Author's Note

Alright! It's finally here! sorry for the hiatus everyone, but I'm back and ready to continue the story, which I think it's reaching it's final conclusion. now for a disclaimer, after this Ch. I will be partially finalizing drafts after this one, but I will continue in the Editing of the previous chapters, so that they are at least readable. Hope you like the conclusion of this chapter that went through a few changes till I finally made this one.

Chapter 50: What Will Your Choice Be, Twilight Sparkle?

Twilight Sparkle was standing at the table within her castle throne room, with eyes nearly bloodshot and heavy bags under them adorning her face. Around the alicorn were not just the pile of books that she left littered about as she researched various different spells, there were also plates of cold mostly untouched food, as well as cups and pots of cold tea. But the stale food and mess of books, nor her weary and drowsy state mattered to her. The only thing that was on the alicorns mind was the table, or more appropriately a glowing ball of magic that was floating over the holographic map, pointing with an arrow directly at the Foal Mountain range. After four days of tirelessly working to find a way to locate where Zack was in the world, as the tables magic couldn’t pin point or cue in on where her doppelganger was, Twilight has finally found a combination of spells that worked along with the table to pin down where Zack’s location was. And once she had finally found where her lost friend was, a rush of relief coursed through her body making her visibly relax.

“Finally.” Twilight said in a weakened tone of voice as she wobbled slightly but managing to stay upright as she kept her eyes fixated on the map.

“I’ve found her! It took four days of no sleep, and countless tries in finding the right spell to find her, but I finally did it! Now I can go and help her.”

The alicorn’s tired body and mind were trying to retain and hold onto the relieved surge of energy that stemmed from her discovery, and yet as the violet alicorn stands there in front of the table looking at the location with her divination spell’s marker above it, the excited and relieved expression was replaced with the same worried look that has been dominating over the mare’s face for the last couple of days.

“But even if I finally found her, how am I going to help Zack?” Twilight quietly muttered to herself as her legs finally gave out and she plops onto the ground.

“The tree of harmony have the elements, and without them I can’t turn Zack back to normal.” The mare bemoaned as she managed to get back up to her hooves and sat down in her throne, where she started to think of another way to help Zack. But as she tried to think of another way to help out her look alike, her mind was just so tired. Too tired to really come up with anything.

“How can I help her?” Twilight quietly asked herself as her eyes started to falter while her body started to feel heavy as she slouches in her throne.

Twilight continued to slip further and further into a state of rest, the more and more that her mind and body visibly sank and relaxed into her seat. When her eyes finally did close and her mind entered into a state of rest, the alicorn drifted further into a sound sleeping state, but her slumber seemed to be short lived. As not even a few seconds go by and her mind started to stir, or more accurately felt like she is being prodded by something. It was like something was ever so gently tickling her brain and her senses, and when she opened her eyes when the sensation became more apparent and annoying, the alicorn was met with a strange sight. Instead of the castle throne room, or any place that seemed familiar the alicorn found herself standing in the middle of what appears to be a pitch black void, standing on top of a watery surface that rippled with each small step she made. Aside from the pitch blackness of the area, and the watery surface she was standing on, there wasn’t anything else of being noteworthy.

“Hello?” Twilight asked as her voice echoed throughout the endless void, with no response to her question being heard.

“Is this a dream?” the mare asked herself before taking in a breath and loudly asked. “Luna? Are you there?” Twilight again asked the void and waited for any pony to respond, but like before there was no response.

“What is going on here?” the alicorn then started to walk about in this void, her steps disrupting the watery surface with each step.

But as she took only a few steps forward the mare felt something, like a strange sensation of being watched or that something was just standing behind her. That’s when the pony felt a slight, yet chilling breeze waft past her causing a shiver to run up her body. Turning to look behind her at what could’ve cause the chilling breeze, Twilight nearly had a heart attack as she tripped over her hooves after scrambling away when she came face to face with something. Something that looked completely foreign to her. Slowly getting back up onto her hooves Twilight examined the thing, which was before her and just looming over her. The mysterious thing before the alicorn was at least the same height as her teacher, but aside from its height Twilight wasn’t able to see what the thing looked like, as every solitary inch of the being was covered in tattered, torn, and dirtied robes all stitched and tied together. Yet as Twilight continued to examine the thing from the bottom up to its top, the alicorn noticed two noticeable features that made the mare unnerving fear.

The first of the two noticeable features was as that one of the figures limbs slight outstretched to inside, and in the covered appendage of the being was a large rusted yet ornated scythe. The other feature of the thing was its pair small yet piercing ghostly blue glowing eyes, which peered right into Twilights eyes that kept the mare in her nervous state, while also feeling a sense of overwhelming dread just wash over her like a tide. Once the princess was fully standing, and had looked the figure fully over she swallowed the lump that formed in her throat, yet when she tried to say something nothing came forth aside from a nervous stuttering breath. Again Twilight tried to speak to the figure standing before her, and this time she was able to say something.

“Hello.” The mare stuttered as she tried to rally her courage as she continued to speak. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.” The robed thing didn’t respond to Twilight who kept her eyes fixated on it as it just stood before her.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked as she swallowed another lump that formed in her throat. The figure again didn’t answer, but Twilight saw the figure move slightly from its still pose, it’s eyes still never fidgeting or blinking, but after a minute of deathly silence the figure finally spoke.

“I am, Death.” The figure said slowly with a voice that was withered and elderly, yet it held a frigid, dominating and an overwhelming haunting presence which caused another shiver to run down the mare’s back.

“Death?” Twilight stuttered as she crouched down while her ears flatten against her head.

“You mean death as in, past tense?” the figure’s hooded head nodded.

“Death as in, what happens after life?” again the figure nodded their head.

“But…but that’s…that’s impossible!” Twilight said in disbelief and denial as she eyeballed the figure suspiciously, and cautiously.

“And yet, here I stand before you.” the figure simply stated as it and Twilight continued to stare at each other, but the moment that the alicorn blinked the figure was gone. Yet the mare knew that it didn’t leave as she still felt its haunting presence nearby.

“I did not come here to discuss whether or not I in fact exist or not—” the alicorn jumped when the figures voice came from behind her, spinning around the princess found the figure standing a few feet away and looking at a orb of light that it was held in its other cloaked limb.

“I came here, for them.” the figure then turned to face Twilight, and held the orb out towards her. The mare cautiously made her way over to the figure and once she was close enough to it she looked at the orb, and found that it was projecting the image of Zack, or at least Zack’s original form. But what Twilight was more concerned about was—

“What do you want with Zack?” the orb then turned into a cloud of mist that then wafted past the alicorn as the figure spoke.

“Their life had ended on Earth; their soul was meant to be claimed by me…yet it was robbed of its rest.” The figure continued to speak as it silently glides over the watery floor, its motions never disturbing its surface.

“I’ve spent all this time searching the vast multi-verse for their soul, and give it the proper rest that it deserves till its rebirth. Alas when I finally found them after searching, I’ve discovered that their soul has been installed in a false body, and that it was tainted with an unnatural force. A force that only further prolongs their soul’s torment.”

“I don’t understand, what are you saying?” Twilight pleaded to the being as she isn’t quite catching onto what it is trying to convey.

“To put simply equine, Zack is not meant to be alive anymore.” The figure stated both plainly and bluntly as it tapped the butt of its scythe on the watery floor, causing a few ripples to appear.

“Their soul needs to rest. But the one called Discord has disrupted the natural cycle of their life, and because of this false body and the magic used to create it, Zack’s soul is now imbued into the chaos spirits foul magics and chaotic nature has been causing an unnatural string of unfortunate circumstance to happen to them.” Twilight seems to be slowly putting the pieces of what the figure was saying together until a wild idea came to her.

“You mean everything that has happened to Zack, from being put under the influence of Starlight’s mind control, being attacked by my brother, everything ‘bad’ that has happened to her was all due to Discord’s chaos magic?” the figure nodded its head.

“Discord’s tampering with Zack’s soul has caused it to draw on the world’s negative and chaotic energies to them, affectively making them a magnet of sorts to…less than favorable positions. And it only became worse when Discord was killed, his own chaotic energy spreading throughout the entire world, amplifying these unfortunate events even further.”

“So everything…EVERYTHING that has happened to Zack is all just a series of, of what mishaps?! Random acts of chaotic actions and events that are just drawn to her, all because Discord’s magic has tampered with her soul?!”

“Yes.” The figure again stated plainly.

“And the longer their soul remains, alive, in this world the more severe these events will become.” The figure then looked down at the small equine as she just stared at herself in the water’s surface, reflecting the horrified expression that was etched on her face. if the mare’s anxiety about her doppelgangers safety and well-being wasn’t bad before, it was now absolutely terrible.

“So in order to spare them a fate of continuous torment, because of that foolish spirits ignorance and tampering, I’ve come to retrieve their soul.” Twilight’s head quickly looked up towards the being as it continued to look down at her with its blank expression.

“What do you mean by ‘retrieve their soul’?” Even though Twilight asked the figure what it meant, the princess had a sneaking suspicion that she might know what it was implying.

“In order to save their soul and ensure that they receive a better life when they are reborn…” the figure’s scythe glimmered for a second as its eyes own glow became more brighter. “Then Zack must die once more.”

“WHAT!?” Twilight all but screamed as she looked upon the scythe wielding creature, her horrified expression becoming five times more intense as all of the feathers on her wings bristled and flared.

“You’re going to kill Zack!?”

“No.” the being said before it raised its other limb, and then from its patch-worked sleeve, a skeletal finger pointed at her. “You will.” Twilight was left speechless at what the creature had just said.

“I am not part of your worlds laws and order; therefore, I cannot directly affect anything in your world. to do so I would disrupt its balance…like how Discord has done in the world that both Zack and I hail from, when he abducted them for his own amusement.” the figure said as it lowered its skeletal digit.

“So I must rely on others to fulfil this quest, thus is why I have come to you.”

“Your asking me to KILL somepony!?” Twilight screeched in both anger and fright as she backed away from the creature, her heavy hoof steps causing the water to splash about.

“I can’t do that! I’ve never killed anything, no pony in the history of Equestria has! We’ll fight sure, but we’ve NEVER resorted to killing any pony.”

“Then you must be the first, for if you don’t you will only be subjecting Zack to further torment till the chaotic force emanating from them draws in something that will kill them…and I promise you this equine, it will not be a quick and painless death.”

“No! no, no, no, no, no! I—I can’t! I won’t do it! I just can’t!” Twilight then looked up to the figure with tears in her eyes as the horrified expression on her face has changed to one of pleading. “There has to be another way. There just…there just has to be.”

“There is no other way.” The figure simply stated for the umpteenth time.

“To fully free their soul, so that I may bring it back to our reality and rejoin its intended cycle of life and death, their soul must be freed of its mortal vice.”

“…then find somepony else…” Twilight muttered as her wings, her limbs, her entire body goes limp as her head hung low. “I won’t kill them.”

“There is no one else that will do it. None of your friends will be up for the task, their fragile hearts will not allow them to even consider it. The one called Thorax will not do it, as he will not kill the one that became so dear to him. None of your fellow princesses will even consider the notion even if it was for the right cause.” Twilight just continued to stand there as the figure spoke before it glided around her while it continued to try and persuade her.

“You are the only one close enough to know the pain, and the grief that Zack is going through, you are the only one that has the fortitude to do what must be done…after all you were groomed to take on such responsibilities.” Twilight clenched her jaw as the figure stopped behind her.

“Either you end Zack’s false life and allow their soul to be put to rest, and reinstalled into the cycle of life and death properly…or forsake their souls chance of being granted peace and be further subjected to endless torment, and further corruption of their very being because of your sentimentality.” As the shrouded figure asked its question on what decision Twilight would choose, both it and the void-less space around the alicorn start to fade away, till only the figures eyes were left as it asked its final question.

“What will you choose, princess?”

Twilight slowly started to awaken from her deep and much need slumber, her heavy eye lids blinking the grogginess away while her stiff body starts to move. As she sits up from her prone position the mare noticed that the sun was setting, the sky has taken on a brilliant golden orange hue as a nearby clock started to ring as its face displayed that it was now six o’clock. It would appear that Twilight had been asleep for the better part of the whole day. The alicorn then noticed that there was a blanket placed over her, and on the map table there was a silver dome with glass filled with some kind of drink, and a small note that simply said, ‘rest well and eat will, love Spike.’ Twilight then used her magic to remove the silver dome, and uncovered the tray of an incredible smelling tomato bisque soup, with a lovely looking sandwich sitting beside the still steaming bowl.

But the food brought little comfort, as Twilight looked away from it and to the spot on the tables map where her locator spell was still pointing. And as she stared at the mountain range that the spell was pointing to, Twilight had a sudden vision flash before her eyes, a vision of the cloaked figure on the other side of the table. It’s boney digit pointing at the same mountain range her spell was fixated onto, while the last words that the figure said echoed in her mind. Will she kill her look alike to save her soul from the torment that Discord foolishly and unknowingly placed on it, or keep her alive and subject to further torment of even more unforeseen foul misfortune that will be drawn to her. Twilight just sat there in her throne for the next few minutes, which to the mare felt more like years as she weighed the options that where placed on her, and the decision that she would have to make.

Would she choose salvation, or damnation? Death or life?