"You all are off brand Twilights!"
"So Spike, what's with this gathering?" Starlight said as she looked around the room to see the three other mares sitting beside her. She had seen Sunset once before but had never seen the other mare sitting beside her.
"Yeah, why am I here again?" Sunset asked. "I was enjoying my time with my friends until Twilight said that you had found something groundbreaking."
"I was studying for my upcoming test. I don't think I’m involved in this," Moondancer said.
"Spike... What's with the, um, board?" Spike had set up a small little board while they were talking. He cleared his throat as he spoke.
"Last night, I came across a revelation."
"Oh really?" Starlight said. "Could it be that you finally found out Rarity wo—" Twilight gave her a smack on the hoof as she glared at her.
"Okay, okay, sorry..." Spike shook his head as he continued his explanation.
"Anyways, while I was about to go to sleep, a thought came to my mind. That thought was the mirror portal we found a long time ago." Twilight raised an eyebrow at Spike, wondering where he was going with this.
"I then thought about Twilight and the rest of you mares. I thought about the crazy, almost coincidental similarities you have between each other. Last night, after tons of research, I concluded only one theory." Spike grabbed the board as he pulled the sheet off of it.
"I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT! YOU ARE ALL CLONES OF TWILIGHT SPARKLE! BECAUSE PINKIE PIE WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE TO USE THE PORTAL. TWILIGHT USED IT AS WELL!" Spike removed the sheet to reveal a board with all their pictures on it, connected back to Twilight. Everyone in the room was silent until a burst of laughter came from Starlight. She was practically on the verge of tears as she slammed her hoof into the table multiple times. Twilight had a stare as cold as ice, while Sunset just shook her head in disapproval. "I really came through the mirror portal for this?"
Moondancer got up and was about to walk toward the door, planning on leaving as her time was being wasted, only for Spike to jump in her face and yell at her.
"S̷̰̺͙̠͔͂̓̄̈͐̽̾İ̵͇̹͉̤̒̀̐͒́́̕T̵̪̜͉̜͔̮̜͐̂̑́͆́̀͗͌́ ̸̤̋͌̆̓̽̔̓B̷̢̘͙͕̙͔̬̻͉̯̽̑̅͑̅̿̓̀͜͝À̸͓̟͇͉̐̍̿͌̿̆͘C̴̛̯̠̯̗͔̏̎̎̾̓͒̽̕̕K̷̨͓̪͍̘͒̾̌̌̓͛͆͝ ̸̤͇̼̎̆͛͛̈́̓̀̚D̸̛̤̱̳̦̘̩͑̽̑͛͛̆̋͒̾O̸̹̟͔̻͐̆̉̿͊̈́͑̎͊̕ͅW̶͙͉̖̏́̇͌̈̀͐͗̏̇N̸̙͌̌̔̿̈́͐̋͘͝͝!"̷̦̳̘̘̳͑̒͌̐̑̔̇́
Everyone in the room shut up as Moondancer quickly shuffled back to her seat. The others regained their composure.
"Thank you," Spike said with a smile. "Now let's begin with some small pieces of evidence to start off. First off, I would like to take notice of Starlight's name." Starlight blinked a couple of times before she chuckled to herself.
"M-my name? What about it?"
"Well, let's compare your name to Twilight's. You both have 'light' in your name—"
Spike paused. "A lot of ponies have 'light' in their name," Twilight said as she folded her hooves.
"Oh yeah? Like who?" Spike said with confidence as he also folded his arms.
"Um, like my dad, Nightlight... You going to tell me my dad is somehow a clone of me because he has 'light' in his name?" Spike scratched his head as he looked away.
"Well, no, he is your dad." Although I could tweak my theory later to add him in...
"Exactly Spike. Case closed. Your entire argument makes no sense."
"I am not done yet!" Spike said as he pointed at the board. "There is an undeniable similarity still in your names."
"And that would be?" Starlight asked.
"Well, your last names, of course. Glimmer is just a synonym for Sparkle." He looked around for a response, only for Moondancer to chime in.
"Good job, dragon, you know basic literature, bravo... Can I leave now?"
"NO!" Moondancer retracted into her sweater as Sunset spoke up.
"Yeah, Spike, it is a synonym for 'Sparkle,' but how exactly does that prove that Starlight here is a clone of Twilight?"
"Well, it would only make sense for the clone to keep some resemblance to what they were before changing themselves." Sunset looked to Starlight and Twilight, who both shrugged.
"Okay then... Well, what about me? How am I a clone?" Spike smiled as he rubbed his hands together.
"I am glad you asked because your actions and Starlight's tie my whole theory together."
"Excuse me, what?" both Sunset and Starlight said in unison.
"Well, before I get to that, here is a small piece of evidence to start. You are the leader of your friend group in the human world, right?"
"Yes... Why are you ask—"
"And you know that Twilight is the leader of her friend group here in Equestria?"
"Yes..."
"Boom! Another piece to the puzzle. Hasbro clearly made you up so you could be the glue that sticks the group together, practically putting you in a Twilight role. Only a Twilight would ever fill that kind of role." Sunset rubbed a hoof to her head as she sighed.
"This is causing me physical pain... Like, what the hell is a Hasbro, Spike?"
"Our corporate overlords," Spike said blankly. Sunset looked to Twilight as she whispered.
"Is he on something?"
"He might be, and if he is, I am going to kill him." Sunset turned her attention back to Spike as she shook her head.
"Okay then... But there is one thing that proves that I am not a clone, Spike."
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"I was born before Twilight."
"Ooh, she got you there!" Starlight said as she began to laugh again. She would soon stop as Spike began to laugh too, but his laughter sounded deranged.
"Okay, what the actual buck is happening to your dragon right now, Twi?" Starlight asked.
"I don't know..."
"THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION, CLONE!" Spike said as he shouted into the air. "SADLY, IT'S A QUESTION THAT I ALREADY ANSWERED BEFORE COMING HERE!" Sunset squinted her eyes as she asked her final question.
"And what is the answer?"
"YOU JUST TRAVELED BACK IN TIME!"
"Excuse me, what?!" Starlight said, completely dumbfounded as Sunset's brain stopped working, all while Twilight was giving the craziest death stare at Spike. Starlight stood up and slammed her hooves on the table. "ELABORATE NOW, SPIKE!"
"GLADLY! This is how my theory implicates you now, Starlight! As you know, your time travel spell caused the timeline to change drastically with each change."
"Yeah... Still not proud of what I did."
"Anyways, I have concluded this theory that could only make sense off of the undeniable facts I have provided."
"What facts? This is all speculation," Twilight said under her breath.
"I have concluded that Twilight used the mirror portal that day, causing who knows how many more Twilights to emerge... Most went into hiding, but when you found out about that time travel spell made by Starlight, you must have sent your clones throughout time, or they did it themselves. Either way, your clones are scattered across the timeline. But we can't have multiple Twilight Sparkles popping up at different points in the time stream. As we all know, changelings are not the only ones who can change their form. There are spells that unicorns can use to do that as well. So, a Twilight that would eventually become Sunset would change her appearance to what it is now and use a de-aging spell to turn her into a filly or baby to solidify her existence in the timeline. Everything I said could also apply to Starlight, as she would have just grown up in the small town she grew up in. It's a paradox, just like that time you went back in time to stop yourself from making a mistake, only for you to end up in the position of your future self, repeating the cycle. Without these other versions of you from the mirror pool being displaced throughout the timeline, the timeline as we know it would not even exist!"
Silence. Pure silence is what Spike got in return until someone spoke up.
"Okay, that made no sense, so moving away from all that... How am I a clone?" Moondancer asked.
"Oh, Hasbro just copied and pasted Twilight's model, gave her glasses, a sweater, a messy mane, and changed the colors. There is no need to go into detail with you; it's plain as day." Moondancer folded her hooves as she pouted. She wanted a stupidly over-the-top contrived explanation as well. Spike looked at the other three mares, who had the most dead-inside looks imaginable.
"So, nothing to say?" Twilight sighed as she spoke up.
"Spike..."
"Yes, original Twilight?"
"Forgive me... This is going to hurt." Spike had no time to react as Twilight hit him with a beam of magic, knocking him out cold.
"HOLY BUCK!" Moondancer said as she stared in awe. "Twilight, you just—" Moondancer got no response though, as the three mares teleported in front of the unconscious dragon.
"Starlight, he has learned a lot from me. His actual research is most likely hiding in his room. Find it and destroy it."
"On it." Sunset leaned into Twilight as she whispered in her ear.
"You still know how to erase ponies' minds, right?"
"I do, but it will take a while. Make sure no one gets in the castle." Twilight looked over her shoulder as she stared down Moondancer. "Or... out." Moondancer got up from her chair and was about to teleport away, but she was caught in magic and thrown back into her seat as magical ropes wrapped around her.
"NO BUCKING WAY! DON'T TELL ME THAT NONSENSE YOUR DRAGON WAS SPEWING WAS RIGHT?" Moondancer watched as Sunset walked up to her. Sunset gave her a wink as she lit up her horn.
"Wait, wait, I promise I won't tell anyone—" She was unable to plead her case as she, too, was knocked out. Everything went black.
Author's Note
"THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION, CLONE!" Spike said as he shouted into the air. "SADLY, IT'S A QUESTION THAT I ALREADY ANSWERED BEFORE COMING HERE!"
The amount of crazy spike was giveing off:
