Now I really want those details afterwards.

You sure?

She wasn’t.

I am, I promise. Now I really need to go take a shower. Friendship waits for no mare!

Twilight shut the book before Sunset responded and got to her hooves. She made her way unsteadily to the washroom and started what would end up being a very long shower.

Groggily, she reached out with her magic to turn the tap, casting a quick cantrip to keep the water a consistent temperature. Despite her best efforts her mind quickly flicked back to the other Twilight as soon as she got in.

The two hadn’t talked very often. It always felt a little awkward, both linguistically and socially. The other Twilight had basically taken over for her at Canterlot High. Some of the students didn’t even know they were different people. And even though the girls always insisted otherwise, Twilight sometimes felt like she’d been replaced in their social circle.

That wasn’t to say Twilight had forgotten about her, of course. She remembered the girl in the middle of Sunset’s graph all those months ago. She’d been surprised at the time but in retrospect that felt kind of foolish. Between her science and grip on magic, the other Twilight had always seemed like a quick study. Was it really that much of a surprise that she learned to navigate the social and romantic landscape of the Canterlot High-and-beyond world? She was born in the human world, she probably already knew what she was doing.

Knew better than this Twilight, anyways.

Twilight insisted to herself that she was happy for Fluttershy. A good partner would be excited. Nevermind that Twilight was more experienced, lived in the same world, was the same species as Fluttershy...

Twilight stayed in the shower until Spike finally knocked on the door, informing her that she was late for an appointment.

---

Sunset sighed contentedly. “Gorgeous day, isn’t it?”

Twilight surveyed the scene before her. The two mares laid on a chequered blanket in the Whitetail woods, an open picnic basket in front of them. The light dappled the forest floor through the tree cover. Moss covered the ground in front of them and a family of rabbits watched curiously from a nearby bush.

“Yeah, it really is. I can see why Fluttershy likes this spot so much.”

Sunset gave Twilight an unreadable expression, then turned back to her salad. A glowing fork deftly picked a crouton out of the bowl and popped it into her mouth.

She chewed thoughtfully. “Did you make this yourself? Or did you get Spike to do it again?”

Twilight shot what she hoped was a very offended look back. “Hey, I will have you know I am a much better cook now! I totally made this salad myself. Sure, Spike might’ve made the dressing and helped me pick out ingredients, but I did a lot of work!”

“I’ll give my compliments to your, ah, sous-chef then. Good choice on the arugula.”

“Oh, thank you! It’s Fluttershy’s favourite too.”

Sunset gave Twilight another look. Twilight wasn’t sure but she thought she heard the mare sigh under her breath.

Twilight tried her best to change the subject again. “So how’s school going?”

“Oh, it’s pretty interesting! I have a lot of fun seeing the gaps between Equestrian and Human knowledge. Did you know they actually figured out what the fundamental building blocks of their universe are?”

Twilight usually found these discussions fascinating, but today it was hard to concentrate. The other Twilight was a brilliant scientist in her own right. She probably knew all this stuff already. She probably had a lot of interesting insights about magic, too. She’d basically discovered it from first principles on her own.

“Princess? You okay?”

“Sorry, Sunset, I’ve just got a lot on my mind. Guess I’m a little distracted.”

Sunset scooted a little closer to Twilight, placing hoof on hers. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Twilight forced a smile. “Thank you, Sunny. But I’ll be fine, really.”

Sunset was clearly not convinced, but she leaned over and kissed Twilight on the muzzle.

“I love you, Princess.”

“I love you too, Sunny.”

The two were quiet for almost a minute. The birds chirped in the clearing. A solitary pegasus flew overhead, not noticing the couple down below.

Sunset finally broke what Twilight had thought was an easy silence. “You’re thinking about Fluttershy and my Twilight, aren’t you.”

Twilight coughed a little on her lemonade. “What? I’m just happy spending time with you.”

“That wasn’t what I asked, Princess. You don’t have to lie to me.”

Twilight looked at the ground, giving her drink a stir with her magic.

She looked back up at Sunset sheepishly. “That obvious, huh?”

“Twilight, even if I had just met you yesterday I could tell your mind was elsewhere. And you’ve brought up Fluttershy practically every other sentence.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Princess, I’m not mad at you. I’m just... worried. Why didn’t you think you could talk to me about this?”

“I just... I wanted to be happy for her. I wanted everything to be okay.”

“You can’t just will yourself to be okay with everything, Twilight. Sometimes this sort of thing takes work.”

Twilight frowned. “But everything I read just talked about ‘compersion’ and being happy for your partner. Jealousy is a bad thing, and I... I don’t want to be a bad partner.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Sunset wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and gave her a squeeze. “You should never try not to feel something you’re feeling.”

There came the cursed tears again. “I just... I just wanted to be a good marefriend. Girlfriend. Whatever. I love Shy and wanted to show that.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re not a bad partner.”

Sunset just held Twilight for a minute. Twilight did her very best not to feel guilty about it.

Sunset gave her a squeeze, then looked directly into her eyes.

“Listen to me, Twilight. Jealousy is a natural part of relationships. The important thing is to talk about it before it can fester.”

“So, the exact opposite of what I was doing.”

Sunset smiled weakly. “A little bit, yeah.”

Twilight flattened her ears. “Guess I missed that chapter, huh?”

Sunset playfully tussled Twilight’s mane. “If I say you can’t learn everything from books, are you going to be mad at me?”

“You certainly wouldn’t be the first. Old habits die hard, I guess.”

“I don’t think there’s a book on your marefriend dating your ape twin from a mirror world. But we could check your card catalogue when we get back.”

“Hey, you leave Carter out of this! He does his best!”

The pair broke into giggles. The tension was mercifully broken.

Sunset playfully nuzzled Twilight. “Now, what are you worried about? You know Fluttershy and I both love you to pieces.”

Twilight pawed at the dirt. “It’s stupid.”

“Hey, Twilight. Look at me?” Sunset put a hoof under Twilight’s chin.

It took some effort, but Twilight managed to meet her gaze.

“We all want the same thing here, Princess. Me, Fluttershy, even the other Twilight want to make this whole thing work. But the only way that’s going to happen is if we all work together..”

Twilight knew she’d need to answer eventually but at the moment there was something more pressing. Fluffing her wings, she closed the distance between the two of them into a deep kiss.

Sunset seemed surprised at first, but soon leaned into it. Privately the two of them agreed, no matter how long they spent in the mirror world, kissing in Equestria just felt... nicer.

Eventually the unicorn pulled back, like Twilight knew she would. And then chided Twilight that she wouldn’t get off that easy, like Twilight knew she would.

“I know you two love me,” Twilight started.

A breath, a moment to collect her thoughts. She’d intended to keep this inside forever.

So it wasn’t the well rehearsed speech a lot of what she said was. “I just... worry sometimes.”

“Worry?”

“She’s just... closer to you. She knows all your pop culture references, she went to school with you, she’s human...”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You remember I was born in Equestria, right?”

Twilight blushed. “Well yes, but don’t you think you’ve sort of, I dunno, gone native? You’ve been there for almost a decade.”

Sunset nodded, giving her the point. She motioned Twilight to continue.

“Not to mention she’s more experienced. You wouldn’t have to teach her all this stuff you have to wade through with me.

A tear rolled down Twilight’s cheek. “Sometimes I feel like she’s just me but... better. Easier.”

In an instant Sunset was by her side, foreleg wrapped around her barrel. In response, Twilight draped a wing around the unicorn and squeezed tight. By now the tears
“You know, I think I was wrong before,” Sunset finally said.

Twilight looked up at her. “I said there was no wrong way to feel, but it’s hard to imagine something more wrong than you thinking anyone could ever replace you. For either me or ‘Shy.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but Sunset cut her off. “You’re brilliant, cute, funny, very soft, and a freakin’ Princess besides. There’s no-one in any world that’s like you.”

“But your Twilight...”

“Is a completely different person, Twilight. She’s actually a person, for one thing. And nothing can touch my pony Princess. And maybe she’s slept with more people, or knows what Star Wars is, but that doesn’t make her better for us. It just makes her different.”

Twilight was still crying, but she was smiling through the tears. “You mean that?”

“The whole point of dating multiple people - or ponies - is not needing to compare people like this. You make me and Fluttershy very happy. We will happily keep trekking through that portal for the rest of our lives for you. Maybe the other Twilight will make Fluttershy happy too, but it’ll be a different happy.”

Happy tears. “I love you so much, Sunset.”

“I love you too, Twilight. Now what do you say we finish this salad? It’s getting late.”

---

Evening found the two of them curled up with each other inside Twilight’s library. They both had their noses in textbooks, Twilight’s was magical and Sunset’s was from the mirror world. The two were mostly silent, pausing occasionally to share a particularly interesting snippet.

“You know, Sunset, I was kinda nervous about meeting up without Fluttershy. It felt kind of like... cheating.”

Sunset carefully placed a bookmark in her book, then motioned for Twilight to continue.

“I’m glad we got to do this, though. It’s been nice just chatting with you. I’ve always felt bad getting all theoretical with ‘Shy here.”

“Yeah, there’s something to be said for having some study time with my favourite egghead.” Sunset gently ribbed Twilight for emphasis.

Twilight stuck out her tongue. “Whatever you say, Rainbow.”

Sunset blushed. “Yours too, huh?”

“I guess some things are just constants.”

“Some things. Maybe less than you’d think.”

Sunset suddenly looked lost in thought.

“Hey... we don’t have to talk about the other me again if you don’t want to.”

“You’re okay?” Sunset’s tone was gentle but had a hint of familiar worry.

“I’m... better.”

Sunset frowned. “Very diplomatic, Princess.” Suddenly she stood up. “You know, I think only one thing is gonna fix this.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you want to meet her?”

Twilight absolutely did not. Her internal peace with the other Twilight was new and tenuous.

“We’ve met several times, Sunset! I’m pretty sure we even went to a sleepover together.”

“When’s the last time you said more than hello to each other? What’s her favourite colour? Her favourite food? Her favourite animal?”

“Purple, Daisy sandwiches, and dragons, obviously,” Twilight rattled off without really thinking about it.

“It’s green, she can’t even eat daisies, and she’s never met a dragon. You’re not the same person, Twilight. You barely even know her.”

Twilight lifted a hoof to rebut, but silently set it down.

Sunset had a point, as she often did. That was the problem with dating someone so smart.

“I think it would mean a lot to Fluttershy if you got to know her a little bit.” Sunset leaned forward to nuzzle Twilight, probably in an attempt to persuade her.

It worked.

“Okay, okay. For Fluttershy.”

The nuzzling continued.

“...And for my favourite unicorn.” Twilight pulled back so she could stick her tongue out at Sunset.

Sunset grinned, then started walking out of the study.

“Where are you going?” Twilight called.

“To send a text. I’m going to ask Twilight and Fluttershy to meet us at my place after dinner.”

Twilight blanched. “We’re doing this tonight?!”

“Sure. No time like the present, right?”

“Um, yeah, definitely! That’s fine, I can totally do this! No need to prepare for this stressful meeting or anything.”

“Hey.” Sunset walked back, looking serious. “If you’re uncomfortable, I promise we can go home. This doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

“If I go home we’ll be right back where we started! I don’t want to put Fluttershy through that.” Twilight paced. “I need to be strong for her. But what if I don’t like the other Twilight? What if I can’t accept it?”

Sunset grabbed Twilight mid-pace. “Hey. Deep breaths.”

Twilight didn’t realise it until then, but she was practically hyperventilating. She made a point of slowing her breathing, and squeezed Sunset with her fetlock.

It was hard to be anxious with Sunset holding onto her.

“It’s gonna be okay, Princess. If you don’t like her the three of us will talk about it.”

“Okay. Talking is good. I can do talking.” Twilight pawed at the ground, trying to steel herself.

“I’ll be right back, okay?”

Sunset started to get to her hooves.

“Wait, Sunset!”

Sunset turned, quirking an eyebrow.

Twilight lifted her head and pecked sunset on the cheek. “I love you.”

Sunset stuck out her tongue. “I love you too, Princess Dork.”

She headed for the portal room. She was wearing Twilight’s favourite smile, the one reserved exclusively for her marefriends.

Twilight would do anything for that smile. She’d literally fought monsters, crossed worlds, and completely turned her understanding of romance on its head for it already. What more was one more spot of weirdness?

---

A few hours, one nauseating portal trip, and oane very familiar bus ride later, the two found themselves in Sunset’s apartment. Fluttershy and her date hadn’t made it back yet, so the two were sitting on the couch.

Twilight had changed into one of the outfits she kept stashed in Sunset’s closet, since the portal always dressed her in the same “high schooler” outfit.

Both of them had textbooks out again, but this time Twilight’s was human instead of Equestrian. Twilight was talking animatedly about pretty much everything she saw while Sunset offered up little tidbits she’d learned.

“I can’t believe nobody in Equestria has thought up linear algebra yet! This is totally going to revolutionise how we cast sorting and ordering spells! Not to mention the implications for finance and potion-making! It’s such a simple idea, did you know about this?”

Sunset was saved from answering by the sound of a key turning in the apartment’s lock. Twilight froze. She’d been distracted earlier and spurned on by Sunset’s confidence, but with the moment actually here all her previous nervousness returned.

Without saying a word, Sunset’s hand found hers and gently squeezed it. Some things were much easier this side of the mirror.

A soft voice called out as the door opened. “Hello everybody, we’re home!”

Sunset gave Twilight’s hand another quick squeeze, then jumped up to meet Fluttershy. Twilight started to get up too but froze when she saw the woman standing behind Shy.

Human Twilight Sparkle didn’t look how she remembered. She still had her trademark glasses, mostly unchanged, but her hair had been clipped to a very short pixie cut. Instead of her old crystal prep uniform, she was wearing a shiny blue cocktail dress and a dark blue shawl.

Twilight whispered to Sunset as she walked back to the couch. “Celestia, am I that cute?”

“Between you and me?” Sunset flashed a devilish smile. “You’re much cuter.”

“Um, hi everybody.”

The newcomer sounded just as nervous as Twilight. At the very least they had that in common.

“Hey, uh, Twilight?” Twilight didn’t mean to phrase it as a question, but it was a hard thing to say with confidence. “That’s gonna take some getting used to, huh?”

“Yeah,” the other Twilight agreed.

She fiddled with the hem of her skirt a bit.

Sunset came to their rescue. “We sometimes call her Princess, if that helps.”

“Right!” The other Twilight turned back. “Should I um, bow or something?”

“I would really prefer you didn’t.”

“Cool. Great!”

Twilight poked at the ground with her foot. The other Twilight twirled her fingers through her hair. Next to them, Fluttershy coughed quietly.

Twilight, who reminded herself that she was literally the Princess of Friendship, decided to try again. “It’s, um, nice to see you again! I don’t think we’ve talked much since that picnic by the statue.”

“Yeah uh, you too... Princess! What have you been up to?”

“Um, the usual! Stopping world-ending villains, solving Equestria’s friendship problems, teaching students... you know how it is.”

“I’m in grad school,” the other Twilight said quietly.

“So you’re a student then! Tell me, do you read a lot of books?”

“Sort of. I’m studying sociology, which is a really hands-on field. I do a lot of interviews and talking to people.”

“Sociology is like... the study of society, right? So like, interactions between people?”

“Exactly!” The other Twilight lit up. Clearly this was familiar territory. “My research is focused specifically on interactions between small groups of people.”

“So things like... Friendship?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“Oh yes! That’s what got me into the field in the first place! Sunset was a huge inspiration for me after the friendship games. I want to learn everything I can and contribute back to the community.”

A smile spread over Twilight’s face. “I think you and I are going to get along just fine. Tell me, do you submit your reports to this world’s Celestia?”

“Um, no? She’s a high school principal, we barely talk anymore. My advisor at the university reads my reports but I have to submit them to a peer reviewed journal.”

The two of them sat down on the couch began talking excitedly about their research. The other Twilight admitted she had originally wanted to study magic but Sunset explained how it might be best if that sort of thing didn’t reach the greater scientific community. She even showed off her levitation skills and Twilight insisted she come visit Equestria sometime to practise her unicorn magic.

There were definitely similarities between the two of them but it was clear their approaches were very different. Where Twilight mostly went with her gut and experience on friendship issues, her counterpart conducted rigorous research, read studies, and dealt with ethics review boards. The other Twilight was also a gold mine of scientific tools and ideas Equestria hadn’t discovered yet.

During a lull in conversation, Twilight noticed the bright green earrings the other girl was wearing. She remembered what Sunset had said earlier.

“Hey Twilight? What’s your favourite food?”

Her counterpart thought for a second. “Hmm, probably falafel.”

Twilight frowned. “Uh... What’s a ‘fella-fell?’”

Wide-eyed, the girl looked over to Sunset and Fluttershy, who just shrugged. “You’ve never had falafel?”

“I don’t think so!” Twilight shuddered. “It’s not made of meat is it?”
“Oh no, it’s made of chickpeas. We have got to take you sometime.” She turned to Sunset and Fluttershy “Girls, what do you think? Have I taken you to that Lebanese place on Everfree Boulevard?”

Twilight cut in before they could answer. “Actually, Um, Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

Twilight scratched at the floor with her foot. “Maybe we could go sometime? Just the two of us?”

A very high pitched squeal was Fluttershy giving her approval in the way only she could.

The other Twilight flushed, but she was still smiling. “I think it’s worth a try.”

“What’s your Saturday look like?”

Comments

[PonyFan4927]

D'aww. I can't wait for next week's chapter. Glad to see Princess and SciTwi find an icebreaker.

[BlazeBlue42]

Wait so would that be incest or masturbation

[Breakfateschain]

8481154
Most likely neither, as their from different universes, and have been established to not be the same person

[PlagueDoctorPwny]

8481154
yes, >.>

[MooseWhisker]

A few hours, one nauseating portal trip, and oane very familiar bus ride later, the two found themselves in Sunset’s apartment. Fluttershy and her date hadn’t made it back yet, so the two were sitting on the couch.

Small typo I only just noticed on my 87th reread.