I Am NOT Twilight Sparkle!

After Sunburst had paid the town an improve visit, Twilight, Spike, and Thorax had got an urgent message from Celestia, stating that there are conflicts on the horizon between the Canterlotian ponies, and the newly formed Changeling Hive under the city. The letter stated that whenever the changeling were spotted in the city, they were being insulted, even directly to their faces, by the upper class ponies and those who follow their example. Of course none of the changelings took these insults lightly, and tried to at first peacefully suggest the ponies treat them with respect, however if there is one thing that Canterlotian ponies are well-known for, it’s their prejudice towards non-pony species. But now after a full day of dealing with the speciesist ponies, and ensuring that no conflicts broke out, the three friends have been riding back to Ponyville and a two hour train ride.

“Finally it’s over with.” Spike groaned as he slowly slouches down his seat on the train ride back to Ponyville, while Thorax and Twilight looked just as exhausted, and drained as the dragonling.

“I still can’t believe that a fight nearly broke out between the ponies and changelings.” Spike said as he continued to slouch in his seat.

“I am sorry that the ponies of Canterlot are being so, unwelcoming to the hive Thorax. I hope you don’t take anything they’ve spouted seriously.” Twilight said with a bit of shame in her voice as she looks solemnly at the changelings sitting across from her, and Spike.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I won’t.” Thorax said as his wings buzzed. “Still though, it looks like things are still going to be difficult for the changelings.” Twilight hopped off her seat and made her over to Thorax, where she gave the changeling a comforting pat on the shoulder.

“I know things look hard now, but forging new bonds is never easy. Especially with those that have a rocky first introduction with the other party.” Thorax gave a thankful smile to the alicorn, Spike snorted softly as a thought came to him.

“Kind of like how we first met Zack.” Twilight also gave a small chortle as she trotted back to her seat.

“Yeah. Kind of like how we met Zack for the first time.” Spike repeated as he sat back up straight in his seat.

“Was she just as, scary, or hostile, when she first came to Ponyville?” Thorax asked his two friend, greatly curious on how his best friend was like before meeting her back at the Badlands hive. Both Twilight and Spike gleeful expressions dimmed slightly as they thought back to the early days of Zack’s arrival.

“Scary, yes.” Twilight said.

“Hostile…” Spike sucked in air through his clenched teeth as he thought back to beat down she gave Shining Armor, then the interaction with Blueblood, and finally, the incident with Discord.

“Yeah. She was a really scary mare when she first arrived.”

“But at least now she’s really mellowed out.” The violet alicorn prayed as looked out the window of the train car and watching the landscape, and mountain side roll on past her. “Although, I really hope things stay this way for good, last thing we need is to have another Discord episode.”

Spike nodded his head agreement, followed by Thorax. While the changeling wasn’t present for the event that the alicorn was talking about, Thorax remembers the discussion he had with Zack when he first met her, and how greatly upset the now pale purple alicorn was about the now deceased spirit of chaos. The trio continued to make idle chit-chat, and discussions on what to do to help the changelings, and ponies of Canterlot to try and get along. Which was probably going to be harder than it sounded, but the plucky trio tried to come up with plans, events, parties, pretty much anything under the sun to make good between the changelings and the ponies of Canterlot, all ponies in general. Show the ponies of Equestria that the changelings are no longer a threating race, but one that wants to be allies and be apart of Equestria. While they continued to talk amongst themselves they all felt the train finally slow down, before stopping entirely before hearing the conductor stating they had arrived in Ponyville.

Departing the train with some of the other occupants of the locomotive, Twilight, Spike, and Thorax started to make the trot from the station, and towards their crystalline home. but as they were making their way through the town, the trio noticed that the town seemed to have an odd air about. And from Thorax’s perspective, the changeling could see the various emotions permeating from the ponies they were passing by, all of them having worried emotions from concern, fear, and even panic. As the group continued to trot through the town they couldn’t figure out what was going on, which doesn’t help that the ponies either walk off before they could hear what was going on, or are just hushing. Granted not all ponies the trio passes by were acting like this, its just that the majority of ponies of the town seem to be acting this way.

“What do you think is going on?” Spike asked as he scanned the surrounding area from on top of Twilight’s back.

“I’m not sure, but whatever is going on, a lot of the ponies seem to be upset.” Thorax commented as the trio left the town plaza behind them, and continued to make their way to the castle of friendship.

“Maybe Starlight, or Zack knows what is going on.” Twilight remarked as the alicorn made one last scan of the plaza.

Ten minutes of trotting later and the trio have made it to the castle, however when they were close enough to the structure they all saw that the doors were left open, with the left door tilting back and forth. Now filling very worried the trio rushed the last twenty feet up to the castle, and when they entered the structure, Twilight, Spike, and Thorax split up and looked around the castle. All of them looking for any sign of Starlight or Zack. While exploring the upper floors, Twilight was soaring from one room to another but what wasn’t finding either pony she was searching for, the alicorn found something very worrisome when she reached Zack’s room. like the castle, the bedroom door was left wide-open. with splotches of some kind of green substances staining the floor, the inside of the door, and the wall on the opposite side of the door.

“What is this stuff?” Twilight muttered to herself as she examined the green substance, scooping up a small sample with her magic.

“Twilight!” the mare turned to see Thorax flying towards her, with Spike on his back. “Oh no! it’s here to!”

“What? You mean, this?” Twilight said as held the green substance in front of her, while Thorax landed.

“Yes. That’s changeling goo!”

“But what could—oh no! Chrysalis!” Twilight shrieked as she drop the piece of goo. “What if…what if she snuck into to town, and captured Zack again!”

“Hold on Twilight, we don’t know if that is what happened here.” Thorax said to the alicorn while trying to keep not only her, but himself calm as well.

“Now if Chrysalis really did come and take Zack away, I’m certain we would’ve seen more signs of a battle. Cause I doubt Zack would be tricked by Chrysalis’s disguises, and even in her current state I think she would’ve put up a fight.”

“But what if she actually did get the drop on Zack!” Twilight said with an even more panicked voice, her mind wracking with any number of scenarios playing in her head.

“Calm down Twi.” Spike quickly said before Twilight went on full panic mode, which the alicorn was already dangerously close to.

“Until we know what actually happen, there’s no need to stress ourselves out panicking about this. Let’s try to find some kind of clues that might show us what happened here.”

Twilight managed to reign in her already high levels of anxiety, and agreed with Spike’s idea to search for clues. So now the trio started to search the sections of the castle that they didn’t already checked, but as they scoured every inch of the castle they could think of none of them could anything. No other splotches of trails of goo, aside from the goo starting from Zack’s room leading towards the library, or anything that pertains to any form of battle taking place, Twilight even scanned for any magical residue left behind if somepony uses magic…and that’s when they finally got a lead! Twilight was able to find very sporadic, and randomly uses of magic, although they all stemmed back again from Zack’s room to the library, where another trace of magical energy could be detected. However the alicorn could tell that the other traces of magic, was not from a changeling, it was from another pony. But it wasn’t the magical signature that Twilight knows that is Starlight’s magic, instead…

“I think I found something.” The alicorn said as her horn continued to resonate with magic, while her eyes glowed with a faint purplish tint.

“What did you find?” both Spike and Thorax asked as they looked curiously at the mare.

“I found a second magical signature, and I think it’s, Rarity’s.”

“Rarity was here?” Spike asked.

“Then maybe she knows what happened to Zack.” Deactivating her spell Twilight along with Thorax and Spike, ran out of the castle’s library and then out of the castle and made a mad dash towards Rarity’s boutique. Upon reaching the establishment the three friends practically barged in, as Rarity never minded if any of her friends decide to drop by, and started to look for their two friends. But neither Rarity nor Zack was there.

“They’re not here either.” Thorax said after the group searched the building. That’s when an idea came to the changeling. “Hey Twilight, can’t you track Rarity’s magical signature?”

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that.” Twilight said as she powered up her horn, and then teleported the group back to castle.

Once they reappeared in front of the castle, Twilight switched to the detection spell and once it was powered up, the alicorn could see a clear trail of faintly blue magic lingering in the air. The alicorn then started to gallop off into the town, following the trail of magic that only she could see, with her two male compatriots hot on her trail. The three friends continued to gallop through the town, rushing past other ponies were shocked to see the trio running in a hectic pace, looking like the monsters of Tartarus are chasing them. leaving the town the group entered the northern section of Ponyville, and as they continued to follow the trail of magical residue they all found themselves galloping towards Ponyville’s General Hospital, which only made the trio’s anxiety start to rise again. Entering the building the trio rushed over to the front desk, skidding to a halt while also startling the receptionist.

“P-Princess!” the nurse said as she looked at the alicorn, and her two friends at her sides with shock.

“Tell me, did a mare named Rarity and a pony that looks like a pale version of me come here?” the alicorn frantically asked as she and the other two tried to catch their breath.

“Yes princess, both of them arrived a couple of hours ago, and the look alike was in a lot of pain.” All three of them immediately felt their hearts stop for just a second, while pit formed in their stomach.

“Can you take us to where she’s being held?”

The nurse nodded and got up from her seat, and started to lead Twilight, Thorax, and Spike to where Zack was being held. Weaving through the surprisingly crowded hallways of the hospital, and ascending two flights of stairs, the group was lead to one of the rooms near the end of the third-floor hallway. And that’s where the trio saw Rarity and Fluttershy standing outside the door, both of whom looked thoroughly exhausted, and heavily stressed.

“Rarity!” Twilight called out to the unicorn, getting the white mare’s and Fluttershy’s attention, where they both instantly looked relieved in seeing the trio.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy blubbered as she threw herself at Twilight, crying into the alicorn’s chest.

“Fluttershy what’s wrong? Is Zack alright?!” neither Fluttery nor Rarity said anything, and before either of them could say anything the door to the room they were all standing in front of opened up, and a unicorn stallion wearing a doctors uniform. Covered in green goo…and a little bit of blood. Rarity practically shoved her face into the doctors before asking.

“Doctor please tell me is she alright?”

“She is alright Miss. Rarity; however she is very drain from the experience, and is sleeping right now.” The doctor said in a very calm manner before adjusting his glasses with his magic. “We did have to perform surgery on her, as the egg sack was far too big for her, but thankfully it wasn’t life threating.”

“Doctor…” Twilight said as she took a step closer to the stallion. “What happened to Zack?” a somber look overcame the unicorns face as he started telling Twilight the events that just occurred in the room.

“Well to put it simply, the reason why we couldn’t get a clear reading on the state of the baby growing in your look alike, was because the egg sack that it was maturing in was acting as a barrier…but it seemed the egg matured faster than what I assume is expected, and because it was the size of a newly born foal Zack’s body tried to eject the egg out of her womb. Only problem is that the sack was to big and was stuck inside her.”

“So to make sure that the egg sack was removed, we had to perform a, special, c-section surgery on her to remove the egg.” None of the friends looked incredibly thrilled at what they were hearing, and were all just getting more afraid and worried for their friend. That’s when Thorax stepped forward.

"What do you mean by, special surgery?" the changeling asked.

"Because Zack has both sets of genitalia we couldn't perform a normal c-section on her, so we had to get, creative in removing the egg from the alicorn." the doctor explained the group as a whole.

“…I’m afraid to ask doctor, but—”

“You want to know about the hatchling?” the changeling nodded his head.

“…I’m afraid it didn’t make it. the hatchling wasn’t, breed, probably. If you catch my meaning.” The three mare’s, dragonling’s, and changeling’s mood started to turn bleak, and mournful. Even if the baby was given to her by a deranged queen, they were all still sad that an new innocent life won’t be able to embrace life.

“Can we, go and see Zack?” Spike asked as he stuck close to Twilight’s side.

“Only for a moment, she really needs her rest.”

The doctor opened the door behind him and stood to the side as the group started to file into the room. the group was being as quiet as they can as the entered the room, they’re eyes were drawn to the sole bed in the room. next to the bed was a lone IV pole standing next the bed, a table with medication bottles and jug of water on it, then on the other side of the bed was a trolly that has used medical equipment on it, as well as a large tray with a towel covering it. but the clear large bulge under the towel tells the ponies what it was. Turning away from the trolly the group made their way over to the bed, where a very, very exhausted looking Zack was peacefully sleeping. The group gathered around the bed to get a closer look at Zack, and as they checked up on her they all saw the alicorn’s crack open her eyes.

“Zack?!” they all said in a hushed tone.

“…hi guys.” Zack replied, her voice low and sounding very horsed, as her very tired eyes looks up to all of them.

“How are you feeling darling?” Rarity asked as she leaned in close to the alicorn.

“I feel horrible.” the alicorns eyes started to tear up. “I never want to go through child birth, ever, again.” Rarity then started to gently smooth down Zack’s mane to comfort her, while the others try as well to provide some level of comfort for their friend.

“I’m sorry to ruin the moment, but Zack needs her rest now.”

Each of the ponies, plus Spike and Thorax, gave Zack one final comforting word before leaving the mare. But before she actually left the room, Twilight quickly placed various wards around the room, just to provide some protection for her friend, as Twilight’s current level of stress and anxiety was making her bit paranoid. After the wards were placed Twilight left room with the rest of friends, leaving the doctor last to exit the room, and closing the door behind him. leaving Zack alone to recuperate from the ordeal that she had to bear through today.