Author's Note
So, after leaving this story dead for a while, I decided to revisit it and turn it into a one-shot. I knew I couldn't make a whole story out of this at this point – I mean, maybe I could have before, but too much time has passed – so I decided to rework it to close some gaps and let it be a stand-alone.
So… sorry for the abrupt ending? I thought I'd just get this out here, as I said I'd make this.
I need to stick to my plans more…
Where Do We Go?
The world of Equestria was in total chaos. Neither the sun nor moon hung in the sky; instead, a red glow came from dark, billowing clouds that obscured the heavens above. Cities laid in ruins, with brick and mortar crumbling under the stress of its brethren. The flame of life had been overrun by the roaring blaze of apocalypse.
Almost.
On the edge of a small town named Ponyville, standing on a hill that overlooked her burning home, stood Twilight Sparkle, one of the few survivors of the madness. She watched in depressed silence as the place she called home for so many years became just a memory in an instant. She didn't look as if she were sad, though – her face gave the impression that she had simply remembered a cringing memory. She had seen too much to be saddened by what was a trivial thing to her. Twilight could always rebuild Ponyville, but nothing could bring her friends back.
At least, not back the way she wanted. They were turned into carnivorous corpses, much like the monsters that killed them. They didn't care that Twilight was their friend anymore, only that she was fresh meat to eat. The images of their decaying bodies rushing her like a bull seeing red were forever imprinted in her mind.
As Twilight thought of her friends, tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes. In the middle of her quiet sobs, her lips parted as she asked the unforgiving world around her a question in a quiet voice.
"Where do I go from here?" The world seemed to answer back, as some of the Ponyville houses toppled over from the fire weakening their supports.
Twilight couldn't control herself anymore. She couldn't just let her hate and anger bubble up inside her. She needed to yell at something.
"You let both Canterlot and Ponyville get taken!" she yelled to the empty land, as if she were scolding somepony. "You let both places I've called home get taken away from me, and you expect me to find myself a place to live in this hellish world at the clop of a hoof!? You let my friends and family get ripped away from me, watch my place of refuge burn, and then have the nerve to try and tell me it'll be okay!?"
Twilight's body began to shake as she poured more of her rage out. "You call yourself deities, the gods of Equestria, but I haven't seen you do anything to save it or its citizens! If you two had the power to raise the sun and the moon daily, then how come you can't stop this!? How come you couldn't do anything as I watched my friends die in front of me!? If the all-powerful and sovereign princesses Celestia and Luna could do anything, then why couldn't they even save themselves from this… this catastrophe!?"
The world seemed to answer Twilight again, as the distorted screeches and growls of the living dead called out from behind her. She spun around to find a massive horde of corpses – some running wildly, others crawling frantically – homing in on her. Their eyes shone a disgusting red that mirrored the insatiable bloodlust that dominated their priorities. She turned back around to run away from the monsters, but was terrified to find that a second horde had begun climbing up the hill she stood on.
"No, no, no," Twilight screamed as she tried looking for a way out, "it can't end like this! I don't want to die! Help me!"
No help was coming, though. Twilight froze as she came to the realization that she was most likely the last pony left alive in Equestria; the last survivor, the lone wolf.
Time seemed to slow down as the two groups of corpses leaped at Twilight. As she awaited her fate, she recognized some of the ponies as friends that she used to talk to every day about the monotony of life. In this last moment of time she had left, one question ran through Twilight's head.
When we've been forced to let go of everything that we've loved – when we find ourselves blinded by the fear of death – where do go?
Those were the last thoughts of Twilight Sparkle before she was devoured by the undead horde.
Twilight felt a surge of electricity flow through her as she awakened with a jolt. The last thing she remembered was the pain of her flesh being stripped from her body, the stench of the dead bodies swarming over her living one, and the howls of the undead being the only thing she heard before Death took her away.
How was she still alive? There was no possible way anything could survive being ripped to pieces like that. Twilight looked down at herself to see exactly what had happened to her. What she saw was far from what she expected.
Her whole body was now a translucent electric blue color, giving her a ghostly appearance. The wounds she suffered from the undead attack had completely disappeared, and arcs of electricity sparked all over her.
Twilight started to panic, her breaths getting shorter and quicker as questions zoomed through her head. What was she? Was she dead? How did this happen to her? Was she the only pony like this? Could the monsters see or hurt her? The mare started to manically look around her for anything that could give her the answer, and it wasn't long before she noticed that something was horribly wrong with the sky.
Instead of the dark clouds that shrouded Equestria in darkness, there was a rusty sky that held both the sun and moon. Both celestial bodies were blood red, and the even redder tendrils of magic that stretched out from either of them were attacking each other, as if the sun and moon were in one final war.
"Hello?" Twilight called out, her voice echoing. No response came. Looking around, she saw a strange, glowing device on the ground. On it was a strange symbol: two rhombuses surrounded by bolts of lightning. When she reached out to the device, Twilight felt a sudden jolt of electricity flow through her as a bolt of lightning flew from her hoof and electrified the device. Dials turned and switches flipped in their own before static emanated from it.
"What is this?" Twilight muttered to herself.
"…Icarus… Canterlot…" came an echoing whisper. "You, the one in the Afterlife!"
"Me?"
"Yes, you! Listen to me! You need to get to Canterlot and find the cure! You need to find Icarus! You don't have much time!"
"What's Icarus? Who are you? Is what's happened to me called the Afterlife?"
"I have to go! Find Icarus!"
"Wait!" Twilight reached out to the empty world to try and stop the voice from leaving, but to no avail – it was already gone. She started to run into the empty world, but a sharp pain struck through her body, forcing her to the ground. Her breaths grew short as she came to a realization.
Her time was up.
"N-no…" she said, struggling to get up. She had to go to Canterlot and find the cure!
More pain shot through Twilight. Her vision became blurred as she collapsed again, directing her attention to the sky, where the warring sun and moon were as vicious as before. She saw moon began to break apart, the chunks of rock drifting into the sun. Likewise, the sun's flames were being pulled into the magical tendrils, weakening it.
This was the last thing Twilight saw before her very essence broke down and drifted into the chaos above.
