Pinkie was massaging her breasts; Spike had finally stopped their lactating a few days prior. It was just her and Twilight in the shop; she had sent Sweetie Drops out on an errand. Twilight wanted to give her the news, and it wasn’t good. After checking to make sure they were truly alone, Twilight gave a long drawn out sigh before saying, “I haven’t been able to find anything to help undo our current predicament. I’ve spent the past two weeks going over everything I can; nothing seems to be helpful, not even magical theories.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem,” said Pinkie, “hopefully our friends and the princesses will find a way to undo it all. It’s fun having my own place to work but things are getting a little annoying.”

“Yeah, and see what our friends can pull off. Thoughts on how that’s going?”

“Not as well as they probably would be if I wa there. Don’t get me wrong; Starlight is an exceptional magic user, I just wish we didn’t have to deal with this problem, to begin with. The longer we’re here the more the residual mental elements will bleed into us and our alternates. Not to mention, I’ve had to continue excuses for keeping Spike from showing me whatever is beyond those gilded palladium doors, that’s a reward for this world’s Twilight, not me.”

“Well, the other you is a genius at research, I’m sure she can figure out some way to at least contact us, if not undo the process entirely.”

“Nice to see your optimism has remained intact; or is it from the other you?”

“A bit of both, if I’m being completely honest. The personalities of the other Pinkie and Twilight are extremely similar to our own; it’s why we’ve been able to go on with our charades and ruse for as long as we have.”

“I had a feeling something was up,” came Spike’s voice, “I only caught the last few sentences, I think it best you be honest with me.”

Twilight let out out a long drawn out sigh before saying, “We switched minds with your Pinkie and Twilight. Chances are they’re trying to figure out how to fix all this with the assistance of our friends and the princesses right now.”

“Princesses?” Spike said with surprise.

“Even though we haven’t seen them in this reality personally yet,” said Twilight, “In our home universe Celestia and Luna are alicorns who rule of the land Equestria, the united form of many of the divided territories here. Equestria is a land ruled and inhabited almost exclusively by ponies. In that world managed to ascend to the ranks of the alicorns, Cadance is one as well.”

“She even had a daughter that’s an alicorn with Shining Armor,” interjected Pinkie. “The two of them are married and ruling over the Crystal Empire.”

“Ah,” said Spike, “Now that comment about the two of them being married makes sense.”

“Also,” continued Twilight, “you’re my number one assistant in that reality, I hatched your egg during an entrance exam for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Pinkie and I live and work in Ponyville with our friends: Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Starlight Glimmer, in addition to you.”

“Things are a quite a bit different there,” said Pinkie, “like the fact Applejack’s parents aren’t around anymore, Mac still lives with his family on the farm, the farm is called Sweet Apple Acres, and Rarity is a whole lot nicer where we’re from, for starters.”

“And that’s just the overly obvious stuff,” said Twilight, “our history is incredibly different. For instance, the Nightmare Moon incident never happened in this universe.”

“Nightmare Moon?” Spike said with confusion.

“In our universe,” said Twilight, “there was an incident that caused Luna to grow so jealous and bitter of her sister that something corrupted her and turned her into a being called Nightmare Moon. As Nightmare Moon she had was around the same height as Celestia but was pitch black with draconic eyes and wings; she was also obsessed with bringing about eternal night and a possibly a bit more mentally unstable than we can convey with words. Using the Elements of Harmony, of which there are six, we were able to cleanse Luna of her corruption.”

“After that, we had all sort of adventures,” said Pinkie with a short hop that made her bust bounce and jiggle for a few seconds, “like the time we had to fight Discord. He’s a friend to us now, thanks mostly to Fluttershy’s influence. Then there was the time we had battle Tirek, that didn’t go so well. And then there was the time we had to deal with Starlight Glimmer when she was all about purging ponies of their talents on a misguided belief that cutie marks cause nothing but trouble. And that’s just a few of the amazing things we’ve had to deal with.”

“Huh,” said Spike, “can you tell me how you and your world’s Cadance managed to become alicorns?”

“A pony just needs to realize something monumentally changing about the magic they have a connection to that is also tied to who they are,” said Twilight, “you can’t force it, the epiphany has to come to the pony naturally.”

“Hm,” said Spike, “we never had an event that produced anything like this “Nightmare Moon” you mentioned. That said, getting my Twilight and Pinkie back soon as possible is now a top priority. Twilight, I see now why you’ve been avoiding my little gift. That said, I should notice things sooner.”

“Why do you say that?” Twilight inquired with a perplexed look.

“You’re far more confident and self-aware than my Twilight, even if your personalities are incredibly similar. Pinkie was harder to pick up on.”

“Because it’s Pinkie, we know,” said Twilight. Spike quirked a smile at this, Twilight Continued, “I’ve been thinking about your agreement with Garble, do you have a written transcript?”

“No, but that does sound like a good idea,” said Spike, “Garble has a history of worming his way out of pieces of an agreement he doesn’t like and uses the excuse he ‘forgot’ that part of the agreement.”

Pinkie gave a grin to him and Twilight before saying, “Then why not turn that to your advantage?”

“I don’t know how,” said Spike flatly.

“But I do,” said Twilight, “I’m far more familiar with law, even that among dragons, than your Twilight probably is. Granted, it’s dragon law from another reality, but it doesn’t look like any of the ones I studied haven’t changed too much. I’ll write up a written transcript based on what you said was part of the agreement, with a little something extra that leans things in your favor a bit.”

“Go on,” said Spike. Pinkie then disappeared into the back of her shop before returning with a clipboard with a few leaves of parchment and a green quill and pot of purple ink. Twilight took the items with a silent thanks and started writing things out, at an impressive speed then showed Spike. To Twilight’s surprise, she had actually written things out in the written language she and Pinkie had seen for the world they were in, not the world they were from. It was a four-page document summarizing what Spike had summarized, in almost the exact same way, while also adding in that Spike would gain the home cities and towns of combatants he acquired upon victory.

“There,” said Twilight, “now, not only will he have trouble refuting his words, but we also put a few more in his mouth. I figured this would work like this because the way you describe him, he’s a bit too cocky and sure of himself.”

“It does sound like something he would wager,” said Spike as he looked over the document, he quirked a smile, “dragons have always relied on the word of each other for their agreements, especially formal ones, it’s considered a terrible taboo to go back on your word. Garble skirts this by conveniently omitting pieces he doesn’t find favorable. With something like this, we can hold him to his word. I never thought about doing things this way, and neither would my Twilight, she’s not creative enough. That’s something I plan to rectify after I get her back. Alright, let’s get to work.”

Author's Note

Well, that happened. Next chapter will be a bit different.