Twilight Sparkle wallowed in the comfy confines of her appropriatly queen-sized bed, not yet ready to face the world at large. These were the last days of her relatively worry-free life, and she was dead set on spending them as best as she could, doing whatever came to mind. Right now, the most pressing thing on her consciousness was burrowing deeper into the soft of her mattress, not giving a flying feather about anything else.
Unfortunately for the purple pony princess, a dastardly ray of Celestia's golden light was fast approaching, threatening to disturb the precarious peace of the moment. Twilight scrunched her muzzle as warm sunshine tickled her nose, the mare stirring in her sleep. She bueried her muzzle in her pillow, seemingly escaping the intruding light, blissfully unaware of what was about to come.
The bedside window burst into a million little shards that clamored onto the crystal floor with a deafening ringing, followed by a relatively quiet thud. Twilight jumped from her bed, hitting her head on the ceiling before landing on the soft mattress, rubbing her head and groggily looking around, searching for the source of the disturbance.
There, sitting on the cold hard floor in a pool of razor sharp crystal shards was Derpy Whooves, the local mailmare. The grey pegasus shook her head and, before Twilight could protest, made her way towards Twilight's bedside, right through the crystal shards. Twilight's breath hitched as she waited for the crunch of broken crystal under the pegasus' hooves, that, surprisingy, never came.
Despite the mailmare's clumsy nature, she somehow managed to avoid each and every shard as she approached Twilight's bed on her four hooves, rummaging for a second in her bag, pulling out a small package and dropping it on the bed.
"You've got mail!" She blurted out, before flapping her wings and darting out of the broken window, leaving behind a mess of a bedroom and an utterly flabbergasted Twilight. The young alicorn rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear the cobwebs that plagued her mind, trying to figure out what the buck just happened.
First things first, she needed to freshen herself up, lest the allure of a warm bed might win over. She hopped onto the floor, cringing as she heard the tell-tale crunch of broken crystal, feeling something warm pool under her hooves a second later. Twilight sighed, inwardly chastising herself for forgetting about the shards. A pale-raspberry/pink aura enveloped the shards on the floor as Twilight concentrated, slowly floating the broken pieces back into the window frame.
In a pale flash the cracks between the peices disappeared, the glass window made solid once more. Twilight hummed in content, beginning to make her way towards the bathroom. She gasped as she made her first step, sharp pain shooting through her leg. Twilight grunted in irratation, pushing through the mild pain as she entered the bathroom. She sat on her haunches, opening the closest drawer with her magic, levitating a piece of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant closer to herself, setting it beside the strange package on the tile floor.
"That was very weird." Twilight muttered to herself, splashing a bit of disinfectant onto her hoof, hissing a little at the burning sensation. "Derpy didn't even ask for my signature! She's a bit... absentminded, sure, but that's weird even for her." She argued with the emptiness of the bathroom, wrapping her hoof in gauze with practised ease. She sighed, standing up and twisting the faucet, cold water pouring into the sink. She splashed the water onto her face, ridding her mind of the morning grogginess.
She looked at the reflection in the mirror, the purple alicorn wearing a fittingly tired expression. She noticed the strange package in the reflection, lying on the tile floor, and levitated it to herself. Placing the small box on the side of her sink she tore the cardboard apart, revealing two items amongst the soft packaging foam.
Her eyes widened as she understood what the two rectangular forms were. She levitated the blue-silver rectangle closer, 'SONY WALKMAN printed in bold silver letters on its body.
"A cassette player?! Impossible! How did it get here..." She spoke into her reflection's eyes in disbelief. Her gaze fell to the small black cassette with a white label.
"From the mare who sold the world." Twilight read aloud, feeling tense all of a sudden. She made sure to lock the door before proceeding to put the tape into the player, hitting the PLAY button.
Faint scratching sound filled the room, continuing for a couple of seconds before a voice pierced the silence of the bathroom.
"Good day to you, Twilight Sparkle." Twilight gasped as the mare's voice reached her ears, and the alicorn princess did her best to stand on her wavering legs as she recognised the owner of the voice.
"I guess that's a good day to me too, eh?" Her own voice teased her through the tape, chuckling at her own joke. "But let's not get ahead of ourselfs here." Twilight stood still, carefully listening to every tape 'she' said. A myriad of thoughts raced through her head, each next one worse than the previous.
"Changelings?" She shook her head. "Improbable, they have no need for diversion right now, they've practically integrated into pony society! A prank from Discord? That would explain how he got his hooves on human technology, Faust knows he's more than able to do something like that..."
Her own voice brought Twilight out from her musings, grabbing her attention. "You must have a myriad of questions running through your head right now." The voice continued in the same teasing impression, one that turned into a faux-worried one as she continued. "Who could've sent me this tape? Why do they sound like me? How did they get their hooves on human technology?"
Twilight gasped and reeled back at the tape's prediction, earning a chuckle in 'responce'.
"I know you like the back of my hoof, of course I know what you'd think!" The tape continued, the voice becoming more even. "Now, now, calm down Twily, wouldn't want to burn your shiny new school down in a fit of anger, would we?" Twilight heard a sigh coming from the tabe, followed by the sound of a lighter being used.
"Before we begin I suppose we should exchange some pleasentries." Twilight heard the pony on the tape inhale deeply, hold the breath for a few seconds, before exhaling.
"Hello my name is Twilight Sparkle, it's nice to meet you. Before you question the validity of my claim, let me tell you something only we would know." Twilight heard the mare from the tape pause to take a drag of her cigar before continuing.
"Our first crush was Starswirl The Bearded, the second was Celestia." Twilight felt her face heating up, the change having nothing to do with the room temperature. "Hope that got your attention, because I sure as Tartarus won't say that ever again." Despite everything, Twilight finally found some common ground with 'herself'.
"Now that you're listening, I need to tell you something." A deep sigh signaled a pause.
"From now, day and night, will be bound by the dawn." Twilight's breath hitched as she heard the words, suddenly unable to look away from the tape.
"It is done. Look in the mirror, Twilight. Look and see the truth for yourself." Shaking on her hooves, she looked up at the mirror, feeling a pit form in her stomach.
A white-coated mare with a pink mane stared at Twilight with brilliant sapphire blue eyes, a shocked expression on her face. She squinted, noticing a black horn-like shard protruding from the center of her head, right where her horn should be. She looked down at her hoof, only to see the familiar liliac fur, one that looked distinctly white in the reflection.
"Take a good long look at yourself, Twilight, it's your first one in a long while." Twilight ruffled the fur on her cheek, the mare in the reflection doing the same. "Truth is, you weren't always Twilight, not for a long time." Tears welled up in Twilight's eyes as she took in her features, an odd sense of nostalgia enveloping her.
"Just seven years ago, you were but a cog in the Equestria's healthcare system, a simple nurse in the hospital of a small rural town." Twilight turned her flank a little, just to see the red cross stamped on it in the reflection.
"You remember it now, don't you, Redheart?" The dams burst open, "Twilight's" eyes overflowing with tears. The memories flooded back, prompting the mare to fall to the tile floor, clutching her head. The late night shifts, the coffee-filled mornings, the slow patient-free days of a small-town hospital.
The lonely nights at home.
"You were kind, smart, pliable to suggestions, and last but not least lonely." The voice stated flatly. "Just what I needed."
"It was downright trivial to orchestrate your disappearance, so much so I thought I grew paranoid when nopony wondered why you'd want to 'see all Equestria has to offer' all of a sudden." 'Twilight'... Redheart? Felt a pang of hurt at these words, tears still streaming down her face.
"Finding the doctors willing to operate and keep their muzzles shut was a herculean task all in itself, harder still to master consciousness imprinting spells in secret. Thankfully our position of as Celestia's private student, combined with our family's role in the government apparatus gave us some much needed leverage." Redheart's responce was a weak sniffle from the tile floor.
"Still, I suppose the most pressing question on your mind right now is why?" Suddenly, Twilight's voice gained a mocking quality to it. "Why would Twilight, Celestia's prescious student, one who's never know struggle, do such a horrible thing to a random pony?" The mockery disappeared from the voice in an instant, replaced by steely determination.
"The answer, as always, lies withing one mare. Celestia." Twilight said the name with such vitriol, Redheart could've sworn she heard her spit on the floor. "That mare and her bucking plans... She'll rot in Tartarus for what she's done, and we'll make sure of that, together." She said the last words with a certain pride and finality that made a chill run down Redheart's spine.
"All my life, all my friend's lives were carefully curated, just so she could save her prescious sister, and lift the burden of rulership from her shoulders!!" Twilight's voice grew heated, loud. "No consideration for what we wanted, not a care in the world about our free will!" Twilight's voice was all but a yell by now, one that reverberated trough the crystal walls of the bathroom, amplifying itself.
"All of her planning culminated into something that happened a year after Redheart's disappearance, after you began playing your role as Twilight Sparkle. Alicorn Ascension is an old and vehemently guarded ritual, one shrouded in mystery. Even with my rather... furtive lifestyle, I've managed to find out one cruscial detail, one that sealed your fate and made my descision final." The fervor in her voice was clearer than ever before.
"The fact that the spell was Celestia's setup was obvious, only somepony as daft as a parasprite would think otherwise. Yet the old hag managed to surprise me once again, believe it or not. You see, the basic ascension spell, from what I could gather, anyway, is very open to modification. Through an intricate web of moles and corrupt castle staff, it came to my attention that our beloved princess made one crucial modification." Redheart could feel the tension in the air.
"The ascended alicorn would've been obedient to Her Majesty, perhaps to a fault! I had to re-apply my spell every few months just to keep you from groveling at her hooves on er every whim! And you know what's the funny part?" Redheart shook her head, despite the futility of the action. "The same spell, although having more modifications unknown to me, was used before. I take it you know a certain pink foalsitter that would fit the bill?" Redheart gasped for air, finally standing tall and nodding to nopony in particular.
"This had to be stopped. That's why I chose you, that's why I had you dance to the sound of Celestia's fiddle all these years, that's why I've sent you this cassete. You need to know what you're fighting against. What We're fighting against."
Redheart turned to the look at her reflection once more, scrunching her muzzle as she saw the white pony looking back at her. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, and when she opened them, a purple alicorn was looking back at her.
"Now do you remember? Who you are? What you were meant to do? I cheated a fate worse than death, thanks to you. And thanks to you, I've left my mark. You have too. You've written your own history. You're your own mare. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and you are too. No... she's the two of us together. Where we are today, we built it. This story, this legend; it's ours. We can change the world, and with it, the future. We'll rid the world of her ilk, together. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you wherever you go. Thank you, my friend. From here on out... you're Twilight Sparkle."
With that, the tape came to a close, silence falling onto the bathroom once more. Twilight Sparkle looked at her own reflection and smiled. A pale raspberry aura enveloped the player, the object disappearing in a bright flash. She turned to the door, just as she heard a frantic knocking coming from the other side.
"Twilight! I've heard a loud sound coming from your room, are you alright?" Spike, her number one assistant asked worriedly from the other side. The door opened with a soft click, and Twilight greeted the dragon with a soft smile. Spike's eyes darted to the bandage on her hoof, the wound not helping his worries.
"Twilight, are you hurt?!" The purple alicorn raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oh no, not me! I'm better than ever, Spike." She said in a warm tone, enveloping the dragon in a hug. Spike stomach rumbled, the dragon clearly having missed his breakfast.
"I must've kept you waiting, huh? Let's get takeout for breakfast, my treat."
Spike's mood drastically improved after hearing about breakfast, and the two of them made their way out of her bedroom, leaving the cassette player safely tucked under her pillow.
