Author's Note

Apologies for the hiatus. Laziness has overcome me and I didn't have the motivation to write this story recently. But now I am back at it again, and hopefully will continue to be at it for a while.

Honestly I do not know the symptoms for a bugbear sting, but since its lower body is literally a hornet, and hornets are venomous, so I just searched up how to deal with hornet stings. ;-;

If you see anything that you think is wrong, like a grammar error or something, please let me know. I want to improve as much as I can!

Malfunctions

After a few moments, Trixie slightly opened her eyes to look at the aftermath. To her left, she saw the bugbear still lying on the cans, lifeless. Trixie was lucky that she ducked in time, or else she would've been hit too.

Trixie has some good dodging skills. She thought proudly to herself.

However, when she looked at her right, she gasped when she saw Starlight on the ground. She was not moving.

"Starlight!"

Trixie galloped her way to her friend. She noticed that Starlight's arm had a huge red mark and a thin trail of blood was coming off it. Trixie looked at her in panic. But she noticed that her sides were heaving.

Trixie sighed in relief. She was alive. But for how long?

Trixie assumed that Starlight got stung by the bugbear. And according to rumors, bugbear stings are venomous, and ponies rarely die to a bugbear's stinger symptoms. But the chances are low but not zero...

Determined, Trixie, with her magic, dragged her friend to a nearby drinking fountain and placed her injured hoof inside the sink. Grabbing some soap and a loofa from the shelves, she quickly washed her arm as fast as she could.

Next, she grabbed a bag filled with ice from a nearby container, poured some of the ice in a bag, and set it on Starlight's arm when she put her down to the floor.

Trixie has doubts that it was going to work, but it was all that she could think off. Since she didn't find anything on the shelves that helped with bugbear stings.

Then she looked at the clock that was above them.

2:00 AM

Trixie felt nervous that time was ticking. They need to find the rest of the notes fast.

She walked up to the bugbear and grabbed the note with her magic. When she opened it up, it said:

There is two.

Find the clue.

"You're rhymes are getting weirder and weirder, well, not that they weren't weird in the first place." Trixie muttered to herself. And what did he mean by toys?

Just then they heard footsteps nearby. Trixie whipped her head at the direction the sound was coming from. "Who's there?" she called out.

To her surprise, the footsteps came from a toy robot that appeared around the corner. It was walking as if someone had wound it up. It turned its square head to stare at Trixie with its round red eyes.

"I have come for you." it said in a robotic monotone voice. "I have come."

"Come?" she said in confusion. "Trixie doesn't understand."

"Leave her." the robot said after a few moments later.

Trixie lowered her ears. The thought of leaving Starlight alone would kill her. "And why would I do that?"

"Who wouldn't?" This time, it came from another robot, who appeared on one of the shelves.

Trixie started to get more nervous. "She's my best friend. A friend that I never had for a long time." she admitted.

"Oh, yes." the first robot said as it got closer, although Trixie noticed that its voice got deeper. "She was your first friend since... the day that you ruled over Ponyville and almost banished Twilight."

"How did you know that?" Trixie was startled that a toy robot would know about her misdeeds she made in the past.

“We all know.” another robot nearby replied. “Everyone knows.”

Trixie felt like she wants to curl up in a ball, but she shook her head, as realization had hit her. "I see what you're trying to do." she stared at the ceiling. "You want to scare me off with robots by telling me about my past.”

She looked up to see the robots all peering down on her. “You’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that.”

"H-H-Harder, eh?" one of the robots glitched. "A-A-A-As you w-w-wish."

The robots started leaving the area, and when Trixie followed their direction, they vanished.

Just then she heard a groan behind her. Trixie turned and saw Starlight open up her eyes.

"Starlight!" Trixie rushed up to her and gave her a hug. "You're ok!"

However, Starlight gave her a cold glare and pushed her away harshly.

Trixie looked at her, confused by her friend’s behavior. "Starlight? Are you ok?" she reached out her hoof, but Starlight smacked it away.

"You have some nerve talking to me." Starlight said bitterly. "Not after what you did."

"What are you talking about?" Trixie kept trying to talk to Starlight's face but she kept moving away.

"You forgot?" Starlight said with some surprise in her tone, but quickly turned to anger. "How could you forget?"

Trixie was more confused than ever.

"Is it about me deserting you to the bugbear?" Trixie asked, although she was uncertain that was the problem. "I said I was sorry, and we defeated the bugbear together, so that has to make up for something, right?"

Starlight narrowed her eyes with rage and her horn lit up. Trixie backed away into a corner, accidentally trapping herself in front of an enraged Starlight.

"You did forget! I swear you should be start being called the Great and Clueless Trixie." Starlight spat. "You better be playing dumb and admit what you did. Or else I would do serious damage on you." she blasted her magic on a teddy bear, which burned to smithereens.

Trixie was really scared now. Starlight wouldn't really hurt her, would she?

No. Trixie realized. That's not the real Starlight.

Trixie managed to stand up and stare directly at Starlight's gaze. "You can stop this game now."

"What game?" Starlight said in an angry tone, although her eyes were nervous.

"You're not my actual friend. The real Starlight would never hurt me. And besides," Trixie kicked Starlight in the face and before she recovered, she grabbed her arm with her aura. "What kind of hornet sting heals so quickly?"

Angry, Starlight kicked Trixie in the stomach and tossed her away. Trixie was caught off-guard by the kick and kept coughing.

"I've had enough of you." The fake Starlight blasted a beam at Trixie, but she quickly dodged it.

Trixie looked at her in terror. Her magic wasn’t as strong as Starlight’s, and maybe the fake Starlight has shared the same raw abilites as her counterpart.

Time to find out for sure.

“You can’t hurt me!” Trixie taunted. “You’re not real!”

Just then Starlight blasted a powerful beam near her arm. Luckily, she dodged the attack, but she felt a burn on her arm. She looked to see that even though she dodged, only a part of her arm was caught in the attack.

“I assure you.” Starlight blew on her horn when it started smoking. “I am very real.”

After a moment of hesitation, Trixie immediately ran away from her.

Trixie galloped blindly through the halls, thinking of a way to stop the fake Starlight. She looked back in horror to see that that she was right behind her.

“Going somewhere?” Starlight lit up her horn and blasted a shelf in front of her, causing it to fall down to the ground, along with many others.

Trixie immediately stopped and looked in horror at the fallen shelves. She looked around for another way of escape, but she was trapped. There was only one way out.

“Oh, be that way.” Trixie muttered.

After hearing some hoofsteps, she turned to see the fake Starlight slowly walked up to her, although something was different... her usual bang was gone and was replaced with a bowl-cut looking style.

“Why’d you change your look?” Trixie asked, confused.

“What do you mean? I always looked like this. Well, on the inside anyway.”

“I’m not following.”

The fake Starlight gave her a blank stare.

“Am I missing something or...?”

Starlight sighed. “Nevermind. Anyways...”

As she said that, her horn suddenly lit up in a bright light, and aimed at Trixie.

“Say goodbye.” Starlight sneered.

Trixie scanned the area nervously for something to defend her with. But she found none.

She closed her eyes and started shivering in defeat. This was it. She was done.

Just then, the fake Starlight noticed something behind her and took her eyes off Trixie.

Trixie opened her eyes and followed her gaze. It was hard to see, but Trixie sighed with relief when she saw a pony stand at the start of the hall.

“Mind telling me who that is?” Starlight called out to Trixie.

“Are you blind?” the fake Starlight answered instead. “I am you.”

Starlight flinched. “You’re not.”

“I am.” The fake Starlight left Trixie alone and slowly walked to her real counterpart. What is she playing...

“Don’t spew hollow words at me.” Starlight said to her.

“Hollow? How can they be hollow if they are true.” The fake Starlight started to walk around her, like a predator trapping prey. “Look at me, do I look familiar?”

“Yeah, you look exactly like me. Except... back when I was evil.” she lowered her ears in shame.

“Exactly! You are one smart cookie.” Starlight sneered. “And you still are this.”

Before the real Starlight could speak, she continued.

“Even though you became Twilight’s student... you still did some... bad things... like for example: mind controlling the rest of Twilight’s friends for, a very dumb thing really. And leading a dangerous creature to a innocent Changeling hive, when all they are trying to do is lead it away.”

Starlight bit her lip, cringing at the mention of the things she did in the past, but still looked at the fake with a determined look. “So? That doesn’t make me evil.”

“But how long will it last?” The fake Starlight stopped and stared at her with a sneer. “How long before you mess up? How long before you go back to being evil?”

She then put her hoof onto the real Starlight’s chest. “We are magical. We have talents that most likely can compete with Twilight’s! Why spend around in that lazy town of Ponyvile, when you have magic that could give you some... authority.”

“What kind of authority?” Starlight asked nervously.

“One that will be greater than the Princesses themselves!” the fake Starlight roared. “However, the only way to do that, is get rid of anything that stands in our way. Like this!” she started to blast magic and levitated her to the air.

Starlight winced in pain, but then went through agony when she felt something pull from her body. It was her cutie mark.

“No!” Trixie screamed. She had to do something to help her friend. She whirled her head around, looking for something useful. But then she spotted something underneath the items.

Grinning evilly, she set the real Starlight down, with her cutie mark in her grasp.

“Thanks, twin!” the evil Starlight laughed. “Now you’re powerless and you cannot stop me.”

“Damn you.” muttered Starlight as she got up. “What even are you?”

Surprise flickered in Starlight’s eyes, but then blinked it away and replacing it with a smug look.

“You want to know, do you? Well, in case you didn’t notice, I am-”

Just then Trixie reached up to the fake Starlight and smacked her head with a bat. She stumbled over to the side and crashed into one of the shelves.

“Hah!” Trixie laughed.

She turned to see a bright light, and she saw Starlight with her cutie mark again.

“Thank you.” Starlight sighed. “Now I know how the others felt.”

“No worries.” Trixie winked, then looked back at the fake Starlight, which twitched violently and sent out yellow sparks.

“Is that... a robot?” Trixie squinted at it.

“Well, it didn’t sound and look like it.” Starlight said. “It acted almost like a normal pony.”

“Well, I don’t care.” Trixie said as she kept violently beating up the fake Starlight with the bat. Even Starlight felt uncomfortable and backed away.

Starlight noticed something in the rubble. “Stop!”

“What?” Trixie said as she set the bat down.

Starlight reached inside the fake Starlight’s destroyed body and came out with a crumbled note.

“You went crazy that you didn’t even think that something might be inside.” Starlight sighed.

“What? We can still read it, and plus I was too scared that the thing was going to come alive.” Trixie turned her head to look at the body.

It disappeared.