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// Prologue: A faint smell of citrus 
// Story: The Mares of Many Hues 
// by Dusk-Spark 
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Each beat from her little heart hurt more and more with each passing second, her body rebelled against her, demanding that she stop, yet Twilight refused and fought against her growing exhaustion. Even as her body both burned hotter than the flames of the sun, and froze colder than the vast emptiness of the galaxy, Twilight pressed on.




"The mirror? I'm afraid my knowledge of it is limited, Twilight. Is there anything in particular you wanted to ask?"



The constant sting of hail and wind against her body threatened to knock her off course. 'Then again, it's not like I have a course in mind. I just need to get away from Ponyville, Celestia, my friends, all of Equestria,' Twilight fought back the tears once more, 'I'm such an idiot!'




"Well, nothing in particular just yet. I've been seeing a mirror in my dreams lately that looks just like it. I was a bit curious about whether or not you could tell me anything useful about it."

"Well, I don't really-- wait, did you say dreams?"

"Yeah, they're a bit hard to explain though, mostly because I can't remember any of them. It's like the secrets of my dreams are just on the tip of my memory, but trying to recall it is like trying to catch those eye dots in my peripheral vision."



'Is it getting harder to fly? I mean, flying against the current isn't easy to begin with, but why do my wings feel like they're dragging extra weight?' She looked over her shoulder at her wings, when she saw what condition they were in, all she could say was: "Oh no." As if fate had waited for that exact comedic moment to pass, Twilight's frozen wings could no longer fight against the blizzard, and in response, Twilight was taken by the wind.
She screamed as she fell out of the sky, she felt like a ragdoll at the mercy of the blizzard. 'Come on Twilight, focus! Find your balance!' A task that was easier said than done, considering Twilight's body must've made several revolutions in the short span of time since she began her descent. No, this crash was inevitable, so Twilight did the only thing she could think of: her horn flared up, casting a panicked bubble shield around herself.
Her bubble shield crashed into rocks, on the side of the mountain and obscured her vision with snow as it rolled down what she could only assume was a mountain side. Despite the bubble shield's cushioned nature, Twilight was not entirely free from harm. By the time her bubble shield had dissipated and Twilight had finally crashed, Twilight could barely move a muscle due to the sheer pain coursing through her body. She willed herself to move, but her body refused, she felt her eyes grow heavy...
"No! No sleep! Don't sleep, that's how... that's how you... die." The last thing Twilight saw were a pair of lights in her peripheral vision, before everything went black. 





All Twilight could see was black, her vision allowed no light to penetrate. She heard hoofsteps, nearby.

"You were right. Celestia was trying to replace me."

'Whose voice is that?'

"I don't understand, I've done everything she's asked, I'm the most powerful student in the Academy, heck I'm stronger than the teachers themselves. Aren't I good enough?!"

'That voice sounds familiar.'

"What? Lying to me? About what?"

'Who is she talking to?'

"Celestia... Celestia wouldn't lie about that! She knows that's all I've ever truly wanted, she wouldn't--" The speaker paused, as if thinking it over, "then again, I doubted you before, and that runt turned out to be real. Celestia wouldn't..."

Twilight heard the filly run away from whoever she was talking to. Cautiously, she peeked out of the broom closet she'd been hiding in. "Who was she talking to?" Twilight asked yet again. She scanned the room full of magical artifacts and other assorted things, yet Twilight found no living thing, she even tried actively searching behind things but all she found were cobwebs. After making a mental note of informing Celestia about the messy state of the artifact room, she gave up her search for the mysterious 2nd pony. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't heard another voice, so who was that filly talking to? 'Maybe she was talking to herself?' That seemed likely, but something about the one-sided conversation felt off to Twilight. "I should tell Celestia about this."





A sweet scent of faint citrus wafted past her nostrils, a singer's beautiful melody flowed through her ears, her eyes slowly opened, the room's light blinding her temporarily. The first thing she saw when her eyes started to readjust, was the unfamiliar high wood ceiling. She looked to her left and saw a hospital room divider obscuring her vision of what lies in that general direction. In addition, there was a little table by the bed she found herself in, what caught her eye was the time-worn radio where the singer had apparently ended their song and what seemed to be a cup of tea with a note underneath it which read: Drink this when you wake up.

"That was Rosemary singing Alchemist, to start off your morning everypony. Here we are again, broadcasting live from the Frozen North, it's gonna be a cold one today."

"Really, the Frozen North being cold? Gasp, I never would've guessed."

"My co-host, folks. Anyways, as requested by the sheer volume of your fan letters."

"It was hilarious to see him buried under a mountain of letters."

"Oh now you're just exaggerating."

" 'Help! Get me out of here, I'm running out of oxygen!' That's what you said, I believe."

"Hahaha... anyways, here's Rosemary with her latest single: Misguided, enjoy."

Twilight Sparkle let the singer's likeable voice relax her while she took the mug of sweet smelling liquid in her hooves. She took small, experimental sips from the edge of the mug, letting the sweet flavor dance on her palette for a few seconds while she formed an opinion of the taste. Then she immediately chugged the whole thing down, the contents warmed up her body significantly. She was a little sad to see it gone, maybe she could ask for more later? 
The creak of the wood caught her attention, her eyes rested on a cloaked figure stepping into the room. The black cloak and imposing size made her little heart skip a beat! 'Is that the pony reaper of death? Am I about to die?!'

They took off their hood to reveal that they were not a pony at all, the beak and the wings were a pretty good indicator of what they were (though she still wasn't entirely sure if they were the reaper GRYPHON of death). "Oh, you're finally awake!" She exclaimed, if the delicate features weren't enough, the voice was a clear indicator to the silver and brown feathered gryphon's gender. The gryphon took off their snow-stained cloak and put it on the rack by the entrance. "You've been asleep for a few days now, ma'am. Weren't sure if you were gonna wake up or not." She said while casually strolling by Twilight's side, pulling the clipboard on the front of Twilight's bed.

Twilight's muscles instinctively tensed up as the gryphon took a seat by Twilight's bed.

She laughed, "Despite what ya might've heard, gryphons don't eat ponies." She said while skimming her clipboard. "First of all, welcome to Frostglade Clinic. Ya took a pretty nasty fall hon, Xira and some other folks found ya at the foot of the mountain. I gotta say, ya must have the luck o' Hades, you were half buried in snow, suffering hypothermia, and had more than your fair share o' bruises, sprains, and fractures. According to her at least."

Twilight obviously had a lot of questions, but before that, "Well, I'll have to thank this um, Xira, was it?"

"She lives in the clinic with me, odds are you'll see her sooner or later. By the way, names Kira, try not to get our names confused, happens more often than ya might think." The gryphon, Kira, flipped the paper on her clipboard. "Right then, we're gonna go through a few exercises, if ya don't mind. Your wings had the most damage, it took a while but we managed to fix it with some TLC, some good doctorin', and a bit o' potions. So let's test the waters, I want you try flapping your wings nice an' slow for me, can ya do that?"

Twilight raised her brow in confusion, "My wings?" Twilight looked to her sides and there were indeed a pair of purple wings attached. They did not look good; misshapen, swollen, and bandaged up like that, it made her a little sad for reasons that she couldn't quite understand. Regardless, she spread out her wings to the best of her ability, no problems so far. It was only when she tried to flap her wings did she feel like someone had stabbed her spine with a burning fireplace poker. She groaned as her wings immediately clung to her body.

Kira wrote something down in her notes, "Yeah, I know the feeling." Kira added with a comforting tone. "Don't worry though, they should recover eventually. Then you'll be flyin' again in no time at all. For the time being, let's try walkin', can ya do that? Need help gettin' outta bed?"

Twilight groggily moved her limbs, her muscles felt achy, but she could still move with them. "I think I can manage." Very slowly, and very carefully, Twilight got out of bed. When the full weight of her body touched down, she staggered. "Oof." She remembered Kira mentioning how Twilight had been comatose for a few days, so it'd probably take a while for Twilight to get used to walking again.

"How do ya feel, hurting anywhere?"

"A little sore, but I'm okay so far."

"Good." Kira took several steps back towards the wall, "Now, try walkin' towards me. Slowly now."

"Okay." She looked down at her hooves, the knowledge of how to walk seemed lost to her. Like she was being pop quizzed on a subject she hadn't studied for. 'One hoof in front of the other, Twilight.' She stepped forward, so far so good. Another step, still okay. Yep, she could walk, slowly, and it ached a little, but she could walk.

"Okay, least your legs are recovering." Kira wrote on her notepad again. "That's a good sign. Now, let's try an' figure out what in the hell you were doin' out in the middle of a blizzard?"

"Oh, well I was..." Twilight trailed off, 'Wait, what was I doing out there?' She tried to think back but all she felt was a stinging pain in the back of her mind. "I don't know."

"Ya don't know?"

She couldn't remember, the harder she tried to give Kira an answer, the more her head hurt. "I mean, I don't remember. I don't remember why I was out there, I'm not even sure exactly how I got there or what I was doing before I got there."

Kira wrote something down on the clipboard with a weary sigh, "Sounds like a case of amnesia, ya might've hit your head or something. What do you remember, hon?"

The only thing Twilight Sparkle could say was, "I know my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm a unicorn."

"Uh, unicorn?" She raised a disbelieving brow.

Twilight looked down at her wings, "...Oh." Unicorns did not have wings, Twilight knew that. But she was certain that she was a unicorn, she had to be, she could feel something on her head and when she concentrated she could feel a strange sensation through, what she assumed to be, her horn.

"Hang on, we gotta get you a mirror." Kira disappeared down the hallway. She came back a few seconds later holding a small mirror. She showed Twilight's reflection in it, in addition to the bed hair and bandages. She was indeed a unicorn, yet she also had wings. "I'm no expert on ponies, but I'm pretty sure unicorns don't have wings. So what, some kinda spell gone awry or-"

"Alicorn." An unfamiliar voice answered from the doorway. A drowsy looking, female zebra stepped into the room, hanging her own cloak on the rack. "That's what a horned pony with wings is called, though... I also happen to know that alicorns aren't born, not anymore at least, a pony has to ascend to alicorn status."

"How's that happen?" Kira asked, passing the clipboard to, who Twilight assumed, was Xira.

"Hell if I know." Xira tilted her head at Twilight, "Am I that pretty? Or is it your first time seeing a zebra?"

Twilight blushed when she realized she'd been staring, both of those could've been true. For some odd reason, Twilight felt drawn to the zebra. She was pretty sure it wasn't because she was attracted to her or anything like that; it was more like something in her shattered memories stirred. Something deep down inside her walled off memories. The faint, distant memories of a heavily accented voice...




"But, why must I go? Ponyville is my home!"



Twilight's head hurt, she suddenly couldn't stand the sight of her reflection in the mirror.

"You okay there?" Kira asked, concern evident in her voice.

"I feel, ugghhh..."She stirred nearly toppling over before Kira leapt into action, using her own body to stop Twilight from falling.

"Whoa there, missy. Maybe you should get back into bed before ya pass out on us again." Before waiting for Twilight's response, she helped Twilight get back into bed.

Xira pulled up the stool Kira had been using to sit in and looked to the bedridden Twilight. "Never seen an alicorn before, doubt many others have either. Hm, what was the name of that alicorn princess of Equestria, you must be important to her if you're an alicorn too."

"Princess of... Equestria?"

Xira shared a concerned look with Kira when she noticed the confused expression and the way she said that sentence: as if she didn't know what those words meant. "Oh, I remember her name now! Princess Celestia, does that name ring a bell?"

'That name...' She felt something. She felt joy for just a fleeting moment, and then nothing but sadness. A deep, deep sadness that threatened to consume her. "....!" Twilight felt something drip onto her lap, she felt another something fall from her cheeks, "Huh?" she reached up with her hoof, pulling back when she felt something wet.

"Are you alright, hon?" Kira asked, adopting a tone similar to a mothers.

"I... I don't really... I don't remember anyone by that name. I... I don't know why I'm..." Twilight couldn't finish the sentence, feeling more than a little embarrassed at her body's reactions, she levitated the pillow and hid her face from view. 'Why? I don't even know who this Princess Celestia is or where Equestria is, so why am I crying? Why can't I stop crying?'