Twilight was waiting in her castle for a certain pony to enter. That night had been eventful and she had some questions. She only trusted one pony to give her the answers she needed. As she was pacing in the throne room, there was a knock on the entrance doors which made her pause and sit in her throne.
“Enter!” She called out before the doors started to swing open. A grey stallion with a white mane and tail stepped in.
“Ah professor! I’m glad to see you could make it. There’s been something on my mind as of late that I want to speak to you about.”
“And what would that be?” He asked, before quickly adding. “Your highness.”
“No need to be formal. We are here alone. I need a few question answered and it will go quicker without any formalities. Is that clear Neigh?”
“Y-yes!”
“Good. Now, I was wondering if you might know what might happen if a dark magic spell were to hit a portal before a pony would be able to go through it.”
“It would depend on what kind of spell. While normal magic would pass through a portal normally, dark magic mixes with the portal. It would be like how certain powders added to water will help create various drinks.”
“And what if it were a spell like this?” Twilight showed Professor Neigh a book.
“A spell like that would most likely rupture the portal so it would send a pony going through it to another planet, or even another dimension.”
“And what are the chances of being able of opening the same connection on each end.”
“Well, if you were trying to remake the portal to return from where you came, you would just have to make a portal and use the same spell.”
“It’s that easy?” Twilight questioned.
“In theory, yes. But I have never personally tested either way.”
“And what about trying to follow somepony to wherever they ended up after the portal had already closed?”
“That method would be much harder. You would have to have some connection to where you wish to end up. That would involve an object from the place of question or some sort of communication device with the pony you wish to follow.”
“Is that all?” Twilight prodded.
“All that I can think of now. If you want, I can do research?”
“That would be perfect, thank you.”
The professor was about to leave when he stopped to ask one last question. “Why do you need to know about this Twilight?”
“I have somepony that needs to get home, and I’m hoping that can happen sooner rather than later.”
Cicada couldn’t get to sleep. She kept tossing and turning in the bed. The room was too empty and she didn’t feel comfortable. And it wasn’t the lack of objects in the room. It was the lack of occupants.
There hadn’t been a day Cicada could remember sleeping in a room without someone else with her. At first it had been her mom. Then it was her sister. If she couldn’t sleep with her sister, she had sometimes slept in a room with Selena.
Twilight… she didn’t want to share a room with Twilight for the night. She was so nice compared to the one that she had left, which made it even more unnerving for the changeling. There was only one other choice.
Cicada made her way out of the bedroom after leaving a note for Lila. She walked through the castle, hoping she might find what she was looking for.
‘I would expect all the bedrooms would be near each other.’ Cicada thought. ‘I hope I can figure out which room is his.’
As Cicada made her way down the hall, she thought she heard Twilight somewhere else in the castle talking to someone else. She couldn’t tell if it was a mare or stallion, all she knew was she didn’t recognize the voice.
Finally, Cicada saw a faint light coming from under one of the doors. She peeked in the crack between the door and the wall. It was blurry, but she could see a purple shape with bits of green moving around inside.
The changeling knocked on the door. Inside, she could hear Spike stop moving.
“What do you need Twilight?”
“Actually… it’s Cicada.”
The door opened and a somewhat tired looking Spike looked at her. “What do you want?”
“I was kinda wondering if maybe you might let me… I don’t know… sleep in here with you for the night?”
Spike looked at her, scanning her up and down. “Uh, no offense, but why? Are you afraid of the dark or something?”
“Not the dark, no. More it’s that I’ve never really had to sleep in a room by myself, and just Lila wasn’t working. My sister and I would always sleep together so that if anything happened, we could keep each other safe.”
“Okay… well, why not Twilight?”
“She reminds me too much of my Twilight. And not just because of how she looks.”
Spiked looked at her skeptically as he let her walk in. “What do you mean? I thought the Twilight from your world was an evil empress or something like that.”
“She is, but she wasn’t always. Back when we were younger, Celestia would sometimes visit for meetings with my mother. We ended up spending time together while they were talking.”
“Why was Twilight with Celestia? Why not back home with her own family?”
“As Celestia’s student, Twilight came with her on certain meetings and made sure she came to the ones that involved relationships between changelings and ponies.”
“Why the hay did she turn evil then?”
“Might have something to do with a disagreement my mother had with Celestia. I never found out what it was, but afterwards, they never came again and it started to get harder and harder for changelings and ponies to live together before it was almost unheard of other than Selena.”
“Selena?”
“She kind of became my mentor and even helped a bit after my mother died and I had to rule the changelings. Later on she and Celestia had a battle. Selena lost and the last thing she did was give her magic to me. I kept it somewhere else since I didn’t think I should use it. Twilight, on the other hoof, stole Celestia’s magic after the battle so she could be more powerful.”
“What do you think caused your Twilight to turn evil?”
“No idea.” Cicada answered as she shook her head. “Maybe if I knew, I’d be able to make her nice again.”
Spike yawned. “Well, I guess you can find out tomorrow. If you need one, there’s a few extra blankets in the corner over there.” he pointed to the corner, giving another yawn.
“Thank you.” the queen said as she covered herself with one of them. “You’re the nicest *yawn* ‘ling I’ve met so far.”
Spike gave a small laugh. “I’m not a changeling.” He retorted, even though he knew what she meant. Cicada, however, didn’t notice as she was already asleep.
Twilight made her way toward the dungeons. She would normally be asleep, but she had one last thing on her list of what to do today.
“Open the door Sentry!” She ordered the guard.
“Yes Empress Twilight!” He responded before following the order.
The second the door was opened, the empress flew through it and down the long staircase. She landed at the bottom in a hall with many doors. After walking about halfway down, she entered a door to her left. Inside was Cicada’s sister, Nymph.
The changeling looked very different from her sister, but there was enough in common with them that one could see they were related when they were near each other.
“How are you tonight?” Twilight asked as she kicked the changeling to wake her up.
Nymph jumped up, her wings letting her hover for a second before a ring on her horn started to glow and she clutched her head in her hooves.
“Now now, you know trying to use magic with just end up with a headache. Why don’t you try talking again today.”
Nymph didn’t reply, she just gave an angry look toward Twilight.
“The longer you stay quiet, the longer it will be until you learn what I know about your sister.”
Nymph just rolled her eyes.
“Fine be that way. I just thought you might like to know she had dinner with me this evening.”
“WHAT?!” Nymph yelled, before clamping her hooves over her mouth.
“There we go! And yes, she had dinner with me. I believe it was pizza. I didn’t get enough time to check much else.”
Nymph looked strangely at the alicorn. “What do you mean.”
“What I’m saying is, Your sister is no longer on Equus. And from what I can guess, she’s somewhere with another Twilight who looks exactly like me.”
The changeling raised an eyebrow. “You expect me to believe that?”
“It is the truth. You see… just before your sister went through her portal, I blasted her with a spell that lets me switch bodies with who I hit when I choose to. An hour is the longest time though. Here’s the funny part. Right now, I can only switch between ourselves for a few seconds at a time and it’s completely random. I think I can get to her to bring her back, but I need your help.”
“Why would you want my help? As long as she’s there, she can’t do anything to you. Besides, why would I want to bring my sister to you?”
Twilight smirked. “Ah yes… why would you? You see, I need your sister for reasons of my own. And as for why you should help, the reasons are simple. I’m the only one who can get her back. She won’t be able to herself and even if I’m defeated by your pitiful changeling army, she can’t ever return. I’ll also add in the fact that I believe my little switches with your sister may get longer as time goes on, to the point where I could make things for her wherever she is just as bad as they are for her here.”
“She’ll figure out a way before that happens, so I’m not helping.”
“Suit yourself. But I’ll be back. And I hope you’ll change your mind, because the longer you wait, the worse it will get.”
Twilight left the cell, slamming the door behind her. Nymph crumpled down on the ground and tried to get to sleep. Before falling asleep, she whispered one last sentence. “I miss you sis.”
She could almost swear she heard a reply as her consciousness faded into her dreams.