I Am NOT Twilight Sparkle!

It’s only been an hour. One short, voluntary hour since the violet alicorn teleported to Canterlot, after the events that took place in the Verdant Highlands, and in that short hour Twilight Sparkle has explained in complete detail to both princess Celestia and Luna of what happened in that once green countryside. Each fearsome, and gruesome detail, including the culminative fate of queen Chrysalis. Naturally both governing princesses were shocked, as well as understandably horrified, at what transpired between all parties, especially hearing that Thorax was impaled by Chrysalis’s horn and Rainbow Dash nearly be burnt alive. But what truly gripped at the princesses hearts was learning that Zack has turned into a Nightmare-version of herself, and ended Chrysalis’s life.

“I can’t believe this.” Celestia says as she sat on a cushion in her office with a very distraught look on her face, Luna was no better as she shared the same distraught expression her sister wore. “How did it end up like this?”

“I don’t know.” was all Twilight could say as she sat before the two royals, her body and head slouched over as she was more in deep thought on what she should do next. Obviously, she wants to go out and find her twin, but, without any idea where Zack could’ve gone after killing Chrysalis. So Twilight unfortunately is unable to help her doppelganger.

“What shall do now Tia?” Luna asked as she looked up to her sister.

“For now nothing, until we locate where it is Zack has vanished to, there’s nothing we can do.” Celestia said before she looked over towards Twilight. “Twilight? How are you holding up dear?”

“I honestly don’t know Celestia, I REALLY don’t know.” the small alicorn said as she looked up from the floor. “Seeing Zack turn into that, thing, and seeing the twisted pleasure she took in ending Chrysalis’s life…I’ve never seen anything so, cruel.”

“Turning into a dark mare can cause dynamic changes to a pony, especially when it comes to their mentality.” Luna says with a tone of familiarity while a look of regret started to form on her face.

“All the more reason we need to find Zack fast, and reverse the transformation.” Celestia says before getting up from her cushion and starts to make her way to her office’s door.

“Luna and I will organize a wide area sweep over all Equestria, and in the meantime Twilight I want you to go back to Ponyville, and check on how Rainbow Dash and Thorax are doing.” Twilight nodded as she stood up and in a flash of magic, teleported herself to Ponyville’s General Hospital.

After teleporting to the building Twilight started to make her way up to the building, but as she does so she started to think back to her thoughts she had in Celestia’s office. And the thought was there a way to have prevented all of this? Like maybe if Twilight was more assertive in actually looking, searching for Chrysalis, and put her behind bars, instead of just letting her go and practically ignore her to plot and scheme, then maybe all of this could’ve have been avoided. And maybe while in captivity Twilight and her fellow princesses could’ve talked to Chrysalis, and then they might have reasoned with her to set aside her vendettas, and give peace between ponies and changelings a chance.

But since Twilight, and the others did not pursue Chrysalis, and place her in custody and be put through the justice system of her aggressive attacks on not just Equestria, but the royals of the nation they allowed her to plot and scheme. Allowed Chrysalis to stew and fester in her anger, instead of trying to help her see past her anger while she was in custody. And because she was free to concoct a new plan to, Twilight allowed a dangerous mare to devise a new plan to not only kid nap two of her friends, and use them as pawns to try and once again to try and take over Equestria. as this line of thought continued to fester in Twilight’s mind, another thought came to her that stopped her in her tracks.

Was it all her fault that Chrysalis had the opportunity to try and enact this plan?! And was the one that allowed Zack to be pushed to becoming a dark mare, all because she did not stop Chrysalis the last time they crossed paths?!

“Miss. Sparkle!” Twilight was snapped out of her thoughts when a voice loudly called her name, and the pony was a pink unicorn mare with a tide back aquamarine frizzy mane, with her nurses cap sitting on top. “Sorry to shout hun, but your kind of blocking the entry way.” Twilight looked and saw that she was just standing a foot from the door inside the hospitals entry.

“Sorry. I was, lost in thought.” Twilight said to the nurse.

“That’s alright.” The mare said before guiding Twilight off to the side. “Am I correct in assuming you want to see how your friends are doing?” Twilight gave the unicorn a nod.

“How is everyone?”

“Well Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Starlight had some slight bruises but other than that nothing much.” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat as she ask’s her next question.

“What about Rainbow Dash and…and Thorax?” the mare gave Twilight a slight grim expression before taking Twilight over to the front desk, and pulled out a small folder with Thorax’s name on it.

“As of right now Thorax’s condition is unknown right now. He’s lost a lot of blood, and his body has shown signs of being physically abused. Right now he’s in urgent care being treated on, and last I checked with the doctor assigned to him they are waiting for a changeling with his blood type to come down for blood transfusions.”

“And Rainbow.”

~~Rainbow Dash~~

Rainbow Dash slowly awoke but as she regained her consciousness, intense pain raced throughout her entire body causing the mare to groan and growl in pain, and as stirred about she could hear a few voices around her, but her hearing was dulled and muffled. So everything she heard was nothing more than distorted noises. Eventually her eyesight straightened up and was able to see things clearly, but the only thing she could see was a white ceiling. She tried to turn her head so she could see more of her surroundings, but even just by moving her head her neck and back pulse with pain.

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash weakly muttered and groaned. A few of the distorted voiced muttered something, before the pegasus saw a few ponies dressed up as doctors gathered around her, and started fuss around her.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked in her weaken voice.

“Miss. Dash we need you to stay still, your badly injured.” One of the ponies said as she uses her magic to stretch out fresh looking bandages.

“How are her injuries today Blue Rose?” another voice spoke up before a stallion unicorn came into Rainbow’s view.

“She still has nasty burns, but her skin is healing nicely however it will still take time for her to heal.”
“Heal?!” Rainbow echoed in both confusion and fear.

“What happened to me? Why am I here?”

“Your friends told us that you were hit by a powerful fire-spell Miss. Dash.” The stallion said as he lifts up a clipboard with his magic.

“And from the damage you took you received second-degree burns to your legs, the left side of your barrel, your right flank, and a good portion of your back…including your—”

“M-my wings!” Rainbow muttered nervously as sweat started to form on her back, before she turned to look at the stallion, grimacing at the pain that just pulsed through her body.

“What happened to my wings?!” the stallion gave a small sigh as he faced Rainbow with a disheartened look.

“The fire that you were engulfed in severely damaged your back area most of all, and your wings they took the most damage. More than eighty percent of your feathers have been burned away, and the wings themselves were so heavily burnt that the muscles aren’t functional. If you so much even try to move your wings, the muscles will cause intense pain as they are stretched and moved.” The doctor than gave the cyan pegasus a grave expression.

“I’m afraid to say this Rainbow Dash but for the foreseeable future… you are grounded.” Rainbow Dash’s face quickly shifted to a look of utter terror while the color appeared to be drained from her face.

“…I…can’t fly…anymore…” was all that the pegasus could say, to which the doctor just gave a solemn nod. The shocked mare then turned to face the ceiling while her mind just goes blank, and continuously mutters. “I can’t fly anymore….”

“Doctor. Twilight Sparkle is here, she wants to know if she can see her friend.” Rainbow heard a new pony ask but her mind was still transfixed on the fact that her wings were essentially broken. As Rainbow Dash laid there on her bed, her ear twitched as she heard a voice call to her.

“Hey Rainbow.” Turning her head again Rainbow Dash now saw Twilight with a sadden look on her face.

“Twilight.” Rainbow muttered before her eyes started to swell with tears before she slowly turned on her side, her muscles and burnt body aching and screaming in pain as she holds out her forelegs, which Twilight took and brought her friend into a hug. “Twilight, my…my wings…there, there—”

“Shh, I know.” Twilight said as she started to tear up as well. “I’m so sorry Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry.”

“I couldn’t do anything back there, I couldn’t save you, Thorax, or Zack. I so sorry.”

The doctor and nurses left the room and let to friends just embrace each other. a few minutes go by, and Twilight and Rainbow still held each other, with Rainbow being comforted by her alicorn friend. Eventually the rest of duos friends came to the room, all of them having some part of their bodies wrapped up or patched up, and joined in trying comfort the cyan mare. While the group were in Rainbow’s room, and trying to comfort her and assure that her flightiness may not be permanent, they also started wander what are they going to do to help Zack.

“Ah think the only thing that can help turn Zack back are the Elements.” Applejack commented as sat in one of the chairs of the room.

“Yes but the Elements are now part of the Tree of Harmony, we can’t take them back from it.” Fluttershy remarked as she remained on the bed with her friend, keep her calm and less stress.

“Isn’t there anyway to remove them from the tree Twilight?” Rarity asked as she laid on a cushion from the rooms closet.

“Not unless we want to weaken the tree again, and have the Everfree again go on rampage down the line.” Twilight said as she sat in one of the other trees.

“So there’s NOTHING we can do?” Pinkie asked disheartened.

“There has to be something, there has to be! Right?” Starlight asked as she looked hopefully towards Twilight, who just looked out the nearby window with an uncertain expression.

~~Elsewhere~~

The Foal Mountain range, a wide expanse of mountain ranges, valleys and canyons that make great homes for wildlife and generate the most lumber in all of Equestria. In fact one of the largest lumbering companies operate in these mountains, there’s even a decent size town on the boarder of the mountain range, where ponies live and breath their lumberjack and woodland ways. The Foal Mountain range also supply a lot of fresh water, with its rivers and waterfalls bringing in melted ice and snow from the great tundra’s up north, which another company of ponies corner the market in shipping all across the nation. yet neither town of lumberjacks, nor water barons know what has come to their mountain range.

High upon the tallest mountain of all the range storm clouds start to build and congregate, their darken mounds arc with black and purple lightning. The clouds also appear to be swirling slowly around a central point, where the lightning arcs upward and crackle the air along with malevolent looking flames.

Standing on a ledge of the mountain stood the twisted form of Zack, her blank glowing white eyes just staring aimlessly out into the nothingness, while the flames around her eyes slowly spread down her body and start to burn the rocky ledge till it was smoking with embers wafting off. the smoke from the flames traveled upward with the arcs of black lightning up towards the steadily growing storm-looking clouds. But as the mare stood still and looked out into the distance like a statue, the left side of her body started to produce what looked like black water from her mane, tail, wing feathers, and even her left legs, with all the waters flowing off the ledge down below. The twisted alicorn has practically become the wellspring for a new waterfall, and its darken waters started to flow through the woods and trees, before the black waters bleed into a river. A river that was making its way towards the lumberjack and water barons town.

And as the dark waters continue to flow through the river, even changing colors to look like normal water, the storm clouds above Zack start to drift westward while casting a darkening haze across the land as they do. As the darken waters, and foreboding clouds start to make their way out into the world, Zack remains ever motionless. Eyes still glued into just staring out into the vast nothingness, oblivious to what her body is passively doing to the world around her. but by the slow manic grin growing on her face, and the steadily increase delighted chortle reverberating from her mouth, it would seem that she really doesn’t care in the slightest.