//------------------------------//
// Discord Sparkle 
// Story: The Many Clones Of Twilight Sparkle 
// by naturalbornderpy 
//------------------------------//

“So how do you like the pancakes?”
                
Fluttershy looked up from her stack of blueberry pancakes to glance at Trevor Sparkle, who had his own short mound of buttermilk pancakes to call his own.
                
Using his horn, he moved his fork and knife around the plate. “Best pancakes you’ve ever tasted, right?”
                
Fluttershy nodded quickly, sliding her mane over her face again. “They’re very good, thank you. I had trouble deciding which ones to get at first, but some of the ones on the menu didn’t actually sound all that appetizing.”
                
After Sexy Sparkle had left Fluttershy alone, Trevor Sparkle led her out of the castle’s maze-like basement and asked if she was hungry. Not wanting to seem impolite, Fluttershy silently agreed and together they climbed the castle’s many steps to a restaurant that had opened up inside just recently.
                
A large decal above the door to the place read: “PANCAKE SPARKLE’S CASTLE OF PANCAKES”.
                
Considering the business rested solely on the inhabitants of Twilight’s castle, Fluttershy found herself to be the only pony in the place that didn’t bare a striking resemblance to Twilight. She tried to count all the different clones pleasantly munching on fluffy hills of pancakes, but lost count after twenty or so of them.
                
Trevor Sparkle flipped open a menu that pattered all the way to the ground. “Two hundred and thirty-six pancake dishes. None repeating. Although the further you go down, the worse they get: gumball pancakes, pancake-infused pancakes, pancake in the shape of a waffle—” He looked up. “Why wouldn’t they just call it a waffle, then?”
                
Fluttershy shrugged, finally noticing the rhythmic tune in the air that had been playing ever since they’d arrived—a techno song about pancakes. In the corner of the room, another Twilight clone controlled a set of turntables that played out a set of speakers. On her head, she wore headphones and dark sunglasses.
                
Fluttershy would’ve thought the sight of DJ Sparkle would cause her to once again question just what was going on here, but alas, it seemed she’d finally reached the point where she just didn’t feel like questioning things anymore.
                
“Tree bark pancake, broken glass pancake, mushroom pancake, plastic pancake, invisible pancake, Tabasco pancake.” Trevor Sparkle shut the menu and shook his head. “That Pancake Sparkle’s got issues. Good pancakes, but serious issues.”
                
The pancake song stopped with a record scratch and Pancake Sparkle stuck her head out from the kitchen, adorning a chef’s hat and apron. “Did someone say ‘more pancakes!?’”
                
Trevor Sparkle turned to her. “No! No one said ‘more pancakes!’ Everyone’s had enough pancakes already.”
                
Pancake Sparkle frowned, her ears falling flat against her head. “Could someone say ‘more pancakes?’ I really don’t know what to do with myself unless I’m making pancakes.”
                
Trevor Sparkle rolled his eyes. “Fine. More pancakes, please!”
                
Pancake Sparkle’s grin was so wide it nearly divided her head. Bringing a spatula up, she cart-wheeled back into the kitchen as DJ Sparkle started up the pancake song again.
                
“That was really nice what you did,” Fluttershy told him. “She looked so happy when you mentioned pancakes.”
                
Trevor Sparkle sighed, shoving his plate aside. “That’s the trouble with all these Sparkle clones—most of them don’t make any sense. It’s like they’re only created for one single purpose. To talk or sing or explain things or make pancakes or to annoy—”
                
“Or be sexy?” Fluttershy chirped.
                
“Please, don’t remind me of her. It’s only a matter of time before she finds me and…”
                
“And what?”
                
Trevor Sparkle bit his lip. “I’m not sure, but I doubt it’ll be good. I gotta get out of this castle—far away from all these clones that happen to look like me.”
                
“You could stay at my cottage… if you wanted to…”
                
Trevor Sparkle leaned across the table. “Really, Fluttershy? You mean that?”
                
Fluttershy slid her pancakes in front of her to hide her blushing face. “I mean… that is, if you have nowhere else to go… I mean, so far, you’ve been the only sane clone that I’ve met and you did help me find my way out of the basement.”
                
“Would it complicate matters if I told you that I liked you? Or that I think you’re rather cute?”
                
Fluttershy took a quick glance up to find Trevor Sparkle smiling at her. Finding no good place to hide from the smile, she plopped her head into what pancakes of hers remained.
                
Trevor Sparkle chuckled. “Is that a yes or a no? Or is the fact that I look a heck of a lot like one of your friends causing you some doubt?”
                
With an entire pancake stuck to her face, Fluttershy brought her head back up and tried to act as if blueberries and cream weren’t currently dripping onto the floor.
                
“Pancake delivery!”
                
Pancake Sparkle lowered a tray of pancakes onto their table that almost reached the ceiling. Once settled, their table cracked in half and hundreds of pancakes fell to the floor and spread outwards into the room.
                
Pancake Sparkle gulped dryly. “Well, you did ask for more pancakes.”
 

***


 

Her beauty is the type that cannot be classified. It is limitless and ageless—unbound by the simple concepts of love. I’ve only known her for a week, and yet I feel every part of my being want to cling to her; tell her how I feel and hold her close while never letting go.
                
Her voice is soft and yet strong. Her fortitude is unmatched and if I can walk alongside her for the rest of my days, I will have led a life worth living just by being beside her. Her breath smells of freshly cut apples and her mane feels like silk to my skin. When her lips touch mine, I find warmth burning inside of me so bright I fear it will tear me apart. But one small look into her eyes tells me that everything will be all right—that all cares and pains will cease to matter in this world as long as she is mine and I am hers.
                
The love between us is a love never-ending. It is pure and simple at its core, while complicated when viewed from a distance. Those that shall try and break that love between us will find vengeance most severe—pain they could never even imagine.
               
One look at her smiling face and I already know I would die for her—face the very hordes of Tartarus just to kiss her lips again.
                
As I walk behind her in Twilight’s immense castle, I think of all the things I want to tell her—what I want to whisper into her ear as I hold her beside a roaring fire. Finding courage, I open my mouth and speak the words I think she needs to hear, so she’ll never need to think twice about why I love her as much as I do.
                
Finding my throat parched, I tell her…
 

***


 

“Apples.”
                
Applejack turned around to look at Apple Sparkle. “You say something, sugarcube?”
                
Apple Sparkle blushed. “Apple… apples apple.”
                
Applejack slowed her pace to wrap a leg around her, pecking her on the cheek. “Isn’t that sweet of you to say! I love you, too, Apple Sparkle.”
                
Instantly, Applejack could feel the eyes of all of her friends upon the two of them.
                
She grumbled out, “What? I can’t kiss my marefriend in front of y’all for some reason?”
                
Most looked away, except for Pinkie Pie who sidled up next to them. “Nobody cares about that, silly! We just want to know if the rumors are true!”
                
Applejack raised a brow. “What rumors?”
                
“That Apple Sparkle tastes like apples!?”
                
Applejack loudly stomped a hoof. “Now that there isn’t anyone’s business, you hear? What happens between Apple Sparkle and I, stays between—”
                
In one solid bounce, Pinkie Pie rocketed upward and landed gracefully in front of them. Gripping both sides of Apple Sparkle’s head, she smooched her on the lips and pulled away, gasping excitedly. “She does taste like apples, you guys! I knew it!”
                
Rarity sighed. “No one was curious about that, Pinkie Pie. Just you.”
                
“I was a little curious,” Rainbow Dash admitted above them.
                
Applejack frowned. “Well, now you know. So knock it off, all right! If y’all want your own Twilight clone, then be my guests. There’re more than a few of them around here, so take your pick.”
                
Once Fluttershy had been taken away by Sparkle Sparkle, the six of them had asked Exposition Sparkle where Twilight’s clone laboratory had been built. Once they’d been given a general map of the castle, they followed the looping directions for close to an hour before finding the correct room.
                
Before departing, Exposition Sparkle heeded to them a warning: “During your journey, do not enter any rooms besides Twilight’s laboratory.”
                
Pinkie Pie broke that rule in less than a minute when she opened a door leading to Surrealist Sparkle’s exhibition of bizarre artwork. After Rarity broke down into heavy sobs and reconsidered the meaning of life a full six times, Applejack slammed the door to the exhibit shut and they’d continued on their way, slapping at Pinkie Pie’s hooves every time she’d try a new door.
                
Finally they’d made it there, although what they found once inside didn’t offer much help.
                
Applejack brought a hoof to her temple. “Oh, crap! Now what’s Discord doing here?”
                
The inside of Twilight’s laboratory was large and vast, something the tiny door leading into it hid well. A large telescope sat at the room’s very center, angled so it jutted out from an opening in the glass ceiling. The ceiling must’ve been over four stories high.
                
Steel terminals and controls lined every wall and in the center of one was a Twilight-shaped silver mold turned onto its side; a computer screen attached to it printed out large reams of paper filled with data. The aforementioned vat of “Twilight clone goo” hung in a giant bowl above the mold, next to a set of roll-able stairs.
                
“Waiting patiently, obviously,” Discord answered evenly.
                
Next to the humming machine sat Discord, reading from a newspaper with one leg crossed over the other. On one of his knees was a timer, quietly ticking away.
                
Rarity pointed a hoof at him. “So you’re the one responsible! I knew Twilight wouldn’t be so reckless as to try something as ridiculous as this!”
                
Discord raised a brow and kept reading from his paper. “Whatever do you mean? You really think I’d have either the time or the skill to pull off something as scientific and advanced as cloning? Blargh! Even sitting here for over an hour is torture to me. I wonder what would happen if I pulled it out early? Hopefully nothing too bad.”
                
Rainbow Dash zoomed to Discord so her face was pressed up to his. “Tell us what you’re up to, Discord! Now!”
                
Ding!
                
Squealing with delight, Discord shoved the pegasus aside and stood, flinging his timer to the side to explode. He snapped himself to the side of the Twilight mold, ripping it open and letting a mountain of steam spill out into the room.
                
He glared at them. “Remember when none of you came to my party a few weeks ago? Well, now I’ve found the perfect solution!”
                
Pinkie Pie bounced up to him. “We tried to! Honest! But we couldn’t find your house! No one knew where it was!”
                
Discord rolled his eyes. “So it’s my fault none of you can bend the barrier between realms and cross the black sea of madness in an effort to come to my party? I thought we were friends!”
                
The steam from the mold overwhelmed Applejack and the rest of them, so they could hardly see a single step in front of them.
                
“Hello, beautiful!” shouted Discord.
                
“Not too bad yourself, I must say!” replied another Discord.
                
Once the steam cleared, Applejack watched as Discord wrapped his arms around a near identical Discord—one whose skin and fur colors were of purple and light blue.
                
“You know what I’m thinking?” Discord asked.
                
“I think so!” the other one replied.
                
Both Discords started clapping their hands into each others’, keeping perfectly in sync as they increased their speed.
                
“Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker’s sham! Bake me a clone as fast as you can! Pat it, roll it, and mark it with a D! Put in the oven for Discord and me!”
                
When the Discords came to a stop, they started laughing until one had to support the other with an arm. The real Discord wiped away a tear.
                
“Ladies, allow me to introduce Discord Sparkle. They’ll be my new friend from here on out, so I won’t be needing any of you anymore… maybe Fluttershy, eventually. I’ll think about it.”
                
Rarity took a step forward to look at Discord Sparkle. “So she’s part Twilight and part Discord? I must say, she doesn’t look all that feminine.”
                
Discord waved a hand. “That’s because Discord Sparkle isn’t a guy or a girl. They’re a spirit, like me! You honestly thought the Spirit of Chaos known as Discord actually had a sex?”
                
Rarity grimaced. “So you’re not male? But you’re voice is so low.”
                
At that, Discord rolled his eyes. “I can be whatever I want to be at any time I want to be, all right? And so can Discord Sparkle. But I’ve got to run, little ones! Lots of interesting things to show my new friend!”
                
With a snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared from the room, leaving the six mares to stare at Discord Sparkle in confusion.
                
“You don’t know how to snap yet, do you?” Rainbow Dash asked it.
                
The purple draconequus shook its head.
                
A second later, Discord reappeared again. “Silly me! I almost forgot about you! Here, let me show you how it’s done.” He grabbed the other Discord’s fingers and put them in a snapping position, showing them how to do it. “And once you snap your fingers just like so—snap!—really cool things happen!”
                
Discord Sparkle snapped its fingers and its mane caught on fire.
                
Discord furrowed his brows. “Well, we’ll work on that.”
                		
With another snap, he and his clone finally left the room for good.
                
“Things really can’t get much weirder, can they?” Rarity asked them all.
                
Rainbow Dash flew into her face. “Now why would you go and say that!? If you say that, then of course things are going to get weirder!”
                
“Can I get anyone a drink?”
                
The six mares turned to the corner of the room, where another Sparkle clone walked up to them. The only difference on this clone happened to be her eyes; both of her pupils staring in completely opposite directions.
                
“Which Twilight clone are you?” Applejack asked.
                
“Accident Prone Sparkle.”

The clone nodded, causing her pupils to rearrange themselves in different parts of her eyes.
                
Rainbow Dash nudged Pinkie Pie. “More like Derpy Sparkle, if you ask me.”
                
Applejack turned to her. “Now knock that off, Rainbow! Derpy happened to open up a vortex into the center of hell a single time when she sat down on a bench in town and you still continue to use that against her. She’s just not all that… together, all right?”
                
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Fine. Whatever. Don’t get so upset about it.”
                
“Can I get anyone a drink?” Accident Prone Sparkle repeated.
                
Apple Sparkle raised a hoof. “Apples?”
                
Accident Prone Sparkle shook her head. “Oh, I wouldn’t try to drink apples if I were you. There’s a good chance you might drown.”
                
Applejack rammed a hoof into her own face. “She meant apple juice. Seriously, it’s starting to feel like I’m the only one that can understand what Apple Sparkle’s even saying.”
                
No one jumped forward to answer that.
                
Accident Prone Sparkle nodded happily. “All right! Five apple juices coming up!”
                
“We only asked for the one.”
                
“Oh, I know. But there’s a good chance eighty-percent of the drinks I bring back will smash to the floor before I can get them to you. I’m kind of bad at holding things.”
                
“We figured,” Applejack said. “But before you do that, can you tell us where the real Twilight is? We were told she was with someone called Sexy Sparkle, but then it turned out she was busy in here. And now Twilight’s not in here, either.”
                
Accident Prone Sparkle thought for a moment. “You know, you’re right. I haven’t seen Twilight in days. Last time she left, she told me to look after the place because she had to go check on Dark Sparkle’s restraints.”
                
The six mares shared a glance. “Dark Sparkle?” they all said at once.
                
Accident Prone Sparkle looked at them with growing unease. “You know? The one clone that’s not allowed to leave the castle under any circumstance?”
 

***


 

Trevor Sparkle breathed a sigh of relief as he opened up his copy of “So You’re A Clone: What’s Up With That?” and started to read. After showing Fluttershy the exit to the castle, he told her he’d see her again after he gathered his belongings from upstairs. Once he got there, though, he decided to rest for a while after all of the day’s activities.
                
He read aloud from his book: “Topic number six—how to stand out from the rest of your clones. Ever tried wearing a hat? Not many ponies wear hats these days.”
               
Beep… beep… beep… beep…
                
He looked up from his book to listen to a soft beeping noise from somewhere in the hall outside. In order to keep others out, he’d both locked his door tight and then cast a spell on it to make it appear like just an ordinary space of wall.
                
As the noise increased, Trevor set his book down and felt something cold settle deep within his gut.
                
Beep…beep…beep…beepbeepbeepbpbpbp!
                
The beeps pulsed louder and faster, until they sounded like they were right outside his room. Before he had a chance to react, his bedroom door was ripped off its hinges and the only pony in the entire castle he didn’t want to see strolled inside.
                
“Sexy Sparkle…” he quivered out.
                
Sexy Sparkle shook a lock of mane from her eyes. “The one and only!”
                
“How did you find me? I had a cloaking spell and everything.”
                
Something that looked like a bit of metal with a tiny green screen hovered around Sexy Sparkle’s head. “With this little sexy device—a testosterone level reader. Since you’re the only stallion in the castle, it didn’t take me too long to track you down.”
                
“How in Equestria could you have made that?”
                
Sexy Sparkle exhaled loudly. “What? You don’t think I’m smart just because I look at the world in a far sexier light than most? I am still a Twilight Sparkle clone, you know. I still have her level of smarts.”
                
Trevor Sparkle hastily glanced around the room. “Is there any way of talking you out of this?”
                
She flashed him a grin. “Afraid not, my smexy little stud. And don’t you dare think of running or zapping away. I’ve already thought and planned out over two-hundred escape routes or tactics you might try to use and I’ve come up with a deterrent for all of them. There is no escape, Trevor Sparkle. You will be mine and all mine for the next two to twelve hours.”
                
He gulped. “Will it hurt?”
                
She tipped him a wink. “Only if you want it to.”
                
For a minute, Trevor Sparkle weighed his options. Considering he only had around four escape routes in mind at the time, he came to the bitter conclusion he was completely and thoroughly screwed. Or would be, starting soon.
                
He stood up and sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with, then maybe you can get me out of your system for a while.”
                
Sexy Sparkle moaned. “Oh, but I’ve only wanted you in my system, Trevor.”
                
“No more puns, please. This is terrible enough.”
                
“But don’t you know how sexy puns can be?” She raised a brow. “So will you come quietly or do I need to drag you out of here, kicking and screaming?”
                
He glared at her. “I already agreed, didn’t I?”
                
Sexy Sparkle blushed a bit. “But it would just be so much sexier if you struggled a bit. I have a fantasy about stuff like that.”
                
“I’m sure you have a lot of fantasies.”
                
She bit her bottom lip as she waited by the door.
                
Sighing again, Trevor Sparkle said unconvincingly, “Oh, please, don’t. Not like this. Anything but this. I’m too young to die. I can’t believe you’d do something so evil, you sexy mare.”
                
Sexy Sparkle’s legs shook uncontrollably beneath her. “Damn it, Trevor! How did you know I found terrible acting to be the sexiest of all acting types? You’re in for it now.”
                
His eyes widened. “Uhh—”
                
With one strong kick from her legs, Sexy Sparkle charged forward and tackled the stallion to the floor. In the blink of an eye, Trevor Sparkle’s world went from bright white to overwhelming amounts of purple.