Twilight was surprised, this entity known as Discord was very helpful. That said, he kept shooting her and Pinkie disapproving looks over the entire time they were working together, it was like he wanted to do something bad to her but was kept off from doing. Twilight, Discord, and Luna had all been working together in creating a magical device that would hopefully not just her world of origin but also grant her and those using the apparatus the ability to communicate with the other side, there were numerous potential applications and she could theoretically try replicating things back home.

Unfortunately for Twilight, she kept on getting compared to her alternate in the most passive-aggressive ways at times. Twilight excelled at research and application of that information in ways it was described and hinted at but she lacked the mental agility to apply things outside those definitions in potentially unique ways. Spike had brought this up to her, his Twilight was more capable in a leadership position and actually had a fair bit of capability when it came to applying things to produce creative solutions. Of course, he also offhandedly said how his Twilight could do well over a dozen spells at once while focusing on how to apply them to a problem even if the spells were never explained could be used that way. The fact that the Twilight of this universe could calm an Ursa Minor using only her magic, a feat that was not recorded in the records back home, in a few ways that weren’t explained in any books of magic was an astounding feat in and of itself, and that had been when she was still just a unicorn.

Twilight, Discord, and Luna had been working on this project for over a month, possibly as much as two, and were finally approaching the first test run of the system. Twilight had input all the factor she could think of scanning the multiverse. Multiverse was a bit beyond her, even with several rows of castle’s library dedicated to them.

Something Twilight had noticed about her time in this world was her possessing shadows of personality traits of her counterpart, which included being more decisive and an actual willingness to read texts that were not research. She reasoned if shades of the other Twilight were bleeding into her then the same must be true on the reverse. It was hard to say regarding the same thing with Pinkie, mostly because she couldn’t tell what the differences in personality Pinkie and her counterpart had regarding each other, besides the obvious.

“Everything ready to go with the first test?” Luna inquired, “Discord and I are ready on our ends, what about you?”

“Just finished the systems check,” said Twilight as she looked over strange device she, Luna, and Discord had put together. This piece of magical technology would hopefully scan the multiverse for her home reality. The thing took up the equivalent of an entire room and they had to build the protective structure around to keep it safe from the elements on the off chance the local pegasus weather team couldn’t keep the weather away from the work site.

The thing looked like some sort of advanced device out of science fiction novel, one of Twilight’s new free time passions, and had an exterior casing that was clashing so bad Rarity had insisted a tacky wall be put up between her eyes and the device to prevent fainting from the “garishness” of it all, at least some things seemed to be consistent between realities.

Twilight took a look at the various screens and gauges real quick before turning to Luna and giving her a thumbs up. The midnight alicorn, dressed in a daring Midnight green work dress that bore her insignia teleported into position. Once in position, she said, “Good, then let’s see if everything is good to go.” Twilight nodded and the two mares got to work operating the machines seemingly complicated controls, Discord was on the other end of the device watching a series of monitors in violet and pink polka dot business suit with a pair of 3D glasses and a large box of popcorn that had popped corn kernels the size of his head that were colored pink and midnight black for some reason. Of course, things weren’t helped by the fact he had a theatre drink cup the size of Celestia with a cartoonish straw that was overly large but narrowed to standard large straw size the closer it got to the drinking end.

After a full half hour of working the machine, the two mares were met with failure. Another nine hours of examining the inner workings of the device showed them that some of the wiring was loose, along with a few other components, a fix that took a good half hour. Once they had all that done they tried again, Discord still treating everything like a show for his amusement.

****************************************

Another set of working the controls later and all the screens on the machine flickered into life. A very grainy view the multiverse came into view before zooming to an unseen portion from Discord’s demonstration. The view still managed to be grainy, but the course of things seemed to get narrower and Narrower before finally, they were looking at a dozen or so realities floating in the sea of the multiverse.

“Discord,” called Luna, “do you think you can find what we are looking for in this selection?”

“We can see,” said Discord who then snapped his lion paw hand to get his own set of floating screens around his head as he looked through each. One of the worlds looked like it was a few years ahead of them, seeing as there was an adult Spike with...Chrysalis? He couldn’t tell quite off the bat because of how different the changeling queen looked. Another world showed the ponies as quadrupeds and Twilight and her friends doing some sort of ceremony at the school; another two worlds saw Twilight and her friends as quadrupeds and parents; then Discord saw what he was looking for, Twilight and Pinkie as they had been described in the world the other Twilight and Pinkie had from, they had been right in saying Pinkie was a bit chubby in that world.

_____________________________________

Twilight and Pinkie were in the process of helping Spike choose a site for the new arena when a hole in the world literally opened in front of them, Discord’s face appeared just as he said, “Thank goodness you’re in good condition, like the new look.”

“Discord,” said Twilight and Pinkie in surprise.

“How did you find us,” inquired Twilight.

“And how is everything on your end,” asked Pinkie.

“Can’t complain too much,” said Discord, “Twilight’s alternate helped with the development of a device to zero in on you in the multiverse, she went a little overboard with the search parameters but that proved a blessing in this case. Listen, we don’t know how long the device can keep its lock, and without a proper understanding of the multiverse’s flow even I’m not confident I can find this place without assistance. We need to get your minds back where they belong, it would be easier if you were standing next to your alternates.”

“I’ll bet,” said Twilight, “since you managed to pull it off before you can find us again, just let me talk to the other me and we’ll see what we can do from here.”

“Will do,” said Discord. A moment later the other Twilight was on the other side of the hole, “here she is.”

“Hi,” said the other Twilight, this is awkward.”

“I know,” said Twilight, “I managed to get the ring calibrated or a few more spells. For things like memory spells, for instance. Hold there, I’m going to do a tricky memory spell and I don’t know if this ring will allow it, or if it will work over temporary breach like this.” A moment later Twilight’s horn lit up and a pair of light lavender streams were flowing between the heads of both Twilights.

A moment later the flow stopped and both said, “Whoa!” In unison.

“He’s trying to give you some time in the Alicorn chamber, that’s a great honor,” said the other Twilight.

“It’s supposed to be your reward, he wants you and Pinkie back.”

“Can’t you just use that spell you used on me?”

“Yes and no,” said Twilight, “that’s a spell that causes copies of our memories over the set amount of time to be exchanged. If I were to try doing it with the entirety of our memories, the spell would exhaust your body due to the fact I’m literally trying to cause both of us to share our entire series of life experiences. And that’s just the two of us, if either of us were to do it on the Pinkies then the caster would act as a conduit for the both of them which would mean they the caster would have copies of the memories of both Pinkies up that point in addition to those of the both of us; Do you really want to have the memories and life experiences either Pinkie in your head?”

“No,” said the other Twilight, “we’ll have to find another way to correct things for us. I hope it doesn’t take too long. I see Garble challenged Spike again, he never learns. I also like how you managed to bring my Rarity down peg or two.”

It was around this point that Spike showed up, dressed in a sharp business casual attire that was made up of a pink shirt and white pants. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” said Spike, “Twilight talking with Twilight.”

“It’s not going to last,” said Pinkie, “The tear is only temporary and will likely be closed by this time tomorrow. Looks like the Discord from our world, with a little help from your Twilight and a few others.”

“I used a memory spell to get a copy of the other me’s memories and give her a copy of mine, for the amount of time we’ve been here. Because of her involvement in the project that found this world I could probably act as the overseer for the production of a similar device.”

“If both Twilights manage to get it right then the two devices could possibly communicate with each other and make a stable connection that could potentially get us all where we belong,” said Pinkie.

“We’ll probably have to intentionally sabotage the machines afterward,” said Twilight, “these are devices we don’t want getting into the wrong hands.”

“I agree,” said the other Twilight, “what’s to stop an overly ambitious Dragonlord after Spike’s reign from reading about this device and using it to find a whole new world to put under their idea of proper rule, Dragonlord Torch would definitely have done so if he had access to enough information regarding any of this. After all, he did basically conquer early Equestria.”

“Then we’ll have to keep the records of all this sparse, possibly with conflicting data points,” said Spike, “and mothball all the physical remains so far and hard that making a connection between the pieces will be difficult and problematic.”

“I concur,” came Celestia’s voice from the other side of the hole before the other Twilight moved out of the way and Celestia showed up.

Celestia was just as Twilight remembered her; elegant, regal, and with an enviable figure that possessed a set of marvelous M-Cup sized breasts that almost made her mouth water, Where did that last part of my thinking come from? thought Twilight, probably a mental bleed over from the other Twilight. We really need to get everything fixed up in a hurry.

“Good luck to you all,” said Celestia as the breach began to close.

“Well, that was somewhat awkward,” said Spike, “Alright Twilight, let’s get to work on that device so we can get my Twilight and Pinkie back.”

Author's Note

Like I said in the notes of the last chapter, this was a bit of a different chapter. Next chapter keeps the trend by focusing on Spike and Rarity for the most part.