The darkness that shrouded Diane was slowly illuminated by the appearance of stars slowly appearing through the fog. Their light painted colour onto the once completely black canvas which she found herself in.

Then came the colours in the distance, the sun and a great sight of a planet. As the shadow of the planet moved, Diane could see lights lit up on the darker side. It was a planet she was familiar with, after all just a mere day ago she was still living on its surface. Something about the planet made her feel like she would never see it again.

Her thoughts were broken when something behind her spoke. It was something that she'd never heard before, it sounded like a cacophony of sound but somehow she grasped the emotion behind the garbled words.

It sounded like sympathy.

It was a pleasant morning in Ponyville. The sun slowly rose over the horizon as many of the residents of the quaint town rose from their beds and started getting ready for the day.

One of said the ponies was a pink earth pony, her blue eyes slowly blinked open as the sunlight directly glared at her eyes. As she woke up she realised that she wasn't in her bed, instead she was currently resting inside a trashcan. Her eyes bolted open and a scowl appeared on her face.

"Beryl." She growled. "When I get my hands on you, you'll wish you were never born. Who in their right mind leaves their friend in a trash can? TWICE?!" She waved her forelegs in anger. Wait forelegs?

"Oh." The pink pony calmed down in an instant as the realisation of her current situation dawned upon her. "It wasn't a dream? This is real?" She wasn't entirely sure why she was so surprised, maybe the fact of actually waking up as a pastel-coloured pony finally broke an invisible wall, that she had unknowingly set up for herself. If she was being completely honest with herself, she had spent the whole day before doing stuff that she normally wouldn't have done. She had felt detached from her current reality on so many levels, and now she was left to pick up the remaining pieces of whatever had happened yesterday. It all felt like a dream that was slowly turning out to be real.

She slowly got out of the metal trashcan, falling over in the process and grumbling muffled curses into the dirt. In the middle of this deadly battle an ungodly headache made itself known to her, she could do nothing more than rub her temples in frustration. As she finally freed herself of yesterday's trash she took a deep breath in, a smell of garbage assaulted her nose, something that she wasn't entirely unfamiliar with.

'Now this really brings me back, waking up in a filthy trashcan after my dear old friends mistook me for dead.' Diane let out a chuckle which quickly died in her throat as her thoughts continued to race. A sorrowful smile slowly spread on her new face. 'At least I don't have to worry about all the problems that come with living on Earth. Microplastics, skyrocketing prices, increasing political tensions that could unfurl into yet another world war and the fact that I'd still have to go to work as if the world wasn't actively decaying all around me. I'd gladly take two additional legs and the loss of my dick to be here. It's better this way.' Despite her words, a single tear rolled down her cheek as her mind replayed some of the best moments she had with the friends she had left behind. Images of faces, places and events played back in her mind as she gazed at the blue skies above.

'I guess the songs were right, you never realise what you have until you lose it.' The tear dropped into the dirt underneath her new hooves.

"Uhm, Diane? Is everything okay? If you don't mind me asking." A familiar quiet voice broke Diane out of her own self-induced sorrow. "Are you crying?"

"What? No. Of course not, it's just raining." Diane wiped her tears away and turned to face her sudden conversation partner. The overly kind, aquamarine eyes of Fluttershy held a look of worry before she glanced at the skies above.

"It's not raining though." The statement held a hint of confusion. Fluttershy cocked her head to the side like a puppy, it was absolutely adorable. If Diane still had hands she would have been petting the shy pony for hours.

"Never mind, what time is it?" Diane went to look at her trusty cheap watch on her left forearm until the sight of a pink hoof broke through her automatic impulse. Curiously she noticed that she was wearing clothing now, a black tuxedo one would see at a wedding. All kinds of grime and trash now clung to it, making it look a little more brownish rather than its previous pristine black.

"It's around one o'clock. Have you been sleeping in that trashcan?" Fluttershy hid her nose behind a hoof to try and block out the smell that was wafting from her new friend.

Diane could do nothing but chuckle awkwardly, as she tried to separate the biggest parts of trash from her expensive suit. "So it would seem."

Diane threw a banana peel back into the trashcan. "So, what are you up to?" She tried to steer the conversation away from her current situation.

"I was going to borrow a few books from Twilight, and bring back these old ones I borrowed." The sight of her saddlebags filled with books hinted at her credibility.

"Wait, how are you not hungover?" Diane tried to find any recollection of the day before but everything came out blank.

"I didn't drink anything yesterday, I had to take Mr Cuddles to the vet, he had an appointment in the morning."

"Who's Mr Cuddles?" Diane's eyebrow rose slightly.

"Oh, he's the cutest little tarantula. He hurt one of his legs earlier yesterday. I was very lucky to get an early appointment today." Fluttershy spoke of the tarantula with great joy, somehow not noticing the sudden lack of interest from Diane. Fluttershy's eyes looked down the stained article of clothing that Diane wore. "Why are you wearing a tuxedo?"

"I don't know." Diane shrugged. "Why don't we go find out? How about I accompany you to Twilight's castle and we'll see if she remembers what happened yesterday."

"Wait, you don't remember what happened yesterday?" Fluttershy was about to walk towards Twilight's castle but froze mid-step, her head slightly tilted in confusion.

"Oh, pfft. Of course I do! It's just a saying." Diane waved her foreleg in front of her in a dismissive manner. "How about we head towards Twilight's place?" She pointed in the direction where the overgrown gem tree's top could be seen over many buildings.

Fluttershy shot a confused look at Diane but didn't question it any further.

There was definitely something very wrong today. It may be the headache from hell or just the masses of staring ponies that followed her every move. Diane could have sworn that she saw a few of them even bowing down for some reason. "Is it just me or are some of those ponies way more weird than before?" Diane whispered to Fluttershy, who in turn took a quick glance at the ponies who were keeping their distance from the two.

"Hmm, I wouldn't say weird." She took a quick glance at herself and then at Diane. "I don't mean this in a bad way but I can see why they are giving us a wide berth." She leaned in closer to Diane's ear. "You kind of... Well, you smell." Fluttershy took a step away from her, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, I don't mean to offend."

Diane simply cocked an eyebrow at her antics. "Come on, I'll see if I could take a shower at Twilight's place."

It didn't take long for the two friends to get to the overgrown flashy gem tree. Diane knocked on the door and after a few seconds of waiting it opened. "Oh wow! What is that smell?" A young dragon stood at the opened door, one claw practically in his nose, trying to block out the smell.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just a slight side effect of taking a nap in a public trashcan." Diane waved her hoof in a dismissive manner. "Hey, where's Twilight? I kind of have something I need to talk to her about."

"Seriously? Don't you remember where you left her?" A slight hint of annoyance made itself known on the purple dragons face.

Diane and Fluttershy exchanged a look. "Left her? What do you mean?"

Spike took a step back and narrowed his eyes. "Do you remember anything from yesterday?"

Diane rubbed the back of her head. "Uhh, no?" A question which led to a look being thrown her way by a certain butter pegasus.

Spike sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's in the library. I haven't even walked in there today, but I know that it's a disaster. A disaster that I'm not cleaning up." He let both of the ponies pass by him and he walked off, most likely to find himself some kind of gem-infused food for the rough day that was yet to come.

Diane's eyebrow rose at him but she decided to ignore it. With Fluttershy's help the two got to the library quite fast, however neither of them could have been prepared for what they saw.

The neat and orderly library was a mess of streamers, confetti, dresses and sleeping mares. Diane noticed that the party seemed to have peculiar theme. As her eyes gazed over the room she noticed the large amount of chairs facing a wall, where some sort of arch stood. It looked like it was recently made, from sticks and tape, it was mostly covered by some kind of white cloth.

"What happened here?" Diane turned her attention over towards the small group of mares, all lying in uncomfortable-looking positions on different surfaces, all still fast asleep.

"I'm not sure, I left the party when you and the rest of the girls were still in Sugarcube corner." Fluttershy stopped next to Rainbow Dash, who was splayed out on a wooden table. She clutched Diane's bottle of Applejack in her hooves, the bottle seemed to be half empty and there seemed to be quite a bit of slobber on the bottle. Seeing this, Diane quickly and stealthily grabbed the bottle out of Rainbow's hooves and she stuck it in her mane. She then whistled a small tune as she distanced herself from the rainbow-haired mare.

"Oh dear, I really hope you all didn't drink too much." Fluttershy's eyes landed on Twilight and the pure white dress she was wearing. Her face turned to one of shock as she realised what dress it was. Her eyes quickly turned to the only other occupant of the room who was wearing clothing. "Diane?"

"Yes?" Noticing the shocked voice of her friend, Diane averted her eyes from a piece of paper that she could've sworn was a marriage certificate that lay next to Rarity, who was lying on a pile of clothes, and she turned her attention to Fluttershy. She pointed at Twilight and the dress she wore, then to her. A cold chill ran down Diane's spine at the thought of what might have happened the night before. "Oh no."

"Could you keep your voice down darling?" The dressmaker mumbled through her hangover. "I'm afraid I don't feel well." She tossed and turned as she tried to make herself comfortable in the pile of clothes.

Diane leaned a bit closer to Rarity. "I know this isn't a great time, but do you remember anything from yesterday? Perhaps something like a wedding?" The word 'wedding' came out strained.

Rarity groaned before rolling to her side and opening one eye to look at her. "I'm not sure, but I do remember making clothes fit for you and Twilight, but the rest of the night is a blur." She couldn't keep her eye open for long and she retreated back into the pile of clothes to shield herself from the offending light. "I'm sorry darling but I need more sleep." Rarity's voice was muffled by the shield of her own making.

Diane carefully picked up the wedding certificate from the floor and her eyes landed on the two names written on it. "I'm never drinking again." She groaned and a loud smack echoed out in the otherwise quiet room as she face-hooved.

"Is that what I think it is?" Fluttershy quietly asked as she gently landed next to Diane.

"Looks like I'm royalty now." Diane showed the paper to Fluttershy, who gasped in surprise.

"Really?"

"It seems pretty official to me." Diane rubbed her forehead with the back of her hoof. "What do I do now? Do I get divorced with Twilight or do I need to start doing some royal stuff?" A strained smile slowly spread on her face.

Fluttershy placed a hoof on Diane's back in a comforting manner. "I think Twilight might know what to do." Fluttershy glanced at the purple princess whose head was resting in an empty punch bowl. "But I think she might need to sleep for a little while longer." As she averted her sight away from Twilight she took in the whole trashed wedding. Many empty bottles lay scattered amongst the layers of confetti and wedding decorations long since fallen. "I think we could start with cleaning up this mess. It might also help your situation with Twilight." She offered Diane a gentle smile as she flew up to bring down some of the white cloth from the ceiling.

"Yeah, I think that might be a good idea." Diane mumbled as she got to work.

It took an hour to finally clean the library, take a shower and move all of Diane's new friends to comfortable beds, but it was finally done. Diane also had taken all the leftover bottles and stuck them back into her mane, in hindsight Celestia might have been right, it really was a bad idea to give these ponies that much alcohol. Fluttershy had left to bring the trash bags outside into the trash containers, while Diane had stayed behind to see that the library truly was cleaned.

Diane inspected her and Fluttershy's hoofwork, the library was absolutely spotless. "Hey, I could use these floors as a mirror." Diane could see her face looking back at her from every crystal surface, the crystals made her head look quite different. In some reflections she had a small head, in others it was huge, there even was one where she had an entire universe inside of her eyes.

All the reflections turned in tandem with Diane as she heard a door open and a certain purple pony walked into the library. "Morning Twi."

Twilight grumbled something underneath her breath and rubbed the side of her head. "Morning Pinkie."

"I'm Diane, how could you mix us up like that? We look nothing alike." She sat down, crossed her forelegs and turned her head away from her, a frown forming on her face.

Twilight was a bit taken aback by her new friends sudden reaction. "Ah- I'm sorry, It's just-"

"I'm just fucking with you Twi." Diane interrupted Twilight, who in turn seemed surprised at the language coming out from Diane's mouth. She offered Twilight a strained smile as she rubbed the back of her head. "Hey, uh. How much do you remember from yesterday?"

"We had your welcome to Ponyville party and we had a few drinks then we all went to sleep. I think, is there something else I'm missing?" Twilight tapped her chin with her hoof.

Diane sighed. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." She then offered the marriage certificate to Twilight.

Her face went from confusion to surprise and then finally to shock in a matter of milliseconds as she read through the piece of paper. "We what!? How? What? I should remember something this important! What happened yesterday!?"

Diane spotted the incoming twilighting session that her new "wife" was about to have, so she decided to do something about it. A pink hoof gently touched Twilight's side. "Breathe deep Twi. In and out." She took a deep breath and motioned Twilight to follow her lead. When she did they both started doing breathing exercises to calm her down. "Do you feel any better?"

"I do, but I still want to know how this happened." It seemed that a twilighting incident was dodged but her inquisitiveness would have to be faced head-on.

"I am not sure, I can't really remember anything after the party, and while Fluttershy didn't drink, she had left the party early. So we are out of luck." Diane gently tapped her hoof to her chin in thought. "Maybe the rest of the girls might remember something?"

Twilight sighed. "I guess that's the best starting point we'll have."

And like some sort of divine intervention Rainbow Dash walked through the doors, grumbling something that sounded like. "Never drinking again."

"Morning Rainbow." Diane greeted, Rainbow answered with a simple grunt.

Twilight quickly made her way next to Rainbow, an inquisitive look in her eyes. "Rainbow, this is important! What do you remember about yesterday?"

"Wuh? Huh? Twilight what do you mean?" Rainbow wiped the corner of her eyes with the back of her hoof.

"It's important!"

Rainbow rubbed the side of her head. "Uh, I remember us all having Diane's party at sugarcube corner, then she brought out a few bottles of alcohol and, uhm." A deep red blush formed on Rainbow's cheeks. "The rest I don't remember."

"Your blush tells us otherwise." Diane pointed out.

Rainbow quickly took a quick glance at the doors leading out of the castle. "I just remembered something I have to do, gotta go bye!" Rainbow spoke at a speed rivaling Pinkie's fast sentences. The moment she finished her sentence she was already out the door, her telltale blur following close behind.

"I'll bet my entire livelihood that Rainbow and Applejack kissed yesterday." Diane chuckled.

Twilight seemed to choke on her spit as she heard Diane. "What?" Was all she could ask in the midst of all the coughing.

"Don't worry, my entire livelihood is just thirty bits, it's not that much." Then just as quickly as her smile appeared, it vanished. "Damn, I need a job."

The conversation topic was broken when the doors to the library were opened up again, this time both Pinkie and Applejack walked in. Both parties exchanged their good mornings before delving into the matter at hand, or hoof.

"Before Twi makes your hangover brains explode from questions, I gotta ask. How did both of you know we'd be here?"

"Spike was waiting near the guest bedrooms, he told us that you needed to see us!" Pinkie hopped next to Diane and gave her a big hug. "Good morning LSTNC!" Pinkies cheek pushed against Diane's, they looked pretty cute doing so.

"LSTNC?" Twilight asked, a questioning look on her face.

"Little Sister Totally Not Clone of course!" Pinkie stated happily.

"Little sister?" Diane broke away from the hug and inspected her "big" sister.

"Of course! If you appeared just yesterday then-" Pinkie gasped. "You're one day old! Oh, I have to throw you a happy twenty-four hours party!"

"Wait ah minute, If you're a day old, then how did you have all that alcohol?" Applejack seemed to join into the conversation. "And ah'm pretty sure somepony who is a day old shouldn't be drinking."

"Come on now AJ, we all know I can't physically be a one year old, that's impossible." Somehow Diane disappeared and reappeared behind Applejack, a pink hoof wrapped around her side in some sort of hug. "Just think how dumb that would look, a foal drinking alcohol from a bottle twice their size." She hid a chuckle behind a hoof. "Besides, while I might be a one day old in theory, I still have a few decades of-" Diane did air quotes with both her hooves. "-memories in this noggin of mine. And It's not like the alcohol will affect me as if I actually was one day old." She then turned her attention to her sister. "I do like your idea, but I'll have to decline, sorry sis."

"Aww, well I'll throw you the biggest one-year birthday party when the time comes! I Pinkie promise!" Pinkie then followed the motions of her ancient promise to the t.

"I'll hold you to it Pinks, but I do have to correct you, I'm twenty-three years old."

Pinkie's eyes narrowed. "What's your birthday?"

"May third." Diane simply answered.

"What time?" Pinkie's face slowly inched closer towards Diane's, they were so close that if she leaned even a centimeter forward, they'd be touching noses. Despite Pinkie's antics, Diane didn't back down.

"Ten fifty, in the morning." Diane's eyes narrowed.

And just like that, Pinkie broke their intense staring contest by catching Diane off guard and giving her a big hug. "I'm one minute older! You're still my little sis!" Pinkie's hug was strong as steel.

"Breath! Let me breathe Pinks." Diane wheezed.

"Oops, sorry." Pinkie let go of her sister and let her finally breathe.

"That makes no sense." Twilight decided to butt into the wholesome conversation. "How can-" Twilight's question was interrupted by Diane.

"Come on Twi, what's the fun in making sense. Just forget my weird existence for now and lets get to the actually important reason we are here."

"Oh! I wanna guess! Is it a surprise?" Pinkie hopped around the small group, a wide smile on her face.

"You could certainly say that." Diane chuckled.

"Does it have something to do with you and Twilight?" Pinkie appeared behind both Diane and Twilight, she then pulled them both close to each other.

Diane's voice lowered in tone. "You're good."

Pinkie tapped her chin with a hoof, seemingly in deep thought until she gave a small smirk at her sister. "Did you both get married in a drunken stupor?"

"Ah don't know Pinkie, usually you're really good at guessing stuff but ah think that's a bit of a stretch." Applejack adjusted her stetson that had been drooping a bit to the side.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner! How did you know?" Diane impersonated a gameshow host as she pulled her sister into a sideways hug, all the while enjoying the shocked look on Applejack's face.

"Twilight is still holding on to the marriage certificate. I just saw it when I was hopping around you two."

"So, you're both married now?" Confusion evident in Applejacks voice. "Uh, congratulations?"

"Oh! We have to throw an unexpected wedding party now!" It seemed that Pinkie was excited at the news.

Diane chuckled. "As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, I don't think we'll stay married for long."

"What?" Both Applejack and Pinkie recoiled as if she had just cussed them out.

"Like is said, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I really don't think this would work. We've only known each other for a day and were already married. I'm pretty sure that relationships usually don't progress that fast. I say we should probably call it off for now, right Twilight?" Diane turned her attention to Twilight who seemed to be rubbing her leg in a nervous manner.

"About that." Twilight's eyes seemed to have a hard time looking at Diane. "We kind of, can't."

"What? Why not?"

"You see, there's this ancient law that states that if an alicorn such as myself, marries a non-alicorn, they have to be together until either of the pair passes on. There's a lot of reasons why it exists but originally It was made to quell the feelings of unrest when the three pony tribes united under a new rule, that of alicorns." Twilight easily dipped into nerd mode.

Diane sighed and rubbed her temples. "Look, Twi. Could we have this conversation a bit later? I think we should get into the other problem at ha- hoof, we should figure out what truly happened yesterday, so that there wouldn't be any other surprises that come and bite our backsides."

And just like that, it was as if the entire world hated what Diane just said, as the doors to the library opened once more. This time Spike, Rarity and Fluttershy walked in, however two way bigger ponies accompanied them, they towered over the little ponies that they followed.

One was an alicorn with a pure white coat and a multi-coloured mane. The second alicorn was slightly shorter than the white mare, her coat was a deep blue and her mane resembled that of a night sky. Both their manes moved in an illusory wind.

"Celestia? Luna? What are you doing here?" Twilight made a mad dash to greet both of the princess' with a nervous smile.

Celestia chuckled. "Don't you remember? You asked us both to visit today. You mentioned something about an unexplained magical anomaly that needed our attention."

"This is going to be great." Diane spoke underneath her breath, it took every last drop of restraint to not face-hoof again.

Author's Note

Here's a very quick 4 am drawing of Diane's wonderful morning.

Here's a link to the image if it ever stops working.
Well this took way longer than it should have. Not going to lie, I had quite the trouble trying to finish this chapter. I don't know why but I found the dialogue to be very difficult to write.

What didn't help was that I had trouble thinking if this chapter was good enough to publish, but thanks to a few people giving their opinions about this chapter, it's now released. Thanks to FruitiPebbei, Negativity enjoyer and 0thefool for proof reading this chapter.

(Also don't ask why the fur on that picture is so saturated. I have no idea how I didn't spot it before and I am too lazy to correct it.)