Just an Old Ponytale...
The Final Chapter-
Twilight stood, dumbstruck by what she had read. Only one thought allowed itself to pass through her mind, only one question, only one word.
"Why..."
Time passed by slowly, the grumbling and roaring of the ravinous beast outside just now at the doorstep. The mare stood, her mouth agape and her mind perplexed. She was left alone, left with nothing, left with no hope of ever fixing this disaster she caused. Guilt, anger, sorrow. All these emotions enveloped her at once, her body unsure how to react. The first emotion to take control was anger, the lavender mare thrashing her head in denial, the constant 'no' that escaped her lips having no meaning as they grew from whispers into screams. Her hooves we laid upon her head as she withdrew into a corner and started to think about all that has happened, but the thoughts drove her from anger to sorrow. Twilight began to cry as she thought back to Applejack, thought back to Fluttershy, back to Rarity... Her sorrow only grew with the sudden realization that this wwas IN FACT her fault, regardless of what the note said, and that's when the worst of feelings set in. Guilt.
How bad can one pony feel? How horrible can somepony feel before it's too much to handle? Twilight's very being was slipping away, her very self disappearing, eaten up by the guilt that gnawed at her. She had always coped with the thought of being the one who cause all this with the hope of being able to correct it, to be able to save everypony, but with Zecora's betrayal...
Twilight refused to believe it. "How could Zecora do such a thing!? This just can't be right... There has to be something more behind this... It just can't be true... Maybe Discord's back... Maybe she was put under a spell while she was with her parents... Maybe... maybe..." Twilight felt empty inside, felt like there was nothing of her left. There was a loud bang at the front door, the mob outside becoming unsettled. The candle light was swiftly fading as crashing noises could be heard coming from the door. Suddenly, a hoof broke through. Twilight looked to the ground and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry everypony..." she said as the darkness around her slowly engulfed the candle. "I'm... sorry..."
The mob smashed thorugh, the light from the candle completely vanishing as the group of beast charged towards the direction of the despaired pony. Twilight just kept her head down, hiding the tears she was shedding in response to her thoughts. The first bite wasn't so bad, her body numb to pain by guilt as the teeth of one of those beast tore into her shoulder, her body now pinned against the wall. The zombies ripped at her viciously, each bite tearing more and more of her away as she just sat there and watched helplessly. After what felt like hours, but in reality was only mere moments, Twilight felt her body growing cold. Her eyes grew heavy, her heart thumping slower as the breaths became shorter. Her life passed through her eyes, all the memories of her friends flashing before her in a single instant. As she closed her eyes for what she believe to be the final time, only one thought crossed her mind, the same thought that she had throughout this whole ordeal. Her final breath consisted of these final words.
"I'm........ sorry......." With those last words, she released her grasp upon life... and let the darkness take her...
Twilight opened her eyes, head turning in every direction. "Where am I?" she called out as a low chuckle drew behind her.
"Welcome back... My dear..." Twilight's eyes grew to the size of sause pans, a cold chill running up her spine as she knew exactly where she was, and knew the dark pony behind her and his reason for appearing. The mare gulped. "Twilight... You know why... I'm here..." She turned with slight hesitation to face the shrouded pony who had scyth in hoof.
"Yes Death, I know why you're here." Twilight stated rather calmly. "I'm ready..." The master of souls stood right before the small unicorn with his weapon of choice in air, aimed right for her heart. He thought for a second, and then set his scyth to the side, his shadows holding the weapon in place as he placed his cold hooves upon Twilight's chin, pulling her head up to his eye level and gazing deep into her sight.
"Before I carry on... and do what... I was meant to do... I extend to you... the answer to one... and only one... question..." The lavender mare's ears perked when she heard this. "Understand... this is your only... question... When you ask... it shall be reveled... in your own eyes as though... you yourself was there..."
Several thoughts ran through, the oppritunity to have ANY question answered. Her first thought was to know why Zecora had done what she did, but another question was to know if somepony would find a cure eventually. She wondered if Pinkie had survived, and, of course, wanted to know about Spike and Princess Celestia, if they were alright or not. So many questions, but only one to be answered, but she figured that no matter what question she asked, she wouldn't like the answer. She thought really hard for what seemed like forever. Finally, she thought of her question. The perfect question to know, if not all, most of what she wondered.
"What was and is the fate of everypony I knew as result of this, Zecora included?"
Death chuckled. "Prepare yourself... Twilight Sparkle... for the truth... hurts worse than most lies..." There was a bright flash as Twilight found herself surrounded by nothingness. She looked around, but everything was complete darkness. She wanted to call out, but her voice had disappeared. Around her, the world started to take color, the scenes of every one of her friends appearing before her. To her left was Celestia in Canterlot, vainly casting her magic as the hoard drew a circle around her beloved teacher. Her right contained all the scenes of her and her already deceased friends, the memories now fresh in mind. Above contained each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, their screams even worse than that of her friends, for they were only just fillies. Looking down was an even bigger mistake, the sight of Pinkie and Colgate in the barn, a hoof breaking through the doors as they prepared theselves and said their good-byes to each other. She tried to escape as she turned around, but behind her was the worst of all. She was staring at three scenes. One contained her brother, Shining Armor.
She watched in horror, her brother fighting along side what appeared to be his friends in the guard. He constantly was bucking them away as his friends were trying to plea with survivors within a stronghold, but were denied entry. After a while, he grew reckless from fatigue, and as result, missed one of his bucks. She turned away with the knowledge of what happened as his screams peirced her heart, but that was nothing compared to watching her own parents and their demise...
After all this, there was still one she hadn't seen, one that she still wanted to know, though she feared the result. She turned back to her original position, and faced straight ahead of her. A faint haze formed as the scene of Zecora's hut came into view. She peered into the window, the zebra within working on a strange potion as normal, but as Twilight took a closer look, the recipe had inscibed on top "Zombie Cure". The lavender mare was more confused than ever now.
There was a bang at Zecora's door, and she knew exactly what it was. The tribal zebra took paper in hoof and started to write the note that Twilight had found, gathering all her posesions into a pile and setting them into a controlled blaze. When the items were finished burning, and the ashes swept away, Zecora grabbed her spear from home and prepared herself to fight. Zecora took one final look at the note, and spoke to herself. "Twilight, though you might be confused, I hope when you read this, anger and sorrow are infused. This is not your fault, and these monsters are not fun, but I hope that when this is read, that you will run. I will return... I promise..." As she finished talking to herself, she opened the door and started fighting her way out, fighting her way towards home, towards someplace this hasn't reached yet. The scene started to phase as everything around her grew back into darkness.
Twilight let out a loud gasp for air, Death releasing his grip upon the pony as she was heaving. "You have... your answer..." Twilight was trying to process everything she had just witnessed.
"So it wasn't betrayal, she was just trying to keep me away until she returned, probably because I wouldn't have understood!" Sudden realization hit her. "But... I didn't..." She started thinking back to the other scenes. "My brother... my teacher... my friends... I don't even know what happened because of my turning away, but I guess that's for the better..." Death grabbed his scyth floating at his side.
"Are you ready... my dear..." Twilight suddenly became scared, fear taking over as her mind told her to run, but her body wouldn't move. "Ah, ah, ah... We wouldn't want you... to make this harder... on either of us... now would we..." Death drew his scyth in his hoof and aimed it like before. Twilight glared at the weapon, all her thoughts of what she should have, could have done to prevent all this now in her mind. She drew her breath, as ready as she would ever be as Death slashed his blade into her, and the world around went black, never to be seen by the light again as she was left with nothing but her thoughts for all eternity...
The End...?