//------------------------------//
// Didn't This Happen Before? 
// Story: I'm No Legend 
// by Short Stories 
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A holey black leg came into view, followed by it's buggy owner. Chrysalis  was glaring at something down the hall, Twilight assuming the room she had crashed into. Chrysalis ruffled her tattered wings and focused her attention on Twilight and the room surrounding the alicorn. "My dear, sweet child," She crooned, trying to lure Twilight into a false sense of comfort, "I just happened to hear voices as I flew in and am curious to know..." her voice changed from gentle and sweet to brittle and commanding without pause. "Who were you talking to just now?"

"I--I---uh..."

"And where are they?" Chrysalis continued, looking around the room wildly. "Did they escape before I came? Or are they hiding out somewhere?" She paused and eyed Twilight suspiciously. "Were they... friends of yours, coming to visit?"

Twilight could feel sweat rolling down the sides of her face and her heart rate increase. Why am I so scared of her? She thought to herself. She doesn't have her massive bug army, like she did last time... She closed her eyes to regain her composure then looked Chrysalis in the eye. "Friends?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "That's ridiculous. Why would I ever waste my time on something as stupid as making friends?"

Chrysalis pulled back, pleased with this answer. "Must be in my head again..." she grumbled to herself quietly before walking over to stand guard at the door.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, letting herself relax.

Suddenly, the green bubble around her dissolved and the princess was hit by an agonizingly painful ray of magic.

Once the spell was over, she blinked and looked around her old home. She smiled to herself and stood up, but once she saw Chrysalis in her home, she shrunk away. "Who are you?" She asked fearfully, "and what are you doing in my home?"



The key clattered to the floor, making a racket in the otherwise dead-silent castle.

The trio shared the same expression of shock and disappointment as their eyes covered her bedroom time and time again.

That was it; the imposter left them with no clue of where she was going. Spike's ears folded down for a brief second before popping back up. "We need a map." He said finally, entering her room.

"A map?" Sweetie asked as she followed him. "She could be anywhere in Equestria by now. Hay, she could even be down there, in the town, disguised as somepony else."

"True." Spike replied, reaching past a couple different books and potions on Twilight's desk. He pulled out an orangeish yellow one and showed it to the two. "That's why this will help us out."

Scootaloo's eyes widened and she dashed downstairs. Spike gave a quizzical look in her direction, but decided to shake it off and open up the concoction. "What's it do?" Sweetie asked.

"It'll help us spot changelings in disguise." He answered. Sweetie still looked a little befuddled. "Zecora wanted Twilight to test it out a couple weeks ago," he explained, "so Twilight went down to the Crystal Empire and tried it out, cause there was rumors of Changelings being there. Turns out, there was two, so she sent them back to their hive."

Sweetie nodded and took the bottle out of his claws using her magic. Scootaloo came back up the stairs and set a magenta potion on the side of Twi's desk, then watched as Sweetie popped the cork out and drank a couple sips of the elixir. 

Her pupils tripled in size by the time she removed the bottle from her mouth and she blinked several times to try and get them to go back to normal. "It's supposed to do that." Spike supplied helpfully, "see anything different?"

"Yeah..." Sweetie said, her voice overridden with amazement. "I can...I can see where she went. Like-like watching a movie on rewind."

Spike grabbed the bottle out of her magic hold and tried to find the label on it. "Did I grab the right one...?" He muttered to himself.

"Me next!" Scootaloo cheered, plucking the mixture out of his claw with her mouth. She took a couple sips then held it out for Spike to take. Her pupils tripled in size, too and she watched Chrysalis escape on repeat as well.

Spike drank the last of it and put it aside, next to the magenta concoction. His pupils grew and he watched the buggy queen, with a nearly transparent copy of the princess over her doing the same movements she was doing, enter the room in a slowed down hurry and grab whatever she had left on the bed, then fly out the window, only to stop for a moment to see a portion of the bed sheet had gone through one of the many holes in her leg. She rolled her eyes and used her magic to get it off, then flew away in a slightly panicked frenzy.

The scene started to repeat itself, but Spike looked away as he had already seen enough. "I guess we just follow her ghost." He shrugged. He turned towards the door and took a step back at the second potion on the desk. "Ohmigosh, I forgot all about this!" He cried, quickly cradling it in his claws. "I guess we got so wrapped up in trying to help Twilight, that we didn't even use it."

Scootaloo nodded solemnly.

Sweetie, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what the vial did, and why it was such a big deal. "Uhhh...what's it do, exactly?" She asked.

"It was supposed to help Twilight gt her memory back" Spike said, leading the way out of the castle, "but since we forgot about it, something bad could happen. Or, if not, it could at least her get her full memory back instead of just bits and pieces." He looked down at the vial with slightly broken hope, watching the changeling ghost out of the corner of his eye. "...I hope..."