The purple book horse chuckled a bit, her smile widening a little. "W-weren't you supposed to come later in the day?"

"I was able to finish most of my royal duties earlier than expected, so we decided to come early. I hope that isn't a problem." Celestia's gaze was lifted from Twilight and it landed onto the small group behind her. Her eyes slightly narrowed at the sight of two Pinkie Pie's standing right next to one another. "Is this the magical anomaly you were talking about?" She nodded towards Diane who was waving at both princess'.

"Is she dangerous?" Luna narrowed her eyes.

"No!" Twilight cleared her throat. "No, she isn't. She's been with us since yesterday. I have no idea why she suddenly appeared or why she looks like Pinkie Pie but she definitely isn't a threat."

Both princess' gaze lingered on the grayer version of the element of laughter. "Well that is indeed a relief." Luna seemed to visibly relax.

"I highly doubt little old me could be a threat to somepony as powerful as an alicorn. You could turn me into stone in an instant." Diane somehow had appeared behind the two sisters, they recoiled slightly from the sudden invasion of personal space. "That is not an invitation for you to do so." Diane quickly added.

"I hope not, being stone would be so boooring." Pinkie appeared from somewhere behind Celestia.

"Just imagine, not being able to do anything." Diane leaned forward, so that she was face to face with Pinkie. "Forever."

"Hmm, now that you mention it, It does sound pretty bad. That reminds me of a certain someone." Pinkie rubbed her chin with a hoof.

Both alicorn sisters watched the two pink ponies talk about being turned to stone. "I thought this would be a bit more... dangerous?" Luna whispered to Celestia from behind a hoof.

"Though I guess Maud might like it? Maybe?" Pinkie was still rubbing her chin in thought before she realised something. "Hey! I haven't told you about our sisters yet!" She basically tackled Diane to the floor. "There's so much to tell. I'll start at the beginning. I was born on a Tuesday-"

The sisters watched the scene play out. "So she isn't a changeling, a mirror pool clone or somepony using advanced illusion magic?" Celestia turned her attention back to the group.

"If she was, Twilight would have known the second she saw her." Rarity said, her attention fixated on the two pink ponies.

Both alicorn sisters exchanged a look before Luna spoke up. "Pray tell, who is it then?"

"Name's Diane, but you two lovely ladies can call me whatever you want." Diane's head popped out from behind purple smart, a seductive smile on her lips, and a wiggle on her brow. Rarity's face turned from confusion to horror.

For many centuries, ponies have been debating on if a pony could blush so hard that their fur would turn red. For a millennium, it seemed to be an impossible task. However, Twilight Sparkle seemed to prove to everypony present that it was, indeed, entirely possible. Her entire face seemed to turn a deep shade of red. Diane could have sworn that she saw wisps of smoke slowly emanating from her head.

The room was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

"Did she just-?" Rarity whispered to Fluttershy, who in turn responded with a near silent. "Eep."

"Eyyup." Applejack hid her face behind her Stetson.

Princess Luna stepped forward, wings flared at her sides. "You are the first pony to attempt to court me in a millennium. I do say, that takes courage. Though are you sure you can handle a Princess?"

"She can be quite the hoofful at times." Celestia responded to Lunas glare with a simple warm smile.

"Hmm, there's already one Princess under my wing, the more the merrier I say!" Diane pulled Twilight into a sideways hug.

"Diane!" Twilight protested, a blush remained on her face.

"Diane, you do realise that these are the princesses, you can't just be so, so casual with them." Rarity shook Diane, which in turn made her inadvertently shook Twilight.

Luna glanced at her sister. "Ah, I see young Twilight has already been courted, it was just a matter of time." She leaned towards her sister and she whispered in her ear. "It seems that you will be taking over the next meeting with the delegates."

"It seems so." Celestia whispered behind her hoof, louder she said. "Do tell Twilight, when did the two of you start this relationship?"

Twilight averted her gaze from them, and answered with a nervous smile and a chuckle. "Well-"

An energetic voice interrupted Twilight. "We had a huge party yesterday, we drank a lot of alcohol and we did lots of things! Diane danced on top of a table, Rarity made a tuxedo and a dress, Applejack and Rainbow had a drinking contest." Pinkie pointed at each pony as she mentioned their names. She breathed in deep before she continued with her incredibly fast speech. "ALSO TWILIGHT AND DIANE MARRIED!" She finished her speech with a wide smile. Confetti cannons exploded from two corners of the room, pelting the ponies with hundreds of pieces of paper.

"Oh yeah, by the way Rarity." An apologetic smile spread on Diane's face. "I kind of, sorta... might have... eh, who am I kidding. I slept in a public trashcan with the tuxedo on. Sorry about that."

"YOU WHAT?" Rarity's voice cracked in the middle of her scream. She dashed right in front of Diane at speeds that would have impressed Rainbow Dash. "Where is it?" Rarity leaned forward, both of their noses touched.

"Uh, in the laundry room." Diane averted her eyes from the white unicorn who had invaded her personal space.

"SPIKE! I need stain remover or a white cloth and cold water, stat!" Rarity quickly ran out of the room, with Spike in tow.

"Um, I better go help her." Fluttershy softly took flight and joined the two friends. The rest of the group watched as Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy exited.

"Marriage without courting? I haven't seen anything like this in a long time. I hope whatever event that transpired between you two, was very gratifying." Luna remarked drily.

"You have no idea." Diane simply responded.

"A shame we weren't invited to the wedding." Luna glanced at her sister. "It would have been a welcome change from all the appointments we had yesterday."

Panic came over Twiligth's face. "I'm so sorry. I would have invited you if it wasn't so sudden. I don't think anypony even attended the wedding. Or at least I don't remember if anypony did."

Celestia chuckled "No need to fret Twilight. It seems that you and your friends had quite the night. I don't fault you for not inviting us. Though I do have to say that you've gotten yourself into quite the situation."

"I don't- How do I fix this?" Twilight fidgeted with her wings.

"Sometimes the best solutions are the ones you least expect. Perhaps you should ask your friends? Or maybe even Diane?" Celestia turned her attention towards Diane.

"Two words." Her eyes narrowed. "Giant party."

Pinkie hopped next to Diane. "You read my mind. Are you a psychic?" Diane responded with a simple shrug.

"Well, that is quite the idea. It could even be crazy enough to work." Celestia smiled.

"I guess it might. But I think I've had enough parties for today." Twilight rubbed her temples in stress.

Seeing this, Celestia thought it would be a good idea to change the subject into something that Twilight enjoyed talking about in earnest. "Now Twilight, could you tell me more about Diane? And the magic behind her appearance." As Celestia pulled Twilight back to the original reason the royals were here, Diane had made her way towards Pinkie.

She pulled Pinkie to the side and waved Applejack over. "So, do either of you remember anything from last night? I'll start first, the last memory I remember is both you-" Diane pointed a hoof at Applejack. "-and Rainbow Dash were having a drinking contest, and you won."

A smug smile overcame the farm mare. "Of course ah won, Rainbow might come first at many things, but she's always the first one under the table."

"Nice one." Diane bumped her hoof. "But everything after that really is a blur. Can either of you remember what happened?"

A thoughtful look came across both earth ponies. The silence at this corner of the room didn't last long as Pinkie seemed to remember something. "I remember! We baked a few cupcakes with gummy last night! I just can't remember if we finished baking them." Pinkie thoughtfully tapped her chin. "Uh oh." Pinkies eyes shrunk to pinpricks. "I gotta go check one thing, bye!" She ran out of the room in a flash.

"I hope Sugarcube Corner hasn't burnt down." Diane joked.

"Ah hope not. Ah better go check on Pinkie and Sugarcube Corner. If everything's fine over there then ah'll just head back to the farm." Applejack tipped her hat. "Also ahm sorry to say that ah don't really remember much about last night. Maybe somepony else might have seen our antics yesterday." Applejack paused. "Though ah do hope nopony did. If we were that drunk, then we all probably looked very silly." She waved goodbye as she opened the door out of the library.

Diane waved back and made her way towards the three alicorns.

"-It seems that she's a near perfect copy of Pinkie, just with a different personality. I have no explanations of her existence, something like her should be impossible." As Twilight was talking, Diane near silently creeped behind Twilight. Both royal sisters saw her, but they seemed to not bother telling Twilight.

"It's rude to talk about somepony behind their back you know." Diane made her presence known right behind the purple princess.

Twilight recoiled before realising who spoke. She took a deep breath in to calm her nerves. "Isn't that what your doing? In a literal sense at least?"

"Yep." Diane simply replied.

Now that Diane was back within earshot of Twilight and the princess', Twilight teleported a quill and a notebook from somewhere. "Diane, can you remember anything from before you woke up next to Pinkie?" It seemed Twilight wanted to keep this conversation going in the boring direction. Something that Diane seemed to not care much about.

"Hmm, lets see." She thoughtfully tapped her chin with a hoof. "I was fighting against a wave of zombies, but tragically I was bitten by one of them. After a battle that lasted for hours, I finally fell to my many wounds and as I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, it was somehow diverted. Then I woke up next to Pinkie." Diane held a dramatic pose, with one hoof touching her forehead, looking up towards the sky.

"Real answers please." Twilight emotionlessly replied, tapping a quill on to a notebook.

Diane paused, would it be a good idea to tell them that she was basically an alien from another planet? Or even another universe? She shouldn't really have any problems telling these peaceful ponies about that fact. She was sure that they wouldn't actually do anything bad to her if she told them the truth. It wasn't like they'd instantly tie her down and dissect her the moment she told them the truth. Would they? No, they wouldn't. Now that her mind was set on revealing her identity she spoke up. The words spilled from her lips, but they felt weird, distorted, perhaps even wrong. "I don't know."

A sinking feeling took over her stomach, she felt sick by simply thinking about revealing her identity. But why? This was what she wanted, right? Her body felt stiff, as if it was not responding to her own confusion, she wanted to question why her words didn't come out correctly. She wanted to touch her throat, but she simply couldn't move. From the outside, she looked completely calm. As soon as the wave of panic entered her mind, it left as if it was never there. A serene calmness washed over her.

She blinked and let out a long breath she didn't even know she was holding. 'What was that? I don't think anypony here did that. I would have seen their horns glow. There's definitely something going on here.' Diane didn't have long to think, before the Princess of the night spoke up.

"Hmm, this does seem quite peculiar. But fret not, if anypony here can figure out your unique situation, it would be Twilight Sparkle. She has helped us many a time before." Luna gave Twilight a polite nod.

"Well I think I'll be in close contact with her for quite awhile now that were married." Diane patted Twilight's head. At the same time she kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary in her surroundings. She had started feeling like something was watching her.

"I'm glad you mentioned that, I am curious about what you both will do next. Perhaps a romantic honeymoon?" Celestia had a small smile on her lips, one which also could have been mistaken as a smirk.

"Do tell, it does seem interesting." Luna joined in.

"Eh, well.... you see, I don't actually know. We didn't really plan that far. Or at all." Twilight shared an anxious glance with Diane, she responded to her with a nod. "Truth is, we already had talks about divorce."

Celestia's eyebrow rose in a questioning manner. "You both want to be divorced so soon?"

"That sounds like a very unique one night-" Luna was interrupted by a giant white wing blocking her vision from the two conversation partners.

Diane ignored what Luna said. "Eh, maybe. I wouldn't mind getting to know Twilight a bit better. But In the end, it's her decision." She shrugged.

Twilight glanced at Diane. "I don't think us being married is the wisest decision, we have only known each other for a day."

"Well, you two would have all the time in the world to get to know each other, but if divorce is what you both want. I am quite sure that can be arranged. How many ponies know about this?" Luna lowered her sisters wing with a hoof.

"Hmm, AJ, Dash, Rarity, Spike, Fluttershy and my sister." Diane inspected her hoof, where she spotted a speck of dirt. "And the entirety of Ponyville."

"What?" Twilight's head snapped to her wife. "How? There was no big wedding, at least to my knowledge. How could the entirety of Ponyville know about this?"

"Well, you see. There was a wedding, a big one. It was right here, in the library. Me and Flutters just cleaned it all up before you woke up. I might not remember it either, but it seems that quite a lot of ponies attended, or at least heard about it. Practically half the town bowed down to me when I walked through the streets with a banana smear on my face."

"A banana smear?"

"It's a long story." She waved off the concern of the blue princess. "So can you help us? Or will that certain alicorn marriage law prevent you from helping us?" Diane pulled Twilight into a side hug.

It took a few seconds to recall the law that Diane mentioned. "Hmm, yes. I could simply rewrite a part of the law. Something like, if both parties in the marriage are under the influence, the law will not apply? Or perhaps that a confirmation with both ponies is needed after they have sobered up? Though some nobles might object to altering ancient laws, but it's for a good cause."

"Are you saying you'd actually rewrite it? I thought all laws were permanent!" Twilight rubbed her temples.

"They are, until they're not." Celestia winked.

"Well she is a Princess. She can do anything she wants. From helping somepony important to her, to world domination, she can do it all." Diane spread her hooves above her head and opened them in an arc.

"World domination? You think I'd do something like that?"

"No, I don't think it's your style." She shrugged. "Staying on the topic of silly laws. What's up with the ban on strong alcoholic drinks? I find it quite random." Diane steered the conversation back on to its original track.

"Yes sister, I'd like to know the reason behind that as well. I spent a thousand years craving a good strong Equestrian Moonlight ale, and you banned them in my absence." Luna's eyes narrowed as she gave her sister a glare.

Celestia giggled, light and regal. "Well it is quite the tale. A tale that is reserved for another day."

"Aww, come on. You can't just say that, you got my hopes up for nothing. Could you please give us even a crumb of information?" Diane pleaded.

Celestia looked at Diane's puppy dog eyes and resisted a roll of her eyes. "Alright, I guess I could spare a few crumbs. There was one night nearly four centuries ago, where I had the brilliant idea to visit a bar. I hadn't been to one in a long time. Not since we went together,-" Celestia hugged her sister with her giant wing. "-and this was my first time going alone. I might have overestimated my tolerance and I ended up drinking a bit too much." She barely supressed a giggle. "Oh, the scandal that erupted from that. It was all anypony could talk about for weeks. Well, until a different scandal occupied my little ponies minds. I won't go into details, but safe to say that I never did drink after that incident. I do admit that the law is a very heavy hooved response to a very minor problem. Honestly, I forgot that I made up that law, and now that you did bring it to my attention, it does seem a bit silly. I think I might have to correct that old mistake."

Twilight's jaw hang open, she had a lot of trouble picturing Celestia in a bar. Diane however wore a big smile. "I never did trust a pony who didn't have an embarrassing drunk story. You and I could become very good friends."

Luna chuckled. "You should have seen when we went out drinking all those moons ago. We were the sisters that brought energy to every bar from here to Yakyakistan."

"A- But.... What?" Twilight was absolutely speechless. Diane closed her jaw, it might have otherwise fallen to the floor.

"It's natural to have a bit of fun every now and then. Why wouldn't the Princess' do the same?" All Diane got as a response was incoherent mumblings from the purple princess.

"I think we might have to leave the two lovebirds alone for now, don't you think sister?" Luna spared one last glance at the two.

"No need to worry Twilight, I will send a letter when the law is dealt with." She gave Twilight a polite wave and both Princess' vanished in a flash of light.

A calm silence settled into the room. One which was broken not long thereafter by a slow increase of Twilight's breathing.

"Twilight? You okay?" Diane spotted what seemed to be Twilight's increasing nerves as she continued to take deeper and deeper breaths.

"NO! I am not! I know a lot of stuff happens around here, but this is ridiculous! All this is just way too much! You appeared out of thin air!" She pointed a hoof at Diane. "We went way out of control yesterday! And now there's all of this! Not to mention that I can't remember last night! What if we did something bad? What if I accidentally yelled at somepony?" She gasped. "What if I... broke a law?" Twilight sat down from exhaustion, a sad frown on her face.

Noticing that Twilight took all of these things quite hard, Diane did something she hadn't done in a long time. She took a deep breath and gave Twilight an apologetic smile. "Hey, I get it. It's not every day a mysterious lookalike shows up, you accidentally get married, and then have to deal with royal expectations, all in less than twenty four hours. But I want you to know, I’m here for you, Twilight. Sure, I joke around a lot, especially with, uh, certain princesses." Diane winked, "I just find that comedy is a good way to deal with hard times."

Twilight sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. You're right, all this is just very sudden. I guess its just taken its toll on me." Her ears drooped down, she looked absolutely miserable.

Diane embraced Twilight in a sudden hug, Twilight squeaked in surprise but slowly accepted it as Diane muttered softly.
"We’ll figure it out together, one thing at a time. Maybe even laugh a bit along the way."

Twilight couldn’t help but crack a small smile at that. "I guess a little laughter wouldn’t hurt right now…"
They remained this way for a few more seconds before parting.

"How about we do something relaxing then? I think we've both had enough stress to last for at least a few months." Diane tapped her hoof to her chin in thought, before she glanced at Twilight. "Could you recommend any good books to me?"

Twilight's eyes practically beamed. "You have no idea how long I've waited for somepony to ask that." And then the world disappeared in a flash of a teleportation spell.

Author's Note

Many thanks to the incredible 0thefool for making this chapter 20% cooler. (More like 200%) There were a few other volunteers to proofread this chapter, but I ended up accidentally rewriting the chapter a few times too many, and forgot to send it to them.