Deep within the Everfree Forest, the zebra Zecora resided in her hut full of magical brews and potions, for any who dared trek through the hazardous and cursed forest. Twilight Sparkle, The Element of Magic had, and for good reason. Applejack, Element of Honesty, had been put out of her job at the beginning of its most demanding task, and needed to return to her duty.
“Thanks Zecora, I’ll make sure this gets to Applejack,” Twilight said, putting away a small flask full of blue liquid in her saddlebags as she walked out the door of the zebra’s forest hut.
“That it will, for no farmer should be out of her job for just a small spill,” the mysterious zebra replied, “And you should be home before night, for very soon the forest will be filled with fright.”
“You’re right,” Twilight agreed, as she picked up a trot away from the house. “Thank you, and I’ll be careful!” The zebra smiled and closed the door. Twilight turned her head forward as she trotted through the cursed forest. Celestia’s sun was lazily dropping below the horizon, and the shadows of the thick forest became darker.
Twilight walked down the small path, watching her step and keeping an eye and ear out for whatever would spell trouble for her. After the terrifying experience she had with a cockatrice, and another with timberwolves, the young unicorn was exceptionally cautious when traveling through the Everfree at almost any given time of day, let alone at night. The purple unicorn looked behind her to see the sun had dropped below the horizon, and the final rays of the sun were receding into the horizon.
She quickened her pace, eager to leave the forest before night fell, and before the true terrors of the Everfree began their hunt. However, she still felt as though the forest’s edge was not near. Something didn’t seem right. Her trot came to an abrupt halt.
Twilight weighed her options. “What could I do?” she pondered aloud. “Turn back and stay at Zecora’s? Or am I closer to Ponyville and just simply risk it and keep going?”
She then remembered Applejack, who had sprained her ankle on the second day of harvest, far from finishing the grueling task of the apple harvest. How could her friend let her down? The Element of Magic lit her horn, and carried on through the forest.
Not long after, the moon rose, and the nightlife performed a fear-inducing symphony of noise. Off to her left, the howl of timberwolves threw Twilight into a panic. She began to run almost blindly through the thick forest. At this point, she could’ve been dinner for anything, be it a manticore, timberwolf, hydra, or any other predatory being that resided in the Everfree.
The path was rough, muddy, and laced with tree roots. It took a great amount of concentration and sheer luck to not lose her footing on the difficult path. It twisted through the trees, and gave Twilight the sense of being hopelessly lost. Mud splashed across her face and sides as she frantically darted in and out of various trees growing in the difficult road.
After several long minutes of running, the road widened. Suddenly, the woods stopped, and she was out in the open air, leaving the dreaded forest behind her. The road was now hard packed and pleasant, and gave a sweeping view of the valley and town below. Her run quickly came to a slow walk, for she had run well over a mile in record time, through harsh terrain and little training. As luck would have it, she made it out alive and unhurt.
A small, grassy knoll in front of a picturesque picket fence caught her eye as her gaze wandered from the soft lights in Ponyville. Needing rest, she dragged herself the last few hooflengths off the path and onto the cool, damp grass.
A smile crossed her face as Celestia’s personal student laid down, panting for breath. She was drenched in sweat, water, and mud from her journeys. Despite her lack of athleticism from sitting in the library most of the time, she had been able to outrun whatever may have gotten her in the dark recesses of the Everfree forest. She fell onto the grass, looking up to the stars, still gasping for breath. Luna’s night was achingly beautiful, especially in the rural outskirts of Ponyville, where no lights could hide its beauty. The moon was a small sliver of silver, barely providing luminescence to the truly magical land of Equestria.
However, unbeknownst to her, she did not go unnoticed in the Everfree. A dark shadow in the shape of a pony had followed her out of the woods and into the open, in complete and utter silence. But she was out of the woods now. After all, nothing bad happens outside of the forest, right? Right?
The shadow’s face jutted into her vision, eyes glowing red, pupils narrowed into menacing slits. Twilight froze in fright. The shadow, apparently a mare, then smiled, revealing two long and wickedly sharp canines. Twilight opened her mouth to scream, but the evil mare quickly clamped her jaws around Twilight’s neck before any sound could escape. The unicorn could not think to do anything as the mare began to suck the blood out of her. She lay there helpless, and tears began to form around her eyes. She attempted to break free, but the unicorn feeding on her was simply to powerful, and Twilight struggled to no avail. Even her powerful magic did nothing to expel the attacker.
Her vision began to fade, and her heart struggled to pump the remaining blood through her veins. In attempt to last longer, she lay perfectly still. The bloodsucking pony began to massage her neck to encourage more blood to come. But there was no doubt Twilight’s end was near. A short sentence came out of her lips as her end was coming, and could only be heard by her, “Is this how I die?”
Some say that in one’s dying moments, they can perform extraordinary feats of strength and power. The will to live to see another day is a powerful force, greater than the magic the Princesses wield to move the sun and moon through the heavens. Pushed to their limits, ponies can do amazing things. The will to survive on the verge of death can bring out the unbelievable. Moments from certain death, Twilight exhibited such feats of strength in spite of her disposition.
In a renewed effort, Twilight summoned what remained of her magic and created a burst and flash of light similar to a firecracker in the attacker’s face. She was stunned, but her jaws remained around Twilight’s neck. Twilight seized the chance and punched the foe with all her might (and rather awkwardly due to their position) right underneath her rear leg, which popped out of its joint in a sickening crack. The mare screamed, and Twilight rose up and threw her attacker clear off of her, and watched her sail through the night air. The bloodsucking monster landed near the fence, but before she could regain her footing to finish her meal, Twilight bolted towards her.
The monster rose up and half limped half charged, fangs bared, and the two met in a fury of hooves, fur, and teeth. They fell to the ground in their struggle, rolling through the damp, green grass, Twilight’s blood staining it maroon. She punched her attacker in the gut, and in return, landed a hoof straight in Twilight’s left eye. Twilight yelped and backed off, holding it as blood and tears oozed out of it. The other party used this opportunity to pin the purple unicorn to the ground once more.
The dark mare then opened her bloodstained muzzle once more to finish her. Twilight glared into the other mare’s burning eyes with her remaining eye ablaze, and screamed, “NOT TONIGHT!”
Summoning the last amount of adrenaline filled strength, she pushed her body upwards, and then kicked with all her might. The mare flew threw the air and landed near the fence.
Fighting to live, and filled with fury over her impending death, the purple mare had no hesitation in sprinting to the battered assassin. She knew it was kill or be killed, she had read up on these situations in countless adventure stories before. Twilight picked the would-be killer up by the undersides of her front legs and with a yell slammed her back onto the top of the wooden fence.
The point of the fence broke the mare’s back with a vomit-inducing crunch, and continued on until it had impaled her through, but no blood came forth. She let loose a scream that pierced the night, her back curled sharply and extremely, and she twisted and writhed. The fence broke off under her weight, and she fell to the ground, squirming under the immense pain. Her scream then faded and she went still. Then, dark arcane flames formed, and the body disappeared into a small blaze of light, leaving a small circle of singed grass and nothing more.
Twilight stood there for a few moments, thunderstruck. She stared at the scene she had helped unfold. That scream still rang in the confines of her mind. The image of the burning, impaled mare burned into her memory like a horrible nightmare. Except this nightmare was real.
Twilight then collapsed to the ground with a dull thud. The combined adrenaline rush, exhaustion, injuries and blood loss was all too much for the crippled unicorn to handle. The wound on her neck continued to bleed, her liquid of life slowly coursing out of her. Her lungs began to fill with it, and her heart did not stop pushing it out. Her left eye throbbed and her head felt as though it had been slammed in a heavy door with deliberate force.
She began to roll onto her back, but flopped back on her face. She simply could not move anymore. Her breaths became more and more ragged and the pain she was suffering finally hit her, but she hung onto life.
Twilight Sparkle continued to suffer the agonizing pain in her neck, the wound had opened the artery in her neck, and the cool night air blew her sweat into it, giving a horrid singing feeling. It was as though her neck was on fire. Her muscles began to seize up as more blood flowed out and away from her.
“Help!” she coughed out, but in the night on the edge of the Everfree, there was no pony but her. Her voice was too weak, but she tried again, only to choke on the blood pooling in her throat.
She fell into a horrible fit of coughing, blood spraying out of her mouth. She lay there, heaving, trying to hold on. The contents of her stomach emptied out great retches and spilled out along with the red liquid of life. She was still holding on, despite all the odds.
But the long, agonizing minutes she spent barely living under the clear night left her begging for death. Twilight had been bleeding out and suffering for almost half an hour. Tears stained her face as she lay facedown in the grass, a slight breeze brushing the blades around her limp form. She was alone, with no friends to help her this time. No Spike to save her, no friends to help her to the hospital.
Twilight was so close, yet so far. Fluttershy’s cottage was nearby, but out of earshot of the battle that had unfolded and the butter yellow Pegasus slept peacefully, unaware of one of her closest friends suffering an agonizingly slow death less than a half a mile away. Twilight was on Applejack’s land, but through the hundreds of the trees in the orchard no one at the house would’ve seen or heard her. Ponyville proper was no more than a mile from where she laid dying.
The unicorn had no choice but to wait even longer for the end, and seconds drew to lengthy minutes. Finally, almost an hour after her first wound on her neck, she could not hold out any longer. The unicorn took a few weak last breaths, and closed her eyes, stopping the flow of tears. After a few moments, her heart went still. Twilight Sparkle, the Student of Celestia, Element of Magic, was living no more.
Author's Note
I tried to do all the editing myself, but I'm not perfect so if anypony would be gracious enough to point out my errors that would be splendiddly and greatly appreciated. I'm not perfect, but I do take care in attempting well written pieces of work. Which this will be, if I give myself enough time. Cheers.
Gloom hung in the air like the clouds of Seaddle, never leaving, never shifting, weighed down onto the residents of Ponyville. Specifically, the five ponies and dragon regarded as Twilight Sparkle’s closest friends. During the time between the news of her death and her funeral, Twilight’s friends struggled to grasp that their friend was no longer of this earth.
Spike had flatly refused to come out of his room when he first heard the news. Only after much goading on Rarity’s part did he finally agree to come downstairs to eat before shuffling back to his room with Peewee before anypony could really say anything. The young dragon was not ready to face the truth and stubbornly remained in denial.
Rarity, the drama queen, had not overreacted in her usual manner when the solemn-faced deputy informed her of Twilight’s passing. She had mustered her resolve to not faint, or cry out in distress, but the signs of grief were still evident. Her coat had lost its glossy sheen, and her mane was not styled as precisely as it used to. When asked what was wrong by one of her best customers, she simply replied, “Sometimes a lady like myself faces loss and struggles to keep her outward demeanor the same when she’s suffering from grief on the inside.”
Fluttershy struggled to fight back tears every time a reminder of the lavender unicorn came up. Whether it was Spike, books, or the library itself, the poor mare could not keep herself together if a passing thought of Twilight came to mind. Her friends attempted to console her, but to no avail. The butter-yellow Pegasus could not forgive herself for letting her friend die so close to her home. Even though she was naturally quiet, the only sound ever heard from her was that of crying mare.
Applejack was the one who had found Twilight dead, essentially on her family’s property. “Ah tried and tried, but she wouldn’t wake up,” she had told the officer, tears flowing from her face and her hat pressed against her chest. “Ah did everything I could, I just cou-” and the farmer, for the first time as long as anyone could remember, broke down, sobbing. Like Fluttershy, she refused to forgive herself for letting her friend die on her land, even though it was far from her fault.
Rainbow Dash, who credited herself with being the toughest mare in Ponyville, refused to show her face in public following the report of Twilight’s brutal and untimely passing. Her iconic streak of multicolored light vanished from the skies of Ponyville, as she now walked on the ground, head low, through the streets of Ponyville in sorrow.
However, the pink party pony was perhaps the one afflicted by grief the most. Pinkie Pie’s upbeat personality had deflated like an untied balloon. Her smile, normally filled with cheer and delight, was now hollow, forced, as though she was in pain from keeping the corners of her mouth upturned. The high-pitched, fast paced language was replaced with a slower, almost inaudible murmur. It was as though all the happiness that had defined her was gone with the simple sentence bearing news of loss.
It should be explained what happened the morning following Twilight Sparkle’s brutal and terrible end. Applejack was out as the sun rose that morning; a slight chill was in the air, enough to make the farmer’s breath come out in little puffs of vapor. She was making her way around to the far edge of the orchard when she noticed a dark lump near the property line.
Curious, she trotted over to the object. As she drew closer and the features of it grew defined, she realized it was a pony. Worried, she broke into a run, and leaped over the fence to the body.
The look of utter horror crossed her face as she saw the unmistakable color and cutie mark of her friend. She cried out and rushed to Twilight’s side. “Please, no Twilight!” Her eyes caught a glimpse of the blood pooled underneath Twilight and splattered about the area, but even still, she insisted on waking her friend. “Twi! Please no, Twilight, by the merciful hoof of Celestia, don’t be dead, Twilight,” tears began dripping out of her eyes, “please, wake up,” her voice cracked, and she broke down into a fountain of tears. She looked over her body, and upon spotting the grotesque wounds on her neck; she burst out, “NO…” in a long, drawn out cry that was choked back with tears.
A few hours later, the authorities had arrived; shocked by Celestia’s protégé had been snuffed out so brutally. As media caught wind, speculation grew over who may have harbored a grudge against Twilight personally, or perhaps even further as a sort of threat to Equestria’s royal ruling class. However, the gory details of the murder were kept in secret. Applejack was sworn to never speak of the condition her dead friend was in.
Regardless of the circumstance, the murder itself raised many questions and utterly baffled investigators. Mares and stallions from as far away as Stalliongrad were called out to investigate, but every lead came short. The fact her throat and neck were ripped apart by some unknown force was beyond any explanation anypony could come up with.
Eventually, it was presumed that Twilight suffered a death that, in older days, was all too common. Simply attack by an unknown predator from the Everfree was all it took to bring Twilight, in all her magic ability, to her premature death.
Princess Celestia became deeply involved in the affair. It became one of the few times where the princess showed deep emotion, cursing herself for letting such an atrocity happen in her kingdom, let alone under her guidance. But when she received the autopsy report, her jaw, according to one of her guards, “dropped as though it had become unhinged and pulled towards the earth with incredible force.”
The castle was dark and quiet. The halls echoed the footsteps of the massive alicorn as she moved towards her sister’s chambers. Before she could open the heavy obsidian doors, a dark blue aura enveloped them and swung them open to reveal the smaller, midnight blue alicorn with a slightly confused countenance. “Sister, why are you up at this hour? It is long before you need to raise the sun, is there something wrong? Is it Twilight?” she whispered.
Celestia heaved a sigh, and replied “Yes, but not in the way you think. Look,” she said, thrusting the autopsy report toward her.
“Sister, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to read it. You know how I feel about this investigation of a departed soul's body. It is torturous to their soul if they’re not quickly buried and rest in peace. I do not understand why you allow this to happen-”
“Shut up,” Celestia quipped. “We do it so we can find who committed the deed. Now look,” she said as she flipped to a page in the report. Luna looked away. “Look at it Luna, for the love of Equestria.”
The sassy younger sister snorted, and read through the page with a look of disgust, then, as she finished, her pupils grew smaller and worry crossed her face. “That sounds all too familiar to-”
“Shh!” Celestia hissed. “Ponies don’t believe in these sorts of things anymore. Time has led them to be believe they’re superstitions, not real creatures.”
“How utterly ignorant of them, and how unbelievably thick headed of you. You let them believe there’s nothing to fear? Sister, I know we don’t always get along but sometimes I really ques-”
“It’s for their own good! There’s been no reports of attacks in centuries!”
“No reports, yes, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”
Celestia’s voice rose to a distress as she tried to defend herself, “Luna, I did it to protect our kingdom, I-”
“A load of good that did. Look at what happened to your own student,” Luna remarked, snidely.
“I-I…” Celestia fumbled for words, and tears shined in her eyes. Luna softened.
“I’m sorry sister, I’ve been to harsh. I wish Twilight could rest in peace, not return as the same monster that killed her. After all, I owe her much.” The moon princess walked her sister over to the black sectional by her fireplace, and sat Celestia down. “I’m sorry, sister. I shouldn’t have dabbled with dark arts, all the pain it has caused over the years…”
“No sister, neither you or I could have foreseen this. But it’s too late. We can only wait for her to return.” There was a long silence. The dwindling sounds of Canterlot’s nightlife filtered through the gardens and the open balcony door. “We’ll see her again, just not the same. We’ll just have to… adjust to extenuating circumstances.”
“Celestia, you know that’s just not going to happen.”
“I know-w-” she said breaking down. “How did I let this happen? So foolish, I just, I-”
“Shh,” Luna said soothingly, like a mother to a foal. “It’s going to be alright,” she lied, as she pulled her sister into a tight embrace. “We will fix this in the end.” Luna let her sister cry on her shoulder for the rest of that night. But deep down, she knew that one of the final impacts of her reign as Nightmare Moon would finally come back to bite her in the flank; or rather, her neck.
Meanwhile, during the witching hour of the night, a fledgling security guard patrolled through the dark and cold morgue. He shook as he walked pass rows of coffins in the poorly lit room. His flashlight swung to and fro, banishing the darkness in its narrow path. It then fell over the coffin of Twilight Sparkle. Nothing out of the ordinary was visible. As the guard was about to move on, however, there was a muffled thump.
The stallion froze. He slowly turned his head towards the sound. It came again, heavier. It was accompanied by muffled screaming. The stallion was like a statue, absolutely paralyzed in fright. The thumps and screaming increased in intensity, and the poor stallion’s heart was about to leap out of his chest.
The heavy lid of the coffin then was blown straight off and fell to the ground with a resounding crash. The guard then bolted, straight through the door, breaking it off its hinges, as he charged out of the room and onwards out of the building, into the night.
A terrified, cold, hungry, and exhausted Twilight then sat up in the coffin, trembling. She looked around the room. The purple unicorn stayed there, in shock. She couldn’t remember how she ended up in a coffin, or as to why she was presumed dead. The terror at the thought of being buried alive still hung to her, she was lucky she hadn’t been put six feet under.
Twilight’s neck burned, and she hissed as she attempted to rub away the pain. But she could not feel anything wrong as she rubbed her hoof across the side of her neck, on her jugular. Her mind raced to grasp why and how she ended up in a coffin and why she was still alive. Like waking up from a nightmare. Her stomach then rumbled. Being "dead" had taken a toll on her appetite.
Strangely, her ears picked up sound better than she remembered. She could still hear the stallion running off in the distance. She could see clear as day through the gloom of the morgue and the open door to the night. She could smell living flesh. She could smell warm blood.
Guided by a primal instinct she certainly didn’t have when she was alive, Twilight crawled onto the ground into a predatory stance. She licked her lips. Her mind had forgotten any preconceived notion that she, Twilight Sparkle, was a peaceful and highly intelligent herbivore. All she thought of was blood.
In a massive bound, Twilight launched herself into a run that could’ve bested Rainbow Dash’s takeoffs. In a matter of seconds, she covered the distance it took the guard. She had forgotten about wondering why she woke up where she did; all she focused on was the stallion’s neck.
He had no idea what lay behind him until she tackled him to the ground and with incredible force. His windpipe crunched like dry cereal in Twilight’s grip. He didn’t even get the chance to scream out.
The unicorn’s new fangs plunged into his vein and blood poured into her mouth. It was warm like water left in a bottle in the sun. A moan of ecstasy escaped her as the taste stimulated her taste buds. Her eyes rolled as she greedily gulped down the innocent stallion’s blood. The night was still save for blood coursing through her mouth and into her stomach.
She shifted, continuing to keep her mouth securely clamped around her victim’s neck. In attempt to elicit the last few drops of blood from him, she pressed her hooves on his chest, until his ribs gave in with a muffled crack. Satisfied that she had finished her meal, the deranged Twilight loosened her jaws' death grip around the bloody throat to pull her teeth out. She then stood up
A cool breeze carried with it the smell of pine and blew its cold onto Twilight’s coat. The red in her eyes returned to its natural hue. Her frightening countenance dropped back into a state of shock. She then looked down at her destruction.
Twilight gasped. She had killed him. Like a wild beast with no control of its instincts, no inhibitions, no rationality, she had ripped the life right from the innocent soul. “What has happened to me?” she cried out. Her tears fell to the ground, dark red.
Thoughts whirled through her head, trying to come up with a plan. What to do next, where to go, who to talk too. But anything her mind suggested was overwhelmed by the shock and horror of the murder she had just committed. Twilight continued sobbing as she began to move the body out of sight. She dragged him back to the wood behind the morgue and put him under a large oak. She used her magic to spell out "I'm sorry" in the bark.
Twilight then walked through the woods, debating what to do. She could just go home, but she didn't want to cause a stir, given everypony thought she was dead. She could have fled, and survived off the land, alone. But she had no actual experience living in the wilderness, she was mostly confined to reading about such endeavors within the comfort of the library. Suicide was an option, but she couldn't possibly bring death upon herself, especially since she had apparently been killed already.
The only answers would be found in a library, be it the Ponyville public one, or the Starswirl section. Her mind set, she began a trot back to home. She stopped, turned a little to glance back at the life she took, but turned back, closing her eyes, as if in pain. Twilight then broke into a run, promising to never forgive herself for what she did.
Author's Note
Augh, writer's block.
This chapter didn't come out like I wanted it to and took way, way too long for a measly word count.
I can't put my finger on it, it's just... not what I wanted. Hopefully I'll write faster for the next one. Sorry for the wait, I got to involved in too many things and events.
And if somepony is willing to preread, that'd be incredibly helpful and help speed up the process as well as make it more refined.
Again, I apologize for the prolonged wait.
