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Time Off1,324 words
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A New Day2,505 words

Results: Inconclusive

Twilight paced back and forth around the cave, her hooves thumping against the damp floor beneath her. She gave a deep sigh, exhaling the air from her muzzle as she looked over at the table with all of her experiments on them. Everything had gone exactly how she wanted, every plant grew a new bud. In fact, further studies proved that tests actually exceeded her expectations, being that the new buds were actually better in every way than their predecessor.

So what exactly has Twilight in such a huff, if her tests all went well? The next step was the problem.

Her original purpose for these tests was to unlock the secret of the mirror pool, and in order to do that, she would need to run tests on a living being. On a pony. But who would be willing to have this experiment done to them? Her friends? No, she’d never risk such a thing. Ponyville citizens? Impossible, she shouldn’t even be at the mirror pool, let alone testing theories on it. They’d never stand for it after seeing what happened with Pinkie. So what could she do? It wasn’t like she could grab a random stranger from out of town. She was a scientist, yes, but not a mad one.

“It’s already decided I guess.” she said, gazing down into the reflective waters and catching a glimpse of herself, hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot. She turned from the pool and a cold chill ran down her spine as she saw her reflection grin at her from the corner of her eye.

She quickly turned back to the pool and stared at her reflection. It mimicked her every movement and feature without fault.

“I must be more tired than I thought.” she said. “I’m even starting to talk to myself.”

She looked over at her table with all of her tools and equipment scattered across, no longer in any type of order. She let her gaze lift to the entrance of the cave, it had been a week since she set-up her lab and the entrance was the least used portion of it. There was very little light shimmering through the opening, meaning that the sun was setting and night would fall across Equestria soon enough. She looked back down at her equipment and gulped, steeling herself for what she was about to do.

A lone carriage rolled through the empty road on the outskirts of Ponyville, surrounded by a magical aura that pushed and directed it. Inside of the cart was a small makeshift home that included a bed, closet and dresser. Atop this bed sat one Trixie Lulamoon, cape on back and hat in hoof. She stared at the hat with a blank expression on her face,knowing what she planned to do was going to be a blow to her ego, but one that she needed.

“Trixie has learned from her mistakes, and Trixie is willing to own up to them.” she spoke to herself. “Trixie needs to find Twilight Sparkle and make things right.”

The carriage rode onward, slowly making its way to Ponyville.

It took a huge amount of willpower, on Twilights behalf, to bring the vial of mirror pond water to her lips. Her heart was beating like crazy, from both fear and excitement. Her magic held the vial as well as the pen and pad she had been writing notes in the whole time she had been conducting these experiments. There was no way she could let this go undocumented, and she didn’t exactly have the pleasure of working with an assistant.

“Here goes nothing.” Twilight said aloud, closing her eyes and tilting the vial into her mouth. The water was cool, and somehow bitter yet sweet. She swallowed hard and levitated the vial to the table where she got it.

Her attention was immediately split between analyzing any changes within her body, and documenting them within her notes.

Test: T.S.1
Subject: Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn, Equestria
Input 1: I have ingested twelve milliliters of C.W.001. As of now, there are no noticeable changes physically or mentally. I will continue to monitor and input details as they occur.

She jotted the notes down and immediately felt a twitch in her left hind leg.

Input 2: Involuntary muscle movement. Unknown if it is resulted from experiment, or potassium deficiency. Further testing is needed.

Twilight placed the pen and pad down onto the table and flexed her wings out. It was late, and she was incredibly tired. Of course, there was no way she would be able to get to sleep with the way her heart was beating at the moment. It was like a drum, getting louder and louder as the seconds passed. Her breathing slowly became more and more shallow as time went on, and her blood suddenly felt like ice within her veins. She grabbed the notepad with her magic, and dropped it on the floor as her head was suddenly filled with an immense pain.

She yelled and cried as her vision became blurry. Her eyes felt like they were being pushed out from inside of her head and her wings were flailing about uncontrollably. She couldn’t get any of her limbs to respond in the way that she wanted to, resulting in her falling to the floor and thrashing about violently, akin to an epileptic seizure. She gave one final blood-curdling scream and then was greeted to darkness.

It was late when Trixie arrived in Ponyville. The shops were all closed, save for a few that dealt with ponies of a more perverse nature. Trixie was having none of that though. She drove her carriage to the field where she held her show in Ponyville, the place where she first met Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and released the magic hold on it. The carriage stopped its movement and Trixie tied it to a tree with a rope she kept with her. She couldn’t risk the wind blowing her cart away while she slept after all. It was all she had.

She stepped out of the carriage and looked around at the empty field. This was basically what her shows were like these days, a lone magician with nothing but the wind.

“Even the wind is against Trixie.” she said with a shiver as the wind blew passed her. She used her magic to wrap her cape tight around her small frame, hoping it would help warm her even a little. “It’s much too late now, Trixie will have to find Twilight Sparkle in the morning.” she told herself, stepping back into the carriage where she at least had protection from the elements.

A layer of wood could only do so much though, especially when it had begun to rot and wear away. Trixie had had this cart for as long as she could remember, and refused to trash it or get a new one. It wasn’t as if she could afford to anyway, not with the way things have been going for her lately.

She lay on the bed and recalled the last time she had been here in Ponyville. It was when she had purchased the alicorn amulet. She sighed sadly at that. It had taken a big portion of her savings to be able to afford that thing, and she goes ahead and abuses it until she was taught a lesson in both humility and friendship. That was why she needed to find Twilight Sparkle. She wanted to properly ask for forgiveness and repay her debt of gratitude.

“...alive!” she heard a slight echo from outside. It sounded like somepony was yelling, but they were a bit too far to be understood clearly. She didn’t have to strain though, as the sound became clearer and louder. Whoever was shouting was getting closer, and it worried her a bit. A voice boomed from outside her cart. It was deep, yet unmistakably female. It sounded familiar, yet so very strange at the same time.

“And who might this be, camping out at night? Don’t you know how dangerous it is? Why, anypony could just come along and...and..” the voice erupted into roaring ominous laughter that left Trixie in a cold sweat.

“Wh-who’s there? Trixie isn’t s-signing autographs right now. Come back in the morning.” Trixie said nervously as she pushed herself into a corner of her carriage. There was an uneasy silence, where the only thing Trixie could hear was the deep and ragged breaths of the pony outside her carriage as well as their hoofsteps.

Finally, the voice spoke up. “Ah a face from the past, from her past, our past. For she is me and I am her. Who am I? Do I have a name?” Silence followed the question that Trixie could not answer. Suddenly a low growl came from the pony outside.

“I see, so it’s you. Oh that sounds delicious!” it said excitedly, laughs echoing once more. “But not today. Oh no not today. We must wait. Make the time right. Then…” the voice trailed into even more laughter that Trixie could now hear directly behind her. She could feel the vibration every laugh made, as if the pony at the other end were directly connected to her. “Then we can begin.”

There was no laugh this time, Trixie could only hear the sound of wings flapping that slowly disappeared as this apparent pegasus flew away. She raced to the door of her carriage and stuck her head out, scanning the sky to catch a glimpse of the mysterious pony that had scared her to her wits end, but they were gone.

She gave the empty field one last scan, before she closed the door and locked it tight.

Twilight awoke with a groan. Her body was stiff from laying on the floor. She looked up to the cave entrance and saw a glimpse of sunlight beginning to peek through, signaling the start of a new day. She looked around at her little laboratory. Equipment was strewn about haphazardly, and she had even dropped her notepad on the cave floor. She gave it a once-over and reviewed the noted from the previous night.

“Wow, I don’t remember anything beyond drinking the water. I must have been exhausted. Spike was right, I need to take a break from the break Celestia gave me.” she said as she levitated her pen to her notepad and began to write.

Input 3: Still no noticeable change from experiment.

Results: Inconclusive.

Author's Note:

Enjoy.

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