"Teleportation? Is that the best you could do?" Chrysalis was taunting Sunny and the other two were laughing behind her. "Let me tell you a little story. Twilight and her friends were a pain in our sides. We thought we would be able to finish what we started when we were returned from stone. Lo and behold, Canterlot and Ponyville are no more! Now what we want is to rule the entirety of Equestria. But there are still five ponies in our way. Five ponies who thought they could stop us by casting a protection bubble around that town in the forest."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO BRIDLEWOOD?" Izzy yelled with a fire in her eyes that wasn't there about five minutes ago.

"Oh don't worry small one." Chrysalis said with a mocking voice. "We haven't done anything yet. My changelings are working to break the barrier as we speak. They did it to canterlot's barrier. What's different about this one? But I'll tell you what. How about we tell you what's going to happen next." By this point chrysalis was speaking to them as if they were children. "Tirek is going to drain all of the magic from your bodies. That includes your pitiful alicorn magic Sunny. Then, while you're weak, I will feed off all of the love in your bodies. But Cozy Glow gets the best part. You see, Twilight and her friends stole a part of Cozy Glow's childhood by forcing her to spend time in Tartarus. But Twilight and her friends aren't here anymore. So instead, Cozy Glow is going to tear you five limb from limb until finally killing you all off, leaving us free to rule Equestria!"

Cozy Glow stepped forward and stomped at the ground twice with her hooves. The ground shook slightly and a sword began to rise from the depths of the ground. The sword was black as night and about twice the size of the filly. As Cozy Glow grabbed it with her mouth, the sword shrank down to be more easily usable by her.

"You see ponies," Cozy Glow said. "While I spent time in Tartarus, I heard the voice of an entity. A demon if you will. And he told me that he would aid me one day if I would pledge allegiance to him. I figured things couldn't get worse than they already were, so I agreed. Now, one thousand moons later, he has given me this artifact as a sign of his help. And now is the best part. I am going to rip you all apart and take my revenge!"

They heard a scream from above and saw a white pegasus being held by Tirek. As they were talking, they didn't realize Zipp had been trying to sneak attack them. Apparently Tirek noticed though. Cozy Glow smiled. "It seems we even have a volunteer!" Tirek began to open his mouth to drain Zipp of all her magic when he suddenly dropped her. When they looked at his hand, there were many kitchen knives sticking out of it. Izzy had used her levitation magic to stab tirek with the knives.

Cozy Glow let out a yell of rage and charged at the group, followed closely by chrysalis and the, now recovered, Tirek. Zipp got back up and flew behind the trio. She bucked tirek in the head and flew downwards at a velocity fast enough to knock Chrysalis down by knocking into her.

Cozy Glow however, would not go down so easily. Zipp was still fighting on the ground with Queen Chrysalis and Tirek was out cold. Cozy Glow took advantage of the distraction and ran forward brandishing the sword in front of her. She lunged and sliced the sword along Hitch's left front leg. Hitch yelped and fell to the ground.

Izzy turned around and bucked Cozy Glow directly in the face. The small filly was thrown back about ten feet from the force of the buck. Had Izzy been able to fully build up the adrenaline of her rage, she would have easily dealt a lethal blow to the small filly. Izzy went over to Hitch, who was bleeding heavily. The sword had cut him very deep and they would need to get this bandaged up soon.

Izzy bent down over him and began inspecting the wound. Pipp watched from the other side as Sunny went to help Zipp overpower Queen Chrysalis.

Hitch's vision was fading in and out from the pain. It was beginning to be harder for him to realize what was going on. All he could feel was the immense pain in his leg. He saw Izzy come over and winced in pain as she picked up his leg. But the next thing he saw, he would never forget.

His vision was fading more and it got to the point where he couldn't make out specific details. just shapes and colors. He could see Izzy very clearly because she was so close. He saw something behind her though. It seemed that in the distraction of Hitch being cut by Cozy Glow and Zipp and Sunny fighting with Queen Chrysalis, nopony had noticed Tirek quietly wincing as he pulled the kitchen knives from his hands.

It was what Hitch could see and hear that made this moment one he would never forget. He could hear Izzy reassuring him. "It's okay Hitch. I think I got one of them. I think we're gonna be alright." He heard a scream. He saw a sword push its way through Izzy's chest and he saw her being lifted into the air by the sword still going through her body. He saw a Minotaur laughing as he raised the sword above his head.

He felt a splash of blood cover his face and coat. The mare who was now impaled on the sword was pulled off the sword and dropped on the ground. He then heard sounds from behind him. He remembered that Pipp was right behind him and had probably seen the whole thing as well. He heard the sound of Queen Chrysalis's laugh. He could tell from the sounds that she was beating both Sunny and Zipp. He watched as the Minotaur opened his mouth. He saw what looked like a glowing vapor being sucked out of Izzy and into his mouth.

He dragged himself over to the unicorn, now barely breathing, on the ground about five feet away from him. He began desperately trying to cover the wound but to no avail. He heard squeaks of pain from Izzy below him. He felt her put one hoof to his head. He heard her whispers. "Hitch. It's okay."

Hitch couldn't bear to hear her sound so defeated. Hitch saw and heard one more thing before he fainted.

He saw a single tear running down Izzy's cheek. And as he heard the mare's last words, he could barely breath.

"Hitch..."

"I love you."

The unicorn's hoof fell to her side and her breathing slowed until it eventually stopped. Hitch's brain was working overtime comprehending everything that had just happened. Eventually, the pain in his leg caused him to black out. And he was unsure if he would ever wake up again.

* * *

"Look everypony! Hitch is waking up!"

Hitch could hear Sunny calling everypony over to come check on him. They were glad he was alive. But he wasn't. It should have been me! His thoughts kept shouting at him. He assured his friends that he was okay and nodded at their questions but he wasn't even really hearing them. If Izzy wasn't there, Tirek would have stabbed me.

Hitch's guilt was sticking with him. He never wanted to get out of bed or even talk to anypony ever again. Then, a thought occurred to him and he looked up at Sunny. "What happened with Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis?" He asked. He realized there was almost no way that they defeated them. They were far too powerful.

"Well, believe it or not, they retreated. They grabbed Cozy Glow and ran off. Bad news, I think they were heading in the direction of Zephyr Heights."

Hitch sat upright. "Really? We need to get there now!"

Zipp shook her head. "No. We have more pressing matters at hand. Pipp warned mom to completely evacuate the entire city. All of the pegasi are on a mass migration to Bridlewood."

The name Bridlewood stung Hitch once again. Anything relating to Izzy was too much for him to bear. "What matters could possibly be more important than saving an entire city of ponies?"

"This." Zipp tossed something on the bed with Hitch. It was the dead matter.

"Where did you get this?"Hitch asked.

"Izzy packed it when we teleported here. She thought it would be useful. I remember when I was in there, it didn't even seem like I existed. I also didn't feel any pain or blood loss or really anything. It was almost like some sort of stasis chamber. Sunny said that back in the days of ancient equestria, there were zebras who knew how to connect with the afterlife. They know how to brew a very special potion. One that can reunite one's soul with one's body. So we put Izzy's body in here to make sure it doesn't decay or lose too much needed blood."

"Wait," Hitch said. "So let me get this straight. We're going off the hope that some race that no one has seen in forever still knows how to brew a potion to perform necromancy?"

Zipp smiled a little. "Yeah that's about right. Sounds pretty morbid when you put it like that."

Hitch stood up and realized that his leg had been bandaged up and was feeling a lot better. "Listen. If there's any way we could bring Izzy back, then I will take any risks necessary. Sunny, teleport us there."

Sunny shrank back and said, "Well, that's the thing. You aren't going to the old zebra town."

Hitch stood taller as he fixed his posture. "What do you mean?"

Sunny looked at him and said, "Well, you see, we all realized that we wouldn't be able to help Izzy if we brought her back to life. She would bleed out almost immediately. Pipp said she saw the wound. She had a giant hole through her chest and-"

"Spare me the details please and get to the point." Hitch said. He didn't want to hear anything more about Izzy's death.

"Zipp and Pipp are going to start the journey to the Zebra land. You and I are going to Izzy's house to try to get her parents to help heal her." Sunny looked at Hitch as if he were going to yell about wanting to stay in a group or something. But Hitch just nodded slightly and grabbed hooves with Sunny. Sunny nodded at them and they walked out of the room.

Here we go, Hitch thought as Sunny's horn glowed. Suddenly, they were back right outside Bridlewood Forest. It was just as Queen Chrysalis had said. There were changelings over top ramming themselves into the barrier. It seemed Sunny's magic was doing perfectly fine on its own though. They hadn't even made a dent.

They began walking towards La Villa Izzy. When they got there, Sunny began looking for a saddlebag to hold the dead matter easily. Hitch, meanwhile, was just looking around at everything in the house. He began whispering to himself, "Don't worry Izzy. You'll be back home before you know it."

"What was that Hitch?" Sunny asked him, now appearing right behind him.

Hitch blushed. "Nothing!" He then caught sight of something behind Sunny's back. "What do you have there?" He asked her.

Sunny held up the item in her hooves. A saddlebag. It was purple. And the clasp was a blue heart with a button in the middle and three sewing pins on the right side.

"You miss her don't you?" Sunny asked Hitch. Hitch nodded slightly.

"Every time I think of her, I can only think about how it should have been me. Tirek would have stabbed me had Izzy not been there. Now the best mare in the world is dead."

"Now hang on a second Hitch! You don't know that Tirek would have stabbed you. It could have been anypony." Sunny's attempts to comfort him weren't working and she could see it. She decided to try a different approach. "She had feelings for you, you know."

Hitch nodded slightly, a tear now falling from his eye. "Yeah," he said. "I know. Those were her last words. I loved her too. But now it's too late."

Izzy last words were still echoing in his head. Her small whispers confessing her love. His biggest regret was that he had never had the courage to ask her out before.

"Maybe not!" Sunny said from his side. "Did you forget why we're even here! We're trying to bring her back. Maybe things can work out in the end."

Hitch said nothing. He stood absolutely still. He then walked over to the door and walked out. Sunny followed and they headed in the direction of the Moonbow house. They saw many things as they walked around. The biggest being that Alphabittle had closed the tea house. Izzy had told them that even in the worst weather, Alphabittle always kept the tea house open.

They finally reached a house in a tree at the end of the forest. Hitch and Sunny both paused upon seeing the sign. "Moonbow Medical"

"Hitch. It's going to be alright. She's their own daughter."

Hitch sighed and nodded. Together, he and Sunny both raised their hooves and knocked.

Author's Note

This chapter actually hurts to write. I love Izzy's character so much that killing her off was horrible. But the real question is, will she live or die permanently?

P.S. I took a little bit of inspiration for her death from Eddie's death scene in IT chapter 2. If you haven't seen it, go look it up on youtube and you'll understand the similarity.