I was humming a short ditty- something about a pony who drank too much cider, and the punishments she got. I was humming it while laying out femurs across the sphere. The one hundredth bone had just joined its fellows when it happened.

A flash. A burst of light and magic that was oh so familiar.

I turned around just in time to see her appear- another me, in all her purple-winged glory. Opposite her, a new body formed out of thin air, before disappearing. The other me dropped out of the sky with a scream, slamming down in the pile of bodies.

I abandoned my femurs- Drat! Now I'll have to restart the count!- and ran towards the pile.

The other me was screaming. Like, really screaming. It was loud. I listened for about a minute before I got fed up.

"Shut it!"

She jerked around, obviously surprised. When she saw me, she grew pale. "Wh- where are we? What is this place?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. Why don't we talk about it over a meal. You hungry?"

She nodded eagerly. "I was on my way to get some lunch when-"

I held up a hoof. "That's good. That's the best way to get it down."

Her face fell, and I saw the panic return to her eyes. Good, I decided. The sooner she accepted things, the better.

She stared at the lump in front of her. I understood her hesitation. Even cooked perfectly, meat is not ponies' usual diet. She was undoubtedly hoping for a nice daisy sandwich. Maybe an oat flurry.

Instead, she got a few mouthfuls of slightly dirty water and a chunk of smoking pony flesh.

Maybe it was the fact that it was from a pony that was putting her off. I mean, we were each other. I know I'd thought about trying some of the bacon that Spike got from Applejack that one time. He said it was good, and he was usually right. Except that one time with the baked bads-

I realized she was talking.

"What was that?"

She glared at me.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I haven't had anypony to talk to for a while. I'm sure you can imagine..." The look on her face told me she could imagine all too well. I cleared my throat. "What'd you say?"

The other me rolled her eyes. "I asked how long you've been here."

"When was the last time you remember teleporting?" She opened her mouth, and I quickly interjected, "Before you ended up here."

She tapped her muzzle. "I think... I think it was about a month ago."

"A MONTH?!"

She scooted backwards.

I bit my lip and tried again. "A- a month? I've been here a lot longer than that. How is that possible?"

She thought about it. "There must be some sort of temporal distortion in this place. After all, teleportation is almost instant. But I hung up there for a while, watching the- the new one form."

"Good point." I looked up towards the top of the sphere. "That might explain why all the others were dead before I got here. I've never gone more than a couple months without teleporting- that is to say, a version of me hasn't. Ugh, this is confusing."

"Agreed. I have... I have memories of teleporting. But obviously that isn't the case. I've only been alive for the past month. Ever since you teleported."

Both of us sat still for a while, considering our lives and our memories. Finally, I said, "I don't know how this all works. But I still feel like me. And yet we're two very different ponies."

She nodded. "For starters, I'm not that hungry yet." She shoved her meat chunk over to me. "Go ahead."

I shrugged and popped it in my mouth. The flesh was difficult to chew, but soon enough my teeth ground it down. They seemed to be getting sharper; I noticed whenever I bit my lip. Like earlier- I'm surprised I didn't draw blood.

Other me shuddered and took a drink of water. "I don't know how anypony can do that."

I raised an eyebrow. "You realize that water you're drinking started out in that pool over there?"

She looked where my hoof was pointing. Even in the dim light, I could see her pale.

"So..." I got up and stretched. "What's been going on in the outside?"

"Hmm? Oh!" She brightened. "Well, Starlight celebrated with us, if that's what you're worried about." I nodded. That was indeed a good thing. She continued, "The girls and I helped Rarity open her Manehattan boutique, and then I helped Applejack figure out a better way to do her chores."

"That's nice."

"Most recently, Starlight and I were working on a way to get the map working again."

I bolted upright. "Really? I never actually considered it was broken. Do you know what happened?"

"Just that Harmony Magic and Temporal Magic don't mix well. Starswirl's spell re-wrote the rules of fate. That was bound to make things difficult."

"Huh."

I took a longer swig of water than I usually did. Doing so, I studied the other me. We had the same coat. Mine was a bit more faded and stained, perhaps. We had the same mane. The same cutie mark. It was so strange. So different from looking at a dead version of me. When I moved, she moved. We locked eyes for a moment, and I felt my face shift, trying to match our expressions.

"We need a way to tell us apart," I decided.

"Oh!" She looked around and spied the waste products from my distillery. They were still liquid enough to be used as ink.

She picked up the foul gunk and used her hoof to draw an "X" over her cutie mark. "How's that?"

I shook my head. "I meant like name-wise. What should I call you?"

"Twilight."

"But I'm Twilight."

"So am I."

We stared again. The problem was rather obvious.

Finally, she said, "You were here first. I suppose you have slightly more claim to the name of Twilight than I do."

"How about..." I cocked my head. "How about I'm Twilight-" I pointed at myself, "-And you're Sparkle?" I pointed at her.

She shrugged. "I guess that could work."

"Great!"

And that's how I became my own best friend.

Celestia, that's depressing sentence.

Author's Note

The ditty that inspired the start: Drunken Sailor

I used to work at the Sterling Renaissance Festival, and there was a group that sang this song. It was probably my favorite tune.