A/N: alright, really short chapter this time, but i hope you enjoy it anyway.... *sigh* we're almost there... all those lat nights and early mornings, have all built up to this.... this one pivotal moment... how will it end? i think i'll let you keep guessing on that one for a little while longer......
Applejack ran through town, asking anypony and everypony if they’d seen Fang. She got a different answer from each of them, as if they were leading her on a wild goose chase. One pony told her he was at the bar, a pony there told her he went to the flower shop, and most the ponies at the flower shop told her he was at the library. It didn’t make any sense. Suddenly, Derpy Hooves, the town mailmare landed in front of her.
“Why the long face?” she asked Applejack, who sighed.
“Well, ah gone an’ offended Fang, an’ now ah’m worried he might do somethin’ stupid. Ya got any idea where he went?” she saw no harm in asking. It’s not like she had anything to lose.
“Oh! I bumped into him not to long ago. He said he was going into the everfree forest, something about cleansing it.” she said before heading back onto her route. Applejack didn’t know what he could have meant, but it didn’t sound good. She ran off, heading towards the forest, bowling over quite a few other ponies as she ran. After she had been running for a while, the forest was in view. She could hear chanting from within it.
“”Fang!? Fang, that you!?” she yelled as she walked through the forest, trying to pinpoint the source of the chant. It was in a strange language that she couldn’t understand. “Fffaaannnng!? Ya here!?” she called out again.. Then she saw tendrils of what seemed to be pure darkness floating through the air. “Fang, ya crazy bastard, what the hay’re ya doin?” she whispered to herself, following the tendrils to their destination. What she found there was simultaneously mesmerizing and disturbing. It was Fang, chanting and spinning his staff and his body, almost as if in a form of dance. All the tendrils of darkness were moving towards him, slowly, and some of them were already going into him. He seemed to be in extreme amounts of pain, but continued what he was doing. Applejack had no idea what he was doing, but he did. He was channeling all of the darkness he had felt in this place upon his arrival into himself, thus cleansing the forest, while also taking his own life. This had been his plan, all along. If he was shunned, he would perform the ritual, removing himself from this world, while simultaneously making it a better place, if he was accepted, he would live out his life like a normal person would. “FANG! WHAT THE HAY’RE YA DOIN’?” she yelled at the top of her lungs, but he paid her no attention. He was lost in a trance, and words alone could not wake him from it. “Please Fang…. Ah’m sorry… ah shoulda waited fer the whole story before ah reacted, but please, whatever yer doin’, stop it!” she yelled to him again, again only met with chanting. She began to tear up, unable to believe what was happening. All of this, over a misunderstanding. It was unfathomable. As more darkness poured into him, he looked and sounded more pained, and seemed to slow down in his movements. He also seemed to be growing older, his hair slowly turning grey, his skin wrinkling. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She rushed towards him and tackled him, yelling. “Damn it Fang, ah love ya!” as soon as they connected, the whole forest was engulfed in a bright white light.