//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: To Die Twice // by Quite Quiet //------------------------------// Twilight is wet. Not that rainy day wetness you get if you’re standing outside while it’s raining. No, she’s the kind of wet you only get if you’re drowning in it. This is kind of appropriate, now that Twilight is drowning. The novelty of the situation has long since gone, along with the panic. She’s left with that strange sense of wonder you only get when you’re about to experience something horrible but know there’s nothing you can do about it that’ll work. She tries to summon her magic one last time, in the hopes that she’ll at least have enough magic to light up her surroundings to see where she is, but it’s futile. Her magic is just as gone now as it has been since yesterday. She could open her eyes to look around her, but all she’d see is darkness. “Who could have thought the lake outside Ponyville would be so dark at the bottom?” She still has her conscious thoughts but within moments they will, too, be gone from the rest of her short life. In a futile attempt to move she shifts her hind legs a little, only succeeding in tightening the rope around them harder. The thick, sturdy rope bound to the weight now holding her down looked so harmless yesterday as well. Alas, how things can change so fast. Her consciousness is slipping, there’s not much time left. A last futile swimming motion is done with her forelimbs, but they do little more than twitch in her weakened state. Giving up escaping once again, Twilight stops moving altogether. Unmoving lying in the depths she waits. Waiting for the last of her supply of air to run out, forcing her to take that one fatal breath. “Why did everything go so wrong?” This morning Twilight hadn’t had a care in the world, except fixing her magic. Spike had made her breakfast as normal, which she devoured in an instant followed by a several hours long study session. But now, one way or another she wouldn’t live to see the morning. Life is ironic that way. Peaceful and predictable one moment and gone the next. The last thing the pony known as Twilight Sparkle does is smile. She smiles at the irony of life and how it now caught up with her. She lets out her last breath of air, slowly sinking down towards the murky bottom of the lake. The feeling of softly landing on the bed of rocks making up the ground reaches her before she finally slips into the darkness where you never return from. Twilight finds herself lying on her back, in a relatively comfortable position considering. Vision blurry from just awakening, making the immediate surroundings impossible to discern. Her entire body feels numb, with a certain wrongness to it that should be there. Taking slow and steady breaths she waits, waiting for her vision to clear, and for things to make sense again. She died; she shouldn’t be lying and breathing here, wherever here was anyway. Twilight was completely sure when you died you didn’t randomly pop out into thin air and survive all of it. Focusing on her breathing, she stayed on her back for what felt like hours but could in reality only have been a few minutes at the most. Staring up at the clear sky she waited. Not that she anything to wait for to be honest, she needed to get back up and find out what happened. Realizing her vision was returning, she moved her head about trying to take in the immediate surroundings. The first thing she notices is that she’s in an alley, a rather messy one too. Overflowing trash cans and discarded bottles are littering the sides, with the odd cardboard box standing here and there. The dirty brick walls are filled with stains she’s not sure what they are, yet aren’t that interested in finding out either. All in all it looks like one of the worst alleys Twilight have seen in her life. Strangely enough, most of it looks larger than it should, possibly because she’s lying down. Sighing, she closes her eyes again. “I need to find out where I am, and how to get back to Ponyville from here.” Without much other choice Twilight makes an attempt to roll over on her stomach. In a less that graceful way she succeeds, but what she finds right after makes her pause. Rather than the purple coat she expected to find on her legs, there’s an unknown yet strangely familiar blue colour glaring back at her. Dreading what she’ll find she moves one hoof up towards her head to move some of her mane down to confirm her suspicions. Doing so though, makes her bump into a lump on her forehead. Howling out in pain she clutches her head in a desperate attempt to quell the pain just a little if possible. Horns were rather sensitive after all, and slamming a hoof on one wasn’t to be advised by anypony. After a few minutes of cradling her head the pain moves from unbearable to a numbing background noise she can turn out. She moves her head back up, but this time more carefully to avoid the horn she now knows is there. Taking a few locks of her mane down for her to see, she’s greeted by a silvery blue instead of the darker make with a streak in it. In a rather accepting way she sighs again, defeated by whatever force in the universe out for her. Getting back on track she moves on with the next part of her plan, which haven’t changed at all. Pushing her legs underneath her she tries to get up on all fours again. Thankfully her legs are more than willing to cooperate and soon enough she’s standing upright again. Sadly Twilight has little time to notice this, and the most prominent change makes itself known to her. While she should reach up with her body to the lids of the trash can, now she barely gets her head over the top of it if she stretches all she can. “This… This can’t be happening,” she exclaims, immediately noticing the squeaky shifts in her voice much like the ones small fillies have. “I need a mirror, now!” Disregarding all pretense of being subtle she runs out of the alley, but stops dead in her tracks. There are ponies everywhere, or at least as far as she’s able to see. Most of them trotting by her without even casting a second glance at her. From her new rather short perspective all these strangers are an imposing sight. The streets are strangely quiet for being so packed, barely managing to build up more than a standard speaking volume. Glancing up and down the street she’s now standing in she tries to find her goal for the moment. Most of her view is blocked and the little can see only show more of the same nondescript brick buildings she stands next to. Sighing in defeat that the goal wasn’t so easily completed, she slowly starts making her way down the street in the hopes of finding a bathroom or a reflecting glass surface somewhere soon. Most of the buildings she passes on her way are just like the first she found, boring brick buildings in either red or brown. Here and there are small stores squeezed in between two larger buildings, breaking the trend they set up. Most of the stores either sell bread or other consumables and as she’s nearing what she think is the end of the path no apparent mirror shop or bathroom have shown up. “Do I really have to go through all of that again?” she asks herself. As a full grown mare walking through the masses would have been hard enough, but as a filly none of the adults take notice of? More than once she had to jump out of the way as some stray hoof almost hit her in various part of her now small body. Twilight moves to the side of the road where she won’t be in as much danger and collapses down on her haunches, head lowered towards the ground. “You all right there, little miss?” An unknown and very raspy voice suddenly asks her. With as little effort as possible Twilight moves her head to look at the speaker. From her current vantage point all she can make out is a pair of dusty brown coated legs. “No I’m not,” she quietly replies, sighing before continuing. “I need a mirror but I don’t know where to find one.” “Cheer up, little miss. Nopony around these parts like a frown like that. Especially not on a cute little face like yours,” the pair of legs says, apparently unconcerned by her notable lack of interest in anything. “But if you only need a mirror there’s a public restroom just a few minutes from here if you just keep going. It’s impossible to miss.” Twilight suddenly and rather forcefully snaps her head back up, coming face to face with the owner of the voice. Staring back at her is the most unassuming earth pony she ever saw. Dusty brown coat with a darker mane, his mane all hanging straight down without any apparent style to it. Adorning his face is the most perfect grin ever, not too much to seem forced but wide enough to be natural. “You sure?” she asks hesitantly. If this turned out to be another dead end… But her worries are unnecessary, because the moment she ended that thought he nods. Twilight immediately brightens up, and even wears the smallest of smiles towards him. Without further notice Twilight sets off down the path the stranger had pointed her at, but suddenly stops and turns around. “Thanks mister…” she trailed off, forgetting what she planned to say next. Because the spot where the mysterious stallion had stood just moments ago was empty, with him nowhere to be seen. Frowning slightly Twilight takes a last look around in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him, before turning back around and resumes her trotting down the pathway. Sticking to the sides close to the buildings, Twilight avoid most of the adults roaming around the streets. More buildings similar to the ones she’s already seen everywhere but fewer and fewer shops in between them. Keeping a close eye out for the apparently obvious restrooms somewhere down this way. She is so focused on the task that she never notices the sign standing in her way before it’s too late. Face first into the v-shaped sign plants a firm imprint of her face in the chalk on the board. Rubbing her snout in annoyance from such a simple mistake she takes a moment to catch her breath. It’s not until then that she inspects the sign she stumbled upon closer, only to barely contain her glee when she read what the sign says. “Restrooms this way -->” Turning her head towards the way the arrow points, all she can see is a nondescript wooden door with planks. The door is bolted to a wall much like all the ones surrounding it and the only hint towards it being a restroom is the sign, which according to Twilight’s face is very inappropriately placed. Getting back up on all fours she hesitantly moves towards the door, taking each step carefully like it would run away if she did too much noise. Approaching the door more and more details make themselves clear. The door is rotten and barely hanging together. Much of the supposed paint have fallen off, some of it lying below and in front of the door. The hinges are rusty and worn, possibly from being exposed to all the elements over the years. As she puts a hoof to the door and slowly applies more pressure to it the hinges slowly gives way to get force. A drawn out creaking noise sounds as the door swings open to reveal what has to be one of the smallest rooms Twilight have ever seen, even judging by her current standards. Inside is a barely concealed latrine, to do what you need to with and a small sink for afterwards. All of these details are not at the front of the filly at the moment however. For all intents and purposes she’s transfixed by the cracked and dirty mirror hanging above the sink. Determinately moving towards the mirror, looking for ways she can get up on level with it. Finding nothing however, she decides to simply use the sink as support and stand up on her hind legs so she at least can see her face in the mirror. Cautiously putting first her left hoof on the sink, then the right she slowly lifts herself off the ground and towards the truth just ahead of her. Closing her eyes as she rises, to protect her from whatever truth she will find in mere moments she halts her ascent. Head staring straight at the mirror, eyes closed she stands there. Taking a slow, deep breath to calm her nerves she prepares for the moment. In an instant her eyes are wide open, looking straight at the mirror. Her mouth hanging open in shock and surprise as she takes in the sight in front of her. Staring back at her in the mirror was a very well-known face to her, but not the one she was expecting at all. “Trixie?”