//------------------------------//
// The begining of the end 
// Story: Very different beneath the surface 
// by Slick Dash 
//------------------------------//

“Hey... Twi? It’s time to wake up.” Twilight was nudging the still sleeping pony, the sun had risen and with it so had the studious unicorn. She had gone around tending to the house, taking out the garbage, cleaning the few dishes left in the sink, and then she had concluded with tidying the library after its large gathering the night before. Through all the movements, scraping chairs, the fluffing of pillows, and moving of tables. Twi slept on under her sheet on the sofa. 

Now Twilight stood over her, nudging the copy of herself gently to wake her. For a moment her efforts went un-noticed, but soon the sleeping purple unicorn awoke. “Good morning.” Smiled Twilight as the sleeping unicorn came to. “How are you feeling?” Twi sat up and nodded smiling happily, she reached up blearily and rubbed her eyes.

A second later, the little unicorn was reeling back in fear from the other purple unicorn. “AAAHHH! What the hell?!” She tried to move further back, but was stopped by the back of the sofa. “You’re...” Her face melted into sudden realisation, her muscles relaxed and she breathed deeply. “Other dimension... right... need to remember that!” 

Twilight giggled slightly at her other self, she was enjoying this greatly, this was so interesting! She couldn’t wait to talk to this other Twilight and learn all she had to teach! However, the two’s stomachs made other plans. 

Both their guts grumbled at their lack of sustenance. “Well, I guess I’m hungry I suppose!” They both said in chorus, they froze and looked at one another. Then giggled, both leaning into their left hoof as they did so. They stopped again. “Ok this is weird!” They both exclaimed. Then proceeded to fall around laughing. Soon afterwards, the two headed out for ‘Clover field Cafe’ and their long awaited breakfast.

.......................................................................

The two Twilight’s arrived at the cafe to find a pink pony sat at the table outside the cafe, taking advantage of the warm summer sun! “Pinkie! I love what you’ve done with your mane!” Exclaimed Twi happily as they approached the back of the curly mane’d pony. The pony now swivelled around on her chair to greet the two identical unicorns. 

“Uhhhh thanks Twilight! but it’s no different to usual!” cried the pony with joy as she smiled at the first of the two. She then frowned as she looked at the other. “Uhh... wait... don’t tell me...” The random pony began to massage her temples as she stared at the two, trying to find some spiritual answer of which was her Twilight ad which was the new visitor. 

“Oh.” Twi looked at the pony’s face with surprise at the lack of a scar. She looked to Twilight, who nodded and explained. “This is our Pinkie. We decided to create less confusion we’d call your friends ‘Pink, Flutt, AJ and Dashie.’” Twi let out an understanding “aaahhhhh.” Then proceeded to take a seat opposite the pink pony. 
“Where is... ‘Pink’ then?” Twi asked perplexed, searching around for her leader. 
“Oh she’s in the bathroom... feeling a little woozy.” She whispered in a voice that was anything but discrete. 
“Oh,” Twi frowned, “I see.” 

After a few moments, the three mare’s heard a familiar yell. “Morning kid!” Pink came out from inside the cafe and tapped Twi happily on the shoulder. She hopped onto the chair next to her friend, dividing the table into half, one side with the local ponies, and the other with the visitors. “Feeling good? Overdose didn’t knock too much out of you did it?” Pink asked jokingly as she nudged her friend jokingly. Twi shook her head. 

“That’s something that’s bothered me!” Twilight began, addressing the other purple unicorn. “Now I understand why me and Rarity would overdose from your magic...but how did you? It only happens when you feel overwhelming amounts of foreign magic.” She looked at the other unicorn questioningly. 

Twi coughed and rubbed her neck. “Well...” She looked at Pink, “Did you tell them about... Celestia...everything?” Pink nodded.
“Fleetingly.” 
“Well, Empress Celestia decided long ago that anypony with power would be trained to better equip her armies, so Pegasy were taken at birth and put into training camps...” She bit her lip, “And she did the same with us unicorns.” Twi’s eye’s flashed with fear as she remembered those dark conditions. Rough beds, scratchy blankets, cold food, growling excersise, torture to create survival instincts intuned with a unicorns magic. All of it she had suffered, again, and again, and again.

Twi shuddered horribly. “I don’t want to talk about what they did, but basically what they turned me into is a creature with power that doesn’t feel like my own.” Twilight latched on to the others train of thought. 
“Ahh, and so now when you use large amounts of your magic, your body doesn’t recognise it? causing an overdose?” Twi nodded. Then silence fell on the group after the sombre topic. 

The silence persisted until a thick Tennessee accent called out to them. “Mornin’ ladies!” the group turned to see Applejack approaching, her tell tale hat showing her to be the local pony. At first she seemed alone, but was soon followed by AJ.  She looked like a completely different pony! She had cleaned her coat, and brushed her mane. The end effect had made the pony look far more cultured than her scraggily rats nest had before. 

“Wow! AJ! You clean up quick!” Hollered Pink a joking fashion. AJ tipped her head politely to the leader, and seated herself next to them. Even before either of the Applejacks had spoken a word, the group caught the glimpse of the final four making their way to the cafe through the town centre.

Pink waved the four of them over, but Twilight noticed something. It was hard to tell which was the real FLuttershy, but the short tailed, long fringed Dashie was obvious, meaning the short mane’d Rainbow, with the long tail was her friend. She looked upset, she trudged her way to the group looking at her hooves as she walked. As did one of the Fluttershy’s. When the group arrived before the gathering, they all smiled, two of the smiles seemed very forced in Twilights view.

“Well, seeing as we’ve already decided on seatin’ arrangements, how ‘bout the other ponies go over thar, and the local ponies sit over here.” Suggested Applejack to the final four. They obliged silently. Taking their places. 

“Dashie...” Frowned Pink. “What’s that?” She asked, referring to the fury creature resting on the cyan Pegasus’s back who she now took off gently and placed beside her on her seat. 
“Oh! This is my new friend!” She lifted the small kitten up and placed him on the table. The creature stood on the small table for a moment, staring up at the large ponies around him. The cat quickly turned away, trotting back towards to Dashie in slight fear. 

The cyan Pegasus took hold of her friend and hugged him tightly. When she looked back up she seemed unsure of what to say. “Well, you see... I was thinking about calling him...” She looked to Fluttershy, who nodded to her, encouraging the shy Pegasus to keep going. Dashie gulped nervously, then continued. “Mac...” She looked to AJ, “You know... so that something about him is here with us.” 

AJ stared for a moment, and then with a beam of happiness, she reached over and scratched the little kitten behind the ears. The small creature purred with please, pushing his head up into the orange pony’s hoof silently asking for more. “Well I think that’s a fine idea Dashie!” She said happily, gazing at the new addition to the group. 

Twilight glanced up at Flutt trying to scan her reaction to this animal being called the name of her beloved Macintosh. But as she watched the unusually quiet yellow Pegasus, she saw that her mind was elsewhere she stared at a notch in the wooden table as though it were the most fascinating notch in the world. What was wrong with her? This was nothing like the Flutt that Twilight had caught a glimpse of the night before. Rainbow seemed distracted too! The real Rainbow! She had sat down and immediately slammed her head onto the table before her and had yet to look up. 

Clover Field arrived and took their orders. Mostly a range of water and sandwiches were requested by all the ponies who all received astonished looks from the blue earth pony as he stared at the group of doubles seated at his table. “So...” Twilight opened happily, looking to each pony in turn. “What do you think we should do about this?” She gestured at each doubled pony in turn, and then froze. “Wait a second... We’re missing somepony.” She frowned and turned to her friends. “Where’s Rarity?”

Applejack also frowned at the question “Come to think of it... I haven’t seen her since last night... anypony else seen her?” She asked the group, who all shook their heads. Rainbow raised her head with a concerned look on her face, Twilight notice her exchange a nervous glance with Flutt. What was going on? 

“Maybe she thought seeing as there’s no other her she didn’t need to come?” She proposed, but  Applejacl closed down her idea with a shake of her head. 
“That aint like Rarity, it isn’t very lady like to miss a meeting with friends.” She looked up at Twilight worriedly, “Something might have happened...” She suggested darkly. Twilight nodded.
“That may explain why Spike isn’t here either.” She concluded.

As Rainbow took a deep unsettled breath, the group heard a familiar voice call out to them. “Hello girls! Sorry I’m late!” there trotted Rarity, as radiant as ever, and clearly unharmed. The local ponies all breathed a sigh of relief besides Rainbow who quickly resumed her staring competition with the table with a resounding THUD as her head meat wood!

“Hey there sleeping beauty!” Called Applejack as her friend took a seat next to her. “Not very “Lady like” oversleeping is it?” She poked the platinum pony jokingly who only sniffed slightly at the comment. 
“For your information Applejack, I was tending to Sweetie Belle.” Applejack’s joking demeanour disappeared in an instant. 
“She a’right?”
“Yes” confirmed the fashionista, gazing back at the other ponies across the table. “She was just a little... under the weather that’s all.” Flutt couldn’t even look her in the eye. Knowing what she and her friends had done to this pony’s family made her sick to her very core. Not only her sisters physical pain, but the mental anguish the unicorn must have gone through tending to her, and for the loss of that poor dragon in the gorge. 

“Well I’m sorry to hear that Rarity.” Sympathised Twilight sadly. “Maybe we could go visit her after we’re done here?”The group nodded, even the doubles, who seemed to be too grim faced to not think they may have some little factor in the little Filly’s problems. 
“Thank you Twilight, everyone! But first, I think it’s best we decide  what to do with our new friends.” She gave a large smile to Pink, who repaid it in full. Now here, and with all the stress from running and hiding her secret from everypony, she felt... lighter, almost... bouncy! 

“I think we should leave.” Muttered Flutt to the shock of the group. Rainbow tilted her head up until she rested on her chin and gazed at the Pegasus, unsurprised by her suggestion. 
“Leave?” Asked Twi, “Have you been out flying looking for a new place for us to settle down?” She smiled to Twilight, “After all, it’s going to probably cause some problems if we stay here where there’s already a... group of us here.” Twi giggled at the comment, she herself was finding it hard to word the situation, how on earth was she going to write about this to Princess Celestia. 

“I didn’t mean leave town...” Flutt answered miserably, still staring at the notch in the table. “Leave HERE Equestria, get a boat and find something new out there.” 
“Honestly Flutt if you don’t stow away this bullshit grudge against everypony here I swear...” Pink left the threat open, her temper quickly flaring. 
“It’s nothing like that!” Flutt snapped. She grew quieter once again. “I think it’s just for the best.” 

Twilight had had enough! She opened her mouth to call Flutt on her odd behaviour, and Rainbow too! She took a breath and spoke in a voice that was completely dwarfed by the sudden explosion of air being pushed aside.

Overhead, a line of five stallion Pegasy had flown over the cafe and soared to a halt in the town centre, they were soon bolstered by another line of five, who mimicked the previous group and took formation. Twilight realised what this could mean if she didn’t explain the situation to the visiting ponies. 

Surely enough, Pink’s teeth had already begun to grind at the site of the royal guard. Both Dashie and Twi stared in horror at the site of the formation of guards. Flutt, amazingly seemed tranquil, more so than ever before. She stood and began to head towards the group of armour clad ponies. 

“Flutt!” Cried Pink angrily. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” 
“It’s alright.” Murmured the yellow Pegasus in an almost dream like state. She turned to gaze at her friends and the local ponies. Her eye’s seemed dead and cold, her breathing was deep and calm. Behind the determined expression all could see a hint of misery and sadness. “They deserve to be here.” She looked Rainbow Dash in the eye, knowing how the cyan Pegasus was the only pony who knew what she was about to say meant. 

“They need to stop the monsters.”