Author's Note

And we’re back to the alternates again

Arrangements for Pinkie and Twilight

“It’s pretty amazing the Cakes are letting me stay in the other Pinkie’s room, I thought they would be a bit more skeptical when you explained things to them,” said Pinkie Pie.

“Not at all, darling,” said Rarity, who was currently in an autumn dress of her own design, a dress colored to match autumn leaves, “we’re all used to some of Twilight’s ‘projects’ not going quite as intended. Not to mention, your argument that our Pinkie and Twilight are probably spending time in your residences meant we were probably overthinking a few things.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Pinkie as she bounced about next to the ivory mare, “I know I’ve said this before, but you really are a whole lot nicer than the Rarity back home.”

“Yes, you explained how...difficult she is to be around, and that superiority complex of hers isn’t doing her any favors. However, I can see how she could get that way; she seems to have the same talent for finding gemstones that I do.”

“Yeah, but her mark is more than a little different.”

“I know, I saw it when the one you drew, and colored in, was passed around to everypony. Does she really have that much influence?”

“Yup, and her shop is huge.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from a,” Rarity made gagging motion before continuing, “garish facility taking up so much space, at most, it should take up two, not five, blocks at most. I don’t recall you saying its name.”

“Her shop is called ‘Regal Scale and Thread’ and it has a lot of stuff inside.”

Rarity a made a motion of being ill before saying, “It sounds like a simplistic name I would have used at Sweetie Belle’s age if I had her understanding of fashion. I’m sure if Twilight and Pinkie learned of that name their reactions wouldn’t be all too flattering.”

“That wouldn’t really matter,” said Pinkie, “we’re lower ranked than our Rarity. She’s a platinum band, at best we’re gold or silver bands, assuming our Spike got around to actually finishing our transition to higher rankings. The only other platinum bands are our Celestia and Luna, and they hardly get any public appearances. Naturally, they’re still higher ranked than our Rarity. That all said, the Garble of our universe has been trying to usurp our Spike almost as soon as our Spike became the Dragonlord.”

“Nice to see some things don’t change too much,” said Rarity, “Garble has been antagonistic to Spikey-wikey almost as soon as they met.”

“That’s a cute nickname for him, I know our Spike would be perfectly okay with it, but the chances our Rarity would say something like that are very slim, almost non-existent really.”

Rarity hoped that Applejack would come to relieve her of her post soon, hearing any more about how insincere and ungenerous her alternate self was likely to send her into a fit of nauseousness for who knew how long. This Pinkie was almost identical to the Pinkie she knew, in personality quirks at least.

_________________________________________________

“When I read she had her own castle,” said Twilight as they entered the Castle of Friendship, “I had no idea it would be so grand, or glistening. Her library must be impressive!”

Starlight and Spike shared a look; this was definitely a Twilight response to things. “Yes, it is,” said Spike, “and she regularly likes to check and see what’s up to date. She also has a lab or two in the subterranean levels.”

“We decided it wouldn’t hurt things to have you to occupy Twilight's room, provided you adhere to a few ground rules. If you don’t, we’ll be sticking you in a guest room with limited access to everything,” Starlight stressed the word ‘everything,’ "until you either comply or our Twilight is returned.”

“Makes sense,” said Twilight, “what are the ground rules?”

“Rule one,” said Spike, holding up a digit for emphasis, “you are not allowed to remove anything from Twilight’s room, this includes replicating items and making off with the duplicate while the original remains in the designated area.”

Rule two,” said Starlight, holding up two digits for emphasis, “you are not to engage in any interactions outside of Spike, myself, or Twilight’s closest friends without at least one of the seven of us present for such interactions. The only exception to this rule is when you are interacting with any of the princesses, seeing as they are fully aware of the situation.”

“Rule three,” continued Spike, “no doing your own experiments without Starlight, myself, or one of the princesses present, this includes trying to replicate any and all experiments our Twilight has done.”

“Rule four,” continued Starlight, her face took on a much more serious tone, as did her voice, “no inquiring about spells you read about here, we think it best you do not try to learn about spells invented in this universe but not potentially have in your own because the pony in question had a completely different life course than your home reality.”

“Rule five,” said Spike, his appearance getting a bit serious as well, “while the history of Equestria is open to you in text format,” he gestured to the library and the books within, “you are not allowed to learn historical details from the mouths of any ponies or other creatures during your stay. This includes recent events that now have, or are speculated to have historic implications.”

“We’re sure Pinkie had some ground rules laid out for her as well,” said Starlight, “but hers are a bit different because it’s Pinkie Pie.”