And all that comes with it...
Castle of Friendship
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear oh dear…” Twilight murmured as she trotted back and forth across the entrance hallway, her marefriend watching her with a slightly annoyed look. The other part of Tempest was torn between bursting out laughing but seeing an impending bookhorse meltdown coming on, she put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
“You’re overreacting, Twilight. It’s not if the world is going to end anytime soon as soon as your doppelganger from an alternate dimension full of multi-colored apes and when she does, she will arrive with her marefriend who’s formerly of this dimension,” Tempest reassured before raising an eyebrow as soon as she realized exactly what she’d spoken out loud. “...Wow, when you put it that way it does sound sorta crazy.” she murmured to herself. She was still getting used to that little facet by the way. The alternate dimension thing, I mean.
“B-But what if the world becomes enveloped in a black hole or something when we meet? I...I’m pretty sure two counterparts are NOT supposed to meet under any circumstances anyways!” Twilight panicked, hiding herself behind a potted plant. Or attempting to anyways. It was frankly rather adorable in Tempest’s mind.
“...Didn’t you say you two met once before?” Tempest asked, her eyebrow arching even further. In any other circumstance, it would have been quite fascinating to see just how high exactly Tempest’s eyebrow could go. Might have been worth a study really.
“Y-Yes, but… But…” Twilight stammered out with a rather considerable blush present on her face.
“But what…?” Tempest trailed off, now closer to laughing than ever. To her credit, she managed to hide her amusement behind an impassive face. Years of dealing with Grubber and the Storm King’s particular forms of idiocy had managed to finely hone and tune this skill.
“But… But I may have left soon after and let Sunset explain the whole two worlds thing just in case…?” Twilight whispered, peeking her head out from behind the aforementioned potted plant. Tempest severely resisted the urge to facehoof.
“You’re overreacting Twi,” Tempest continued to reassure, it was her Celestia given duty -at least in her mind- to keep her marefriend from having meltdowns every other day, even over as something as simple as misplacing a book and shouting to the heavens how the library had always been good to her. She idly wondered how Spike and Starlight had managed before she came along. “Seriously, you are. If like you said you and your counterpart have met before and the world didn’t end then, I doubt it will now. Yes, you will be spending prolonged contact with each other,” Tempest continued -mentally adding a hopefully to the end of that sentence- cutting off Twilight before she could start on another nervous panicked rant. “But I really, seriously doubt the world will end just because two Twilights meet. It’s statistically improbable.”
Now it was Twilight’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“Statistically improbable?” she asked curiously. “You haven’t been peeking into any of my scientific submissions for Canterlot Weekly Journal have you?”
“...I wasn’t aware you were writing such things,” Tempest replied in a completely innocent tone of voice. “But seriously Twilight, you’re overreacting. You are overreacting to something that is complete minutia.” she stated.
“I’d hardly call meeting my alternate-universe self bringing along her marefriend, who happened to be my predecessor in terms of Celestia’s personal beloved student wise complete minutia,” Twilight deadpanned. “You have a capacity for understatement Tempest, you realize that?”
“Possibly, yes,” Tempest returned in an equally deadpan tone before it softened as she slowly realized something. “Twilight… Are you sure it’s not jealousy that’s speaking?” she inquired.
“J-Jealousy?” Twilight squeaked out, and Tempest hid a smirk having hit the nail directly on the head. “W-What makes you think that?”
“Nothing, but I do have a hunch,” Tempest said. “You’re worried aren’t you? You’re worried that the other Twilight is a better marefriend or whatever they call it over there to Sunset than you have been to me. Am I correct?” Tempest asked.
“...Okay, that may be it…” Twilight admitted shuffling her hooves nervously. “She’s been together longer with her than I have with you, and… And I think Twilight probably knows more about relationships than I do because of that…”
“Twilight, with all due respect, you said yourself your counterpart was even more of an introvert than you ever were -can still hardly believe that’s possible- so if anything there were probably more screw-ups and adorkablity with her than you and I relationship-wise.” Tempest lectured.
“Adorkablity… That… That isn’t a word...” Twilight attempted to refute but Tempest simply smiled and booped her marefriend on the nose.
“It is now, because I just said so,” Tempest replied with more than a bit of haughtiness in her tone and a slightly teasing grin on her face. “You’re cute Twilight, you are. You know that right? But you worry too much…” the mare continued as she walked behind the slightly shorter alicorn and began massaging her shoulders making Twilight let out a small moan. “But you’re much too tense really. What you need is a way to… relax,” Tempest said in a slightly seductive tone of voice making Twilight blush a bright beet red.
“R-Relax?” Twilight stammered out knowing exactly what Tempest had in mind even as the mare in question began nibbling her ear affectionately. “B-But I made a list of things that could possibly go wrong when the other Twilight gets here in a few hours with Sunset and how to fix them…” she whimpered.
“Exactly my point,” Tempest returned. “You overthink things too much. And a few hours?” she laughed. “I should think that’s more than enough time to be filled doing… other things instead of worrying your cute little head off…” she said circling around back towards Twilight’s face in an almost predatory manner before capturing the bottom of her lips briefly before pulling away. As she did so, Twilight let out a longing moan/whimper.
“See? That’s the spirit…” Tempest smirked.
“But… But what if we show up all hot and sweaty when we meet Twilight and Sunset…?” Twilight whimpered. “It’d be so unbecoming, and so embarrassing!”
“...Oh, we’ll make an excuse if that happens, that I just forced you to go to the gym or you were at the spa or something…” Tempest said shasaying her hips making damn well sure Twilight’s eyes were firmly on her finely toned flanks as she waltzed up the stairs to their shared bedroom. Twilight deciding to just toss her worries to the wind for a while all too eagerly followed.
Those few hours passed by in a blur, and after maybe more than few quick hops in the shower -Tempest’s idea of course, who else could it have been?- and some quick touch ups to make sure Twilight looked every part the diplomat the twosome were ready.
“...Well, this is an experience,” the other decidedly non-Alicorn Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. Instead of a six-pointed star as her Cutie Mark, she instead bore a series of test-tubes. “Have to say, being turned into a pony and meeting my alternate self yet again was not something I ever planned on doing this week…”
“...She’s almost as cute as you are,” Tempest said leaning in towards her Twilight with a slight smile. “Almost,” she said, swiping her on the flanks with her tail making Twilight let out a small squawk of indignation.
“T-Tempest!” she squeaked out as Sunset tried to hide her giggles. “Not in front of the guests!”
“Heh, if you think that’s bad, well you should see what we get up to…” Sunset trailed off giving her rather flushed marefriend a rather flirtatious smirk. “Pe-”
“Not in front of the others!” the human world Twilight squeaked.
“Oh, do pray tell?” Tempest asked enjoying the hell out of this. One embarrassed beyond measure Twilight was cute, two embarrassed beyond measure Twilights was comedy gold for her. “What do you two get up to in your private time?”
“...Yep, this is going to be a thing isn’t it?” the original Twilight muttered. “Yep, definitely a thing...”
“N-Nothing you need to know about!” the human world Twilight said standing up to the frankly intimidating mare her counterpart called a marefriend. To her surprise, Tempest just burst out laughing and give her a small noogie on the forehead.
“You’re alright kid,” Tempest replied. “Takes balls, big ones to stand up to me like that. Yeah, you’re a Twilight alright. ...You know, because there’s two of you this is going to get confusing… fast.”
“But we look completely different!” both Twilight shouted at once.
“... I dunno,” Sunset mused. “You look a lot alike to me. Makes one mare want to go for a threesome!”
“SUNSET!” both Twilights shouted while Tempest only laughed harder. Wiping away tears of amusement from her face, Sunset finally relented.
“Okay, okay. We’ll tone it down a bit,” Tempest agreed sharing a nod with Sunset before pointing to the human world Twilight with a hoof. “But you, unwinged Twilight with the glasses? We’ll call you Sci-Twi, and the original… Princess Twilight. Sound fair?”
“...Seems right to me,” Princess Twilight agreed with her counterpart sharing a nod.
“Oh, five minutes -give or take a few seconds- you two have spent together and not a single world enveloped in a black hole. Look at that!” Tempest joked.
“Tempppppesssstttt…” Princess Twilight whined in a foalish and frankly rather cute manner.
“Dare I ask?” Sunset asked with a tilt of her head.
“...Please don’t.” Princess Twilight murmured.
“She almost had a neurotic meltdown about what-ifs and maybes didn’t she?” Sunset smirked and Princess Twilight’s silence said it all. “...Yeah, thought so.”
“Annnnyyyyways,” Princess Twilight said. “I thought we should spend a bit of time getting to know each other-”
“Like more intimately?” Sunset teased.
“...I thought you said you’d stop,” Princess Twilight grumbled while Sci-Twi let out a small eep and flushed red.
“I’m sorry, I said I would. It’s just you set up the perfect bait!” Sunset jingled Tempest having to stifle a chuckle. They really should meet up more often, she thought to herself, if these were the results. She could really grow to like this Sunset pony. “Please continue.”
“Well, I thought we could get to know each other better,” Princess Twilight continued keeping a wary on Sunset just in case. “So, when I heard the Bucking Brothers Carnival was coming to town I had them let us in a day early.”
“Dear Twilight,” Sunset asked faking a gasp and placing a hoof over her chest. “Are you telling me you actually used your royal Princess powers to get the carnival to let us in a day early?”
“...I think you might be going down the road to being mad with power!” Sci-Twi quipped. “And believe me, between the three of us, we should know!” she continued much to everyone else’s amusement.
“Har har,” Princess Twilight laughed sarcastically. “Maybe I should just go on alone if this should be the case!”
“Personally, I think I’m rubbing off on you, that’s a good thing!” Tempest agreed. “Twilight Sparkle, future world conqueror, abusing carnies. Believe me when I tell you this, this is how it starts!” Tempest joked.
“You’re not very funny.” Princess Twilight sniffed. She almost missed the day when Tempest had no sense of humor, or was out to kill her. Almost, she thought with a small smile gracing her features. She was pleasantly surprised in the changes in her marefriend. Maybe that visit to her old village had done her quite a lot of good.
She’d definitely lightened up quite a bit, that was for sure. Perhaps a bit narcissistic of her she supposed, but Twilight liked to chalk that up to at least some of her influence.
“Well, shall we get going?” Princess Twilight asked with a gesturing wave of her hoof. “There’s cotton candy to be eaten, and prizes to be won at the booth and neither will do itself!”
“Cotton candy?” Sci-Twi asked eagerly. “They have that here? Almost as much as a gift from the Gods as Starbucks coffee!”
“So true!” Princess Twilight agreed as the foursome marched out of the castle…
Lights flashed, and cheery music played through the air as all four entered the carnival, time seeming to fly by in a blur as they enjoyed the games in the rides. Sci-Twi, in a bout of daring, had asked to go on a tower ride. You know the kind, the one that slowly lifted you up and then dropped you at high -but safe- speeds for a few cheap thrills.
It honestly surprised Sunset when her Twilight brought this up as a potential idea -given Twilight wasn't exactly a daring mare- as the twosome rode on a carousel. Carousels, for the record were something Sunset was stunned to find in this world. This was to be frank, because the rides generally consisted of colorfully and completely inaccurate painted horses. But who was she to deny her girlfriend a fun time? She offered to hold her tight if she got scared, but Sci-Twi had firmly said she was ready for this.
“So… How is this supposed to be fun again?” Sunset asked as the tower car climbed slowly to the top, the whole of the carnival and Ponyville visible to them at this height. A height, Sunset privately admitted she did not find comfortable at all.
“It’s the adrenaline rush, really. Just like any other thrill ride,” Sci-Twi answered, her counterpart having performed a spell to keep the glasses on her face. “...What, don’t tell me you’re scared of heights Sunset? I could hold you if you want…?” she teased, eager to get back at her girlfriend for her earlier transgressions.
“N-No, I’m fiiiiiiiinnnneeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Sunset started before that suddenly turned into a scream as the car dropped. A few minutes later, Sunset found herself muttering: “Never again, never again…” as she tried to hold down her breakfast from earlier. Unsuccessfully, I might add.
“There we go, let it all out…” Tempest said patting her newfound friend on the back as Sunset retched a few times. “You… You good?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Plenty good…” Sunset murmured, a small flush gracing her features. “I do pity the clean-up staff though… Never knew bacon could be quite so messy.”
“Wow, you really have adapted to another life, eating meat,” Tempest said her eyes widening briefly in surprise. “...And I thought I had it rough, former nation conqueror and all.”
“...Least you didn’t try to use an army of teenagers as your foot soldiers. I swear, what was I thinking?” Sunset laughed.
“I had bumbling yetis and an idiotic boss who needed everything practically explained to him via instruction manual, so I had it about as bad,” Tempest laughed. “So, what’s your story?”
“Jealous student, wanted to become an Alicorn like Princess Celestia so I poured myself into every spellbook I could find and it was all for nothing as Celestia quite wisely refused my ascension,” Sunset nodded. “May… May have thrown a temper tantrum of rage, called her a few names I regret to this day and left her world in a fury.”
Tempest winced. “...I suppose thinking I got shunned by my village because of… well, this,” she said pointing to her broken horn. “And then trying to rampage across Equestria and the rest of the world in a fury is tame compared to a simple temper tantrum.”
Sunset was polite enough to tell her it wasn’t. As Sunset and Tempest discussed their shared pasts, a similar discussion was taking place across the fairgrounds near a cotton candy stall.
“So let me get this straight, the sun and moon raise don’t raise themselves here, and for a thousand years -give or take the odd month- a Princess who happens to do the moon raising was trapped inside the moon due to some evil force taking her over?” Sci-Twi balked, nearly spitting out some of her beloved confection. “Do you know how many laws of science that breaks? If I said that in my world, I’d probably be committed!”
Wiping some of the cotton candy spittle off her face, Princess Twilight nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“What, to the sun and moon thing or me probably being committed?” Sci-Twi asked with a raised eyebrow. Her doppelganger said nothing. “...Have to admit though, being raised by royalty does sound enticing…”
“It has its ups and downs,” Princess Twilight admitted. “I’m sure Princess Celestia is grooming me to be her successor, although if I have my way she won’t retire for a long while yet. Stubborn to a fault, that’s me!” she laughed nervously.
“...Okay, yeah… Still getting used to the fact that Celestia is a Princess in this universe. Yep, definitely going to take some getting used to, that,” Sci-Twi admitted.
“It’s no different than me being bewildered at the fact that your Celestia is basically a headmistress in your world,” Princess Twilight shrugged. “...Mind you, I shouldn’t talk given I’m running a school of my own now. That on your bucket list, as you humans call it?”
“Me… No, hardly. Personally, I’m more interested in simply becoming a scientist, maybe studying botany or curing some deadly disease someday…” Sci-Twi sighed to herself and adjusted her glasses. Princess Twilight simply chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” her counterpart asked.
“It’s so amusing to me how similar and yet how different we are at the same time. Sure, I’m studious, but not to your extent. You actually want to take your studies somewhere, while I’m more interested in teaching everyone about friendship and basically becoming a diplomat. Well, I can say this I suppose, we’re both equally ambitious.”
“That’s for sure…” Sci-Twi admitted before her voice turned softer. “How… how hard was it for you growing up? I mean, like how hard was it making friends?”
“...Difficult, really. Chronic shut-in just like you if what Sunset’s told me is correct. Some might call it being a right bitch as I got older. Came back to bite me in the flanks more than a few times I’ve found…”
“...Well, at least you made an effort,” Sci-Twi sighed. “Me, I was more interested in just studying and studying to the point that I probably would have become some old maid had Sunset and her friends stepped in… People tried to befriend me, but I just brushed them off…”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Princess Twilight said bringing her counterpart in for a hug. “That’s in the past now, right? What matters now is the future, and what you do with it.”
“Still… I still have nightmares of that… thing I became at the end of the Friendship Games. Forced into it or not, I have to admit… I sorta enjoyed the power it gave me. And that’s more frightening than I care to admit…” Sci-Twi whispered. “I was relishing in that power, tearing your world and mine apart.”
“But as I said before, that’s in the past. You’ve put it behind you, and accepted who you are and become a better po-Sorry, person for it,” Princess Twilight stated. “Tartarus, you and your friends have saved the world a few times yourself if I’ve been hearing right. Sunset couldn’t have chosen a better student to pass her teachings down onto, as I knew she would…” she continued beaming with pride and if Sci-Twi didn’t know any better she could have sworn a small tear trickled down her counterpart’s cheek. She then giggled. “Ooh, a student-teacher relationship, how… scandalous!”
“No better than you and Tempest!” Sci-Twi teased flushing a bright red.
“Et tu, Twilight?” Princess Twilight remarked. “Now, I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you and Sunset…?”
“Get together?” Sci-Twi asked. “Well, it’s sorta an embarrassing story really…” she trailed off.
“Hey, the only one you’re telling it to is yourself really,” Princess Twilight pointed out.
“Okay, fair point. Anyways, I was talking with my friends over this social networking platform -not sure if you know what that is, imagine a large room where you only know ponies by pen names- and I accidentally sent a private message to Sunset without even noticing I did so. My God, I’d spilled all of my feelings, my secret desires to her and when I realized I just wanted to curl up and die!”
“...How’d Sunset take it?” Princess Twilight pressed trying to suppress the giggles. Sounded like something she’d do in her counterpart’s place really.
“...She actually enjoyed learning this, turns out she was too shy to actually say a word about her own feelings to me. Imagine! Sunset Shimmer, being too shy to say a word!” Sci-Twi giggled. “And there I was, wallowing in self-pity in my room for hours thinking she hated me over a simple message sent over Discord!”
“...Wait, this social networking platform is called Discord?” Princess Twilight asked curiously barely able to hold back a laugh.
“Yes, why? Is something wrong?” Sci-Twi asked.
“...You have no idea what Discord means in this world do you?” Princess Twilight asked with a small snort. “C’mon, best we go see how our marefriends are getting along without us and see if they haven’t killed each other yet…”
Thankfully, nothing of the sort had occurred.
“So, your Twilight…” Tempest coughed sensing the awkwardness between them no thanks to their previous conversation. “Does she do this thing? You know the thing right?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” Sunset agreed her stomach finally settling. “It’s that… well, with you, does she do that thing where she explains something extremely complicated at, like, thirty miles a minute, and you'd go “What?” and she’d just look at you like you'd just dribbled on your fur?”
“Yep, that’s the one,” Tempest agreed with a look of wistful longing. “Somehow, though she looks so sexy whenever she does that. ...Is that an egghead thing or just a Twilight thing?”
“I think that’s just a Twilight thing hun,” Sunset remarked with a giggle. “But yeah, it’s totally sexy. Have to resist the urge -half the time- to pounce on her and just take her to her bedroom and give her the night of her life!”
“Yep, same. She’s so adorable when being intelligent. Constants… and variables I suppose. ...Should I be worried about her going all supervillain on me?” Tempest asked in one of those tones that made it impossible to tell if she was joking or not.
“Not unless there’s a book out of place…” Sunset teased.
“...Which happens about every other Wednesday,” Tempest remarked in a joking tone. “So really, I should be worried. Like, terrified even!” she continued to laugh faking a shiver.
“Is your Twilight competitive?” Sunset asked.
“Please, did you see her back at the carnie games? She was trying to knock down as many milk bottles as she could! So yeah, I’d say that counts as competitive!” Sunset put in. “My Twilight, yep… Definitely falls under that banner as well. Never would have pegged her for it, but whenever it’s videogame or trivial pursuit night at Pinkie’s… Hoo boy… She will get even the most obscure facts. Like, did you know Green Eggs and Ham started out as a bet of all things?”
“Oh, don’t get me started on my Twilight’s nerdiness,” Tempest said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “She may try and hide it, but she does have a huge stash of comics hidden under her bed. I try not to say a thing about it.”
“...Huh, and I thought that was just her brother that was the comics geek, with him and his rare collection of Action Comics and the like…” Sunset trailed off.
“Nope, Twilight prizes herself on owning a rare signed edition of Power Ponies 31. You know, the one with Mistress Marvelous and the Masked Matter-Horn kissing but was pulled from shelves due to moral guardian… concerns?” Tempest sighed in disgust.
“Yeah, I know the one. Read it, I didn’t see what was so wrong with two mares kissing. I thought it quite sweet, but nope nowadays it’s never talked about unless you’re in a circle of die-hard comics nerds…” Sunset sighed, but in her case, it was more a wistful/sad tone.
“...I’m thinking you kept your copy when you fled to Earth didn’t you?” Tempest deadpanned.
“...Hey, helped me find out my sexuality in later years and there was the fact that I think they make a damn cute couple!” Sunset exclaimed.
“Oh for Celestia’s sake, you and both Twilights should meet up to discuss your favorite ships,” Tempest replied with a good-natured roll of her eyes. “Personally, I don’t see what’s so big about shipping fictional ponies but… To each their own I suppose.”
It was then both Twilights returned to find their marefriends giggling like a bunch of schoolfillies.
“...Okay, what did we miss?” Princess Twilight asked with a quirk of her head and this only set off the laughter harder.
FIN
Author's Note
I regret nothing.
As a side note, the whole mad with power exchange is a homage to a story by GaratheAuthor, as linked here.
