After that day, there were no feelings. No happiness, no sadness, no anger. Just pain. Constant pain. The aching of her soul constantly throbbed against her protesting bones. But she had to keep running. Her wings had been torn from their places, leaving only two short stubs of bone on the sides of her back. Various organs had fallen out of her body, and were dragging along the ground. The rest were hanging out of her mouth, somehow. Her ribcage was exposed, her heart barely beating and her lungs barely breathing. Her once-purple skin was tinted green from all the decaying gasses and twisted determination. She didn't have the strength to use her horn anymore, and all the walking and running had worn away the skin on her hooves. Her eyes had sunken into the back of her now empty skull, and the flesh was peeling off of her face like a boiled peach.
She had to keep going. She had to find them. She had to avenge herself and her friends. But who were her friends? She had forgotten, as the rot of ages time had withered her brain to nothing. Timberwolves and other various creatures scurried around her, all of them refusing to eat the animated corpse, as it smelled so foul, it could wither a flower to ash.
She just kept walking. When she first started to decay, she originally ran, but running made parts of her fall all over. She had no idea where she was going or how long it had been, but she felt the pull of her tortured soul move her in one direction. The sun just kept going up and down. Sometimes there was weather, but her pace was always the same speed. Sometimes she swore she heard voices, but brushed it off as the effects of her brain collapsing in on itself.
Everything happened around her, yet she didn't notice or care. Some sort of space vessel fell through the atmosphere. She didn't know where it landed. A man that spoke in hands attempted to make conversation with her, but for one, she couldn't understand what he was saying, and two, she just kept walking. The man eventually left, as everything does.
Nothing is permanent. Glory never stays. There was a scrap of memory tugging on her. A memory where people used to cheer. People used to talk to her. She remembered the faint feeling of love. She didn't know it was for, whether a mare or a stallion. All she remembered from them was apples. And then clothing. Two loves? She still couldn't remember. She continued walking, letting her failing brain rest from all the remembering.
She heard voices. Actual voices. Real ones. She knew they were voices, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. She couldn't tell who's voices they were. The voices made familiar sounds. Twi... Twilih... Twilight... That's all she could understand. She could make out a shape. A shape full of life. It was moving. Shifting. She forgot what the shape was called, but the corners of her rotting mouth twitched, trying form into something she had stopped doing long ago. Her pace quickened slightly, heading towards the shape. Despite the closer she got, she still couldn't tell what the shape was. It was... patterned. She forgot what colors were, so she called them snow and burnt. The voice was calm. She saw it put its limb on her head, but she felt nothing. When the shape spoke, it all sounded similar. Vowel, vowel, vowel, well. Something, something, something, tell.
What tragedy has befallen the beloved unicorn? She looks dead and decaying, her very flesh torn... Zecora's eyes saddened as she asked the once-loved princess her name, and all she replied was with a groan and slow breaths. "You look like you are not doing well. By your dead and decaying flesh I can tell." Zecora nudged the dead princess towards her home.
The next morning, Twilight was gone. Zecora looked everywhere for her, but she was gone. Little did she know, Twilight had already made her way into town.
Ponies were running away left and right. All of the colorful blurs and screaming overloaded her dying brain.
The decay was starting to really affect her. The joints in her knees were grinding against each other, as the cushion of cartilage had rotted away. It had become difficult to walk. She saw shapes running at her with longer, ashy, shapes. The longer shapes crashed into her back and various other spots, but she still felt nothing. She still tried to keep walking. Her knees were shaking, and she could tell that several bones had been broken by the long shapes, but she could feel that she was getting closer to where she was supposed to go. A structure loomed in front of her. She could make out a different shape in the structure. She threw her body against the different shape.
Rarity felt the shop shake with the impact of something. She had heard rumors about some sort of zombie pony roaming the streets, and warily headed towards the door. She carefully opened it, and immediately wished she hadn't. The decaying corpse of a pony was laying on her front doorstep. The body started to move. Rarity just stared in horror as it stood itself up. Her heart saddened when she saw its face. Twilight... dearest Twilight... what in Equestria happened to you? Tears welled up in her eyes.
"T-Twilight... Darling... Who did this? We've been looking for you for years..." She gently touched her white hoof to the decaying face of her old friend. Twilight made panicked grunts and groans, frantically pointing her head into the direction of the apple farm. "You want to go there?" Twilight gave a small nod. "Of course darling."
They walked over to Applejack's farm. Granny Smith had died around the same time that Twilight went missing, so Applejack had inherited the farm from her. Rarity knocked her hoof on the door of the house. She heard the sound of hoofsteps approach the door, as Rarity tried to stop crying. Twilight's legs were really wobbling, and she could barely stand herself up. The door opened, and a shocked Applejack was revealed.
"Twilight... Oh, I knew we would've found you eventually, just... not like this..."
Twilight's memories came flooding back. She still couldn't hear, or see, or feel any pain besides the constant pain, but she could still feel. Her lips moved, but barely anypony could hear what she was saying. She turned her head at Rarity.
"Thank... You..." Rarity broke down at this, mascara and eyeliner streaking down her face. Twilight turned to Applejack.
"I... Love... You..." These were Twilight's final words, as the rot accelerated, leaving only bones and ash. Applejack sobbed.
"Ah love ya too, Twi..."
She was finally at rest. That was what she needed to do. She was finally free.
Author's Note
Dashing through the house
My dad's giving me sass
I have to take a shit
ow my fucking ass
This house is actually hell
Oh really? i couldn't tell
You better get some lunch right now before they eat it all
OH
Jingle bells
Kill ourselves
Hit me with a sleigh!
I'm so done
This isn't fun
I am not okay!