Princess Twilight Sparkle trotted along a road heading back towards civilization with her friends. The six of them had finished a friendship quest from the map involving a traveling Circus and traveling performance troop that used to be partners but had had a falling out and now were at odds.

It had been difficult to fix but the power of friendship won in the end. “I still say we should have stayed for the party.” Pinkie Pie said as they trotted along. “I mean it was a party with a circus and traveling actors, it was going to be a great party.” The pink mare said a bit sadly.

“Darling you know that we have to get back, remember the Cakes have that big order coming up and you promised to help them fill it, we should get back in time for you to do that darling. “Rarity reminded the party pony of one of the many things she had told them as they traveled from the nearby town to the two camps of performers a few miles away.

“Oh yeah, there is that. “The party pony giggled as she hoped along.

Twilight sighed quietly, this was the tenth time the pink mare had brought up the fact they didn’t stay for the party. “I do kinda agree with Pinkie, I wanted to see them do that ring of flaming death the ring master told us about. “Rainbow said from where she hovered above the group.

“Yes Rainbow so you’ve said. “Applejack said as she trotted along with the group.

“I did want to meet the animals they had as well……” Fluttershy said from the back of the group.

“I do have to agree the clothes the animals wore were rather nice. “Rarity said as she thought about it.

“Yes we all would have liked to have stayed but we do have things we need to do back in Ponyville.” Twilight said, evens he would have liked to have stayed to watch the magician do their tricks as he had been an earth pony and had shown her a single trick she still couldn’t figure out how he had done without being a unicorn. That still puzzled her greatly. The purple mare was drawn out of her thoughts as she saw a pony wearing a dark yellow robe ahead of them just standing in the middle of the road.

The group of friends slowly came to a stop as the pony just stared at them from the shadow of his hood. “Excusing me, would thou happen to be a Princess of this land?” The pony spoke in a soft voice that had a hint of the accent that the higher up Noble of Cantelrot had but he spoke a bit like Luna did upon her return from her absences.

Twilight looked at her friends then back at the hooded pony and nodded. “Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle, do you need some help?” She asked.

The pony shook his head. “No, I require no help, but you do.” He said and suddenly the group was surrounded by more dark yellow robed ponies.

The group of friends looked around. “What the hey is going on?” Rainbow said.

The first robed pony raised his hoof and pointed at the group. “Seize them!” the circle of robed ponies rushed forward and Twilight put up a shield around herself and her friends keeping the group of ponies out.

“What’s going on? Why are you attacking us?” Rarity asked looking at the robed ponies. In answer one of them pulled out some sort of amulet and placed it against Twilight’s shield. The pony pressed a bit hard and there was a flash of green and Twilight shield shattered and she stumbled back as if punched in the face.

“Take them.” The first pony order and the group closed in on the friends, twilight looked around, if they had an item that can break her shield then what else did they have? They needed to get away from them and fast. Her mind raced and she thought of the only thing that would work as they had to put as much distance between these ponies as they could. “Hold on girls!” She said and quickly started to cast the spell, there was a 99.999% chance of this going wrong but she had no choice, it was the only option. She finished the spell and executed it and the group vanished in a bright purple flash leaving the robed ponies behind.

On the outskirts of Ponyville between the town and Fluttershy’s cottage there was another flash of purple. “—ck”

The purple Alicorn swayed a bit on her hooves, that wasn’t as bad as last time, probably because she was an Alicorn now and not just a Unicorn when she did a long range teleport. She still had a headache but everything seemed to be fine.

She looked back at her friends and smiled, they were all shaking their heads to clear the disorientation caused by such a long range teleport but other than that they seemed fine.

“Uuhhh…I thought you said you wouldn’t do that again egghead?” Rainbow Dash said landing and shaking her head to clear it.

“I know but I couldn’t think of anything else to do and it looks like everything is alright, no side effects.” The mare said with a smile.

It was that moment another voice spoke up. “I…I don’t feel so….so good….” The group blinked and they all turned and parted slightly so Twilight could see. There behind the group stood a mare in dark green clothing wearing sunglasses and swaying on her…metal legs. “”Call……call a medic….”The mare slurred before she fell over onto her side, her hat and sunglasses falling off reveling a familiar mane cut and familiar, though scared face under neither.

“Uh…surgarcube…why are there two of you?” Applejack asked looking between the two purple mares, one a unicorn the other an Alicorn.

“I….I don’t know but I think we should get her to the hospital.” Twilight said her mind reeling as she was looking at herself lying on the ground. She quickly picked upper the look-a-like mare in her magic and with her friends galloped to towards town.

Rainbow Dash sat in the waiting room of Ponyville General Hospital; it had been a little over an hour since the group had brought the copy of Twilight in and now they were waiting for the doctor to finish examine the copy.

Rainbow’s wing twitched do to the fact she had been sitting for so long and not flying, she hated sitting like this but there wasn’t much else to do. Around her sat her friends, Fluttershy and rarity were reading magazines while Applejack busied herself looking out the window as Pinkie munched on a cupcake she got from somewhere while Twilight paced nervously muttering under her breath, her wings fidgeting to show she was agitated trying to figure this all out.

Rainbow could understand a bit of Twilight’s agitation, she just saw a near exact copy of herself, only was a unicorn and had metal legs, and the fact Twilight had mentioned that the other Twilight was very heavy, more so then she should have been for her size. Rainbow was wondering what was going on as well though she knew Twilight, the Alicorn one, could figure it out.

After a few more minutes the door to the pack opened and the Dr. Hoof stepped out and the group of friends stood up as Twilight walked over to the Doctor as he adjusted his glasses. “What can you tell us doctor?” She asked.

“Well Princess…in my medical opinion, she is suffering some a sever shock to her system, nothing to dangerous, her body just needs to recover.” He said with a calm and pleasant tone, nothing ever seemed to get under the doctor’s skin which made him an excellent doctor for Ponyville do to the monster attacks and other occurrences.

Twilight nodded. “Ok and what about…well she looks like me.” Twilight said, it was clear she was having trouble getting her head around the concept still.

“Well…as far as I can tell she is you Princess, everything from blood work to basically magical scan and Cutie Mark says she is you, though not an Alicorn obviously.” The doctor said.

Twilight blinked. “How is that possible?” She asked and the doctor merely shrugged. “Ok…what…about her legs? They looked like they were covered in metal and she seemed to weigh a lot more then she should.”

“Ah yes, now that is interesting Princess, we had to put her into a specially reinforced bed as when we weighed her we found she weight five hundred pounds.” The collection of pony’s jaws dropped.

“How is that possible?” Rarity asked before anyone else could ask.

The doctor shrugged. “Don’t know, might have something to do with her legs, they aren’t just covered in metal, they are made of it.” The doctored waited for the collection of ponies to recover from their shock before he continued. “I don’t know how but they are completely made of metal and wires and some very dense metal at that, the strangest part is they have no magical signature.”

“But…how is that possible?” Twilight asked dumbfounded. “Everything has magic in it.”

Dr. Hoof just shrugged. “I don’t know but when I scanned them I found an absence of magic, same with her eyes as they are also artificial and my scan found more bits of metal in her brain as well, as far as I can tell it looks like those were intentional as her legs and eyes are connected to those pieces of metal” The doctor sighed. “I don’t know what that mare has been through but her body is covered in scars of different types, some of them I even found small bits of metal that seemed to have broken off of larger pieces and weren’t removed with the rest of it.”

The doctor stood there as he let the information sink in, once he felt they had recovered enough he went on. “The mare has suffered many injuries over most of her body and I can’t even begin to imagine what caused most of them or why she was carrying an object that also lacked any magic.” He said.

“She was carrying something that wasn’t magical?” Twilight asked.

Dr. Hoof nodded. “Yes, it was on her flank, it was a small black object shaped like an L, it had no magic in it as well, it didn’t seem dangerous so we left it with the clothing she had on when you brought her in. Strangely enough her clothing had a magical signature.” The doctor sighed again. “In my medical opinion she is you Princess but she has been through a lot and all of it seems to have accrued in a short span of time based on the scaring.” The doctor took a deep breath. “Also there is one more thing. He said and once he had all their attention. “On the same side the object was on, based on the scaring it looks like somepony surgically removed her Cutie Mark. “There was a collective gasp from the gathered mare; Fluttershy retreated behind her mane while Rarity covered her mouth with a hoof as the others stared in shock.

“Oh….who…who would do such a thing?” Twilight asked and shivered, she looked backed at her own Cutie Marks, as did everyone else.

After a bit the group recovered. “Can we see her?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, though I recommend you waiting out here Princess, she most likely will be waking up soon and I don’t know how she would react to seeing herself in the room so it would be best if you wait out here.” Twilight sighed but nodded.

She looked at her friends. “You girls want to see her? If she is me waking up with her friends would probably help her.” The Alicorn said.

The group all nodded, Rainbow wanted to see the unicorn Twilight even more after hearing all about her from the doctor. “Alright, I’ll send a letter to Celestia and come back here. Be careful girls ok?” Twilight said.

“Don’t worry we will be fine Twilight.” Rainbow reassured her and smiled. It seemed to help the bookworm Alicorn.

With that the five mares followed the Doctor as Twilight made her way out of the hospital to send the letter. It didn’t take long for them to reach the room the other Twilight was on the third floor, room 308 and the doctor spoke to them outside of it. “She will be a bit disoriented when she wakes up so try to keep her calm, if something happens just call and either me or a nurse will come.” He told them

They all nodded and then entered the room. It was a crowded a bit with all five of them in the room but there was still room to move around. Rainbow hovered a bit so she could see over the other mare’s heads and get a good look at the other Twilight. The doctor hadn’t been kidding, the Twilight was covered in scars of all different types, and some of them looked like the wounds had been severe at the time. Rainbow couldn’t begin to imagine what the mare had been through as it looked like she had been to Tartarus and back.

None of them could see her flank do to the fact her lower body was covered by a blank and Rainbow noted that if not for the medical equipment she could be mistaken for sleeping. “Wow…she looks so much like Twi.” Applejack said as she looked at the mare in the bed.

“Yeah, you don’t think the teleport cloned Twilight?” Rainbow suggested.

“If she was a clone then she would be an Alicorn and not be covered in scars. “Rarity said.

“Oh…yeah good point. “Rainbow said rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. As the other observed the Twilight in the bed Rainbow saw the clothes the mare had been wearing folded and placed on the table beside the bed, on was a small black L shaped object that must have been what the Doctor had mentioned.

Rainbow flew over and picked the object up and looked it over, she had no idea what it was but if she had to guess she’d say it was a paper weight, leave it to Twilight to carry one with her. She tilted the longer end towards her and saw there was a hole in it that seemed to run the length of it. What they hey is that for. The cyan mare looked down the weird hole.

“Don’t that, put that down it’s not a toy Rainbow.” A stern voice said and when Rainbow looked she saw the other Twilight glaring at her with annoyance.

Rainbow put the thing down. “Hey sorry Twilight I was just trying to figure out what it was.” She said as she landed.

The other Twilight blinked. “Um…it’s a Grop .45. “She said and blinked again. “You ok Rainbow? Did you suffer a head injury? I’ve told you what that is multiple times and to never touch it unless I say otherwise or you get proper training.” The mare said her eyes narrowing slightly. She looked around the room and then out the window. “How the hell did I get to Ponyville?”

“That’s what I was going to ask about. “The Doctor said as he entered the room, Fluttershy having gotten him when Twilight woke up. “Can you tell me what’s the last thing you remember?”

Twilight nodded. “yeah I was on my to a meeting with the Noble in Canterlot, Celestia and Luna were running escort as usual when I felt some magic touch me, I recognized the signature from somewhere but I’m not sure from where. It took a bit for me to identify the spell as it was being cast very slowly. The last second I recognized it as a teleportation spell and then…nothing.” The mare shrugged. “That’s all I got doc.”

The Doctor nodded. “Had you been exposed to any strange magical items or Gems?” He asked.

“No, just the ones imbedded into Celestia and Luna.” She said and gathered mares shared a look. Rainbow was trying to figure out why the princesses were escorting this Twilight around and why they had gems imbedded in them.

“Uh-huh.” Dr. Hoof said as she wrote on a clipboard. “Has anything strange happened in the past few months?”

“Nothing that isn’t classified, sorry doc. above your pay grade.” Unicorn Twilight said.

“Right, can you tell me your name?” Dr. Hoof asked.

“Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force, student of Princess Celestia and the Element of magic.” She replied and the group blinked at the title and first pare. “Speaking of which has the EDF been alerted that I am ok, knowing Celestia and Luna they told the nearest soldier I vanished and by now the EDF has mobilized to find me.”

Dr. Hoof didn’t skip a beat as he nodded. “Yes I’ll do that right now actually now that I’m sure you are ok.” He told the mare who nodded.

“Thanks doc, be sure to tell them that all is good and they can calm the fuck down.” The gathered mares gasped at the langue used.

Before any of them could say anything Dr. Hoof spoke up. “Yes I’ll do that. “Ladies, why don’t we let the patient rest shall we?” He said and ushered them all out of the room. He closed the door and motioned for them to stay quiet as they walked.

Once they reached the lobby they found Princess Twilight had returned. “I miss anything interesting?” She asked.

“The patient is awake and seems coherent for the most part, said her name was “Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force.” Sounds military to me which could explain some of her injuries.” The Doctor said.

Twilight nodded. “I sent a letter to Celestia and she said she would come to Ponyville as soon as she could to meet this other me.”

“She is strange, she had your voice and sounds little like you but…well she also doesn’t Twi.” Applejack said.

“For one she is vulgar.” Rarity added with a huff.

Twilight blinked at this and opened her mouth to speak but a nurse interrupted her by bursting out of the door to the back. “Doctor, the patent in room 308 is gone.”

“What? How?” Dr. Hoof asked looking at the nurse.

“From the looks of it she got dressed and jumped out the window as it was open when I went in to check on her. I searched the room to be sure but she wasn’t there.” The nurse said.

“But she was on the third floor, no one would jump form that height." He said and the nurse just shrugged. "This isn’t good, we need to find her, she shouldn’t be up and walking after what happened to her.” Dr. Hoof said.

The mars nodded “Don’t worry doctor we will find her.” Twilight said and the group headed for the door and began to spread out to find the Twilight copy before something happened.

Author's Notes:

whelp here is the next chapter and we get a bit of pony medical facts about he Commander.

now if you need me I am going to bed, I stayed up way late to finish this chapter.