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                       Seeing Double                       
                   -by Twilightclopple-                    
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                        Soft Spots                         
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Soft Spots
A/N: Done per some requests that I've had for quite a while now. Fun and crazy to write, turned out even crazier. I hope it finds you all well, and what can I say, the fun has been doubled!
      "Did it work?"
Twilight's voice following the flash of magic floated to a little dragon's ears, who peered over the tip of his scroll, quill armed to mark down whatever progress the unicorn had made this time. His scales stood on end as the unaware reptile nearly sprung from his skin at the sight before him, a sight he wished never had graced his eyes.
Twilight's brows crinkled as she tilted her head, scanning her assistant as he quivered, shielding himself with his parchment, now holding the quill like a sword. She reached out a leg to him. "What's the matter, Sp-oh."
Where her hoof once was, a claw gleamed, purple, scaly, and oh-so out of place. "Mirror?" She asked, being met with Spike's quaking claw as he motioned toward the ornate wall mirror.
Before Twilight's eyes stood a vision of two stubby, scaly violet legs, upon which was perched a portly midsection, every bit as smoothly scaly as the arms and finely polished claws that held a ladylike appeal far surpassing Spike's own. A whipping tapered tail behind her completed the apparition, save for one tiny, but hugely significant detail.
"Well that's odd." Twilight reckoned with herself, watching the reflection of her own normal pony head mouth the words. "Dragon's body, head of a pony; I think we may have formed a new mythical creature, Spike." She let out a weak chuckle, followed by a sigh. "In any case, just leave it blank on the list, I'll go back and fix it later."
Spike, recovering from his initial shock, rolled up the scroll with slightly trembling claws. He was briefly blinded by another flash of magic, followed by a welcome and complete pony form approaching him.
"Well, now that we tried that one, what else is on the list for today?" Twilight asked, flicking away her deep blue mane, still tangled from the frequent transfiguration. The dragon shrugged his shoulders.
"Nothing else, unless you wanna try number 54 again."
Twilight shuddered, flexing her forelegs slightly. "I'll pass, my hooves are still tingly where those creepy things were." The memory of the wriggling purple monstrosities that had replaced her smooth hooves not a few hours ago sent a sickening shiver down the unicorn's spine.
Spike nodded, smiling. "Looks like we've got some free time."
The unicorn perked up, tilting her head in confusion. A block on her calendar of free, unplanned time, a veritable vortex of possibilities?
"Well, alright..." She agreed hesitantly, before breaking into a grin. "Guess I can catch up on some light reading!"
The unicorn's declaration was shortly followed by a ridiculously heavy tome thudding onto the table, choking Spike in a cloud of book dust. Twilight brushed off the excess dust from the thick leathery cover a little too lovingly, only to be met by a cocked eyebrow and an incredulous expression from her assistant.
"You have fun with that, Twi, I'll go visit Rarity, see if she needs help with anything!" A purple and green streak was hardly visible as the little dragon escaped through the door faster than a whip.
"Alright, say hi to Rarity for-" Door slam. "-me."
The library felt so quiet after Spike's departure, so devoid of motion, of life, so lonely, so...empty.
Perfect for reading.
Enveloping the thick volume in magical aura, Twilight toted it over her head to an armchair that practically beckoned to her, plopping into it with a relaxed sigh. She eased the book onto her lap, beginning to magically leaf through the pages, glancing up and down each one as she searched for the chapter she'd left off on.
There it was; Prowess in Unicorn Magistracy and its Effect on the Equestrian Court and Common Law.
A feeling of blissful contentment permeated Twilight's comfortable body; there was nothing like a leisurely read to ease the cacophony of her own thoughts.
Her lids sunk halfway as Twilight propped her head up in a hoof, beginning to lose herself in the aged text.
Stemming from the advancements of Elsar the Learned in the pre-classical era...
...alliances between the militaristic aggregation of the Pegasus clan following the preceding brusquerie of the Earth Ponies (see War of the Commons, fig C)...
...coining the commonplace credo of the ramifications of what one does when said individual alone dictates the...
The words melded together before her eyes as Twilight drifted off into the stratosphere in her mind, unable to lock a grip to the sentences she had read so many times already. The paragraphs seemed endless, long-winding and undulating snakes tying a knot around her consciousness as she floated into a welcomed naptime...
The unicorn awoke with a start, blinking in rapid fire as she peeled her face from the text. hoping the words hadn't left a legal-jargon imprint on her cheek.
     She'd fallen asleep? It took a moment for the fact to properly register in her mind. How could she not focus on the book she'd read several times over?
     Rationalizing that she had simply read it one TOO many times, Twilight exhaled, closing the heavy volume. Surrounding it once more in violet aura, the unicorn floated the book behind her as she made for the towering bookshelves.
     Twilight narrowed her eyes and she scanned the rows upon rows of neatly lined books, quickly flicking over each title as she went.
History and Societal Influence of the Development of Agriculture? Read it.
Scientific Revelations of the 900th Year? Read it in the bath.
Unicorn Physiology: An Illustrated Guide? Read it in the bath, twice.
      Just as the unicorn was ready to release a sigh of defeat, a leathery sliver caught the corner of her eye. Breaking her search, she trotted to the edge of the last bookcase. Lowering her head to the corner of the bottom shelf, Twilight coughed slightly at the thick dust that swirled around her.
     There, tucked between the carved wood side of the shelf and another thick tome that appeared as though it had skipped the last several reshelvings, was the spine of a book. What was visible was thick and hardened, cracked leather that looked like it had withstood a century's worth of sand and rain. Wider than her own hoof, frayed at the corners, withering golden letters engraved into the binding called out to Twilight; it seemed like her kind of book, and she would have remembered reading it.
     "The Plurality of Worlds." She spoke quietly to herself, trailing a hoof over the weathered spine and finely-imprinted lettering. "Hmm..."
     It only took a small flash of magic to draw the book from the shelves, though Twilight was especially careful not to bump anything as she gently eased the book onto a rickety side table. The binding had begun to come undone, and the dark covers started to pull apart, exposing the stacks of yellowed, irregular parchment that made up the body.
     For once, Twilight decided to part with her better judgement, electing to rather use her hooves to handle the delicate text. She stroked once over the cover, feeling the lesions and craters of the aging leather, tracing over the engraved title that reflected what was scripted on the spine. As her hoof came to rest at a rare, smooth blank spot near the bottom of the cover, the oddity finally came to pass over the unicorn's mind.
     Between the erratic stitching and the tearing edges, there was a peeling title of gold, and nothing else; no author name was to be found.
     "How strange..." Twilight mused, her hoof coming rest at the edge of the cover, gently opening the fragile book for the first time.
     'The Plurality of Worlds'; the title was repeated again on the first page, followed by a lengthy table of contents. As Twilight glanced up and down the list, she was able to fully appreciate the sheer magnitude of the volume.
     "I'll never have time to read all this before Spike comes back." She thought aloud, marveling at the diverse chapters, half of which even the quick-witted unicorn could hardly make sense of.
      A particular chapter caught her attention, phrased in the most peculiar way.
     "Porous Fields in the Veil of Spacetime."
     Twiligt wasn't sure what to make of it at short glance, nor was she able to reason why it attracted her in such a way. In any case, the purple mare was hardly in control of her own hooves as she carefully flipped to the described page.
     Scrawly and faded, the text was nigh unreadable under a large, cracked heading; Twilight had to squint to make out bits and pieces of the aged words behind borderline suspicious stains and yellowing.
     'Por us F  lds in th V il o  S acet me'; the weathered assortment of letters at the crest of the page, obviously the title. Underneath was an extensive block of text, just as weathered as everything around it. Wasting no more time in examining the beaten appearance, Twilight chose a paragraph that was relatively unbattered, and began to read.
     "Since the dawn of ponykind, a solitary truth has remained constant; the individual exists soley in itself, each decision perpetuating to another, each experience unique and uniquely his own..." Twilight read aloud, her intrigue and confusion growing in equal parts as she continued.
      "...Suppose, there exists another world, much like our own. Suppose, though it defies what is commonly understood to be the laws of reality and the fabric of time, there exists an alternate version of oneself, while existing as an entirely seperate entity in itself. Suppose, these universes, for lack of proper terminology, exist slightly angled toward each other in a plane on which they would typically stream parallel to one another."
      Her thoughts rattled around like marbles in her mind as Twilight read, requiring her to rationalize the new bit of information aloud. "Does that...Does that mean that there's another universe, where there's another...me?" She asked the empty room. "Angled toward each other...Meaning they could one day meet? I could meet my own doppelganger?"
     It sounded batty coming from her own mouth as she reasoned, downright daft.
     And Twilight was no loon. "Th-that's not even possible, there's no way that that's..."
     She trailed away, curiosity getting the better of her as she read on.
     "Yes, it is possible." Well, that was one answer. "The culmination of copious research and development has led to ponykind's mosy esteemed scientific minds locating what are recognized as veritable "soft spots"; specific locations where the veil of spacetime becomes thin, porous. It was believed that these were the the sole locales where the subject would be able to 'cross over', via the combination of high-energy electromagnetism, naturally occuring in these 'soft spots', and unicorn magic."
    "Unicorn magic..." Twilight repeated slowly, allowing the words to ravage her brain. It was a shame she wasn't sitting in a soft spot right then.
    But there was more to be read. "It is recognized, however, that through complex magical procedure, one may be able to successfully create a disturbance in the field between universes, an artificial soft spot through which a subject could pass, or one could be brought to pass. The energy required to greatly alter the electromagnetic field through magic, in any reconstruction of the phenomenal concept, borders just before the limitations of unicorn magic."
     Twilight's face fell. Just before the limitations of unicorn magic...nearly impossible.
     Nearly impossible, as it were, for an ordinary unicorn. Fortunately, prodigious Twilight Sparkle, Element of magic, bearer of abilities rivaling the ethreal princess of the sun, was no ordinary Pony Joe.
      Still, the chapter left a lot to be desired. There was no spell, no incantation that would bring her closer to touching the other side, and it would take even Twilight Sparkle years to figure one. There was, however a final paragraph, or rather, sentence to be read.
      "The incantation for the fabrication of a soft spot through the electromagnetic flux can be found in Appendix C. Reader be warned, one does not-"
      Reader be warned, and a blurred stain, stratching off the last part of what may have been a pivotal bit of information. However, the thought couldn't have been less in Twilight's mind as she flipped eagerly to Appendix C.
     Between Appendix B and the smudged, cracked pages of Appendix D, was nothing but the frayed edges of a brusquely torn bit of parchment.
     Twilight's heart sank like a rock at the missing page, the curious part of her being that was denied access to the all-important page cursing the page-ripper an eternity in Tartarus.
       Finally releasing the sigh of defeat she had swallowed earlier, Twilight, for the third time that day, engulfed the book in magic, ready to replace the dusty and infinitely confusing book back with the rest.
       Just as she approached the shelves, a leaflet fell from the enduring pages, fluttering to her hooves like an unconscious butterfly. Twilight bent down, her eyes taking in a ripped and beaten slip of parchment, crease lines running across it like veins, upon which was written-
      The lost incantation! Twilight lit up like a pegasus filly on her maiden voyage, every neuron in her brain sparking to life with what was nothing less than raw scientific determination.
      Of one thing she was certain; the universe was about to be stretched at the seams.
*~*~*
      After cutting Spike's merry tales of Rarity short and sending him out once more on what could be described as nothing more than a wild goose chase, Twilight was able to buy herself some time, perfect for universe-tearing.
      She'd run over the incantation countless times, expecting the spell to be carved into her brain like second nature by now. While Twilight was able to recite the phrase like her own name, and while she had the highest confidence in her spellmanship, a small stone of doubt hardened in her stomach.
       What if she couldn't pull it off?
       What if she got trapped on the other side?
       What if she threw the linear contiuum of time off its axis, creating an infinate black hole that swallowed her own world and all it encompassed into its depths?
        What if she went down in history as the unicorn that defeated Nightmare Moon, conquered Discord, rescued the capital city from the Changeling spawn, and connected two would-be parallel universes?
     Oh yes, it was decided. Oh, the pages of history she would be written on! What progress, what a pioneer of the scientific community she would be!
     Twilight braced herself, squaring her hips and spreading all four of her legs apart in an immobile stance. The floorboards felt solid beneath her, the library cleared of anything that may cumber ger casting, and Twilight was ready.
     The spell flashed through her mind, and the purple mare held onto each letter, mentally speaking it as clearly as she possibly could. Magic replaced her blood as it pulsed through her, thundering in her ears like the very hammer of Thor, concentrating like raw electricity at the tip of her horn.
     It was was pure energy; potent, unparalled energy that seared through her horn as Twilight's eyes were squeezed shut with strain. Behind her lids she could make out an incredible source of light, growing to awesome proportions as it bathed everything in white, ever brighter as the spell grew to a crescendo, bright, so impossibly bright, and-
     Blackness.
     ...
     ...
     Silence.
     The hardness of the floorboards under her.
     The pounding of her head.
     Dust. In her nose.
     Twilight sniffed, her eyelids feeling like lead weights as she struggled to lift them. Questions ran rampant through her mind, beginning with what in Equestria was she doing face-down on her floor.
      Her head pulsated as she propped herself up heavily, feeling as though the unicorn had listened to death metal against a brick wall.
      Vision returned to her dizzy self in short bursts of blurry images, then blackness, and over again. Her hearing was dull, the silence of the library stuffing her ears like cotton balls.
      Dazed and not fully upright, Twilight stole a quick check around the room. Her books, her rickety side table, the notes she'd left that morning; everything was the same, completely the same. She was in her home universe, the spell hadn't worked.
      "Terrific." She'd passed out like a sack of flour in the middle of her library, and for nothing.
      A groan came from nowhere. It was a little, non-threatening noise, but Twilight nearly jumped through the roof.
      Scrambling to her hooves, the purple mare stanced herself for the second time, ready to fight whatever assailant had broken into the library.
      What she saw, however, could not have been prepared for by any amount of magic. "Gaaaah!" Twilight cried, hooves sliding across the floor as she pedaled furiously backwards.
      It was so weird, that thing lying passed out so helplessly on the floor. A light tan color, strangely proportioned, it looked like it had the texture of a squishy meat sack, so fleshy and unprotected.
      The thing was longer than her, it lacked a tail, and seemed to have four limbs, just like Twilight, except where Twilight's hooves would be were the strangest things, like flowers with worms for petals.
      Those things! Those things, the same things she had cast on herself earlier! Why hadn't the spellbook mentioned that there was some other creature that had them naturally?
      The thing in Twilight's library was lying face down, sprawled like a floppy doll, and she could only imagine what horrors the face would resemble. Despite all of this, however, there was something crazily familiar about the creature that had seemingly materialized from thin air.
      It stirred. "Augh! Don't move!" Twilight yelled, her voice high with terror. Acting on impulse she could never explain, the unicorn approached the thing.
      She nudged the side of its fleshy foreleg with a hoof.
      "I don't know what you are, or where you came from, but I have magic, and I'm not afraid to use it!" The thing rolled onto it's back, face shrouded by thick strands of straight blue hair. Between the blue, Twilight could make out streaks of pink and magenta, not unlike-
      Now she was really losing her mind.
      Nudge. "Hello, wake up."
      Without warning, the creature's eyes flew open and she sat bolt-upright, whipping her head around a panic, creepy flowery worm-hooves flailing frenzied.
       Twilight shot back like a rocket. The creature began to pant in utter panic, hopping upright.
      For the first time, Twilight got a clear view of the thing's face. Big lilac eyes, small nose and mouth, it was not so unlike her own, except...flatter.
      It's posture was threatening, defying physics on two thin legs, swaying slightly like a willow. It was dressed in what looked like a two-piece ensemble: a crisp white tank top and a simple, dark pleated skirt. Hiding its bottom hooves were snappy black shoes, each buckled with a shiner silver clasp.
      Upon getting the chance for a better look, Twilight felt the creature became significantly less imposing. She approached the panicking thing gingerly.
      "Uh, h-hello, I'm, er-" Twilight was cut off.
      "Hey, stay back, I've got magic and I'm not afraid to use it!" The thing exclaimed, waving her arms in front of her. Twilight's eyes went wide. Had she just-?
     Well, at least they shared a common language.
     "Yeah, well, me too, so, uh, you stay back!" Came Twilight's truly ingenious reply. The creature straightened itself out, brushing its mane back into a choppy cut, fringed with blunt bangs, perfectly mirroring Twilight's own.
      So many questions, where would she start? "Whatareyouwheredidyoucomefromwhereisyourhornwhatareyoudoinginmylibrary?"
      The creature stopped her. "Slow down. Let's begin with names, it'll make things far easier." She spoke in a voice oddly identical to Twilight's. "Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle. And you are?"
      Twilight's eyes widened even further before narrowing. Clearly, the creature was delusional. "N-n-n-no. MY name is Twilight Sparkle, you can't be Twilight Sparkle."
       The faux, fleshy 'Twilight Sparkle' crinkled her nose, placing her worm-hooves on her fabric-clad hips. "No, I'm at least 98% certain I'm Twilight Sparkle. " She took a step forward, her expression changing from confusion to wide-eyed curiosity. "And since it seems I'm the guest here, I'll be asking the questions first. Where am I?"
      Twilight hadn't left her battle-ready stance, though she did allow her muscles to unclench slightly as she stood up a little straighter. Her horn, however, stayed directly pointed at her fleshy target. "You're in Ponyville, Equestria, my library to be exact. I can get to that later, but first," She shook her head slowly. "We can't have the same name. You're SPYlight Sparkle, because I don't trust you."
     The nickname sounded untouchably clever in Twilight's head.
      "Fine, Spylight Sparkle, clever. I really need some answers now, and by the look on your face, you could use some of your own." Twilight, er, Spylight declared, the reason in her voice undeniable.
      She didn't seem armed, though Spylight claimed she was capable of magic, and Twilight had come to slowly accept she didn't drop out of the sky to harm her. Her intentions for appearing, though mysterious, were likely not destructive.
      Appearing...The word itself was a scientist's nightmare; it illustrated uncertainty, things acting without rhyme or reason, unpredictability.
      This girl, she was so similar to Twilight, though she hated to admit it. She shared Twilight's reaction to this most unusual of situations, she recycled her phrases without hearing them, she seemed to have even the same thoughts running through her mind. Of course, it did not help that the two shared the same hair, eyes, name...
      And she had just appeared, to use the dreaded word. Twilight had been knocked cold, she couldn't possibly have seen how the girl materialized. She simply began to exist on the floor of her library, a demented copy of herself, an alternate...
      "I know how you got here." Twilight spoke almost under her breath, in hardly more than a whisper.
      Spylight looked up, her eyes widened and her lips parted. "What?"
      "I know how you got here." Twilight repeated, hardly registering the words as they left her mouth, as though someone else had taken over her lips. "And I can explain."
*~*~*
Spylight leaned back in her chair, eyebrows raised, her countenance disbelieving as she listened to what remained of Twilight's explanation. The book, the theory of alternate universes, the existence of one's own duplicate, and the inexplicably possibility of passing through or wrenching one from their own world into another. The information, the logic made perfect sense, clear as rain to Spylight's equally sharp mind, though she had difficulty accepting the gravity of the situation she had been, quite literally, thrust into.
She looked off to the side, eyebrows sinking low over her eyes as she gave a low whistle. "It...It makes sense, me being here...I just always expected I would be the one to pull you over first, especially with all the work I'd been doing with the Princess."
Twilight leaned forward. "You work with the Princess in your world too? I'm her prized student here." She punctuated the last statement with pride, despite there being no one to really impress.
Spylight nodded, grinning. "Oh yes, me too. Princess Celestia loves me on Homonus."
      Hearing her own prode repeated back to her so exactly was something Twilight swore she would never get used to. At the moment, however, she had other concerns.
      "Is Homonus your planet? We're on Equus, here. What did you say your kind was called again? I'm equine, in case you haven't already noticed." Twilight gave a jittery chuckle, the questions she had been sucking up for an hour to make way for explanations rushing up her throat like a rapid river. "I just have so much to ask!"
     She was silenced by Spylight's odd appendage, the thing where her hoof would be; the contact of the otherwordly thing made Twilight flinch slightly. "Alright, slow down, I can answer them, but one at a time."
      Twilight shifted her weight in the plushy armchair in which she was nestled, tucking her forehooves into her body. "Fair enough." Spylight nodded in satisfaction, pleased that they would finally be able to converse in a rather more civilized manner. "Let's start with your race?"
      Easy. "Human. It seems clear there isn't a lot of my kind in Equestria."
      Twilight laughed to herself; right she was. "I like to keep an open mind. So Homonus is your planet then? Homonus, human, Equus, equine?"
      Silently offering an advance to the next question, the human nodded. Twilight took the green light. "You said you're a student of Princess Celestia too? Is she also a human over there?"
      Spylight changed her position on the chair, rearranging herself until she kneeled, her feet tucked beneath her. "Oh, she's more than just human. She's a goddess; she's virtually immortal, and controls the rising and setting of the sun. However, I presume she has the same purpose here?"
      It was Twilight's turn to nod. "That's right, and Princess Luna controls the-"
      "-moon." The blue-haired human finished. She smiled, looking up at her equine double from under long black lashes.
      Twilight softened significantly under the gaze of her double. She felt so comfortable, sitting here with a girl that may well be her best friend, and indeed the one that understood her the best. "I should be more freaked out in this sort of situation." She began.
      Spylight laughed, leaning back comfortably once more. "How do you mean?"
      Twilight mentally kicked herself; she usually had such a way with words. "I mean I feel like it's really easy to talk to you, like you know me so well. Talking to you is, after all, talking to myself, in effect."
     "Well, if you are indeed my doppelganger, I'm assuming our thought processes and how we derive conclusions and answers must be virtually identical. It really is the most peculiar thing." Spylight agreed, before breaking into a grin. "Can you guess what I'll say next?"
     The unicorn shrugged. "Probably, if I tried hard enough." She joined the girl in a giggle before adding, "This is really the opportunity any scientist would kill for; the chance to understand oneself, examine your own self from a relatively objective standpoint."
      It truly was. For Twilight, conversing with Spylight (though she trusted her considerably more by now, the nickname had grown on her, and Spylight didn't seem to mind anyway) was an utterly surreal experience, and a finer use of transdimensional teleportation was never to be had.
     Spylight chuckled again, brushing the tiniest stray strand of bang out of the way. "Agreed. In that case, I have so many more questions!"
     The unicorn straightened herself in her chair, extending her hooves in front of her. "Oh hold on, I wasn't done! Though it appears not to have, did you ripping through spacetime and quite possibly having your molecules rearrange affect you in any particular physical way?"
      Spylight extended her arms, scanning up them before patting her head, chest, and midsection. "Seems you're right, I'm whole."
      Despute the undeniable lameness of the joke, Twilight snorted. Twilight Sparkle, human edition had a rather childish sense of humor and the slightest bit of a Rainbow Dash-esque demeanor about her, though the rest of her replies and logic was unmistakeably Twilight's. The unicorn reminded herself that there were some deviations to be expected between universes, including the obvious physical, and the not-so-obvious personality differences.
     "That's not what I meant, but I think I understand the picture." Twilight affirmed, retaining her small grin.
      Spylight smiled a little wider, flashing a row of gleaming white enamel. "Is that the final question for the time being?" The girl folded her arms into her lap, the wriggly hoof-less ends clasping and entwining together. Twilight stared, and could bite her tongue no longer.
   "Just one more question. What are those things where your hooves should be?" The purple unicorn recognized that the inquiry wasn't actually in top priority, but she needed to know.
      Spylight chuckled, raising her arms to wiggle the strange extremities in a sickening fashion. "What, these?" Yes, those, those grotesque worms. "They're called hands. They help me acquire a firmer grasp on objects I couldn't normally operate with magic."
     Hands. While the name was unfamiliar, and the appearance was unappealing, they seemed to serve a good purpose; reaching things magic couldn't. Wait...magic?
     "Actually, I do have one more question. This is the last, I promise."
      Spylight held still. "Go ahead."
      Twilight paused for a split moment, unsure how to properly phrase her inquiry. "Earlier you said that you had magic and you would use it, but I don't see a horn..."
      For reasons she could not understand, Spylight absently lifted a hand to her forehead, lightly tracing the area where a horn would be. "While unicorn magic concentrates at the horn, some of us humans are able to conduct magic through our brains. It's not unlike having a horn, but rather an invisible one." Twilight nodded in understanding, before Spylight continued, adding one last comment. "A horn would be more of a bother, I suppose."
     Her horn was her pride and joy, her namesake and her slot in life, and Twilight wouldn't just let it get insulted. "It is not! My horn is multifunctional; it can perform more than just magic."
    The human girl was unconvinced. "Like what? Don't you agree the inwardly-centralized magic is more practical?"
     Yes. "Not particularly, and my horn is also...it's..." Where was Unicorn Physiology: An Illustrated Guide when it was needed? "It has a complex network of nerve endings, a hub of sensitive energy!"
      Spylight raised her brows, looking rather impressed while her alternate looked rather triumphant. "Well, that is certainly something I wouldn't mind finding a little more about, but as you can imagine, books describing unicorn anatomy are rare where I'm from."
     Out of the great blue nothingness, an idea burned through Spylight's mind like wildfire, and she could not resist asking. She was talking to herself, after all.
      "Can I-?" The question was finished by the girl leaning forward suddenly, stretching her arm out far in front of her, fingers meeting the tip of Twilight's horn.
     The brief brush was like the connection of two live wires; raw electricity crackled between the tips of her fingers and the very tip of the mare's horn, sending a spark through Spylight and an involuntary shiver down Twilight's spine. What had just happened?
      Spylight snapped back her hand as though she had just prodded a hot iron. "I'm sorry, you said it was sensitive, did I hurt you?" She asked, genuine concern in her face and voice.
      Twilight shivered again, reaching up her own hoof to run down her horn, which didn't feel much different under her own touch than it did at any other time. "It doesn't do that when I touch it..."
     "I'm sorry, I guess I just got too curious." The girl looked down sheepishly, a rose-colored blush creeping up her cheeks in spite of her efforts to remain professional.
      The unicorn sympathized with Spylight, and even if it felt beyond strange, who was she to deny a fellow patron of the sciences an opportunity for new knowledge. "It's alright, you didn't get a good grip last time, go ahead and touch it again. Just be gentle."
       The girl folded a hand in her lap, face lighting up, and nodded. She delicately extended a hand, hovering her fingers as gently as butterfly as she landed over Twilight's magical apex, wrapping her fingers softly around the ridged base.
      As Spylight lightly gripped it, Twilight bit her lip as electricity shot through her body, concentrating from her horn as though it were an exposed nerve. It was inexplicable, but absolutely real; somehow Twilight could feel the warmth of the girl's palm, the softness of her skin, the slight lines of her hand.
      Spylight, intrigued by her other's reaction to the touch, pressed on, slowly beginning to slide her hand upwards, feeling the shape of Twilight's horn under her soft grasp. The purple surface felt slick, polished, like the enamel of a spiraled seashell.
      The moment she felt movement on her horn, Twilight's eyes flew open, her pupils growing small as an energy the likes of which she had never before known coursed through her veins. It was raw, it was more intense than anything, it sent her hair standing on end with a feeling of insane pleasure.
      How had she not known about this? As pleasure pulsed through her, Twilight had never doubted what was written in Unicorn Physiology more.
      Twilight clenched her muscles a little more, and Spylight, unaware of what her touch was doing to the unicorn, traced her finger back down the spiral shape, fascination with its design in her eyes.
      The unicorn couldn't bite it back; she moaned involuntarily. At the sound, realization hit Spylight over the head like a mallet, and she withdrew her hand slowly, eyes wide. Twilight felt a surge of embarrassment as the truth of what was transpiring sparked in her eyes, only fueled by the awkward, stuffy silence.
      "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize-" The girl began, eyes still wide. Twilight felt like sticking her head through the floorboards.
      "No, I'm sorry. I had no idea what would happen." Twilight apologized, a little color returning to her face. "Haha, you would think I'd know more about something that feels that good."
      Spylight giggled lightly, replacing her hands in her lap. "That felt good, huh?"
      Twilight smiled and nodded, feeling greatly more comfortable in the situation than she did a minute ago.
      Spylight's face fell a little. "Alright, fine, I'll admit it; I wish I had one." She absentmindedly lifted a hand to her forehead once more, combing down her bangs as she traced the lack of a horn.
      Twilight felt something deep inside her stir. She could empathasize with the girl, who she had to remind herself was indeed a version of herself. The mare herself had known the feeling only too well, the feeling of being one step behind.
      Royal prodigy, stemming from an extremely well-connected and powerful family, more gifts to show than any other pony around; it seemed she had it all. Behind the veil of magical prowess, however, Twilight had built herself a wall of knowledge, studying, keeping herself occupied.
      She watched the world from the outside in, she watched her friends go around, fall in love, while she was trapped in a rut of endless letter-writing to a vague princess.
      Now there was another here, one who understood her better than anyone ever could.
      The thoughts that ran through Spylight's own head were almost identical. "C-Can I...Try again?" She asked carefully, violet eyes meeting twin violet eyes.
      Twilight nodded.
      Fingers closed gently around Twilight's horn, another spike of pleasure sparking down her body. Spylight held with more pressure than before, allowing herself to remain still for a moment, just to feel the smooth shape in her palm.
      "It's incredible..." She murmered, admiring the neatly-filed point. Twilight smiled, before quickly dropping her mouth open as Spylight began to move her hand.
      Beginning at the base, she guided her hand upwards, squeezing gently as she met the tip. Twilight sighed as she circled around the summit, before plunging back down to grasp the rest of the length once again. Gauging the unicorn's reaction, Spylight decided it was high time to take it to the next level.
     Tightening her grip, the girl leaned in gently as she pulled her hand upward again, moving her palm across the ridges of Twilight's horn in a corkscrew motion, tracing the spiral shape. She circled the tip and slid down again, before pumping up and down again, and again, harder and faster than before.
      "Mmmmh..." The unicorn moaned, her eyes sliding closed in pleasure. Every stroke sent her mind into a swirl as pleasure throbbed through her veins, from the wildfire at her horn to her marehood, which had slowly begun to swell and moisten.
      She squealed in spite of herself as Spylight circled around the tip again, using the tip of her finger. The girl smirked, enjoying the tantalizing effect she was inflicting on the violet unicorn. Moving her finger slowly, agonizingly slowly, Spylight traced the grooves along the length to the base, and back to the tip, before enveloping the horn in her warm, soft palm again.
      "Ah!" Twilight gasped, wanting to say more but finding she was unable of using more than one syllable at a time as her thoughts went through the spin cycle brought on by every one of Spylight's motions. As the girl sped up in her ministrations, the unicorn's breath faded until she was reduced to a mere string of gasps.
      A familiar feeling Twilight had only experienced in one of so many lonely nights began to swell in her abdomen, connected directly to the unbelievable pleasure from her horn as though they were one and the same. She began to push back into Spylight's curled hand, eyes squeezed shut as every nerve in her heaving, trembling form came to life with unbridaled passion, pleasure, all building up to that one moment when-
      The orgasmic feeling teetered at its brink as Twilight fell foreward, gasping, her forehead nearly touching Spylight's, who had broken the hold on her horn. Eyes half-lidded of violet that burned with unbridaled intensity, cheeks flushed, lips slightly parted, each expression mirrored the other perfectly. Twilight leaned against Twilight the Human, front hooves pressed against her thinly clad chest, while the girl had snaked her own hands around the unicorn's back, gently caressing her coat.
      Between pants and surges of near-orgasmic, mindless bliss, Twilight managed to choke out what lingered on her mind, warm breath tickling Spylight's nose, "I know this may be-hah-wrong, but you are, in effect, me, and I-gahh- can't say I've always dreamt of this happening, but-"
     The slightly more impulsive version of herself cut her tangent off, sealing them together in a heated kiss. It was so wrong, so unheard of, so unlike her, but Twilight had never felt more right.
      Their tongues, both shy and inexperienced, flicked around eachother, occasionally entwining in what should have been a steamy battle for dominance. Twilight sighed into Spylight's mouth softly, feeling the girl do the same, just before her eyes slid closed once again, blocking out all sensation save for the crazed exchange of fiery passion between their lips. It was wonderful, purely wonderful; that was the only phrase that came to Twilight's jumbled mind as she reared against Spylight, deepening the kiss and pressing harder against her chest.
      Spylight allowed her hands to roam, ruffling the unicorn's silky coat as she trailed up and down her sides, sending ripples of pleasure into Twilight. She could feel her warmth, her labored breathing, her heart pounding like mad with the intensity they both shared. She could smell her, the smell of flowers and shampoo that smelled like honeycomb, the same kind she herself used; it was intoxicating, driving the girl to take deep breaths, filling herself with Twilight's scent.
      Finally, Spylight's hands came to rest on either side of Twilight's head, holding her firmly but tenderly as she broke the kiss, moving instead to plant smaller kisses along Twilight's jawline and cheek. The unicorn sighed again at the loving touch, begging the human to continue.
     Spylight left a trail of kisses upwards, across Twilight's forehead, rumpling her bangs with the side of her face as gasps and moans accompanied by heavy breathing filled the air. Coming to a pause, Twilight felt the girl hover over her sensitive horn, though she couldn't possibly have been prepared for what the next move was.
      A warm, wet feeling slid down the length of her horn as Spylight placed a long lick from her small pink tongue across it. Twilight's eyes clenched along with her muscles as she let out a cry; the feeling was unlike anything she had experienced before, setting every particle on her body alight with fire. As she felt another lick being traced from the base to the tip, pausing to swirl around it, the unicorn resisted the primal urge to forced Spylight's head onto her horn until she was satisfied, channeling it into another drawn-out moan instead.
      Spylight, just as keen as her double, sensed the growing tension. She closed her eyes, trusting Twilight not to kabob her, and planted her lips over the tip of her horn in a kiss, before sinking lower, taking more into her mouth. She moaned softly as she did so, the vibrations reverberated back into Twilight in the form of a flash of extreme pleasure.
      Sinking lower and lower, the girl used her tongue to stroke the ridged underside of her horn while Twilight quaked in pleasure, moaning nearly continuously. When Spylight felt her lips touch the top of the unicorn's soft mane, she knew she hat bottomed out, thereby beginning her stroke upwards. As she lifted her head back up, she employed a trick; sucking motion, combined with the strong strokes of her tongue over the smooth length.
      Spylight bobbed her head, rising up and sinking down like a piston, moving in sync with Twilight's breathless goans. Under her hands, the unicorn was trembling, muscles completely locked, adrenaline couring through her; she was close, unbearably so. Spylight had to do something, just a little something that would send Twilight tumbling into the senseless oblivion that was her first release of the night.
      Without giving it a moment's thought, Spylight traced her fingers down Twilight's soft belly, meeting the center of her heat between her haunches. She felt the sharp intake of breath, the dripping, swollen wetness and knew she was there, the center of Twilight's pleasure.
      Spylight trailed along her sex, cupping it before slipping a slender finger into her depths. Withdrawing the finger, she slid it upwards until it met the rock-hard, exposed bump that was Twilight's erect clit, recognizing it through personal exerience on herself and the squeal that came with the contact.
      She circled it gently with her finger, spiraling over the hood in what became tighter and tighter circles, before rolling the hard nub between thumb and forefinger that Twilight only wished she had. The unicorn cried out ad shivered again as Spylight placed a simultaneous lick against her horn. Any second now-
    Without warning, Spylight thrust her middle finger in the purple mare's love hole as far as it would go, curling up to tickle her swollen G-spot while furiously flicking her thumb back and forth over the clit, accompanied in perfect symphony woth a strong lick and kiss on her horn.
      If Twilight had any restraint left in her, even the most finite amount, it was gone now.
      "Ahhhhh! I'm going to...I'm going to..." The mare threw her head back, crying into the obliteration of her senses, losing herself in orgasm. As her conractions hit her, she had a moan for each one, the product of her dizzying release dripping over Spylight's fingers as they slowly but forcefully drove in and out. Silencing her moans as the mare came hard, the girl covered her mouth again in a steamy kiss, slowing her ministrations with her soaked hand even further.
      During the time that was normally her reprise, Twilight shot up, irrationally eager to return the favor before even her own orgasm had run its course; nothing would cumber her from granting the same level of earthly pleasure she had just received back to the one by whose hand it was.
      Forcefully pushing Spylight to the floor in a manner very unlike the norm, Twilight engaged her in a brief and powerful kiss, before breaking away just as suddenly as she had started. "That...was...amazing...Your turn." She spoke, her voice still hoarse from the incessant moans of a few minutes ago. Spylight had a glint in her eye that made it unlikely for her to refuse.
      It took the unicorn a moment to realize that the girl below her was still clothed, even if scantily. Reengaging the kiss that sent Spylight's mind reeling, Twilight tugged at the hem of her white top with a lick of violet magic, drawing it over her smooth, muscular stomach and well-rounded breasts. The sudden breeze should have instilled a feeling of bashfulness in Spylight, but the embrace had taken away her ability to feel anything else.
      Twilight pulled away, moving to nip and lick gently at the girl's neck, over her collarbone, stopping before her chest. She dragged down the valley inbetween Spylight's shapely mounds, a gesture tender enough to make the girl shudder, letting her long-lashed eyes fall closed. Twilight glanced up; the girl was a vision of beauty, skin a creamy light tan, even, perfect breasts, shimmery blue hair splayed around her as her chest rose and fell gently.
      Playing with her newfound boldness, Twilight took hold of the edge of Spylight's preppy skirt with her teeth, tugging it over her slim hips to expose the simple, laced white panties underneath. With a final flick of magic to help her slip the garment over the girl's slim, long legs, the unicorn resisted the urge to gaze at her perfection again.
      Twilight, usually a unicorn of very mild temperment, was growing impatient. While running a purple hoof up Spylight's impossibly smooth leg, she tore off the white panties with magical assistance, unwilling to wait any longer. The girl was now completely bare beneath Twilight, and the only thought making it through her frenzied mind was mentally pleading for the unicorn to touch her, anywhere.
      Twilight was anything but cruel. She wasted not a second before diving between Spylight's perfect thighs, planting a soft kiss over her abdomen before moving to the epicenter of the quake she would shortly bring about in the girl below her.
      "Please..." Spylight moaned, arching her back and thrusting her hips forward slightly. Twilight smiled. She had not intended to have the human beg, but did certainly enjoy the sound of it.
      "I'm afraid you'll have to articulate a little better than that." Twilight felt the most delicious kind of vindictive as she said it. Perhaps she was a little cruel after all.
      Spylight groaned in frustration. "Please, lick me out."
      Twilight looked up and grinned. "Hmm...granted."
      She began with a long lick from bottom to top of Spylight's sex, tasting her sweet arousal, reveling in the gasp she elicited. Spylight pushed her hips foreward, prompting the purple mare to place another, swirling her tongue around as she explored her insides.
      Spylight lost control of any and all coherent thought, unsure of whether to close her eyes or leave them open and observe as she was pleasured from below. It couldn't have mattered less, however, as Twilight wiped her mind clean again as she zeroed in on the bundle of nerves near the tip of her fiery, scorching sex.
      Twilight, remembering what had felt so indescribably good for herself, sharpened her tongue and swirled around Spylight's stiff clit, teasing it in time with the moans she received, each one a lovely gift to her. Every flick of her tongue only drew out another, and another, every moan or squeak being the highest incentive for Twilight to continue, to move faster or harder. Or both.
      Changing her tactic, Twilight gripped the girl's throbbing clit between her teeth, rolling it around gently as her tongue rubbed over the top as swiftly as she could muster. The combination of all-around stimulation stole the breath right from Spylight's chest as she struggled to catch air. Twilight continued mercilessly.
      As the pleasure assaulted her, Spylight's hands had entwined themselves in the mare's silken mane, gently tugging as if she was trying to reign in the lava that had quickly replaced her blood.
      Twilight, eyes closed, quickened her pace and changed her attack once again. She now alternated between circling Spylight's love hole with a firm, flattened tongue and flicking her tongue in an almost serpentine fashion over her begging, overstimulated nub.
Like everything else Twilight Sparkle attempted, she worked fast, and she worked efficiently, learning a craft to near mastery in a matter of minutes.
      Spylight cried aloud at the new technique, hands unconsciously meeting her breasts, pinching her nipples as her body screamed in fury. She drew herself taut, causing Twilight to glance up from her sex with smoldering, half-lidded eyes over a lazy grin.
      "Looks like I found your soft spot." She remarked playfully, before returning to her ministrations. Spylight rewarded her joke with a weak laugh, even if it was a pitiful one.
      Upon hearing the adorable laugh, Twilight felt a rush of determination, unstoppable determination to truly blow the girl's mind. She redoubled her efforts, licking in a feverish and frenzied fervor, as her free hooves maintained a tight grip on either side of her sculpted hips.
      That was all it took.
      Spylight released, a shrill cry tearing through her throat at her orgasm conquered her and every piece of her being, pounding out of her in a sticky result of the pleasure that ripped her to smoldering bits. She squealed as aftershock after blinding aftershock took the ground out from under her writhing, slick body, sending the ravaged girl tumbling head first into a whirling abyss she would never return from.
      The unicorn slowly withdrew from Spylight's junction, sharing in the girl's exhaustion and complete fulfillment. Her muscles groaned in protest as she dragged herself up, lying next to Spylight's still heaving, quivering form in post-coital bliss mixed to the perfect cocktail with primal satisfaction.
      Moments passed, and neither said a word, though the silence was anything but uncomfortable.
...
     Finally, Spylight spoke up, voice as hoarse and smoky as Twilight's was. "Do you suppose you don't have to call me Spylight anymore?"
     Twilight let out a breathy chuckle. "I suppose not, Twilight."
     Joining together in a chorus of weak, spent laughter, Twilight and Twilight didn't move an inch off the floorboards.
      *~*~*
      Twilight Sparkle sat comfortably in a grand winged armchair, hands folded in their regular place in her lap. She shifted her weight slightly and looked up at Twilight the unicorn, inquiry etched in her features.
      "So it is possible to get back to my own universe?"
      The unicorn looked up from the threadbare tome she had been perusing. "It says here that you can, it says..." She tapered off, squinting her eyes as she struggled to read the besmirched text from the ages. While the words seemed legible enough, Twilight was unsure of what she had just read; perhaps she hadn't processed it correctly. Perhaps she was still a little dizzy.
      Human Twilight was no fool. "What?"
    It says, I think, that once the soft spot has been tampered with, the electromagnetic flux may remain open"
    The words were finally having their impact on Twilight the Human's mind. "Reamain open? So others from my universe may still be able to pass through?" Her eyes grew wide as the situation unraveled its gravity before her.
    As if on impeccable cue, Twilight and Twilight whipped around to the sound of a thud as something large and most likely fleshy hit the library floor. Having just endured the trials of transdimensional tripping, the guest stirred heavily, clever, arrogant rose eyes opening in a mixture of confusion and panic, though mostly confusion. The new guest sat slowly up, lifting a heavy hand to their forehead, brushing the wild strands of prismatic, rainbow-like hair from her eyes as she looked around to her hosts, as though she was looking at a bright light from a cave.
    "Twilight? Is that you?" The new girl asked, her voice rough and cracked yet attractive. "Where the hell am I?"