Duel of the Duplicates

"I'm not going to start something...I'm going to end something!"

Twilight woke up in her bed screaming after what she saw. She didn't understand what that dream meant but whatever it meant it scared her good. Though she couldn't understand why that dream made her scared at all since she couldn't exactly remember what happened. The only thing that she remembered was that last sentence.

She looked around and saw nothing but her room in her new castle, which housed her books that she ordered from the Princess, the portal to the human world she made and her number one assistant Spike in his basket bed. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but still she felt that something was bothering her and it must have something to do with that dream she had.

"That was weird!" Twilight said to herself. She thought about it a little and thought that maybe she should go back to sleep and think more about it in the morning. With another look around her room her eyes slowly grew heavy and slowly she went back to sleep.

Morning came and thankfully she didn't have that same dream again. She looked and saw that Spike was already awake since he wasn't in his bed. This usually wasn't like him! Unless he was making breakfast. Other than that there was no other reason for him to not be in her room without her waking up. Knowing this she got up and thought first to look for Spike in the kitchen.

"Spike!" Twilight called out to him. With no response she was nearly approaching the kitchen where he might just be at. "Spike are you here?" Twilight asked while peeking her head to look for him. When she looked inside she still couldn't find him. She was starting to get worried now until she saw a note on the dining table, hopefully it was from Spike. She looked at the note and began reading.

Dear Twilight

I'm afraid I have to leave for some time and I don't know when I will be back. Don't worry nothing bad is happening right now, but I can't really say what's going on. I have to leave right now and I will see you soon.

Love Spike!

P.S. Princess Luna said that she wanted to see you as soon as possible.

The very thought of this was all that was on her mind. Why would Spike suddenly leave without telling her in person. But before she could think about where he would she did read that Princess Luna wanted to see her. Twilight didn't know why Luna would want to see her but she thought that it might be important.

She galloped outside her castle and headed toward the Ponyville train station. Before she made it she ran into Rarity near the cloth stand. Seeing her friend move so fast got Rarity's attention. "Twilight! What got you going so fast?"

"It's Princess Luna!" Twilight said to Rarity. "She said that she wanted to see me right away."

Rarity looked at Twilight's mane and saw that it was all messed up. "You plan on going to Canterlot with a mane like that?" Rarity held up a mirror she got from her saddlebag and showed Twilight her mane. Twilight was a bit surprised. She was running around her castle looking for Spike that she didn't have time to have breakfast or prepare herself for the day. "It's a good thing that I always keep a hairbrush with me for emergencies like this." Completely ignoring the fact that Twilight was supposed to be headed for Canterlot Rarity started brushing Twilight's mane. Twilight, realizing that Rarity won't stop until she's finished, just let her continue.

After what felt like five minutes Rarity finally stopped brushing her mane. Much to Twilight's annoyance she knew that this was considered normal. "Alright then since you're done I need to be going now." Twilight was about to trot away but then she stopped when she felt her stomach growl.

Rarity heard that and placed a hoof over Twilight. "You can't simply leave without eating something first. What if you get hungry while talking to Princess Luna." Rarity said as she pushed Twilight into going to Sugar Cube Corner.

"Rarity I thank you for being concerned about my visit but I need to get going right now." Twilight said while levitating Rarity from behind her.

"Oh, but darling I insist."

"I'm sorry, but I'm supposed to be going to Canterlot right now!" Twilight explained to Rarity. "So I have to go right now." Before Rarity could say anything else Twilight galloped toward the train station.

Knowing that there was not going to be a way to convince her otherwise she decided to not interfere again. However, she did notice one thing that got her to head into Twilight's direction. She was next to Twilight when she asked, "By the way where's Spike?" Twilight was so focused on seeing Princess Luna that she nearly forgot about Spike. "It's not like him to be away for as long as this."

Twilight slowed down a bit that got Rarity to slow down. "He wasn't around when I first woke up. I looked for him and I found a note that said he was gone for now and also that he said that Princess Luna said she needed me for something." She said to Rarity remembering the note from today.

Rarity did know one thing about what Twilight said was off. Why would Spike be gone and not say where he was going. "Do you know where he went?" Rarity said to Twilight who is now just realizing that Spike never said where he was going. "It isn't like him to just go off somewhere and not say where he was going. After what happened when you brought your pet owl into your life."

Yeah that was true. Spike always told where he was going after that day. Why would he not say where he went this time. They stopped right in front of the train station, luckily the train bound for Canterlot was right there and ready for boarding. "Now that I think about it would be alright if and the other girls go around Ponyville and look for him and also ask if any pony has seen him?"

"Why of course darling!" Rarity said being as concerned as Twilight right about now. "I'll make sure that we even have to search the Everfree Forest and ask Zecora if we have to."

"Good thank you." Twilight was headed for the train. "Be sure to tell me if you find him and ask him why he didn't say where he went." Rarity nodded and was headed off towards her friends while Twilight went inside the train just as it started to leave.

Twilight made it to Canterlot Castle where she was hoping to find out everything about why Luna wanted her. Before she went inside she had to talk to the guards outside the door before heading inside. It's only nice to make sure that they know why you're here. "Excuse me but I'm here to see Princess Luna."

The guard on the left was the first to speak. "Why yes, she's been expecting you." They both stood out of the way. "Head on in!"

"Thank you!" Twilight said as she headed inside the castle. Twilight trotted inside making sure not to look worried about visiting the castle of the two princesses without having some pony bow to her, which made her a bit uncomfortable. While moving through the castle she finally found Princess Luna. "Princess Luna, did you want to see me?"

"Why yes indeed Princess Twilight, please follow me." Princess Luna said getting Twilight to follow her. "I called you here to talk about the dream that you had last night." Twilight was then confused. Why would Luna get her to come here just to talk about a dream? "I know what you think but that wasn't just a regular dream, but a vision."

They were headed for Luna's chambers where a guard was standing in front of the door. He bowed in respect for them and stepped out of the way so they can enter the room. The only thing that Twilight had on her mind was that the thing that Luna said about her dream.

"You see my sister had the same experience when Tirek was attacking!" Luna explained to Twilight. "So you see what you were having last night was a vision of some creature that threatens to attack Equestria."

"But I can't even remember much about the dream I had last night." Twilight said. "How can I know what will happen if I can't even remember it?"

Luna smiled at what she said. "Luckily for you I had witnessed most of the dream you had. But I do have some bad news about this." It took only for Princess Luna to say it to convince Twilight that whatever it was was going to be harsh for her. "If you remember the Changelings then you might know how serious this will be."

Twilight eyes then widened after hearing this. "You mean they are going to try and attack again."

"I think that after what you did to their queen after the comet passed was more than enough to convince them to stay back." Luna assured Twilight. "No don't worry, it's not them." Twilight was a bit relieved to hear that. "Actually I fear that this threat is far worse than the changelings." And Twilight was back to being worried.

"What?" Twilight was confused by all of what she was hearing. "I've seen things that are really dangerous, but what in Equestria, besides Tirek, is worse than the changelings?"

"The Duplicates!"

Twilight and Luna turned and saw the royal guard from outside Luna's chamber doors appear before them. Twilight was glad to hear that bit of information but was now wondering why a royal guard would interrupt this meeting. Luna spoke then saying, "That's right, but how would you know something like that?" The royal guard then stepped away from the door but stopped a few feet away from Luna and Twilight. "Also why have you come in unannounced?"

Just then they saw that there was something going the royal guard's tail. It started growing longer and changing it's shape into something more snake like. Before they tried to do something the snake tail grabbed Luna and then his hoof did the same thing with the same transformation toward Twilight. Luna was about to use her magic toward him but he then breathed out some sort of gas. Luna and Twilight didn't know what the gas was for but when they both tried to use their magic they couldn't.

"It renders magic useless." The royal guard formed weird looking scales all over his face all the way through his body showing them his true form. It was like a changeling but Twilight knew that it wasn't, after all she saw practically all of them. So Twilight then suspected that it was this thing called a 'Duplicate'. "You are right, I am." Twilight was then shocked to know that he heard what she was thinking. Luna tried calling for Celestia but then those snake tails covered their mouths. "No need to worry for that."

Twilight and Luna tried to get free but no matter what they did they couldn't escape and because of this gas they couldn't use their magic. And what the duplicate said next was the thing that paralyzed.

"Celestia already knew about this an hour ago! To bad she's not here to help you two!"