Amber let out a delighted moan as she sat back in her seat, her face one of pure bliss. "I swear. I never thought Pinkie's sweets could be beaten. I was wrong. Even she'd say she was in heaven."

Crystal nodded, swallowing her bite. "I know right? I grew up in a family that did this for a living. Mom and dad could make even King Sombra jealous. But this? I got nothing."

Midnight giggled as she took a sip of her drink. The restaurant they were in didn't look that much different from Sugarcube Corner, aside from the lack of Pinkie Pie and the Cakes of course.

The three of them were not the only ones here at the moment either. Several other groups sat at other tables here and there. All of them seemed to be the same age as Crystal and Amber. For the moment, they stayed separate.

Neither Crystal nor Amber thought it was them being rude, but that only Midnight actually knew them at the moment, of those here. They did get the occasional look, but for now, it was just the three of them.

Not that either of them minded of course. They were still wrapping their heads around all of this and everything else they had seen so far. It was a lot to take in for sure.

Amber though, finally had to ask the question that had been bugging her ever since the three of them had met. One of them anyway. "So, if you're Twilight's sister, what about Shining Armor?"

Midnight made a face at the name. "Bleh. Boys are icky. It was just me, Twilight, mom, and dad, though." She giggled. "You should've seen mom's face when she had me."

"Was it bad?" Crystal asked.

Midnight shook her head. "Nope. But nopony expected me to be a Pegasus. I was the first one in the Sparkle Family. That made things around the house fun until I learned how to fly."

Amber giggled. She could imagine that if hers was anything to go by, as she took another bite of her cupcake. "How did Twilight take it?"

Midnight rolled her eyes. "Well. She was already Princess Celestia's personal student when I was born. I think it was the one and only time she missed out on a lesson on purpose, when she went with dad to the hospital."

Amber and Crystal shared a look. "How did Celestia take it?" Crystal asked.

Midnight chuckled. "Well, she knew mom was due me any day at that point, so she wasn't mad at all. Actually, she was one of the first to visit us when she had the chance."

"That was nice of her," Amber replied.

Midnight nodded. "Yeah. I think Twily was still bouncing excitedly in place, shouting "I have a sister! I have a sister!" I don't think she even cared that she couldn't teach me magic. Cadance was more than happy to help me learn to fly."

That surprised the two of them. "Cadance was Twilight's foalsitter still?" Crystal asked.

Midnight nodded. "Yeah. Even if there wasn't a boy involved at all in some way, she always said me and Twily were her favorite fillies to sit for."

That stopped further talk for a time, as Crystal and Amber digested all of that. It didn't sound so bad, all things considered. Looking around the room, Amber's eyes fell on one of the televisions along the wall. She couldn't make sense of what was being shown. It looked nothing like what she had seen in the Human World. "What the hay are they showing?" She asked, pointing at one.

Midnight looked at the screen in question and rolled her eyes. It showed what looked like Pinkie Pie doing things a serial killer might do, to Rainbow Dash. "Universes. Those are universes that never had any chance whatsoever to form. They're so bucking stupid and incompetent in literally every way, that She made sure that they never once had a chance to form."

"So why show them?" Crystal asked as she looked at another screen. One that showed things that made her remember her time under King Sombra's rule. She quickly turned away from it.

Midnight saw her reaction, and her voice softened. "So we can laugh at how stupid they are. Yeah, our worlds needed help in a big way, or She wouldn't have come to them. But none of them ever came to the levels of some. Other multiverses obviously don't have very smart beings in charge if they let these happen."

That made sense, in a way, the girls thought, as Crystal and Amber shared a look. If these were the universes that could never be, it was a load off of their shoulders. Again, the three of them lapsed into silence for a time, and for now, neither Amber nor Crystal minded.

A while later though, Amber finally had another question, and this time she hoped it would lead to better things. "So, what else is there to do around here? I didn't get to see much before we came here, and I wanna explore."

That made Midnight's face break into a smile that would've made Pinkie Pie proud. "Oh gosh. What isn't there to do around here? There's so much to do, I can't even name it all. If you can think of it, it's around here someplace. You just have to find it. But half the fun is exploring this place, and finding things you never expected to."

"Like what?" Crystal asked.

Midnight's smile grew as she looked at Crystal's flank and the cutie mark there. "There's a lava bath not far from here. I go there all the time. Beats the Ponyville Spa any day of the week."

That got Crystal's attention, as she sat straighter in her chair, and felt Blaze stir in her mind. She hadn't felt him in a long time now, it felt like. This was a perfect chance to rekindle that. Amber giggled at the sight. "Where is it?" Crystal asked.

Midnight gave her a knowing look as she finished her drink, the empty cup vanishing as soon as it touched the table. "Just down the street. You can't miss it."

Crystal let out a delighted sigh as she slid into the lava pool before her. She had forgotten how great it felt to do this. There had never been enough time back home for her to just relax like this.

The pool was quite large if she had to guess. It was definitely bigger than any pool she had ever been in before. And that included the ones in the Dragon Lands. Crystal could get used to this.

Around her, other mares were doing the same thing. Some were still in their pony forms, but more were in their Dragon Forms, and some even appeared to be asleep, even if their dragon was still awake.

One thing that Crystal did notice about all the dragons around her, was that they were all Red, and all of them were female as well. That would make things interesting for Blaze.

Speaking of him. Crystal could feel Blaze stretching in her mind. He had been asleep for quite a long time now, for she hadn't had a need to let him out.

Time to change that, she thought with a grin, as she closed her eyes and let her powers change her form. The ponies near her scooted away, giving her plenty of room, as Blaze stretched his wings for all they were worth as he took shape.

Crystal opened her eyes again, sharing a happy grin with her friend and mate, as she settled their body deeper into the lava. Now it was Blaze's turn to sigh in delight.

The mare closest to her giggled. "You must be new here?" She asked.

Crystal blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

The mare nodded both of her heads. "After a while, you get used to knowing what to look for. And there's not a lot of Crystal Pony Exarchs."

Crystal nodded, not too surprised if she was being honest. "I'm Crystal Blaze by the way."

The mare smiled. "Iron Sands." She smiled down at her dragon, who returned the smile. "And this is Inferno." Iron's gaze turned distant for a moment. "If I wish to be pedantic, I am Princess Iron Sands. Though I haven't been a princess for many ages now."

Crystal's mouth dropped in shock. "You're a princess? I didn't think somepony like that needed to be an Exarch. Or did you drop the title before that?"

Iron's gaze fell, as Inferno gave her a comforting look. "My title lost any and all meaning long before I took my Oath. Twilight and Viola used to tease me about it after our Ascension, but they never meant anything by it."

Crystal and Blaze shared a surprised look. "You made your Oath to Twilight too?" Blaze asked.

Iron nodded, a smile coming to her eyes as she remembered those days. "We did, and Twilight kept her name even after her rebirth. I was the one who taught her how to fly." She saw the confusion on the two's faces and giggled. "I'm a Pegasus. I once ruled about the same area as where Somnambula once lived before she joined the PIllars."

Crystal racked her brain but was coming up with nothing. "She never said anything about a Princess Iron Sands in our universe after we let them out of Limbo."

Iron nodded, not completely shocked to hear that. "I seem to have been the only one who ever bore that title, though other versions of me existed."

Crystal looked Iron over. While it was only her head in this form, it was enough. Her dark-colored coat stood out next to Inferno's bright red scales. And if Blaze had to guess, she was much older than he was as well. "So, how did you become an Exarch? If you don't mind me asking?" Crystal finally asked, looking sheepish.

Iron and Inferno chuckled. "I don't mind. I get asked a lot." She looked around at their companions. "We all do eventually. My own started long before I even knew Twilight..."

"... And when I, Viola, Ice, Jade, and Dual Hearts, woke up, we were here," Iron said with a smirk, as she finished her story. "I haven't seen them for a while now. But we could find each other with our eyes closed at this point."

Crystal blinked as the story ended. It sounded much like her and the girls, but also different. She could also feel what it meant to be a pony out of time like Iron and Jade were. She bowed her head. "I know what that's like. Being a pony in time you didn't know a thing about and had to relearn everything."

Iron nodded, her ears dropping. "Jade had it worse than I did since she was frozen for far longer than I was. Twilight and the others always tried to help us. But a part of us never really felt we belonged to Equestria. Our homes, the ponies we knew. Turned to dust by time."

Crystal nodded. It wasn't fully the same with the Crystal Empire since everypony had all been through the same during King Sombra's reign and had all been lost at the same time, but she could feel for Iron.

Blaze and Inferno shared a worried look. This was getting depressing fast, and that wasn't fun at all. "So how did you guys handle your Empress Dragon form?" He asked, hoping to break the mood.

Inferno giggled. "Probably not as bad as you guys did. We did only have to worry about six, not ten, in one body."

Iron giggled as well, happy to be off that topic. "It was a mess for all of us. We couldn't take two steps without one of us tripping over our own four feet. Even Twilight had trouble, and she was the one who got us started."

Crystal giggled as well. That day still stood out for her and Blaze. Aside from their first time together of course. Just trying to get six of them to work together was hard enough. It was only worse when you added in that Orchid and Water Lilly were fused together in their Dragon Forms.

And of course, it only got worse when Cosmos had been forced to relearn how to work together with her first set of Exarchs. A different dragon for her meant it was new for all of them.

But the absolute worse time for all of them? Trying, and failing more times than any of them bothered to count, to make their full, combined, Empress Dragon Form, work. Yeah. It hadn't been pretty for any of them.

Twilight had gotten more good blackmail material to use on Cosmos that day than she ever did for the rest of their time together, and she had never been afraid to use it either.

Blaze just blushed, the heat showing through even his scales. That got another good chuckle out of both Iron and Inferno.

Author's Note

So. What universes were being shown on those screens? Cupcakes should've been obvious for those who know the story. But it's not the only one to be sure.

There's too many to name, but here are a few of them: Rainbow Factory, Fall of Equestria, The Conversion Bureau, every Human in Equestria, and Displaced story that has ever been written, or ever will be. And that's just off the top of my head. Which means I'm missing a few

I have a confession to make. Iron Sands and the story she told Crystal? We will be seeing that in full because that is what I'm working on as my next story.

It's vague here since I don't want to spoil too much too soon. Zeprto678 was the one who helped me come up with the five new Exarchs that will stand with Twilight in it. And yes. Twilight will still keep her name in that story.