//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Guilt Trip // by Brony Swag //------------------------------// On one of the nicest days in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle decides to venture to a city where she’s never been, Phillydelphia. She decided not to tell Princess Celestia or her friends, because she assumed that it would only take about half a day. Also, she knew that they might not approve of the only reason why she’s going there. She has been putting this trip off for some time. On her journey she comes across an old hut and decides to stop by and say hi. After she learned how magical friendships are, she’s always up to making new friends. As she’s walking up the stairs, she starts to smell a scent that isn’t normal. The smell gives her a nervous and nauseous feeling in her stomach and decides it might not be a good idea to go in by herself. She walks back to Ponyville to tell her friends. She started to tell her friends about how she smelled something like burnt hair, or burning skin. The thought of it makes Twilight gag a little bit. All of them know that Twilight would not mess around about something like this. Rainbow Dash jumps up trying to sound brave, but possible to notice a rasp of nervousness in her voice, “Let’s check it out! I’m not scared of anything or any pony!” All of them look at Dash and giggle at her faintly, but know that this could be serious. Applejack, trying to ease the tension a little bit exclaims, “Alright everypony, y’all know that this could just be all a big misunderstandin’, it could be nothin’!” “I hope you’re right Applejack.” says Twilight. On their way to the hut, the group starts discussing what could possibly be the cause of this questionable event. They get closer and start to hear sirens, now they know that it’s serious. Twilight starts sprinting towards the hut as the other follow her. As they came to a closer view of the hut they see multiple pegamedics and the Equestrian Police Unicorns who are the highest ranking unicorns of Equestria. At that moment, Twilight becomes stiff. Fluttershy, trying to get a word out over her crying asks, “Twilight, what’s going on? Why are there so many ponies here?” “I don’t know yet, let me go ask.” She says cautiously. Twilight walks up to one of the EPU’s, “Excuse me sir, but may I ask what happened here?” The EPU does not answer so Twilight asks again, but more aggressively, “Excuse me sir! May I….” She gets cut off by the EPU’s loud voice, “I do not have permission to tell you anything.” Twilight, getting frustrated stares directly into the EPU’s eyes and yells as loud as she can, “I am Princess Celestia’s personal student! I think I have the right to know what’s going on here! Either tell me now, or I’ll get the Princess involved.” The EPU looks at her, shocked at the tone of her voice, “I’m sorry Ma’am, but all we know that a pony has been burned to death, very tragic.” “Well, do you know who it is?” Twilight asks anxiously. “We haven’t had the chance to look through the CMD (Cutie Mark Database), and the body is pretty bad, we don’t even know the color of the poor pony’s skin, but hopefully we can find out soon…” Before he finished his sentence, a group of pegamedics slowly walk out of the hut with a board with legs that rest on the four pegamedics’ backs. On top of this board lay a zipped up black bag, “Wait! Before you go, may I please…See the body?” Twilight asks anxiously, feeling slight remorse and beginning to feel sick. Twilight becomes more and more nervous the closer she gets to the bag. As she slowly opens the bag, all she can see is blackness. Rainbow dash, who is hovering in the back curiously trying to get a look, throws up from the sight of the black lifeless pony. Twilight, having a hard time looking at the body, keeps going down to illuminate the back thighs. Although the skin is charcoaled and extremely hard to make out, the cutie mark is still quite distinct. As Twilight looks at the cutie mark, her heart drops as she recognizes it, a lyre. All of the ponies see Twilight’s face and realize it’s someone they know. Twilight walks over as her eyes become more and more puffy. She’s trying to speak but the words just won’t come out, “It’s… It’s…” Rainbow Dash, tearing up and becoming more and more anxious yells at Twilight, “Spit it out Twilight!” “It’s Lyra!” Twilight breaks down while everypony is in complete shock. Pinkie Pie can’t hold back and breaks down too. Lyra, Bon Bon and her were planning a surprise party for Ditzy Doo yesterday. “I can’t believe this, we were going to have the bestest party ever!” Pinkie Pie says with pure pain in her voice. Fluttershy goes towards Pinkie Pie and gives her a hug to comfort her, “She was a friend to all of us, I miss her so much already, I miss her so much.” Fluttershy says softly, but you could hear her every word. Rarity was also with Lyra yesterday, making dresses for Ditzy’s party. She can barely stand knowing that she’s gone. Twilight, whose sadness was slowly becoming anger yells, “We are going to find out who did this! I don’t care how long it takes or how hard it will be, but we are going to find him! I can’t sit around and do nothing, she is one…. was one of the nicest ponies I’ve ever met, and most of you probably feel the same way!” They all shake their heads in confirmation, but are still trying to process the whole scenario. Without any direction on which to start, Twilight starts going towards Phillydelphia as the rest of the ponies follow behind her. Applejack starts to hear Twilight talking to herself, “This is all my fault, I should have learned it earlier, I shouldn’t have walked away from the hut, I could have saved her.” The guilt is slowly building in her heart, and Applejack knows firsthand that Twilight can’t handle stress well. “Twilight, please don’t blame yourself for this.” Applejack pleads. “Applejack, you don’t underst..” A voice in the background stops her in mid-sentence. The voice either came from Pinkie Pie, or Rainbow Dash, but what was said had been quite clear. “Bon Bon?!” Applejack and Twilight look back so quickly that they could of broken their necks. They see Bon Bon cuddled up sobbing next to an apple tree a couple rows into the orchard. “Darling! My goodness are you hurt?” Rarity asks with deep concern, as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy try to calm her down. “She’s…She’s…She’s gone! Forever!” Bon Bon starts to weep harder to the point where she can barely open her eyes. “I don’t understand! Why would… how could something do this!” Her voice seems to vanish as her crying overtakes it. “We…We…we should of never taken that way! She was burnt alive! Do you know how hard it is to… to watch your best friend die in front of you! Tied up and burnt alive right in front of me!” The ponies don’t know what to say, they just listened. “We passed the Everfree Forest and next thing we know we end up tied up in a hut!” She almost passes out from the yelling over the crying. “Bon Bon, you’re safe now, don’t be scared.” Twilight says trying to be reassuring. “I got away! But it was too late! She was already burning! He cut her so many times, there was so much blood. He tortured her! And I had to watch!” Everypony is speechless but on the verge of crying. “I can’t take this anymore! We are finding him now! He’s gonna pay!” Dash says fiercely. “Why…Why…” Bon Bon begins to cry again from the thoughts running through her head. As Fluttershy and Rarity take Bon Bon back to Ponyville, the rest of the crew continue to Phillydelphia. They have no idea what they’re looking for, especially in a place they’ve never been to. Twilight still hasn’t forgotten the whole reason why she was coming to Phillydelphia in the first place. She still feels guilt for Lyra’s death and wishes she could have been quicker and more organized. As they enter the enormous city, they notice that there is nopony in sight. The silence of the huge city is nerve wrecking and the friends decide to go back to Ponyville and think out a plan. Twilight suggests a different route back to Ponyville to avoid the hut, the others agree. As they are going back to Ponyville, they pass the entrance to the Everfree Forest where they met up with Rarity and Fluttershy, “Didn’t Bon Bon mention the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asks in confirmation, “Yes, but we don’t have time to explore…” Twilight gets distracted by a dark shiny liquid on some plants in the enterance. “Twilight, this might not be a good idea…” Pinkie Pie says nervously. Twilight, more furious than nervous looks back at Pinkie Pie, “I’m not letting this happen again.” Bon Bon didn’t give much detail about how they were ponynapped, but when she mentioned the Everfree Forest, it was hard for her to finish you thought. Twilight, who is filling up with guilt knows that this is where it all began. Since the Everfree Forest doesn’t work the same way as the rest of Equestria, its mysterious nature and a sense of unknowingness make it harder for the ponies to concentrate. As they walk through the dark path, Rarity steps in a warm, thick puddle. “Ewwww! I just stepped in something absolutely horrid!” Twilight uses her magic to light up the vicinity. As she gets closer to Rarity, everypony lets out a tremendous scream. The pure white pony’s hooves were dripping in a pasty red substance. Fluttershy notices Rarity about to pass out and leaps behind her to catch her. The sight of how much blood on the ground was just unnatural., it looked like it wasn’t just one pony. They start to get petrified from the blood, the darkness, and the silence. Occasionally they hear a noises coming from every direction. Fluttershy starts to scream as she sees a shadow walking towards them. The group looks over to the direction Fluttershy is facing and notice the shadow, too big to be a pony. As the shadow gets closer the 6 ponies become filled with panic, but when it becomes close enough to make out a shape they notice a limp, and rings on the hooves, Zecora. The ponies start to receive a huge wave of relief, but begin to worry as they see her limp more clearly. They all start running towards her hoping that she isn’t injured badly. Zecora sees the ponies running towards her and yells with all the strength she has left, “Run, you must! Before he turns you to dust! He will cut you with grace, and leave no trace! He will then set you ablaze, as he will watch the end of your days!” Zecora starts to cry as Applejack approaches her, “Come on there Zecora, you’re safe now with us. You come back to Ponyville with us now and we’ll keep you safe! That’s the honest truth!” She says with a faint smile. Zecora, nods her head and follows them back to Ponyville. The friends approach Ponyville after a week has passed and notice that some things have changed. It seems like the village has died down some and not many ponies are outside. This makes most of them nervous, but they realize that it might be from the horrible loss of Lyra. The group splits up to go back to their own homes and decide to meet up later. As Zecora and Twilight walk intothe library, she shows Zecora where she can stay for the time being. While Twilight is showing her around she glances over at her writing desk and notices a letter that couldn’t of been sent from Princess Celestia, but hand placed by the princess herself. “Uhmm, just make yourself at home Zecora, I have to check up on something.” Zecora nods and walks into the room. “My faithful student Twilight, I know you are aware of the tragic loss of a friend. I was also informed by one of your friends that you feel it was your fault. Twilight Sparkle, you know that this wasn’t your fault, please stop putting grief on yourself. That is no way to remember a friend. I also heard that you’ve been searching for who did this, I want you to let the Equestrian Police to handle it. I know it’s strange for something like this to happen, this is something new to all of us. Crime isn’t something we are used to, especially like this. Just please Twilight, don’t make this harder on yourself than it already is.” Sincerely , Princess Celestia Twilight heart skips a beat, she can’t help blaming herself for it. The whole reason she was on her way to Phillydelphia was to be able to stop things like this from happening. While Zecora is still recovering, Twilight leaves to meet with Applejack to discuss about everything that has been going on. “Applejack, this is getting out of hand. We need to do something before somepony else gets hurt!” The second after she finishes her sentence, they hear a scream from across the town. Applejack and Twilight start rushing towards the scream. They see Rarity, Dash, and Pinkie running also. The whole group meets up in the middle of the town, “Did you guys hear the scream too? Where’s Fluttershy?!” Applejack asks anxiously. “She’s with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo’s been in Cloudsdale for most of the day.” Rainbow Dash explains. As they start running towards the scream, they notice a huge group of ponies surrounding something. Twilight squeezes through the crowd aggressively to see what is going on, the others follow her open pathway. She gets close enough to see through the spacing of the ponies and notice something horribly familiar, blood. Twilight starts running and begins to use her magic to get through the crowd; the others are trying to keep up completely clueless of what is going on until they almost run straight into her from her screeching halt. The body is a familiar one; they all stare down, shocked and confused. It was obviously a suicide, murder wasn’t an option in this crime scene. The knife not deep enough in the chest to be murder, the blood is still warm and hasn’t begun to clot. A hole begins to form in the crowd as a group of pegamedics come to take the body. The lifeless Lyrica makes the town extremely quiet, even the woodland creatures aren’t making a sound. The loss of her daughter Lyra and knowing that whoever is responsible could not be found made her dreams turn into nightmares. Even the thought alone drove her to suicide, it was just a matter of time. “Listen here Twilight, this wasn’t your fault, and neither was Lyra. You need to stop beatin’ yourself up and help us find this killer.” Applejack says with empathy, but with an aggressive tone. Twilight, without making eye contact nods and follows Applejack and the others to the farm. There was absolute silence in the farm, every pony looking down, not knowing what to say at all. Pinkie Pie, going crazy from the silence strikes up a question. “Where are we going to start? Sitting here is not going to solve anything.” “I think the… Everfree Forest is our best guess.” Rainbow Dash answers, with her voice having an anxious tone to it. “Then we might as well do it don’t you think? “Twilight snaps back, still looking down. They all look at her; feeling nauseous because it’s hard for them to see a friend in such pain. “You sure you want to tag along?” Applejack says concerned. “I do! We all need to make this right!” Twilight looks at all of them, you can still see the tears in her eyes. Twilight stand up and starts walking towards the door, “I’m going right now, I’m not going to just wait around for something else to happen. You can come with me now or meet me there later, either way I’m leaving.” Without hesitation, they all get up and follow her. The journey to the Everfree Forest has been completely silent since they left. As the forest becomes visible, the nerves of the ponies begin to tense up. “Do we have to go in there? I mean, I want to find out but… I don’t want to get in anypony’s way.” Fluttershy explains with a nervous rattle in her voice. “We are sticking together. I won’t let one of my friend be left alone… Not after all of what happened.” Twilight answers back with emotion, but with firmness. They all start to stand side to side, shaking in fear as they begin to walk into the Everfree Forest. It seems darker since the last couple times they have been in here. Most of the trees have broken branches and every once and while they notice blood on some of the trees. Some of the ponies are feeling regret for going into the forest. “I really think we should just leave this to the police.” Applejack exclaims as she’s looking at a bloody plant. “They wouldn’t even think of going in here! We need to do this by ourselves every pony! Or else this will never be solved!” Twilight snaps back at Applejack. Applejack shakes her head staring at the floor, “I’m sick of this Twilight, this is way bigger than all of us! You think everything is your fault! Your pain is hurtin’ all of us Twilight.” “Applejack! Ugh, I don’t want to fight about this! Just let me figure this out!” Twilight can’t think straight with her emotions running so high. Applejack decides to let it go and continue walking. The rest of the friends stay silent and try not to cause any more arguments. The silence makes every branch cracking and leaf falling sound louder than normal. The suspense makes the ponies feel uncomfortable, like something is watching them. They feel the presence of another body in the forest making them run into the unknown. They begin to slow down to take a break and catch their breath, but hear a faint sound of wings whooshing the air back and forth. Twilight and the other earth ponies look to find Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to see if it’s one of them, it’s not. The rush of terror strikes the ponies the instant they realize that the wings are from an unknown origin. They move closer and closer to each other, to the point where there is no room in between them. Fluttershy closes her eyes and begins to whisper to herself, “Hush now, quiet now It's time to lay your sleepy head Hush now, quiet now It's time to go to bed. Drifting off to sleep Exciting day behind you Drifting off to sleep Let the joy of…dreamland find you” They begin to close their eyes and sing with her, trying to ease the fear but it’s not helping. The wings are becoming closer and closer and the horror is becoming higher. Twilight peaks open one of her eyes and looks around a little bit. She notices something and begins to shiver from what she saw, massive red eyes. The wing span is about 25 meters, big red eyes, and a beak that is dripping a dense liquid. The unknown figure drops down in front of the scared huddled ponies. “Hmmm, you don’t normally see ponies in the Everfree Forest, especially six! What brings you into this dangerous place?” The silhouette exclaims dramatically while slurping on the unknown substance. None of them respond and the figure becomes irritated. “I said… Why are you here?!” Twilight flinches back from the tone, but recovers to ask a simple question. “Who… Who are you?” “Haha, well I am Grissom. The last of the long winged griffons! And may I ask who you are?” “My name is… Twilight…” She doesn’t go any farther into telling the griffon her full name. “Well Twilight, looks like you found me! I guess I’m not as discreet as I thought I was.” Grissom chuckles at his own statement. The ponies look at each other confused, Twilight’s fear slowly turns into anger as she thinks about his statement. “You… It’s you isn’t it!” She stands up and stares down the griffon as the others are beginning to realize what he said. Grissom chuckles and licks off his beak, “I assume you are referring to this “killer” of which you speak. If you are, then in that case I am.” Twilight isn’t scared or in fear as she is too angry to feel anything else, although the rest of the ponies begin to stand back while they all stay interlocked with each other. “How could you… Burn someone alive? What was going through your mind!? How could you just leave someone to die?!” Twilight yells as loud as she can to the griffon; tearing up not from sadness, but from remorse. Grissom looks at her with only a grin and begins to speak with a loud and confident tone. “Oh Twilight, you don’t even know half of it! Your precious friends didn’t feel a thing when I burned them!” Grissom chuckles throughout the whole sentence. “Friends? How many ponies have you… Killed?” Twilight asks, still distraught from his words. “Too many to count, but not all were burnt! Oh heavens no, I had to be unique, in a way that they would be remembered. The pony that you’re referring to had a sort of flame in her, she was very feisty and resistant, of course I had to choose fire! I couldn’t start off with just fire though, that would have been too quick and would have ruined the fun!” “Why…” That’s all Twilight could pull out of her body. Her legs give up and she drops to the ground. “Hush! I’m not finished, so rude to interrupt me… Anyways, where was I? Oh yes! I couldn’t possibly start off with the finale! When I took her and her friend, I tied her up and took one of my favorite toys! My trusty Jigsaw! Now I wanted to make sure she would stay alive so we could spend some time together, I would hate to not have known her before she was gone! I began with the simple things, like the ears and nose, then began moving towards the eyes and tongue! It was a shame we couldn’t talk after that! The blood pulsing out was the beautiful metronome that helped me keep my pace.” Fluttershy faints from the detail and a couple of the ponies begin to vomit. Twilight lays there, emotionless from the pain that is flowing through her veins. “The eyes were absolutely delicious! Her skin was such a beautiful color that I had to keep some! Oh her friend was so loud; it was quite enjoyable really, although I have no idea where she ran off too. Oh Well, back to the story! After the whole charades with her eyes and tongue, I couldn’t pass up her beautiful white teeth! Although I didn’t have a toy to use to take them, I improvised! I figured that her horn was solid enough to hit them out, so I cracked her horn off! Oh it was lovely watching her try to scream for help, I tried to tell her that with no tongue, nothing is going to happen! Her tears were rather enjoyable also; they had a sort of… hopelessness taste to them. It was amazing! Sadly her punishment was getting to her too fast and she was fading quickly, so I had to hurry up and burn her. I didn’t leave her to die alone! I made sure her friend was by her side throughout the whole thing, a shame I couldn’t get started on her.” His chuckles made Rainbow Dash and Applejack break down and Rarity began to feel Lyra’s pain within her horn. “Shut up… Just SHUT UP!” Twilight screams while slowly beginning to look up, “You deserve no punishment other than the punishment that you gave your victims!” Her horn begins to glow faintly, but it seems to glow brighter the more she speaks. “Your ruthlessness and brutality is just unorthodox! I can’t even fathom how you could even push yourself to this!” Twilight’s eyes begin to turn white and her horn is glowing so bright that it lights up the whole forest. “I can’t take it anymore!” The power from her horn strikes Grissom in the most violent manner possible. He begins to scream in pain and pleads to Twilight to stop. She begins to force the magical power to a higher limit and Grissom cries for help, but Twilight doesn’t budge; the anger inside is too much for her to bare. She becomes physically exhausted from this power and needs to stop. Even though Twilight has stopped using her magic, Grissom is still screaming in pain. Twilight, trying to catch her breathe begins to slowly stand up, “What you feel right now is all the pain that you put your victims through. Don’t worry, you won’t die from it until it goes through every…single…pony.” The ponies stare at the griffon, emotionless. They’re not quite sure what they feel about this, but it isn’t guilt. He deserves this. Grissom’s cry begins to sound like a hysterical laugh, making Twilight and the rest confused. “How could he laugh while enduring all this pain?” Twilight asks herself. “Hahahaha! The memories are becoming fresher than ever! All of the blood I have tasted! All of the skin I’ve taken! All of the lives that have been cleansed are being brought back to life! You…Are a miracle worker Twilight!” The laughter and happiness that is being poured out of Grissom angers Twilight. Applejack notices Twilight walking towards Grissom and runs after her, but is pushed back by some sort of magical force field that Twilight created. “No Twilight! He is going through enough torture! Don’t lose yourself in this!” Applejack screams; hoping that she’ll listen, but Twilight seems to be in a different state of mind. Grissom sees Twilight and begins to laugh more, “Oh you think you can do anything else to me that you haven’t already? Hahaha!” Twilight stops, directly in front of him and begins to look up from the ground and directly at the hysterical griffon. Her pure white eyes are beginning to change to a reddish hint, and you could see the power and anger building up inside her. Grissom stops laughing and looks straight at her, “Let’s see what you got, little girl.” Twilight grins and out of nowhere the forest becomes darker than ever before, winds begin to pick up at dangerous speeds, and Twilight begins to levitate in front of him. Her horn begins to glow, but starts to change into fire. Grissom becomes frightened and starts to weep in pain and fear. Her magic begins to flow into his mouth and deteriorate his tongue; burning and pulling it. He tries to scream, but can’t, he can feel the hairs in his nose and throat begin to singe. His eyes start to water, but quickly stop from the heat drying up his tear ducts. Twilight; still grinning, looks directly into Grissom’s eyes and says very quietly, “Try to laugh now.” A flash from Twilight’s horn blinds the ponies, but they can hear something similar to a gargling noise. Their eyes adjust and they see a tongue about a foot long being held up in the air and Grissom on the ground trying to breathe, but the blood is drowning him. Twilight begins to slowly levitate back to the ground and looks at the dying griffon, but remembers her friends are there. She looks back to see the five ponies staring at her in shock, but Twilight doesn’t understand why. “It’s over, he’s dead. He can’t ever hurt anypony again. Why aren’t you happy?” Twilight asks, anxiously waiting for an answer. “You… Killed him, just like he would kill someone else… You acted just like him. How are we supposed to be happy? I… That was the most disturbing that I have ever seen!” Applejack exclaims. Twilight doesn’t know how to respond, she thought what she did was a good thing. She takes a couple steps towards them and they all scurry away from her. Her emotions begin to show and she starts to cry, “Please! Don’t be afraid of me! I just got carried away! I don’t want to lose my friends! I was going to Phillydelphia to learn how to protect you all! I never wanted any of my friends to get hurt!” She pleads for forgiveness, but none of them seem to give it to her. “Please… This isn’t normally like me…Please don’t leave me…” Rainbow Dash begins to cry, “I keep replaying this whole thing in my head, I just… I can’t take it Twilight! You really scared me, I can’t… Look at you the same…” Her tears begin to fall out effortlessly as she walks away. Her loyalty made it hard to walk away. Rarity and Pinkie Pie walk away with their heads down, speechless. “I’m so sorry Twilight,” Fluttershy says, “I’m scared and I don’t want to be here anymore, I hope you don’t hate me…” She walks away in tears knowing that she hurt her friend’s feelings. “Please Applejack, don’t leave me here alone. I can’t take my friends hating me, I just wanted to protect you all.” Twilight could barely get the words out over her weeping. “Honestly, I can’t look at you the same. You acted just like he did, and enjoyed it! I’m sorry Twilight, but... but… I can’t talk to you without thinking of you… I can’t…” Her lip begins to shiver and her eyes become watery, she walks away before finishing her sentence. Twilight cuddles up into a ball, choking on her breathe from her sobs. All of her friends left her in the Everfree Forest by herself. Her act of protection turned into the collapse of her most valuable thing, friendship. With all of her strength she gets up and begins to walk back to Ponyville. As she walks through the Everfree Forest, her sadness blocks out the frightening sights around her. She can’t help feeling guilty for everything; the death of Lyra and Lyrica, and the loss of her friendship. Her legs shake every step she takes, and her eyes are sore from crying. She falls over and vomits from the sobs, the pain is too much to bare, but she gets back up and continues to Ponyville. As she reaches the outskirts of Ponyville, she notices that all of her friends are doing what they would do any regular day. It seems like they forgot about her. Twilight has no idea how to react, her friends have abandoned her. She walks through Ponyville with her head down, avoiding every pony she passes. Once she comes to the doorstep of her home, she turns around and looks back. She notices Applejack and Rarity looking over at her, Twilight can’t look at them without remembering everything they said to her. She walks into her home, cold and dehydrated. While she’s walking upstairs, Zecora comes out of the study room and notices Twilight in tears and in pain, “Oh my dear Twilight, what has been done? Where are your friends, is it their home that they have gone?” “I don’t have any more friends. Please Leave Zecora, this is too much.” Twilight says to Zecora in a very monotone voice, and walks right past her into the master bedroom. Zecora is surprised by her words, but doesn’t question it and begins to leave. “She must need some time alone, I could hear her pain in her voice’s tone.” Twilight hears the door shut in the distance. Tears pour out and limbs begin to shiver, but she doesn’t try to hold anything back. She falls to the ground, her breathes are used up from crying, not movement. “All I wanted was my friends to be safe, and I failed! I have no more friends; I have let two ponies die already! I don’t deserve to have any friends!” The guilt begins building all at once, “Why do I even deserve to be here? Why do I even matter?” She begins to feel rage for her own life. She picks herself up from the ground and walks downstairs. She builds up the courage to walk outside and to the middle of the town. She stops crying and wipes away her tears; she notices that all of her friends with each other. Applejack notices Twilight and tells the others; they look at her in shame, but she doesn’t show emotion towards their faces. She stops about 20 feet away from them and begins to whisper something to them with magic; they all look at her with confusion as she speaks just a few simple words with a small smile. “Thank you for being my best friends.” She begins to glow a magnificent orange and yellow that lights up the whole entire town. The residents Ponyville look in awe, speechless. Twilight says one more thing, loud enough for all of Equestria to hear. “Thank you.” The wind begins to pick up and the ground begins to shake. Surprisingly no pony runs for cover or hides; they are in such shock that it has made them immobile. Twilight begins rising into the air, glowing brighter than before. The glow radiating around Twilight is generating a faint heat that can be felt by the ponies below. The heat begins to fade and seems to be sucked into Twilight; complete silence reigns upon Ponyville. The silence is aggressively broken by an explosion exactly where Twilight is levitating. The explosion is blinding, but doesn’t do harm to anything in the town. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash stand blinded and confused. After the explosion begins to fade, they notice sparkling lights glistening down throughout Ponyville, but Twilight is nowhere to be found. As the sparkles touch the ground, plants begin to grow and some sort of magic begins to light up the town. Every pony is flabbergasted, but can’t help to have a smile from the beauty. The five ponies know that Twilight ended her life to have her spirit watch over them all, but begin to cry because they will never see her again. Although, they will never forget her and the final words that she spoke before she was gone. “Thank you for being my best friends” “Thank you” “Thank you”