//------------------------------// // Opportunist // Story: In Reflection, The Same // by Faedelaide //------------------------------// Twilight would have laughed, were the situation not so unbelievably absurd as it was. Twilight Sparkle, herself, was speaking to her right now. What did it mean? Why her specifically? It wasn't scientifically possible, that was for sure. Maybe she was hallucinating? Maybe what happened to Pinkie Pie was happening to her. Maybe- "Please, slow down. Your train of thought is agonizing to listen to," Twilight's own voice groaned from somewhere Twilight couldn't quite pinpoint. "Where are you? W-what are you? Are you really me? If so-" "Alright, enough with the hyperspeed thoughts for the love of Boiuna!" the voice shouted. At least it sounded like a shout, but it wasn't any louder than Twilight's... the voice's normal way of speaking. It was almost like... "Wait... are you... in my head?" Twilight asked out loud. "Ah, now you're thinking at a speed I can handle. See how much easier it is to piece things together when you slow down?" Twilight tried to wrap her head around this whole situation, but it still refused to make any sense to her, no matter how hard she thought about it. What made it worse was the fact the she was now unable, or unallowed, to think anything over too hard, lest her own voice yell at her. Was this what it was like to go insane? "No, uhm... Twilight. You're not going insane, I can assure you," the voice assured. "Well then why don't you explain to me what's going on then, weird floating voice in my head!" Twilight yelled out into the empty forest. She could faintly hear the sound of rushing liquid, but couldn't tell if it was the stream or the blood rushing to her head. "Gladly," The voice gurgled, "I am Twilight Sparkle, the princess of the kingdom of Equestria. Using the power of my... uh... ah, friendship, I created a beautiful and expansive kingdom that was dwarfed only the kingdom of the great and mighty Boiuna and her two children, Angont and Pairio," The voice spoke solemnly. "Oh, is this Boiuna like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?" Twilight asked. "Celestia... ah! Yes, though to accurately describe Boiuna, she was more of a queen of queens rather than some self aggrandizing goddess. I find it odd that your timeline holds a strong aversion to queenship, despite your monarchal governing..." "Timeline? What do you mean?" Twilight questioned. "From what I can read of your mind, this Equestria is nothing like the home I know. Here, people, leaders, entire kingdoms are gone, replaced with disturbingly vain, friendship obsessed facsimiles. The only explanation could be that Ma Vie sent me to another timeline to prevent me from ever returning to my kingdom..." Twilight could hear the voice's deep, raspy breaths as its agitation grew. Meanwhile, question began to surge through Twilight's head yet again. "Wait, how much of my mind can you read? Who is Ma Vie? Why does that name sound familiar? How long-" "Twilight," The voice warned sternly. "Right, sorry." Twilight could hear the voice sigh a low, gargled sigh. "Why don't I answer all of your annoyingly rapid fire questions while you get going back to the cabin. You've been shivering like that for a little while now."' Twilight looked down, she was indeed shaking quite aggressively. It seemed the prospect of meeting an individual like... herself overpowered the coldness that had been slowly creeping up on her. "Ok," she agreed reluctantly, "But I need another name for you. I can't just talk to myself, that'd make me look crazy." "You already look plenty certifiable, but If it helps slow down the cascade of questions you've been throwing at me, so be it," The voice concurred. "Maybe I'll just call you Twilice," Twilight chuckled at her own joke. "That is just about the worst name I've ever heard," Twilice growled. Twilight giggled again as she walked back towards the stream that had led away from the estuary. "So how did you end up in another timeline stuck in a block of ice anyway?" She asked. "The questions truly never end with you, huh? I guess since I haven't got anywhere to be..." Twilice cleared her throat, making a low bubbling sound as she did so. "In my world, Equestria is but a small piece of what we... equestrians called Leudnan Righrean. It was the result of the peaceful coexistence of twelve separate kingdoms, that is until princess Ma Vie decided that Leudnan would be better off with just one kingdom, the Crystal Kingdom... Twilight could hear Twilice's raspy breathing slowly become more audible as the voice tried her best to stay calm. "We tried to reason with her, to convince her to end the war against the peaceful denizens of Leudnan, but finally, me and my people decided that we wouldn't submit to her without a fight. Try as we might though, she destroyed my home, exterminated my people, then with one last spell, froze me in ice and hid me away so that I would never be able to return to the home I knew..." "Wow. That sounds awful, Twilice, I'm so sorry," Twilight said in an attempt to comfort her new friend. "Oh it's... well it's not alright, but my situation has every opportunity to improve. Now that I have a friend like you, I can finally escape this frozen prison and go back home." "Well.. I can try my best to help, but I've never heard of such a powerful spell before. I only know one object that holds that kind of magic. and it's-" Twilight was interrupted by a loud gurgling that made her head shake. "Ah... I see you have your own... Crystal Empire. How... interesting." "Don't worry," Twilight assured, concerned at the sudden tension in the air. "Princess Cadance is kind and gentle and way better than this Princess Ma Vie. Maybe I should send a letter-" "Twilight, there you are!" Applejack shouted to Twilight from out of one of the cabin's windows. The earth pony slammed the window closed, then a moment later ran up to her friend. "Shucks, I was starting to get worried you wouldn't come back before sunset." Twilight was confused by this. The grey sky above wouldn't give any signs, but she was sure it was still morning. "What do you mean Applejack, we only got here a little while ago." Her friend looked back at her with an expression of equal confusion. "Uh, Twilight... you've been gone all day!"