Replacement
Everypony panicked at that last piece of news. The games inspector, coming early? Nopony was prepared for that, not even Cadence. Rainbow Dash berated the mailpony for keeping that news for last, while Rarity was staring and stammering at the long list of instructions. Cadence was just sitting there, muttering to herself ‘o dear o dear o dear…’
Naturally, it was Twilight who got everypony organized. After taking a deep breath with the trick Cadence had taught her, Twilight used her telekinesis to stop Rainbow and Rarity from running around any further. “OK…Rarity, how long do you need to fix up Cadence’s hair?”
“Ummm…” Rarity looked at the list of instructions again. “About…half and hour, maybe? I’m sure to find some shortcuts.”
“You do that, and have her back at the castle when you’re done.” Twilight agreed. “Rainbow, you’re with me. We’ll meet Ms. Harshwhinny at the train station. Let me see that.” Twilight yanked the piece of paper from the mailpony’s hooves. “The Game Inspector will arrive at…Gate A in… 15 minutes. We’ll meet her, give her a nice tour across the Crystal Empire…we’ll show her the palace and the monuments…”
“Don’t forget to show her the stadium.” Cadence reminded Twilight. “That’ll be important. She’ll need to see the place where the games will take place, not to mention meet the Prince of the Crystal Empire.”
Twilight paused. “…right. Shining. Of course. One more question, Cadence. What’s a really good restaurant in the Empire?”
“Oh…um…I’d have to say the Onyx Rose, the one just down the street from here. But my favorite is…”
Twilight interrupted her. “Thanks, Cadence. She’s gonna want the best. Well, one thing at a time. Alright, let’s go, Dash.” She demanded, running out of the spa.
“Right behind ya, Twi!” Rainbow nodded, zipping out behind her and leaving Rarity and Cadence behind.
Rarity immediately started working on Cadence’s mane, not wanting to waste a second. Glancing at the long list of instructions, Rarity figured that step 12 would be optional…
Teleporting to the train station would’ve been risky with all the ponies there, so Twilight and Rainbow had to run. While they were running, Twilight relayed orders to the Pegasus above her.
“Okay, Rainbow. We’ll bring the Games Inspector back to the castle, put on our big welcome-committee how-do-you-do show, give her a tour of the Empire, treat her to that Onyx Rose restaurant, and keep her busy until Cadence is ready to see her. She’ll know what to do next.”
“Okay…” Rainbow agreed. “But we gotta remember. Coming here early is probably her way of catching us off guard, to see if we can handle the pressure of holding the Equestria Games. We gotta stay one step ahead of her, and not fall for ANY of her mindgames! Anything she throws at us, we gotta remember that she’s testing us!”
Twilight laughed. “Aheheh…I think you’re giving her too much credit. She’s just an inspector! She’ll be paying more attention to how we treat her than pulling off any mind games. Long as we give her the good tour, everything will be fine!”
Rainbow just shrugged. “Eh, you’re probably right.”
“Of course I am, Rainbow. We can handle anything that gets thrown at us by…”
“…Miss Peachbottom?” Twilight blinked, baffled at the sight of the green reverse-pompadour and chicken cutie mark that was holding the Games Inspector’s checklist. The clipboard was being held in an odd and uncomfortable looking apparatus designed for earth ponies that was attached to Peachbottom’s barrel. The fact that the apparatus itself had the logo of the Equestria Games was the only thing that kept Twilight from shoving this mare aside as an imposter.
“You betcher…Um, I mean, that’s correct.” The mare confirmed eagerly. “Harshy – erm, Mrs. Harshwhinny got sick all of a sudden, so she asked me to sub for her and do the inspection of the Crystal Empire for her. Sorry for being so last-minutey, but ya can’t plan fer sickness!”
Twilight yanked the clipboard out of Peachbottom’s hooves. Rainbow’s expression contorted. “Rrrrrrrrrright. Replacements are LATE, they’re never EARLY. OK, who are you really?” she demanded to know.
“A good friend of Harshwhinny. You can ask her! I mean, when she’s better, of course.” Peachbottom answered with a big smile.
Twilight yanked the checklist out of the apparatus and looked it over. Once she was finished, she nudged Rainbow sharply. “Don’t be rude, Rainbow. This is legitimate.” She promptly turned and gave Peachbottom her best smile. “I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Miss…Peachbottom. This is last minute and under strange circumstances, so…you understand.”
“That’s just fine.” Peachbottom nodded. “Harsh…Harshwhinny warned me it might happen. But now that everything’s all cleared up, how bout we start that tour?”
“Of course. How about we start by showing you the centerpiece of the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Palace? Then we’ll treat you to an apology lunch at the Empire’s best restaurant, the Onyx Rose. And after that…”
As the three ponies trotted away, Peachbottom glanced to a hidden corner of the train station. From around that corner, the real Ms. Harshwhinny gave her friend a big wink. How’s that for spontaneous? Enjoy the tour, Peachy!
Oh, I will! Peachbottom winked right back before trotting up to join Rainbow and Twilight.
Harshwhinny couldn’t resist a giggle. It was a good thing the element of honesty hadn’t been there to catch Peachbottom’s lies. In fact, this entire situation was only possible due to sheer dumb luck. But things were going well, and now Harshwhinny could do a proper investigation without some Crystal Empire shills constantly over her shoulder giving her the runaround.
But first, she hadn’t indulged herself in some time…
----------
-----------
Twilight had been moved to another location in the prison, sealed behind several eavesdropping and magic inhibitors. All her guards had been replaced with members of Shining’s private non-changeling forces, which caused some controversy until the Changeling King told them that Twilight would go berserk and endanger more lives if she constantly saw Changelings around her. A few asked how Twilight could see ANY of her guards behind the new cell, but for the most part, everyling was just happy that she was in custody.
The cell itself was fairly roomy, with a few small globs of Changeling Lanterns around for light. It was still technically a cell, but at least Twilight could walk around and keep her legs in shape by herself. And more importantly, there was enough room for the books she’d need to read to figure out Lutece’s theory.
Twilight tapped the ring around her horn, sighing slightly. It was a low-level inhibitor that suppressed everything but her telekinesis. From what she’d heard about the other Twilight…what she had seen of the other Twilight, she didn’t blame Shining Armor for being cautious. As long as she could research the way to get back to her home…among other things…she’d be happy. This was a strange situation, but at least things weren’t as bad as they could be.
She’d been waiting for some time before the door to the cell opened. Twilight had to restrain herself from running up to the dragon entering. This isn’t your Spike, Twilight. And you’re not the Twilight he knew. How do I go about this? I don’t know what happened…better just err on the side of caution here. Don’t do anything crazy.
Two things became apparent about this dimension’s Spike. First, he was slightly taller and stronger than the baby dragon she knew. Twilight’s best guess was that this dimension was a few years into the future compared to hers. She’d have to figure out exactly how many years for the spell to work, she knew that much.
The second was that he did NOT look happy.
His eyes seemed to be set in a permanent scowl, his forehead creased with frustration and anger. When he glanced at Twilight, he tensed up and Twilight could tell he was restraining himself from screaming at the sight of her. The Changeling King had told her that he knew about her situation, so it wasn’t what the other Twilight had done to him…or was it? What had she done to him?
Twilight wanted to understand what had happened with this other Twilight. If the unicorn that every Changeling in this dimension feared and hated was like her or not. How close she actually was to the unicorn that stole her life and abandoned her to her fate. Twilight didn’t want to think she was like her…or was she? Could she really become that pony that nopony wanted to talk about? That was half the reason she’d agreed to be visited by the other versions of her friends. She needed to understand.
But seeing alternate-Spike’s scowl, she wisely decided not to bring it up. Instead, she just gave a slight smile as Spike dropped all the books he was carrying onto the ground. “Er…thank you.”
“It’s all here.” Spike growled. “Everything on dimensional travel, Lutece’s theorem, all that jazz. You can start reading now.”
“Wonderful.” Twilight nodded, taking a cautious step towards the pile of books.
Spike brushed himself off and turned around. “Fluttershy wants to see you. She’ll be here in an hour or so.” Spike shook his head in disbelief. “Though why she’d ever want to see you again is beyond me.”
Twilight couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “I’m not…her, Spike?”
“Oh really?” Spike snapped, whirling around with irritated eyes. “Shining says that you’re the EXACT same as her, just without that mess at the wedding! You’re the same smug, self-centered mule you were beforehoof!”
“Self-centered? How am I self-centered? How was I self-centered?” Part of that was response to the insult, another part was Twilight geniunely asking.
“Let me count the ways!” Spike snarled. “I do …I did EVERYTHING for you, and I barely get a thank you! You only pay attention to me when I make a mistake, treating me like an idiot, like you’ve NEVER made a mistake in you life as Celestia’s little pet!”
“And?” Twilight made a mental note to talk to Spike when she got home. She doubted that she was as horrible as this Spike was making her out to be, but if she was hurting her friend without realizing it…
“When you came into Ponyville, you butted into EVERYPONY’S business just so YOU could have something to write for your teacher! It always had to be from you! You were the only one worthy of Celestia’s attention!”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “I guess, but that changed…”
“Oh yeah, the Smarty-Pants incident! You walked by 3 perfectly good lessons you could’ve sent Celestia, about, say not making assumptions about your friends, but you ignored them because YOU weren’t the star! You HAD to be at the centre of it all, so you cast that spell and set everypony nuts!” Spike was on a roll, and Twilight could tell he’d wanted to get this out for a very long time.
She couldn't really dismiss that. “Well…yeah, but…”
“And just before the rehearsal! You were going on and on about how bad Shining and Cadence were for never writing to you, how you were the victim being left out of their lives, when you NEVER wrote to them! Or heck, to your PARENTS! All of your letters were to Celestia, never your family. They just weren’t important anymore! And then you thought you had the right to criticize Shining and Cadence!”
Twilight groaned. “Yeah…you’re right.”
Spike blinked, his ranting derailed by Twilight actually agreeing with him. “Hwuh?”
“You’re right.” Twilight admitted sadly. “About me not writing to Shining or my parents. I never even mentioned I had a brother to the girls, and suddenly I was yelling about what my brother deserves and how Cadence wasn't good enough for him. Like he was some…I dunno, some book I never read but wouldn’t give to anyone else. Or a toy I wouldn't…geez, no wonder the girls ignored me at the rehearsal.”
Spike crossed his arms and nodded. “At least you admit…wait.” His eyes shot up. “The rehearsal? What did you say at the rehearsal?”
Twilight blinked. “Oh, it wasn’t the same for you. Well, I broke into the rehearsal and started screaming about how Cadence was evil and how my brother didn’t deserve her…”
Spike’s eyes widened. “Wh-wait, didn’t anyone stop you before you came there?”
Twilight shrugged. “Not really. I was hopping mad and nothing was going to get in my way. I ended up looking like a foal in front of my friends, and then the Changeling Queen trapped me in the same caves as Cadence. It was close, but…”
“…everything worked out?” Spike breathed, his jaw hanging open. "Shining got married, Celestia lived, and you were all still friends?"
“Well…kinda, yeah. Why?”
Spike was shaking now, but not with anger. His eyes were wide and his jaw was hanging open numbly. His legs shook and eventually gave out, landing him on his tail as he stared at Twilight numbly.
“Everything would’ve been okay" he breathed in shock, "…if I hadn’t stopped you?”
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
738 users online
904,658 hits today, 2,167,270 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I sense a guilt trip coming on...
So spike was the one that Screwed Everything up. Good to know
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!
Oh! Right! Comment! Comment...
The Good:
Peachbottom is expected bad liar. Funny
Spike's confrontation is nothing less than expected, and his arguments are not without some warrant. After all, Twilight was the personal student of Princess Celestia--even the most humble pony wouldn't get out of that "unscathed" as it were... Never really thought about it like that before, but that doesn't make it less accurate.
The Bad:
The first scene doesn't really do a whole lot, since it's following the show plot with negligible differences... I wonder if you can think of something to add to make it a little more interesting?
poor poor spike
:C i dont blame you
Oh my.... Draft or not... You've made me REALLY excited for the full chapter.
Formatting error. This seems to be the only problem with the chapter.
That ending, brilliant, evil, but simply brilliant.
Finally I put my opinion:
So even if it is only a part of the chapter is very interesting!
Many mysteries are being revealed! Anyway, for me the real Twilight must be careful at least fnchè the king to his subjects does not reveal the affair of the alternate dimension!
However, the bad fiinora has not been discovered, and this seems to me strange.
Small correction; in the show, Twilight states that she was in contact with Shining Armor during the first two seasons. It was just offscreen.
You forgot an "Elsewhere"
Oh shit guilt trip time
Oooohhhh, butterfly effect. Spike stops Twilight, and EVERYTHING goes to hell.