There is More than One of Everything
Twilight grinned. Her brother and sister-in-law were going to be surprised about this, that much was for certain. Her next visit to the Crystal Empire wasn't supposed to be until after the Summer Solstice, but she had managed to wrangle some free time in her schedule, and had instantly teleported herself into their castle straight from her own - a feat only possible due to her alicorn magic and the existence of the map-table in her castle.
She stretched out her wings, and then folded them once more. She walked up to the door that led to Shining Armour and Cadence's private living room and was about to knock politely on the door when she was startled to hear Shining Armor's voice.
"TWILY???!!!" His voice was filled with what sounded like surprise and shock.
Twilight was about to respond when she heard another voice reply:
"Shining? Is it really you?" Twilight cocked her head at an angle, and frowned. She was completely certain that she'd never heard that voice before, but it sounded quite familiar.
"Yes, it's me. What are you doing here? This isn't your reality!" Shining Armor sounded slightly panicked - which was VERY unusual. Twilight couldn't remember him sounding like that at any point in his life.
"I know - but I don't know where else to turn to! I've scanned every book in the library, and there's no answers!!" The voice - which Twilight had now pinpointed as belonging to a mare - was filled with the sound of desperation.
"No answers to what?" Twilight's emotions were now coming to a roil, and she didn't understand what she was feeling. She was now determined to know what was going on.
"To-"
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!!!" Twilight demanded as she flung the door open with her magic and burst into the room.
And stopped dead in her tracks.
Shining had his head turned towards her, startled. "Twilight? Why are you here?"
But Twilight barely heard him. She was staring at the mare standing in front of her. Twin lavender eyes gazed resolutely back at her own, and Twilight's mind went, This is... ME??!!
This mare... was Twilight - but at the same time, she wasn't. She had Twilight's coloration and Twilight's cutie mark - but she had no wings, and her mane and tail was styled up like Rarity's.
The strange mare spoke. "I presume that you are Shining Armor's younger sister. He has spoken quite highly of you to me." She extended her hoof. "I am Twily. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Twilight's mind noted that the mare's voice sounded like a cross between her own and Rarity's.
Twilight numbly shook her hoof, then turned to Shining Armor. "Can you please explain what is going on here? And where's Cadence?"
"I'm right here," Cadence said as she stepped out of the shadows. Before Twilight could ask her, she shook her head and stated, "And I don't have any idea what's going on, either."
Twilight and Cadence shifted their gazes back to Shining Armor.
Shining sighed. "It's a bit of a long story..."
Ten Years Earlier...
A younger Shining Armor was running as fast as he could. "Come on, come on!" he urged himself, his hooves pounding the icy snow. He had just finished a grueling Canterlot Guard training course in the icy north of Equestria. He galloped into the train station to get to the train that would take him to Canterlot - only to find, to his horror, that the train wasn't there. He looked around wildly.
"No I can't miss the train!" he cried in a state of panic.
"I'm sorry, but the 8:00 train to Canterlot just left," an old earth pony ticket seller in the ticketbooth said.
Shining Armor wasn't going to give up. He needed to be there for his sister, Twilight, as she went before the board of judges that would determine whether she would be allowed into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
He channeled his magic, and began to focus on a teleportation spell...
"And I found myself elsewhere."
Twily interrupted him. "And that was right on top of me. Right after Flash performed her Sonic Rainboom, when my magic went into overdrive, BOOM, he was there!"
Shining Armor nodded. "Everyone there thought that I was a creation of Twily's mind. When that world's version of Princess Celestia undid the chaos Twily had accidentally created, I was sent back here, on the Canterlot train platform.
"But that wasn't the last time you saw her, was it?" Twilight asked.
"No, it wasn't." Twily sighed. "I had accidentally created a mental link to his mind. We've talked to each other in our dreams for years, and have spoken about our lives at length." She looked at Cadence. "He's told me that you saved him from being permanently wed to a Changling hive queen, and that you're the best wife that anypony could ask for."
Cadence let some of her tension relax, and smiled at Twily. "So that explains why you know each other. But why are you here?"
Twily tensed. "Because I've accidentally screwed up my friends' destinies. AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX IT!!!"
Twilight looked at Twily. "Did you cast an unfinished spell written by Star Swirled the Bearded the night before?"
Twily looked a bit startled. "Yes, I did. How did you know?"
Twilight couldn't resist grinning. "I think I know exactly how to fix this particular problem..."
Author's Note
This is not my first fanfic; this is, however, my first one-shot.
Not so long ago, Nightmare Moon's thousand year banishment ended, and she returned to Equestria, seeking to cover the world in eternal night.
But six mares had come together in friendship, and had utilized the Elements of Harmony, stripping the Nightmare away to reveal Princess Luna, the younger sister of Princess Celestia. She had been restored to her former status, and Equestria was at peace.
But something strange had happened. The Elements had broken in half, each half fusing with a half from a different element.
Generosity had fused with Magic, while Loyalty merged with Kindness. Then Magic had united with Honesty, as Laughter was met with Kindness. And finally, Honesty partnered with Generosity, with Laughter and Loyalty intertwining.
Some said that the shattering of the Elements and their reforming heralded a new age of peace for Equestria. Others took it as a sign that the years ahead would be dark and troubling, filled with threats that could destroy everything that they had worked so hard to build.
Currently, however, Pink Dash had other things on her mind than saving Equestria.
"Hi there! Has anyone seen Rain Shy?" she asked. The mare whom she had asked pointed at a nearby cloud. "Thanks!!"
Rain Shy, who had been lazing around on the cloud, bolted upright, a look of panic on her face. She bolted, leaving a rainbow streak behind her as she sped away.
Pink Dash launched herself into the air, exclaiming, "Ooooh, a race!" She flapped her own wings, and the chase was on.
Rain Shy looked back over her shoulder. Seeing Pink Dash following her, her face darkened, and she flew faster, her wings blurring.
Pink Dash, leaving a pink trail across the sky, matched Rain Shy's increase in speed, her blue eyes still unfazed.
Rain Shy suddenly dived, arching down into the woods of the Everfree forest. Pink Dash followed.
The two mares, one chasing the other, weaved among the trees even as they accelerated, vines and tree trunks blurring past.
A manticore was startled out of his wits as a rainbow-colored streak traveled between him and the forest floor, followed just moments later by a pink blur that flew through the same small gap. He stared after the already disappeared phenomenon, wondering if he had just encountered a hallucination.
A very short time later, the two pegasi emerged from the forest, having already broken the sound barrier while in its depths - which the Ursas had not been pleased about, but, seeing as there was no way they could catch the fast-moving pair, had gone back into deep slumber. Now, Rain Shy suddenly swerved upward, streaking up into the sky, Pink Dash still hot on her tail.
A cone of turbulence began to form around Rain Shy's outstretched hooves. An identical cone started coming into existence around Pink Dash just milliseconds later.
The two barriers stretched out, and the breaking point was nearly reached.
Then it was surpassed, and a rapidly expanding circle of rainbow erupted into existence, spewing a solid rainbow up into space. Just microseconds later, a circle of vibrant pink detonated inside the first, a solid beam of unmistakeable pink rocketing along the trail blazed by the rainbow.
Then Pink Dash, moving just fractionally faster due to the preexisting trail blazed by Rain Shy, collided with her.
The resulting explosion for a brief second outshone the sun.
When it faded into a colorful fireball, the two pegasi were nowhere to be seen.
Twily walked out of the inter-dimensional portal, sighing in relief as it sealed behind her, now knowing the solution to her problem.
Then, a pink mare emerged, quite literally, from nowhere, plowing into her.
Twily's instinctive reaction saved them both, a magic shield snapping automatically into existence around both her and the mare, with a dividing magical wall interposing itself instantly between them.
A massive gouge was carved into existence in the soil of Ponyville.
Twily got up, looking at the strange mare. She looked like a cross between the body of her friend Flash with the color of her friend Pinshy.
"Shoot."
Twilight, having told Twily how to fix her problem, had, after catching up with her brother and her sister-in-law, returned to Ponyville. She now sat on her throne, looking at the table-map.
Then a massive explosion blew the castle to bits as Rain Shy emerged into the primary reality of Equestria.
Fortunately, no one beside Twilight was there.
Twilight emerged from the rubble, her eyes blazing.
"I JUST HAD THIS PLACE REDECORATED!!!!!"
