Twilight groaned her pain as she awoke to the void. The alicorn felt the urge to scream her frustration and anger, but there was nopony around to hear it. So instead she just let herself go limp and float through the darkness. At least, until the blackness turned to the bright blue from before. The purple mare turned just in time to land on her hooves, despite the lack of visible ground beneath her.

“I told you it was a bad idea to wake you up.”

The alicorn blinked and suddenly a translucent version of herself appeared before her.

“Magic, I-I’m sorry.” Twilight sighed, looking away from her double.

“Sorry? What for?” the Element frowned. “You got pretty far, all things considered.”

“There was n-no time for me to look for the other Twilight!” the alicorn explained.

“I expected as much.” Magic admitted.

“Well, of course you were. You warned me but I woke up anyway! If I had just waited like you told me to than I could have looked for her properly instead of just those few moments when I was actually thinking.” Twilight growled, looking back at the other alicorn. As she flashed her fangs, she realised that Magic did not have them. Nor did she have dagger-like pupils. Was she still based off of the original Twilight?

Magic’s eyes seemed to sadden. “Don’t act as if this is your fault. This is nobody’s fault but your father’s. If you… wish to call him that anymore, of course.”

“Yeah… he’s my father. But he’s not Twilight’s father. He’s the father of a copy without the true power of the Princess of Friendship and the Element of Magic. He’s the father of a fake. A clone. A… a-” her voice was cut off when Magic pressed a translucent hoof gently to her muzzle. She hadn’t even realised that she was crying until the Element brushed the tears away.

“Twilight, finding your original doesn’t matter right now. What matters is you convincing them that you have good intentions.” Magic told her calmly.

“Who?”

“Your… her friends.”

That was the last thing Twilight heard before her vision went black again. She felt like she was falling. But there was ground beneath her too. Her wing hurt. Why did her wing hurt? Why were there… voices?

Twilight was vaguely aware of being dumped unceremoniously onto a plank of wood. She could feel something wrap around her hooves. She had no idea how long she stayed in this state of half-consciousness.

At one point she felt her left wing spread out and examined. Her injured one stayed pinned to her side, but it throbbed with pain anyway. Sometime later something made of cool metal slid over her horn, crackling with magic. Her ear twitched and she realised she was coming to.

“Ugh… wh-who… wh-what happened?” she groaned.

Twilight opened her eyes a little to see… nothing. The room she was in was small, although she couldn’t really tell because it was so dark. She turned her head to her limbs, to find her legs tied to the wood she lay on. Her uninjured left wing was spread and pinned down, whilst her right stayed bandaged to her side.

“Oh my gosh! Dashie, she’s awake!” a high-pitched voice gasped.

“About time!” another grumbled.

Twilight’s ear twitched again; she’d heard that voice before. Recently, too.

“You have any idea how long we’ve been waiting for you to wake up, you faker?” The words were emphasised by a magenta-eyed blue face appearing in front of her. The face was bruised and cut. The rainbow mane atop it was messed and dirtied. A scar ran across one of her eyes. Little things that you wouldn’t normally notice, thanks to her helmet.

Twilight flinched as Rainbow snorted in her face. It was at this point she realised that the plank she lay on was actually vertical.

“It was hard enough getting you down here.” She growled. “But keeping you down here for this long without the princess knowing was near impossible!” The pegasus turned and stalked away, smacking Twilight in the face with her tail as she disappeared into darkness. “It better be worth it.”

“Sorry about Dashie being so grumpy.” The high-pitched voice sighed as its owner emerged. The pink earth pony’s mane was limp, but still possessed a few curls. For some reason Twilight found this fact relieving. “She’s just mad because you look like our super duper best friend Twilight!”

“But she isn’t Twilight!” Rainbow huffed. “She’s got fangs and dragon eyes and she reeks of dark magic.”

The pink pony glared into the darkness behind her before trotting closer to Twilight. Her voice grew more serious, losing the former childishness. “I know she isn’t the same Twilight, Dash, but she’s the closest we could get!”

“Whatever, Pinkie. I’m gonna go get Rares and AJ. Flutters’ still assisting the changelings, so I’ll just send a guard for her.” Rainbow’s words were accompanied by the flapping of wings and the slamming of a door.

“Well she’s a grumpy grump.” Pinkie sighed. “Sorry about that. Usually she’s really nice and wouldn’t tie you up but since you look like Twilight she was suspicious.”

Twilight just stared down at the earth pony as she fiddled with the bonds on her wing. The alicorn suddenly began to cough violently, her horn sputtering magic through the restrictor.

Pinkie looked up in surprise as a few sparks landed in her mane. “Um… I’m guessing you’d like some water?”

The purple mare paused for a deep breath before nodding. She flinched backwards as Pinkie produced a glass of water from nowhere and held it to her lips. The earth pony tipped the glass up slightly, allowing Twilight to drink.

The two ponies jumped as the door flew open again. Pinkie trotted back into the darkness, while Twilight was shaking her head, scattering droplets of water everywhere.

“-still can’t believe I was actually able to cast a stun spell!” claimed a regal voice. “Three at once, no less.”

“Well, you have been practising magic for three… four years now.” Rainbow huffed. “Ever since Twi went missing.”

The first Twilight went missing four years ago? Something about that… it didn’t add up.

“Well, no matter how she did it, she got us two guards and the imposter!” Another voice claimed with a country accent.

Twilight was getting sick of that. “I’m not an imposter!” she growled, actually able to talk now that she’d had a drink.

“Then why do you look like Twilight?” Rainbow hissed as she trotted back into view.

“I don’t-” the alicorn bit her tongue to stop herself. She did know. Kind of. And wasn’t Honesty one of the Elements? Whoever represented it would be able to see through her lie.

“Rainbow Dash, darling, calm down.” The regal voice sighed.

Twilight flinched as an orange earth pony appeared before her. Green eyes stared deeply into her own, searching for something.

“She ain’t lyin’. She ain’t an imposter.” The country pony decided, looking back at her friends.

“How is that possible?” asked a white unicorn as she trotted forwards. It took only seconds to recognise her. She had teleported Celestia’s army away. She had allowed them to escape before she could finish that stupid rainbow pegasus off.

The two ponies before her looked up suddenly and backed away as her horn sparked. Twilight could feel the restrictor fighting back. She could feel the pain shooting through her skull as it fought too hard.

“What the buck?!” Rainbow shouted.

“Rainbow, watch your language!” the white unicorn gasped.

“How strong is this faker?” the pegasus hissed.

“Don’t matter. Just go get another restrictor.” The cowpony told her calmly.

Twilight could feel her magic beginning to slip through the restrictor. She could feel it starting chip away at the defences. She could feel the restrictor breaking! She could feel pain. So much pain as a second, stronger restrictor covered her horn. The pain shot through her head, the shock disabling her.

“That should do it.” Rainbow sighed. Twilight forced her eyes open in time to see the pegasus dropping to the ground again. The blue mare glared up at the alicorn before walking out of view.

“If she isn’t an imposter, then what are we supposed to do with her?” Pinkie mused, trotting forwards with bright eyes.

All ponies in the room jumped as the door slammed open again.

“I’ll tell you what you can do.” A calm voice announced.

Pinkie’s eyes filled with fear, although everypony else just looked relieved.

“You can untie the ‘imposter’.” Ordered a pale yellow pegasus as she walked up to Twilight. Her pink mane was cut short and styled to cover her right eye. Scars covered the bridge of her muzzle. Her dulled cyan eyes were cold and calculating, taking in every detail of Twilight’s face in seconds.

“B-but Fluttershy-”

“No buts, Rainbow. She has two restrictors and cannot fly. She is no threat to us.” Fluttershy stated in that same calm tone that now sent shivers down Twilight’s spine.

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie. The earth pony’s eyes seemed to say sorry, as if she didn’t want Twilight to have to endure… whatever this pegasus was going to do. There was also thinly veiled fear. Pinkie was actually afraid of her friend.

Rainbow returned and began fiddling with Twilight’s bonds. Despite Fluttershy’s reasoning, she still made it as awkward for Twilight as she could. She undid her forelegs and wing first, and then her hindlegs, leading to her smacking her face into the stone floor and laying there until she was freed.

“Stand up.” Fluttershy commanded.

Twilight wanted to jump up and yell at the pegasus for daring to speak to royalty like that. She wanted to break out of her restrictors and flee the scene. She wanted to retrieve her sword and slaughter every last pony in the castle to rescue her mother. But the yellow pegasus’ voice trampled all over those thoughts. It made her want to curl up in a corner and cry about everything that went wrong in her life.

The alicorn forced herself to gather her thoughts. She forced strength into her legs and forced herself to stand. She looked down into Fluttershy’s eyes, fearful of looking away. Despite her being taller than the pegasus, the yellow mare’s gaze made her feel like she was a filly, staring up into her mother’s eyes the first time she angered the black alicorn.

The purple mare expected to be slapped or kicked or harmed in any way, really. Instead, Fluttershy reached up, slung her foreleg about Twilight’s neck and pulled her into a hug. What she expected even less, however, was for herself to start crying. She couldn’t help it.

Twilight couldn’t stop the tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t even know why they were there. She didn’t even know this pony. Did she? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was crying away all of her problems into this mare’s shoulder.