CHAPTER 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Twilight, or better yet, Violet, wandered the streets of Ponyville for some time after her encounter with the strange pink pony. Luckily for her, most ponies were heading for bed around this late hour of the day, most too tired to even take notice of the familiar mare wandering the streets. Although, it wasn't as if Violet were attempting to conceal her appearance either. For her, she still felt too distracted, too lost in this entirely new world to care about being the second Twilight in an unfamiliar land. She found herself gazing up at the stars again, lost in the peaceful ambiance of the night, in a time of reflection she often wasn't granted in her own world.

Violet was lost in her own thoughts revolving around how such a world could possibly exist. She'd even drifted back to when she first arrived here, having noticed the night was too beautiful even back then. All she could recall back home were skies of black, dense gray clouds preventing any from looking above and beyond for admiration or even comfort. It often had a lonesome affect on the world, one she didn't often miss. Those who didn't live in the palace were never granted privileges such as this.

"Hey, you okay Twilight?"

Violet remained silent, as she only continued to look up towards the sky.

The pony approached Violet casually, waving a hoof in front of her out of concern. "Earth to Twiliiiight."

Violet blinked, her eyes widening before she shook her head and shot the mare an awkward glance. "Y-Yes! I'm fine I'm fine!" She paused, remembering she had to bring about her new identity, defend it, "And my name isn't Twilight, it's- um, V-Violet, Violet Autumn." She eyed the pony up and down to find an aquamarine mare with golden eyes, streaks of white decorating her mane which ultimately bore a similar appearance to her coat. "I'm mistaken for Twilight often, so I understand. Please just don't do it again." She gulped nervously, attempting to give the mare the most convincing look she could. That look resulted in a cheesy nervous smile.

The aquamarine mare raised a brow at Twilight, as she appeared quite puzzled. First she looked at Violet's cutie mark, which also bore similar appearance to Twilight's, then at her mane, her coat, and everything else which just seemed to scream Twilight. She found herself rubbing her mane with a questioning glare, "Hm, Violet Autumn eeeh?" She did notice Violet didn't have wings like Twilight, or a crown, and Twilight didn't have any scar on her face either. So maybe she really was telling the truth, not like it was any of her business anyway. She shrugged and continued sipping on some soda pop she had in an opposite hoof, "Alright Violet, whatever you say, sorry for bothering you!" She closed her eyes, retreating to a friend she had waiting for her on the right end of the dirt path. "And nice to meet you, welcome to Ponyville!"

Violet sighed with relief, looked like her alternate persona came off flawlessly. Yet her face scrunched up into a look of displeasure for a moment. It's not like she was displeased with the attention, actually she enjoyed it quite a bit. She was also possibly jealous about it, unused to it, leaving her feeling quite awkward. She was hesitant about what she was about to do, and she'd actually flinched at the thought before just compelling herself to call out to the departing mare, "E-Excuse me!" Casual conversation seemed so foreign to her, so unnecessary where she came from. It was as if she were taking her first step on an entirely different journey, into the depths of society, attempting to rise up the social ladder.

The mare turned, looking back at Violet curiously, "Hm?"

Violet then fell silent, only giving the mare an awkward gaze as her eyes shifted before she chuckled nervously, scratching at the back of her own mane. "I-Is there anyplace where I can get some clothes, or a coat or something, get's really cold out and, y-you know, one could definitely use something to fight that cold!" She did a boxing motion with her hooves. "Cause, none of us like to be chilly, well most of us! Well unless you like the cold that is, or something like that." She blushed and lowered her head, "Haha, um, yea." She began twiddling her hooves as she eyed the mare again with a look of anxiety, shame, and total urgency. "So, you know of a place?"

The mare looked at Violet, speechless, before bursting into laughter. "Hahaha! It's cool, no worries. Just head on over to Rarity's house, it's the big funny shaped place further down from here, it'll look like a circus tent, you can't miss it."

Violet gulped before looking even more embarrassed. "Circus tent? Erhm, what might be this circus tent?"

The mare couldn't help but raise her brow in regards to Violet's comment once again. What had this mare been doing her whole life, living under a rock or something? No matter, she couldn't expect everypony to know everything now could she? It's just this pony had such a similar appearance to Twilight as well, so to add on such a clueless personality, only made the situation more awkward. The mare shook her head, feeling a bit guilty for casting judgments on the poor girl. She raised a hoof in an explanatory manner, "It'll be one of the tallest buildings with a little flag on top. Just keep an eye open! You can't miss it!" She exhaled before turning away yet again, waving at Violet with a pleased smile. "Later Violet, and goodnight." With that the mare departed, heading back over to her friend and sipping on her soda pop.

"L-Later!" Violet called back out to her. She then sighed heavily, closing her eyes before glancing back towards the dirt path. When it was business, talking felt so easy. Why did it feel so hard when talking about anything else? She used to talk about other things with her master all the time, although that was years ago. She was just probably a little rusty, that's all. She just had to get used to it, while buying her time to figure out a way to solve her problems. This world had some fairly amazing things such as cupcakes, surely they also had the materials for her to repeat the process.

Violet grumpily stood back to all fours, keeping her head lowered as she trotted in the direction the mare pointed, not wanting to dwell on her own shame of being unable to converse properly. She muttered to herself in hushed whispers, "Circus tent, circus tent! Of course you should've studied up on these circus's doofus, argh!"

Violet made her way further into the town, whereas she figured out this local village was much larger than she'd expected. She kept her eyes on the prize however, reminding herself along the way. "Flag, flag, flag, flag." She glanced from rooftop to rooftop, looking for that tiny flag which marked her location. And eventually, just as the mare had mentioned, there was a building further off to the side which had a tiny flag placed at the top. This place must've been Rarity's house, and it certainly was quite the interesting looking home. Violet stopped a few paces from the building, just looking up at it with wide eyes. "Wow." She appeared to be lost in a fascinated trance. This building was a home in a village such as this? Houses like these were only seen within the palace usually, this Rarity must've had quite a lot of currency or either had a very keen sense of imagination. Violet closed her eyes, shook her head, then took in a deep breath of preparation.

She wouldn't let things turn out like last time, no, she'd definitely communicate properly this time. All she had to do was treat this like her missions, then everything would turn out just fine. "You can do this Twi- I mean, Violet! You can do this Violet, you, can, do this. It's only to get another cloak, heh, asking for one shouldn't be too hard. I mean how hard could asking for it be, or paying, just pay for it like the cupcakes." She placed a hoof on her lower lip, glancing down worriedly, "But was I disrespectful when I asked for the cupcakes, wait, was the way I acted in that shop weird?" She recalled the pony wearing the fake mustache and putting on that fake accent as her brow twitched, "C-Could that have been considered normal!?" She shook her head again, "No! You're definitely overthinking things Twi-I mean Vilight, Violet! ARGH!" She stomped her hooves angrily, obviously flustered as she swiped one hoof afterwords. "NO! No no no no! No more games! This is easy! The easiest thing ever! I won't be bested by a world such as this!" She stomped with determination straight towards the boutique, and soon, inside.

A pony with a white coat sat behind her sowing machine, biting the tip of her tongue as she remained concentrated on the task set before her. She possessed a look of natural grace, although she also bore many small tweaks which seemed to enhance her beauty. Her gorgeous purple mane appeared to be curled to perfection, while her lashes were touched upon in a similar manner. She wore a pair of reading glasses to get a better look at her work. "Just one more little touch." She rose, a smile of satisfaction spreading across her face, "Ah! Perfect!" She snatched up the piece of cloth, holding it up in front of herself as she eyed a spoiled cat which sat atop her desk. "Oooopal darling, what do you think? It's gorgeous? Is it not?"

The cat revealed as Opalescence, simply gave the pony a bored look before letting off a tired, "Mroooow...."

SLAM!

Both Opalescence and Rarity's eyes widened at the sound of the front door suddenly being shoved open in such a loud and violent manner. Which caused the mare to immediately glance over in that direction, more so out of fear rather than anger. "Huh!?" And what she saw only caused her to feel more perplexed as she just looked on for a few seconds. Standing in the doorway was, Twilight? What was she doing here at this time?

The purple mare raised a hoof defiantly, confidently, as she eyed the snow white pony herself. "I am here! To buy, some, clothes?" This pony must of certainly been the Rarity the mare spoke of.

Rarity only continued to look on confused, as she squinted one eye in Twilight's direction. "Twilight? What do you think you're do-AAAAH!!" She gasped, taking notice of Twilight's horrid features. She was scarred!? It even spread across her entire face, right between her brows and further past her muzzle, how could this have happened?! And where was Twilight's wings, oh she knew Twilight was always too risky with those experiments but this was absolutely dreadful! "Twilight darling, what's happened to you!? Come come, of course we'll get something to cover you up right away. You must tell me what you've been doing with yourself!"

Violet sighed as she shook her head at the mare, "No! I am not Twilight Sparkle, I am Violet Autumn. I have come to buy some clothes, I must conceal my appearance and continue on my journey, there's no time to waste noble pony of the circus house. I require your assistance, please, will you trust my word, and take my bits as payment?"

The color sunk from Rarity's face, this was even worse than she thought. Not only had Twilight severely damaged her own appearance, she'd even damaged her own brain! She obviously wasn't well. It was up to one of her dearest friends to be there for her in her time of need and get her back on her hooves, good thing she came here. Rarity burst to her own hooves, immediately grabbing a piece of cloth from her counter and hurrying over to Twilight. She ran a hoof down the mare's face "O-Of course darling, anything you need. Just come on in and we'll talk prices hm?"

Rarity made her way to Twilight's side, leading her further inside and immediately wrapping the cloth around the mare's neck, and pulling it over her face, concealing it in shadow. "Let's go check you out in the mirror hm?" Rarity's eyes saddened, oh how could this have possibly happened? Poor Twilight, and where was Spike? Could he have been hurt in this experiment as well!?

As Violet trotted, she smirked softly to herself. Hah, everything was going absolutely perfect, she knew she could nail her conversational techniques a second time. The mare didn't even question her identity continuously, she was actually willingly believing her, with no complications. Ah, the future was looking good.

Violet continued. "Why thank you pony mistress of the circus house, I assure you, any price you've got on your mind, I can pay for. You see, back in my homeland, items such as these bits were not used for currency and were a common resource. When I was a filly I used to venture out into the fields of black mist, dabble in all sorts of dangerous magics. Even met a Verastelyan one time. Can you believe it?" She lifted her head up confidently with an almost smug expression, chuckling a bit, "Yea yea, I know I know, it's pretty unbelievable, but I swear to you it's true." She closed her eyes reflecting back, a little lost in her own words. "Ah I remember it like it was yesterday-"

Rarity was biting the tip of her hoof nervously, this was truly horrifying. Twilight was absolutely insane! Could anypony possibly recover from this? Twilight was making up words now, fabricating nonsense from her imagination! This wasn't Twilight anymore, this was a pony that belonged in the mad house. How Twilight managed to get herself to this place was a miracle in itself.

Rarity was now doing all she could to prevent herself from going into a panic, she had to get to the others, but she had to ensure Twilight remained safe as well, she could hurt herself in such a state. She glanced down, she had to think, think think think, there had to be a way she could distract Twilight long enough to go grab the others so they could sort out this issue. Wait, but of course, the clothes, Twilight came here for clothes, that's exactly what she'd give her then. She'd give her so much clothes that by the time Twilight tried them all on, she'd already have all the others here to assist her. She smirked, it was genius. Rarity wrapped a hoof around Twilight in that moment, "Darling, you know what! Since it's your first time here in my Boutique, I'll allow you a minimum of four outfits, on the house! It's the least I could do. But you have to promise me that you'll keep trying them on until your absolutely satisfied with what you find. Okaaay?"

Twilight paused in her words before she looked to the mare, shocked. "W-What!? Really?! But I thought society was structured in the manner that I must pay for what I want with the use of currency known as bits. Are clothes free? Is this something that is common within places such as circus houses?" She began tapping her lower lip in suspicion, "No, of course not, that is far too simple. Wait a minute," She turned, glaring angrily at the mare. "Are you attempting to trick me perhaps? But why, what wrongs have I committed since I came here?" Her eyes widened worriedly, "Do you think my conversational technique is bad? Is that it? What's your game!?" She snarled fiercely.

Rarity raised her own hooves in defense, backing up against the wall. "Darling darling! I swear to you I am not tricking you, I am only offering you common courtesy for first timers in my shop. I mean, a little generosity goes a long way does it not?" She gulped as Twilight got in her face, to where Rarity noticed something else quite peculiar. Did Twilight get smaller also? No, that wasn't the correct word, younger, would be more precise. She was actually forced to look down at the mare? Yes, Twilight was much younger, but not to the point where she was a filly, perhaps her early teens? Rarity's heart raced as her expression sunk. This situation only got worse and worse, and the affects might only be continuing, she couldn't risk wasting time! "Please, believe me Twi- uh, Violet, the last thing I want is for my customers to lose faith in me."

Violet kept her glare of suspicion fastened on the mare for a few seconds afterwords, as she sighed, lowering her guard. "Forgive me, let's just say my upbringing has caused me to question many things. Especially in foreign territory, anything can happen, and you never know who you can trust. But I am also unfamiliar with the methods you ponies use, so please be patient with me Ms Rarity, mistress of the circus house." She put on a thankful smile, "I am forever grateful for your generosity, it is not often I come across such kind ponies on my journeys either. I would be more than willing to take you up on your offer, and offer up some bits in a form of generosity myself." She closed her eyes and bowed. Hm, maybe things won't turn out so bad afterall, maybe I can get used to the way things work here.

Rarity gulped once more, before nodding hurriedly. "Y-Yes, of course darling, now come come, let us take you to the dressing room. I have quite the variety for you to choose from, I'm sure you'll love them." She then went back to Twilight's side, pushing her along through the Boutique to the dressing room.

Violet, although attempting to hide it, was absolutely ecstatic about the idea. She'd never been clothes shopping before, and she couldn't remember the last time she was forced to get a new cloak, but now she'd be able to choose an assortment of them and all for free! She felt like a little filly receiving her first gift again, how could a world such as this possibly exist? At this point she was even starting to feel a bit guilty about how she'd treated Nightmare Moon and Hot-Head's counterpart, actually no, it wouldn't be that easy. Even if they were alternate versions of themselves, she couldn't allow herself to accept them so easily, not after what they'd done.

Either way, now wasn't the time to complain, Violet just arrived in this world and already she was meeting ponies like this circus pony! Surely more ventures awaited her in learning more about this rich world full of kindness and love, and although she knew she had to remain focused as well, it didn't hurt to feel a little eager about good things to come. Violet nearly burst off her hooves into a small dance as she bit her lower lip with a smile, "Oh oh! Okay, let us go see your numerous cloaks then. Might you have the florescent quatrinium shader!?"

Rarity led her to the room where she kept all her different styles of clothing, on display for this, disturbing Twilight to see. Rarity's heart ached at the idea of leaving all her clothes alone with Twilight in such a state, but she was doing this for their friendship, to protect her. Because she surely couldn't solve this issue alone, nor did she want to risk forcing Twilight to leave the Boutique, she had to play along. Such an act may frighten the mare off. This, was for the best.

As time passed, as expected, soon only Rarity emerged from her home, wrapped in a scarf, shivering a bit in reaction due to the chilly winds. She looked ahead with determination as she stood outside the Boutique, from the looks of it things had went according to plan with Twilight, and she'd managed to buy herself some precious time. Rarity sighed as she looked back at her home with a worried glance, at the second level in particular, "Don't worry Twilight, I'll be back soon with the others. Just what sort of spell could've done this to you?" She then looked ahead once again, before bursting forward on all fours with fierce determination, particularly in the direction of Sugarcube Corner.

Meanwhile inside the Boutique, Violet stood in front of a mirror, at her side were a multitude of folded clothes as she looked lost, mesmerized by her own appearance. She wore a beautiful layered outfit, mostly uncommon seeing as ponies didn't have a need for clothes, but she loved them nonetheless. It was a sweater, covered by a thinner hooded coat with a small red beanie to match. She slowly lifted a hoof, running it down her chest to get a feel for the material as she glanced down at herself with wide eyes. "All of these things....."

"Mrow?"

Violet's eyes widened as she glanced back at the open doorway which lead into the dressing room. She saw standing there observing her curiously was a funny looking cat. She snickered as she gave the cat a grin, "You like?"

Opalescence frowned, "Mroooooow......."

And as Rarity raced for Sugarcube Corner, peacefully sleeping in her own bed from within her castle was Princess Twilight. She slept without a care in the world, as all was silent during yet another gorgeous night from Princess Luna. She'd spent majority of her day in private, reading, so it didn't feel wrong to hit the hay a little early. Times had been peaceful as of late, hopefully they'd remain that way, days where she could just read and study in a relaxing atmosphere like she used to do back in Canterlot.

Maybe, just maybe, things could stay quiet for awhile.