Twilight’s Doppelgänger

by black_arachnia

Chapter 3

“So I’ve got some books from Canterlot that are on their way to Ponyville, that should make the crystal castle much cozier. It is your home now, just as it was mine.” Alicorn Twilight smiled at herself, putting a hoof on the scarred Twilight’s shoulder.
“Thank you for doing this. I just feel bad that you have to shoulder ruling Equestria while I… well, get to be with our friends.” Scarred Twilight frowned as she looked into her own eyes.

“It’s not a problem! I am slowly getting used to being a princess and Spike is helping me adjust. Plus we are planning monthly friendship meetings. I just wish I could do more to help you, after you’ve been through so much.” The alicorn couldn’t help looking at the scar across the unicorn’s face as she said this, wondering the true extent to which her counterpart had suffered, while she was living a mostly lavish life, surrounded by her friends.

“Speaking of Spike, I hope I get to see him soon.”
“And you will! But I think you should spend some time with Ponyville friends for now.”
“Right.” The unicorn nodded.

Suddenly, the front door to the castle creaked open, and both Twilights looked ahead at the same time.
“Twilight I received your message and—woah.” A light pink unicorn with a mint green streaked mane held a hoof to her gaped mouth.
“You didn’t say there’d be two of you. Why are there TWO of you?”
“I’d like to introduce you to my friend Starlight Glimmer. Former student of mine, now principal at the friendship school.” The alicorn pointed a hoof out as she looked towards the puzzled pink unicorn.
“Let me guess, time travel? Do I have to use Starswirl’s spell again?” Starlight lingered her gaze at the wingless Twilight’s scars.
“Nothing like that. Long story short, she’s the original and I’m a copy, from when I, or rather, she completed Starswirl’s spell. She got flung across the world and came back after I was made.”

Starlight pondered on the new information and said slowly, “okaaaay… didn’t expect that.”
“I can’t believe you took up a student! That’s so exciting. Think of all the friendship lessons you could teach!”
Starlight rolled her eyes playfully, “yeah definitely a Twilight.”
“Starlight, please help her get acquainted at the castle and settled in. Unfortunately, I have to be back in Canterlot for my duties.”
Starlight nodded, “Of course. Although…. Could one of you please take up another name. It’s confusing to refer to both of you as Twilight.” She looked back and forth between them.
The scarred unicorn had an idea and spoke up, “Oh, how about you just name me Twily. It was my nickname growing up.”
The alicorn next to her wrinkled her brow, “That’s fine, although shouldn’t you be Twilight since you’re the original? That seems more fair.”
The marred Twilight shook her head, “you’re the princess. You should keep the name Twilight for formalities’ sake.”
“Works for me I suppose. Alright, well I must be going. Goodbye Starlight, Twily.”
Twilight waved to them both as she walked out the front door of the crystal castle.

“Soooo…. You’re apparently the original Twilight? That must be awkward, seeing yourself. Like looking in a mirror.” Starlight rubbed her shoulder, not really knowing how to talk with this other version of Twilight. She didn’t want to bring up her curiosity of her scars, though. She could at least easily separate this Twilight from the one she already knew just by physical appearance, but beneath the surface she wondered how much she was like her alicorn counterpart.
“Yes, it is a bit weird. But I thought about it a little, and I feel like Twilight is a twin sister, in a way. At this point we have lived very different experiences, so I hope you will see us as different ponies. Still a Twilight, but her own mare.” Twily smiled and felt a warmth she hadn’t felt in so many years. Twilight was a friend, she felt she could count on her. Starlight smiled back, gaining some confidence back and said, “there’s probably a lot you need to catch up on. You were gone for how long?”
“Five years. Longer than it ever should have been.”
“Okay, A LOT to catch up on then.”

——————-

“That’s the friendship school. I work there and so do your friends. We teach classes on friendship basically. We get creatures from all over wanting to attend, it’s great.”
Starlight and Twily stood before the steps of the school, as gryphons, dragons, ponies, and even kirin walked through the doors.
“I never thought to open a friendship school! That’s amazing! Seeing all these creatures wanting to learn more about friendship, it’s something I never dreamed of!” Twily stared in awe at the students and the beautiful school architecture, she was glad things had progressed far enough in her studies that her counterpart was teaching others the value of friendship.

“Wow, is that princess Twilight? She looks… different.” A light blue insect-like creature glanced at Twily and Starlight, head tilted to the side.
“Wow, you’re right Ocellus. She’s totally missing her wings. And she’s got battle scars. That’s so wicked.” A blue gryphon replied with a smirk.
“Ooh! Ooh! Maybe she got into an epic fight to protect Equestria! Wam! POW! Like that!” A light pink hippogriff gushed.
Starlight and Twily noticed the trio and approached them.
“Twily, these are some of my students.” Starlight swept a hoof between the three.
“Principal Starlight, uh… doesn’t she know that?” The gryphon asked, one eyebrow perked. He was wondering if his principal was going loco in the coco a bit early in her life.
“I’m not the Twilight you know. Long story. Just call me Twily.” She smiled.
“Okay… weird, but seen weirder… well, I’m Gallus.” He replied back, a clawed thumb pointed at his chest.
“Ocellus…” The blue insect creature sheepishly answered.
“And Silverstream!” The hippogriff jumped up in the air happily.
“Nice to meet you all. I have seen gryphons before and I know of hippogriffs from stories. But… I can’t say I’ve seen a creature like you before.” Twily pointed a hoof at Ocellus.
“I’m a changeling. We have changed for the better and I’m glad for it.”
Well, Twily didn’t expect this. Last she knew, changelings tried to take over Equestria. And looked a lot less… colorful. But to think, if even changelings can learn friendship…
“I know about changelings. But if you can change for the better, then I accept your hoof in friendship.” Twily held out a hoof, and shook Ocellus’s.

Starlight was glad this version of Twilight wasn’t violent, she knew she shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but her scars made her look ferocious to her. In pony society, things like scars were seen as violent and made ponies unapproachable. Tempest Shadow was a good example of this attitude.
“So, I’ve heard a bit about the school from princess Twilight, but I was hoping to learn more. Anyone want to show me around?” Twily looked to the trio.
“Sure we can show you around, “Gallus answered.
Twily, Starlight, and the trio went to the school and took a tour of some of the classrooms. Twily saw some of her friends teaching various lessons on friendship and values of their element. She only knew of schools teaching magic, history, science, math… it was odd finding out you could even this much on friendship. But that wasn’t the oddest thing, no, it was…

“OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH” Twily was jumping up in down in pure joy, with a large smile plastered on her face.
A grey unicorn with a starry cloak and belled hat looked at her with a frown. He had a feeling something like this would happen, but he wasn’t sure when he wrote the spell. If Celestia knew about it…
“I can’t believe I get to meet THE Starswirl the bearded! The greatest pony mage to ever live! Princess Twilight must have been over the moon with meeting you in person!” Twily’s earnest smile across her face made her look far less menacing to the group.
“She was, but we can talk about that later. A more pressing issue is that my spell has been used to create an alicorn, of which I was only slightly aware. I now realize I was foolish to create that spell, thinking I could change my own destiny to be an alicorn. Now I realize it was never possible for me to become one.” Starswirl sighed.

Twily’s smile turned to a downcast look, and she was reminded of the pure Tartarus it took getting back home and finding out she had a counterpart living all this time as a princess. At first, she was a bit jealous. Those feelings quickly went away when she saw how kind and understanding the alicorn princess was to her, and really, she couldn’t be mad at herself for long.

“It was a hard conversation to have, but princess Twilight and I worked through it. Celestia should have never sent me that spell.”
Starswirl rubbed his beard a bit and thought. He really had thought the spell could make himself an alicorn. But to just make an alicorn copy? And then abandon the original? Perhaps changing destiny is truly impossible, just as a cutie mark is set in stone, so is one’s destiny. Sometimes though, a cutie mark isn’t that obvious and there could be an interpretation that was missing. Perhaps Twilight still hasn’t realized her destiny after all?
“I believe you should make a visit to the cutie mark crusaders.” Starswirl replied a few moments later, with a twinkle in his eye.
Twily almost forgot about those little rascals.
“Why do you say that?” Twily asked.
“You may want to find out more about why there are two Twilights, and no one knows better than they do about cutie marks and destiny. Not even I.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What episode is the cover art from?

[Adamastos]

Eh, this suddenly feels like one of the bad episodes from the show, where the writing dropped the seriousness & logic. To me it feels like this chapter doesn't fit well with the previous two chapters.

[black_arachnia]

11751095
The episode where Twilight is annoyed by Pinkie not making sense in season 1. I think the title is feeling pinkie keen.

[black_arachnia]

11751120
There will be more serious moments down the road, this is somewhat of a breather from that. We will get back to Celestia, Luna, and Twily/Twilight stuff too, so don’t worry.

[Kyuubi325]

One criticism I would have is the formatting, the way different characters speech is bunched together makes it hard to read.

[rikithemonk]

11751188

Are we really surprised Celestia would do something like this

Nope,

Ive always considered Celestia profoundly evil.

Monk
"Yes, I will eat the Fear Turkey." -Illua