"Twilight, are you feeling alright?"
"Go away. My life is meaningless."
It was three days since meeting the Empress and Twilight since then has been sulking in her room only to come out for Court and other duties. Basically, going full auto-pilot without a destination. Rarity returned to Ponyville to tell the rest of their friends about the whole fiasco of what Twilight called: The single greatest crime in Equestria's history of Progress. That they were robbed from their right to reach for the Stars, literally.
"It's not fair," the purple alicorn whimpered as she moped on her bed, "It's not fair. Just knowing such knowledge was within reach and I can't even taste it. There is no hope for us all."
"If that is how you feel Twilight, why not just go back?" Spike asked with a hint of tired sarcasm.
With all the righteous fury she could conjure from that remark, Twilight threw a pillow at Spike with her magic and for the first time using a royal Canterlot voice she screeched, "DO YOU THINK I HAVEN'T ALREADY TRIED? I spent hours for three days straight trying to re-summon her! But for whatever reason, the seal just reads a big fat ERROR! As if the whole cosmos is denying me my prize! WHY, MULTIVERSE WHY?!
Twilight dropped face first to her bed and continued to mope while muttering more rants of unfairness of the multiverse.
Spike made a deep sigh, "You know Twilight, there are other worlds out there. I mean, there is a possibility you might meet another version who might have achieved other advancements."
Twilight's ears perked up. Suddenly, a million possibilities started calculating in her head until she burst from her bed, teleported next the dragon and gave him an excited (albeit crushing) embrace, "What was I thinking?! Spike you genius!"
"N-no p-problem. I-I'm regret-ting it alread-dy!" Spike managed to mutter as he was being crushed by the embrace while gasping for air.
"What is taking her so long?!"
"Twilight, you need to c..."
"I am calm! I'm just wondering why my counterpart isn't here yet? It's been five minutes and she hasn't shown up! Every minute wasted means we have less time for discussion about... Well, just about anything really at this point!"
Almost on cue, a familiar flash of light appeared next to the tree. "Well, isn't this exciting?"
The creature that entered for the both of them, felt wrong on so many levels. It looked like a pony; yet it stood on two hoofs like a satyr; it had arms, hands and torso like a human; and despite sharing the same purple coat, it wore a metallic armor-like clothing and carried a staff made of the same metallic material with the Element of Magic as it's head piece. It shared familiar traits with Twilight such as her horn, mane (style and colour), face (eyes, muzzle, etc), wings and tail; yet it stood taller than any biped she has ever seen, even compared to humans.
It looked regal, majestic, beautiful, disturbing and grotesque, all at the same time. The sight of it unnerved the pair as they slowly backed away from the creature.
"Oh please, I mean you no harm." Her voice vibrated like an echo as she spoke.
"B-but, you are an abomination. What are you?" Twilight shuddered.
"I'd prefer honoured guest," the counterpart smiled suspiciously, "But abomination or not, you and I are the same being; albeit from different realities. We probably even share a common interest, a common goal, a common cause."
Twilight ignited her horn with magic, "Ho no. Logically, I'd say otherwise."
The anthropomorph frowned, "Then you do not seek the nature of this pocket universe."
Twilight raised an eyebrow, "You know how it works?"
Her counterpart smiled smugly, "I bore witness to when it was first created. Or perhaps I wasn't? Memories tend to get lost after 5000 years. Or perhaps I have seen too many versions of our world that one tends to forget where each comes from."
She stepped forward and removed the smugness from her face, "Return me to my world if you wish. Nothing will change. For you. For me. For any reality."
Twilight lowered her guard and stopped igniting her horn, "Show me."
The counterpart waved her hand to the sky and the theme of the grassland shifted into a barren landscape. Not a sight of green was seen; the sky was grey and dim, giving a foreboding atmosphere. The earth was dust and rock as though a drought took place. Twilight and Spike stared with horror as the place resembled a certain place that time forgot.
"Allow me the liberty of introducing myself, Princess Twilight Sparkle," she said as she took a bow, "I am Twilight the Infinite. Seeker of mysteries. Collector of Curiosities. Preserver of History."
Twilight eyed her with suspicion, "You know who I am?"
"Of course I do. I have seen 587,342 versions of you. 11,870 never ascended into alicorns. 39,701 are rulers. 97,752 are anthropomorphs like me. 297,005 have presently died (wait, add one more), 92,490 of them were gruesome deaths. Need I say more?"
"H-how do you know all this?"
"When you are given a magic mirror that allows one to gaze into the many worlds for 4000 years, you would be bored enough to count them all."
"Yet you would humour me?"
"Of course. Your existence is the format for all the versions of ourselves. In a sense, you are the first of us. Twilight Alpha."
"Woah Twilight, don't you feel special?" Spike nudged the alicorn.
"I'd rather not be," Twilight blushed at the thought, "But that aside, you probably know why I'm here then?"
"Indeed. You seek knowledge. More specifically, you seek her knowledge. The Empress of World Equis 40."
"Yes, that is correct!"
"But why?"
"Well, you should know! She had the privilege to travel into another world where brilliant minds from across the multiverse gather and share knowledge. Judging from your attitude, you probably weren't invited. So she would probably be the luckiest out of all of our versions that I've met to date."
There was a pause before Twilight the Infinite laughed mockingly, "So you consider her to be the "lucky one" among us? How naive." She gave Twilight an incredulous look, "Have ever considered the cost to her achievements? All those years pushing herself beyond her limits to maintain her friends' legacy? Do you know how many sleepless nights she spent weeping since their passing? True, she was more privileged than other versions of ourselves, but in the end she bares just as much tragedy as those who lost their lives to the pursuit of their goals."
The Infinite's ears raised and a cruel smile appeared from her face, "Speaking of which, have you ever wondered why you could never reach her world again?"
Twilight twitched at the question, "Yes, I have wondered about that. Why? Do you know the reason?"
"An elementary question with a simple answer. You cannot reach a version of yourself that has already expired."
Twilight's blood ran cold and Spike's eyes widened, "Sh-she's dead? How? I thought she was an Alicorn!"
The Infinite lowered herself to caress Spike's face, "Oh my poor little dragon. Who's to say she died of natural cause? It is not easy to survive a magical drain from the heart after all."
Spike pulled away from her with horror in his eyes. The Infinite kept her expression as she continued, "I certainly never expected a thief to steal the bewitching bell from my collection and use it on her. You probably know of whom I'm referring to."
Twilight looked at her in disbelief, "How could you be so callous? A version of us just died at the hooves of a crazed, world leaping pony! How could you act like it was nothing?"
"Three reasons: I have already seen the outcome; she will fail, miserably. If you've spent the last 4000 years in a world of endless war, you tend to detach yourself from everything. If you were promised knowledge under the tutelage of the very being you admired, only to be bound to a fate you did not ask for; one tends to hold a certain, perspective. Specifically to those foalish enough to accept the false promise of Destiny."
Twilight scowled as she covered Spike with a wing, "I think we should be going now."
"Oh, you do not wish to know the knowledge I could offer?"
"Whatever knowledge I could take from you is not worth putting up with your callousness." Twilight pulled out the seal and readied for it before turning again to her counterpart, "And for the record, we are nothing alike."
Twilight the Infinite gave a smug scoff, "Perhaps. I was ascended in chains. You accepted it willingly, or perhaps unwittingly."
The following day, the remaining five of the element bearers came to Twilight at the behest of Spike.
"I'm really thankful that you guys could make it. She has not stopped crying since yesterday."
"Think nothing of it, sugarcube. We've done this old song an' dance before."
"I've brought a gown that I know she'll cheer up in."
"I've got the latest Daring Do to cheer her up."
"I've brought some animals that I know who could calm her down."
"And I brought the Ice Cream!"
Spike smiled as he let them enter. Immediately, they were assaulted by Twilight's embrace as she cried on their shoulders.
"I-if I (Sob) ever stopped caring (Sniff) a-about anything anymore, (Sob) please put me in my place. I don't want to stop caring about anything!"
Rarity looked to Spike who in turn gave her a knowing look. "Spike, who did she meet this time?"
"Somepony from a cold, dark world."