It had been an eventful 3 days for Twilight Sparkle. Her crown was stolen by a bitter former student of Celestia, She had to go into an entirely different world where she transformed into an Ape-thing and had to attend high school, and she settled an ongoing feud with alternate versions of her friends. It was stressful, but fun at the same time.
While Sunset Shimmer did get her crown, The Element of Magic reacted horribly and turned her into a raging she demon. Luckily Twilight used the power of Friendship to bring her down.
After the night of thrills, it was time for Twilight to leave and the six teens gave a good bye group hug. After a few seconds the hug broke.
“You’ll look out for her, right?” Twilight asked, referring to Sunset Shimmer who was standing shyly at the destroyed entrance.
“Of course we will,” Rarity said. “Although I do expect an apology for last spring’s debacle.”
“Oh, I have a feeling she’s going to be handing out a lot of apologies,” Twilight confirmed as she saw Vice Principal Luna hand Sunset a trowel.
“We better get going,” Spike piped up from under Twilight, she nodded
“I know I’ve only known you for such a short time, but I’m going to miss you so much.” Twilight told her humanized ground of friends with a wide smile and tears entering her eyes. She turned and started towards the Mirror, but then she felt herself being enveloped by a hug.
“Do, you really have to go?” Pinkie asked, “I didn’t even throw you a Welcome party”
Twilight chuckled at that, “I’m sorry, Pinkie, the portal is closing and it won’t open again for a long time. Hey, remember that twin you were telling me about? Maybe you can find her, if she’s anything like me, she’ll need all the friendship she can get.”
Pinkie smiled and let go. Twilight again walked towards the mirror.
“That Crown really suits you, Princess Twilight,” Spike said with a sly smirk.
“You know, Spike this crown is feeling a little bit more comfortable,” Twilight
“And your Wings?”
“Spike I had to spend three days on two legs and had to use these!” Twilight complained, indicating her fingers. Spike chuckled and the two reached out to touch the mirror, only to be met with a solid mass.
Pausing for a moment, Twilight put her hand to the center of the mirror, nothing. She had noticed that the weight that was on her back wasn’t there anymore. She tried to enter the portal again, her hand was met with a cold glass. She started hitting the mirror over and over with her hand expecting the portal to reopen.
Twilight kept trying to go through the mirror like a maniac, while her friends were staring at her. It was then that the Human versions of the Elements of Harmony saw a side of Twilight Sparkle that only their Equine counterparts and the residents of Ponyville have seen.
Indeed, Twilight sat there, slamming that mirror with her fist, denying the painful reality. The reality that she would have to wait 30 moons (assuming time in this world traveled at the same rate as Equestria) to go back home. 30 moons (again, under the assumption above) until she could see her best friends and family again. Time with her friends: Applejack and Rainbow in some silly contest, Rarity declaring a lost sewing needle to be the worst possible thing, Fluttershy always willing to lend a gentle ear, or Pinkie knowing just exactly how to make Twilight’s favorite milk shake; those were gone for 30 moons. Twilight wouldn’t be able to see her BBBFF, Shining Armor, or his wife, Cadence. She couldn’t even send a letter to Princess Celestia, her Mentor who could take credit for raising her. They would all be worried about her. They wouldn’t know that she succeeded, they probably thought she perished in the fight.
She stopped pounding the mirror and slumped down in a kneeling position. Her eyes were downcast, causing her bangs to obscure them. What her bangs couldn’t conceal, were the streams of tears running down her cheeks. “Twilight?” Applejack probed, walking up to the distraught girl, “What’s going on?”
“I can’t go home...” Twilight sobbed.
“Why?” AJ questioned, unbelieving of the situation
“The Portal closed and now I’m … I’m…”
“Twilight is going to stay here? Woohoo!” Pinkie celebrated to the annoyance of her friends.
Twilights mind was a storm of emotions raging with the power of a class 5 hurricane. Her thoughts of her Friends and family were soon converging into one point. This point that for all accounts was innocent, but if things were different, she would be home by now. It seemed that no matter which world, this one sticking point caused the biggest problems. This point known as Pinkie Pie had triggered a breaking point in Twilight’s mind, and she fainted.
The voice permeated the restful sleep the former alicorn was having.
“Twilight….”
The voice, of course, belonged to her roommate, Sunset Shimmer, another former pony stuck in human world. The two have been friends for over a month. Living together, of course, strengthened that friendship.
“Wake up, ya lazy bum!” An ugly face appeared directly in front of Twilight’s.
Twilight tossed and turned in the futon she was sleeping on.
“You're a lazy bum”, The former princess groaned out sleepily.
“Excuse me,” Sunset exclaimed incredulously, “I’m not the one who’s going to be late for work.”
Twilight jumped straight out of the futon and ran to the one bedroom in the apartment she and Sunset shared. She quickly got her work uniform from the closet and laid it out. She then ran into the Bathroom to take a shower.
As Twilight was showering, Sunset took this chance to put Twilight's bedding away. Twilight then got out of the shower and started dressing herself .
“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner!?” Twilight exclaimed, rushing to button up her green work shirt.
“I would’ve thought a princess would be more aware of her responsibilities.” Sunset snarked sitting on the now folded futon.
“Don’t give me that!” Twilight went to pick up her cell phone. She poked at it unhappily “Well no wonder my alarm didn’t work! My phone is dead!”
“And whose fault is that?” Sunset asked playfully as she cracked open a book, while Twilight glared at her roommate.
Twilight just sighed, “Whatever, Don’t have time for this, do me a favor and charge my phone while I’m gone”. She tossed the phone to Sunset
“Whatever you say, Princess,” Sunset said dismissively, catching it.
“I’ll be back in a few hours, Talk to you later!” Twilight said as she barreled out of the apartment.
Sunset chuckled, it was nice seeing Twilight like this instead of how she was when she first learned that she was stuck here.
It was the day after the Fall Formal, early in the morning to be exact, Sunset Shimmer was laying down the bricks to the entrance of the school. Her muscles were burning from the repetitive motion, and the brisk morning autumn air was making her nose run. It was quiet, and despite it being early enough that the buses hadn’t even come yet, It was too quiet.
“Hi Sunny!!!” Pinkie shouted as she popped up in front of Sunset out of seemingly nowhere, solving the too quiet problem.
Sunset fell back from on top of the stairs, “Pinkie, Where did you come from!?” She paused, then tilted her head to the side “and Sunny? Really!?”
“We’re Friends now, Silly! That entitles you to the complete Party Pinkie Package, including a cute nickname and as a special bonus you’ll never leave my sight!” Pinkie rambled, while putting a pair of pink handcuffs on to Sunset.
Sunset stared slack jawed at Pinky, then adjusted her stare to the handcuffs, “Handcuffs? What? Is this necessary?”
“Yes!” Pinkie answered with manic cheerfulness., “Okay, Those may not be strictly necessary, but they’re fun…”
Sunset gave Pinkie her best glare.
Pinkie undid the cuffs and put them in her Mane of Holding, “ … But I was looking on the internet and the rest of the student populace is not happy with you!”
“Well obviously, I mean, not only was I a stereotypical mean girl and a raging she-demon that enslaved the entire student body. Kinda hard to forgive…” Sunset stammered.
“Aww…. Sunny, at least you’re admitting that you had a problem and that’s the first step. Although Twilight did make us promise to look out for you, so… Yeah!.... Never. Leaving. My. Sight.” Pinkie pie attempted to slap the cuffs on Sunset again, but as Sunset was ready for them this time she managed to get them attached to a nearby pole instead.
“Aww”
“How is Twilight doing?” Sunset asked, desperately diverting the conversation.
“Well, Last time I spoke with Applejack, she said that Twilight had woken up, at the very least, but was very quiet and refused to eat. Which is sad because Granny Smith’s cooking is SO good, Oooh someday we should go to AJ’s farm and have some food, oh the apple dumplings are to Die for!”
“Alright there, Pinkie, you can slow down there,” AppleJack drawled as she walked up to the school, Twilight in tow.
Twilight was taking slow deliberate steps, Her eyes downcast in such a way that it was hard to see them.
Pinkie bounded over to Twilight, the very opposite of slow. “ Hey, Twilight, Feeling better?”
It was the most delicate Pinkie could be, to be fair, and she couldn’t stand to see one of her friends sad.
“H-Hey Guys,” Twilight stammered softly, her friends stared at her expectantly. Twilight only had eyes for her own feet. “ I-I need to see Principal Celestia about my schedule.”
Twilight then ran into the gaping hole that was the entrance of Canterlot. While Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy walked up to the remaining girls, observing keenly.
“Oh, the poor dear isn’t taking this well at all,” Rarity sighed dramatically, hand over her mouth in faux horror.
“It must be horrible being stuck in a world that’s not yours” Fluttershy added.
“Pfft, What’s the big deal? It’s only thirty days, She’ll be back home in no time!” Rainbow Dash scoffed, quickly receiving glares from her friends and Sunset, “... What”
“First off, ‘30 moons’ means 30 full moons…” Sunset explained, only to be met with Rainbow’s blank stare.
“...Which only happens once a month?…” Rainbow’s face was still uncomprehending
“ She’s stuck here for about two years.” Sunset deadpanned.
Rainbow’s face brightened in realization, “Oh, that sucks!”
“Really, Rainbow, it doesn’t matter if it’s 30 months or 30 days, it still stands that she misses her home.” Rarity chided, crossing her arms, “Besides she did just save the entire school from being controlled by a She-Demon…”
Everyone looked at Sunset, who was looking to the ground and holding her arm.
“Erm… No offense, Sunset,” Rarity quickly added, patting Sunset’s hand, then brushing some dust off of her shoulder when she failed to stop giving Rarity a sour look.
“I’m going to hear that a lot from now on, Aren’t I?” Sunset asked in a laconic drawl.
The bell rang and everyone rushed awkwardly to class.
It was Lunchtime when everybody reconvened, although Celestia in her infinite wisdom did make sure that Twilight shared a class with at least one of her friends. The seven girls sat at the same table. Twilight made a small buffer away from her friends, sitting an entire seat away from the main group.
Twilight just sat there, picking at the salad Sunset got for her. She would mechanically take a bite once every few minutes, but at this point she was only playing with her food.
“Wow, You weren’t kidding when you said she wasn’t eating much,” Sunset commented to AppleJack. Sunset’s own appetite was unaffected by her recent time as a demon.
“She’s been like that all day!” Rainbow all but shouted, as she leaned over the lunch table “She just sits at the back of class staring off into space! I thought learning was her favorite thing!”
“There has to be something we can do.” Rarity said, looking sidelong to her friend, “Sunset, how did you adjust to living in this world?” she took Sunset’s hand in her own as she made the demand, pressing it against dramatically her heart.
Sunset carefully extracted her hand from Rarity’s and shrugged “I don’t know, When I came here, I was still in ‘evil empress mode’, I was just going to come here, build an army, and invade Equestria.” She whickered softly “man that sounds dumb just saying out loud.”
“It seems to be more emotional than acclimation, Maybe... she needs to talk about it,” Fluttershy offered, eyes staring at Twilight with incessant sympathy. Whenever Twilight glanced at Fluttershy, her own eyes darted away and she eeped softly.
“That’s great and all, but she’s barely spoken a word in two days!” Applejack stated, slamming her fist into her cupped hand for emphasis. “We need to do something in the here and now!”
The table got quiet as the six girls glanced once more at their friend, who was still preoccupied with poking her food and wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation.
“Hmmm… Changing subject: Where is Twilight staying tonight,” Rarity asked, placing her hand on her chin in an overblown replica of the thinking pose.
“Don't look at me,” Applejack replied, tossing her head to glance at Rarity, “One night was was enough, any more and we put her to work.” The sixgirls stared at her, “What? That’s Apple Family Policy. Friends are great and all, but there’s no room fer slackers on the farm. Hey. Someone else say something. Comeon. I didn’t say anything that outrageous. Yeah yeah. Pick on the farmer.”
Sunset coughed “Well, I can let her stay with me,” Sunset said, trying really hard not to make eye contact with Applejack.
“Where do you even live?” Rainbow asked, her tone edging towards ‘snottily accusing’.
“It’s just an small apartment in town, totally legit too.” Sunset said, hands up.
“Totally Legit huh? If it was totally legit, you wouldn’t feel the need to specify that it was” Rainbow shoved her face close to Sunset’s glaring deeply into the shocked whites of Sunset’s eyes.
Rarity gently took Dash’s shoulder and pried the other girl carefully away from sunset. She was stronger than she looked.
“For the sake of trust we’ll allow it,”.
“It just means we’ll have to keep an eye on you,” Applejack agreed, tipping up her hat with a finger demonstratively.
“Don’t think that we’ve forgotten about you because of Twilight!” Rainbow stated, rolling up her sleeves aggressively, only to find herself shackled to the lunch table by Pinkie Pie.
“I knew those handcuffs would come in handy!” Pinkie Pie danced happily in her seat.
Sunset nodded in more of a timid way than she would have liked. She forgot that even though Twilight asked them to be here friends, the would start out feeling more like wardens.
“I-I Need to talk to the Principal,” Sunset said as she excused herself from the table.
The Principal’s office was surprisingly quiet during lunch. Most times some of the more problem students would be there, either trying futilely to salvage their grades, or there to face punishment. Sunset was fortunate enough not to have to face punishment in here until the previous night. She may have been a mean girl, but she was also intelligent, she was never careless enough to get caught.
Sunset knocked on Principal Celestia’s door, and waited for an answer. Celestia’s voice called out,
“Come in.”
Sunset opened the door and tiptoed in gently.
“Ahh, Sunset Shimmer!” Celestia greeted cheerfully, looking up from the paper she was filling out, “To what to I owe the pleasure?”
Sunset winced visibly. She wondered if Celestia was purposefully twisting the knife. Of course, that wasn’t like Celestia, really, either version of her.
“Um… Well… I wanted to talk to you about Twilight,” Sunset stammered, while obsessively smoothing her skirt. How did the dratted thing get so wrinkled NOW?! It wasn’t nerves, it COULDN’T be nerves!She was Sunset Shimmer! She used to rule Canterlot high! She was going to rule Equestria! What had that rainbow done to her?
“Oh? How is Ms.Sparkle doing?” Celestia asked, giving her full attention to Sunset, hands folded primly on the desk before her.
“Not that well, to be honest,” Sunset said, plopping herself unceremoniously into the seat before the desk, in an effort to regain some comfort. Celestia belatedly gestured to her that it was fine to do so.
“How so?” Celestia was being particularly parsimonious with her words today.
“She barely talks, hardly eats, and she just walks around with no purpose!” Sunset was surprised to find herself leaning over the desk, crying for twilight.
“Sounds like she’s having trouble adjusting,” Celestia turned to her computer and started to Type, “ Luckily , we just hired someone for just such an occasion.”
Sunset fell out of her chair, “What.”
“The district has been trying to get this school a psychologist, and we just found Miss Cadenza today… Do… you need help getting up?”
“No, I can manage myself, once my legs start working again” Sunset said dryly. “You know, us ponies, keep forgetting how to walk on only two. Heh. Heh.” She faked an unconvincing laugh as she levered her trembling body off of the floor.
“Right… um.. heh heh…” Celestia, taken aback, faked laughter along with Sunset. “You might find a visit to her helpful yourself, you know.”
“What.” Sunset had managed, this time, to fall into the chair, so that she didn’t embarrass herself further.
“Well, I think the whole” She shuffled her paperwork to bring a file to the top and began to read from it. “Turning into a demon and trying to take over the school…” Her normally imperturbable face took on a perturbed air “I still can’t believe I can say that with a straight face… thing may have left some psychological effects upon you as well. There is no shame in it, you know. My sister and I have needed family therapy a few times, and I think I will be having a long talk with my own psychologist over the summer.”
“.. Maybe…” Sunset droned hesitantly, “But, right now, I need to repay some debts”
“Understood,” Celestia then switched the topic, “ So, I can arrange for Miss Sparkle to have a session with miss Cadenza this afternoon. Do you Know where she is staying? ”
“She’s staying with me, Actually”
“Oh, Perfect! She’ll talk with Miss Cadenza while you’re working on the school entrance” Celestia Beamed.
Sunset laughed weakly at that and Exited the room.
Twilight ran across the city, cursing her cell phone for dying. For one, her alarm didn't go off, so she had to have Sunset wake her up. For two, now she didn’t have anything to keep track of time for her, so now she was just stuck running to work.
Twilight did earn 5th place in The Running of the Leaves, But she was pacing herself, and she wasn’t involved in AJ and Rainbow’s weekly conflict.
Yes, time in the human world had jaded the former princess, some would even say she’s gone native, Sunset has. Nonetheless, she would mark her calendar off, day by day waiting for the portal to re-open.
She had just walked up to her work; A Book/Novelty store called Quickenings. She entered into the employee’s entrance and clocked in.
“Almost late again, Sparkle?” A voice cooed. A familiar hat peaked around the door, with a smile bent on mischief.
“Hi, Trixie,” Twilight said in a bored tone.
“Think fast!” Trixie shouted, before unleashing a small whirlwind of brightly colored handkerchiefs in Twilight’s direction.
Twilight froze, and was hit with several knotted ropes of brightly colored kerchief. With an exaggerated sigh, she blew one of the flag-of-all-nations off of her face. Yeah. That’s about how this week was going.
The Trixie of this world was a bit more unhinged than the one back in ponyville. Well, more unhinged than the version without the Alicorn Amulet. During the first week of school, The Magician had declared herself “Twilight Sparkle’s eternal rival”, What ever that meant. Twilight got the rest of the things she needed to start work as she thought about her first week in the Human world
Twilight was nervous as she was led to the psychologist’s door. That last night and today has been emotionally draining on her. Talking wasn’t on the top of her priorities. Nothing really topped her priorities.
“Okay, Twilight, we’re at the door.” Sunset said, positioning the lavender girl in front of the psychologist’s door, “Please, at least try to talk,”
Twilight stayed silent, but she did give a faint nod.
“Okay, Well, I have to get to my community service,” Sunset said, trying to be as delicate as possible, “So I’ll be going now.”
Sunset tiptoed away from Twilight cautiously waiting from the quiet girl to do some thing. Twilight knocked on the door, which allowed sunset to get back to her work.
“Come in,” a calm, chipper, yet commanding voice called from the other side of the door. Twilight could also detect something familiar about the voice. The doors opened to reveal a young woman, dressed in a pink pantsuit, her hair in a multitude of yellow, lavenders, and a few pinks. Her pink face was being framed by a pair of elegant glasses as she read through a file. Her appearance struck a chord with Twilight.
“Ms. Sparkle?” The woman asked, looking up from her papers.
Twilight nodded, now that her voice wasn’t being filtered through a door, it struck another chord in the former pony.
“Please, Come in, I am Mrs. Mi Amore Cadenza,” The woman stated in a strangely Fun-loving tone that betrayed her professional attire, “But, please, Call me-”
“CADENCE!” Twilight interrupted as she hugged the woman. It was then, when the former princess who had not shown any emotion for near 24 hours began to bawl as if her favorite TV show was ending.
Cadence stood there dumbfounded at what just happened. She softened up as she let the girl hugging her cry it out.
Cadence led Twilight to the sofa that lined the back of the office, while the still crying girl was starting babbling incoherently about Crystal Empires, Magic Mirrors, and crowns. Cadence pulled out a box of tissues and waited for Twilight to calm down.
It was a good 5 minutes before Twilight started to calm down, as witnessed by the used tissues surrounding the unfortunate teen.
“ I’m sorry for that,” Twilight finally said, “ It’s just you reminded me a lot of my sister-in-law”
“It’s alright, really,” Cadence replied cheerfully, “From the sound of it, you really need it.”
Cadence took a closer look at Twilight.
“Now that you mention it, You do look like my sister-in-law,You even share a name,”
“Well, uh, heh, there’s a good explaination for that, I mean it sounds unbelieveable but-”
“You’re a pony princess from a magical land of magical ponies?”
Twilight stared wide-eyed at her psychologist.
“How…”
“Principal Celestia gave me a file with a quick rundown of things,” Cadance explained, while waving a folder labeled, in big red friendly bold letters: “ I swear I am not making this up; I am not Insane I promise you”.
“I have to admit, it was a little bit hard to believe, but the fact that you are a carbon copy of my husband’s adorable little sister is making me believe.” Cadence’s voice, while still cheerful, carried a weight of professionalism.
Twilight laughed nervously, “Well I guess I can drop that pretense.”
“I’m to assume that you have a Cadence in your world, with a similar relationship?”
“Well, yes, my Cadence used to be my foal-” Twilight coughed to correct herself, “Um… Babysitter, and then she married my older brother, She’s also a princess.”
Cadence cocked an eyebrow, “Those are really staggering parallels,”
“Oh Please don’t tell this world’s Twilight any of this, I tried to talk to myself before , It didn’t turn out well…. I called myself Impossible”
Choosing to ignore that line of thought, Cadence made a zipping motion across her lips.
“Patient Confidentiality!” She declared, “Although, you shouldn’t be too worried, Although my Twily had been a adorable little ball of happiness when I baby sat her, Nowadays she just holed away in her ‘secret lab’ doing something or other.”
“How did I ever become a princess,” Twilight thought to herself.
“ So, Celestia tells me you were having a hard time adjusting?” Cadence asked, getting back to point.
“Oh, er, well, It’s not so much adjusting… it’s more… I’m…. Stuck here…” Twilight trailed off.
“Stuck here?” Cadence asked, flipping open her notebook.
“The mirror portal only opens for 3 days, every thirty moons,” Twilight explained, “I … Missed that deadline”
“So because you couldn’t go back home, you became despondent” Cadence’s tone was soft but leading.
“Well, my friends in the human world are great, but they're not my pony friends, I mean they are … but… They're not the friends I had gone on adventures with. They were barely speaking to each other when I got here!”
“It seems you’re overthinking the differences between the versions of your friends” Cadance said, “They’re still your friends, I’m sure there were things you liked about them for them to become your friends?”
Twilight was taken aback at this. She never really considered the circumstances of her friendships with the other Element bearers. When she first met them they were just obstacles in her way of stopping Nightmare Moon from coming back. Was it just a twist of fate that those five ponies would be her closest friends? Maybe if She was more social, maybe her canterlot friends would have become the Elements of Harmony.
“Twilight?” Cadence called out,
“Huh, What?” Twilight shook her head of her thoughts.
“You went quiet, Is there anything you want to tell me?”
“Oh, Uh, No, no!” Twilight stammered nervously.
Cadence eyed Twilight carefully before leaning back into her chair, “Anyway, I just wanted to say, that now you’re here for awhile, It’ll help to look at the similarities of between the worlds rather than the differences.”
Twilight nodded dumbly.
Cadence looked up at the clock in her office, “Well, It’s almost time for the school to close, I would like to talk to you some more through, Twilight.”
“O-okay” Twilight said.
“I’d be Okay if you keep seeing me after school, If you're anything like my Twily then I know you won’t want to miss your classes!”
“Th-thanks, Cadence” Cadence walked Twilight to the door.
“Where are you staying? Do you need a ride?” Cadence asked as she opened the door.
“Oh, that’s alright… I’m staying with Sunset Shimmer.” Twilight Responded.
“Hmm… Sunset Shimmer” Cadence mused while tapping her finger on her chin, “I’m going to have to remember to call her in for a psych eval.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow. Was Cadence being protective, or just zealous about her job?
“Well, Be safe, Twily!”
A pregnant pause filled the air as those words rang out.
“Uhhh…” Cadence backpedaled, “Is it okay if I call you Twily?
“I think I would prefer that” Twilight said, smiling as she exited the office ready to face her new life, for the next 30 moons.
Quickening’s was a quixotically niche store. It sold a cavalcade of “nerd” items such as: Comics, cartoon collections, knick-knacks associated with popular TV shows, themed chess-sets, luxury underpants, little tiny dancing bears and the like. But, For Twilight, It was the large variety of books that endeared the job to her. It felt just like the Library. Speaking of which, after a quick glance from the clock, Twilight could see that it was almost time for-
“Hi Twilight!” a cacophony of six mismatched voices rang out.
It was like clockwork, about an hour or two into her shift, her friends came to visit.
“Girls, you don’t have to come by and visit me every day” Twilight murmured while finishing stocking the books on their shelves.
“Aw, Shucks, Sugar, It ain’t every day.” Applejack drawled sheepishly, rubbing a toe against the ground.
Twilight chuckled, “Near about.”
“Well I actually wanted to know if the newest Daring Do book was released” Rainbow Dash pushed herself forwards, leaning over the counter into Twilight’s face..
“A Gift for Scootaloo?” Twilight teased, her arms folded and her smile knowing as she leaned slightly away from Rainbow Dash.
“Uh, yeah sure” Rainbow Dash confirmed nervously, leaning back some from the counter.
“Oh, Rainbow, don’t be so nervous, I did Introduce the pony Rainbow Dash to the series.” Twilight sketched a quick picture of the pony reading a book, and pointed to it demonstratively.
“Yeah, Yeah, Just tell me where it is,” Rainbow groaned, slamming her head against her arms on the counter.
“It’s in the Adventure Section, It just came out, so the cover should be facing out” Twilight replied, gently lifting Rainbow Dash’s hair out of her eyes, then twisting her head to point her in the right direction.
Rainbow dashed off to retrieve her book. Twilight turned to her friends.
“So what’s going on with you guys?” She asked, sitting back on her little stool behind the counter
“Oh, you know, Darling, just the usual” Rarity said, twirling a lock of her own hair sensually around a finger “Although we did want to talk to you about something when you had time.”
“I have a break in about 30 minutes” Twilight said raising her Eyebrow in question.
“A Band?!” Twilight asked incredulously.
She and her friends sat around a snackbar table next to Quickenings for Twilight’s Break. Sunset had also given Twilight her phone back.
“Yep, CHS is holding a music showcase, and guess who roped almost all of us into her Band?” Applejack Explained.
“You guys could’ve said ‘No’” Rainbow Dash growled.
“Wait, ‘Almost Everyone?” Twilight asked.
She was answered by everyone almost unconsciously looking at Sunset. Twilight turned to Sunset with her eyebrow raised.
Sunset saw this and Stammered, “W-well, Rainbow did ask me, but, nobody is going to want to see Demon Girl up on stage”
“And here I thought you were over it…” Twilight commented in a slightly worried tone.
“ Kinda hard to get over something that you’re constantly reminded of.”
“Do you need to see Cadence again?”
Sunset grunted softly in response. Twilight rolled her eyes and turned to the others.
“Well I can’t join you guys, Between School, Research, and Work, I just don’t have the time”
“Research?” Rarity asked
“It’s Silly, but-”
“The Princess here is trying to see what what magic there is in this world” Sunset interrupted.
Twilight shot her roommate a glare, and sighed, “Predictably, nothing’s come up. Don’t get me wrong, I Love you guys, but… I still get homesick, you know.”
“It’s okay Twilight,” Fluttershy piped up, “We understand how you feel”
“You should still totally watch us rehearse!” Rainbow cried.
“Our songs may not be nothin special, but our rehearsal is”
Twilight chuckled, “Okay, okay, I’ll sit in on one rehearsal, but for now I have to get back to work.
[hr/]
Twilight returned to work and was about to go to register duty when Trixie almost materialized in front of her.
“ Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie greeted
“Hello, Trixie Lulamoon,” Twilight replied evenly, crossing her arms.
“How was your break?”
“It was fine, but now, if you would be so kind I would like to get back” Twilight’s eyes were half lidded and she headed toward the cash Register.
“Well, Fine, I won’t Tell you about your twin”
Twilight’s eyes went wide and she turned toward Trixie.
“My Twin?”
“Oh, so now you’re interested in The Great and Powerful Trixie’s story, are you?” Trixie’s smile gaining a cat like quality.
“Trixie, I don’t have time for this!”
“Oh, fine, fine, It wasn’t anything much, Just that there was a girl in here that looked just like you, I was about to bother her, when I realized that she did her hair much differently than yours. It still had that silly highlight that yours has.”
Twilight frowned at that last statement, “Is that all, Trixie?”
“Oh, am I boring you? At least you are of a challenge in the Battle of Wits than your little clone. Poor dear seemed intimidated by nearly every soul she came across. She would probably faint at the sight of yours truly!”
Twilight raised one eyebrow while still maintaining her stoic half lidded countenance,
“Well, that was interesting, Trixie, but now I have to get back to work.”
Trixie turned on her heel with a condescending “Hmph” to punctuate it. Leaving Twilight to finish her shift. Of course, Twilight now had more on her mind than ringing people up. [hr/]
After work, Twilight had gone over to Rarity’s boutique and immediately asked if Rarity could work on a disguise.
“Well, It’s for In case I see… Myself….” Twilight explained feebly.
Rarity rested her chin in her finger and repeated, “In case you see yourself?”
Twilight gesticulated wildly with her hands while failing to form any kind of comprehendible statement. She then took a deep breath and said, “I… guess it was one of those eventualities I never considered when I first realized I had no way to get home.”
Rarity put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder, “What was that, Darling?”
“That I would meet… This world's Twilight.”
Rarity cocked her head to one side.
“Why is that distressing you, Twilight? From what you’ve told me, I Would LOVE to meet My Pony Self! Oh, the Fashions we would come up with together…”
Rarity started to drift off as Twilight sighed deeply.
“You have context, Rarity, This world’s Twilight doesn’t know anything about Equestria. If she sees me, Who knows what she’ll do!”
“Well, It can’t be all that bad,” Rarity reasoned.
“Maybe,” Twilight said, “But I don’t want to take that chance.”
Rarity pursed her lips in thought, “Well then, Darling, let’s get to work.
The two girls went to work, designing a persona that Twilight could don if she ever met her twin.
