Spellbound Existence

Twilight rubbed her hooves over her eyes, she was tired. She looked up and saw her friends sitting alongside her in the grass, as they had been doing for three days now.

"Want a sandwich, Dashie?" Pinkie Pie asked Rainbow Dash.

"No," she replied angrily, smacking the sandwich out of her hoof. "I wanna go home."

"Well you can't, and you know why?" Twilight said. "Because now another Rainbow Dash is living there."

"Well, you know, if you hadn't done that stupid spell, then none of this would have hadn't happened!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Hey," Twilight snapped back. "You were the one who wanted to do the spell in the first place! You had as much to do with this as me!"

"Well you didn't have to listen to me!" she snarled, walking towards Twilight.

"Girls, girls!" Rarity said, pushing them away from each other. "What are you doing? You're acting capriciously."

"Well, I'm just angry. I lost my home. I'm living in the park, for crying out loud."

"We all lost our homes too!" Twilight said. "We need a plan to fix this."

"I say we sneak up on them, get them when they're least expecting it." Rainbow Dash said, acting out her plan by sneaking towards Fluttershy and leaping at her.

"We can't do that, Rainbow Dash."

"And why not?"

"Because. They aren't just some mess that simply needs to be cleaned up. These are real living ponies, we have to be sensible about this. They have a good point, not wanting to be killed."

The ponies continued thinking, until Twilight stood up.

"You know what? I'm gonna go." she said. "Be back soon."

"Where are you going, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm going to go and talk to them. Maybe my copy will have wised up enough to see this situation for what it is, just an accident. Are going to come with me, or just stay here and mope?"

"No, no." Rarity said. "We'll come. Better safe than sorry, right?"

Twilight knocked on the door of her library, hoping that her duplicate and her would just come to some sort of agreement and everything would turn out fine.

The door opened, and Twilight's clone was surprised to see herself and her friends.

"Oh, it's you." she said. "I thought we ran you out of town."

"Please, we've come to try and make peace with our copies." Twilight said pleadingly. "We can't go on living like this. We haven't got homes."

"And what do you want me to do? I've got everything I need. Why would I help you?"

"Because... I'm you, and I know I'd want to help."

This remark only caused Twilight's duplicate to chuckle slightly as she shook her head.

"Well guess what?" she said.

"What?" Twilight asked, wondering where this was going.

Twilight's clone used her magic to levitate the six ponies and Spike towards her. She moved Twilight right in front of her face.

"I'm not you!"

She rushed inside, carrying the other seven behind her. She dumped them into a pile in the centre of the room and quickly cast a spell on them before they could get up again.

Twilight, who was at the bottom of the cluster of ponies, opened her eyes, and at first glance of her surroundings was quite confused. The library walls were all radiating a strange translucent purple glow, something she wasn't quite familiar with. She soon realised, however, that the purple glow wasn't coming from the walls, rather from the forcefield which had been cast over them.

Twilight crawled out from under the stack of ponies and stood up.

"What is this?" she asked the doppelgänger.

"A forcefield, what did you expect? That I was just going to let you destroy my friends and I?"

"I told you, we don't want it to come to that."

"I know what you're up to. You're lying."

Twilight slowly placed her hoof on the wall of the forcefield, just to be repelled by a burning sensation.

"How'd you do this?" she asked. "I can't make a forcefield that can repel!"

"Well that book Applejack found has some pretty interesting stuff in it. You can't even teleport out of there."

"But you don't know what the spells do, how could you find a specific spell?"

"Well, as it turns out, the stallion who owns the curio shop is very interested in Lady Lucinda. He explained some spells to me. He also offered me bits for the book, but I denied. It's much too powerful."

"You can't do this! We're trying to help!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Oh, shut up, you." she replied. "I've got to get going."

"And where, pray tell, to?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"My friends and I are going to go to Canterlot to visit the princess."

"What are you going to do to Celestia?!" Twilight demanded.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I'll attack her... I'm not sure."

"You can't do that, she's too powerful!"

"Yes, but it's me. She won't expect me to attack her, will she? I'll catch her off guard, that spellbook has some pretty violent spells in there..."

Despite the burning feeling on her hooves, Twilight pounded on the walls of the forcefield as she tried to release her and her friends from their imprisonment.

"You're not just mean," she yelled. "You're pure evil!"

"I know, fantastic isn't it?" her clone chuckled, before leaving the house, slamming the door behind her. The six ponies and Spike were stuck.

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"Aw, this is hopeless!" Rainbow Dash said to Twilight who was still trying to escape after five minutes of failure.

"I have to try, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight exclaimed. "They're going to attack the princess!"

"Well, how do we get out?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know!" Twilight said.

Twilight turned back around and saw her desk, which was half was through the forcefield. The half which was inside the field had a stack of paper on it and a bottle of ink.

"Hey, my desk!" she said, immediately forming a plan.

"Yeah, what about it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I have an idea. We can use the ink and paper to send a letter to Princess Celestia."

Twilight levitated a piece of paper and ink bottle over to her, which she set down on the ground.

"But we don't have a quill." Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight looked over at the desk, and saw that the quills were all outside of the enclosure.

"Actually..." she said, turning back around. She quickly bit onto Rainbow Dash's wing, and plucked a single feather with her teeth.

"Ow!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, before shooting Twilight a dirty look.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash."

Twilight levitated the feather and dipped it into the ink. She began writing a letter to the princess, warning her of what was coming.

"I hope this works." she said passing the rolled-up letter to Spike.

Spike ignited the letter, causing it to fly away in the form of smoke. The smoke, however, hit the wall of the forcefield, returned to Spike, and caused him to spit it back out again.

"Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed. "It didn't work, the forcefield's stopping it!"

"Is that even possible?" Rarity asked.

"I suppose it is... We have to find another way to get out!"

The six ponies continued pondering over their diligent escape.

"Hey, what about that?" Pinkie Pie said, pointing outside of the purple wall.

"What is it?" Twilight said walking over and taking a look at whatever it was that she saw.

Twilight looked at the book that lay on the floor. She smiled as she identified it, there was no doubt that it was Lucinda's spellbook. It was laying on the floor, open to a page.

"The book!" she said. "We might be able to use a spell."

Twilight read the titles of the spells on the double page, until she came across one that had been messily labelled:- Forcefield Disabling Spell

"Hey, the right spell's on the page!" she said, reading through it.

"I dunno, Twilight." Fluttershy said wearily. "Doesn't this seem a bit... too easy?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." she agreed. "I don't think I'd make a mistake like that, leaving the book on the floor, open to the right page..."

Twilight looked down at the book, and then back up her friends. She thought about what was at stake, and whether she was willing to put her and her friends at risk to help Princess Celestia.

"I don't know..." Twilight said. "I think it's a trick, but it's our only hope."

"Twilight, you have to do it." Rarity said. "It's the only chance we have of escaping and saving the princess."

"But, I don't know what it could do."

"Twilight," she said, looking straight into her eyes. "Just do it!"

Twilight hesitated, before casting the 'forcefield disabling' spell. Once the spell was complete, she opened one eye, and took a look at her surroundings. To her surprise, the spell had worked and the forcefield was now down.

"Ha, it worked!" she cheered.

"Twilight, we haven't got time for that." Rainbow Dash said. "We have to get to Canterlot!"

"So, Twilight Sparkle, what brings you and your friends to Canterlot?" Princess Celestia asked as they walked through the throne room.

"Oh, nothing in particular." Twilight's doppelgänger said. "Just a visit."

"Well I'm very glad you could be here. I always enjoy seeing you."

"Why thank you." Applejack's duplicate said with a tip of her hat, trying not to act suspicious.

Twilight looked out at Canterlot through one of the windows. She was trying to hold back blasting Celestia across the room, but she had to hold back. She had a plan...

"So tell me, Twilight, how have you been?" Celestia asked.

"Okay, I guess. We haven't done anything too interesting." Twilight said.

"Well, as long as you have your friends, there's always something fun to do."

I hate it when she starts that touchy-feely crap... Twilight thought to herself.

Twilight looked behind her, and saw Rainbow Dash, slyly signalling her to look out the window.

Twilight nonchalantly walked towards the window again, and grinned her devilish grin. It was the real six ponies, along with Spike, galloping towards the palace at full speed.

"Something the matter?" Princess Celestia asked when she saw the two ponies looking out the window.

Twilight turned her head toward Celestia, and smiled. It was time to put her plan into action.

Before the princess even had time to react, a large blue beam of light shot from the end of Twilight's horn. The spell was almost instantaneous, giving Celestia no proper warning of what was happening.

The light shot into the princess, sending her crashing into the wall behind her.

Princess Celestia opened her eyes as she struggled to get up off the floor. She looked over to Twilight, but she had already left the room.

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"Hey, there they are!" Applejack said as their clones galloped past.

Twilight's clone looked back and shot them a mischievous grin.

She six ponies stopped galloping as their duplicates galloped down the hall and around the corner.

"I don't get it." Twilight said. "Are we too late?"

Suddenly, two royal guards burst out of the throne room, along with Princess Celestia.

"There she is!" one of the guards exclaimed, galloping towards Twilight and tackling her to the ground.

"Hey, hey, what's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Twilight Sparkle," he said, pinning her down. "You are under arrest for attacking the princess!"

"Under arrest?!" Twilight yelped. "But- But I didn't do it!"