The Many Lives Of Twilight Sparkle

Twilight looked down to the spot where the grass had a noticeable depression, illuminating it with the glow of her horn. She ran her hooves over it, savoring the familiar feeling. This had been where she and the girls would have their picnics. The forest here, while technically not part of the Everfree due to the mundane nature of its trees, still scared off most of Ponyville's inhabitants, and the hill had become somewhat of their spot.

The hill gave Twilight an excellent view of Ponyville from above, and where she was standing she could see the faint wisps of mana, illuminated by the moon, flow out from the trees and settle over the village, invigorating both ponies and plants. Twilight drank it all in, despite having been gone for less than a week it was almost like she’d been missing for an entire decade. Case in point the multiple wandering hamlets, nomadic pegasi cloud communities, which were anchored a short distance from the town itself.

‘That must have been where all those pegasi that helped out in the Everfree came from.’ Twilight thought, but her thoughts couldn’t be kept from Ponyville.

Bathed in the darkness of night it usually looked quiet, as if the village itself was sleeping, the streetlamps like fireflies. However, tonight it was different. The town hall was still lit, looking out of place in the quiet dark surrounding it, and if she strained her eyes she could see a crowd of ponies milling about.

“The fire they put out was rather large, wasn’t it?” Twilight said to herself as her head drooped slightly. She remained staring at the town hall, thinking about what was going on inside. For a moment being transported there herself.

Rainbow Dash had been one of the first ponies on the scene, so there was no way she wasn’t busy being the life of the party. If not that she was probably chatting with the other Pegasi, boasting and celebrating a job well done.

‘I wonder, did any Wonderbolts help?’ Twilight chuckled. ‘Then I hope they manage to stay away from Dash and her attempts at networking.’ Her chuckle progressed into a proper laugh. “Now that was a night to remember.” She loved the girl but sometimes she didn’t understand why Dash didn’t just join their boot camp if she wanted to be a part of them.

‘Rarity.’ Twilight looked over the town hall and focused on the third floor, where the meeting rooms were. They were the most decorated part of the town hall and the richer ponies usually preferred to mill around there when the town hall was hosting an event.

‘Rarity’s probably taking the opportunity for some high-class living.’ Twilight paused. ‘For Ponyville anyway.’ It was weird, Twilight knew that Rarity would do swimmingly well in Canterlot and yet she never even tried to leave for greener pastures.

‘Now Applejack would probably be right there in the middle of the crowd-,’ Twilight looked at the first floor. ’Joining whatever activity was at the center of the whole arrangement while Pinkie helped keep the party going.’ Twilight looked away from the town hall, to the dark streets outside, spying after a certain pegasus.

‘Maybe Fluttershy went home? The party looks a bit too big for her.’ It wouldn’t surprise her if she did, but she’d definitely stop by to see if Zecora was alright. ‘She might be shy but there’s no way she isn’t concerned for somepony who lost everything they had and almost died.’

And that just left one pony, or rather, zebra.
‘Zecora…’ Since the town was celebrating they couldn’t have discovered what happened to her. Twilight found herself wondering for just a moment if she should come clean and put the proper authorities on the case. The longer she kept this ruse going the higher the consequences were going to be.

But what would her friends do, what about her parents, her family? They would have to deal with being associated with somepony who committed one of the most atrocious crimes imaginable.

“What would Celestia say?” Twilight said, but she already knew what she’d do. Celestia wouldn’t scold her, damn her, call her a worthless excuse of a mage who let their desires lead to their friend’s soul being damaged. No, she’d look down and say nothing, worse, she’d probably think it was her own fault.

No, she couldn’t let that happen. She had to fix this. As she confirmed her decision she noticed that she had been hyperventilating. She went through her plan again, calming herself.

‘Walk through Ponyville, attract as little attention as possible, take the-’ She corrected herself, her inner applejack scolding her, ‘-hide myself on the midnight train and leave for Conflux where I’ll blend in easier.’ The benefit of having more love to feed on went unsaid and unthought.

She didn’t like breaking the law, it wasn’t fair for those working the train or those who took it. But she couldn’t take anything that she owned if she wanted to remain undetected and that included bits. She knew herself and she knew that if she found something amiss in her own house she would thoroughly investigate. And that meant that the changeling would too.

As she came down the hill, where the grass made way for a dirt path, and into Ponyville proper she was blasted by memories. The grassy, barely cobbled streets. The magical lights tended to and styled into dancing shapes by the old flame tender Yearning Roots. The quiet streets where you’d be hard-pressed to find anypony besides the occasional night owl. The smell of flowers and trees. The air which still bore hints of the past day. It was like every second of her life since coming here was playing out in her head.

As Twilight walked more and more of the things that gave Ponyville its identity came back to her and as if giving Twilight her old body back she could feel Ponyville remind her of how tired she was, like a parent looking out for their foal’s well being. She was so tired, and after all these days of unending stress, all she wanted to do was to get home and relax.

She opened the wooden door and stepped through, yawning. It took her a second to realize that she had wandered off from the path to the train station and had instead gone home, back to the library in the old oak.

‘I shouldn’t be here.’ Twilight thought as she looked across the library. She waited. “Hello?”

No response, just the distant sounds of partying that were spilling into the oak through the open door along with pale light. Twilight turned around and was about to go out and get back to the task at hand, but then she looked back, staring at the staircase that led to her room.

Twilight’s face, darkened by the contrast with the light coming in from the outside, remained still as the seconds dragged out and she started to feel something pull at the edges of her eyes.

‘Well, the midnight train won’t be leaving soon. There shouldn’t be any harm in looking.’ And so she stepped further into her home, each step slowly and rhythmically hitting the floor. Twilight almost instinctively flipped the light switch but stopped herself.

She looked back outside again and after steeling herself cast a simple illumination spell that had a gray hue to it, slightly lightening the room and casting long shadows on the walls. The way the shadows of the table, the potted plants, and the lone book stack stretched across the walls made the room look twice its actual size. And yet for a second Twilight saw the library as if it was fully lit and in business, the memories nearly replacing reality.

Hoofsteps echoed as she climbed the stairs, barely even using her eyes to navigate her way to her bedroom.

Twilight breathed in in slight surprise, as her bedroom looked almost like a hospital room. Her bed from the alcove above the bookshelves had been moved down to the floor. Medicaments were laid out on the nearby bed table and a large pitcher half-full of water sat on a chair near a large depression in the bed. There was also a pile of books on the other side of the bed with a chair next to them, mostly Daring Do with a couple of heavy encyclopedias spread within.

Twilight leafed through the books, enjoying the sound of paper in the still house. She chuckled as she saw several crinkles on the pages of Daring Do with an action scene and the scientific books having none of them. Twilight smiled, containing chuckles with her hoof. Without Twilight even noticing her horn lit up brighter and the books flew up all around her, each page separated and straightened as magic pressed them back into shape. Twilight yelped, almost dropping the books. She wasn’t supposed to do that.

‘It’s good that Dash discovered Daring Do.’ She thought, eying the growing book stack as she arranged it back to how it had been. Truth be told she was slightly impressed, some of the books in that pile had been very heavy and dry.

‘But that’s just like her, isn’t it?’ Twilight thought as she trotted over to the balcony, opening it to a fresh stream of night air. Stepping out, the sound of the party resumed, and she could see the town hall glow even obscured as it was by the rooftops. ‘Lazy and carefree all the way until her friends get in trouble. Although, Encyclopedias, really? Does she think I read those for fun?’ Twilight blushed, remembering her youth. ‘Well, I don’t do that anymore!’

Her balcony was also not like she’d left it. Her telescope, a trusty tool that could even see the stars in the hustle of Canterlot and that had been a reliable tool for years had been put away, the balcony feeling empty without it.

She gave the glow of the town hall another look, trying in vain to make out the obscured spire.

‘No, I can’t just leave like that. I have to, yes, I have to make sure that everypony is okay.’ Twilight told herself, and after taking a last look from her balcony went back inside, closing the doors behind her.

Before she left Twilight grabbed a copy of “Daring Do And The Golden Trail Of Great Barundo”. She looked down at the book, even now remembering how excited she had been as a filly when her mom had taken her to the Canterlot library for the first time and she had borrowed it.

She laughed, not even trying to contain it.

“I really should have remembered the hand-in date.” Her father had not been happy when he received that bill. It was awful, she wasn’t allowed to eat any of the mini-hayburgers for an entire week. “And that jerk Shining made sure that I saw him eat them. How he ever even thought of trying to play the maturity card on me after that is a real scientific mystery.” She levitated the book alongside her as she descended the steps, still smiling.

She’d already broken protocol, so Twilight wouldn’t deny herself this. Plus, she had made sure to not take from Dash’s stack so that she wouldn’t get blamed for the disappearance. She very well knew the unnecessary risk she was taking but at that moment it seemed insignificant.

‘I wonder, did my parents ever save the drawings I made for the book?’ Twilight wondered idly as she exited the house and carefully deposited the book inside the bush by her door. She cringed at the thought of the branches scraping against the covers, but right now she didn’t have a better place to put it.

Ponyville loved to celebrate. Heart's Warming, Winter Wrap Up, Nightmare Night, all were marked by large festivals and general merriment, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that Twilight found the party to be just as populated as it appeared from the outskirts. Kegs of cider had been brought out, music was playing from several old gramophones and Twilight had to remind herself not to look in the direction of three pegasi that should have positioned their cloud higher.

It was nice when ponies celebrated working together, it showed that they were one community that was always there for each other. In some ways, it was like a miniature of everything Celestia taught her and had built in Equestria.

The doors to the town hall were wide open, and nopony seemed bothered as Twilight stopped at the threshold.

Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the light inside. The whole floor had been converted to a sitting area, whereas the stage bore the signs of a band having played there earlier. However, by now the band had long since stopped playing, and instead, just like outside several hastily scattered gramophones were playing music. Nopony seemed to mind that some had been hijacked by others and were playing completely different songs than the majority.

Right above the podium hung a large scribbled banner: Congratulations to all those who helped quell the storm!

Even higher than that there were pegasi hanging out in the air, laughing and joking with each other with some even performing some very drunk racing and only barely avoiding crashing into the upper catwalks that led to the other facilities in the town hall. Twilight didn’t recognize a single one of them so she assumed they were from the wandering hamlets.

The party had quieted down, but ponies were still enjoying the almost sleepy atmosphere that was accompanied by full stomachs, buzzing heads, empty bottles, and the satisfaction of a night well spent.

Twilight continued looking around, searching for her friends and it didn't take her long to find them. Just beside the podium was a table where Zecora was sitting and happily chatting with her friends, curiously Rumble had joined them at the table, Rainbow Dash pointing at him with large gestures several times as the conversation continued. Everypony was talking back and forth and… she herself was sitting at that table, even being much more active than her friends in the conversation with Zecora.

Twilight kept staring at herself, she tried to find faults, like those she saw when she tried to get her old body back. But there were none. She had done a perfect job in replicating herself. She caught that Twilight displaying mannerism that she up until now didn’t consciously realize she even had. The disguise was flawless and there was no way that her friends would realize that anything was amiss. The changeling was Twilight.

Zecora's eyes wandered over the room as the conversation lulled, falling on her. Despite Zecora never having seen the gray unicorn mare, she instantly knew who it was, eyes dilating. For a moment Twilight was afraid that Zecora’s new adoration for her would lead to Zecora inadvertently revealing to everypony what she had done. But just as quickly as she had focused she looked away, as if she hadn’t noticed her at all. And just like that, the conversation at the table resumed.

‘Good. Zecora is blending in and so is the changeling.’ Twilight thought, and yet she didn’t feel relieved.

She reached out with her magic, across the room and farther than she normally would have been able to, imperceptibly clutching the impostor’s mind. She felt within it the magical anchor and the failsafe she had installed. One flick of the switch and the Changeling would be knocked out and instantly teleported back to her secret basement.

‘I’m sorry girls, I just realized that I forgot all about Zecora's gift and that I needed to check up on it. No girls, it’s not ready yet but you’ll be the first to know after Zecora! Now, where were we?’ She could imagine it, she’d assume her old form again and give Zecora one of those shielding charms that she’d broken when she was feral: a perfect gift. Nopony would suspect otherwise and she’d be back to her normal life. All it would take was one simple switch.

Twilight let go of it, turning around only to get a faceful of fur from the local meathead, Bulk Biceps.

“Sorry lady! I Didn’t see you there!” The burly pegasus shouted, backing up.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Twilight said, moving past the pegasus and leaving the party, the sounds fading behind her to be overtaken by the quiet ambiance of Ponyville.

The streets seemed more lonely than they were when she arrived. As if the shadow stretched out further away from the lampposts and the alleys disappeared into pitch-black darkness. Even the colors of the Daring Do book she’d taken looked less vibrant when she stopped by her oak to pick it up.

By the time she was at the train station, the late-night train had already arrived. It wasn’t very large, mostly carrying the seasonal produce and various parcels as well as the occasional traveler, although tonight nopony sat in the carriages. The only other pony besides Twilight anywhere near the platform was a young and tired pegasus, shuffling in with another load of parcels attached to his harness, which he mindlessly unclasped with a wing and loaded on the train.

The stallion barely even glanced in Twilight's direction as she sat down on the sole bench, the old lamp above humming as it illuminated her in a moldy yellow light. Her head was empty, and all she did as she waited for the stallion to finish loading the last parcels was watch the two flies that buzzed around the bulb.

The stallion finished in a huff, sliding the door to the cart shut and locking it. The sound woke Twilight from her trance and she paid attention as the pegasus disappeared into the train station proper. A second later an announcement came from the loudspeaker.

“Attention, everypony.” The tired voice of the pegasus came through. “The train is departing for Conflux in five minutes.” The pegasus yawned and ended the broadcast. That was Twilight’s cue.

Looking again to make sure that nopony was around Twilight cast her teleport spell, disappearing in a flash of light from the terminal and appearing inside an empty open-roofed cart.

The minutes passed by in silence until the train finally started chugging along, and the clouds and stars above started to move with it. The book slowly flew into the least dirty part of the cart and then Twilight finally let herself lay down.

Twilight stared at the old back wall as the metallic sounds of steel wheels rolling over tracks grew louder.

Not being able to take it anymore she cast a remote eye spell and had it ascend to where it could see over the walls. There Ponyville and the visiting hamlets grew smaller and smaller as the train gained speed and distance and headed out into the smaller farms that lay outside Ponyville proper. Just to the side, she saw Canter Mountain in the distance, the capital like a glowing and shining waterfall that spilled from the castle high above the clouds to the very base of the mountain.

‘What is Celestia doing?’ Twilight thought, remembering her old mentor’s routine from when she was still her student. Had she changed anything since then? Did she now regularly spend some exclusive time with her sister? Did she get a new hobby? Was she just sleeping?

Twilight’s thoughts kept wandering from Canterlot to Ponyville and back. She thought about the last few months, the gray nights, the monotone routine, and what it had led her to: the past few days of frantic action that had Zecora’s soul being mauled.

Was it worth it? Was her situation really that bad? Couldn’t she have confided her state to somepony else? She had many ponies to confide in after all: Celestia, her family, her friends, Cadence and so many other ponies that she knew. And now just because she couldn’t open up, just because she couldn’t trust anypony with her problem she was forced to leave all those ponies behind to go accomplish a task nopony had done before.

While she wouldn’t give up, and she wouldn’t complain, she had messed up and she would heal Zecora, and nobody besides Zecora had any right to complain in this situation, she couldn't quite get Zecora's words out of her head. What Zecora told her back in the cave did hold some weight. If the princesses themselves couldn’t heal a soul then how could she?

‘It doesn’t matter what they can or can’t do, I am not them.’ Twilight thought, resolute. All ponies had a connection to their cutie mark once they got them, and despite her change Twilight could still feel hers, even if it didn’t show up on her flank. That star was biological proof of her aptitude, it was proof that she could succeed where others failed and it meant that if she put her mind to it she could accomplish her mission. No matter what the world threw at her she could take it and throw it right back, just as she had already done several times.

‘But now your friends are not here.’ A treacherous thought said. ‘And the secrets of soul magic are guarded by much more than a sleepy dragon.’ Twilight kept staring at Ponyville. ‘Redcloak the Racketeer, Chill Peak, and Hoisting Fane, all of them looked for the secrets of the soul but all of them died in their quest. And it wasn’t only greed and arrogance that caused them to fail. Chill Peak wasn’t seeking power for himself and he also took every precaution, but that didn’t stop his village from being petrified.’ The train Twilight was on went over a hill and Ponyville disappeared from view. Twilight dismissed the remote eye and was greeted again by the worn cart wall.

‘Will I also die?’ Twilight thought, staring up to where the stars kept flying overhead.