Equestrian Gals Part 1
“This,” complained Sunset Shimmer, “has been the dumbest day of my life.”
“You say that so much it’s lost all meaning,” said Trixie dryly.
“I know I’ve said that a lot, but that’s only because my life keeps getting more stupid! I still can’t believe that–”
“Yes, yes, yes,” said Trixie dismissively. “You don’t like recent events. Got it. Are you going to spend the entirety of this train ride complaining? Because it takes a while to get to the Crystal Empire, and it’s getting kind of repetitive. You should do something else, like reading the new Power Ponies issue.” She levitated the aforementioned comic in front of Sunset’s face. “Seriously, check it out! Look at the cover!”
“Why in the world would I care about the new issue of a comic series?” asked Sunset indignantly.
“Because there’s a Mare Do Well crossover in this issue! See? Mare Do Well is right there on the cover. Do you know how much value this brings to the brand?”
Sunset batted the comic away. “For the last time, Trixie, I don’t care about that stupid comic book character that you and Lightning Dust made!”
“Actually, Mare Do Well’s character is better described as comically naive than outright stupid,” said Trixie.
“Whatever! Don’t care! As for the whole complaining thing, the whole reason I dragged you along was so I’d have somepony to complain to!”
“The things I do for a free ticket,” muttered Trixie.
“Hey!” said Sunset. “I fixed that issue everypony was having with their cutie mark, which includes yours!”
“The issue you caused to begin with,” said Trixie.
“It was an accident!” snapped Sunset. “Anyway, as I was saying–”
Trixie held up a hoof. “Here. I’ll do it for you. After solving some spell by Starswirl by, in your own words, ‘saying the cheesiest thing I could think of,’ you got transported to somewhere else. Because you completed the spell, for some reason this resulted in an ascension, which is really a more complicated term for transformation in this case. Then you got all upset because the ascension or whatever didn’t turn you into an alicorn, but a changeling instead because apparently it affixes the race of whoever is the ruler of Equestria at the moment, which right now is Chrysalis. Speaking of Chrysalis, after you complained a bunch to her about it, she just told you to go to the Crystal Empire to see if they could figure it out.”
“She only said that to get me out of her hair,” muttered Sunset.
“What makes you think that?” asked Trixie.
“Because she said she was only doing it to get me out of her hair.”
“You took something Chrysalis said at face value?”
“There wasn’t any other options that seemed to be available!”
“Whatever,” said Trixie. “Anyway, apparently the reasoning for that was that Cadance might know something about that, what with Cadance having done that whole ascension thing before. Also, you would have probably muttered ‘life is pain’ somewhere in your complaining. Did I miss anything?”
Sunset slouched. “No, that’s pretty much all of it.”
“How the heck did Cadance get turned into an alicorn anyway? Sombra was ruler at the time, right? And unless he’s been hiding wings, he’s a unicorn.”
“Technically she’s not a true alicorn, because she was a pegasus, so she’s just gotten pegasus and unicorn powers but not the Earth pony stuff.”
“Great!” said Trixie cheerfully. “So now you don’t have to complain any more because I clearly have absorbed all the requisite information. Now will you read the comic?”
“No!”
“Your loss,” said Trixie with a shrug. “But considering how much you’ve complained, you haven’t explained what your plan is if you can revert yourself somehow.”
“Oh, easy one,” said Sunset. “Revert myself, overthrow Chrysalis, get some actual alicorn onto the throne, probably Luna, then re-ascend all over again.”
“That,” said Trixie, “is one of the dumbest plans I have ever heard. This is the kind of nonsense strategy I’d come up with.” She paused, then frowned. “Hey!”
“‘Hey’?” asked Sunset.
“Oh, just too used to someone making a statement like that about me,” said Trixie. “But seriously, why are you so hung up about it? You get wings like an alicorn, right?”
“Only when in changeling form,” muttered Sunset, “and I look absolutely ridiculous like that. Bleh.”
“Well, fine. How about the whole shapeshifting thing? Heck, that’s a great opportunity! Mimic me!”
“Not without filling out a ton of paperwork with you giving permission for it.”
“Huh?” asked Trixie.
“Yeah, apparently you’ve got to do that now. Did you know how much I had to fill out just to be able to mimic myself?”
“Well,” said Trixie, “I suppose they didn’t think of the possibility of somepony turning into a changeling when they made that law.”
Sunset shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure Chrysalis did that to screw with me.”
“You think Chrysalis deliberately left out a self-mimicking exception just so that, in the off chance you or somepony else ascended and turned into a changeling, they’d have to go through a bunch of paperwork to be able to shapeshift into themselves?” asked Trixie. She paused. “Actually, that sounds exactly like something Chrysalis would do.”
“Exactly!” said Sunset. “I can’t even get any real usage out of the one cool ability I did get!”
“You know, something occurs to me,” said Trixie.
“What?” asked Sunset crossly.
“If my life were a series of films, and the newest installment started with us getting onto this train, this whole conversation would serve as a decent way to fill in the viewers on the backstory.”
Sunset’s eye twitched.
One train ride later…
“Here we are at Cloudsdale!” declared Trixie as they left the train.
“I know,” said Sunset wearily before she performed a double take. “Wait, Cloudsdale? We’re not in Cloudsdale.”
Trixie shrugged. “I thought it would be funny to see how you’d react to that.”
Should have grabbed Suri instead of Trixie, thought Sunset to herself. “Whatever,” she said out loud, “let’s just go find Shining Armor and Cadance and see if they know if there’s any way to fix this.”
“Nope,” said Cadance, “no idea. Sorry.”
“Well,” said Trixie, “that was fun. Now let’s do sightseeing!”
“Oh, come on,” said Sunset, “you don’t know of any way to un-ascend? I even brought my Element of Magic with me just in case it would somehow work!”
“Ascensions aren’t particularly common! I’m not even sure what criteria I fulfilled for mine. It’s all rather unclear.”
“Well, this was a waste of time, then,” said Sunset. “Guess I might as well head back.”
“Actually, there aren’t any trains leaving until tomorrow,” said Shining Armor. “You might as well stay the night. We can definitely set up some guest rooms for you. You did help save the Crystal Empire, after all.”
“Sure!” said Trixie. “But in the meantime… sightseeing! Probably have an hour or two before it gets dark!” She dashed off.
“Ugh,” said Sunset, “this has been a long enough day for me. I’m just going to go to bed.”
Sunset turned over in her sleep. “No, doctor, I already told you I didn’t want to stick that pill there. I need it to the right to set up the combo correctly.”
A loud crash suddenly woke her up. “Whosawatit?” she stammered sleepily. She opened her eyes to see a cloaked figure running off while holding something. “Hey! Stop!” She ran after them. She must have grabbed something from my room, thought Sunset as she gave chase, but what?
The cloaked figure took a glance back at Sunset before continuing to run. To make a short story slightly shorter, Sunset managed to eventually catch up to the cloaked figure right after they turned into a room, then tackle said cloaked figure. The sudden inertia loss caused that figure’s bag to fly open, catapulting the Element of Magic into a mirror that was in the room, where it disappeared.
“Okay, who are you?” asked Sunset as she tore off the cloak to reveal a lavender unicorn wearing a partially broken red amulet. “Twilight? What are you–”
Sunset found herself interrupted by Twilight kicking her away. “Sorry, Sunset, but that crown of yours was necessary.” Twilight then leapt into the mirror.
“Well,” said Sunset, “that was odd.”
A large cloud of gas suddenly appeared. When it dissipated, Trixie was revealed. “And the Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived to stop the interloper!” She looked around and saw only Sunset was there. “Uh, where’d the aforementioned interloper go?”
Sunset got up. “Twilight went through the mirror with the Element of Magic.”
“Wait, Twilight?” asked Trixie. “The Twilight that’s Shining Armor’s sister, who he apparently hadn’t been getting along with for reasons he refused to divulge to us? The Twilight that, through a bunch of crazy circumstances, some of them arguably my fault, ended up with that whole alicorn amulet thing that gave her an absurd amount of power and also made her go crazy, except it stopped giving her the power boost after Gilda shot it with her sniper rifle, but the shot didn’t completely destroy it so she’s still crazy but hasn’t been seen since? That Twilight?”
I really should have brought Suri instead, thought Sunset to herself. “Uh, yes,” said said out loud, “that Twilight. Anyway, I guess I should report this.”
“… and that’s when Trixie came in,” finished Sunset in front of Shining Armor, Cadance, Trixie, and several random guards.
“So many questions,” said Shining Armor. “Why did my sister come here after all this time? How did she manage to sneak past everypony? Why did she take the Element of Magic? And how the heck did she disappear into this mirror? It could be a portal, but why hasn’t it worked like one before?”
“Do we really care?” asked Sunset. “It’s not like that Element ever did much anyway. I only actually got to use it once, and it didn’t even do anything. Do we need to even care about any of this?”
“You know,” said Trixie, “did we ever figure out if it didn’t work because the warranty expired, or if Celestia’s attempts at forcing friendship was just ironic enough that the Elements of Irony did nothing to her?”
“Hey!” said Shining Armor. “Just because they ended up not being relevant in the past doesn’t mean they can’t be important in the future. But also, that Element could be dangerous wherever she went. Also, whatever… issues… we might have had in the last few years, she’s still my sister, and I want her restored to normal and back here.” He pointed to the mirror. “Can you guards examine this? Maybe there’s a clue.”
“What were the issues between you and and Twilight?” asked Sunset. “You mentioned that once before, but refused to elaborate.”
Shining Armor sighed. “Guess I might as well explain. Several years ago, Twilight… changed. I mean, she was still thoroughly Twilight, but… different. It wasn’t a gradual thing, either; she just suddenly felt like a different person despite being the same. I tried to get her to tell me what happened to cause this change, but she continually denied there being any change at all.”
“What changed about her?” asked Trixie.
“Well, all of a sudden, she seemed confused about a lot of things she’d known about for a long time. She did get over that quickly enough, but then she absolutely poured herself into researching magic. And while she certainly did a whole lot of research beforehand, it was on a wider group of things; now she was obsessed with only magic, and mostly just powerful offensive magic at that. It was like some kind of impostor who didn’t know the things Twilight did took her place, but… besides all of that, she was Twilight. Same general mannerisms, same general quirks, same general personality… it’s really hard to articulate.”
“Hey!” said a guard. “I found something! There’s something written on the side of the mirror. But it seems to be in a different language.”
They all looked at the side of the mirror. Or at least they all tried to. Due to the there being a lack of space, this resulted in everyone shoving up against each other until Shining Armor finally got some of them to back off while he and Cadance looked at it.
“Hey, I actually know this language,” said Cadance. “It says that it’s a mirror to another world that opens every thirty moons, but only stays open for three days, and it closes when the moon is at its peak at the end of the third day. Also, it says that not too many should go through it, because it could upset the balance of the alternate world, and that the aforementioned suggestion of not many going through it is in no way a lame attempt to justify why a bunch don’t go through it.” She paused. “Oh, it also says ‘made in Chineigh.’"
Shining Armor looked at the side of the mirror. “You got all that from six symbols?”
“It’s a highly efficient language,” said Cadance with a shrug. “You can fit a whole book on a napkin.”
“All right, then!” declared Shining Armor. “As this is my sister we’re talking about, it’s obvious I should be the one to go in after her. I’ll see you all again soon.” Shining Armor ran towards the mirror and jumped into the portal.
Or at least that’s what he tried to do. What happened instead was that he undershot the portal and instead slammed straight into the base instead. “Ow,” he said. “I think I might have broken something.”
“Having too large of a late night snack causing you to misjudge your weight?” asked Cadance.
“Having too large of a late night snack causing me to misjudge my weight,” groaned Shining Armor. “Okay, guess I’m disqualified. Anypony else volunteer?”
Trixie pointed at Sunset. “I think you should go,” Trixie said. “It is your Element, after all.”
“I don’t care!” said Sunset. “I’m not going into some alternate world just to try to find something I didn’t think was important to begin with. Besides, who knows what’s there? It could be some kind of horrible alternate world where I’d be immediately eaten by cream puffs!”
“… cream puffs?” asked Trixie.
“Not the point!” snapped Sunset. “There’s no benefit to myself to get the stupid thing!”
A finger snap was heard and Discord suddenly appeared. “Hi everypony!” he said. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m Discord, the spirit of chaos. Remember me? I broke out of my stone prison and caused a bunch of chaos, but got bored and left for Acapulco after a little while? Well, I got un-bored, so I’m just here to mention that I’m totally planning to come back and cause chaos, take over Equestria, and all the rest of that jazz, but I’m running a bit late thanks to traffic. So please make sure everything is ready for me in a few days. Ciao!” He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
“There you go!” said Trixie after an awkward silence. “You have to get the Element of Magic or else Discord will pop up and destroy us all! Destroy us all! Destroy us all! Destroy us all! Destroy us… hrm. Do you think this would be more funny or less funny if I kept doing that for longer?”
Life is pain, thought Sunset to herself. “Fine! I’ll go! But you owe me for this!” She jumped into the mirror.
“Wait,” said Cadance, “didn’t we get everything Discord-proofed? We don’t need the Elements to handle him.”
“Yeah, but Sunset kind of jumped into the portal before I could tell her,” said Shining Armor. “Well, at least somepony is trying to get the Element and Twilight back.”
“We’ve got time to kill,” said Trixie. “Want to hear about the next issue of Mare Do Well?”
Sunset flew out of the portal and fell unceremoniously onto a patch of grass. “Okay,” she said, “note to self: Don’t jump through portals. Walk.”
Sunset suddenly realized that her body felt very different. Looking down at it, she observed a number of notable changes to her, which should be all obvious enough that they don’t require additional description.
“Okay,” muttered Sunset to herself, “apparently my body got warped into… something. Not sure how any of this worked, but… guess that’s the way it’ll be.”
She looked around quickly to see a being with what looked like a body similar to her new one walking around on two legs. “So that’s how they walk? Well, don’t want to stand out.”
Sunset attempted to stand on two legs, only to find the balance wasn’t particularly easy, forcing her to grab hold of the statue that contained the portal she came out of to stay up. Okay, might need a little practice on this, she thought.
Some walking practice later…
“Okay,” muttered Sunset to herself, “I think I’ve gotten the hang of this. Now I just have to find Twilight Sparkle, get that Element back, maybe drag her along with it, and then I can forget any of this ever happened. I guess I might as well start at… that building over there. Is that a castle or something?”
Sunset walked towards the building, doing a much better job of it than she had before. Upon reaching the door, which had a window, she looked at her reflection in the window. “So I guess this is what my actual face looks like… hrm. I guess in this weird alien body I look vaguely like my old self. That must mean that Twilight looks vaguely similar to herself as well. The question is–”
Sunset found herself interrupted by a loud ringing noise. “What is–” she started before being interrupted again, this time by a large mass of people walking out of the door. Emergency evacuation? End of a shift? Parade? I’d probably look really dumb if I asked, so I guess I should blend in for now and hopefully see if Twilight happens to be in this crowd somewhere.
Sunset tried to walk out with the rest, but the crowd soon started heading in different directions, causing her to simply stick by the statue and watch the crowd, scanning for someone that looked like Twilight. Ugh, this is probably a waste of time. Who knows how big this world is? The odds of Twilight just happening to be in this crowd–
Her thoughts were this time interrupted by noticing a lavender-colored person walk by… who wasn’t Twilight, due to having neon hair. However, she was soon followed by someone who did have Twilight’s skin tone and hair color, along with a dress that, oddly, happened to have her cutie mark plastered onto it. Well, thought Sunset, I can’t confront her with this crowd, so I guess I’ll follow her and try to see if she has the Element.
A bit of following later, Sunset took the opportunity to run up to and subsequently grab Twilight. “Okay, Twilight! I want you to give me back that Element of Irony so–”
For what was at least the fifth time that day, Sunset found herself interrupted. Twilight nonchalantly held up a can of some sort and sprayed a substance directly into Sunset’s eyes.
“GYAAAAAH!” screamed Sunset as her eyes slammed shut in pain. “IT BURNS! WHAT KIND OF MAGIC IS THIS?! GYAAAAAH!”
Twilight tilted her head. “Magic?” she asked. “Hrm… and you mentioned the Elements of Irony… could you possibly…”
“GYAAAAH!”
“Oh, right, the mace,” said Twilight as she winced at Sunset’s obvious pain. “Well, luckily I have some milk with me, we can start treating it with that.”
After a bit of pepper-spray curing, Sunset found herself mostly back to normal. “Now,” said Twilight, “you should really avoid touching your face for a while. Anyway, can you elaborate on what you were saying?” She held up the can at Sunset’s face.
“You spent all that time curing me of whatever that was and now you’re threatening me with it again?”
Twilight shrugged. “I need insurance to make sure you don’t try to attack me again.”
“All right, Twilight, while I appreciate you seem less psychotic than before, you seem to have gone crazy in another manner by forgetting things that happened in the last few months!” said Sunset. “Why are you asking me to explain things you already know?”
“Indulge me,” said Twilight flatly.
Sunset rolled her eyes, but ultimately decided that she wasn’t the one holding the can of mace. “I was in the Crystal Empire, you stole that Element of Magic, one of the Elements of Irony, that I had, then jumped through some portal with it. Then I followed you here and want it back.”
“Fascinating,” said Twilight. “So my hypothesis this whole time was correct…” Twilight appeared lost in thought.
“Uh, so, can I get that crown back now?” asked Sunset.
“Oh, I don’t have it,” said Twilight. “See, I crossed over to this universe years ago through that mirror. What must have happened is that at the same time, a Twilight from this universe crossed over to yours and is the one who you’re familiar with. That’s what I assumed was the case all this time, but I didn’t have independent verification until now.”
Sunset stared. “What.”
“Yeah, when I say it like that, it does all sound rather screwed up,” admitted Twilight sheepishly.
“So, wait, wait,” said Sunset. “There was another Twilight in this universe?”
“Yeah, there’s a ton of people here that are counterparts to people in Equestria. It’s a bit weird. But the original Twilight completely disappeared, which I assumed was due to her also going through the portal simultaneously; now I know that’s the case. I basically just took her place here.”
“Why didn’t you ever come back?” asked Sunset.
“Well, first, I didn’t even know the portal could open again,” said Twilight. “Second of all, why would I want to? Have you seen the stuff this world has? Who needs magic when you have technology? I mean, you can store thousands of books on a smartphone alone!”
“Smart what now?” asked Sunset.
“And you get fingers!” said Twilight, wiggling her fingers in front of Sunset. “These things are great! Do you know the amazing things you can do with fingers?!” She paused, then frowned. “That came out sounding different than I meant it to.”
Sunset sighed. “Look, I don’t care about any of that. I’m just here to get the stupid Element from the stupid other Twilight so I can go back through the stupid portal and get back to my own stupid universe.”
“There’s no need to use the word ‘stupid’ that many times in a sentence,” said Twilight.
“The point is that it’d be really nice if you were to help me out!”
“All right, then,” said Twilight. “So what does this Element of Magic of yours look like?”
“Sort of like a crown,” said Sunset. “Actually, probably a little more like a tiara. And it’s got this gem that resembles my cutie mark… which, incidentally, is on this shirt I’m wearing. And your dress has your cutie mark on it. What’s with that?”
“It’s just an idiosyncrasy of this world; I couldn’t figure it out,” said Twilight. “Anyway, that sounds an awful lot like the crown that’s going to the Princess of the Fall Formal. If so, my alternate self probably lost it, then it probably got found by someone and now it’s being used for that.”
“Well, that’s easy enough,” said Sunset. “All we have to do is just say it’s mine and get it back. Who would I ask?”
“Chrysalis,” said Twilight. “She’s the principal.”
“Ugh, Chrysalis?” asked Sunset. “This is going to be painful. But might as well try to see if I can get that crown from her.”
“Nope!” said Chrysalis.
“What?” said Sunset. “But I said it’s mine!”
“Do you have a receipt for it?”
“Well, no, but there wouldn’t–”
“Do you have photographic evidence of yourself with it?”
“I didn’t really think to–”
“Do you have anything to prove it’s yours?”
“No, but–”
“Well, then!” said Chrysalis. “A the principle principal of Canterlot High School, I can’t just hand this over to you if you don’t have any proof it actually belongs to you. I mean, it’s not like it’s really a magical artifact from an alternate universe that must desperately be returned to said alternate world in order to stop the attack of the titans.”
“Huh?” asked Sunset.
“Semantics,” said Chrysalis dismissively.
“But semantics don’t have anything to do with–”
“Again, semantics,” said Chrysalis. “But what I’m confused is why you ever thought this would work, Twilight.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” asked Twilight.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about how you came in here earlier claiming it was your crown, and I asked you all these questions. It doesn’t make sense to think just having someone else claim the same thing would change anything, but it makes even less sense to actually be here with her. It’s almost as if you’re a completely different Twilight from the one I talked to earlier because you got split into two thanks to a transporter accident involving an ion storm.”
Sunset and Twilight stared at her.
“Anyway!” said Chrysalis as she started filing her nails. “I have more important things to do than talk to you, as shown by the filing of my nails I’m doing right now to indicate that the current situation is boring to me. So turn around 180 degrees and start walking. Well, except for you, Twilight. You’re more at an angle, so try turning 170 degrees instead.”
Sunset and Twilight walked out of the office. “I think she might be an even bigger troll here than in Equestria,” said Sunset. “And oh boy, does she look weird in that human shape.”
“You get used to it,” said Twilight. “But the more important thing is that the alternate-me clearly was already here trying to get the crown back.”
“Well, there’s clearly only one thing to do,” said Sunset. “Figure out some way to steal that crown back.”
“Oh, right, you’re unfamiliar with Chrysalis’s security systems,” said Twilight. “That’s a bad idea.”
“How so?” asked Sunset.
“The last person who tried to steal something from her encountered the security system, and, more specifically, its defense mechanisms. He ended up hanging from the top of his flagpole by his underwear.”
“But how in the world could a security system–”
“Exactly!” said Twilight.
“Well, then what’s your brilliant idea? You’ve been the one in this universe for the last few years!”
“Easy one. I’ll just win the Fall Formal, get the crown, and that’ll be that.”
“Well, what makes you so certain you’ll win it?”
Twilight shrugged. “I won the last three times. It really helps when you’re able to win over the various cliques due to having friends in each clique.”
“Finally!” said Sunset. “An easy solution to a problem. None of this nonsense like needing clones and sniper rifles to defeat something. An easy solution is nice to have. Nothing convoluted like me having to win the thing by winning over everypony–”
“Everyone,” corrected Twilight.
“Fine. Nothing convoluted like me having to win the thing by winning over everyone myself in some kind of song and dance routine.”
“Well, it’s not time for the Fall Formal yet, so there’s not much else to do today. Since I guess you need a place to stay, I’m sure I could convince my parents you’re just some friend who’s here for a sleepover. But first I should try to see if alternate-me has tried visiting my house.”
“And how are you going to do that?” asked Sunset. “Go up to the door and ask if you were there earlier?”
“No, that would just look weird,” said Twilight. “You’ll go up to the door, introduce yourself as a friend of mine, and ask if I’ve been home recently.”
“That,” said Sunset as her eyes widened, “is actually smart. Oh boy, is it nice to work with someone who’s half competent for a change. Normally I have to make do with something more akin to one twentieth competent.”
Sunset knocked on the door. Slightly less than 10.8731273138362 seconds later, it was opened by a human version of Shining Armor, not to be confused with humanoid armor that shines. “Hello?” he said.
“Oh, hi,” said Sunset, trying to sound as pleasant as she possibly could. “I’m a friend of Twilight’s and was wondering if she was home.”
“Twilight? No, you just missed her.”
“Where’d she go?”
“I don’t know; she didn’t say.”
Twilight took the opportunity to come up. “I’m home!”
“Hi, Twilight,” said Shining Armor. “Your friend was looking for you.”
“Great!” said Twilight. “What a coincidence I came home right now. Come on, let’s go in.” Twilight grabbed Sunset by the wrist and took her up the stairs into her room.
“Okay,” said Sunset, “so we’ve established that the other Twilight did come here. Now the only question is what she was doing.”
“Not really sure how we can find out without sounding really suspicious ourselves,” said Twilight as she stroked her chin. “I think that while we have to keep an eye out for her, the important thing is to get the crown for ourselves. Then you can take it back to Equestria, and whatever plans she had for it can’t work. What in the world is her plan for it?”
“You got me,” said Sunset. “I believe I remember learning something about how weird stuff can happen with Elements if they’re brought into an alternate universe, but I think I slept through a lot of that class and missed any further details.”
“You shouldn’t have slept through class!” said Twilight. “That’s how you learn things!”
“Look, they were out of coffee that day!” said Sunset. “Anyway, now what?”
“Well,” said Twilight, “one thing we should figure out is how to make sure you don’t mistake the other Twilight for me. Want a code word or something?”
“The fact you’re not wearing that alicorn amulet seems like it would be a good enough indication,” said Sunset.
“Hrm, good point,” said Twilight. “But just in case, the secret password is ‘preserve.’”
“By the way, that guy, your brother?” said Sunset. “He seems a little old to be living with you. Is he unemployed or something?”
“What? No!” said Twilight. “My parents are just out of town for a while, so he’s the one minding the house in the meantime.”
“Do you two get along?”
“Why do you ask?” asked Twilight defensively.
“Apparently the alternate-you and the Equestrian version of him were having difficulties of some sort, and I was wondering if it was true here as well.”
“Well… yeah,” admitted Twilight. “I can’t very well tell him I’m Twilight, just from another universe, and the subtle distinctions between myself and the Twilight that was originally here must be rather noticeable to him.”
“Yeah, that sounds bad, I guess,” said Sunset. “You know, I wonder what they’re doing back in Equestria.”
“And then the comic ends with Mare Do Well saying, ‘that’s no coconut ailment; that’s your wife!’” finished Trixie. There was an awkward pause.
“I don’t get it?” said one of the guards uncertainly.
“Just think about it a little,” said Trixie.
Another pause ensued. Then everyone fell over laughing. “Oh wow,” said the guard between laughter, “that’s gold once you figure it out. Man, I have to get that issue when it comes out.”
“Actually,” said Sunset, “I’ve suddenly realized I don’t care what they’re doing. However, my original question remains. Now what?”
“Well, I didn’t really have many plans for the rest of today, so if you want I can try to catch you up with how this world works so you can try to pass for someone who lives here.”
Considerable stating of what we could consider to be the obvious later…
“Finally, when you point at something, you use the finger next to the thumb to do it. And that’s everything I can think of,” finished Twilight. “Now, though, I have to finish up on some of my homework.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Hrm,” said Twilight. “Good question. Ah, I’ve got it!” Twilight pulled out a smart phone and pressed a few buttons. “Here. Try playing this game to pass the time. It’ll at least make you get more used to having fingers. You just press the buttons to execute the commands.”
Sunset dubiously took the phone and tried playing the game. “This looks so incredibly stupid. And it seems really easy. Everything is so slow.”
“Give it time,” said Twilight.
A short time later…
“WHY DOES THIS GET SO HARD?!” screamed Sunset. “Gyah!”
“I’ve got other games if you want,” said Twilight.
“No, no,” said Sunset, “I am going to master this stupid thing. This stupid robot unicorn will destroy all of the stars.”