Thin branches smacked my face, some leaving small cuts in my skin. Pinkie was beside me, running as fast as she could, eyes screwed shut. The ground, in small clumps, was littered with mashed organs and skin, as well as the ground squishing under my hooves. They came away stained dark red.
The only sounds were the beating hooves, the swishing branches, and our own panting breaths. We must have run a mile or two when the cold air started to freeze my teeth, followed by what felt like it sinking down to the bottom of my lungs. I choked, losing my balance and falling into a pile of bloody things near a tree. They squirted everywhere, smattering my right half and Pinkie's hooves with stomach acid and blood. She backpedaled, but I just stood up, ignoring it.
"I doesn't matter. We need to keep going," I was about to start running again, but my knees buckled and I fell forward.
"I don't think you can last any longer, Rare!" Pinkie told me, helping me to my hooves, "We need to take a rest."
I fell back to the ground as soon as Pinkie removed her grasp. The wind left my lungs, as my reflexes hadn't been fast enough to stop my fall. I struggled to take another breath, Pinkie moving me into denser shade. I managed to take a shaky, halting breath, which sent a wave of pain through my body. I sobbed once, which only hurt me more.
"I think your rib's broken!" Pinkie told me, starting to get genuinely nervous. She shook a bit, looking at my side as if she could tell just from the top layer of skin.
My horn fizzled to life, sputtering a bit like an old motor. Eventually, the blue glow was constant, though the sound wavered. I focused hard through the pain, and watched as the same glow lit me from the inside of my chest. I clenched my teeth as I maneuvered the bone fragments into place, speeding the healing progress and mending the wound.
"Th-there. See? No p-problem," I murmured, still stunned from the pain.
Pinkie, for once, was utterly speechless. She opened her mouth to speak, but the voice I heard did not belong to her.
"Oh, Celestia. This is just bucking perfect," a voice complained from beyond the bushes. It was muffled, but still recognizable.
"Rainbow! Don't be a coward, get out here!" I called, standing on shaky legs.
"Oh, fine. The last thing I need is to be called a coward by the biggest coward in all of Equestria."
I braced myself, preparing for an attack. There was more rustling in the bushes, and Rainbow Dash emerged, hovering slightly over the ground. She was wearing an outfit similar to that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had thrown together: trash can lids, rope, and her prop helmet from the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant. A large blade was strapped to the helmet, it might have been a kitchen knife with the handle removed. Regardless, it didn't look very stable, and it looked like a hard enough blow would knock it clean off.
I backed up slowly, looking around for something to hit her with, "What do you want, Rainbow?"
"You know what I want: to put everything back the way it should be." My eyes landed on a large branch. Rainbow wasn't really paying attention to me, she was too busy talking, "Something needs to be done about this. You've really screwed up this time, Rares. I know you've done some crazy things in the past..."
I continued backing up, very slowly, waiting until the branch was to my right. Pinkie could see what I was trying to do, and she started side-stepping into Rainbow's line of sight.
"...You just don't get it, do you? This is for the good of the entire town, when what you did only benefited yourself."
"I've got something to tell you," I caught Rainbow's attention with this phrase.
"What?" She looked curious.
"The whole town's dead," her face fell, as I grabbed the branch with my magic and hit her over the head.
Wood clanged on metal as I started to gallop, going anywhere as long as it was away from her. Pinkie was close on my tail, and I heard I frustrated growl as Rainbow scrambled to her hooves. Soon enough, a third set of pounding hooves joined the chase. I knew Rainbow was fast, but it seemed that the armor slowed her on the ground, and harried her in the air. If I could just find a place to hide...
I grabbed Pinkie's hoof and pulled into the bushes. She landed on top of me, knocking all of the air out of my lungs for a second time. Rainbow's shadow fell over us, as she wandered a bit to find us. Pinkie took a deep breath, but I was losing consciousness from lack of oxygen. I pushed Pinkie off me, taking a deep breath. Faster than I thought possible, Rainbow's face was right in mine. She was grinning maliciously as she took hold of my back hoof and dragged me back into the light. I kicked her in the chest and she let go.
"Pinkie! Run!" I shouted, rolling back over and ducking around Rainbow's unusually slow punches. I dove under her, her swiftness diminished by the weight of her 'armor,' and continued to gallop down the small dirt path.
"Why can't you just accept it?! SPIKE IS DEAD!" Rainbow screamed.
I turned to face her, since wasn't running, "Because I haven't lost hope that he can live again."
"Yeah?" Rainbow scoffed, on the verge of laughter, "And how exactly do you think that's going to work out? You can't love him back to life, I know that."
"I already did once," I said.
"Yeah, about halfway. Now he's about four times bigger, not to mention dangerous and apparently backed by an army of zombies."
"Dangerous on the outside, maybe. But on the inside, he's the same."
Rainbow sighed, "Jeez, don't pull that crap again. He's a monster. He's killed hundreds by now, and I can't believe you want to help him!"
"He still knows who he was, he just needs help realizing who he is now. I have faith in him. He isn't a complete loss. There are still things we can do to help him."
"Maybe there are. But I'm not willing to take it there."
As if on cue, a guttural growl rang through the trees, seeming as though it was on all sides. We ran together, our old friendship still meaning something, I suppose. We stood rump-to-rump, looking at the bushes for any sign of the being who had made the sound. It had to be big, bigger than a pony, but not by much.
Rainbow did a double take, moving back several steps and nearly shoving me off the path. I whirled about, seeing two glowing purple eyes in the bushes.The pupils were no more than pin-pricks, and the eyes really did seem to be giving off light.
As we watched, the eyes rose, horns and fins appearing above the bushes. An enormous neck slithered up, and Spike's mouth dropped open, his snake-like tongue lolling out of the unnaturally wide grin. Deep in histhroat I saw another glow. This one was orange, and it was rising...
We couldn't even scream. We just turned, running all-out toward a small patch of sunlight ahead. Rainbow was throwing off armor, trying to slow Spike down, but the dragon had caught sight of his next meal. And a hungry dragon isn't about to let a meal slip away.
There was a metallic clang as the lid Rainbow had been wearing on her chest hit Spike in the face. He stopped but a moment to rip it away, then continued after us. On either side of us, dead family and friends were lurching out, making wild grabs and snaps at us in slow motion. None of them made any noise, which was the scariest part in my opinion. There was no sound, just the beating of hooves on hard-packed earth.
The small patch of light grew, changing from dappled sunlight to a clearing as we grew closer. What appeared to be tiny in perspective was, in reality, huge.
And an army, an army unable to die, was waiting there for us.
We skittered to a hasty halt, the wood behind us burning bright from Spike's fire. The undead seemed hesitant before this light. And that gave me an idea
"Fire!" I shouted, "They don't like fire! If the corpses burn, there's nothing left to attack."
"Yeah, that might work, or it could turn an angry undead horde into an angry undead horde on fire."
"Maybe, but it's all we've got," I said.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Fine. I've got my target," She snatched a branch near the edge of the flame in her mouth, only the very tip on fire, and lunged at Spike.
I jumped at her, tackling her sideways into three or four other ponies. There was no chance she was going to end Spike before I'd had a chance to save him.
Rainbow, using all four legs, launched me away from her. I hit a tree, my mane catching fire briefly. i rolled over the damp grass, and it extinguished, though my hair was ruined.
And, somehow, that just didn't matter to me anymore. On any level.
Rainbow was up again, looking for another suitable branch. Well, you weren't going to see me wasting time. Not today of all days. I went to work, beating down my old friends left and right, ponies falling by my side. Celestia knows where Pinkie went, she was just... gone.
And then I saw them. Applejack, missing her bottom jaw and a good bit of her back. Fluttershy, both ears gone as well as part of the skin on her head, exposing grey, pulsing brain matter. Pinkie Pie, without the last joint on her front leg, and large swaths of skin torn away, so that nearly every movement she made caused the movement of muscles now visible.
Lastly, Twilight. Bones stuck out of her wings, skin flaking away from the wounds. Her togue flopped uselessly out of a broken jaw, and the skin on the right half her face was complelety torn away. The eye socket on that side was also empty. Her chest cavity was sliced open, some brown organ sliding out, and slapping against her leg when she walked.
I balked at the sight of my friends, my best friends, no matter what they had said to me.
Then there was fire. Rainbow lashed at them, hacking them to pieces with a branch, sharp and burning. She sobbed. Huge, heaving sobs that roared over all other sounds. She cut and sliced and lunged, until there was nothing left that could be identified as pony.
I was too shocked to cry. It was like I'd dried up, too many tears in too short a time, and now I couldn't cry even if I wanted to. So I just watched.
Now... now there nothing left. If I couldn't get Spike or Rainbow out of this, there would be absolutely nothing left to live for. Of course, if Spike did survive this, it would mean that I would be dead.
And finally, after so many times hearing it and thinking it, the idea hit me. I was never, ever, going to be with Spike again.
And I never even told him how much I loved him. All the silly things about him, the way he practically floated after me through the town. The way he would make silly or obvious excuses to spend time with me. The way his snout wrinkled when he laughed. His Dragon Code of honor and nobility. His confidence, even though he wasn't truly accepted by ponykind or dragonkind. He was still happy with himself.
That was something I never was. I was never happy with myself. There was always one more thing, I could always be a little bit prettier, or a little more elegant. And that was my fatal flaw. That I was never really satisfied.
Something inside me snapped. I just-- I was done with having to suffer through this. This was going to end.
Now.
I leapt at Rainbow, hooves flying as I screamed, "I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM! DON'T YOU BUCKING GET IT?! I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM!"
I punched Rainbow again and again. I was sitting on her chest, clamping her front legs down, so she could barely even breathe. Hit after hit flew at her face, blood steaming from her nostrils and mouth as she choked and gagged, begging for me to stop. But I was relentless. She'd killed them, really killed them, and there was no way I could save them now. Eventually Rainbow stopped making noise. And, after a few more swings, the light in her eyes had all but disappeared.
And that was that. My last friend, the last of the elements besides me, was dead. And I'd killed her.
I stood, slowly, numb to the feeling of blood on my hooves. I pushed through the crowd, killing as many as I could, with a single goal in mind. I had to get to Spike. Nopony was going to stand in my way. I stood before him, his form and face all but unknown to me.
"Spike!" I called. Deep in his eyes, I saw a glimmer of recognition. He turned to look at me, not at all trying to attack, "Now, if I'm going to allow you to take my lifeblood, you're going to listen to what I've got to say," he blinked, though his eyelids weren't entirely there, "You are amazing. And impossible. You shouldn't exist, you shoudn't be standing here, alive, but here you are. And why? Because of me," I sighed, turning my head to the ground. The hoard was being cut off by the flame. There were only three on the far side of the clearing, and they were missing back halves. I had time, "It's because of me. Did I know this would happen? No... no, but even if I did know, I would have done it anyway. And the reason is so... so complicated. It's so hard to say, though the words are so short and so small. But they are what I believe to be the three most powerful words in the universe. Do you want to know what they are? Of course you do. I'll tell. Because I know, deep inside this monster, my Spike is there. And he listens to my every word. He always listened. And if this is going to be my last sentence, then somepony had better hear it. So, here goes:"
I went up to the dragon; the huge, hulking disgusting brute before me. I put my front hooves on his chest, and I craned my neck up to reach his face.
"I love you," I whispered, and I kissed him. He stood still for a minute, then he pulled away, waiting for me to open my mouth to shove his snout inside. He bit down on my tongue, blood gushing freely. I wanted to tell him again, to tell him one thousand times, but I didn't get the chance.
The last thing I saw was the unfamiliar eyes turning back. And the horror that filled them when he saw me.
Then, I died.