The silver bells chimed, announcing the arrival of one Twilight Sparkle, followed by one Sunset Shimmer, into The Everycraftery.
As the door behind her closed, Sunset welcomed the warmth replacing the cold of the winter wasteland. Glancing around, she took notice that the store hadn't changed since she last saw it, along with the empty feeling around the shop, devoid of anything but the shelves, the counter, and, of course, the clerk.
She took a mental note to start addressing her by name.
As she mindlessly followed Twilight around the shelves, she stopped when she noticed that Twilight had stopped as well. Glancing up, she found that the clerk was tinkering with the fusebox. "You need help with that?"
Twilight glanced back and smiled. "No, thank you. Just hold on tight; you're going to feel a little pulled."
Sunset raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when it happened: A feeling akin to riding the elevator, but instead of up or down, she was pulled along the higher planes of existence, transcending above and beyond spacetime into the parallelism of the multiverse.
When she regained her senses, she stumbled a bit and blinked a few times at the sudden brightness. A quick look at the display window confirmed that it was the sun, not some kind of magic.
"So," Sunset began, "this is your home universe?"
"And your future home slash office," Twilight said, as she fished out a voltage transformer from the drawer. "And before you ask, it's almost like your Equestria before you killed Celestia, but with her sister around and an additional castle in Ponyville."
"So, in this Equestria, there's a princess living in Ponyville?" Sunset asked. "Don't tell me she's my counterpart."
"Well, no," Twilight said, as she activated the transformer, engulfing her in lavender light.
As the light receded, Sunset felt her eye twitch. Out of habit, she took a swig from her hipflask—now containing lemonade instead of vodka—and asked, "You're a princess?"
Twilight blinked a few times, stumbling a little as her cerebellum reoriented her bipedalism to a quadrupedal one. Shaking her head, she noticed that Sunset was asking something. "Huh? What was that?"
Sunset pointed at Twilight's extra appendages. "You're an alicorn. You—you know what? I should've seen that coming. Are you the princess of philosophy, or something?"
Twilight turned around as she put the transformer back in the drawer. "I mean, not really? Just because I'm an alicorn, doesn't make me a princess. That title goes to my other half."
". . . your other half? Like, your romantic partner or—"
Twilight sputtered. "W-what? No! She's my literal half. The original Twilight split herself a few weeks ago, and her title as the Princess of Friendship—and all the mushy stuff—went to the other one."
"And by 'literal' you meant 'split personality'?"
Twilight scoffed. "Of course not. Why bother with alter egos when you can physically split yourself into two different beings?"
Sunset took a swig from her hipflask and raised an eyebrow. "Why would you split yourself?"
"I didn't," Twilight said, a hint of annoyance in her tone. "The original Twilight thought that it would be a good idea to fulfill both her passion for the store and her duties as the Princess of Friendship." She rolled her eyes. "And it is; she just didn't foresee how the process wasn't really 'Split the concept of me' and more in the lines of 'Kill myself and make two completely different beings, none of which identifies as the old me, effectively erasing myself from the face of existence.'"
Sunset took a swig from her hipflask.
"She could've done that without killing herself, actually," she continued, "But three Twilights just seem redundant, even for my other half."
". . . So, you're the one she made to fulfill her passion for the store?"
Twilight beamed with pride. "That's right! I'm the part of her that thinks objectively, is always curious, doesn't concern herself with the concept of morality, and loves science!"
Sunset opened her mouth to question, but decided against it and instead took a swig from her hipflask. "So, what's the other one like?"
Twilight grumbled. "She's the mushy one. She has feelings, is bossy, and loves to read cheap romance novels. Always objects to my methods of working." She shuddered. "I can almost remember how it feels to live with her in the same body. Fucking Tyrant."
Sunset snickered. "You know, I remember a certain clerk that sold me Friendship just a few minutes ago."
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, actually. That's the only thing we agree about other than disagreeing. And before you comment, it's because I have a genuine argument on how Friendship has an objectively superior standing in many situations."
Sunset nodded. "Fair enough. Although, I can't help but question: how do you identify yourselves from one another? Like, do you name yourself 'Twilight' and the other one 'Sparkle'? Or do you simply call the other one Princess Twilight all the time?"
Twilight let out a guffaw. "What? That's ridiculous! No, we simply avoid each other so that we won't find any situation that requires us to compromise on that. Or on anything, for that matter."
Sunset took a swig from her hipflask. "You know what? I'm calling you 'Lucifer' to avoid any future complications."
At this, Twilight pondered for a while before her eyebrows shot up, and she gave Sunset a grin. "Hey, that's a great idea!"
"It is?"
"It is! It'll be a great solution for our legal stuff!"
"So you're naming yourself Lucifer now?"
"Even better!" she said. "I'm thinking, 'Lucid Sparkle, Twilightspawn.'"
Sunset took a swig from her hipflask and glared at it. "I'm too sober for all this."
Lucy leveled a glare. "No drinking in my establishment."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "I remembered this very establishment selling literal tons of alcoholic drink once."
"Well, yes," Lucy said. "But Sweetie Belle wasn't there at the time. She's our janitor, by the way. She works part-time and is still underage."
Sunset took a quick glance around the shop to see that there is, indeed, an absence of anyone else around.
"She's resting," Lucy said as she rolled her eyes. "She's been working hard this past week for all your hullabaloos."
Sunset took another glance around the shop to see that there is, indeed, an absence of any wares on the shelves. "How hard is it to set up exactly nothing?"
Lucy grumbled in annoyance. "All your hullabaloos. Temporal displacement; I'm sure you understand."
"Ah." Sunset nodded, then took a swig from her flask.
The silver bells chimed, announcing the arrival of one tired-looking Sweetie Belle into The Everycraftery.
"Speak of the devil," Lucy said, as she moved from behind the counter and greeted Sweetie with a hug.
Sweetie tiredly returned the hug, planting her face in Lucy's chest and almost tipping off her hat. "Are we done, Twilight?"
Lucy smiled proudly at her. "We are, Sweetie. You did a great job."
Sweetie smiled and returned the hug properly, putting her chin in Lucy's shoulder. In doing so, she noticed a human wearing battered clothing and carrying a sword and a pair of glasses. "Twilight, is that the Sunset you've been talking about?"
Lucy glanced back and found Sunset waving at the filly. "Yes, she is," she said, as she circled around Sweetie and gestured to Sunset. "Say hello, Sweetie."
At Lucy's prompting push, Sweetie took a nervous step forward. "Uhm, hello."
Sunset kneeled and gave Sweetie a warm smile. "Hello. You must be Sweetie Belle," she said, then reached out a hand. "I'm Sunset Shimmer. You must've worked really hard for all of those redecorating."
At this, Sweetie grinned and confidently took Sunset's hand with her hoof. "I did! Oh, did you like it? It was my idea to make different themes for each of your visits!"
Sunset's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, really, now?" She reached out her hand and patted her. "That's very thoughtful of you."
Sweetie beamed at the praise. After Sunset took her hands off her head, she frowned. "But Twilight didn't let me do anything for your fourth arrival. She didn't even let me clean up afterward, even if it's my job. What's about it, anyway?"
Sunset frowned and, looking up, she found Lucy shaking her head. Looking back at Sweetie, Sunset answered, "Let's not talk about it, alright?"
Sweetie frowned deeper. Upon looking at the hipflask hanging in a strap from Sunset's shoulder, she asked, "Was it alcohol? If it is, I already know about it, you know? Rarity sometimes drinks the stuff."
Lucy answered before Sunset could. "It is, but have you ever seen your sister drunk?"
Sweetie pondered at that and shook her head.
"Exactly. You wouldn't want to see it. And to stop you from slipping into the bottomless rabbit hole that is alcoholism, I think it'll be best if we keep you away from the stuff."
Sweetie glared at Lucy. "Hey! I can be responsible, you know?"
Lucy leveled a stare. "You abused the Supertask. Yes, I knew. That's why I asked him to hide it, after which you abused your powers to sweep the entire store just to find it."
Sweetie blushed and looked away.
Lucy sighed. "Don't do that again, alright? I don't want you to overwork yourself."
"Yes, Twilight."
"Also, you can call me Lucy from now on."
"Why?"
Lucy shrugged. "Felt like it."
As Sweetie was about to say something, the silver bells chimed, announcing the death of the door's hinges and the arrival of one caffeinated Albert Einstein into The Everycraftery.
"Twilight—"
"She's now Lucy."
"And now she's not. Twilight, look!" he said as he waved around a syringe filled with a clear liquid. "I made a vaccine that actually causes autism! Want to try it?"
Twilight blushed and gestured to the German scientist. "Sunset, this is Einstein, the second owner of The Everycraftery."
Einstein frowned. "Why can't I be the first? It's literally in my name!"
Twilight ignored him. "Most of the things he said can be ignored. On other times, however, you should either passively follow it with trepidation and acute skepticism or actively avoid it."
Sunset smiled warily and offered a hand. "Sunset Shimmer. It's . . . nice to meet you."
Einstein stared at the hand. After a while, he raised the syringe and aimed for the aforementioned hand.
Sunset pulled away and jumped backward, pulling out her sword.
Einstein took a manacing step forward and readied his syringe.
From behind him, Sunset could see Twilight chuckling. "And, since you agreed to join us, I guess this is a good a time as any to say: welcome to the family!"