The basement door closed up and the lock clicked. Spike smiled. With her locked up in the basement to do research, this was a perfect opportunity to head out into Ponyville without "Twilight" catching him in the act. He left the main room of the library and out into the streets, where he sauntered to the outskirts of town.
He felt pretty good about his chances, this time. The pegasus he wanted to speak with was unlikely to fall for the imposter's vile tricks. The faker was up to something sinister, and there was one former supermodel who hated (okay, greatly disliked) sinister, evil, negatively-connotative-word things.
He approached the cottage's door and prepared to knock, but the door swung open moments before he could follow through. Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway with her head turned to the pony inside. "Have a good one, Fluttershy! See ya tonight!"
"Bye, Rainbow Dash!" The quiet mare called back.
Rainbow turned on woozy hooves, which Spike wouldn't have expected from the agile athlete. Rainbow finally noticed the dragon and stared at him with slightly widened eyes. She clearly wasn't prepared to see him. "Uh, hey Spike! Gotta... go to work now. Uh... see ya!" Rainbow uneasily walked past Spike and flapped into the air with a wavy path. For some reason, Rainbow was having trouble flying straight. That much was confirmed when Rainbow's irregular flight pattern made her smack face-first into a flag pole.
As curious a sight as that was, Spike paid it no further heed. He was here to speak with the other, softer spoken pegasus. Fluttershy walked next to the door and smiled warmly down at Spike. "Hello Spike. Would you like to come in?"
"Sure, thanks!" Spike graciously replied. He walked in past Fluttershy, who closed the door and joined Spike in sitting around her living room.
"How have you been doing, Spike?" Fluttershy asked, beginning a conversation.
"Pretty good, I guess. How about you? Did that CMC sleepover give you any trouble?"
"Oh my, no. The girls were perfect angels, and Twilight helped so much!"
Crap, that didn't bode well for Spike's plan. Perhaps he could still manage, though it now seemed like a long shot. "How exactly did Twilight help, anyway? She didn't really talk about it when she got back."
Fluttershy smiled when she thought back to the events. "She was so nice. She brought food and games for us all to play together; we had so much fun!"
Oh yeah, definitely a long shot. Spike just hoped that a long shot didn't mean impossible. "That's good, but did anything strange happen with Twilight?"
"Do you mean the cockatrice? Oh no, is Twilight alright?" Fluttershy asked with increasing worry.
Spike didn't really know how to answer that. He honestly didn't know if Twilight was fine, but he knew the pony they spoke of wasn't really Twilight. "She's fine." He decided. "But doesn't her behavior strike you as a little odd?"
Fluttershy settled back into her seat with confusion. "Odd? No, she's been the same Twilight that she always was."
Spike knew that was wrong, but politely kept that sentiment to himself. "Hmm, and what if I told you that she was acting strange?"
Spike's latest query did little to aid Fluttershy's growing curiosity. "If Twilight is okay, then how is her behavior strange?"
"How long do you think Twilight had anger-management problems?" Spike asked.
Fluttershy gave it some thought. "Goodness, I don't know. I know that she's been very... irritable since I met her."
"Would you say she was violently irritable?"
"Well, she did yell at some fog..."
When the heck was this? Spike was sure seeing Twilight getting angry at fog would have been sure-fire proof of his claims. "And what if I told you that she wasn't always like that?"
"Do you mean she was more calm before she came to Ponyville?"
"Yeah. About the only thing that got her worked up was an assignment from the princess, and even then she was never violent. But now she's been getting into fights all over the place! It doesn't make any sense."
"Well, in her defense, she's been through a few things that have really agitated her."
"Twilight has been really agitated before, but never this bad." Spike said in denial. "She often got rant-y when she found scribbles in books she borrowed and she's never been in somepony's face about it." Spike looked up in thought. "Actually, Twilight has gotten a lot more casual about books lately. Just another thing that's weird about her."
"So are you worried about her new found aggression?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, but that's not the half of it. Twilight has always been very knowledgeable and passionate about magic, but for a while, she hated magic more than I've seen her upset over anything. Adding to that is all these weird slip-ups she makes. You know she's called herself a boy a few times?"
Fluttershy shrank back nervously. "Um, so Twilight has been having gender issues?"
Spike raised a claw to object, but lowered it. "Actually, no. I think she knows exactly what gender she is. It's not just gender, though. Have you ever noticed how she never says 'everypony' or 'anypony'?" Fluttershy nodded. "And have you seen her spending a lot more time in her 'human' form?"
Fluttershy visibly relaxed. "I have noticed, and I'm happy for her."
Spike tilted his head in confusion. "You're not concerned at all?"
"Not really. Twilight is a smart pony, and I'm sure she knows what she's doing."
"But what if I told you Twilight wasn't really a pony?"
"Then I would still love her for who she is." Fluttershy answered sweetly.
Spike blanched in fear. He was counting on Fluttershy's fear of monsters to win her over. With that advantage gone, he needed a new tactic. "And what if I told you that Twilight has changed?"
"Oh, I've noticed that."
"You have?" Spike asked hopefully.
"Yes I have; Twilight has gotten a lot less intimidating and a lot more caring since I first met her." Fluttershy thought back to the Summer Sun Celebration and their encounter with the mountain dwelling dragon. "She's actually improved a lot since then."
Spike silently sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew where this was going; he could recognize a pattern. Fluttershy was a dead-end, which means that the imposter must have already persuaded her. "Okay, I just wanted to see if you noticed."
Fluttershy smiled proudly. "It's so nice of you to look out for Twilight like this. I'm sure she'd really appreciate you checking to see how her friends like her."
Yeah, that's what it was. Spike the dragon, just walkin' around and making sure that Twilight was fine. The problem with that was he didn't know where Twilight was, and the only method he had of getting help was being undermined at every turn. This clone was digging its horrid claws into Ponyville and was expanding its influence on its ponies every day. Spike could only hope that where ever Twilight was, she could hold out long enough for him to find somepony, anypony to help.
I was in the library basement all alone. It was just me, snacks, fizzy drinks, and a big load of divination textbooks for a wild night of study and practice. I left Spike with a few gemstones and told him that he was in charge for a bit, so I was going to have few interruptions as I worked on my project. It has been far too long since I made any progress towards finding Twilight, but tonight was going to change that. I resolved to find her by the break of dawn.
Now, that didn't necessarily mean I could fix everything over night. I would only be able to discern her location; bringing her back was another set of skills entirely. Discussions of conjuration could wait, for I had divinations to master.
I arranged my workspace with my magic. Workout benches and weights clattered across the room from the desk I recently moved into the depths. I sat in a comfortable swivel chair, laid out my research materials and snacks, and got to work.
A ball of light hovered above my reading form, perfectly illuminating every page I read, highlighting every swig of soda I took. I wish I could say that I breezed through each and every chapter I read, but that would be a vast over-simplification of what actually happened.
Each school of spells was like a different language when you got to the advanced stuff. Each school had its own alphabet of dweomers, a different grammatical structure, and unique methods of use. Since I was a transmutation specialist, that made transmutation the closest I had to an arcane version of English. The trouble here was that I was trying to learn a version of Latin that could allow me to see through space and time. Yeah, it doesn't sound that easy, does it?
The fortunate part of all this was that magic was magic, and the general principles of learning applied to every school. It was a only a matter of time and effort before I got the general idea of what I needed to do and start experimenting. I already lost track of time by that point since I didn't bring a clock with me, but the missing liter of soda told me it was at least a few hours. I guessed it was midnight.
I jury-rigged an experimental spell based off of a life-force detection spell and spliced in a few sequences to modify its effects to find specific people. That took about an hour or so. If I made it right, it would detect specific individuals by their spiritual essence, meaning the detection would find souls. With the spell written down and ready for casting, I decided upon my course of action. Like any good experiment, I needed an easy target for a control. I charged up the spell with Spike in mind.
The unleashed spell pulsed outwards in every direction. There was a pause where everything felt still for a brief moment, and then I felt an intangible force tug directly above me. Perfect, my spell functioned well. Just to be sure, I cast it again to find Pinkie Pie. Another pulse and another tug confirmed that my spell was in working order.
Next, I wanted to test for range. It was likely the real Twilight was on my world, and I had no idea how far away that would be. I decided to focus on someone a bit more familiar to me and an easier target for the spell: my former manager at the Wally Cart Supermarket. I unleashed the spell, and awaited its response.
Nothing.
That wasn't too much of a surprise, as I figured range would be the biggest issue. I rewrote the spell to include a few more range-enhancing sequences. They made the spell a bit harder to cast, but made long-range use more viable. I tested it again, and got a response. I felt the stronger tug of that fat bastard all the way from my basement study in Equestria, and for once, it didn't have to do with his own gravitational pull. Ha!
I tasted success already. With the spell calibrated to find Twilight no matter where she was, I cast it again, and eagerly awaited its response.
And I waited.
I paled. The spell wasn't working. Goddammit, the spell wasn't working! I cast it again.
Nothing.
I charged my horn to a greater degree, and let loose a more powerful burst.
Nothing still.
I looked all around above me, as if I could see where the spell was supposed to go. I wasn't finding her. But that couldn't be; I cast the spell correctly three times! I should have found her by now! What was the problem? Why couldn't my spell find Twilight? It should have found her soul somewhere!
Was she...?
No, she couldn't be. I shook my head with shaky breath, refusing to accept that possibility. Twilight had to be out there somewhere. I refused to believe that all my work was for nothing. I would find her; I just needed a better spell.
I scoured my books for the best spell they had, and so I found the Scrying spell. I pulled a hand mirror out of a desk drawer and committed the spell to short-term memory for immediate casting. I cast it quickly, using it to test its abilities and spy on my manager. I saw him trimming his nasty mustache in my mirror. I canceled the spell. Jokes about seeing traumatizing imagery could wait until I set myself at ease. I looked over the spell again, and recast into the mirror.
The image swirled and settled to reveal myself, staring intently into the mirror. I glared interrogatively. This raised more questions than answers. I tried casting it again, this time on someone I knew was d... dead. The image on the mirror swirled into a matte black.
For the first time in some time, I breathed with relief. It was good to see that Twilight is possibly not dead, but in a strange location. I cast the spell to find her again, and it brought up the image of myself once again.
The first spell I used couldn't detect Twilight for some reason, even though it should have adequate range to do so. The Scrying spell clearly shows myself, but the reason wasn't because of death. There was a glaring inconsistency here, but what was it? I examined my notes on the spell I crafted earlier. It stated that it pulsed outwards to find nearby life signatures of a specific designation. Reading over the notes for Scrying, it stated that it revealed the location of a specific creature within a reflective surface.
I compared and contrasted each extensively, intent on making zero mistakes. I had to be sure my assumption was correct. There was one phrase in my notes on the first spell that caught my attention: "pulses outwards". It was a curious addition, and it raised a possibility that I couldn't ignore. I prepared to cast the spell again.
Before, I focused my energies outward to find Twilight's body, but this time, I focused within myself. The energies flowed through my body, and I awaited the results.
I felt something shudder in my chest, below the heart and above the stomach.
I smiled with renewed hope. I found her. She was closer than I expected, but I've done it! This was a major step to restoring things to their natural order. I felt that I could restore Twilight to her rightful place soon.
I frowned with another thought. It was a strange thought, but it irked me all the same. I pulled up the page to the life detection spell and case it inwards with its unmodified sequences. Again, it picked up Twilight's life signature.
The life detection spell, before I modified to to find specific people, would indicate where everyone within its radius was located. The question that nagged on my mind was why there was only one signature; shouldn't I find two, one for both me and Twilight?
I pondered this for a while. What did that imply? Surely it didn't mean that I was Twilight all along. It was an absurd proposition. I knew who I was, for I had all my memories of other humans. I was human man, not a mare.
I shook my head of the thoughts. I'm sure it would be fine. It was just a matter of restoring Twilight to her body. I doubted that would be difficult.