Chapter 4
"Yer goin' on a what now?" Applejack asked. It was the following morning, and Twilight was preparing to leave town.
"A walkabout!" she said with a smile. "When you lose yourself, or you don't know where your life is headed, you go out into the wilderness with nothing but a knife and your wits, until you find yourself."
"Twilight, ya don't honestly think there's another ya wonderin' around out there in the wilderness do ya?" Applejack asked sceptically.
"Of course not, it's a metaphor." Twilight said as she strapped the knife that Overdrive had given her to her flank.
"Twilight, Ah hate ta be the one ta break this too ya... But ya don' 'xactly have any wits ta use out... where ya goin' 'gain?"
Twilight chuckled, "Oh ye of little faith, I'm going to the Mohoofie desert. I was up all night reading about desert survival, I will be perfectly fine."
"Ya say that now. But when ya git there an' realise y'all are doin' somethin' stupid, there ain't gonna be nopony out there ta help ya." Applejack said. "At leas' lemme go out there with ya."
"I appreciate the officer Applejack, but I need to do this on my own. I will be a couple hours walk from El Paso Fino, and I promise not to let the city skyline out of my sight, if something does go wrong, I will be able to get there no problem," Twilight said.
Applejack sighed. "An' everypony says I'm stubborn."
"I'll be fine Applejack." Twilight said, she closed her eyes and thought very hard, and disappeared from the Library.
"This won't end well." Applejack said as she walked out the Library door.
Twilight Sparkle reappeared in a desert landscape. It worked; she had to be in the Mohoofie Desert! She'd never tried to teleport such a long distance before, but it had worked perfectly.
She looked east, the sun was about to come up.
"And Applejack said something was going to go wrong," Twilight said, "Now, basic needs: food, water, shelter."
The sun came up and she looked around, there was remarkably little, "don't get discouraged, you'll be fine."
Twilight walked through the desert for several hours, by now it was midday, and the harsh sun was right over her head, the temperature had jumped 20 degrees in the last few hours.
Twilight was tired, and she was thirsty.
"Applejack was right. This was a horrible idea." Twilight said.
Twilight turned around, she thought she had heard someone call out.
"Help me!" called a soft voice in the distance.
Twilight turned and ran towards it, she was both amazed and dumbfounded by what she saw, it was Derpy Hooves, badly injured and covered in blood.
"Help me! Please!" she called out.
Twilight rushed over. "Derpy? How can you be here? What happened?"
"It hurts! Please make it stop hurting!" Derpy pleaded, she was crying, but it wasn't tears that flowed from her eyes, it was blood.
"I... I don't know how." Twilight said. Her voice was wracked with guilt.
Derpy looked up at her. "Yes, you do."
Twilight looked at the knife at her side, and pulled it out with her teeth.
Derpy merely nodded.
Twilight closed her eyes and plunged the knife into Derpy's heart.
Twilight opened her eyes to find her knife was sticking hilt end up in the sand. Derpy was gone.
Of course she's gone... she wasn't ever here, don't be silly Twilight Sparkle.
"Pathetic," called a voice from above her.
Twilight looked up, lying on a rather large rock, was none other than herself.
"I expected better than this, from you of all ponies!" the other Twilight said. "You know better than to run away from your problems!"
Twilight's jaw dropped, this wasn't happening, she was imagining it. She closed her eyes, and she hoped that when she opened them, the other Twilight would be gone.
She opened them. The other Twilight was still there.
"Trying to run away again?" the other said. "Pathetic."
"I'm not running away... I'm out here to find myself," Twilight said.
"Well you found her," the other said. "Now you get to listen to what she has to say."