Wanted

Chapter 1

My mind is bouncing crazily in my skull. I have to hide in the very trailer that Trixie and I performed our shows, but now this ‘thing’ is in my place. I do not know how this could have happened, but I will not let him take over the life that my friends had saved. Except this might not be the best idea, but what else can I do? I can’t just show myself to them, or maybe they’ll think that I’m not the real one. I clench my fists together as I anxiously wait against the wall along the doorway for this imposter to step inside the trailer. I can hear them muttering from behind the wall and can sort of make out what they’re saying. “Are you excited? Because I sure am! We can go visit Candle Light and her Mother and see how they’re doing. I’m sure she’ll be just as excited to see us don’t you think?” Trixie asks.

“Oh they sure are going to be in for a surprise. I’m sure that we’ll just brighten their day.” Says my double.

“Oh I hope so.” Suddenly there’s a silence, and then he speaks up.

“What is this for?”

“I’m just . . . so happy you’re still here.” I shake my head while trying to keep myself from barging into the stage room. I need to keep calm; I’m going to get to the bottom of this one way or another. “Well, I’m going to get us moving. You can go and rest.” Just then I hear the knob of the door beginning to turn. This is it; the moment has come. No turning back now. I take in a deep breath and try to flatten myself out as much as possible against the wall as to not be noticed. Aireal steps through the doorway and thankfully doesn’t notice me, but he will once he turns around. This is it; I need to make my move now as he closes up the trailer. Just as I am about to call to him he says something aloud to himself.

“Shine Village will sure be in for a surprise. I really think they need to ‘lighten’ up.” He chuckles, and I cover my mouth to hide my gasp and hold back the words I was about to say. Whatever he’s planning to do to Shine Village can’t be good by the sound of it. I can’t let him get there; this is it, it’s now or never. I sneak up behind him as he wiggles the latch back into place and locks the door. I wrap my arm around his throat and begin to tighten my grip. He starts thrashing about struggling for air; I find that he is much stronger than I had anticipated. He forces me to slam back against the wall as the gears and tumblers start turning throughout the wagon. My back may be a bit sore, but that’s not going to get me to let go. He jabs his elbow several times into my side as each one feels like a stab into my lungs. I can feel my grip weakening, and so does he as he takes the chance to break free and face me. I never thought that I’d have to stare into my own eyes, but now that I am, it feels like a new type of fear I have yet to experience. At first he stares at me in anger, but his expression changes to amusement. “Oh, it’s just you. How’ve you been?” I don’t even bother to answer as I hold my body in a defensive stance prepared for anything he may try. “Oh right, what was I thinking? It isn’t normal to talk to yourself am I right?”

“. . . Y-You’re not me. Just what are you?” I ask nervously.

“Not me? Not me?! I look like you, sound like you, I’m pretty sure that I am me. In fact, you might consider me to ‘new’ you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well just look at you. No offense to myself but, you’re trembling like a fearful little animal! Now look at me, do I look afraid? I’m here to replace you, we don’t need you anymore. Your time here is up, and now it’s my turn.”

“I won’t let you. Trixie is my friend and I won’t let you take her away from me.”

“You sound so confident in yourself. Trixie already believes that I am the real you, what makes you think she’ll believe you? Trixie is my friend now, this whole life that used to be yours is now mine. Except for one problem, you. So I need to make the appropriate correction, by eliminating you for good.”

“As long as I’m still standing there’s no way I’m going to let that happen.”

“Well then, let’s fix that.” In the blink of an eye he throws a kick into my side, the one he repeatedly jabbed his elbow into. I cringe in pain as he grabs me by the collar of my jacket and launches his knee into my stomach. Down on the ground I try to regain my composure as he paces around my body. Just then he throws another kick up into my stomach. “What is this? Before you were doing so much better! Now you’re not even trying. Come on, here let me help you up.” He carefully stands me back up and tries to hold me steady as I cannot keep my balance. “There, are you feeling alright?”

“Y-You won’t get away with . . . whatever you’re going to do to Sh-Shine Village.”

“Oh don’t you worry about that little place. I’m just going to brighten their day up a bit.”

“W-Why? I thought it was me you wanted?” I struggle to say.

“Yes I know, but it’s all in good fun! Now you’re in no condition to keep this up, so I think it’s time you lay back and relax.” He reaches up and unhooks the latch before the door falls and skids along the dirt path as the wagon is moving. “I’m afraid I have to say farewell for now, but don’t worry. I know we’ll be meeting each other again soon. But, do you really want to show yourself around here again after what just happened? Think about it.” With one swift punch to the side of my head I fall out of the wagon and tumble onto the dirt path as the wagon leaves. Lifting my aching head I see him gingerly waving at me before lifting the trailer door back up. I feel so woozy, but I can’t just lay here. I need help, but who can I go to? Valiari is all the way in the swamp and there’s no way I’ll be able to find it without getting lost. Ponyville, maybe I can find help there. It seems to be my only chance. Maybe that purple pony . . . Twilight, I believe her name was, is at her library. It’s the only glimmer of hope I have, and I can’t waste time laying here. I push myself through the pain and barely stand myself up. I drag myself down the dirt path back the way I came grasping my side and trying to keep my thoughts straight. This path feels like it stretches on forever, but at the first sight of the little cottages I try to painfully jog the rest of the way. Passing by all the cottages in search of that library other ponies stare at me through their windows or along the path as I pass by. I can hear them whispering to each other wondering what I am, but I ignore them all. My mind is only focused on finding Twilight hoping that maybe she can help me. With every step I take it feels like a brick is bouncing around inside my skull, and a shard of glass is poking into my lungs. Then I see it, the big tree that has been transformed into a building Valiari told me to find back in the beginning. Finally feeling some sort of relief in my thoughts, but not my body, I lean against the front door and begin to knock incessantly. Glancing back as I still feel many pairs of eyes watching me the other ponies stare at me confused.

As the front door opens I find that the little purple dragon I hid from when I first came here answers. At the sight of me he shrieks and slams the door shut before I could even utter a word. “Twilight! There’s something at the door!” He screams.

“Who is it Spike?”

“I don’t know but it’s hideous and strange!”

“Really now. . .”

“Twilight wait it could be dangerous!”

“Uh-huh, I think you may be overreacting Spike.”

“But it was freaky looking! It looked like bad news to me!” The door knob turns and Twilight opens the door with a confused expression on her face that changes to surprise.

“Oh it’s you! Spike there’s nothing to worry about it’s not dangerous. Come on in. I’m glad to see you actually knocked before stepping in instead of using the window.” Twilight jokes. I limp myself inside and Twilight quickly takes notice of my injuries. “What happened to you? I thought you and Trixie were going away to other places, so what are you doing here? Here, sit down.” Twilight leads me over to a chair and I painfully sit down.

“You know this thing?!”

“Yes, remember when I told you something broke in a while ago?”

“Wait, it was that thing?”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re friends with it?!”

“Well not necessarily, but I don’t think he’s here to cause harm. It looks like he ran into a little bit of trouble and could use some help.”

“Alright, fine. You take care of the book thief while I go and make friends with a bank robber.” Spike then storms off up a set of stairs without another word.

“Don’t mind him; he’s always a little cranky in the morning. Anyway what happened to you? Why aren’t you with Trixie?”

“I uhh . . . got separated. C-Can you tell me how I can get to Shine Village?” I ask nervously. Now that I think about it I’m not even too sure if I can tell Twilight what happened. If she were to find out how do I know she would even believe me. Perhaps I should just see if she can give me directions and I’ll figure something out from there.

“But where did all these bruises come from? I mean you can barely stand.”

“I accidentally . . . umm . . . fell out of the wagon and . . . I fell down a rough hill. Please, can you tell me how to get to Shine Village?”

“Well all you have to do is take the path out to the forest. Follow it straight, then the next right after should lead you in the right direction.”

“Th-Thank you.” I say trying to hurriedly get up and leave.

“Wait you’re hurt! Don’t you want to just rest for a while?”

“N-No I can’t. Really I . . . must be going.” I say in an attempt to escape, but she uses her magic to slam the door in front of me.

“You’re behaving very strangely and I want you to tell me why.”

“Wh-What makes you think that?”

“Well for starters you come to my library barely able to walk, I don’t think a little tumble down a hill could do that to you. Secondly you deny my suggestion for you to rest and still you’re trying to leave in a big hurry. Now why don’t you tell me what’s really going on.”

“. . . I-I can’t.”

“And why not?”

“Because you probably won’t believe me.”

“Please, you don’t know about the things that I have gone through. I think at this point I could believe almost anything. Just tell me what happened, I promise I won’t jump to conclusions.” I’m a little hesitant, my voice wants to speak up but I won’t let it. There’s no way she could believe it. “. . . Can you at least tell me what happened to get you this injured?”

“. . . Well, I did it . . . I mean I myself didn’t do it but I, n-not me, did it. . .” Twilight simply stares with one eyebrow raised trying to piece together what I had just said. As a matter of fact I myself am confused by what I had said. “. . . I see. . . Have you been feeling a bit under the weather lately?”

“No! I just . . . ! It’s really hard to explain.” Twilight at this point is looking at me with a mixture of fright and worry. She thinks I’m losing my mind and any minute now she’s about to dismiss me as insane. Okay, I just need to take a deep breath and tell her. Maybe she will understand.

“Okay I’ll just . . . go ahead and say it. Out there . . . is some kind of ‘double’ of me. He-He looks like me, sounds like me, but he’s not me. . . He’s trying to take over my life.”

“. . . And the injuries?”

“I tried to . . . he did this to me.”

“Now let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly. You have a double, and he’s trying to take over your life. You tried to subdue him I’m supposing and he attacked you. Is that about right?”

“. . . Yes.”

“I see, and you’re positive you’re not feeling ill?”

“I’m sure-please I’m telling you the truth! H-He said he was going to do something to Shine Village and I can feel time is running out!”

“. . . This is a joke isn’t it? It’s some sort of prank.”

“No! I-I’ll prove it to you! Let’s go to Shine Village and-and you can see for yourself! If I’m wrong then you can just leave me, go back home, and you will never see me again!” Twilight glances around the room thinking to herself, I can feel I’m getting closer to gaining some of her trust I just need to beg a little bit more. “Please, what else can I do for you to believe me?”

“. . . If you really are telling the truth; then why would you go after them, not only in this condition, but even after what he did to you?”

“Becau-. . .” I find myself pausing out of pain from a small movement of turning back towards her. “Because I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“. . . Alright, then let’s go.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes, but first let me try to ease the pain first then we can leave.” Twilight casts a spell from her horn in the form of a misty orange cloud that soaks into my body. In an instant most of the pain has subsided, and now I can breath without a stabbing feeling in my lungs. However, I can still feel remnants of soreness throughout my bones. “Now we can go, I hope I’m making the right choice by trusting you. You seem a little strange, but . . . a part of me believes you’re telling the truth. Spike! I’m going to make a trip to Shine Village! I may be back soon!”

“Oh! So now you’re going out with it?! What’s next?!”

“Spike please! . . . Okay, let’s go.” I follow Twilight out of the library until we finally get back on the dirt path leading into the forest. The sun is hanging high in the sky as it sneaks through the clusters of tree branches that stretch over us. The sounds of wind rustling through the leaves and birds singing behind the trees feel calming; but in the back of my mind I cannot hide from the questions bouncing about. I can’t stop thinking about that moment when I looked straight into my own eyes. It was like looking into a mirror, and a horrifying one at that. Along the way neither she nor I speak a word, the silence feels just so strange I feel the need to break it. Twilight was right, even if she let me go what would I have done? I was injured and in no condition to even try and fight him again, but that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea considering what he did to me the first time. I feel myself glancing continuously at Twilight compulsively for some odd reason. As if I cannot seem to keep my attention away from her.

“. . . Thank you.” I say breaking the monotony of birds chirping and wind blowing.

“Hm? Why are you thanking me? We haven’t even gotten to the village yet.”

“F-For coming with me.”

“. . . I don’t think we’ve been introduced properly. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are . . . ?”

“Aireal.”

“Ah, right . . . well we should be getting close. Is there anything you wanted to talk about in the mean time?” As I dig through my mind for a topic I find myself taking an awkwardly long pause. Nothing is coming to mind. All I can think about is what might happen once we arrive at Shine Village. I can only hope that it isn’t too late, but after the time Twilight kept me in her library I feel that there might not be much hope left. I can also feel that a part of me actually is a bight afraid of Twilight. She’s a completely different pony that I do not even know very well. Unlike earlier when I was trying to get my point across and explain to her everything that has happened, which ran purely off of adrenaline, I can feel my shyness showing itself. “. . . You don’t like to talk much do you?”

“I’m sorry. . .”

“It’s okay, I understand. You know I . . . Wait, what is that?” Twilight gazes out into the distance, and I find myself staring out at a stream of smoke rising from behind walls of trees. “Come on!” Twilight shouts and beckons. We run down the rest of the path until we reach the village, or at least . . . what’s left of it. The smell of smoke fills the air as every last building has been reduced to a smoking pile of ash and support beams. All the ponies are either in tears or in anger, and Twilight immediately trots to the nearest one. The mare herself is covered in a fair amount of ashes mixed with dirt. “Excuse me what happened here?” She asks frightfully.

“Our town’s been destroyed, burnt down to nothing.” The mare’s voice sounds hollow.

“How did this happen? Was it some sort of accident or . . . ?”

“I can assure you this wasn’t any accident. There is nothing that could have caused this around here. Some ponies have a few ideas, but were not too sure yet.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“. . . Right.” The mare says while glaring her eyes at me suspiciously. We move away from her and begin exploring the rest of the village.

“. . . Aireal, you were right. Just look what happened. There’s not a single building left standing . . . but this doesn’t mean I’m leaving a ‘double’ as our only answer. Their needs to be a little more investigation. We should ask some of the ponies here what happened in the past hour or so.” As we walk along the ash filled pathway I spot a familiar looking filly with a beige coat sheeted in soot. Candle Light, the little filly Trixie and I brought up to the stage as a volunteer during one of our shows, and she’s just standing around glancing back and forth everywhere as if looking for someone.

“Hey! Candle Light!” I call.

“Aireal? What-where are you going?!” As I quickly walk towards her she screams at the very sight of me.

“Mommy! Daddy!” She cries.

“No, no, no Candle Light listen! I-It isn’t what you think!”

“Stay away from me monster!”

“Little filly just relax okay? We’re just here to figure out what happened.” Twilight says in an attempt to calm her, but she remains fearful.

“Hey! What’s going on here?!” A strong male voice shouts. A stallion with a vanilla white coat and a dull orange mane trots up to us standing in front of Candle Light to protect her.

“Oh, sir this is just a misunderstanding. We’re just here to figure out what happened.”

“It was him Daddy! He did it!”

“What darling? This thing?” He asks pointing his hoof at me as my heart begins to sink. “Hey . . . it’s you! You and your little unicorn friend came here earlier!”

“Now sir I can assure you he isn’t the cause. He’s been with me for the past hour.”

“What is this? Another one of your tricks?!”

“What? No sir I’m—”

“Hey everypony! I think I found who is responsible for all this, right here!” He shouts. All the ponies within the village swarm our location whispering to each other with furious faces.

“Hey it’s that thing again!”

“Who’s its friend?”

“I don’t know but I think they’re working together!” As they shout and surround us I begin to fall into a pit of fright, but Twilight still tries to use reason.

“Now everypony just settle down. We are not behind this; we just want to help.”

“Liars!”

“Get ‘em!” On that last shout all the ponies charge towards us like a herd of angry cattle.

“Run!” Twilight shouts. We sprint though an opening in the horde and take off down the dirt path with them not too far behind. The both of us are struggling for breath, until I notice something along the path. Wide indentations that dig into the soil, these must be tracks left behind by Trixie’s wagon. If we follow them we’re sure to find it! As I turn to follow the tracks I find that Twilight is not with me, but is instead headed the opposite direction. The both of us stop and turn back to each other confused. “Aireal! Where are you going?! We need to head back to Ponyville and find some help!”

“But there are tracks leading this way! If we follow them we might find their wagon! We won’t have time if we go back!”

“Aireal!” She tries to beckon me to follow her, but between the choices I believe that we could have a chance at catching them if we follow the tracks. With the mob drawing closer I choose to turn around and follow the tracks. If Twilight chooses to go back to Ponyville then that is her choice. Even if the whole mob chooses to focus all of their attention on me I will not stop; I cannot stop. I will push my body to the limit if it means outrunning them to find this Aireal and Trixie. After seeing what my double did to this poor little town I can only imagine what he could do to the next. If Twilight won’t be there to help me, then at least I will be there to try. I can hear Twilight sigh out of frustration causing me to glance back and see that she is trying to catch up to me. I feel shocked that she actually chose to come with me, perhaps she cares more than I had first thought. I thought for sure she would’ve left me since she doesn’t even know me very well or at all for that matter. From the mob one stallion seems to be trotting faster than the rest and trips up Twilight by biting onto her tail. They both fall to the ground as the rest of the group comes ever closer.

Twilight struggles to stand and run, but he continues to hold her back. I don’t understand; why isn’t she using some kind of spell to break free? Whatever the reason I can’t just watch, I need to help. With my heart beating crazily I run back and try to pull Twilight up, but the stallion will not let go, and the mob is near. Then an idea sparks in my head. I reach into my pocket in the hopes I will find what I am looking for; and once my fingers make contact with the black cloth bag inside I yank it out and toss one of the smoke balls Trixie gave me onto the ground. It creates a huge cloud of white smoke causing the stallion and Twilight to shut their eyes and cough excessively. The stallion releases Twilight as he tries to wave the smoke away from his face. The rest of the mob gets lost in the cloud and they begin to hack as well as trying to ignore it and catch up to us. With Twilight’s hoof in my hand I help her stand, and in a second we are back to running down the path. The mob is still disoriented behind us, and the ponies that chose to ignore it tire out before they even come close to us. Twilight and I escaped, but just barely. Once we are sure we are far enough from the village we stop for a moment to breath. I can’t stop asking myself why Twilight did indeed turn back for me. She could’ve left and had nothing further to do with me. Maybe she thought my decision was right, maybe she really did care about my safety, or just the safety of any other ponies that may fall victim to another catastrophe. Either way, I know now for sure that I have at least gained some of her trust, and perhaps she may believe my story.