Solidarity: Me, Myself, and I (A Twilight Sparkle Tale)

Twilight regained consciousness, her eyelids feeling as though they weighed more than a morbidly obese Ursa Major on a binge eating diet. With all of her will, she forced her eyes open, feeling every single fiber of her being ache and wriggle in agony. She was only able to open her eyes a fraction of a centimeter before it was too painful for her. She was in Zecora's hut and the zebra was leaning over her, an obviously stained bandage wrapped around her torso. The mask, now in pieces, was behind the zebra. She also saw the strange weapons Zecora had used earlier, but covered in blood and thick blobs of webbing. She felt a cold substance press onto her neck, which only caused her to cry  softly in pain. Zecora said something in her usual rhyming speech pattern, but it was unintelligible through the constant ringing and pounding in her ears.

Zecora leaned down to look into Twilight's face, holding a bowl in her mouth. She felt Zecora press the bowl against her lips, urging her to drink. She pitifully lapped at the liquid which tasted slightly sweet, much like a berry punch. She slowly felt her strength return to her body as the drink slid down her gullet. She was scarcely able to sit up slightly and open her eyes more, and she quietly celebrated the feat. Her friend put more pillows underneath her neck for support and comfort. The ringing receded slightly and the pounding wasn't as harsh, much to her relief. She could at least hear sounds again thankfully, and could see a pink liquid bubbling from inside Zecora's cauldron. She meekly and painfully pointed a hoof at the cauldron, which her friend immediately went to and refilled the bowl.

A short time later after Twilight's third helping of the pink potion she was able to move her legs and neck with some effort. Laying there looking at the ceiling of the hut, there was a thought that kept rattling her brain and made her uneasy. She would ask Zecora, but only after she made sure the Zebra wasn't wounded worse than she was.  She slowly turned to see Zecora's backside at the cauldron once more and whispered loudly, "Zecora..."

The zebra, smiling to see her patient recovering, trotted over to her friend. Over the past 5 months since the establishment of the Council, Twilight had often referred to Zecora for international advice. The zebra had traveled all over the known lands before settling in the Everfree Forest, so she was relatively familiar with each land and their customs. From her knowledge Twilight was able to successfully gain trust from almost every nations' representative she had met with. As a result their friendship had grown as well, making Zecora an honorary family member and most trusted adviser.

Zecora sat on the ground next to the bed, a look of relief on her muzzle. "So happy, I am, to see you awake. Now I can finally take a short break."

She meant this part somewhat jokingly of course, making Twilight smile through the pain.

"Are... are you okay?" panted Twilight. "Your chest... bleeding."

Zecora looked  at her wound, then back at the Alicorn. "There is no need to fret, my dear worried friend. I am far too determined to meet with my end. This wound that you see will recover quite soon." She winced slightly as she adjusted her sitting pose. "Although I admit, it is quite a boon."

The princess admired her friends determination (or was it stubbornness?) and sat up a bit more. "That pony who I was with, the one you fought; who was he?"

Zecora's relief briefly turned into anger, which was rare to see. Zecora was one who rarely ever got angry or even annoyed. To see the mere mention of somepony get her riled up concerned Twilight. "That thing is a menace, a plague on four legs. To get what he wants he lies and he begs. He'll enter your home with the best of intentions, then stab your bare back with his swift misdirection." She rose from the ground, pacing in an angry fashion. "To be around him is like a mad flaming torch. Move too close to the flame and you soon shall be scorched. He's a demon, a beast, a usurper of all. He's a dark one, a master of making slaves fall. He once was a leader, a smart one at that. Anypony who knew him before would say that. They'd tell you the stories of-"

Twilight raised a hoof to cut off her friend. "Zecora, no offense, but every time I've heard a long explanation of something tonight, I nearly went into a frenzy or was attacked by you." She quickly blushed, realizing her rudeness. "No offense."

Zecora huffed slightly, but continued. "To make my tale short, he's a master of lies. He uses dark earth magic to make his pets spies." At this, she turned around from where the bed was to see a small black spider near door. It was crawling underneath the doorway to the outside, no doubt to tell the other spiders and Nansi where they were. That would be a matter for a later time, though.

"Well, then what he probably told me was a pack of lies too. I can't believe I let myself be interested by that stupid story he told me."

Zecora raised an eyebrow. "What story would that be, my friend in the Everfree?"

"He went into great detail about this thing called a Oocha... a Ukachu - Chooka... something that looks like a pony with sevend heads. He even showed me what it looked like with his spiders. It was flashy and all, but now I know it was all a bunch of..... Zecora?"

Zecora was on the ground, a look of pure fear on her face. Twilight gulped down the rest of the potion in order to stand slightly, slowly limping towards her friend. "Zecora? Speak to me! What's wrong?"

Slowly, the zebra shook her head left to right as if in denial. She swallowed, then spoke. "He... he's seen the Uchchaihshravas?"

Immediately, Twilight got scared. Never, not once ever, had Zecora NOT spoken in rhyme. Tonight was full of instances in which Zecora had not acted like herself, and twilight immediately grew suspicious. Was this really her friend? Or was it a guise set in place by Nansi? What if this was some sort of distraction set in place by Nansi so that he could achieve some ulterior motive? Twilight wasn't going to risk going through a spider-bite ridden Hell again, and she backed away slowly from the zebra.

Zecora, blinking and slightly regaining her composure, looked up at her friend. "I know what he told you about the High Makers. Are you sure that he wasn't just being a faker?" She then noticed that Twilight was using her magic to slightly raise a skinning knife from the shelf. The zebra tensed.

"Twilight, my friend, please put the knife down. Please regain your true senses, princess of the crown." Zecora said, reassuringly.

Twilight back up towards the door more, her vision set on Zecora. "Stay away, Nansi! That's a clever trick you've pulled with your spiders, but it's not going to work on me again!"

"It is I, your friend! Nansi is not here! We're the only two present, so there's no need to fear! Just lay down in bed, the poison still courses. It still is quite deadly to young foolish horses."

She wouldn't be fooled again, and no amount of honeyed words would convince her otherwise. She wanted to believe that the pony in front of her was Zecora, truly. But considering what this pony had told her, Nansi was a master deceiver. He could very well be the one who took the guise of the pony in front of her, wearing her skin like some kind of sick body suit. That gash on the chest would make for a very convenient entryway, and she wasn't sure if the eye she saw on "Zecora" when she leaned down to see her face was even the right color. Her neck throbbed faster as her heart pounded harder, her legs shaking in both fear and fragility.

She decided to test the "zebra". She and Zecora had shared a code between each other, one with deep meaning to Twilight, in the event something like this would happen. She had shared this code with only one other pony, but felt that the zebra was worthy of learning it as well. Calming herself slightly, ready for anything, she asked the question that would determine this pony's legitimacy.

"What rhyme have I shared with only the one who is close to my heart?"

Zecora slowly lowered herself into a slight bow, still wincing. She then started to bounce slightly, alternating between her hooves in a skipping pattern. After about a second or two of doing this she lowered her chest to the floor covering her eyes, then revealing them again. All of this movement was causing her bandage to slip up and fresh blood to ooze out of the gash. As the pony before Twilight kept performing the code, relief and grief flooded her, causing her to sob and collapse to the ground. The magic stopped and the knife fell to the floor away from both of them. Twilight then copied the motions of the Zebra, covering her eyes and unveiling them. Both sat up, Twilight assisting the other pony with her magic, moving her bandages back in place. and lifting her towards her. They then tapped their hooves lightly against one another in a game-like fashion, afterwards rising to their feet and shaking their hind ends towards one another.

Through incomprehensible sobs of regret, Twilight apologized to her friend for doubting her, blood staining the underbelly of her coat as they hugged. Her friends body was slightly limp, causing Twilight to panic. She used what little magic she had left in her to stop the bleeding and close up the wound slightly. Exhausted and drained, they both fell to the ground in a heap of blood, sweat and tears.

Twilight heard a loud knocking at the door of the hut, unable to answer through her cries of sorrow. The door was bucked down, a large grey pegasus in royal armor marching through. It was the middle aged guard from Twilight's castle, with Flash Sentry slightly behind looking in. Without saying a word, he immediately lifted the helpless princess over his neck and onto his back, Flash doing the same with Zecora. Both started running back on the path towards the castle, Twilight seeing trees and bushes zip by.

When they reached the castle, a medical chariot was waiting with riders in front. The guards boarded the chariot, gently placing their weeping and bleeding cargo on to the cart. The chariot soared towards the sunrise, its golden body gleaming. Twilight opened her eyes to see her zebra friend smiling weakly at her, tears in her eyes flowing into the wind. They both noticed the sunrise and giggled slightly. Zecora put her hoof on her friends shoulder and whispered slightly, "Sunshine.... sunshine.... ladybugs awake."

Twilight responded in kind. "Clap your hooves and do a little-"

Before Twilight could finish, Zecora convulsed and coughed up blood on to the carriage before laying back down and releasing a long sigh. The princess gently nudged the zebra, to no avail. Numbness of all sorts claimed Twilight, and she fainted into her sorrow once more.