Lessons in Chaos

by TobiasDrake

7 - Discarded

“Fluttershy?!” Twilight exclaimed. She didn’t think anything could shock her more than the very existence of this terrible place, but seeing Fluttershy down here certainly did the trick.

“Shhh,” Fluttershy whispered in the dim glow of the firefly lantern, casting a quick glance over her shoulder. Looking back, she asked, “You know my name? Did Thorax tell you about me? How is he doing? Is his wing any better?”

Twilight put up her hoof, resting it against the bars. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she answered, “I don’t know who that is.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy frowned, looking away from Twilight. “I thought you might be part of his clutch.”

“What are you doing here?!” Twilight demanded.

Fluttershy smiled warmly at her. “I heard there was a new arrival. I thought you might be hungry. Squeakers and Little Tooth have some more bread slices if you’d like.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Of all the surprises she’d had in this strange semblance of reality, this was perhaps the most alarming. The existence of Bridle Rock was bad enough, but for Fluttershy to be imprisoned here? Her mind raced to conceive of anything about her that could be so offensive that she’d be lumped in with the likes of Sunset Shimmer and Trixie.

Of course, given the curve balls this world had been throwing her, she couldn’t discount the possibility that Fluttershy was a pirate or a serial killer or something. Still, it was another of the day’s impossibilities to be seeing her here.

“You don’t want to hear my story,” Fluttershy said sadly.

“Yes! Yes, I do!” Twilight shouted. She was tired of fumbling about this world in the dark. She wanted answers and she wanted them—

“Shhh,” Fluttershy shushed her again.

Twilight winced, then lowered her voice once more. “What happened to you?” she asked. “What happened to Equestria? Where is Princess Celestia?! What is Bridle Rock?! Why does this place even exist?!”

“Oh!” Fluttershy said with a gasp. “Of course, you wouldn’t know. I’m sorry, Miss Changeling. I wasn’t thinking. This is Bridle Rock. Acting Princess Twilight had it commissioned after…well, after Tirek.” Twilight could feel Fluttershy turning solemn. “Everything changed after Tirek,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Tirek. Spitfire had said something about a pony named Tirek as well. Now she was getting somewhere. “What happened with--”

“Hey!” A loud voice called down the hallway. Fluttershy whirled about to face the orange pegasus who had shown Twilight to her cell. The corridor filled with the echo of hooves on the stone below as he approached.

Twilight could just make out the appeasing smile on Fluttershy’s lips as she shrank back into the cell’s bars. “Oh, hi, Flash,” she said sheepishly. “Are you having a pleasant evening?”

Flash? That name struck a chord with Twilight. She definitely knew this pony, she knew him from…Canterlot? No, that wasn’t--oh, Flash! It struck her in an instant. As he stepped into the dim light of Fluttershy’s firefly lantern, there was no mistaking him. The pony that received her here was Flash Sentry! He was a palace guard in the Crystal Empire; she’d met him a couple of times back in her own world.

Flash didn’t answer the question, Twilight noticed. With a resigned sigh, he said, “It’s past lights out, Fluttershy. You know you’re not supposed to be out of your cell.”

“I know,” Fluttershy said, bowing her head as low as she could. “I’m sorry, but I heard we had a new friend and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“What if it was one of the others who found you? They’d report it to Shining Armor in a heartbeat. You know that.”

“I know,” Fluttershy said again. “But she was scared and lonely. I had to do something.”

Flash glanced for just a second at Twilight. “She’s not a ‘new friend’. She’s a changeling.”

“Does being a changeling mean she doesn’t have a right to food and water?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight looked down to see another of Fluttershy’s rats offering her a broken off chunk of carrot. She accepted it gratefully, lifting it from the rat’s claws with her teeth.

Flash sighed. “Look, you’re not wrong,” he admitted.

Fluttershy looked Flash Sentry straight in the eyes, asking, “If I’m not wrong, then why are you attacking me?”

Flash groaned. “Can we not get into this right now? I need to take you back to your cell.”

“You should probably go,” Twilight said in agreement. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Fluttershy’s muscles slacked. She gave a weak nod, surrendering to their pleas. She looked to Twilight, locking eyes on hers. “I’ll find you at breakfast tomorrow.” She put up a single hoof against one of the cell’s bars. “Don’t be afraid. You’re not alone.”

Twilight gave Fluttershy a weak smile. She pressed her own hoof against the bars. “Thank you,” she said simply. For the first time since she’d arrived in this strange reality, Twilight felt welcome. She watched Fluttershy pick up the lantern with her teeth and turn to leave with Flash. The light faded slowly into the distance and for a second, Twilight caught Flash looking back to her, but she couldn’t make out his expression in the dark.

Then they were gone and Twilight collapsed onto her mat. The straw was coarse and uncomfortable, scratching into her side as she struggled to get comfortable. She rolled over onto her side, but with each motion, she found herself itching more. She rolled to her back and squirmed, trying to carve out a space for herself before finally giving up and letting her legs fall where they lay.

Resting her head down, Twilight thought once more of the space between space. She’d shaped the reality or…what? Unreality? What could she even call that? Whatever it was, she’d shaped it just as Discord did. She hadn’t meant to, but she did; her memory had surged up and borne itself into existence in front of him.

There was something to it. There had to be. It wasn’t like anything she’d seen before but…well, no, that wasn’t entirely true, was it? She had only vague memories of the passage between the Crystal Empire and Canterlot High, but there was definitely a similarity to it. If the mirror portal acted as a sort of guided tunnel, carrying a pony through the space between from one world to the other, then it would have to function under similar magical principles. Wouldn’t it?

Twilight thought again of the way the space between had shifted and changed at a whim. Discord said that it was suggestible, as if there was some special property of the place that allowed the changes to occur. Was the ability to enter and manipulate the space between a function of chaos magic?

Or was it something else? That Discord could enter the space between couldn’t be taken as conclusive evidence that this was chaos magic. After all, so far as she knew, his magic didn’t have the same limitations that other types of magic did. That it let him go there didn’t mean that was the only way to get there. It’s not like he’d created the mirror, either. At least, she didn’t think he did.

If Discord’s magic controlled the mirror, Twilight felt like Princess Celestia would have mentioned that before sending her through it.

But even if the mirror wasn’t chaos magic, Twilight believed that the method by which she arrived in the space between had to be. Discord had guided her through it. He didn’t just know the place, he knew the magic she was using to get there. He seemed intimately familiar with the course she charted, and there were few things that could mean. Twilight felt she could assert with 60% accuracy that this was chaos magic she had used.

It would warrant further testing, of course. And since she was trapped in a dingy cell, there was no time like the present, was there? Twilight cleared her mind and tried to focus on the space between. She tried to remember shapes beyond the realm of three dimensions and colors that couldn’t exist, but comprehending a seemingly infinite spectrum from a finite perspective was difficult at best.

She reached out with her mind and tried to find that tether Discord had spoken of, the one she’d followed into this world and on a few occasions had accidentally followed out of it. She slipped into a meditative trance, clearing her mind and thinking, feeling, yearning only for the vast, endless openness between the threads of reality.

For what must have been several minutes, she concentrated, but nothing ever changed. The world never bled away from her. The rows of cells, now quiet enough that she could hear a light snoring from the other ponies incarcerated with her, never budged from her perception. She remained as before fixed to the straw mat, unable to escape the overbearing darkness even through this unconventional avenue.

She thought at last of the disabling spell Shining Armor had placed upon her horn. The spell worked on all kinds of unicorn magic, but even this was denied to her? Perhaps there were limits to chaos magic after all.

---

“Y’reckon she’s thinkin’ of me?” Applejack whispered in the isolating dark. The moon sat high in the Equestrian sky, its light beaming in through her open bedroom window. She lay on her side, looking out at the stars twinkling far away. After the day she’d had, sleep was certainly taking its sweet time finding her.

Smarty Pants rest against Applejack’s chest. The button that made up the doll’s eye felt cold against her chest, but she welcomed the sensation; it was a textile reminder that she wasn’t alone. But as much as Smarty Pants made for a welcome companion in stressful times, the doll wasn’t much of a conversationalist.

“Nah, she wouldn’t be,” Applejack answered herself. “She might spare a thought here or there but that ain’t how her mind works.” Her right hoof clutched the doll while the left gave its mane an absent-minded stroke. “Wherever she is, her brain’s buzzin’ at a mile a minute to find a way home. She’s a problem-solver. Once she puts her mind to somethin’, she can’t stop ‘til it’s fixed.”

Applejack looked down at the little doll. “Maybe this is just our life now,” she wondered aloud. She remembered this feeling of helplessness from that mirror in the Crystal Empire. Once again, Twilight had disappeared on some sojourn or another and once again, there was nothing she could do to help.

Was this going to be their future? As a Princess, Twilight was going to have responsibilities at times that her friends wouldn’t be able to help her with. She might have to travel to distant lands and hold summits for dignitaries and all that gobbledygook that Princesses get up to. It was only a matter of time before Celestia set her up with a castle, a court, and a people she’d be in charge of.

Because at the end of the day, she was Princess Twilight, not Princess Twilight and Friends. Her castle was only going to have one throne.

Unless it had two. That thought rested in the back of Applejack’s mind, rearing its ugly head whenever she thought too hard on this. Giving the doll another stroke, she asked, “If’n Twilight gets sent off to some faraway place, y’think she’d ask me to go?”

“…y’think I’d say yes?”

Too many uncertainties filled the air for Applejack’s liking. Returning her gaze to the night sky beyond her window, Applejack couldn’t help but--

Wait.

Wait, was that…?

Applejack rose with a start. She leapt from her bed and rose up on her hind legs, resting her forelegs on the windowsill. That had to be it. There was no question about it.

“Our constellation,” Twilight had called it. It was a set of five stars arranged in a square with a fifth jutting out on one side. Twilight said that if you drew the lines around it right, it made an apple. But if you added a sixth star on the other side, you could form her six-pointed star.

Applejack had never been one for star-gazing. She adored when Twilight got passionate about it, but it wasn’t really for her. She’d given the sky a cursory glance from time to time, but ever since that night, she’d never seen it. But there it was now, twinkling in the sky as if it was shining just for her.

Staring up at it brought a comforting warmth to her heart. “She’s somewhere out there,” she muttered to Smarty Pants as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Somewhere, Twilight’s lookin’ up at this same sky.”

---

The smell of warm syrup and eggs in a skillet lured Twilight from the embrace of sleep. She drifted from the covers, floating through the air on a cloud made entirely of yearning. She wafted down from her bedroom loft, still laid out on her side as she followed that invisible thread of deliciousness.

Twilight’s hooves touched down on the stairs leading to the library’s foyer. She skated down its ramp, following the ticking sounds of her beating heart. “Mornin’, sugar,” she heard before she saw.

A magnificent library stood before her. Marble bookshelves inlaid with pearls seemed to spiral out in every direction. At the center, there was Applejack flipping an egg in a skillet. “Do you flip eggs?” she asked herself aloud.

“Eh, who really knows?” Applejack answered, flipping the egg again. “You should probably ask me sometime.” Setting the skillet back on the stove, Applejack turned and greeted Twilight with an early morning kiss. Twilight felt her body flooding with desire at the feel of Applejack’s lips. She tasted like pancakes topped with apple butter.

“I miss you,” Twilight whispered once her snout had slid free.

“Now don’t you be frettin’ none when we still ain’t fed the foals yet,” Applejack said, shaking the skillet at Twilight. Where did the eggs go? “It’s Malus’s first day of school and I don’t want that Crystal filly, whatever her surname was, to be pickin’ on him.”

Oh, that’s right. Twilight had forgotten all about the foals’ breakfasts. Applejack walked around the table, laying two plates down in front of a pair of saplings that grew up from cracks in the library’s marble floor. “Now, Pumila, you make sure your”--

“LIGHTS UP!”

A bright green glow flooded Twilight’s vision, dragging her from the depths of what was shaping up to be a really strange session of REM. She blinked against the harsh light while her eyes struggled to adjust. She was…married to an apple tree? Something like that?

The clang of metal against metal struck Twilight’s ears, shaking any semblance of sleep from her mind. A procession of earth ponies clad in the familiar armor of the Royal Guard marched down the corridor, the stomp of their hooves echoing in the enclosed space.

At the head of the procession, a light yellow earth pony announced, “Rise and shine, ponies!” He stopped, casting his gaze in the direction of Twilight’s cell. “And you,” he added before resuming his march.

A pair of unicorn guardponies marched in the back of the group. Their magic stretched out as they walked, unlocking cell doors in their wake. Twilight marveled at the rigorous precision in their timing; each door slid open just as they passed, matching its pace to theirs down to the microsecond.

With each cell door open, Twilight watched as ponies began to pile out of their cells, crowding into the corridor outside. She joined them, trying to get a better look at the guards. The guardpony at the lead turned around to face the crowd while his entourage continued past him, then spun around at the end of the hall to flank him the opposite direction.

“Alright, everypony, you know how this works,” the leader announced. “I want all unicorns to the west block. Everypony else, you’re clear to go through east block.” Twilight watched as the other ponies began to filter out through large, open gates on the sides of the corridor, just before where the guardponies stood.

“You!” Twilight suddenly became acutely aware that the leader was staring straight at her. “The changeling. Shining Armor says you line up with the unicorns.” He studied Twilight’s features for a second, then added, “That means horns, not wings.”

“I know what a unicorn is,” Twilight said in her own defense.

“Do you? Do you really?” The guard leader smirked, and Twilight watched two of the ponies behind him start laughing at her. She tucked her wings to her sides as tightly as she could and looked away towards the left gate, trying to mask her irritation. She was tired of ponies treating her wings as if they were leprous. A pony would think that becoming an alicorn would be met with more rejoicing than she’d seen recently.

Twilight bowed her head and--

“Ow!”

--stepped right into Fluttershy, knocking her off her hooves. Fluttershy fell sideways, landing hard on her side and shoulder.

“I am so sorry! Are you okay?” Twilight spoke frantically, reaching out a hoof to help pull Fluttershy back up.

“It happens,” Fluttershy said sadly, linking her hoof with Twilight’s and accepting the help. “I wanted to say you should meet me in the cafeteria. We can talk over breakfast.” Before Twilight could respond, Fluttershy hurried off, disappearing into the crowd of ponies flowing through the gate on the right.

Somehow, she felt relieved despite her situation. There was something about Fluttershy that always seemed to make a tense situation feel less stressful. She had an air of--

“Hey! Changeling! In case you’re confused, the horns are going that way.” The guard leader pointed a hoof towards the left gate. “They’re spikes made of bone that stick out of a pony’s forehead. You can’t miss ‘em.”

“I’m going!” Twilight shouted in response. Of all the places in this world she’d seen, she definitely hated this one the most.

---

There was something about Fluttershy’s cottage that never failed to bring a sense of tranquility over Applejack. Water trickled over the stones in the creek bed, soothing her eardrums with its gentle caress. The noise of ponies going about their day to day was gone, replaced by nearby birdsong and the occasional insect’s buzzing.

There was a certain smell to nature as well. She felt the cool chill of air rising from the creek, carrying with it the scent of morning grass slick with dew. Even Sweet Apple Acres never quite captured the majesty of the raw, untouched nature. A pony could go her whole life breathing in the forest air and listening to the sound of Rarity screeching, “Well, I think it sounds lovely!”

…so much for that. Applejack picked up her pace to a canter, hurrying to the front door of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Sure, maybe to nerds,” Rainbow Dash retorted. “My tongue’s given up and gone home just thinking about it!”

“Well, she is a ‘nerd’, so that is entirely appropriate. And it’s not like your idea was any better!”

“Hey, I thought it sounded awesome!”

Rarity scoffed. “It’s rubbish, Rainbow Dash. It’s mindless rubbish. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy!”

“Yeah, well I wish you’d--”

“Hey, hey!” Applejack interjected, pushing open the door to the cottage. “Anypony want to explain to me what y’all are getting’ so worked up about?” In front of her Rarity and Rainbow Dash froze in their places, eyes locked on her.

Rarity lowered her head sheepishly, taking a step backwards. “I’d rather not.”

Applejack looked to Rainbow Dash, who grimaced in response. “It’s kind of….”

“There was some context and….”

“…you weren’t there, it was….”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances with each other, then bowed their heads. “It was a silly argument,” Rarity said reluctantly.

Rainbow Dash scratched at the back of her neck with a hoof. “Yeah, we might have….” She drifted off, struggling with herself for a minute. Then she took a step towards Applejack and asked, “Look, if you had to pick something to call the Fake Twilight, would you go with Stony McRockface or Fax…Fatchit….”

“Façade,” Rarity corrected. “It means an illusory, deceptive veil surrounding an unknowable truth. It carries an air of mystique and intrigue.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “It ‘carries an air’ of not being a real word. You made that up!

“I did no such thing! The Faelish have a marvelous dialect; it’s not my fault you can’t be bothered to obtain even an ounce of culture!”

“Yeah, well, normal ponies speak Ponish. Why not just call her Lies?!”

Rarity scoffed. “We are not calling her Lies. That would be completely absurd!”

“It’s kinda what you’re suggesting.”

Applejack nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I don’t speak Fancy neither. Beg pardon, Rares, but I think Rainbow’s got the right of it on that.”

“Ha!” Rainbow Dash thrust out a hoof for Applejack, remarking, “AJ says we’re going with Rockface. Give me hoof.”

“Nah, that just sounds goofy.” Applejack watched Rainbow Dash’s face sour. On a lark, she still gave her pal the requested hoofbump; disagreeing was no reason for leaving a pony hanging like that. “Sorry, Rainbow, but it sounds like somethin’ you cooked up in about five seconds.”

“Hey, I spent—I mean, yeah, uh….” Rainbow Dash cast a sideways glance away from Applejack. “You got me. That totally just came to me.”

Applejack took a look across the room. Pinkie Pie sat with Fluttershy on the sofa, using her hoof to push a small pink token along a gameboard. She moved the piece one space at a time, making “tok tok tok” sounds with her mouth on each space it passed. “Free space!” she announced ecstatically. “That means I get to go again!” She looked up to see Applejack watching her expectantly. “Oh, hi, Applejack! When did you get here?”

Applejack grimaced. “I, uh, well, I got somethin’ I wanted to say to everypony.”

Fluttershy rose from the couch, lowering herself to the floor. “If you could wait for just one minute, I had a suggestion that I wanted to share once all the fighting stopped.”

Applejack stepped back, raising a hoof to Fluttershy. “You go right ahead. Floor’s yours.” Internally, she breathed a sigh of relief for the interruption.

Fluttershy cleared her throat. “I was thinking that maybe we should call her Cardilight.”

“What,” Rarity said flatly.

“Well, it’s what you get when you put the names Cardinal and Twilight together.”

“I’m aware of what it means. Why would we call her that?”

Fluttershy beamed as she spoke. “You see, sometimes in my graphic novels, two ponies will fuse together into one pony. When that happens, what they do is they take the two ponies’ names and put them together to make one name.”

Rainbow Dash grimaced at the suggestion. She looked up, trying to picture it in her mind. “What, so Pinkie and I would turn into one pony and be…what, Rainkie? Pinkbow?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Ponies also use this trick for combining the names of couples in these stories, so they can have a word to refer to them as. For instance, Applejack, you and Twilight would be Applelight or Twijack or something like that. But if you got together with Rarity, you’d be Applety or Rarijack. Something to that effect.”

“Or,” Fluttershy said as a crimson blush spread across her face. Reaching up with a hoof, she brushed her mane behind her ear. With a hopeful smile, she looked up to Rainbow Dash, standing just in front of her. “If, um…if Rainbow Dash and I were ever to get together, we could be Flutterdash? Maybe?”

“No, that’s weird,” Rainbow Dash asserted. “Why would we want to put Cardinal in her name? Don’t we want to keep all of that away from her?”

“I agree,” Rarity added. “The fewer reminders of Cardinal’s influence she has, the better off we’ll all be.”

Pinkie perked up, bouncing into the conversation. “What about T2? Twi Hard? Twi Some More? A Good Day to Twi?”

Rainbow Dash looked at the others. “Okay, is it bad if I like Twi Hard?”

Immediately, Rarity answered, “It’s dreadful and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Can we table this for a moment?” Applejack asked. “I got somethin’ I want to say to y’all.”

“Of course, Applejack.” Rarity smiled. “What is it?”

Applejack took a deep breath. This was going to be a hard conversation, but she knew it was one that had to happen. “Listen, I just want to say I’m sorry ‘bout the way I acted yesterday. I shouldn’t have been so short with everypony.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “We’re cool. So anyways, how about The Stonicorn? Because she’s--”

Applejack blinked. “Wait, that’s it? Y’ain’t mad I stormed out like I did?”

“Of course not.” Fluttershy came up beside Applejack, putting a comforting hoof against her foreleg. “We’re all worried about Twilight.”

“I’m not!”

“Except Pinkie Pie.”

From her comfortable place on the sofa, Pinkie pie held out her forelegs, gesturing to the room. “She’s Twilight, you guys. She’s probably whipping up some big spell that’s going to bring her home right now!” Pinkie Pie leapt from the couch, joining the others in the center of the room. “Any second now, she’s going to just POOF and she’ll be right here, in front of us.”

Pinkie stared intensely at the middle of Fluttershy’s rug. “Any second now, she’s going to be right here.”

Rarity looked to Applejack. “Fluttershy’s--”

“Aaaaaaany second now.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “What she’s trying to--”

“Aaaaaaanyyyyyyyy second nooooooooooow.”

“She’s trying to--”

“Aaaaaaany--”

“PINKIE PIE!!!” Rarity screamed, slamming her front hooves into the floor in front of her. She seethed, breathing heavy and lightly shaking. A second passed, then another as her agitation seemed to emanate off her in waves. Then something seemed to snap in her and she coughed, raising a hoof to cover her snout.

Her muscles loosened, she took a deep breath, and she composed herself. “Pinkie, darling, why don’t you be a dear and go fetch my curling iron? I’ve been such a state since yesterday and I’m afraid I didn’t have a chance to freshen up this morning.”

With a bright smile, Pinkie Pie answered, “Okie-dokie-loki!” Before anypony knew what had happened, she’d bolted out the door.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Do y’even use a curlin’ iron? I thought your mane just did that.”

“The point Fluttershy’s making is that we’re all concerned. We can’t imagine the stress this must be putting you under. If you need some time, you go right ahead and take it.” Rarity shared a glance with Fluttershy and then the two came together around Applejack, embracing her. A couple seconds later, Rainbow Dash joined in the embrace from above.

“That’s right,” Fluttershy agreed. “We’re all worried. Even, um…her,” she squeaked out.

Applejack winced at the mention, tensing up within the group hug. “You’re talkin’ ‘bout the rock.”

Fluttershy was the first to break off from the embrace, backing up to make eye contact with Applejack. “She misses you,” she explained. “She doesn’t talk about it, but I think it would really make her day if you would go see her. She’s downstairs right now, studying her core. Spike brought some materials from the library.”

“She ain’t goin’ back?” Applejack asked.

Rarity shook her head. “She said it would be for the best if she didn’t get comfortable while she’s adjusting. She slept here last night.”

“She doesn’t sleep,” Fluttershy corrected. “I think she’s been working.”

Applejack sighed. “Look, y’all, I miss her too. The real one. Twilight. Not the rock that stole her face. I’m sorry, but I just…I ain’t ready to face her. I can’t look her in the eyes and see Twilight lookin’ back at me. I ain’t--”

“Applejack?”

Applejack whirled to see Twilight standing at the door to the kitchen, eyes agape. She held a journal clutched to her chest. At the sight of Applejack, she squeezed the journal tightly to her. “You…you came….” She whispered. “I wasn’t expecting to see you! How are you? Is there anything I can get for you?”

“Applejack?” Spike asked, following Twilight through the kitchen door. “Oh.” He looked quickly to Rarity, who gritted her teeth and shook her head slowly to him. Getting the message, he took a few steps back into the kitchen.

Applejack stepped backwards away from Twilight’s phantom. “Oh, uh, Twilight, I was…I was stoppin’ by and....”

“I was just about to share some of my research,” the illusion explained. “Are you going to stay? I would love to hear what you think. And, well….” She reached up with her left hoof, idly brushing her mane against her neck. “…it’d mean a lot to me if you could be here.”

Applejack opened her snout to answer, but then she felt Rainbow Dash kicking her in her left hind leg. Applejack looked to her left and saw Rainbow Dash nodding to her. She couldn’t help but noticed that Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity had arranged themselves in a semicircle around her, barring her from the front door.

“I think that’s a lovely idea,” Rarity agreed. Pointedly, she asked, “What do you think, Applejack?”

“Alright, y’all don’t need to make a thing of it.” Applejack looked to the illusion. “I’ll stay.”

“Great!” The fake Twilight bounced into the air from her giddiness. Upon hitting the ground, she coughed, cleared her throat, and composed herself. “I mean, thank you. It’s nice to have you back with us.” She stepped towards Applejack, but the earth pony put a hoof up to stop her advance. The illusion backed off, recomposing herself.

“Why don’t you tell us what you’ve found?” Applejack suggested.

“Right.” Twilight stepped around Applejack, entering the living room proper. “It’s not so much what I’ve found as it is what I think I might be able to find. As you know, my magic is…well, gone wouldn’t be the factually correct way to phrase it. I’ve never had magic. I have memories of magic. I have working knowledge of magical theory and countless hours of practice, but I can’t cast even the most basic of unicorn spells.”

“Yeah, why is that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Because I’m not a pony,” the illusion answered bluntly. “More specifically, it’s because I’m a spell. I was created with a few specific magical functions; I don’t actually have magic of my own.”

“…but don’t you eat magic?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“That, uh….” The illusion took a deep breath. Applejack narrowed her eyes; she didn’t need to know a lot about magic to know that a thing that doesn’t breathe taking a deep breath was clearly for visual effect. “That’s what I wanted to talk to everypony about. Last night, I took some of Fluttershy’s magic.”

“You did what?!” Applejack exploded. The Twilight illusion visibly flinched at her outburst.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said. “I let her do it.”

“The effect was incredible,” Twilight continued. “It was like there was a film over my mind that suddenly lifted. I woke up to a new level of clarity. I was able to focus again in ways I haven’t since all of this began. Even my memories fell right into place. I couldn’t imagine them having ever been in question. It felt like I was becoming real.”

Applejack braced herself. In her mind, she could already see where this was going. She watched as the fake Twilight looked from one pony to the next as if reading their expressions.

Twilight continued, just as Applejack presumed she would. “I need your help. With your permission, I’d like to drain magic from you periodically. It will just be enough to keep my reserves topped off, in order to prevent any decrease in my emotional and mental faculties.”

“How much magic would you need to take?” Rarity asked carefully.

Applejack whirled on her. “Y’ain’t actually thinkin’ about this, are you?!”

“It shouldn’t be too much,” the illusion answered. “If I can drain magic from one pony each day, it would probably leave that pony feeling weakened for at least six hours.”

“At least?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s not a precise estimate.”

Rarity looked to the others. “I don’t know about this.”

The illusion lowered her head. “I know it’s an unusual request, but I’ve seen the alternative. When Cardinal attacked me--”

“Twilight,” Applejack corrected.

“…yes. When Cardinal attacked Twilight, I saw what happens if he runs low on magic. He was flickering uncontrollably and ranting. None of it made any sense. It was like his consciousness was firing off in random spasms; it was horrifying. I don’t want that to happen to me.”

Fluttershy broke with the group, embracing the illusion. “We don’t want that to happen either.” Her pleading eyes crossed the others, seeking empathy in their visages. “Do we?” she asked pointedly, as much a statement as a question.

“Please,” the illusion said. “I don’t have legs or wings or this horn on my head. None of this is real. It’s just layer after layer of deceptions. It’s light shaped by magic to look like a pony. I know I’m not real but my mind is. It’s the only thing I have that’s real. The only thing that’s really and truly mine.”

“It ain’t yours,” Applejack accused. “It’s stolen from Twilight, just like the rest of you.”

The fake Twilight closed her eyes and once again, Applejack couldn’t help feeling like it was just for effect. “Maybe you’re right,” she said quietly. “That might be fair. But if that’s true, then, logically speaking, wouldn’t that be more reason to help me preserve it?”

“I’ll do it,” Rainbow Dash said. “You can start with me and we’ll see what happens.”

“Technically, I started with Fluttershy,” Twilight corrected her. “Still, I appreciate it all the same.”

Applejack argued, “You sure about this, Rainbow? What if it’s a trick?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Why would it be a trick?”

“She could be tryin’ to steal your magic.”

“I’m giving her my magic.” Distressingly, Rainbow Dash made more sense than Applejack was comfortable with. “Look, I trust her. I mean, come on, it’s Twilight. She’d never do anything to hurt us.”

Applejack glowered. “She ain’t Twilight,” she grumbled through gritted teeth.

Rainbow Dash shrugged again, gesturing with one hoof to the illusion. “Isn’t she? I mean, she looks like her. She talks like her. She’s got Twilight’s memories and stuff. I’m not saying she could replace the real Twilight or anything, but she’s kinda Twilight.”

From the door to the kitchen, the illusionary Twilight beamed. A proud smile grew across her face and she lifted a hoof to her heart.

Rainbow Dash dropped her hoof to the floor. “Look, I don’t get all of this, but my gut says she’s cool. That’s good enough for me.”

“That ain’t what mine says,” Applejack said, her low voice turning to a snarl.

“Well, you’re not the boss of me.” Rainbow Dash turned to address Twilight. “So how do we do this?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” the illusion answered. Ponies backed away from Rainbow Dash, forming a semicircle around her as Twilight’s image approached. At the tip of Twilight’s horn, a white crackle appeared sending flashes of light across the room. She looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes, asking, “Are you ready? You might feel some muscle weakness and a loss of energy. I’ve only done this once, but I think that’s normal.”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Hit me with your best--” Before she could finish, the light from Twilight’s horn enveloped her. She felt a wave course through her, starting at the tips of her hooves and working its way up her legs. It traveled through her body and then up her neck before finally tugging out from the edge of her snout.

After that came another wave surging across her followed by another. With each wave, she could feel her strength diminishing. Her torso became heavier as the strength to hold it up faded from her. Fatigue washed through her, dabbing at her senses. She found it harder to focus or to follow the basic movements of her friends.

She hadn’t even noticed that the waves had stopped until she heard Twilight say, “We’re done.” She tried to raise her foreleg for a hoofbump, but her other legs gave out on her and she toppled to the side.

Applejack raced to her side, catching her and putting a hoof around her back to brace her. “We got you,” she said quickly.

Rarity came around Rainbow Dash’s other side, offering a hoof to help her walk. “Let’s get you over to the couch.”

The Twilight phantom winced. “I’m sorry, I should have thought about that. I’d help but, well…fragile.”

With some assistance from her friends, Rainbow Dash flopped onto her side on the couch. She smiled weakly at Twilight. “You got what you needed?”

“I did,” the phantom said with a smile. “I feel wonderful. Thank you.”

“Awesome.” Rainbow Dash let out a long yawn. “I think it’s nap o’clock. Thanks for flying, have a great day.” Her head promptly fell into the cushion and within seconds, the room echoed with the sound of her snoring.

“She’ll be okay, right?” Applejack asked.

The phantom studied Rainbow Dash carefully. Without turning her eyes away, she answered, “She will. She just needs some time to rejuvenate her magic.” She glanced over to see Fluttershy hovering over the couch, slowly draping a blanket over Rainbow Dash before landing off to the side.

“She looked cold,” Fluttershy explained.

The illusion nodded affirmingly. She--

“FOUND IT!!!” Pinkie Pie blew through the front door covered in twigs and leaves. Cheerfully, she bounded in front of Rarity and extended the front curl of her mane, offering up a hair curler wrapped in its cord.

Rarity blinked. She stared at the hair curler as though it were diseased, pulling her forelegs back away from it. “Pinkie Pie, where did you get this?”

Pinkie grinned. “Well, I looked all over your home but it wasn’t there so that’s when I started to really search! It turns out, you left it in Roseluck’s bathroom!” Rarity glanced over to Applejack, who responded only with a shrug. “So, what I’d miss?”

---

As Twilight entered the west block, she took the time to have a look at her surroundings. She’d only seen the facility in dim lighting, but now there were crystals fixed to the ceiling at regular intervals letting out a green glow.

The corridor filled with the sound of hooves clapping against the stone floor. Twilight took her place at the back of a line that stretched fifty feet to the end of the hall, then turned sharply to the right. The line moved forward at a steady pace. Every ten seconds or so, the line would move forward a single pony length, then stop once more. She hoped it wouldn’t extend much further beyond the corner; while last night’s visitation had been appreciated, she found she was quite hungry this morning.

“Why do they separate the unicorns?” she idly asked the pony ahead of her. It was only after she’d spoken that she realized she recognized that Cutie Mark; a light blue wand overlaid against a sparkling, fluttering cape.

“Why do you think?” the pony replied with a scoff. “Holding our breakfast hostage is how they make sure we comply. Not that it really matters anyway. Not every unicorn is Twilight Sparkle.”

“This is where they refresh the disabling spell,” Twilight surmised, following the logic.

“Of course it’s where they refresh it.” The pony rolled her eyes. “What is this, your first time in the--” She turned to glance at Twilight and stopped dead in her tracks. Her snout hung open and her eyes slowly widened with recognition.

“Um…buzz buzz?” Twilight suggested sardonically.

That set her off. Trixie let out a deafening scream and scrambled over the pony in front of her, taking shelter behind a protective wall of amber horsehide. “Hey!” the pony shouted before turning on Twilight with a stern glare.

Twilight had just long enough to remark to herself on how weird it felt to see Sunset Shimmer as a pony before a guardpony’s voice boomed through the corridor, “What’s going on down there?!”

“SHE’S TRYING TO REPLACE ME!!!” Trixie shrieked. Before Twilight knew what was happening, she felt herself yanked sideways by a unicorn’s magic field, pulling her out of line to face the white stallion now bearing down on her.

“No, I’m not!” Twilight replied frantically.

“Should have known,” the guardpony grumbled. “Back of the line!”

Twilight looked behind her to see that the unicorn line now extended back into the row of cells she’d come from. “But I didn’t do anything,” she pleaded with the guard.

“Either you go to the back of the line or you can go to confinement. Your choice.”

Twilight looked desperately to Trixie, who remained tucked in her place behind a glowering Sunset Shimmer. “Fine,” she grumbled, following the line backwards. This was going to be a long day.

---

This time, Twilight remained silent, trudging along with the rest of the ponies. Twenty minutes later, the line brought her to the corner. She could make out another turn forty feet down and groaned. As if on cue, her stomach groaned with her.

As she walked, she noticed that the line passed through a gate, then a small inner room with another gate. The inner room had a large metal door with a small window. The door looked heavier than anything else she’d seen in Bridle Rock.

Her immediate reflex was to inquire about it, but then she remembered what had happened with Trixie and clamped her jaw shut. The curiosity nagged at her, but it would have to wait until after breakfast.

Around the second bend, Twilight finally saw the end of the line. The door to a large cafeteria stood open, framed by a brass archway with a clearly visible cyan field glowing inside of it. Guardponies were stopping the line just in front of it, permitting only a single unicorn to pass at a time.

When it came her turn, Twilight stepped through the archway and felt the sensation of its disabling magic binding her horn again. This had to be the refresh that Shining Armor was talking about. Every morning, she’d have to renew the disabling spell or she wouldn’t eat. She briefly wondered how long she’d have to fast in order to wait out the effect, but realized the Royal Guard would probably force her through it anyway.

Beyond the archway, Twilight entered a vast cafeteria. The size and magnitude of this place shocked her; mares and stallions of all races and colors filled over two dozen tables in the canteen. Their conversations created a raucous cacophony that echoed through the room. Twilight stood stunned for a few seconds, taking them in; there must have been over a hundred ponies seated at these tables.

Another gurgle from her stomach shook her from her surprise. She followed the unicorns towards the north wall, where three rows of counters rested, each with a disinterested looking unicorn standing behind it. Twilight watched as the others divided between counters. She selected the line that looked the smallest, then took her place there.

It was another fifteen minutes before she was able to pick up a tray in her teeth, following suit from the ponies ahead of her. She lifted the tray and set it on her outstretched hoof, then followed the line to the counter. “Good morning,” she greeted the unicorn behind the counter.

“Don’t talk to me,” was her only response. With her magic field, the unicorn placed a bowl of oats, a glass of water, and a single apple on Twilight’s tray. Twilight stared down at the dismal meal. Was there supposed to be more to--

“Hey, move along!” A voice behind her commanded.

Twilight jumped. “Sorry!” She took her tray and hustled back towards the tables, looking for a place to sit in the crowded room. She walked between the tables, eyes scanning for open seats. After a minute of searching, she spotted an unoccupied corner beside a large earth pony stallion. “Excuse me, is this spot free?” she asked politely.

“Not for you, changeling.”

Dismayed, Twilight continued looking. She found another spot in the middle of a table, but the pony next to it reached and with a hoof to cover it when she drew close, fixing a harsh glare to her. “Keep moving,” she said gruffly.

Finally, Twilight found a table near the back of the room that was half abandoned. She sat down at the corner as far away from everypony else as she could get and then looked down at her meal. She breathed out a long, depressed sigh.

She missed Spike’s macadamia and rhubarb pies. She missed waking up to the smell of flapjacks and apple brown betties wafting through an old Applewood house, where the very walls and floor seemed to carry the scent of fruit long past. She missed elaborate luncheons in a library carved from a great oak, seated at a table that had seen more generations of ponies than the Apples had orchards.

Discord was the key. She knew that much. She hated it, but she would need to work with him if she was going to get home. He seemed to have a strange curiosity about her, and that gave her a hoof in the door. All she needed to do was figure out how to leverage it.

“GOOD MORNING CRYSTAL EMPIRE!!!” Twilight started at the sudden appearance of Pinkie Pie. She hadn’t even noticed the black crystal hanging above the counters; another receiver for whatever spell allowed the Acting Princess to send out recent events to the rest of the kingdom. Wreathed in blue flame, Pinkie Pie emerged on the surface of the crystal, as upbeat as ever.

“Oh my gosh, you guys, you would not believe what just happened yesterday! So, Acting Princess Twilight went out to Ponyville to see how bad the damage was, right? When out of nowhere, BAM!” Pinkie Pie slammed her fist down on the table in front of her, just out of sight from the flaming image. “Out of nowhere, the Frowny Faces jumped her!” She gasped in shock at her own statement. “I know, right?!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Pinkie’s explanation. Surveying the damage?

“Applejack was like, ‘GRRRR!!! First you, then the Empire! Now will be the end of peace for all ponies!!!’ But it’s cool, ‘cause then Twilight saw what was happening and she was like, POW!” Pinkie pantomimed throwing a punch with her right foreleg. “But, you know, it was a magic POW with all her cool spells and stuff. So then Twilight chased off those Frowny Faces and made it back in one piece. And she made sure nopony got hurt in the process!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight leapt to her hooves. Visions of the Sonic Rainboom colliding with Spitfire flashed over the image of Pinkie Pie’s impossibly cheerful smile. Ponies turned, fixing their attention to her, and Twilight suddenly felt the weight of her outburst. “That’s a lie!” she accused, looking at the crowd of ponies in the canteen. “Why would she say that?!”

“’Cause she’s a tool,” one voice called out from the sea of ponies around her.

“BUT WAIT!!!” Pinkie continued. “That’s not all. So, Twilight came back fired up and with a plan to take down those Frowny Faces for good. But just then, a dozen changelings jumped her in the records room!” Pinkie punctuated her statement by screaming at the top of her lungs, waving about her forelegs in the air.

Once more, all eyes turned on Twilight. She shrank down on her bench, trying to conceal herself as best she could behind her bowl of oatmeal. “That’s not what happened,” she said again.

“But Twilight kept her cool. ‘I’ll never let you hurt my beloved Crystal Empire!’ she shouted as she charged into battle, ordering the Royal Guard to stay back so they wouldn’t get hurt. She singlehoofedly fended off the whole swarm and sent them all buzz buzz BUZZING back to whatever hole they crawled out of!”

Pinkie Pie reached to the side, bringing her hoof back with a piece of paper resting on top of it. “I’m supposed to read you this note Rarity gave me. It says, ahem, what we should all take away from yesterday is that no matter what happens or who tries to threaten the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle is always there to defend us. She is our hero, our friend, and our beloved Acting Princess.”

Pinkie set the paper down. “There you have it, everypony. Acting Princess Twilight’s looking out for your--" Suddenly, she let out a huge gasp. “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! I just thought of something, you guys! Do you think the Frowny Faces have been working with the changelings this entire time?!?! I am so looking into this, everypony! See you next time, and remember to keep on smiling!”

The blue flames faded from the crystal, taking the image of Pinkie Pie with them as they vanished. Twilight looked down at her bowl. The flames seemed to have taken her appetite with them. All she could think about was why Pinkie Pie would lie the way she did. Twilight knew the truth, and it barely even resembled what Pinkie had said. Why would she say those things?

She wasn’t finding any answers and she was still hungry. Twilight bit down on the edge of her oatmeal bowl, lifting it up. Resting its weight on her hoof, she gulped down the warm contents. She was pleasantly surprised at the discovery that it wasn’t cold; that was something, at least. It certainly wasn’t her Special Somepony’s apple and cinnamon blend, but at least it was edible.

Once empty, she set the bowl back on her plate and looked over her apple. “Of course,” she grumbled to herself.

“Not what you expected?” Twilight jumped in her seat, startled by the sudden voice. Sunset Shimmer stood at the side, propping herself up with her forelegs on the table. The height allowed her to tower over Twilight, making the alicorn feel smaller by association.

“Hi!” Twilight said nervously. She took a second to compose herself, then followed up. “I mean, no, it’s not that. Well, it’s kind of that. The oatmeal leaves a lot to be desired but it’s not the worst either. It’s….” A large blue stallion she didn’t recognize came around her other side, taking a seat beside her. A light green mare sat down across from her. She felt foolish admitting what she was thinking, and the presence of more ponies wasn’t helping.

“Go on,” Sunset implored, rolling her hoof. The way she said it, Twilight couldn’t help but notice that it sounded more like an order than a request.

“It’s my apple,” she admitted. “The stem is a quarter inch too short and there are clear imperfections in the skin here and here.” She gestured with her hoof. “There’s bruising around the back which implies a lack of care given to its fall distance and impact surface. The wrinkles on its surface suggest an overripe fruit. Also, the color’s off. I’m not really good with color but it should be…more red, I guess? A darker red. Redlike.”

Sunset grinned, listening to Twilight rant. “Seriously?” she asked. “You’re an apple snob?”

“I….” The question caught Twilight by surprise. Shrinking down in her seat, she explained, “I didn’t used to be.” Another pony sat down at the table. This one was an orange pegasus with a light green mane that curled around her ear.

Twilight hadn’t even noticed Trixie cowering behind Sunset until she spoke up, asking “Why are we talking to her?”

“Because I’m curious.” Sunset folded her forelegs on the table, lowering her eyeline to be equal with Twilight’s. “Level with me. How much of that was true just now?”

“All of it?” Twilight asked. “You can see the wrinkles for yourself here--"

“Not your stupid apple!” Sunset slapped herself in the forehead with a hoof. “I’m talking about you and a bunch of other changelings jumping Twilight Sparkle. How much of that happened?”

“Oh.” Twilight looked down at her tray. “That report completely misrepresented what happened. There was a brief altercation after she came to, but--”

Sunset jumped back up on her hooves, excited. “Came to?! You knocked out Twilight Sparkle?! Did you hit her with something? Or did you just come up behind her and go….” Sunset reached out to her left, putting her foreleg around the mare across from Twilight. In one swift motion, she slammed the pony’s face into the table.

Twilight jerked backwards at the sudden violence in front of her, but the rest of the group seemed unfazed by it. The mare in question lifted her head back up, rubbing her snout, but said nothing in her own defense. She looked fearfully at the grin emblazoned on Sunset’s face and sat in silence.

Twilight’s gut churned at the sight. This was Sunset Shimmer exactly as she remembered her. Malevolent, self-absorbed, and entirely too willing to harm others on a whim. In a world gone mad, Sunset had managed to come through unscathed.

“The second one?” Twilight answered, trying to sound confident. She kept glancing at the mare across from her, who was now cradling her snout.

“Sunset, she’s a changeling,” Trixie hissed from behind.

“Yeah, a changeling who smashed Twilight Sparkle’s face into her desk.” Sunset laughed. “Come on, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t love to have been a fly on that wall.”

“It would literally be the highlight of my existence but that’s not the point!” Trixie peered over Sunset’s back at Twilight. “She’s trying to use her changeling tricks on us. Why are we talking to her?”

Sunset considered Trixie’s ravings, then shrugged. “Eh. I got what I wanted.” She dropped from the table and, as if on cue, the ponies around Twilight rose from their places to follow her. Even the mare across the table, still cradling her face, moved without hesitation.

Twilight’s conscience nagged at her. She hated herself for not saying something or doing something in that pony’s defense, but she didn’t know what she could have done. Sunset’s ponies had her surrounded and she--

It was at that moment that she noticed her apple was missing. She looked back up just in time to see Sunset Shimmer grinning back at her from across the cafeteria, the missing fruit resting conspicuously in her hoof.

“HEY!!!” Twilight shouted, leaping up. Sunset took a single step away, then stopped suddenly in her tracks.

“Oh, you retrieved Miss Changeling’s apple,” Fluttershy said sweetly. “That was so kind of you. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

Sunset blinked a couple of times. Her crew of ponies parted, giving her a wide berth as though afraid to be associated with her crime. “…yeah. That’s what I did,” she said uncertainly. Taking a few careful steps back to the table, Sunset returned the fruit to its place on Twilight’s tray. “You, uh…you should keep more of an eye on your things around here. Stuff just goes missing sometimes. You know how it is.”

“Do I?” Twilight asked skeptically.

Sunset chuckled nervously. “She’s a joker, this bug. She likes jokes. Come on, Trixie.” She gave Twilight an enthusiastic pat on her back, then started to slip away. The other members of her group had already dissipated, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves.

“Oh, before I forget!” Fluttershy perked up. “Trixie, I wanted to talk about your diet. How is your digestion doing lately? Because I think there’s some artichoke left over if you still need it.”

Trixie blushed, glancing at Sunset and Twilight. Lowering her head, she whined through gritted teeth, “…not in front of the changeling!”

Fluttershy smiled. “If you insist. But do let me know if you need anything at all. I’ll see what we can scrounge up.” She waited for Sunset and Trixie to slink away, both ponies giving her their widest fake smiles, before addressing Twilight. “How are you feeling, Miss Changeling? I wanted to check up on you and make sure you’re settling in well.”

“I’m fine,” Twilight said defensively. She took a bite out of her apple, determined to get it eaten before anything else could happen to it.

“That’s good to hear.” Fluttershy sat down across from Twilight. “So, we can’t keep calling you Miss Changeling, can we? Do you mind sharing your name?”

While trying to think of how to answer that, Twilight looked to where Sunset and Trixie had gone, but found only the exit doors standing open. On the east side of the room near where the pegasi and earth ponies entered, a set of double doors opened into a hallway beyond, lit by the same green light as the rest of the facility.

By now, the cafeteria had mostly cleared of ponies, but Twilight found herself in no hurry to see where they’d gone. The sooner she could be out of Bridle Rock, the better. It made her nauseous to even think of such a place existing in Equestria. This, of course, did little to help her ascertain an answer for what should, in most scenarios, be a very simple question.

“Are you not allowed to tell me?” Fluttershy asked. “That’s okay. I would never ask you to betray your hive. I can come up with something myself. How about Antennae?”

“Antennae?” Twilight asked, just before taking another bite of apple.

“You’re right, that’s a mouthful. Oh! What about Skitter? How does that sound?”

Twilight swallowed. “Like I need to be swatted with a rolled-up newspaper.”

“Oh, dear.” Fluttershy thought for a moment. “Does Mandible sound any better?

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “You know what? Let’s just go with Skitter.” Great. Another fake identity to justify her unjustifiable presence in a world she didn’t belong to. One that seemed to become more terrible by the hour, no less.

Fluttershy beamed. “Skitter, it is. So, are you allowed to change back to your natural state? You’ve been wearing that disguise since you came in.”

“You watched me come in?!” Twilight marveled at the mysterious power Fluttershy held over this place. The way Sunset Shimmer and Trixie had behaved was stuck in her mind; she couldn’t believe how suddenly they’d changed as soon as Fluttershy was in their presence.

“Oh, no, but Francis and The Big Cheese were starting their rounds when you showed up.”

“Big Cheese?” Twilight asked with a grin.

“The Big Cheese,” Fluttershy corrected. “The ‘The’ is very important. It makes him feel like more of a rodent to have a ‘The’ in his name.” Twilight shook her head, amused at the naming preferences of Bridal Rock’s rodentia. “In any case, they told me all about it. We don’t usually get new prisoners so late, so I had to go meet you for myself.”

“I’m glad you did,” Twilight said truthfully. “Things haven’t been easy for me since I showed up in….” This world? This timeline? This version of reality? “…Equestria. Your kindness last night meant a lot to me. Thank you.”

“Of course!” Fluttershy seemed to be glowing from Twilight’s words. “We’re all in here together. We have to look out for each other, because there’s nopony else here to do it.”

The sentiment warmed Twilight’s heart. For the first time, something felt right in Equestria. It was exactly the kind of thing she’d expect to hear from her friends. She’d found a little piece of home, a piece of love and kindness in this strange world filled with violence and lies. She’d found a fraction of the Magic of Friendship locked in a cage and buried under a mountain.

“Why don’t you let me show you around?” Fluttershy offered. “There isn’t a lot to show, but I can. Show you, I mean.”

Twilight smiled amicably. “I’d like that. Thank you.”

Fluttershy gestured to the east and west doors. “Those go to the cell blocks, but you already knew that. Each one’s built to hold about two dozen ponies. There were only two when I got here, but they keep expanding them to have enough for all the residents.”

“How many are there now?”

“Nine.”

“Wow,” Twilight said aloud. A feeling of horror crept into her stomach, tinged with a revulsion she’d never felt before. “I was not prepared for that answer,” she admitted. She quickly ran the numbers in her head. “There are 216 ponies in this place?!”

“Oh, no, don’t be silly,” Fluttershy said. Twilight had enough time to breathe a sigh of relief before she continued. “The ninth block isn’t full yet; that’s where your cell is. There are only 207. When there’s only five empty cells left, that’s usually when they start construction on a new block.”

Twilight’s breath stopped short. Over two hundred ponies were sealed away from the world in this place. Why? What could this possibly accomplish? “How long are we supposed to be here?” she asked. “Do ponies ever leave?”

“Until we reform,” Fluttershy answered simply. “We can leave when we prove to the Acting Princess that we are responsible and productive members of society.”

“So, she comes here often to check on us?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, no, she’s never come to see Bridle Rock herself. At least, not for as long as I’ve been here. It’s usually her brother, but he only stops by to drop off new residents.

“Then how is she supposed to know if we’ve reformed?!”

Fluttershy shrugged. “I’m sure she has her ways. She’s very clever.” She hopped down from the table, gesturing to the second east door. “Why don’t you follow me? The social areas are this way.”

Twilight stepped down from the table and trotted after Fluttershy. The door led to a rounded corridor, traveling north while gradually bending around to the west. “Has anypony ever left?” she asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

“No. But I’m sure that if we all keep to our best behavior, she’ll let us go one day. We’re only here because we did something bad.” In a quiet voice, she added, “We belong here.” Twilight couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t sound very convinced.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked carefully.

“I…I shouldn’t have….” Fluttershy choked on her crime. The words caught in her throat, refusing to complete the idea she was straining herself to assert.

She took Twilight through a doorway in the middle of the corridor, leading to an open room. A dozen bookshelves stood stacked against the back wall. Three round tables sat in the middle of the room, each with a dozen hard wooden chairs surrounding it. Quickly, Fluttershy said, “Oh, look. This is the library. It’s, um…well, it’s not a very good library. There are books if you ever want to visit some books. And chairs, if you ever want to read chairs. And….” Flustered, she quickly turned away.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Twilight said quickly.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said.

“Don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Twilight thought for a moment, then added, “Except whatever you did wrong, anyway. Uh…so, library, huh? Sounds like there’s a lot of exciting chairs to read!”

Fluttershy giggled. “I’m glad you’re here, Skitter. I mean, I’m not glad you’re here, here. That’d be rude of me. But--”

“I understood what you meant.”

Fluttershy smiled. “If you’ll follow me down this hall, I’ll show you the way to the workshop.”

“So, do the guards know about your activities?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, no. I’m afraid most of them would be very cross with me if they found out.”

“Then where do you get the supplies? I can’t imagine procurement comes easy given the perpetual snowstorms around the Crystal Empire. I’m not even sure where you found rats; the weather hardly seems conducive to their survival.”

“The rats come in on supply shipments. That’s where I get my stock, too. The Royal Guard has their own private stores which they keep over in their quarters. Every night, Captain Wiggins and Pamela will make supply runs through the walls and sneak away with food, bandages, and sometimes even blankets if we need them.”

Twilight stopped, eyes wide with shock. “You’re a thief?!”

“Shhh!” Fluttershy looked around quickly to see if there were any guardponies nearby. With determination in her eyes, she whispered, “I know it’s wrong, but when I got here, everypony was terribly malnourished. I couldn’t just do nothing. Then, one day, I met The Big Cheese and we made a plan to get these ponies fed.”

Through another door, Twilight and Fluttershy entered an interior space larger than the cafeteria. Tables set with sewing machines, table saws, sanders, and various other tools filled the space. About twenty ponies by Twilight’s estimate milled around, working on a variety of projects. “Is that Flam?” she asked.

The traveling salespony stood over a sewing machine, running a connecting thread between two pieces of light purple fabric. He stopped a moment, appearing to say something to a unicorn mare beside him and gesturing emphatically with his left hoof.

“Oh, is he a friend of yours?”

“Not exactly,” Twilight said with a grimace. “I thought I saw him on the way in. Where’s his brother?”

Fluttershy chuckled. “If you can answer that question, I hear Acting Princess Twilight’s offering two hundred bits. Anyways, this is the workshop. Ponies are encouraged to try their hooves at all sorts of crafts here. Under heavy guard, of course.” She gestured to the Royal Guardponies that stood solemnly around the walls. “Three earth ponies, three unicorns, three pegasi. Enough to make sure that anypony that gets the wrong idea is quickly discouraged of it. Flash had to fight tooth and hoof to even get this place approved.”

Fluttershy led Twilight back out into the corridor. “The Greenroom is right this way. It’s the main--" She froze in her tracks, watching a trio of Royal Guardponies approaching from the west end of the hall.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, following Fluttershy’s gaze. “Oh no.” She recognized the pegasus at the lead; he was the one who’d made fun of her “disguise” this morning.

“That’s Captain Silverpride,” Fluttershy whispered. “Don’t make eye contact and try not to--”

“Well, look who it is,” the Captain said to his subordinates. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”

“…draw his attention,” Fluttershy finished.

The subordinates spread out, forming a triangle around Twilight. To her right, a guard answered, “I think I do, Captain. Looks like our new changeling’s harassing a resident and it’s barely past breakfast. What do you think, Brick Wall?”

Fluttershy waved a hoof frantically. “Oh, no, she’s not bothering me,” she said quickly, but the guardponies ignored her.

To Twilight’s left, the earth pony identified as Brick Wall answered, “I think she was backtalking the Captain earlier, wasn’t she?”

The Captain replied, “It sounds like she’s got an attitude problem.” Looking Twilight dead in the eyes, he asked in a low and gravely voice, “Do you have an attitude problem, changeling?”

“Me?” Twilight glowered. “I have a few problems. I have a problem with that chill wafting through the air; you can magically heat the place but you can’t make it comfortable? I have a problem with the itchy beds you gave us. I have a problem with the quality of the food you’re serving. But an attitude problem? No, in fact, the only pony I see around here with an attitude problem is--”

---

The first thing Twilight noticed about solitary confinement was how dark the cell was. None of the green crystals that lit up the facility outside were present in the cell and, unlike the barred cell she’d spent the night in, this one was closed by a large metal door. On a reflex, Twilight tried to light her horn, but the disabling spell denied her even this basic feat of magic.

Within seconds, the second thing she noticed about solitary confinement was how cold it was. Whatever crystal magic kept the facility heated to being merely chilly rather than impossibly frigid didn’t seem to extent to the round chamber she’d been placed in. She pressed herself against one of the walls, wrapping her wings as much around herself as she could to retain her warmth. She stroked her hooves back and forth along her forelegs, trying to regulate her temperature.

“You got any smart comments now?” The Captain demanded through a narrow slit in the door.

“Let me out of here!” Twilight shouted at him, slamming her hoof against the steel of the door.

“I didn’t think so.” The hatch slid shut, leaving Twilight alone in the frigid dark.

“You can’t leave me in here!” Twilight shouted. She banged against the door again and again, slamming her hooves against it until the echoing in her chamber hurt her ears. “LET ME OUT!!!” she screamed, but her voice became lost in the cacophony of its own echo. She collapsed into the door, pulling her limbs together and straining her wings as much as possible to cover her.

In the endless dark, her chamber at once seemed too small yet impossibly large. She waited for her eyes to adjust, hoping against hope that at least the smallest amount of light would creak inside. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to train her eyes to the dark, then opened them again. The darkness, however, remained absolute; not a single trace of light graced her vision to give her an idea of her surroundings.

And still there was the cold. Despite her best efforts, the chill of the room bit at her skin. It nipped at her legs and her back. It crawled up her neck and stung her eyes and lungs. She rubbed her hooves against the end of her snout, trying to keep her blood circulating. She made a mental note that if she ever made it home to Ponyville, she would try to show more appreciation for the hard work the weather pegasi put into maintaining a comfortable climate.

With nothing else to do, she tucked her body as much into itself as she could and tried to meditate. Clearing her mind proved to be a challenging task with the cold pushing pins into her flesh, but the harder she focused, the less it seemed to bother her. Indeed, retreating into her mind palace provided the only shelter from the cold that would be found in the void of darkness that surrounded.

Roaming the seemingly endless bookshelves that comprised the library of her mind, she searched for ways to occupy her time. She recited to herself the basic fundamentals from the Principia Magia in order. She counted down the sixteen steps to analyzing and determining the function of an unknown magical effect. She even read a few pages from A Legacy Lost: The Vanishment of Star Swirl the Bearded which she had naturally committed to memory.

She would have read more, but it was then that she noticed something unusual. There were new avenues and pathways to her mind palace. She found a connection that she’d never seen before. It was a bright, glowing string pulled tight through her consciousness. It shone the same impossible colors as the Space Between.

Twilight pulled her attention away from the string, but found her mental library filled with more strings. For each one she noticed, another ten appeared shimmering in her mental space, alien and yet strangely familiar to her. Reaching out in her imagination, she plucked a single--

---

“Thank you for agreeing to come tonight,” Twilight said. A checkerboard tablecloth lay on the table between her and her companion, lit only by the flicker of a candelabra’s flames. Around them, a sea of ponies sat at tables eating their food and making small talk, but inside the confines of her isolation spell, she and Rainbow Dash were the only ponies in the world.

“Hey, don’t sweat it,” Rainbow Dash replied, leaning back against her chair and draping a foreleg over the back. “After all that, we deserve some time for us, y’know?”

“I know.” Twilight dropped her gaze into the spaghetti plate in front of her. Moving the fork with her magic, she idly stirred it, but her appetite wasn’t quite what it had been recently. “I’m sorry my role as Princess keeps me so busy,” she started.

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash sat up quickly. She bolted from her chair, crossing beside the table to stop just before Twilight. “Hey, don’t start with that. You’re fine. We’re fine. I’ve got Wonderbolt stuff too; It’s not just your fault. Besides, that just means we’ve gotta cram more of us into every moment you and me get, right?”

Twilight giggled. “I suppose you’re--OW!” A sharp impact collided with the top of her head, followed swiftly by a splat. She grabbed at her throbbing skull with both hooves, wincing in pain.

Rainbow Dash leapt up instantly. “WHO THREW THAT?!” she demanded of a dining room that couldn’t actually hear her through the bubble.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said quietly, eyes fixed on the offending object.

“YOU’VE GOT FIVE SECONDS TO--"

“Rainbow Dash, stop,” Twilight hissed. “Look at this.” Using her magic, she lifted the item from her plate of spaghetti, wiping the tomato sauce from it with a napkin. Floating in her telekinetic field, there sat a wooden carving in the shape of a pony. Twilight could clearly make out the figure’s pegasus wings as well as its sharp horn; it was unmistakably an alicorn. And it was painted purple.

“What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I think it’s…me.” A chill ran down Twilight’s spine as she said the words. A feeling of horror and revulsion welled up in the pit of her stomach. “Somepony made this. Somepony made a…look here. That’s how I wear my mane. This has to be me. Somepony took a chunk of wood and carved it in my likeness. Who would do something like that?”

“And then they threw it at you?” Rainbow Dash grimaced. “I really don’t see the point.”

“There isn’t a point! Why is this here?!” Panic surged through Twilight’s being, seizing her muscles. She looked around frantically for anypony that seemed out of place, but the restaurant appeared as it had before; posh ponies enjoying their fine dining, waiters zipping about with trays of food, and not one suspicious looking character.

“Do you want to just leave?” Rainbow Dash asked. “We could head home, maybe stop at the Hay Burger.”

Twilight looked back down at the figurine. It even had her nervous smile. It was a flawless reproduction of her features. The idea that somepony had been watching her, had taken enough visual measurements of her to create a replica this well-crafted left her uncertain if she’d ever sleep again.

“Please just take me home,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Rainbow Dash wrapped her forelegs and her wings around Twilight, squeezing her. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out, okay? We’ll figure--”

---

When Twilight snapped back to reality, she found herself being pulled bodily from the isolation chamber. Her limbs splayed out on the floor, where she lay shivering in the relative warmth. “Skitter!” she heard a voice call out to her in the dark abyss where her consciousness lingered. She tried to reach out for the Space Between, to unseat herself from reality as she had before, but found that feat of magic was still denied to her.

“Come on, Skitter, wake up.” She was distantly aware of a light impact on her left cheek. She strained one last time with all her might to leave Bridle Rock behind and find the impossible geometries she’d seen before, but still the magic refused to come. At last, she returned to the world, closing up her mind palace and acknowledging the reality of physical space once more.

Her eyes opened and took in the facility’s pale green glow. All at once, the stings and pains returned to her. She could feel her lungs burning from the frozen air. Her forelegs, haunches, and face had gone numb in the time she was away. “Who--”

“Come on, let’s get you somewhere a bit warmer than this,” Flash Sentry said, throwing one of Twilight’s forelegs over his shoulder.

Twilight found walking on frozen hooves to be especially difficult, but Flash worked to keep her moving. They made their way down the corridor and through a door, then crossed a large room and passed into another hallway. “How long was I--” Before she could finish, Twilight was cut off by a violent gurgling in her stomach.

“It’s almost lights out,” Flash answered. “I guess the Captain thought it’d be funny to leave you in there all day.”

“How could he do that?” Twilight asked. She stumbled from the emotional weight of her situation bearing down on already numb limbs, but Flash quickly caught her and helped to keep her on her hooves.

“Look, you should watch what you say and do around here,” Flash suggested. “A lot of ponies lost friends and loved ones in the war. There isn’t a Royal Guardpony I know of that didn’t go through fire and fury to get where they are now, and I can think of a lot of ponies that should be standing here with us.”

“But I wasn’t there,” Twilight insisted.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re a changeling. You tried to replace the Acting Princess; that’s pretty high up there. Plus it takes a lot of us back to places we’d rather not be. I don’t know how much you know about that invasion, but it started with Princess Cadance. By the time anypony even knew what was happening, your kind had infiltrated everything.”

“The wedding,” Twilight whispered.

Flash winced. “Yeah, what I just said about ponies not liking you? That goes double for Shining Armor. Just try to stay away from him when he shows up. And maybe give the other Guardponies a wide berth too. What you pulled gave a lot of us some pretty ugly flashbacks. I think some of them are just looking for an excuse.”

Flash led Twilight through a side door into a well-lit room. The lighting was still artificial, but there was a gentle white glow instead of the unpleasant green in the rest of the facility. A long sofa stretched across one wall with a table in front of it flanked by several armchairs. And, most importantly, it was warm in a way she was starting to forget existed.

With Flash’s help, Twilight hobbled over to one of the chairs and plopped down in it. He quickly drew a blanket off the back of the sofa and laid it around her, which she accepted gratefully. “Hey!” he shouted suddenly, dashing towards a set of cabinets. Twilight craned her neck to look behind her, where she saw a large rat stand up to look at Flash.

Flash approached the rat, calling out, “Tom! Uh, Tom Whiskers? Thomas Wise Crackers? Whatever your name is. I need cocoa.” The rat turns its head sideways. “Co-coa. Cooooocoa. Come on, I know you know what that is; I’ve seen Wish Bone drinking it, and she certainly didn’t get that from Captain Silverpride.” The rat gave up on Flash and hopped through a slit in the cabinet door, resuming its rummaging. “Ugh, I don’t know how she gets these things to listen to her.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said. “I prefer tea anyway. Do you have any ginseng?”

“Let me see here….” Flash stood on his hind legs at the kitchenette, propping open the cabinet doors and rifling through their contents. “We’ve got jasmine, cinnamon, something called Mareghrebi tea, Equestrian breakfast…the hay is Equestrian breakfast tea? Does it have eggs in it or something?”

“You’re not a tea pony, are you?” Twilight asked.

“Definitely not. I’m a coffee stallion. Gotta keep my energy going if I’m going to work long nights.”

“I’ll take the jasmine.” Twilight listened to the sound of Flash working the kettle behind her. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on warming up. Something pegged her curiosity, however. “Why aren’t you angry?” she asked.

“About you?” Flash fell quiet. Twilight heard only the heating of the water and then, after a time, the pouring of liquid. Finally, in a flat, emotionless voice, Flash spoke up again. “You and your kind are the reason Equestria fell apart. If it weren’t for creatures like you, this place wouldn’t exist. I hate you and I hate everything you stand for.” He came around the chair, passing a small cup on a saucer into her hooves. Politely, he said, “Here, have some tea.”

Twilight looked at the swirling liquid. In the back of her mind, she considered the possibility that he might have poisoned it, but quickly dismissed it. He didn’t have to pull her out of that chamber, after all. She lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip; the fluid passed over parched lips and lit up her taste buds with a jolt of life and energy. Then it sank into her stomach and warmed her from within. “If you hate me so much, then why are you being so nice to me?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Flash said, plopping himself into the chair across from Twilight. In the crook of his right front hoof, he held a mug of apple cider. Twilight recognized that smell instantly. Flash continued, “Because it’s what she would do, I guess. She’s a lot smarter than me.”

“You’re talking about Fluttershy.”

“Of course, I’m talking about Fluttershy. She cried for a week straight when she got here. She wouldn’t eat anything or talk to anypony. She just stayed cooped up in her cell and cried. Then, one day, something just clicked inside of her. She got up, she started eating, she even talked to the other ponies. I thought she’d snapped, but then food started turning up missing.”

---

“Look, I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you can’t keep swiping supplies,” Flash whispered through the bars of Fluttershy’s cell. A small lantern sat at his side, providing illumination in the blacked out cell block. “The others could report you if they find out. This could even get back to Acting Princess Twilight.”

Her voice dripping with conviction, Fluttershy asserted, “I’m not afraid--” At which point her conviction faded and she lowered her head. “…okay, I’m terrified of her. She’s so mean and I don’t think she's very stable emotionally. But I can’t stop now. Wish Bone hasn’t been able to eat in three days because his stomach is too tumultuous for the cafeteria’s oatmeal. Sunset came down with a cold yesterday--”

“Wait, stop,” Flash told her. “What do they have to do with anything?”

“Well, I thought some nice carrots and asparagus would help Wish Bone get his diet back in order. The blankets are for Sunset. We’re working on a way to produce meltwater using the snowfall outside, because it has to be better than the groundsprings you’re giving us. We took some onion and lettuce for--”

“You’re giving them the food?!” Flash hissed. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “Fluttershy, these ponies are criminals!”

“So am I,” Fluttershy said bluntly.

“…okay, technically, yes. But you’re different from them.”

“How?”

“What?”

Fluttershy fixed a firm stare to Flash Sentry. “You said I’m different. How am I different? Am I not guilty of a crime against Equestria?”

“You are,” he admitted. “But you didn’t mean to do it.”

“Yes, I did. I knew exactly what I was doing and I did it.” She looked him in the eyes. “I did it, Flash. I’d do it again. A thousand times, I would do it again. So how am I different?”

Flash closed his eyes, trying to think. He heard Fluttershy’s words, but he didn’t like them. He loathed to consider her point, but he had nothing to counter it. After several seconds, he answered with a sigh, “…you’re not wrong.”

“If I’m not wrong, then why are you attacking me?”

“I don’t even know anymore.”

---

Flash explained, “We eventually declared that the missing stores were being caused by some wildlife getting in. I helped push that story along, and then I took over requisitions. It made sense for me to fill out the forms, since I have so much free time on my night shift. I try to make sure we have everything Fluttershy needs for her activities.”

“What did she do?” Twilight asked. “I’m still having a lot of trouble understanding that. What crime could a pony like Fluttershy have possibly committed to get her sent here?”

Without hesitating, Flash answered, “Treason.”

Despite herself, Twilight cracked up laughing. She was relieved that her body had warmed to the point that she was capable of mirth once more, and found it a welcome reprieve from recent events.

Flash simply stared at her. After several seconds of laughter, he said, “I don’t see what’s so funny.”

“Because you said…you said….” Twilight chuckled a few more times, looking at Flash. She held out her hoof and rolled it, trying to lead him to finish the thought. After a few more seconds with no answer from him, she suddenly felt deathly ill. “…it’s a joke,” she said uncertainly. “You’re not serious. You can’t be.”

Flash said nothing.

Twilight fell back in her chair, suddenly feeling a knot in a throat. “You’re serious. Treason? Treason?! A pony hasn’t been convicted of treason in over a thousand years! Most lawbooks don’t even have it on the legal records anymore! That doesn’t happen.”

“You seem to know a lot about our history,” Flash observed.

Twilight sat back against the cushion, her newfound energy spent. She took another gulp of her tea. “Treason,” she repeated. It just didn’t seem possible. Fluttershy of all ponies had committed such a terrible act of treason that Acting Princess Twilight had no choice but to send her here? Here where the guards were completely mean and had freezing chambers set up to punish ponies over imagined slights against them?

Thinking aloud, Twilight said, “So Fluttershy committed treason and they sent her here. And she’s supposed to be here until she’s a better pony?”

“That’s the gist of it.”

“How?” Twilight looked down at her empty teacup. “What do stale oatmeal and freezing chambers have to do with becoming a better pony? Does the Acting Princess know what it’s like out here?”

“I don’t think she cares either way,” Flash said.

“Of course, she cares,” Twilight replied, standing up in her chair. “If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t be signing those supply orders you put in, right?”

“She doesn’t. Those come back with Rarity’s signature. I couldn’t tell you why, but whatever I put on the manifest, she signs off on. I could ask for the moon and she’d probably see her way to having it delivered. But Twilight Sparkle? No, all she cares about is hunting down problems and throwing them in here. It’s just a matter of time before we’ve got half of Equestria behind these bars.”

Flash took a gulp of his cider, then added, “The other guards might talk about reforming you, but the truth is, Twilight put you here to rot.”

“That’s not true,” Twilight said defensively. “It can’t be true.”

“Yeah, well, that’s how it works. The Crystal Empire’s barely managing as it is. Once the war ended, everypony was terrified of where we’d go and what would happen next. Twilight stepped up, she took charge, and she brought us here. She and her administration, they keep the peace. That’s their job: to keep everypony safe and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. So they get rid of anypony that might cause trouble. You make too much noise, you disappear overnight. Those ponies wind up here. Bridle Rock is the cost we pay to have a safe Equestria.”

“You don’t believe that,” Twilight replied. “You wouldn’t be helping Fluttershy if you thought these ponies deserve to be treated like this.” Flash fell silent once more, looking down into his mug. “Maybe she doesn’t either,” Twilight continued. “It could be that there’s more to this. She might feel like she has to do this or…or maybe there’s a secret motive.”

Flash set his mug on the table. “Look, the way I see it, there’s two kinds of ponies. There’s the kind that does to others the way they’ve had done to them, and then there’s the kind that just does to others. Fluttershy’s that second type. She’s got a good head on her shoulders and she says you deserve to be helped. That’s all I know.”

Hopping down from his chair, he gestured for Twilight at the door. “You should be warmed up by now. Let’s get you back to your cell.”

She was reluctant to go, but she couldn’t argue with that logic. The feeling had come back to her quite some time ago. Any further stalling would just be for the benefit of comfort, and she didn’t think that would be a winning argument from a changeling.

Leaving the blanket on the chair she’d occupied, Twilight followed the light of Flash’s lantern through the dark cell block. When they arrived at her cell, she took her place on the straw mat while he closed and locked the door behind her. Flash told her, “The rats should be here with some food for you later. Try to get some rest, I guess.” Then he was gone.

As Twilight lay on her side, the weariness of the day finally hit her. She drifted away into the abyss of sleep, allowing her first day in Bridle Rock to finally draw to a close.

Comments

[Flicker Flame]

I love this... so much... to be fair, I haven’t read a lot of this so far, but I’ve been looking for an idea like this one to be made into a story. I can’t wait until this story’s complete! Awesome job! 👍🏻

[Flicker Flame]

When does this take place? Cause from the look of things, twilight doesn’t know who thorax is.

[TobiasDrake]

8725779

This takes place in early season four, just after "Power Ponies". Consequentially, Maud and Tirek are two other name-drops that have gone right over Twilight's head in the other world.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the story.

[Yami Vizzini]

It's constantly confusing that a word meaning "bad" is also the designation for the apple genus.

Fluttershy nodded. “Ponies also use this trick for combining the names of couples in these stories, so they can have a word to refer to them as. For instance, Applejack, you and Twilight would be Applelight or Twijack or something like that. But if you got together with Rarity, you’d be Applety or Rarijack. Something to that effect.”

“Or,” Fluttershy said as a crimson blush spread across her face. Reaching up with a hoof, she brushed her mane behind her ear. With a hopeful smile, she looked up to Rainbow Dash, standing just in front of her. “If, um…if Rainbow Dash and I were ever to get together, we could be Flutterdash? Maybe?”

Well, that came out of nowhere.

Odd dimensional interlude there. I don't suppose that figurine actually somehow represents "our" Twilight poking into that reality (instead of her POV being that of her local Twinner)?
And I imagine this can't be as simple as her finding the right passageway in her head and vanishing from her cell....

[TobiasDrake]

8727269

Odd dimensional interlude there. I don't suppose that figurine actually somehow represents "our" Twilight poking into that reality (instead of her POV being that of her local Twinner)?

That's a bit that will play better when people are reading the whole story in archive than chapter by chapter.

It's the punchline to a Brick Joke. Last chapter, Discord demonstrated what happened to Twilight by conjuring up a little wooden figure of Twilight and plunging it through a gap in reality. It's been falling ever since; that interlude saw the figurine finally landing. Somewhere across time and space, Discord plunked it right on a Twilight Sparkle's head, because of course he did.