Carousel Boutique was not as Twilight knew it back home, and the establishment hadn’t been an active shop in years, as was evident by the layer of dust on the shop floor. Spike decided to go out and do some more inspecting while Twilight spent her time conversing with Sweetie Belle.

Now that Twilight could get a closer look at the filly she could see there wasn’t some kind of restraining ring on Sweetie’s horn but she still had collar indicating her being Spike’s pony. “So, Sweetie Bell, was it?” Twilight had to be careful; she didn’t want to tip anyone off that things were different just yet.

“Yep,” squeaked the marshmallow unicorn filly with a purple and pink mane. She didn’t have a cutie mark; Twilight guessed that without the close friendship she had with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo her journey of self-discovery wouldn’t have reached that point just yet. “What can I do for you? Does this have anything to do with my sister? I haven’t seen her in months; she never comes back here to visit, I always have to take a train to see her.”

“We’ll work on remedying that,” said Twilight, “I’ve actually had some dealings with her, and I’m not that much of a fan of her attitude. But I guess her ideas of fashionable make sense if she’s from here. Anyway, I want to know about you and your friends. Like how you’re able to live here with your parents and sister in different communities.”

“Oh well,” said Sweetie Belle, “my sister enrolled me at the school here, and she’s the most successful member of the family. My parents have their own jobs to worry about, and Ms. Cheerilee comes by each morning before classes start to remind me it’s a school day. As for meals, Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon has me over each morning for a meal. Rarity sends me a small allowance in the mail each month and I use it to buy things like meals around town. Rarity also sends me outfits every few months, of course about half of them aren’t suitable for fillies outside a community like this.”

Twilight gave an exasperated sigh, looked like this universe’s Rarity was pushing her ideas of fashion onto her little sister. “Are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon your only friends? It looks like one of the fillies on the farm is around your age.”

“Oh, Apple Bloom, we’ve hung out a few times but I just have better cohesion with Diamond and Silver.”

“Diamond and Silver are both earth ponies, and so is so is Apple Bloom,” said Twilight, “do you spend time with any pegasi on occasion?”

“Not really, there aren’t really any pegasus foals around here, except the ones that come along with their parents to visit this place from time to time, I would like to get to know one though. Maybe when I leave this place there will be lots of pegasi to meet and get to know.”

Twilight was worried, this meant Scootaloo didn’t live here. Chances are her family never moved here. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not if the Cutie Mark Crusader didn’t exist in this reality, seeing as much trouble as they had caused in their quest for cutie marks.

“Are you just looking after this place for your sister?” Twilight inquired.

“A bit,” said Sweetie, “Ms. Cheerilee comes by every couple of weeks on the weekend to make sure I’m keeping the place mostly clean.” That explained how the kitchen they were in was so clean despite being in the care of a young filly, but the shop floor still had a fine layer of grime to most of it.

Hearing this all worried Twilight, Sweetie Belle didn’t even have a semblance of friendship with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Also, it looked like Scootaloo didn’t live in this town, just where could that filly be? Twilight really hoped Scootaloo had an alternate in this world.

After almost brooding over it all for a moment Twilight said, “I’ll talk with Spike to see what we can do about your living conditions, you being mostly unsupervised isn’t healthy, at least that’s what I’ve read. What if you get hurt while you’re all alone? Or so sick you really shouldn’t be around ponies your age until you’re all better? I think it would be for the best if we at least had someone to keep you company.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think I would be living as I have for as long as I have, I thought Rarity would at least send me a letter that I’ll be spending time at her place from now on but I guess she’s just too busy for family most of the time.”

“We all need to identify our priorities and organize them appropriately,” said Twilight as she got up to leave, “some of us don’t quite get it right, other times we start getting them right pretty late. Hopefully, she’ll get her priorities right, but that might take something genuinely drastic. Don’t try to force it, that just leads to problems and misunderstandings.”

“Okay, thanks for the talk,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Sure thing,” said Twilight as she headed for the door, “take it from a pony that knows, sometimes looking over what you have in a different way can give you the perspective you require to find what you need. Just remember, what you need won’t always be what you want. Quite honestly, your family and you should be having this kind of talk, not a virtual stranger giving you a near-lecture on the subject.”

Sweetie Belle quirked a smile and thanked Twilight as the violet unicorn headed out the door.

Author's Note

Well, who saw any of that coming?