Author's Note

Oh, look, another look at what’s happening with the alternates.

The Other Pinkie and Twilight

Twilight couldn’t believe it, her alternate and Pinkie’s had actually done a lot of world-saving but that wasn’t what she was in awe of. What she was in awe of was the fact that her other self had actually met Starswirl and been part of returning him to the realm, granted he was still in the process of acclimating to the modern era but it was still an incredible accomplishment. Her alternate self had managed to do so many amazing things, while she was still trying to get her universe’s version of Spike to get things up to date and get a personal assistant.

“They’ve done so much in the span of three years,” said Twilight, “more than either of us has done in thrice the time.”

“You think the other me has managed to find some help for the shop,” said Pinkie.

“She’s you; I think she has it covered.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Pinkie, “Can you believe Carrot Cake and Cup Cake only have twins right now? Back home they’ve got a few more than that.”

“Yes well,” said Twilight, “Rarity is incredibly nice, definitely nicer than the one we know, and Applejack’s parents are no longer around in addition to her brother still being on the farm and still flirting with a single pony. Things are more than a little different than home, especially given this nation called ‘Equestria’ we’re in is ruled by ponies; in particular, the alicorns.”

“Yeah, and there are way more of them than what we’ve known, back home it’s just Celestia and Luna. And even then, we’ve barely interacted but here we’ve met them a whole bunch and have some amazing relationships with them. Also, you have a niece, who is also an alicorn.”

“I know, and she’s just so cute, makes we wish our universe’s Shining and Cadance would just have a baby already.”

“Yeah, but you know why that’s not likely to happen,” said Pinkie. Both let out annoyed sighs, they really wanted this whole fiasco to be over and done with. Twilight because she had a bunch of nearly pointless organizing to do, and Pinkie because she had a business to run. Granted, from what they had gathered on the other versions of them their jobs were in good hands but they still wanted to be back where they belong.

They still weren’t allowed out of the facility, but at least they could now move about said facility. It was very nice and made very apparent that holding was intended to be short for all the occupants. They hadn’t seen any other occupants but given the size of the structure, it was designed to hold more than a dozen occupants if needed. Twilight was impressed by the whole thing, a facility like this had never been considered back home.

Of course, what was more impressive was the fact she and Pinkie had a much wider variety of clothing to wear, and that Pinkie was in more than an apron during their whole stay. The facility had a puzzle room, a game room filled with a variety of different games, a library, and a mailroom, in addition to a surprisingly well-stocked kitchen. There was also a common area for occupants to socialize. After their initial acclimation period, Pinkie and Twilight were now occupying different rooms but free to move about the facility as they saw fit.

It was all an understandable precaution; they couldn’t just go out into “Equestria” like everything was normal, their other selves had lives that were very different than their own. That said, what their other selves were up to might involve a little culture shock. It had already been one or two, possibly three, days since the incident.

Princess Luna, they were still getting used to that expression, and Starlight Glimmer were working together to generate a spell to search for Twilight and Pinkie’s home universe. But at least they had more than enough distractions to keep them busy and get better acclimated to all this.

Unbeknownst to the two, Princess Celestia and Discord were watching their actions from an observation complex designed for monitoring the complex at a distance. “Well,” said Celestia, “do you think you can find our Twilight and Pinkie, given the information we’ve managed to acquire?”

“Maybe,” said Discord, “I may be the self-proclaimed lord of chaos but even something of this nature requires a bit more to narrow things down.” He magicked up a holographic map that looked like a mass of spirals interacting with each other at almost every angle. “In the vastness of the multiverse,” he snapped his tail and several points lit up on the map, almost too many to count in the instant they flared up, “these forty-nine are our best bet. But seeing as you do not yet have a quick and reliable way to check, and given my approach could just as easily exacerbate the situation; at your current means, it would take just shy of a century to nail down the proper interdimensional coordinates for the use you’re after. And given the temporal dilations that are regular with transit between realities, chances are you could find the right universe and not know it because of your arrival time relative to theirs. Not to mention, just their minds swapped places those of their alternates, chances are residual mental energies on both sides could cause some marginal psychological tweaks.”

“Which means, not only will it be challenging to find our targets but they and our ‘guests’ might end up experiencing some potentially noticeable mental changes. Even if we discount what extended exposure to the alternate realities could do to the psyches of all involved.”