The Peculiar Tale of Twinkle Shine

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 2: Demon

Twinkle Shine emerges in a forest in the night. She doesn’t know where she is or why she’s there, but she can see the pale moonlight to her upper left in the otherwise starless sky overhead between the thick gnarled trees.

She suddenly hears a familiar voice behind her! This voice says, “You know, you’re really melodramatic! Oh, my whole world is gone! Nothing I know remains! Waa waa waa! Seriously, how do you think I feel?” She knows this voice because it’s hers…

Twinkle turns around to see a pink pegasus filly her size standing there with the same bluish-white curls in a row mane-cut as her and the same long curl on the tail.

The filly smiles, “Do you have any idea what it’s like, inside your head?” her eyes widen, “I was waiting in that stone prison for a very long time!” the filly looks down and sighs, “Well, it’s too late to go back and fix what happened…”

Twinkle leans forward timidly, “Who are you?”

The filly looks up with an erratic expression in her eyes, “Oh, isn’t that obvious? Uh, Twinkle Shine, was it?”

Twinkle narrows her eyes and puffs her freckled cheeks in defiance as her mouth narrows, “What do you want?”

The filly starts to pace around Twinkle’s right, while glaring deviously at her, while Twinkle stands on the trail, “Oh, but this isn’t about what I want, dear Twinkle…” she moves to Twinkle’s right side as Twinkle gazes on with wide-open brown eyes, “This is about what YOU want!”

Twinkle frowns as the filly trots behind her and she moves her head forward and says inquisitively, “And just what do I want?”

The filly trots over to Twinkle’s left side to begin encircling her, “Why, friendship, of course!”

Twinkle turns her head left to see the filly there, still pacing and encircling her while glaring at the other pegasus, with a big psychotic grin on her freckled face, “I already found friendship with two ponies! I’m uh, off to a good start!”

The filly stops in front of Twinkle again while Twinkle stops moving her head as she paces. She moves her body to Twinkle and raises her head as she says in a loud reverberating voice, “FRIENDSHIP IS POWER!”

<*****>

Twinkle opens her eyes on the couch in a cold sweat, with her head on the pillow at the left side as she lays on her right and clutches the bizarre blue stuffed octopus Izzy gave her to sleep with and her wavy mane falls over her face. She also can’t help but notice the noise of pop music playing faintly from somewhere in another room across the house.

She gets to her haunches on the couch and carefully places the octopus off to the other side as she whispers to it, “Thanks for snuggling me, Fred! I’ll be back later!” and then steps down to the floor. She turns her body left to trot towards the music, which sounds like a generic pop fight song.

Never gonna take me down! Never gonna take me down! Never gonna take me down! WHOAOAOAOA!!!! the music chimes as she trots around the kitchen table on the left in the darkened room full of shelves and cabinets, to get to the door on the other side of the fridge in the far-left corner.

She looks up at the doorknob as the music continues playing and squats to take off vertically with her wings and float to the doorknob height where she opens it with her forehooves and flitters back, so the door opens back to her left and she beholds Izzy Moonbow in there, with her back turned to the pegasus as she sits on her haunches and magically lifts a glue spackle in her blue glow as she stares to the left at it. The pungent smell of burnt devil weed fills the air as Izzy puts the spackle back into the tub of glue on her left and gets to her hooves on the floor and turns to face the filly as her horn glows and the loud music dies down, “Hi new friend! I made you something!” before stepping to her left to show Twinkle the easel behind her.

Twinkle flutters into the room with her wings making a small flapping noise and she lands in the middle of a messy craft room of sorts with all kinds of supplies, brushes, and tools laying along the yellowish-white walls. This room is roughly 15-feet wide by 15-feet long and she also noticed the pale blue vase bong with the 8-inch stalk out of a 5-inch tall and 4-inch-wide chamber and a small stem on the side leading to a bowl, on the other side of Izzy. But when she witnesses the easel, her heart almost skips a beat when she notices dark blue crystals arranged for the mane and tail and light blue crystals for legs, body, and face of Izzy on the left along with pale blue crystals for the mane and tail and light pink crystals for the legs, body, and face of her, Twinkle Shine on the right… Izzy had made a crystal portrait of her with Twinkle Shine! Twinkle can only widen her eyes as she stammers out, “G-golly! That sure looks swell, Izzy!”

Izzy smiles, “Doesn’t it? I got up super early cause I was so excited to have a new friend and well, I guess I got inspired?” her eyes stare at the ceiling, “That happens to me sometimes?” they go back down to the pegasus, “Anyway, I made a crystal picture of you and me! What do you think, Twinkle?”

Twinkle blinks, “It’s uh, gorgeous Izzy! I love it!” before smiling dimly.

Izzy leans forward while frowning slightly and widening her eyes, “You okay, Twinkle? It’s not too much, is it?”

Twinkle blinks again as a tear slowly drips from her right eye, “Uh, no Izzy… I think I’ll be fine…” before she smiles wider…

Izzy frowns unsure as she tilts her head slightly to the left, “You seem to be happy?”

Twinkle turns her head right to face Izzy and says with a wide-eyed start, “This uh, golly! Nopony has ever made anything for me before!”

“Oh?” Izzy says while widening her red eyes and scrunching her mouth. “Well, I guess you were about due?”

Twinkle smiles and giggles, “I guess so, huh?” she looks up, “Uh, what time is it?”

“I think it’s about six or maybe six-thirty?” Izzy says before frowning.

“Um…” Twinkle says before looking down.

Izzy leans her head forward, “You okay?”

“Well, I like to wake n bake, but uh…”

Izzy frowns, “I’m still not sure if you should be allowed to smoke?”

Twinkle looks up timidly with her head still low and squeakily stammers out, “Well, I’ve done it all the time in the past and uh, so far, so good, huh?” and then smiling dimly.

Izzy smiles and shakes her head slightly, “You drive a hard bargain, you know that?”

Twinkle looks up with her face and giggles while smiling mischievously.

Izzy looks over to her bong on her right and floats it over to the front of Twinkle in a blue glow with the red disposable lighter that was sitting next to it at the side of the bowl, bent down at the ready. She looks up at Twinkle, “I’ll use my magic to operate the lighter and the stem, so all you gotta do is inhale! You get four hits!” before causing the lighter to spark and create a flame over the bowl.

Twinkle moves her mouth to the mouthpiece and inhales, to bring the flame into the bowl, where it ignites the devil weed there and causes smoke to visibly fill the blue glass chamber at the bottom of the vase.

Izzy magically pulls up the stem, so the smoke rises through the stalk and into Twinkle’s mouth.

She starts and pulls back as her wavy mane flutters back with her head and she exhales smoke in front of Izzy. She looks over and says, “Thanks Izzy!”

Izzy lowly whispers to herself, “I meet an earth pony, go on a crazy adventure across Equestria, get magic in my horn, and now, a dope-smoking pegasus filly lives in my house!” before lowering the bowl back into the stem of the bong and sparking the lighter over it again…

Twinkle looks at Izzy, “Yeah, life sure is weird, huh?” before moving her face to the mouthpiece and inhaling to fill the chamber once more.

Izzy pulls on the stem again while floating the lighter back, “Did you sleep well?”

Twinkle exhales upwards into the air above the space in front of Izzy before looking back down at her, “Well, I did have this crazy nightmare?” before blinking.

“Oh?” Izzy says before leaning towards the filly interestedly.

“Uh, can I please have my last two hits first?” Twinkle says before frowning cutely.

“Ugh!” Izzy says while cringing to her right. She widens her eyes while leaning towards Twinkle “You’re just so cute, I wanna snuggle you forever!”

“He he he!” Twinkle giggles before moving her head back to the bong.

Izzy looks back down at the floating lighter in the blue glow and forces it to snap and it sparks to create a flame over the bowl.

Twinkle inhales to fill the chamber again.

Izzy magically pulls up on the bowl to bring it out of the stem, so the smoke once again rises through the stalk into Twinkle’s mouth.

Twinkle pulls back her head to take her mouth off the mouthpiece and soon exhales smoke in front of Izzy once more, before she coughs, and exhales before sputtering slightly and then composes herself by shaking her head.

Izzy vibrates slightly, “Come on Twinkle! One more round! You got this!”

<*****>

The two ponies sit at Izzy’s kitchen table. The brass overhead light is on and has four stalks, one leading in each direction. Izzy sits at the head of the table with two red apples in front of her and Twinkle sits at her left with a single red apple in front of her.

Izzy looks at Twinkle and says, “So uh, what did you dream about?”

Twinkle looks at Izzy, “Oh golly gee! It was creepy! There was a filly there and she looked like me, except she wasn’t me! And she was saying that I wanted something, and that friendship is power, or something? I don’t know what it meant though…” before frowning.

“I uh, wow Twinkle Shine!” Izzy’s eyes widened, “That is, uh, I don’t even know how to begin to figure that one out?”

Twinkle leans towards Izzy with wide eyes, “Right?”

Izzy frowns, “We still have no idea who you are or what you were doing there?”

Twinkle blinks, “Well, golly! If I knew, I’d tell you!”

Izzy smiles dimly as she sighs, “Well, I know you would squirt. Uh, so I guess you’re staying here until further notice?”

Twinkle blinks again, “That sure would be swell, Izzy! I promise to be on my best behavior and to do chores and not smoke your weed without permission and not to seize control over the government and to not be out too late!” before smiling hopefully with her head tilted cutely to the right…

Izzy blinks, “You’d better not take over any governments! You’re too little for that!” before smiling and giggling slightly.

“I know, right?” Twinkle says before smiling and chuckling slightly. She frowns, “But golly! ‘Friendship is power?” Now what in Equestria could that mean?” before looking up at Izzy on her right.

<*****>

The two ponies play a board game shortly after breakfast. Izzy magically rolls a 4 on the die, and moves her piece across the board, “So uh, what can you tell me about yourself, Twinkle?”

Twinkle grasps the die in her forehooves and rolls it with her mouth on the table before using her hooves to move her piece 2 places forward, “Well, golly! Just tidbits, really? I know I used to live in Fillydelphia, and I know I had a cat… Um…” Twinkle frowns, “The kitty was an orange tabby! I just remembered that!” as she stares at Izzy wide-eyed.

“Huh…” Izzy proclaims with a raised right eyebrow. “I don’t know of any place called, Fillydelphia? Do you remember anything at all about your parents?” before looking at the die and magically rolling a 4 and then moving her piece 4 places forward in a blue glow.

Twinkle frowns, “Well, I know my mother looked a lot like me and that she was weird…” and then, getting up to the table to collect and roll the die with her mouth to get a 3. She moves her piece 3 places forward with her forehooves.

Izzy frowns, “Weird? Weird how?” before magically rolling a 6 and then moving her piece 6 places forward.

Twinkle frowns, “She just had weird hobbies and was always reading strange books…” she looks down, “I can’t remember what though?”

Izzy widens her eyes, “Okay? No idea what that could mean either?”

Twinkle smiles dimly at Izzy with wide brown eyes, “Yeah, life’s just full of mysteries, huh?”

Izzy looks at Twinkle, “Well, I do know I need to get to work on that birdhouse for my customer soon…” she leans forward with wide eyes, “Will you be okay until I’m done?”

Twinkle blinks and looks up at Izzy, “Yeah, I think so? Um,” she frowns with wide brown eyes, “do you have any books?”

<*****>

Twinkle lays back on the red chair with her back firmly against it on her haunches while holding a book on birdhouse repair in her forehooves. “Gee! Guess she doesn’t do a lot of those?” She whispers to herself.

Twinkle tries to read and stay focused. She reads over the sections about how to sand down edges and round them out. She reads about wood glue and what woods can and can’t be used for birdhouses. She even reads the section about painting the birdhouse and what paints to avoid. But eventually, the filly’s eyes droop and she silently falls asleep in the chair as her bluish-white locks fall around her shoulders…

<*****>

Twinkle sees herself standing on her hooves inside a cage in a red rock cave, deep underneath the earth somewhere. She hears her own voice say from behind her, “We can’t fix anything! It’s too late for that!”

Twinkle turns around and sees herself on the other side of the cage, “Just who are you?”

The filly smiles, “I’m the real you!”

Twinkle blinks, “What do you want?”

The filly sighs, “Oh golly! The laundry list I could give you!” and she begins to laugh while leaning forward towards Twinkle with wide-open crazy eyes, “But like I already said, it’s far too late!”

Twinkle’s eyes narrow and mouth tightens as her cheeks puff rebelliously, “I mean, what do you want from me?”

The filly widens her eyes, “Oh, you?” she narrows them, “I just want you to remember who YOU are!”

“And just who am I anyway?” Twinkle shouts back at the other filly with her body leaning that direction.

“You already know! Stop hiding from yourself!”

<*****>

Twinkle starts as she wakes up with a wide-eyed start as she gasps! She shakes her head and slowly gets off the chair before picking up the fallen book on her right with her teeth and setting it down on the seat. She then trots towards the sound of another pop song coming from across the house.

She trots back that direction, through the kitchen, now lit from the sunlight through the window on the right as she trots around the left side of the table once again. She looks up at the door and squats to take off vertically before opening the knob with her forehooves and then fluttering back so the door opens towards her to the left, yet again.

She lands to see Izzy there on her hooves to the left of a constructed birdhouse in the center of the room. As the music sings (with a lower volume this time), My love is real, but it’s not where my heart is at! My love is real, but it’s not good now!

Izzy looks over at Twinkle before her horn glows and the music cuts, “Heya Twinkle!” and smiles.

Twinkle’s pink face is extra pale as she looks at the unicorn with wide-open distraught watery eyes and stammers out, “Um, Izzy? Would you please hug me?”

(To be continued…)

Comments

[AllenVth]

Twinkle might have an inkling of who she really is, but she's not liking it. Who will win in this personality exchange? Twinkle or Cozy?