Twilight had arrived at Town Hall which was broken down and ready to fall inward or it would be had there not been the Marker in its center. “So this is it, the marker. What do I do though?” Twilight went up to it and touched the old artifact. It was oddly warm and naturally uncomfortable. She retracted her hoof and shook it as if trying to get a slimy gunk off. Not knowing what else to do, she used her magic and shot the marker and of course nothing happened. She rubbed the back of her head and wondered what she could possibly do.
Twilight walked around and stared at the artifact in silence and it made her nervous. The marker made it worse as this was where it was in her mind or was it all an allusion, she couldn’t be sure. It was too similar to just be coincidence right?
The fog grew thicker and if Twilight could see through it, she would have seen Canterlot in shambles and on fire. Her mind couldn’t help but wander off and think of her brother. Was he alright, was anypony ok there? Just then the ground began to shake like a weak earthquake. True it wasn’t a strong one but it was there nonetheless. Screams could then be heard that grew more and more distant. She recognized the screams as her friends but even then she questioned herself, her mind. “It’s just a trick right, those weren’t my friends? It was just the marker trying to lead me to my death?”
Twilight ignored the screams and turned back to the marker when a giant hulk like necromorph burst through a nearby house. Twilight turned and fired shot after shot at the creature.
After a ten minute fight, she finally killed it with little to no health left. She couldn’t even see her health bar, just a small red glow. At this point she couldn’t even stand and then Fluttershy appeared. “Hello Twilight.”
“You stay away from me, you can’t touch me remember? I have my crown.” Twilight said as she reached up to touch her crown which she found wasn’t there. “No no no no no, where is it?” Before Twilight had the chance, Fluttershy grabbed onto her.
Sweetie Belle and the others fell through a hole in the ground. Something was burrowing under them and it created the hole as well as a slide. They had no idea where they were going to but they didn’t have much choice in the matter. As they continued down the slide, a worm like necromorph popped through the ground and grabbed Azaliah. It pulled her through the ground but not before Sunset grabbed onto her. Unfortunately Sunset hit her head as Azaliah was pulled through and it forced her to let go and continue her descent. The others continued downward and slid a few feet when they hit the bottom. When they looked around, they found themselves surrounded by necromorphs.
Azaliah was pulled along until a big room appeared and she was let go. She landed with a hard thud on the ground. She stood and wobbled back and forth as she tried to regain her balance. “Stupid drag tentacle.” She regained balance, shook her head to clear it and then look around the room. It was rather small with the exception that it was big enough to fit one thing. “The marker.” A voice was heard behind her and she turned around in circles. She knew that voice all too well. “Axel!”
“You thought I was gone didn’t you Azaliah. I told you, this wasn’t over.” Axel came out from within the marker. His body was bloody but he looked like himself. “Don’t fight this, if you just give in you can be like me. You could go peacefully and return a hero, just admit that the marker can save us and mean it. You could be a prophet to the marker like me.”
“I could also be completely insane and I’d prefer to keep what I have left of my sanity. I still can’t believe the marker made me think I was talking to my great great grandfather but I suppose being knocked out cleared my mind. Now what do you say we end this now.” Azaliah raised her gun and pointed it at Axel. Axel moved closer and closer to his target who had no room to run all while being shot at. The bullets had no effect. He grabbed onto her head and invaded her mind.
After that little rush, Azaliah found herself still in the hole but it was bigger about ten times. There were rocks and other things spread out over the platform and Axel stood on the other side. She turned to her left and saw Twilight fighting who she could only assume was pony Fluttershy and she was getting no where with her. In the center was town hall with the marker in the center of it.
Azaliah turned back to face Axel. “Ok, let’s finish this.” She fired at Axel who went unaffected which wasn’t a big surprise until she realized she had to reload. At that point, she had to turn tail and run. After getting to the other side, a bullet whizzed by her and hit a small shadow like necromorph. Azaliah then heard Twilight yell to her.
“Azaliah, you shoot mine and I’ll shoot yours, we need each other! Don’t ask me how I know this, just trust me!” Twilight yelled as she moved out of the way of Fluttershy.
“I don’t need you Twilight, I can handle myself.” Azaliah fired more shots at Axel and then turned to one of the shadow necros and fired, it didn’t faze the creature. It jumped and landed on Azaliah. She wrestled with it for a bit before it was shot off of her. She looked to Twilight in shock. “Fine, you win!”
Soon the two were dodging little shadows, warning each other of danger and shooting the others necromorphs. Once the shadows were dead, they began firing on Axel and Fluttershy. Fluttershy died in two shots while Axel was still being shot at. “Sure, that’s fair. She only took a few shots while I’m still shooting your man!” After Twilight said that, Axel disappeared. “Never mind!” Behind Twilight the marker took damage and then human Rainbow Dash and the others appeared except for Pinkie Pie.
“Yes but at least you only have one person to shoot while as of now I have four.” Azaliah shot each of them but when they went down, they didn’t die. Smaller markers appeared from their bodies that she had to shoot. “Now I have two parts on them to shoot.”
“I take everything I said back Azaliah, I’m sorry about everything!” Twilight apologized as she shot Axel who had reappeared. “I should have listened to you in the first place, I’m so sorry, for everything!”
Azaliah was shocked to hear this and then something in her clicked and she felt bad. Maybe it was that she was the one that started the rivalry but it didn’t matter. “No, I’m sorry; I should have let you help me! I shouldn’t have tried to kill you!” Without realizing it, the two platforms started moving closer together. “I should have been nicer to you; you had every right to help if you wanted! I’m sorry for being such a creep! Can you forgive me for everything I’ve done to you?” The two platforms connected and the two went back to talking normally after feeling the shaking beneath there feet from the collision.
“Only if you can forgive me.” Azaliah nodded and then the two switched places and started to fight with the others problem. Twilight had run out of ammo and had started using her magic which worked just as well. Soon Axel, Rainbow, the others, and the shadow necros vanished. “Is that it?”
“I wish I could say yes.” Crazy and child like laughter could be heard. The two turned the sounds of the laughter and found human and pony Pinkie. “Of course we would have been out of here if it was.”
“Good point.” Twilight and Azaliah aimed at the two Pinkies’. They fired as fast as possible until they fizzled and became much darker; their skin/fur and hair which was also straightened. Tendrils came from their backs and flailed around. Azaliah and Twilight continued to fire at the two Pinkies but their shots were deflected by the tendrils. “What now?”
Azaliah looked around unsure of what to do as she and Twilight backed up. Then she saw some markers floating around. “The markers above us.” Twilight looked up and nodded. Azailiah tossed Twilight a telekinesis module and quickly showed her how to use it. The two grabbed a marker and threw them at the two Pinkies. The tendrils grabbed the markers which gave the two a few seconds to hit the two demonic Pinkie Pies. They hollered, screamed and then went back to the normal happy Pinkie’s.
“Not again, really?” Azaliah looked to Twilight, the two nodded and once again fired on the two demons but this time when they turned, two figures popped from their bodies.
“It’s good to be out of there.” Pony and human Pinkie said and then vanished.
“That was weird but then what hasn’t been lately?” The two demonic Pinkies moved closer to Azaliah and Twilight who had grabbed two more markers and threw them at the two demons. The two demonic Pinkie’s grabbed onto the markers. Twilight and Azaliah fired as fast as they could but when the two Pinkies fizzled, they didn’t change back again. Instead the two released markers from their backs that were soon fired upon.
The demonic Pinkies fizzled and then stood up and summoned necros of all kinds. As this happened, human Rainbow Dash and friends and pony Pinkie and Fluttershy appeared. “You didn’t think that we would leave you hanging did you? You take care of those Pinkie imposters and let us take care of the necros.” Human Rainbow said with a wink. “Thanks for freeing us by the way.”
Azaliah and Twilight turned to each other and nodded. They couldn’t deny that they were shocked though. “Together?”
“Together.” Azaliah and Twilight focused their fire on the pony Pinkie imposter and the marker that was on Twilight’s side begun to glow. They focused on the marker while avoiding contact with the demonic human Pinkie. The marker broke and blew up after a few seconds of shooting at it. The two then turned their attention to the other Pinkie imposter. She fizzled out and Azaliah’s Marker began glowing. They focused on the marker and destroyed that one as well. Everything around them vanished and the two were pulled apart. “Friends?”
“Friends.” Twilight was sucked out of her mind and collapsed onto the ground which then began to collapse below her.
Underground Azaliah left her mind and looked around. “It’s finally over, I hope.” She looked up to see the ceiling collapsing. She sat down as rocks fell all around her and too exhausted to care, she fell asleep.
Two weeks later and Azaliah and Twilight opened their eyes to find some friends and family around them, Twilight’s anyway. Shining, Cadance, her mother, her friends were a few. “How am I alive?” Azailah and Twilight said in unison.
“You’re lucky, that you had friends to help you.” Celestia said.
“Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t happy about saving Azaliah but Twilight would have had our head.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Are you ok love?” Flash asked holding onto Twilight’s hoof.
Twilight turned and frowned. “I’m fine Flash but-” Twilight paused and pulled off her ring and then hoofed it back to Flash. “I can’t Flash, not right now anyway. I’m sorry.” Flash, though sad, smiled and nodded in understanding. Twilight then turned to Azaliah. “Did we really apologize and if we did, what made you?”
Azaliah smiled. “After you apologized, after you saved me, something just clicked. I’m not sure what it was and I know that it isn’t a good explaination but it is what it is. Friends?” Twilight nodded and her other friends looked shocked
“Well, it’s going to be a bit of time before you can go home, you don’t mind staying do you?” Twilight asked.
“No, I think I could stand being here with my new friend for a while and to be honest, I didn’t have any real friends back home anyway.” Azaliah smiled.
“Now you do so long as you don’t try to kill me again.” Twilight turned and smiled at all the happy faces though she wasn’t sure how many of them were real or fake, but for now she would work to get her life back in order. “First things first when I get back, get the library fixed up and organized again.” Everypony broke into a fit of laughter. “What, I need to.” Twilight needed time to mourn as well but that was easy enough to do while working at least in her mind.