Author's Note

Sorry it took me so long to make this chapter. I was really busy and then I took a weekend off for easter and it took me a while to get back to this. But don't worry, I made up for it with a great chapter

repossession

The smoke-like creature roared with laughter.

Pipp cowered in the corner, unable to look the creature in the face. Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp watched, horrified, unable to do anything.

* * *
Forty-five minutes earlier...

Zipp and the others rushed back into the zebra village. She presented the dead matter to the zebras and said, "Here is the dead body."

The head zebra that they had spoken to earlier grew very confused. "Forgive me pony, but I cannot animate a ball with a soul. Animating inanimate objects is a very powerful magic that none of us possess. The only one known to have completed such a feat was the Ancient Chaos Lord of Old."

Zipp shook her head. "No! This is more of a storage container." Zipp pressed the button to lay Izzy's corpse out on the ground. "This is the one we need to revive."

The zebra looked at the corpse and nodded. She gestured for them to follow her as they walked towards the fountain in the center of the town.

The fountain was beautiful. It was a pool of water with a tower rising from the center. A waterfall was constantly pouring from the top of the tower. The base was lined with beautiful gemstones of green, red, and blue.

The zebra walked up to one of the gemstones and pushed down on it, revealing it to be a secret button. The waterfall stopped. The tower in the middle lowered down into the middle of the fountain until the entire thing was completely level. When the tower in the middle was level, the entire fountain began to sink into the ground. It went down about two feet and slid into a big compartment to the side, revealing stairs going into a very deep and dark hole.

The zebra went inside a nearby house and returned with a lantern. They all silently followed her down the stairs. Hitch clutched the dead matter tightly under his right hoof. When they reached the bottom, there was just an empty room with a round stone near one of the walls.

The zebra walked over to the stone and stood in front of it. "Alright ponies, listen up. This chamber is a very sacred place and you must fulfill one requirement before going in."

Sunny nodded. "Yes ma'am. What do we have to do?"

The zebra's expression looked grim. She looked at the ponies and said, "Nothing unholy can happen in this chamber without severe consequences. The gods and goddesses watch this place very carefully. To be able to enter, you must take an oath by blood."

The zebra pointed at the stone. She withdrew a dagger from her cloak and held it up. "Who's first?" She asked them. Everypony backed off, scared by the dagger. Hitch however, stepped forward, his expression never changing. "You must place your blood upon the stone when it is drawn. Be aware though, that it takes more than just a drop."

Hitch nodded and grabbed the dagger. He set the dead matter down at his side and ran the dagger a short ways along his right leg. He pressed his leg to the stone and the blood stained it. They all watched as the blood seemed to soak into the stone like a sponge. Hitch saw the stone move aside and he walked through into the next chamber. However, the other ponies did not see the stone move because they had not given their oaths. It looked to them as if he had just passed through solid rock.

Pipp began panicking. Her breathing became heavy and Sunny stepped forwards next. She did the same as Hitch, letting out a small squeal of pain as she cut herself. She too, passed through the stone and Zipp walked forwards next. She also squeaked a little as she cut herself. She walked through the stone leaving only Pipp and the Zebra outside. Pipp backed away from the dagger until she was back against the wall.

The zebra approached her with a sympathetic expression. Pipp was beginning to break into tears. "Listen little one, you do not have to follow in the path of your friends if you do not wish to."

Pipp let a few more tears fall and shook her head slowly. "No." She said, her voice still choked with tears she was trying her best to hold back. "I have to follow them. For Izzy's sake."

The zebra nodded slowly and held the dagger out to Pipp. Pipp took the dagger, her hooves shaking and held it up to her right leg. She yelped as she cut herself and walked over to the stone. Finally, she walked through the stone and the zebra did the same as all of them and followed.

The stone had appeared to roll back as they all stepped inside. They were all in pitch blackness. Then, one by one, red flames sparked up magically from candles that they could now see lined the room's walls. The zebra looked at Hitch and nodded. Hitch used the dead matter to lay Izzy's body out in the middle of the floor.

The room was circular and there were hieroglyphics lining the floor. As the light grew even brighter, they could see that Hitch had placed Izzy in the middle of a small circle in the middle of the room. Suddenly, the room began to glow green.

It started with the candles. Their flames becoming a very bright green. The hieroglyphics began to glow green as well. Lines of green glow began to spill from the hieroglyphics and branched off at sharp angles all around the room. They all met, however, right in the middle of the room. Finally, the area that Izzy was laid in was glowing the brightest.

The ponies began to feel dizzy. Green mist was now filling the room as the zebra was sitting on the floor with her eyes closed. Suddenly, they saw something coming out of the mist. A translucent figure was walking through the mist towards the dead body. Hitch smiled because he recognized the spirit. It had a beautiful purple coat and an amazing blue mane.

The zebra began to speak, "Hear our calls spirit and return thyself to thy mortal body!"

The spirit looked around frowning at all of the ponies in the room. "What's happening! Why isn't she coming back!" Sunny yelled towards the zebra.

"She is regaining her memory of you all. If she cares for you, she will have the will to return." The zebra turned to face the ghost. "Spirit! Dost thou have care enough to return to this mortal plane?"

The ghost of Izzy looked around the room, silent. She frowned as she looked at each of the ponies. Her eyes met Hitch's and she smiled. And nodded. She walked forward toward the body, her spirit becoming clearer the closer she got. She reached out to touch the body when she was jerked back by an unseen force.

"What's happening to her?" Hitch yelled.

"I don't know!" The zebra yelled back. "I feel a disturbance in the spiritual connection! There's another spirit here!"

"Is that even possible?" Pipp asked, still clutching a hoof to her leg where she was cut.

"It shouldn't be!" Yelled the zebra. "I am sensing a very dark magic!"

They continued to look through the mist at Izzy. Her spirit was now lying, unmoving, on the ground. Then, they saw a creature of purple smoke going towards the body.

The smoke-like creature roared with laughter.

Pipp cowered in the corner, unable to look the creature in the face. Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp watched, horrified, unable to do anything.

The creature made contact with Izzy body and the entire room lit up with a flash of light, temporarily blinding everypony in the room. When they woke up, the room was no longer lit up green. The only light entering the room was from the now open stone that they came into the room through.

They all looked horrified at Izzy body, laying on the floor the same as it was when they had brought it here. Hitch approached it slowly and turned the body to lay on its back.

Suddenly, Izzy jumped up and threw Hitch onto his back. She began choking him as he vainly tried to push her hooves away from his throat. His vision began to grow hazy but he saw something strange. Izzy's eyes were not their usual beautiful crimson but were instead, a deep red with purple smoke trailing from the back of them.

Hitch fainted, losing his breath but before he could be completely killed, Sunny jumped towards Izzy, knocking her off of Hitch. They both rolled around on the floor and Izzy got up quickly.

She ran out of the door and up the staircase back towards the village.

"After her!" Zipp yelled, her and Pipp running out the door. Sunny stayed behind attempting to wake Hitch up. Hitch came to quickly and jumped up yelling.

"That was not Izzy! Her eyes! They aren't right! She would never do that!"

"It's okay Hitch," Sunny said. "We'll figure out what happened to Izzy in due time but first we need to-"

Sunny was interrupted by loud sounds from above. Crashing, screaming, and crying.

The zebra, Sunny, and Hitch immediately ran up the stairs. They gasped when they caught sight of what was before them. Izzy was destroying everything in the village with lasers she was shooting from her horn.

Hitch shot a quick glance at Sunny, "Told you unicorns had lasers."

Sunny glared at him. "Not the time!"

They ran towards Izzy and tackled her to the ground. She fought back raising her head from the ground and letting out a loud roar. "Careful!" the zebra next to them yelled. "If she is killed there will be no way to bring her spirit back to her body."
Suddenly, as the others were fighting with Izzy and Zipp was attempting to use her wings to put out the fire, the other zebra surrounded the head zebra with their spears in hoof.

Shouts of "We trusted you!" and "You caused this" filled the air. through all of the commotion, a small scream was heard coming from inside one of the collapsing houses. Zipp flew forward and crashed through the window of the house. Another scream was heard from inside one of the bedrooms of the house.

Zipp saw that burning debris had bushed itself against the door trapping the screamer inside. Zipp flew up above the debris and bucked at the top of the door until a small hole was created. She looked through to see a small zebra filly. The filly looked at her with terrified eyes. "It's okay! I'm going to get you out of here!" Zipp continued bucking at the door until there was a hole about the size of the filly.

Zipp put her forehooves through the hole. "Come on! Jump up to me and I'll carry you to safety!" The filly ran up to Zipp and started trying to jump but couldn't get herself high enough. Suddenly, a small cracking noise was heard from above. The roof above the filly dropped down.

The filly jumped out of the way but her right back leg wasn't so lucky. A sickening snapping sound was heard followed by an ear splitting shriek from the filly. Zipp gasped and turned to get out of the house. More pieces of the roof fell down, almost hitting Zipp but she escaped through the window she entered through.

Inside the house, the filly's leg was beginning to catch fire because of the burning piece of debris she was still trapped under. Soon, she saw a white pegasus flying in through the roof of the room. Zipp quickly bucked the piece of debris off of the filly, suffering a short burn. She picked the filly up and flew her outside of the house laying her down on the ground.

"It's okay." Zipp whispered. "Everything will be okay now."

"Is it over?" The filly asked.

Meanwhile, Izzy was pinned on the ground by Hitch. She was only able to move her head as Hitch was stepping on each of her hooves. She looked over and saw a white pegasus setting down a zebra filly. She pushed her head far enough to aim her horn and shot a single laser beam.

The filly's scream was cut short as she was turned to dust in front of everypony's eyes. Sunny and Hitch ran over to Zipp who was in shock over what had just occurred. Izzy took this chance to make an escape into the woods.

The zebras had lost interest in trying to attack the leader and were instead turning their attention to the ponies gathered around the pile of dust and blood. "My daughter!" one of them yelled dropping to their knees in front of the pile. The other zebras were beginning to approach them, spears at the ready.

The head zebra ran past them and yelled, "Follow me!" To the rest of the group. They all ran towards the forest.

Hitch stopped right before they entered the forest. "Wait a second!" He yelled. "So we're just gonna run into the same place as the pony-vaporizing monster!"

Sunny nodded. "Sounds about right."