The lost twins

When Twinkle Star opened her eyes she was immediately blinded by the light of the sun.
“Oh crap, not again!” She muttered while she tried to get up.
That the sun was shining through her little room meant it was at least noon, which meant she had slept in late, for the third morning in a row. Of course, the first morning she, Stelline and Aline all had woken up at about 4 PM, but hey, their beds were so soft, and they had all been really tired, maybe more tired than any of them actually wanted to admit. They really hadn’t done anything else that day except eating and laughing.Yesterday Aline had woke Twinkle Star up after noon because she wanted Twinkle Star to go with her to the market to buy some nice jewellery and things for her hair. After that, Aline wanted to go to the hairdresser but his store was closed that day which made her so angry it scared Twinkle Star a bit.

Anyway, they had planned to go to the hairdresser today. They found made some clothes for Stelline to wear, so she could come with Twinkle star and Aline today. Aline had found a nice light pink cape which covered Stelline’s body so nobody would see her markings, and she had found a ridiculously large summer hat which was large enough to cover Stelline’s horn and basically enabled her to see anything at all except the ground. Include the dark pink shoes she had to wear to cover her silver hoofs, and you can imagine Stelline looked ridiculous, but there really wasn’t anything that would cover everything and made Stelline look actually good.

Aline had told her parents last evening that she was going with Stelline and Twinkle Star to the new Friendship Lands. Stelline and Twinkle Star had waited for Aline upstairs but it took her so long that they had decided to go to bed so Twinkle Star still didn’t know how it went. She really wanted to know though, so slowly Twinkle Star got out of her bed. She walked towards the window to see it was another nice day; the sun was shining, she could hear some birds sing and she saw some people coming out of the store below her. She loved this view; it was so calm and peaceful, and made her feel like she had nothing to worry about and just had to have fun. She really understood how Aline could be such a cheerful girl.

When she walked out of her room she immediately bumped into Aline who was walking in the hallway with a very drowsy face. Twinkle Star figured Aline had just woke up as well.
“Hey there Twinkle! You’re coming with me? I’m off to the kitchen to make myself breakfast, I guess Stelline’s already downstairs. I got no idea where else she could be anyway as she’s not in her bed.” Twinkle Star nodded.
“Sure. How did your talk with your mother and father go yesterday?”
“It went ok.” Aline said while she walked down the stairs. “They had expected it anyway, weren’t surprised at all. But of course my mom began to cry and so did I, you know how it goes. They’re gonna miss me of course and I’m gonna miss them, but this is what I really want and they understand.”

When they entered the kitchen they found out Stelline was already there eating some breakfast. Stelline really had cheered up the last two days; it had been really good for her to be with other ponies in a safe and warm environment. She still didn’t say much but she laughed a lot more and Twinkle Star noticed she was interacting with the ponies around her a lot more and she was relaxing a bit. They had had some major fun yesterday trying on clothes she could wear and Twinkle Star hadn’t laughed so much in months and she knew this was the same for Stelline. She was becoming more alive, so to say.
“Heya Stel! You coming with us to that hairdresser today, right? I’m sooo gonna kick his ass!” Aline said and Twinkle Star laughed. She was really curious how it all would turn out, as Aline had been cursing that poor hair dresser all the time since they had come back.

Well, it turned out bad Twinkle Star found out. Not for the hairdresser though.
“So.” Aline said when they entered the store an hour later. She had talked all the way to the store how she was going to yell at the hairdresser and Twinkle Star was beginning to feel sorry for him by now.
“Oh hi there Aline! It’s been a while!” The hairdresser greeted them.  The hairdresser turned out to be a male pony who wasn’t so young anymore. His mane were becoming a bit grey though they used to be dark purple and his light blue coat was quite a bit messy. He had a very friendly face though and Twinkle Star couldn’t imagine he had done Aline’s hair wrong on purpose. The store was all white and there were large mirrors in front of the three big pink chairs that were used for the hair dressing. There were two lazy chairs on the corner that looked out on the windows where ponies could wait. The store had big windows that gave a view on the busy main road which Twinkle Star really liked because it somehow gave the white room a cosy feeling.
“It has been a while. Don’t you notice anything?” Aline asked, trying not to sound too nice.
“yeah, looks like your yellow has washed out of your hair. I told you so.” The hair dresser said laughing, while he began to look for something behind his counter.
 “Excuse me?” Aline said, surprised.
 “Yeah. I told you this new color wouldn’t stay in for long, but you insisted.”

Aline’s mouth had fallen open and Twinkle Star had a lot of trouble holding her laugh, and she noticed Stelline had the same problem under her gigantic hat. “You did, Aline. Remember, the new yellow color you insisted on using because you liked it so much as it matched your real hair color so you didn’t have to dye that as well?” the hair dresser said with a bit of a bored voice while he walked to the large table in front of the mirrors.
“I…” Aline said, still so surprised that she wasn’t able to finish her sentence.
“Well well well,” Twinkle Star said while she poked Aline with her hoof, “Looks like somebody has a bit of memory loss! So basically we have been listening to your complaining for no reason at all?”
Stelline grinned while Aline’s face became really, really red.
“I… no, I… I forgot it was like that…” She stammered.
 “Right. Well, I suppose you want to go back to your old dye, right Aline? What about your friends here?” The hairdresser asked while he pointed to Twinkle Star and Stelline.
 “Oh, yeah.” Aline said while she pointed at Twinkle Star. “Twinkle Star here has something like hay growing on her head and we wondered if you could turn it back into hair.”
The old man laughed and walked towards Twinkle Star. He inspected her hair for a while and then said: “Well, I’m no magician and I can’t make miracles happen, but I guess I can do something nice with this. Just come over here in this chair. Aline, you take the other one.”

An hour later Twinkle Star was standing next to the chair again, admiring her new head-dress. The hairdresser had cut about half of her hair and had given her two little braids. He had washed it thoroughly with some other shampoo that smelled really, really bad but it had worked; her hair felt soft and silky again. Aline was still in her chair while the hairdresser was working on her hair. It was completely yellow again and you couldn’t see half of it actually used to be pink, but Aline wanted to do something more with it now that she was here for the last time. Twinkle Star really didn’t know what Aline and the hairdresser were talking about so she walked towards Stelline who was sitting in a lazy chair, looking at some books that were laying on a small table.
“Hey Stelline, look, I’m done! What do you think?” She asked while she turned around to show Stelline her hair. “
It’s nice. Really, it is.” Stelline said with a soft voice.
“I don’t know how long that’s going to take.” Twinkle Star said while she sat down on another lazy chair that was facing the large windows, “I mean, knowing Aline, it’ll be dark outside once she’s done.”
Stelline laughed. She put her book down and looked at Twinkle Star. Twinkle Star couldn’t help but grin a bit; Stelline still looked a bit ridiculous with the large hat and the cape.
“It’s nice to see all those ponies out there on the street. Some ponies really look funny.” Stelline said and Twinkle Star nodded.
“Yeah, they do. It’s really busy here. Ponies from all over the continent use the trade route that’s going through this village. I even saw some ponies with clothes from Madash the last time I was here.” Stelline smiled.
“That’s nice. I’ve always wanted to go to Madash. They say it has the prettiest beaches.”
Twinkle Star agreed with Stelline. Madash was a thin but long country located on the western shores if she remembered correctly. The ponies there had some peculiar traditions and clothing, but Twinkle Star had heard the country was beautiful. It was very far away though, and she had never been there.
“Maybe we can go there once. You know, on an official visit or vacation or something like that.” She said, while she looked at the ponies outside.
“Yes.” Stelline answered, “That would be nice. I love the water, it’s…”

Twinkle Star didn’t really listened to what Stelline said anymore. All she could do was stare out of the window in surprise. Those two ponies that had just passed by…. There was no mistake, none at all. They weren’t strong, but they definitely both had royal powers, she had definitely been able to feel them. They obviously weren’t good at concealing their powers, which actually most ponies with lesser powers weren’t. This had made Twinkle Star able to feel the powers as soon as the ponies had passed by. Twinkle Star hadn’t recognised the ponies, she had never seen them before and both of them had looked really young as well. But those two ponies definitely had been of a royal family. She stared at Stelline who by now had stopped talking.
“Did you notice that?” She asked surprised, pointing out of the window.
“Yeah, sure. That were Testi and Vesti, if I’m not mistaken.” Stelline said casually. Twinkle Star had a hard time breathing normal and not falling off her chair when Stelline said this.
“Who?” She asked surprised.
“Testi and Vesti. They’re twins. Damina’s children.” Stelline said, while she continued to look out of the window.
“Eh?” Was the only thing Twinkle Star could get out of her mouth while she tried not to faint from the dizzy feeling in her head. What on earth was Stelline talking about?

“I said, they’re Damina’s children. You know, Damina, our aunt, mother’s sister who’s one year younger than she is?” Stelline said.
 “Eh? Damina’s alive?” Twinkle Star said, trying to get on all fours because she really couldn’t sit anymore without falling over.
“Sure. Didn’t I tell you?” Stelline said so casually that Twinkle Star had a very hard time believing it.
“No, you did not! What about her five children? She didn’t have a Testi and Vesti!” Twinkle Star said so loud that the hairdresser and Aline were now looking at them.
“Her other five children have died. Damina was pregnant at the time of the eruption, remember? She got the twins four months later. She has lived in solitude with her two daughters since then in a small oasis in the Karive desert, finding jewels in the ground there, which she sells.” Stelline said softly.
Twinkle Star noticed her voice had changed and she was looking at the floor now. “How do you know about this?” Twinkle Star said with a very high voice which even surprised herself.
“Because I met her, a few years ago. Stayed with them for two months or so, then left. They wanted to be alone, I wanted to be alone, you know. I told you, I know about most family members.”

This couldn’t be, Twinkle Star thought. It couldn’t. Damina alive as well? How come she hadn’t known about this earlier? Why hadn’t Stelline mentioned it?
“Who else do you know is alive?” Twinkle Star asked her sister.
“No one. Just Damina.” Stelline said.
Twinkle Star noticed Stelline’s voice was getting a bit nervous and she decided to drop this subject as it was obviously too painful for her sister. And she didn’t want to upset her right now.
“Why are they here? Testi and Vesti? Karive desert isn’t exactly next door.” She said, trying to get the conversation back to the two ponies she just saw in the street. Stelline shook her head. “I don’t know. Go find them and ask them, I would say.”
Without thinking or saying anything else, Twinkle Star turned around and walked to the door. Before she left she could hear Aline sigh “not again!” but then she closed the door to find her way through all the ponies in the street.