In the shade of the early morning, a mulberry-skinned body stirred. Carefully, it rose, doing its best not to disturb its tangled sleeping partners. Softly as it could in its half-awake state, it creeped gently down from the loft and into Sunset’s bathroom.

Lights were flicked on, with bulbs recently replaced by a Twilight Sparkle, the girl who had done her best to pilot this vessel of lavender flesh. She was not who was in control right now.

The twin souls who shared this body both winced at the sight in the mirror. That indigo fuzz was back again. It would continue to infest their shared face every morning until laser surgery was an option, and that wouldn’t be for quite a while. Stupid genetics.

At least Midnight Sparkle had the pills. At least that.

Midnight wasn’t a new resident of this body, really. She had always been there; never truly herself, even now, but there nonetheless. Twilight Sparkle, as she wanted to call herself for now, had simply not been aware of the part of her that was Midnight. What she represented.

Midnight applied shaving cream and took the razor in hand. She would banish this unwelcome masculinity as many times as it took.

When the Umbral magic first shook her awake, it was a rush of furious and disparate sensations. The therapist classified it as dysphoria-induced dissociative identity disorder. Which sounded wrong, after Twilight and Midnight had ruminated on the matter themselves. For one thing, the two of them found they were usually in agreement, and shared much of the same interests and morals. For two, neither of them experienced the "lapse of consciousness" that was apparently characteristic of the diagnosis. Really there wasn’t anything approaching “disorderly” about their arrangement.

A faint flash of pain. She’d nicked herself. Maybe it was better not to get lost in thought while a sharp object was in their hand.

Midnight continued shearing the hairs off her face with her full attention. A few minutes and a treated cut later, she was graced with smooth skin once more.

It had initially scared Twilight to see how driven Midnight was. The intellectual pursuits that she’d lost herself in for all her life were secondary to her twin. What mattered was destroying this cocoon of false boyhood that had shackled the two of them, and embracing everything that made her feel good; energetic, lascivious, sociable; if there was a feminine way to be these things, it had to be taken and maintained, and damn anybody who had a problem with it, because it would happen immediately.

Sunset had talked her down from using magic for this. At least until she had come to understand it better. And she was right, it wouldn’t do to just barrel into a field she had no experience with. The problem with that was precisely how Twilight and Midnight were to go about changing that. Because to learn of magic, they would have to interact with their pony parallel.

Midnight stepped out of the bathroom and over to open Sunset’s mini-fridge. Definitely need to get her a bigger one, Twilight thought.

Midnight nodded, frowning at the shelf-full of energy drinks where actual food should be. Definitely. With a sigh, she closed the fridge and made the executive decision that she was the one who would have the last apple. She bit into the fruit hungrily, chewing as quietly as one can chew a red delicious, as she turned to the full window overlooking the street.

Midnight smirked. You think Applejack tastes like apples?

A sputtering echoed in their mind. Twilight was incredibly easy to fluster.

Y-you’re avoiding the topic!

And? You don’t want to talk to him either.

I…

In the glass, Midnight saw her passenger falter. But she was right.

At some point they would have to confront Luminant Spark.

The pony who had everything they both had wanted; knowledge, prestige, meaningful friendships, a smoking hot girlfriend apparently, and, most importantly, natural femininity. He had even been given Twilight's chosen name at birth. That he had chosen to reject.

How were either of them supposed to feel about seeing yourself, a perfect synthesis of the both of them, and yet in reverse? They called him a mare, and he didn’t want it. Heck, if he was to be believed, his own version of Shining Armor had been called a stallion and didn’t want it either! What did that say about their own brother?

He was an existential crisis far worse than having a plurality of voices in your head. And he held all the answers to making their transition a permanent, low-maintenance one.

Academically, they both knew it was only a matter of time before the desire to truly physically embody womanhood outweighed the extreme spiritual discomfort of having to actually live the worst thing since looking in the mirror. The issue Twilight worried about was that Midnight would absolutely snuff her out while she kept waffling on it.

We would both still get what we wanted.

And I would be gone.

I’d keep you around long enough to feel what it’s like.

But what then? I won’t be satisfied just living the hedonistic lifestyle you want.

Prude.

We have so much more potential beyond just being that one hot girl, though!

Eh. I’d probably get around to all that science crap whenever I got bored.

Whenever you got bored!?

A second tart mouthful of fruit. The sky gradually turned from black to blue. The passenger was becoming distraught.

There’s a lot of things about Lumin that freak me out, but the fact that he can be everything he ever wanted to be isn’t one of them!

He wasn’t the one denied any of it for 18 years.

You don’t know that!!

I don’t. But I do. And I won’t be snubbed again.

Tears were rolling down Midnight’s cheeks. They made the cut sting. She remained stoic.

Please… I know you’re going to be stronger than me. I know one day it’ll be you in control and I’ll just melt into you. I’m okay with that. I’m okay with being a part of you instead of the other way around. But if you’re willing to be that flippant about something that brought us solace when we needed it, made us feel worthwhile, what will happen when our relationship gets routine...? Will that bore you?

Midnight’s brow furrowed. Another bite.

This is the happiest we’ve been in our entire life, and I’m committed to these girls for as long as they’re committed to me. To us. I don’t want you to risk throwing it away because you'd rather avoid being uncomfortable for a little while longer. If I have to “die”, I’d rather do right by us in the process…

Silence. Only the soft snores of their roommates dared slither through the dawn. The sky grew ever brighter.

Sunset yawned loudly from the loft, beating her alarm to the punch for once. Golden sunlight warmed the apartment. “Mornin’ Sparky.” A lethargic pause. “Up awful early on a weekend.”

A noncommittal grunt as the body scrolled through Birdsong. Lavender ears heard rustling, and another yawn. Wallflower was up, too. That only left Sugarcoat still asleep, nestled below the loft on a much smaller mattress. Quiet was still necessary.

“Sunset…” The pilot spoke. Footsteps from one girl, a soft whine from another.

“Yeah?” She had crossed the floor and was extracting something from the minifridge. Another energy drink, probably.

Twilight finally turned to look at her, blushing at the sight of her girlfriend’s butt. “Can I borrow your journal for a bit?”

The golden-skinned girl looked up at her and smiled. “Sure.”

Author's Note

Dear Luminant Spark,

So do I just wave a magic wand and shout “Genitalia Inverta”, or what?

Your mirror twin, Twilight Sparkle

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I wish.

Your magic tutor, Luminant Spark