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// S1C2 - Don't Stop (Color on the Walls) 
// Story: Dusk and Dawn 
// by PinkFluffyAlex 
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Twilight, after taking a deep breath and eating breakfast, decided to find where Dusk had gone. Turns out the library had a basement that Twilight hadn't noticed, which Dusk had gone down into. He was levitating sheets and sheets of paper from some boxes in the room, then fastening them to a wall with his magic. 

"What do you think you're doing?" Dusk looked back at Twilight but continued putting papers on the wall.

"I'm going to write down the matrix for the spell I last cast, to see if it could have somehow sent me here. I doubt I'll find anything, but it'll be good to make sure. Explore every possibility, you know?" When the papers were arranged in a square grid, Dusk stopped putting the papers up, then raised his quill, and projected an image of the matrix onto the papers.

Twilight's eyes widened at the complexity of the spell. There were arcs and gates just milimeters apart from each other, even when stretched onto the papers that Dusk had prepared. Even the most complex spells Twilight had cast didn't come close to this spell. "What is that matrix supposed to do?"

"Can't tell you. Private. Personal. A real headache to cast, that's for sure." Twilight frowned at his answer, then began comparing the matrix to the ones she knew. She recognized a few patterns present in nearly every transfiguration spell and some structures that told the caster how much mana needed to be supplied to the matrix to power it. 

"How did you cast this spell? Ignoring the sheer complexity of it, you would need at least a week's worth of mana to power it. Unless you were casting the spell for a week straight, I can't see how you could have done it. There aren't any markers that accept external sources of mana, either."

Dusk began tracing the image of the matrix, after labeling each paper by position in the grid. "Twilight, two nights ago, or one, depending on how you see it, a fairy tale came to life and tried to end the world, only to be stopped when you used another fairy tale. Impossible is a very silly term."

Twilight frowned but stayed there to watch Dusk work. There were times that he would, after writing a part down, remove the image of the matrix then closely inspect the part that he had written. It has to be perfect, he explained. That made sense to Twilight since it was the standard for most complex spells. 

Every so often he would teleport upstairs, grab a pancake or two, then teleport back down to continue right where he left off while putting food in his mouth. When he was about halfway through the matrix, a few hours of work having gone into its reconstruction, he made his quill disappear. 

Dusk turned around then jumped, not expecting to see Twilight sitting on the floor, taking notes. "Have you seriously been sitting there this whole time?" Twilight nodded slowly like there was no other reasonable thing to be doing. "Well, I hope you've enjoyed watching me writing this down because my horn is aching and I need some kind of food before I head for Canterlot."  He starting walking up the staircase. "Wanna come with me? I'm going to Sugarcube Corner."

Twilight shrugged. She went with him.

Dusk, as the store came into view, reflected. He found it equal parts fascinating, hilarious, and annoying that he had happened to fall into a world whose differences were so clearly defined. Males were females, females were males. Sure, the names were often very different than his world's, and some buildings were in different places, but there were no big differences between his memories of Ponyville and the town around him. 

By the time his train of thought stopped, he was already at the store's entrance. The door was all the way open, revealing a somehow-cleaned-up floor and Pinkie Pie, who had multiple straws balanced on her muzzle, to the delight of the few customers in the store. When her eyes looked down and saw Dusk and Twilight, she gasped, hardly disturbing the straws.

"Hey, it's the Twilights! Gooood morning you two!" Pinkie tipped her muzzle forwards, dumping the straws off and directing attention to the unicorns. The ponies stared for a moment, then went back to their business. Pinkie leaned forwards on her counter. "So, what can I getcha both today? Or did you come here to talk about Princess Luna's party? Or maybe did you come here to talk about your party? I'm still getting that ready, by the way. Don't you worry!"

Dusk smiled, then stepped forwards. "Can we get two chocolate croissants and two toasted everything bagels with blueberry butter? Nothing too special, just a little something different."

As Pinkie moved to get the order together, Twilight turned to Dusk. "Did you just order for me?" Dusk nodded. "I've never had those before. I would have liked to get what I want."

Dusk shrugged. "That's the beauty of it Twilight. Those are what you want, because they're what I want. We don't just look the same, Twilight. We've got the same preferences too, at least when it comes to basic things like color or food. I mean, yeah those preferences do change over time, but even then I can just bring out the fundamentals and go from there!"

Twilight almost argued against that, but just sighed. "But you act so differently from me! There are smaller details, too, like how you haven't properly addressed the Princesses a single time since you've been here, or how you don't seem to care that your mane is so unorganized! We clearly aren't exactly the same."

Pinkie finished the order and placed it on the counter. Dusk tossed some bits down, then grabbed the bag. Twilight continued. "I mean, I just don't get it! You can't be that much older than me since your body still has the proportions a stallion at my age and level of exercise would have, but you act like a totally different pony."

Dusk waved goodbye to Pinkie as they left. "And don't get me started on your magic!" Dusk didn't, though Twilight continued anyways. "If you really are another version of me, your magical aura should be lavender, like mine! Magical aura only darkens or thickens with age and skill; it doesn't change color all together!"

"Once again, Twilight, you're comparing past rules to the present. Things change, believe it or not. I don't know if it has ever worked the same way here, but where I'm from ponies change aura color quite often. Blue to gold, azure to red, fuchsia to turquoise." Dusk reached into the bag with his magic, then pulled out the croissants. "Just accept that and eat the choco-sant."