To the Mushroom Kingdom, and Beyond the Infinite
Twilight Sparkle and the Princess of Peaches
By Sunchaser
Twilight sat opposite a bowl of peaches.
There was a chair beneath her, but it was not a peach. Not even peach-shaped.
Passably peach-colored? Perhaps similar to the early stages of ripening.
The table itself, and indeed the bowl that housed the ambrosial fruits, had no such claim. They were misshapen and off-color, doomed to languish in the shadows cast by the betters they supported above them.
There was the whole of Golden Oaks around her, a library tree stocked with hundreds of books, including even three specific volumes dedicated to peaches, their authors having been struck by the same divine revelation as she. A few other tomes mentioned them in passing, but not to such a degree as to be lauded.
Still, books were special. Books were spared from judgement.
The library, however...
It was sadly not a peach tree. And while admittedly this was not its fault, Twilight had grudgingly admitted to herself that she did hold it against it. But it was really a simple empirical concern; to be peach-ancillary was superior, and this tree was a common oak.
She didn't blame it, though. It had really accomplished much for its origins. To wit, it now housed an entire bowl of the divine.
A bowl that was nearly empty now.
Twilight had been enlightened upon her first bite into the bearded fruit. Its juices and sweetmeat rushing across her tongue, dialling her taste receptors past tolerance, lighting up her thought-brilliant unicorn brain with new dimensions of experience and thought.
Peaches, she now understood, were an eleven-dimensional food.
It was a realization she could not have withstood, if not for the strength lent her by the fruit itself. Her entire life, knowledge of magic, experiences in the power of friendship and harmony, had been laid low in the face of superior existence.
But the peaches had been kind.
They had soothed her, and lent comfort when she had been so broken, so vulnerable. And they had planted in her the seeds of their own wisdom, which had since taken root, and now Twilight truly understood.
Truth be told, the world was just peachy.
Her rose-tinted magical aura swept the final peach from its harsh and flawed enclosure, and after considering it with a smile, she gently bit into it.
~~~~~
It was not darkness, but an endless sky of soft pink cloud.
Was this Peach Heaven?
Twilight didn't understand, but she also did not fear. It had been the last peach, after all; perhaps this was intended. Perhaps it was the next step.
Or perhaps her blood sugar had gone so high she'd passed out and was having a seizure—
No. No dark thoughts, Twilight. Only peaches now.
She was warm, and casting her eyes to the source of the light, she beheld a great glowing golden peach in the distant sky, its soft rosy light making the pink clouds dance around her.
The air was sweet, a soothing breeze cradling her as though she were a peach herself, and she wept at the idea of being so loved, juicy tears flowing along her rich pink coat and washing through her soft red mane.
Oh, how wonderful, she thought contentedly. Aren't I just a peach?
~~~~~
Twilight woke, as from a deep slumber, and found herself in a place at once strange and right.
It was a castle of some kind; the structure was familiar, the turns of stone and adorning tapestry, but it was most clearly demonstrated by the monarch seated upon the nearby throne.
She was strange to behold, at first. She had no fur coat, though a glorious long golden mane sprung from her head, and she wore a beautiful dress of pinks and roses that Rarity would have marvelled upon.
"Well, hello there. I'm not entirely accustomed to visitors just sprouting up in my throne room, but here we are. What brings you here?"
"I...I'm not really sure, actually. La dolce pesca?"
She shook her head a few times, organizing her thoughts into proper bowls and baskets.
"I was Twilight Sparkle once. Student of Celestia, Element of Magic, hero of Equestria, but...it all seems so long ago now," said used-to-be-Twilight-but-now-isn't-sure. "I have found the way of peaches, or so I think. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now, though. This is all very new to me."
The princess—enthroned and crowned, it seemed safe enough to say—smiled, rising from her throne to stride on two legs until she came to rest before used-to-be-Twilight.
"Well, Miss used-to-be-Sparkle, I am Princess Peach, and so it seems you've come to the right place to find an answer."
Used-to-be-Twilight blinked in wonder.
"Princess Peach? Does that mean...am I supposed to eat you?"
The princess of peaches laughed cheerfully, and smiled.
"Now, Miss used-to-be-Sparkle, that's rather forward of you isn't it? We've only just met."
Used-to-be-Twilight blushed something fierce, turning her pink coat rosy-red to match her mane.
"Oh! Oh. Yes, um, I suppose it is," she said, dropping her yellow eyes down to the lush throne room carpet, with a peripheral of finely embroidered pink skirt. "I'm afraid that my experience with peaches as yet is somewhat limited to eating them."
The princess smiled, soft and warm, and it felt suddenly familiar to used-to-be-Twilight. Warm, bright, illuminating...
...like a peach.
"An understandable starting point, all things considered," she said, tapping a finely articulated digit against her chin in thought.
Those must be so handy for eating peaches, used-to-be-Twilight thought, as she stared in wonder.
"I think," the Princess eventually said, "that we shall have to remedy that. And to that end, you've hardly a better choice in teachers. But before that...well, Miss used-to-be-Sparkle, if you used to be Twilight Sparkle, then who are you now?"
She pondered.
She had indeed been Twilight Sparkle, and it was a lovely name, but she was different now. Enlightened. Sweetened. Ascended to a higher branch of existence.
She was just peachy.
Literally, as she took stock of herself. She did seem to still be pony shaped, and she still felt like a unicorn, but her coat was now pink, her mane a deep rouge, and she had a feeling her eyes had taken on a similarly peach-like tone.
Her cutie mark, oddly, was unchanged.
Or maybe, until now, it hadn't been truly understood?
"...I think," the peach-pony said, tentatively, as her mind came to a decision, "that I am now Stella. Stella Persica."
"That sounds just peachy," the Princess said gladly. "And so I welcome you, Stella Persica, to my court, and name you my student in all things persician and prunerial. Oh, we're going to have such fun!"
Stella fell into step next to Princess Peach with a gleeful smile.
You know?
Being an eleven-dimensional fruit sounds pretty good.