It's boring, boring, really truly boring. Jade could practically hear that song ringing in her mind as she made her way through the crowded hallway. She had constantly been told throughout her life that school was important and she would amount to nothing if she didn't pass. That didn't change the fact that it was boring and some days, Jade would rather chop off one of her fingers than go to school and be treated like a failure. No no Jade, you have to pass so you can get out of this dump. Maybe go back to Equestria. That was another thing. Equestria hadn't left her mind since she left it. She was constantly reminded that she didn't have her wings and instead had her hands back. You would think that would be a dream come true but no. Jade's grip was really awkward now that she hadn't had fingers for a while. Most of all however, Jade missed her friends. She missed referencing random pop culture, she missed talking, and she missed just simply hanging out with her friends. Jade had repeatedly thought about how her friends would act in any given situation. Pinkie Pie would run around exploding potions in her Chemistry class while Twilight tried to stop her. Gale would be just as bored as Jade in math class. Things like that. It made her wonder, Was it really worth coming back? No one had noticed her return aside from her parents and even now that Jade was actually trying to socialize, very few people seemed to notice her.

“Jade.” A voice sounded, snapping Jade out of her thoughts. She looked up. It had been the teacher.

“Yes Mr Williams?” Jade asked.

“I just asked you a question.” He replied sternly. Jade's eyes widened.

She practically sank in her seat as she asked, “What was the question?” A few people chuckled beside her.

“Who was the villain of the book you chose to read for class?” Mr Williams asked. Wow that basic of a question? Barely any time must've passed at all.

“There really wasn't one.” She answered. “Erik was honestly more of a victim than a villain throughout most of Susan Kay's Phantom and anyone else who could be perceived as a villain really aren't in the book long enough to be considered as so.” The teacher's eyes widened. Even a few of Jade's peers stared at her as if she had just become supreme leader.

“Jade brings up a good point.” Mr Williams announced. “Not all stories have a villain.” Jade tuned out again until she heard the bell rang. Grabbing her backpack, Jade pushed her way through the crowded room. The hallway was so crowded that there was no way to move any faster than a turtle. Finally, Jade leaped outside and immediately diverged from the flock of people to walk home. After a while of walking, there were no more people around Jade. Except for one. Jade squinted to see a figure in the distance. They wore a black hood, shielding their skin and hair. Curious, Jade inched closer to the walking figure.

“Hey.” Jade greeted. “I love the hoodie. You look like a sith lord.” Admittedly, it wasn’t the best way to open, saying that someone that looked like a sith lord, but Jade had no time to dread on it. The person turned to Jade, revealing green skin, glasses, and blue eyes.
“You like Star Wars?” She asked. Her gaze was uncomfortable but also somewhat shocked.

Jade tried to push away her insane thought. Come on, a lot of people have green skin and blue eyes. It can’t be what I think it is. “Yeah. Which movie is your favorite?”

“Well...this is kinda controversial but…”

“The Last Jedi?” Jade interrupted.

The girl’s eyes widened. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“That’s my favorite too.” Jade informed, trying to hide her suspicion and anxiety. “Empire is a really close second though.” The girl nodded along, as if her own thoughts were being spoken aloud. “I also bet you’re favorite characters are Ben and Rey.”

“Ah, you’ve caught me.” The girl admitted with a blush. “I’m honestly kind of hoping they get together in the next movie.”

“Same here.” Jade admitted. The girl suddenly started avoiding Jade’s gaze. “You okay?”

“Yeah...it’s just…” The girl took off her hoodie, and Jade was unable to stifle a gasp. The girl had red hair. True, it was longer and messier than Jade’s but it was the exact same shade of red. “I think it’s kind of absurd that I met one of my seven exact clones after randomly moving here.” Oh this isn’t science, and it’s not a coincidence either.

“Yeah…” Jade nervously laughed along. “Hey uh...what’s your name?”

“Jade.” The girl replied. “Jade Leaf.” Jade couldn’t deny it anymore. She couldn’t find her duplicate in the pony world because this was her clone. But what is my pony duplicate doing in the human world....wait a minute….Jade felt a shiver go up her spine.

“What’s wrong?” Her duplicate asked.

“S-something’s wrong.” Jade’s voice shook. “Seriously wrong. I don’t know what yet but….I need an explanation.”

“I didn’t catch any of that.” Her duplicate admitted.

“Good, no one else is supposed to know.” Jade replied. “Uh...anyways…” Jade and her duplicate chatted with each other until they parted ways. It was only a little walk longer until Jade made it home. She opened the door with a huff.

“Jade!” Her mother cried with joy. “How was school dearie?” Jade remained silent as she shut the door behind her. She glared at her mother.

“You and dad have a lot of explaining to do.” Jade snarled.

“What do you mean darling?” Blossom asked innocently. Jade thought for a moment how she was going to approach this. She didn’t want to give away the fact that she’d been to Equestria. She had to give away just enough information to not make her suspect anything but just enough so she could get information out of them.

“There’s a new girl at my school and she looks and acts exactly like me.” Jade informed her. “She even has my exact name.” Blossom’s eyes were wider than oceans. Jade noticed Blossom nervously fiddling with her hands.

“Oh that doesn’t mean anything.” Blossom argued. “According to science, there are about seven people in the world with your exact appearance.”

“Then how do you explain her name?” Jade challenged.

“Probably just a coincidence. Nothing to overthink.” Jade could see it in her mother’s eyes that she was hiding something from her. However, it was clear she wouldn’t be able to get any information out of her.

“Then it’s not an issue if I go out with her to eat pizza?” Jade asked.

“Of course not.” Blossom replied.

“Alright.” Jade made her way toward the stairs. “I’ll go get some money and be on my way then.”

“Sounds good!” Her mother called after her. Jade rushed to her room and grabbed the journal Twilight had given her. In it, she wrote the words:

I think I've found out something huge. Open the portal, we need to talk.

Jade sat on her bed, anxiously awaiting a reply.

Are you at the portal right now?

No.

Tell me when you are, I’ll open the portal then. I can’t risk anypony-or human falling through the portal.

Jade stuffed the journal in a bag and marched down the stairs. She heard her mother wish her goodbye as she headed out the door. Millions of thoughts raced through her head as she ran to the school. Jade had to stop and catch her breath for a moment before she grabbed the journal out of her bag and wrote down two words:

I’m here.

Jade rested her hand on the portal. After a few moments, Jade’s hand phased through the portal. Grabbing her bag, Jade casually walked on all fours through the portal. She could feel the portal stretch and bend her body back into that of a pony. Jade smiled as she felt her wings reform on her back. After a few seconds, all the twisting ended. Jade opened her eyes to see two purple ones staring back at her.

“Hey Twilight.” Jade greeted. Her tone was blank.

“Hi Jade!” A chorus of voices sounded. Jade gazed up. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, Starlight, Capper, Gale, Cookie Dough, and Lavender were all standing behind Twilight.

“Did you tell everyone I was coming?” Jade asked with a grin.

“Maybe.” Twilight smiled innocently as she flipped the switch to turn the portal off. Jade giggled. “So what’s going on?”

“I saw my duplicate in the human world.” Twilight’s smile faded as everyone behind her gasped.

“Your pony duplicate is living in the human world?” She asked.

“That’s just it....I don’t know which is which.” Jade admitted.

“Wait...wouldn’t that imbalance the worlds?” Rarity inquired.

“Not by much.” Twilight answered. “But yes, the worlds have apparently been slightly imbalanced.”

“So how do we know which is which?” Jade asked.

“Well...the only pony who would know about these kinds of things is Princess Celestia.” Twilight answered.

“Well.” Jade spread her wings. “Let’s take a quick flight to Canterlot. Who’s with us?”
Lavender took a step back.

“Sorry Jade.” Her voice was meek. “I want to support you but I really don’t have good experiences in Canterlot.” Jade nodded in understanding. Afterwards, Fluttershy and Gale raised their wings.

“Alright, let’s go then.” Jade marched out of the portal room with her wings out. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Gale followed her through the hallway. Immediately upon reaching the exit, Jade took off in an explosion of dust. Jade followed Twilight, who was more familiar with how to get to Canterlot than she was. It was a short easy flight, even for a pegasus who hadn’t even had wings lately. Landing just outside the castle, Twilight pushed open the doors. Celestia sat on her throne, gazing down at the ponies who’d just entered.

“Twilight!” She greeted. “It’s good to see you.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t time to chat.” Twilight replied. “We come here on urgent matters.” Fluttershy stepped forward.

“Jade Leaf here is from the human world, as you know.” Fluttershy informed.

“Yes, why isn’t she back home?” Celestia asked.

“Because there’s two of her in that world.” Gale blurted out. Celestia’s eyes widened. Jade stepped forward.

“We don’t know which is which.” Jade continued. “There wasn’t anything...pony-ish about that Jade Leaf. Even if that was my pony duplicate, why would she be in the human world?”

“I am sorry.” Celestia sighed. “But this is information I cannot give you. I made a promise long ago to keep this a secret.”

“WHAT?!” Jade exclaimed. Her eyes widened. “Sorry, we should...be going now.” Jade rushed out of the castle faster than you could say “potato.” Her friends followed her, eying her in confusion. In a flash, the group were returned to the castle.

“Okay,” Jade sighed, barely phased by the teleportation. “So we got something out of that. Celestia made a promise not to say anything about why there are two of me in the human world.”

“So…” Twilight paused.

“So all we have to do is go back in time to when Celestia made the promise!” Jade realized. It wasn’t that outlandish. Equestria had magic. Surely there was some way they could travel back in time.

“Well we can’t ask Starlight, that’s for sure.” Twilight replied.

“But who else has magic that powerful?” Gale questioned. Everyone stood silent until Fluttershy suddenly jumped up.

“That’s it!” She cheered. “We can ask Discord!” Twilight’s face immediately wrinkled with distaste.

“I don’t see why not.” Jade replied. “So where do we find the bugger?”

“You called?” Jade shrieked at the sound of the new voice. She turned to see Discord, floating in front of her.

“He comes when called.” Fluttershy informed.

“Good to know.” Jade replied with a gulp.

“So what’s this about time travel?” Discord asked.

“We request time travel actually.” Jade replied. “Apparently Celestia made some promise to hide the truth about something.”

“Oh she does that all the time.” Discord replied nonchalantly. Jade snorted with laughter.

“There’s two versions of her in the human world.” Fluttershy informed. “And Celestia refuses to tell us why.”

“So you came to me?” Discord inquired. Fluttershy and Jade nodded. “A horrible decision really.” Jade smirked.

“Why not?” She teased. “Are you saying you can’t do it?”

Discord’s jaw dropped. “What?! Of course I can!”

“Prove it.” Jade challenged. Discord was slightly taken aback by her response. He returned her smirk and snapped his fingers. Looking around, Jade noticed that there were no buildings. Just an open field with a few ponies running around in it. Jade leaped in alarm as one of the ponies fazed right through her.

“Where did you take us?” Jade asked.

Discord smirked. “Actually it’s whe-”

“That joke sucks and you suck for making it.” Jade bluntly cut him off. Discord’s eyes widened. “Take us to the right place in time please.”

“Seriously Discord.” Fluttershy added. “This is very important to her.”

“Oh alright.” Discord rolled his eyes. “Though I really I don’t see what the big deal is, it was pretty obvious from the beginning.” Before Jade could ask what he meant, Discord snapped his fingers and they were teleported elsewhere. Jade looked around. In the distance, she noticed three ponies. One was Celestia and the other two Jade didn’t know. However, they looked vaguely familiar. Stepping closer, she realized that the stallion had a red mane and light green fur and the mother had a blue mane and darker green fur. Jade’s eyes widened. These were her parents as ponies. Stepping even closer, Jade noticed that they were holding something in their hooves: a foal.

“Princess Celestia.” Basil spoke. “We’re sorry to bother you, but this is urgent.”

“You’re not a bother.” Celestia replied. “Now what is the issue?”

“Before the portal closes, me and Blossom wish to take our foal there.”

“Equestria just isn’t a safe place to raise a child.” Blossom added. Jade’s eyes widened as she realized what was going on.

“But that will imbalance the worlds.” Celestia argued.

“We’ve already made a deal with two other humans to switch places with.” Blossom replied. “That won’t be an issue.”

“And your human counterparts?” With those words, Jade finally got the whole picture. What it all meant. That hadn’t been her pony version in the human world. Jade wasn’t a human in Equestria, she was a pony in the human world the entire time. The house she found by the lake...it had been her’s!

“They live far away from the portal.” Basil confirmed.

“Then I suppose I will allow it.” Celestia sighed.

“On one condition.” Blossom spoke up. “Don’t tell anypony else about this.”

“You have my word.” Celestia replied. Jade backed away from the scene as Blossom and Basil made their way through the portal.

“Jade...are you okay?” Fluttershy whispered.

“T-t-take u-us back.” Jade shuddered. For once, Discord didn’t try to make some snappy remark. In a snap, the three of them were back in the castle.

Author's Note

Plot twist. Dun Dun Dun. Okay, it probably wasn't that surprising but I wanted to give this story a bit of an edge. Usually I kill someone or put the characters in a difficult situation. This time I decided to shatter a character's worldview. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it.