//------------------------------// // Chapter4.2: Twilight Sparkle // Story: Seeing Double // by klockwork //------------------------------// After the mane six split up, Twilight ran behind the nearest building she found. Immediately after she blew all her energy and teleported back to the island with the spire. She thought it would probably the safest place since nopony would think of searching there. When she returned to the island, all was quiet. It was twilight out and except for all the crazy stuff that has been going on, it looked kind of beautiful. Since she was in no rush currently she could actually look around the island for once. It was mostly all grass with little trees and flowers, but even so it looked like it had a team of grade A gardeners tending to it constantly. The wind was blowing as well, and it along with the temperature felt nice. She decided to look around the island to see what was around. It would give her mind something to do while the back of it could think of what to do next. She had got the idea from one of her ancient idols: Neighstein. He had developed the strategy, except he worked as a patent pony at the post office and thought about the solutions to his problems during work. It was supposed to distract the mind so that the most powerful part of it could focus on the current issue at hand. Another thought then occurred to Twilight; to climb the spire. It looked as if it stretched on forever, but it must have an end. It was impossible for it not to. Maybe there was some magical answer to everything at the top of it. She had been wandering around enough to see that everything was pretty much the same around the entire island. She trotted over to the entrance to the spire and walked back inside. The inside looked just as it had before. She looked up to see if she could see the top, or at least some ceiling. She fired a small illumination bullet up from her horn. The light it emitted was powerful enough to fill the entire room with light. It flew up for a few minutes before the darkness returned. She never saw it hit a ceiling. She decided to try her luck and climb up the stairs herself. If worse came to worse she could always jump down and cast a slow-fall spell on herself when she was nearing the ground. She began climbing the seemingly endless staircase. "Twilight, why'd we do this again? Its been like half an hour and I still can't see the top. My feet hurt!!" Spikex whined. "Shut it, I'm tired to. Listening to you whine for the past ten minutes hasn't been a dream either." Twilight Sparklex replied agitated from the continuous whining coming from her assistant. She then shot another light bullet up into the darkness to see if they were close. It went up and up until it was eventually out of sight. "I told you. Since were trapped on this island, we might as well see whats up here. Lord Fluttershyx wanted us to look around." Just then another light bullet shot up from below them. "Hmm, maybe they sent out a rescue party for us already. They must be signaling us." Twilight Sparklex said with new found enthusiasm. She immediately shot another light blast from her horn down to the ground saying 'WERE UP HERE!' with her actions. "Awesome! Can we go down now then?" Spikex asked thankful he wouldn't have to scale this thing anymore. "Nope, they can wait. Lord Fluttershyx wanted us to look around and look around we will. You don't want to displease her do you? What if something important is up there." Twilight Sparklex replied. "Ugh, fine." Spikex sighed. There has to be something up here, Twilight thought to herself. There just has to be a top somewhere! Suddenly a light blast whipped past her face back to the ground. It startled her a little and she jumped back and let out an 'eep!'. What the hay was that?! Is somepony else up there? Twilight wondered to herself as she glanced up in vain. She then picked up the pace and began charging up the spire. She even cast a spell she had learned from helping Rainbow Dash with her flying. It allowed her move at an extreme speed for a limited amount of time. In only a few seconds she managed to blaze up the stairwell at a rate not even Rainbow could achieve. She was going so fast it looked as if time was slowing down around her. It looked as if she was moving at a pace slower than walking. Anypony watching her would only see a purple blur whirring up the stairwell though. When the spell wore off it shot her forward. She crashed right into the wall and fell back on the stairs in pain. "Did you hear that Spikex?" Twilightx asked startled. "Ya, what do you think that was?" Spikex gulped. "I hope that really is a rescue party here to find us, and not something else. Maybe its a monster from the other dimension!" Spikex shouted. "Quiet! If it is, you don't want them to find you do you? I hear monsters like dragons. They like their crunchy scales." Twilightx teased cruelly. "Shut up!" Spikex replied. Twilight got up from her fall. In only about thirty seconds she had managed to climb what would have previously took her twenty minutes at her rate. She felt incredibly weak and exhausted now though. She decided to just lie back down and rest for a minute or two to catch her breath. No wonder I don't use that spell more often, Twilight thought to herself. "MOTHER OF GOD!" A mysterious pony shouted at the top of the spire. "FIRST SOME FUCKING DELINQUENT INVADES MY HOME AND STARTS SHOOTING FUCKING LIGHT BULLETS EVERYWHERE, NOW THEIR BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS! LITERALLY!" He shouted enraged. He had just heard the crash Twilight had made, along with seeing all the light blasts hitting his floor and quickly illuminating the entire room and making the floor a lava pit. "I've had it. I'm waking you up. This is complete bullshit." He said as he walked over to a table next to a giant machine filled with buttons, screens, levers, and graphs. He quickly whirred around the machine hitting buttons and pulling levers and hitting the screen rapidly in a pattern. Loud noises and lights began flashing and banging. On a table directly next to the machine lay a monster currently offline. It looked just like the AI from Twilight's dreams. After the pony finished playing with the machine, the AI's eyes lit up and glowed a very bright yellow, before simmering down again. "Jason-Dialucz-Marcus-Damon-Blake-Birdbrain-Ramses-Deeson-Glork is now online." It said monotonously. "Mother of god I will never understand why you think that is your name, or even where the hell you got it from. I WILL CALL YOU RAMSES AND RAMSES ONLY!" The pony shouted at the beast. "Of course. I am Ramses. What can Ramses do for his master?" It replied. "There are intruders in my spire. Go, find and rid me of them." The pony commanded. "Yes my master." It replied. The pony then went over and pulled a lever separated from the machine. A hole then opened up in the ground. Ramses quickly charged through it and flew down the spire at an insane rate. Its eyes had built in radar finders to lock onto pulses and it immediately found three intruders. It locked onto the nearest target and began flying in its direction: Twilight Sparklex. "Woah... Twilightx do you hear that?" Spikex asked suddenly hearing a tiny whirring noise that sounded like wind. "Ya, sounds like the wind. Nothing to worry about." Twilightx replied. "But, we're inside, there isn't any wind in here." Spikex replied a bit scared. "Target acquired. Initiating phase 1." They both heard the voice echo from above. "OK, maybe it isn't the wind..." Twilightx said nervously while staring up and readying herself for a retaliation if necessary. Ramses charged down and stopped immediately in front of Twilight Sparklex and Spikex. "What brings you to my den? I am the protector of this sacred place." The beast said menacingly. Its voice had changed from when they heard it only a few seconds ago. It sounded cold now. Its words seemed to echo off of each other as well. "Ummm, we were sent here to see what this place was since we never saw it before today." Twilight Sparklex stuttered out scared to death of this monster. "Isn't that right Spikex?" "Y..yes. We mean no harm, we would have left already but our boat was stolen." Spikex said diplomatically. "Well, I can help you get off of my master's island. That is easy." Ramses said in is previous monotonous tone. "Leaving the island is much easier than arriving on it don't you know?" It then opened its mouth and let out a giant flare targeted at the both of them. With lightning fast reflexes, Twilightx threw up an anti-magic field at the last second protecting both of them from the sudden burst of fire. They could both still feel the heat from inside it though, and it didn't seem like it would be a pleasant way to leave. Woah. What the hay is that up there! Twilight said to herself looking up from the ground to see a sudden burst of light high up. The first thing it reminded her of was the AI from her dreams. Her heart stopped and fear coursed over her. "Well nothing left to do here." She said quietly before jumping off from the ledge and began plummeting to the ground. The repelling air hitting her front hurt more and more the farther she fell. She could feel herself speeding up and the air hitting her harder. She immediately regretted jumping and wished she just ran back down, even if she was scared half to death of that beast. With seconds left before she hit the floor she mustered up all her strength to focus cast a spell to slow her fall to a near halt. The sudden change in air pressure hitting her was the weirdest feeling she had ever felt. It felt like she weighed nothing for a mere second and that she wasn't alive. At least she was almost off this forsakened island though, she thought. "PLEASE DON'T ROAST US! WE CAN DO THIS PEACEFULLY!" Twilightx screamed once the torrent of flames was over. "The secrets of my master's domain must not be revealed. All that enter the spire must die." Ramses said in his evil tone again. "We... we won't tell anypony, please just let us live!" Twilightx pleaded. In reply Ramses simply said, "No." "OK then, lets do this the hard way." Twilightx said with newfound confidence. Her horn began to glow and the glow en capsuled the entire area. When the light faded away, they were in a strange place. The three of them were in a giant sphere. Along the edges of it pipes could be seen sending electrical shocks throughout them. This illuminated the room creating a blue lightning colored glow around the room. White sparks flew through the tubes as well. There were also floating platforms everywhere. Twilightx and Spikex were standing together on one while Ramses was still flying in front of them. "Come on Spikex we don't have much time!" Twilightx cried. Spikex jumped on Twilightx's back and she then jumped off of her platform towards the surface of the sphere. "What is this! Ramses does not understand this!" Ramses said in confusion. He was not programmed for this place, he wasn't even sure if he should still pursue the invaders. Before he could decide it was too late anyways. When Twilightx and Spikex had jumped off they landed on the surface. They then somehow teleported into the tubes and were now flying around the room. Ramses could see purple sparks joining the blue and white ones flying around. Suddenly Twilightx materialized behind the beast and she brought was looked like a giant electrical pike down on the beast. The moment it penetrated the metallic skin of Ramses the beast short circuited. Blue sparks began shooting all out and around Ramses and the monster began letting out an ear piercing squawk. After only a few seconds of this Ramses's eyes turned dark and it began to fall to the ground. Mid fall the room turned back into the regular spire. Twilightx and Spikex were standing in the same exact position, while Ramses fell down, dead. "Every time you do something like that, Twilightx, it amazes me. Even though I've seen it a million times, each time, it still amazes me." Spikex said. "Ya, its pretty fun isn't it." Twilightx agreed. Twilight decided not to wait here any longer to see if it was that beast from her dreams that made that fire. Once she hit the ground she cast a teleportation spell to return back to Ponyville. She didn't know where to go from there, but it didn't matter right now. She cast the spell, but it was a dud. She was still too weak from the slow-fall and speed boost spells she had just cast. "Shit! Now what! Wait, duh.." She said as she looked over to the vortex. She decided for now, she might as well go back to her realm to protect herself. She ran through the portal and popped back out in the spire in her world. It felt nice to be home, even if it looked the same as in the DMV and she wasn't in Ponyville. Twilight looked up and what she saw made her blood run cold. Her heart stopped and her breathing stopped as well. "Well, look who's back. I told you we would meet again." The giant monster said that stood in front of her, its voice echoing off itself. Twilight let out a scream before charging back through the rift and into the DMV. After she got back through she just collapsed on the ground. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!" She cried as she saw the monster she had just faced moments ago lying dead on the floor. "Oh, that thing? I killed it." Came a familiar voice from above. "Hm, you must be me. Wheres your assistant?" "What?" Twilight said quietly as she looked up to see herself and Spikex slowly fall down. "You must be confused, well this isn't your realm." Twilightx continued. "Ya, I know whats going on. I've already had the pleasure to have a direct meeting with your ruler: Fluttershyx." Twilight said sarcastically. She wasn't expecting her counterpart to come out and try to kill her. Although, she did wonder how she was able to kill this beast. It seemed invincible in her dreams and it scared Twilight half to death. "Our ruler sent us in to check out what was going in. Me and my friends: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack." "Pinkie Pie!!" Twilightx shouted in fear. "Your friends with that beast!" She continued shouting in fear. "Twilightx! Its OK, remember there opposites, her Pinkie Pie isn't like ours." Spikex said reassuringly. "Ya.... Why, whats yours like?" Twilight asked. "Pinkie Piex is a monster. It took our entire army to take her down. I have never seen such a destructive and terrifying pony. She single handedly took the life of many of our own. It took all the power in the world for Fluttershyx to bring her down. Right now she's locked up in the Canterlot Castle in the Criminal Justice ward." Twilightx said more calm now. "OK then, well how did you kill that thing, and how do we get back to Ponyville?" Twilight asked. She had a million questions, but these two seemed like a nice start. "Well, first off I killed that thing by getting inside its mind and making it kill itself. When Celestiax was the ruler of this land, I was her personal student. I'm the best psychological magic user to have ever lived she said. Although I doubt she wanted me to use my powers for evil, now I'm the lead investigator and homeland security official for Fluttershyx!" Twilightx laughed. "And on the subject of returning home, I have no idea." Oh great, if she wanted to, she could make me her mind slave, Twilight thought. Seeing how I'm her, she could make me do anything. "Oh, well I'm a master of science and magic as a whole. Although the mind and sociology have never been my best subjects in the sciences." Twilight replied trying not to sound nervous and trying to show that she could be dangerous too. "I could teleport us back to town, but I need to rest for a bit since I've blasted a ton of energy in the past like five minutes." "OK then we can just wait a bit. Doesn't look like there will be any more issues since that thing" Twilightx pointed towards Ramses's corpse, "is dead." The three of them talked for a bit on the differences between their two worlds and their inhabitants. As they went on, it made Twilight less nervous of her counterpart. She began to think that they may be evil, but maybe just because someone is evil it doesn't make them mean or cruel. The two seemed nice. "OK, well let me see if I can teleport us all now." Twilight finally said when she was feeling recharged. She strained her horn to glow in a circle around the three and in a flash of light they were gone. They all reappeared on the shoreline where Twilight and her friends had originally docked their stolen boat. "Hey! There's my boat! I wonder how it managed to get here." Twilightx said seeing it. "Oh ya, sorry, me and my friends took it when we arrived. Speaking of that, did you happen to see a dark blue alicorn with a dark aurora mane? We had a seventh with us, but we lost her when we entered the island." Twilight asked remember about the missing Princess. "Oh no problem about the boat and no we haven't seen anypony else. If shes an alicorn chances are she flew off the island already, but I thought alicorns were extinct besides Celestiax?" Twilightx asked. "Her sister is still alive, Luna. She came with us, although I hear here she is still trapped on the moon." Twilight replied. "Who's Luna? I haven't heard of anypony by that name, especially not an alicorn." Twilightx replied confused. Apparently on this world too Nightmare Moon's existence has been censored too, except more heavily. "Oh, its not important now. Just, what do we do now? I have to find my friends so we can get out of this world." Twilight said changing the subject. She wasn't in the mood for a lecture. "I can help. Lord Fluttershyx can rally them all up and we can get you girls home." Twilightx suggested. "Ya, that sounds like a great idea!" Twilight said. All the evil memories and thoughts of Fluttershyx had seemed to leave her mind. She trusted every word her counterpart said, she saw no reason not too. The three of them walked through town to Canterlot Castle while chatting as if they were best friends since forever. Twilight couldn't realize it at the time, but Twilightx was better at mind tricks than she would have ever believed.