The storefront for PD7 Pizza was located near the market section of Canterlot and not too far away from the train station. Ponies trotting from one to the other were virtually guaranteed to pass the pizzeria -- and by extension, get a good whiff of the aroma emanating from it, thus causing their mouths to water every time they passed it by! Amethyst was running out of food on a daily basis and was forced to enlarge her cooler so it could hold more cold product. She had been forced to hire some ponies to help with preparation, oven tending, order taking, store cleaning, and the occasional delivery.
Within a month, the pizzeria was doing quite well, making a healthy profit daily. A logo had been registered and boxes were now being printed with purple ink and a pizza-shaped logo bearing the company name. The Solar Princess would stop by every day to check up on Amethyst to see how business was faring as well as taking a couple of pizzas back to the castle.
"Your Majesty, don't your chefs make enough pizza for you?" the purple mare queried.
"Your pizza tastes better," the Alicorn replied, smiling warmly. "Consider these part of your repayment of the loan I gave you for your start-up. By the way, your daughter is progressing quite nicely with her instruction -- she seems to be even more magically talented than Twilight, which amazes me."
"I never found out who her biological father was, your Majesty. Is there a possibility you might be able to conduct a test on your royal guard unicorns to find out which one her father is? I only know it was a guard, and nothing more than that."
"I shall do this favor for you, Amethyst, though it shall also serve to satisfy my curiosity pertaining to this matter as well. Thank you for the pizza -- it appears as though your business is doing quite well!"
"Thank you for providing me with a prime location for it -- many other merchants are quite jealous of this spot, to the point where I have had to deal with thinly veiled threats against me," the purple mare stated flatly.
"Should you have an issue of this sort, please do not hesitate to bring it to my immediate attention. I will not tolerate merchants committing acts of violence against another. Please inform any would-be assailants of my decree."
"Yes, your Majesty. With pleasure, your Majesty!" she smiled.
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As time progressed, Amethyst had expanded her pizzeria to the limits of her property line -- her dining area would routinely be filled to capacity, and open-air seating in front of the establishment required another permit, one which was granted the same day of its request. The purple mare had a staff of twelve ponies working under her, a combination of wait staff, cleaners, pizza makers, and a manager to supervise them. Amethyst had relinquished control of the day to day operations to the manager and paid her employees quite well to keep them happy.
Within six months, the loan had been repaid in full, but a share of the profits was still being paid to the treasury for property and payroll taxes. Despite this, Amethyst was extremely happy with the profits her pizzeria was making. She had all but given up hope of finding the needed spell to return her to her original timeline, but considering how wealthy she was becoming, to her it didn't really matter that much.
During that time, Right Face had ventured to the pizzeria to sample the product for the first time. Upon seeing the purple mare, he expressed surprise, but trotted up to her to offer an apology.
"Amethyst? Amethyst Shadow?" he asked, his trepidation quite obvious.
"Right Face! How nice to see you! Have you come to try our pizza?" she asked him, smiling warmly.
"Um, I suppose I could, but I have come by to apologize to you for my behavior that night," he said, his head and ears lowered in an apologetic gesture.
"You are forgiven, Right Face. I have some other news to tell you, though -- I'm sure you're familiar with my daughter, Galaxy, yes?"
"Of course! She and I are to get married in a few days," he said, beaming happily.
The purple mare frowned. "You may not want to hear this, then," she stated sullenly.
"What do you mean? Is there something wrong?"
"A while back, I asked Princess Celestia to conduct a paternity test to find my daughter's biological father." She stared directly into his eyes, her voice never faltering. He took a few tentative steps back, his knees starting to tremble.
"You -- you -- don't mean --" he stammered, his face a mask of confusion and worry.
The purple mare sighed heavily. "Yes, Right Face. You are her biological father. I hate to disappoint you like this -- I know you had your heart set on marrying my daughter -- but because you are her biological father, I doubt that it can go forward. I was afraid you might --"
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOO!" he wailed as he galloped away as fast as he could.
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Several more weeks passed by and Princess Celestia requested a delivery of 50 pizzas for the Grand Galloping Gala. The purple mare had responded very graciously to the Solar Princess's request and assured her that the delivery would be on time. The Gala was to be held in two days' time, giving her enough advance warning to prepare the dough for the order. She enlisted the aid of her wait staff and cleaners to assist with the delivery.
In the early morning hours on the day of the Gala, Amethyst and her staff prepared and cooked the pizzas, placing them in purple boxes, then carting them to the castle's royal ball room. It was while the purple mare was overseeing this operation that a dark skinned female human was seen in the company of six ponies. Amethyst recognized her from her memory -- there seemed to be something very familiar about her, so she trotted up to meet her.
"Brenda? Is it ... really you? Brenda?" the purple mare asked, a tear of happiness trickling down her right cheek.
"Um, who might you be? And how do you know who I am?" she asked. She gave the tall dark purple mare a quizzical glance.
"In the world I came from, I was married to you at one time," she noted. "But it has been so long! How have you been?"
"I'm trying to get back to Earth, to my human husband," she replied flatly. "Who are you? You still haven't told me."
"I am Amethyst Shadow, but back when I was a human, my name was Michael Walker," she replied. "But that was many years ago."
"How is that possible? I've only been away from Mike for just about two weeks! I've heard he's been searching for me, but he hasn't been able to find me! I want to go back home!" she exclaimed in exasperation.
"Brenda -- for me it has been almost nine years since I last saw you. I had left when you had taken some guy named Alonzo Wilson to be your new boyfriend, after I had lost use of my magic and had become nothing more than a liability to you. He took great delight in physically assaulting me, even kicking me down the stairs -- but that was back when I was in a copy of Twilight's body."
"Nine years? How is that possible?"
"I've been through a lot during those nine years, Brenda. I cast a time-travel spell, which landed me in this universe -- technically, I'm still trying to get back to my original timeline, but I have failed in that effort -- so I am staying here, making money with my new business. I run a pizza company, and we have been contracted for 50 pizzas for the Grand Galloping Gala," the purple mare explained.
"May I have some?"
"Certainly, Brenda. Help yourself."
Brenda walked to the table where pizza boxes were being placed into warming bags and took one of the boxes. The pony who saw this was stunned by her appearance and froze up. Brenda took the box out of the pony's magic aura and opened it, taking a slice, then a bite from it.
"Wow! This is the best pizza I've ever tasted!" she exclaimed.
"We use the finest ingredients," Amethyst replied, smiling at the compliment. "Coming from you, that means quite a lot to me."
"Do you have any with sausage and pepperoni on them?"
"No, ponies can't eat meat, remember?" the purple mare chuckled.
"Okay, just thought I'd ask -- I haven't had meat in a couple of weeks and it's starting to get to me," she complained. "But I need to know if you can send me back to Earth, where I can meet up with my human husband."
"Oh, you're from a different universe. I can do that, but I will need to get Princess Celestia's permission first." Amethyst noticed a certain lavender unicorn chatting with her friends and trotted over to her.
"Um, Twilight -- Brenda has asked me to send her back to her home world -- I told her I can do it, but I need your teacher's permission," the purple mare said softly.
"Okay, Amethyst, I'll ask her for you," she replied, offering a smile, then teleported to the throne room to meet up with the Solar Princess.
"Princess Celestia, Amethyst has requested I ask you on her behalf for permission to send Brenda back to her human home world," the librarian stated flatly. "I would like for her to remain here, as there is much more information I would like her to provide me about her home world."
"Twilight, my faithful student -- Brenda is an anomaly here. I have been willing to tolerate her presence, pending the arrival of her human husband. Be that as it may, I request you bring Amethyst here so I may talk to her personally."
"Yes, Princess," she stated, then teleported back to the ball room to meet up with the purple mare.
"Princess Celestia wishes to talk to you personally," the librarian said. "Take my hoof, I'll teleport us there." In less than the blink of an eye, Amethyst and Twilight were in the throne room. Upon seeing the two, the Solar Princess trotted over to them.
"Amethyst, I'm sure you have met with Brenda and heard her concern," the Alicorn mused.
"Yes, your Majesty. She desires a return to her home," she replied flatly.
"Is this possible for you?"
"With all the new magic you and your sister have taught me, it should be quite easy for me, your Majesty."
"Very well then, Amethyst. Please send her back, she has suffered long enough."
"Yes, your Majesty. Thank you, Twilight."
"Princess, please! I need Brenda to stay here a little while longer!" the lavender unicorn implored.
"Twilight, I can tell you a few things about the human home world if you're interested," the purple mare offered. "I originally came from a human home world, in case you had forgotten."
"Oh. In that case, I suppose Brenda should probably go back home then," she sighed. "Amethyst, I would like to spend more time with you learning about the human home world and whatever you can tell me about it."
"With your permission, your Majesty?" the purple mare asked as she gave an expectant look towards the Alicorn.
"You have my conditional permission to discuss matters pertaining only to your human home world, Amethyst. Do NOT answer questions pertaining to Twilight's future!" she admonished sharply. "But for now, I request you return Brenda to her home world."
"Yes, your Majesty," the purple mare stated reverently. "Twilight, we should probably return to the ball room now."
"Follow me, Amethyst -- it's a fairly short trot from here," the librarian announced. The two unicorns bowed to the Diarch and then trotted the short distance to the ball room.
"Why did you teleport us first? Why not teleport us back?"
"Time is not that urgent," Twilight responded flatly. "I need to talk to you about a few things before you send Brenda back. I heard you found out about your daughter's biological father, yes?"
"I did, and I'm rather disappointed that it turned out to be the stallion she was to marry," the purple mare said sullenly.
"Pinkie Pie had planned that wedding party two months ago, Amethyst -- and now it has all gone for naught," the librarian stated, her words tinged with a hint of anger.
"I suppose it might have been acceptable to you for a stallion to marry his biological daughter?"
"No, you're right. I'm glad she found out before the wedding, but I'll have to admit to being very disappointed --"
"I think Pinkie's the one who's probably more disappointed -- or maybe Galaxy. I wonder how she's taking the news," mused Amethyst.
"Not very well, I'm afraid," the librarian said softly. "She refuses to leave him -- she's deeply in love with him."
"I suppose it's okay if she decides to stay with him, even if she can't marry him -- but if that secret ever got out to the general population, neither of them would ever live it down. I'll have to talk to her, but that will have to wait."
The two entered the ball room and Amethyst trotted back to where Brenda was hanging some decorations on one of the columns at Rarity's instruction.
"Rarity, I thought you'd use your magic for that," Amethyst said, expressing some surprise.
"Amethyst, darling, I have to conserve my magic as much as possible! I don't have the kind of reserves that you or Twilight have!"
"Very well then, Rarity. Brenda, I have received the Princess' permission to send you back home," she announced. The other ponies expressed some disappointment at the news. "Ladies, she has been wanting to go home for awhile now."
"Mike, how are you able to do this for me?" asked Brenda.
"Heh. Please don't call me Mike, Brenda -- I am Amethyst Shadow! You can call me Ammy if you like," the purple mare responded.
"Well, that doesn't matter! I need you to send me home!"
"Okay, Brenda, let's go over to a more open area. I need a little room for this," she stated as she trotted over toward a corner of the ball room which had a fairly large clearing. "I shall open a scrying window to Earth to see if your husband is in bed or something."
"How can you do that?" Brenda asked incredulously.
"I've learned a lot of new magic over the past several months, which allows me to do quite a bit more than I used to," she explained. She lit her horn, glowing a pale purple to open a portal window to Earth, specifically the bedroom of Brenda's house. "I shall check other universes to see if I can find the right one." The image in the portal window flashed with each different universe, some showing Brenda and her husband sleeping in bed, some with her husband in a pony form of Twilight, one with her husband in a certain azure unicorn mare's body, and one with him by himself in the bed.
"I think this might be the one, Brenda. What do you think?" the purple mare asked as she enlarged the portal window to show the entire bedroom -- her husband Michael was sleeping in the bed, a couple of chests of drawers, a bookcase with a television on top -- but Brenda was not there.
"Okay, Mike, send me there. I think that's the right one," Brenda responded flatly. "I'll miss these ponies -- they've been really nice to me -- but I need to go back home!"
"Very well then, Brenda. It was nice to meet you again. Take care, good luck -- and don't be so mean to your husband, please," the purple mare implored as she enveloped the dark skinned female in a bright purple aura and teleported her through the portal back to her bedroom. She trotted over to Twilight.
"I'm sorry to do that, but she can be very insistent. Seeing her brought back quite a few memories of the years she and I spent together -- truthfully, I never thought I'd see her again. Where I came from, Alonzo Wilson killed her," the purple mare stated flatly. This mention elicited a shocked reaction from the librarian. "Oh, I thought I had informed you of that when I had related my tale to you and Princess Celestia."
Suddenly, the doors at the other end of the ball room were violently flung open so hard they made a very loud slamming noise when they impacted the walls behind them.
"MAMA! Why did you ask Celestia to find out who my father was?" a certain purple unicorn nearly screamed.