Spike ran down the countless corridors and hallways of the crystalline castle he called home. The minute the sound reached his ears, he dropped what he was doing and started running. In the corner of his eye he saw Starlight Glimmer teleport ahead of him in a flash of light. It was only a few hours ago that Twilight began her weekend fun, reorganizing the Friendship Castle library.
Knowing Twilight, she could be there for days upon no end. Spike knew when Twilight was in “the zone” she wouldn’t be coming out of that library for trivial things such as meals, sleep, bathing. What trouble did Twilight find herself into this time?” Spike thought to himself. A torn page of a book? A book gone missing? A book with a significant amount of water damage? Or worse, a dictionary lacking the proper amount of words in the E, T, A, and O sections!
All of the possibilities of book induced mayhem could quite possibly go on indefinitely. This is bad. Very, very bad. As Spike skidded to a stop at the library door, he looked over to see Starlight peering through a slightly ajar library door. He couldn’t see inside the library because Starlight blocked the only entrance, but the look on Starlight’s face gave him all the information he needed to know.
Whatever it was that caused Twilight to scream wasn’t as bad as he first thought. It was much, much worse. As soon as Spike moved around the pink unicorn to open the library door, an explosion rocked the library that sent the baby drake back into the hallway, leaving a reptile shaped impression into the offending wall.
Spike groaned as he crawled himself out of the wall. When he got back on his legs, however, Starlight had collided into him, sending them both back into the same hole he just crawled out of, widening the definitions of the small crater that pervaded the crystalline castle.
Peering over Starlight, he watched in horror as the lavender Alicorn stepped out of the library wearing dark black armor that covered the librarian’s body from head to hoof. The visor over her eyes and face disappeared into the armour with a soft click. The eyes of the princess were glowing a dark green, the alicorn’s iris’ turned into a red so dark they almost looked black.
The princess he called friend irradiated with ultimate power, she was showing such an overcharge that her eyes and coat were leaving tendrils of wisping smoke. The fact that Twilight was using dark magic wasn’t what got Spike so worked up. He’s dealt with that stuff before. The problem was that Twilight he was looking at was not in fact a she, but a he. Twilight somehow managed to turn herself into a stallion.
“You read page 63 of Starswirl’s Guidebook to transfigurations and disguises, didn’t you?!” Spike said to the alicorn stallion.
“...Spike?” Twilight said, “...Is that you?” He asked as his deep masculine voice went from a questioning tone to bubbling with curiosity. His eyes began to flicker back to their normal dark purple.
“Yeah. Twilight. It is, but why are you a stallion and what were you doing with black magic?” The questions were left ignored as Twilight ran towards him. He pulled him from the rubble and pulled him into a hug so tight a boa constrictor would be taking notes.
“You...you’re... I thought you were… I saw you...” His eyes began to tear up and he tried to blink away tears.
“Twilight. I’m fine. I-I’m sure we can fix this. Please don’t start panicking.” Just then a spear of pure magic pierced his barrel, tearing through his armour like a hot knife through butter. He squealed like a school filly in a candy shop and jumped backwards as Twilight was sent flying away from him and into a wall.
Cracks began to appear along the floor and walls around where the stallion landed. With another loud boom from inside the library, crevices began to spider web their way along the ceiling. Gravity took hold of the pieces of the crystalline ceiling and sending small chunks of crystal barrelling towards the dragon and injured alicorn.
He dove towards Twilight and did what dragon do around gems, sapphires, and crystals. He ate them. And they were quite a delicious afternoon snack.
“Spike. Get away from him!” Now the poor drake was really confused. That was Twilight’s voice. Except it was female and coming from somewhere inside the library. He turned his head towards the sound. The female Twilight had stepped through the library door, wearing battle armour made of numerous dented gold plates.
Spike was in a brainlock, there were two Twilights. Two of them! “What should I do?” He asked, turning to Starlight for advice.
“I’m just as confused as you are.” She responded still trying to process what she just saw, offering absolutely no help whatsoever. Both of the purple alicorns began to fire off bolts of magic towards one another. The male alicorn had managed to get back up. He took no time to tear the bolt out of his torso, blood gushing out of the wound.
Spike found it hard to keep down the nacos, he was munching on earlier. Thankfully, he managed to do so. Both Twilights took off in the air. Female Twilight’s eyes were filled with a bright white light that easily bounced off the reflective walls of the Friendship Castle.
Contrary to the female Twilight, the male version had the trademark green and black eyes that accompanied a very dangerous amount of dark magic. While the two Alicorns clashed in midair combat, a wondrous display of brilliant light and immense heat began to take place.
Explosions, fire, simultaneous combustion of matter, explosions, large balls of fire, magical manifestations of swords that clashed to create more explosions, and even magical constructs made of fire danced and flashed as the all powerful alicorns duked it out horn to horn.
They both seemed to be equally match in terms of stamina and magically prowess and Spike wasn't sure if this would turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing. Despite that, he was positive that he wouldn't want to stick around to find out.
He felt Starlight tug him with a hoof as she made her way out of the castle. “C’mon. We have to get out of here. The castle is rallonges apart. Twilight can fight herself off.” Planning on doing that anyway, he followed Starlight out the building just as a major section of the castle was blown off by a burst of magic.
Rainbow Dash woke with a start. Confused on what had aroused her from her sleep, she looked around the room. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she laid back on her pillow to continue her after practice rest. Being a wonderbolt was hard work after all.
As she did this however, hooves clasped against her muzzle and wings wrapped themselves around her throat. Her eyes shot open and she turned to see that somepony laying on the other side of her bed.
Rainbow out a quiet scream as the silhouetted pony pressed against her, shushing her softly in her ear. “Don't make any sudden moves and I'll make sure you'll enjoy the next couple of hours just as I plan to.” She tried to kick, shove, and wiggle herself out of the unknown stallion’s grip.
Silent tears streamed down her face as she felt the stallion press himself against her. She continued to try and free herself with even more vigor than before. “Stop struggling, You're not going to get anywhere. You're making it easier for me to get what I want.” As he said this she felt the cold steel of a knife get placed on her throat.
“Why?” She asked. “Why me?”
“Because we are the same. Sure, we have our differences here and there, but nevertheless I am you, and you are me.” That only gave Rainbow Dash more questions than answers.”
“What do you want!?” She snapped. The knife was pressed down against her with slightly more force than before, drawing blood.
“To get some of that sweet gold under my little rainbow.” He said, sensually. Rainbow Dash gulped.
“Sooner or later, you'll leave. I'll- I-”
“Will what?! Tell Somepony? There's nopony to tell. To be fair, I was just going to slit you open afterwards. There's a garbage can right out back with your name- or your blood all on it. Or there will be soon anyways.”
“My friends will come looking for me a- and one's a Princess. She'll come after you!” She said, feeling a bit bold.
“She's busy dealing with her own problems right about now and I'll be long gone by then. She'll be too exhausted physically, mentally, and magically to do a thing.” That stopped Rainbow dead in her tracks.
“What do you mean ‘she's busy?’”
“No more questions!” He snapped, pressing the knife even harder against her soft carotid artery. “Get to work. Slave. I want to enjoy this.”
Slave. That word struck a chord within Rainbow Dash, it was then that the dam she held back had finally broke. She sobbed as a mixture of rage and despair filled her. She was going to- to be a...then he was going to.. No! Not if she could help it.
She threw her head back to headbutt the stallion. There was a sharp crack and the male hissed in pain, losing control of the knife and falling to the floor with a hard thud.
“My nose!” He screamed. “You broke my nose.” He said, clutching his nostrils as he stomped around her bedroom. It was then she got her first look at her would-be...No! She needed to get that thought out of her head. It would never get that far. She wouldn't allow it.
Her ‘attacker' was an exact copy of herself in every way, except this ‘copy' was a stallion. He had a stallion's build, deeper voice, and slightly different mane style.
Sure, we have our differences here and there, but nevertheless we are the same. His previous statement echoed in her head, finally making sense. This male version of herself had started to calm down as he took his hooves to his face and shifted nose back into proper position.
Rainbow Dash quickly pressed a hoof to her muzzle, stopping herself from puking. “Well. It would've been nice to have a little fun with you before I left, but I got what I really came for.” He said, as he smashed a window behind him and dove out of house in a brilliant explosion of light, color, and magic. In other words, a sonic rainboom.
She quickly searched her bedside drawers and found that he indeed take something from her. Three things to be exact, and she was not happy about it. Not at all. In a scream of rage, she jumped out the same window, twisted her body to upright herself and flew after the stallion with a sonic Rainboom of her own.
Mere seconds after he had left, she was after him and closing up the distance between him rather quickly. “Get your flank over here!” Rainbow Dash screamed at her doppelganger when she was close enough.
He chuckled. “You’re going to have to faster than that if you want to catch me.” Rainbow growled as she forced her wings and corresponding muscles to push themselves harder. Just then four explosions rocked the air and sound space of ponyville, each one starting just as another ended. Two, Rainbow noticed where from the Friendship castle while the other two were herself and her copy as they managed another burst of speed.
She watched in utter hopelessness and awe as the larger than life castle had began to crumble and fall. Large golems constructed from magic and dark magic alike had been formed near the castle ruins. Each golem contained a pony in the inside who controlled it with their own movements, the golem copied the movements of their ponies as they made them. A collection of wide arcs and slashes were made by the two conjured ponies with magically constructed swords in their hooves.
That wasn’t the only thing Dash found interesting as she chased her copy through the skies. Each pony fired off individual spells, separate from the movements of their enormous avatars trying to either knock the other pony out of the avatar or distract them. Just then, she saw her mimick shot above her from the corner of her eye and just like that, he was gone.
She stopped, hovering in place as she looked around for that raping, thieving, conniving little son of a- Just out of the corner of her eye she saw a hoof flying towards her, and just like that it was gone, leaving behind nothing but antagonizing pain and a swelling eye. Another blur of fur and motion came by her head, but this time she was ready. She turned to face her male counterpart and stopped his attack by moving a leg to stop the blow.
Hoof connected with hoof, sending them both off balance. Despite being slightly off, Rainbow still threw a punch to the stallion's face. The punch rocked him, sending him towards the ground. She smiled triumphantly, knowing she had won the battle. Little did she know, the war was still far from being over. Her smile dropped to a look of horror and fear. That little brat managed to grasp one of her legs right before his surely lethal fall and she was along for the ride. She was 200 ft. from the ground, then 110, then 20, before finally...Crack. Snap Both of them collided to the harsh and unforgiving ground.
She saw her copy, lying facedown, blood pouring from between his wings, his back broken. Rainbow, however wasn’t fairing much better. Pain was shooting from her back in violent waves, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get herself to move. Not. A. Muscle. She apparently was suffering the same fate as her male clone.
Things only turned from worse to way worse as the two Rainbow Dashes realized they were smack dab in the middle of what appeared to be two Twilights fighting as parts of the castle came crashing down mere inches beside the two injured pegasi.
“Hey Dash.” Said the masculine copy.
“Yeah.” She replied.
“You can have your stuff back, but only if you can take them from my saddlebags.” He said with a sinister laugh.
“Screw you.” She spat. “When I get out of this, I’m totally hanging your flanks over my fireplace.”
“Oh. Such big talk for a mare who can’t move.”
“Oh yeah, well neither can you, so I guess I win!” She said.
“That’s not how it works. Not a all. We both lost Rainbow. We both lost big time.” Just then, a large chunk of crystal about the size of four Celestias standing on top of one another and four across had collided with the ground so close to their faces, she bet if she stuck her tongue out, she could taste it. “Hey, you still alive over there?” Male Dash called from somewhere behind the large boulder.
“Horseapples!” She cursed. “You’re still up and kicking.”
The stallion chuckled. “It’s going to take more than a few pebbles to kill this stallion.”
And just like that, the two cyan pegasi fired jests back and forth while having the occasional close call with part of the castle. Somehow, Dash knew things were going to get even more interesting as time went on.