Something goes wrong with the portal between Equestria and the human world, leaving Twilight trapped for a few months. That wouldn't be so bad... if she wasn't also a child
Bored due to there being nothing for her to do, as no Friendship Problems have arisen that have needed her help, Twilight decides to visit her Canterlot High friends and see what's going on.
However, something goes wrong and the portal closes, leaving Twilight stuck on the other side. That's fine though. She can just hang out with her friends and wait it out.
However, it won't be that simple. Though she turned into a human like normal when she arrived, Twilight is now about 6 to 7-years-old and it seems she has access to her magic as if she were still an Alicorn. The human world isn't prepared for this.
AU universe where Friendship Games happened before the Season 5 finale, so Twilight's human self is already transferred into CHS, but pony Twilight has yet to go with Fluttershy on their Friendship Mission.
Rated Everyone for now, but may change it to teen depending on future chapters
Note: Twilight didn't see Sunset's messages in this AU due to them coming whilst she and the girls being away dealing with Starlight, followed by how much she'd been avoiding her castle in the following episode.
Spike is the reason the messages never got answered though, due to Big Mac accidentally knocking the book of it's place on the machine whilst he and Spike were in the library, Spike not being there in time to see it glowing to indicate messages being received, so he just placed it back on there without a thought.
In Popular Stories 22-23/1/2016. A good start to the Year, I feel
Whoa. Featured 3-4/3/2017. Okay, honestly, I really did not see that coming. What?
Twilight waved as the train to Manehatten left, taking Rarity and Applejack off to handle the friendship problem the map had summoned them for.
Once it was out of sight, however, her whole body sagged, her ears splaying back.
She wished the map had chosen her, too. She wanted so desperately for something to do.
Turning, she slowly plodded her way back towards her castle. What was she going to do now? She hadn’t been joking when she told Spike she’d read everything in the library. In fact, during the time it had taken Applejack and Rarity to get ready to leave, Twilight had even resorted to delving into Spike’s comic book collection. She’d finished it all several minutes before the two mares had returned. She’d been worried Spike’s jaw had become dislocated with how it had hung open like it did.
Thinking of this reminded her of that time Spike bought that enchanted comic book that pulled them all into the story of the Power Ponies.
She sighed. If only she could just hope into another world like that. At least then she’d have something to do. But where would she be able to just find something to send her to... another... world...?
The lavender Alicorn stopped, straightening up, her eyes widening, before they began to shine. Of course! That’s what she could do!
With a new goal in mind, Twilight shot down the road at speeds that would put Rainbow Dash to shame. Hurrying into her castle, Twilight went back into the castle library, where the portal to the alternate world resided.
Glancing around, she looked for any books she might want to take with her. Holding a hoof to her chin, she shrugged and decided there’d be plenty of new books for her to read in the other world.
Moving towards the portal, she was about to entered it, when she remembered Spike. He’d gone off after the train left to speak with Big Macintosh about something, so he had no idea she was going on a sudden trip.
True, she didn’t plan to be over in Sunset’s world long, maybe a couple hours, then she’d come right back.
Still, last thing she needed was Spike coming back to the castle, find her nowhere around and panic. Last time that happened, back when they still lived in the Golden Oaks Library, he hadn’t left her side for days after.
She inwardly chuckled, remembering how amusing it had been with him insisting he slept in bed with her, like back when he’d been a little hatchling, and how he tried to act cool about it, when, if anything, it was just adorable to have him curled up next to her.
It really reminded her how she was very much like Spike’s mother, even if she’d been a filly at the time she got him.
Lighting her horn, she pulled over a sheet of paper and a quill and wrote down a quick message:
Spike, I’ve gone to Canterlot High to see Sunset and the others. Will be back in a few hours.
Don’t eat any of the gemstones in the pantry. I’ve counted them all and measured the shape and sizes, so I will know if you do.
Twilight
Giving the letter a few quick once-overs, Twilight nodded, happy with it, before levitating it over to the desk she’d been sitting at.
With her letter written, Twilight moved over to the portal. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, passing through the portal.
The moment she’d completely vanished through the spiraling gate, however, the portal flashed, the journal dropping off from its resting place and falling onto a tower of books, causing the tower to tumble down into a big pile.
The force of the falling tower caused a small draft, pushing the letter Twilight had addressed to Spike to fly into the air. It drifted until being whisked out a window due to a sudden breeze.
The letter floated through the air, before settling face down in a small mud puddle.
“I can’t believe how high Twilight and Sunset’s score were on that test!” Rainbow Dash groaned as the seven girls walked out of the school and down the steps towards where the portal to Equestria stood. “They both made it look easy!”
Sunset couldn’t help feeling a little saddened by the lack of the Wondercolts statue that had once stood over the portal. Even the unintentional compliment Dash had given her didn’t help that. It had been a comforting reminder of Equestria to her, as if the horse had been a guardian watching over the portal.
“By the way, Twilight,” Fluttershy spoke up, “I love the new ponytail.”
The glasses wearing girl blushed slightly. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I think it does suit me more.”
No longer was she wearing her Crystal Prep uniform anymore. Now, she was wearing a yellow shirt underneath a purple vest, purple shorts, white socks and black buckle shoes.
“So, anybody got any plans for the weekend?” Applejack asked as they neared the statue.
“Not really,” the Equestrian admitted, folding her arms behind her head. “Unless anyone has any ideas, it’s going to be pretty boring, really.”
“My parents and I are still trying to handle everything with Principal Cinch,” Twilight said dejectedly, her good mood quickly fading.
“How well is that going, exactly, darling?” Rarity asked with a look of concern.
Twilight hugged herself, looking down. “Cinch isn’t letting it go. She keeps insisting that I was acting out on my own. When they confronted her about threatening my place at Everton, she called me a flat out lying. And Shining Armour’s so sure Crystal Prep’s never done anything wrong, he’s siding with her. Frankly, after what I did, I can’t say I blame them.”
At once, Sunset frowned, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Twilight, that wasn’t your fault. She’s the one who made you use the magic when you had no idea what it would do.”
“Yeah and it’s not like she can argue against the recordings once the police hear them anyway,” Pinkie chirped.
The other six girls blinked, before slowly turning to look at the bubbly girl with worried looks.
“Um, when you say recordings...” Rainbow Dash asked nervously.
“Yeah. Cinch’ll be shocked when she finds out Dean Cadance slipped a recording bug into the office a few days before she threatened Twi’s chances at Everton if she didn’t go along with the games even when she didn’t want to,” the poofy harried teen said, reaching into her pocket, pulling out a cupcake with rainbow frosting and taking a bite out of it.
It was several moments before she noticed all the girls staring at her with dumb-founded expressions.
“What... what recording bug?” Twilight asked, shaking her head.
“And how would you know Dean Cadance planted one in the first place?” Rainbow asked, confused skepticism clear in her expression.
Pinkie gave her an odd look. “Uh, the day we both went to Crystal Prep to spy on them, silly,” she said, waving a hand. “Duh.”
“Wait.” Dash blinked, her eyes widening. “When could you possibly have seen that?”
“As we were floating up in the air with those balloons I inflated after you said you wanted a better view, I could see Dean Cadance through the window of Principal Cinch’s office and saw her hiding it inside one of the many trophies she keeps in there.”
Dash opened her mouth to respond, closed it, opened it again, then smacked herself in the face. “Why do I bother asking anymore?”
“Well, odd as it was to hear this from Pinkie of all people,” Sunset said, turning back to smile at Twilight, “if Dean Cadance has actual recordings of Cinch threatening you, that doesn’t bode well for her.”
“Yeah,” Applejack grinned, folding her arms. “Ah’d like t’ see how she explains her own voices threaten Twi future just t’ win a game.”
Twilight’s body eased and she smiled around at all her friends.
They all turned to leave, when a sound all but one of the group of seven recognized registered in their ears, along with a loud cry that all of them knew, even the newest member, though it shocked her to hear it.
Whirling around, they all saw a girl with lavender skin, where a light-blue blouse, a purple skirt with a marking quite similar to the barrette in their newest friend’s hair, white socks and black buckle shoes.
However, as said friend pushed herself up, all seven gasped, six for a whole different reason than one of them.
It was indeed the same Princess Twilight Sparkle in human form six of them had come to know as their friend... but she was far younger than before.
She was maybe six, seven-years-old at the most, her hair having a tiny ponytail at the back.
As the little girl looked up, she smiled. “Hi, girls. How’re—?”
Her words cut off when she saw a lavender girl who looked very familiar to her.
For several long moments, both Twilight’s stared at each other in shock. Is was the smaller of the two, who broke it.
“How is there another me?” she asked, pointing. “Did a Changeling somehow get here? Wait. Would their magic even work here in the first place...?” Her expression changed to confusion. “What’s with my voice? It sounds...”
As Twilight spoke, she looked down at her hand, clearly noticing something was off.
Glancing around, her frown turned into a slightly panicked look.
“Wh-why are you all so big? Or, why am I so little?”
“Uh...” Rainbow Dash trailed off, looking to the others who’d known the now petite princess.
“Well...” Rarity said slowly, clearly having no clue how to respond to this bizarre situation.
“You’re...” Sunset also was unsure how to react.
“Wow, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie cheered, hurrying over and grabbing the little girls cheeks in her hands. “You look SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! When did you start practicing Age Spells?”
“I haven’t... wait, why would you think I used...?” little Twilight trailed off as her eyes widened, it clicking in her mind. Looking down at herself, then at the others, she turned to the portal. “I... I don’t understand. Why’d the portal turn my into a foal?”
“Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait!” the taller Twilight said, holding up her hands. “Will someone please explain just what’s going on around here?”
“Maybe if you go back through, things’ll go back to normal,” Pinkie Pie said simply to the smaller lavender girl.
Said little girl looked up at Pinkie and nodded, before turning around and running to the portal... only to yelp in pain and tumble back when she hit solid rock.
“WHAT?!” everyone save the taller Twilight cried, their eyes widening.
However, it was Pinkie’s reaction that caused what likely would’ve become panic, to confusion.
“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no-no!” she cried, hurrying to the portal and putting her hands all over the rock face, her expression panicked. “It can’t be closed.” She turned to Twilight. “You made it so it’s always open, right?”
Pinkie Pie blinked, before noticing Twilight was still lying on the ground, rubbing her head, which had a small cut on the forehead.
The pink girl’s face blanched, before she hurried over to the younger girl and held her.
“You okay, Twilight? How bad is it? Do you think pancakes are still tasty with chocolate and peanut butter?”
That last question was enough to snap everyone out of their stupors, several of the girls moving over to where Pinkie and the younger Twilight were and Sunset to hurry over to the portal, putting her hand on it.
“Sunset!” the yellow girl glanced back to see her glasses-wearing friend stomp up to her, a small glare on her face. “Would someone please explain what a younger version of myself, who isn’t wearing glasses is doing here?!”
Sunset gave a nervous grin, before her brows furrowed and she turned to the portal, moving her hand slowly across it. “Okay, first off, it doesn’t feel like the portal is gone like when the magic from it go stolen.”
The purple teenager winced a little at the reminder.
“It... wait. This is like when the portal was normally closed, between the thirty moon cycle.” Sunset turned to the group of girls crowding around the small princess, though her eyes were on the pink girl. “Pinkie, did something happen in Equestria?”
All eyes turned to her with confusion, save the ones belonging to the girl addressed.
“Uh, Sunset,” Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow, “just how in the hay would Pinkie Pie know something about what happened in another world... even if it is Pinkie Pie?”
Sunset folded her arms, giving the pink girl in question a very firm frown. “Because this isn’t our Pinkie Pie, are you?” she finished, directing it to the girl in question.
All eyes now turned to the pink girl, who grinned nervously. “Uh, heh heh. Um, I can explain.”
“You and this world’s Pinkie have been switching places?” little Twilight glared at her now older friend, who wilted a little. “How long has this been going on?!”
Pinkie Pie leaned a little back, twiddling with her fingers. “Since... the first day you started avoiding the castle.”
“Wait, so, let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said, holding up one hand, whilst holding her head with the other. “The Pinkie we’ve been with the entire Friendship Games was the one from Equestria, whilst our Pinkie was over there having fun as a pony?”
“No... but we switched that evening after the games ended?” Pinkie shrugged, grinning sheepishly.
Sunset facepalmed. “I don’t know why we’re really surprised by this point.”
“Hold on,” Rarity said, a confused frown on her face. “Does that mean you were actually the one with Rainbow Dash when she went to Crystal Prep, or was that our Pinkie?”
“Oh, no, that was your world’s Pinkie,” the pink girl’s chipper nature returned. “After she saw it, she told me during our latest switch. Hope she’s having fun over there.”
“Okay, explanation time for the only one of us who isn’t an Equestrian turned human or hasn’t dealt with magic until recently,” Sunset turned to their Twilight. “That little girl is a you from an alternate world known as Equestria, where the dominant species is mainly ponies, who somehow have a mirror version of themselves in this universe. She is yours. As to why she’s a child... I honestly haven’t got a clue.” She glanced to the little girl, who was frowning down at her hands. “And I get the feeling she doesn’t know either. Oh, and yeah, it would seem this Pinkie Pie,” she nodded a thumb at the pink girl, “is the Pinkie Pie from over there as well and have both apparently been switching places for some time now.”
The taller Twilight blinked a few times, before her expression seemed thoughtful and nodded. “After everything else that’s happened, that seems like the most logic answer you could’ve given me.”
“But, why did the portal close, and how come Twi’s a kid?” Rainbow asked, putting her hand on the statue.
“Probably something caused the book to fall off the portal, causing it to close,” Pinkie shrugged. “And, with the way books were scattered around last time I was there, it’ll be a day maybe before Spike finds it among all the other books on the floor.”
All eyes once more turned to Pinkie.
“This is ridiculous,” the smaller Twilight said, smacking her face.
“Well, I can always send a message to Spike via the journal,” Sunset said, shrugging. “Once he finds it, he’ll just have to put it back on the pedestal and the portal will be open again.”
“Wait. I have to what now?” the purple dog asked.
The younger Twilight’s eyes widened, but Sunset saw this one coming already.
“No, Twilight. That’s the Spike from this world. As for how he can talk now, something happened with Fluttershy’s magic and now he talks.” She then turned to Spike. “And we were talking about the version of you that’s back in Equestria. He’s a baby dragon and Twilight’s assistant.”
“Huh,” the child said, frowning in confusion. “So, now both Spikes talk here.”
“Um... okay?” Spike nodded, though he was clearly very confused.
“Am I the only one worried about a paradox right now?!”
They all turned to see the older Twilight had backed away, looking at her younger self in worry.
“Why?” AJ and RD asked at the same time.
“Two of the same being from different plains of reality in the same reality?!” the speckled girl looked from one girl to the next. “Don’t you realize the damage that could do?”
“Considering we’ve already had such a thing happening for four years without any problems, I doubt we need to worry,” Sunset said with folded arms.
“Huh?” everyone was looking at her in confusion.
Sunset pointed a thumb at herself. “Me. I came from Equestria, and I’ve been living in this world for the last four years straight.”
“Right, I see where Sunset’s going with this,” the younger Twilight said, putting a hand to her chin. “Since she’s from Equestria, and all beings in our world have a counterpart here, it stands to reason that she does too.”
“Which means, if a paradox was going to happen because the two of us are in the same universe, it would’ve happened already,” Sunset nodded, grinning.
“Wait. Wouldn’t that have caused some confusion?” Rainbow asked.
Sunset shrugged. “Hasn’t so far.”
“There’s something not logical about that,” younger Twilight muttered.
“So, until we can get Twi and Pinkie back and get our Pinkie, where’re they staying?” Rainbow asked.
Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Eh. Other me’s family don’t seem to mind my living with them.”
“Wait, they know?!” Sunset and the older Twilight cried.
Pinkie waved a hand. “Pftt, duh. They knew it right from the start. But they know I’m just their daughter from another world and that their daughter from this world is safe in Equestria, so we good.”
There was silence for several minutes.
“I... how are we supposed to respond to that?” the older Twilight asked.
“I... don’t know,” Sunset replied, before shaking herself. “And, as for where Twilight should live until this gets sorted out, I think she should live with Twilight.”
“WHAT?” everyone cried, turning to the yellow girl as if she were insane.
Sunset shrugged. “Well, think about it. If you were stuck in an alternate dimension where there’s a reflection of everypony you know, wouldn’t it be better you stayed with those familiar people?”
“I... well...” Rarity trailed off, glancing from one Twilight to the other.
“Ah... guess that makes sense,” Applejack said uncertainly.
Sunset walked over to their Twilight and put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll come over and explain everything as best I can to your parents. But, I do think it would be better. Sure, living with me would be living with a fellow Equestrian, but your family would make her feel more at home.”
With everyone still trying to piece all that together in their minds, Sunset walked over to the younger Twilight and picked her up, before heading off towards their Twilight’s house, the lavender girl and her dog following after her, the former in a bit of a daze, whilst the other just wore a look of confusion.
The quartet of three girls and a dog were seated on a bus heading into the city. The youngest of the three humans was sitting with her arms folded.
“Twilight, how many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” Sunset asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
Shortly after walking away from their friends, Twilight had squirmed out of Sunset’s arms and shouted at her for treating her like a foal.
Sunset was ashamed to admit that, in those few seconds she’d picked up her fellow Equestrian, she had completely forgotten that, just because Twilight looked like a child, it didn’t mean she should be treated like one.
Twilight snorted, looking down at the floor of the bus with a glare.
Sunset sighed and looked to Twilight’s older counterpart, who just gave a small shrug herself.
“How come you smell the same?”
The sudden question made the little girl look to the dog sitting in her older self’s lap. “What do you mean?”
Spike scratched behind an ear with a hind leg, before returning his gaze to the younger version of his owner. “Well, you’re a pony in your world, right?”
Young Twilight nodded slightly.
Spike cocked his head. “Well, shouldn’t you smell a little different than my Twilight? But you smell just like her.”
“Well, that makes sense, when you think about it,” the child replied, lifting a finger and adopting a lecturing tone that was honestly amusingly adorable. “Despite our species difference, when someone goes through the portal, they’re bio-scripted into a species better suited to whichever world they’re entering. When Sunset and I travelled through the portal, we both became humans due to them being the dominant species on this planet and that our counterparts are such a species.” The little then frowned, putting a hand to her chin. “Though that doesn’t explain why a dragon would turn into a dog upon entering this world. I never did understand that.”
“Wait,” Spike’s eyes widened. “You mean, if I went through the portal, I’d turn into a dragon?”
“Well, a baby dragon, but, yes, you would,” Twilight nodded.
Sunset looked to her friend’s older self and both wore a satisfied smile. Spike had managed to make her forget her anger with the thirst for knowledge.
After a few more minutes, they all got up, the buss having reached their stop and they got out, Spike now being held in the arms of the younger Twilight as they chatted about dragons and what similarities he shared with his own counterpart back in Equestria.
They walked up the street towards one house in particular. It was a two story house, with white painted walls, a white picket fence and a driveway that currently was holding two cars.
As they neared, however, it was apparent something was off. All four could feel a tension in the air. Walking up to the front door, the sounds of voices inside could be heard.
The older Twilight took a key out from her shorts left pocket, unlocked the door and let the others in.
Upon entering, the younger Twilight’s eyes widened as she registered the voices speaking.
“... really sorry about that,” a calm and sooth voice was saying. “I told him I had the recordings, but he wouldn’t believe me and I had to give them to another of the officers.”
“It’s fine, Cadance,” another female voice replied. “I’m sure once he hears them himself, he’ll apologize.”
“We know how much he beats himself up whenever he does something wrong,” a male voice answered. “Remember the wedding?”
That was as far as things got. Before Sunset or her older self could do anything, Spike was dropped as the little girl barrelled through the entrance hall and into what was clearly the kitchen. However, upon entering said room, Twilight became frozen in place at what she was seeing.
Gathered around a small table were three people. One was a woman with pink skin, blue eyes and hair that was a blend of a deeper pink than her skin, purple and yellow hues, wearing what the Equestrain could guess was a business suit coloured a bluish-green, with the image of a crystal heart on the upper left of her suit and a light blue flared skirt.
The other was a tall man with blue skin and dark-blue hair, yellow eyes, wearing a blue long sleeve shirt was wearing and white trousers, with the cuff-link in the shape a yellow crescent moon with a smaller white crescent moon in the empty space facing in the opposite direction within the first.
The third, however, was one of the biggest draws to the regressed Equestrian. She was a woman with fine grayish-white skin, kind blue eyes, purple and white hair, wearing a long pink skirt and a long sleeve slightest purple top with three purple stars in its centre.
For several long seconds, all four stared, three staring at Twilight and her staring back.
Suddenly, something began to bubble up from within Twilight. Her lips began to quiver; her eyes began to tear up. Before anyone could react and beyond Twilight’s ability to comprehend, she wailed.
This... won’t end well, Sunset thought gloomily as Twilight dropped Spike and rushed towards the sound of voices.
The older Twilight kneeled down and picked up her dog. “Are you alright, Spike?”
“Um... I think so,” he said, giving his head a shake. “What just happened?”
“Twilight heard Twilight’s parents and thought they’re hers,” Sunset said, pausing after finishing her sentence.
The other two just looked weirdly at her.
“That... honestly sounded better in my head,” the yellow girl replied.
Before either dog or girl could comment and loud wailing scream erupted from the kitchen, followed by the sound of smashing china.
They all hurried into the kitchen, only for their eyes to widen. Three humans Sunset could guessed were Twilight’s parents, plus Dean Cadance from Crystal Prep, were hiding under a table as crockery and other kitchen utensils were flying around the room in an erratic manner.
However, what caught all their attention was that each item was glowing with a purple aura.
And sitting with her legs splayed out in the middle of all the chaos, tears streaming down her face, was the younger Twilight.
Now, logically, the first thought any being would have when seeing a crying child is to comfort said child. But, that idealism never took into account that said child would have hands with a glowing purple aura, or that the kitchen itself was attacking under the influence of her sorrow.
“What do we do?!” Spike cried in alarm as the three dropped to the floor to avoid several flying saucers that almost smashed into their heads.
“I don’t know!” Twilight cried out.
Sunset couldn’t agree more. This wasn’t something she’d anticipated. Sure, they’d all started developing their magic more, but Princess Twilight hadn’t even Ponied Up and even when she had in the past, she’d never been able to do this kind of magic before. It was almost as if she could still use her magic like back in Equestria, but that couldn’t be... could it?
She wanted to think more on this, but the very real threat of the young Twilight’s outburst of both emotion and magic was a risk. She needed to figure out how to calm this situation and fast.
Chancing a look towards the three adults cowering under the table, her eyes fellow on the woman who was clearly this world’s Twilight’s mother.
It was a slim chance, but, maybe... Oh, who was she kidding? Who cares how likely it would work? It was all she could think of on the spot and if it saved their lives, good, if it didn’t... well, they were in danger already, so it’s not like they had anything to lose.
“What’s your mother’s name?!” Sunset shouted to the girl next to her.
Twilight glanced at her in confusion. “Twilight Velvet!” she shouted back, cocking an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Mrs Velvet!” Sunset called out, getting the attention of the three adults, Cadance’s eyes widening in recognition. “Hug her!” she pointed to the crying child.
The three looked at her in absolute bewilderment.
“I’ll explain later. But you’re her mother. Hug her and it should calm her down. Trust me on this!” Not that Sunset trusted herself, if she were being honest. Of all the weird shit she’d had to deal with since the Fall Formal, she wasn’t at all prepared for this kind of situation. It honestly made the Midnight Sparkle thing seem normal in comparison. At least then she had some idea what to do, whereas now she was pretty much going blind.
Velvet looked uncertainly from Sunset to the little girl clearly causing the chaos in her kitchen. However, she had been confused when the little girl had come in and she did look familiar.
Whatever the case, it was the only idea she’d been given, crazy as it sounded.
Carefully, Velvet crawled out from under the table towards the wailing child. She had to duck a few times to avoid incoming kitchen projectiles, but, after about half a minute, she’d made it to the distraught child.
With nothing left to lose, she followed Sunset’s advice and wrapped her arms around the crying child and, for reasons she didn’t understand, found herself speaking as if to her own daughter.
“Shh. Twilight, it’s okay. It’s okay. Mommy’s here. Everything’s going to be alright.”
It was gradual, but, as the seconds ticked by, the objects flying around the room began to slow down, before eventually stopping altogether, some crashing to floor and shuttering, whilst others tumbled around or made a mess.
After several moments of stillness and quiet, save the sound of Twilight Velvet’s voice gently hushing the child in her arms and said child’s sobs and sniffles, Sunset, Spike, Twilight, Dean Cadance and Twilight’s father got up, moving over to the two.
It was as they neared that Sunset noticed the young Twilight had fallen asleep in her inter dimensional mother’s arms, her face still stained with tears, though looking exhausted.
Velvet looked up at Sunset, then to her daughter standing right next to Sunset, before back to the human Equestrian. “Could someone please explain what’s going on?”
Both Sunset and Twilight gave nervous laughs.
“Well, you see...” Sunset trailed off, really not sure how to respond, her body still recovering from what she’d just been through.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Twilight finished for her, looking just as anxious.
“I can help with some, I think,” Dean Cadance said, looking from the girls to Velvet, more specifically the younger looking Twilight held in Velvet's arms. “Though clearly there are a few things I need explaining of myself.”
“...and that about covers everything up til today,” Sunset finished sheepishly.
The group of seven were sitting in the living room of the Sparkle home. Sunset and Twilight were sitting on one couch, with Spike sitting between them. Cadance was sitting in an armchair whilst Twilight’s father leaned against it and Velvet and the younger Twilight took up the second couch, namely due to the fact that Velvet was having to lay on her side whilst holding the younger Twilight to her; Sunset had told her that ponies don’t really have laps for their foals to remain in, so had helped her figure out a way for the little girl to snuggle up with her as if still a pony.
As for the younger Twilight, she was still asleep, which had left a lot of the explaining of Equestria specifically to Sunset.
Twilight and Sunset had just spent several minutes explaining everything they could to Velvet and Night Light, with Cadance giving her own input to show that, as crazy as it all sounded, it wasn’t just the two of them making something up, what with Cadance herself having been a witness to everything magical that had happened at the Friendship Games herself.
“And the reason our daughter’s... pony princess double is like this is because...?” Night Light asked, glancing to his wife and the small child cuddled asleep against her.
Sunset followed his gaze, before scratching behind her head. “Actually, that’s something I can’t explain and we didn’t really have a lot of time to slowly figure it out before... well...”
The kitchen incident was definitely still on their minds, what with Sunset and Twilight having helped with the clean up before sitting down to finally talk with Twilight’s parents.
“I don’t understand,” Cadance looked to the younger double of the girl she’d babysat for in the past. “If this Twilight is actually around the same age as our Twilight, regardless of whatever turned her into a child when she came to this world, why did she react the way she did upon seeing us.”
Sunset frowned, looking down. “That... I don’t really know myself. It’s almost like, for the briefest of seconds, Twilight forgot which world she’s in and thought you,” she looked to Velvet, then Night Light, “were her parents back in Equestria. As to what caused her to burst into tears... I honestly couldn't say.”
“Um, Princess Twilight is a child now,” Spike pointed out from the couch. It had been a surprise to Sunset that the two parents were put off by the talking dog, with how long it had been since the Friendship Games and it likely they’d already encountered it. Seemed somehow Twilight had hidden it til then.
Night Light looked to the dog with a raised eyebrow. “What does that have to do with it, Spike?” he then blinked, before putting a hand over his eye. “I’m asking a coherent question of my daughter’s dog and actually expecting an answer. This is beyond bizarre.”
The dog in question scratched behind his ear, before looking to the girl curled up with his owner’s mother. “Well, don’t little kids minds work differently than older kids’ do?”
Cadance frowned. “Yes, but, if this Twilight is normally around the same age as our Twilight, then she isn’t really a child, Spike.”
“Actually, she’s probably older than this world’s Twilight,” Sunset interjected. When everyone looked to her, she continued. “Ponies in Equestria age a bit differently than humans do here. Twilight’s more around the age of twenty back there.”
“Wouldn’t that mean you’re older than you look too?” Night Light cocked an eyebrow.
Sunset blushed, looking away. “Well, technically, yes. In fact, I’m older than Princess Twilight because I was Princess Celestia’s personal student before her, but I’ve spent four years in this world specifically. The portal is a bit weird that way. I don’t fully understand it myself, even though I thought I did back when I first found out about it.”
“Still, I don’t see what you’re getting at, Spike,” Twilight said, returning to the previous matter. “If the other me is around twenty back in her world, like Sunset says and normally would turn into a girl around my age when coming to this world, what does her being a child now have to do with her reactions earlier?”
“Well, she may be that old normally, but right now, her body’s that of a child.” The dog looked around, before giving a slightly confused expression. “Am I, the dog, really the only one gets it?”
“I... I think I get where Spike’s going with this,” Sunset nodded, her brow furrowed in thought. “Twilight’s mind might still be the age she really is, but her body isn’t. Her brain isn’t the brain of the Princess of Friendship that’s been to this world before.”
Night Light cocked an eyebrow. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
“Wait,” Twilight frowned, looking to the younger version of her alternate self. “I think I get it now too. Physically, her brain isn’t the same age as her mind. That could be causing some confusion.”
“And... being in a child’s body, her brain isn’t quite coping with the information is has inside it?” Cadance hazard a guess. “But, that still doesn’t explain why she’d think our Twilight’s parents were hers, even if only for a few seconds, then burst into tears upon realizing they weren’t.”
Sunset looked to the young girl nestled against the human version of her mother. “I can’t really guess why that happened either. The only way we’ll likely be able to figure it out is when Twilight wakes up... though I’m not sure when that will be, exactly.”
They were all silent for several minutes, before Velvet looked to Sunset. “So... this child is actually a princess?”
Sunset nodded, not sure whether she was happy for the change in conversation or not. “Yeah. She’s an Alicorn and, when she Ponies Up, she gets her wings back. In fact, that technically means your Twilight and Cadance are Alicorns, too.”
“What?!” everyone gasped, looking to Sunset like she was mad.
Sunset nodded, before looking around. “Well, yeah. It would make sense.” She looked to Twilight, then Cadance. “You’re both the human reflections of your Alicorn selves back in Equestria. If either of you went through the portal, I’m certain she’d come out the other side as Alicorn.”
None noticed the worried look in Twilight’s eyes as she looked away, murmuring so low no one could hear, “I know I wouldn’t be. Because of her.”
“So... in another world, I’m a princess?” Cadance asked, pointing to herself, a dumbfounded look on her face.
Sunset nodded. “Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna too. It does kind of surprise me that, despite your pony self being the ruler of the Crystal Empire, you weren’t the principal of Crystal Prep, since that’s the mirror version of the Empire.”
“Well, actually, I might soon be in charge at Crystal Prep,” Cadance said, looking away sheepishly. “I was asked by Spoiled Rich the take over as Acting Principal until everything with Cinch is sorted.”
“And with the recordings you had of Cinch blackmailing Twilight, it might end up being a permanent placement,” Sunset nodded.
There was silence, before Sunset noticed the three adults were staring at her in shock.
“What?”
Cadance’s expression was uneasy. “How did you know I had recordings of Cinch blackmailing Twilight?”
Sunset frowned. “Well, Pinkie Pie said she saw you place the recording device in one of the trophies when she and Dash were over at Crystal Prep shortly before the games.”
She didn’t think she needed to explain it was their world’s Pinkie who saw this and had told her pony self upon their latest switch, or that their Pinkie wasn't in this world at the moment. That could wait. She did explain the how though (meaning how their world’s Pinkie saw Cadance plant the device), if only to ease the worry clear on Cadance’s face.
After several long moments of quiet, Sunset glanced up and noticed the time.
She sighed, getting up. “Sorry to leave this on all of you so suddenly, but I should really head back to my apartment. Since it’s not in the city, I need to catch a bus back before heading there.”
Uncertain looks passed between the adults and Twilight, before nodding.
“I... can’t really say how best to handle Twilight when she wakes up,” she glanced at the sleeping child. “But, Twi’s a smart girl. Even if being in that body is confusing her mind at bit, if you approach her calmly and logically, you should be fine.”
“And her magic?” Twilight asked, looking to her younger double.
Sunset scratched her head, wearing a befuddled expression. “I really don’t understand that myself. Magic works differently in this world than back in Equestria, but Twilight seemed to have normal access. Though, all we really saw was levitation, so that might be the limit. I can’t really say. I’ll try getting in contact with someone in Equestria when I get home and see if they can help. Other than that, I’m not sure what else we can do tonight.”
They all thought this over, before nodding.
Cadance got up and moved towards Sunset. “I need to get going myself, so I can drop you off if you like, Sunset. It would save you the bus fare.”
Sunset gave a small smile. “Thanks, Dean Cadance.”
Cadance returned the smile. The two bid the others goodnight, before heading out.
When the door closed, Twilight, her parents and Spike turned to look at the sleeping child.
“I think we should let her sleep with us, tonight, hmm, dear?” Velvet asked, looking to her husband.
Night Light scratched behind his head for a bit, before giving a small nod. “Good thing we still have some of Twilight’s old pajamas from when she was that age.”
Twilight snuggled closer to the warm body next to her, feeling content.
She felt so dazed and fuzzy in her mind. Something was nagging at her as her consciousness slowly started rousing, but it was taking its time.
She didn’t mind though. This warm feeling was so comforting. She hadn’t felt like this since she was a foal and would snuggle into her parents’ bed after a nightmare.
A loud grumble from her right singled her father getting out of bed to make coffee before heading off for work.
“Remember t’ leave shum f’r me,” she said haphazardly, yawning, before returning to the warmth.
Her father gave a small chuckle and the sound of him walking off told her he was gone.
After a few more minutes, she felt the warmth stirring and tried to dig herself deeper into it.
“Don’ wanna ge’ up,” she grumbled, yawning again.
The sound of her mother chuckling made her pout, puffing out her cheeks as the warmth shifted, forcing her to have to sit up… though something was off about how she was sitting that her still sleep-trodden brain wasn’t properly registering.
Twilight rubbed her eyes with a hoof, though it felt odd. There were lines in her hoof she didn’t remember being there before. And why did it feel like she could uncurl her hoof? That didn’t sound natural at all.
The sound of her mother chuckling again caused the princess to open her eyes. She stared wearily at the blurry greyish-white blotch that was her mother… but something was off. Why did her mother seem so tall?
Wait. For that matter, why was her mother in her room to begin with, and sharing the bed? And why had her father been here too?
The young princess shook her head, trying to clear the fog that early waking was causing.
After a few moments, her vision fully settled and she saw… not her mother, but a tall being that looked remarkably like her mother if she was in—
Suddenly, it all came slamming back into focus as her mind cleared and Twilight looked around in a panic. The portal, her new age, seeing doubles of her parents.
“Where am I?!” she cried, backing away from the woman before her immediately. “What’s going on? Where’re Sunset and Pinkie? How’d I get here? Where is here— whap!”
She was cut off as she tumbled off the bed, toppling on the floor.
Heavy hurried hoofsteps came and she looked up to see the other person towering over her kneeling down.
The little girl tried to back away again, but was stopped by the wall behind her.
“Twilight. Twilight, calm down. It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay,” the tall being said in her mother’s voice, sounding calm and assuring. “Sunset brought you here last night, remember? We didn’t want to wake you up, so my husband and I let you sleep with us.” Then her concern turned into a warm smile. “You were so cute as you slept. Reminded me of when our Twilight was your age.”
Twilight paused, before frowning, slowly calming down as the gears in her brain started to whir.
“R-right. Right. Sunset, Spike and this world’s me were going to her house. We… stepped inside and… um…” she blinked, looking up at the woman who looked so much like her own mother. “I… don’t remember anything after that.”
Velvet nodded, sitting down cross legged across from the other. “Yes. I imagine sleeping throughout the night does make it hard to remember anything that happened while you were asleep.”
As if to remind Twilight she’d slept through the evening, her stomach chose that moment to give a loud rumble, causing the lavender girl’s face to charge to a dark shade of red.
Velvet chuckled. “How about we go downstairs and get some breakfast.”
Twilight nodded, her face still red as the two got up and headed downstairs, Velvet trying to hide the smile she was wearing as the younger girl held her hand, but refused to make eye contact.
When they walked into the kitchen, Night Light was flipping a flapjack at the stove. He glanced their way and smirked. “Morning, Princess.”
“Dad!” Twilight’s voice said without her opening her mouth. “I told you to stop… oh. Right.”
There was an uncertain chuckle as Twilight turned her head to see this world’s version of herself wearing a light-blue top and long blue pants with stars on them, it taking the little girl a few seconds to realize they were just pyjamas.
Looking down at herself, she saw she was wearing something similar, only a darker purple and with long sleeves.
Night Light smirked. “And who says I was speaking to the actual member of royalty in this house?”
This world’s Twilight frowned at him. “Wait. So you were talking to her or were you talking to me?”
Night Light winked. “You’ll never know.”
Both Twilights deadpanned. “Seriously, Dad?”
They blinked, looking to each other in surprise, before looking away, fiddling with their hair.
Velvet chuckled, walking over to the table and sitting down, beckoning her two daughters over.
They both did, before realizing they sat next to each other and looked away, uncertain how to react.
“Sleep well, your highness,” the little girl looked down to see Spike by her feet.
He moved into a bow, before glancing up at her, winking, with a smirk on his lips.
Twilight couldn’t help but giggle, before frowning. “Don’t do that. Just because I’m a princess doesn’t mean I want my… oh,” her face fell a little. “Right. You’re not my Spike, are you?”
“Depends how you look at it,” the dog replied, scratching behind an ear before hoping up onto her lap.
“So, what exactly are we going to do with Twily?” Night Light asked bringing over several plates with a pile of three flapjacks on each.
Twilight licked her lips at the sight of the food, before she blinked, cocking an eyebrow at the human version of her father. “Huh?”
Velvet gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Twilight, but if we keep referring to both you and our daughter as Twilight, it could get very confusing, so Cadance suggested while you were asleep that we should call you Twily while you’re here. It would make things a little less confusing for all of us, don’t you agree?”
The little girl paused for a moment, before rubbing her chin in thought, a serious look on her face. “I… can see the reasoning. It would make more sense and I can’t really complain as your world’s me is from this world, so should have the right to her own name first. I’m just a visitor, after all.”
Snickering caused her to break from her pondering to look up and down to see the other three humans and dog were all trying to hold back laughter.
She pouted. “What?”
“S-sorry, Twily,” Velvet tried to get out. “But that serious face… it was too cute to actually take seriously.”
Princess Twilight looked between her to the blue man and her own older self, before her cheeks puffed out in anger and she folded her arms, which only caused the snickering to grow louder.
“Okay, okay,” Velvet said after a few minutes. “Let’s just have breakfast.”
“No arguments from me,” Night Light said, joining them at the table.
His daughter looked over the table, before adjusting her glasses and looking to him. “Dad, you forgot to bring over the maple syrup.”
“Oh,” he said, looking over his shoulder and frowning. “Must’ve left it atop the fridge.”
“I got it,” Princess Twilight said, looking to the top of the fridge, where a bottle of amber coloured liquid sat.
It glowed with a purple magical aura, before rising up and started moving towards the table.
As it reached just near enough for Night Light to almost reach it, if he weren’t staring in shocked amazement, Spike gave a loud sneeze, startling the girl whose lap he was sitting it, breaking her concentration.
The bottle started falling, the young girl crying out in alarm.
Before anyone could do anything, however, there was a flash of purple light and suddenly the younger of the lavender girls was holding the bottle and dropped, landing on her butt.
“Ow,” she grumbled, getting back up and turning… only to be met with looks of absolute shock. “What?”
“What? You just teleported!” the teen cried, pointing at the young girl. “That… How did you do that?”
The little girl blinked, before cocking an eyebrow. “I… just did. Can’t you?”
The glasses wearing girl’s eye twitched. “No one can! It violates all known laws of space and time!”
The younger girl just frowned in confusion, folding her arms. “Not where I’m from.”
A loud sigh caused both girls to look to Velvet, who was wearing an understanding expression that also conveyed you listen. “Yes, Twily, dear, I’m sure back in your world that is indeed the case. But this isn’t your world. In this world, magic being real is a very new concept that my husband and I didn’t even know about until last night. Plus, your friend, Sunset, made it clear magic isn’t meant to work the same here as it does where you come from, so the fact you can do things like back there is in itself unusual.”
“Oh.” Princess Twilight blinked, before her expression sagged and she fiddled with the bottle in her hands. “Sorry. I guess I just…” She looked down dejectedly.
Velvet got up, went over and hugged the young child. “I know. It would be wrong to expect you to adapt so suddenly to something so unexpected. Let’s just try to take this one step at a time, alright?”
Princess Twilight nodded into the older woman’s shoulder, before letting herself be led by hand back to the table.
“Sounds like breakfast was pretty interesting,” Sunset commented as she and the girls walked towards the portal.
Spike hadn’t answered the journal yet on the other side, but there was still a chance he might soon, so they were going to wait by the portal just in case.
“She was levitating almost everything,” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. “She didn’t even use her hands to eat anything. She just kept them curled up.” The lavender teen was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and a purple skirt and sneakers as apposed to her previous day's attire.
“Makes sense,” the other girl replied. “Unicorns, and by extension, Alicorns don’t really need to use their forelegs when eating. They just hold everything with the magic from their horns, so with magic somehow being available to her right now, it makes sense Twilight wouldn’t use her hands.”
“Must’ve been quite the show,” Dash smirked, her arms behind her head. “I mean, you could earn some money busking if you wanted with that kind of skill.”
“I hardly see a princess stooping to such a level, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity chided. She then looked to Twilight. “Why the change in outfit? I thought the new one was quite fetching.”
Twilight shrugged. “Can’t a girl change her look every once in a while.”
Rarity thought for a moment, before nodding. “True, true. I can’t argue with that.”
“So, what’s going on with our little princess?” Dash looked to the bookworm. “Where is she?”
Twilight sighed, folding her arms with a disapproving look. “My parents are taking her to the park.”
“What’s wrong with the park?” Fluttershy asked, looking confused. “It’s so nice and quiet and all the cute little animals. Plus, there’ll be lots of other kids for her to…”
She trailed off and they all looked to each other, before facepalming.
“Yeah,” Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples. “True, I slipped once or twice and had to remind mnyself she’s not really a child, but it seems my parents don’t find it as easy to keep that in mind.”
“With the fact you both look so much alike, maybe they’re just trying to enjoy having a little girl again,” Fluttershy suggested.
“Which I do not approve off at all!” Twilight said firmly, stomping a foot. “She’s not a child, Sunset explained that clearly. Not to mention if she’s a princess, that means my parents are treating royalty like a baby. I just… Argh!”
“I get the bad feeling this is going to blow up in their faces,” Spike shrugged. “Past experience helps the observers see it coming, but clearly they haven’t learned their lesson yet.”
Princess Twilight pouted, her arms folded as the parents of her double ushered her towards a playground where several other kids around her physical age were playing, jumping on monkey bars, going down the slide or swinging on the swing set.
“I wanted to go to the library!” she said, glaring at the two adults.
“And we promise we’ll take you,” Night Light said, smiling warmly. “But first, why not spend some time with some other kids?”
She grumbled, but saw there was no negotiating this, so walked over to the playground.
As she neared, she noticed a few familiar looking faces. She recognized them from the CMC’s school. Odd. Their ages were clearly much younger in this world than the CMC were.
She looked back at the two adults, who smiled and waved.
She deadpanned.
“You disgusting rat!”
Princess Twilight’s head whipped around to see a much older woman standing on the path the passed the playground. Sitting at her fit was a little boy with orange skin, darker orange hair, yellow eyes and wearing an orange shirt with the image of a burger on it.
The woman was tall, fairly into her years, with pale cyan skin, dark-purple with two lighter hues of purple throughout and pink eyes. She was wearing a blue suit and carrying a briefcase, the former of which the Princess Twilight noticed a stain of pink and white ice cream, matching the kind from the little boy’s squashed cone he was holding in his right hand.
“I-I-I’m sorry, miss,” the boy stammered, looking up at the woman in fear.
“You should be,” she shot back, her eyes narrowing. “Do you know how much this suit and its dry cleaning costs? More than your parents likely make in a year from how you’re dressed.”
Princess Twilight’s eyes narrowed. That was no way for an adult to speak to a child.
“You should know there are those who will make something of themselves in life and those who will be nothing to wastes of space for the community,” the woman continued, looking down coldly at the boy. “You are of the latter camp, not the former.”
“Hey! Leave him alone!”
The lady looked away from the boy as Princess Twilight charged at her, glowing with purple magic as her hair grew longer into a ponytail and her wings appeared.
Princess Twilight flew through the air and landed between the boy and woman, glaring. “Adults shouldn’t speak to foals like that! Apologize now!”
The woman looked at her in confusion for several moments, before her eyes narrowed with what the young girl realized was contempt.
“You!” Before she knew what was happening, the woman had lend down and grabbed her by the front of her shirt and lifted her to eyelevel. “As if ruining my reputation wasn’t bad enough, now I learn you’ve found a way to manipulate Canterlot High’s magic to make yourself younger?! How dare you, you ungrateful, insignificant worm!”
“Twily!”
The sound of running footsteps caused the woman to look up as Night Light and Velvet hurried over, before they stopped in their tracks at the sight of the woman, before glaring.
“Put that girl down right this moment, Abacus Cinch!” Night Light growled.
The Cinch woman just glared back. “So you both are fine with your daughter going against nature and using Canterlot High’s illegal magic to regress her age?”
“They said, let go!” the held girl yelled, her hands glowing with her magic, before it blasted forth, sending Cinch tumbling back several feet.
The two adults looked to the little girl, who was blinking in confusion as she hovered in the air, then looked down at her own hands in shock.
“So, it’s assault now.” The quartet looked to the older woman as she got up and dusted herself off. “I’m reporting this to the authorities!”
“Fine!” Velvet growled, her face pulled back into a snarl. “And we’ll tell them how you assault our daughter first! I’m sure they’ll ignore threatening a mere six year old with the other child abuse you’re already under investigation for!”
The two women glared at each other for several moments, before Cinch huffed and walked off.
Night Light and Velvet hurried over and held Princess Twilight, asking if she was alright.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she insisted, pulling out of their grip, before giving Velvet an odd look. “Why did you call me your daughter?”
Velvet paused, before looking to her husband and blushed. “Well, while we’ve avoided it, technically, you are as much my daughter as own Twilight.”
“I… guess I see your logic,” the little girl hovered in place, her arms folded in thought.
“Let’s just go to the library, like we agreed to,” Night Light said. “I think we’ve had enough excitement for now, yes?”
Princess Twilight nodded, before she felt a tug on her right leg.
Looking down, she saw the boy she’d defend from Cinch.
“Uh, thanks,” he said as she floated down til they were more eyelevel. He pointed to her wings. “How’d you do that?”
Twilight looked over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow. “I dunno know. Normally that only happens here when I sing with my friends.”
“Well, thank you, for saving me,” he said, holding out a hand. “Gallop J. Fry. But, everybody just calls me Fry.”
“Twilight,” the girl replied, shaking his hand. “Twilight Sparkle.”
Fry looked at her in confusion. “But, I thought Twilight Sparkle was in big kid school.”
“I am. Well, I was. I…” she frowned, a puzzled expression coming over her face, before she shook her head. “It’s a long story.”
“Twily, come on. The library won’t be open forever,” Velvet called.
“Coming,” Princess Twilight replied, before waving to Fry and flying off to catch up.
“See you later!” Fry called.
“Maybe!” she replied, before turning and hovering alongside the adults.
“Twily,” Velvet said as they walked down the path, “I know you normally can fly, but can you put your wings away for now? Others might start staring.”
Princess Twilight blinked, before smiling sheepishly and landed, glowing with her magical aura, her hair returning to its previous state and her wings vanishing.
The drive to the library was quiet. Upon arriving, Velvet opened the boot of the car, revealing a red wagon.
Night Light took it out and put it on the ground. Princess Twilight grabbed the handle and hurried inside, the two adults following.
After several hours, they called to Princess Twilight that it was time to leave.
She nodded, before grabbing a large number of books and piling them all in the wagon, before heading for the front desk.
The librarian behind the desk had short blonde hair, was wearing a cream suit and was wearing black glasses over her blue eyes.
She looked up at the sound of the little girl ringing the bell on the desk. She smiled. “Can I help you, sweetie?”
Princess Twilight nodded, producing the card Velvet had given her when they entered. “I wanna borrow all these books.”
The librarian looks to the large number of books, expecting to see kids’ books, but she paused when she noticed most of them were either about history, advanced mathematics or advanced physics.
“Are you… sure you want these books, little one?” she asked slowly.
Princess Twilight nodded. “I wanted a bit of light reading with some easy subjects to tide me over.”
The librarian just blinked. “Light reading? Easy subjects?”
“Twily?” Night Light called. “We’re leaving.”
“Please!” she begged, giving her best puppy dog eyes.
“I… well… okay,” the librarian said uncertainly, taking the card and adding each book it. “Are you sure you want all of them, though?”
The little girl nodded, before looking a little unhappy. “I would take more, but the library card only has too small a limit.”
The librarian just nodded slowly, finishing up the transaction and handed the card back to her.
Princess Twilight nodded, saying thanks and hurried after her carers.
“I… think I need a break,” the librarian said, turning and walking into the back room.
Night Light and Velvet paid no mind to the many people pausing and looking in their direction with puzzled stares. With a six year old girl sitting with them in the food court reading a book on advanced aerodynamics, stares were a given.
They were no strangers to random passers-by looking back at them in confusion due to having already gone through something similar with their own Twilight at the princess’s age… though the books were definitely more advanced that their Twilight had read at that age, so it was a bit funnier.
“It’s so fascinating,” the lavender girl said, pouring over the book’s contents. “In Equestria we really just fly with wings or hot air balloons. Our air travel is nowhere near to this level. The dynamics involved are astounding.”
Laughter caused her to look up to see the two adults smiling at her. Velvet nodded to her left. “Forgetting something, I see?”
The little princess looked to her right and saw a tray with food sitting next to her. There was a burger, potatoes fries and a soda, plus a small bag with a question mark on it.
Her cheek going red, she set the book aside and lifted the burger before taking a bite. At once, her eyes lit up and she began chewing with gusto, a bright smile on her face as she chewed with her eyes closed.
The two adults chuckled again. She was so much like their Twilight. So adorable at that age.
Velvet then paused, before looking questioningly at her daughter’s lookalike. “It still is so odd to me. Even though you’re a pony, eating meat isn’t frowned upon in your world?”
Princess Twilight paused from her ravaging on her burger, pulling it down to reveal large ketchup stains all over her mouth.
She gulped, grabbing her soda and sipping a bit before sighing and looked to her mother’s double. “Well, it’s not a common thing, but we do eat small amounts of meat every once in a while. We don’t need a lot of it though, so we mostly have meat offered for animals and foreigners, like the griffons.”
Night Light blinked. “Wait. Griffons? You have griffons in your world too?”
She nodded, taking another bite of her burger. “Shnot too weiwd to shee ponish eating meat wish dere mealsh. R’inbow D’sh,” she swallowed, “tends to have some at least three times a week. I myself have had to increase my own intake since becoming an Alicorn. Pegasi and unicorns burn up more calories than other ponies, Alicorns even more so.” She paused, cocking an eyebrow. “Though that’s doesn’t account for Pinkie Pie. Though, from past experience, I’ve learned it’s better to accept that and not question it.”
The two adults looks to each other, not really sure how to answer any of that.
“Mom? Dad? Phew. Glad I found you. Listen, can you tell me where to find—”
The voice caused her to choke, needing to thump her chest a few times to get the food down. The princess stared wide eyed at the human interpretation of her big brother, who in turn where staring at what he no doubt saw as his younger sister having somehow gotten even younger.
The two just stood there, staring at each other.
“And then I said “Oatmeal? Are you crazy? He then — Oh, hi, Twi… oh.”
They turned and Shining Armours eyes bugged out of his head, before his eyes darted to and from his sister to the ketchup stained faced miniature version of her sitting before him.
“I… but, what… how could… that doesn’t…” the white young man staggered, his eyes starting to dilute as his brain was overloaded.
“Well, this is awkward,” Dash murmured to Applejack, who nodded in agreement.
“Oh, Twilight, darling,” Rarity hurried over to the younger girl, taking the napkins from the tray and began wiping the lavender child’s face.
“Rarity! hey — wait!” Princess Twilight struggled against her now much bigger friend, trying to avoid to barrage of napkins.
“What’s going on here?!”
All eyes turned to Shining Armour, who was righting himself and shaking his head. He looked to his sister, before pointing to the younger version. “I came to apologize after seeing how Cinch forced you into the games, where I learn she also forced you to use magic and now I find out you used it to make a clone of yourself!”
At once, his sister’s eyes narrowed. “She is not a clone, Shining Armour! I would never use magic like that!”
“You used it to open tears in our world,” Shining shout back, causing her to wince. “Cloning doesn’t sound too far from that.”
“Now back off,” Sunset came to the glasses wearing girl’s aid as she shied away. “That’s below the belt, pal. Twilight couldn’t control herself back then. She was under the influence of stolen, unstable magic.”
“What would you know about it?” he asked, looking to her sternly.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “Because I’m magical too. My magic was part of the stolen magic. I know what it feels like to have that running through you. You don’t.”
“And you should show a little more respect to royalty!” Rarity said as the little girl batted her hands away, a small amount of ketchup still on her face. “I would have expected better of Twilight’s own brother.”
He blinked, before giving her an unamused look. “What? You think you’re royalty?”
Rarity shook her head, before indicating to the smaller girl still seated. “I am talking about her. You are addressing Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, the Princess of Friendship.”
He looked at her, clearly unsure whether Rarity was being serious or not.
“Whatever the case, for someone who wanted to apologize, you just made Twilight feel worse,” Sunset grabbed Shining’s attention again. He looked to see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy comforting their friend, who was wiping tears from her eyes.
Shining’s face broke and he moved to step forward, but then paused, looking down in shame. “Twilight, I… I’m sorry. I… I haven’t been the best big brother. I should’ve seen how uncomfortable you were and realized I shouldn’t make you feel you have to do something. And, after I heard the recordings of Principal Cinch blackmailing you, I just…”
His body sagged, his expression crestfallen.
“Wait. She was blackmailed, by her principal?! And you let it happen?!”
All eyes turned the tiny person the voice in question came from. She was staring both in shock and anger and the white boy.
Shining blinked, before looking to his sister. “Um, Twily, exactly who is this? Why does she sound and look just like you did at that age?”
“Don’t ignore me, BBBFF!” he looked back to see pure anger in the little girl’s eyes. “You’re sister was in trouble and you ignored it? At least my Shining had the excuse his mind was being zapped by a Changeling Queen pretending to be his bride! What’s your excuse?!”
Sunset blinked, before noticing the princess’s little hands glowing with her magic. Uh oh. I’d better stop this before things get really out of hand.
“Whoa-ho-ho-ho!” the voice caused her to pause and glance to Pinkie Pie, whom was bouncing up and down as if…
“Shuddering?!” Sunset’s eyes widened in horror. She looked back to the angry child, who was holding her hands up in fists now, everyone becoming aware of the glow of her magic.
“You let somepony hurt your sister when you could clearly see she was unhappy?!” Her eyes were daggers and they were aimed squarely at the white boy.
“Twily, sweetie, calm down,” Velvet said quickly, trying to stop things from escalating. “We wouldn’t want an outburst now, would we?”
“Ye-yeah,” Shining said quickly, holding up his hands in a calming manner. “Little girls shouldn’t have outbursts or —”
“I’m NOT A LITTLE GIRL!” the young Twilight screamed, going into the Canterlot Royal Voice, causing the room to shake and everyone to cover their ears.
As she screamed, Princess Twilight’s magic exploded from her hands, souring all over the food court.
People screamed, ducking and diving to avoid the flares of purple magic that were shooting in multiple directions.
“Twilight, no!” Pinkie Pie yelled, pushing forward and running toward her fellow Equestrian, only to end up running right into the path of a magical blast.
Pinkie jittered in place as the magic consumed her, the girl whom cast the magic staring with eyes wide with horror as her rage quickly fell.
Everyone else stared in horror too as the pink girl seemed to vanish with the purple light.
Princess Twilight’s magic stopped suddenly and she slumped forward, Rarity catching her. “Pin… kie…” she said in a very tired voice.
The magic around where Pinkie had been faded to reveal the girl was still there, though her hair was very frazzled.
She blinked, looking around at everyone in confusion. “How’d I get here?”
“Huh?” Sunset and Twilight looked to each other, before looking back to the Equestrian. “Pinkie, we walked here from the park, remember?”
The pink haired girl shook her head. “No I didn’t I was in Twilight’s library after visiting Zecora — Oh, did you guys know she’s actually a zebra in Equestria? Who’d have thunk, right? Anyway, she gave me a potion that I was going to use to prank Rainbow Dash so she’d sleep for a whole day, but just before I could splash her with a few drops, I got the shudders, dropping the potion and found myself here.” She looked around, before blinking in confusion. “Why’re Princess Twilight here? And why’s she a little kid?”
The princess heard no more as her exhausted body gave out and she went unconscious.
“Okay, so, let me see if I’ve got this straight. That little girl who looks just like my sister is my sister, but from a parallel world where ponies are the common and not humans and magic is normal there and there’s a double of everyone from our world in that world, but she normally isn’t this small, she’s also a princess in her world, magic isn’t meant to work here like it does there but she can still use her magic like there for some reason, she can’t return to her world because the portal randomly closed and she zapped the version of this girl from her world who had switched places with the version from our world despite travel between our worlds currently being impossible.”
Shining Armour looked around at the girls gathered in the living room of his parents’ home.
“About sums it up, yeah,” Sunset said as she leaned against the wall, her arms folded.
Shining looked to her. “And you’re a pony too, but you chose to live in our world.”
Sunset looked away briefly. “Not at first, but, yeah. I made this world my home.”
“So, why is the portal still closed?” Dash asked as she walked in and sat down on the couch next to Applejack, folding her arms. “Fluttershy and I just got back to check if their world’s Pinkie opened the portal after returning, but it’s still closed.”
“She’s likely asleep!”
All heads turned at the pink haired girl’s chirpy tone.
“And just why would Pony Pinkie be sleepin’ when her friend needs her help?” Applejack asked, before frowning at the alliteration pun she unintentionally made.
Pinkie shrugged. “I was gonna prank their Rainbow with a sleeping potion, remember? But when I got the shudders, I dropped the potion, but was zapped back here before it shattered. Soon as she arrived, she likely inhaled the smoke caused by the potion mixing with the dirt and puff clouds created.”
Rarity sighed. “Figures. How long will she sleep?”
“A few drops last a day, so… maybe two weeks?” Pinkie shrugged.
“Two weeks?!” everyone yelled, before groaning and slumped back.
“And, it being Pinkie, no one is going to question her sleeping so long,” Rainbow said, a hand over her face.
“Well, our royal guest is tucked in bed,” Velvet said, coming into the room, followed by Fluttershy. She looked to her daughter, who was sitting with her hands in her lap. “Twilight, I hope you don’t mind I put her in your bed? She shouldn’t be asleep for long.”
Twilight looked up, before seeming to think and nodded absentmindedly. “It’s okay. I don’t really have a leg to stand on in saying no.”
That caused everyone to look at her in confused concern.
“Twilight, why would you say that?” Fluttershy looked at her with sad eyes.
Adjusting her glasses, she looked away. “she’s a princess, not to mention saved both her world and ours several times… while I nearly destroyed ours.”
Shining looked away, guilt written on his face for having brought that up at the mall.
Sunset pushed off the wall and walked over to her, putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “You can’t judge yourself by comparing yourself to that Twilight, Twilight. She grew up in a very different world and scenario to you. You both had very different life experiences. No one would compare you because of that.”
There was silence for a few moments, no one really sure how to respond to after that.
Finally, it was Shining Armour who broke the silence.
“Twily, I’m going to be doing my best to make sure Cinch faces punishment for what she put you through.” She looked up to him and saw the determination on his face, before I wavered into hurt. “When I overheard her threatening you place at Everton unless you took part in the games, I couldn’t believe I pushed you into that.” His expression hardened again. “She won’t get away with this, Twily, I promise. I may not be able to get her punished for any of the magical incidents, but blackmailing my little sister is not something I’m going to take lying down.”
There was a pause, before Twilight gave a small smile. “Thank you, Big Brother Best Friend Forever.”
“Oh, so that’s what that means,” everyone looked to Rainbow Dash, who was looking up at the ceiling her arms folded. “I thought when Princess Twilight called him that it was some kind of pony insult.”
“Well, considering her anger at the time she said it, I think it was meant to be taken as an insult,” Sunset said, looking to Shining Armour, who looked down in shame. “Her brother is really important to her, so learning another version of him did something so mean, if unintentional, to another version of herself, it likely really hurt.”
Shining blinked, before looking up, frowning in confusion. “That reminds me, something she said sounded familiar, but weird. Did Mom and Dad tell her about how my ex pretended to be Cadance at our wedding?”
Everyone blinked, before Sunset frowned, scratching her chin in thought, before dawning seemed to come over her face.
“Oh, the Changeling Queen thing? Yeah, in her world, a shape-shifting creature took Cadance place at their wedding and it was only Twilight who knew. Nopony else could tell because they were too preoccupied with the wedding to notice the odd behaviour Cadance had started having. Nopony believed her and it nearly led to disaster. It’s a pretty sore subject, I think.”
Shining blinked, before looking uneasy and scratching behind his head. “Sheesh. No wonder she got so angry at me. I mean, I could tell pretty quickly Chrysalis wasn’t Cadance at our wedding, but I guess if the version of her in that world is a shape-shifting creature, her disguise would be way harder to tell.”
“Well, Ah dunno about ya’ll, but this day’s left me plumb tuckered out,” Applejack sighed, taking off her hat and wiping her forehead with an arm. “Ah’d best get back t’ the farm.”
“Yeah. I’d better head off too,” Dash said, looking contemplative. “Anyone got any plans for tomorrow?”
Rarity paused, before looking around at everyone. “Should we discuss how we plan on raising the money to go to Camp Everfree next week?”
“That sounds like a plan,” Sunset nodded in agreement. “Meet up by the statue?”
There were murmurs of agreement and the girls all headed out, saying goodbye to Twilight and her folks.
Shining also said his goodbyes, asking that they tell the younger Twilight when she wakes up that he was sorry for what happened at the mall.
Since it was still a little over an hour until dinner, Twilight decided she’d go back to her room and do some studies. It was only as she entered with Spike at her heels that she remembered her mother had put her younger doppelganger to bed in said room.
The little version of herself was snoozing peacefully in the bed, a blanket over her.
Twilight walked over to the bed and kneeled down, resting her head on her arms as she looked at the sleeping child.
Looking at her, you wouldn’t think this child was the one who apparently stopped so many super natural evils back in her own world, let alone the two times she’d saved this one.
“It’s not even her world, and yet she still saved it,” Twilight walked the face of her younger self, before a small smile slowly formed on her own. “I wonder if I really was this cute when I slept at her age.”
“It is a pretty interesting experience, when you think about it,” Spike said, hopping up on the bedside table and onto the bed, making sure not to disturb the sleeping princess. “How many people get to say they can see what it was like to see themselves sleeping as a kid like their parents.”
Twilight lifted her head, looking to the dog, before chuckling softly. “Yeah. I guess it is a pretty unique opportunity.” Then her face fell. “She’s a better person that I can hope to be.”
“Twilight, what are you talking about?” Spike looked at his owner in confused worry.
She got up and moved over to her desk, turning on her computer monitor, making sure the brightness was low. “Let’s face it, Spike. No matter what the others say, she’s the princess who always did the right thing, while I’m the blind little girl who messed with things she thought she understood, but was too confident to realize she was clueless.”
There was silence for several moments, Spike not knowing what to say and Twilight not wanting to say anything.
“I was clueless too.”
Twilight looked up from her monitor, confused, before she turned to the bed to see her younger self sitting up, rubbing at one of her eyes with a closed fist.
“Huh?” she asked.
The younger Twilight yawned, before sitting up a little straighter and looked to her glasses wearing counterpart. “When I firsht went to Ponyville, I was so clueless about how to stop Nightmare Moon I…” she gave another yawn, before shaking her head and slapping herself on the cheeks, then looked at the other. “When I first realized Nightmare Moon was coming back, I thought I could handle it all on my own. I’d read about the Elements of Harmony and thought I knew what I needed to in order to use them. But, every time I tried to do things on my own, they went badly. Worse, for a brief period, it looked like Nightmare Moon had won, destroying the Elements and that it would be Night Eternal.”
“Nightmare Moon?” Spike asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I think Sunset mentioned her at some point. She trapped your princess in the sun and nearly made it nighttime forever?” He frowned. “I’d hate that. The cats would get all smug, thinking they owned the world since they think they own the night.”
Looks from the two Twilights made him grin sheepishly and cough.
“It was only after I let the others start helping me, letting me see things in a different light than just my own, that I understood the real power of the Elements,” the child pushed the blankets off and sat more forward on the bed. “After that, I realized I’d been mistaken for so long. Friendship was important and so I stayed in Ponyville so I could learn as much about it as I could.”
“What are you trying to get at, exactly?” Twilight asked, not sure where this was going.
The younger girl gave a sad smile and shook her head, before getting down from the bed, walking over and put a hand on her other self’s. “Don’t change yourself by me. You’re you, Twilight. We may be a lot alike, but you’re still you. You’re not a copy of me. You have the right to be your own po— erm, person and grow as your own person.” She blushed, grinning sheepishly as she rubbed her arm. “Sorry. So used to how we speak in my own world, you know?”
Twilight looked at her, before giving a light giggle and nodding. “I guess I can understand.” Then then gave a small smile. “Thank you, princess.”
At once, the pony human pouted, puffing out her cheeks. “You don’t have to call me princess, you know. Your parents decided on Twily, to make it easy.”
Twilight gave a wry smirk. “True, but I’m not wrong either, am I?”
Spike chuckled, causing the younger of the two girls to fold her arms and tap her food.
Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. If she was really that cute when she pouted as a kid, she now could understand why her parents were so endeared by it.
Dinner was a peaceful event. A simple Spaghetti Bolognese with feta cheese.
Now that she wasn’t so distracted by it, Twilight was fascinated as she watched their princess guest using her magic to eat.
As they ate, there were a few times she caught her not even using her magic on her cutlery, instead just lifted and twirling the food with her magic and then lifting it into her mouth.
Velvet lightly scolded her for eating as such, seeing it as the equivalent of children just eating with their hands, which, when she thought about it, Twilight guessed her mother was right.
After dinner, both Twilights went to her room, where the younger surprised her by helping with the homework. Granted, Twilight didn’t need much help, but it was a nice gesture and was honestly quite amusing, having someone as apparently young as the princess looked being able to help with such advanced mathematics and geometry.
As it got late, Velvet asked if Twilight would mind letting their little guest stay in her room. She didn’t really see a reason why not.
So, Velvet got a foldup bed and set it out on the floor next to her daughter’s bed. Velvet wished the two goodnight, turning out the light.
The younger of the two pouted, folding her arms. “We’re not little kids. We can turn the light out ourselves.” A chuckle caused her to look up, where Spike and Twilight were looking down at her with coy smiles. “Fine, phsycially, I’m a little kid, but you’re not.”
Twilight shrugged. “I’ll let it slide this night. If she does it again tomorrow, though, then I’ll call her out on it.”
The two nodded, before settling down for the night.
“Goodnight, Twilight,” the now glassesless girl said, giving a light chuckle.
“Goodnight, Twilight,” the little girl giggled, seeing the humour.
“Goodnight, Twilights,” Spike said, hopping down from the bed and snuggling down at the foot of the younger of the two’s foldup bed.
There was a trio of giggles, before a call from downstairs hushed them.
“Twilight, Twilight, both of you go to sleep!”
“Sorry, Mom!” they said in unison, before blinking, looking to each other in the dark, then doing their best to stifle their giggles as they settled down, before long drifting off to sleep.
The young princess stirred from sleep, slowly opening her eyes as she pushed herself up, rubbing an eye with a fist.
“I’m not… Leave me alone!”
Looking up, she could see her older counterpart thrashing about in bed. Spike was looking at her, then herself, a worried expression on his face.
“You can’t!” the sleeping girl moaned, her voice filled with sleepy terror.
“What’s happening?” the princess asked as she got up, Spike hopping up onto the bed of his owner.
“Ever since the Friendship Games Twilight’s been having nightmares,” the dog replied, moving over to his owner, putting a paw on her shoulder and shaking it, only to back away as she swiped her arm in her sleep, nearly knocking him off the bed.
Frowning, the young girl grabbed the other’s arm and started shaking it. “Twilight? Twilight, wake up!”
“YAH!” the older girl screamed in terror, sitting up and waving her arms around.
Her younger counterpart and dog were knocked aside, both tumbling to the floor.
“Stay away!” Twilight yelled, panting heavily as she opened her eyes. “Don’t… you…”
She paused, her breathing still heavy, seeming to realize she was in her room. Looking around, she saw both her dog and young temporary roommate sprawled on the floor either side of her bed.
“I… what?” she looked between the both of them, before worry entered her eyes and she hurried out of bed. “Oh my gosh! Spike! Twilight! Are you both alright? I’m so sorry!”
She held her dog in her arms before hurrying around the other side of her bed and helping the little princess up.
“Sure,” Spike said groggily. “Just tell the room t’ stop spinning.”
“I’m okay,” Twily said, though the teen noticed her holding her right elbow and tears welling in her eyes.
The teen looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to… I just…”
“Having a nightmare,” the child got up and nodded. “I understand. When I was little, I had them too.”
Twilight pouted. “Technically speaking, you are little.”
The young girl paused, before holding up a finger in a lecturing manor. “True, physically, I am currently younger and smaller than you, but when it comes to which of us has lived longer, I technically am older than yourself. Anyway,” her expression softened, “you were having a nightmare. It seemed bad.” She gave a light smirk. “Kindergarten?”
Twilight blinked. “Wait. How did you…?”
Her younger self folded her arms. “I’m you, remember? Pretty sure we both had the same problems as foals.” She blinked, before shaking her head. “I mean kids.”
Twilight and Spike chuckled, before the former’s expression saddened and she sat down on her bed, stroking her dog. “No. not kindergarten. I’d honestly happily take those nightmares.”
Twily looked up at her, before getting up on the bed to sit next to her double. “Wanna talk about it?”
The other shook her head. “No, I… I’d rather not.”
There was silence for a few moments, before the younger looked to her, a small smile on her face. “Would it help if I slept with you?”
The teen blinked, looking down to the little royal. “Huh?”
Twily smiled. “When I was a foal and having nightmares, Mom and Dad would let me sleep with them. It helped stave off the nightmares. I could do that for you, if you want?”
There was silence again as the two looked at each other, before the glasses wearing girl gave a small warm smile. “I’d like that.”
Letting go of Spike, she and the child moved back to the covers and got under them, the purple dog settling at the edge of the bed as the two girls snuggled under the covers.
As she lay her head down on the pillow, Twilight looked to her double, who gave an adorable yawn as she closed her eyes, almost seeming to fall asleep it once.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile. Leaning forward, she kissed the now sleeping child on the forehead and whispered, “Thank you, Twilight.”
With that, the trio all joined each other in the land of dreams. No more nightmares were had that night.
“When I said I’d be happy to help, this isn’t what I meant!” the miniature princess pouted, her arms folded as she stood in front of the gate to the fenced off area of the park.
She was wearing a puppy dog costume with a sign around her neck saying “Futtershy and Twilight’s Doggy Daycare. A fun day for your pooch and that’s no looch”.
“What’s wrong with our Doggy Daycare?” Fluttershy asked, before looking worried. “Oh, it’s the slogan, isn’t it? I knew I would choose the wrong words.”
The costume girl quickly waved her arms. “No, no, Fluttershy. The slogan’s fine.” She smiled. “Actually, I have to commend the word choice. It’s not too easy to spot to the naked eye, so customers will look it up and actually learn something too. By that viewpoint, it’s very clever.”
“I agree,” Twilight smiled. “I couldn’t have chosen a better slogan myself.”
Fluttershy smiled, before looking confused. “Then… why aren’t you happy?”
The little girl’s smile fell. She pushed open the gate, closing it and she pointed at herself. “I did not sign on to dress like a foal when it isn’t even Nightmare Night. I look ridiculous.”
Fluttershy gave a light giggle. “Aw, but you look so cute.”
A yip caused them to look down at the fluffy little Bichon Frise at the little girl’s feet.
Fluttershy giggled again. “Fifi certainly thinks you look adorable.”
“Uh, is this where the Doggy Daycare is?”
The little girl froze in place, her eyes going wide with horror. That voice… Not him!
“Hey, little one,” she turned around, but made sure to keep her head down, thanking Celestia that she hadn’t taken the hoodie off. “That’s a cute outfit.”
She replied simply by barking.
“Uh, okay then,” he looked to Fluttershy and held out a lead that connected to the collar of a small Boston terrier. “This is Banana.”
The dog yips and Fluttershy smiles, leaning down and petting the puppy. “It’s very nice to meet you, Banana.”
While Flash and Fluttershy talk, Twilight notices that her customed double was nowhere in sight.
“Spike,” she said, looking down at the purple dog, who paused his sniffing of Banana’s buttocks to look to his owner. “Can you find my double? She seems to have wandered off.” She frowned, scratching her chin. “I wonder why.”
Spike nodded, putting his nose to the ground and began sniffing. He frowned, before following the scent, it leading to towards where the group of dogs that had already been brought for the Doggy Daycare were playing, but stopped and looked around in confusion.
He looked to his owner and shrugged. “Her scent just stops here. I dunno what happened.”
Twilight frowned in worry. “She has access to her Equestrian Magic, so maybe she levitated herself out. That would explain why her scent stops so suddenly. I hope she’ll be okay.”
The Alicorn in a human body currently dressed in a dog suit ran. She didn’t even know where she was going, but she kept running.
Flash almost saw her, like this! She couldn’t let that happen. She had to keep him from seeing her as a child. It was too terrifying to think about how he’d react.
Would he laugh at her? Would he see her as nothing more than a child for the rest of her life? Would he…?
Her downwards spiral of thoughts was halted when she slammed into someone and fell back, landing on her backside, the motion causing her hoodie to fall back.
“Hey, watch where you’re go… Twilight Sparkle?”
She looked up to see a pair of human girls she didn’t recognize. One had a skin and hair colour similar to Trixie’s, but her hair was in a pair of ponytails. Also, unlike Trixie, she was wearing orange glasses slightly similar in design to the princess’s own human counterpart.
The other was a girl with a light-orangey-pink skinned girl with two-toned blue hair cut a bit shorter than Rainbow Dash’s and was wearing goggles above her eyes.
Both were wearing uniforms similar to one she’d seen in her human self’s wardrobe.
“What the…? How’re you a kid?” the girl who didn’t look a lot like Trixie asked, staring down at the little girl in shock, before cocking an eyebrow. “And what’s with the dog costume?”
The not Trixie girl cocked an eyebrow. “Did you mess with Equestrian Magic again and this time instead of turning you into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart, it turned you into a child.”
She looked from one to the other in confusion, before it clicked. These girls were wearing the same uniform as her double had, so they must go to the school she did before transferring to CHS and knew her from there and… wait. What was that about her human counterpart turning into a creature that tried to rip the world apart?!
“I’m not Twilight,” she said, getting up and dusting herself off. “At least, I’m not the Twilight you know.”
They both looked to each other, before returning their gazes to her, the not Trixie girl cocking an eyebrow. “Then just who exactly are you? There aren’t two Twilight Sparkles.”
That actually got a giggle out of the princess. “Actually, yes, there are.” She looked around, before her expression turned to worry. She was in such a rush to get away from Flash she didn’t pay attention to where she was going and was now lost. “And would you mind clarifying what you mean when you said my double tried to rip the world apart?”
A few minutes later, the unlikely trio were seated outside a café in town. The two older girls had coffee, while the princess had a strawberry smoothie.
“Wow,” the purple girl said, looking down. “That’s just… wow.”
“Shouldn’t that be our line?” the sporty girl asked.
The trio had exchanged information, informing the other what they were oblivious to.
The girls were Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat, both of whom had been classmates of her double, but hadn’t really been friends with her due to how the former Principal Cinch had run the school and taught them to think.
“This is just insane,” Indigo Zap said, looking from the little girl (no longer wearing her dog costume, which was safely tucked away in Sugarcoat’s side bag). “So, you’re telling me that place we were seeing through those opens were that pony world and there’s pony doubles of everyone in this city?”
The little girl was shaken from her musings, before shaking her head. “Oh, no. not just ponies. Many people in this world have counterparts in my world that aren’t ponies, but different creatures altogether. Three boys at CHS, for example, are Diamond Dogs in my world.”
“Diamond… Dogs?” Indigo looked very confused, before she put her head in her hands. “The more questions that get answered, there more questions turn up.”
The younger girl blushed, hunching down a bit. “Sorry.”
“Perfectly fine… um, Your Highness,” Sugarcoat said, not sure how to properly address the child version of her previous fellow student. “This is just a lot to take in. Your world is clearly very different from our own in more ways than we originally guessed.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Sugarcoat. But, you don’t have to address me as Your Highness here. In your world, I’m just another girl.” She pouted, looking down at herself. “Though I’m not normally a foal.”
Sugarcoat looked like she was about to ask what she meant by “foal”, before it seemed to click and she shrugged.
“Um, might I ask what you two were doing before we ran into each other?” she asked, looking between the two of them.
Indigo Zap grinned, though it seemed a little sad. “I’m going away for a few weeks on vacation with my parents to visit my aunt and uncle, so Sugar and I were getting some final time together before then.” She looked sadly to her friend. “Really wish I wasn’t. I love my rels as much as the next person, but I really wanted to help raise the money.”
The younger of the trio paused in sipping her smoothie, looking to the two of them in surprise. “You’re going to Camp Everfree too?”
That caused confused frowns to form on both girls.
“Everfree?” Indigo cocked an eyebrow, before shaking her head. “No, the money is so our school can have our Spring Dance on a yacht.”
The little girl smiled. “Wow. Your school would do that? Even my school didn’t have celebrations like that.” She frowned. “Then again, I don’t know if they did, since I was Princess Celestia’s personal student and joined her at official events instead.”
The two girls looked at her in confusion.
“Since when is CHS’s Principal royalty?” Indigo asked, before dawning came to her expression. “Oh, you mean your world’s Celestia.” She laughed, before looking uncertain. “Man, this two worlds thing can get a little confusing.”
“In answer to your question, no,” Sugarcoat said, sipping her coffee. “Back when Cinch was in charge, such things never would’ve happened. She’d have seen it as a waste of important resources that would be put to better use improving her own reputation. And Principal Cadance isn’t just letting it happen either. She says she’ll allow it, something Cinch never would have, but we, the students, need to raise the money to rent the yacht ourselves.” Then under her breath she muttered, “Though we probably would’ve had the money in the school’s budget if Cinch hadn’t wasted so much of it over time on her rep.”
There was quiet for a moment, before Indigo blinked, an uncertain expression coming over her face. “Uh, I just realized, we’ve been chatting for a while… do your CHS friends know where you are, um, Twilight?”
The young girl blinked, before her eyes widen. “Oh my gosh! I just ran off without telling them where I went! Other me must be freaking out! I have to let them know I’m okay! But, I don’t have a phone. I’ve never needed one before because I live in Equestria. What am I going to—?”
“Done.”
The two other girls looked to Sugarcoat, who was putting her phone back in her bag. “Huh?”
“I just texted Twilight. She knows you’re with us. It’s fine.” She smirked. “You really are a double of her. You freaked out just like she did whenever she had a big test at school.”
That caused Indgio to have to try holding back a snicker, covering her mouth, while the little girl’s face when red and she puffed her cheeks out and folded her arms.
