//------------------------------// // 7 - Refraction II // Story: Substitute // by RQK //------------------------------// Starlight Glimmer stared at the ornate doors at the end of the tunnel and shifted her saddlebag into a more comfortable position. Even then, it dug into her coat. She eyed the bulging depictions of beings likely long-extinct. She noticed a spherical depression in the center where both doors met, conspicuously empty. Twilight said we might find a crystal ball wedged in there if one existed, Starlight thought. Looks like somepony beat us to it. “So, it does exist…” Princess Celestia trailed off, trotted up behind Starlight. “All this time, this place lay right below us…” Princess Luna joined her sister. “Indeed. To think, we art so deep within the earth. ’Tis truly remarkable. We should hope that Discord’s rampage hath not touched it.” “The one from our world didn’t know about this place either, Your Highnesses,” Starlight said. “I don’t think they did.” The doors creaked and groaned. Dust streamed down from every point as the doors rumbled and shook and slid apart. “I would hope not,” Celestia said. “If we are to help those ponies that you spoke of… then, hopefully, their effects are still intact.” Luna snorted. “Perhaps we may find their queens.” Starlight shuddered. “Or maybe we’ll find all the ponies that they took. …I kinda hope we’ll find them.” The three stepped forward as the doors sank into the walls and finally clicked into place. A large, pink barrier filled the entire opening just behind the door’s grooves. Several structures, both large and small, caught their eyes from beyond. Starlight licked her lips contemplatively and then cast a spell that placed a magic aura around their noses. One by one, they stepped through the barrier and into the chamber itself. Once inside, they gasped. Large, wooden structures filled the interior chamber, reaching from floor to ceiling, sporting catwalks and even the occasional small shack, all supported by large, wooden pillars. Tarps and small pieces of debris covered the massive rings on the floor. Several cauldrons dotted the room, placed more frequently than Starlight had seen in the cavern. She could practically feel the unstew vapors nipping at her coat. Starlight narrowed her eyes and looked more carefully, spotting dark lumps amongst the balconies and terraces, slowly undulating on their sides. While most of the onyx-colored unponies looked asleep—although through troubled expressions—some bore giant cracks in their bodies. Some unponies had only small cracks to speak of, but others had deeper runs along every inch of their bodies. The occasional mound of black sand broke that pattern and, at each one, Starlight cringed, her grinding of teeth becoming more audible. “By the stars!” Luna exclaimed. “These poor creatures!” Celestia shifted uncomfortably. “There are so many…” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “To think all of this suffering has gone on and I was never aware of it…” “We must do something!” Luna exclaimed. Starlight saw one of the lumps move. She then realized that the unmare, who lay several yards away from her on a tarp, bore several deep cracks along the length of her body. In fact, like a sand sculpture that had been left to the elements, entire shapes were missing from her. Several small mounds circled around the fallen unmare, all remnants of her fallen parts. And the unmare stared back at her. The unicorn, flat on her side, tried to make a sound, but found no wind to speak of, containing whatever words she wanted to her lips. She tried to lift one of her forelegs, but that shook and eventually fell limp. The only thing left was her pleading eyes, fully wet yet somehow dry and lifeless. Starlight stomached some bile and averted her gaze. “There’s… nothing we can do. Not yet.” Luna whirled around. “Nonsense! Look at them!” she exclaimed, pointing toward the pleading unmare. Starlight wiped a tear from her eyes. “…I know. They have the unstew. That’s…” she paused to sniffle, “the best thing they can have right now.” Celestia frowned, glancing around once more. “…It would appear that we must continue looking.” The three pressed further into the chamber. Starlight levitated herself onto some catwalks above, and the sisters flew after her. They immediately came to a small hut and ducked through some hanging cloth that served as a doorway. They found large quantities of produce bundled on shelf after shelf. Basil here, cucumbers there, and several herbs and spices that she couldn’t recognize. A table took up the hut’s center, containing a listing of the shack’s stock as well as some memos on needed items and brewing schedules. “They must make unstew here,” Starlight said, pushing some of the memos aside. Celestia examined some of them herself and then pointed to it. “This, here, is this a recipe?” Starlight quickly read it over and nodded, stashing it in her saddlebag. “Yeah. We’ll probably want to make a copy of this. Maybe it’s a little better than what we already have.” Luna nodded and dipped out of the hut. “Good. If there art nothing else, let us press on.” They trotted further into the lattice, ascending several more floors and teetering across thin planks of wood that served as catwalks. They stepped around the occasional sleeping unpony, careful not to make any sounds. They eventually arrived on a large, circular terrace, positioned just under the highest point in the hemispherical ceiling. The wood creaked as they came to a stop. Several portals floated before them, all the size of Celestia herself, each teasing other versions of the chamber. While the energy flow within the walls on the other sides remained the same, the structures were, at first glance, different. “I guess that’s how they’ve been getting around, too,” Starlight said. The princesses crept up toward one of them, eying them closely. “These art the dimensional doorways that thou spokest of?” Luna stuttered. Starlight crept up to another portal nearby and stuck her head through it, taking a quick glance around. The version on the other side had a different set of structures in it (Starlight noted the hut they had just visited in her current chamber was not in this alternate chamber). “Yes,” she said, glancing further around. She then noticed a posting board at the edge of the alternate version’s terrace which contained a few notes. Humming to herself, she backed out and glanced around the side of the portal and found the same posting board in her version too. She trotted up to that and glanced at the diagrams. There was a map of the terrace, denoting each corresponding portal with a single letter. “C, T, I, S, and N…” she read aloud. Atop it, a large letter D titled the map. Beside it hung a scroll lined with magic symbols. Starlight could tell that they were spells but, on closer inspection, they appeared incomplete. Perhaps they were additional instructions or, considering the portal hub they stood in, addresses. There, she found two more letters: R and W. I’ll need to get this to Twilight, she thought. She snagged the list and placed that in her saddlebag. “So, there’s a map here of where those go,” she announced, pointing at the portals. “I don’t know what the letters are for. I guess they’re designators. Something like that. But that’s about all I know.” Celestia trotted over to another portal. “You said that the alternate timelines on the other sides were in similar predicaments like ours. I would assume, for the moment, that they aren’t safe.” Luna nodded. “We would agree. Perhaps, just for the time being, we should keep only to our own reality.” Starlight nodded. “That’s okay! It’s a lot, I know. I’m still grateful that you’re willing to help us with this. Especially after what you’ve been through just surviving Discord.” “Most of our troops are out securing the rest of Equestria,” Celestia replied. “I am sure it will take some time to calm the citizens down, especially those that… may have lost their minds through those chaotic times.” Starlight cringed but kept silent. “But we can certainly save some for your cause,” Celestia continued. “It is the least we can do for you, after all.” She glanced down toward the cluster of unponies. “And especially for these poor souls.” “We shall let you know if we find anything, Starlight Glimmer,” Luna seconded. “Go forth, do what thy must in those other timelines. We will make do here.” Starlight grinned. “I sure will.” * * * “Who am I?” Sunset replied when asked. She glanced around the room and smirked. “Yeah. I’m her,” she said, pointing to her double, “and she’s me.” “That don’t make no sense,” Applejack gasped. Sunset shrugged. “Honestly, I really don’t know how much of this is going to make sense. Although,” she thought aloud, “I’m getting better at it, since this is the third time I’ve had this conversation.” Principal Celestia leaned across her desk. “…I’m sorry?” Sunset glanced around, gauged their confused frowns, and blushed. “Um, nothing. Nothing.” “Where did you come from?” the other Sunset stammered, gripping the armrests. Sunset cleared her throat. “Right. I’ll give you the basics. So… I’m, well, we’re from a faraway place called Equestria. There’s… a portal to Equestria in the base of the statue on the front lawn.” The other Sunset shifted uncomfortably in her seat, gripping the armrests even tighter. Sunset grinned and leaned against the desk. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I managed to open it manually. And that’s why it’s possible for me to be here.” “T-that’s just crazy talk,” Applejack said. “I’m going to prove it before I leave,” Sunset replied. Celestia glanced back and forth between the two Sunsets and folded her arms together. “I will want to see it.” Sunset nodded. “I won’t take you through it, but I can show that it works. The place it goes to, Equestria, isn’t like this world. It’s filled with magical creatures.” Pinkie Pie raised her hand. “Like dragons?” Sunset snapped her fingers. “Yeah, we have lots of those. And griffons. Most of all, there are ponies, which are what her and I actually are.” Rainbow Dash blinked and shook her head. “Wait wait wait… Sunset Shimmer is a pony!?” Sunset nodded. “Yeah. The portal has a transformation spell in it. We’re humans here, yes, but there… we are ponies.” “That’s… kinda awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. The other Sunset shot out of her chair. “Okay, that’s enough,” she seethed, getting into Sunset’s face. “I don’t know what gave you the bright idea to come in here and try to slander me,” she said, shooting Celestia a look, “but I’m not going to sit there and let you say these crazy things. Seriously… Other worlds filled with ponies? Portals? Magic? Give me a break.” Sunset snorted and crossed her arms in response. The other Sunset smirked, looking at Sunset down her nose. “Thankfully, I’ll let you off easy. So… why don’t you go ahead and trot on back to whatever insane asylum you happened to escape from, m’kay?” Sunset snorted and grinned in return. “…I like how you’re trying to discredit me. Hey, just prove that I don’t exist while you’re at it.” She held a hand to her ear, “Come on, I’d love to hear you explain me.” The other Sunset raised a finger into the air and breathed in to speak, but nothing came out. She stood, flabbergasted, even as all eyes turned to her. “Oh!” Sunset gasped, “I just realized. There’re changelings in Equestria. Maybe I’m a changeling. That would explain everything, right? Since changelings exist.” She flicked her ear again. “Come on, lemme hear you say it just once.” The other Sunset blinked, looking dumbstruck. Sunset shrugged. “Nothing? Really? Someone so practiced as you has nothing?” she asked. After a few moments of silence, she snorted and shoved the other Sunset back into the chair. “Sit down.” The other girls covered their gasps and glanced at each other, stifling giggles. Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Sunset Shimmer… is it true?” The other Sunset shrunk down in her chair, laying her hands on her skirt. After a few moments, she meekly nodded. Applejack adjusted her stetson. “Well, Ah’ll be…” “Um… yay?” Fluttershy offered. “This is… making my head spin,” Rarity wheezed, feeling for a fever. “That’s not all I’ve got,” Sunset said, crossing her arms. “You’re… probably wondering why the five of you are here too. Right?” Rarity narrowed her eyes. “With these lying ruffians? Why Sunset, I’d loooove to hear it.” Applejack slammed her hands against Celestia’s desk, glaring Rarity down. “Lyin’!? Why you prissy little—” “Girls!” Celestia thundered. “I will not have this behavior in my office!” Sunset nodded. “Thank you, Principal Celestia. Actually… that’s just it. And I… have a confession to make on her behalf,” she said, pointing to her counterpart. Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and snorted. “Yeah?” The other Sunset sunk further into her seat. “You used to be such good friends,” Sunset said, “and then some things drove you apart.” She stopped a moment to glare at her counterpart and then pointed to Pinkie Pie. “You supposedly got a text from Fluttershy asking for a big party at her animal shelter, where… you, Fluttershy, didn’t like that she ruined your silent auction. Right?” The two shared shocked glances. “Or e-mails refusing your help with party decorating, Rarity?” Sunset continued. Rarity gasped. Sunset pointed to Rainbow Dash. “You got a message saying the bake sale had been moved to another day.” She turned to Applejack and snorted. “She showed up with the entire softball team, Applejack.” “I…” Pinkie Pie began, pulling at her hair, “I thought…” Fluttershy scratched her head. “I never sent you any texts like that…” “You never moved the bake sale?” Rainbow Dash asked. Applejack solemnly shook her head. Rarity fell back into the cabinets with a frown. “That’s…” she murmured, massaging her temples. Sunset glanced at each of them and sucked in a breath. “And it was me.” The room paused. The five slowly turned to her, blinking incredulously. The other Sunset shivered in her seat, balling her hands into fists. Principal Celestia narrowed her eyes and leaned across her desk. “I’m… really good at ripping friendships apart,” Sunset said. “That’s how I’ve stayed on top. I’ve destroyed countless relationships since I’ve arrived.” Celestia sucked in a breath. “I don’t believe it…” The other Sunset glanced up at a picture frame on the opposite wall, showing twelve students flanked by both principals. While most stifled cheerful smiles, some holding onto the gold medals around their necks, one, herself, smugly grinned from in front of them. “I wouldn’t have guessed that in a thousand years,” Celestia continued, “especially not after—” “I ‘lead’ the team to victory?” Sunset interrupted, complete with air-quotes. She snorted and crossed her arms. “That only happened because of that Crystal Prep girl who blew it during the archery portion of the Games.” She shuddered, hung her head, and whimpered, “I don’t even want to know what’s happened to her since.” She then looked toward the five and rested her hands in her jacket pockets. “But… anyway, I just wanted you to know. So that… maybe you could put all that behind you. Maybe you could be friends again. Maybe you could even show her a better way.” “I don’t understand,” the other Sunset interrupted, pounding the armrest. “What gives? Why are you here?” Sunset nodded. “Well, you see, a few friends and I are working on a problem. It’s too big for just us. I mean, yeah… I did want to set things right with you. And I’m sorry if I had to come and break you down first. But trust me, there’s a much better way than what you’ve been doing. But… I also want to recruit you.” She leaned forward. “I want to take you back to Equestria for a while.” The other Sunset stared back in silence, glaring holes into Sunset. With every inch Sunset leaned forward, the other Sunset leaned back. Her scowl deepened with each breath, before she finally turned away. “I can’t go back.” “Why not?” The other Sunset snarled. “I’m going to guess that you’ve seen Equestria already since you so pompously mentioned changelings. I mean,” she said, turning back, “are you for real!?” “We already took care of that.” The other Sunset opened her mouth to say something but ended up tilting her head inquisitively instead. “I’m… what?” “We took care of Chrysalis and her changelings already.” The other Sunset blinked, trying to get any sort of word out. “…How?” she croaked after a few moments. “We have some advantages…” Sunset said. She leaned in close. “Yeah, Chrysalis was running around Equestria for years. And we stopped them in the time that it takes to you watch a TV show.” The other Sunset blinked, letting her mouth hang open. She chuckled in disbelief. “We’re working on something else now. It’s pretty complicated…” Sunset said, swallowing, “and I’ll need your help with it.” “Even after all that? It sounds to me like you steamrolled Chrysalis. Seriously.” Sunset grinned. “I’ve defeated evil sirens, and I’ve soloed a girl who went mad with sudden power… and I’ve even brought back the dead.” The whole room jumped and then fell into a deathly silence. Even the other Sunset blinked several times, trying to wrap her head around it. Sunset shook her head. “Even after all that… I can’t do this.” The other Sunset swallowed and shifted in her seat. “…So. You run in here, completely demolish everything that I’ve built… You honestly expect me to help you?” Sunset placed her hands on her double’s shoulders, locking eye contact with her. “Listen to me… this isn’t some academic test anymore. It’s not some sort of beauty pageant that you can win for four years straight.” She sucked in a breath. “There are… lives… thousands of lives... on the line.” She tightened her grip, trying to fight her dismayed expression. The rest of the room silently gasped and then held their breath. “They’re depending on my friends,” she continued, “and they’re depending on me. I know you can help me with them. Now… I’m no princess. I gave that up a while ago, mostly. But I know that’s something you still want. Sunset… me… I am asking you to serve. I am asking you to do what any princess worth their title would do.” For the first time, Sunset Shimmer truly regarded her foreign counterpart. She kept silent, her only response to periodically blink and remain staring into Sunset’s eyes. She sat up in her seat, pursing her lips over and over again. Finally, after what seemed like a full minute, she inhaled to speak. * * * The overgrowth covered the ruin’s misplaced stones like a coating of paint, giving a splash of green and brown to what should have been a dull gray. Much of the roof was missing but the walls still stood together. A pair of wooden double doors sat in their frame. The rest of the Everfree Forest surrounded it, with the most immediate trees still standing. “I don’t think Tirek has been here,” Twilight announced as she pushed one of the doors open with her magic. The six stepped through, arriving in a decent-sized room. A tall tower, connected to the far end of the room, stood over them like a sentinel. Much of the window framework and even the glass within remained. But a complex contraption took up the center of the room: a marble pillar topped by a large, spherical object. The overgrowth gave said sphere the look of hair. Five arms jutted out from the base, each holding spheres of their own. Pinkie Pie hurled herself onto one of them. “Oooooh, Elements! How I missed you!” “Good call, Twilight,” Applejack said, playfully punching her friend in the side. Rarity walked forward, levitating one of the balls down to her level. “Indeed. It makes me wonder if we’d find the Elements in those other timelines too.” Twilight giggled. She focused some magic into her horn and two portals appeared, one right next to the other. They each showed the same area, but one of them lacked the elementary structure. Rainbow Dash stuck her head through that one and snorted. “Yeah, sure. Discord would have hidden those things.” Fluttershy pointed at the other one which had the structure. “Chrysalis wouldn’t have known about them. That’s why they are still there.” Twilight stroked her chin and considered the Elements as she floated a couple more down to ground level. “Well, we are two for three, at least.” Pinkie Pie rolled over, taking her ball with her. “We’d have to ask Nightmare Moon—I mean Luna from Equestria N about what she did with hers.” Twilight paused and then closed the two portals with her magic. “…Yes. Once we find a way into Sombra’s timeline and Flim and Flam’s, we’ll be able to check on those too,” she said. “Humph,” Rarity said, “jury is still out for now.” “Ah reckon we oughta get these back to the Tree of Harmony soon,” Applejack said. As Fluttershy arranged the balls into a circle, she nodded. “I agree.” She jumped when the balls lit up and backpedaled when those rose into the air. The other five gasped as magical auras, each a different color, enveloped each ball. Said gasps became elated cries when said balls dispersed and settled into orbits around each of them sans Twilight. A white light blinded them from above and, from that, a sixth ball floated down, this time joining Twilight. She turned, grinning from each to ear. The balls exploded, morphing into complex shapes that couldn’t be made out past their incredible brightness. Those shapes wriggled into long strands which then latched onto their necks before finally settling into ornate necklaces, each with gems in the shape of their cutie marks in the center. Twilight’s stone did much of the same but instead formed into a tiara atop her head. Finally, the lights faded out and the six were left to the quiet castle walls once more. They stood in silence, admiring their new trinkets. Twilight giggled before turning to the others. “I guess the Elements have other plans. Girls?” After a few moments of silence, during which their smiles grew, Rainbow Dash stepped forward with a mischievous grin. “Hey, anypony else thinking what I’m thinking?” * * * Twilight dug into the dirt. On the other side of the portal, Lord Tirek shot high-power beams into the ground, throwing up wooden shrapnel and uprooted bush. He punched the earth, threw up debris, ripped trees from the ground and hurled them through the air, and committed other crimes against the Everfree that would have made King Aspen’s blood boil. The centaur’s expression remained focused yet bored. His fists remained clenched as he cut swaths through the landscape. The mid-afternoon sky found itself clouded by thrown-up dust and debris. They were too far away for him to notice. They were too far away for their Elements to reach. Not a problem. Twilight flared her horn, the portal snapped shut, and with that, the image of Tirek disappeared. She turned to the others. “Come on,” she said. Rainbow Dash banged her hooves together and flew ahead. “Let’s kick his butt already! Move it or lose it!” The six walked further into the Everfree, stepping over trees roots here and there. The vines kept their distance, content to idly sway. Their sky, in contrast to what had been through the portal, appeared an unmarred blue. Twilight counted her steps, internalizing her distance. The crystal ball floated behind her, ready to speak up if she went too far. After a few minutes, Twilight opened the portal again. A laser beam cut close to the aperture, shooting chunks of broken twigs and sheets of earth through which Twilight deflected with a quick shield. Together, the six of them stepped through. Tirek stared down at them. His sheer size cast shadows over each of them even at the distance he stood at. His head alone was as big as a pony. He snorted, fogging his nose-ring. “What is this?” he thundered. “Tirek,” Twilight replied. She then closed her eyes, channeling energy into her tiara. The others followed suit as a magic aura enveloped the six of them. The necklaces glowed, as did Twilight’s tiara. Tirek narrowed his eyes. “Are you puny ponies trying to challenge me?” he roared, his voice shaking the landscape. When he received no response, an orb of sickly orange energy appeared between his long horns and he shot a beam at them. It swallowed them, but Tirek kept shooting. Several lights shot out of Tirek’s beam, aiming in his direction. A lightning bolt, a balloon, a butterfly. Tirek dodged a gem and an apple and ducked underneath a star. “What!?” His energy beam split at the seams and Tirek ended it entirely. As more lights shot toward him, his eyes went wide as he saw all six ponies untouched by his attack. Their glow grew and grew and together they rose off the ground. “No! That’s not possible!” he exclaimed. Twilight’s eyes shot open, revealing a pure-white expanse. The ground quaked and rocked as a rainbow appeared, swirling around the six before whipping into a vortex. That rainbow then shot into the air with a crack. It arced straight into Tirek, scooping him into its vortex before he could so much as turn to flee. Instead, he cried out in fright. Twilight smirked, allowing the Elements to move her in whichever way they deemed fit. They moved to crush. The rainbow crunched down and Tirek screamed as it squeezed several layers of magic out of his body. His stature diminished with each wave of magic that left him until he was scrawny, small, and considerably duller in color. The Elements shifted, now done with him, and curled those expulsed energies into a tight ball before blowing it all apart and spreading it in all directions. The Elements, now hanging above the trees, remained in place, directing the energies to return to their former hosts. And Tirek lay discarded on the forest floor below. He grunted and groaned, rolling onto his back. He stared up at them through blurred eyes, tried to reach toward them but fell short by many lengths, before he fell unconscious. * * * Applejack kicked an empty can into an already grown pile and then kicked some dirt onto it. She spat on it for good measure. Finally, she returned to the others. The six of them looked at the several large facilities in the distance, each spewing black gasses from several tall smokestacks into the polluted air. While it didn’t cover all of Equestria from the looks of it, they still found themselves gagging at its intoxicating blackness. A Flim Flam Industries banner hung from the side of one of the larger buildings. Most trees in the area they stood in were no longer anything more than stumps. From what they could see, the rest of the Everfree was likely in the same bulldozed and, based on the garbage lying about, trashed condition. About a few feet away from them lay a table made of crystal. While nothing displayed on it, it bore a similar-enough design to the Cutie Map to convince them that it was exactly that. The question on everypony’s mind, then, was why it was inoperable. Pockmarks in the dirt immediately around it told of abandoned attempts to dig it out. Fluttershy sniffled. “This is making me cry… thinking about all those poor, homeless animals…” Rainbow Dash snorted. “Have you even seen the sky, Fluttershy? It’s a disaster!” “I don’t know if this is something we can just hit with the Rainbow Power, girls,” Twilight finally said. “No, you can’t,” the crystal ball concurred. “Not that I have actually tried it or anything. Actually, I’ve been working on this very world over the past few days. That is when I’m not helping you out, of course.” Twilight nodded. “Any luck with that?” “We’re making progress. It’s not difficult… but it’s not easy either.” Twilight placed a hoof to her chin and hummed thoughtfully. Applejack trotted up and draped a hoof across Twilight’s withers. “Ya reckon we oughta come back on this one?” Twilight nodded. “I think so.” “The portal to Equestria S is two hundred yards to your nine o’clock,” Twilight’s voice said. “Once you go through that, you’ll be able to open portals to anywhere.” “Besides that dreadful wasteland that I keep hearing about,” Rarity added. “Yes, besides that.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “Then let’s go kick Sombra’s butt! I wanna go end a war already!” Twilight scratched her head. “It’s been a while since I was there, so I don’t know how the war has progressed…” She paused, and then turned to them with a cunning smile. “But since we’re near Ponyville… I know just the pony to ask about that.” * * * “Yeah, Ah remember ya,” Applejack said, adjusting her hairnet. “Last time ya showed up, you showed me some weird table thing that Ah’d never seen before.” Twilight nodded, knowing that the Applejack before her was not her Applejack, but rather an Applejack playing her part in the war against King Sombra. Applejack sighed and hung her head. “Ah guess ya didn’t fix things after all.” “Actually, that’s exactly why we came here,” Twilight began, raising her voice over the canning machinery. She watched some apples fall into a boiling pot out of the corner of her eyes. “We’re here to put a stop to it.” Applejack kicked a small piece of trash underneath the machinery. “Well, that’s mighty nice, but…” She paused. “Ya brought others?” Five mares walked through the barn’s open door and approached from behind Twilight. The Applejack in front of her went wide-eyed and took a few steps back. Applejack—Twilight’s Applejack—smiled. “Howdy, pard’ner.” “…H-Howdy.” “I brought my best friends with me,” Twilight answered. “Hello,” Rarity said, waving. The other Applejack swallowed, glanced between each of them, especially her double and then, eventually, Twilight herself. “Well, Ah’ll be… Ah honestly thought you might have been plum makin’ crazy talk the last time you came here. Ah mean, you done showed me that thing outside Ponyville and all, but still…” Applejack chuckled. “Ah know, it’s mighty confusin’.” She stepped forward and wrapped a foreleg around her double’s withers. “But we’re here now and we’re gunna stop that war real quick. We just gotta know what all’s goin’ on with it first.” The other Applejack thought it over then nodded “Aw’right. Ah reckon she mighta told y’all about it. Since you were here last… There was some gigantic push to take some magic relic from him. Turns out he’d been hidin’ it at the top of his castle.” “You mean the Crystal Heart?” Rarity asked. The other Applejack jammed her hoof toward Rarity. “Yeah, Ah reckon that’s what it’s called. They mighta turned things around if they’d gotten that. Ah heard they even got in there. But…” she sighed, “they never made it out. King Sombra’s been gainin’ a lot of ground since. He might make it to Canterlot soon, Ah hear.” She trembled, and her expression grew troubled. “If that’s true… it might be the end of the war for us.” “But he still might be in that area right now, right?” Fluttershy asked. The other Applejack nodded. Applejack adjusted her stetson. “Twi?” Twilight stroked her chin. And then she levitated some papers and a quill out of her saddlebag. Instructions for the portal spell that Discord had taught her filled half of them. She began writing on the other half, copying much of the first. “There is something I want to try. It involves splitting the apertures so that each end can be in different locations, as opposed to how it is now. Which means…” she trailed off thoughtfully. “Hmmm, I will need to account for spacetime distortions there…” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Huh?” “I’m making a modification to it. It will take a lot more energy to open, so just to be safe, we could power this portal with the Rainbow Power,” Twilight said. After a few more moments to mull it over, she added, “And we’ll have a nice backup plan. Plus, it will probably be useful later on.” Twilight finished her modified copy of the spell and tucked everything back into her saddlebag. She stood in silence for a few moments before opening a portal to another timeline. She turned to the others with a smirk. “So, now for step two… Let’s go put on a Crystal Faire.”