Lady Luck meets Lord Chance

The two alicorns touched down just outside the library in Ponyville. Despite the serene orange glow the rising sun was casting upon the small town, sounds of panic and frenzy escaped through the wooden walls of the hollow tree that was the library.

Hearing the commotion, Dusk Shine frowned deeply, and with wide eyes casted a glance toward his double. Twilight could only shrug and grit her teeth, bracing for the worst.

Inside, a claw biting dragon sitting on his posterior frantically looked back and forth between one pile of books and another pile of books, muttering something under his breath. Beside him was a pink earth pony doing push ups with no hooves, another cyan Pegasus in the middle of a wing up, slack jawed, staring at the pink pony. And next to that makeshift gym was an orange Stetson wearing mare, pacing back and forward, jumping and alternating between a trot, walk and canter. To the far side, a white unicorn urgently tore the books from the library shelves, adding to the piles of books while the dragon stared. Finally, amongst the chaos, was a quiet yellow Pegasus, trying to disappear from the site of chaos by making herself as small as possible.

Dusk Shine said nothing, his concerned frown starting to look permanently etched into his face.

“Girls, what are you doing?” asked Twilight Sparkle, not sure how to approach the situation. All eyes focused on the mare who spoke.

Ah, now that snapped the five little ponies and drake out of their trance. First to jump to his feet was Spike the little purple dragon, who rushed toward the alicorn in a relieved panic.

“TWILIGHT, I WAS SO WORRIED I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU AND I PANICKED AND THEN AND I KNEW THAT IT WAS DISCORD OR SOMEONE PONYNAPPING YOU, STEALING YOU IN THE NIGHT AND-” shouted the dragon, unable to use his indoor voice.

Pinkie Pie did another no hoof push up before doing a flip and landing on her back hooves, “We were so worried! We were about to storm the Canterlot library with pitchforks and torches to riot.” Her baby blue eyes looked thoughtful for a moment, “But we can still riot! Nothing like an old fashioned witch hunt to bring the community together!” She grinned menacingly, hooves full with pitchforks and one of her father’s old farming hats perched on her head.

Twilight could only shake her head, “Everyone calm down. Didn’t I tell you I was going to the Canterlot library to find books we didn’t have here in Ponyville?”

The previously pacing pony was standing still now, taking off her hat to half cover her face, “Well, ya’ll did tell us, but the way Spike was crying about you being gone for too long, we…I suppose we may have had a temporal lapse in judgement.” she said sheepishly.

Spike ripped his thumb out of his mouth, “I wasn’t crying! My eyes and tear ducts were concerned!”

“Applejack, I’ve only been gone for two days.” said Twilight in an amused tone, “If you were all so concerned, why didn’t you just write to me? Or maybe even visited me?”

The cyan Pegasus waved a hoof in the air, “Oh, oh that was my idea! We were going to swoop in, a valiant group of ponies to save their friend, beating up all the bad guys and saving the day!”

“Too brash,” chimed a grandiose voice, “I was going to find a spell to zap you back home.” announced the white unicorn. She coughed, “But, um, the spell eluded me in this sea of paperbacks and novels.” The elegant unicorn daintily nudged a pile of books on the ground with a hoof and frowned.

“Is that so, Rarity?” mused Twilight.

“I wanted to just wait.” stated Applejack as a matter of factly, before Rarity could respond.

“No pony listened to me when I said to just write a letter.” sighed the yellow Pegasus.

Applejack rolled her eyes and brushed Fluttershy aside, “In the end we drew straws, and I got the short one, so we did what I wanted to and that was to just sit here, no matter how stir crazy we got.” finished the cowpony. She scoffed again, “Writin’ letters. Phfff.”  A ridiculous sentiment.

Dusk Shine stifled a giggle and looked away. He could see them now, his friends as mares. The blue one was obviously Rainbow Blitz, the pink one, Berry Gumball. The white one surely was his friend Elusive, leaving the yellow Pegasus to be Butterscotch. Even Spines seemed to be Spike in this world. Applejack’s name surprisingly didn’t change. It was strange, seeing ponies that weren’t his friends, but were. Ponies who he knew incredibly personal things about, but didn’t even know his name. It was also a little upsetting to him that his all his friends were rather easy on the eyes in female form, hopefully he wouldn’t be awkward.

Who in Equestria was he kidding; Dusk Shine was one of the most socially awkward ponies around, even despite his studies and experiences in friendship.

“Who’s your new friend?” chirped Rarity, eyeing him a little more intently than Dusk Shine was comfortable with.

The two purple ponies gave the other a quick glance.

Don’t say brother, don’t say cousin, just friends, just friends, don’t be suspicious, no relation, no relation, no relation.

“She’s my old Canterlot U friend!”

“He’s my science experiment!”

The two stared at each other, horrified at how out of sync they were.

“I MEAN, HE’S MY UNCLE IN LAW.”

“SHE’S MY FLYING INSTRUCTOR.”

Each made a choking noise and bit their lower lip. Purple hues met each other in a aghast, pained look.

Applejack chuckled, “You two are worse at lying than I am.”

The white unicorn made her way toward the male alicorn and circled him a few times, “Science experiment or not, he’s a hunk of a pony.”

Two sets of purple eyes dilated before shrinking to pinpoints and all Dusk Shine could see was a tall unicorn stallion, with a baritone voice two octaves lower than the mare in front of him saying such things, and shuddered.

Fluttershy, though quiet and typically soothing, nearly brought Twilight to her knees with her next soft spoken statement.

“Gee, Twilight, he looks an awful like a colt version of you.” she noted, even kindly pointing a hoof between the alicorn similarities, the mane, and of course, the cutie marks.

“Well, yes! That is, um, of course, because he is my twin brother that you’ve never met before. Yes, twin brother and therefore also related to Shining. You know how it is, I’ve got loads of brothers I forget to mention to my best friends!” said Twilight with false bravado.

Applejack’s bullhonky sensor went off the charts as her muscles involuntarily contracted and threw the cowpony to the floor. Twilight nodded with nervousness, she wanted to facehoof, then throw Dusk Shine into the mirror and perform lobotomies on her friends so they’d never bring this up ever again.

A giddy squeal was heard from a bundle of pink energy, hugging the two alicorns together.

“He’s from a parallel universe where all the mares are stallions and all the stallions are mares and it’s pretty much all the same except for certain outcomes based on chance!” she paused for breath, “And he’s you!”

“How did you…” started Twilight, before shaking her head. Pinkie of course, used the Sense or something.

Bouncing around the room, Pinkie chanted, “Twilight is a colt, Twilight is a colt!”

Slightly flustered and trying to retain control, Twilight scowled at Dusk, “Why did you even go through the mirror? I didn’t!”

The stallion waved his hooves in surrender, “I flipped a coin! It was heads so I went in! You never go back on a coin toss, it would defeat the purpose!”

Rainbow Dash nodded appreciatively, “He has a point.”

“Based on chaaaaaaance!” sang the pink earth pony, continuing to bounce around. Rarity followed after her, worried the pony would end up hurting herself, or more importantly someone else in the library.

Dusk Shine thought for a moment, “You said you guys were either going to try a spell, barge in, wait or write a letter. Applejack drew the straw so you waited.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The male remained silent, deep in thought. So what are *my** friends doing to do?* It was a five in one chance for any of the choices, but he was 100% certain that his colts back home were currently freaking out, just as the mares had done here. He’d better make the Q&A with Twilight quick then.

Before anyone else could do or say anything, a ruffle of sheets and feathers was heard before a floating velvet curtain hurled itself into one of the library shelves.

“Ow!” cried the curtain. It seemed to be morphing in shape, extending every which way and flapping around.

“GHOST CURTAIN, KILL IT WITH FIRE!” screamed Spike before he took a deep breath, ready to release his flame.

“Wait!” objected Fluttershy, hitting the drake once on the back, causing him to choke and cough out smoke. She then trotted over and pulled the curtain off from the pony that was underneath it.

Her curious teal hues met with an irritated amethyst gaze, attached to a very blue and very male muzzle. Startled, Fluttershy quickly back peddled and hid behind Rainbow Dash, peeking just slightly out to see what would happen. The newcomer kicked the rest of the curtain off himself and fully stretched out his wings, he had a rather impressive wing span. His smirk was quickly replaced with a look of surprise as he was blindsided by a large clump of several other ponies, the mass of bodies was hurled into the center of the room where most lay twitching, some groaning from impact.

A pink pony squeezed himself out of the pile and frantically waved his hoof in excitement at the male alicorn, smiling hugely at him, “Dusky! We did it, we saved you!” He jovially looked down at the mass of ponies, “Bravo, Bravo Battalion! Mission complete!”

A groan of three ponies in pain acknowledged the commendation.

Dusk Shine took a tentative look at the cluster, and immediately facehoofed. What were the odds again?