Twilight and the others made it down the lift and into the open. Twilight looked left and right but the fog was too thick, there was no seeing through it. “Come on; if we walk along the river, we’ll make it to Ponyville fairly easy because as of now, getting there any other way would just be too hard.” She made her way to the river with caution. “Besides, we may find Azaliah along the way.”
“Why would you want to find her anyway Twilight, she tried to kill you.” Rainbow followed close behind with Rarity and the others following behind her.
“I must agree darling, she is a horrible pony with no decency. How could she be if she tried to kill you; after all you tried to help her correct?” Twilight nodded.
“More reason to hate her, she is our enemy.” Rainbow said angrily with the others except for AJ standing with her.
“Now hold on ya’ll, ah don’t like that she tried to kill Twilight either but there had to have been some reason for it, right Twi?” The others looked disgusted that AJ would protect her but looked to Twilight for an answer.
Twilight looked back on it and Applejack had a point, she had a reason to be mean but the question was; was it the reason THE reason. “Look girls, there is a possible reason for it.” AJ put on a smug smile that Twilight shook her head at disapprovingly. She shrunk back and let Twilight continue. “She is in a long line of keeping these Necromorph things from getting freed and her father was in charge before her. Her father was supposedly dead years ago and so Azaliah had to take over. It couldn’t have been easy for her. My point is; I think that she acts the way she does because of that great responsibility on her shoulders. She was wrong, I won’t deny that but she did what she did to keep those things busy so that she could buy some time. I truly believe that she wants to do the right thing but she isn’t sure how.”
“Still Twilight, why do we need her?” Rarity stomped her hoof angrily.
“We need her because despite any knowledge that we have of these things, she knows how to end this. Now do you wish to ask more questions and stand around waiting for something to attack or do you want to get out of here?” There was no answer. “Then let’s move.” Twilight used her horn despite the fact that she had her flashlight and lit the way down the river side. The light only shone a few feet unfortunately.
The group was exhausted from lack of sleep but they had to keep moving. The thought of falling asleep scared them. If they were to doze off, it was anypony’s guess if they would wake up or not. The river was calm and the only sound was of their hoof steps. The silence was deafening, they felt isolated as if they were separated from each other. The leaves of the trees from the forest near them rattled in the trees and as they stepped on the ones on the ground, the leaves crunched beneath them. The wind picked up and whistled in their ears.
Once halfway there, a splash was heard in the water and then Sunset Shimmer screamed as she fell to the ground. Twilight turned around and saw her getting dragged along the ground. “Rarity, I’ll find the source, you shoot at it and don’t go into the water.” This left AJ and Rainbow kind of helpless. Rainbow wasn’t about to fly up and lose sight of her friends or what sight she had left.
“Of course.” Rarity looked around unsure of where to shoot off her gems. Soon enough, Rarity was shocked when she saw a pony that looked hunched over was revealed in the water. Its neck was long and its head clamped onto Sunset’s hoof. The head was large and jawed like a piranha. Its spine was long and serrated. It flailed and snapped around like a whip. Rarity recovered from her shock and shot a single gem at the neck but it did little to nothing. She fired off four more, it wailed and let go. She fired off four more and finally cut the neck of the necro and killed it. “Twilight, I suggest we run now. I can’t use gems like this, I’ll run out before we really need them at this rate, not that we didn’t need them now darling.” Rarity corrected as she received a death glare from Sunset Shimmer.
“You heard her, run for it!” Twilight barked out the order and without a second thought, the group ran as fast as they could and stayed as far from the water as possible while avoiding the forest. It left very little room to run until they came to an opening. They still stayed in a line but they were able to move further from the river. The five collapsed from exhaustion just as they came within view of Ponyville. They could hear sounds of steps behind them, they were being chased but they had lost all energy. There was no hope for them now.
Twilight was the last to close her eyes but as she did, a figure appeared in front of her. “Who are you?” Her eyes shut as the figure ran past. Despite her eyes closing, Twilight could still hear a little. Gunfire was heard and howls as well.
When Twilight woke, she found her self in a building that she recognized. There were no candles lit which helped keep them room in the dark but she could still see well enough to know that this place was familiar. Upon making a light with her horn, a yell was heard to turn it off. Twilight shocked to hear somepony, turned off the light. “Hello; I know that voice.”
“Ya’ll had better recognize mah voice; ya have known me long enough. Now quiet Twilight, ah don’t need yer library to become overrun with these things.” The pony said.
“It’s good to hear you Apple Bloom. You save us?” Twilight asked a little groggy still.
“No, that was Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. When they saw yer light, they came back as fast as possible to tell me. Azaliah hoofed over her weapon and told them how to use it. Long story short, they saved ya.” Apple Bloom said with a smile that couldn’t be seen.
“Are they here, I’d like to thank them.” Twilight looked around but it was still hard to see.
“You just did and you’re welcome.” Scootaloo said with a smug grin.
“Good, wait, where is Spike?” Twilight began to panic; she stood and looked around frantically.
“You don’t need to worry; he has been with you the whole time you were knocked out. He just fell asleep is all but he was in pretty bad shape when we found him. He’ll be fine though, as of right now, we need to get some items to Celestia.” Scootaloo picked up her bag and got ready to head out.
“No, you’ll die trying to get there. The best way to help them is to help me and the others. Once Azaliah and the others are ready to go, well, we can talk later ok. Right now, I could use some rest.” Twilight closed her eyes and then felt a claw touch her hoof.
“I’m glad that you’re back Twilight.” Spike looked up with a smile.
“Me too Spike, me too.” With that, she fell asleep once again.