“Oh, where’s my new cape? In the closet? I just checked there!”

The Twilight Sparkle doll sat and happily watched Trixie rush around her new apartment, knocking into half empty boxes, trying to find her things.

Finally digging out her new cape from the closet, the very late and powerful Trixie slipped it and her wizard hat on, “I’ll be home late, so have dinner without me!” She turned to Twilight and, though late, slowly leaned in and gave the doll a peck on the cheek, “I…love you!”

Blushing, the unicorn rushed out of the apartment. She was walking on sunshine right than with everything going her way. The gig would start in just a few minutes so she would have to hurry, but other than that, everything was going amazingly well lately for Trixie.

Still not used to her new apartment, however, Trixie had forgotten to lock the door behind her…

---

Twilight Sparkle sipped tea under an umbrella outside a café while staring intently at the piece of paper before her. The warm sunshine in Canterlot along with the tea were tools she was trying to use to calm herself down. The paper, on the other hand, undermined all of that.

On it was an advertisement printed out from the internet for a one of a kind Twilight Sparkle doll. It boasted that the doll was so real, so authentic, that it was 100% atomically correct.

The tea cup she held up with her magic chipped and crackled.

She had read the paper a hundred times, yet it always made her boil with rage. How could somepony do something so…so…disrespectful as to create a lifelike doll of her! The one who had created the doll, a citizen of Ponyville, had already been dealt with.

Former citizen of Ponyville. The colt responsible was currently locked in the Canterlot dungeons. Though it made her slightly worried for her own thought process, it brought her joy to know the one responsible for this doll was rotting in a cell.

Now all that remained was to find the doll and rip it to shreds.

She remembered Pinkie Pie asking, “What if a little foal owns the doll? You wouldn’t take it away from her, would you?”

“It wasn’t a foal who bought it…” Twilight said allowed, “It was an adult pony…”

‘…an adult pony with a problem’ is what she didn’t add. Whoever bought that doll bought it for their own sick purposes. Twilight Sparkle meant to end those purposes and send a message to anypony who thought of turning her likeness into some sick toy.

Finishing her tea in one gulp, Twilight stood and picked up the other paper she carried with her. On it was the second address she had been given for the buyer, the first being a previous address. The landlord at the first address had been so rude he hadn’t even told Twilight the name of the resident, only that she moved and where.

She memorized the address, looked at the street names, put her things in her pack, and started walking. The address was right down the street from the café.

---

Panting, Trixie ran past security (rent-a-colts, really) and made it to the stage of the party just as they called her name to perform. On wobbly legs, she cast a few flares and firecrackers while she caught her breath.

The five year old audience ate it up.

---

The apartment Twilight was looking for was on the second floor of a complex. She trudged up the stone stairs, passing a pony carrying laundry down to the machines, and stood outside the door to her destination.

The unicorn took a deep breath. She had promised Princess Celestia that this would not be a repeat of what happened when she met the creator of the doll…but then, she also promised she would be with a royal guard when she went to destroy the doll as well.

She raised her hoof and knocked on the door. It opened at her touch. Startled a moment, Twilight cautiously opened the door the rest of the way.

“Hello?” she called in, “Anypony home?” No answer.

Looking left and right, Twilight opened the door all the way and slipped inside.

---

Trixie ended up only performing for a few minutes before the birthday girl decided to have herself a cry, which chain reactioned to the rest of the babies assembled. Though her act was cut short, she was paid full and could leave early, which was what she did.

She couldn’t remember the last time she skipped. Thoughts of a romantic dinner with Twilight Sparkle filled her head as she made her way back home.

A few ponies outside her apartment building were gossiping and looking around. Though not usually one to eavesdrop, Trixie purposefully walked near them before walking to the stairs.

“…what do you think she is doing here?”

“I don’t know. Something important I assume…”

“…I mean, she’s THE Twilight Sparkle, after all…”

The sound Trixie made from her throat had everypony looking at her funny. Racing against her thoughts, Trixie rushed up the stairs and to her apartment’s door.

It was open.

Inside, Trixie could see Twilight Sparkle, the REAL Twilight Sparkle, staring into a box labeled ‘pictures’. They were all of her and the Twilight Sparkle doll, all in the apartment: having dinner, watching TV, playing video games, looking up funny videos on the internet…

Twilight levitated one out of the box. It was in a heart shaped frame. Only the doll was in that one, center fold, looking into the camera, smiling. It was Trixie’s favorite photo.

Trixie made another involuntary noise. It startled Twilight enough to drop the frame. It fell onto the floor and cracked. Twilight turned and locked eyes with Trixie.

The room blurred slightly for the magician. She couldn’t find her voice at all. Sometimes, in her wildest dreams, she would imagine living in Ponyville with Twilight and her friends. Living a normal life. But never had she thought she would see the real Twilight Sparkle again.

A moment of silence stretched. Twilight hadn’t thought she would ever see Trixie again, or that SHE would be the one with the doll. Or that she would be so…obsessed with it. There were tons of pictures in the box next to her with the two of them together. It made her feel…strange. Her rage temporarily subsided due to the confusion of her feelings.

But her purpose stayed true. “I’ve come for the doll,” Twilight said, “It was made without my permission and I’ve…” come to destroy it, she wanted to say but couldn’t.

Trixie stood stone still, tears starting to stream down her cheeks. She knew what Twilight was here for. In the back of her mind she always thought it odd that Twilight Sparkle would have allowed a doll of her likeness to be made. But she had shrugged it off as an unproductive thought. Now…

Finding her voice again, Twilight said, “Trixie…that doll…”

“Don’t take her away…” Trixie said in a whisper. Twilight heard it. It was like the whole world was silent right then.

“She…it…” for all the hours Twilight had imagined this conversation, she had never imagined it turning out like this. The doll meant more to Trixie then anything, that Twilight was sure of. But still.

Steeling her resolve, Twilight looked Trixie in the eyes and asked softly, “Where is it?”

Shaking her head, Trixie’s cheek twitched, “This can’t be happening…I must be dreaming, this could never be-”

“Trixie,” Twilight said firmly, “Where is the doll?”

The magician’s eyes shot to the door to her room before she could stop herself. Twilight turned her head to look at the door.

When she looked back, Trixie was feet away from her and closing. Without thinking, Twilight summoned a purple shield around herself that bounced Trixie away and into some stacked boxes.

The light blue unicorn struggled to rise, half buried under her own belongings. Seeing she hadn’t taken any serious harm, Twilight turned to the bedroom door and opened it. Inside, the Twilight Sparkle doll sat on the bed, smiling.

Twilight took a step into the room and Trixie screamed, “Don’t take her away! Please!”

Shutting out the sound, Twilight approached the doll. It was an exact replica, down to the last detail. It sickened her. Somepony watched her for hours, recorded her every detail, and created this doll to fulfill their own dark desires. When they weren’t satisfied, they sold it off.

Trixie’s yelling turned to sobs.

Twilight starred into the eyes of the doll. It shouldn’t be allowed to exist, she knew that. Leaving there without destroying it meant condoning the creation of more. “I’m sorry,” she said as she enveloped the doll in her magic.

Though she couldn’t see into the bedroom where she lay, Trixie heard Twilight’s magic. She started to struggle more to be free of her stuff, saying over and over, “No, no, no!” Trixie couldn’t imagine a world without her Twilight. She didn’t want to live in a world without her.

Before she could escape the pile, she heard it. The sound of cloth ripping slowly. Trixie’s muscles went slack as her entire world became that sound. That horrible, slow sound. It went on forever.

Trixie watched Twilight Sparkle walk out of her bedroom and look at her. There were tears in the purple unicorn’s eyes. A stray piece of stuffing clung to her foreleg.

Again she said, “I’m sorry.”

The magician couldn’t find her voice. Her eyes darted from Twilight to the open bedroom door as she continued to quietly sob. The world seemed to continue looking on silently.

Not knowing what else to do, Twilight Sparkle started towards the door to the apartment. Trixie saw her about to leave and, for reasons she didn’t know, reached out towards her, “Ah!”

Twilight stopped and looked back. Their eyes locked.

“Ah…” Trixie tried to think of what she wanted to say, of why she stopped Twilight from leaving. Finally, she said, “Don’t….go…”

Sighing softly, Twilight closed her eyes, “I am not…whoever you made that doll be, Trixie…”

“I…I know that…” Trixie chocked out, “I just…she was all I had…I…” The realization hit her then. She was alone again. No friends, no family. No doll.

She seemed to shrink in on herself as she curled up and cried in earnest. There was no one now. No one to come home to, no one to talk with, no one to-

Click!

The sound of a camera going off startled Trixie. She looked up and saw Twilight lowering a camera she had found on a table nearby. A photo slid out the front of the camera. Twilight took it and the broken heart frame in her magic and looked at Trixie.

“I won’t tell you what to do, Trixie…but Ponyville isn’t going anywhere.”

After fixing the glass with a spell, Twilight took the old photo of the doll out of the frame and put the new one in. She placed the frame on the table with the camera and rushed out of the apartment.

Trixie lay in her belongings a long time. Birds started to chirp outside. Her upstairs neighbors argued about something. Somepony started playing music too loudly down the street.

Slowly, she untangled herself from the pile and walked to the table. The frame was there with the camera. Inside its heart shape was Twilight Sparkle, the REAL Twilight Sparkle. She was looking into the camera. Her smile was forced but…

“…is this what I wanted?”

---

The wagon had cost her everything. Pulling it herself was hard work, even with magic. The road to Ponyville was long and would take several days.

“But,” Trixie said one night, looking up at the stairs from atop her wagonload of belongings, “I did it once before, I can do it again…”

A smiling face peered at her from within a heart shaped lens. Trixie smiled back at it, “And this time, I’ll start by making friends.”