The Bugtown Blues

by Zobeid

Know Thyself

She stirred from her slumber, gradually realizing she wasn’t in bed. She lifted her head and looked blearily at the surface she’d just been drooling on: pages now ruined with ink splotched where her saliva had wet it. In front of her was an open book. She guessed she must have fallen asleep while trying to study and take notes.

It wasn’t really surprising. The way things had been going, she never could seem to catch up on her sleep. There was simply too much to do, trying to keep up with her ever-expanding responsibilities. And then there’d been the storm, and water getting into the house. It had been a long night. She sighed and blearily looked across the table — at herself.

“Buh?”

Her duplicate looked up from the book she was reading and said, “Oh, you’re awake! How are you feeling, Skitters?”

“Skitters?” She looked down at herself: a glance at her black, perforated forelegs, then she shrieked and jumped back from the table, as if she could jump away from what she’d seen. “AAAAH! WHAT?”

Across the table, the lavender-colored unicorn jumped to her feet. “Oh no, no! It’s happened again, hasn’t it?”

The changeling, sitting awkwardly on its rump, was still gawping at its own legs and belly. “This can’t… I don’t… This doesn’t make sense, I’m not a changeling!”

Twilight spoke urgently to the creature, “Please don’t panic! I can explain this. I know this is going to be hard for you to accept, but hear me out! You aren’t really Twilight Sparkle. You’re Skitterskee. I was doing an experiment to test the limits of your transformational magic, and I accidentally gave you a big boost of magic power. So… When you transformed, you not only copied my appearance, voice and mannerisms, but also my personality and memories, everything. So, now you think you’re me!”

Skitterskee’s jaw hung open as the wheels turned in her head. “But what? How is that even possible? I can’t be a changeling! It… It doesn’t work that way.”

Twilight moved closer and put a reassuring hoof on Skitterskee’s shoulder. “Don’t worry! It’s totally temporary. I was able to get your body back to normal, but I guess the mental effect will take a while to wear off. I’m sure you’ll revert to your real personality after a few hours, tops.

“But, but, but…” Skitters examined herself again, frantically, as if expecting to find some obvious visible clue to her real identity. “This is crazy. I can remember everything about my pony past, my pony family, my pony friends…”

“I know, I know. It’s just a side-effect of the spell. When they’re cut off from the hive, changeling workers are only semi-intelligent — about as smart as a dog, really — so my personality has completely overwhelmed yours. Give it a while and the confusion will pass, and the spell will run its course and you’ll go back to normal. I promise!”

“Oh… okay, I’ll try.” She forced herself to settle back down onto the floor, with her legs tucked under her. Her heart was still pounding, transparent wings flitting anxiously, her breathing heavy, but she tried to will herself to be calm. She said, “I can’t believe it, I can’t. This is… so very, very weird…”

“Huh. You’re telling me?” said Twilight. She went back to her place at the other side of the table and resumed reading from a slim book.

Skitterskee’s mind flailed helplessly. What was the last thing she remembered? It was all starting to seem like a jumble. “What if somepony comes in looking for a book? And where are Nyx and Spike?”

Twilight answered, “Well, Nyx is in school for the day, so she won’t be back for a while. Spike went to get a couple of things in town, he’ll be back soon. I guess if somepony starts to come in, you could duck back into the basement.”

Skitters frowned and said, “Hey, I remember sending Spike to town.” She frowned and added, “but I don’t remember any experiment.”

“You remember sending Spike to town yesterday, not today,” Twilight explained. “Apparently you didn’t get my short-term memory. And of course you’ll lose all of it when you go back to normal. Your little changeling mind can’t hold onto it.”

Skitterskee frowned for a moment and then stomped her hoof. “No! This doesn’t make sense. If I have all of your memories, I’d at least remember planning an experiment like that, and setting it up.”

Twilight tsked. “Like I said, short-term memory is the first to go. Maybe it’s already starting to wear off.”

Skitterskee squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and rubbed the top of her puzzle with a porous pastern. Then she shook her head and said, “I wouldn’t do something like that on the spur of the moment, on a whim. It would have to be planned out in detail. Why can’t I remember?”

Twilight glared for a moment, then her horn lit up with emerald scintillations and she said, “I’m sure if you think back, you can remember planning the experiment.”

Skitterskee blinked. “What? No, I…” Her voice trailed off, and a green glimmer flickered in her eyes. Then she said softly, “I… I can remember planning the experiment.”

Twilight nodded, her horn still enveloped in green sparkles. “You can remember when I brought you up here, and removed the wire from your horn, and cast the spell. Can’t you?”

Dully, Skitterskee repeated, “I can remember when you brought me up here, and removed the wire from my horn, and cast the spell.”

Twilight smiled and let the magic fade. “I’m glad it’s coming back to you.”

Skitterskee shuddered, closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head, as if shaking away cobwebs. Then she said, “I… I don’t think I want to change back. I like being you.”

Twilight stared at her for a few moments, then came around the table again and gave the changeling an awkward hug, and said, “I know you’re confused, and I’m sorry. I never would have cast that spell if I’d known it was going to do this to you. But you know, even if we could make the spell last longer, it just wouldn’t work for you to live as my duplicate.”

“I… I guess you’re right.”

Twilight asked, “Are you gonna be okay now? Maybe you could read something to take your mind off it. I’ll be right here.”

Skitterskee nodded. “Okay. That’s a good idea.” Reading always calmed her — or so her fraudulent memories were telling her. She looked to the shelves and levitated over an old favorite, Chimeric Creatures: A History of Morphogenic Spells. It seemed appropriate. She listlessly flipped through the book, but was unable to concentrate. Maybe the transformation didn’t make me as intelligent as the real Twilight Sparkle, she thought to herself. Or maybe I’m just too upset to focus.

She couldn’t resist glancing across the table at Twilight Sparkle. The scene was weirdly fascinating. It feels like looking at myself from outside, Skitterskee thought. Her gaze wandered across Twilight’s tail and cutie mark, her mane with it’s distinctive pink stripe, her horn sparkling with a soft emerald aura of magic as she flipped through the pages of a slim blue volume. Something seemed subtly wrong about this, but the changeling couldn’t quite put her hoof on it.

Skitterskee recognized that book, though. She said, “Why… are you reading my journal?”

Twilight looked up and said, “I think you mean my journal. I’m just reviewing my notes, gathering my thoughts. I’ve got to prepare a report on you for Princess Celestia, after all.”

“That’s right, I remember… I wonder what’ll happen to me after I send… I mean, after you send that report?”

Twilight put down the journal on the table, and stared at it pensively. “That’ll be up to the princess. You can’t stay with me forever, and I doubt she’d just turn you loose in Equestria.”

Skitterskee groaned. “She’ll probably lock me away in a dungeon. Or banish me. Or lock me in a dungeon in the place she banished me to.” Her voice grew more stressed as she imagined more and more dire outcomes. “She might even send me to Tartarus — I’m a monster, after all!”

“Yeah…” said Twilight, although she winced at the changeling’s last comment. “Can’t have hideous, evil, love-sucking monsters running around causing havoc.” She sighed and said, “I know I’m going to regret this, but… You’re weird and creepy, Skitters, but I don’t think you’re really that dangerous. I could let you escape.”

Skitterskee gasped. “No! Wait. You wouldn’t really betray the princess like that, would you?”

Twilight fixed a penetrating stare on her double. “Would I? What do you think?”

Skitterskee looked at her front hooves and pondered for a moment. Without looking up she said, “I used to practically worship Princess Celestia. Or you did, I mean. Heh, it’s crazy even trying to talk about this. But anyhow, ever since what happened with Nyx, things haven’t been the same. And then I saw Celestia defeated by the changeling queen. Now I know my teacher — your teacher, sorry — isn’t infallible, isn’t all-powerful. I guess the faithful student lost some of her faith, huh?”

Twilight nodded somberly. “I guess I did. Anyhow, I’ve already got everything I need for my report, and you’ll never have a better chance to get away than right now, before Spike gets back. With my knowledge of Ponyville in your head, you can fool everypony long enough to slip away. I’ll tell them you tricked me. Princess Celestia will be disappointed, but… after all, it’s not like she hasn’t ever been fooled by a changeling. I don’t think she’ll come down too hard on me.”

Skitterskee stood, looked toward the front door of the library, and gulped, trepidation painted in her face and posture.

Twilight came over and gently nosed at her and said, “If you’re going, you better do it before either of us chickens out. Unless you fancy an extended stay in Tartarus, that is.”

Skitterskee’s eyes went wide, and she trotted over to the door, opening it with her magic, and peeked out. She balked. “I… I can’t go out there looking like this! But I don’t remember how to transform.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed. “Hold still, I’ll try to give you a boost.” She cast another spell, and for an instant Skitterskee was enveloped in cold green flames, causing her to jump. As he hooves came to rest once more on the wooden floor, she once more wore the guise of a lavender unicorn. Twilight nodded, satisfied, and told her, “Just act natural and nopony will suspect anything until you’re out of town.”

“But… Where will I go?”

“I’m sure you’ll know where to find other changelings as soon as the spell wears off and you get your own memories back.”

Skitterskee peeked out the door again, then glanced back. “Thanks for giving me a chance, Twilight,” she said.

“Good luck, Skitters!” Twilight replied, waving a hoof. “I hope you find where you belong.” Then Skitterskee ducked out through the door and was gone.

After the door slammed, ‘Twilight’ went back to the reading table and grinned as she levitated the journal again with her green glow of magic. “Dear Queen Chrysalis,” she mused out loud, “I learned an important lesson today about how gullible some ponies can be.”