I Am NOT Twilight Sparkle!

The sun began to rise into the air from the far off horizon, and even without an alarm clock blaring in his ear, Zack started to awake from her sleep, and any disbelief of everything that happened yesterday was a lucid dream, just up and vanished as the mare looked off to the side of the bed. Seeing the desk and window of the room, before using her magic to pull the blankets off herself, and looked down at her violet coated body. After looking herself over for a minute the mare slumped back onto the bed, and just stared up at the ceiling.

“So it’s not just a dream, or an acid trip. This is all really, REAL.” Zack said as she continued to just stare up at the ceiling, face remaining in a blank expression.

As she laid there on the bed Zack started to wonder how things back home were going, thoughts becoming slightly frantic as she began thinking how her friends and family are doing. Probably right now, Zack’s friends are either freaking out and looking for her, or at her parents’ house and telling them she was gone, and have the police go and search for her. After staring at the ceiling for about ten or so minutes, Zack got out of her bed and then made her way over to the bathroom and began her morning routine. Once that was done the mare made a glance at the ridiculously large bath tub, which looked like it was big enough to fit an adult male hippo.

Staring at the tub for a few moments, she made her way over to it and started to fill it with hot water, and once it was filled Zack then slowly dipped her body in which felt amazing on the mare’s still groggy body, making her release a satisfied ‘ah’. As she submerges herself fully into the water practically laying on the bottom like a dog, with half her neck and head sticking out of the water, Zack then slowly dunked her head into the hot water. Then a moment later she quickly pulled it out as she then shook it, causing her mane to spread water all over the room, but it was worth it to fully wake her. The mare’s horn then lit up with magic for a split second, where upon a naked version of her old body appeared beside the tub. The construct then reached over to an assortment of shampoo bottles, grabbing one of the taller ones and began depositing a healthy dollop on the mare’s back—after she stood up of course—before the constructs hands began to scrub the mare’s body, slathering it with the shampoo which turned into pink bubbles. As the hands scrubbed the mare all over, turning her into a giant ball of pink bubbles, the construct started to wash the mares head, fingers running through the mane and digging gently into her scalp.

“This whole magic thing really is useful.” The mare said as the construct began using its hands to gather water, and then pouring it over the mare to wash the bubbles away and any excess shampoo. “If I manage to get back home, I really hope I have even a sliver of this stuff. Certainly will make things in life a whole lot easier.”

The mare continued to just lay in the warm water, enjoying the warming sensation as the construct occasionally poured water over her body and scratching any itchy spot that popped up. Several minutes later and the mare emerges from the tub where upon the construct grabbed a nearby towel, and began to dry the mare head to toe, or now hoof in this case. Now that she was dry the mare made her way out the bathroom, but before she did, she saw her reflection in the mirror and noticed that her mane and tail were rather shaggy instead of neatly combed. Shrugging her shoulders the mare created two hands, and just brushed the mane and tail enough so it looked more tamed, but still had a bit of shagginess to it, which was her usual hair style back when she was human. Before leaving her room the mare made her bed, with a quick snap of her magic that had various hands floating around, and fixing it up in no time at all.

Leaving the room behind her, Zack made her way to the dining hall for breakfast, wondering how she should spend the day. She would probably head back to the library and continue her search for a way home, after all the library was huge, and there were still more rows of books to check through, but then she remembered that the princesses would search through their private archive in hopes of finding a way home for Zack. That is, if the princesses could tear themselves away from their royal duties, or whatever kind of obligations and events that they have to attend to even search for a solution. Several minutes of walking to the dining hall, while being saluted and greeted by every guard, maid and butler she passes by, Zack eventually made it to the dining hall where upon entering the room the mare saw princess Celestia at the table. With a plate of pancakes, a hard-boiled egg and a cup of what she assumed was coffee, in front of the white alicorn. But Zack also noticed a small piece of paper floating in front of her. When the alabaster alicorn noticed that Zack had entered the chamber, she made a quick glance over to her before looking at the piece of paper, rolling it up and making it vanish in a small flash of light.

“Good morning Zack. I hope you’ve slept well.” Celestia asked the mare as she sits down in a chair across from where the princess sat.

“Well enough.” Zack simply said as a butler came out of the kitchen door, and asked what would Zack like to eat.

“Do you have any plans for the day?” Celestia questioned as she took a bite of her egg, while the butler left after Zack placed an order.

“I figured I comb the rest of the library, maybe I’ve overlooked something, or have yet to find the proper row of books I was looking for.” Zack explained as she gave a rather big yawn, before conjuring a magical hand to rub her eyes.

“I’m afraid that the library doesn’t retain any books of the ones you’ll in search of.” Celestia informed as she took a smaller bite of her egg.

“Well drat.” Zack said as she sunk into the chair. Celestia finished off her egg before glancing over at the violet alicorn, a small smile forming on her muzzle as she holds up her cup.

“If you have nothing else planned for the day, may I suggest that you visit my pupil in Ponyville.”

“Ponyville?” Zack questioned, more out of astonishment that some place was actually called, Ponyville.

“Yes. It’s a town down in the valley below the mountain.” Celestia said as the butler came back, a plate of scrambled eggs, waffles and roasted potatoes, and a nice cold glass of milk held in his red magical aura.

“In fact, my pupil is the very mare that you are the spitting image of, and she is rather clever, and holds a vast collection of books. Some of even very obscure, or great magical tomes.” Zack looked at the mare as the butler placed the plate in front of her, before bidding the alicorns farewell.

“She might even be able to help you in finding a way home, before me or my sister could comb through the archive.”

“If that’s so, I’ll stop by her castle and see if she can help me.” Zack said before taking a big forkful of eggs, and shoveling it into her mouth.

“How do you know she lives in a castle?” Celestia questioned as she took a sip from her cup of steaming beverage.

“If what I read in the library is true, and alicorns are the designated rulers of this country of yours, and that I look like your pupil…its only logical that said pony would be living in a castle.” Zack replied as she took a bite of her waffles, and swallowing before speaking up again.

“If she lived in anything else, then she’s not a real princess, and is just a pony with a token title with no actual political power.”

“I see.” Celestia said, not exactly sure how to take Zack’s words. After their little conversation, Celestia finished the last of her breakfast and bid Zack a good day, before leaving to begin her duties. ‘I wonder just how Twilight and this human will actually get along if she actually does visit Twilight.’ Celestia thought to herself, before waving over a patrolling guard.

“Is there something you need princess?”

“I assume you’re aware that the Twilight Sparkle in the dining hall really isn’t Twilight, correct.”

“Yes princess…word spreads fast.” The guard said, sounding a little annoyed.

“Well once the mare, whose actual name is Zack, is done with her breakfast, I want you to show her where Ponyville is located.” Celestia ordered the guard, who nodded in compliance.

~~~~~

Sometime later Zack has finished her breakfast and was about to leave the dining hall, and was originally just planning to wonder the castle grounds and figure out what to do. But as she left the dining hall, a royal guard stopped her, the very same one that she met at the front gate, and asked Zack to follow him. With nothing better to do, Zack followed the guard outside the castle and was led to the far west wall, but as they trotted to the wall the guard seemed both confused, and a little upset. But Zack didn’t put too much thought to it. Reaching the wall the guard pointed down into the valley, showing Zack where Ponyville was.

“So that’s where the mare I look like lives huh?” Zack said mostly to herself as she looks down at where the town was supposed to be, just barely able to see some kind of tall structure amongst the town.

“That’s right.” the guard said with a slightly disdained tone of voice, which Zack paid little attention to. The guard simply watched Zack just stare at the town below for a few seconds, but then one of her wings started unfurling and used to rub the back of her head.

“Well since the library has nothing of what I’m looking for, and the archive being for official princess only, I guess visiting this mare wouldn’t be a waste of time.” Zack mumbled under her breath. “Who knows. If this mare is as smart as Celestia says—”

“I assure that you won’t find a smarter pony than Twilight Sparkle.” The guard said in a defensive manor, causing Zack to look his way, before looking back down at Ponyville.

“In that case, let’s see if she can actually help me out.” With that Zack flapped her wings to get airborne, and began flying off towards the direction of Ponyville, leaving the guard on the wall.

Making her way down into the valley at a relatively lax pace, wings occasionally flapping while she soared over the landscape for the majority of the flight, Zack’s thoughts started to wander back to how things back home were possibly going. After being missing for a whole day with, who knows what happened to her apartment, things could be a big mess for all she knew. Not to mention what her family must be doing, Zack could only guess that their pestering the police with questions about what could’ve happened to her, and the police trying to comfort them while not trying to lose their tempers.

Thirty or so minutes of flying goes by, and Zack has finally reached the town of Ponyville, but before the alicorn actually headed into the town she just hovered above the town and gave it a look over. And from what she could see, it looked like a rural frontier town with some modern buildings, with a few unusual looking buildings mixed in, while also seeing a good number of ponies trotting about. After looking over the town itself as a whole for a few minutes, Zack turned her attention to the one building that pretty much stuck out like a sore bandaged up thumb. The structure looked like a castle, but it appeared to be made out of nothing but crystals, which just seemed ridiculous and impractical, not only that but the way the castle looked compared to the surrounding town buildings, made it look like a big jagged pointy mess. Flying down towards the castle Zack couldn’t see any guards, not a single one on patrol anywhere on or around the castle. There wasn’t even a guard at the front door to the damn castle. When she landed in front of the crystalline structure, the mare took one last look around and saw that it was indeed completely vacant.

“This princess Twilight must think she’s a fucking untouchable queen, if she has no guards posted outside.” Zack said as she walked up to the door, before feeling something landing on her nose.

“What the?” Looking down at her muzzle the mare saw that what has landed on her was a single piece of popcorn?

Creating a magical hand, the mare picked the piece of popcorn up and just stared at it for a second, before looking around herself, even up at the sky to see if a pegasus was passing by. But there was not a single pony anywhere around the castle. Shrugging her shoulders Zack made her way up the castle steps, flicking the popcorn to the side, before reaching the top of the steps and used her magic to open the doors, and walked right inside. Sticking her head through the door, the mare looked around the interior of the main entrance hall and found that, it too was also completely and utterly vacant.

“Seriously!” Zack said as she closed the doors behind her, a baffled expression on her face.

“There are no guards inside the damn castle either, what the fuck is this princess Twilight thinking not having guards around. She’s supposed to be a freaking royal, and yet she doesn’t have any guards to protect her, the castle, or even the bloody town?!” Zack was about to walk about the castle and have a look around it to see if there was even some kind of castle staff, but before she even took a few steps Zack heard something walking from the upstairs loft.

Looking up to the upper loft, Zack saw what looked like a small purple lizard waddling into view, and appeared to be talking to someone. A moment later and Zack watched as a violet alicorn, which looked like a mirror image of herself, walk into view as well. When the pair approached the stairs, they eventually looked in Zack’s direction, where they looked shocked to see someone in the castle. All three of them looked at each other with varying degree of emotions on their faces, Zack simply looked at the pair with an examining gaze, while both the lizard and the pony that stood beside it just stared down at him with astonishment. The lizard and the other alicorn then walked down the steps, slowly making their way towards Zack, who just watched them cautiously, continuing to study them carefully.

“Are you, Zack?” the mare asked Zack as she and the lizard stood a foot from her.

“E’yup.” Zack simply said. The mare’s shocked expression slowly, and rather creepily, developed into a wide-eyed smile.

“This. Is. INCRIDABLE!” The mare said, or rather shouted, in a very hyper voice, causing Zack to slightly wince at the direct audio assault to her ears.

“You look exactly like me, I mean you’re mane, and tail are styled differently. But you look just like me! Same height, same coat, mane, and tail coloring. We could pass as identical twins!” Twilight continued to talk excitedly as she began to circle around Zack, examining her body.

“Yeah, it’s almost creepy how she looks like you Twilight.” The lizard commented, sounding like a kid who hasn’t quite yet reached puberty.

‘What’s really creepy is that this mare is examining me like a slab of beef.’ Zack mentally retorted to the lizard’s comment.

“If your done looking me over like a science project, care to introduce yourselves?” the mare stopped her examination of Zack’s wings, a perked up as she realized she hasn’t done a formal greeting.

“I’m so sorry, I completely glossed over the introductions!” the mare then quickly ran in front of Zack, before formally introducing herself.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Friendship.” Zack nearly lost her composure as she almost burst out laughing when he heard Twilight’s royal title. “And this is my number one assistant, Spike the dragon.”

“Well princess, it’s nice to meet you and your assistant. Names Zackery Johnson, but just call me Zack.” The human turned pony said to the pair with no real sense of formality. “Now that introductions, and inspection, is over with, can we get started. I assume princess Celestia has informed you of me?”

“Oh. Right, come with me.” Twilight then guided Zack to the front door?

Slightly confused as to why the princess is heading to the door of the castle, Zack decided to follow her and the lizard, who has hopped onto the alicorns back as the group headed out of the castle, and made their way towards town. The trek to the town was actually rather short, just a five minute trotting and the trio were already in the town, and Zack has to admit that the town definitely looked far better up close, rather than from a birds eye view. It had a very nice, picturesque, appeal about it. But as a few minutes of what Zack presumed to be a tour had gone on she noticed that something was a bit, odd. And what Zack found odd about the town was that there was no other ponies anywhere in sight. There were none in the streets, the stalls or shops that lined the side of the roads, or down a different road that looked like a flea market. There didn’t even seem to be any ponies in any of the buildings they were passing by, which was all strange as she remembered seeing a good number of ponies trotting about, before she touched down in front of the castle.

‘Okay…this is starting to feel a little creepy.’ Zack thought to herself as she started to fall behind the pair slightly, a sense of unease settling in. ‘Where the fuck is everyone?’

Another few minutes of trotting later and the group came upon a, well, the only way that Zack could describe the building they were heading to was, a gingerbread house. As in, the entire building literally looked like a gingerbread house, made out of cookies and everything sweet treat related. The trio eventually reached the building and like the others they’ve passed by Zack couldn’t see any ponies around, or inside. Granted the building was currently pitch black inside, so she couldn’t even see what the damn thing looked on the inside. Speaking of the inside, Zack followed Twilight and Spike into the shop, albeit hesitantly, but eventually Zack entered the building. But after taking a few steps into the building the light’s suddenly turned on, where a barrage of party poppers erupted, and confetti and other little party festivities covering the now greatly confused Zack.

“SURPRISE!”

a cacophony of voices cried out, allowing Zack to see a myriad of ponies staring in his direction with wide happy expressions, which turned to confusion, then amazement as their eyes bounced between her and Twilight.

“Land sakes!” an orange earth pony with a southern accent said as she kept looking between the two. “There really is a second Twilight!”

“Oh this is perfect! I get to throw a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party to Twilight again, like the first time she came to Ponyville!” a very loud, squeaky, and excited voice came from a very energetic pink mare, before zooming over to the still frozen Zack, as she tries to process the situation before her.

“Hi there Twilight number two, my name’s Pinkie Pie, your new best friend and I like to welcome you to our town with a welcoming party!”

Zack just remained silent as she looked around the room, seeing a gaggle of ponies of various colors and breeds, with tables littered with an endless supply of cupcakes, cakes, pies, and other types of pastries. The mare eventually spotted Twilight among the crowd of ponies, smiling back at her with a few other ponies by her side, the orange mare, and a pair of pegasi and a white and purple unicorn. After scouring the interior of the building, and looking over the crowd of ponies for a few more seconds, Zack looked squarely at her look alike.

“…I think there’s been a misunderstanding here Sparkles.” Zack said with a neutral tone of voice.

“What do you mean Zack?” Twilight said as she conjured up a letter. “The princess sent me this letter, and said to make you feel welcomed here—”

“And what better way to make a pony feel welcomed than throwing them a surprise party!” Pinkie said as she shoved a platter of cupcakes into Zack’s face. “Here try these, they’re fresh from the oven~!” the pink mare sang as her hoof grabbed a brightly pink frosted cupcake and slowly inched it towards Zack’s muzzle. But the hoof was stopped by Zack’s magically constructed hand.

“Okay, first of all don’t just try to shove food in someone’s face, and DON’T just intrude on their personal space. That’s just rude and very inconsiderate.” Zack said harshly, which seemed to get a very shocked reaction from the ponies.

“Also who throws a party for a complete and total stranger? For all you know, I could’ve been a spy from an enemy nation or an escaped convict. Not only that, but we’ve literally just met one minute ago, we’re not going to be best friends like that, we’d be acquaintances at best. And for your princess’s letter—” Zack said as she pointed at the letter in Twilight’s magical aura with the hand, that seemed to have grabbed a mint green colored ponies attention.

“I appreciate that you were trying to make me feel welcome. But I’m here for one thing, and one thing only, to find a way home.” Zack then took a few steps back from Pinkie Pie, who seemed to have lost some of her boundless energy.

“I’m not here to make friends, or have random parties, with people that I don’t even know.” Zack then turned to leave the building, but before she left, she looked over her shoulder at Twilight. “Once you feel ready to help me get back home I’ll be waiting at your castle.”

Zack then turned to leave the building, leaving Twilight and virtually every one of the ponies speechless, some even looked sad or even hurt at what Zack just said. And the one that seemed to be the most hurt was Pinkie, as her curly mane and tail had deflated like a balloon. As she was walking down the road, and heading back to Twilight’s guardless castle, Zack shook her head as an exasperated sigh escaped her mouth.

“Just what the hell was the princess thinking?” Zack muttered under her breath. “I thought she would’ve made it clear to her, pupil, that I was looking for a way home and would immediately set out to help me.”

“But no!” Zack scoffed.

“I wasted time following a mare to what looked like a little kids birthday party, to party with total strangers.” The mare’s tail flicked out in annoyance as she reached the castle, her horn pulsating with magic before it released a big pulse of lavender light that covered the castle, which then returned back to the mare as she reached the doors.

“If these ponies aren’t going to take my situation seriously, then I don’t need them.” Zack all but shoved through the doors with a pair of glowing purple constructed arms, where she then followed the map of the castle she just scanned to the location of the castles library.

~~Sugarcube Corner~~

The atmosphere at Sugarcube Corner was still rather, upsetting. Ponies were murmuring to each other about how the new alicorn, who looks like a twin of Twilight Sparkle, had just completely blown off a party meant to welcome her to the town. And then she had the gall to criticize Pinkie for even throwing her the party, needless to say, some ponies were already not liking this newcomer. As for Twilight and her friends, they were just as shocked by what the pony that they read about in princess Celestia’s letter had just ranted about, before she just walked off like she was a snobby noble.

“What the hay was her problem!” Rainbow Dash half-shouted, feeling very aggravated after hearing the Twilight look alike just outright disrespected her friend.

“I must say she was certainly uncouth, really, there was no need for such harsh words.” Rarity said in a huff.

“Yeah I mean, was all that really called for.” Starlight added as she stood amongst her new circle of friends.

“And why was she harping so much in getting back home? she’s an alicorn, she can just teleport back to her home whenever she wants to.”

Twilight tried to figure out why her double was so, rude, while her friends continued to banter back and forth about how rude the mare was. Except for Pinkie, who was just sitting on the floor, a defeated look on her face as she fiddles with the cupcake she offered to Zack. After trying to come up with a valid reason on why her double was so unpleasant at the party, nothing was coming to Twilight on why her double acted this way. Noting in Celestia’s letter said anything about the mare being so, harsh.

“Let’s head to the castle and see what’s wrong with her.” Twilight said getting her friends attention. Pinkie especially, as her mane and tail re-inflated themselves as she hopped back to her hooves.

“Yeah! Maybe if we find out what’s bugging her, maybe then she’ll enjoy her welcoming party!” With that the group of six ponies watched Pinkie charged outside the door, leaving them to gallop after the hyperactive pony, as they all made their way to Twilight’s castle to confront the other violet alicorn.