Owing to an unfortunate incident involving Celestia and tea, Twilight Sparkle's original notes on the mechanics of respawning away from the mirror portal were lost. The following is her attempt to reproduce the results from memory.0
It was just before noon when Twilight A, Sunset Shimmer, and Timber Spruce arrived at the magic cave at Camp Everfree. Twilight had been reluctant to allow Timber Spruce along, though he was unclear on why.
"So this is where those magic geodes came from?" Timber Spruce asked.
"Nodules," Twilight A corrected, "Geodes have crystals growing inside a cavity. So at most two of them are geodes."*
Timber Spruce considered this. "What about those two?"
Twilight A shrugged. "Those we can't see through," she said, "So they could be geodes, we just can't tell."
"Twilight... Twilight 1 I mean... says she's ready," Sunset said, looking at her Instant Messaging Notebook (tm).
"So why is she Twilight 1?" Timber Spruce asked.
"Well, we needed something different to call us," Twilight A said, "And we didn't want it to be something like 1 and 2, so we went with 1 and A."
Timber grinned. "Was that a reference to that cartoon with all the math?"
Twilight smiled back. "Probably not, but I did consider calling our universe the Mongooses."1
Sunset looked over at them. "I have no idea what you're talking about, so I doubt the other Twilight will either. Maybe give those references a rest while she's here?"
"So what are we waiting for exactly" Timber Spruce asked. he walked over to the pedestal to examing it more closely.
"Twilight 1 is going to try to appear here instead of at the mirror," Twilight A said.
"I just hope a picture is enough for her to go on," Sunset said, "Thank goodness for Pinkie Pie's compulsive picture-taking."
"Yeah I've seen that," Timber Spruce said, "Does her room just have like, piles of hard drives stacked up?'
Sunset chuckled. "No. So I guess she deletes most of them."
"Yet she always has the one you want," Twilight A said.
Right around then, a breeze started blowing. Timber Spruce took a step back, and the other two looked at the pedestal. There was a small, silverly circle hovering over it. The circle was about the size of a low-denomination coin of some sort. As they watched, the circle expanded and the wind increased. When it was just large enough to accomodate a pair of hands, such a pair appeared. The purple hands gripped the side and began to pull the hole wider.
"Should we do something?" Twilight A said.
"I've got it!" Twilight's voice came from within the hole, "Just give me a moment!"
She gradually pulled what was clearly a portal open, and started to pull herself through. When she had just gotten her shoulders through, she lost her grip and her hands popped out, causing the portal to try to close on her torso. Sunset reacted quickly and grabbed her left hand. Timber grabbed her right just a touch later. Twilight A held up her hands and used her telekinesis to pull the portal open just a hair. With a slight 'pop', Twilight 1 came free. Twilight 1, Timber Spruce, and Sunset tumbled to the ground. The portal winked closed.
"So what happened?" Twilight A said, taking out her notebook. She began jotting down her own observations right away.
"Uggh... Well, I was in the bright cloudy place as usual"Twilight 1 said as she rubbed her head. Timber Spruce got up and offered her a hand. Twilight started to bump fists, then remembered that was not the custom here and grabbed his hand to shake it. Instead he pulled her to her feet, where she rocked a bit unsteadily. Twilight 1 stared at him curiously.
"Ahem," Twilight A said after a moment. Twilight 1 realized she was still holding Timber Spruce's hand and quickly let go. Timber Spruce blushed.
"Sorry, force of habit," he said, "You two really do look alike."
"Curious, isn't it?" Twilight 1 said, "Yet some ponies... people... only exist in one dimension or the other."
"Yeah. Still haven't found another of me," Sunset said, now on her feet. "Lucky thing, too. But weren't you about to explain what happened?"
"Oh! Right!" Twilight 1 said, "So when I thought of this place, a little portal opened. I tried to picture it larger, but I guess because I didn't know what it could come out of here, I had to pull it open wider."
"We saw that," Twilight A said, nodding, "And there was a wind blowing out of it. So that place has air?"
"I guess it must," Twilight 1 said, putting her fist to her chin thoughtfully. "So that means the body is being formed there?"
"Wait, body?" Timber Spruce said, picking up on the odd wording.
"Uhhh, you know what?" Sunset cut in, "Maybe we should go get lunch. You should probably be sitting down when you hear this.
"Oh good, more guinee pigs for my camp recipes!" Timber Spruce said, "It's hard to get Twilight here to give me an honest opinion."
Twilight A blushed slightly at this.
"I think we can handle that," Sunset said with a grin.
The quartet tried out Timber Spruce's latest concoction2 while they explained the general situation to him. He nearly choked on his food when they got to the part where Twilight 1 killed herself to test the 'respawning'.
"So I guess you can't get back the way you came?" Sunset said as Timber calmed down. She hesitated a moment. "Not that I would want you to."
"Even if it worked, it might be a bit awkward," Twilight 1 said with a nod, "I guess we have to get back to Canterlot High and use the mirror portal. I left the notebook with Spike. Send him a message and let him know I'll be awhile."
When they were done eating and heading back to Twilight A's car3, the notebook buzzed. Sunset took a look.
"Spike says you have a message from Princess Celestia," Sunset said.
"What? What does it say?" Twilight 1 asked excitedly.
"He didn't say yet. Hold on..." Sunset said. She wrote back asking for clarification.
"It says she'll be stopping by to check on our progress later today," Sunset said, becoming a bit nervous.
"I thought you two made up?" Twilight A asked.
"Yeah, but it's still awkward," Sunset said.
"So I guess she's the counterpat of Principal Celestia?" Timber Spruce asked.
"Yes," Twilight 1 confirmed. Her face brighted. "I guess we'd better get moving then! Got to have results to present!"
"Huh, I'm impressed," Sunset said, "I thought you'd be freaking out."
"Pssh, whaaat? Me? Freak out?" Twilight 1 said. Sunset, Twilight A , and Timber Spruce all gave her a look. "Ok, maybe once," Twilight 1 said, "But I'm good now. Really."
Timber Spruce stayed behind at Camp Everfree, while the others made the drive back to Canterlot High. Along the way they brainstormed on things to test.
"Based on this list, I'm not sure there's much else we can test," Sunset said, "I mean, I'm not going to sit there and stab you or whatever."
"Yes, and we'd need some way of quantifying injury anyway," Twilight 1 said, "I am wondering if a body could be resucitated, but I'm kind of afraid to try."
"Right, two Twilights? Can you imagine?" Sunset said wryly. All three of them chuckled.
"So we should look into the practical applications more," Twilight 1 said.
"Alicorn steaks sound like they might be good," Twilight A said, with only a slight shudder.
"Ponies don't usually eat meat," Twilight 1 said, "But I did put out some feelers to the Griffons and Dragons. They might be interested."
"Blood transfusions and organ donations are the next, "Sunset said, checking the list Twilight 1 had given them all, "What blood type are you?"
"O-positive," Twilight 1 said immediately, "So I should be a good donor."
"That's my blood type!" Twilight A said. After a pause she added "Which makes sense I suppose."
Twilight 1 nodded, though Twilight A could not really see that while driving.
"I asked Nurse Redheart to examine a specimin," she said, "To see if alicorn organs are the right size and shape."
"Huh, I guess Celestia would be too large for that to work," Sunset said.
"Probably," Twilight 1 said with a nod, "And since she's AB positive, blood donation opportunities would be limited."
"You know Celestia's blood type?" Sunset asked wryly. Twilight 1 blushed.
"It's in one of her biographies," she said, "I found it a serious deficiency that more of them didn't include that information."
"So do we take a bit of a tour when we get there?" Twilight A asked.
"I'd like that, but we'll be a bit short on time," Twilight 1 said, "We should probably split up."
"I guess Twilight A here can stick with me," Sunset said, "Between the glasses and lack of wings, people... ponies... shouldn't get too confused."
* Thanks to Vaguely Demented for correcting me on this point.
0 Rather, the author's computer ate a good bit of what he wrote, but this sounds funnier.
1 I apologize for nothing!
2 Lake fish, filleted, seasoned with salt and herbs from the camp garden, over bulk purchased rice. Celery from the local garden served as a side. It was palatable, but the limited available herbs led to a slightly bitter flavor.
3 Actually her parents' car as she was still in high school.