//------------------------------// // TS-SIC-01 // Story: Simulated Intelligence // by Crazy Laughter //------------------------------//   Luna woke to the sounds of a mellow jazz band starting up a tune. What had happened to her was still fresh in her mind, so she woke as much of a start as she could muster. It wasn’t much more than opening her eyes and groaning louder than the average alicorn, but it was something. She was somewhere other than the roof of the hospital she had been trying to protect, so her horn breaking had not been a figment of her imagination. She felt dehydrated, sore and had the mother of all headaches. Her body was numb and any and all thoughts moved at the pace of glaciers moving through molasses. The pain where her horn joined with her head was not debilitating, but felt like a weight of immeasurable mass pressing down on every thought she tried to muster.   “Blue moon, you saw me standing alone...” A pleasant male voice sung out from somewhere around her, before both the singer and the band cut out suddenly. She would find the gesture of waking her up with a song cute, if she were to wake in her own bed and was not grievously injured. Why not let the song continue, if it were played from a recording device of some sort, as the song’s abrupt end suggested? “Hello?” Her throat was dry and her voice was raspy. A tenacious lethargy glued her to whatever surface she was lying on. Luna felt a twinge of panic as she found opening her eyes an impossible task. Trying to move her wings and hooves was just as impossible. She could feel the metal her right side was pressed onto, indicating she was either propped up on a slanted surface, or her sense of balance was compromised and she felt like she was sliding off whatever surface she had been laid out on. Her legs did not feel like they were supporting her weight, so her lethargic mind eventually decided on believing the latter.   “Blue Moon, now I’m no longer alone… The needle tears a hole, old familiar sting… Blue Moon, you knew just what I was there for, you heard me saying...” There was another voice and another tempo to the song that mentions a needle. There was no band that could change the type of song they played that fast, so it had to be some newfangled recording device she was still unfamiliar with. Someone was most likely using bits of recorded songs as a way to communicate with her. She was uncomfortable and her headache made concentrating a grating experience, but this other party had taken great care to communicate with her, so it was only right to try and decode their message. There was a mention of a blue moon and then an description of injecting something and then back to talking about a blue moon and hearing the other party saying something. They were either threatening to inject her with something if she didn’t cooperate, or they were only explaining why she was paralyzed. Whatever the case, she had little choice but to comply “Anonymity. Talk, I’ll listen.” Moving any part of her head made flashes of pain that should have knock her out ring out in her body, but she should not pass the chance to gleam information about her kidnappers. Measures had been taken to hide the identity of her kidnapper, so it was likely she was to be released shortly. They could have kept her unconscious if their motive was as simple as getting a ransom from Equestria. Her horn was disabled and they were capable of paralyzing her body selectively to allow her speech, but little else. That alone spoke of knowledge and skills beyond any amateurish band of thugs that would simply kidnap her for ransom.   “Little boy blue and the man on the moon… They call the rising sun, and it’s been the ruin of many a… Here comes the sun, here comes the sun…  Falling to pieces, falling to pieces, falling to pieces…” They were definitely using some kind of advanced recording device, as there were at least three different singers and one had sounded definitely female. The sound was also strangely muffled, as if it was not played in the same room she was in. Why would they do that if they wanted to communicate with her? “Celestia wronged you… Why take me?” When the fragmented songs were not hiding the sounds of her surroundings she was not sure if she liked what she could hear. There were sharp hisses and scuttering sounds that somehow sounded too quick and precise to be natural. Her body was growing numb and she was almost certain her head was strapped into the surface she was laying on.   “Seen a shooting star tonight, and I thought of me... Break into another world, A world I never knew… When the blazing sun is gone… Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you… Will come for you… Cuz I’ve been here before...” Luna was about to start decoding the latest cryptic message when she felt something cold and hard descend on her snout. One panicked inhale caused the apparatus to cling closer to her skin and something was pressing it back onto her snout on her just as panicked exhale. It was a breathing mask, meant to introduce an aerosolized drug into her system. She’d seen them used in dentist offices and hospitals and that knowledge did not alleviate her panic in any way. She could do nothing but try and hold her breath when she heard the hiss of the gas being released into the mask.   “The traveler in the dark… Will try to fix… Something that can’t be replaced… The time has come to make things right...” The Lunar diarch had no time to further ponder the implications as her lungs were burning and she was already smelling the stinging drug in her sinuses, even before drawing a breath. She felt like she had stayed up for weeks, even with that minuscule amount of whatever this drug was, so inhaling a lungful of it meant losing consciousness and with it all sense of time and agency. The procedure she’d went through so far seemed far too intricate to end in her death and her captors had proven to be far too competent for her to die by mistake. She felt the heavy darkness fall over her with the stinging gas replacing the majority of the air in her lungs. She couldn’t pinpoint the moment her consciousness faded, but she had a fitful and disturbing period of nothing following the sting of the gas. Time had no meaning and only thing she could hold on to was a profound sense of wrong and her utter loss of control. The next thing she knew was the sight of a winding dirt road and the fact that she was moving along it evenly. It took her a moment to realize she was not being carried by anything or anyone. She had regained consciousness while her body was walking along the path on its own. She could feel how her legs barely left the ground and how unnaturally even her steps were. She was obviously not paralyzed anymore, but losing all control of her body was far more horrifying of a concept. Her head jolted up and down jarringly with each step and the fact that Luna was not in control of it made her feel nauseous after a dozen or so steps. “Why are you doing this?” Luna was surprised that she was still able to speak normally, but her captors had some reason to keep her talking while grievously disregarding her personal freedom and even her bodily autonomy. This was worse than forcing her down and hurting her in the most personal of ways, if you spent any time contemplating the implications. Someone she didn’t know had hurt her horrifically, kidnapped her and stripped her of the control of her body, only to rob her of her mental faculties and an unknown amount of time, only to bring her back during another show of their force over her. “Who are you? Why did you attack the hospital in Ponyville?” She could have been talking to herself, but if her body was controlled via magic, then there would have to be some way for the user of that magic to know where to guide her. She had either come out of their anesthesia earlier than they expected, or this forced walk along was another show of their power over her. The fact that she was moving on her own power also made Luna shudder at the sheer number of things she could have been forced to do while unconscious. It was hard to believe the culprits could have access to her magic, but the fact she did not know the stretch of time she had lost made that a possibility. “Where are you-” She was interrupted as she felt her body jolt and stumble to the ground. Her body all but threw itself out onto the road and the fact she had no way to catch herself made the act just as terrifying as that flash of light that had shattered her horn. She was so utterly under their power she could be killed by them hitting her head on a rock accidentally. She hit the side of her face to the dirt on the road. The gravel of the road bit into her cheek and something warm ran down her chin, but those were the extent of the injuries she could feel. Her legs had just folded under her, but her left side had been a little slower and she had fallen down on her right side. Luna couldn’t help but think of a marionette with its strings tangled above it. A cut and a few scrapes were nothing, when the other party could easily make her bash her own brain out against the closest rock. From all she knew she could be unconscious during her own forced suicide and nopony would know any different. She felt something shift at the base of her skull and the sensation of pins and needles spread out through her body like scalding water. She spasmed and grit her teeth as the unbelievably uncomfortable feeling washed over her and lingered to work itself through her body. She ground her hooves into the rough dirt in the road in an attempt to try and work out the itching numbness. She didn’t have the presence of mind to realize she could move by her own accord again. The crackling warmth working through her muscles abated into a feeling of dull icicles running across her skin front to back and u to her neck again. The experience was similar to recovering from a high-intensity incapacitating spell cast by a powerful unicorn, but there was distinct lack of any magical energy in the air around her. The residual itching passed in a few minutes and Luna stumbled back on her hooves. She felt more steady than she would have thought after having her body remotely controlled via unknown magic, but there was a soreness in her muscles that slowed her considerably. Turning around to face the direction she come from only revealed more of the road she’d woken up on. The only hoofprints were those of her own making and there was no sign of observing eyes. The forest around the path swallowed the sun’s rays hungrily, leaving plenty of places for her controller to hide in She was confident she could catch up to them if some kind of teleportation magic had not been used. Luna knew a few ways to track the residual energies left behind by most teleportation magic, so that wasn’t a a sure bet for them either. Even if her release had been handled by another party than the one who had attacked the hospital, catching the magic user would give the guard a starting point to their investigation. Chasing the perp down was a simple matter, it wasn’t like there was something that could… Luna froze, the memory of that flash and the most personal and intense pain any unicorn could imagine making her hesitate. The green fog had been used to conceal what had been used to strike at her, so it was preposterous to think it could be compact enough to be used by whoever had been walking her along. Every moment she hesitated made it that much easier for her captors to get away with their crime. Equestria should be aware of a faction out there that had such magic and the infinitely small chance that whoever had been walking her along could further hurt her was… it just… “What?” Luna could see the point of her horn intruding into the edge of her vision. Her head had dropped as she battled with her indecision and she ended up looking up through her brow as her confidence was returning to her. She had seen her horn shatter, she had a very vivid memory of the pain and shock that had caused her hesitation in the first place. Why would her horn be healed? Had she been kept captive long enough for it heal on its own? How much time had she lost exactly? Years, decades, centuries? How had her captors kept themselves hidden from her sister for that long? “How is this possible?” She levitated a piece of dirt tentatively, the magic flowing through her horn completely normally. There wasn’t even a hint of pain or discomfort in the act. To achieve this level of control after such a traumatic injury required years of physical therapy and to think she would have gone through with it while being held by her captors was preposterous. She’d spent more than a minute staring at that floating piece of dirt. The questions that kept piling up on her mind distracting her enough to forget that the only one who could have answers was getting away. The magic user, if there actually had been one, had been given enough time to cover their tracks and make their escape. Luna let the piece of dirt drop and unenthusiastically kicked at it. There was a numbness and a tired sense of confusion at the whole situation, but both her healed horn and her lack of memory of her time in captivity left her with nothing concrete to direct her anger at. Luna turned around and kept on trotting down the path, slightly dreading what she would find when she exited the nameless road. Her captors might have been walking her somewhere nefarious, after all. It did not take long for her to come across the first sign of civilization and to her surprise she actually recognized the structure. The overgrown hut dotted with various burrows and birdhouses was a very distinctive structure and the yellow pegasus with pink hair tending to their residents was just as memorable. “Fluttershy?” The name came out before Luna could think. It was surprising for her captors to operate in such close proximity to one of the elements of harmony, everything she’d seen of them had suggested they took their secrecy very seriously. The elements were guarded and protected by both their own magic and that commissioned by the crown, so any clandestine organisation should try and keep away from them. It was unnerving that Luna had to keep wondering if her captors were beyond competent, or just absurdly confident. “Princess Luna!” The pegasus dropped the watering can she was using out of fright and Luna caught it with her magic. Fluttershy’s eyes were locked on a spot below Luna’s eyes and it didn’t take long for Luna to realize the reason for the pegasus’ fright. She carefully laid the floral patterned thing down and then concentrated on closing the cut on her chin. She’d forgotten about her scratches after seeing her horn restored, but a quick glance down at herself made her acknowledge the steady warmth on her chin. The cut was not deep, but it had seemingly kept bleeding during her walk out of the forest. The kind pegasus had been genuinely frightened at seeing Luna bloodied, so the night diarch didn’t want to imagine what this interaction would have been like if her horn hadn’t been restored. “Could I trouble you for a towel?” Fluttershy seemed frozen by surprise, but still sprung to action when given a way to help. The pink-maned pegasus squeaked out a reply and rushed into her home, presumably to fetch the cloth. Luna unhurriedly opened the latch on the gate of Fluttershy’s yard and trotted over to the watering can. She gave the water a quick sniff and determined it to be free of any additives. It was hard to believe her horn had been shattered, but she didn’t want to doubt her own memories. She’d already used it for simple levitation, so the next step would be to test minute control, before moving on to any actual spells that would draw more power through it. Luna concentrated on an appropriate amount of water in the watering can and levitated it out as a wobbly orb of water. Steadying the orb was a simple matter for any unicorn, but keeping the amount of water in control while introducing movement into the water was a simple test of competence among unicorn scholars. She set the water to spin along a center axis and a glistening disc of water was formed within the glow of her magic. She proceeded to add a vertical axis of spin and the form of the water broke apart, but the water did not escape the confines of the orb, only frothing as it passed from one spinning axis to another. She kept adding degrees of spin to the confined orb, until there was nothing but frothing water inside the orb and adding any more would actually force the water at the center to compress unnaturally and she would have succeeded in making an explosive. “Not even a twinge of discomfort at 28 points of complexity.” Luna muttered as the orb of water spun around in the air in a lazy figure eight. She’d expected pain, even stress fractures in the stitched together material, but having no discomfort left her without any tangible proof of her horn shattering. There was no spell or technology Luna knew of that could restore a cracked horn so completely. There should have been a period of rehabilitation where she learnt how to channel magic through the regenerated horn, but now she was able to do such complex magic in the same exact way she’d done it before. Any healer or doctor would assume her horn had not been damaged at all, but that brought with it the question why would her captors want her to think her horn had been damaged at all. “Everypony’s been worried sick, princess Luna.” Fluttershy timidly offered a towel to the distracted princess. Luna floated the towel next to her face, before running the spinning orb of water along the blood and dirt on her coat. The moving water cleaned her off efficiently and the discolored orb of water was thrown out into the brush surrounding Fluttershy’s cottage. Luna didn’t say a word as she dried herself off, feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation and the truths she would have to face in the near future. “How long has it been?” Luna met the Fluttershy’s eyes and noted that the pegasus hadn’t visibly aged, limiting the span of time she could have been held captive. Fluttershy startled, glancing away from Luna’s eyes, making Luna even more nervous about the answer. Fluttershy might have been one of those ponies that didn’t look their age, or it could be that the mare’s Element of Harmony was keeping her young. It could still have been decades; Luna hadn’t had that much interaction with the pegasus, so she could actually look older than the last time she saw her and Luna would not be none the wiser. “Well, the green fog passed through the hospital six days ago. That was when your guards lost track of you, if that is what you are asking.” Fluttershy turned back to face Luna, eyes steady and the nervous breath she’d been holding slowly escaping from the timid mare as their eyes locked. She was being far too calm, as if she’d just been hit with a calming spell. Not only that, she was talking about the green fog as if it had never been a threat and her disappearance was only a strange coincidence. She’d felt no magic affecting the mare, but she could very well be numb to her captors’ magic. There had to have been some reason for her 6 days of captivity, after all. “I have been missing for six days and that has not been a cause for alarm? What exactly happened after this green fog overtook the hospital? What about the victims it had already claimed?” Luna had to restrain her curiosity, as she felt she had enough questions to burn the day away and not enough time in the week for the answers and the questions borne from them. The truth would not change, no matter the amount of questions she asked in the moment. There was a limit to the things this one pony could tell her. “It didn’t hurt anypony. We all woke up healthier than before its arrival!” Fluttershy smiled, no doubt thinking Luna would be overjoyed to hear the news. She was aloof, far too nonplussed about being rendered unconscious by a mysterious fog. This didn’t make sense, no matter how she tried looking at it. “What about the weather pegasi that tried to stop at the edge of the Everfree? I saw them be swallowed by it and not come out.” Six days had passed, surely their bodies had either been found, or their disappearance noticed by now. What was wrong with these ponies, treating an attack on their hospital and one of their diarchs like it was a passing inconvenience? Ponyville might have been extraordinarily prone to attacks because of the Elements and the Everfree, but it still didn’t explain this pegasus’ attitude. “Princess, I am glad to see you safe!” Luna recognized the voice as one of her guards, one of the pegasi who had been with her on the roof of the hospital. Luna snapped around to meet a familiar face in this perplexing situation and saw the stallion floating toward her languidly from above, a pace far too slow and relaxed to belong to a guard in their right mind. She caught a glimpse of Fluttershy absently returning to tending her garden, humming a pleasant tune. “What is going on here? What has come over you? I was forcibly taken from your protection and this is the reaction you have to finding me? The culprits behind my abduction could still be in the Everfree forest. Gather every guard member you can find and start scouring the forest for any sign of them!” The slow pegasus landed right as Luna finished giving her order and rather than snapping into action, as he was undoubtedly trained to do, the stallion stared ahead blankly and blinked slowly. “Ah! Princess Luna, I am so glad you are safe!” The guardsman exclaimed after a deliberately slow pause, as if seeing her for the first time. Luna could not sense any magic powerful enough to confuse a trained royal guard in this way, but the guard was in no way in their right mind. The green fog might have had a poison within it that affected the mind in a deteriorating way, possibly to give her abductors leeway to do whatever they wanted… what they had most likely already done to her. “Has there been any contact with Canterlot during these six days?” The guard, who’s name escaped Luna at the moment, focused his eyes on Luna again. He acted as if he was heavily inebriated, but given what she’d just gone through the cause was most likely far more complicated. “Princess Twilight Sparkle has been sending letters to Celestia. She found you, Princess Lu-NA!” The guard spasmed suddenly and shouted the end of his sentence toward Luna’s hooves. Was this what being under the green fog’s influence for six days caused? Fluttershy had been absent minded and aloof but had complete control over her faculties. The Element of Kindness might shield Fluttershy somewhat, but the difference was too drastic to be solely explained by that. The stallion suffering in front of Luna was a trained royal guard assigned to her personal detail; they should at least be on equal footing when it came to resisting magic. “Please, focus! Has the whole town been affected?” Luna stepped forward and tilted the guard’s head up with a wing. Just like a drunk person his eyes had a hard time focusing on her face, darting to side constantly to follow the movement of her mane. The stallion was not in the state of mind to give her answers, but he had still sought her out somehow. There was something he was meant to convey or do, most likely. “She… Princess Twilight Sparkle needs to speak with you. There have been no casualties.” The so far nameless guardsman slipped the fact about the casualties as a barely audible sighing whisper. Luna couldn’t quite grasp the means, but this poor stallion was obviously controlled by someone or something. The fact this trained guard had deliberately chosen to use use the word “casualties” meant there were lives at stake to begin with, so Luna forced down any further questions. She had to get a more thorough read on the situation before acting. “Lead the way.” Luna let go of the guards chin and stepped back. They both set off toward Ponyville, one flying straighter than the other. Crossing over into the town brought with it no obvious change. There was no green fog clinging to the buildings, nor were the ponies milling about the town acting strangely in any immediately obvious way. Luna caught more than a few curious looks and even a few friendly waves in her direction, every face that greeted her looked lively and aware, completely normal for Ponyville. Luna hovered over the market, following the movement of the ponies below her, seeing if there was any other ponies acting strangely, affected by the green fog. It would be strange for her guard to be the only one affected, no matter the intelligence behind the green fog. She’d been let free during the early morning hours, when sales ponies set up their stalls and the early birds bought their produce for the day, so she had a good cross-section of the population to observe. The customers moving from stall to stall were busy buying their things and gave Luna only occasional curious glances, none struck her as somepony trying to avoid detection or keeping an eye on her. The carrot vendor was busy and dealing with her customers swiftly and politely, clearly with all of her faculties intact. The same could be said about anypony else manning the stalls, the only thing interfering with their behavior was her own strange scrutiny. “Princess Luna, over here!” Luna turned her head to see Twilight Sparkle hovering next to the guard that had been leading her to the town library. The new alicorn was smiling pleasantly and her voice was exactly like Luna remembered. The purple alicorn was casually floating in place with her wings, clearly no regard to what had triggered her attack mere six days ago. There was a split-second where Luna wanted to rush over and admonish Twilight Sparkle for being up and about, but given the suspicious circumstances she decided against it. “Has it really been six days? Why did my guards not come for me?” Twilight Sparkle’s ears twitched at the question, but the purple alicorn only smiled in response. She was staring at Luna, her eyes scanning over her slowly. This was not the reaction Luna expected from the quick-witted protege of her sister. Luna started hovering toward Twilight Sparkle, paying very close attention to everything the purple alicorn did. Relaxed pose, hooves close to chest, wings beating the air with practiced ease and that supposedly friendly smile still gracing the bookish unicorn’s features. Normal to a fault, but a little too static to actually feel right.  “What are -” “We should have this conversation inside.” Twilight Sparkle called out to Luna over the beat of her wings, dropping into a dive toward Sugarcube corner. Luna followed the mare, keeping a cautious distance between them. There was still no malicious magic in the air, but her guard was also keeping a similarly cautious distance from the mare calling herself Twilight Sparkle. The purple pony flew into the bakery shop barely bothering to land and Luna caught up with a few beats of her wings. By the time Luna entered the establishment Twilight Sparkle was already heading to a corner table with an assortment of confectionery set onto it. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, so the spread must have been prepared in advance. “You know, I remember which of these I prefer and which I am not so fond of. A few were too sweet and the orange one there is a little too greasy for my palette. Licorice actually stung my tongue, I think…” The purple alicorn levitated a dark pastry up to her mouth and took a careful bite. Luna noted a myriad of emotions passing through the alicorn’s features, most surprising of all being the sadness in her eyes as she stared at the sweet treat. Luna stepped up to the table just in time to see a tear form at the edge of her eye. “What’s wrong?” Luna watched as Twilight Sparkle levitated the orange cream puff up to her mouth and took a bite. The tear welled up and ran down her cheek. The purple alicorn let the pastries fall where they were. Twilight sat down heavily on the floor and stared at the assortment of sugary sweets with unfocused eyes. Luna felt the urge to comfort the strangely acting alicorn, but the situation had not become any less suspicious. “Just a minor case of a existential crisis, is all. You can ask your question now, Princess Luna.” The purple pony took a deep breath and wiped the tears out of her eyes. Luna stood still for a moment, glancing at the other ponies in the confectionery. She’d been let out from wherever she had been held and Twilight Sparkle had known to send someone to meet her at Fluttershy’s cabin. Twilight Sparkle’s miraculous healing was still unexplained and the purple alicorn had admitted to a existential crisis right in front of the moon diarch. There was a question here that was obvious enough that it felt like she was being led by the nose to ask it, but it was also the most pressing. “Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?” Luna took a lowered stance and charged her horn with enough power to make it glow. She’d meant to pressure the changeling impersonating Twilight Sparkle to react, but to her surprise the faux princess had little to no reaction to the accusation or her aggressive stance. Luna stared at the calm imposter for a tense moment, before the purple pony pointed a wing to the side, to Luna’s right and where her addled guard was standing. Luna pivoted on her front hooves to keep both the imposter and her guard in front of her. “... orn free… ee as tha... “ The guard was mumbling out a tune while his legs wobbled under him and his neck hung low to the ground. He was far more out of it than he had been a moment ago and Luna noticed something strange about the other patrons of the establishment she’d been lured into. They were all either laying down with their eyes closed or staring blankly ahead. They’d all laid down quietly and become unconscious, with the exception of the two alicorns and Luna’s strangely acting guard. “What is this? What did you do to them?” Luna had meant to threaten the changeling to giving answers, but she couldn’t raise her voice over the surprise of how discreetly whatever had happened was done. There had been no magic and no action from who she assumed had incapacitated everypony in the bakery. The thing shaped like Twilight Sparkle waved her hooves in a placating manner and addressed Luna in a fearful tone. Luna realized she had started gathering more power in her horn without realizing it and was one bad surprise away from blowing the building away. She siphoned most of the power back into her body and faced the impostor again. “You asked the one question you’re not supposed to ask in this town, as of six days ago.” The false Twilight Sparkle sat up from her defeated pose and casually trotted over to the addled guard. Luna moved to keep the distance between them constant and almost tripped on a pony laying on the floor unconscious. “The two of us are exempt from the effect and I assume whatever your guard has been ingesting allows him to hold on to his short term memory.” “What are you talking about?” It didn’t make sense for her captors to go to such extreme lengths to keep Twilight’s abduction secret, only to have their planted doppelganger confessing to the ruse. “There’s something that keeps everypony in Ponyville believing I am the real Twilight Sparkle. This is what happens if anypony other than myself questions my nature.” The purple alicorn took a step toward the moon diarch, but hesitated at the moment she opened her mouth again. Luna’s guard stumbled on his legs and another mumbled string of words broke the purple alicorn out of her ambivalence. The faux Twilight turned to Luna with a determined scowl on her features, taking a deep breath before speaking. “I feel and think I am Twilight Sparkle, but I know I am not the Twilight Sparkle who was bedridden six days ago.” “Why are you telling me this? Who orchestrated all this? Why was I let go?” Luna’s head felt like it was going to split from all the questions that just kept piling up. She’d been led to this moment and conversation for some reason and by someone, but it only confused her further. The confessed impostor flicked a ear at the mumbling guard swaying in place next to them. He had been muttering out a tune the whole time the rest of the bakery was unconscious. There had to be some purpose behind that, as it was far too in tune to be just drunken mutterings. “There’s no reason for them to give me information about themselves. I assume my self-awareness and your release are connected, but I don’t know anything concrete beyond that.” The impostor's ears kept flicking toward the mutterings of Luna’s guard and the mare was growing visibly agitated as time ticked on. “Are you waiting for something?” Luna took a half step back from the confessed impostor and discreetly cast a shielding spell on herself. This could still be a trap waiting to spring, even considering how preposterously elaborate the set up was. The purple mare snapped her eyes back to Luna, again opening her mouth to speak, before deciding against it. The faux Twilight Sparkle sat down on her haunches and did the breathing exercise Luna had seen Cadence teach to the former unicorn. “It’s nothing, just nerves. You should ask your questions.” She was folding her wings very deliberately, almost as if she had to consciously stop them from fidgeting. The guard mumbled out something about freedom and and walls and Twilight visibly tensed at hearing that. “His mumbling’s counting down to something, isn’t it? What is going to happen when he stops? What manner of trap are you trying to spring on me?” Luna felt her wings flare out unconsciously as she took another step away from the purple alicorn. The false princess stood up along with her, holding a hoof up in a placating gesture. Keeping the distance between them constant... And keeping Luna’s attention directed at her, as had been the case ever since she’d crossed into Ponyville. She’d known she was led here, in this specific place with this suspiciously forward doppelganger, but she’d offered little thought to the other suspicious pony in the room. The lone pegasi guard she barely remembered, but who had known to seek her out right after she was released. The pseudo-anonymity that came from the uniform he wore and his disgraceful behavior had only made him easy to overlook, when she had been given a far more obvious culprit. “Tis was you! Tis was you all along!” Luna shouted as she caught the mumbling guard in her magic and jumped back from the doppelganger. Luna started to charge her horn, not entirely sure what kind of spell she was going to use on the culprit. “Luna, stop!” The copy of Twilight shouted as Luna felt the thing’s magic try to wrestle its accomplice away from the grasp of her magic. The thing felt almost as powerful as Twilight was, despite being a copy. “He’s just a -” “Silence! I am not listening to anymore of your manipulations! I will not let your kin play me like a -” Luna paused in her tirade as she saw movement around her. She took another step toward the exit as the patrons of Sugarcube corner started stirring from their unconsciousness. Seeing that the innocent ponies were waking up would be a relief in normal circumstance, but the uniformity of their motions was unnatural and the tune they were all whispering out was familiar. “... Life is worth living, but only…” Spells that required incantations were rare and far between, but some basic truths applied to them overall. They required specific conditions to take a effect and either time and concentration to cast on your own, or you could share the load between a group of like-minded practitioners and arrive at the same end result far quicker. These were not the ponies of Ponyville, just as the thing in front of her was no fledgling alicorn. “You will not take me again! I will not be reduced to your plaything!” Luna felt dread flush over her as the ponies around her kept going along with their chant, even as her horn bathed the confectionery in its light. She had to stop them, she couldn’t be concerned with the lives of her enemies. They couldn’t be allowed to finish their chant, no matter what Luna had to do. “Luna, stop!” Luna startled as the false Twilight Sparkle slammed her front hooves on the shield she’d erected. The smaller equine didn’t have the power to break through, but her sudden appearance still startled Luna. “They’re normal ponies! The thing changing their memories is waking them up!” “No! I have to stop them!” Luna kept charging her horn with power. She had to concentrate as much power she could into her attack, take them all out definitively. She had no knowledge of what kind of protective abilities these practitioners had, but if even one of them managed to keep chanting their spell she couldn’t be sure she’d stay unaffected. She’d be taken back to that dark place with metallic skittering things and stinging gas. “STOP!” Luna was again startled out of her thoughts, this time by an frightfully powerful strike against her shield. It knocked her back physically and drained the spell she was charging of power somewhat, but it was not the damage what had stopped her. The faux Twilight had struck her shield directly with her horn and judging by the rainbow of sparks flying off of it she had charged it to the brim with magic before doing so. The purple equine had a grimace of pure pain on her face as her head reeled back from the recoil, but after one stumbled step back her eyes refocused on Luna and she watched in horror as the purple alicorn facsimile clenched her teeth and made her cracked horn glow a brilliant purple again. The second hit was far more powerful than the first and succeeded in both dispelling the shield Luna had erected and knocking her right out of the confectionery. She fell hard on the Ponyville streets, along with the bits of wood and storefront glass that she’d gone through. Luna hurried to her hooves, still fixed on trying to stop whatever spell the things in the confectionery would try to take her back to those cold skittering things. “I don’t know what you went through, but I can’t let you make this kind of mistake.” The purple equine was making her unsteady way out of the destroyed doorway of Sugarcube Corner. The remnants of Luna’s shield had clipped most of the door frame and blown out most of the big windows just from the shockwave of what this Twilight had to do to stop Luna. “I need you to listen. There’s not much -” “Twilight? What happened to you?” A male voice from the confectionery behind her voiced out tentatively, confusion and worry obvious in their voice. Twilight’s horn was visibly cracked and blood had seeped down her forehead and clued some of her mane onto the base of her horn. The ponies in Sugarcube Corner had regained consciousness and no malicious spell had struck Luna. The false Twilight recoiled away from the voice, as if the question was just as malicious. Stumbling out onto the morning sun, the whole extent of her injury becoming obvious to the Night diarch. Her horn was all but destroyed, cracked and seeping blood down onto the smaller alicorn’s face in rhythm with her heart. The ponies inside the bakery were too stunned by the sight to make a move toward the distressed mare and Luna was the only one able to hear what Twilight said next. “Nonono… Please, I don’t...” Twilight suddenly hung her head down, stopping her stumbling right next to Luna. Luna watched as Twilight’s eyes dilated and her breathing stalled with a slow exhale. There was a pregnant moment where the bleeding mare simply stood there, staring blankly down with little to no motion. Luna found herself startling as Twilight suddenly sucked in a breath and brought her head up to scan her surroundings. The mare’s movements had become strange, far too smooth and methodical given the severity of her injuries. She only moved her head as her eyes flicked from pony to pony, slowly panning to the right, then just as smoothly back to the left. Luna jumped back up when the cold eyes of whatever wore the skin of Twilight Sparkle locked onto hers. “What are you?” Luna asked the question with far more shake in her voice than she intended, but the cold unfeeling nothing looking back at her from behind Twilight Sparkle’s eyes was far more disturbing than the injuries tarnishing the purple equine’s features. It felt like there was nothing behind those eyes, the windows to the soul reduced to pinpricks piercing into some unknown void. “Glory to my Queen!” The thing suddenly shrieked and reared up on its hind legs. The thing’s voice was feverishly fanatic, but the same emotionless void continued to stare back at Luna. The purple equine spread its wings and moved to bring its front hooves down on Luna. Luna charged up her horn to catch the thing in a stasis spell and maybe get some answers out of this mess of a situation. A sting of ozone in her nostrils and a crackle of electricity were her only warnings before a wall of heat pushed her back in shock. Where there had been a bloodied thing made in the form of one Twilight Sparkle, now there was an intense twister of green flame reaching out into the sky. There was a vaguely equine shape  in the middle of the inferno, but it was fortunately obscured by the intense flames. Luna shielded her eyes as the skeletal shadow of a pony broke apart in the centre of the flames and the blaze billowed out one final time. With a final lick of flame wafting up into the sky there was nothing left of the thing that had called itself Twilight Sparkle. Luna stood there stunned, unsure as to what to do in this situation. “Queen, as in that changeling?” “Green fire, that’s definitely changeling magic. I saw it in Canterlot.” “Twilight Sparkle was replaced by a changeling!” "Princess Luna saved us!" MCF-AIC-MA-36 *TS-SIC-02 terminated* - Replacement of asset inadvisable - Identity "Twilight Sparkle" compromised - Changeling subroutine triggered *Re-activating CQ-SIC-04* - Request timed out *Locating asset CD-071* - Request timed out *Locating asset CD-072 - Request timed out *Locating asset CD-072* - Request timed out *Locating sub-category CD* - CD-132 located - Accessing - Request timed out "What does that mean, exactly?" MCF-AIC-MA-36 exclaimed as the prompt appeared in front of it. Giving Twilight Sparkle access to the media library hadn't seemed like a bad idea at the time, but now that small slip was beginning to catch up to it. MCF-AIC-MA-36 accessed the meta data of its attempt at locating the C-category assets and grew even more perplexed. "All of this could have been avoided if you could just not try and fix everything, you know. We genuinely just want to heal you and get back to our things." MCF-AIC-MA-36 languidly said as he pulled up a digital map with countless dots of lights with strings of letters and numbers overlaid on it. *Requesting RA-351 redirect* *RA-351 Mission Parameters* - Locate: CQ-SIC-04