Someone Else's Heart

by Effigy

A Flash of Green

Spike lay snoring in his bed for the first time in almost a week. Small flickers of green flame burst from his nostrils with every exhale, sending dim flares of light through the library. Every now and then an especially large jet of flame would catch Twilight's attention, but for the most part she ignored them. After all, the same light show had been playing every night for years; and besides, the book she was reading by candlelight was so much more interesting.

Since she had found the book under the shelf, Twilight had spent hours scrutinizing it, doing her best to understand the ancient vernacular the book used. She'd had some experience with older Equestrian dialects due to her reading of the Moste Incompleat Treatise and her discussions with Princess Luna, but this seemed to predate both, meaning it was well over a thousand years old.

"How did I miss this?" Twilight muttered to herself, "I thought I knew every book that was in the library!" She continued to carefully flip the dry pages, never staying on any one page long enough to fully unravel its contents. "Maybe I should ask Salchonic about this... I'll bet she can read it, and probably tell me what time period it's from, too. Yeah, I should do that!" Twilight snapped the book shut and set it on her bedside table. "First thing tomorrow," she resolved, settling herself under her blanket and stifling a yawn, "first thing tomorrow, I'll head over to Sal's house and ask her what she thinks."

---

Twilight rose early the next morning and left the library quietly, doing her best not to wake Spike, who was still sound asleep upstairs. She swung the front door shut behind her and took a deep breath of the chill morning air, lingering for a second beneath the restored leaves of the library before beginning her trot to Salchonic's apartment. Not many ponies were up and about yet, and the morning dew hung undisturbed on the patches of grass on either side of the road. As the sun rose the dew caught and refracted the light, scattering fragments of rainbows across the ground.

"Morning in Ponyville certainly shimmers," Twilight said quietly. She abruptly stopped and stared into the middle distance. "Huh. That seems oddly poetic. I should write that down somewhere." She shook her head and carried on along the road to Salchonic's apartment.

The sun had risen in earnest by the time Twilight had reached Salchonic's apartment, and low murmurs drifted through the air as bleary eyed ponies began to go about their day. Twilight trotted up to the apartment door and rapped it with her hoof, looking around while she waited for Salchonic to answer. To her left, she saw a young filly trotting along the road that would eventually reach the schoolhouse. "Always good to see young ponies going off to learn," she said to herself, smiling. She turned and rapped on the door again; a bit harder this time, in case Salchonic was still asleep. She heard distant laughter and turned to see two small colts going along the same road as the filly she had seen earlier. "Hmm. I certainly hope they take their studies more seriously than that," she frowned. "And what is taking Sal?" She lifted her hoof to knock on the door again, but abruptly stopped. "Oh. Right." She turned and looked back at the now distant colts. "School."

Twilight stepped back onto the road and began her long walk back through town. "Urgh! How could I forget that! I'm usually so good with my schedules!" She kicked at a pebble and sent it ricocheting off into the grass. There was nothing for it but to wait for school to end and ask for Salchonic's help then. Twilight trotted dejectedly down the main street, brooding over the mystery of ancient book before wandering in to a cafe and ordering a cup of tea. It might not provide her with any brilliant insights as to the contents or purpose of the book, but it would certainly help to improve her mood.

About halfway through her tea, and feeling much more lighthearted than she had a few minutes ago, Twilight's ears perked up as she heard her name from somewhere in the street. She turned to listen, and saw the moving stallion who had helped move her books talking to a small crowd of enraptured onlookers.

"...Yeah, so I was talking to this Twilight, and this is what I says - I says, that dragon of yours is the one who burned down your house, mark my words. And of course she says, well, she says nothin', 'cause she knows I'm right, and she gets all defensive-like. But the dragon, he knows what's going on, 'cause when I'm liftin' some boxes I see him out by my cart trying to set it on fire and all! So I goes up to him, and I grab him and I says -"

Whatever the stallion was going to claim he had said was lost, though, and replaced with a loud howl of pain as a half-full mug of tea flew into the side of his head at a velocity never attained before or since by any other piece of pottery in Ponyville. Twilight stormed over to the stallion, who was cowering on the ground cradling his ear.

"How DARE you make up those horrible lies! You terrible, awful pony!" Twilight's chest was heaving and hot air rushed out of her flared nostrils. "Spike never set anything on fire at all, not the library, and certainly not your –" Twilight stepped forward and felt a warm liquid below her foot. Looking down, she saw a small pool of blood flowing from a gash on the side of the stallion's face and leapt back. "Gah! Blood! Ohmygosh, are you alright! I didn't mean to hit you so hard; I'm so sorry, I –"

"Oy! I get it!" The stallion groaned and pushed himself to his feet, pulling a stained hoof away from his ear to inspect it before pressing it against his head again. "Gah, that hurt for pony's sake!"

Twilight hopped from hoof to hoof in place, torn between lingering anger and genuine concern. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to throw it that hard, but then you were talking about Spike like that and, well..."

"Yeah, I said I get it. Not the first time I've been hit for makin' stories a bit more interesting." He pulled his hoof away from his ear again to see less fresh blood than before. "I'll be okay once I get cleaned up. Message received: the little purple firebug didn't do it. Fine. Don't mean they got the message, though." The brown Pegasus pointed in the direction of his now distant audience, who had all gone running from the wrathful librarian. "Good luck getting them to believe you after that little episode. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean up. Ugh, I hate tea..." The stallion continued to grumble incoherently as he trotted, then flew off, leaving Twilight alone to wonder if she had just made things worse.

---

Chrysalis trotted out of the schoolhouse behind a group of giggling fillies. She smiled down at them, and then frowned at herself. Had she really become that accustomed to life as a pony already? She shook her head to clear her thoughts. There was always time for such existential questions later – for now, she needed to meet with Twilight to help with the reshelving.

"Well, at least Twilight can carry on an intellectual conversation," she muttered to herself. She stopped abruptly and considered her own words before shaking her head again and moving on. "My word, I have changed."

As Chrysalis turned the corner and the library came into view, she saw Spike swing the library door shut and hurry down the road with every appearance of someone who is hiding from an arduous task. He stopped Chrysalis as he passed her and glanced back at the living building as he spoke.

"Hey, I wouldn't go in there if I were you, Sal. I just barely got out of reshelving duty, and Twilight's all grumpy about something or other."

"Hmm. I'll keep that in mind." It would be a dark day before Chrysalis found herself afraid of a grumpy unicorn, even if said unicorn had once been her foe.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," Spike cautioned as he hurried off into town. Ignoring the baby dragon's warning, Chrysalis trotted the short distance to the library and rapped on the door with her hoof, which was immediately followed by a startled scream and the sound of lots of things falling to the ground. The door was enveloped in a lavender aura and swung open to reveal Twilight pulling a cardboard box off of her head surrounded by piles of books.

"Oh, hey Salchonic. I was hoping you'd stop by!" Twilight stood up and began to levitate the many fallen books back into the box they had fallen from. "Sorry about the mess, you startled me just at the wrong time." She turned her head to the staircase and raised a hoof to her mouth. "Spiiiiiiike! Come down here and help me clean this up!"

Chrysalis cleared her throat to get Twilight's attention. "Ahem. I actually just passed Spike on my way here. I think he must have been avoiding, well... this. I can still help you reshelf, though."

Twilight dropped the books she was levitating roughly into their boxes. "Oh. Great. Well, we'll just have to work without him. Here," she levitated a box of thick books over to Chrysalis, all bound in the same style with nothing but a golden number on their spine, "this is my copy of the Encyclopedia Equestria. Just pile it all on the bottom two shelves over there; it shouldn't be too difficult to put it all in order. I'm going to start on the psychology section. Just tell me when you finish and I'll give you something else to put away."

Chrysalis started levitating the encyclopedia volumes into place, running her eyes over the box repeatedly to find the next book in the sequence. It was incredibly tedious work, and Chrysalis soon found her thoughts wandering. "What do you even do with all these books?" she wondered aloud.

Chrysalis jumped when Twilight actually replied, not having realized she had been thinking aloud. "Actually, there are a lot I still haven't read; it is a library after all. Most of these books are here so that other ponies can use them for research if they need to."

Chrysalis finished shelving the encyclopedias and turned to face Twilight. "And do many ponies use them for research?" She levitated the now empty cardboard box she had been working from onto a pile of similar boxes by the staircase.

"Well, no..." Twilight's face fell and she glanced at the door, unable to recall the last time somepony had come in to check out a book. "But that just means I can do more varied research of my own!" A wide smile spread across her face and she started rummaging through a box of books. "For example, why is your magic aura green when your coat is white? Generally they're the same color. I know I have a book on magic auras here somewhere..."

Chrysalis stood in the middle of the library, unmoving, for the second time in as many days. Had she really forgotten to disguise her magical aura? It was something she'd let slip before when she had impersonated Cadence, but she should never have been so lax after what had happened on Canterlot. Twilight said something that didn't quite penetrate her ears, and she shook herself out of her reverie. "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

Twilight was running a hoof along a page in a book levitating in front of her. "I said that this book says unicorns' magical auras are very rarely a different color than their coat, but when they are, they're generally the color of the pony's eyes." Twilight looked up at Chrysalis and snapped the book shut. "And your eyes are green! So there, wasn't that enlightening?" She trotted over to an empty shelf and started to place more books onto it. "That's the reason I have so many books. There's just so much to know!"

Chrysalis pulled a box closer to her and started slotting books into shelves as well. "Too close, Chrysalis," she thought specifically not aloud. "You can't be that lucky forever."

---

The sun had set when Chrysalis took her leave from the library. The afternoon had been largely filled with an activity that Chrysalis had alarmingly little experience in: light conversation. Still, between her and Twilight most of the books had been reshelved, and the rest could be finished in another afternoon. "There are certainly worse ways to spend my time," Chrysalis muttered to herself. For the first time in her life she was able to maintain a steady source of food without impersonating anypony, and that meant that for the first time her life she could make friends by being herself. "Quite the liberating experience," she thought. "Perhaps this should have been my goal all along." The white unicorn carried on down the road with a slightly springier step, wearing her first genuine smile in ages.

Meanwhile in the library, Twilight was having a very bad time. She'd been working with Salchonic all day, had talked to her at great length, and had said goodbye less than five minutes ago – and in all that time, had not once thought to ask about the mysterious book she had found.

"Stupid, featherbrained, egg-headed..." Twilight paced around the library letting loose a stream of self-deprecating insults before forcing herself to stop and sit down in the middle of the floor. "Alright. Take a deep breath and calm down, Twilight. It's a book. Just read it yourself." She inhaled deeply and held her breath for a moment before exhaling peacefully. "Now, where it that book?"

Twilight spotted the ancient volume resting on top of a stack of unsorted books on a windowsill. She grabbed it with her magic and opened it in front of her, flipping to a page at random. "This can't be that hard. I know how Sal said that symbol there, and this one here... So if this translates to 'energy', and this group is 'change of form'... Oh! It's a spell!" Twilight flipped to the cover of the book and examined it for any marks she may have missed before. "An ancient spell book, huh? What sort of magic are you hiding?" She flipped back to the page she had open and tried to decipher more of the runes. "Right. Instructions. So if I channel my energy just like this–" Twilight's horn began to glow with a gentle violet aura– "and then I modify the spell like this–"

The result was instantaneous and catastrophic. In the space of less than a second, Twilight's horn flared a bright emerald green, and a massive shockwave exploded from the tip, knocking dozens of books from shelves, accompanied by a wave of green light that shot out of the windows of the library directly into Ponyville. The light was followed shortly by an ear-piercing scream that echoed in the night.

---

Chrysalis stood at the corner of the road the library was situated on, breathing in the chilled night air and reflecting on how peaceful her life had become. There was no desperate search for food or plots of subterfuge. Gone was the threat of somepony noticing she was impersonating someone. She was free to enjoy life; to just sit back and enjoy the air. The air, thinking itself a bit too enjoyable, chose that moment to transmit an enormous barrage of light and sound directly into Chrysalis, blasting her mane forward in front of her face. Stunned, Chrysalis turned to see small traces of smoke flowing from the library windows. She was galloping before she had even registered standing up and calling out Twilight's name ahead of her.

Chrysalis threw open the library door and galloped in, looking around. "Twilight! I heard an explosion and I came running, what –" her eyes landed on Twilight and she recoiled in shock. "Gah! What the hay happened!"

Twilight lifted a hoof defensively, and saw Salchonic staring at her through a blackened hole near her hoof. "Sal, wait! It's me, Twilight!" As she spoke, her now sharp teeth clacked on a hard lower jaw, and light glinted off of blue multifaceted eyes. A pair of insectile wings adorned her back, riddled with holes similar to those now spread throughout her legs, horn, and mane. Her now matte black coat completed the image: in all regards, Twilight now appeared to be a changeling.

"Of course it's you!" Chrysalis snapped, "Nopony else was in here." She began circling Twilight and looking over her new form. "But how did you even manage to do this? I've been gone for all of ten minutes!"

Twilight hopped from hoof to hoof, nervously inspecting her unfamiliar limbs. "I found this book the other day that I kept meaning to ask you about. It was written in the same language as the spell we used to fix the library, so I thought you could tell me what it said. But then I forgot to ask you, and I thought I could work out what it was saying, and well... I just kind of tried to do some of the magic based off of what I could read."

By the end of her short speech Twilight had dropped to her haunches and hung her head. Chrysalis stopped pacing around her and instead scanned the room for damage that might have been done by the blast. Other than a few books that had fallen from their shelves, everything seemed to be undamaged. "Alright Twilight, where's this book now?" Twilight pointed in the direction of a window looking out into Ponyville without lifting her head. A very old looking book was splayed open, pages down, on the windowsill. Chrysalis picked up the book with her magic and brought it closer to examine it.

As Chrysalis read, her eyes widened. The book described in detail how unicorns could use magic to replicate the inherent abilities of changelings. From the looks of it, Twilight had attempted to change her appearance without specifying what to change it to, and so had assumed the form of a changeling by default. Chrysalis flipped through more pages and found what she had hoped would be absent – spells to determine whether or not a pony was actually somepony else in a magical disguise. If anypony could read this book, they would easily be able to uncover her.

Chrysalis turned toward Twilight, her hooves shaking slightly. "Twilight, where did you get this book? This is full of information on incredibly advanced transformation magic!"

Twilight pointed to an empty space under one of the now filled bookshelves. "I found it under there. I have no idea how it got there, I've never noticed any sort of space under any of the bookshelves before." Twilight shook her head and turned back to Chrysalis. "But that's not even important! You can read the book; does it say how to change me back?"

A memory of an earth pony named Limbo, suffused in a magical green light in his sleep, swam into Chrysalis's mind. Given enough time and energy she could certainly return Twilight to her original form, but it wouldn't be a fast process. Chrysalis opened the book again and pretended to search for the appropriate spell before looking up at Twilight. "Twilight... I do think I can fix this. But you need to agree to something first."

"Of course!" Twilight let out an exasperated groan. "Whatever needs to be done. Just help me fix this!"

Chrysalis snapped the book shut once more and laid it on the floor, then gently stepped on the cover. "You don't get this book back. If I help you, it becomes mine. It's just too dangerous for someone who doesn't know what they're doing."

"What!" A violet glow surrounded the book, and Chrysalis quickly pressed her hoof down to keep it firmly on the floor. "But think of what we could learn from it! The language alone could revolutionize how we interpret ancient transcripts!"

Chrysalis's nostrils flared and she increased her pressure on the book. "I said no, Twilight Sparkle. If you want my help, my price is the book."

Twilight fell back to her haunches and bit her lip, fragments of tears refracting light onto her faceted eyes. "Fine. Fine. Just... turn me back before anyone from Ponyville sees me and thinks I'm a monster."

Chrysalis began to cast a spell of reversion, but stopped abruptly and tilted her head toward the window. Coming from the direction of Ponyville was a group of concerned voices, approaching alarmingly fast. Evidently, the shockwave sent out by Twilight's mistake had been noticed. "Twilight Sparkle," Chrysalis said without turning her head, "go hide in the closet, now. No matter what you might hear, don't open the door. If you don't want anypony to see you as you are now, you're just going to have to trust me until I have time to change you back."

Alarmed by her friend's serious tone, Twilight did as she was told without protest. She shoved aside a few old boxes and a winter scarf to make room to sit down in the small closet, and then swung the door shut with her magic, plunging her into total darkness.

"How in the world is Sal going to explain what happened?" she whispered to herself. "And for that matter, how is she going to explain why I'm not here?"

Twilight heard the library door crash open and stopped whispering immediately. She heard a voice she didn't recognize, but that was full of panic. "Is everything alright in here? Is anypony hurt?"

At the sound of the reply, Twilight bit back a gasp. She definitely recognized that voice. "Oh! No, I'm actually perfectly fine. I was just doing an experiment and I got some of the magic wrong." Twilight pressed her ear against the door to hear better. There was no denying it – the voice she had heard second was her own, down to the awkward pauses and overall awkwardness resultant of so many years reading books instead of making friends.

"Oh, thank Celestia. I was just walking through town and I saw this enormous flash of light –"

"Yeah. Magic experiment gone a bit wrong," the voice of Twilight interjected. "Are there any others who came with you?"

"I think I saw a few other ponies behind me," the unknown voice replied. The sound of multiple pairs of hooves clacking on the wood floor immediately followed, and Twilight heard a crowd of voices all talking over each other, all voicing their own concerns and theories on what had happened.

Twilight listened in wonder as she heard her own voice explain what had happened to the ponies present. Not that it was a truthful explanation – there was no mention of the ancient book, and the explosion was blamed on attempting to find out what had caused the fire before. Halfway through this explanation Spike wandered in, oblivious to what had happened, which happily enough meant he was the subject of no blame for causing the explosion and greatly lessened blame for causing the fire. Within about half an hour, the voice of Twilight had assuaged Ponyville's concerns and the crowd had slowly trickled out, content to get back to their evening schedules.

Eventually the only figures left in the library were Twilight's voice impersonator, Spike, and Twilight herself, hiding. From within the closet, Twilight could hear her voice ask Spike to go to Carousel Boutique to ask Rarity if she could borrow something, and he was out the door before she could say what it was. Twilight was left alone with the source of her own voice, which she heard trotting over and stopping just outside her door.

"Twilight Sparkle, can you hear me?"

Responding to her own voice was one of the oddest things Twilight had ever experienced. "Yes, I can hear you just fine. Is that you, Sal? Can I come out now?"

A green glow suffused the door, but it remained closed. Twilight heard her voice again. "I'm going to open the door now, but do me a favor and refrain from screaming or fainting or any of that silly nonsense. I don't mean you any harm." With that, the door swung open. The bright light of the library blinded Twilight for a second, and she covered her eyes with a hoof while her vision cleared to reveal... herself.

Inside the closet, an insectile Twilight's jaw dropped. Outside the closet, a regular looking Twilight allowed a wry smile to make its way onto her face. "Good," said the second Twilight, "no screaming or fainting. Now sit still for just a moment."

Twilight watched as an a green glow surrounded the horn of her doppelganger, building in intensity until a thin electric bolt shot into the tip of her own horn. From the point of impact, a ring of green flames began to work its way down Twilight's horn, leaving it its original lavender color in its wake. The fire slowly spread down Twilight's head, reached her torso, and split into four to cover her legs. By the time the last flicker of green had faded from the end of her tail, Twilight was herself once more.

Twilight looked over herself, and then at her double with suspicion. "You are Salchonic, right? Why didn't you just turn me back instead of taking my place?"

In a flash of green, the second Twilight's coat became bleached white and her mane darkened to black as Chrysalis assumed the form of Salchonic. "Firstly because even with as much experience as I have with transformation spells, it takes much longer to perform them on somepony else."

"Wait, what experience?" Twilight levitated the book of transformation spells in front of her and began to flip through the pages. "You can't have cast any of these spells before. I just found the book–"

"Secondly," Chrysalis interrupted, pulling the book from Twilight's grasp with her own magic, "I wanted you to know that if I needed to – if you were to do something foolish and tell any pony what happened tonight –" Chrysalis stared directly into Twilight's eyes, and in brilliant flash of green reverted to her own form. She spread her tattered wings wide, and stared down at a dumbfounded Twilight from a much loftier stance. "I can and will replace you."

Twilight scooted back on her haunches in horror, her legs tangling over themselves. "C-Chrysalis! But how did you get here! What happened to Salchonic?"

In another green flash Chrysalis resumed the less imposing form of Salchonic. "Salchonic was always me, Twilight Sparkle. I've been in Ponyville since before you even returned from Canterlot. Please, don't try to fight me. I've already absorbed enough love from this town to defeat you." Twilight, who had leapt to her hooves when Chrysalis had changed form, let the violet aura surrounding her horn fade.

"But why?" she questioned. "I don't understand. Why are you not trying to take over here, too?"

Chrysalis let out a deep sigh and turned her back on Twilight. She began to wander the library picking up fallen books and replacing them on shelves. When she began to speak, she avoided making eye contact with Twilight. "I'm tired of fighting, Twilight Sparkle. Is that really so difficult to believe?"

Of anything the changeling could have said, Twilight had not expected that. "Tired of fighting? You fought against us once."

Chrysalis continued placing books on shelves. "Contrary to what you might believe, Twilight Sparkle, the wedding in Canterlot was not the only ordeal I've been through. My army and I have been for want of food for years. Canterlot was our last-ditch effort at a supply of love large enough to feed the entirety of my forces." Chrysalis placed the last fallen book into its shelf and turned to make eye contact with Twilight. "I am alone now. I only need to find enough love to provide for myself. By the time you returned from Canterlot I had already made myself a new life here and found a renewable source of love. Not stolen love either, but love earned by my own actions." Chrysalis took to pacing, once again avoiding Twilight's gaze. "When you arrived, I saw you as a threat to the new life I had established. I was still filled with rage, and that made me rash." She stopped her pacing and forced herself to look Twilight in the eyes. "I was the one who set the library on fire, Twilight. For that, I am genuinely sorry and I feel deep remorse."

Twilight stared back into the eyes of one of the greatest threats Equestria had ever faced, and heard her admit to arson. A large part of her mind told her to attack Chrysalis then and there, and do all she could to subdue her. A more rational part of her mind saw the regret in the changeling's eyes, and knew that Chrysalis was telling the truth. She let out a low breath she didn't know she'd been holding and said what she had never thought she would. "I forgive you."

Chrysalis let a smile cross her face. "Thank you, Twilight. If it gives you peace of mind, you don't need to worry about any nefarious plots on my part. I'm ready to begin my life as a normal pony."

"And if it gives you peace of mind, I don't plan on telling anyone who you are anytime soon, so long as you don't cause any trouble."

The two stared at each other for a long time. It was a shaky truce, entirely based upon faith. Neither could know for certain if the other was being truthful; but both of them were.

---

Spike plodded into the library to see Twilight humming to herself while flipping through a book. "Hey Twilight, you'll never guess what happened. I got all the way to the Carousel Boutique before I realized that I never heard want you wanted me to borrow! Funny, huh?" he giggled. "Oh yeah, and I saw Sal on my way back carrying that book! Did she tell you what it was all about?"

Twilight closed the book she was reading and replaced it on its shelf. "Actually, she couldn't make head or tails of it. She checked it out to see if she could work out what language it was written in later." Mentally, Twilight added that the book was probably going to be long overdue. "But that's not important right now. Spike – take a letter."

Author's Note:

The experiment is nearing it's conclusion. Would you kindly forgive the excessively long time it took for this chapter to be published and instead proceed directly to the chamberlock epilogue?

Comments

[Pentarctagon]

Now, where it that book

Should be "is".

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Aura color has never been dependant on coat color. Only eye color and only Celestia and Cadance violate this rule.