How do you differentiate between two of the same characters?

[Shady Mist 55]

If you have two of the same characters talking to each other, how do you differentiate between them? Aside from saying "the other", "the first" or "the second".

Edited December 5 by Shady Mist

[SidewinderX 5]

As in, a clone/copy/alternate universe character talking to the 'original' version of that character? Or one character talking to another (Twilight talking to Applejack, for example.)

 

In the first case, if you're using the third person, you can say something like 'other Twilight.' Keep in mind that once the initial confusion is over, the characters will find out some way to refer to each other without any mixup. If you're using first person, it's much easier.

 

If, however, you mean that one character is talking to an entirely different one, and it's a longer string of dialouge, once you name the participants you can just have a line in-between sentences, like this:

Spike stumbled into the flower shop, glad to be away from the chaos of the street. Roseluck looked up in surprise from the counter. "What's going on?" She asked, worried.

"Mondays," Spike grumbled, shaking his head.

"I always did hate Mondays," the mare acknowledged.

"The worst."

"Oh, don't tell me. Last Monday a peach broke through my window and started singing 'That's What I Like About the South.' I eventually had to take it down with a butter knife!"

The small dragon snickered, his bad mood clearing away.

 

...Anyways, I know my example was really bad (darn you, mobile), but you get the idea.  Hope I helped!