Author's Notes:

I know I promised a chapter on the 3rd, but Skyrim distracted me.

When we came out of the other side of the portal a wave of sleepiness washed over me. I took a thermos out from the bag that was at my waist and took a drink. “Ah, nothing like homemade, deadly caffeine to keep you awake,” I said.

“What the buck-!?” Was Zap’s first reaction before she looked at the ponies that were with her… and one of them that looked like her when she was a young filly. “I-is that… ME!?”

“Yep. I’m not going to go into the details that led to me adopting you for the sake of keeping this PG enough for the story.”

“How about you do some introductions first?” Lance suggested. “That way, you girls can know about Max?”

“Max? But I don’t see a guy with you.” Twilight said, confused.

I raised my hand and said, “Max can be a girl’s name as well. For me it’s short for Maxine.” I turned to indicate the ponies behind me. “This is Zenith Sol and Zenith Mun. The fillies are Golden Spark, Light Sweet, and Rainbow Dash.”

“Pleased to meet you again,” the two thestrals said at the same time.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle. This is our Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer. Plus, you probably already met Lance… Speaking of which, what brings you here to Maretropolis Max? I don’t think you and your fillies are here to be on a vacation.”

“I did more than just meet him.” I held up her right hand, showing them the ring. “We’re actually engaged.”

Twilight flinched at the sign of that. “Woah woah woah…… How did THAT happen!? Last time we saw you, you were going to Sun Fransokyo and now you’re getting married!!? Goddess, this is surprising me more than when I found out about my brother’s wedding.”

“Well, two months ago I summoned him and we went to a party, then we slept together. Then I found out a few hours ago that I was pregnant,” I said, wrapping both arms around Lance’s left arm.

Now, that caused Rainbow’s jaw to drop along with Sunset trying to fight the verge to pass out on the floor. Lance sighed to himself as he closed the rift behind him. “I know, I was just as surprised as you guys when I was told the news as well. And I think that also leads to the reason why Max and her family came here.”

“Yep. We’re going to see if it’s possible to make a permanent portal between my universe and this one.”

“A… permanent portal you say?” Twilight said, thinking to herself. “That does sound intriguing… In that case, I would be glad to help you Max.”

“Oh Max,” Lance interjected. “I was just wondering…” The Azure Striker bent a little closer and whispered in her ear ‘Since I consider Twilight and her friends like family, do you think that Twilight could be… Auntie Twilight?’

“Only if Sparks there,” I pointed to Zap, “is considered my fillies’ cousin.”

“Deal.”

“Wait wha-!?” Zap was about to ask, but that was when a small Rainbow Maned filly was flying up to her shoulder.

“Who’s Dis-?”

“That’s your new cousin, Sparks,” I said with a smile.

“Sparx!” the filly exclaimed as she hugged her older self.

“Hey-! That tickles!!” Zap exclaimed, nudging the filly a little as she set herself down on all four hooves. “Kid, if you’re trying to kill me with cuteness, then you’re doing it perfectly!”

“Oh, that reminds me. I took a picture of her after she got into the cookie jar back at the palace,” I said as I pulled out a bundle of pictures and looked through them, finding the right one in a few seconds. “She was eating a cookie as big as her head.” I handed the picture to Zap.

“Heehee… Little Rascal. I think I’m going to get along with you just fine!”

“Okay then. If Lance or I can’t watch them I’ll let you personally take care of Rainbow for a few hours,” I said.

“Are you sure that would be wise, Commander?” Mun asked.

“She is the biggest hoof-ful of the three,” Sol said.

I turned to the two and shushed them. “Don’t ruin the chance for some trolling!”

“So we have Rainbow as cousin and now Twilight as the new Auntie… Would that leave Pinkie as Grandmo-.” At the mentioning of her name, a pink blur zipped into the room, almost knocking Lance onto the floor as the Earth Pony has bouncing on her hooves. “I should’ve expected that.”

“Nope, Pinkie’s the sister-in-law.” I held out my hand to the pink pony. “I’m Max, Lance’s fiance.”

“OOOOH!!! LANCIE!!! Why didn’t you-?” That’s when her attention was diverted to the filly Rainbow Dash on Zap’s head. “SO CCCUUUTTTEEE!!!!!!!!”

“Pink pony!” Rainbow said, holding her hooves out.

“Silly Dashie, I’m Pinkie Pie!!”

“Pink Pie! Snuggles?”

I chuckled and said, “Rainbow, you’re being too cute. Turn it down or we’ll be forced to make you the main character.”

Lance chuckled. Surprised to see her so happy that he almost forgot about Light Sweet and Golden Spark. Who were looking at him in confusion. “Oh uh, Max?”

“Hmm?” I looked over at the other two fillies. “Oh, right. Golden, Light, this is Lance. He’s gonna be your new daddy,” I said as I picked up both of them and handed them to Lance.

They both looked up at him and tilted their heads in curiosity, then smiled and giggled. Lance smiled as they came closer and he embraced them in a hug, being careful not to hurt Golden and her amputated hoof. “I’m glad to have you girls as family.” He told them as they hugged him back. After the brief hug, he redirected his focus for a moment. “Hey Max? Why don’t Sol and Mun go with the kids, Zap and Filli-Second while we talk to Twilight about the portal?”

“Okay. And don’t think you’ll be getting out of hearing my story for much longer,” I said handing the fillies back to Sol.

“They’re not getting out of it. I just thought that it would be easier to explain if all of the team was around,” Lance pointed to the nearby board. It showed that Radiance, Mistress Marevelous, Humdrum, and Saddle Rager were out on a mission and would return later. “See what I mean?”

“.... Fine, I’ll wait until they’re back to tell my story.”

“Thanks Maxie.” Lance replied with a smile.

I turned to Twilight and said, “So, why don’t we get started?”

“Yes…… I was thinking the same thing,” Twilight replied, offering a hoof and pulling up a chair for her. “How should we begin?”

“I honestly have no idea. We could try experimenting on Lance’s ability to make portals with tokens. See what that brings up.”

“That is a good place to start. But from what Lance tells me, using tokens works two ways. It either summons somepony to you or you to that individual. I think the same goes for portals as well.” The Alicorn explained. “Plus, we don’t want a black hole taking everything away from either end of the portal.”

“True, I wouldn’t want to bring about the end of the country I’m ruling. How about we go see if both our Discords could help us?”

“We could. But that’ll mean we need to find him first.” Twilight told the two of them. “He’s quite Elusive at times and sometimes, only shows himself when he wants too.” By the time the Alicorn finished that statement, the three of them could hear the Chaos spirit from the other room and when they saw him; he was letting Golden Spark and Light Sweet climb on top of him and tickle him while the Filly Rainbow Dash was climbing on his head.

“WHEE!!!” The filly squeaked. “Dis fun, mommy!!”

I turned to Twilight and said, “You were saying?”

“Why hello,” Discord said, now noticing the three of them. “I didn’t expect this.” Looking at Max specifically, he grinned a little. “You seem… new here. What is your name, miss?”

“Maxine, but everyone calls me Max.” I held out a hand for him to shake. “Nice to meet you again, Dissy.”

The Chaos spirit raised one of his eyebrows in response to the last statement as he shook her outstretched hand. “Again? But this is only the first time we-... Hold on a minute,” with that, he placed one of the fingers of his Lion Paw on her forehead for a brief second before retreating it. “Well, that is quite surprising. You seem to not be from here, but from another Equestria?”

Lance could only look at him, surprised. “How-?”

“Mind reading. It’s a gift and-. Oh my…” The spirit said in a George Takei like voice. “Now that is just kinky.”

“If you weren’t already a friend, I’d take offence at you looking at more than what I want you to see,” I said.

“Some gifts have side effects.” Discord shrugged. “Now, judging from what else I saw, you were going to ask me something?”

“Yeah, we were going to ask you if you’d work with my Discord and help us make a portal between the two universes.”

“Hmm… Interesting… Where is he?”

I shrugged. “Probably in Ponyville still. Had to send him there for PR so he could wander wherever he wanted.”

“PR? Like Personal Reformation?” The spirit asked. “That’s a new one. For me, I had to show my trust by putting the lives of the girls before mine during an attack on the city. I defended Saddle Rager, or what you call Fluttershy, with my life and now I’m here.” To show what he meant, he used his chaos magic to create his personal medal of honor to show his heroism.

“More like Public Relations. I’m not actually reforming him, just trying to convince everyone to let him stay free since he’s apparently the only one able to keep universes-.... That’s it!” I dug in her bag and pulled out a folder. “Knew there was a reason I didn’t give this to him when I freed him.”

“Oh, what do you have there, Max?” Lance asked before Discord tried to sneak over her shoulder to have a peak.

“Something from someone called Auric Fulcrum. It’s supposed to be instructions from his Discord on how to seal away a universe, but it can be used to find our way back to our original universe. Maybe. I just skimmed the letter that was attached to it. What I got out of the letter said that only a Discord can understand it,” I said, holding it out to Discord.

“Well, let me take a look at it.” Discord offered, forming a pair of reading glasses with his talon. He looked at the document with careful precision and took his time in scanning the letter. “This is quite fascinating if I do say so myself.”

“I guess it’ll take a little for you to read that?”

“Possibly… if these glasses didn’t allow me to speed read.” He pointed out. “In fact, this actually seems kind of simple given if you can read ancient equish.”

“Well?”

“Ever heard of the saying ‘From point A to point B?’ Well, for this gateway of yours to work, I need to create a gate to use as point A and then travel to where point B would take me. Once I meet that Discord, the two of us could make a second gate and create the link. However, the best way for me to travel there is have what you would call a ‘token’ of the person that lives there.”

I handed him a picture and said, “This is my token, though I gave Lance a more personal one.”

Discord grinned and asked for it, for the time being of course. The Azure Striker nodded, handing him the ornament he named Testament. “Okay, now then. Let’s get to work.” With a quick stretch and cracking the knuckles in his paw and talon, he began to channel chaos magic through his outstretched hands. The magic swirled to life as it worked it’s magic, creating what resembled a mirror that one would hang up in a mansion. “Okay, there’s point A.”

“Can you tell Discord that I would like the other side to be in the room under the throne? I don’t want someone stumbling from here to there and getting lost or causing havoc or vice versa.”

“Will do,” Discord smiled, returning the token to the Azure Striker. “Oh and be ready, you got some company coming.” With that, Twilight looked at the board to see that the girls were back and on her way to the command center along with Humdrum. “Well, Max. You ready to share that story?” As she asked that question, Filly Rainbow landed on top of Lance’s head with Lumen inside her mane.

“Oh, the other three are back?” I asked.

“Four. Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike.” Lance pointed out. “Oh and there they are.”

“Twilight, we’re ba- WHAT IN TARNATION!?!”

“Hello to you too, Applejack.” I waved at the ponies who just entered the room.

“Auntie Wolf here?” Rainbow said as she looked around.

“Alright, just what the hay is goin’ on and why am ah seein’ a Filly Rainbow Dash?”

“Isn’t it awesome!?” Pinkie exclaimed.

“It’s darn confusing!!!!” The Earth pony retorted as she took off her mask and looked at Max. “Twilight, I need some explanations right now or ah’m tempted to use my Lasso to hogtie her and start asking questions.”

“Oh, I like that idea! Your room or Lance’s?” I asked.

“Can’t you just ask Max?” Lance suggested.

“Who?” Applejack asked. “You mean tha girl?”

“Max is a girl’s name as well. Oh, Rarity, thank you for cutting that gem for Lance.” Max said as she showed them the ring.

“Why thank you darling-? Wait… why are you wearing it though?” Rarity asked.

“We’re getting married, Rares.” Lance sighed.

“Yep. Kinda tired of saying this, but I’m pregnant as well with his son,” I said, pointing to Lance.

“So since Max is a Displaced, I brought her here to think of a way to connect both of our worlds together.” Lance said. “In addition, since I consider all of you as family, I wanted to see how you can be part of ours? Right Max?”

“Yeah. You know me and Rainbow already, the ones you don’t know are Light Sweet, Golden Spark, Zenith Sol, and Zenith Mun. The tanks are Sol and Mun as well,” I explained.

During that moment, Rainbow pretended to be flying on top of Lance’s head, saying “WHEEE!!!” for a few moments with outstretched wings.

I ruffled Rainbow’s mane a little and continued, “You should probably get comfortable because I’m about to talk about my past. Lance wanted me to wait until you all were here before I began, and I’m not going to answer any questions until the end.”

With that said, Pinkie Pie decided to “relocate” everypony into the break room and have them take a seat on the sofas and couches inside. With everypony here and a quick and simple explanation on who Cody was when Pinkie asked if he was coming, Max soon was able to have the room to herself to explain her story without any interruptions.

I got to the point where Celestia and I had sex for the first time when Spike asked, “Question?” Spike said, raising a claw. “Would you care to explain cheering up? Because the princesses are right outside the-.”

SHOVE!!

“-door.”

Shit, they’re here. Okay, it’s okay Max, these aren’t the ones you know. Celestia’s actually white here! Luna was the one that got banished a-and they don’t know you at all, I thought. You can face these two!

“Are you okay, Max?” Lance asked.

“Hmm?” I looked around, sparing the princesses a painful glance before I said, “W-where was I?”

“You were talking about you supporting your Celestia?” Rarity reminded her.

I continued the story, trying to ignore what I felt every time I looked at the two I knew to be dead. Once I was finished Lance put his arm around me, trying to comfort me.

“Any questions?” Several hooves were raised. “Any that aren’t directed at how Celly managed to get me pregnant with twins?” Most of the raised hooves fell.

Twilight now had her hoof up. “At one point, you said the following dusk. Is night and day somehow reversed in your Equestria or am I just thinking too much on this?” Around then, Light Sweet decided to nuzzle herself at Twilight’s hooves, taking a nap as Golden Spark went to Celestia. Around now though was when she saw the Fillies amputated hoof.

“My goodness! What happened to this poor filly?”

“I skipped that part? The guard captain after Shining Armor had a messed up family and he took offence at me sentencing his parents to twenty years of labor, so he decided to try to kill my fillies. He ended up killing himself on his own sword after I caught him,” I explained. “His sword was cursed with an unnamed curse that used healing magic as an accelerant while it necrotized the one that got cut by the blade. He had sliced her hoof open by the time I had seen the guard dead outside my rooms and rushed in. It had to be amputated, or it might’ve spread.

“And yes, ponies sleep during the day and work during the night mostly. The exceptions are the farmers, they try to keep a crepuscular sleep schedule.”

“Interesting…” Twilight said. “So, do you two have any plans on the wedding as of right now?”

“Not that I’m aware of. I know I don’t have a drawerful of plans.” I glance at Radiance. “But I do know someone who does.”

“Oh?” Lance said. “Would that happen to be the pony you mentioned earlier… The one named Fancy Pants?”

“No, she has them left over from when she was fawning over Blueblood.” I shook my head. “How she couldn’t see the corruption oozing off of him, I don’t know.”

“Well, professionals have standards, darling.” Rarity replied. “I just wished that Blueblood would have better standards over how he treats other ponies. So… Max, if I may ask, is your worlds version of myself exactly the same as me?”

“Aside from creating gems from thin air and using them as weapons... maybe? I only met her at the funeral and later briefly when she picked up her sister from the library in Ponyville.”

“My word…” She replied. “Max, could it be possible for her and I to meet. I believe the two of us can be able to help you make your wedding be unforgettable… In the free time I have of course.”

“Yeah, I’ll have to send a letter through Spike once I get back but I’ll let Rarity know about this.”

“Well, maybe we can both work some things out.” Lance commented. “After all, there are many pieces to a wedding. Maybe we can have both your Twilight and mine help organize it?”

“I would be delighted by the opportunity, Max.” The Alicorn replied, bowing like she was in front of a princess.

I raised an eyebrow and said, “Aren’t you a princess here? I know I’m basically a queen, but still, you don’t have to bow to me.”

Twilight realized that and returned to her standard position. “Despite being a princess, I prefer to treat everypony with respect. Especially for you since you’re the ruler of your Equestria.”

“And I’d prefer to be in a small cabin on the side of an unexplored mountain with only one other person. I would like you to work with Twilight, though.”

“Perfect! When can we meet?” She asked, eyes lighting up at the opportunity.

“Dunno, I’d like it to be in three or four months, though. That good, Lance?”

“Works for me.” Lance replied back. He saw Twilight summoning a calendar and watched her go through the dates. When she found one, the Alicorn looked back at Max and took a deep breath. “Would this thursday work possibly? Or would you need to check with your me?” Before max could answer though, they heard a loud noise go off similar to magic and found Discord by the other end of the doorway he was working on.

“Alright, I’m back! And I brought a companion with me!!”

Turns out, by Discord’s side… was the Twilight I knew.

“Oh, hey Twilight, meet Twilight.” However, her attention was focused instead on this world’s version of Luna. She was surprised to the point where some tears began to form.

“P-princess? I thought you… were dead,” Twi said.

“Uh, Max?” The Adept said. “I think you need to clear things up.”

I tapped Twi on the shoulder and said, “You’re in a different universe, Twilight. The Luna you know is dead, but this universe’s isn’t.”

“Is that why there were two Discords at Fluttershy’s when I went over to check how things were going?” Twilight asked, the Unicorn trying to think things through.

“Yes. I was going to send a few letters by way of Spike when I got back, but since you’re here I can just ask you to pass the messages along.”

“Okay! What’s the occasion?” She asked. “Normally, you don’t have many ponies here unless something BIG is coming up.”

“I’m engaged to Lance and want you and Alicorn Twilight to plan the wedding with Rarity and Radiance,” I said.

“Who’s Lance, Grandmother?”

I pointed at the Azure suited Adept. “Him.”

“Oh… Well, congratulations! I believe we have some organization to get started.”

“Don’t forget the baby shower as well,” I said, turning to Discord soon after. “Is the portal ready?”

Discord’s only reply was a nod. However, for Twilight… “Okay, wedding, Baby sho- WAIT, WHAT!?!?!”

I giggled a bit. “Yep, I’m pregnant.”

Twilight looked stunned. But then had a look at Lance. She narrowed her eyes. “Let me guess. Lance is the father?” He nodded his head, answering her question. “Well, that explains a lot. Max, we should probably go back to the castle so we can send the letters out as soon as possible.”

“Just make sure it’s kept a secret until a month before, if you can. You have my permission to hire anyone, no matter what they ask for in return.”

“I will make sure of that. I believe my Rarity knows somepony from Manehattan that can help with the wedding dress. I believe her name was Coco Pommel?” The Mare said as she walked to the mirror like doorway to Max’s world, waiting for her to join her.

“I think I remember hearing about her. Something about getting her away from another designer?” I asked, gesturing for Sol and Mun to follow. “I’m gonna let you take care of the foals until Twi and I have sent out letters to all the ponies we’ll be hiring, Lance. I’ll let you look them over before their hiring is finalized.”

Lance raised an eyebrow at the sudden statement. Unsure of what was said. “Wait… So I’ll be looking over the kids?”

“You’ll be watching the kids and looking over the ponies I’d like to hire before we actually hire them,” I explained.

“Okay, So I follow you or should I stay here?” Lance asked. He was missing a few details that he needed to know, so asking about them to Max would hopefully clear things up.

“I can handle writing letters, you don’t need to follow me. Oh, you might want to keep Light out of the kitchen, she tends to make a mess if she’s left alone. And you might want to make sure the magic books are locked up, Golden seems to like drawing in them more than other books.”

“Alright. Kitchen and books. Got it. When will you be back?” The Adept asked as one last question before she would leave.

“Maybe three days, maybe a week. Depends on how long it takes for the replies to get back.”

Lance nodded his head. For him, this was to be the first test future fatherhood would bring. And he wanted to make sure not to disappoint Max. “Okay. Take as much time as you need. If I need any help, I’ll just cross through the gate and come see you.”

“Okay, see you then,” I said stepping backwards into the portal.

“So who all was it you wanted to contact?” Twilight asked as soon as we stepped out of the portal.

“Well, that one designer you mentioned, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Holo, Wright, Murphy-” I started.

“Whoa whoa whoa, You want to invite Murphy? The Harvester of Misfortune?”

“Yeah, he’s got a new trick up his sleeve that I’d like to try out. It seems he can take bad luck away from someone and I’d like him to be part of the security.” I walked over to the door and pressed the hidden button to lower the stairs. “Ah damn it.”

“What?”

“I forgot to ask Lance if I could still sleep with others.”