I do have a theory for that.

It’s not a very good one, but I’ll just go with it.

I think that when I died, Ornstein zapped me with lightning from his lightning spear and that jumpstarted my heart again. Because I hadn’t actually respawned yet, the universe must have thought that I could be brought back to life and so it brought me back to life at the exact moment I respawned. That must have led to me being brought back to life and then respawning at the same time, leading to two of me.

But like I said, it’s not a very good theory.

“How can you be here and down there at the same time?!” Cadence asked. Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “You’re not a changeling, are you?”

“If I was a changeling, how come I…?” I went quiet. After a minute of thought, I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’m a changeling. I hope I’m not. It’d be awesome to turn into anyone but I don’t really want to be a bug.”

“Then how do you explain being in two places at once?!” she yelled.

“How do you explain me turning up in your bed in the first place?” I shot back.

She thought for a minute herself. “Fair enough,” she said. “Do you want me to take you down there again to help out?”

“I’m not going down there in a bedsheet.”

“Well you don’t really have much choice. I’ve got nothing else for you to wear.”

“Well…” I pulled the sheet tighter around myself. “I think other me can take care of it.” I looked over the edge at the battle below that was much more awesome than it was earlier. “She’s doing pretty well, I’d say.”

To prove my point, as Ornstein stabbed at other me, she vaulted onto his spear and somersaulted off of it. While in the air, she manoeuvred herself in such a way that allowed her to slash at him in the air. She even did a neat little roll when she landed.

Her awesome didn’t stop there though; when she was back on her feet, she span around and slashed Ornstein’s legs not once, but twice before she cartwheeled backwards with ONE HAND.

I stopped watching there because she was just making me look bad. Or good, depending on how you looked at it. I thought it was bad so I stopped looking.

“You’re right about that,” Cadence said, leaning back from the edge to look at me as I sat against the wall of the balcony. “But I bet if you went to help them, it’d go even quicker. Are you sure you don’t want to go down there?”

“I’d just get in the way,” I said sadly. “She’s probably gonna take him in two minutes tops.”

“Aren’t you at least going to watch?” She looked over the edge again. “I think she’d put most of the royal guard to shame. Come take a look!”

Reluctantly, I stood up again, pulling the sheet tightly around myself. I leant down to put my elbows on the railing around the balcony and put my head in my hands as I watched other me in action again.

Ornstein swung out with his spear as he leapt backwards, but other me wasn’t going to let him get away like that; she jumped backwards to avoid the swing and then forwards again rapidly to grab hold of his spear. When his swing ended, she spun around his spear and stabbed him right in the neck.

She pulled her sword free and leapt back to the ground. With her back turned, Ornstein put two hands on his spear and swung it hard at her. I could see a magical shield get put up behind her by Shieldheart and, I’m assuming, Shining Armour, but she didn’t even need it.

She back-flipped over the heavy attack, rolling backwards when she landed. In the middle of her roll, she pushed up hard and flew up above the reverse swing. She landed on her feet and slashed at Ornstein’s feet again.

“God, she’s a f!%&ing parkour master,” I muttered, jaw dropping a little.

“She certainly is pretty nimble,” Cadence agreed. She looked up at me. “Can you do anything like that?”

“I will throw you off this balcony,” I warned coldly. “I don’t even care that you can fly, I’ll do it.”

“Sorry,” she replied. “I didn’t mean it to be rude, it was just a question.”

“Well I’m not feeling too good right now because there’s another me showing me how I should be doing my job of saving Equestria.”

The others had just backed away at this point, letting other me deal with all of it. Rainbow Dash still flew in and tried getting one last shot off, but other me nearly cut her in half with a somersaulting slice at Ornstein. Luckily, Shieldheart had apparently lost all faith in me because he put up a shield spell to block the attack.

Even from this distance and with her moving so much, I could see the glare he got from her as her sword bounced off the shield and she fell to the ground. Rainbow Dash flew out of the way sheepishly as other me rolled backwards and up to her feet again.

“I get the sense I’ll have to kill her later,” I said, tapping the side of my face with my fingers. “She’s not really as compassionate as I thought she’d be.”

“That’s a horrible thing to say! Even worse, it’s indirect suicide! Killing yourself might not solve anything!”

I smirked at that. “God, this would sound so bad out of context,” I said with a small snort of amusement. “But it might; she nearly killed Dash so she’s not exactly a good guy. In fact, I’m pretty sure there actually is a game like this somewhere in my world.”

“Why are you comparing this to a game?”

Other me dived underneath a bolt of lightning shot from Ornstein’s spear before rolling up and just using the momentum to hurl her sword at him. It didn’t even touch the floor before she ran up to him and snatched it out of the air, spinning and slashing him again.

“Because these monsters are all from games back at my home.” I sighed. “You would not believe the awkwardness that brought up when I told Twilight and the others that. Twilight thought I meant this was a game as in I was so good at it that it felt like a game to do it. I meant a game as in a literal game.”

“I’ll need some context here. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Basically Twilight brought me here to help with the monster problem,” I explained, looking up at Cadence. “She thought I was from some world where they killed things like this every day. We do, just in video games.”

“Like arcade machines?” she asked, tilting her head at me.

“Kinda. We’ve advanced loads from those though.”

I looked back down as other me jumped backwards as Ornstein jumped up in the air. She then somersaulted backwards to avoid a ring of lightning that shot out from Ornstein’s butt slam. God, she was good at this.

“It sounds strange.”

“Yeah, it is. You would not believe how much people argue about those games. If you do something that gets you a kill – or rather, point – your mother gets called a filthy prostitute that’s so fat that she bleeds marshmallows.”

True story.

“Your world sounds… kinda weird.”

“Believe me, I’ve been thinking the same thing for a long time now.”

Other me jumped up to avoid Ornstein’s lightning infused spear (something I should’ve done) and landed on it at a run. She actually ran up the stupid thing towards Ornstein’s face, where she slashed him across the neck as she somersaulted over his head, landing on the ground in a crouch.

He dropped to his knees, defeated at last. I was actually half expecting him to explode behind her, but he just faded with a shower of white beads of light.

“Well, thank you for doing your part in saving the city,” said Cadence, stepping away from the edge and turning around to face me. “I’ll take you down there now, if you’d like.”

“Again, not going down there in a bedsheet,” I replied. “If you want to know why not, talk to Flash Sentry about it later.”

“And again, you might not have much choice. I don’t have anything else for you to wear at all.”

“Hold on, I got a better idea.” I leaned far over the edge of the balcony. “Hey Twilight!!” I screamed, feeling Cadence grab me by the legs as I nearly fell off. “Look up here!!”

I saw Twilight do so, and I could tell that she was gasping. There was the same response from the others. Other me took her time looking up though, and I knew that meant that she wanted to kill me.

I don’t know it just did.

“Could you not do that next time?” Cadence asked, pulling me back onto the balcony.

“Sorry I was trying to get Twilight’s attention.” I leant over the edge a little less than last time. “Could you get her to come up here please?! Other me, I mean!!”

But, in that short space of time that I hadn’t been looking over the balcony, other me had vanished. Most likely into the castle to head up to me to start murdering me somehow.

“How are you up there too?!” yelled Rainbow Dash. “You were down here literally a second ago but you’re up there too!!” She shot right up to me. She’s Rainbow Dash; she’s a fast pony. “That’s awesome!”

“Actually it’s not awesome,” I replied seriously. “I think she may want to kill me now.”

“Wait… is that good?” Rainbow asked unsurely. “I mean, you might be an evil copy of her anyway! How do we know you’re the real Karen?!”

“Oh, nice to meet you, Karen!” Cadence said, ignoring the rest of what Dash had said. “I’m Princess Cadence!”

“Hi, Cadence!” I replied, holding a hand out at her for her to shake. “Sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier but I was kinda busy saving the day or something.”

“Hello?! I just asked a really important question!” Rainbow yelled.

“She’s the real Karen,” said someone from behind me. I spun around and saw another me stood there. She looked breathless and exhausted. “Trust me. I know.” She bent over to catch her breath. “Wow. Don’t run up here… as fast as I did. You would not believe… how much that takes out of you.”

“How did you get up here so fast?” Rainbow and I asked at the same time.

“That’s what I mean,” other me replied, leaning back and stretching herself. “God, that was just stupid, wasn’t it? Especially after that fight.”

“Nice job with that, by the way,” I said. I looked down at myse- uh, the real myself. “Oh yeah, can I have my clothes back please?”

“Yeah, sure,” said other me. She looked over at Cadence. “Anywhere we can get dressed in private?”

“Karen’ll show you the way, uh, other Karen,” Cadence said slowly.

She smiled at real me before I turned and led the way back into Cadence’s bedroom. Guess who was waiting outside it! Flash Sentry again! Other me stopped and looked Flash up and down. I turned to see what the holdup was.

“Hey, Mister Orange Pony,” said other me in a… slightly seductive tone. That’s the best I can describe it and that is what it sounded like. “My, what nice armour you have.” She grinned manically and put her hands on his helmet, puling herself right up close to his face. “Can I have it?”

Well, that wasn’t weird at all.

“Uh, why d’you need it ma’am?” he asked unsurely. Exactly what I was thinking.

“I’m gonna do battle against the real me and she wants her clothes back and I don’t exactly wanna fight her wearing nothing.” She backed away from him and shrugged. “But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

I don’t think he was going to be okay with that because I saw him shudder yet again. “No ma’am, that’s fine.” He was out of his armour so quick it was like I blinked. “Here you go.”

“That’s not really gonna cover you all up though,” I put in.

“That’s why I brought this,” other me replied, holding her sword up. “Is it just me or was the fact that Rarity put a skirt on these trousers really lucky?”

“Oh my god wow Rarity you are f!$*ing psychic,” I said to real myself. Oh my god this is confusing.

Other me took the armour from Flash and headed into the bedroom after me. There, I waited for her to take her clothes off before dropping the bedsheet and slipping into the shirt.

The only reason I wasn’t shy about getting changed in front of her was because I’ve looked at myself naked in the mirror before and not really cared.

Shut up you’ve probably done the same.

While I got the top on, other me was cutting around the waist of the trousers to cut the skirt off. After a quick check of the measurements on her legs, she cut a bit off the bottom of it and then cut that bit in half so it wasn’t a loop anymore. She then wrapped that bandage looking thing around her chest and turned her back to me for me to tie it up at the back, which I did.

We were like people who knew exactly what the other needed!

When that was done, she put the tiny skirt on and the slipped into the armour. She didn’t really need that to cover herself up; she just wanted it to look cooler.

I got into the trousers and both of us examined each other for a moment.

“Hmm…” I hummed, scrutinising the miniskirt and the bandage thing around her chest. “It looks a bit… skimpy, to say the least.”

“Yeah, I know,” other me replied, looking down at herself. “But hey, least it keeps me covered!”

“Yeah I guess…” I regarded the armour for a second. “Colours kinda go nicely. Armour looks cool too.”

“Yeah, I only took it for that reason anyway.”

Told you.

I sighed and let my arms fall back to my sides. “You wanna do that fight now?” I asked. We all knew it was going to happen.

She crossed her arms and looked down at the floor. “Yeah, I guess we should,” she answered, picking her sword back up. “Do you have anything to fight with?”

“Nope. My spear got stuck in Smough’s head.”

“You wanna make it look dramatic so you can pick it up again?” She motioned at the door.

I nodded. “Yeah, might as well.”

We walked out of the room. When we did, Flash Sentry saluted at us both. Other me leaned down and patted him on the head kindly.

“Thanks for the armour, sweetie,” she said warmly. “I’ll call you later.”

Yeah, she was pretty much most of the things I wasn’t; confident, flirty and just plain awesome.

As Flash worked on comprehending what she had just said, we headed out to the balcony again. There, we found Twilight and Fluttershy waiting beside Rainbow and Cadence. Twilight scowled when she saw what other me had done with the skirt attachment.

“Rarity’s not going to like that…” she muttered.

“She’ll like my other fashion statement!” said other me happily as Rainbow Dash tried to discern who real me was. “Don’t I look awesome?”

“Which one of you is the real Karen?!” yelled Dash, eyes darting between the two of us.

Other me leaned close to my ear. “You wanna mess with her?” she whispered.

I sniggered. “It would be mean, but yes,” I replied.

Having another me around was fun so far!

“Alright,” said other me, backing away a bit. She held up three fingers and slowly counted down with them.

When she reached zero, both of us said at the same time, “I am!”

“You’re not the real me, Karen!” I said, pointing at other me accusingly. “I’m the real me!”

“Don’t let this imposter fool you, rainbow pony!” other me yelled. “I am the real me, not her!”

I saw Cadence giggling to herself out of the corner of my eye and the other three glancing between us both blankly.

“I shall prove that I am the real me!” I yelled, stepping back towards the balcony’s edge. “I shall fight you to the death and the winner shall be proven the real me!”

“Hold on a second,” other me said in a normal voice. She stepped towards the edge of the balcony and looked over, then back at Twilight. “Hey purple pony.”

“Um… yes?” Twilight replied nervously.

“Would we both die if we jumped from this height?”

“Uh…” Twilight did a quick calculation. “I wouldn’t say that… You might get some irreparable damage if you landed on your feet, but if you landed anywhere else, I’d say it’s very likely you would die. Why?”

“Okay okay okay,” I said, heading over to Cadence. “Pretend she jumped at me and we both fell over the edge of the balcony. We need you to carry us down there.”

Cadence bent down for me to get onto her back and Twilight did the same for other me, albeit very unsurely. Other me winked at me jokily as we mounted our flying pony princesses and I gave her a quick thumbs up in reply.

God, this was fun. If you ever get an evil clone of yourself, I hope it’s awesome as mine because she was super-duper fun. I can get Pinkie Pie’s opinion on that too.

We took off and headed down to ground level. Other me made some screaming noises and held her arms up in the air, most likely pretending that we were in freefall. Cadence raised her head back to me to talk.

“She doesn’t seem that bad, Karen,” she whispered.

“Aw, how’d you know it was me?” I whined quietly. “We went through all that to mess with all your heads!”

“You said you wanted your clothes back and now you’re wearing them,” she replied smugly, turning back to face forward. “I notice these things.”

This day was just getting more and more fun people added to it.

“Yeah, she’s not that bad at all,” I said, answering the original question. “She’s fun. I like her.”

“And there you were thinking you were going to have to kill yourself!” I saw her wince a little. “Oh wow, that sounded horrible.”

“It’s okay, I nearly jumped out of a train yesterday.”

That must’ve been the wrong thing to say because the rest of the flight down was in silence. When we got to the ground, I jumped off her back and walked over to other me.

“Alright, how do you wanna do this?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

“I’ll swing at you slow, then you jump out of the way,” she replied, pulling her sword up.

She swung her sword overhead at me slowly. I jumped to one side and it swiped through empty air.

“Haha! You are no match for me!” I looked for my spear and pointed at it to give her the message that I needed to get over there. “Curses! My weapon is all the way over there!”

“No it’s not,” said Shieldheart, levitating it over to me quickly.

“That’s cheating!” other me yelled disappointedly.

“Let’s just pretend I used the force,” I said quickly. I raised my spear triumphantly. “Haha! Now I have my weapon back!”

“What is going on?” Shieldheart asked blankly, shaking his head.

“I don’t know,” I laughed stupidly, dropping my spear and just laughing out loud.

Other me did the same. She just fell onto the ground too.

“Which one of you is the real Karen?!” Dash yelled, having followed us on our way down. “I’m so confused!”

“She’s the real one,” other me said in between laughs. “We just wanted to mess with you guys.”

I stood up straight and put on a straight face. Well, as straight as I could make it.

“Y-yeah,” I breathed, walking over to other me to help her up. “It was working too.”

“Yeah…” other me said, picking up her sword as she got up. “But, in all seriousness now…” She swung her sword around and stabbed me right through the stomach. “I need to kill you. Sorry, honey.”

“Ow…” I looked up at her with nothing but disappointment in my eyes. “Th-thanks for that…”

“We had fun.” She pulled her sword out and I fell to the floor. “Call me Nerak. It’s your name, but backwards! See you later!”

And then I died again.

I sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide at such a betrayal of trust.

“Oh, for…!” yelled Flash Sentry from beside the bed, holding the bedsheet. He covered his eyes and turned around. “Stop doing that!”

“What a bitch,” said Voice.

“You’re telling me!” I yelled back at him.

Other me. Not Flash.

Flash galloped out of the room and then Dash shot in with my stuff shortly after. She rushed out and left me to get dressed again. When I was dressed, I stormed back out of the room with Flash’s helmet that other me forgot to put on. When I was out, I threw it against the wall.

“Bad day?” Voice asked.

“You don’t know the half of it!!” I screamed, kicking the helmet against the wall from where it landed.

“Uh… ma’am, I’m gonna need that back,” said Flash.

“Right,” I said, picking his helmet back up and handing it to him carefully. “Sorry. I’ve just been betrayed by a person I thought was my friend.” I remembered something. “Buuuut I did kinda know she wanted to kill me so it’s not as bad as I thought, I guess.”

“Karen?” called Cadence from outside. “Are you in there?”

I walked out to the balcony and pushed through the curtains again. Seriously, they needed to be pulled open. I waved at her as she landed and then just dropped onto the floor in front of her, facing the sky.

“Why, other me, why?!” I wailed, kicking my feet against the floor angrily. Yes, I was throwing a tantrum. No, you can’t tell me not to. “You were supposed to be my friend!!”

“Aw, don’t worry about it, Karen!” Cadence cooed, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “She was just being silly!” She rocked my shoulder like she was a mother telling her child it would all be okay. “I’m sure she’ll get what’s coming to her in time!”

“Do you need any more help?” asked Shieldheart. Seriously, how the flying f*%£ were ponies getting up here so fast?! Cadence nodded and he trotted over to me slowly. “Karen, come on. You’re a big girl, so you can’t be acting like this anymore.”

He laid down beside me and pulled me into a light hug. I didn’t hug him back, instead putting my hands over my face and groaning in annoyance at how ‘Nerak’ had betrayed me like that. Cadence must have seen something that needed fixing, because I heard the sound of a spell being cast.

My eyes shot wide open as I remembered what she could do with her magic.

(Un)fortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to move out of the way, so the spell buzzed through Shieldheart and I slowly and I felt… weird. I suddenly wanted to hug Shieldheart more than ever, and I felt his hug tighten a little.

“Hey there, sweetie,” he whispered, nuzzling my head sweetly.

“Hi there, Shieldy,” I replied warmly, leaning back to look in his eyes. Yes, I was slowly getting lost in them. “You look nice today.”

“You look nice every day, Karen.”

He was leaning closer slowly, and so was I.

Oh god this was happening and I couldn’t stop it and we hadn’t even been on our first date yet and I was terrified so much and didn’t want this to happen yet but it was happening now and I couldn’t stop it.

To make things worse, I could see the oth- HOW THE F$*&ING F!$£ WERE PONIES GETTING UP HERE SO F*!%ING QUICKLY?!!

And then we kissed.

My first time kissing somebody like that too.

It was… a lot of fun, actually.

Guess what happened next. Guess.

Guessed already?

I fainted.

Author's Note

I've wanted to do that last part since chapter two but I'm not adding the romance tag because I've got a plan.
Yes, you are allowed to be as angry as you like about that happening. Just keep it on the internet please.