Twilight Sparkle smiled as she trotted down the main road of Ponyville, ruffling her wings slightly. It was a warm, breezy, beautiful Summer day, and not just because Summer Day had just cleared the clouds. Ponies were happily cantering to and fro; Bon-Bon was chatting with her wife as they inspected a basket of carrots for their dinner date later, and Tulip Bloom was tucking one last flower into an arrangement while her two coworkers watched anxiously. Davenport had just set out a brand new rack of finely-crafted quills in his storefront, and Twi was walking over to see if any of them would catch her interest, when she spied a lone daisy growing in the middle of the road.
"Spike, look!" she said as she bent down to sniff at it. "Isn't it fascinating, how flowers can bloom in even the strangest of places?"
THWACK-whud-d-d-d-d-d went a four-foot-long spear as it sailed over Twi's head, embedding itself in one of the columns of Davenport's storefront.
"Uh, Twi?" Spike muttered.
"I think I'll put this in a flowerpot when I get home," Twi said, as she scooped the flower up with a burst of magic. "I should ask Tulip how to care for it!"
As she trotted across the way to Tulip's flower stand, Spike tried tapping on her shoulder, but he usually had to stand on tiptoes to reach, and it was a hard enough thing to do when she was standing still.
"Tulip?" Twilight asked.
"Y-yes, miss Sparkle?" Tulip mumbled, shivering slightly. Tulip was always quite nervous, and Twilight didn't pay it any mind.
"What's the best way to care for a daisy, like this one?"
"Oh! Same as most other flowers--plenty of water, but make sure it's got somewhere to drain to, or you'll just have mud. Ponyville's soil is just perfect for them, so don't worry too much about fertilizer--"
"Excellent! Thank you, Tulip!" Twilight smiled wide as she turned to walk away, narrowly avoiding the sword that went whirling into Tulip's flowerstand. Poor Tulip took one look at the decapitated daffodils, and fainted on the spot.
"Twilight, I think--"
"Oh! I almost forgot! Spike, take notes. I should write a lecture on the topic of perseverence." She floated a quill and parchment over to Spike, who took them without skipping a beat, though his expression grew more and more concerned.
"Ahem," she began. "In any endeavour--no, make that 'quest', that's more exciting--"
"Twilight--"
"It is very important to--"
"Twi..."
"Maintain a habit of--"
"Hey, Twi--"
"Perseverence!"
"DUCK!" screamed Spike, and Twilight hit the deck. A massive thunderclap echoed through the town square, and when Twi lifted her head, four different vegetable stalls had been overturned. Tulip was still lying on the ground, posed dramatically, as her two best friends took turns fanning her with bouquets of tulips. Davenport was trying to pull the spear out of the wall. Bon-Bon and Lyra were laying in a heap next to their scattered dinner, and Lyra was quietly reassuring Bon-Bon that yes, she really was okay.
"...Oh. Why didn't you tell me Rainbow Dash was coming by?" Twilight said.
Spike simply pointed to the foot-wide cannonball currently resting in what used to be a barrel of apple cider.
"...Spike? Take a letter."
"So, y'all sure there ain't no supervillains runnin' around?" Applejack said, rubbing her chin.
All six of them had come together, not for their monthly meeting, but for their first serious trouble since the incident with Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy. Equestria, up until this point, had been incredibly peaceful. Celestia had claimed that everything would be smooth sailing for at least a thousand years; something to do with the Arc of the Timeline or something like that. Twilight had been thoroughly confused by this--time is only one dimension, how can you describe an arc with only one dimension to work with?--but she had accepted it when they'd gone nearly a year without a single villain, ne'er-do-well, or even mild inconvenience.
"I'm not sure," Twilight said, leaning over the Cutie Map. It had, insistently, refused to show them the source of the problem. Their marks were not glowing, nor flashing, nor even on the map.
"Maybe the bad guy's not on the map!" Pinkie said. "Maybe the bad guy's in his super secret MOON BASE! That's what I'd do if I was the bad guy, anyway."
"Wouldn't Luna have said something if there was a moon base?" Twi asked.
"That's what makes it super secret," Pinkie said.
"i don't think it's a moon paste, pinkie."
"Moon base, Flutters."
"moon based? moon based on what?"
While Fluttershy and Pinkie bickered over the moon and what might be on it, Rarity took Twilight aside. "Dear, are you sure there aren't any...family friends," she whispered, "that you might have forgotten to tell us about?"
"I'm sure," Twilight said. "Actually," she added.
"Actually?"
"Actually," Twi hummed, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "My parents don't talk much about the ponies they know. It's possible they know someone I don't."
"So, you say someone threw a spear at your--"
"Yes, dad."
"And then they fired a cannonball--"
"No, mom. They threw a sword at me first."
Night Light and Twilight Velvet shared a glance. "Honey," Night Light said softly. "There's something we have to tell you."
"You, ah...you see..." Twilight Velvet cleared her throat. "When you were born...we actually had two fillies."
"Bouncing little bundles of joy!" Night Light added.
"Oh, yes," Velvet murmured. "But, ah...well, the doctors said--"
"They said, 'your daughter has some indicators for VTS'."
"VTS?" Twilight asked.
"Villainous Twin Syndrome," her parents answered in unison.
"Oh."
"We signed some paperwork, did some looking around, and found a boarding school for her to stay at. The doctors said that being raised by an imperious and uncaring educational system is an important part of development for children with VTS!" Night Light beamed, proud of his intelligent decision.
"Sadly, er..." Twilight Velvet sighed, putting a hoof on Twilight Sparkle's shoulder. "I'm afraid your twin sister is going to try to kill you."
"We figured she'd send a letter when she was ready," Night Light said. "I didn't think she'd just...show up."
"Oh my gosh," Twilight whispered.
"We know, honey--"
"I have a TWIN SISTER!" Twilight shouted, spreading her wings with glee. "Why didn't you say so?"
"W-well, it never came up," Night Light mumbled.
"Like your father said, we thought she'd send a letter," Velvet stammered.
"I have to go tell everypony!"
"Wait, wha--" The sound of a long-distance teleportation cut Velvet off. Moments later, a chandelier that had been in the family for generations landed with a crash, right where Twilight was just standing.
"...who's cleaning that up?" Night Light muttered.
"Oh, Nighty, we'll clean it up together."
"I love you, sweetie."
"Love you too, my guiding star~!"
It had taken some time--and a not-insignificant amount of hoofwork--but Twilight had finally set up the perfect meeting for her evil twin. Spotlights were hidden among the trees, the town square had been swept, all the townsponies had been warned to stay at least two miles away from town (with air-raid sirens, to be used in the event that two miles turns out to be not enough miles). Twilight had written up the perfect speech, created from marathoning a dozen classic films about showdowns between fated rivals. And, of course, she had all of her friends standing by with the Elements.
"Uhh..." Twi shuffled through her index cards. "Maligned Star! I'm calling you out!"
Across the square, a figure slinked out of the shadows. She looked quite a lot like Twilight Sparkle herself, though she lacked wings, and had a streak of neon green running through her mane where Twilight's natural magenta would be.
"Very well, sister!" Star screamed. "It's about time you faced me! How fitting, that this Twilight will be the Twilight of your Twilight!"
Twilight cringed internally at the abuse of a perfectly good noun, but soldiered on. "This town can be only big enough for one two of us!" She blinked, and shuffled her notes again. "Drat! I knew Highprancer shouldn't have been in the sample list!"
"Did you seriously make an averaged one-liner?" Star shouted.
"It's built out of the most common words in multiple westerns and one butchered Scoltish mythos movie!"
"Wow. You're such a nerd." Star shook her head. "Anyway! Prepare to meet thy doom, Twilight Sparkle! I'll prove once and for all that you're the inferior sister!" And with that, Maligned Star galloped forth, screaming a battle-cry...
...only for Twilight to sit there and open her hooves. As Star collided with her twin, they tumbled briefly, and Twilight wrapped her hooves around her evil twin in a...not a bone-crushing deathgrip. Star opened her eyes, her battlecry petering out. "Are you...giving me a hug?"
"Yes! That's what you do with siblings. You hug them."
"But I tried to kill you," Star whined.
"I'm friends with Rainbow Dash. She nearly kills me on a regular basis. Heck, I'm friends with Starlight Glimmer and I'm pretty sure she tried to un-exist me."
"Huh. So she did," Star muttered. "How did she--"
"Do not do time travel," Twilight said. Star, rather wisely, stopped talking.
Somewhere else, Trixie trotted into the living room of her favorite wagon-turned-cottage with a great big grin on her face and a itty bitty box in her magical grip. "Oh, Starlight! Trixie just got a package!" She placed the box on the coffee table, opening it.
"Trixie, did you order more--"
"Trixie did not order any illicit substances off of the Ponynet."
"Oh, is that the 32&You kit?"
"It's not the kit. It's the results!" Trixie threw her hooves up and did a little squee as she pulled out a slip of paper. "It says here...let's see...family tree, family tree--there it is!" Trixie pointed to a single line on the paper, directly above Trixie and next to Jack Pot.
"Trixie's mother! Oh, I'm so excited--I've finally found out that my mom is...Twilight Velvet?"
"Let me see--" Glimmy pulled the paper out of Trixie's hooves and squinted. "That's...isn't that Twilight's mom?"
Trixie and Glimmy stared at each other for a moment. "L-let's see yours!" Trixie shouted, shoving another scrap of paper into Starlight's hooves.
"Well, I already know who my parents are, but my mom never really talked about my grandparents on my dad's side," Glimmer said as she looked over the paper. "And that's...wait, Twinkle Velvet?"
"Who's that, who's that?" Trixie said, barely able to contain her excitement.
"That's...Twilight's grandma."
Trixie and Glimmy shared another confused glance.
"Does that mean we're..."
"Trixie won't tell if you won't."
"But what about that threesome with Twili--"
"Ssssh."
