By the time I found the room where the girls were, a memory of a painting I've made a few years back came to mind. I remembered that I made it as a gift in my first year of teaching. In it, it showed the teachers and staff, but with it, I've painted each of them twice to make it look like they all had a twin. That the only thing to tell each other apart was from the clothes and hairstyles that I've painted a few days later.
When I entered the room, the girls were dumbstruck at what was in the middle of the crystal round table. It was them. I looked between the girls that I think I've come with along with the crusaders, and their doubles that reflected their surprise.
“Whoa, Twi you weren't kidding.” The other Rainbow Dash said as she went up to her double. “You girls are seeing this right? They look just like us in every way.”
“And even sounds like us,” our Pinkie said.
“You know,” I uttered. “I think you guys really need to come up with something to tell each other apart.”
“Not to worry dears,” their Rarity said. “I’m quite ahead of that.” This second Rarity went up to each of them with a few presents in her magic following her. She offered the wrapped boxes tied in silk bows out to them.
“What? No present for me?” I joked.
Clink. I turned around to the source of the sound to find a familiar golden band on my tail. From the fading purple light, I turned to the one responsible.
“As you've said,” Twilight said. “We have to tell who is who.”
“But please, do open your presents.” Their Rarity said as the girls looked at the boxes in their hooves.
“Um, how do we open them?” our Fluttershy asked. “I-I mean, we don’t even have thumbs.”
Our Pinkie answered her question when she tore the paper with her teeth. This was quickly followed with her spitting out the lid. “Oh! I love it!” She pulled out a couple pairs of shoes that are covered with rubies and pink diamonds.
The former human Rainbow followed Pinkie’s example. After the paper was mulled, she opened her box, peeked in and smirked. “Nice,” she said as she dumped out a blue and yellow jersey shirt with the number one on it.
Applejack followed suit with her present. Hers was a brown vest with red apples sewn in. “Kinda reminds me of Braeburn’s in a way. But Ah think Ah like it.”
Shy opened hers to find one of those clip things that girls put in their hair, only this butterfly clip looked like it was from Antoinette’s jewelry box. “Oh my…”
And then there was Rarity. She opened hers to find a hat with a few peacock feathers in it. “I’m impressed,” she nodded. “You, my dear, have excellent tastes.”
“I agree,” Rarity’s reflection said. “Everypony knows that peacocks are in style now.”
Our Rainbow chuckled, “Sorry, what?”
“I said, everypony knows-” she was cut short when our girls caught the giggles.
“Ya gotta be kiddin’ us right?” our Applejack asked. “Every, pony? Really?”
I waved it off, “Trust me, they have plenty of puns lying around,” I told them.
“But what about us?” Sweetie Belle asked. “If there are two of you guys, shouldn't that mean that there’s two of us too?”
Then Applebloom got an idea, “Does anyone have a pair of scissors?”
“Why do you need scissors?” their Fluttershy asked.
Applebloom asked her friends to untie her bow from her hair. When this was done, I let in a helping hand in cutting the bow in three pieces in which they tied a piece of the bow around one of their hooves.
“Thanks, AB,” Scootaloo nodded to her. “And you know, you actually look good with the hair down.”
“Well… Thank ya kindly,” Applebloom sheepishly said; looking away from Scoots, rubbing one of her front legs to the other.
“Oh! I have an idea!” Their Pinkie said hopping over to her counterpart. “You guys should get nicknames.”
“Oh, I see,” our Pinkie agreed. “So it doesn't get confusing since there’s two of everyone.”
“Can I call you Pink?” their Pinkie asked, and ours said that she can.
“Well in that case,” our Applejack mussed. “Ah guess Y'all jus’ call me AJ.”
“You guys can call me Dash,” our Rainbow said as she was starting to put her jersey on.
“W-Well… I suppose just Shy would be perfectly alright.”
“And I wouldn't mind if you simply call me Rare,” she said as she adjusted her hat, looking herself in her reflection of the crystal walls.
“What about the Crusaders?” Twilight asked.
“That’s easy,” Scootaloo answered. “You guys can just call me Scoots, her AB, and her Belle.”
“Well since we've gotten that out of the way,” their Pinkie said, suddenly pulling a canon from out of nowhere. “Let’s party!”
Ka-Boom!
_*_
(I suppose that from here on out until we've gotten back, I suppose I should refer the girls that I know from our world from their nicknames. Yeah, I guess I should do just that. Just so that things don’t get too confusing.)
Now, where was I again? Oh, that’s right, the party of twins. The party lasted for about an hour I think in the multiple throne room. At some point, I got bored so I floated away to find out what happened to Sunset.
The door was closed. I was in the mood for some good old fashioned eavesdropping. With a snap, I caught a falling glass. I walked up the wall and onto the ceiling, leaned up to the door, put my glass to the door to listen.
“-ully aware of your recent good behavior from Twilight. And here in the flesh, I can see that you've changed.”
“Yeah but, you've made it clear as your sun that I don’t belong here anymore.”
“Sunset, I am a believer of giving second chances to those who have an opportunity to change. You've become much more humble. Discord and even my own sister have been given that second chance and, while they both have their flaws, they showed that they can bring so much good.”
“That might be true in the human world. But here, ponies will remember me. Sunset, the student who betrayed Celestia for her own selfish personal gain. Look, having your forgiveness is one thing, but getting it from everypony else? I don’t think so.”
“You think that’s true?”
“It’s a fact, your highness. I don’t have a home here anymore. Mine is at Canterlot High where those people there are giving me a second chance. Look I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here.”
For a moment, it all went quiet until Celestia sighed. “Alright. Before you go, however, I have a request for you. Write to me again, it’s been quite a while.”
“I’m not making any promises.”
There was a long silence, followed by the sound of steps coming towards the door. I quickly ducked in the time of the door opening up. Celestia walked right out from under me.
“Peek-a-boo!” I cried out, startling her.
“Gah! What?” she looked up. “Oh, Julius, I didn't realize you were there.”
I peeked back into the upside-down room to find it empty. “What happened to Ms. Shimmer?”
“She’s gone home,” she answered. “So I assume that the others have met I presume?”
“Quite,” I let myself float down to the floor, “Although there was a fight to the death.”
“What!?”
I chuckled, “Kidding.” Oh Celestia, even in this universe you’re still easy to pull a joke on.