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// Not Quite Me 
// Story: Lost & Found 
// by False Door 
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Twilight awakened in a room roughly similar to her own. It was in the same location in Canterlot Castle. The bed was in the same place although the sheets were different. Some of the furniture was different but the most notable difference was that every window was eclipsed with thick blackout curtains which choked out nearly every ray of the morning sun. It looked like the bedchamber of a mare in mourning.
The princess got out of bed and stretched in the dark. “First order of business is this room,” she groaned. How can you hope to improve your mood with such a dreary bedroom?”
Her horn lit up and the curtains fluttered open as if in a gale. They tied themselves back, letting in a flood of golden light. She visored her eyes and yawned, waiting for her vision to adjust. Then she turned to the drab upholstery of the furniture with a color changing spell primed in her horn. Twilight paused for a moment then moved on. Maybe she wouldn't go as far as redecorating. Perhaps she just had a different style and she should respect that while staying in her castle and sleeping in her bed. 
In the corner stood a dried up husk of a plant that had likely been dead for months. Twilight frowned. She didn't even have a servant take care of it for her. Maybe she didn't even let servants in here. She teleported the plant and its pot out into the hallway. She'd find a new plant for her, perhaps a low maintenance one that her lackadaisical counterpart would be more apt to handle.
She snatched up the itinerary out of her letter box from atop a pile of other unread itineraries. Then she teleported to her little personal dining room near the kitchen downstairs where she always took her morning briefings. Before she could climb into a chair, she noted that the little table was barren. In her dimension, breakfast would be waiting for her on a big shiny tray when she came down.
“Her morning routine must just be a little different from mine,” she laughed weakly. Twilight teleported to the kitchen door and poked her head in to see a couple of chefs chitchatting idly at the stovetop.
“Excuse me, can I get some breakfast please?”
Their eyebrows told her this exchange was rather odd for them.
“Yes, of course, your highness. What would you like?”
“How about hash browns and a bowl of cantaloupe and coffee with cream… in the nook, please. Thank you.”
She went back to her table and began looking over her itinerary, the only thing she'd brought to distract her. The coffee came out promptly and the chef left the pot and the creamer on the table.
Twilight looked up from her mug to see Noteworthy in the doorway, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. By his cuffs and attaché, she recognized him as an aid.
“You're actually here… out of bed before ten… and eating breakfast at the table.”
“Uh, yes. I see the Griffonstone occupation is on the top of the paper this morning.”
“Would you like me to fill you in again?” he asked.
She didn't want to sound out of the loop but at the same time she also got the feeling that the other her was a little out of the loop.
“Um… Actually, do you have a hard copy report of the incident?” she asked briskly.
“I do. Right here in fact.” He floated a binder clipped stack of papers from his satchel to the princess with a reserved sort of giddiness.
Twilight received the document with her magic, quickly flipping over the title page to get to the body. “Excellent. Thank you. I'll just refresh my memory while I eat breakfast and then we can talk about it. And while I get caught up, can you put together a top ten list of the biggest issues, in your opinion, that Equestria is facing right now?”
“Yes. I'll have that ASAP.” - - -







Twilight woke up earlier that morning than she could recall in recent memory but still a little later than a good princess would. With only one thing on her mind, she briefly glanced in the vanity to make sure she didn't have bed head. Then she teleported to her throne room as a wild stab but it was empty. She then teleported to the dining hall where the inviting echoes of animated chatter met her ears and the smell of warm, fruit filled pastries tempted her nose. In a mostly abandoned grand hall was a small group of alicorns all seated and conversing around a breakfast buffet.
Her mouth dropped open as time seemed to stop. It was just like she said. They were all alive and well. They were all alicorns.
“You're all here,” she gasped.
The group stopped talking and looked at her with surprise.
“Of course we are,” laughed Rainbow. “You haven't kicked us out yet.”
“Are you feelin’ okay?” asked Applejack.
Twilight surreptitiously wiped a tear from her eye and took a seat next to Fluttershy. “Yeah, it's just… nice you're still here.” She helped herself to a big fluffy croissant as the conversation picked back up.
“Finish your presents last night?” asked Rainbow.
“Oh, uh, no. Too many. Too tired,” laughed Twilight.
“That's exactly how I was after my thousandth,” added Rarity. “It's about as draining as having two weddings.”
“Yeah but ya think chippin’ a hoof is about as drainin’ as havin’ two weddins,” teased Applejack.
The table chuckled as Rarity dunked her teabag. “Well, it's all relative, darling.”
Twilight was dumbstruck for words; she just nibbled her food, watching and listening and simply enjoying basking in the presence of her long gone friends like a lost puppy curling up in a warm place. She wanted to ask how they'd been doing, what they'd been doing but she was sure the other her had already had those conversations yesterday. She tried to be content with just eavesdropping for as long as she could.
“So. What are your plans for today?” she finally asked. “Is everyone just going back home?”
“Yep,” replied Applejack.
The rest of the alicorns nodded and there was general consensus from the group.
She swallowed. “I know you probably have to get back to work but can I maybe come by and visit you all at your homes this week, really quick? Just for a little bit? For my birthday?”
The alicorns exchanged elated glances at the suggestion.
“Come by Manehattan,” said Rarity, “Maybe we can see a show.”
“Oh, and when you come to Rockville, we can count rocks,” exclaimed Pinkie. “Just kidding. We can go in the chocolate hot tub or have a balloon parade.”
“That sounds great. Why don't I go visit Fluttershy first; since she's closest.” She turned to the mare next to her. “Is that okay, today?”
“Yes, that works for me. But what should we do?” Fluttershy wondered aloud.
“We don't have to plan anything specific. It's just fun to visit too.”
“Of course.”
Twilight was all smiles as they finished their breakfast. When the group broke up, she returned to the enchanted mirror to check if the other her needed assistance with anything yet. She removed the protective silver shroud once again to look but there was no Twilight in the mirror. Instead there was a piece of paper taped to the other side of the glass. Words were scrawled on the side facing her. It was a note.
Good idea, she thought. They didn't have to wait around for a meetup; they could just write each other notes on the mirror like penpals.
She squinted at the paper which had two easy questions written on it.
I like your main advisor. What's his name? Mine is a mare named Stardust. Where do you keep your keys? - - -







“Increase the guard presence at the border,” commanded Twilight from her throne. “I want a show of force but nothing to provoke conflict. Then I want to open a dialogue with Griffonstone immediately.”
“Excellent, your highness,” nodded Noteworthy as he scribbled on his floating pad. “We will draft a letter of parley for your approval and send it out before day's end.”
Twilight scratched her cheek absently as she reviewed the bulleted list of pressing Equestrian issues, most of them domestic, but that wasn't to say that the world around them didn't seem a great deal more tumultuous than the one she was used to seeing.
“May I ask you a frank question,” began Noteworthy, putting away his pen.
“Yes, you may,” she answered, still scanning the document.
“What happened?”
Her eyes flicked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean why do you seem to care so much all of a sudden? You've shown more initiative toward governance in the last ten hours than at any point during my employment as an advisor.”
Twilight screwed up her face. “I always cared, it just hasn't always been easy to show it. Let's just say that my thousandth birthday was a sort of… epiphany.” - - -







The second most shocking thing next to meeting her dead friends as alicorns was seeing Fluttershy soaring like a falcon over the Everfree Forest. She'd always been an infamously weak flyer who preferred to stay close to the ground. In the distance, a set of impressive towers arose over the thick green canopy and Twilight caught a strange feeling of recollection. She understood that Fluttershy had dominion over Ponyville and the Everfree but this castle, her castle, it was most certainly a refurbished Castle of the Two Sisters.
As they flapped closer, she saw little cottages clustered around the base of the grand structure. There were fields of crops with ponies working the land. There were shops and inns on paved roads and there windmills and water towers. Not only had the castle been revived but there was a whole town thriving in a hollow of the forest she'd always known as an inhospitable place only the most intrepid would inhabit.
The two alicorns touched down in the spacious courtyard where birds and animals of all species fluttered and scampered up to seemingly welcome Fluttershy home. They chittered and twittered with excitement as they crowded around her.
Twilight looked in awe but tried to temper her reaction to the old castle’s better than new makeover as they traipsed through the welcome party and up to the open gate. It was reasonable to assume that the other Twilight had probably been here many many times. The structure was quite jaw dropping though. She'd only ever known this place as a decrepit hole in a spooky and dangerous forest.
No sooner did they cross the threshold than a timberwolf came barreling down the hall right at them. Twilight gasped as the massive beast reached attack range and leapt through the air with outstretched paws and gleaming eyes.
“Saber,” cried Fluttershy in alarm. “She caught him in mid air with her magic where he flailed inertly with a sad whine.
“I know you're excited to see me but you have to keep your weight off of that leg. You can't just go running around quite yet”
Twilight looked at the timberwolf’s front right leg to see it wrapped tight in a splint. She let out a breath of relief but her heart was still pounding in her chest.
Fluttershy smiled and let him down where he could lick her face. She giggled and put a wing around the brute. It seemed she was running this castle like a bigger version of her old animal sanctuary back in Ponyville.
“Don’t worry, he’s just a big sweetie. But, you know, when I first found him in the forest, I almost decided to leave him behind. I think he got thrown out of his pack or maybe he even escaped, otherwise he wouldn’t be alive but he could barely walk because of his broken leg. He was so hostile toward me at first. I had to keep reminding myself that he didn't see me as prey; he just felt endangered. He was just as scared of me as I was of him, which is kind of funny when you think about it.”
Satiated, she let him go and he padded past them into the courtyard.
“Of course I always want to help so badly,” she continued, “and he couldn't survive on his own with an injury like that so I ended up staying and talking with him for probably forty minutes before I could get him to voluntarily come to me and accept help.”
She turned to follow Fluttershy into the foyer “Wow,” she breathed. “So many wouldn't be that kind or that brave,”
“Yes. I'll never forget the day I became an alicorn and suddenly understood what true bravery is. Up until then, I always saw myself as a weak scaredy cat but there were so many times I was terrified to do something but I did it anyway because I knew it was right. Bravery isn't not being afraid; it's overcoming your fear. So when you look at it, fear is really just potential bravery.
“Twilight nodded in astonishment. “And now look at you. You live in a castle everypony said was haunted in a spooky forest crawling with predators and monsters.”
Fluttershy bit her lip and then smiled apprehensively. “Yep.”