Darkwood walked quietly through the forest as the moon was tucked behind a cloud in the sky. Darkness was always good as a cover. She reached the edge of the Everfree Forest, and continued on to Sweet Apple Acres. It was interesting to see it from her usual angle after seeing it in a different way recently. She walked up to the tree that she went to every years, and quickly etched out the same necromancy symbol as usual in the dirt.
At least this won't hurt as much since it is less than usual. thought Darkwood as the thin red dome closed over her. That first blast is still going to hurt quite a bit.
She took in a deep breath, before closing her eyes and laying her hoof on the trunk of the tree. The built-up unicorn magic in her quickly rushed out into the tree, and she automatically gritted her teeth in response to the pain.
But oddly enough, she didn't feel any pain at all.
Darkwood's eye flicked open, and she managed to make out a magenta glow surrounding the red dome around her. Her hoof slid off the tree, and she frowned before wiping away the symbol underneath her.
"Twilight." she said, with minimal anger in her voice. "I thought I told you to leave me alone. How did you know I would be coming here?"
"The zap apples." said Twilight, quietly walking over from a tree she had been walking behind. "The way you talked about them and what Applejack said happened earlier."
"It is just a simple magic transfer, Princess." Darkwood turned to face her. "I am used to the pain."
"But you don't need to feel the pain, ever! Why don't you let anypony know about you, Darkwood? We could make everything easier for you!"
"I said it once but I will say it again: nopony needs to know a corpse." she snapped, stamping angrily at the ground.
"But that's not true!" Twilight took a few step towards her. "Darkwood, ponies care about others. They would care about you if they knew, They wouldn't consider you a corpse."
"Then they should consider me a corpse. Tell me Princess, have you ever seen me anything but angry or placid? I do not feel emotions. Corpses do not feel emotions."
"You were happy when you looked at the zap apple trees."
"I was impresses by them in the daylight. I usually see them only under moonlight."
Twilight frowned. "You could see them every day in the sunlight if you wanted to. You could have friends-"
"Friends who will only die in the end!" cried Darkwood. "If I had any, I would just wonder how I could ever get over them leaving!"
"What if you had friends who won't, er, just die off? Like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna."
Darkwood glared at Twilight. "That is just plain ridiculous. Why would the Royal Sisters want to know a corpse?"
"Why do you call yourself a corpse?" asked a new voice, approaching from behind Twilight.
Darkwood froze, and stared at Princess Luna in surprise. The alicorn was looking at the Earth pony in curiosity.
"Princess Luna?" she asked quietly, but with surprise.
"Just because a pony is not alive does not mean that they are dead." said Luna, walking up to Darkwood. "You may not dream, need food or water, need to breathe, an do not age does not mean you are dead. You still have a heart and you still have a voice."
"I use my voice only to explain." said Darkwood quietly, not making eye contact with Luna.
"Then how is it that you can tell a moving story? Twilight told me about you and the timber wolves, along with that of you and Symbe. She was moved so much that she wanted to help you. She knew you felt pain doing the magic transfer, so she prevented it. She knew that you were fearful of losing friends you made, so she asked me to come."
"But I still do not have a heart." she whispered.
"Then why do you still tend to the timber wolves, making sure that they do not attack ponies? In no way are you obligated to remain in control of them, it is your choice out of care for others." Luna smiled. "You care far more deeply than you realize. Not only do you hold back the timber wolves, but you supply the Apple family with their zap apple harvest every year. And you do not even request thanks. You are completely selfless, Darkwood."
"But I was the one who told the timber wolves to get revenge in the first place."
"Wishing revenge on those who killed you is not as unreasonable as you think."
"I killed someone."
"She took away your death against your will. And you did not just immediately instruct the timber wolves to attack other ponies. You just made up for what you did in the past. You've made up for them and more by now, the same way that I have made up for my actions as Nightmare Moon." She paused. "Were you in the forest during the Starswirl Era?"
"I was. I saw your battle." said Darkwood. "Your sister cried for hours after she banished you."
Luna blinked in surprise. "You saw it?"
"I watched from outside. I gave Princess Celestia a flower when she was crying to make her feel better. I tossed it down from the roof."
"Was it a zap apple flower?"
"Um..." she paused to think. "Yes, it was."
Luna smiled. "She still has it, locked in a preserve spell."
"Why would she want to keep something as simple as a flower?"
"It was an act of compassion when she was more depressed and upset than ever."
"So?"
"It means that you sill have all of your emotions, not just the negative ones."
Darkwood's eyes flicked down towards the ground, before she looked back at Luna. "I am still dead."
"I understand that you are here by means of dark magic, though they were not your choice to be used. Although, thousands of years ago there were are more cases of dark magic used on ponies by choice. The spell would last maybe a week a most, before the ponies simply withered away into nothingness, as they were never truly brought back to life.
Darkwood slightly tilted her head in confusion. "Then how is it sustaining me?"
Twilight finally spoke for the first time since Princess Luna had. "You have your own magic within you."
"But I have Symbe's magic in me."
"Yes, but you keep having an excess that your need to remove. That's because your base magic is your own. Symbe used a timber wolf's magic as your core, but the timber wolves' magic came from you. It's just pure luck that Symbe chose to use your magic without even knowing that was yours."
Darkwood frowned. "This is all Symbe's fault? Why I'm still here? Why I can't go away? It's all because she just wanted to practice her necromancy magic?"
Twilight paused for a moment. "Yes."
Darkwood gave a slight nod, before collapsing on the ground and bursting into tears. Twilight blinked in surprise, before vanishing in a flash of magic. Luna sat down next to Darkwood, and remained silent while she cried.
"Is it wrong that I wish I told the timber wolves to kill Symbe?" managed Darkwood through her tears. "Because I could have. They would have pounced on her in a moments noticed had I asked."
"That is a difficult question to answer." said Luna. "But often we can wish that we did one thing as opposed to another."
She nodded in response, just as Twilight reappeared in another flash of light. She and Luna nodded to each other, and Darkwood stood back up.
"Are you going back to the forest?" asked Twilight nervously.
"No." said Darkwood, wiping away her tears. "I do not need to for a few days. The timber wolves will stay in place for a little, but they still have their animal urges. Plus, I still need to make you forget about me."
"Wh-what?" Twilight took a step back from her.
She gave a sad smile. "Twilight Sparkle, as much as I appreciate you introducing me to Princess Luna, and I am assuming also Princess Celestia, I can not let other ponies know about me."
"But why not?"
"If other ponies know about me, then others will also attempt to use necromancy to be like me. It doesn't matter if you try to keep me a secret, other ponies will find out. I can trust the Royal Sisters because they have experience with these sort of problems. But I unfortunately can not let eight others know."
"Eleven."
Darkwood paused. "What do you mean?"
"I told Applejack about you using your magic to help the zap apple trees, and she went to tell her family."
"Why would she do that?"
"There y'all are!" said Applejack walking up to the three ponies. "Guys, Ah found 'em!"
Darkwood glanced over at Twilight, who smiled. "What? They all wanted to see you before you vanished into the Everfree again. Well, I guess before they forget you, now."
"Hey, Darkwood!" said Applejack with a brightly smile. "Ah'm glad you haven't run off yet. Ah just wanted ta thank you fer helping out Sweet Apple Acres for so many years. Ya know, if you hadn't grown the trees so quickly back in the day then mah poor great-grandparents would've probably starved!"
"My pleasure?" said Darkwood, confused on how to respond.
At that point, everypony else showed up (Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkamina, Fluttershy, Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and three other ponies that were most likely Applejack's family members), and Darkwood looked at the older Earth pony with a green coat in surprise.
"It has not been that long?" she asked quietly.
"Hiya, Ms. Darkwood!" said a filly with a yellow coat, running up to her with a smile. "Applejack said that yer the reason why the zap apples grow, an' Ah wanted ta thank ya for doin' that fer us! But if you've been doin' that fer so long, how come you don't look as old as Granny Smith?"
"Magic." Darkwood walked past the filly and up to Granny Smith, who had been looking at her. "Only a fool would walk blindly into the Everfree Forest like that, you know."
"Well, then Ah guess Ah was lucky enough thanks to you, huh?" said Granny Smith with a smile.
"Well... I want to thank you for taking the zap apples on that day. If you had not, then there would be no more apples. The tree died moments after you left."
"Ah'm the one who should be thankin' you! Ah was gonna be a snack for those timber wolves! 'Sides, Ponyville wouldn't exist if ya hadn't grown those trees."
Darkwood nodded, and then walked back over to Twilight. She gave Twilight a sad smile, and she nodded in response.
"Can you tell them while I go get my materials?" asked Darkwood. "I already have a spell that will erase your memories."
"Of course." said Twilight.
Darkwood nodded, before walking off towards the Everfree Forest to grab her necromancy gear.
"Can we throw you a giant goodbye party?" asked Pinkamina. "With all of Ponyville invited?"
"No." said Darkwood. "The spell will only be able to handle so many ponies. Ten ponies and one dragon are stretching it as it is. The more ponies we have to use the spell on, the weaker it becomes."
"Then can we have a party with just all of us? We can have it in the barn!"
"..." she hesitated. "...We can have a party with just the eleven of us."
"Yippee!" she bounced high into the air. "I'd better go get a cake and decorations, pronto!"
She quickly zipped off, and Darkwood couldn't help but smile for a moment.
Darkwood drew the final line in the large necromancy symbol on the ground, and put her stick away in her dirty-white saddlebags. Everypony was sitting on specific areas of the symbol, while she finished preparing it. The party had been very short, as she didn't want to attract other ponies' attention. She nodded to herself, before reaching into the saddlebags to grab the last thing needed for the spell.
"Wait." said Applejack as Darkwood pulled out a jar with a red ember in it. "Ah've got somethin' ta give ya."
"What do you mean?" she asked, gently setting the jar down on the ground.
"A gift, sugarcube. Fer helpin' the zap apple trees ta grow all these years."
"Oh." she nodded slightly. "What is it?"
Applejack walked up to Darkwood, and then took off her hat and placed it on her head. "Here. Yer part of the Apple family, and Ah want you ta have somethin' so ya always know."
Darkwood blinked in surprise. "Thank you."
"Thank you, Darkwood. Without ya, Ponyville wouldn't even exist."
Applejack gave her a hug, which was soon added on by Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and even Granny Smith. Darkwood smiled, but unlike usual, it didn't quickly fade away. She hugged the four of them back, before letting go and taking a step back.
"Thank you." she said, before picking back up the jar. "I will miss all of you."
"We'll miss ya too!" said Apple Bloom. "Even if we don't remember you!"
There was a unanimous nod of agreement from everyone, and Darkwood's smiled maintained.
"Thank you all so much."
With that, she opened the jar and released the ember. It sprung from each candle until they were all lit, and a bright red dome encircled everyone in the room sans her and Princess Luna. Her horn lit up to make sure the spell was maintained safely, and Darkwood caught the ember in jar, shutting it tightly.
"Thank you."
She walked out of the barn with her new hat sitting firmly on her head. A tear slid down her cheek, before being joined by a cascade of more.
"Apples forever."