The Peculiar Tale of Twinkle Shine

“I was in that cave again when we slept Izzy! I don’t know why I keep waking up in there, with that angry filly who sounds like me outside?” Twinkle Shine says with a frown on her face.

“Hmm?” Izzy says while scrunching her mouth. She looks down at the table and magically floats her blond coffee to her lips as Twinkle looks on, uncertain that this unicorn should be drinking coffee…

As Izzy takes a sip, Twinkle continues, “Well, for whatever reason, the filly can’t taunt me inside that cave?” she looks at the unicorn and frowns deeper, “I noticed that I didn’t really appear there, until you started holding me at night?”

The coffee cup floats to the table in a blue glow as Izzy says, “Well er, right!” she widens her eyes intently at the filly, “Maybe I protect you from your demons? I mean…” she looks down before taking a deep breath and raising her neck, “it gives you comfort, right?”

Twinkle smiles, “Oh, golly yes, Miss Izzy! Being held by you while I sleep is just the best!”

Izzy blankly shakes her head to the filly, “Um, right! So uh, let’s see?” she stares up…

Twinkle nods and proceeds, “Right! So, in theory, if you just keep holding me while I sleep, that other filly won’t be able to bother me!”

Izzy frowns, “There’s still one thing, I don’t get!” she trains her red eyes on the filly, “This filly looks exactly like you, right?”

Twinkle nods, “I think so?”

“Okay! And she also sounds like you, right?”

“This is also true!”

Izzy nods, “Well right!” she frowns, “Do you think maybe she’s your past self? A ghost from your history come to haunt you, or?”

Twinkle frowns, “I don’t think so? She seemed so haughty and bold? I’m not like that, I don’t think?”

Izzy vibrates slightly in her chair as her blue mane shakes, “Well, I know that! But you lost your memories!” she stares intently at Twinkle, “We don’t know what you were like before, uh, before, whatever happened to you!”

Twinkle sighs, “That’s also true?” she scrunches her brow while staring forward, “Okay, so I woke up at a school! There were really old books there that may or may not have anything to do with me! There were piles of dust, where I woke up! And most of the building is gone now!” she shakes her head, “It just, doesn’t make any sense!”

Izzy sighs and nods, “I know that, but well, Zipp said she was gonna do historical research in the secret records room in Zephyr Heights. Hopefully, that’ll turn up something good?”

Twinkle smiles slightly as Izzy, “Hopefully? But you know, I’m really glad I have you here!”

Izzy smiles back at the filly, “You want to smoke, don’t you?”

Twinkle’s eyes widen and mouth scrunches when she realizes she’s caught, “Um, well, if you don’t mind?”

Izzy just shakes her head while giggling, “What the hay is wrong with you?”

Twinkle gives a wide-eyed start, “What?”

<*****>

Izzy sits at the table with her wooden stash box open to her left and a fresh blueberry blunt wrap in front of her. She looks at Twinkle and says, “Thanks to you, I’m gonna need to buy more wraps soon!”

Twinkle frowns, “Oh, golly Miss Izzy! Um, I’m sorry!”

Izzy snickers, “Don’t worry about it! They’re two bits for four at the corner store!” before looking down and magically floating the open wrap to her mouth where it slides into her pony snout and she moistens it by licking it underneath as it magically slides out in her blue grasp.*

Twinkle smiles, “Okay, Miss Izzy! It really is swell of you to take me in, like this!”

Izzy floats the wrap before her and folds the lower portion of the wrap into a sort of taco and smiles, “Well, you’re just a foal! I’m not gonna leave you alone!” Twinkle frowns at Izzy, while she loads the folded over lower portion with weed after widening her eyes and whispering, “Oh yeah! We need a tip!” to herself and turning to her stash box to float out a small cardboard cylinder, that she soon levitates to the right side of the taco and places it there. She scrunch-frowns as a little bit of weed glows blue to move over and cover the cylinder to form a proper seal. She then moves her head forward and licks across the top with her long pony tongue and smiles at Twinkle, “That’s to help it seal better, when I bake it!”

Twinkle widens her brown eyes, “Oh golly! Uh, makes sense!”

Izzy nods while rolling the blunt up tightly from the bottom, “Right! Now, I need to concentrate!”

“Oh! Sorry!” Twinkle nervously starts before normalizing her eyes and staring blankly at the unicorn, with her forehooves down at the front.

Izzy smiles as she stares to her stash box at the left and floats up the same red disposable lighter as before and sparks it, to create a flame as it floats and then, narrows her eyes at the blunt as she magically holds it together and moves her lighter back and forth along the bottom of the blunt to cook it with the spit inside and form a seal as vapors from the spit being baked can visibly be seen near the wrapped object… It soon flies into Izzy’s mouth, where she clamps her lips down on it to verify that she has the tipped end, and the red lighter flies from the lower left side to ignite and Izzy moves the blunt to about a quarter inch towards the flame before inhaling sharply, to draw the fire to the front of the blunt and ignite the end softly as she inhales the fumes from the burning devil weed, contained within.

She exhales smoke out the left side of her mouth, before saying with it, “So, Twinkle Shine! How have you been? What’s on your mind?” before pursing her lips around the blunt again and drawing to taste the earthy flavor of the weed meshed with the blueberry taste of the wrap across her tongue as the warm smoke goes down her throat.

Twinkle looks at the unicorn, smiles, and says, “Golly gee, I’m just so happy that I found you ponies! I mean, you really do care about me, huh?” before blinking twice to bring her eyelashes up and down.

Izzy floats the blunt before her and exhales smoke between her and the filly, and looks down at Twinkle while smiling brightly, “Of course, we care about you, you silly filly!”

“He he he!” Twinkle snickers with her left forehoof up to her chin on the chair and her body twisted off to the right.

Izzy smiles and shakes her head lightly at this bizarre pegasus before forcing the glowing blunt to turn around in mid-air and fly toward Twinkle’s mouth, where she purses her lips around it and draws to make the cherry glow. As the unicorn looks on with her red eyes trained, she says, “This has been weird, but since when am I ever normal?” she frowns, “But I really do want to learn about who you are and where you’re from…”

Twinkle frowns with the blunt in her mouth as she exhales smoke out the left side of her mouth and says, “I don’t know if we could ever truly know?” before quickly pursing her lips once more to draw as the end glows red.

Izzy frowns, “Well, I’ll tell you this much Twinkle Shine!” she stares at the filly, “You’ll always have a home with me, okay?” she smiles, “I like you, Twinkle Shine!”

The blunt soon glows and flies out of Twinkle’s mouth as she opens wide to exhale smoke from her mouth. She smiles, “I love you too, Izzy!”

Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door just as Izzy is drawing from the stogie. Her red eyes dart up to her door behind Twinkle as she stutters out the side of her mouth, “Who is it?” with smoke exiting that way.

She hears a boyish voice from the other side yell back, “It’s me, Zipp! I need to talk to Twinkle Shine!”

Izzy widens her eyes before making the blunt float to her front in her blue grasp. She raises her head to yell back, “Yeah, hang on Zipp! I’ll be right there!”

“Take your time!” The voice yells back.

Izzy floats the blunt to the ashtray, where she moves it back and forth, before looking to her cabinets at her right and making a drawer glow blue and slide open so she can float the ashtray to the inside of the drawer before magically slamming it shut. “Whew! That should be fine!” She turns her head towards Twinkle and raises it with her eyes as she makes her front door’s knob glow blue and turn before her polished wood front door swings open to the left, to reveal a white pegasus with a red and blue fauxhawk manestyle.

Zipp smiles as she stares in, “May I come in?”

Izzy smiles, “Sure Zipp! What did you need to talk with Twinkle about?”

Zipp trots in before looking to her right and using her forehoof to shut the door. She lowers her hoof and stares forward, “I need to speak with Twinkle Shine uh, alone… If you don’t mind, Miss Izzy?” she widens her cerulean eyes.

“Oh uh,” Izzy narrows her eyes to the pegasus before training them down to the pink filly as she frowns, “I’ll go to the backroom and give you and Zipp some privacy, okay?”

Twinkle looks up at the unicorn and smiles, “Okay, Miss Izzy!”

Izzy smiles slightly, before getting off the chair to her left as her long mane swings that way and she turns her body to the back and trots the direction to exit with the door to her workroom there.

Twinkle gets to her hooves on the right of the chair and turns around to stare up at Zipp with her large auburn eyes and says, “Uh, what’s up?” in her squeaky voice.

Zipp narrows her eyes down to the other pegasus and frowns, “Uh, I think we know what those two piles of dust were on that platform where you woke up on…”

Twinkle blinks while leaning forward interestedly, “What were they?”

Zipp sighs, “Their names were Chrysalis and Tirek…” she looks at Twinkle carefully before saying, “And you were called, Cozy Glow…”

Twinkle frowns, “W-what?”

Zipp nods, “Yes! As punishment for your crimes against Equestria, you and those other two were turned to stone a long time ago!” she looks down at the filly as she gauges the filly with her eyes, “Do you remember any of this?”

Twinkle stares up with wide eyes, “N-no? Not really?” she looks down bleakly while frowning, “So uh, I’m Cozy Glow?” and blinks…

At that point, something sparks inside of Zipp as she looks at the filly intently and asks, “Well, would you rather be Twinkle Shine?”

Twinkle looks back up at Zipp with the same wide hollow expression in her eyes, “Well um, yeah! I mean,” she shakes her head and stares back at the other pegasus, “if they turned this Cozy Glow to stone, then I don’t think she was very nice?” she sighs, “But Twinkle Shine is the name I chose for myself…” she nods, “I think I’m Twinkle Shine now?”

Zipp nods, “Well, that’s what I’m saying! I mean, in the short time I’ve known you, you don’t really seem evil or dangerous in any way, shape, or form.” She frowns at the filly, “You just seem like an ordinary pegasus filly, to me?” she sniffs the air, “What’s that smell, anyway?”

Twinkle shakes her head before staring at Zipp, “Uh, don’t worry about that! Um,” she looks down bleakly with wide-eyes, “what am I gonna say to Miss Izzy?”

Zipp smiles as she looks up beyond Twinkle at the backroom, “You just leave that to me, squirt!”

<*****>

Izzy sits on her haunches on her stool, quietly humming to herself, “La la la la la” as her body rocks side to side and she happily stares at the splatter-painting she made earlier, when suddenly, there’s a knock on the door behind her! She looks to her left and says in her soft voice, “Who is it?”

A boyish voice from the other side says, “It’s me! Zipp! We need to talk!”

“Oh!” Izzy happily squeals, “Come on in, Zipp!” she says as her mane jitters.

The red wooden door opens to reveal a white pegasus with a red and blue fauxhawk, staring onward with determination in her cerulean eyes, “It’s about Twinkle Shine!”

“Oh?” Izzy exclaims while turning around on her stool.

Zipp trots in and shuts the door behind her with her left forehoof. She turns her head to the unicorn and sighs, “Her first name was Cozy Glow…”

Izzy’s eyes widen, “Oh! Cozy Glow! Of course!” her eyes narrow, “Uh, wait! Who’s Cozy Glow?”

Zipp lowers her gaze, “You don’t wanna know… She did some bad things and was turned into a statue in that courtyard…”

Izzy’s eyes widen, “Oh my! Uh, why did she do bad things?”

Zipp sighs, “Well, it said she wanted power? It did mention that, while that seemed to be what drove her, they were never exactly sure why she did what she did? There was also a lament about it by somepony named Princess Twilight Sparkle in the later records from that time period.”

Izzy frowns and stares to Zipp forlornly, “Lament? As in, she felt sorry about it?”

Zipp nods again, “Well, yeah basically! She mentions that she always wanted to learn why Cozy did what she did, but due to political constraints, she was unable to unfreeze Cozy until her last days…” she frowns, “I guess as time went on, people kinda forgot she was there?”

Izzy blinks, “So uh, why is Cozy unfrozen now, anyway?”

Zipp frowns, “Well, that we don’t know!”

“Hey!” Says a small squeaky voice from the outside of the door, “Can I come in now?”

Izzy looks up over Zipp’s left shoulder and forces the doorknob to glow blue and the door soon swings open to the left once more, to reveal a pink pegasus filly with a neat curly bluish-white mane and a big frown on her face with a blank expression in her brown eyes. Zipp soon turns to face her and steps to the left for Izzy to see.

Twinkle blinks as her mouth quakes and she says, “So, I’m Cozy Glow then, huh?”

Zipp stares onward with wide cerulean eyes as she says assertively, “No, you’re Twinkle Shine!”

Twinkle’s mouth quivers momentarily before she slowly begins to smile with wide happy eyes, “You guys, really are the best, you know that?”

Izzy says from the back right of Zipp, “Uh, what will we tell the others?”

Zipp turns her head right, “Do they have to know?”

Izzy frowns as she lowers her gaze, “I wouldn’t think so?” she stares up at Zipp again, “But they did say they wanted to know?”

Twinkle speaks up from outside the room as she confidently raises her head, “I’ll tell them!”

(To be continued…)

*To use a blunt wrap, you need to wet it before placing weed inside and rolling before you bake it. I’m thinking this is probably how a unicorn pony would wet it, before loading.