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A beautiful day in Ponyville2,822 words
The 'enhancing' spell2,654 words
Safety2,416 words
Remembering2,620 words
Uncertainty2,820 words
Interrogation3,142 words
Preparations2,767 words
Arrival at the Crystal Empire2,693 words
Replacement2,298 words
The tour2,988 words
Anger2,989 words

The tour

“Oh my golly, the Crystal Castle! Why, I’ve seen pictures, but I never expected to see it with my very own eyes! From the inside…oh, I’m so gosh darned excited!” Peachbottom chattered incessantly, looking at the castle with amazed eyes.

“That’s wonderful, Miss Peachbottom.” Twilight nodded, trying to mask her irritation. She had rehearsed everything for Harshwhinny, and now she had to deal with this yokel chicken farmer replacement. Thankfully, Peachbottom seemed easy enough to impress.

Peachbottom just gaped at the Palace around her, transfixed with it’s beauty. “Hoo-wee! What a sight! Gotta ask, though…where’s miss Cadence? I would’ve expected her to be here by now…”

“Princess Cadence is busy with something important.” Twilight corrected her. “She’ll be along shortly. In the meantime, why don’t we take a quick tour of the castle?”

“Oh, I’d love that a whole heap!” Peachbottom nodded.

As she trotted forward, Rainbow leaned in closer to Twilight and whispered. “A tour of the castle? But Twi, we’ve hardly been here! We don’t know where anything is! And if we look stupid in front of her, she’s gonna think we weren’t ready and she’ll write in the report that -”

“Re-lax, Rainbow.” Twilight whispered back. “We’ll just take a casual walk through the place. And besides…” The purple mare motioned to the replacement inspector staring at the palace statues. “I really don’t think we’re gonna look stupid in front of her. As long as we keep her looking at shiny things, the tour’s gonna go fine.”

----

“…thank you so much, Mr. Nav Point. So, this hayburger place is 3 blocks down and 4 blocks left from…my right or your right?” Harshwhinny asked the information booth pony. In a display of common sense, the Crystal Empire had placed an information booth with an expert guide right by the train tracks.

“My right.” The crystal stallion demonstrated to Harshwhinny. The inspector followed his hoof down the pristine blocks of the Empire. “Just keep going that way and turn left at the green statue holding a scroll. If you pass the Crystal Children’s Playground, you’re going the right way. If you get turned around, just ask anypony. Everypony eats at that place.”

“Thank you. So, do you know you’re way around this kingdom?”

Nav Point nodded. “Know it like the back of my hoof.”

Harshwhinny smiled. “Excellent. So…can you tell me about the hotels and inns in the Crystal Empire? I need to know how this place would accommodate a lot of visitors if it hosts the Equestria Games…

----

“…And over here is the palace’s water fountain. Check out the gem-encrusted base. Everything is so coordinated.” Twilight narrated to Peachbottom, pointing to a nearby water fountain.

Peachbottom nodded eagerly. “Oh yeah, those colors are real coordinated. I love that there design.”

Yeah, sure you do. Twilight thought to herself, I have no idea what makes jems ‘coordinated’ or not, but it sounds like something Rarity would say. Speaking of which, she said she’d be done by now…but knowing her, she’s still fiddling with Cadence’s hair. I’ll just keep stalling for time.

Rainbow promptly pointed in another direction. “And over there is the Crystal Palace’s…uh…” whatever the name was, it completely escaped her. “The Crystal Palace’s….round room! Yeah, the Crystal Palace Round Room!”

Peachbottom chuckled. “That’s a rotunda.” She corrected.

Rainbow, suddenly feeling very stupid, blushed profusely. “Erm…yeah. The Crystal Palace’s Rodunta, right!”

Peachbottom shook her head. “It’s Rotunda.

Twilight just facehoofed, and was ready to scream at Rainbow before she used Cadence’s breathing exercise to calm herself down. “Ok. I think that’s it for the Crystal Palace. It’s almost lunchtime…why don’t you and I head down to the Onyx Rose while Rainbow Dash checks on the Princess.” She decided, casting a harsh look at the Pegasus.

Rainbow snapped to attention immediately. “Yes, ma’am!” she saluted before flying off to the spa. She silently cursed herself under her breath. Unbelievable. She had made herself look stupid in front of the inspector, and worse, she’d embarrassed Twilight. Rainbow would have to make up for that soon…

-------

As Harshwhinny walked down the road Nav Point had pointed her onto, she looked around. All the Crystal Ponies were out, cleaning the buildings, sweeping the streets, and raising the empire’s flags. Everypony was working hard, and they hadn’t even been selected yet. Harshwhinny had to admire their work ethic. A few young crystal colts ran by, excitedly carrying the Crystal Empire flags. Harshwhinny couldn’t help but smile. While enthusiasm for the event was a minor factor in the end, Harshwhinny had to acknowledge that the empire was very eager to host the games.

One thing caught her displeased eye. Just to her right was a wide, shallow pit in the ground. Nothing but a hole in the middle of a field. It looked completely out of place between the crystal buildings, not to mention very unsightly. Apparently several crystal ponies and colts thought the same…they were staring at the hole completely dumbstruck at it’s ugliness.

Harshwhinny came up to one of them. “Excuse me. Do you know if the Crystal Empire usually leaves it’s pits uncovered and unfilled like this? Or is this a construction project?”

The mare turned to face her, the utterly baffled look on her face never leaving.

“Thirty seconds ago, there was a playground here!”

--------

“Hmm…Well, this ain’t what I expected at all.” Peachbottom remarked carefully as she chewed her complimentary lunch at the Onyx Rose.

For once, Twilight agreed with her. Maybe she just didn’t have the taste for gourmet food, but everything she had ordered at this fancy restaurant seemed less than pleasant for her. It either had too much flavor or not enough. And the atmosphere wasn’t exactly friendly, either. Peachbottom thankfully had enough decorum to NOT act like a braying hick in the middle of this place, but that didn’t keep the overdressed ponies from glaring contemptuously at the purple unicorn and her guest. And Rainbow busting in to tell her Rarity was going to be delayed (of course) didn’t help. Twilight resolved never to go back here or anywhere like here… ‘gourmet food’ was vastly overrated.

But she couldn’t say that to the inspector, even if she was Peachbottom. Instead, she smiled carefully and nodded. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Before Peachbottom could correct her, she continued. “Now, before we speak with Princess Cadence, is there anything in the Empire you would like to see?”

Peachbottom thought for a moment, then clapped her hooves together in realization. “Oh! I’m inspecting the empire to see if it can host the Equestria Games, right?”

Sadly, yes. Twilight nodded.

“Then obviously, I gotta check out where yer hosting the games! Could I see the Crystal Stadium, or whatever it’s called?”

Twilight froze. The stadium…of course. Of course she’d have to go there…where he was waiting…Twilight shook her head clear and breathed. No. This wasn’t the same Shining Armor she knew and hated. Not the one who ruined everything. This was the brother she… was expected to love. Supposed to love. She could do that. She just needed to smile and act natural. Yes, she could handle it.

“Certainly. Just let me take care of lunch, and we’ll be on our way.” Twilight then looked up to see the waiter carrying the bill and payment machine.

Twilight took one look at the bill and grimaced. I swear, if she says anything like ‘I would’ve been happy with Hayburgers’, I’m going to kill her.

-----------

At the Crystal Empire’s signature Hayburger’s, Harshwhinny was just finishing explaining to the manager how he could get his restaurant signed on as an official sponsor for the Games.

“…so, if you and your fellow managers make a good impression on Sponsor Ship, he’ll definitely sign on. He’s a practical stallion, so just make sure you mention that everypony is going to eat here during the games anyway.” Harshwhinny explained.

The manager nodded eagerly. “I’ll certainly do that, Ma’am.”

“Just remember that you’ll have to be ready for a HUGE influx of customers. Maybe hire some extra workers, look into expanding, that sort of thing. Especially this store…if the Empire is selected. I’m not making any promises here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my lunch.”

The stallion with the burger cutie mark nodded his acceptance and walked back into the kitchen. Now that that was taken care of, Harshwhinny could finish her hayburger and fries meal. How long had it been since she’d had one? Too long, she decided as she bit into her delicious burger. She should do this a little more often. Forget those ‘gourmet’ restaurants that the average athelete and spectator never actually ate at. Places like this would be the ones most affected by the Games.

Still, while a lot more relevant to the Games than the fancy tours she often got, this was all superficial. At some point, she needed to review the place that REALLY mattered for the event. Finishing her drink and wiping her mouth clean, Harshwhinny picked up the map she’d gotten at the information kiosk.

Last stop, the Crystal Stadium.

-----------------
Elsewhere…
------------------

Silence fell in the prison cell after Spike had asked his question.

For the longest time, Spike just sat there, staring blankly at nothing in particular. Twilight didn’t understand. How was it his fault? What had he tried to do? How could one act by Spike change everything so dramatically?

Not sure of what she could say, Twilight tried repeating her story again, this time offering more details as to how crazy she’d sounded, how Chrysalis had manipulated everypony, how things hadn’t been fixed immediately after the invasion. But it didn’t help. Spike just looked more and more miserable as she continued.

Eventually, she stopped and sighed. “Spike…what happened? What did you do? I don’t know what to tell you, what to say. I need to know…”

“Why?” Spike snapped. “Why do you need to know?! It doesn’t matter to you! Everything went great for you! And you’ve got a happy life waiting for you when you get back. Celestia, all your friends…”

“…and another Spike.” Twilight added. “A Spike just like you. After the wedding, he came up to me and asked me if there was anything he could’ve done differently. If there had been something he could’ve said to me before that would’ve made things better.”

The Spike that was sitting in front of her shook his head. “He shouldn’t think that…”

Just before the wedding rehearsal, Spike was admiring his spiffy new ringbearer suit in one of the lower hallway mirrors. While tightening his bowtie, one of his claws caught in the fabric and ripped a hole in the right side. His attempt to hide the cut made it look like a black sea anemone had perched itself on his neck. Spike sighed sadly before remembering he had backup ties at the place Twilight was staying.

When he arrived, he was irritated to discover that none of the backups were ‘ready-made’, but still strips of cloth he’d have to tie manually and risk ripping again. He had just decided to find Rarity and ask for her help when Twilight came storming in.

“What the heck was that spell?!” She kept repeating to herself, ripping one of her books out of her bags and flipping the pages. “What spell makes the eyes spin like that? Sleep aid? No. Headache treatment? That can’t be it! I haven’t seen a spell do anything like that…since…”

Spike blinked worriedly. It was never good when Twilight acted like this. “Um…Twi?” he tried to interject…

Twilight gasped in horror. “The Want-it-Need-it spell! That must mean it was a…a mind control spell! That’s why he agreed with her when she was done! Oh man, she’s even WORSE than I thought!”

“Twilight?”

Twilight spun around, wide-eyed and terrified. “Onononononononononono the rehearsal! I gotta stop her, I gotta stop him, I gotta save him-“

“TWILIGHT!” The purple unicorn finally noticed Spike. “Twilight, what’s going on?”

“Cadence is horrible! She’s beyond horrible! She was using a mind-control spell on Shining just now!” Twilight was babbling hysterically. “That must be how she got Shining to propose! He’d have never married such a horrible mare!”

Spike blinked. Was she talking about the same Cadence he knew? “What are you talking about? How is she horrible?”

“She insulted Applejack’s cooking, Pinkie’s parties, she treated Shining like dirt, forced him to agree with her…”

“Maybe she’s just stressed?” Spike suggested. “This weddings a really big thing for her…maybe she’s just worried about getting everything perfect.”

“That doesn’t excuse what she’s doing!” Twilight retorted.

Spike sighed. “Just like how Celestia’s ‘deadline’ doesn’t excuse you casting a mind control spell on everypony and starting a riot?”

“NO!” Twilight blinked as what Spike had said sunk in. “I mean…yes…I mean…um…”

Spike sighed. “Ponies…change when they get stressed. You oughta know that.”

Deflated, Twilight sat down and sighed. “Ok…maybe. But…I dunno, things are so weird right now…Shining isn’t acting like he should be, Cadence isn’t acting like herself…”

Spike just shrugged. “You haven’t seen them in a while…”

Twilight scowled. “They never wrote…”

“And you never wrote THEM.” Spike countered, shaking his head. “Listen…the way you were acting, you’re gonna look crazy in front of everypony. If you’re really worried, maybe just TALK to Shining?”

Twilight looked at herself in the mirror. Several crazed bits of hair were sticking out of her mane, one of her eyes was twitching erratically, and her teeth were sore from grinding together. Who would listen to her when she looked like this? Especially after what happened the last time she was like this…

Twilight sighed and smoothed out her mane. “Ok…ok. I’ll…I’ll talk to him later. But…I’m really worried. If Cadence isn’t who we thought she was…”

Spike shrugged. “You’re probably worrying about nothing, Twi. Now, can you help me with this tie? We’re gonna miss the rehearsal…”

Spike’s face sank into his hands. “…so, after the rehearsal, she talked to Shining. Asked him if there was something up with Cadence and that spell. Shining got suspicious and confronted Cadence and…the Changeling Queen went berserk. Killed Celestia. Made Twi crazy for real.

And it’s MY fault.”

Twilight shook her head vehemently. “Who told you that?”

“YOU DI- er, she did!” Spike looked up, revealing tears streaming from his eyes. “She…right after the funeral…I remember what she said to me…”

”Why did you stop me? I was right! I knew Cadence was evil! I could’ve shown everypony before this happened! But no! YOU told me that it was just stress! That I was overreacting! Well you. Were. WRONG! I never should have listened to you! I did, and now Celestia is dead! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”

“Spike…it wasn’t your fault.”

Spike looked at Twilight harshly. “How isn’t it my fault? You just said – “

“That’s not what I meant.” Twilight stepped closer to Spike. “Yes, things turned out alright for me, but it wasn’t because I went berserk at the rehearsal. And things…whatever happened, it wasn’t because you tried to help your friend.”

Spike turned his face away. “Then whose fault is it?”

Twilight sighed. “I don’t know. But it isn’t yours. All you did was calm down someone who honestly needed to calm down. You had no idea about Chrysalis or what she could do. Nopony did. What happened to your Celestia was Chrysalis’ fault. Nopony elses.”

Spike didn’t respond to that. He just stared at the wall for some time before getting himself up and walking out. “I…wish I could believe that.” He sighed before stepping out of the cell. “Fluttershy will be here soon, so I’d better go now. Be careful with her, she lost an eye because of…just be careful. I’ll…goodbye.” Spike vanished from sight before Twilight could stop him.

Twilight slumped dejectedly. She thought that maybe she could help this Spike, but it was clear that one conversation with her was not going to fix everything. At least she knew why he was upset. This world’s Fluttershy knew him better, maybe she could talk to him. They had both lost a friend…

The purple unicorn turned her attention back to the books around her, but her thoughts were on the other Twilight. The other ‘her’. Would she really have blamed Spike, the friend she’d known the longest, for something that plainly wasn’t his fault? Grieving ponies would naturally lash out at those closest to them, but…like that? Was she really that harsh? Would it really be that easy for her to turn into that vindictive, bitter, selfish…

Twilight stopped herself with a groan. Selfish. Spike had just relived the worst moment of his life, baring his secret guilt to her, all these ponies were dealing with serious issues just by LOOKING at her, and she was thinking about how it all reflected on her.

Maybe she was closer to the other Twilight than she’d like to think.

Author's Note:

I'm kinda meh with the second part of this story, so feel free to suggest how I can make it better. But for what it is, enjoy!

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