“Is she gone yet?”

“Shhh!” Sweetie Belle hissed, holding her hoof up to her mouth. Lifting the flap of the suitcase just a bit, she peered out into the room, noting that Rarity had just shut the door behind her. “Okay, it’s clear.”

The sound of a large suitcase being unzipped filled the room before it was overtaken by the sound of three fillies tumbling out of said suitcase and landing squarely on their haunches. Scootaloo spoke first. “Jeez, it was hot in there.”

“Yeah, well, whose bright idea was it to hide in that tiny bag anyway?” said Sweetie Belle, dusting herself off as she shot Scootaloo a contemptuous look.

“I dunno. I thought it was kinda fun,” said Apple Bloom with a shrug. “We’re kinda like spies, or somethin’, y’know? Kinda cool, ain’t it?”

“Well, at least we made it to Canterlot,” said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo suddenly stood up. She ran to the nearest window, and sucked in her breath as she looked out. “Awww yeah! We made it!” She pumped her hoof. “Sweet.”

“I don’t get why you’re so excited,” said Sweetie Belle, shaking her head. “It’s not like we’ve never been here before. Remember the Gala?”

Scootaloo waved her hoof dismissively. “Yeah, but this time we’re not supposed to be here, and that makes it cooler.”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “Shoot, I guess all that matters is that we’re here now. So… what do you girls wanna do?”

Her face curled into a sly grin, Scootaloo wrung her hooves. “Oh, I'm sure we can think of something.”

“Whoo,” said Scootaloo, wiping the sweat from her brow as she fell onto a park bench and let out an exasperated sigh. “That was one of heck of a day, huh?”

Apple Bloom, balancing a comically large bag of bits on her back, nodded. “Yep! Just wait until I tell AJ and Granny Smith about all this money I won.”

“Who would’ve guessed you were so good at cage fighting?” Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle, who was nursing an ice cream cone with a pained expression on her face. “What about you?”

Sweetie held the ice cream cone up to her forehead. She let out a little groan. “Ugh, it was like one big… montage of stuff. I barely remember it all.”

Scootaloo chuckled. “They don’t call Canterlot ‘the city that doesn’t remember how it got home last night’ for nothing.”

Sweetie Belle shot daggers into Scootaloo, which, surprisingly, didn’t kill her. “No one calls it that.”

“Maybe they’ll start now.” Scootaloo placed her hooves on her knees and looked up at the pink sky. “Anyway, we should probably head back soon.”

Suddenly, a voice came from the shadows of a nearby alley. “You, orange filly. Come here.”

Scootaloo glanced around, then pointed at herself. “Me?”

“Yes.”

Raising an eyebrow, Scootaloo said, “Uhh, look, I’m not really in the habit of going down dark alleys just because someone tells me to. Kinda seems like a bad plan.”

There was a groan, then a cloaked figure strode out of the shadows. “Fine, I’ll come out.”

Now that she saw who the voice belonged to, a short little pony covered in a tattered cloak and with its face obscured, Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed. “Hang on a second. You seem pretty familiar.”

“What?” said the figure, masking what was clearly a filly’s voice with an attempt at gruffness that was laughable at best. “I’m just a—”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it now,” said Scootaloo, nodding. “You’re me.”

Behind her, Apple Bloom shifted the weight of the bag on her back. “Uhh, but you’re you, Scoots.”

Scootaloo shook her head. “No, you remember that clone? Well…” She reached out, against the protestation of the hooded figure, and pulled the cloak away, revealing a second Scootaloo.

Scootaloo 2 tossed up her hooves. “Well, great, me. I hope you’re happy. There goes the surprise.”

Massaging her temple, Sweetie Belle said, “I thought you died?”

“No,” replied Scootaloo 2. “I survived that trip into the Everfree, and then I made it to Canterlot.” She turned her gaze on Scootaloo. “Word gets around, Scootaloo. A lot of ponies will pay good money to see an immortal filly. I figured I’d take your name and start making money, buy my way somewhere sunny.”

Scootaloo frowned. “But… you’re not like me, at least… I don’t think you’re like me.”

Scootaloo 2 hung her head. “No. I don’t get to comeback. And I was also lying about the other thing too. No one knows who you are. Turns out word doesn’t actually spread that fast.”

“Huh,” said Scootaloo, kicking at the ground, “that’s kinda disappointing.”

Scootaloo 2 smirked. “But now that you’re here, I can take you prisoner and use you as a sideshow attraction!” She lunged at Scootaloo.

Thinking quickly, Scootaloo rolled to the side, getting up in time just to dodge a punch from Scootaloo 2. “Whoa, easy there. If anyone’s gonna enslave me, it’s definitely not going to be me.” She threw her own punch, which Scootaloo 2 parried with a hoof.

“Ha!” she cried. “You fight like a girl!”

“I am a girl!”

Scootaloo 2 ignored this comment and instead attempted to sweep Scootaloo’s legs out from under her. Unfortunately for both her and Scootaloo, the motion missed and ended up knocking over Apple Bloom instead. As she teetered from side to side, the bag of bits fell loose off her back and landed on the pair of Scootaloo’s crushing them.

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “I told you money was evil, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom scoffed. “Y’all didn’t have a problem spending all my money gambling on fights.”

Rolling her eyes, Sweetie Belle said, “Just help me get this bag off them. We’re still keeping the money.”