Twilight did eventually calm herself, and when she pulled away Fluttershy’s eyes had changed. When she first saw the pegasus they had been hard and cruel. Now they had warmed, showing compassion and care. Twilight felt like shedding more tears at this fact alone. The alicorn would’ve been content to just stay there and take in this mare’s warmth and kindness forever. And she would have done so, if it wasn’t for-

“Fluttershy! What are you doing?” Rainbow yelled, voice cracking in her anger.

And just like that the kindness in Fluttershy’s eyes disappeared. That little shine in the corner of her eyes dulled. Her slight smile fell, restoring her cold; cruel look. The pegasus shook her head a little as she took a few steps backward. Away from Twilight.

The alicorn wanted to follow her, to beg to have… whatever that was again. That sense of security. That feeling that she could trust the pegasus with her life. It felt… nice to have somepony caring for you. Somepony who didn’t really have to, but did anyway just because they want to. Twilight had done something and now she would never feel that again.

“What are we supposed to do with her now, anyway?” Pinkie asked nervously. The pink mare looked visibly shaken, for some reason.

Fluttershy glanced at the earth pony with mild surprise. The pegasus seemed a little unsure herself, but she sounded confident when she ordered, “We take her to the princess.”

“What? But she’ll be mad at us for lying to her!” Rainbow argued, wings flaring.

“Not if we tell her the truth.” Fluttershy growled, spooking everypony in the room. “That our ‘imposter’ turned herself in.”

“H-how do you know that?” Twilight asked, immediately regretting it. Everypony except for Fluttershy herself turned to her with harsh glares. Twilight suddenly felt like she was a little filly again – had she spoken when she wasn’t supposed to? Why did she even care? She hated these ponies! Right?

“That’s not important.” Fluttershy insisted, turning her back to Twilight and trotting away. “Rarity, knock her out again.”

The white unicorn looked a little surprised, but nodded anyway.

Twilight didn’t understand. A moment ago Fluttershy had been comforting her and looking at her with kindness and a smile. Now the pegasus had ordered for her to be knocked out and thrown at a tyrant’s hooves.

This pegasus had betrayed her.

“N-no!” Twilight pleaded, stumbling towards the pegasus.

The yellow mare hesitated, but didn’t look back.

“F-fluttershy, right?” Twilight gasped, struggling to stay standing. “Y-you believe me, right? You have to believe me!”

Fluttershy stopped walking away. A quick flick of her tail summoned Rainbow to her side.

“I-I can tell you about Twilight!” she begged.

The pegasus froze. The orange earth pony crept over to her and whispered something into the yellow mare’s ear.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat as Fluttershy turned back to her. The pegasus walked slowly to the alicorn and stopped before her. Twilight collapsed, legs giving out beneath the mare’s harsh stare.

Fluttershy held out a hoof, and Twilight braced herself for the strike. Instead, the hoof very gently lifted her head so that her gaze met the pegasus’. The yellow mare was smiling warmly with kind eyes. When she smiled like that, the cluster of scars on her muzzle seemed to disappear, blending into her fur thanks to the crease of her muzzle. Her eyes would sparkle a little and she would offer kind words and feelings. It was… familiar.

Despite her unease, Twilight melted into the other mare’s touch. It was comforting to have somepony who cared about you. It was… nice. She stared up into Fluttershy’s eyes in relief, a small smile slipping onto her own face.

The sudden change in Fluttershy’s eyes was the only warning Twilight received before pain exploded through her cheek. The alicorn’s head smacked into the ground, where she lay, trying to comprehend what just happened.

The side of her face stung. Already she could feel a bruise forming beneath her fur. Wh-what?

“Don’t. Lie to me.” Fluttershy growled before turning and storming away.

Twilight choked back a sob. She’d screwed up. The one pony who’d been kind to her… now hated her. She felt like curling into a ball and crying for hours. She felt like screaming and smashing everything around her.

The alicorn had felt like this a few times before. She always had two specific reactions. She would either break down crying in her grief, or let loose with magic and destroy everything around her in her rage.

She had no tears left.

She could feel her magic screaming at her. This was not a rage-shift. It was much, much worse. This was her emotions, taking over her magic and striking out at everything that caused her harm. It wasn’t a good thing, but she felt like she was one with her anger and sorrow.

She was one with her magic.

Magic looked around calmly. The five ponies before her were staring at her in shock and fear. Didn’t anypony tell them it was rude to stare? A quick slash of raspberry sent two of them flying. The white one smacked harshly into a wall. The orange one skidded along the floor before coming to rest in a corner.

The blue one reacted first, taking to the air and flying straight towards Magic. A quick burst of the alicorn’s namesake froze their wings and sent them crashing into the floor. Magic smiled slightly as they attempted to stand back up. Another flash slammed the blue one back into the ground with a crack.

Magic turned back to the other two ponies. The pink one had stopped staring and was now cowering, hiding her face beneath her hooves. The yellow one was still staring, but she had shifted to a more defensive stance.

The alicorn readied a spell, but a small voice in her head began to object.

Please, stop this!

Magic cancelled the spell and listened closer.

They haven’t done anything! Yet… a-and the pink one was nice to us!

Who was this little voice? They sounded familiar. Like an old friend you hadn’t seen in years.

Magic shook her head. This little voice had no say over what she did. The yellow one had hurt them and now she had to pay.

You didn’t do this when Sombra hurt mother!

Magic didn’t care… She didn’t care! Her horn flared, and the pink one flew across the room. The alicorn strode forward until she towered over the yellow one. The second their eyes locked she felt like an ant.

Magic was terrified to look away from this pegasus. She was terrified of this pony, who was only up to her neck. She was terrified to focus on anything else.

Fluttershy noticed this and began to slowly back away. Magic wanted to run after her and strike her down, but the yellow mare kept their eyes locked. The alicorn couldn’t help but wonder where the mare had gotten this power. Actually, wait… it wasn’t any sort of magic. When Fluttershy had locked eyes with her friends, they froze in fear. When she locked eyes with Magic… Twilight… ugh… her head was starting her hurt…

You can still stop this…

No!

It doesn’t have to be like this…

Are you stuck in there?

I don’t like it either.

Then let’s work together.

…

I’ll take that as a yes.

Fluttershy forced herself to break eye contact with the alicorn. Wh-why did looking at her make her feel like that? It made her feel weak, and protected, and strong all at the same time. It made her feel like the war had only just started, like she had only just c-

NO! This wasn’t Twilight! That was some creature of dark magic and evil and hatred and… and… hope. Hope that she had just murdered. Hope that, when broken, would unleash its anger on the world.

The pegasus turned and ran with tears in her eyes. Her numb hooves carried her through the door, which had flown open in the magic storm, and up the stairs behind it. From what she could tell, her gaze had frozen the imposter, the same way the imposter’s did to her. She hadn’t even been using The Stare!

Sure enough, a beam of magic shot towards her just moments later. Her instincts and training kicked in, allowing her to duck and roll underneath the raspberry laser. The pegasus turned her head to see the imposter standing in the stairway, horn ablaze and eyes flaming.

Fluttershy brushed a bit of short pink hair behind her ear and smirked. She stood her tallest and tensed her wings. “Come at me.”

The next blast of magic soared over her head as she ducked under it. It smashed into the wall behind her and exploded. The pegasus easily leapt over another laser that ripped up the tiled floor beneath her. As she landed, she tore her gaze away from her assailant and focused on a door at the end of the hall. Her sword lay within it, along with her armour and Element of Harmony.

The pegasus turned back to the imposter, taking a deep breath. She shifted her stance to something more suited for speed. A beam of raspberry magic threatened to take her head off of her shoulders. Fluttershy jumped up, turning in the air and flapping her wings. She shot down the hallway like a bullet, dodging magical attacks from behind that dared to believe they could kill her.

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and tucked in her wings. She lowered her head and curled up. She bowled through the door to her room and landed harshly next to her bed. The pegasus recovered in seconds and dodged to the side as a laser shot through the door and destroyed her bed. She cursed and flattened herself to the floor as another beam took out the walls.

“Where are the guards?” she hissed angrily, standing and running for her amour. Unlike the other Elements, she’d ‘customised’ her armour stand. Most of the supports had been ripped out, leaving only a few beams of wood holding up the amour. She’d done it for exactly this reason.

Fluttershy easily stole her helmet from the stand and dropped it onto her head, not even bothering to tuck in her mane. With practised ease her hind hooves landed in their boots as her forelegs took her breastplate from the stand. She slipped it around her front and dropped her front hooves into their guards. With her armour donned, the pegasus darted away from the stand and to the chest beside the window.

Armoured hooves opened the lid to reveal a weapon and a necklace. Fluttershy barely had time to take them before she was blown out of the window.

Magic smirked as her hit landed. The voice in her head whimpered a little, but continued to feed her their magic anyway. The alicorn strode forward confidently, kicking aside the melted door and stopping beside the window. The bedroom had been quite lovely before she’d attacked it. A real shame, honestly. But there were more important matters to take care of.

The purple mare glanced through the window to the gardens below. Fluttershy’s limp form was surrounded by a group of Celestia’s guards. Magic groaned inwardly and cleared the broken glass in the windowsill. She then climbed onto the sill and leapt into the gardens below.

Magic landed directly on the first guard’s back, snapping his spine. He died within seconds. The other guards continued to stare at her for a moment before lunging forward with their spears. Magic rolled her eyes. The guards were lifted in her magic and thrown away like dolls.
The alicorn strode up to the pegasus’ limp form and lifted it in her magic.

As she floated upwards, Fluttershy’s eyes fluttered open. The formerly calm cyan orbs were now panicked and fearful. Magic wanted to stop and slap herself for making the pegasus feel like that, but she forced herself to stay put.

“Y-you’re not going to get away with this!” Fluttershy breathed, defiant till the end.

Now that was odd. Some part of Magic felt like the pegasus wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be kind and quiet and caring. Not… cold and cruel.

Magic felt her grip loosen slightly as her thoughts scrambled. The pegasus took the opportunity and kicked away from the alicorn, flipping and landing firmly a few feet away.

The alicorn cursed her foolishness as she charged another spell. Fluttershy lowered her body. The beam fired and the pegasus easily cleared it, galloping away as soon as she landed. Magic growled before giving chase.

Twilight screamed and pounded on the invisible walls of her colourless prison. The darkness of the void was suffocating. Why couldn’t Magic have left her in the blue void? At least that place had light. She had tried endlessly to stop feeding the Element her magic, but after she had started it was impossible to stop.

The purple mare sobbed as her protests began to die out. Her throat was sore and her magic reserves were running low. Eventually she let herself just sink to the floor. She sniffed and cried into her forelegs as she lay there, oblivious to how much time was passing. She couldn’t even see what was happening around her. She could just tell what her magic was being used for.

Looking up into the blackness, Twilight couldn’t help thinking about what had really happen to the first Twilight. It was why Magic was so mad, and she didn’t have much else to do in here, so it kept coming to mind.

Twilight already knew she was somehow copied from the original Twilight. She had already come to terms with it. The questions now were: how was it done, and when?

The original Twilight had gone missing four years ago, but the new one was a fully-grown adult. Unless… she had heard of age spells before. Accelerating or reversing a pony’s growth. And she had heard of memory spells. Giving somepony fake memories or taking them away. If somepony combined the two… they could turn a foal into an adult without them ever knowing.

Twilight had been expecting something bad, but it still hurt. She wasn’t just a copy. She was a fake pony. She didn’t have a childhood, or a past, or real memories.

Despite the depression it forced on her, it also gave Twilight purpose. She had no backstory. She would find the original Twilight and learn hers. She would give her life back. She would give the original her life back.

But first she had to escape her own mind.

Fluttershy panted as she galloped down the hallway. The throne room was just a few turns away. A bang sounded behind her and she leapt into the air. The beam of magic passed beneath her and tore up some of the floor.

The pegasus landed and took off again, cursing as she dodged more blasts of magic. She was starting to tire.

There! The door to the throne room! Just a little further…

A silenced blast of magic struck her from behind, sending her flying and smacking into the door. The pegasus forced herself up on her forelegs, spitting a little blood. A tug on her tail stole her legs from under her and slammed her chin against the ground.

Fluttershy turned her head and glared up at her assailant. The alicorn was staring down at her with cold, hard eyes. A single purple hoof rested against the pegasus’ back, forcing her into the ground. The yellow mare grunted from the pain of the pressure. The alicorn smiled.

“No!”

Fluttershy blinked. The word had come from the alicorn’s own mouth. The hoof lifted from the pegasus’ back as the purple mare stumbled backwards.

“What are you doing?”

The pegasus continued to stare in confusion as the door opened behind her.

“I won’t let you do this anymore! I know you’re desperate, but this isn’t the way!”

Fluttershy didn’t even react as she was lifted by a golden aura.

“What do you know? I’ve been around for millennium!”

The pegasus didn’t even struggle as she was hidden beneath a soft white wing. All of her attention was on the inwardly conflicting alicorn.

“I know that I am not your bearer.”

Fluttershy didn’t care when her vision was blocked and the ground fell out from beneath her.