"Spike, are you ready?"
"All set, Twilight! So where are we off to this time?"
Twilight levitated the list given to her by her Archivist counterpart, "Next should be World Equis 117. Hopefully this world's Twilight is a pony we can trust not to attack us on sight."
Setting the address to the dials of the seal, Spike and Twilight were once again warped into the pocket dimension. Upon arrival, she was glad to see the default scenery of the dimension.
His meeting place. I'm glad to see this again, she thought as she stepped at by the riverbank and levitated a bubble of water to drink from. Rarity wasn't kidding about the water; I've never tasted anything this pure.
"Wow, we're back here again!" Spike exclaimed with a smile, "I kind of miss seeing this place."
Twilight took a deep breath of the air and exhaled slowly in deep satisfaction. "No kidding. Just being here puts one at ease."
"I'm glad you feel that way, but would the both of you mind explaining a few things to me?"
Spike and Twilight turned to see the new visitor. The expression she wore had a scowl that spoke suspicion and wariness of the two of them. She looked like Twilight, but there were notable differences: She was tall, taller than even Celestia and slenderer as well. What should have been a coat was instead a shiny purple chitin. Her mane was silk-like rather than fur, her wings were insect-like instead of that of a pegasus, her horn spiralled to a curve instead of straight like that of a unicorn and a crown-like antennae sat on her head. Most notable was a giant scar on her chest and a familiar purple starburst Cutie Mark on her flanks.
"A... A... A CHANGELING?"
"A very good observation, you deserve a gold star," the changeling's snide dripped with sarcasm as she circled around the two. Her eyes however surveyed the tranquil surroundings, "Strange place, beautiful in fact! Yet not a trace of magic within it. What is it, a mirror world? Pocket dimension?"
"Wh-who are you?" Twilight's voice trembled. She sensed this changeling had a lot of power and experience compared to her.
"Who am I?" the changeling narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "You brought me here and yet you don't even know who I am?" Her expression then relaxed as curiosity gleamed in her eyes, "Speaking of which, how did you bring me here? Convocation Spell? Summoning circle? I doubt it was done here considering the lack of any trace of magic other than your reserves."
"It was in my world actually," Twilight's encyclopaedic mode kicked in, "and no, you weren't summoned here by magic. Well, at least no magic that I'm familiar with. I'm still wondering how this is still possible without a magical conduit to stabilize our connection between both our worlds to this pocket universe, but I was instructed not to think too much on the ramifications on how this is all possible by my benefactor's letter who provided us this space which leads me to believe he must come from a rather advanced civilization among the cosmos to be able to create this meeting place."
The changeling's jaw dropped, "Wait, do you mean to tell me that this is a pocket universe created by an outside force beyond our two worlds?"
"Mmhhmm!" Twilight nodded with a satisfied smile.
One can see the numbers running through the changeling's head before she shook herself off from the thought, "Gah! Mother was right; I really should stop thinking too much about these new curiosities! I can't afford to lose my mind right now. Even with the implied possibilities. Especially with the implied possibilities."
"Wow, you're taking this whole "another world" thing quite well compared to some others we've met," Spike said, rather impressed with the changeling's mental fortitude.
"Well, to be fair you're not the first version of myself that I've met, or even the second," the changeling smiled at the memory, "I've met a human version of myself through a mirror world and another alicorn who happened to be dating Princess Rainbow Dash."
Twilight's jaw dropped "Wait, WHAT?"
"Yeah, I know right? Who would've thought?" After reminiscing about the past however, the changeling's earlier scowl returned to the two with a serious look, "But enough about other worlds I've been involved with, who are you and why did you bring me here?"
"Oh, right. Almost forgot about that," Twilight gave a sheepish smile as she held out a hoof, "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria."
"And I'm her Royal Advisor," Spike boasted with a smirk.
"Ruler of Equestria?" the changeling raised an eyebrow, "I must admit, I am impressed. From one monarch to another." She shook Twilight's hoof and gave a small bow, "I am Twilight Sparkle; Queen of the Equestrian Changelings, Bearer of the Element of Magic, Daughter and successor to Queen Chrysalis."
"Ch-CHRYSALIS!?" Spike and Twilight exclaimed with shock.
"... Let me guess; she's evil in your world?" The Changeling queen deadpanned.
"Of course, she is! She tried to pluck my wings off!" Spike snarled.
The Queen sighed, "Now I'm beginning to wonder if my world is the only one where my mother isn't evil."
"Not necessarily," answered Twilight, "The last world we've encountered had Chrysalis as a superhero. Changeling Mare-Hunter, I think it was?"
"......... Huh, now there's a surprise. I wonder how she'd react if she heard that," the Queen pondered with a soft smile, "I know Spike would be amused to hear that. He got along so well with Mother."
"You must really love her," Twilight smiled knowingly, "Was Chrysalis in your world that great a parent?"
Queen Twilight gave a fond smirk, "By great if you mean leaving me on the doorstep of a pony family as a foal... er nymph, then attacking my adopted brother's wedding to collect enough love for my maturation cycle and abducting me back to her hive to live out the remainder of her days to raise me as her daughter and heir; then yes, I suppose that she was a great parent."
Twilight gawked at the laundry list of questionable decisions made by her changeling counterpart's mother, "She. Did. WHAT? And you say she's not evil?"
"SHE ISN'T EVIL!" the Changeling Queen snapped with a snarl, causing Twilight and Spike to wince. Noticing their reaction, Queen Twilight took a deep breath and perform a practiced breathing exercise, reminiscent to the one Cadence taught Twilight.
Huh, so there are some things we have in common, Twilight thought to herself.
After finally composing herself, the Changeling Queen gave Twilight a stern look that almost resembled Princess Celestia when she scolded her for that Smarty Pants incident and continued to speak in a calm voice, "I will admit, maybe it wasn't prudent of me to start with sarcasm, especially with the current circumstances. Judging from your reaction, you're probably not one to pick up on verbal fencing (not experienced at least) and it was ill-mannered of me to be a bit hostile considering your genuine curiosity. Just... Just understand that life has been difficult for me these past few years, and I would really appreciate that you don't address my mother that way."
A ghost of a smile crept on her face as a single tear streaked down from the side of her face, "Mother always kept me in her best of interests. She would sacrifice everything she had just so I would live one more day. She left me as a nymph to be raised by ponies so that I wouldn’t starve to death. She would risk hostilities with Equestria during my brother’s wedding just to collect enough love for my maturation cycle. She hunted down the assassins who did this to me,” she pointed at the scar on her chest, causing Twilight to gasp quietly.
"She… She gave her life fighting a monster to save what was left of our hive,” Queen Twilight continued hesitantly, clearly pained from the memory of that day, “If nothing else, there is no creature that I know of that is further away from being evil than my mother."
Twilight's ears drooped as she hung her head low in prostration, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult your memory of her."
"No, it's fine," Queen Twilight spoke calmly as she blinked away the tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have unloaded on you like that. I know you didn't mean what you said."
A moment of silence hung between the them before it was broken by Spike.
"(Ahem!) I think it would be prudent of us to explain why we brought you here."
"Yeah, sorry about that earlier," Twilight raised her head and gave an apologetic smile to her changeling counterpart, "After visiting several versions of us across the multiverse, I should have figured out by now that not all our lives are that simple."
"Wait, so does that mean you've seen more versions of us out there?" Queen Twilight asked with curiosity, "How much more?"
Twilight held a forehoof on her chin to think, "Hmm, other than Starswirl's mirror portal to the human world; I've met a superhero version of us called Mare-do-Well, a mad scientist who succeeded in animating the dead named Starstein, a wise old mare called the Sparkle of Wisdom, a stallion version of myself (literally, might I add), an adoptive mother of a young alicorn that looks exactly like Nightmare Moon, an Earth Pony working for an agency of sorts that tried to detain us, a Knight in a Friendship Crusade against Sombra, a companion to a time travelling alien in a blue box, an anthropomorphic abomination of sorts (looks like a pony on two legs) that collects pieces of history and artefacts calling herself The Infinite, an Empress who travelled into another universe that gather's the most brilliant minds across reality called Prosperity (a world of which I'm still looking for), an Archivist that kept a record of every alternate reality of Equestria, a dying mare full of regret for blindly following a mad tyrant that resulted in the extinction every other creature on Equis while attempting another against humanity after teleporting Equestria to their world... Am I missing somepony else?"
"Oh yeah, there was also the cavepony," Spike pointed out.
"Oh right, her," Twilight deadpanned.
Th-That... That is a lot more than I thought. Also, what were those last three? Queen Twilight tried to process what she had just heard. So many worlds. Rather so many versions of herself that this mare met. Some of which she noted seemed unfavourable or disheartening if her empathic nature didn't fail to detect certain emotions from each ego that were listed.
Yet all this begged the question; "Why are you going around summoning other versions of ourselves?" she narrowed her eyes as she asked inquisitively.
Twilight hesitated before nervously replying (completely embarrassed as the changeling managed to sense), "Well, to be honest, it started out with my coronation..."
"So let me get this straight; after brooding in your bed chambers for three days due to your humiliating coronation, you received a letter from an unknown entity called the Administrator informing you that your mopefest is causing a ripple across dimensions for some reason?"
"Eeyup."
"And his solution was to send you on a little ego trip across alternate universes to meet other versions of us to reassure your continued existence?"
"I wouldn't put it that way, but yeah close enough."
"But then you decided to shift your focus to warning other versions of us after finding out that there is a crazy alicorn of ourselves out there in the multiverse hunting down other alicorn versions of us?"
"Pretty much."
".................. I... I cannot tell you how much wrong there is to all of this," the changeling queen rubbed her forehead with a hoof, "Hell, I don't even know where to begin to tell you how wrong this all is!"
She paused to perform her breathing exercise again before she continued with a sigh, "Have you considered that you may have been played for a fool in all of this?"
"Wh-What do you mean?" asked Twilight.
"Think about it; an outsider out of nowhere gives a lame excuse saying the fate of reality rests on your mental state and gives you the means to travel across multiple realities only to have you conveniently dragged into a mess involving another world hopping interloper. I don’t know about you, but I think you’ve been dragged into something big to clean up someone else’s mess.”
“B-but one of his letters states that I should leave it to him to deal with it and instead just let me continue my journey,” Twilight protested, “That is before giving me a list of worlds of other alicorns to warn them since I wanted to help.”
“And since that time, how many alicorns have you met?” Queen Twilight pointed out with a scowl. She noticed Twilight’s expression after she processed this information, “I believe your letter was a red herring to find other versions of yourselves. If you ask me, I’d say that your mysterious benefactor might be responsible for the interloper and that your travels only serve as a beacon to lure them into that world.”
“Th-that’s… That’s…”
“That’s insane!” Spike finished for her, “Why would they go through all that trouble just to go after alicorn versions of her across the multiverse? If that is the case, why didn’t they start with her?”
“Well Spike, perhaps your world is the easiest to find, trace or access?” the changeling suggested.
Twilight’s eyes dilated at the implications. All those worlds, could they be? But that would mean… She looked with horror at her changeling counterpart as a sense of guilt crept in. I’ve put her in danger! Stupid Twilight, you’ve put everyone you came across in danger!
“Now hold it right there,” Queen Twilight held out a hoof, stopping her thoughts, “I don’t need to feel your emotions to know that you are practically hitting yourself for your screw up. Yes, you may be at fault for being naïve, but you are not truly to blame for all this. You were merely fooled.” Like I was before, she muttered under her breath.
“But it still doesn’t excuse what I did! I endangered all those ponies!”
“That’s not necessarily the case, Princess.”
The three of them turned to stare at a familiar purple unicorn mare wearing a pair of glasses as she approached the group.
“Who the Hell are you?” Queen Twilight snarled, igniting her horn with a readied spell.
“Not your enemy, for sure your Highness,” the unicorn adjusted her glasses with a glint of light reflecting it. She stared at the group and gave a short bow, “Queen Twilight, Princess Twilight.” She paused to give a fond smile, “Spike. Nice to meet you all. For you're case Princess, good to see you again.”
“Wait a minute, you’re the Archivist!” Twilight exclaimed, “What are you doing here? How did you get in here?”
“Urgent business your majesty,” she spoke with her usual deadpanned tone, “The Administrator sent me to warn you that we have a situation.”