Trixie had been in the Ponyville hospital for three days, not having regained consciousness yet. The nurses had taken Trixie from Braeburn and me and immediately placed her into intensive care. Since we were not family members, we couldn’t follow her and so we left. Twilight arrived shortly after us, together with AJ back at the farm, and we told her what had happened. She reacted similar to AJ when we told her that Trixie was here, but she was just as curious as I was about the picture and immediately wanted to do further research. I hadn’t seen her in town since, and Rising Dawn had told me that his mother had basically barricaded herself in the basement with some books. Spike was providing her with food and made sure that she slept once in a while, but that still couldn’t be healthy.

Besides that, the rest of the week was standard fare. After the Apple family took their trains to their respective homes on Monday evening, we resumed work on the farm, or rather AJ and Big Mac did. I got commandeered into selling the apples in the town. I quickly realized that AJ wanted to make the best out of my unintentional fame. Many just seemed to buy from me so that they could talk with me or to tell their friends that a real prince had just sold them apples. But even I had to admit that I would be stunned if Prince Charles sold me apples in the weekly market. When I wasn’t working, I thought about what I should do next. I still had all my knowledge from my world, and that had to count for something. I would have asked Twilight if there were any jobs for mathematicians or even computer scientists, but she was too busy. Neither had I found the time to talk with Cheerilee. If it came to knowledge and education, she would be the second best option right after Twilight.

It was Wednesday now. Soon after I closed the market stall and drove it back to the farm did I decide to visit her. I went back from the farm towards Ponyville when I suddenly realized that I had no idea where Cheerilee lived.

“Hey, Dash, where does Cheerilee live?” I shouted into the air and waited for a response.

“White Saddle Street,” came the reply from a cloud above me. Rainbow Dash had stuck at my side for a while now and watched me, still wanting to know why I knew so much.

“Aren’t you getting bored? Or do you just wanna watch me and AJ?” I honestly didn’t care; I was just irritated that she seemed like having nothing better to do.

“You wish! I’m just making sure that you’re no spy.” I rolled my eyes and continued my path without paying any more attention to Rainbow Dash. At some point she would get bored, and I could wait till then.

Familiarizing myself with the town was much easier for me by now, and so it didn’t take long until I arrived at said street. I was rarely offside the main road that led directly through the town, but it was nice for a change. The houses had no large shop windows, but little gardens that looked neatly manicured and were spiked with various flowers. Must be very comfortable to be able to have your breakfast on the go, I thought to myself before my eyes fell on a very distinctive house. It was a small, one-story building that was covered with lilacs and had a small stony path that went through the garden and up to the front door which had the symbol of three little flowers on it. It was typical that the cutie marks of the owners were somewhere on the house, just like names next to doorbells on Earth. Since there were no house numbers, they were drawn relatively large so you wouldn’t have to look too long.

I went down the small path and knocked a few times at the door that was opened shortly after by the teacher.

“Hello, how can I… oh… Hello, your Highness. What gives me the honour?” She bowed slightly.

“Hello, Cheerilee, could you please stop that? If everypony starts doing that then this will be strange.” She laughed quickly and motioned me to come inside. She went into a small living room and offered me a seat on the couch before sitting down next to me.

“So, what brings you here, Blue Light?” It was still a bit strange. When ponies sat on a couch, it rather looked like they were lying down.

“Light is fine. I’m here because I’m looking for a job. I get along well with foals, and my math isn’t bad either, so why not trying to be a teacher?” She grinned at me.

“I could always use a little help around the school, but aren’t you working for AJ on the farm?”

“Well, yeah, but I’m not earning any money there. It wouldn’t be right of me to take money from my marefriend, would it? Also I don’t want to be a drain on Celestia’s pocket.” And the payment was irregular. I only got money when I was needed for special events and such things.

“Would it be alright if I let you take a small quiz to test your knowledge?” I just nodded, and she disappeared in a small room behind me. In the corners of my eyes, I could see a desk and various bookshelves; it must have been a workroom. She returned with a piece of paper and a pen. I quickly went through all the formulas that I had learned in school and tried to remember when the last time I had done math without a calculator had been. I panicked a bit, but as soon as I saw the paper, I was relieved. It was only basic multiplication. One assignment was to use the rule of three, and the hardest was solving an equation for ‘Y’. I had solved every problem within seconds; only the writing took some time. Luckily, numbers were easier to write with the mouth than letters. I was just waiting for the question as to why I wasn’t using magic, but she didn’t ask. After around ten minutes, I gave her back the paper, and she skimmed over it.

“To be honest, Cheerilee, I was afraid of something worse, like parables and such.” Oh, how I had hated those things, and still do.

“Are you planning on teaching at a university?” she asked with a smile, her eyes still wandering over the paper. I thought about that for a moment. If parables were something for universities, then what was the general knowledge of math and physics here? Cheerilee took the pen and scribbled something on the paper before handing it back to me. She had written an ‘A’ and a smiley face on it.

“I see you have no problem with math. This was the final exam at our school, and most ponies needed the whole forty five minutes.” So math really was something minor here, but what else would you expect in a magical world? What really flabbergasted me was that they used the decimal system.

“Cheerilee, why do you use the decimal system instead of binary?” The decimal system was used by humans because we had ten fingers, but ponies only had two forehooves, so that system would seem more fitting.

“It’s just generally accepted nowadays. Some professors say that we all borrowed it from the griffons or dragons. Others say that it was invented by Ponythagoras.” Parallel universe, I thought to myself with a grin. “But let’s come back to the subject. If you really want to try your hand at teaching, come to the school tomorrow morning. Then I will introduce you to the class, and you can teach them math in the second class. If it works, then you have the job.” I could mark that off my list for today now.

“How about working hours and payment? That would be nice to know.” Cheerilee held a hoof against her head.

“Sorry, I completely forgot that. We have math three times a week: Mondays for one hour, Wednesday and Thursday for two. Your wage will be five hundred bits per week.” She explained to me that teaching would not be my only job, but also field trips, preparing and correcting assignments, and having an open ear for the pupils. So if a pupil had problems, they could always come to me. I agreed to it all and said goodbye to Cheerilee.

Next on my list was Twilight. I was worried that she was still pondering over the subject instead of waiting for Trixie to wake up and give us the answers. I quickly marched towards the library, not letting myself stop for anyone, though many citizens tried. I didn’t even knock to get rid of my unwanted followers and found Dawn sitting over a book. The little pegasus didn’t seem to notice me, but I planned to change that.

“Hey, Dawn, what’s up? Is Twilight a child of the sun again?” He awoke with a start from his trance, and I couldn’t get around from seeing the similarity to his mother.

“Uhm, hi, Light. Sorry, I didn’t hear you come inside. Mom is still down in the basement. Rarity was here earlier, but she couldn’t get her out of there either,” he said before turning back to his book. I caught a glimpse on the title: ‘Daring Do and the Temple of Time’. I didn’t know if I was supposed to think about Prince of Persia, Lara Croft, or Indiana Jones, but that was something to think about later.

I took the stairs down into the basement and found chaos in the form of books. The table, which had taken up half of the room during my last visit, now stood at the wall and was packed with large books. Actually, there was nothing which wasn’t packed with books. In the middle of it all sat Twilight, reading one which was on the top of a little pile.

“Hey, Twilight, are you alright?” She briefly looked at me with bloodshot eyes and just nodded. “Have you found out something about our case?” A nod again. “Would you mind answering me?” She nodded. I went to the small window where the blinds were shut and carefully opened them. The room was filled with light, making all the dust that was flying around through the air visible, and Twilight hissed like she was a vampire.

“Could you close that, please? That burns my eyes,” she said quietly.

“Ah, it can speak!” I jumped behind a pile of books. “Go back, demon, go back!” I couldn’t hold my laughter in any longer. I didn’t even need to see Twilight to know that she was annoyed. “So, again, have you got any news for me?” I stepped out from behind the books and sat down next to her.

“I have some theories. Three to be exact.” This time I nodded. “The first one is that you somehow took his form, or maybe even his body. But since he is dead, that wouldn’t be possible, at least not with any known magic. Should that be the case, there is a more powerful being than me or even Princess Celestia in play.” More powerful than Celestia? That brought Discord to mind. “The second theory is that parallel universes must exist, and you are her brother in one of them. Since no two beings can take the same spot at the same time, you are lucky that he is dead, as sad as that sounds, otherwise you would have deleted each other sooner or later.” That sounded a lot more unpleasant, but the theory of multiverses sounded familiar to me. “The last one is simple: coincidence,” she finished her explanation. “Anyways, this case is disproving the theory of the princess.” At least that was one thing I could be happy about.

“The theory about parallel universe exists in our world as well. It sounds like the most likely one for me. Just think about what I told you about the series. This world shows so many similarities, yet is different.”

“This was my most likely theory as well. But that also means that the you from this world was Trixie’s brother. I believe she called you Changer, right?” I thought for moment and nodded. “The name seems to suits your abilities well - another piece of evidence for my theory.” She flipped some pages in a book. “Here is a spell to change your place with another self, but since you can’t stay long enough in the same world while both are alive, it was never tested. And you could have never performed it.” I took that a bit personal.

“Hey, my magic isn’t that bad.” She shook her head.

“I didn’t mean it like that. You were a human completely devoid of magical abilities, and one of you would have to cast the spell. That means that Changer was in your world and cast the spell. The only thing the spell needs from you is your agreement. And after what you told me, you agreed in your subconscious mind. The question that remains open is how Changer got to you and why he did it.” I noticed something else.

“If we swapped our existences, shouldn’t he be me in my world? And also, if I have his body, shouldn’t I have his disease as well?” Again she shook her head.

“A soul is always bound to one body. Your own body was altered accordingly to this world, and then you swapped your existence’s energy. That is the energy that every universe emits which identifies each creature living in it. I don’t know if he is in your world. But if he isn’t, there should be a body.” I gulped. It was somehow an unpleasant feeling to know that either someone else was me and I was him, or that there was a dead body that looked like me.

“And how do we get this information? Trixie said he died years ago… Wait a second! Years ago, how is that possible?” Of course, Twilight already had an explanation ready.

“Either he was declared dead and then disappeared or the time shift between the worlds has caused it.” I groaned at the thought of paradoxes. Those things caused headaches.

“Then I shall search for his files. There has to be records somewhere.” A good first job for Silver Tray.

“That would at least help us. But there is one more thing I have to tell you about the spell. It is irreversible if it lasts longer than a week.” I had already gotten used to life here anyways.

“That doesn’t really matter, Twilight. Yes, I lost a lot, but now I think it was worth it. I’ll soon have a job, a wonderful marefriend, and many new friends. I don’t think I could do much better.” She smiled at my words before she yawned. “And now you shall go to bed. We’ll meet again tomorrow afternoon in the park, then we’ll have a picnic, and you can get to see the sun again.” She looked at me sullenly. “And don’t make me write a letter to my mother.” She rolled her eyes.

“Fine…” she agreed, resigned to her future. I pushed her upstairs into the main room and said goodbye at the door. It was late afternoon by now, and it was time to look after Trixie in the hospital. I felt sorry for her even though she wasn’t the nicest pony I knew. Well, I didn’t really know her, only from the series, and this world was differently. I would have to ask Silver Tray to give me more information about her as well. I would prefer to ask her myself, but I doubt she would answer me.

I had to use my title as a prince, but after a long back and forth with the nurses and a doctor, I was finally let into the room in which Trixie was stationed. She was plugged into various machines, and I was told that she had been in that state for a while now. They had removed some poisonous mushrooms and berries from her stomach and treated some infections from her open wounds. The doctor left the room and let me alone with her. I took a seat next to her bed and looked into her file, but nothing what wasn’t already said stood there. Her belongings, which were only the picture and her cloak, were on the nightstand next to the bed. I looked at the picture again. Twilight’s theory must be correct, for all I saw was Trixie and my other self. I surely reminded her of her brother, so that was why she came here. At least that was what I was thinking.

“Changer?” I heard a quiet voice next to me.

“No, but close. How are you feeling, Trixie?” I was glad that she was conscious again, but I thought it too early to tell her about our theories.

“Changer, are you playing a prank on Trixie… I mean on me?” She had changed her way of talking. I had thought it was only a figure of speech for her shows, but I had never heard her speak normally.

“No, Trixie, I am not your brother, but very close to it. But we will talk about that another time. Are you feeling better?” I pushed a little button for a nurse to come.

“No, I… Trix… I’m not feeling well.” She was weak, and I could clearly see that. Nurse Redheart came into the room and saw that Trixie was awake again.
“Hello, my dear, I see you are finally with us. I am sorry, but I will have to ask you to leave, your Highness. The patient has to undergo some examinations.” She left the door to make room for me.

“Alright, nurse.” I nodded at her. “I will be back tomorrow, Trixie, and I hope we can talk then. I have just as many questions as you do.” I left the room, and the nurse let the door fall shut behind me.

She was miserable. Her body was hurting at every possible location, and she was also confused. Her dead brother had just left the room, stating that he wasn’t him. It would have been too nice if it really had been him, but that was just wishful thinking. The nurse took some blood, checked her temperature, and asked her some annoying questions before she also left the room. While she was alone and stared against the empty wall, she realized that this was her last straw. She had nothing, and in the end, she couldn’t even pay the hospital bills.

While I wandered through the town, I thought about whether I should be happy that Celestia’s theory wasn’t correct after all. If Twilight, thanks to all the new information, was right, then that would mean that I was still there in some form, even though it wasn’t really me. When I got the chance to visit my world again, it would be only fair to find Changer, simply because he had to answer my questions. The other thing that occupied my mind was Trixie. What would happen with her next? I knew she was destitute, as I saw how dirty and malnourished she was, but my empathy had its limits. AJ and Twilight had told me what had happened and how she had behaved, but nobody deserved such misery.

Also, she appeared to be my sister, or at least Changer’s. This was all so confusing. I thought I needed to build an idol and praise it and make it responsible for everything I can’t understand, but then the atheist inside me came out, even though that was strange in a world with a living goddess. I was playing with the thought of helping her, but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t give her a place to sleep since I was also just living with my marefriend. But Applejack was the best shot I had, and I hoped that she would at least tolerate her for a while. I didn’t want to play the family card, but it was the next best thing I got with my title, besides Celestia and Luna of course.

Author's Notes:

Two more chapters or so until... nah, you will see...

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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