The door to Sugarcube Corner burst open as Pinkie Pie came running through, dragging an unfamiliar lavender unicorn with her.
“Hi Mrs. Cake, by Mrs. Cake! Me and my new friend need to have a private conversation, so we’ll be in my room for a little while.” Without waiting for a reply Pinkie ran up the stairs to her room, continuing to drag the stunned looking unicorn behind her.
Mrs. Cake merely shook her head and got back to restocking the display cabinet. It was almost time for the after school rush, there was not time to worry about Pinkie being Pinkie.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pinkie drug Twilight into her room and threw her onto a chair. Reaching into her mane with her mouth she pulled out a flashlight and shone it into Twilight’s face.
Twilight yelped in shock. “Gahh! Bright!”
“Alrwrt mssy. Wh rr yo nd wt rr y dunn nn Pnyvll?”
“Umm, I have no idea what you just asked me. Maybe if you took the flashlight out of your mouth and preferably out of my face?”
Pinkie spit the flashlight out of her mouth before saying in her typical upbeat tone, “Oh, sorry, didn’t realize it was gonna be that bright.” She then switched back to the deadly serious tone she had used the second time Twilight had run into her. “Alrighty missy. Who are you and what are you doing in Ponyville?”
Twilight was proud of her ability to react in-suspiciously to one of her best friends asking her name as if they had never met before. “I’m Twilight Sparkle from Canterlot.” Unfortunately she did not have the same pride in her excuse of being in Ponyville. “I here for, um, research. Yes! I’m researching the Everfree Forest.”
“A likely story. Alright then ‘Twilight Sparkle’, if that is your real name, explain to me this: how come I didn’t know that you had come into town? I didn’t even get a scratchy tongue.”
“Is that your Pinkie Sense for ‘there's somepony new in town’?” Immediately after asking her question Twilight froze and thought to herself, “Oh dear, just like the rest of town she doesn't know me, so I shouldn’t know about her Pinkie Sense. Now she’s not going to let me go unless I explain to her how I know about it, and I can't tell her the truth because she’ll think I’m insane. For Celestia’s sake, the whole situation is almost making me think I’m insane!”
Pinkie, ignorant of Twilight’s mental ramblings, responded. “No, its my Pinkie sense for ‘there's somepony new in town and I should throw them a PARTY!’(*) Pinkie paused, running over the rest of Twilight’s response in her head. “Waaaiiittt! How do you know about my Pinkie Sense? I’ve never met you before.”
“Well you see…”
“And don’t say I forgot meeting you, I remember everypony I meet.”
Twilight’s face fell, there went that ‘get out of awkward conversation free’(1) card.
“Ooooo wait! Let me guess! You're from an alternate world and you're a hairless-clothes wearing-monkeyey high school student there and you're here looking for a cheap plastic crown because without it you can’t be crowned princess of the school dance, taking away the title from the school bully, thus proving some overused moral about why cliques are bad, not that they aren't, they really are, but its just been done soooo many times now, and why do you even need the crown really? Can't they just go and buy another one? But anyway, if you don't get it back soon you can't return through the portal to your world which has some really really inconvenient time limit on it.”
“Wait what? That's completely ridiculous! And how does that explain me knowing about your Pinkie Sense?”
Pinkie’s mane deflated a little bit. “Darn, I really really wanted to have a friend from another world! Oh and obviously in the other world you and an alternate me; who also has a Pinkie Sense because she is, after all, a Pinkie Pie; were best friends, so that me would have already thrown you a party, so there would be no need for the this me me to do so!”
Struggling to follow Pinkies logic, Twilight grasped onto the thread of hope amidst the confusion. If Pinkie had been willing to believe that insanity, maybe she would believe what had actually happened! She should have never doubted her friend, even if said friend had no idea who she was at the moment. “Well actually, what you said isn’t completely wrong. You see…”
Pinkie interrupted again, “So you ARE from another world! YEY!”
“Well maybe, I’m not sure what exactly happened yet. Anyway, I was going out lunch with my number one assistant/little brother/adopted son Spike…”
“Spike? That doesn’t sound like a pony name.”
“He’s a baby dragon. Could you please not interrupt, I don't want to lose my train of thought.’”
Pinkie nodded, made a lip-zipping motion, followed by a locking one, followed by one where she threw the key across the room, then motioned Twilight to continue.
“Right, so we were going to the market square from the library, where we stayed, when I spotted this big dome of something approaching from Canterlot. For some reason Spike couldn’t see it and it was approaching too fast for us to run away, so I cast as many shield spells as I could manage to protect us. I couldn’t get to Spike in time, so he went through the wall of the dome unprotected. Most of my shields got torn to shreds, but whatever the dome was made of didn’t touch me. When I got to the inside Spike had disappeared and I collapsed from magical exhaustion. When I woke up I found that a lot of in Ponyville had changed, and nopony knew who I was. Not even you, one of my best friends.”
“So you are best friends with a me from another world! Cool! And sad, since you're here, probably have no idea how to get back and none of your friends remember who you are. Oh Celestia! I was all suspicious of you and as far as you're concerned we’re best friends! Oh that must have felt terrible! I’m so so sorry!”
“No no, its okay, I completely understand why you acted that way, it must have been disconcerting to have a see a new face in town without expecting it if you have expected all the past ones. You must have thought I was a changeling or something. Umm have you had those here?”
“Oh oh! Those are the creepy bug-pony shapeshifter things right? Yeah, they tried to invade Canterlot during Princess Cadence’s wedding a while back. I wasn’t there, but I really wanted to be, that must have been the BEST PARTY EVER. Well, after the changelings were dealt with.”
“The wedding happened?! Quick! Who was Cadence marrying?”
Pinkie tried to remember the grooms name, her facial expression growing more confused as she went. “Ummm, somepony named Glowing Shield? No wait, it was Shimmering Aegis! No, hats not right either. Uh, Scintillating Escutcheon?”
“Shining Armour?”
“YES! That was it. Much better name than Scintillating Escutcheon. Do you know him?”
Twilight sighed in relief. “He’s my brother. If he exists and married Cadence, than maybe I do exist in this world and just never moved to Ponyville. They did meet when Cadence was foalsitting me. How was the changeling invasion repelled? In my world Shining Armor and Cadence blasted them all off with a giant burst of their love for each-other.”
“Well here Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer blasted the changeling queen with their magic and then helped the guards take down the ones sacking the city.”
“Who is Sunset Shimmer anyway? I’ve heard her mentioned a couple of times since passing through the dome, but never before that.”
Pinkie gasped. “You didn’t have Sunset Shimmer? But she’s only the most AWESOME PONY EVER! Even Rainbow Dash thinks so, and that mare has a seriously over inflated ego. She’s the Princess’s personal student, adviser, personal champion, and she got named Defender of the Realm when she helped Celestia blast that meanie Nightmare Moon! How did Nightmare Moon get defeated in your world?”
“You, me, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy all used the Elements of Harmony to defeat her. I suppose Sunset Shimmer must be this world's Element of Magic, who are the others?”
“The Elements of what?”
“You don’t know what the Elements of Harmony are? But then how was Princess Luna freed from Nightmare Moon?”
Pinkie looked confused as her mind drew a blank on the name ‘Luna’. “Who’s Princess Luna?”
Twilight paled. Pinkie Pie didn’t know what the Elements of Harmony were or who Princess Luna was. Which meant. “Oh by Faust! Princess Luna never got freed from the corruption of the Nightmare! How is Celestia coping?”
“Wait, Luna is Nightmare Moon? And why would her not being freed be so hard on Celestia? Is she her sister or something?”
“Yes”
Pinkie’s face lit up in shock, and then it and her hair sunk down depressively. “Oh. Oh. OH. Wow that's sad. That means Celestia locked away her sister for a thousand years after she got taken over by the meanie Nightmare and she must have intended to use the Elements of Harmony to save her, but she couldn't so she had to imprison her again under Canterlot instead.”
“Imprisoned below Canterlot?”
“Uh-hu. With their combined powers and some help from the Royal Guard, Celestia and Sunset managed to seal Nightmare Moon in the catacombs below Canterlot.”
“Ok, so that's what happened to Nightmare Moon. So how about the dragon the was threatening to cover all of Equestria with smoke? Or the Ursa Minor that rampaged through Ponyville? Or King Sombra when he tried to retake the Crystal Empire?”
“Sunset blasted em all with her awesome magical powers! I told ya, she’s the most awesome pony EVER!”
“Did she blast Discord?”
Pinkie once again drew a blank on the name Twilight had just said “Who?
“Discord, the Spirit of Chaos? He turned the town into his own personal chaos park and made it rain chocolate milk from cotton-candy clouds? We imprisoned him in stone again using the Elements of Harmony. They are the only thing that can defeat him.” Twilight wasn't sure how she felt about this difference. Although Fluttershy had managed to reform him, Twilight still wasn't sure that his reformation wasn't some sort of elaborate hoax he was putting on. Though the patience to do such a thing didn't seem to match his personality, he was the spirit of chaos so trying to discern just what he would or wouldn't do could very well be futile.
Pinkie replied with a confused look on her face. “Raining chocolate milk? That sounds AWESOME! Why did alternate me and the rest of our friends have to re-imprison him?”
“Before Celestia and Luna sealed him away for the first time Discord did a lot of terrible things to a lot of ponies. He’s very dangerous and very cruel. Although Fluttershy did manage to reform him. I hope. Speaking of Fluttershy, what happened to her, Rainbow Dash and Rarity in this world? I already know that Sunset Shimmer endorsed Applejack’s farm, so they’re apparently really rich now or something.”
Pinke grinned. “Uh-hu! They've got loads and loads of bits now! Why, they could’ve replaced all-of Granny Smiths hips, not just the one that was bad. Hmm, well Fluttershy and Big Macintosh got married, seems like once he got some money to his name he felt that he would be able to properly support her, and oh but aren't they just the cutest couple ever? Why, everytime I see them I want to throw a ‘Cutest Couple Ever’ party, but they put their hooves down after the fifth one, said the attention was embarrassing or something. Sunset Shimmer hired Rarity to be her personal tailor after seeing her dresses when she came here to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration, so Rarity moved to Canterlot shortly afterwards. And Rainbow Dash finally worked up the nerve to audition for the Wonderbolts when Sunset saw her do some of her tricks and convinced her that they were so amazing that if the Wonderbolts didn’t take her that she would personally get Spitfire fired for not recognizing talent when she saw it. Dashie is just starting her final month of training, so she’s moved into Wonderbolts HQ full time. Did anything like that happen in your world?”
Twilight shook her head. “No. We all still live here in Ponyville. The Apples are still relying on the zap-apple harvest and cider sales to get them through the year, Big Mac still doesn’t feel like he’s worthy of Fluttershy, Rarity still works at the Carousel Boutique, although her sales bean improving drastically since she began doing work for Sapphire Shores, Hoity Toity and Fancy Pants. As for Rainbow, she only just joined the Wonderbolts Academy.” Twilight's face turned pensive. “It, it sounds like that my friends lives might have been better with Sunset as Celestia’s student instead of me.”
Pinkie immediately launched herself at Twilight and hugged her. “Now don't be a silly-filly! I know all of our friends really well, and they would never ever ever give up a best friend for material goods and personal accolades. Friendship is worth more than anything else in the whole wide world! And Sunset Shimmer, despite all she’s done for us and for Equestria, doesn’t seem to be very big on making friends. Now, you know what will make you feel better?”
“A cupcake?” Twilight asked, grinning weakly as Pinkie released her from the hug.
“And if there was any doubt in my mind that you were lying about the whole ‘best friend from another world thing’ it would have disappeared right there! You know me so well! But I already believed you so nothing went poof.” Pinkie rambled as she reached behind her back and pulled out a cupcake gave it to Twilight. “But you are going to need more than a cupcake for this one.” Pinkie reached behind her back again and produced a stack of bits and gave them to Twilight as well.
“Money? Why are you giving me money?”
“Why, so you can take the train to Canterlot, find your family, because if you were right about your brother and Cadence you should still exist here, so they should know who you are. And right now, you look like you need someone who remembers you. Plus, if you're in Canterlot, you can talk to Celestia and Sunset Shimmer. If you are from another world, I’m sure they can get you home.”
“Thank you so much! I cant believe I didn’t think about that myself, if I truly am in another world, surely the Princess can get me back home. How can I thank you?”
“Well, if this is a different world than the one you came from, and you manage to find a way home, just make sure to tell me, so that I can make friends with this world’s you. And if you cant? Well then promise that we can still be friends! One can never have enough superdy-dooper awesome friends after all. “
A small tear fell from Twilight's eye. “Thank you so so much! Just, thank you!”
Pinkie grinned, as she began pushing Twilight toward the door “Now go on, get out of here, if you hurry you should be able to catch the afternoon train to Canterlot. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your family.”
Twilight laughed, her first real, happy laugh since waking up in this oddly different world as she began to canter down the stairs, out the door and to the train station. “Thanks again Pinkie Pie!”
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Mrs Cake watched the lavender unicorn run out the door, then turned her head to Pinkie Pie who was calmly walking down the stairs. “Did everything go ok with your new friend dearie?”
“Yepperonie! She got a bit sad for a while, but I gave her a cupcake and some good advice; cheered her right back up. She’s off to see her family in Canterlot now, I hope it goes well.”
“Oh? Is she on bad terms with them or something.”
“No, not bad terms, but definitely something. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the library and look somethings up. Twilight talked about some stuff that sounded really interesting, and I want to know more about it.” With that, Pinkie hopped out the door and down the road towards the library.
*The scratchy tongue is for ‘there's somepony new in town and I should throw them a PARTY!’ as opposed to the itchy tongue, which is ‘there's somepony new in town and I should throw them a party.(A)’ and the numb tongue, which is either “I just bit my tongue really hard’ or ‘there's somepony new in town and I should definitely not throw them a party.’
A. The exact differences between a party and a PARTY! is known only to masters of the art. The only difference known to common ponies that variety of drinks present is much greater at a PARTY!.
1. Since Equestria has a very low crime rate its version of Monopoly has ‘stuck in awkward conversation’ instead of jail and ‘meet with a parent that you haven't talked to in over a year’ instead of go to jail.