Twilight smiles as she heads out to the park to meet with her friends. They always tried to meet for a nice picnic whenever they could get time to do so. She looked around enjoying the trees and the beautiful meadow. She grins as she finally gets to the usual spot and sees most of her friends there.
Twilight says, “Hey where’s Rainbow Dash, shouldn't she be here?”
Applejack says, “I don’t know but I’m guessing she’s sleeping on a cloud somewhere.”
As Twilight smiled at Pinkie Pie she says, “This is a great picnic you have made, Pinkie.”.
The party pony says, “Thanks, Twilight.” as the lavender unicorn started to eat a sandwich.
Twilight then says, “Well, I don’t know about you gals, but I think today is going to be a good day for me.”
Pinkie says, “Oh? Why?”
Twilight says, “Well, I got a new book from the Canterlot Library, one that just came out.”
Applejack says, “Well that mighty nice and all, but what’s all the excitement about this one Twi?”
The Lavender Unicorn smiles , “Well It’s a collection of passages from the journal of a unicorn wizard called Radgan the Traveler.”
Pinkie Pie just looks at Twilight with an eyebrow raised in confusion, “Who?”.
As all the other ponies raised an eyebrow in confusion some scratching their hoofs against their head as to figure out who Twilight is talking about as Rarity says, “I don’t think I've heard of him at all, should I know who he is?”.
Twilight looks at her friends and then smiles as she says, “Well Radgan was a unicorn pony who lived during the days of Starswirl the Bearded, and they say that he was Starswirl’s contemporary and fellow mage, but nopony knows what happened to him. I’ve heard from journals during that time period that he was dabbling in something called “Alternamancy”.
The cowmare says, “Alter-wha?”.
Twilight says, “Alterna-mancy, basically spells that, in theory, you could use to see into an alternate universe, or even travel to one.”.
Twilight could still see she was starting to lose the girls as she says, “Well I guess the best way to explain this is to do sort of little thought experiment. Remember how Rainbow Dash got her cutie mark and how we all got our own?”.
Applejack says, “Why of course we do.”.
Pinkie says, “ Yeah, Twilight.”.
Twilight says, “Well what would have happened if Rainbow Dash didn't or couldn't do the Sonic Rainboom? Like maybe she suddenly got a cramp in her wing or she crashed into a tree or something. We probably would have gotten our cutie marks in different ways and maybe met under different circumstances.”
Applejack says, “Oh Twi, why are you sweating on this stuff? What happened happened, ain’t a thing can change that.”
Twilight says, “Yes, in this version of Equestria, but there could be another version of Equestria where things happened differently and we or rather our doubles could be doing something different right now. Haven’t you ever wondered for once in your life what would have happened if things were different, and not just within our lifetimes, there could be alternate Equestrias where we’re Zebras or Gryphons. Just imagine the possibilities.”.
As The Mares thought about the idea that Twilight had just said, with Pinkie Pie giggling a bit at the thought of what they would look like as Gryphons.
Rarity says, “Well, look who finally decided to show up.”
As she looked up at the sky and sees Rainbow Dash fly fast towards them and lands saying, “Girls, I have some bad news. Somepony at the Weather Service did a misfile and we’re in for a major downpour of rain, starting in just a bit, so I think you’d better get inside.”
Fluttershy gasps as she says, “Oh no! I have to go make sure my animals are all going to be safe from the rain. We’ll catch up later girls!”, as she starts to run towards her home.
Applejack says, “I’ve got to get the apples all inside before the downpour, sorry to cut and run like this!” as she runs to the barn to do the work.
Pinkie Pie says with a look of sadness on her face, “Aww, now my Picnic is ruined because of the rain.”
Twilight smiles as she puts a hoof around Pinkie as she says, “Don’t worry Pinkie, we can have another Picnic once all of this rain is done, and it will be a better one that the one you were going to have!”.
Pinkie says, “Yeah you’re right, Twilight, Well, I’ll see you then!” as she wrapped up the Picnic supplies and packed them into her saddlebags. Pinkie then starts to bounce back to Sugarcube Corner.
Rarity says, “I have to go back home to make sure Opal doesn’t get all wet from the rain, she just hates that.”.
As Twilight smiles at Rarity leaving back to her home, she notices Rainbow Dash fly up to do her weather duties as she Trots back over to her Library.
Soon Twilight gets inside her Library and closes it up for the rest of the day, as the Pegasi start to cover the sky with clouds and a bit of thunder shows in the sky as they get ready for the downpour. Twilight walks up to the book that she had gotten called “The Ruminations of Radgan the Traveler”. She smiles as she starts to read it. She only noticed the time when the clock on the wall of her library chimed 7 O’Clock. Twilight always tends to forget things when she’s doing something she enjoys. She then sees Spike walks down as she looks up from the book.
“Hey Twilight, I see you got yourself lost in a book again,” the purple dragon chuckles. “So what are you reading anyway?”.
Twilight smiles as she has a feeling of déjà vu and explains it to Spike as he starts to laugh a bit, “Really? So there could be a world where Rarity mines for diamonds in the dirt and Applejack sells apple perfumes?” He just laughed at that possibility because at least in his eyes it was something that couldn't happen, not even in a million years.
As Spike then stops laughing he then says, “Well is there anything I can do for you?”.
As Twilight says, “No..” right when she said that however her stomach growled a bit and she just says, “Well, can you make me a daffodil sandwich, all of this reading is making me hungry.”
Spike grins and says, “You got it!” as he runs to the kitchen to go and make the sandwich for Twilight.
Twilight smiles as she starts to close the book when but just as she was about to shut the book completely, she noticed something called, “The Portal of Possibility”. As she read the spell she realized that this would be a complex spell to do. She then puts the book on a stand and then concentrates in the area in front of her. Her horn begins to glow with its signature indigo aura as she started to cast the spell. She concentrated hard, her magic acting as a tendril stretching and reaching out into another universe. She then feels the tendril of magical energy hook onto a similar area in another universe. As she felt the energy finally reach another universe, a portal slowly began to open and as it slowly widened she opened her eyes and gasped at what she sees.
What Twilight saw was a rather large room with bookshelves all with intricate carvings on them as well as a fireplace on the back wall with two chairs set at angles in front of it, she had noticed that they had backs to them similar to the benches in Ponyville park but their backs were a bit more straight almost like one of Celestia’s thrones. She also noticed a large mechanically run clock in the room as it ticked with its hands slowly moving to show the time.
Twilight was about the close the portal having seen enough until she heard a voice come from the portal saying, “Spike, would you be a dear and send a letter letting the Queen know I'll be attending her Solstone Jubilee?”. Twilight noticed something familiar about the voice but it had somewhat of a different tone to it. In fact if she wasn't mistaken she thinks it sounds like her own voice.
However Twilight heard a door open and close and saw a shadow slowly move across the floor and what sounded like hoof steps. She watches as somepony started to walk towards the portal but then stopped and gasped as its form started to fully cross the line of sight of the portal. Twilight herself also gasped. She saw that the creature was wearing a rather long and beautiful dark purple dress with what appeared to be a tightening harness around her middle section and she saw that the creature was standing on two hooves with her fore legs changed to longer things with what appeared to be something like dragon’s claws but a lot more blunt and covered in a cloth cover.
As Twilight turned her gaze upward seeing how this creature was much taller than a normal pony. She saw what appeared to be two decently sized bags or some kind of “sacs” on the creatures chest, and the top of the dress had puffed shoulder sleeves for the lengthened fore legs to go through and it covered the two chest things. She also saw that it wore a choker with the symbol of her cutie mark on it carved out of gemstones. Twilight also noticed a tail coming from the rear end of the creature that looked like her tail. As her gaze fully went to the creature’s head, it almost was like looking in a mirror.
That creature had her head, but her mane was done in a bun style and she appeared to wear glasses on her snout that appeared to be fancy reading glasses. There was no doubt about it, Twilight was looking at herself. An alternate version of herself, in her mind she was somewhat excited. The Lavender pony just imagined the possibilities of meeting and talking to another version of herself. Her mind imagined her and her other self, talking about the differences between their respective worlds and how they differed and maybe undergo a better understanding of themselves. Her bipedal double also looked at Twilight curiously and started to walk closer to the portal and kneeled down to look at eye level with her shorter quadruped double. She looked at her double and started to put her hand outwards to almost touch it and Twilight looked at her double and began to extend a hoof to touch her double’s claw thing.
However, as they both were about to touch each other’s extended hand/hoof. Twilight’s magic started to fizzle and then with a violent crackle of energy both Twilights were thrown back due to the rapid closure of the portal and they both were knocked out.
As her favorite dragon assistant walked in and says, “One Daffodil Sandwich right here, Twi...” he then stopped and saw his best friend knocked out on the floor. He quickly runs to her side trying to get her conscious again , “Twilight, Twilight wake up!”
The Lavender unicorn mare slowly opened her eyes and says, “Spike, what happened?” As she then looked at him and gasped. She then says, “You’re not Spike! And where are my clothes!?”
Spike just looked at her, “Twilight, are you all right?”
As Twilight tries to get up upon two hooves but then falls flat on her face and she looks down at her forelegs with abject horror slowly creeping into her voice, “My hands, what happened to my hands!?!”
Spike says, “Twilight what are you talking about?” as the Lavender Unicorn quickly gets a sheet and wraps it around herself out of embarrassment of being naked.
Twilight just shivers and says pleadingly hoping that something familiar will help her, “Spike, please tell me, who is the reigning monarch of Equestria?”
Spike looking at Twilight with an odd look on his face just says plainly, “Well it’s Princess Celestia.”
Twilight says in complete astonishment and almost as if she was insulted, “Princess? PRINCESS?!?! How can a mere Princess rule over the Equestrian Kingdom?”
Twilight just takes a deep breath trying to relax but her mind was still running at top speed trying to understand what had happened to her and says, “No.no, you’re mistaken, Spike, It’s ruled under her Royal Majesty Queen Celestia.”
She just kept looking around, where’s the register, the bell on the door, and the door wasn't shaped like this. Her mind just kept asking the same question, “Where am I? Where am I?!”. She then stopped looking at her reflection in a mirror, “Oh, no…..” She then fainted like that one party she went to just a few weeks ago.
Spike just looks at Twilight and says, “Ok, I think you’ve probably been reading too many of those books, come on you just need a bit of rest.” as he takes her to the couch to sleep. Spike did look worried about her hoping that something isn't wrong with her. But he reassured himself that Twilight just was a bit overworked and a bit of rest would do her some good.