The Rasp

Zecora hurled herself into the room with me and pressed her back against the door. Her mane was wild and her eyes were frenzied. She had the Rasp! Before I could call for help, Zecora pounced me. Roughly, she forced me down with the strength of an earth pony. With my cheek pressed firmly against the floor (Her hooves on my neck meant she could the direction of my head, and in turn where my fire breath would go. Clever.) she lowered her head down close to mine. I'd never heard Zecora sound so deadly serious before but I almost wet myself. cried.

"I think your life, it would behoove, if you choose not to move. " Zecora snarled in my ear. I stared up at her fearfully and while she pinned me down, she...oh, ugh...she had a knife. I don't know where she got it from. Oh, Celestia. She cut herself. She drove the knife into her leg and a burst of blood splattered all over my face. I screamed. I was horrified! I didn't know what was going on and I begged for her to let me go. I screamed for her to get off of me. A moment passed before she did just that. She released me and I scrambled to my feet, wiping the blood off of my face with the closest thing I could find. The bed sheet. This was insane!! The whole world had gone insane!! Was this how the infection spread? Blood transmission?! I'd just started feeling better and now I was covered in infected blood!!

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I screamed furiously. I wildly looked for a weapon or something I could use to defend myself before I realized Zecora was no longer attacking me. No, she was just sitting there, staring at me with wide eyes, mouth agape. A moment passed and it hit me. I was disgusted. Not frenzied. I didn't want Zecora's blood. I wanted it off me.

I was cured.

Ok, maybe not cured. I still had a headache but this is something important. Zecora almost seemed giddy and gamboled in place. She looked extremely proud of herself. Had she devised some sort of cure?! Before I could react, she scooped me up and onto her back, and turned towards the door.

"Things look grim for the farm I fear, you and I must get out of here." Zecora said cryptically. Things looked grim for the farm? How long was I out? Whatever that stuff Zecora gave me sure did the trick. I could only feel a faint sort of uncomfortable 'buzz' from around my hips. If my tail were still broken, I'd have never guessed! But if I knew then what I know now, I'd have rather just stayed asleep.

Zecora pitched us down the stairs at breakneck speed. We slammed into the floor and shot through the front door like a missile. At first, I thought it was daylight. That's how bright it was.

No.

That was just the fire. The orchards were engulfed in flame. Every tree was a huge burning fireball, and a hazy fog of smoke clouded the air. The focal point of the blaze was the barn in the distance. Some sort of explosion? Burning bodies were everywhere. Infected and survivors were scrambling all over the farm, screaming for help and gurgling last breaths. It was chaos. It was absolute armageddon. This was Tartarus. I had actually died in Applejack's bed, and this? This is my punishment for failing Scootaloo.

Zecora burst forward, running as fast as she could through the roasting apple trees. I hung onto her as tightly as possible still dizzy from the medication she gave me earlier. Had she healed me? Was there a cure for this?! What had happened to the farm?! How that this blaze started?! Something tackled us from the side, sending Zecora and I into the ground. Above us, a tree glowed with a bright flaring light, and charred apples rained down around us. Zecora climbed to her hooves and limped over in front of me. I should have ducked behind her. Maybe climbed up onto her back to make use of my fire breath. But I couldn't move. I stared. Twilight stared back at me.

She was different. She was wildly pale, and her fur was in shambles. The left part of her body had been badly burnt, and she gave an animalistic hiss. There wasn't a spark of intelligence left behind her eyes, and she peered past me at Zecora. I was wrong. Twilight wouldn't attack her if she had the Rasp. Good for us, right?

She drove herself towards Zecora. She didn't notice me. Was it the scent of my blood? Zecora's blood? Twilight looked like she'd gone feral and smashed herself into Zecora, chomping and biting at her neck. All the while, she was screaming in a harmonized cry, like she had three voices in her throat.

"BLOOD!!" She screamed. Over and over again. There were no other words in the world. Just the one thing she wanted more than anything. Thats when I realized it. Ponyville's librarian, my sister, Twilight Sparkle, was gone.