Twilight Sparkle finds herself facing on odd task. She is now caring for her Princess Pony counterpart... who is a baby pony?
coverart by 0Bluse (thanks for the help finding them, luckyboys121)and can be found HERE. Found it in a blog and the idea just popped into my head.
Twilight Sparkle is the top student of Crystal Prep... but she does not like being there. Everyone is always trying to one up each other and no one wants to be friends.
The only person who shows her any care is her sister-in-law, Dean Cadance, now that her brother is long since gone from the school and the only real friend she has there is her dog, Spike.
Thankfully, something odd has been occurring not too far from Crystal Prep's rival school, Canterlot High, that has been keeping her mind off those sad parts of her life. She has been noticing some very weird reports and energy readings from there.
However, her research into the odd events come to both a grinding halt and something rapidly advance when, late one night, she finds a box on her house's front doorstep and, inside the box, is little purple pony with a horn and wings. Unbeknownst to her, it's her Pony Counterpart, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Only there's one small problem: She's a baby, a PONY baby and now Twilight finds herself taking care of a foal with powers that make her shudder. No matter how bad tempered a baby her brother tells her she was, this foal eclipses her tantrums but dimensions.
Fun fact: I actually came up with this idea shortly after Friendship Games, not Ail-icorn.
Twilight held her books close to her as she walked down the hallway of Crystal Prep, trying to do everything she could to remain unnoticed, dodging and weaving around everyone else.
Thankfully, with the Friendship Games six weeks away, all the other students were focused on that and their desire to crush Canterlot High School.
Twilight had never really understood why it mattered so much to defeat CHS in the games. Sure, she understood winning was a great feeling… bad her school had always seemed to want more than just to win: they wanted Canterlot High to feel miserable that they lost to Crystal Prep, taking every opportunity to remind them of it.
What was the point? What was there to gain in shaming a school that always lost for losing as if were something new?
Her train of thought was halted when her eyes caught something in her periphery.
Glancing to her right, she realized it was the school’s notice board. On it were the usual things: Tryout for teams, notifications of changes that would be implemented, reminders of upcoming events, that kind of thing.
However, what caught her eye was a big green symbol, the one for Everton Independent Study Program
Moving closer, Twilight’s eyes lit up. Everton was offering scholarships. Applicants had to send in a unique field of study and the best ones would be given scholarships to the university itself.
She scrabbled to get a paper and pen, dropping everything in her arms in her hast.
Blushing, she quickly wrote down the details, before grabbing her things, doing her best to ignore the looks of her fellow students and hurried down the hall to her personal study.
Well, it was technically an unused storage room, but Dean Cadance had convinced Principal Cinch to let her use it due to how many of Twilight’s previous accomplishments had gotten the school so many grants.
Entering her study, Spike was stretching on the chair by her computer. He quickly hopped down, hurrying over, barking excitedly.
“Okay, okay,” the speckled girl giggled, putting her things on her desk and bending down, picking the dog up and setting him on her lap.
She reached over, taking the paper she’d written the Everton details on.
“This is my big chance, Spike,” she looked down to the dog, who smiled up at her. “Everton are looking for new applicants. If I can find something amazing to show them, I’ll get in and I can finally have all the time I need to focus on my maths and science projects. What could be better?”
The dog just cocked his head.
Twilight smiled, scratching him behind the ears, before she narrowed her eyes, turning to the board of diagrams, equations, photos and outlines that had been forming over the last few weeks.
Holding Spike, she got up and went over, her eyes moving over the board.
“I know exactly what I’m going to send in, Spike. Whatever’s going on at that school, it isn’t normal. If I can figure out it, not only could it get me into Everton, but who knows what good I can do for the rest of the world.”
Twilight spent the rest of the day filing her application, before setting to reanalysing the data she had so far collected, continuing her analysis at home.
Since a few weeks ago, some bizarre, as best she could call them, E.M. frequencies had been happening at Canterlot High.
They didn’t seem dangerous, at least as far as her studies had shown, but they were very unique. In all her researching, she’d found nothing to compare the types of energy to.
She had noticed an odd pattern, however.
There was evidence this E.M. waves had been happening for far longer, but only during specific times.
They’d mostly gone unnoticed, so the information was scarce, but, after her first week of studying the waves, she started being able to notice things others clearly weren’t: phrases and timings that were seen as normal, everyday oddities.
The first thing she’d realized is the bizarre energy was always present, since Canterlot’s founding centuries ago.
The energy had always shown up within a four year time period. The early settlers had called it magic, what with science being so infantile back then.
However, as the centuries had worn on, the energy always seemed to return, exactly every four years and only for three days.
After that, the energy and all evidence of it completely vanished, as if, well, Twilight had to laugh, like magic.
Still, magic? Nonsense. No, this was scientific in some way. She just had to figure out how.
It was interesting that, if not for recent events, she never would’ve gotten very far with her studies on the matter.
Originally, she’d included the odd energy readings as part of a historical essay she’d been written, thinking nothing of it.
That was, however, until she’d gotten another reading.
Due to having been distracted by other projects she was trying to complete, Twilight hadn’t taken the energy reader apart. She’d only made the thing to study the energy when it arrived at its assigned date and, like clockwork, it had. Exactly four years to the last mentions of anything to associate with the energy.
So, imagine her surprise when the device had gone off again, merely a few days after the third day had passed.
Obviously, this was not normal. None of her findings had suggested anything about the energy returning again early. It had always been consistent.
So, for the energy to suddenly return without warning, mere days after it was supposed to have gone away?
How was Twilight supposed to resist studying that?
It could have had something to do with the readings of this year’s period of the energy having been thousands of times more powerful than it had in centuries.
What was the cause? Was the unscheduled return due to an excess of energy being left behind? What had caused such a massive surge in the first place?
Like bees to honey, this unexpected change had drawn Twilight in.
Her studies showed that, since the second surge, the energy was remaining. Granted, it wasn’t in as huge bursts as the two surges, but they were there.
The energy readings never stopped, fluctuating from time to time, going through mini surges.
Something had definitely changed since several weeks ago, though, despite every theory she tried, Twilight couldn’t put her finger on what had caused it.
The only things she’d been able to truly gleam from the matter was that the two surges had coincided with events Canterlot High had been holding: CHS’ Fall Formal and a Battle of the Bands contest.
This didn’t exactly help, as there was no way the events were connected to the surges. The idea was absurd.
Twilight lifted her glasses, rubbing her eyes.
Turning, she glanced to her digital clock and blinked.
“It’s 9:15pm already? Where’d the time go?”
Looking around her room, she spotted Spike sprawled out on her bed, snoring.
She giggled, before yawning and stretching. Maybe it was time she went to bed too.
She could continue her analysis tomorrow. It was the weekend, after all.
Deciding to have a quick snack before bed, she headed downstairs.
The house was quiet. Her parents were out for the next two days, visiting friends and Shining had already moved out years ago.
Twilight giggled to herself. She was going to be an aunt soon. At her age.
Opening the fridge, she scanned its contents for something to eat, when she paused, lifting her head, glancing around.
Strange. I could’ve sworn… She shrugged. Must’ve been the wind.
Shaking her head, she return to the fridge, before her head shot up at a suddenly sound.
It… it sounded like a baby wailing… and it sounded oddly familiar.
Barking from upstairs was followed by Spike bounding down the steps and hurrying to the door.
Twilight moved to follow, it not escaping her notice and always worrying her that the crying was getting louder the closer to the door she got.
Spike was pawing at the door and jumping up, whimpering.
Making sure to keep Spike back so he didn’t go running out the door, Twilight opened the door and glanced around only for a second, before her head turned down, the same moment the wailing stopped… along with her brain.
Twilight just stared down at what was before her, her mind refusing to comprehend what she was seeing.
Sitting on her family’s doorstep was a simple cardboard box. Nothing special about it. Just your average brown box.
It was what was in the box that was causing her brain to grind to a halt.
Sitting in the open box, forelimbs over the edge, looking up at her in confused pleading was what looked like a baby pony. But… it wasn’t a normal pony. For one, it was the same colour as her skin, but, most glaringly, it had what looked like a horn atop its head and wings on its side.
Twilight just stared down at the small equine, her brain failing to fully process what she was seeing.
A horn? Wings? Ponies don’t have horns and they certainly don’t have wings.
That’s stuff you’d find in fairytales. This… this had to be someone’s weird idea of a joke, right?
She blinked, before sighing and glanced around. “Okay. Very funny, guys. Who is it? You got me.”
This had to be a prank by one of her fellow students from Crystal Prep. They took a baby pony, painted it her skin tone and stuck fake wings and a horn on…
Twilight blinked again, before disgust came over her face.
“Okay, no. Seriously what in the world is wrong with you all? Guys, that’s really messed up.”
She bent down, picking up the infant equine and holding it in her arms, seeing it was a female.
“You poor thing. I’m so sorry for what the students of my school did to you.”
She closed the door and turned, heading for the kitchen.
“I cannot believe those people sometimes,” Twilight grumbled as she turn on the tapes, filling up the sink. “Don’t worry. I’ll wash off what I can of the dye. Then we’ll see if we can find anywhere that’s reported a stolen foal.”
Was it her imagination or did the foal look… annoyed by that last statement?
Regardless, Twilight went upstairs, grabbing some shampoo, hoping it would be okay for an infant pony and added it to the water and waited til the sink was full.
“Okay, little one,” she said playfully, lowing the foal into the water, getting what she could swear was a slightly annoyed pout from the pony, “let’s get you clean.”
The foal didn’t seem to want to be bathed at first, but it eventually seemed to resign itself to its fate and let her wash it, Spike all the while sitting at Twilight’s feet, panting and wagging his tail excitedly.
“You’re pretty small, even for a foal,” Twilight commented as she scrubbed the little pony. “An average foal is at least a hundred pounds, but you don’t even look like you’re half that. Were you born premature? That’s even more messed up. I’m gonna have to talk to Dean Cadance about this at school on Monday.”
The infant seemed to stiffen briefly when she mentioned her sister-in-law/dean’s name, but Twilight brushed that off as coincidence. She’d probably just don’t something the foal didn’t like.
“Wait… what the…?” Twilight paused, a hand on what she’d thought was a fake wing she’d intended to remove… but it wasn’t fake. she could feel bones and muscles, connecting all the way to where the wings met the side of the pony’s body.
She went to the other wing end… yes. Yes, it was real too! This was a real winged pony!
Twilight pulled back, staring. “A… you’re a Pegasus? How? Those are only myths and legends and… huh?”
The foal was reacting as if it had not only understood her, but could respond. It was now covered in bubbles, its mane plastered against its head.
It was making babbling sounds more akin to a human baby than an equine and it was pointing with both hooves to its head.
Twilight’s gaze followed, only to land on the fake horn atop the baby’s head.
Wait. If the wings were real then, maybe…
Twilight lifted a hand and touched the fake horn… to find it didn’t feel fake. It felt hard, somewhat like bone, but not.
“This… this doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight took several steps back, shaking her head. “How did…?”
What happened next… Twilight never could’ve guessed would happen.
The foal folded it forelegs and glared at her.
Twilight’s brain halted, sponge in hand.
What? Pony couldn’t do that. That required elbow joints and equine did not possess the kinds to bend their legs like that… but she was seeing it, right before her very eyes.
Whatever this pony was, it not only had real feathered wings, but it sounded like a human baby and could fold its forelegs as if they were arms.
This… there was no scientific explanation she could come up with.
This defied everything she’d ever know about science.
Science…
Twilight blinked, before her expression became one of disgusted horror.
This foal was some kind of experiment! It had to be! Some sick, twisted person had forced a pony to breed with a bird of some kind and this foal was the result. The horn-like thing on its head must’ve been a defect from its birth.
And that person had just dumped it on her family’s doorstep? What the fuck?
Wait, no. the bird and pony would explain the wings and being a foal, but not the folded forelimbs… unless…
Twilight felt like she was going to be sick. The scientist had added their own DNA into the mix as well. How, it was better not to speculate. It was the fact someone had tried to merge human, pony and bird DNA all together that was the more worrying issues… as well as the fact they might know where she lived.
“You poor, poor creature,” Twilight moved back to the sink, picking up the foal, who was giving her what she guessed could’ve been a confused look. “You’re just the product of a failed experiment by some lunatic… though you seem to be okay for the most part.”
She studied the infant’s body.
“It does explain your size, I guess. Though, despite your size, you seem to have developed okay.” She was puzzled. “In fact, if it wasn’t obvious you’re a failed genetics experiment, I’d say you look like you’re okay. Your wings seem to be fine and your body doesn’t seem to have any issues. If you weren’t a flawed experiment, I’d say you were a healthy baby.”
A whimper from below and a paw rubbing against her leg made Twilight glance down to Spike, who was looking up at her in worry.
She cocked an eyebrow. Why was he worried? Spike was a smart dog, but there was no way he could understand how serious this was. He wouldn’t understand what a flawed genetic experiment…
Wait. He wasn’t looking at her. He was still looking at the infant pony and… he was now backing away, looking scared?
Confused, Twilight turned to look back at the foal, only for fear and confusion to slam her at the same time, causing her to freeze in place as she tried to process what she was seeing.
The foal’s eyes were narrowed in a glare, said eyes having somehow gone pure white. Not only that, but there was some kind of purple glow around the horn-like growth on her head.
A wail louder than any Twilight had ever heard in her entire life filled the air, a shockwave of some kind sending the lavender girl flying back, slamming to the floor, her glasses falling off and going she had no clue where.
Her vision no longer as clear, she could make out the foal seemed to somehow be floating in the air, her whole baby now surrounded by the same weird glow that had been around its horn seconds ago.
To Twilight’s combined horror and bewilderment, other things in the room started becoming surrounded by the same kind of glow, before they started flying around the room!
WHAT’S HAPPENING?!
She noticed something purple and green out of the corner of her eye rush past her, towards the infant.
“Spike, no!” she cried, holding out a hand.
Spike leaped into the air, reaching the foal, only to make sounds of confused panic as he too seemed to be covered in the glow.
Just as suddenly as it happened, it all stopped. The glow around everything vanished and fell, the foal plopping into the sink, making sound that Twilight might’ve considered concerned… if she wasn’t more worried about her dog as she dropped to the floor.
Twilight bent down, picking him up and holding him. “Are you okay, Spike?”
“Um… I think so,” he said, looking up to her.
Twilight sighed with relief.
A second past, before exactly what just happened clicked.
The two cried out in alarm, Twilight dropping Spike and quickly backing away until she hit the wall.
“Why’re you backing away?” Spike asked, concerned.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Twilight said, her breathing quick. “Maybe it has something to do with the glowing pony, that also has wings. Or everything flying around the room like there’s a ghost or something. Or my talking dog!”
“Yeah,” Spike said calmly, scratching behind an ear. “Weird, right?”
Twilight slowly got up, approaching Spike tentatively, before kneeling down and putting hand under his chin. “Are you okay? How do you feel? What happened?”
Spike stopped her with a quick lick to the cheek. “Hey, one question at a time. This is pretty new to me too.”
Twilgith gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”
Spike seemed to think for a moment. “I dunno what happened. The baby was sad and angry at you for calling it an experiment, I tried to get to her so I could calm her down when everything started going crazy and next thing I know, I’m in your arms and I could talk.”
Twilight indicated for him to go on.
“I don’t really understand why I couldn’t before,” Spike frowned in thought, before smirking. “I mean, it’s so easy.”
A babbling sound caused them both to look to the foal, who was looking at them, more specifically Spike, with worry.
“No worries, Princess,” he replied casually, but reassuringly. “I’m okay. You didn’t hurt me at all.”
The foal looked relieved.
Twilight blinked, glancing between the foal and her dog. “Wait. Can you understand her?”
“Um, not entirely,” Spike said, rubbing his chin with a paw. “Her words are kinda disjointed. Like, she knows what she’s trying to say, but can’t.”
“Okay…” Twilight said slowly, squinting to try and see the foal better. She really was blind without her glasses. Plus, this was definitely the weirdest thing that had ever happened in her life. “So… why was she so upset about my calling her a flawed experiment?”
The foal reacted angrily, babbling something at Twilight in a way that made Twilight wonder if she actually wanted Spike to translate or not.
“Yeesh. Yeah, better not to say that again,” Spike said, looking uncertain. “Twilight really doesn’t like it.”
Twilgiht cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well, you may be able to speak now, but your grammar needs some work.”
Spike cocked his head. “Huh?”
“You just said “Twilight really doesn’t like it”,” she pointed out. “I think what you meant was “Twilight, she really doesn’t like it”.”
Spike shook his head. “No, I was just saying what Twilight said.”
“What do you mean what I said?” Now Twilight was even more confused.
Spike pointed to the foal. “That’s her name.”
Twilight blinked, before glancing to the foal, who nodded.
“She and I have the same name?” she eventually asked, looking to her dog.
He shook his head. “Not just your name, either. She even sounds like you.”
Twilight deadpanned. “Come again?”
The baby babbled at her.
Twilight looked at her for several moments, before frowning, rubbing her chin. She repeated the babbling, only to blink.
She did sound the same. Not just the sounds, but the tone, the pitch, it was identical.
“Okay…” Twilight said slowly, looking from the baby to her dog. “So, what is she? If she’s not an experiment merging human, bird and pony DNA together, what is she?”
Pony Twilight babbled a bit.
Spike walked a bit towards her, before turning to face his owner and doing a flourishing motion. “I present to you, Princess Twilight Sparkle. The Princess of Friendship.”
Twilight deadpanned at the baby. “Seriously?”
Spike and the baby nodded in unison. “Seriously.”
Twilight sighed, rubbing her temple. “Okay. I’ll run with it, I guess. What else is there? Where does she come from? How did she wind up on our doorstep?”
Princess Twilight started babbling for a few moments before Spike was able to translate.
“Well, she says she’s something called an Alicorn, whatever those are,” Spike began slowly, as if trying to figure out what to say. “She comes from some place called Equestria but doesn’t know how she got here or why she’s a baby.”
Twilight blinked. “Wait. Run that last part by me again.” She looked to the infant. “What do you mean you don’t know why you’re a baby?”
“That’s all she can say about it,” Spike translate the babbling. “Her memory seems to have become scattered. She remembers some things, but not everything.”
“Well, that’s helpful,” Twilight muttered sarcastically, before shaking her head. “Is there anyone who can help her? Like, someone she knows here? I dunno where this Equestria is, but maybe she’s visited before?”
“She says… she has friends here in Canterlot… but can’t remember their names,” Spike said, shaking his head. “All she remembers is the name Sunset.”
“Sunset,” Twilight rubbed her chin. “Well, there can’t be too many Sunsets in Canterlot. Let’s just hope we’ll be able to find them. I… don’t suppose you remember what they look like?” she asked.
The baby shook her head, looking dejected.
Twilight sighed, getting up and walked over to the infant, picking her up and began drying her. “Well, there’s nothing we can do tonight. Let’s all get some sleep and we’ll figure out what to do in the morning.”
“Sounds good,” Spike gave a loud yawn, which Baby Twilight followed suit in.
After a quick snack for all, Baby Twilight having some peas after Twilight mashed them up, Twilight brushed her teeth and three went to her room and to bed.
Twilight couldn’t help smiling at how cute the baby Alicorn was, snuggled up next to Spike as the two slept.
Twilight yawned as she sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, blinding reaching out for her glasses.
What a bizarre dream. A baby pony version of me arrives on my doorstep and Spike starts talking?
Her glasses in place, she glanced around her room for said dog, only for her eyes to fall on him snuggled up next to a purple ball of fur.
Twilight blinked. It wasn’t a dream? That really happened?
Whelp, there went any funny stories she planned to tell her family later. This was really happening.
Twilight’s attention was drawn from her thoughts but a sound and she looked back to the pair as her pony counterpart gave a cute yawn, snuggling closer to Spike.
Twilight stared for a moment, before a cheeky smile came to her face.
Grabbing her phone, she started filming and taking pictures, managing to catch several more yawns from the baby pony.
So adorable, she thought once she’d gotten at least two minutes of videos and several photos. If nothing else, these would be nice keepsakes for such a cute accident.
Getting her giggles out of her system, Twilight shook her head and got out of bed, heading over to the computer.
“Right. Time to find this Sunset.”
It would only after starting that she realized how difficult this would be. True, the internet was a vast source of information, where all knowledge can be found on any topic… but that was just the problem.
If the person Princess Twilight knew from Canterlot was called Sunset, doing general searches wasn’t going to yield anything, a fact she learned all too quickly.
Sunset was such a simple term. Everyone knew what a sunset was, so of course, without specifications, the internet searches just gave her information about sunsets.
Need to be a bit more specific, she thought, rubbing her chin, before snapping her fingers and typing away. “Sunset Canterlot.”
As expected, it didn’t yield all the results she wanted, most being articles about certain places sunset was best viewable in Canterlot and schools that looked good silhouetted by sunsets.
However, two results popped up that caught her eye. She’d almost overlooked them, skimming through all the silhouetted school sunset results and likely would’ve missed them entirely, if not for one symbol catching her eye; Everton.
Canterlot Elementary Star Student Achieves Everton Award at Young Age.
Why would this grab her attention? Because, underneath the title was a picture of a young girl with yellow skin and yellow and red hair, wearing a smirk. Underneath the image was a name: Sunset Shimmer.
Perhaps it had appeared because she’d been recently looking into Everton before Princess Twilight arrived last night and the searched had mistaken it to be included.
Either way, it was the luckiest thing Twilight could’ve hoped for. She didn’t even bother reading the others, something about a girl being sentenced to a number of hours of community service at Canterlot High or something, it didn’t matter. She already had the biggest lead she’d need.
“Spike! Princess Twilight, wake up!” the glasses wearing girl cheered excitedly, shaking the two.
Both reacted the same way, shuffling, before rolling onto their stomachs, yawning.
“It’s Saturday, Twilight,” Spike said groggily, stretching. “Can’t I get just a few more hours sleep?”
“Later, Spike,” Twilight said, picking up her pony princess counterpart. “Princess, I found her. I found Sunset Shimmer!”
That seemed to wake up the Princess, who’s eyed widened, as if recognizing the name and babbled something.
Spike yawned, starching behind an ear and shaking his head. “She says she now remembers the name. Sunset Shimmer.”
Twilight brought the baby pony over to the computer, Spike hopping up onto the desk so he could look too.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, noticing a confused frown on the pony’s face upon seeing the image.
Princess Twilight shook her head, babbling something.
“She… doesn’t know,” Spike said, cocking an eyebrow. “She says, this Sunset Shimmer looks like the Sunset she knows, but… something’s off.” The baby shrugged. “She can’t quite put her hoof on it.”
“Her hoof…?” Twilight blinked, before chuckling. “Right. Pony. Got it. Still,” she moved one hand, holding the smaller Twilight with her other arm and moved the mouse key, clicking on a link expansion, “even if something seems off, if she recognizes the name and face, this Sunset Shimmer is our best lead to figuring this all out.”
“Huh. She doesn’t live in Canterlot anymore?” Spike raised an eyebrow, reading the information.
Twilight nodded.
It seemed this Sunset Shimmer had moved out of Canterlot about five years ago after getting into Everton. She was now studying abroad in Manehatten.
“Manehatten’s pretty far away,” Spike looked to the two Twilights. “This might take a while.”
“Maybe,” Twilight looked down at the uncertain expression on the baby pony. “But it’s our best lead. If this Sunset Shimmer can help Princess Twilight, then that’s all we need to know.”
“Can we afford it, though?” Spike looked to his owner. “Manehatten’s at least a several days trip from here by boat, Twilight. Plus, we’ll need somewhere to stay while looking for this Sunset, since this article doesn’t give her actual address. We’d need to ask around and there’s no telling how long that would take.”
Princess Twilight babbled something nervously.
“Plus, Princess Twilight isn’t exactly going to blend in. She stands out too easily. I mean, magical baby pony princesses aren’t exactly something one normally sees wandering around town.”
Twilight frowned, rubbing her chin with her free hand, anxiety starting to creep in.
Spike and the princess were right. They couldn’t just wander around Manehatten with a pony princess without garnering unwanted attention.
Plus, it was Manehatten. It was a lot more risky for a teenager to be wandering around the streets all on her own there than they could here in Canterlot.
Plus, there was the whole getting there part. Travel by boat would take too long and, even if she could afford it, Twilight couldn’t take a flight. She’d need to put the princess and Spike in baggage, like all pet owners and that wouldn’t go over well, simply because it would be showing Princess Twilight to people and then leaving her on her own.
After a few moments, Twilight sighed. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Spike. For now, we’ll have some breakfast. We can figure out what we’re going to do after that.”
“Breakfast is kind of a bust, huh?” Spike asked, sitting with his bowl in front of him.
Twilight had tried to prepare a simple, but healthy breakfast, some salad and eggs… but none of them felt all that hungry right now.
Twilight had barely eaten more than a mouthful or two, the princes had just been sitting staring down at her plate and even Spike wasn’t touching his dog food.
“The more and more I think about it, the more and more impossible it seems,” Twilight slumped forward, head in her arms. “Manehatten, Spike. How in the world can we do this? It could take days of searching to find this Sunset Shimmer.”
“And I doubt it would go unnoticed by that principal lady that her top student is missing from school,” Spike said grumply.
His words seemed to catch the princess’s attention and she looked between the two of them.
There was silence for several moments, before a sudden knocking came from the front door, scaring the living daylights out of the three.
“Twilight?” a familiar voice called out.
At once, the princess’s eyes widened, as if recognizing the voice.
However, neither Spike nor Twilight noticed as the two were panicking.
“Oh no, it’s Cadance!” Twilight cried, not noticing the squeak from the princess.
“We can’t let her see Princess Twilight,” Spike said quickly, glancing to the door, before wilting. “Or hear me talking!”
“J-just a minute!” Twilight called, grabbing the princess and rushing up the stairs, Spike on her heels.
She put the princess down on her bed, not seeming to notice the annoyed and anxious frown said foal was wearing.
“Just wait here, okay?” Twilight, said, moving to close the door. “Don’t make a sound. I dunno how Cadance would react to a baby pony version of me.”
Whatever the princess babbled angrily at them was lost as Twilight looked the door and hurried back downstairs.
“Have a come at a bad time?” Cadance’s voice called from the door as the two got to the bottom of the stairs.
“No-no, everything’s fine!” Twilight called anxiously, stumbling as she barrelled to the door. “I was just… giving Spike a bath! Don’t say anything!” she whispered in a hiss to the dog as she took hold of the doorknob.
“You think I don’t know that?” he replied, before deadpanning. “And I’m not wet.”
The implications of just what that last bit meant didn’t click in Twilight’s mind until right after the door was already open and she was staring at the pink skinned woman that was her sister-in-law/dean.
“Hi!” Twilight said loudly, trying her hardest to hide her worries and make it seem like everything was normal.
Of course, Twilight was Twilight and Cadance had been her babysitter since she was little.
Then again, you didn’t need to know Twilight well to know when something was bothering her. She did not have the best poker face.
Cadance looked from the too wide smile of Twilight to the clearly not the least bit wet dog. “Giving Spike a bath, huh?”
“I… was just about to,” Twilight said hurriedly, trying to think of a quick way to end the conversation and get Cadance to leave.
Cadance gave her a worried, yet firm look, folding her arms and shaking her head. “I guess I was right to come check in on you with your parents out. What happened, Twilight?”
“Happened? Nothing happened! Everything’s totally normal,” Twilight grinned, waving a hand. “Nothing strange or weird going on here. Just me and my totally non-talking dog, just hanging around the house.”
Spike gave an anxious bark.
Cadance let one eyebrow fall. “Twilight. What. Happened?”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Twilight’s grin became more anxious. “Everything’s perfectly fine, Cadance. We’re all doing okay here.”
Cadance’s raised eyebrow rose a little more. “We’re all doing okay? That’s an odd choice of words, Twilight. When it’s just the two of you, isn’t both easier to say?”
Twilight just stared, her right eyebrow twitching.
Before anyone could say anything else, there was a loud popping sound, following by a face of purple light and the baby pony was hovering in front of the two, looking right at Cadance and babbling excitedly about something, before going quiet, as if only just now seeing Cadance.
“Whelp, that backfired fast,” Spike sighed. “In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.” He waved to the pink woman. “Hey, Cadance. I can talk now.”
“That… is a conundrum,” Cadance said after hearing the two out.
Cadance had taken the sudden appearance of a baby purple pony princess and the talking dog pretty well, the former of whom was resting in the pink woman’s arms.
The Alicorn had seemed to calm considerably once held by Cadance, as if her very presence was soothing to the pony.
Twilight chalked it up to the fact Cadance would soon be a mother herself and so her Mama instincts had kicked in, making her want to protect the infant.
“So, this little one’s friend lives in Manehatten?” the woman asked, glancing between the dog and girl.
Twilight nodded, turning her laptop around and showing the article to her.
Cadance frowned in confusion. “Strange. I think I remember my aunts mentioning something about a girl named Sunset Shimmer a few times. She went to their school, but,… huh. My memory must be a bit off. I could’ve sworn they talked like she was still going there.”
“Wait, you know about this Sunset Shimmer person?” Spike looked up at her in shock.
Cadance frowned, scanning the article. “From the way this article describes her she… sounds similar to what I remember my aunties talking about. Have you called her yet?”
There was a pause as both Twilight and Spike stared at her. “Huh?”
Cadance indicated to a small section. “It says here, if one wants to call her, they can call this number for Everton and someone there can leave her a message so she can get back to them.”
“What?” Twilight whirled the laptop back around, scanning the article again, before her face blanked. “How in the world did I miss that?”
“It was right after you woke up,” Spike pointed out, scratching behind an ear. “Our brains don’t always pickup everything right away when we wake.”
Twilight sighed, pulling out her phone and dialling the number. “Well, hopefully, she’ll get back to us as soon as possible. We need to figure out what happened to Princess Twilight to send her here like she is and Sunset is the only one who seems likely to know anything.”
“Still,” Cadance frowned, rubbing her chin, “I could’ve sworn auntie mentioned something about her recently, as if she were still at auntie’s school.”
Twilight held the phone to her ear, listening to the dial tone as it rang the other end.
“I sure hope someone answers,” Spike said as he sat on Twilight’s bed, turning to the pony on his left, who looked just as worried.
A voice answered on the other line, but it was an automated message giving her options. “To speak with an administrator, please hold the line and we’ll be with you shortly.”
Twilight deadpanned. “Great. Now I’m on hold.”
“Well, Everton is a big business,” Cadance said from her spot on the end of Twilight’s bed. “They can’t man the phone’s 24/7.”
“You’ve reached Everton Home Office,” a very bored sounding woman’s voice said in Twilight’s ear. “This is Chrysalis. How may I direct your call?”
“Oh, um, hello there,” Twilight said, feeling a little nervous. “I was wondering if I could speak with one of the students in your program. Her name’s Sunset Shimmer. I’ve a friend of hers who really needs to speak with her.”
“It’s not some fanboy or an ex, is it?” Chrysalis asked, sounding a little exasperated. “The number of times old flings call because they hear their ex’s are doing so much better after their breakups…”
“Oh, no. it’s nothing like that,” Twilight assured quickly, before blinking as a lightbulb went off. “It’s Twilight Sparkle. She needs to speak with Sunset right away. It’s really urgent.”
She didn’t have to say she was also Twilight, after all, did she? She just needed to give the name Sunset would recongize.
“Twilight Sparkle?” Chrysalis somehow sounded even more bored than before. “Yeah. Doesn’t sound like a boy’s name. Give me a moment.”
The sound of a keyboard in the background started.
Meanwhile, Twilight was frowning. Did this Chrysalis just say she doesn’t believe Sunset could be into girls? From her word choice, that’s how it seemed. She’d only been wondering if an ex-boyfriend had been trying to contact Sunset.
Granted, Twilight herself didn’t know this Sunset Shimmer enough to know which side of the fence she was on, but for the woman on the other end to just outright assume Sunset couldn’t have had relations with a girl just because she herself was a girl and girls only date boys was pretty rude of her.
“I’m afraid Sunset is busy, studying something in the field,” Chrysalis said after what seemed like half an hour.
“Can I leave her a message?” Twilight asked.
An annoyed snort came from the other end. “What am I, a messenger? If you want to leave her a message give it to her mother.”
Twilight blinked. “Um… I don’t know her mother.”
“It’s in Sunset Shimmer’s contacts,” she sounded bored again. “I’ll give you the number and you can leave a message with them.”
“Okay. Thanks you, Miss Chryalsis,” Twilight said after quickly jotting down the phone number.
A huff came from the other end and the call ended.
“So, what now?” Spike asked, the pony princess cocking her head.
“We try her home,” Twilight dialled the number and waited for the phone to pick up.
“You’ve reached the Flare residence,” a woman’s voice said on the other end. “This is Stellar Flare. I’m unable to tale your call right now, but please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”
Twilight deadpanned. Another machine. Still, leaving a message was something at least.
Taking a deep breath, she waited for the beep before speaking. “Hello, Stellar Flare? I’m calling on behalf of one of your daughter’s friends, Twilight Sparkle. Something really urgent has come up that Twilight needs Sunset’s help with. She’s the only one who can help. Please get back to me as soon as possible.”
Leaving her number and Cadance’s as well to be on the safe side, Twilight said goodbye and hung up, turning to the room to see disappointed faces.
“I’m guessing no one was home, huh?” Spike said dejectedly, the little pony’s ears drooping.
Twilight shook her head. “No one was home. Hopefully, Stellar Flare will get either call back soon or get Sunset to contact us directly.”
“In the meantime,” Cadance looked to the pony, “we’ll need to figure out what we’re going to do about our little Princess Problem. Princess Twilight can’t go out looking like this. Even if we dressed her up like a dog or a cat or something, people would notice and ask questions. Questions we can’t answer.”
“She can always stay here at the house with me,” Spike suggested, puffing out his chest. “I’ll keep her safe.”
This made the foal giggle and babble something.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Spike said proudly.
“What did she say?” Twilight asked through a giggle herself.
“She said I remind her a lot of her Spike,” the puppy answered, smirking. “I’ll wear that statement with pride.”
“I… suppose that could work,” Cadance said, rubbing her chin in thought. “You’ll have to be sure to take care of her though, Spike. With Twilight’s parents out on business for the next two weeks, you two would be the only ones in the house while Twilight and I are at school. How’re you going to make sure she gets food and water and then there’s the issue with the bathroom?”
At this, the foal turned to Cadance, pouting, forelegs folded and babbled something.
“She says “I may be a foal, but I’m not completely helpless”,” Spike translated as the princess continued. “I can fly and use my magic just fine, thank you very much.”
“I suppose. Sorry, Twilight,” Cadance rubbed the foal behind the ears and she leaned her head into the hand, purring like a cat. “I guess, being an expected mother now, I’m just really protective of you since you’re a baby.”
“I have full confidence in Spike,” Twilight said, pumping a fist. “While we’re at school, he’ll keep the princess safe.”
The rest of the day was spent with Twilight and Cadance watching over Spike and Princess Twilight as the two small creatures played and the two humans discussed how best to approach the situation when explaining it to Sunset Shimmer.
Normally, outright telling someone “your friend from a magical world of ponies who normally turns human when coming to this world but somehow ended up a baby pony this time around with some memory issues” wasn’t exactly a normal conversation starter.
Granted, if this Sunset Shimmer and the princess knew each other so well as Princess Twilight was suggesting, Sunset would fully understand… but there was still how to word it that was important.
As the day was drawing to a close, Cadance said goodbye, promising to meet up with Twilight at school when she had some spare time to discuss any updates.
If Stellar Flare called during school, Twilight’s phone would be off, so she wouldn’t be able to answer. But Cadance would, so long as it wasn’t at an awkward time, like if Cadacne was out of her office.
As she settled into bed, Spike and the baby princess snuggling at the end of her bed, Twilight gave one quick check, only to see no messages yet.
Sighing, she turned out the light and went to sleep, hoping thing might get better tomorrow.
A sigh escaped Twilight as she made her way through the school hallway, trying to avoid her fellow Crystal Prep students as much as possible.
She was feeling kind of guilty, leaving Spike and her baby pony princess counterpart alone at home, even with her confidence in Spike.
Then again, she supposed, it must be hard not to feel bad about leaving any baby behind at any time.
She was pulled from her inner thoughts when she bumped into someone.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, shaking her head, before seeing Sour Sweet standing before her, a none too pleased look on her face.
“Walking around with your head in the clouds is dangerous,” Sugarcoat, who was closing her locker behind Sour Sweet, said, glancing to the other bespectacled girl.
“Oh, um… sorry?” Twilight said, wondering why she was apologizing again.
Sour Sweet just walked off, not saying a word.
“I noticed you haven’t signed up for the Friendship Games,” Sugarcoat said, not leaving.
“Well, yeah,” Twilight said, trying to follow where this conversation would go, but it was kind of hard to realign your brain to focus on such a mundane conversation topic like the Friendship Games with the magical baby pony princess on her mind.
“Aren’t you competing?” Sugarcoat cocked an eyebrow.
“I… don’t know,” Twilight fumbled. “I mean, I’m not exactly the most athletic person, am I?” Did she just dis herself?
Sugarcoat shrugged, walking passed her.
Twilight sighed with relief and moved on.
She spent her time in class trying to think of how Princess Twilight could’ve gotten to this world.
The baby couldn’t properly remember, but she had mentioned something about a statue and a mirror. Beyond that, Twilight had nothing to work on.
She wondered if it was even possible to send the little pony home. Bridging the divide from one universe to another wasn’t exactly as easy as opening a door.
Due to the distracting thoughts in her mind, Twilight didn’t get as high a score on her tests as usual, only 97%.
Thankfully, her teacher didn’t seem to care. He just told her to focus more was all.
This had caused snickering among her classmates, making Twilight hide her face in a book.
What right did they have to snicker at her? It wasn’t like they never drifted off in thought during classes.
By lunchtime, Twilight was drained.
With her mind on Princess Twilight and waiting on Sunset Shimmer, on top of everyone in school being so eager for the games against CHS, she just wasn’t in the mood for school today.
Getting her lunch bagged, she went outside and ate by a tree on her own.
As she was taking a bite of her egg sandwich, she looked up to the sky, wondering. What was Princess Twilight’s world like? Was it all ponies, or were there other creatures? Were ponies and dragons the only sentient beings there? Were there humans in Equestria?
Along with wanting to help the princess return home, Twilight was fascinated by the idea of exploring the physical laws of a novel dimension. Not to mention, she was kind of curious what Cadance, her brother and parents were like in that world.
“Twilight Sparkle, please report to Dean Cadance’s office. Twilight Sparkle to Dean Cadance’s office immediately,” a voice spoke over the school’s PA system.
Twilight glanced towards the speaker, confused for a moment, before her eyes opened and she hurriedly packed up what was left of her lunch, making a beeline for Cadance’s office, ignoring the looks and snickering whispers from students in the hallway.
Twilight reached Cadance’s Office and knocked twice.
“Twilight?” her sister-in-law’s voice called from the other side.
“It’s me, Cadance,” she answered back.
“Come in and lock the door,” came the reply.
She did as instructed, turning to see Cadance sitting at her desk, her expression uncertain and confused.
“What’s going on?” she asked, sitting in front of the desk. “Has Sunset Shimmer contacted us?”
Cadance shook her head. “Stellar Flare did. Though… it wasn’t what I think we were expecting.”
Twilight cocked up eyebrow.
Cadance presed a button on the phone on her desk.
“You have one new message,” the computerized female voice said. “New message, 12:13pm.”
“YOU KNOW A FRIEND OF MY DAUGHTER?!” a loud, frantic voice screamed from the speaker, nearly scaring Twilight half to death. “WHERE IS SHE? WHO’S TWILGIHT SPARKLE? I’VE NEVER—”
“For crying out loud, mother,” a younger male voice said in the background. “Calm down. You’re just going to freak them out.”
“I—” the woman’s voice paused, before she took a deep breath and continued in a much calmer tone. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I just… I’ve never heard of any Twilight Sparkle. My daughter hasn’t been home or even called in years. Anything to help me get in contact with her would help.”
“Mother,” the male’s voice said, sounding exasperated, “they are contacting us to find Sunset. If they’re asking us to contact her, how could they contact her for us?”
There was a pause, before the woman sighed. “I’m sorry, Sunburst. And, Mrs. Cadance, I’m afraid I can be of any help to this Twilight Sparkle. If she was a friend of my daughter, it must have been after she left for Everton.”
Twilight’s heart fell.
“I’d love to help her, but if she’s Sunset’s friend and she can’t get in contact with her, when Sunset hasn’t even called her own mother in years, I don’t see how I can help in any way,” Stellar Flare sighed. “I wish I could’ve been of more help. I hope you have a good day and… and, if you do find my Sunset, please tell her to call. I miss my little ray of sunshine.”
And the message ended.
“So,” Cadqance sighed, leaning on her desk, “looks like we’re back to square one on the whole “Find Sunset Shimmer” plan.”
“Twilight’s going to be so disappointed,” Twilight sighed, shaking her head.
“It can’t be helped,” Cadance shook her head. “Everton weren’t helpful, so contacting Sunset’s family was a long shot in and of itself.”
“I just wish I could help her more,” Twilight lamented. “She’s stuck in our world and the only person who can help us figure out how she got here and how to get her home is unreachable.”
Cadance leaned forward, putting a hand on Twilight’s. “We’ll figure something out. For now, we just have to keep trying and hope something comes up.”
They sat in silence for a moment, before Twilight sighed and got up, heading back out.
The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully. Once school was over, Twilight headed home, Cadance saying she’d pop by this evening on her way home.
Opening the front door, Twilight was greeted both by her dog and pony counterpart, the latter flying up and hugging her, a wide grin on her face.
Twilight blinked, glancing to Spike. “Why’s she so happy?”
Spike grinned. “You got an email. We heard the notification sound while we were passing your room after lunch.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “And? Why would that make Twilight happy?” Her face went blank, mirrored by the baby pony. “It’s still very confusing saying stuff like that.”
Spike shrugged. “Yeah. Anyway, we decided to look before the screen went into sleep mode again, and we saw the name of the sender.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow again. “And… who is…?” Her eyes widened. “No way! Sunset Shimmer?”
The dog nodded. “We’ve been waiting for you to get home so we can see what’s in the email.”
Grabbing her phone, Twilight opened the email app and, sure enough, there was an email from a sender she didn’t recognize, but the subject said “From Sunset Shimmer”.
Grinning ear to ear, Twilight opened the email… to see it was blank. There were no words, just a video file attachment.
Tapping it, the video opened up and the face of the girl from the Everton page was on her screen. She was wearing a purple top with a sun with red marking emblazoned on her chest… and a confused and annoyed look on her face.
“Who in the world are you?” she asked, shaking her head. “I didn’t think Everton would just give people.” She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Listen, I’m not sure where you’re getting your information from, but I’ve never met any Twilight Sparkle in my life. I dunno who you or this Twilight are, but I’m not interested in your little make believe world of magical pony babies right now. I’m in the middle of a research project regarding some interesting wave patterns somewhere off the coasts of Canterlot.”
And with that, the video abruptly ended.
Twilight just stood there, not sure what had just happened.
A sad sounding babble from her shoulder made her glance down to see the pony looking at the phone.
“Huh?” Spike asked distractedly, sounding confused. “Would do you mean “not your Sunset”?”
Huh?
The baby babbled again, then again, before Twilight found herself thrown back against the closed door by a powerful wind.
Looking up, her eyes widened as she was reminded of when she’d first encountered the little princess.
She was floating in the air, magical surging around her, her eyes (for the brief second they were open) pure white.
A loud wail deafened Twilight as the pony bawled her eyes out.
“Twilight!” Spike’s voice could barely be heard over the princess’s cries, the light too bright for the girl to see the dog. “Make her stop!”
“How?” she shouted back, arms over her head as the force of the wails only grew louder.
Twilight thought she heard a faint thumping sound. Glancing behind her, she could see Cadance waving frantically from the window next to the door.
Using the door to brace herself against the intense force being exuded by the Alicorn, Twilight managed to get herself standing and, turning the knob, pulled and pushed the door as ajar as she could.
“I’m guessing you got the same email I did?” Cadance yelled, holding an arm over her face against the winds blowing out the small edge of doorway.
“Yes!” Twilight yelled. “We’re not sure what happened? I don’t understand why Sunset said she doesn’t know Princess Twilight or why the Alicorn’s so upset! All Spike could translate was “not her Sunset”! We don’t know what’s going on?”
“I think I might!”Cadance yelled back. “Gimme a bit of room and I’ll try to talk to her!”
Twilight nodded, gritting her teeth as she forced the door a bit further open. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough for Cadance to fit her head through.
“Twilight!” the pink woman yelled at the top of her voice, in the most reassuring manner she could manage. “I understand why you’re upset and confused! I am too, but I also think I found the real Sunset Shimmer! Your Sunset Shimmer!”
Twilight glanced at Cadance, confused. The real Sunset? Her Sunset? What in the world was she talking about?
The baby’s wails seemed to lessen a little and she opened her eyes, looking right at Cadance, who nodded.
“That Sunset isn’t your Sunset. I found your Sunset. Her voice became gentler. “You need to calm down. We can take you too her, but we can’t help you if you don’t calm down first. Okay?”
There were a few tense seconds as the baby stared with white eyes at the pink woman, before the air seemed to feel less forceful, the magical field around the baby faded and she floated down to the ground, her eyes returning to normal.
Twilight sighed loudly with relief, sliding down the wall as Cadance pushed the door fully open.
“Whoa,” Spike’s voice said as the puppy made his way back out from the living room, him having been blown in there. “That was scary. What was that all about?”
Cadance moved inside, picking the baby up in her arms and looking between the dog and girl. “I don’t fully understand it myself, but I think, just like there are two Twilights, there are two Sunsets.”
Twilight glanced up from her place on the floor against the wall. “Come again?”
“Let’s move into the living room, settle down and I’ll explain what I can,” Cadance said, a confused look on her face. “I’m just as confused about it as I’m sure you’re about to be.”
