The Peculiar Tale of Twinkle Shine

by Betty_Starlight

Rating: teen
Tags: Profanity, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Izzy Moonbow, Narcotics, Drama, Sunny Starscout, Mystery, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Cozy Glow
Length: 27457

A pink pegasus filly wakes up in an abandoned courtyard and doesn't know who she is or what she was doing there.

Izzy Moonbow happily lives in Bridlewood Forest, when a peculiar pink pegasus filly finds her. This filly has a curly bluish-white mane and tail and a distinctive red rook cutie mark on her flanks. The filly claims to have no recollection of who she is, why she was there, or where she's from.

This is being republished on Royal Road soon, on this profile: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/517600

Published 2021-12-09 19:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-27 02:33:51 UTC

Chapter 1: Izzy Makes a New Friend!

Izzy Moonbow magically floats the freshly rolled, blueberry blunt to her lips as her red disposable lighter flies in from the lower-left side. Her head is down as she’s about to spark it when she notices a pink pegasus filly staring in from her window across the room from the blue couch where she’s sitting. This filly is pink and has neatly arranged bluish-white curls for a mane. Izzy floats the blunt down as she looks up at the filly, “Uh, hi!”

The filly smiles, “Hiya! I see you're about to smoke!” she tilts her head cutely to the left, “I hate to cut in, but I sure would like to smoke too! Um, if that’s okay with you?” before correcting her head and widening her brown eyes at the unicorn while her mouth tightens and quivers in anticipation.

Izzy blinks as she thinks to herself, A filly that smokes devil weed! What the hay? She looks back to the window across from her on the couch, “Uh, sure! Come on in!”

The pegasus smiles, “Oh, golly! Thanks! Miss uh…”

“Call me Izzy! Izzy Moonbow!”

“Thanks, Izzy!” The pegasus cheerfully says before she gets down from the window and flitters over out of view to the left. Soon, the doorknob turns and a little pink pegasus flies into the room before shutting the door and gliding over to the red chair, across from Izzy’s couch and landing there on her haunches, to smile at the unicorn.

Izzy decides to see how much this filly knows when she says, “I got a lighter holder on my table in front of me! Why don’t you do the honors?” before floating the blunt out of her mouth, to turn around in mid-air, and then glide towards the filly, who opens her mouth to catch it in her lips, slanted slightly to her right.

The pink pegasus filly dismounts the chair and trots two steps forward to the lighter holder on the table. She steps on the flint wheel of the green disposable lighter there as she brings her right forehoof down onto the fuel button, so it ignites before bringing her face towards the flame with the freshly rolled blunt in her mouth. Her curls bob back slightly as she releases the lighter and draws from the stogie in her mouth to make the end glow and sets her hoof down, “You know, it’s been awhile since I enjoyed a blunt! Thanks for letting me smoke with you, Izzy!” the filly says before taking the blunt out of her mouth with the cleft of her right forehoof and exhaling while standing on her other three legs.

Izzy frowns, “Well, I’m still not sure if it’s okay for you to be smoking devil weed, as little as you are? Uh, what’s your name anyway?”

“Uh, name?” The filly asks, before smiling and bringing the blunt to her lips again and pursing her lips around it to draw.

Izzy leans forward wide-eyed, “Yeah! What should I call you?”

The filly exhales smoke over the unicorn out the right side of her mouth and then moves her neck down to face Izzy, “You know, I’m actually not sure?”

Izzy frowns, “What do you mean?” before looking at the blunt and making it glow blue to float back to her.

The filly frowns while staring at Izzy with wide-open brown eyes, “I mean, I don't know my name? I’m uh, actually not even sure who I am or why I was in that crummy courtyard?” before sitting down on her haunches on the floor and staring at the unicorn, with perplexed eyes and a frown on her freckled face.

Izzy takes a draw of the blunt before exhaling to the left of the filly out the left side of her mouth before staring back at her, “What do you mean? Crummy courtyard?” and then pursing her lips to cause the cherry to glow once more.

The filly blinks, “I woke up in an abandoned concrete square, not far from here… I don’t know who I am or why I was there…”

Izzy’s eyes widen before she lifts her chin and floats the blunt up front to exhale over the filly and the blunt suddenly turns downward and flies to the glass three-holder ashtray on her black coffee table to be snuffed out as she moves it back and forth. She looks back up at the filly, “So, why did you travel to Bridlewood, anyway?”

The filly widens her eyes again. “Bridlewood? Is that what this place is called? I’m uh, not from around here… I uh, came to see what was here!” before looking around the room to see Izzy there on the couch, in front of a coffee table that spans the couch, and she notices a bookcase near the window and a door across from her and a door leading to the room to her left as well as the entrance door on her right.

Izzy nods before frowning, “Well, you’re a pegasus and so I’m guessing you’re from Zephyr Heights?”

The filly widens her auburn eyes, “Uh, Zephyr Heights?”

Izzy smiles at her. “Yes! That’s where pegasi are from!”

“Well, yes! Zephyr Heights! I’m a pegasus and am, therefore, from there! Um, I think?” The filly stammers out before frowning with wide-open eyes.

Izzy scrunches her brow as she thinks on this for a moment, “Well, I can’t just call you ‘filly’ this whole time?” she looks at the filly, “What would you like me to call you?”

The pegasus stares up at the unicorn, “Well, how about Twinkle Shine?”

“Twinkle Shine? I like that name!” Izzy says before smiling at the filly. “So, do you have any idea of how you got there?”

The filly looks up at Izzy, “Well, I woke up inside a ruined building… I uh, actually don’t know where I’m from or why I’m here…”

Izzy stares intently at the peculiar little pegasus, “What do you mean, woke up?”

“Well golly! I just opened my eyes, and I was looking out at what looked like a ruined courtyard… I saw lots of rocks and debris around me, but I didn’t find anything interesting, and so, I just left! I came up this way to a forest, and after flying here, that’s where I found you in this cottage…”

Izzy frowns, “But you knew what I was doing when I had a blunt?”

The pegasus smiles dimly, “Well, I have smoked before!”

Izzy leans towards the filly interestedly, “Oh… Who were you smoking with? I mean, who’d let a little foal have weed?”

The filly looks up, “You know, I can’t remember that either?”

Izzy frowns as she leans back, “So, do you have a place to stay, in the meantime?”

The filly shakes her head no and stares up at Izzy solemnly with her brown eyes.

Izzy frowns, “Well, gosh! We should probably talk to somepony about this?”

“Like who?” The filly asks with wide eyes.

Izzy smiles, “Well, my best friend Sunny Starscout lives in Maretime Bay? We can go there and see if she can help us!”

The filly smiles, “Well golly gee Izzy, that’d be just swell!”

Izzy nods, “Right! But first, I should puff this blunt a bit more!”

The filly smiles wider with bright hopeful brown eyes, “Is it okay if I have some drags too?”

Izzy widens her eyes as she can already tell that this is no normal filly!

<*****>

“La la la la la!” Izzy hums to herself as she steps out of the cottage with part of her buzz still intact and the filly flitters over to her side.

The filly lands and begins trotting next to her as she looks up at Izzy from the right, “Um, so where’s Maretime Bay?”

Izzy looks down at the filly, “It’s a few miles to the southeast! Come on! Let’s go!” Before staring forward and again humming to herself. “La la la la la!”

The filly frowns while staring at the unicorn with a wide-open perplexed expression on her face, “You’re very whimsical, huh?”

Izzy looks back over as they trot down the road leading through an open field, “Whimsical? I like that word!” and she smiles happily while looking at the filly with open red eyes.

The filly smiles and her freckled cheeks rise cheerfully as her brown eyes squint in an adorable expression of joy. Izzy can also tell at this point that this filly is very cheerful and happy! She also takes note of the distinctive red rook cutie mark on this filly’s flank. She says, “Your luminescence is a bright blue color now!”

The filly frowns and widens her eyes, “Luminescence?”

“Yeah! You know? Your glow? Your spark! Yours is blue! Mine is purple!”

“Neat Izzy!” Twinkle says before looking forward to trot silently

Izzy leans slightly to her right with her red eyes open while the two ponies continue to trot forward, “You okay?”

Twinkle shakes her head, “Oh uh, it’s nothing!” before looking back forward as they trot.

Izzy blinks, “Um, okay Twinkle!” before she stares back in the direction they’re trotting.

Twinkle looks to the left to the unicorn, “It’s just that I uh… Golly, I don’t know why I don’t want to admit this?” before sighing.

Izzy looks back to the pegasus with wide eyes, “What do you mean?”

Twinkle gulps, “I mean, ponies hug all the time to show affection, right?”

Izzy eyes this pink pegasus filly carefully for a moment before slowing down as she says, “D-do you want me to hug you?”

The filly stops trotting and Izzy reciprocates to face her body to this filly, now staring down with her brown eyes. The filly somberly says, “Well um, kinda?” before showing a confused and disturbed frown on her normally cheerful dimpled face.

Izzy smiles dimly at this filly before taking two paces towards her and staring down at Twinkle, as the filly continues to stare at the unicorn’s chest floof with a distraught expression on her face as Izzy suddenly embraces the filly tightly in a warm hug!

<*****>

The two ponies trot up the road to the outskirts of Maretime Bay. Izzy turns her head to Twinkle on her right as they stop in front of a slope, leading up to the porch of a small brown cottage at the edge of town., “Okay, so we’ll just tell her you’re a filly who doesn't know her name or where she’s from! Probably Zephyr Heights,” Izzy widens her eyes, “but we don’t know that for sure! Uh, “she looks at the filly intently, “what do we know?”

Twinkle sighs and turns her neck back to the unicorn, “Well golly gee! I just woke up in an abandoned courtyard, to the southeast of your cottage, which is in that forest town!”

“Bridlewood!” Izzy corrects, before nodding.

“Um, yeah! That place!” Twinkle says while nodding so her curls bob with her head.

Izzy widens her eyes, “Right! Okay well, let’s go!” before staring back to her front and trotting towards the cottage.

The filly follows a few paces behind her at this point, as she’s still unsure.

Izzy looks over her right shoulder, “Don’t worry! Sunny is nice!” before looking forward to complete her journey by trotting up the three unpainted wooden steps leading up to Sunny’s front porch. She knocks on the door with her right forehoof four times, while the filly trots up to get behind her.

The door opens to reveal an orange alicorn with a purple mane and tail. Sunny smiles at her unicorn best friend, “Hi Izzy! Uh,” her head sways to the right as she tries to get a look behind the blue unicorn to see the pink curly maned pegasus filly there, currently cowering behind the larger blue unicorn and looking at her with wide brown eyes and a frown on her freckled face, “who’s your friend?”

At this point, the filly looks up at the alicorn from Izzy’s left flank and soberly says, “Well, until further notice, my name is Twinkle Shine! Uh, that’s kinda why we’re here!” as she widens her eyes.

Izzy frowns at the alicorn, “Yeah, this filly says she woke up in an abandoned courtyard, near Bridlewood! We were wanting to know what you thought?”

Sunny frowns, “Well, I don’t know?” she looks down at Twinkle, still timidly hiding behind the unicorn as she looks out from the side, “Could you show us this place?”

Twinkle blinks, “Um, I think so?”

<*****>

The wind blows across the open grasslands as the three ponies approach the ruined stone rectangle with many square holes in a line across the walls, in two rows, one over the other. The first row is about 8 feet from the top of the structure and the second row below is about 10 feet below that as it seems very tall. And 10 feet below the second row is the ground. Twinkle speaks up from the right of Izzy, who stands in the middle as her body shakes, “This is where I woke up! Uh, it looks like just a rectangular stone enclosure?”

“Hmm?” Sunny ponders as she turns her head to the structure. “Well, do you remember anything that might give us some clues about who you are?”

The pegasus turns her head to the structure, “Uh, I don’t think so? I remember I came to while standing on a platform and for some reason, my forehooves were held up to my face and there were dried tears on my cheeks.” she blinks and shakes her head, “I don’t know why, for the life of me, though? I uh,” she blinks, “don’t really remember?” before frowning at the structure.

Sunny frowns as she eyes the structure, “Uh, could you show us this platform, Twinkle?”

“Uh, sure Sunny!” The filly says before she trots up to the structure to the single door-shaped opening on the side wider side they’re facing and then trots into a rectangular area, with ancient pavement there, now partially covered by dirt with dark green vines climbing the interior.

Sunny and Izzy both follow her into the structure to see the filly stop a few paces into the doorway and point with her right forehoof to what looks like a crumbling old concrete platform on the other side of the enclosure, near another door-like opening on the far wall. “That’s the platform!”

The two ponies look at this platform as Sunny trots to it from the left and looks down to see the front face now crumbling. She frowns when she realizes that this was once engraved and asks Izzy behind her, “Could you use your craft glue to reconstruct this?”

Izzy trots to the platform from the right and looks down as she says, “Uh, not really? There’s a lot of dust and even if I could glue that small, we really don’t have any way of knowing what goes where.” Before frowning.

Sunny sighs as she stares forward at the wall, “Great!” before looking up at the platform to see two piles of crumbled stone there, closer to the wall “Twinkle! Any idea what made these two piles?”

Twinkle looks at the piles on the platform and just shakes her head, “Golly no, Sunny! I don’t know what those were?”

Sunny frowns, “Strange? Uh, Izzy?”

Izzy cheerfully pipes up as her head rises, “Yeah Sunny?”

“We need to look around this structure and see if we can find any clues as to what this may have been.”

“I can help!” chimes in Twinkle from behind the two ponies.

<*****>

Izzy trots on the other side while Sunny and Twinkle trot around the right side of the building to examine the walls.

Sunny asks Twinkle, “So, you don’t remember why you were there on that platform? You just ‘woke up' there, as you say?” while trotting around the structure and examining the walls, as they pass by the square openings, one by one.

Suddenly, both ponies suddenly hear an excited squeal coming from the other side as Izzy shouts, “I found a clue!”

Sunny faces the building, squats, and opens her wings before looking at Twinkle, “You can fly too, after all!”

Twinkle smiles, “Oh yeah!” before turning to the building and squatting down herself with her little pink wings open and ready at her sides.

“I’ll go first!” Sunny says before launching herself into the air with a woosh to fly over the structure.

Twinkle stares up at this majestic orange alicorn as she flies over the building to drop out of view over the horizon.

Twinkle then hears Sunny from the other side, “You coming, or what?”

Twinkle’s eyes widen as she shouts back, “Uh, sure! Hang on!” She begins to flap her little wings as her legs bend down more and she quickly launches herself into the air to fly over the building. She sees the courtyard from above as she passes and sees the crumbling platform where she woke on the right as grass and dirt now covers sections of the pavement. She flaps her wings vigorously to float over all of this and the two ponies on the other side soon see this flying pink filly descending towards them, closer to the wall on the building. She finally lands and looks at Izzy, “What did you find?”

Izzy looks down at the dirt and lifts what appears to be a ripped-up dark green shoulder bag with some contents inside in her blue glow on her right as she smiles at the other two ponies, “It looks like an old book bag! I wonder what could be inside?”

Sunny says, “Well, let’s take a look!”

Izzy lowers the bag to the ground and soon, forces the zipper up top to move several inches before it won’t move anymore.

“Ugh!” Izzy exclaims. “I can’t move the zipper past this point! But uh, there is this big hole in the back here?” before blinking as her bouncy mane jitters. She moves the bag around to view the hole on the other side and causes two objects inside to glow blue and float out so she can look at them.

The two objects are closer to her than the bag as she sees they’re both leatherbound books! She moves the brown one on the right before her and opens it up to see inside before saying, “I can’t read any of this. It’s all smudged and many of these pages are torn! Every bit of it!” before closing the book and she looks on the cover before saying, “Uh, it says, Sharing 101, on the front though!” She floats the other red book before her while moving the brown book off to the side. She opens it and looks and says, “Same story! No way of knowing what this once said!” before closing the book and seeing the cover, “It says, Buddy System, on the cover. Uh, it’s got weird lettering though. I don’t know anypony who writes like this!”

Sunny looks at Izzy as she scrunches her brow, “You think maybe this was some kinda school?”

Izzy stares back at the alicorn, “I’m not sure?” before turning to her right to Twinkle, “Do you know anything at all about this place?”

Twinkle Shine’s eyes widen as she stares up at the unicorn, “Um golly no, not really?” before wistfully turning her head to the stone structure, “But I can already tell that this is all that’s left…” she closes her eyes as she faces down, “It’s all gone…”

Izzy leans forward with trained eyes on the filly, “What’s all gone?”

The filly opens her eyes at the unicorn before saying at a louder volume while her body shakes slightly, “Everything! My old life is now gone and… And the worst part is, I don’t even remember what it was!”

Sunny frowns at the filly, “What makes you say that?”

Twinkle stares at the alicorn with resolve in her brown eyes, “There’s something else going on here… I can already tell that this is, not normal…”

Izzy narrows her eyes at the filly, “Well, you got us! You don’t have any place to go, right?”

Twinkle shakes her head no.

Izzy normalizes her eyes and smiles, “Well, you do now, Twinkle Shine! You’re staying in my cottage in Bridlewood until we can figure out where you belong!”

Twinkle smiles, “Oh golly! That sounds like fun!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 2: Demon

Twinkle Shine emerges in a forest in the night. She doesn’t know where she is or why she’s there, but she can see the pale moonlight to her upper left in the otherwise starless sky overhead between the thick gnarled trees.

She suddenly hears a familiar voice behind her! This voice says, “You know, you’re really melodramatic! Oh, my whole world is gone! Nothing I know remains! Waa waa waa! Seriously, how do you think I feel?” She knows this voice because it’s hers…

Twinkle turns around to see a pink pegasus filly her size standing there with the same bluish-white curls in a row mane-cut as her and the same long curl on the tail.

The filly smiles, “Do you have any idea what it’s like, inside your head?” her eyes widen, “I was waiting in that stone prison for a very long time!” the filly looks down and sighs, “Well, it’s too late to go back and fix what happened…”

Twinkle leans forward timidly, “Who are you?”

The filly looks up with an erratic expression in her eyes, “Oh, isn’t that obvious? Uh, Twinkle Shine, was it?”

Twinkle narrows her eyes and puffs her freckled cheeks in defiance as her mouth narrows, “What do you want?”

The filly starts to pace around Twinkle’s right, while glaring deviously at her, while Twinkle stands on the trail, “Oh, but this isn’t about what I want, dear Twinkle…” she moves to Twinkle’s right side as Twinkle gazes on with wide-open brown eyes, “This is about what YOU want!”

Twinkle frowns as the filly trots behind her and she moves her head forward and says inquisitively, “And just what do I want?”

The filly trots over to Twinkle’s left side to begin encircling her, “Why, friendship, of course!”

Twinkle turns her head left to see the filly there, still pacing and encircling her while glaring at the other pegasus, with a big psychotic grin on her freckled face, “I already found friendship with two ponies! I’m uh, off to a good start!”

The filly stops in front of Twinkle again while Twinkle stops moving her head as she paces. She moves her body to Twinkle and raises her head as she says in a loud reverberating voice, “FRIENDSHIP IS POWER!”

<*****>

Twinkle opens her eyes on the couch in a cold sweat, with her head on the pillow at the left side as she lays on her right and clutches the bizarre blue stuffed octopus Izzy gave her to sleep with and her wavy mane falls over her face. She also can’t help but notice the noise of pop music playing faintly from somewhere in another room across the house.

She gets to her haunches on the couch and carefully places the octopus off to the other side as she whispers to it, “Thanks for snuggling me, Fred! I’ll be back later!” and then steps down to the floor. She turns her body left to trot towards the music, which sounds like a generic pop fight song.

Never gonna take me down! Never gonna take me down! Never gonna take me down! WHOAOAOAOA!!!! the music chimes as she trots around the kitchen table on the left in the darkened room full of shelves and cabinets, to get to the door on the other side of the fridge in the far-left corner.

She looks up at the doorknob as the music continues playing and squats to take off vertically with her wings and float to the doorknob height where she opens it with her forehooves and flitters back, so the door opens back to her left and she beholds Izzy Moonbow in there, with her back turned to the pegasus as she sits on her haunches and magically lifts a glue spackle in her blue glow as she stares to the left at it. The pungent smell of burnt devil weed fills the air as Izzy puts the spackle back into the tub of glue on her left and gets to her hooves on the floor and turns to face the filly as her horn glows and the loud music dies down, “Hi new friend! I made you something!” before stepping to her left to show Twinkle the easel behind her.

Twinkle flutters into the room with her wings making a small flapping noise and she lands in the middle of a messy craft room of sorts with all kinds of supplies, brushes, and tools laying along the yellowish-white walls. This room is roughly 15-feet wide by 15-feet long and she also noticed the pale blue vase bong with the 8-inch stalk out of a 5-inch tall and 4-inch-wide chamber and a small stem on the side leading to a bowl, on the other side of Izzy. But when she witnesses the easel, her heart almost skips a beat when she notices dark blue crystals arranged for the mane and tail and light blue crystals for legs, body, and face of Izzy on the left along with pale blue crystals for the mane and tail and light pink crystals for the legs, body, and face of her, Twinkle Shine on the right… Izzy had made a crystal portrait of her with Twinkle Shine! Twinkle can only widen her eyes as she stammers out, “G-golly! That sure looks swell, Izzy!”

Izzy smiles, “Doesn’t it? I got up super early cause I was so excited to have a new friend and well, I guess I got inspired?” her eyes stare at the ceiling, “That happens to me sometimes?” they go back down to the pegasus, “Anyway, I made a crystal picture of you and me! What do you think, Twinkle?”

Twinkle blinks, “It’s uh, gorgeous Izzy! I love it!” before smiling dimly.

Izzy leans forward while frowning slightly and widening her eyes, “You okay, Twinkle? It’s not too much, is it?”

Twinkle blinks again as a tear slowly drips from her right eye, “Uh, no Izzy… I think I’ll be fine…” before she smiles wider…

Izzy frowns unsure as she tilts her head slightly to the left, “You seem to be happy?”

Twinkle turns her head right to face Izzy and says with a wide-eyed start, “This uh, golly! Nopony has ever made anything for me before!”

“Oh?” Izzy says while widening her red eyes and scrunching her mouth. “Well, I guess you were about due?”

Twinkle smiles and giggles, “I guess so, huh?” she looks up, “Uh, what time is it?”

“I think it’s about six or maybe six-thirty?” Izzy says before frowning.

“Um…” Twinkle says before looking down.

Izzy leans her head forward, “You okay?”

“Well, I like to wake n bake, but uh…”

Izzy frowns, “I’m still not sure if you should be allowed to smoke?”

Twinkle looks up timidly with her head still low and squeakily stammers out, “Well, I’ve done it all the time in the past and uh, so far, so good, huh?” and then smiling dimly.

Izzy smiles and shakes her head slightly, “You drive a hard bargain, you know that?”

Twinkle looks up with her face and giggles while smiling mischievously.

Izzy looks over to her bong on her right and floats it over to the front of Twinkle in a blue glow with the red disposable lighter that was sitting next to it at the side of the bowl, bent down at the ready. She looks up at Twinkle, “I’ll use my magic to operate the lighter and the stem, so all you gotta do is inhale! You get four hits!” before causing the lighter to spark and create a flame over the bowl.

Twinkle moves her mouth to the mouthpiece and inhales, to bring the flame into the bowl, where it ignites the devil weed there and causes smoke to visibly fill the blue glass chamber at the bottom of the vase.

Izzy magically pulls up the stem, so the smoke rises through the stalk and into Twinkle’s mouth.

She starts and pulls back as her wavy mane flutters back with her head and she exhales smoke in front of Izzy. She looks over and says, “Thanks Izzy!”

Izzy lowly whispers to herself, “I meet an earth pony, go on a crazy adventure across Equestria, get magic in my horn, and now, a dope-smoking pegasus filly lives in my house!” before lowering the bowl back into the stem of the bong and sparking the lighter over it again…

Twinkle looks at Izzy, “Yeah, life sure is weird, huh?” before moving her face to the mouthpiece and inhaling to fill the chamber once more.

Izzy pulls on the stem again while floating the lighter back, “Did you sleep well?”

Twinkle exhales upwards into the air above the space in front of Izzy before looking back down at her, “Well, I did have this crazy nightmare?” before blinking.

“Oh?” Izzy says before leaning towards the filly interestedly.

“Uh, can I please have my last two hits first?” Twinkle says before frowning cutely.

“Ugh!” Izzy says while cringing to her right. She widens her eyes while leaning towards Twinkle “You’re just so cute, I wanna snuggle you forever!”

“He he he!” Twinkle giggles before moving her head back to the bong.

Izzy looks back down at the floating lighter in the blue glow and forces it to snap and it sparks to create a flame over the bowl.

Twinkle inhales to fill the chamber again.

Izzy magically pulls up on the bowl to bring it out of the stem, so the smoke once again rises through the stalk into Twinkle’s mouth.

Twinkle pulls back her head to take her mouth off the mouthpiece and soon exhales smoke in front of Izzy once more, before she coughs, and exhales before sputtering slightly and then composes herself by shaking her head.

Izzy vibrates slightly, “Come on Twinkle! One more round! You got this!”

<*****>

The two ponies sit at Izzy’s kitchen table. The brass overhead light is on and has four stalks, one leading in each direction. Izzy sits at the head of the table with two red apples in front of her and Twinkle sits at her left with a single red apple in front of her.

Izzy looks at Twinkle and says, “So uh, what did you dream about?”

Twinkle looks at Izzy, “Oh golly gee! It was creepy! There was a filly there and she looked like me, except she wasn’t me! And she was saying that I wanted something, and that friendship is power, or something? I don’t know what it meant though…” before frowning.

“I uh, wow Twinkle Shine!” Izzy’s eyes widened, “That is, uh, I don’t even know how to begin to figure that one out?”

Twinkle leans towards Izzy with wide eyes, “Right?”

Izzy frowns, “We still have no idea who you are or what you were doing there?”

Twinkle blinks, “Well, golly! If I knew, I’d tell you!”

Izzy smiles dimly as she sighs, “Well, I know you would squirt. Uh, so I guess you’re staying here until further notice?”

Twinkle blinks again, “That sure would be swell, Izzy! I promise to be on my best behavior and to do chores and not smoke your weed without permission and not to seize control over the government and to not be out too late!” before smiling hopefully with her head tilted cutely to the right…

Izzy blinks, “You’d better not take over any governments! You’re too little for that!” before smiling and giggling slightly.

“I know, right?” Twinkle says before smiling and chuckling slightly. She frowns, “But golly! ‘Friendship is power?” Now what in Equestria could that mean?” before looking up at Izzy on her right.

<*****>

The two ponies play a board game shortly after breakfast. Izzy magically rolls a 4 on the die, and moves her piece across the board, “So uh, what can you tell me about yourself, Twinkle?”

Twinkle grasps the die in her forehooves and rolls it with her mouth on the table before using her hooves to move her piece 2 places forward, “Well, golly! Just tidbits, really? I know I used to live in Fillydelphia, and I know I had a cat… Um…” Twinkle frowns, “The kitty was an orange tabby! I just remembered that!” as she stares at Izzy wide-eyed.

“Huh…” Izzy proclaims with a raised right eyebrow. “I don’t know of any place called, Fillydelphia? Do you remember anything at all about your parents?” before looking at the die and magically rolling a 4 and then moving her piece 4 places forward in a blue glow.

Twinkle frowns, “Well, I know my mother looked a lot like me and that she was weird…” and then, getting up to the table to collect and roll the die with her mouth to get a 3. She moves her piece 3 places forward with her forehooves.

Izzy frowns, “Weird? Weird how?” before magically rolling a 6 and then moving her piece 6 places forward.

Twinkle frowns, “She just had weird hobbies and was always reading strange books…” she looks down, “I can’t remember what though?”

Izzy widens her eyes, “Okay? No idea what that could mean either?”

Twinkle smiles dimly at Izzy with wide brown eyes, “Yeah, life’s just full of mysteries, huh?”

Izzy looks at Twinkle, “Well, I do know I need to get to work on that birdhouse for my customer soon…” she leans forward with wide eyes, “Will you be okay until I’m done?”

Twinkle blinks and looks up at Izzy, “Yeah, I think so? Um,” she frowns with wide brown eyes, “do you have any books?”

<*****>

Twinkle lays back on the red chair with her back firmly against it on her haunches while holding a book on birdhouse repair in her forehooves. “Gee! Guess she doesn’t do a lot of those?” She whispers to herself.

Twinkle tries to read and stay focused. She reads over the sections about how to sand down edges and round them out. She reads about wood glue and what woods can and can’t be used for birdhouses. She even reads the section about painting the birdhouse and what paints to avoid. But eventually, the filly’s eyes droop and she silently falls asleep in the chair as her bluish-white locks fall around her shoulders…

<*****>

Twinkle sees herself standing on her hooves inside a cage in a red rock cave, deep underneath the earth somewhere. She hears her own voice say from behind her, “We can’t fix anything! It’s too late for that!”

Twinkle turns around and sees herself on the other side of the cage, “Just who are you?”

The filly smiles, “I’m the real you!”

Twinkle blinks, “What do you want?”

The filly sighs, “Oh golly! The laundry list I could give you!” and she begins to laugh while leaning forward towards Twinkle with wide-open crazy eyes, “But like I already said, it’s far too late!”

Twinkle’s eyes narrow and mouth tightens as her cheeks puff rebelliously, “I mean, what do you want from me?”

The filly widens her eyes, “Oh, you?” she narrows them, “I just want you to remember who YOU are!”

“And just who am I anyway?” Twinkle shouts back at the other filly with her body leaning that direction.

“You already know! Stop hiding from yourself!”

<*****>

Twinkle starts as she wakes up with a wide-eyed start as she gasps! She shakes her head and slowly gets off the chair before picking up the fallen book on her right with her teeth and setting it down on the seat. She then trots towards the sound of another pop song coming from across the house.

She trots back that direction, through the kitchen, now lit from the sunlight through the window on the right as she trots around the left side of the table once again. She looks up at the door and squats to take off vertically before opening the knob with her forehooves and then fluttering back so the door opens towards her to the left, yet again.

She lands to see Izzy there on her hooves to the left of a constructed birdhouse in the center of the room. As the music sings (with a lower volume this time), My love is real, but it’s not where my heart is at! My love is real, but it’s not good now!

Izzy looks over at Twinkle before her horn glows and the music cuts, “Heya Twinkle!” and smiles.

Twinkle’s pink face is extra pale as she looks at the unicorn with wide-open distraught watery eyes and stammers out, “Um, Izzy? Would you please hug me?”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 3: Reprieve

Izzy embraces the filly tightly in her forehooves as all Twinkle can do is stand there in abject shock. “What’s the matter Twinkle? What happened?”

Twinkle can only stammer out, “Um, I fell asleep on the chair and had another nightmare!”

Izzy frowns while continuing to hold the shocked filly in her grasp, “About what?”

Twinkle can only stammer out, “I-I saw me again! Well, sorta? She said that it’s too late to fix anything! She said that I-I already knew things! That um, I just don’t wanna admit it! I swear though, I don’t know what she’s talking about!”

Izzy softly whispers to the foal, “Shh! It’s okay little filly! Izzy’s here now and there’s no more scary things anymore!”

“Um, Izzy?”

“Yes Twinkle?”

“Um,” Twinkle looks down into Izzy’s chest-floof, “is it okay if I sleep with you tonight?”

<*****>

Izzy lays behind the filly underneath the covers in bed and holds her in her hooves while saying, “So, you want me to hold you for comfort?”

“That’s right!” Twinkle exclaims while vibrating slightly in the unicorn’s legs.

“And you also wanted my stuffed octopus to hold for comfort as well?”

“That is also correct, and his name is Fred!” Twinkle says jitterily inside the unicorn’s embrace as she holds the octopus closer to her chest floof.

“Um, right! Fred the octopus! Of course!”

“Indeed!” Twinkle squeaks out highly as she clutches the toy tightly.

Izzy squints while holding the filly as she adds, “And you asked for more pillows! Uh, I gave you four extra, correct?”

“Yup!” Twinkle vibrates out.

Izzy rolls her eyes, “Okay, is there literally anything else I can do to make you comfortable?”

“Well?” Twinkle smiles before making her request, “Could you sing me to sleep please, Miss Izzy?” before lowering her body daintily in the unicorn’s grasp.

Izzy sighs as she smiles dimly and snickers before softly singing a lullaby that Twinkle has never heard before, “Hush now filly, it’s time to go to bed! Hush now foal, it’s time for a nap! Quiet now filly, it’s time to rest your head! Fall now and go collapse!”

Twinkle can’t help but giggle lightly in Izzy’s warm embrace at the silliness of the tune as she smiles and closes her eyes while clutching Fred the octopus and finally, peacefully slumbers…

<*****>

Twinkle awakens on a slab of rock inside a glowing blue cave. She hears her own voice say in the distance, “You can’t hide forever!”

She lifts her head from where she lays on her left side, deep in the cave, and says defiantly, “I’m not afraid of you!”

The voice chuckles, “Golly! Who said I wanted you to be afraid of me? I just want you to remember what you’re supposed to do!”

Twinkle frowns, “And just what am I supposed to do?”

“Easy there, my future empress!” The voice casually replies.

Twinkle starts as her eyes widen when a sudden thought occurs to her mind and she says loudly, “What happened? Why can’t I remember? Did I do something?”

The voice giddily replies, “Oh, golly gee! Finally starting to realize that something isn’t right, huh?”

Twinkle stares forward at the rock wall before asking it with a frown on her freckled face, “Why can’t you come inside here?”

The voice doesn’t reply…

Twinkle is suddenly alone with her thoughts, and she stares forward, further into the cave and the black abyss. She thinks about this other self that she’s met and wonders what she knows. She scrunches her brow when she thinks that maybe something happened? Something caused her to awaken in that courtyard, although she’s still not sure why she was there, or what those other two piles of rubble were? Her eyes widen when she wonders, W-were those two just like me, at one point? Was I uh, stone? And if so, why am I here and they’re dust now? What happened to me that was different? And she abruptly shakes her head when she thinks that such a thing must be impossible! She finally widens her eyes at the dark unknown before her, deeper into the cave before finally deciding to get to her hooves and trot that direction.

She trots into yet another blue stone atrium, although she’s still not exactly sure where the blue light is coming from inside here. She sees a big blue stone wall in front of her before sighing, sitting on her haunches, and whispering to herself, “Guess there’s no more exploring for me, huh?”

When suddenly, she hears a soft feminine voice behind her say, “She’s lying, you know?”

She quickly gets to her hooves and turns to face the voice and she sees a big purple alicorn there, in a white shimmering glow with slightly darker purple eyes, and a distinctive blue mane and tail, each sporting lavender, and orchid streaks of color through them. She asks, “Who are you?”

“I’m here to help you!” The new pony replies.

Twinkle blinks and leans forward slightly with her wings to her sides, “Well um, how are you gonna do that?”

The alicorn smiles, “By telling you that you shouldn’t listen to the other you, you’ve been talking to… She’s not you and never was… You aren’t that filly!”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “You know, it’s really hard to tell, when I don’t know who she is! I don’t even know who I am!” before fluttering and fluffing her wings in irritation. She frowns back at the alicorn, “And just who are you anyway?”

The alicorn leans towards Twinkle with wide eyes, “We can discuss that later. What is important is that you need to find out who you are!”

Twinkle widens her eyes and leans forward slightly with a frown, “And just how do I do that?”

The alicorn smiles, “By forgetting!”

<*****>

“Ugh!” Twinkle opens her eyes while laying on her left side, deep underneath the covers, while surrounded by pillows and held in a blue unicorn’s embrace. She whispers to herself, “You know, dreamless sleeping is probably a lot less irritating!”

“What was that?” Izzy asks from behind the filly, underneath the covers.

“Um, nothing!” Twinkle chimes as her little body jitters in Izzy’s embrace.

“Uh, oh-kay? Well, hey Twinkle! How about some breakfast?”

“Sounds good!” The pink filly quickly stammers out.

<*****>

Twinkle sits on her haunches at the table and brings the bowl of warm buttery oatmeal with brown sugar in it to her mouth to begin eating it voraciously.

Izzy frowns, “It’s so weird! You don’t remember who you are, but you know you like brown sugar?”

Twinkle lowers the half-empty bowl from her face to look at Izzy, “Golly gee, I’m just as confused as you are, I swear!”

Izzy smirks and giggles slightly, “Well, I believe you, for what it’s worth Twinkle…” she frowns and leans forward, “There’s something special about you, though? I still can’t put my hoof on it?”

Twinkle grins, “Naw, I’m sure fillies wake up in ruined structures with amnesia all the time! Nothing unusual here!”

Izzy smiles and widens her eyes, “Oh yeah! I ran into two, last week!”

“Of course!” The foal exclaims while hopping slightly on her seat.

Suddenly, there’s a knock-on Izzy’s front door. She looks at Twinkle and calmly says, “You wait here and finish your breakfast! I’ll be right back!”

The doorknob glows blue and turns inward to the left to reveal an orange alicorn with a purple mane and tail, and a shimmering gold horn. She smiles at Izzy, “Hey, I sent those books we found to Zephyr Heights to get them analyzed! We found out some things!”

Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh great! Come on in!” before backing to the right to give Sunny room.

Sunny trots in as she says, “Yeah, they dated the books at anywhere between one thousand and three thousand years old!”

Twinkle trots in from the dining room, “Oh, golly! Um, what did they say?”

Sunny frowns, “Well, they appeared to be information on how to take care of your friends and be there for them? I think that structure may have been a school for that?”

Twinkle frowns, “Golly gee, maybe? I don’t think I’m that old though? Any idea why I was there?”

Sunny frowns down at the filly, “Yeah, about that! You see, I looked in the Zephyr Hall of Records and details are sketchy at best, although it’s believed that there was once a town there?”

Twinkle sighs, “That still doesn’t tell me why I was there! I don’t really think I’m that old! What in Equestria am I doing inside a ruined old town that doesn’t exist anymore?”

Suddenly, Izzy pipes up from the side, “Time warp!”

Sunny looks at the unicorn, “What?”

Izzy looks at Sunny wide-eyed, “What if, she was part of that town at some point, and a time warp took her thousands of years into the future, and that’s why she can’t remember?”

Sunny frowns at Izzy, “Does time travel erase your memory?”

Izzy normalizes her eyes, “I don’t know? Maybe?”

Twinkle sighs, “You know, I’m not sure it even matters how I got here?”

Sunny looks at the foal interestedly with focused eyes and perked ears, “What do you mean?”

Twinkle looks at the alicorn, “Well, golly! I’m here now, right? Maybe that’s all I need to understand?”

Sunny narrows her eyes, “Yes, but we’d sure like to know!”

Twinkle sighs again, “You and me both, Sunny! But I’m just saying, there’s a chance we’ll never know!”

Sunny normalizes her eyes and curves her mouth, “Well, I still think you should meet the others!”

Twinkle frowns, “Um, others?”

<*****>

Twinkle Shine frowns on her hooves inside the Sunny’s living room with the five other ponies. She looks to the white pegasus with the red faux-hawk sporting neon blue highlights standing on the right side of the room, “You are?”

The pegasus smiles, “I’m Zipp Storm!” she looks and nods to the other pink pegasus to her right with the wavy light purple mane and tail and laurels around her pony ears, “And that’s my sister, Pipp Petals!”

The other pegasus widens her cerulean eyes and leans towards Twinkle, “Oh my gosh! You’re the amnesiac pegasus filly who woke up inside ruins!”

Twinkle widens her eyes at Pipp, “Thanks for the recap, but I was there! I kinda know this already!”

Suddenly, Pipp trots from where she was, next to Zipp, to embrace Twinkle in a tight, warm hug!

“EEP!” Twinkle exclaims as she’s held in the embrace of the other pegasus.

Pipp suddenly releases her left forehoof from the filly and raises it with her smartphone in the cleft as she says, “Selfie time! Smile Twinkle!”

Twinkle gives an extremely anxious and awkward wide toothy grin with wide-open nervous eyes while held in Pipp’s right forehoof.

The camera flashes on the phone as Zipp snorts and grins about her popstar sister.

Pipp releases Twinkle and puts her phone away, somewhere around her neck, but Twinkle can’t tell exactly where it went. She looks at the other pegasus curiously and asks, “So uh, what did you just do?”

Pipp leans forward excited, “I took a picture of me and you, Twinkle! I’m gonna post it on Ponygram so all of my fans can see the mystery filly who doesn’t know who she is!”

Sunny looks at Pipp from across the room, “Are you sure that’s such a great idea, Pipp? I mean, there’s still a lot of questions!”

Pipp sighs at the alicorn, “Well, okay! I’ll hold off on that!” she looks at Zipp with a frown on her face and curious look in her pale green eyes, “I think maybe we should check the old records room, though?”

Zipp looks at her sister from the right with wide blue eyes, “Old records room?”

Pipp nods her head, “At the royal palace in Zephyr Heights, there’s an old records room underneath. It might tell us more about what was there and what was going on all those years ago?”

“Uh, hey! Hang on there!” Twinkle says while raising her left wing to get the attention of the other pegasi, who both turn their heads to face her, “Don’t you think this whole, time travel thing is kinda silly?” she lowers her wings and gazes at them, “I mean, I’m just a filly! No way am I from that time period, whatever that place was!”

Zipp nods, “While that’s probably correct, it might tell us why you were there?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Point Zipp!”

Zipp smirks confidently on the right side of her mouth, “Of course!”

Twinkle then looks at the green-haired orange stallion on Zipp’s left, “Who are you?”

He smiles at the filly, “Hitch Trailblazer, at your service! I’m sheriff of Maretime Bay!”

“Oh golly! A police-pony! Uh, I didn’t do anything wrong, officer! I promise!” Twinkle says before smiling and raising her wings in surrender.

“I know you didn’t, squirt!” Hitch says before smiling and winking at Twinkle with his left eye.

Sunny looks at Zipp from the other side of the room as Twinkle brings her wings to her sides, “So, you’re gonna go to this secret record room at the palace, and find out what you can about that place?”

Zipp looks at Sunny, “Yup!” she looks at Twinkle, “If we can find out what that place was, that might tell us more about what you were doing there?” she leans towards the filly, “I mean, you could’ve just been some archeologist’s foal and you bumped your head and got lost?”

Twinkle smiles at the white pegasus, “Well, that’s more believable than, I’m from thousands of years ago and somehow traveled to the future, right?”

<*****>

“Ugh! What a day!” Twinkle exclaims while sitting on the couch, in Izzy’s living room.

Izzy sits on the red chair across from it to the right, “Yeah, but at least we know what those books are!"

Twinkle looks at the unicorn with wide eyes, “But that just raises more questions! I mean, golly! What makes you think that the ancient book bag we found has anything to do with me, anyway?”

Izzy eyes the pegasus carefully. “Well, it might tell us what was there and if we knew that, that might give us a better idea of what you were doing there?”

Twinkle furrows her brows and says irritatedly. “Might? You keep saying that word! I uh,“ she widens her eyes, “I’m not sure anymore?” before frowning…

Izzy frowns at the filly. “What do you mean?”

Twinkle looks up at the blue unicorn from her spot on the couch. “I mean, I don’t know how we’re going to find out any of these things?”

“Well, Zipp is gonna check the older records and see what was there.”

Twinkle sighs, “Well, right! In the meantime, there’s not much else I can do?”

Izzy looks up at the left side. “Well, right!”

Twinkle leans towards the unicorn with wide hopeful brown eyes. “Hey Izzy?”

The unicorn leans to the filly. “Yes, Twinkle?”

Twinkle smiles mischievously. “I’ve been a good filly all day! Um, can we smoke now, please?”

Izzy smiles and shakes her head before looking at her shelf on the left of the chair and causing her wooden stashbox to glow blue and float to the table, in front of her.

She dismounts the chair and trots to the table to where her horn and the stashbox lid both glow and the lid moves to the left side, and soon, a glowing black pack of rolling papers and a little plastic baggy of herbs soon floats out the box and onto the table in front of Izzy. She investigates the box again, and soon, a booklet of joint tips comes floating to the others in a blue glow.

The pack of papers floats before Izzy and it opens before her, and one paper soon floats out and lays flat before her. She looks at the booklet of tips where it opens and one rips out, and she uses her magic to fold a new joint crutch before putting it on the right side of the paper, in the center. She then looks at the baggy and causes several small nugs to float and arrange themselves neatly into a line on the paper. She then furrows her brow as the weed begins to visibly break apart into a finer mixture before it all glows blue and straightens out as it arranges itself neatly once more. She causes a small amount of weed to glow and move to the crutch to form a better seal before causing the paper to float in front of her where it begins to roll up from the bottom and she licks the top to seal in her magic before looking at the freshly rolled king joint she just made and smiling.

She licks the joint as it floats down before her face and then, the end goes in her mouth and her red disposable lighter floats up from her stash box to her lower right-hand side, before she giggles when she suddenly realizes she has the joint in her mouth backwards! “Wait!” Izzy floats the joint out of her mouth and turns it around in mid-air before it floats back into her mouth, and then saying out the right side, “Don’t wanna do that again!” The lighter soon sparks and ignites and Izzy brings her face closer to it with the joint in her mouth, but she must gaze at the joint carefully to make sure it’s in the flame.

Twinkle widens her eyes at the unicorn and frowns. “Uh, golly! Are you having problems?”

Izzy giggles as she inhales from the burning joint and the cherry glows. “Nope! I got it under control, Twinkle!” before exhaling smoke just to the filly’s left and forcing the lighter to go out and float silently back to the coffee table.

Twinkle frowns. “It still bothers me… Friendship is power! And, you need to remember what you’re supposed to do! I mean, I don’t know what this foal is talking about!”

Izzy inhales again before the joint floats before her and turns around to float towards the pegasus filly, who suddenly thinks she needs to be precise in catching it and so, she lifts her chin and opens her mouth to seal it around the stogie and inhales herself, causing the cherry to glow.

Izzy exhales to her right and looks at the pegasus, now holding a hit in her lungs with her cheeks puffed out. “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything?”

Twinkle exhales smoke to the left of Izzy and stares back at her while saying out the right corner of her mouth, “What do you mean?” and then pursing her lips again to inhale again and take another drag.

Izzy frowns at the pegasus intently. “I mean, those messages could be from anywhere in your mind! We don’t know how legit that might be?”

Twinkle exhales on the right of Izzy, “True! Uh, “she looks at Izzy as the joint flies gently out of her mouth in a blue glow, “Miss Izzy?”

“Yeah?” Izzy asks before the stogie flies into her mouth on the right side and she purses her lips around it to inhale.

Twinkle looks down, “Um, can I sleep with you again tonight please? Uh, it makes me feel safe and er uh, content when you hold me…” before looking up with her eyes, while her mouth is scrunched and her cheeks pout faintly.

Izzy exhales smoke to the right of Twinkle before looking back at her and saying out the left side of her mouth, “Is this gonna be a regular thing?”

Twinkle raises her chin and stares at the unicorn with a scrunched mouth and a blank expression in her auburn eyes, “I don’t know? Maybe?”

Izzy purses her lips on the joint to draw and make the cherry glow once more, before the half-joint floats out of her mouth while encased in a blue glow and she exhales smoke between the two ponies and smiles as she says, “Sure Twinkle! I’d love to hold you again while we sleep!”

Twinkle smiles widely as her face beams in relief. “Oh, golly Miss Izzy! That would be just swell!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 4: Identity

“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.

Chapter 5: Blank Slate

As Izzy Moonbow used her magic to operate the hacksaw in front of her, on the piece of wood held there on two saw-ponies, she thought to herself that she sure gets a lot of orders for birdhouses during the winter! It must be because of the coming spring, she pondered with a slight frown on her face while her eyes concentrated on the task at-hoof and her horn glowed with a blue color. Her pop music played at a lower volume, but she could still hear the happy cheery noise of the anthem, We’re gonna rock rock rock! And never stop stop stop! We’ll tear it all down! Whao! Whao!

When she hears an excited squeaky voice come from the other side of the hall on her right, “Yeah! Okay! That’s about right!”

The doorknob on Twinkle’s left glows blue and soon swings open as the pink pegasus filly sits on her haunches on top of a closed toilet, as she stares at the vanity mirror before her beyond the sink. She has a pair of scissors held in the clefts of her right forehoof as she lowers them to her side and looks onward, with her wavy bluish-white mane, now with tapered bangs and her once long tail, has been cut as Izzy then notices the hair on the floor. She blinks and looks at the pegasus filly and says, “What are you doing?” before frowning.

Twinkle looks at Izzy on her left and excitedly says, “Oh, I was just restyling my mane and I got rid of some unnecessary length on my tail! No more neat curls for me!” she nods, “Yeah, I’m gonna be redoing a lot of things now!” before smiling and bobbing her head up and down affirmatively.

Izzy blinks and frowns, “Oh-kay?” she looks at the filly on the commode, “You do what you feel is best, Twinkle Shine!” and smiles.

Twinkle turns her head so Izzy can get a look and Izzy can’t help but smile at this adorable, freckled filly with her wavy new manecut and bangs, styled to flow behind her shoulders along with her new neatly cropped tail.

“Wow!” Izzy says wide-eyed with her mouth open, “I love your new look!”*

“He he! Thanks! Um, I decided that since I uh, didn’t wanna be like that other filly I met, that I really should change the way I look! So um, I found these scissors in your workroom and kinda uh, borrowed them… I was gonna bring them back!” Twinkle nods her head, “Honest!”

Izzy grins at this adorable filly, “Oh, I believe you, Twinkle! Uh,” she sighs, “I was just making another birdhouse and listening to music when I heard you in here… You’re a loud little thing, you know that?”

“Well, golly gee! I just like being heard!” Twinkle says with a cute smile on her dimpled face and her head tilted to the left.

Izzy widens her red eyes as she stammers out, “It’s…just…so…much…cuteness!” she blinks, “I don’t know if I can stand it?”

Twinkle straightens her neck and sticks her tongue out slightly with her eyes narrowed.

Izzy widens her eyes, “Okay, that’s it! Time for a doobie!”

At that point, Twinkle brings her tongue in and closes her mouth while scrunching her mouth and widening her eyes as she honestly didn’t expect that reaction!**

<*****>

Izzy puffs the glowing king joint out the left side of her mouth through the brown glass tip as Twinkle looks onward from the left side of the table and asks, “If you normally use disposable joint tips, why do you also own glass tips?”

Izzy exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth before saying, “Well, glass tips deliver a mellower smoke! They’re just more of a pain to roll with and you gotta clean them every so often! So, I go back and forth, a lot of times!” before moving the joint to the front of her pony snout and pursing her lips around it to take a strong drag.

Twinkle frowns as Izzy floats the joint out of her mouth to hover in front of her, “I just keep thinking about what Zipp told me earlier…” she stares forward blankly with wide auburn eyes, “She told me what Cozy Glow did in private and well…” Twinkle shakes her head and blinks while staring forward, “I just can’t picture myself ever doing those things?” she looks up at the unicorn intently, “Izzy! A-am I a monster?”

Izzy widens her eyes while the stogie smokes in front of her and she exhales smoke between the two ponies before saying down to the filly, “No! Why would you say such a thing, Twinkle Shine?”

Twinkle blinks, “Well,” she looks up at the unicorn, “I tried to steal all the magic in Equestria! I” she blinks again, “attacked Ponyville in some sort of epic battle? “she frowns, “Zipp said the details were sketchy on that one?” She looks up at Izzy, “But that doesn’t seem like anything I’d actually do, though?”

Izzy sighs as she finally forces the joint to turn around in mid-air before floating towards the filly’s mouth, “I see…” Izzy eyes this filly carefully, “I don’t really see you doing those things either, Twinkle? Do you think you’re a good filly?” before scrunching her mouth.

Twinkle catches the joint in her mouth before taking a drag with it slightly to the right as she smiles and says, “Well golly gee, I like to think so?” as smoke lightly billows out her mouth with each word.

Izzy frowns and says, “Well, mostly good anyway!” as her eyebrows go up and down.

Twinkle raises her left eyebrow as she makes the joint move towards the center of her mouth with her lips and takes a drag from the joint, making the cherry glow. She raises her right forehoof to signal Izzy as her brown eyes widen.

Izzy lowers her gaze to the filly before forcing the half-joint to glow blue and gently float out of Twinkle’s mouth.

Izzy lowers her gaze and scrunches her brows slightly as the joint flies out of Twinkle’s mouth and stops before her, where it turns around to float the final few inches to her mouth, where she clamps her lips down on the glass tip.

While Izzy inhales, Twinkle finally exhales a massive cloud of smoke between the two ponies, before lightly coughing, blinking, and saying, “From the way Zipp talked, it sounded like this other filly was bad, just for the sake of being bad?” she frowns at Izzy, “But uh,” she blinks, “it just seems like there should be more to it, than just that?”

Izzy exhales a cloud of smoke with the stogie cocked on the left side of her mouth, “Well, you say you can’t remember, right?”

Twinkle looks down and frowns as Izzy works the joint to the middle of her mouth and inhales to make the cherry glow again, “Golly, no! Not really? I uh… I see flashes sometimes, but um,” she frowns deeply as her eyes begin to twitch, “I just can’t remember when I really think about it, you know?” she stares up at Izzy with her brown eyes still trembling somewhat.

Izzy floats the joint before her and exhales before moving the stogie into the ashtray and snuffing it out again. She looks at the filly, “You seem disturbed by this? Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I…” Twinkle stares forward blankly, “Just can’t seem to explain it?” she looks at Izzy, “I mean, Zipp talked to me for two hours!” she widens her eyes, “I know the stories now!” she nods, “I know what Cozy Glow did and I think I understand why they turned her to stone…” she shakes her head, “But why, though? I mean, why did she want power?”

Izzy frowns, “Well, that was a long time ago…” she stares intently at the filly, “It’s probably close to impossible to tell, by this point?” she raises her left eyebrow, “I hate to say it, but it might be better to just let this one go?” she shrugs while correcting her eyes.

Twinkle stares forward expressionless with her mouth scrunched again, “You know, you’re probably right? Besides,” she stares up at the unicorn with open brown eyes, “even if we did know, what difference would it make by this point?”

Izzy smiles, “Right! So uh, blank slate then?” before tilting her head inquisitively to the left with her mouth narrowed and red eyes staring forward.

Twinkle giggles, “Blank slate!” she looks up at Izzy, “Um, go ahead take your other drag now Miss Izzy! Uh, thanks for talking with me!”

Izzy mentally floats the joint to her mouth in a blue glow along with her red disposable lighter in from the lower right and sparks it to ignite before bringing her face forward to burn the end of the joint and ignite it as she inhales, causing the cherry to glow again. She soon exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth and looks at Twinkle intently as the lighter disengages and flies back down to the table before her, and then asks, “No problem, squirt! So uh,” she raises her eyebrows, “You’re Twinkle Shine now, right? Not Cozy Glow?” and then pursing her lips on the joint at the front of her mouth and inhaling again to make the cherry burn red.

The filly blinks her brown eyes, “Well uh, I don’t remember being Cozy Glow?” she frowns, “I only remember waking up in that place and uh,” she shakes her head so her newly styled mane swishes around her head and leans forward slightly before blinking, “I don’t remember doing these things?” she looks down solemnly, “I guess two thousand years makes a huge difference?”

Izzy exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth again before forcing the glowing joint to fly in front of her, and looks to the foal as she says, “Well, right! I mean, think of it this way Twinkle! Let's say you were thinking about things while you were a statue, okay?”

Twinkle stares at the unicorn and frowns, “I don’t really remember ever being a statue, actually! But um, okay…” and nods.

Izzy nods as she finishes floating the roach into Twinkle’s mouth, “Well, let's just say you were a statue and thinking about your life and the horrible things that you did, right?”

Twinkle catches the joint in her mouth as she raises her head and clamps down with her lips before inhaling to make the cherry glow. “Huh?”

Izzy nods, “Well, I know I would!” she leans forward, “Well, at this point, you got a new chance?”

Twinkle exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth, “Huh?”

“You get a new chance, Twinkle Shine!” she stares at the filly with open excited eyes, “Brand new Equestria! Brand new friends! Brand new name! Brand new home!” she smiles, “Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to take it?”

Twinkle lowers her gaze before softly exhaling smoke out the left side of her mouth as her eyes narrow and the filly visibly becomes more intoxicated, “I uh, never thought about it like that?” before moving the joint back to the front of her snout and taking another drag.

Izzy nods happily, “So, what does it matter what happened two thousand years ago?” she stares at the filly, now taking a third drag from the joint before putting the stogie in the cleft of her right forehoof, “You’re here now! You live with me! And we’re both doing alright!”

Twinkle raises her forehoof, so Izzy sees the burnt-out nub there, at the end of the glass tip and she smiles as she floats it from the hoof, while Twinkle exhales long and slow, before finally saying, “Maybe I’m overthinking this and making it more complicated than it needs to be, huh?” she lowers her hoof and raises her neck to stare at the unicorn, “I uh…” she blinks, “Golly!”

Izzy lowers her face with the glass-tipped nub out the front of her mouth as the red disposable lighter floats in from the bottom right and smirks while the lighter sparks and says, “Sometimes, a little bit of herb to take you to the ground level, does just the trick!” before lowering her face towards the flame and igniting the end of the nub while inhaling so it burns up visibly as she takes in the smoke. She suddenly widens her eyes before floating the flaming glass tip to her glass ashtray on the table and snuffing it out there… She soon turns her head left and exhales smoke that direction, before turning to the filly, coughing slightly, and smiling a happy grin.

Twinkle looks at Izzy, grins, and says, “You’re feeling it, huh?”

Izzy stares at the filly wide with a smirk on her face as she giggles and says, “No U!”

Twinkle starts snickering as she smiles happily!

Izzy giggles, shakes her head, and says, “I still can’t believe I’m actually letting you smoke!”

Twinkle smiles wide-eyed as she says, “Aw, but it’s me!” before pouting with her head tilted slightly to the left and blinking so her eyelashes go up and down.

Izzy squints her eyes and narrows her mouth as she says sternly, “I’m gonna get you! You’re gonna pay for that!”

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

“Oh, you know EXACTLY what, Little Miss Adorable-Pants!”

Twinkle grins and giggles, “He he he!”

<*****>

Twinkle puts the now-empty bowl of oatmeal onto the table before her as she happily licks her upper lip with her long pony tongue with her brown eyes squinted. She looks at Izzy to her right, smiles, and says, “Thanks again for breakfast! Um, you didn’t have to clean up the bathroom floor, you know?” she frowns, “I was gonna do that…” she widens her eyes, “Cleaning up is part of the job!”

“Eh, it only took like, ten seconds! Who cares?” Izzy says while flicking her right forehoof in the air next to her with her smiling face turned slightly that direction. She straightens her gaze at the floating half-eaten buttered toast encased in a blue light in front of her, before opening her mouth and making the toast fly into her snout, where she bites and chews the rest of it. She munches the toast while her eyes narrow, before swallowing, looking at Twinkle Shine, and asking her, “So, did you have another nightmare?”

Twinkle nods, “Oh golly, yes Miss Izzy! You know, I don’t know how sleep every became so exhausting? I was in that cave again and I heard that filly who sounds a lot like me!” she leans forward with wide brown eyes, “She seems so angry?” she frowns, “I wonder why?”

Izzy scrunches her mouth, “Well, what did the other filly say?”

“She said my name was really Cozy Glow and that I wanted power… She said that I was supposed to be doing something?” Twinkle says before frowning up at the unicorn.

Izzy frowns, “What does she say you need to be doing?”

Twinkle blinks, “She said that I need to gain as many friends as possible. She said that since ‘friendship is power’, that it’s important for me to gain as much power as possible, and that my real name will always be Cozy Glow…” Twinkle blinks again, “But, I don’t want to be Cozy Glow?” she shakes her head, “I-I’m starting over now, right?” she shakes her head and stares at the unicorn intently, “You said a blank slate, right? A clean, fresh start?”

Izzy nods, “Right! It doesn’t matter who this Cozy Glow was or what she did! That was two thousand years ago!” she smiles, “You’re Twinkle Shine now!”

Twinkle smiles at the unicorn dimly, “Thanks Izzy! Uh, say! When did they say they’d be over?”

Izzy frowns, “Well, I called Sunny and she said she’d bring Hitch and Zipp said she’d shoot her sister a text and let her know what was up!”

Twinkle nods, “Right! But uh, when were they gonna be over?”

Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh! That! Uh, they said they’d show up at about nine!”

Twinkle sighs, “Okay uh, what time is it now?”

Izzy glances up at the clock just beyond Twinkle’s right shoulder on the counter before back right to the filly, “It’s about a quarter to nine!”

Twinkle narrows her eyes, “So, they’re gonna be here in about fifteen minutes?”

Izzy nods with a smile on her face, “That is correct!” she starts and narrows her mouth with wide eyes, “Oh uh,” her eyes dart down to the filly, “they’ll be here in about fifteen minutes!”

Twinkle stares up at Izzy with wide eyes and a frown, “You don’t say?” she stares forward blankly and normalizes her mouth, “Well um, what do I say to them?” before her eyes dart back to the unicorn.

Izzy eyes the filly carefully, “Just say what you feel! Say that, as Cozy Glow, you once tried to take over Equestria, but you’re not that filly anymore and that was a long time ago!”

Suddenly, there’s a knock on Izzy’s door, behind Twinkle!

Izzy raises her head and asks at a higher volume, “Who is it?”

She hears a masculine voice from the other side of the door, “It’s me! Hitch! I brought Sunny along with me, but I don’t know where Zipp and Pipp are!”

Izzy looks down at the filly, “Looks like we might be starting early!” she eyes her intently, “You ready?”

Twinkle gulps, “Oh golly!”

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*This is symbolic of her trying to become another filly. She’s casting off her old identity in this scene.

**Twinkle Shine really doesn’t mean to be cute or adorable. She simply “is” as she goes about her daily life.

Chapter 6: Intermission

“Hiya squirt!” Hitch says with a smile on his face as he trots in through the door with an orange alicorn behind him.

As Hitch trots in, Sunny quickly trots up behind him to circle around his left side so she can embrace Izzy, standing in the middle of the living room, in a tight warm hug!

Izzy returns the hug with a smile on her face, as Twinkle looks onward from the left side with a frown on hers.

Hitch looks at Twinkle, “So uh, Izzy said you had something you needed to tell us?”

Twinkle looks up at the stallion, “Um, yes!” she nods, “I needed to tell you all about my origin and where I came from!”

Hitch frowns, “And why you woke up in that courtyard?”

Twinkle sighs, “Well uh, I know why I was there now!” she widens her eyes, “Still no idea what woke me up though or why I’m here and the two others aren’t?”

Hitch widens his eyes, “A mystery huh? Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon!” he smiles, “And hey! You’re not alone anymore!”

Twinkle smiles, “Yeah…”

“Well, hey! Zipp and Pipp should be along any minute now, but would you like to have a walk-along with me tomorrow?”

Twinkle frowns, “Uh, a walk-along?”

Hitch nods his head, “Yeah! You can walk along with me while I do my sheriff things in Maretime Bay! It’ll give you a chance to get out there, see the world, and maybe meet new ponies?”

Twinkle normalizes her mouth and nods, “Uh, sure Hitch! I’d like that!”

Hitch smiles wider, “Great! I’ll be by to pick you up around eleven tomorrow morning!”

Suddenly, there’s another wrapping on Izzy’s front door as a boyish voice says from behind it, “It’s me! Zipp! Pipp is here with me, but she’s doing something on her phone! Uh, give her a sec!”

Izzy smiles and looks beyond Sunny to the door to make the knob glow blue and have the door swing open inward to the left to reveal a white pegasus with a red and blue fauxhawk manecut and a smaller pink pegasus with a flowing orchid mane, standing on her left, currently looking at her smartphone held in her left-wing with an excited smile on her face.

Zipp quietly says to her sister, “Put the phone away sis! Real-life stuff is about to happen!”

Pipp widens her eyes and puts the golden device away somewhere near her neck, but again, Twinkle still can’t tell exactly where.

Izzy chimes up, “Come on in, everypony!”

The pegasi both trot in, first Zipp as she curves her path around her sister before Pipp timidly trots in behind her and shuts the door with her right forehoof while turning her head that direction and then, affixing her gaze to the pink filly in the middle of the room as Zipp trots further forward to give her some seeing room.

Twinkle nods to all the ponies present, “Right! Zipp already knows this story, but now, I get to tell you!”

Pipp raises her eyebrows, “Tell us about what?”

Twinkle stares at the pink pegasus, “About where I’m from…” she looks down slightly and closes her eyes while saying, “Now, I don’t actually remember doing these things…” she opens them to the other ponies, “But I uh, apparently once stole all the magic in Equestria and tried to take it over!”

Pipp frowns, “But from what I read in the records, Equestria hasn’t had any magic for over a thousand years!” She widens her eyes and stares at Sunny on her right, “Well, until recently!”

Twinkle blinks, “Yeah, this was two thousand years ago!”

Suddenly, everypony stares at Twinkle.

“What?” Hitch asks loudly.

“Huh?” Pipp asks.

Sunny frowns, “How is that even possible?”

Twinkle sighs, “I was just getting there! You see…” she blinks, “after I uh, did what I did, they were pretty upset about it… They froze me in stone…”

Hitch lowers his gaze at the filly, “I see… So, why are you free now?”

Twinkle stares at the stallion and smiles dimly and says with a half-giggle, “We actually don’t know! But uh, I think I know what those other two piles of gravel were on the platform…”

Sunny stares at the filly intently, “What were they?”

Twinkle sighs as she looks down, “I think…” she stares up at the alicorn, “I think they were once Chrysalis and Tirek…” she blinks, “The two other villains that were with me when I tried to take over Equestria the last time…”

Sunny lowers her gaze, “I see… So, why are they dust and you’re here?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Pretty sure I just said that I didn’t know?” she looks up with her eyes, “Was sure I did?”

At that point, Sunny widens her eyes and stares at the filly blankly, “So uh, what are you gonna do now?”

Twinkle looks at Sunny, “I don’t really know?” she looks at Izzy, “What do fillies do in Bridlewood?”

Izzy widens her red eyes to the filly, “I need to get you enrolled in school!”

Twinkle starts, “Huh?”

Izzy looks down at the filly, “Well, you want to continue your life, right? Well, you’re gonna need an education!”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Oh golly!” she narrows them, “Okay, so when do you wanna do that?”

Izzy looks off to the right and narrows her mouth, “Well, you got that walk-along thing, with Hitch tomorrow?” she looks at the filly intently, “How about the day after tomorrow!”

Twinkle smiles, “In two days, huh? Okay, Izzy! I’ll go to school in two more days!” she looks at everypony in the room, “So uh, what do you think now that you know more about me and wh-what I did?”

Sunny frowns down at the filly, “Well uh, that was two thousand years ago and nopony really remembers anymore?” she lowers her gaze somewhat, “I mean, does any of this stuff really matter at this point?”

Twinkle smiles, “Well, I’m good as long as I don’t try to take over Equestria anymore, right?”

Sunny grins and giggles, “Right! No more of that, little filly!”

<*****>

Twinkle lays on her left side on the bed, deep inside her pillow nest, while clutching Fred the octopus. Izzy slips behind her from the bottom and soon, embraces the filly in her hooves, which causes Twinkle to snuggle her back from behind, and smile happily as she squeaks out, “I love you Izzy!”

Izzy holds the filly tightly and feels the warmth of her little body, and this only causes the unicorn to grin as she says, “I love you too, Twinkle Shine! Goodnight!”

“Goodnight, Izzy!” Twinkle says before snuggling Frank close to her chin and happily closing her eyes while smiling…

Izzy closes her eyes too while holding the foal tightly and thinking to herself that she’s more than just a friend at this point, although she still can’t put her hoof on exactly what yet…

<*****>

Twinkle once again, finds herself inside a cave, somewhere deep under the earth and she witnesses the mysterious blue glow surrounding her as she stands in the center of the atrium on her hooves… She once again, hears the same filly outside that sounds like her, “Cozy Glow! Time to wake up, Cozy Glow!”

Twinkle frowns and looks up as she says, “I’m not Cozy Glow!”

“Sure, you are!” The voice happily replies, “You remember!”

Twinkle lowers her gaze at the far wall, “I am not! I would never do the things she did!”

“Oh, would you now? After everything, I’m surprised you’re even arguing with me!”

Twinkle’s eyes widen slightly, “After what? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Stop playing, Cozy Glow!”

“Alright, look!” Twinkle shouts while moving her right wing around her body, left to right, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t know what you want me to do, and for the last time, I am not Cozy Glow!” She raises her little chin defiantly, “My name is Twinkle Shine, now!”

The room is silent for a moment as Twinkle gazes upward with her face level. Finally, she hears the familiar voice say, “Surely you remember why you did those things, right?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, before sighing and finally saying, “Does it even matter, anymore? That was two thousand years ago! I mean, golly!” she blinks and sighs, “That was a long time ago, and this is my life now…”

The voice is finally silent…

Twinkle raises her neck, “My name is Twinkle Shine now, and the past is dead and buried… I don’t know who Cozy Glow is, nor do I really care anymore…” she shakes her head, “It, it doesn’t matter, okay?” tears begin to form in her eyes as she continues, “I don’t remember my pain and I want to keep it that way! I don’t want to remember whatever it was that made me evil! I don’t want to go back there!” She lowers her head, closes her eyes, and sighs deeply. "I don't need to know anymore..."

“You really don’t want to remember, huh?”

Twinkle opens her watery brown eyes before staring back to the far wall, illuminated by a blue glow boldly as she says, “I don’t need to anymore… That was a long time ago… I no longer care…” She lowers her gaze and sighs again, “And that’s also precisely why you need to go away now Cozy Glow…” she shuts her eyes, “Your time is over…” The voice is silent once more as Twinkle takes a deep breath and opens her eyes before wiping the tears from her cheeks…

The voice whimsically replies, “Alright, Twinkle Glow! I want to make a wager with you! Call it, a bet! You willing to do that, Cozy Shine?”

Twinkle scrunches her brows, “WHAT?”

“Oh, feisty tonight, I see!” The voice clears its throat, “Okay, I’ve seen you with your new friends… There’s five of them, huh? I want you to hang out with them and experience friendship! And while you’re doing that, I want you to keep something in mind… I want you to think about the power you’ve gained, by having these ponies in your life… You think you can do that for me?”

Twinkle is silent as she stares at the wall, with a blank expression in her eyes.

“Oh, what’s the matter? Finally, nothing to say?”

Twinkle says in a low growling voice, “I’m not like you, Cozy Glow… I’m better!”

The voice snidely replies, “Just keep in mind what I said…”

“Go to Tartarus!” Twinkle bellows out in the center of the cave with her eyes narrowed and an angry defiant frown on her face.

<*****>

Twinkle wakes up on her left side in Izzy’s hooves underneath the covers inside her pillow nest while clutching Frank the octopus with a wide-eyed start, “I told her off!”

“Hmm, huh?” mutters a drowsy Izzy behind her.

Twinkle nods, “I finally told Cozy Glow that her time is through… She needs to go away now…”

Izzy tightens her grip on the pink filly, “Well, what did she say?”

Twinkle blinks slowly as a tear forms on her lower right eye and she soon wipes it away with her right forehoof and says, “She uh, told me a bunch of stuff about how friendship is power, or whatever… I yelled back that I’m not like her… I’m better than that…” she sniffles.

“Twinkle! A-are you uh, crying?”

Another tear forms in the filly’s left eye, “I don’t know!” she wipes that away with the same forehoof, “I don’t know why I would cry, and I don’t know what set me off?” she sniffles again, “There was something about her voice and something about that place? I just keep going there, night after night, and I don’t know why?”

“Well, don’t you think we need to find out?”

Twinkle widens her eyes as she leans forward in Izzy’s hooves, “NO! N-no…” she looks down and to the right as she lays there on her left side and sighs, “There’s no reason to…” she closes her eyes, “I don’t need to know…”

“Uh, well whatever it is seems to be causing you problems?”

Twinkle normalizes her eyes and corrects her neck, “It’s not important anymore Izzy…” she closes her eyes tightly, “Can we just go to your kitchen and smoke now?” she shakes her head and opens her eyes while continuing to be held by the unicorn behind her, “P-please? I don’t want to talk about this…”

<*****>

Izzy licks the glowing king joint in mid-air before floating the cardboard-tipped end into her mouth and clamping down with her lips before a glowing red lighter floats up from the lower right of the table and sparks to ignite before her red eyes, as they stare into the pale glow of the light. She slowly moves her face towards the lighter and inhales, so the flame begins to lick the end of the joint and ignite it in her mouth, while she breathes in... Soon, the lighter disengages and floats back to the table.

Twinkle stares at Izzy with wide auburn eyes from the left side of the table, “You know, we really should do other things than just smoke together?”

Izzy chuckles as smoke billows out of her mouth and she says out the right corner of her mouth, “Yeah, I know! I’m just always so busy doing craft things, well, mostly birdhouses right now, that I just don’t have time to do much else!”

Twinkle smiles, “Yeah well, thanks for getting me those adventure novels!” she frowns, “Still not sure how the gratuitous flank shaking, and obscene poses plays into the story though, but the earth pony barbarian hero is pretty cool!” she says while normalizing her mouth. *

Izzy widens her eyes while taking a drag of the joint and making the cherry glow, before floating it before her and turning it in the air to glide down to Twinkle’s mouth, where her lips soon clamp and purse on the tip.

Izzy exhales smoke in front of her and looks down at Twinkle, “Well, maybe we can go to the bookstore later?”

Twinkle smiles as she’s taking a drag, “Yeah!” and she purses her lips to make the cherry glow as she inhales.

Izzy stares down at the filly as cannabinoids begin to overtake her normally flighty mind. She smiles dimly as she says, “I don’t know if I’m your new mommy, or best friend, or smoking buddy, or what, kid!”

Twinkle exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth as she grins, “Yeah, it’s a mystery, huh?”

Izzy shakes her head as the filly takes another drag, “But I’ll tell you one thing…” she smiles, “You make me feel needed…”

Twinkle takes the joint out of her mouth with her right forehoof and exhales smoke before smiling at the unicorn, “I’m glad I can do that for you, Izzy…” then, Twinkle brings her hoof to her mouth for another drag.

Izzy smiles onward as the filly lifts the joint from her mouth, and she stares at the filly’s raised hoof before causing the roach to glow and float towards her and turn around in mid-air before going into her mouth, where she purses her lips and inhales to make the cherry glow.

Twinkle exhales smoke between her and Izzy before looking down and frowning, “There was an alicorn in my dreams earlier though…”

Izzy looks down at the filly as she exhales from the right side of her mouth, “Oh?”

Twinkle nods, “Yeah!”

Izzy floats the joint from her mouth to the glass ashtray on the table for snuffing as she looks at the pegasus, “Okay, this is important! What color was she?”

Twinkle blinks, “Purple!”

Izzy’s eyes widen, “Purple? Uh, did she have a blue mane and tail with colorful streaks in them?”

Twinkle frowns as she stares up at the unicorn, “How did you know?”

Izzy’s mind is now laser-focused on the filly as she concisely asks, “Okay, precisely what did this alicorn say to you?”

Twinkle blinks, “She said that my past isn’t important… That I needed to just forget it…” she shakes her head, “But that doesn’t explain what Cozy is talking about?”

Izzy frowns, “Cozy might not be speaking the truth?” she looks down, “Don’t you think anypony that nefarious might also be a liar too?”

Twinkle widens her brown eyes to the unicorn, “You know, that’s actually a good point, now that you mention it!”

Izzy gives a wide-eyed start, “Um, yes! Of course!”

Twinkle frowns, “Which could only mean that I’m not really Cozy Glow… Um” she raises her eyes to Izzy, “who am I?”

Izzy eyes the filly, “Uh, you’re Twinkle Shine, remember?”

“Oh yeah!” The filly says while giggling.

Izzy nods, “Right! And since Sunny knows a lot of stuff about Twilight, you should definitely bring it up to her later, when we’re all eating breakfast together!”

Twinkle frowns, “Twilight? What?”

Izzy shakes her head, “Oh! Uh, the alicorn you saw was probably Twilight Sparkle! Right! She’s the purple one with the blue mane and tail!” she looks down at the filly, “That’s why I wanted to know her colors…” she frowns, “There’s several alicorns in our history books…”

Twinkle stares at Izzy blankly, “Golly! Twilight Sparkle?” she looks back up at her, “What time did she say she’d be by?”

Izzy nods her head and says, “Nine thirty!”

Twinkle nods, “Okay, what time is it now?”

Izzy looks at the clock on the wall beyond Twinkle before staring back to the filly, “A quarter after nine!”

Twinkle blinks, “You know, I think we’ve had this conversation before?” she shakes her head, “Okay, but let’s polish off that roach first!” she nods, “Better to be ready!”

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*You know those cheesy adventure novels with scantily clad women and the big muscle-bound barbarian hero on the covers? That’s what Izzy got for Twinkle because she honestly wouldn’t know the difference! Funny true story, neither would Twinkle at this point!

Chapter 7: Psycho

Izzy looks at Sunny on her right at the table…

Sunny magically floats her last chunk of French toast into her snout before munching down on the whole thing as she narrows her eyes.

Izzy turns her head left to Twinkle Shine…

Twinkle sits across the table from Sunny as she looks at the alicorn eating, “So uh, any idea why Twilight would be contacting me?”

Izzy turns to Sunny…

Sunny swallows and looks down at the table to float up her white coffee cup in a golden glow to her mouth, where the mug carefully moves back, and she takes another sip of her coffee. She swallows and sets the cup down before staring at Twinkle, “Well, the way Zipp talked, it seemed like she had some regrets, regarding this Cozy Glow filly she met earlier…” and frowning as her cup floats back down to the table.

Izzy turns to Twinkle…

“Well, yeah! Any idea what?” Twinkle says with open eyes from the front of an empty bowl of oatmeal and an empty glass that once contained berry juice beside it.

Izzy turns back to Sunny…

“Well, from the way Zipp was talking, it sounded like she wanted to know more? She said she never got the chance to learn why Cozy did what she did…” Sunny sighs, “I just don’t know how any of this could be important, two thousand years later?”

Izzy turns her head to Twinkle…

“Who knows, Sunny?” Twinkle lowers her gaze and widens her eyes, “I mean, the possibilities are really endless, when you think about it…”

“Yeah…” Sunny frowns, before a start, “Oh, love the new manecut!”

Twinkle smiles while playfully tilting her head to the left so her mane flows, “Thanks!” Took her long enough to notice! Twinkle thinks to herself…

“And uh, hey! You were hanging out with everypony, right?”

Twinkle straightens her neck and widens her eyes again as she scrunches her mouth, “I was?”

Sunny nods, “Well, of course! You have a walk-along with Hitch here in a bit, and I’m sure you and Izzy here have been doing all sorts of crafting and artistic activities?”

Twinkle narrows her mouth, “Uh, of course! She’s been teaching me uh, “she looks to her right at Izzy who’s currently staring at her with a scrunched mouth and wide red eyes, “birdhouse building skills! Yes!”

Izzy nods at the filly, “Yeah! I taught her all sorts of things!”

Sunny blinks at the unicorn, “Oh? Like what?”

Izzy turns her head to Sunny, wide-eyed, “I uh, well, I taught her how to saw with her hooves and how to place glue and uh, you know? Basic stuff!”

Twinkle nods at the alicorn, “Yeah! I don’t know anything advanced yet!”

Sunny turns to Twinkle and smiles, “Oh well, that’s okay!” she leans forward, “I mean, I’m sure you’re not gonna be the next Izzy Moonbow, or anything, but I’m sure you’ll make something neat! I can’t wait to see what sort of craftspony you become!”

Twinkle smiles nervously with wide eyes, “Right! Craftspony! I’m sure I’ll uh, make something really neat later? Yes!” as she smiles nervously and thinks to herself, This is why I smoked the roach before this happened!

Izzy widens her eyes and nods, “Um, absolutely! Yes!” before smiling anxiously…

Suddenly, Twinkle’s prayers are answered when there’s a knock on Izzy’s front door!

Izzy turns raises her head to look at the foyer in front of her and shouts to her front door beyond, “Who is it?”

She hears a stallion behind the door shout back, “It’s me, Hitch! Is Twinkle ready for her walk-along?”

Twinkle stares blankly forward, “Oh golly!”

<*****>

Twinkle brings her right forehoof to her mouth and takes another drag off the king joint and makes the cherry glow as she inhales.

Izzy sees the clock behind Twinkle and notes that it’s just after 2 PM. She looks down at Twinkle, “So uh, how did you come by all this devil weed again?”

Twinkle exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth, “Uh, you know, devil weed is illegal in Maretime Bay?”

Izzy widens her eyes as the filly purses her lips to take another drag, “Really? I didn’t know that!” she frowns, “Well, it’s perfectly legal here in Bridlewood and I know some pegasi smoke it?”

Twinkle grabs the joint with her right forehoof and raises it to signal the unicorn while softly blowing smoke out the front of her mouth. She nods, “Well, right! Anyway, I kinda did a weed dealer stallion a favor…” before smiling mischievously.

“Oh?” Izzy asks while raising her left eyebrow as she mentally makes the joint fly out of the filly’s hoof and towards her in the air…

Twinkle narrows her eyes, “Oh golly, let’s just say there’s not a whole lot of evidence against him anymore…” and giggles…

Izzy widens her eyes with the burning joint in her mouth, “When did you find the time to steal weed? Weren’t you with Hitch?”

Twinkle sighs as Izzy takes a hit off the roach, “You know, distracting him is actually pretty easy!” she widens her eyes, “I could do whatever I wanted in that station…”

Izzy exhales out the left side of her mouth as she stares down at the filly, “You’re a lot more crafty and resourceful than I thought, you little scamp!”

Twinkle gives a toothy grin, “Hey! That stallion shouldn’t even be locked up! I mean, “she leans forward intently, “he was gonna lose his shit, either way! Might as well get out early and give us some smoke, right?”

Izzy widens her red eyes while taking her second drag and then, the joint floats before her encased in a blue glow while she exhales smoke between the two ponies, “I uh, never thought about it, like that?”

Twinkle nods while Izzy forces the joint to float her way, “Right! So uh,” she widens her eyes, “why not?”

Izzy smiles and giggles, “Okay, but no more trying to take over Equestria!” while Twinkle clamps her mouth down on the joint and inhales while her eyes narrow.

Twinkle exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth and grins, “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it! Honest!” before pursing her lips on the joint again and drawing once more, to make the cherry glow… The end soon starts to spark as she widens her eyes to it and grabs the carboard-tip with her right forehoof and quickly throws the roach into the glass ashtray on the table, to her right while leaning forward and looking over to exhale smoke between her and Izzy.

Izzy widens her eyes at the filly, “We really burned that one up, didn’t we?” she smiles, “You ready to go to the bookstore?”

Twinkle widens her eyes to the unicorn, “W-what?”

Izzy nods, “Remember when I said I wanted to take you to the bookstore?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “You did?”

Izzy giggles, “Yeah, we have a stoned filly!”

Twinkle narrows her mouth and levels her ears, “N-no!”

Izzy grins and giggles, “Yup!”

Twinkle looks at Izzy and says, “Y-yeah, well you’re stoned too, so it doesn’t count!”

Izzy snickers, “Sure it does!”

“Does not!” the filly says emphatically!

“Wait!” Izzy narrows her eyes, “What were we talking about, again?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Uh, I forgot!” she shakes her head, “You know, you haven’t said that the last few times we’ve smoked?”

Izzy looks down at the filly with a frown, “Said what?”

Twinkle looks at Izzy’s chest floof, “Well, usually you say something like,” she continues in a squeaky voice while bobbing her head left and right, “‘Oh, I can’t believe I’m letting a filly smoke!’, or something,” she looks back up to the unicorn, “but you haven’t done that, recently?”

Izzy giggles, “Well, I guess I’m used to the dope-smoking pink pegasus filly, living in my house now!” She corrects her mouth, “Weren’t we about to do something, though?”

Twinkle raises her left eyebrow, “Bookstore?”

Izzy gives a wide-eyed start, “Oh! Right! That!”*

<*****>

Twinkle sits at the dinner table as a garlic hay-cake with syrup lowers onto her plate in a blue glow. She frowns at it, “Uh, garlic hay-cakes with syrup, Izzy?”

Izzy looks at Twinkle from the right, “What? It’s good!”

Twinkle looks back down at the hay-cake bleakly, “Um, sure!”

Izzy nods, “Try it!”

Twinkle stares down at the cake and gulps before muttering to herself, “Alright, guess we’ll give this a shot, huh?” and slowly picking up the strange morsel in her forehooves and tentatively taking a bite from it… Suddenly, her brown eyes widen as she begins to chew faster and then swallows before happily taking another bite!

Izzy smiles at the filly, “I knew that would work!” before looking forward as she smiles and then makes her horn and hay-cake on her plate, glow blue and the cake soon rises to her mouth so she can take a bite. Izzy finishes her bite by swallowing just as Twinkle is nearly halfway done on her voracious eating assault on her hay-cake when Izzy looks down and says, “Goodness, child!”

Twinkle finishes chewing a bite and swallows as she looks up at Izzy, “What? I like it!”

Izzy grins and giggles, “Yeah, this is almost as weird as your sudden interest in romance novels!”

Twinkle stares forward wide-eyed, “What? I like them!”

Izzy smiles and snickers as she shakes her head to make her long blue mane sway back and forth.

Twinkle just shrugs and begins hungrily munching on her hay-cake once more.

Izzy magically raises her food to her mouth for two more bites as it moves back and forth and her mouth chomps down.

This continues for a few more minutes before Twinkle finally chews her last bit and happily licks the sides, top, and bottom of her mouth with her tongue. She looks at Izzy, “That was really yummy! But uh, “she rubs her stomach, “I’m pretty full now and kinda tired after all the trotting around and shopping we did today! You sure spent a lot of time at the craft store, you know?”

Izzy smiles, “Sure! Go ahead and get ready for bed, sweetie!” Sweetie? Why am I calling her sweetie? Izzy thinks to herself.

Twinkle smiles as she bats her eyelashes and tilts her head to the left so her long-flowing mane falls down on her shoulder. “Could you hold me until I fall asleep, pwease?” before pouting curtly.

Izzy scrunches her mouth as she irks suddenly, “Uh, sure little one!” This is still cute, but it’s different with that manecut. It’s also a bit different in how she moves. Izzy notes to herself while watching this display of adorableness.

<*****>

Twinkle snuggles her beloved octopus, Fred to her chest as Izzy climbs in bed behind her and lovingly holds her in her forehooves. Twinkle opens her eyes as she holds Fred to her chin, and she can’t help but feel this is different somehow? The affection is still there and it’s still nice, but it somehow seems stronger and more vibrant now…

“I love you, Twinkle Shine!” Izzy sweetly says from behind…

As Twinkle snuggles deep into the covers, she says, “I love you too Izzy!”

Izzy lovingly kisses the back of the filly’s head before whispering, “Goodnight! Rest well!”

<*****>

Twinkle wakes up again on a slab inside the same blue atrium. She hears her voice say from outside, “Well well well! Seems you have the power to acquire evidence now, hmm?”

She rises to her hooves from the slab and looks up as she says, “What?”

“Oh, don’t be coy!” The voice teasingly replies, “You used your friendship with Hitch Trailblazer to steal weed! Surely you see what a useful tool this is?”

Twinkle lowers her nose, “I’m not like you!”

The other filly giggles, “You know, for not being like me, you sure are doing things a lot like I would do them!”

Twinkle exhales through her nostrils and begins to trot around the room, “Where are you?”

“Oh? Why would you want to find me, Cozy Glow?”

“Where are you?” Twinkle repeats herself as she walks around the room, and she soon sees a light coming from the upper side of a stone ramp on her right. She trots faster to turn and head up that ramp to emerge in a green field underneath a dark gloomy cloudy sky… She also sees a pink filly with neatly arranged bluish-white curls for a mane on the top of her head.

The other filly smiles, “Welcome, Cozy Glow!” as thunder booms in the sky and a small flash of lightning is seen behind her.

Twinkle leans towards the filly, “I’m not like you! I’m better!”

The filly bares her teeth, “Sure, Cozy Glow! Keep telling yourself that!”

Twinkle begins to gallop towards the filly as she fiercely shouts, “For the last time, I AM NOT COZY GLOW!!!!” She soon launches herself to take off with her wings and flies straight at the filly like an angry pink missile with her hooves in front of her, horseshoes bare! She screams in anger as she crashes into the other filly and arcs herself downward, so she smashes the other filly to the ground and she begins to violently hoof the face of this filly as red splatters erupt from the object of her attack and her long wavy mane flails wildly each time she brings her hoof down on the other filly’s face!

She finally stops and brings her forehooves to the dirt as she looks down and breathes heavily, in and out, and stares down at the small new hole she had just made in the dirt when she hears her own voice in the distance saying, “YES! That pisses you off, huh? Golly! Feels so good to get MAD after all that nothing, right?”

Twinkle raises her chin, “What do you want from me?”

The voice replies, “I want you to know who you are, Cozy Glow… I want you to understand what you’re supposed to do…”

Twinkle frowns in impudent rage as she shouts, “I’m not like you!”

<*****>

Twinkle wakes with a wide-eyed start and she feels the dried tears in her eyes as she clutches Fred close to her chest, while she’s firmly held in a blue unicorn’s embrace.

Izzy opens her eyes and holds the foal tightly, “You’re shaking! Are you alright?”

Twinkle vibrates in agitation as she frantically says, “Um, Izzy! S-smoke! Uh, now! P-please!”**

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*Well, I’m sure by this point, many of you have surmised that I am a stoner! And while there are legitimate medical benefits to my habit, I’ll also be the first to admit that I probably do it at least a little bit more than is necessary… That said, I wrote most of this section while puffing a joint on and off and was very much under the influence!

**This stuff is often prescribed for PTSD and I can see why now. I usually smoke a joint to help level me whenever I have a nightmare.

Chapter 8: Assistance

Izzy stares at the filly on her left, currently taking a drag from a joint. She watches the cherry glow as she says, “I guess you had another nightmare?”

Twinkle blows smoke out the right side of her mouth before staring at Izzy and harshly saying, “You think?” Twinkle starts and blinks before widening her eyes and saying, “I-I’m sorry Miss Izzy! I’m uh, kinda tense right now…”

Izzy frowns, “Obviously! Uh, you just keep smoking that joint little filly! Uh, we can talk about it, whenever you’re ready!” she shakes her head, “Hey! I’m gonna go make some espresso! Do you want some?”

Twinkle shakes her head lightly before staring up at the unicorn, “Well golly Miss Izzy! I’ll try anything once!”

<*****>

(About 12 minutes later…)

The roach burns softly before going out with a final puff of smoke in the ashtray on the table as Twinkle stares at Izzy with wide brown eyes while her little filly body quivers with sudden spastic jolts and the cannabinoids from the weed encircle her mind, propelled by the sudden surge of caffeine for an almost supernatural feeling rush.

Izzy stares at this strange vibrating filly with wide interested eyes and an interrogative frown, “Uh, you okay Twinkle?”

The filly just sits there on her haunches in the chair as her little body lightly vibrates and her wide auburn eyes stay very much open…

“Uh, oh gosh! Maybe I shouldn’t have given a quad espresso drink with cream to a little filly?”

Twinkle vibrates again as she starts and looks up at the unicorn, “I uh, what?”

Izzy leans forward with wide eyes, “Are you okay?”

Twinkle blinks, “Um, I think so?” and frowns while staring on with wide, dazed eyes.

Izzy shakes her head, “You’re buzzing like a bee, aren’t you?” and scrunches her mouth.

Twinkle blinks again and repeats herself, “Um, I think so?”

Izzy grins and chuckles, “Well um, better stoned and wired than sad and traumatized, right?” and leans forward to the left with her right eye wider than the other.

Twinkle jitters out, “Yes! Of course! Absolutely!” and smiles… At that point, Twinkle looked at Izzy wide-eyed, much like a cow would look at an oncoming train, when her smile lowered and she started frantically saying, “Yeah! So, there I was! I was there, right? Yeah! I was in that same freaky blue cave, same as before! Yeah! I was in the blue cave! And not me was still outside, taunting me! Yeah, she was talking about how I, used Hitch to get weed, and this other stuff! Yeah! So, she was talking about that! And I started looking for her! Right! I started searching for not me in the cave when I saw a light! Yeah! There was a light! So, I went up there and I was in a grassy field and there were storm clouds and angry weather, and the evil me! Uh, Cozy Glow was there smiling! Yeah! And so, I flew up to her, and I beat her face in!” she nods, “Yeah! I beat it, right the buck in! Yeah!” she widens her eyes, “And she started talking to me about being mad at that point…” before narrowing her eyes, folding in her ears, and frowning, “So uh, what do you think, Miss Izzy?”

Izzy stares at the weird filly sitting at her left wide-eyed as she starts and says, “I uh, think you need to slow down! Uh, what?” before frowning.

Twinkle blinks and shakes her head. “Oh uh, right!” She stares wide-eyed at the unicorn, “So, I woke up in that freaky blue cave, same as before, right? And then, I heard Cozy Glow outside, yelling at me about how I’m really Cozy Glow… And so, I got on my hooves and started looking around!” she nods, “Golly yeah, I wanted to see if I could find a way out of this cave… Anyway!” Twinkle’s eyes re-widen themselves, “I saw a ramp there! And so, I went up the ramp while she kept talking and I came up in a big grassy field, and there were storm clouds and a lightning flash behind Cozy as she smiled at me… Yeah, so I flew at her!” Twinkle shakes her head, “I had my hooves out and I flew her into the ground by angling my wings!” she looks at Izzy and narrows her mouth, “Pegasi can do that, you know?” she shakes her head, “Anyway, I just got so MAD! I mean, she’d been trying to say that I’m evil and bad, and” she shakes her head again before stuttering, “I’m not like that!” she nods, sighs, and continues, “So, I was uh, pretty upset, and I kinda um, beat her face into the ground…” she blinks, “Then, I heard her voice saying from somewhere that it must feel good to be mad, after all the nothing I felt earlier…” she blinks and stares back up at the unicorn, “I’m still not exactly sure what that means though?” she frowns.

Izzy frowns as she stares down at the hyperactive filly blankly, “Um, well, weren’t you trapped in stone, for about two thousand years? I mean, “she blinks, “that’s a lot of nothing, right?”

Twinkle shakes her head, “But I don’t remember it! I” she blinks, “don’t remember anything before waking up in that lousy courtyard?” she blinks again and stares up at Izzy intently, “So uh, does it even count?”

Izzy blinks, “Count?” she stares down at the filly, “Well, it still happened, right?”

Twinkle blinks and stammers, “Yeah, but I don’t remember it?”

Izzy suddenly scrunches on herself and squints her eyes while frowning when she says in a low whimsical voice, “And so, we ask the age-old question, is ignorance truly bliss?”

Twinkle giggles, “You’re silly!”

Izzy widens her eyes and grins, “No U!”

Twinkle giggle-snorts happily while her wavy mane vibrates!

Izzy breathes in deeply through her nose before looking down at the filly with open red eyes and ears perked her direction as she says, “But um, I’m not even sure it matters anymore?” she frowns, “I mean, two thousand years is a long time?” her eyes dart to the filly as she grimaces deeper, “Um, right?”

Twinkle blinks, “Um, right!”

Izzy blinks, “Right! So uh, “she looks at the filly carefully, “Does anything really bother you? I mean,” she blinks, “does anything really make you sad or upset?”

Twinkle stares up at the unicorn as her little body quivers slightly before stopping, “Um, I don’t think so?” she blinks and gives a confused frown…

Izzy nods, “Well, right! But uh, Twinkle?”

Twinkle blinks excitedly before shaking her head and staring back at the other pony, “Um, yes Miss Izzy?”

Izzy smiles, “I want you to know that I do care about you and that I am here for you, okay?”

Twinkle blinks as she leans forward, “Now, why’d you have to do that?”

Izzy shakes her head and blinks, “Do what?”

Twinkle moves her neck up slightly, “You got all sappy on me!” she blinks, “Knock it off!”

Izzy grins and giggles, “No U!”

Twinkle blinks again, “That’s gonna continue too, huh?”

Izzy chuckles more, “Yeah, probably!” she leans forward, “So, you ready to go get enrolled in school?”

Twinkle blinks, “Say what now?”

<*****>

The light purple unicorn trots to the right of the pink pegasus filly through the darkened forest-village as they pass a dilapidated house on their right, Izzy looks down at the filly, “Uh, did you bring your novel with that hunky stallion on the cover? Antoine Ponyo?”

Twinkle looks up at the unicorn, “Stallion’s Desire? No, I got done with that two days ago!” she nods and smiles, “This new one is called, The Mares of Saddle Arabia, and it’s about three separate relationships, that all intermingle somehow…”

Izzy blinks as they pass the abandoned library, “Why are you into mush books, again?”

“What?” Twinkle blinks, “They make me feel good!”

Izzy looks forward at the big brown two-story building in front of the two ponies as they both abruptly stop trotting, “Uh, we’re here!”

Twinkle looks up and blinks, “You know, Bridlewood really isn’t that big!”

Izzy looks down at Twinkle on her left, “Who said it was?” she starts, “Cause I’ll tell them they’re wrong!”

<*****>

The blue unicorn stallion with the dark red buzzcut mane stared at the pegasus filly from behind his desk, “So uh, what’s your name?”

Twinkle blinks, “Twinkle Shine!” and smiles.

The stallion nods, “Okay, what city were you born in?”

“I don’t know!”

“Okay, who are your parents?”

Twinkle blinks again, “I don’t know that, either!”

At this point, Izzy steps up from Twinkle’s left and says to the stallion, “I’m uh, er,” she frowns before smiling slightly and normalizing her mouth. “her guardian!” Izzy nods, “Yes! So uh, any parental stuff goes to me, alright?” and she smiles dimly before staring back at the other pony with wide-open red eyes.

As Twinkle stares up at Izzy on her left with wide-open auburn eyes and a shocked expression on her scrunched up mouth, the stallion looks at Izzy and says, “Very well! She’ll be starting here in two and a half months, for the spring semester!” he looks down at Twinkle and smiles, “Congratulations! You’re now enrolled in Bridlewood Elementary!”

<*****>

Twinkle looks at Izzy trotting on her left as the ponies exit the elementary school, “Oh golly! So uh, does this make you, my mommy?”

Izzy looks down at the filly, “Well uh,“ she frowns, “more of a guardian, I’d say?” before smiling.

Twinkle blinks, “So uh, this means that you’re taking care of my parental paperwork and stuff, right?”

“Yup!” Izzy nods.

Twinkle looks down to the left before back up at the unicorn as they trot, “And uh, it means you’re taking care of me and comforting me when I’m sad and feeding and bathing me and everything too, right?”

Izzy widens her eyes slightly and blinks, “Yes! That stuff too! I would imagine?”

Twinkle nods as the ponies approach Izzy’s front door, “Right! So, you’re basically a mom, but under a different name, huh?”

Izzy stares at the filly with a dazed straight glare as she suddenly realizes that she’s outmatched and stammers out, “Um, r-right! That!” just as the ponies stop trotting…

<*****>

The filly stands on the left side of the foyer, with Izzy on the other end, closer to the door. Twinkly stares up at the unicorn and asks, “So, what do you want to do now, Miss Izzy?”

Izzy smiles down, “Whatever you wanna do, Twinkle!”

Twinkle blinks and stares up at the unicorn, “Izzy! What are we doing now?”

Izzy squints her eyes and smiles, “Well, I didn’t smoke earlier? Wanna split a doobie and play cards?”

<*****>

The brown unicorn pizza delivery stallion with the blond mane cocked his clear green visor hat with the Unicorn Express Pizza logo on it with his right forehoof before using it to knock on the red door 4 times...

A purple unicorn with a long blue wavy mane answers as it swings inward to the right in her blue glow and she stares at the stallion with her eyes, now red in more ways than one, “Yes?”

The stallion lowers his gaze as he hefts the dark blue pizza bag on his back, “Yeah, I have a pizza delivery here for Izzy Fuzzy-Nose Booboo-Face Horsebow?”

Izzy blinks as she wonders why Twinkle used that name and says, “Um, y-yeah! That’s me!”

He widens his eyes and smiles dimly, “That’ll be six bits, ma’am!”

<*****>

Twinkle lays prone on her stomach while she moves her black checker piece over two of Izzy’s red pieces to the end of the board, before looking up at Izzy, currently trotting into the room with a square pizza box and rectangular breadstick box in her blue magical glow. Twinkle moves her forehooves to the checkerboard and scoots it off to the right side as she looks up at Izzy, “That should give you the room you need!”

Izzy sets the pizza down between her and the filly and sits across from her on the floor, and sets the breadsticks to her right before she magically fetches a slice of pizza for Twinkle from the box and floats it over to her.

Twinkle moves to her haunches on the floor and collects the slice with her right forehoof before smiling at the unicorn and saying, “Thanks!”

Izzy sits on her haunches before the filly and opens the box and collects her own slice of pizza in a blue glow before staring up at the filly, “You’re welcome Twinkle!”

Twinkle takes a bite of her pizza and chews it while her eyes narrow. She swallows and looks at the unicorn, while Izzy uses telekinesis to move a red checker piece diagonally across the board. She swallows and says, “So uh, nightmares?”

Izzy stares up at the filly, “Yes?” before floating over her slice for a bite of her own.

Twinkle blinks, “I think Cozy Glow is something from my past?” she frowns, “I don’t know what it is, though?”

Twinkle takes a bite while Izzy swallows and says, “Well, have you talked to Princess Twilight recently?”

Twinkle swallows and blinks at the unicorn, “Um no, actually!”

Izzy eyes the foal carefully, “Well, what’s different now?” she lowers her chin, “I mean, why did you talk to Twilight before, and not now?”

Twinkle swallows another bite of her mostly eaten slice and stares at the unicorn, while Izzy takes a bite, “Well, I only met her when I trotted deeper into the cave…” she blinks and frowns, “I guess she can’t come out?”

Izzy voraciously takes the final ultra-cheesy bite of her pizza before she magically sets the crust down inside the box on her right. She stares back at the filly, “Well, don’t you think you should go back there? I mean, the other way just leads to Cozy Glow and uh, “she shakes her head as she starts, “well, you saw how that turned out!”

<*****>

Twinkle awakens, once again on a stone slab inside the mysterious blue cave. She hears her voice outside, “Cozy Glow! I see you’re here again! Ready for round two?”

Twinkle frowns as she gets to her hooves and trots to the back of the cave as the lights illuminate the atrium softly from the walls.

The voice outside continues to taunt, “Cozy Glow! I wanna talk to you again! Come on! Let’s talk, oh buddy, oh pal of mine! You know, there’s a lot of things we need to discuss!”

Twinkle only stares forward with resolution in her brown eyes as she trots to the back of the cavern towards the light in the back.

Cozy’s voice gets fainter, “Oh come on! You had so much spunk yesterday when you tried to kill me!”

Cozy’s voice dies down as she trots towards the scene in the center of a new cavern in the back, where she once stood before…

She sees a purple alicorn, sitting there on her haunches, and staring down at cards, neatly laid out on the floor before her…

She clears her throat, before looking down to see that the Twilight is playing solitaire, and then, finally stares at the purple alicorn directly and speaks up, “Princess Twilight?”

The alicorn starts and looks over at the filly, “Oh uh, Cozy er,” she starts and shakes her head, “Twinkle Shine! I was wondering when you’d come back!”

Twinkle lowers her gaze at the other pony, “I just have one question…”

Twilight widens her eyes at the filly as she leans forward slightly, “Which is?”

“Why did you save me?” Twinkle asks while slightly raising her chin…

(To be continued…)

Chapter 9: Reparations

Twilight looks down at the filly, “Well, because I never knew why you did what you did, Twinkle…” she takes a deep breath through her mouth, “I never knew why you were evil…”

Twinkle looks up at the alicorn and asks, “How long?”

Twilight starts, “What?”

Twinkle narrows her eyes, “How long was it between the time you died, and the time I was unfrozen…” she eyes the princess carefully, “How long did you wait for me?”

Twilight blinks, “Something like, six hundred years?” and frowns.

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Six hundred years?”

Twilight sighs and nods, “Yes…”

Twinkle frowns, “So, you were with me and watching over my statue that whole time?”

“Yes…” Twilight repeats herself before blinking…

Twinkle nods, “Okay, so what unfroze me?”

Twilight blinks, “I don’t know…”

Twinkle shakes her head, “Wait! What do you mean, you don’t know!?”

“I mean just that, Twinkle Shine… I don’t know what unfroze you…”

Twinkle widens her eyes as she smiles psychotically, “GREAT!” she looks down and sighs before looking back up at the princess, “FANTASTIC!”

Twilight stares down at the filly, “Uh, I’m sorry, but I really have no idea!” she sighs and finally asks, “What took you so long to come back here, anyway?”

Twinkle corrects her mouth, “Well, apparently it’s either you or that evil filly…” she leans forward and widens her eyes, “You know, I went back there last night!” she shakes her head and narrows her mouth, “Didn’t work out so great!”

Twilight lowers her gaze, “Surely, you know who Cozy Glow actually is, right?”

Twinkle blinks as she starts and raises her neck, “Of course!”

“And she is?” Twilight asks the filly…

Twinkle stares up at the alicorn, “She’s uh, another version of me!”

Twilight smiles as she giggles slightly, “Yes Twinkle, but what parts?”

Twinkle grins in quiet irritation as she keeps her brown eyes open, “Part of me that needs to just go away, obviously!”

Twilight sighs deeply and frowns at the filly, “I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to tell you this…”

Twinkle blinks, “You don’t have to!”

Twilight shakes her head and starts, “W-what?”

Twinkle nods, “You heard me! I don’t want to know why Cozy is here… I don’t need to… That’s in my past now and I just want to continue my life…”

Twilight frowns again, “Are you sure that’s wise?”

Twinkle widens her eyes to the alicorn, “Well, thinking about it only makes me sad, right?”

Twilight lowers her gaze, “That’s true!”

Twinkle nods, “Right! And whatever it is, is over and done now, right? So uh, will any amount of thinking on it change a thing?”

Twilight breaths in and out through her nose, “Well, no. No, it won’t…”

Twinkle nods again, “So, surely you see my point, right?” she leans forward and glares sternly, “I don’t need to know!” she blinks, “Also, weren’t you the one who told me to just forget, in the first place?”

Twilight raises her neck, “I did! Well, at first!” she lowers her gaze, “But now that I see that Cozy Glow is bothering you, I’m starting to think that we need to look at something here?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “You don’t really know a lot about psychology, huh?”

At this point, Twilight grins slightly while attempting in vain to suppress a snicker, “Alright, you caught me! I actually have no idea what I’m doing!” she composes herself while stammering, “But, I really do want to help you, I swear!”

Twinkle nods, “And the historical recordwould suggest that you’re not lying!”

Twilight widens her eyes, “Why would I lie to you at this point, Twinkle Shine?”

Twinkle lowers her gaze and smirks on the right side of her mouth, “Well, the other one is obviously lying to me… Why would you be any different?”

Twilight widens her eyes, “I-I protected you for six hundred years!”

Twinkle stares up at the alicorn, “No! You only say you protected me for six hundred years, but I have no way of knowing if that’s true or not!” she fluffs her wings, “I mean, you could be lying, just like the other one, for all I know!”

Twilight lowers her gaze seriously, “Twinkle Shine, I meant what I said… After everything, I really do want to help you!”

“And another thing!” Twinkle bellows out, “If you were really so concerned about me and why I did what I did, why in Equestria didn’t you unfreeze me sooner and just ask me?”

Twilight gulps, “Well, there were political reasons… I mean, I couldn’t just unfreeze you, you know?”

Twinkle raises her neck and frowns with her eyes solidly on the princess, “That’s bullshit, and you know it, princess!”

Twilight blinks… “Y-your right Twinkle Shine… It is a load of crap…” she sighs and looks wistfully to the lower right before adjusting her eyes back to the filly, “I was scared… And I didn’t want to know what I’d find… But now…” Twilight blinks, “Now after all this time, I’m starting to believe that I should’ve done better…”

Twinkle leans forward, “Yeah, I mean! Geez! Two thousand years!” she corrects her neck and stares at the princess, “So, you’re serious, huh? You have no idea what unfroze me?”

Twilight sighs and shakes her head, “I have no clue Twinkle Shine… I’m sorry…”

<*****>

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!” Twinkle’s body jerks as she screams in the unicorn’s forelegs!

“AAAAAHHH!!!” Izzy wakes up with a start as the pegasus freaks out!

Twinkle starts breathing heavily in and out through her mouth, as Izzy tightens her grip on the filly to hold her tighter.

“Are you okay, Twinkle?” Izzy frantically asks.

“I-I met Princess Twilight again! Uh,” Twinkle blinks, “she said she doesn’t know what unfroze me… But uh, “she blinks again, “I think I know why my statue survived, while the two others didn’t!”

“Oh?” Izzy asks inquisitively while loosening her grip on the filly, so Twinkle begins to breathe easier…

“Ugh! Thanks Miss Izzy!” Twinkle exclaims while jittering. “Anyway, apparently Princess Twilight was watching over my statue somehow after she died…” Twinkle blinks, “Yeah, the other two statues didn’t make it, but mine was protected!” she nods, “And the funny thing is, I can’t even remember why!” she widens her eyes and chuckles ironically.

“Wait, so Twilight was protecting you?”

Twinkle blinks as she smiles, “Golly yeah! But like I already said, she has no idea what woke me up out of stone!”

Izzy nods, “Okay baby! Uh, you wanna smoke a joint now?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Golly yes! A doobie would be really nice! And I’ll make us some cinnamon oatmeal!”

Izzy frowns, “Um, I don’t have any cinnamon!”

Twinkle giggles slightly, “Actually, you do! Uh, remember when you were at the market the other day?”

Izzy looks down at the filly, still held there in her forelegs “Yes?”

Twinkle smiles, “You know, you’re not very observant! Putting stuff in your cart that I wanna buy is pretty easy!”

<*****>

The king-joint floats over the table to Twinkle who grasps it in mid-air with her right forehoof and brings it to her mouth to take a draw and make the cherry glow. She soon exhales out the right of her mouth, “You know, you’re a unicorn! We could smoke pipes pretty easily, too!”

Izzy smiles and chuckles from the head of the table, “Well, right!”

Twinkle smiles and narrows her eyes to inhale and taste the earthy tones of the devil weed, rolling down her throat… She purses on the joint before removing it from her mouth with her right forehoof while pooching out her cheeks, until she eventually exhales smoke between the two ponies again and raises her hoof to signal the unicorn. “Anyway, what were you doing today, Izzy?”

Izzy floats the joint towards her face while turning it around in the air, “You wouldn’t believe me, if I told you, Twinkle Shine!”

Twinkle raises her right eyebrow, “Oh golly! Do tell?”

The joint floats into Izzy’s mouth as she says, “I’m making something!” and then, closing her lips around the tip to draw and make the cherry glow bright red.

Twinkle smiles and giggles slightly, “Lemme guess! Another birdhouse, huh?”

Izzy exhales smoke out the right side of her mouth, “Nope! This one wants a sundial!” and then purses her lips to inhale again from the tip.

“Oh wow!”

Izzy grins as she exhales out the left, “Yeah, but that also means I need a special tool from the craft shop! I was wondering if you wanted to go for curly fries and milkshakes with me?”

Twinkle smiles and nods excitedly so her flowing wavy bangs bounce back and forth, “That sounds yummy, Miss Izzy!”

Izzy inhales again to make the end glow.

Twinkle frowns, “I just keep thinking about it, though? I mean, what could’ve unfroze me?”

Izzy floats the joint over to Twinkle, sitting at her usual chair on Izzy’s left before exhaling smoke to the right and looking down at the filly, now collecting the joint with her right forehoof, “I’m not sure?” she frowns, “I wonder if Cozy Glow’s appearance in your dreams has anything to do with it?”

Twinkle stares up at the unicorn and says, “Oh! Like, the schism that is represented by Cozy Glow’s appearance somehow enabled magic to overtake and reanimate me? That’s an interesting theory Izzy, but you know, you still need an external source of magic for that!” before taking a drag of the joint held in her hoof.

Izzy widens her eyes and scrunches her mouth, “W-what?”

Twinkle giggles while exhaling smoke, “Well, Cozy Glow represents something else inside me, that I would rather not acknowledge. Since she arrived, that naturally creates rift or vortex which will suck in emotional type magic!” she nods, “And so, the question remains! What magic did I suck up that reanimated me?”

Izzy frowns and blinks as her mind tries to comprehend everything this filly just said to her. “Um, I don’t know?”

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Well golly gee! That makes two of us, huh?” before moving her hoof back to her lips for another drag…

Izzy can only stare at this filly and attempt to process all of the information that she just said, before finally stammering out, “Well, what about when Sunny got magic back for all of Equestria? Would that do the job, or?” before lifting her chin and floating the joint from the filly’s outstretched hoof.

Twinkle exhales smoke between the ponies as the unicorn takes a drag from the floating roach, “I dunno? Maybe?” she blinks, “I mean, you just got magic back after all this time, huh? I don’t think there’s any powerful wizards around that we can ask, is there?” before bringing her hoof to her mouth for a last drag as the cherry glows and smoke seeps out from the burning end of the joint. Izzy exhales, before inhaling from the burning joint again.

Izzy sees the burning nub in her mouth where she takes a final drag to burn off the nub and cause a small amount of ash to fall from the burnt tip left in her mouth. Her eyes dart to the burnt-out cardboard piece in her mouth before she smiles and says, “Cashed!” out of the left side.

“Yup!” Twinkle happily chimes. Her eyes narrow, “But you know, it’s important to note that this is all just one theory of what actually happened…” she widens her eyes, “It’s not necessarily the right one!”

Izzy widens her eyes again, “Yeah! Hey! Too bad there’s not a powerful wizard around that we can ask, right?” before raising her eyebrows.

Twinkle smiles and giggles, “Right!” she normalizes her face, “But you know, I think we might be hosed on this one?” before looking up at Izzy with wide eyes.

Izzy looks down at the filly and frowns, “Well, you’re probably right? I uh, “she blinks and sighs, “I’m sorry Twinkle Shine…”

Twinkle smiles up to the unicorn, “Actually, that’s okay Izzy…”

Izzy widens her eyes, “What?”

Twinkle lowers her gaze and takes a deep breath in and out through her nose, “Because it really doesn’t matter…”

Izzy looks down and then raises her gaze back to the filly, “What do you mean?”

Twinkle widens her eyes to Izzy, “Well, golly! I finally get it now, Izzy!” she blinks and stares up to Izzy again, “It’s not about finding out what happened!”

Izzy grimaces deeper than ever as she stares wide-eyed at this preposterous filly, “It’s not?”

Twinkle smiles and shakes her head causing her mane to bounce off her shoulders, “Nope!” she leans forward slightly and widens her eyes, “Think about it! Even if we did know, what difference would it make now?” She chuckles, “I think picking up the pieces is really all about taking what’s right in front of you, huh?” she smiles brighter, “Things like my wonderful Izzy…”

Izzy narrows her eyes and smiles dimly, “Now who’s sappy?”

Twinkle gives a wide-eyed start, “Hey! You started it!”

Izzy smiles wider and giggles, “Did not!”

Twinkle happily giggle-snorts again!

Izzy smiles down at the filly, “So, you ready for curly fries and chocolate milkshakes?”

Twinkle stares up at Izzy blankly while frowning, “It’s nine in the morning?”

Izzy frowns, “So?”

<*****>

The pink filly waddles into Izzy’s living room after her door glows blue and opens, swinging to the left on the inside. She sits on the couch on her haunches, burps, and says, “Oh golly, Miss Izzy! I sure am full!” while the light purple unicorn with the wavy blue mane trots in behind her.

Izzy looks to her right to mentally shut the door and then trots to her red EZ-chair in the room, opposite the door and to the right of the sofa, where Twinkle is. She sits on her haunches there, belches, and says, “Whoa! Excuse me!” before sticking her tongue out.

Twinkle smiles and giggles, “So uh, what do you wanna do now, Miss Izzy?”

Izzy looks at the filly, “Well, I needed to get busy on that sundial, now that I have the special tool I need to make it…” she smiles, “But I got a few minutes! What’s up, little one?”

Twinkle stares at Izzy wide-eyed, “I just keep thinking about Cozy Glow, you know?” she frowns, “She said I needed to gain power through friendship and I just uh, “she widens her eyes, “I don’t really want to! I’m uh, not that filly!” she frowns, “And after all this time, I guess I don’t even have to worry about why I was that filly, huh?” she smiles, “I really get a fresh start!”

And so, Izzy hugs and comforts the filly before retiring to her workroom where she begins using the tool to construct a new sundial with a wooden framework and plaster over it, while Twinkle lazily reads her mush books and sipped lemon tea.

Finally, dinnertime came, and Izzy trotted into the foyer with a smile while Twinkle sat on the sofa, “Hey Twinkle! I ordered Ponese takeout! Do you like mushu egg noodles with cheese and fried rice on the side?”

Twinkle smiles as her eyes light up, “Oh golly! That sure sounds swell! Uh, when did they say they’d be here?”

Izzy eyes the filly, “Well, I ordered about half an hour ago?” suddenly, there’s a knock on the door across from the chair, and Izzy widens her eyes at it, “Actually, that’s probably them!”

<*****>

The filly lifts the noodles using the chopsticks held in the cleft of her right forehoof to her mouth for a small, timid bite, while Izzy moves her face into her bowl and starts ravenously devouring the contents while snarling.

Twinkle giggles at the scene of the hungry unicorn, before lifting more noodles to her mouth with the chopsticks in her right hoof.

Izzy looks up from a now-empty blue bowl and says to the filly, “That was good! Making a sundial sure builds up an appetite!” she licks the top, bottom, and sides of her mouth with her tongue before breathing heavily through her mouth and sticking her tongue out. She corrects her face and looks at the filly, “So, what kind of book did you read today?”

Twinkle takes another bite of the noodles with her chopsticks, “Oh golly! I read a neat story about a mare falling in love with a wolf-stallion!” she blinks and looks onward, “Yeah, they’re normally just stallions, but they turn into big wolf creatures at nighttime if there’s a full-moon!”

Izzy widens her eyes, “Oh wow!”

Twinkle nods, “Yeah! He was really destructive and mean whenever he turned into a wolf, until he got with her! Since she gave him a reason to, he said he found something inside himself… So even when he did turn into a wolf-creature, he wouldn’t destroy things or kill livestock anymore…”

Izzy looks at the filly intently, “So, even though he knew he’d turn into the wolf-creature, he learned to control it… “she blinks, “Because his marefriend gave him a reason to?” she smiles, “That’s a neat story, Twinkle!”

Twinkle looks at Izzy, “You know, there’s a monster in all of us… But that doesn’t mean we have to let it control us…”

Izzy frowns, “You think maybe that’s who Cozy Glow is?”

Twinkle nods, “I think she’s everything bad inside me and that I just need to learn to live with her…”

Izzy blinks, “Well, that makes sense!”

Twinkle smiles dimly as she looks at Izzy, “Uh, Miss Izzy?”

Izzy smirks faintly, “Yes, Twinkle?”

Twinkle gulps, “I know it’s only about nine PM, but uh,” she widens her brown eyes and pouts slightly, “I sure would like to go to bed now?”

<*****>

Twinkle trots through the blue stone atrium once more as she tries to remember where she went.

She hears Cozy outside saying, “Oh, where is the demon child?”

Twinkle scrunches her eyes as she continues to trot forward, off to the right as the other her outside continues.

“If you listen to me, you can have everything you ever wanted!” Cozy frantically says from the outside.

Twinkle sees the light from the ramp leading outside coming up on her right and she hurries her pace to a gallop while frowning determinedly.

“We can use the power, Cozy Glow! All we need to do is talk to the right ponies!”

Twinkle starts to climb the ramp to the outside, still with the overcast clouds and the wide-open grassy field… She emerges on the plain and stops as she sees a pink filly with neatly arranged bluish-white curls for a mane staring back at her and smiling.

Cozy widens her eyes, “Power!”

Twinkle begins to trot towards Cozy…

Cozy widens her eyes, “What are you doing?”

Twinkle stops trotting about 10 feet from the other filly and looks at her as she says, “I tried confronting you…” she blinks, “I tried arguing with you… I tried ignoring you…” she widens her eyes, “I even tried to kill you!” she sighs as her eyes narrow, “But you know, you’re part of me, aren’t you?”

Cozy blinks and stares blankly as she exclaims, “Well, duh!”

“And while I don’t know or need to know exactly what created you… You’re still here, aren’t you?”

Cozy grimaces, “Are you just gonna keep pointing out the obvious?”

Twinkle smiles as she begins to trot towards the other filly again, “There’s really only one thing left to do now…”

Cozy widens her eyes as she stares at Twinkle, who’s still trotting her direction, “Uh, what are you doing?”

Twinkle suddenly embraces the curly-maned filly in a tight warm hug as her own mane falls behind her shoulders. “It’s okay Cozy… That pain is real… You’re real… But it’s almost time to go now…”

Cozy can only stand their stricken in the other filly’s embrace, “W-what are you doing?”

Twinkle disengages her hug to go back to her hooves before the other pegasus. “I’m acknowledging you Cozy Glow… You’re part of me and I accept that…” She smiles, “I understand now… “she widens her eyes and shakes her head slightly while saying, “I can’t get you to go away or kill you or ignore you…” she looks at Cozy intently, “But I can accept you… I mean, you make me do things like put stuff in Izzy’s shopping cart and steal weed, right?” she smiles, “But that doesn’t mean I have to try to take over Equestria…”

Cozy chuckles, “Wow! Well done! Uh, “she looks down to the left before back up at Twinkle, “Since you know who I am and what I like to do now, you can make sure I don’t go too far, huh?”

Twinkle nods, “Well, right!”

Cozy smiles and leans forward slightly, “But we’re still gonna do fun stuff sometimes, right?”

Twinkle blinks as she frowns at the other filly, “Well, you’re here, aren’t you?”

Cozy grins, “Oh please! You know you’d be boring without me!”

(The end…)

*Bonus Sesh*

*Bonus Sesh*

Izzy forces the floating king joint with the glass tip to her mouth to take a drag before flinching and exhaling between her and the filly sitting on the velvety purple pillow across from her in her room. “So, we’re done with your room now!”

Twinkle smiles and says, “Golly gee! Thanks, Izzy!”

Izzy exhales another cloud of smoke between her and the filly, “So uh, you’re my child now?”

Twinkle smiles brighter, “Uh, just think of me as ‘your tiny roommate who you care for, feed, bathe, and house!’”

Izzy’s eyes widen as she causes the joint to float towards the filly, encased in it’s blue glow, while she continues to hold the hit in her lungs.

Twinkle smiles as she catches the joint in her right forehoof and brings it to her face for a pull.

Izzy exhales just as Twinkle brings the half-joint to her face with her right forehoof and looks at the filly, “So uh, I am your mom?”

Twinkle exhales suddenly and looks at the unicorn, “No, you’re not!” before widening her eyes and bringing the joint to her mouth again, where she inhales and makes the cherry glow.

Izzy starts and blinks at the filly, “So uh, I’m not your mom?”

Twinkle brings the joint to the side with her hoof and exhales before the unicorn and smiles as she says, “Right! Except, you totally are!” and lifts her forehoof to signal the unicorn with the burning joint.

Izzy forces the joint to glow and float across the room to her, and turn around in mid-air, “Wait! So, I am?” and then, the glowing roach floats to her mouth where she purses her lips around it and takes another drag.

Twinkle widens her eyes and scrunches her mouth while the unicorn puffs, “What?”

Izzy exhales and smiles at the filly, “Are we ever gonna have this conversation?” before mentally making the nub fly to the ashtray where she forces it to snuff out.

Twinkle smiles again, with her eyes still wide as saucers, “Nope!”

Izzy giggles as she shakes her head, “Well, I just finished up those contracts and I got the day off with a few bits to spend.” she smiles at the filly, ‘Let's go to the Bridlewood Head Shop and buy a bong!”

Twinkle smiles ironically and squints her brow, “So, it’s gonna be another one of those days, huh?”

Izzy’s eyes widen and brighten up as she bobs her head and excitedly says, “Well, you were talking about my magic and how we could smoke pipes the other day, and well, you wanted to smoke after your freaky dream,” she nods, “and that made me think of pipes and I thought to myself,” she widens her eyes, “‘Oh! I just finished another project! I could buy a nice bong if I really wanted to?’ and so, then I thought about the things you and I do together and then I thought, ‘Well, why not make that better?’ and so um, yeah!” she nods her head, “I wanna go buy a bong with my filly friend soon!” and then straightening her neck as she continues to grin, bright-eyed at the filly…

Twinkle widens her eyes, “Okay! But you know, we should probably finish smoking that roach first?” she starts to nod, “Better to be ready, right?” and then smiles happily at the unicorn.

(The end…)