//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Into the Unknown 
// Story: Neo Fantasia: Rise of a New Evil 
// by PrinceUniversa 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 5: Into the Unknown

Gaia Falls
Oct 31 11:00 P.M.

After what Nicolas described his best night ever, he returns back to his home and was about to head back to sleep until he remembered something of vital importance. He looks into the chest that held the Elements of Harmony just in case if anyone took them. They were still in the exact spot where they were. He breathes a sight of relief and looks around the house trying to think on what to do next. He wasn't tired yet so he decided to something until it was 12:00. He wondered on what to do at this time, then recalling the play of those fairies, he decided to draw them out. While getting the supplies for the drawing, he couldn't fathom on where Oni is now. He hasn't done a thing yet and that was making him very worried as he doesn't take this long to strike at a world. He putted it behind for now and went on drawing the portraits. Considering the number of fairies there are, he decided to draw the one fairy that made the most impact on the citizens of Ponyville. He gets some pencils, pens, and some coloring pencils to draw her out. About thirty minutes into the painting, he hears someone knocking at the door. Nicolas was wondering who would come here at this time, regardless he checks on who was there then recalls that only the six, the royal members and Trixie know what it looks like and can teleport here so he was expecting one of them. To his surprise, who he saw was someone he was wondering ever since he first seen her, "Hello? Aren't you Apple Bloom's friend?" The mysterious filly nodded and went in the house without his permission. When she went inside, he felt the exact ethereal presense when she first showed up in the clubhouse making her appearance and timing no coincidence. He decided to follow the filly and sees what she was doing here. The little filly looks at each room looking like she was looking for something. When they made it to the art room, she sees the unfinished portrait. She walks up to it and points at it meaning she is wondering on what it is, "Are you wondering what is that?" The filly nodded in an almost excited way, "All right then, right now it's an unfinished portrait of someone I thought about. Its still in its early stages, but once I'm done, I'm hanging it up. Were you able to get all of that?" She nodded and looked at it once again for a few seconds, then left for the front door. 

As she was leaving, she looked at Nicolas one last time and said something that almost made Nicolas wonder on how and why Apple Bloom befriended her, "My name is Ruby. Apple Bloom told me all about you and I wanted to see you personally so I came to this place. It was great knowing you." After that, she left his premises and disappeared into the Everfree Forest with a smile on her face.

Nicolas wondered what just happened, was he imagining it? He thinks about it, then nods no as he wasn't imagining it. The spiritual energy that she was giving off proved she was a real ghost, but what him wonder was that she was a filly. What happened to her, did she die of a natural cause or did someone murder her? The murdering seemed to be unlikely, but her ethereal energy told him otherwise. It felt like she was joyful yet sad at the same time putting the murder highest on his plausible things. Though she was gone, her presense can still be felt in the house meaning that she was here before. While he returns back to the portrait, he was thinking about who was cold-hearted enough to kill a young filly like Ruby. She never deserves death at a young age and was bent on finding out who did it. For now, that had to wait as he was getting the last finishing touches on the portrait, "Poor Ruby. Perhaps I should make another portrait for her." Nicolas gets the other coloring pencils and decided to make one just for Ruby. He gets on its early stages and multitasks on both of his portraits.

Gaia Falls
Nov. 1 5:57 A.M.

When Nicolas wakes from doing the portraits for so long, he see that one of the two portraits is done. He was a little saddened that he wasn't to able finish the Ruby portrait, but otherwise was proud he was able to draw the other one well despite its simplicity. 



He wondered how she was doing considering he hasn't seen her in a long time. With one of the portraits done, he gets to the Ruby portrait. With more details being added to Ruby, she actually looked very cute for a filly. He takes a break from the painting and decided to go out and take a breather. While heading out, seeing the Everfree Forest made him wonder about Ruby. Pondering on what was going on with her, she decided to make a visit to Sweet Apple Acres to ask a certain filly some questions. He was about to cast a teleport spell to Sweet Apple Acres until he sees Ruby once again. Ruby was waving at him either as her saying hi or asking him to come. She goes into the Everfree Forest making Nicolas tempted to follow her as well. After much thought, he decided to follow Ruby into the forest and try to see where she is going. When he entered the forest, something about the place felt a little different, it was dark like as usual, but the atmosphere in the place felt a little dreadful, eerie, and melancholic. It was almost like the forest wants to actually trap you inside with no hope of escape. With each second following Ruby, he was thinking that he probably regretted making this decision. As he reached almost to Zecora's house, he lost sight of her in the dark forest, "Great, I knew I was going to regret this." As he wandered off looking for her, he was about to teleport out of here until something caught his attention. He sees a town that was on the border of the Everfree Forest. Nicolas walks into the town and was looking at the city dumbstruck by what he just found. 

"Well hello there, welcome to Sunny Town!"

Hearing that, he looks to the left to find a stallion smiling a little awkwardly, "Um, thank you kind sir, but who are you exactly?" 

"Ah, allow me to introduce myself, I am Grey Hoof, party planner extraordinaire! You've arrived just in time actually, the party just started! Make yourself right at home, feel free to help yourself to anything."

"A party?" With him mentioning that, it wouldn't be a surprise if Pinkie was around the place.

"Why yes! Today we're celebrating the town's founding anniversary. You're more than welcome to join in the party. Have some food and drinks, enjoy yourself!" Grey Hoof never broke his smile during the conversation weirding out Nicolas a bit there. He has seen Pinkie do that before, but only on rare occasions. 

When he trodded away from Nicolas to a stool, Nicolas notices that on the stallion's flank; he doesn't have a cutie mark! Many questions were buzzing through his head upon noticing that, but it was driving Nicolas a little crazy there. "Okay, so this place is called Sunny Town. This is very odd."  Nicolas finds this place a bit unusual, since when was there ever a town in the Everfree Forest? He decided to look into the town. He notices that on everypony that they do not have their cutie marks. Normally, they should have found their cutie marks when they were just fillies but seeing everypony having no cutie marks made him question why they do not have cutie marks. He will regret going deeper into the town not knowing of the dark secrets that this town has in store for him.

Sweet Apple Acres
Nov. 1 6:11 A.M.

While Nicolas was checking out the town in the Everfree Forest, at Sweet Apple Acres, the whole Apple family was doing their jobs as usual, from Applejack bucking trees, to Big Macintosh bringing a cart load of applesa, and Granny Smith doing her thing. Apple Bloom was in the barn with the CMC doing whatever thay can do to get their cutie marks. They were thinking of things that they could do from ziplining, to wrestling, and a bunch of other stuff. Apple Bloom looked into the distance of the Everfree Forest wondering how Ruby was doing.

As she was staring into the day, Scootaloo made the first idea of what they can do, "Oh, how about we do some magic tricks for our cutie marks? We can learn some from, uh, Qunitis, Quitid, uh how do you pronounce his name?"

"It's pronounce Quintin. You get it Scootaloo? Q-U-I-N-T-I-N, Quintin." said Sweetie Belle in a agitated tone.

"Sheesh, Sweetie, you didn't have to go all fussy on me."

"Well I had too because you kept on forgeting his name! Every time we try to talk with him, you always forget his name."

"Well it's not my fault that he has a hard name to remember or say."

"Are you sure? it wans't hard for me the first time I said his name."

"Well, maybe not for you or Sweetie Nyx, but it sure is hard for me. Apple Bloom, do you have trouble trying to say his name?' All three turn to look at Apple Bloom doing what she did yesterday, looking out of the window and into the Everfree Forest entrance. 

Apple Bloom heard Scootaloo's question though only a part of it while she was staring at the entrance, "Huh, oh sorry Scoots, what was yer question?"

"How come you always stare at the Everfree Forest entrance, it's been bugging ever since you started doing that." said Scootaloo concerned

"I actually agree with her for once, why have you been doing that?"

Nyx was being silent for the moment not trying to hurt her, but eventually her curiousity got to her as well, "True, why have tyou been doing that?"

Apple Bloom was hoping that she wouldn't get noticed when she was doing these meeting with them, but since they asked she had a decision to make. Should she tell them it now or never bring it up. She still have nightmares involving Sunnytown when she was there, she was hoping not to recall it once again. She looks at her friends who were concerned for the little filly. She decided to tell them it just so they know what was going with her head, "Ah can't tell you everything, but Ah guess Ah'll have to then." All of them huddle up on her bed ready to listen to what she has to say, "Now while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were doing things, I was going to return back home when I saw Twilight coming..."

Sunny Town
Nov. 1 6:21 A.M.

While Apple Bloom was retelling the horrifying events she had of it, back at Sunny Town, Nicolas was checking out the residents and the town itself. He notices that all of the ponies living here did not have their cutie marks and were Earth ponies only. As he looked around, he sees some of them looked like they were living the peaceful life, enjoying their time here. Nicolas was fairly concerned about the residents here having asked if they know what was going on outside the city and their answer being the same, nodding no. As he looks deeper into the town he notices another way out and decided to check it out. He also noticed a filly about the same age as Apple Bloom, she looked a little distressed so he decides to come to her and ask, "Hello, and who are you?"

She noticed Nicolas in here and was trying to get him out of here though she has mange to mention her name, "M-Mitta. Please you have to get out of here." 

"Woah, hold it." He stops Mitta in her tracks, "I haven't even introduce myself. My name is Nicolas, nice to meet you Mitta. Tell me, what are you trying to do and do you happen to know somepony by the name of Ruby?"

"You... You know her?" Mitta asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I have, I was trying to follow her but I got lost and well here I am. Why are you shocked?"

"I-I'm Ruby's best friend."

Hearing that made him almost jump, how is she still alive and well when Ruby is dead? "Mitta, are you sure? I am not trying to be judgemental here."

Mitta nodded and went back into doing what she was doing, "Please sir, you must leave this place, it is not safe here."

Nicolas was a little concerned about this place now if she was doing this to either keep her away or protect her from something. Seeing another dirt path out of the town, Nicolas stood up, pushed Mitta out of the way and went into the area. 

"Please, don't go in there!"

Nicolas turned around and looked at her with a smile, "Don't worry about me, worry about me later once I find Ruby." With that said he leaves brandishing off his wings and horn to Mitta.

Mitta sees that the pony she was trying to persuade to leave is an alicorn, she was thinking that he was going to kill himself, but at the same time, she also trusted him if he knew Ruby. Nevertheless she prayed that what he finds out, he will be able to forever maybe put them to rest at last and also prayed for his safety. She then disappears into the night.

He continues onward the dirt path entering a new area. As he enters, he sees Ruby going up north into an abandon house. He follows her into the door only to find out that it's locked, "Locked, great." Nicolas lookes around the house to see if he can find a key to this house when he discovers a well. He looks inside the well and notices a key at the bottom of the well. He uses a levitation spell and pulls the key out of the well. He goes to the door and unlocks it now able to enter inside the house. When he enters the house, he sees that the house was just one big room and it looked barren. As he looks around the empty house, he sees a fireplace that looked out of place. Curious why it was there, he checks it out not noticing anything at the moment, "Nothing here. Nothing but a..." What Nicolas finds will be seared into his mind forever scarring his life, "No... no, no, no, no, NO! What the bucking hay!?" He finds a filly skeleton that looked like it was executed in the most horrendous way possible making him almost sick just looking at it. He wonders who this filly was while trying to get use to the grizzly sight of a pony skeleton. After much thought about the skeleton, there was only one filly he knows that died and it almost made him reach his breaking point, "R-Ruby? N-no, this can't be Ruby. It just can't." Nicolas was trying desperately to deny his claim, but as much as he hates to say it, he has to admit the facts he bought up. This was Ruby's skeleton buried in the fireplace. He was trying to process why such a wonderful filly like Ruby deserved a death like this. He looked at the skeleton once again thinking of all the answer as to why she deserved this. None came and he desperately was trying to cope with what he was seeing.. He couldn't take it anymore looking at her remains and left the house in a hurry. He had to tell some of the ponies there about what he just saw, anypony that might listen to him even if they ignored him. He slows down on the curve of the road noticing that the lanterns there were off and all that was there was unpenatrable darkness. How could anypony be able to turn off all of those lights that fast while he was in the house? Regardless, he goes in the town albeit a little slowly. As he reached the town, he comes to a complete halt. The town was deserted, every building looked like they collapsed riddling with rot, the grass now looking dead, a lot of mud patches here and there and the darkness of the Everfree Forest returning back. He stood there absolutely still noticing that the whole was absolutely quiet, perhaps a bit too quiet. He slowly trods forward avoiding the mud patches following the path trying to see if anypony was here. He looks into one of the dilapidated building, nothing but rubble everywhere. 

Then he hears a sudden growl and a frightening voice shattering the silence, "There was no other way... She would have infected the whole town... We couldn't have that.

Nicolas looks around the place, trying to find who or what said that where he was standing, but no pony was around him, "Where did that voice come from and what did it mean?" He continued forward the forsaken city. With each step and passing second, he begins to fear what was going on. Did Apple Bloom went through the same ordeal like he was doing right now? If so, how was she able to escape what was coming to him? As he was walking, he hears another noise. It sounded like roots tearing apart from one another. He turns to the direction of where the sound was coming from realizing that it was on the same one where one of the ponies he asked was. He tries to recall the name of that pony only getting a slight idea of what his name was, "Three Leaf was his name I think?" He gets closer and closer to the source of the noise not knowing where or what was coming to him. He stops dead in his tracks as a grime-covered hoof erupted from where one of the ponies stood pulling out of the ground a macabre figure of bones, sinew, and rot. He wanted to teleport out of here, but for some unknown reason, his magic wasn't functioning right making it completely useless to teleport out of here. 

As it emerged from the ground, the figure took a shape of that of a pony, only it wasn't what it was. It shambled forward with a lurching motion stopping a few feet away from where the alicorn was standing. The creature looked at Nicolas, staring at him with empty eye sockets. A red light was emiting from the dead pony's body as it was raising its vagant skull and was speaking, The curse mark... it befell her this very night" The zombie spoke with a unnatural echo in its voice.

Noticing that the "curse mark" was referring to the cutie marks, he almost went into a fury after what he saw at the house, "You killed a young, innocent filly like Ruby just for her cutie mark!? You ponies are monsters for doing something like that to her!"

She had the mark! ... She had to go!"

"Go where?! Into the hellish world that is here now!? She didn't deserve to die like that!" Nicolas yelled at the zombie pony with all of his anger. These ponies were utterly disgusting, killing somepony innocent like her just for her cutie mark!? They deserved this fate no matter what the consequences. Another zombie pony voice from behind broke the silence.

You... You have the curse mark! You must be gone! You will infect us ALL! The zombie pony charges straight at Nicolas without notice.

Nicolas dodges the charging zombie barely and kicks it in the face. Upon contact of the zombie, Nicolas felt a little dizzy from hitting it. He returns back to his senses and sees that the whole town was out to get him. He gallops for his life back into the entrance. As he was galloping, more were on the chase making his escape much more harder. He punches each zombie coming in front trying to make to the exit. With each punch, he was getting more and more dizzy. He begins to realize that the red light they are emitting takes away some life energy with each hit. Hitting them would be suicide so he decided to avoid hitting them and continue running away from them. As he finally reaches the entrance of Sunny Town, he was getting flashbacks of someone's elses perspective, one that was all too recognizable. It was Ruby's. He sees all of her memories in chronological order from her birth, to her playing with Mitta, to... Nicolas skids to a complete halt far enough from the zombies that are on the chase. The last memory of her's involved her death. The memory was so vivid, it was like that he was watching the young filly's death, something he wished he dare not do, "Stop, don't do that." He couldn't bare to watch the memory, but he couldn't escape it either. With each passing moment, the zombies were getting to him closer and closer while Nicolas was watching the horrific death of Ruby. Nicolas was trying to not watch it but he couldn't avert his eyes from the death, that is until he hears what they when they start the execution, 

"Forgive us for our dark deeds." 

Forgive them? Why would he want to forgive them? He returns back to his senses and sees the zombies coming closer, he goes in a gallop while thinking about what they said. Forgive them, he wouldn't want to after seeing the execution, but as questions rise, he begins to see why would he want to. They didn't know what cutie marks are and thought they were a curse, and so fear was beginning to rise in Sunny Town. When fear gets to everyone, they don't think rationally well and sometimes go to the extremes. Nicolas was making this guess a very plausible thing from all of Ruby's memories. As that was done, he notices a red glow nearby. He stops and looks around to see if they surrounded him. They were not and it looked like they stopped chasing him for the moment. He still sees the red glow coming somewhere and looks again. Noticing that the red glow was coming from below, he looks down and sees that the red glow was coming from his own body. He almost freaks out upon seeing it wondering what was going on. He looks at it for a moment and grudgingly touches it. The moment he touched it, he felt bones and some dead flesh. He realizes now that he was being zombified. One of the zombie ponies he punched must have transfered the effect to him and it was slowly spreading on his body. He has been through these kinds of situation and narrowly escaped them, but this one was a do or die situation meaning that he has to find a cure fast. He hears some growling from the distance. He turns around to see that they are still on the pursuit for him and runs for his very life. He tries teleporting out of here but his magic was being disrupted by the zombies and the zombification process itself. He was running out of options here and needed help desperately. He looks in his sack he bought with him and finds only some pencils and a letter. He begins writing in the letter hoping that someone will receive the letter. His magic comes back to him but for only a few seconds. He casts the spell and prayed that the spell would work. It did, and the letter was sent. Nicolas turns around and sees them still on the pursuit. He looks at his legs and sees that the condition was getting worse with each passing minute. He was beginning to lose hope, that he might not make it out of this alive, but he continues galloping away from the zombies hoping that whoever he sent the letter to will be able to save him before it was too late.

Library
Nov. 1 6:35 A.M.

Twilight was fixing up the library with Nyx and Spike at the time. She was rearranging the books into ABC order again with new books being commissioned a lot nowadays. Nyx was helping Spike with the rearranging only getting into the higher shelves that Spike can't reach. While they were doing it, somepony was knocking at the door stopping Twilight at the moment, "Coming! You tow think you can handle this?"

"No worries, me, Nyx, and Owloicious got this, you go on Twilight."

"All right Spike, I'm trusting my number one assistant for this." She goes to the door and opens the door. She sees Applejack going a little paranoid upon seeing her reminding of her first time going very paranoid, "Applejack? What do you need? You look like you are going bonkers."

Applejack didn't answer her question. She grabbed her hoof and took her, galloping straight into Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight was trying to catch up with the speedy farmer but was failing at it constantly tripping on things at time. As she was trying to regain her footing. Applejack came to a complete halt and accidentally flung Twilight to the side of the barn. She went splat on the wall slowly sliding down the wall. As she regains consciousness, she that the others were here as well, "Applejack? What is this all about?" The others were concerned as well, wondering what has gotten her into a frenzy today. 

"Sorry about pulling y'all out of your time, but this is an emergency." She pulls out a letter out of her bag and shows it to everyone, "I just receive this letter from Nicolas and he needs help badly!" 

All looked at each other wondering about the letter, Twilight looked at the letter checking if it was from Nicolas. From the handwriting, to the type of paper being used, this was definitely his letter, "Okay, it is his letter all right, but what does he need that needs all of us?"

Applejack was going a little crazy now more than ever wanting to get to the forest as fast as possible, "There isn't any time to explain! C'mon y'all just follow me and Ah'll tell you along the way." She goes into a full sprint heading towards who know where. The others followed her as well trying to keep up with Applejack.

Twilight was wondering what was going on with Applejack, "Applejack, what has gotten into you? You like you are on a frenzy today."

Applejack did not heeded her words as she was trying to speed up a bit desperately trying to get there.

Twilight goes to a complete halt, "Applejack, you better tell us straight what is going on. Otherwise I am not leaving this spot."

Applejack heard those that time and goes back, "Twilight, I ain't got all day, Nicolas is in dire trouble and he needs help NOW!" She pulls out the letter and gives it to Twilight, "You can read that out loud so that everypony here can understand what the hay is going on. Right now, we need to save him!" Applejack goes into a gallop again, this time with everypony catching up to her.

Twilight opens up the letter and reads it out loud as Applejack suggested while she was running,

To any pony who has this letter,

Time is running out on me. At the moment I am running away from what I can only describe as dead ponies. I do not know what became of these "zombies" but it looks like what happened to them is simple in logic. A curse was inflicted upon a town called Sunny Town where the ponies there are the zombie ponies that are chasing me. Reason they became zombies, I do not know, however, it all comes down what they fear and that is a cutie mark. The townsponies had no idea what a cutie mark was at first and were terrified upon first sight of it. They killed, I mean, executed two ponies that manage to get their cutie marks, one stallion named Gladstone and the other was a little filly by the name of Ruby. I found and befriended Ruby who was a ghost at this time and was following her until I got in the Everfree Forest. I was about to teleport out when I saw the town I mentioned, Sunny Town. It looked fine and a little suspicious so I was investigating why a town was here on the border of the Everfree Forest. As I got deeper into the town, I saw Ruby again and followed her into a house. It was locked, so I had to find a key. I found it in a well and using that key I unlocked the house and went inside. It was empty and it looked barren. I searched around the house finding nothing. I see a fireplace and looked into the ashes finding nothing at first until I found something that almost made me sick upon seeing it.

Upon reading that part, all of them were fearing what Nicolas found in the fireplace. Twilight was dismissing the zombie and the curse at first, but when it got to the town, the deaths of the two, the fear of the cutie marks, and now to what Nicolas founded. She was now beginning to believe what the letter was trying to say and she didn't believe in the supernatural like curses so she couldn't believe it until she actually sees it. While galloping to the Everfree Forest, she was tempted and scared to read the rest of this letter to everypony here, but reluctantly she red the part where where Nicolas found something and at that moment, all were in shock to hear what he found.

It was a filly skeleton. I was utterly in fear of what I had just discovered. I was wondering who this was and the only pony that came up in mind was Ruby. I was trying to be certain that it wasn't true, but with seeing her ghost and seeing what just happened, I knew it had to be true. I ran back to town, I wanted to tell somepony, anypony what I just saw, even if they don't believe me. When I got to the town. The place now looked like it was destroyed, dilapidated by nature itself. While going through the ruins of Sunny Town, right in front of me coming out of the ground were those zombies. They were gruesome as they looked, one charged at me and I kicked it off. I ran away from them as fast as possible, however, the one zombie I kicked has affected me. I am having the effect of zombification. Through all of this, I am still on the run from them and probably at my last minutes of my life if these zombies get me, or if the zombification process completes.  Please, any pony who has this, save me before it's too late.

After finishing that last part, the ponies now go in full sprint and pray to Celestia that it isn't too late to save him. They see the Everfree Forest from the distance and pick up the pace again. They enter the forest without a second thought of the risks at hand and disappear from sight.

Nicolas was tired from running from the zombies and the process was almost complete. The curse was affecting him much faster, half of his body being just flesh and bone. Nicolas was losing hope fast and really thought that he was going to be a zombie. He was still running as fast as he can hoping that his prayers come true. The curse was spreading like wildfire and it was really beginning to affect Nicolas not just physically, but now mentally. He was beginning to hallucinate seeing what looks like spirits walking around the forest. He shakes it off and continues the run.

Twilight and the others were searching for him desperately going as far as they can. Twilight casted an illumination spell and made the forest brighter. With the light, they search for him faster, but were still unable to find him. Applejack was beginning to see that this may be a loss cause and was about to accept that he was gone, "Ah don't want to believe it, but Ah think we're too late."

Twilight didn't want to believe it either, but as they kept on searching, they were no signs of him anywhere in this dense forest. She didn't want to lose hope, not now, until they find him. Just as they were about to return back to the entrance, they notice a red glow coming from a distance. It was coming at their direction and it was coming fast. They braced themselves for whoever they were facing. When it finally came out of the shadows, to their surprise, it was Nicolas, "Nicolas, what is happening to you!?" They look at his body and it almost made them sick, Rarity on the other hand went away from the sight and barfed. 

Nicolas was so happy to see that someone manage to receive his letter, but he wasn't in a good condition to talk. He tries to stand up, but falters and falls. Rainbow Dash and Applejack carried Nicolas on their backs, "Thanks you six. Sorry you had to see this Rarity." 

"N-no problem d-dear, i-it's just..." Rarity again looks away from the sight and hurls.

Nicolas felt sorry for Rarity. He was struggling to fight back the curse as he was losing his strgenth rapidly. He hears some growling from the distance, his mind beginning to flare up, "R-run all of you now!" 

They were wondering what he was talking about until they too hear some growling from where they were. They turned around to see actuall zombies coming at them. Twilight was shocked to see actual zombies right in front of her eyes tring to process what she was seeing. 

In the midst of her shock, Applejack grabbed her by the hoof and went on a dash for the entrance. The others notice them and freak out running away from them avoiding some of the zombies that were in front of them. They ran and ran trying to get to the entrance before the zombification gets to Nicolas's head. Zombies were now running as well trying to catch up to them. As they see the light of the entrance fillling them with hope that they might escape, a groupof  zombies blocked the path looking like they were ready to fight. Applejack was about to headbutt the zombies to kingdom come when she remembers that touching them will result in them infecting you. She couldn't jump with Nicolas on her back, she decided to try to go around the zombie with the minimal amount of space left. She barely manages to dodge the menacing things and makes it out of the Everfree Forest. The others manage to come out as well barely dodging the zombie's touch leaving them in the forest. They did not want to leave the place as they were forever trapped in the place, they return back to the now broken Sunny Town never to be seen again. They breath a sigh of relief that they manage to escape them. They look back at Nicolas and sees that his condition was worsening. The zombification was already reaching his neck and was soon going to cover his whole head. Applejack although tired from running tells Twilight to teleport them to the Canterlot Castle. Twilight nods and teleports all of them to the Canterlot Castle. Applejack screamed out loud to get the princesses's attention. 

They hear Applejack's scream and wondered what she needed at this time. They come down to see what she needed and are shocked to see their uncle being zombified. Celestia casts a protective bubble around his head. The zombification stopped once it got to his head. Celestia was barely holding on to her breath when she casted the spell. They take him to their bedroom and put him to rest. Celestia looks at Luna and then leaves leaving her to watch Nicolas. She returns back to the throne room with the six and was wondering what was going on with Nicolas so she asks the six, "You six have a lot of explaining to do, first question, what has happen to my uncle? I have never seen an illness like this befallen on my uncle before."

All of them looked at each other wondering who was going to answer her question, Twilight stepped up and answered her question, "To be honest, I have no idea how to answer the question princess." She pulls out from her bag Nicolas's letter and gave it to Celestia, "This might answer most of your questions."

Celestia takes the letter from Twilight's hoof and reads the letter. As she red the letter, she reads things that made her uncomfortable and were explicitly detailed. From the details of what happened to him, to the death of two innocent ponies who died just for their cutie marks, and to the zombie ponies and the curse itself were frightening to her. Everything written in the letter were questionable when he first wrote as she would have thought about it as a joke, but seeing it her uncle have the curse aflicted on him changed all that. She believed in the supernatural before, but not to an extent like this, "This letter has answered most of my questions, but not all of them." Celestia puts the letter aside and looks sternly at the six, "Tell me, what was he doing there? So far I only know that he was following a filly by the name of Ruby."

The five looked at Applejack who, noticing that all of them were looking at her, was a little baffled why they were looking at her like that. The way they looked at her made her very worried and after a thought process of elimination, realized where she was going with this, "Oh no, Ah am not telling. Ah don't even know why he went there." 

"Come on Applejack, you red the letter first and the way you freaked out when you heard me saying that 'I am going nowhere' tells me that you are hiding something."  

Applejack putted her hat down in front of her face and was wondering what to do now that she got right into it. It was hurting Applejack's brain just thinking on what to do now that Twilight hit her right on the spot. She pulled her hat back on and went on telling why she freaked out, "All right Ah'll tell ya, but you are probably not gonna believe me Twi."

"After seeing it all? I think believing in it is the least of my worries." said Twilight in a very bewildering yet calm voice.

"All righty then, where do Ah start?" Applejack retold the story that Apple Bloom telling was telling to her friends both while far away from each other, synchronizing with each other all in detail as to what happened while Apple Bloom was there.

Meanwhile, at Celestia's bedroom, Luna was watching Nicolas. She sees that the curse has stop spreading for the mement thanks to Celestia casting that spell on his head. It at least stopped the fast spreading for now. Luna was deeply worried if he was going to make it. The curse had already made its way to his neck while he was running from those "zombies" and it looked like it was getting worse little by little. She prayed that he may still live through this. She was beginning to grow a little tired from keeping an eye him and wanted to get some sleep just for a few seconds, but she had to stay awake foe the moment. She looks around the bedroom and checks out her bookshelf in case if she had any good books to read to keep herself awake, "Magic books, story books, grimoires, nothing interesting here." 

As she was rummaging through the books, Nicolas wakes up from his coma. He was dizzy from the zombification and was trying to shake off the dizziness. He looks from where Luna was. He tries to call her but all he could ever do was take deep breathes as he wasn't able to speak. His magic was still being disrupted and can only telekinetically get a hold of a simple paper and a pencil, everything else was as heavy as a ton in his current state.

Luna turns around to see Nicolas breathing and trying to get something using magic. She grabs a hold of them and gives them to Nicolas. She was happy to see that he was still breathing from the incident and alive as well if she were to ignore the zombified body, "Hello uncle, how are you feeling?" Nicolas nodded no back to her. He uses his magic to write out what he wanted to say to her. Luna looks at the paper and reads, "Not so good, I am afraid. This is the worst kind of situation to be in, but otherwise I am fine. Tell me Luna, what were you doing rummaging through Celestia's books?" Luna's face reddened a little bit, "I was just looking for a book. I have to keep an eye on you and I wanted something to read because, well, it is not my kind of thing to just stand around and simply watch." She sees Nicolas move in a motion that made her guess that he was laughing a little bit if not for his zombified body. Nicolas writes something else on the paper. he puts the pencil down and shows it to her, "Do you want to suggest a book for you?" Luna looks at him and nods.

Nicolas tries to get a mental image of the book he desired to bring. It was tedious, but he manages to teleport the book in front of him. He gives the book to Luna who was wondering what kind of book did he get. He gets the paper and writes one last time before he decides to get some sleep.

Luna looks at the book while Nicolas was writing and sees that it looked nothing she or her sister ever saw, in fact, it looked otherworldly. She looks at Nicolas once again to see that he manages to write out what he wanted to say. She reads and now sees what the book is, "It's a very good book of mine, remember the tale I said at Nightmare Night? Well, this is the story itself in full detail."

Luna was a little giddy to get to read something a little more interesting then those old history books. She goes to where Celestia sits normally for reading and checks the contents first. Last time someone gave her a book, it was Pinkie Pie, and when she opened it, what she got was a party blast to her face. She didn't want that to happen again even if it was a little surprising to her. Not seeing a little speck of what would be Pinkie's charades, she opened and upon seeing that it is a normal book, goes to read the story.

Nicolas was recuperating well upon noticing that the curse was wearing off little by little. Seeing Luna read in a little bit of excitement reminded him of his young age when he was bookworm like Twilight. He smiles and dozes off into a deep sleep.

Everfree Temple
Nov. 1 7:24 A.M.

While everyone was taking a moment to rest up, Oni caught up with the history of Equestria and goes to redecorating the old temple. While he was at it, he sees what looked like an abandoned chamber. He goes down to see what this chamber was. He arrives at the entrance and sees that it was locked. He ponders on what it is for a moment and decided to just leave it be. He jumps back where he was and continues. With the asthetic changes done, he gets to the inside and turns it into a maze. He checks if everything was ready. Checking every spot if any detail was missing, he goes to check even his secret areas. Seeing that the place was done. He begins to cast a spell that made the castle float up little by little until it was off the ground and floating in midair. The castle didn't reach to the top of the sky yet as it was taking a lot of his magic to do it. As time passes, he was deciding on when to show himself once again. He goes into the top of the temple. He takes a break from the spell casting and rests for now until tommorow when the hour of armageddon begins.