Everyone stared in horror at Darkwood, who stood expressionlessly.
"There." said Darkwood. "Now you know how I'm here. Goodbye."
Darkwood walked out of the castle, leaving the stunned ponies and dragon. She started walking away, when they suddenly sprinted out after her.
"Darkwood, wait!" cried Twilight.
Darkwood started walking faster, before breaking into a sprint. Twilight suddenly teleported in front of her, causing her to stop.
"Get out of my way, alicorn." said Darkwood angrily. "I have somewhere else to be."
"Where?" asked Twilight.
"It's none of your business. I'll just leave for a couple decades so if I come back, nopony will know me."
"Why would you want nopony to know you?" asked Twilight as her friends ran up behind Darkwood.
"Nopony needs to know a corpse. I'll just keeping on doing what I've been doing for hundreds of years, with no interruptions."
"But you don't have to live alone in the Everfree!"
"What will I do?" snapped Darkwood, glaring at Twilight. "Make some friends or something?"
Twilight's face lit up. "Yes! You should make-"
"Only to watch them all die away?"
Twilight's eyes widened, and Darkwood walked by her.
"Twilight Sparkle," said Darkwood harshly, "I was created in this world before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Everyone I have ever known is completely and definitely gone. Unless you wish to kill me or help me to befriend the Royal Sisters of all ponies, do yourself a favor, and forget that I exist."
Darkwood walked off towards the Everfree Forest, but paused and looked back.
"By the way, the Zap Apples might be a bit underdeveloped for a day or two."
With that, she walked into the woods without another word.
"Go to the cave." said Darkwood to three timber wolves that had been waiting for her near the edge of the forest. "I will be there later. I will call for you if necessary."
Without hesitation, the timber wolves ran off out of sight, leaving Darkwood alone. She started walking through the forest, treading quietly on the many sticks and leaves. The forest never seemed to change, no matter how many years passed by. She stopped in front of withered tree, and sat down.
"Why did I have to miss that one day?" she asked softly. "The wolves had been there... But I had forgotten..."
She sighed, and gently brushed her hoof down the decaying tree trunk.
"At least you found it." she briefly smiled, but it quickly flickered away. "And I made it just in time... You nearly died..."
Darkwood thought back to a day that had happened less than a century ago, and closed her eyes. She had gone to this tree that was now dead once every year. She had missed going to it on that day. But as fate would have it, a pony had shown up on the day she had been gone.
She looked at the vibrant purple ivy, wondering when it had appeared in the forest, when she heard one of the timber wolves howl. She quickly turned away from the ivy, and ran towards where the howl had resonated from. That meant it was the day she needed to go to the tree, and she could not be late.
"Please, I need to make it in time..." muttered Darkwood as ran.
Her ear twitched as she came close to the tree, and she heard a second set of hooves pounding on the ground. Darkwood frowned, and ran faster. The timber wolves were chasing somepony. She sprinted to the edge of the forest, and saw an older filly standing in front of a rather well-built house staring at the timber wolves fearfully. Darkwood slammed her hoof down on the ground to signal the timber wolves to come, just as the filly began to bang two pots together.
"Timber wolves..." hissed Darkwood threateningly.
The timber wolves quickly returned to her, their eyes blazing with hate. Darkwood glanced over at the filly as she went inside, before quickly sprinting back to the tree.
"I better not be out of time from that..." she muttered nervously, before skidding to a stop in front of the tree.
The tree had already withered. That was how specific the timing had to be for it to not die. But she was too late, and the rainbow fruit tree was dead.
"No..." she whispered softly. "No... It is gone... What do I now use to depose of my excess magic? Unless... Unless she took some of the fruit... If she replants it..."
Darkwood turned towards the timber wolves that were all staring silently at her.
"Go to the cave." she said. "I will be there later."
The timber wolves briefly hesitated, before running off deeper into the forest. Darkwood turned and walked back towards the edge of the forest where the timber wolves had chased the filly. She carefully walked over the filly's house, and listened for voices.
"Why, these fruits are beautiful!" said a mare's voice. "And you found them in the Everfree?"
"Yep!" said a filly's voice happily. "We can eat them now and plant the seeds so we have even more trees for later!"
She did not need to hear any more. Darkwood quickly returned to the forest, and laid down to wait for the morning. There was going to be seeds for her to treat tomorrow, and she needed to do it as soon as the ponies finished planting them. Hopefully they were going to be quick about it.
Just as the sun began to rise into the sky, two ponies came out of the house with a small bucket of seeds. Darkwood watched as they planted them, and quietly approached the seed farthest away from them. She quickly drew a small necromancy symbol in the ground, and placed her hooves next to the seed. A thin barrier of red magic surrounded her, and Darkwood quickly acted.
She blasted the excess unicorn magic built up over the year into the seeds, and flinched as the pain came. She held back the scream of pain for as long as possible, before it came out. But the spell around her kept the sound in, so nopony else could hear her cry. Darkwood shut her eyes tightly, before the pain finally ended. She remained still for a few seconds, before her eyes snapped open to see fully grown trees around her. None of them had fruit yet, though, but that was mostly likely due to the magic being distributed over many trees as opposed to the usual one. Darkwood wiped away the necromancy symbol, and sprinted back into the Everfree before anypony could see her.
The next year, Darkwood walked up to the same tree and did the same thing as last year. The timber wolves howled as she did in case the sound-containing spell broke. Blue flowers appeared on all the trees as opposed to nothing, and she returned to the Everfree.
"I will finish supplying the magic tomorrow night."
She then walked towards the cave where the timber wolves were waiting for her.