//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Altered // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// As she had been writing, Twilight had moved her double’s body off of the snow covered floor and into the grip of her magic. The sight of herself outside of a mirror was surreal and made the changeling invasion flash into her mind, but she was not going to leave somepony unconscious on the ground. What had happened still terrified her though, and she could not deny it. The magic unintentionally melted some of the snow, revealing more of what the creature had brought with it. The scraps of fabric remaining on the ground were unburied, and she briefly noted that there was what had possibly been a cellphone previously. It was in pieces now, but certain parts looked somewhat the same. Moreover, was a somewhat uncommon sight in Equestria, a wallet. These were typically seen in Griffon territory, as the paper currency was more accessible to store within it. The princess picked it up as well, setting it down onto an examination table. All the while, her quill continued to write her message. It was when the double’s body was put down as well; she heard the sound of several hooves galloping down the corridor. She figured that from the screams, the last half of them sounded similar enough to her to alert the guards. It wasn’t long before her thoughts were confirmed, and the guards that been assigned to her castle came rushing into the room. “Princess, are you alright!” The poor stallion froze as he looked between the princess and her double. The other guards followed in after, and quickly had their spears pointed at the double, cautious of its nature. Twilight raised a hoof, finished writing the last of her letter, and looked to the guard. “I need this message delivered to Canterlot castle. Preferably straight to Celestia or Luna.” She spared a glance at the unconscious unicorn and waved a hoof to the guards. “And lower your spears. From what I witnessed moments ago, she isn’t a threat to me or anypony.” She paused as her injury throbbed slightly. “If anything she is more a victim then I am.” “Yes, princess.” The guards nodded in unison, one quickly flying away from the castle out of a window, while the others began to file out. Twilight hated using her authority as a princess like this, but it seemed that this morning was full of things she disliked. One guard stayed back, however, looking to the unicorn. “Um... Princess? What should we do about her?” Her thoughts snapped back into focus at the mention of the new unicorn. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what exactly had occurred her freshly made double, but she knew that it would be foolish to try and handle the situation herself, even if her stomach would have let her remember what had happened without lurching. As knowledgeable as she was, she was not a trained professional. “If you can, bring a doctor or two over from Ponyville General. I’ll give them the details of what happened when they arrive... um...” A faint blush crossed her cheeks as she fumbled for a name. The guard gave her a rather quick salute that was slightly out of form, making him glad his commander wasn’t in the room. “E-Everclear. Private Everclear, your highness. I only arrived a few days ago, so it’s alright if you don’t know my name.” The lavender princess nodded a bit, giving a small smile, uneasy as it was. “Right, right. If you could bring the doctors over, I’d like to have, um, her, medically examined.” Everclear gave her a quick salute and was heading for the door when Twilight stopped him for just a moment. “And please, just call me Twilight.” Numb. That was all Christopher could feel at the moment, and he was thankful for that. He would instead feel absolutely nothing and remain submerged entirely into that welcoming ocean of unconsciousness. He wouldn’t have said no to a bit of joy, but that had become hard to find. The shock that had been swimming through him rather frequently and frantically was probably to blame for that. It was still better than The Pain though. That was the only way he could really describe what he had just felt. It was far worse than anything he had felt before in his entire life. He would rather have been stabbed to death then feel that again. Unfortunately, the numbness was slowly fading. His eyes felt swollen and heavy, something about his mouth felt off, and his forehead and tailbone had a dull throb coming from them. It wasn’t anything compared to the monstrous headache he had, but it was still better than before. He briefly pondered for a moment if this was how a fish felt when it was out of the water. His limbs regaining feeling to them brought the thought out of reach. He could feel canvas under him, but it was strange. It felt like his legs were resting in a way, that shouldn’t have been physically possible. He tried to move his fingers, maybe see if he could figure out why. The Pain returned to his mind. The nerves in his hand ignited like roman candles and jolted his memory again. His body tensed, trying to stop the pain and only succeeding in making it worse. He stopped working to move his hands immediately and tried to force his body to do the same. He could faintly hear someone talking. He couldn’t understand a word of it, but something stuck into his neck. Panic came again. The echo of The Pain danced with The Pain in his hands across the surface of his mind. Slowly, however, it was fading again. He was sinking into sleep again. Maybe it was best for the time being that he just sleep. Sleep sounded nice. The doctors arrived in short notice and had quickly put the mystery mare onto a stretcher. Twilight watched in worry as they carried the mare away. She needed to figure out something to call them. Referring to somepony as ‘mare’ constantly just did not feel right. Regardless, they were carrying her to the castle’s medical rooms for the testing Twilight had requested. If Nurse Redheart had not been tending to her neck, stitching the wound shut and applying a bandage for extra measure, she more than likely would have followed. As the pearl nurse finished wrapping the bandage around Twilight’s neck, she looked over her work. “Try not to move your neck too much. The wound may be sewn shut, but when the swelling goes down, it will hurt like nothing else.” Sighing as she put her tools away, the Nurse shook her head. “It will also probably leave a scar, but that might not be the case for you princess.” Before she could give her thanks, the door to the room burst open and Twilight found herself under the gentle assault of butter yellow hooves. “Oh my goodness, are you okay Twilight?” Nurse Redheart had taken the pegasus’s entrance as a cue to leave and gave the princess a quick bow before heading for the medical ward herself. As for Twilight, the rest of her friends had started entering the room when she had finally gotten Fluttershy to let go. “I’m going to be fine. Just a small hit to the neck.” Looking at the state of the lab, Applejack shook her head in disbelief. “If ya’ll just got a small hit to the neck, what caused all this?” Rainbow flew over and looked around. “Yeah, it looks like somepony tried to have a snowball fight in here.” Pinkie nodded rapidly, her demeanor far more serious than she usually allowed. “Rainbow’s right, My Pinkie Sense might have felt a new pony in town a moment ago, but my friends come first.” Seeing Twilight shudder slightly, Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight?” The lavender princess took a breath to calm herself and looked at the piles of snow herself. “I wish it were the case girls, but it’s a lot more complicated than that.” Pinkie popped up from behind one of the tables and poked at the glass container holding the two spheres. “Is that why there’s two of the weird thing now?” Faster than any of them could react, the case was sent flying to the edge of the table, and crystal was pulled from the walls, encasing the glass to the point it was unopenable. Pinkie was still staring at the spot the case had been before she slowly lowering her hoof back to the floor. All heads were turning to Twilight, who was panting slightly as she focused on the trapped spheres, a thin smoke trail rising from her horn. Shaking in place, Fluttershy took a step back from her friend. “T-Twilight...?” Jumping slightly at her name, Twilight shook her head and tried to swallow. Since when had her throat been so dry? “I-I...” She soon found herself on the receiving end of a small hug from Applejack. “Twilight, I can tell that something happened involving those things, and it’s got you rattled more than any villain we’ve sent packing. It’s alright if ya don’t want to talk about it just yet.” Sighing as she accepted the hug, Twilight closed her eyes. “Thank you.” Breaking away from the hug, the lavender princess glanced down to the side. “But that doesn’t make it right for me to lash out like that.” She looked over to the pink party planner apologetically. “Are you alright Pinkie?” Giving a quick nod in return, Pinkie walked back over to the group with a signature Pinkie Pie smile on her face. “It’s alright Twilight. Just give a mare some warning next time.” Returning the smile, Twilight felt a bit better. “Alright, I’ll-...” She looked over at the snow again and began to think about what had happened again. “Actually, I think it might be easier if I showed her to you.” While Twilight walked past them out the door, the group looked amongst themselves for a moment before following close behind. “Twilight darling, what do you mean by ‘her’?” Rarity let out a small gasp, and her hoof briefly climbed to her lips. “Did something happen to Starlight? I thought she was still on vacation with Trixie.” The lavender princess shook her head. “No, Starlight’s still away. She isn’t due to come back for another three days, and that's if she doesn’t decide to come back early.” Twilight picked up her pace for a moment and looked behind her. “The medical ward shouldn’t be too far ahead now.” As the group headed out the door, Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to decide just how she could correctly word what had happened, or even if she could word it. Just thinking about it made her sick to her stomach.