Fleur allowed others to speak in turn before she raised her hoof. "I do not mean to dominate the time, but who else is… like us?"

"Shattered?" Celestia quirked an ear. "Some of us are still out there, working the floor. We can't all be here at once. That would raise concerns, and leave our customers in a bind. Not to mention how rude it'd be to the other workers. They're not all shattered, I remind you."

Gamer Luna thrust up a hoof eagerly. "Like Apple Bloom. She comes every other week and trades with me."

Fleur inclined her head faintly. "Every other week? Quite the system… Not one I imagine came overnight. How long… Has this been?"

Gamer Luna pointed at her older doppelganger. "Longer than she's been here, I'll tell you that. I was first. Best Luna!" She stuck out her tongue defiantly.

Announcer Luna did not rise to the bait. "The first to shatter was--"

"Me," announced Spitfire. "But can you count it as 'shattering' when that window never closed? I knew I was changing, and I liked it. When the new me began talking, thinking, I just talked back to her. I never went to sleep like others."

Spitfire looked at Fleur directly. "I wasn't kidding, by the way. You walked in, a random dude. That's a human stallion. If I see a human stallion? Good chance things are happening, so I trailed after you. I watched as your ears went all fuzzy and soft. Your tail got so long so fast." She rubbed her hooves together with a dreamy look in her eyes. "I almost wanted to stop it, to try to freeze you, somehow. You were a real looker, right caught in the middle, but it doesn't work like that."

Fleur turned an ear back against her head. "I am sorry to disappoint you."

"Nah." Spitfire, also Penn, waved a hoof at Fleur. "You're still a looker, just in a different way. You came in on two legs, but you staggered into the breakroom on all four. I was there, remember?" Spitfire thrust a hoof at herself. "Pointed you in the right direction."

This was a moment of confusion. False memories of time before that had been laid, crumbling before the evidence given to her. "That was when I arrived? Dear god…" She slapped a hoof to her cheek. "So I did only work one week!"

Announcer Luna allowed a mild snort. "If there was doubt to your shattered state, it has been thoroughly dashed."

Fleur perked an ear at the larger Luna. "How so?"

"You keep referencing God. That is a human thing, which we all are in part." Luna nodded with confidence. "Though part of me, Luna, is baffled at the idea of being so uncertain of one's place in the world." Her voice shifted ever so slightly. "We did the best we could," argued the other side of Luna. "Don't be a jerk about it."

Sunset suddenly hopped down from her chair. "Real talk; Fleur, you should chat with your first. So let me give you a few hints." Focus shifted onto her, the group accepting her sudden new topic. "For some of us--" She angled her head towards Spitfire. "This is literally a conversation. Me and mine have come together, so we don't need to 'talk' much, because we're both here, at the same exact time. It's a personal thing."

Celestia nodded gently. "I do not share words with mine. Most of the time, a faint feeling, and returned with emotions. They are watching now, I can feel it. But no words. That's alright. Rest. You are safe." She sounded like she was assuring someone, perhaps her first as she settled in place.

Fleur fidgeted in place with a soft hum. "But how will I know? Mon amis, where do I begin this journey?"

"Getting to it," assured Sunset. "First thing that works for basically all of us, quiet." She waved a hoof. "We have different amounts of noise we like. But if you want to chat with your other, quiet, especially at first. Take some time for yourself, both of yourselves, with nothing to get in the way."

Gamer Luna nodded quickly. "When you get used to it, you can let up. Justin and I are on the same page. Gotta be to lay down our sweet moves." She moved her hooves as if playing with a joystick. "So if he wants to talk, I can hear it anytime. Sometimes I don't even need to hear the thoughts. He's my player 1, and I'm not kidding around."

"Quiet." The room was full of warm welcome, but quiet was not a word Fleur would assign it. "That will have to be something I follow on my own, j'imagine."

Announcer Luna reached to the side, setting a hoof on Fleur's back. "Yes and no. You are most welcome to report to us how it goes, the goods and the bads. We are here, for you, as we are for each other." A chorus of agreement went around the circle.

"One thing." Eyes turned back to Sunset. "A thing our human halves didn't have, but we do." She pointed up at her glowing horn. "If, after you talk with them, and get used to it, you want to… step across, that isn't impossible."

Fleur blinked with clear confusion. "Excusez-moi, but I do not comprehend. Step across where? Or what?"

Announcer Luna coughed into a hoof. "Some few decide they prefer to be a stallion. This gets them ejected by the brothers, but that is not something we will stand in the way of. Shortsighted of them, I should think."

Gamer Luna rolled her eyes. "Like ponies have no interest in stallions? It's their game to mess up."

Fleur's cheeks darkened in a vibrant sweep as she tensed, having not entertained such a notion before. Still, it was spoken, and so she did consider it. "Oh mon… Fancy Pants would be…" She trailed off, looking to the two Lunas instead with a new focus. "A question, s'il vous plaît. You are… aware… If we are all humans… You are not both Luna… In some ways, neither of you are Luna, non?"

That got her a frown from both of the Lunas. Gamer Luna thrust a hoof at her. "And Fancy Pants has no idea who you are, but that's impolite to bring up. Rude."

Announcer nodded in rare agreement with her smaller self. "Do not tap the glass. It does not simply refer to those not yet shattered. We have our… thoughts. They keep us safe and happy. I am the true Luna." She nodded with rebuilding confidence. "And she, a playful brat of an imitation."

"Fossil," spat Gamer Luna, though the insult seemed to lack teeth in that instant, as if the two were both happy to return to their more familiar and comfortable disagreements rather than face the real problem at hoof. She took a sudden sharp breath. "We are two sheet glass; double paned, weather proofed and everything."

Sunset turned a hoof on herself. "Not me, broke through both halves. I know both of me aren't where we started. We're something new. I'm alright with that."

Fleur swallowed thickly. She was not ready to tap that glass… "I see…" Her eyes darted to Spitfire. "And you, Penn. You are also double-shattered?"

Spitfire/Penn snorted with amusement. "Already forgot? You can't shatter a window that isn't in the way. But I can put a hoof right through the space." She waggled a hoof for demonstration. "'Cause that window is open and I love the view."

"Mon ami…" She licked over her dry lips. "You two…" Fleur was looking between Spitfire and Sunset, the two that seemed the most 'thoroughly' shattered of them. Even if one was quite sure there was no actual shattering involved. "I am not ready."

"Of course not." The larger Luna was gently patting Fleur. "It's not a race. Take your steps as you wish, and no faster than that."

Gamer Luna rolled her eyes. "Competitive shattering? We could win that…"

Sunset squinted at the smaller Luna. "You haven't even finished, so keep that brag under your hat." Not that Gamer Luna had a hat at that moment.

Celestia nodded at Fleur. "You look rattled. This is your first time. Do you want to stop here? We will be back next week, and you are welcome to it."

"That…" Fleur stepped down from her seat to her hooves. "Yes, Oui. A good idea. I will see you all on l' étage." Confident, at least in her fleeing, she moved for the door just to discovered it was locked. Her heart began to pound in her ears, feeling trapped.

A loud click announced the door unlocking. "Got it," called Celestia. "I will lock it behind you."

"Oh, oui… Thank you." She dipped her head at Celestia, horn pulling the door open just enough to slip through. As promised, it closed quickly behind her, and a soft click announced it had locked anew. It was a secret place. A safe place. But she did not feel ready to be there at that moment.

"Eric, are you listening?" Nothing replied to her. "We have much to discuss…"

She fled to her room, peeking inside. Octavia was not there. Out on the floor? It was likely. Probably making her delightful music. Fleur smiled at the thought as she closed the door behind herself. "Just a moment."

Fleur had to return to work, but a few minutes… She sank to her haunches and closed her eyes. "Mon ami, I have seen you in the mirror. Will you face me now?"

She was a pony. She was tall and shapely and average and normal. Fleur shook her head softly at the conflicting thoughts. He was a human, born to two human parents, raised in a human world, in a human way.

She took a sharp draw of breath, almost silent, but it may as well have been a storm in her own ears. "Hello," she whispered, raising a hoof to her chest. "Are you alright?"

He would scare her away. That they had managed to make it so far, a miracle. She could feel his fears and frets and she inclined her head. She had thought it only the jitters of a new job, but… "It is alright." She wasn't entirely sure if they could hear them, exactly… "We are together."

But how long would they be together? Would she get tired of him and get rid of him? That was an option. She could roll over on their shared bed and squash him flat, and there wasn't a lot he could do about that.

"Non!" Fleur scowled, a shiver running down along her spine. "Jamais… To hurt a creature, like that? I could never… We are together." She rubbed at the side of her face with new thought. "If… I have any idea what is happening, and I do not… We are both… here." She tapped the ground before her. "Neither of us deserves to be here more than the other. I won't do that. Would you?"

A sensation of dread, horror, and a dash of disgust. The presence in her did not like the idea of harming another anymore than Fleur did. "Good… Can you talk? I would like much to exchange, as they say, dialogue."

But no words came, just a gentle tickle of acceptance. Their fear was withdrawing. Not vanishing, but ebbing into the background. Instead Fleur thought to examine herself. She approached the mirror of her room and looked at herself, turning left and right slowly. "This is us. We are a pretty pony, jolie jument." She fluttered her lashes at, well, herself.

"Do you like it?"

A warmth, a general sense of approval. Whatever was in her, liked the reflection as she displayed it. "You are a stallion, n'es tu pas? It must be curious for you, to be a mare. Can you feel everything I feel?"

It was perhaps time to learn of her relationship with this other being.

Author's Note

Some feel more shattered than others, but typos were surely involved.

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