Author's Note

And we’re back to our Twilight and Pinkie

Where to Now?

“So, Pinkie, did you at least find out where our residences are? Because as much as I love spending time in the archives, I still need a place to eat that won’t potentially damage all the resources.”

“Yupporuni,” said Pinkie, “looks like the other me has her own Pinkie Cave below this place, I took a look at your profile, and it said you’re on 12 Royal Lane.”

Twilight blinked a bit before saying, “In our world that’s the estate next to Blueblood’s, it’s been kept as a vacant lot almost as soon as Blueblood hit puberty. Royal Lane is notorious in Canterlot for being the most expensive real estate any one citizen of non-alicorn status can own. Only the castle has a greater estimated value than any given lot on Royal Lane. Well, I guess with Blueblood no longer a factor the lots next to his are more desirable.”

“Yeah, it looks like things are going to take a little getting used to. Do you do need a map to your new place? And where you keep the spare keys?”

“Seeing as it will likely be a more up to date map than what I’ve found so far, yes, please. What about you?”

“My residence is on one of the upper floors, just like Sugarcube Corner.”

A few minutes later Twilight was out the door, after saying he goodbyes to Pinkie, and headed toward her supposed home. When she arrived at the estate she was floored, the building was a massive white oak tree that had been hollowed out, at its size, it was easily four stories tall. Twilight made a quick search through her pockets; she didn’t want to go looking for the spare key if she didn’t have to. After a few minutes of rummaging through her pockets she produced a brass key in a design that hadn’t been used in Equestria for eighty years that had a wooden keychain with a wooden carving of a book on the end of it, upon the book was a carving modeled after the house that had been painted white.

Twilight used the key to unlock the front door and enter the complex; she was floored once she saw the contents of the complex. The entire tree was filled with row upon row of bookshelves that were tightly packed with a variety of books. Next to the door, she had come through were books that had titles that seemed to follow a travel theme. The themes changed as she moved through the complex. She found a map, done in a style that maps were known for a hundred years ago, of the complex and found that it showed her room on the topmost floor, the kitchen was on the main level with her, and there was a basement with five sub-basements that were all marked as different kinds of labs.

As she made her way to the kitchen she spotted an owl, that looked suspiciously like an owl she kept around as a pet and auxiliary assistant, and a bat with fox-like features, likely a member of the bat family known as a flying fox which were ironically fruit bats and had nothing to do actual foxes. Just beneath their perches, at the base of the items they were perched on, were brass nameplates that read “Owlwicious” beneath the owl, much to her surprise, and “Day Fruit” beneath the bat. She also spotted a third perch that was empty, and a bit more flat and nearly like a nest, that read “Ocean Note” at its base and was wondering what that could mean when an albatross flew through a large open window and landed on the perch and presented her with its leg holding a message.

“Oh, thank you very much,” said Twilight as she took it. Looking around for a treat to give it she found a set of cookie jars across from the perches that were colored night purple, for Owlwicious, morning orange for Day Fruit, and ocean blue for Ocean Note. She reached she carefully opened the treat jar, noticing its lack of being full, and pulled up a biscuit that looked like semi-moist squid and tossed it to the ocean bird, who snatched it in his beak and made a bit of a show eating it.

She kept the message floating in her magic as she closed the snack lid and locked it before wiping her hands on her robe. Aftward she left for what was marked as the study on the map and collapsed in a chair before a desk made from black cherry wood, she could actually smell the presence of the fruit when she got close enough to plop herself in the applewood chair, which also had the lingering scent of the fruit of its name on it, and opened the letter to see what this was all about.

The message only had a seal that indicated it was from Manehattan, if they were back home, and when the message was unsealed and opened there was a single word in the middle reading “NOPE” with nothing else, not even sign of a cutie mark stamped in to take the place of a signature. Twilight groaned with a lack of amusement and used her magic to toss the message in the trash bin with the words “Burn at Earliest Convenience” slapped on it in big, blocky letters.

Twilight was hungry, she remembered seeing the kitchen was in close proximity to the study, and just made a run to it. She would check the kitchen’s inventory then make herself something. After she had something to eat, she would just head to bed and deal with the rest of this tomorrow.

_______________________________________

Pinkie was mostly having a good time, but she still needed to find this world’s version of Gummy. She knew she wouldn’t move anywhere without him; she had even seen a pool in the Pinkie Cave for him. After almost an hour of searching, much longer than usual for her, she found a switch in the back of the kitchen that was behind an oven with an impression of an alligator on it.

What met her was a slowly declining ramp into a dimly lit hallway, she progressed with caution, mostly knowing the kinds of ‘surprises’ her alternate would have set up in a place like this. However, when she was halfway through the hall, which took about ten minutes or so at a slow pace, she smelled a pool and abandoned all pretenses of caution and just bounced happily into the room. There was a massive pool, easily the size of a large pond, as it had over a dozen different baby alligators in it.

Positioned on the lifeguard post was a slightly bigger Gummy, he even had a waterproof name tag that read his name. Pinkie felt a presence up against her leg; she looked down to see another baby alligator that was the size of the Gummy she knew and picked it up; the alligator had its own waterproof name tag that read “Loli” with a female insignia in the upper left corner. Pinkie set the alligator down next to the pool and took another look at Gummy’s name tag, his had a male insignia in the upper left corner. Looking around, Pinkie saw there were ten other baby alligators, all with name tags.

It seemed this world’s version of Pinkie went a little overboard in getting some baby alligators. Pinkie wasn’t sure whether or not she liked this development, there were a lot of things to consider. On one hand, lots of baby alligators to keep track of; on the other hand, really big pool. There were some greater nuances but those were the two big points her brain boiled it down to.