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...Around and Around...1,437 words
...Never Stopping...1,201 words
...Forever1,551 words

...Never Stopping...

Time ceased to have any meaning for Twilight. She couldn't escape from her prison, though more than once she tried her horn again. Not even a simple light spell would work for her, despite her greatest concentration. Deep down she knew exactly why it wasn't working, though it was too painful to admit to herself outright. She couldn't cast spells because she didn't have a horn, only a hollow body of painted wood, precious stones, and some metal. Music boxes couldn't perform spells—her very consciousness was itself a spell.

Once she felt the world around her move, though the change came so suddenly that she hardly noticed it. She didn't see anything, didn't really hear anything either. Wherever she'd been placed, it was packed in too tightly to make out anything of the world beyond.

In time the disorientation from having part of her be upside-down within another part began to fade. There wasn't anyone to talk to, and so she rarely bothered. Besides—the longer she spent in the dark, the more blurred everything got. It was like time itself sped up when there wasn't anyone around for her to interact with. It was too much effort to move her little wooden body, for all the good it would've done her anyway. It was almost too much effort to think.

Eventually the featureless blur of time resolved itself, and Twilight snapped back to herself. The world was moving again, and she could make out a fraction of light streaming through her outer shell to the place her painted wooden eyes could see. Magic held her again, as it had done before, and the longer she spent near it the more clearly she could think.

This was not a blessing. I'm not alive, she found herself thinking, the same constant mantra. The real Twilight made me by accident. She made me to serve a single purpose, and I couldn't even do that. Shining Armor isn't my brother, my friends aren't my friends. Celestia isn't my teacher. I'm just... a thing.

She felt a familiar metal object within her, a part of herself that had been missing and was now returned. Twilight no longer wanted to respond to whoever was out there, but she didn't have a choice. Just as the locking mechanism had trapped her within, when unlocked she was forced to emerge. The springs and gears that were her guts hadn't rusted or covered-over with age in the time she'd been locked away, and they all moved now. Her protective lid rotated around, even as the ballerina rose onto its hoof, balancing in perfect poise as she spun around to the music.

She was sitting on Starlight's desk, and the wood made for a slight echo to the familiar melody. Much of the room had changed—the furniture no longer looked like a hasty collection of whatever Twilight had been able to find in spare-rooms. Where a wall had been the room now continued further, making way for the crystal shelves and massive workspace that it contained. Only this one desk remained the same.

Above her, far above, Starlight Glimmer's massive face had a few more lines, the colors in her mane a little faded. Her expression softened a little as she watched Twilight dance, though the "dance" was really just spinning and the melody was exactly the same as before.

Twilight didn't move beyond what the motor and the music compelled her. She could think again if she wanted, move her "body" the way she wanted... but she didn't see a point. Maybe, if she just pretended to be nothing, Starlight would forget about her. She'd go back into a box somewhere, where she could be welcomed back into oblivion. The spell has to wear off eventually.

"I never got around to investigating you..." Starlight said, her voice wistful and sad. "I wonder if I imagined the whole thing. Guess I'll never know now, will I?"

Twilight kept spinning.

Starlight leaned over her, close enough that Twilight could feel her hot breath. "I was imagining it, wasn't I? You aren't actually alive?"

Twilight kept spinning.

"Shame." Starlight sighed. "I shouldn't have forgotten about you. Maybe the spell wouldn't have worn off if it hadn't been locked away in a box all these years." She stared a few moments longer, as if making absolutely certain that Twilight wasn't about to speak.

She almost did—probably would have, if it weren't for the relief that seemed so close. She can't change me back, I was never anything else. I'm just a spell possessing a music box.

"But... if it did wear off... why do you still look like Twilight?" Starlight leaned even closer, sniffing at her. "Unless it was greater transfiguration. Alicorn magic sure is impressive, isn't it?"

"I wish it wasn't," Twilight said, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Then maybe I wouldn't be here."

Starlight recoiled, looking down in shock and surprise. "You didn't just..."

Twilight looked down, slumping to the reflective ground that had been the ceiling of her prison not long ago. She stopped spinning, stopped making music. "I did."

"But..." Starlight stammered, staring openly at her now. She levitated over a pair of spectacles from the desk beside Twilight, and that seemed to help. "You've been in storage forever! Spells don't last that long."

"Maybe someone had the key," Twilight muttered, glum. "That might've been enough magic to keep the spell around. It's all together, so... if one part had a source of magic..."

"Stop." Starlight shook her head vigorously. "You can't be doing things like this! You're a come-to-life spell! Twilight made you to give me encouragement! You can't know—"

"Everything." Twilight couldn't fight the spring any longer—she returned to her posed position, though she wasn't smiling. "I remember everything. Until the spell. That's when..." She swallowed. "That's when I was created, so my memories diverge from the real Twilight."

"Loving Cadance, I almost sent you off to charity..." Starlight shuddered. "What should I do? We could go to Canterlot Castle, have the princess undo the..." She trailed off. "But that would be..." She stopped, staring down at her for a long, quiet moment. "Are you... alive, Twilight? The way you're acting... it wouldn't be right to just end the spell."

"I've done it before," she said. "Look up the mirror pool. I ended those spells, and they acted alive. Maybe they were, too. More alive than me." She started spinning again, and found the motion strangely soothing. She started the music back up too, and it was easy to get lost in the simple melody, repeating over and over. Maybe she could just forget about everything. Forget about the fear, the life she could never have...

"I'm sorry, Twilight," Starlight Glimmer said. "I don't know how to help you. But maybe there's a pony who does. Just to be safe..." She felt a gigantic hoof again, pushing her gently sideways. Twilight was powerless to resist as the lock clicked back into place, the music stopped, and the light was taken away again. "I'll hide you somewhere. Until somepony can help you."

This time, she didn't even have the will to scream.

Author's Note:

So I felt a little inspired, and I added this and one more chapter. Now it's complete for real, honest!

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