Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tuQssfl8y1JfsuOPFUW5BCDDhzAEMpJLUH-9j103HgE/edit?usp=sharing

Twilight and her friends, accompanied by a small troop of minotaurs and griffons, had been traveling for a few days by now. Their first goal was a simple one: Reaching the eastern coast and board a small ship they could arrange. But this was easier said than done. Even years after Toxica’s attack, Manehattan remained a quarantine zone. Nopony could even begin to guess how long it would take before ponies could start living there again. With the closest city to the ocean being out of question, the group had to get dangerously close to Fillydelphia. Wanting to at least avoid getting too close to Canterlot, they decided to pass through Hollow Shades. A forest that was just a little smaller than Everfree and even though not quite as filled with dangerous creatures, many stories surrounded the place. Even much more than the cursed forest, Hollow Shades was infamous for ponies getting lost in it and never finding their way back out again. It had always been a meeting place for shady beings and the home to countless outlaw camps.

But that was before Blueblood’s reign. According to what the scouts and Wonderbolts reported, it had turned into a refuge from the BloodClaw Cult and the demons, although that only lasted the first two months. These days, it was just a dark and dense forest few would dare to pass due to all the old rumors. But exactly those were what Twilight intended to use to her advantage. She hoped that Hollow Shades would be mostly avoided, giving them a nearly straight path to their goal.

Additionally, it gave Twilight one more barely scanned place to look for a cure. She tried to slow down the journey as little as possible, using her magic to swiftly pick up anything interesting that crossed her eye as they passed. She had become pretty good at multitasking, allowing her to research her findings and brew some test potions on the go with a little alchemy kit she brought with her, while she at the same time carefully paid attention to both her surroundings and Rarity.

The white mare was definitely not doing good. Breathing became increasingly harder for her and they had to frequently stuff her with strong medicine to silence her coughing and sneezing, which could reveal their position to nearby cultists or demons. Rarity tried her best to keep herself together, but she was writhing in agony, stating that it felt like she was being torn apart from the inside while being set on fire. Every bone in her body hurt, every movement caused her enormous suffering. This final stage of her illness definitely was the most cruel one. Frequently, the pain became so bad that she started crying. The comforting words of her friends helped her endure it a bit better, but unless she was drugged to near unconsciousness, they weren’t even able to touch her anymore without having her scream in pain.

The longer this kept going, the more death and unlife seemed like an appealing thought to her. Whenever it was possible for her, Rarity kept asking Fluttershy and Derpy about their experiences with death and the undead.

“The stages of death and undeath are a pretty well-studied and taught topic among reapers,” Derpy began explaining. “We especially know a lot about the undead and what they have to go through. If the pony died a violent death, it will keep on suffering the same pain it received from its injuries. Decay has it much easier to creep into open wounds, meaning these undead will rot faster and therefore suffer more in a quicker pace. However, if the pony died due to hypothermia, dehydration, starvation or - as in your case- disease, they will actually feel better for a while after they wake up again. Especially magical diseases lift themselves once they accomplished their goal.”

“I will actually be better once undead…” Rarity summarized.

“Would, Rarity. You would feel better if that happened,” Twilight corrected.

“Right… So you are saying, as long as I make sure I don’t hurt myself, I will be fine for some time?” the white mare wondered.

“Yes, but that will be very hard to avoid. Once you are undead, your natural bodily healing abilities stop working. Every tiny scratch you gain remains. But time will be your biggest enemy. Every living creature already has millions of bacteria inside of them, be it friendly or hostile. The moment you die, these bacteria will start to decompose your body. As an undead, you will be a walking corpse, Rarity. Decay and therefore agony will eventually happen,” Twilight replied.

“Well, that is not entirely true,” Derpy objected. “Where there is no water, bacteria and maggots can’t survive. We have come across some undead ponies in the past who were smart enough to mummify themselves. Draining all their body fluids, drying up their flesh and preserving themselves with oils brought their decay to nearly full stop. But while this had the advantage of avoiding a majority of the pain of being undead, it also gave them big disadvantages. Dried up like that, they could barely move and communication was completely impossible for them. Undead ponies generally have huge issues with their senses because of decay, but mummified undead generally are blind, deaf, numb and mute. You would trap yourself in a shell that would become increasingly more incapable of interacting with the world around it.”

“That sounds awful… Is there maybe a middle way?” the white mare wanted to know.

“Well, throughout history, there weren’t very many undead ponies that ‘lived’ for very long, since we were ordered from the very beginning to kill them on sight, freeing them from their suffering. But in theory, it should work similar to trying to preserve fruits and vegetables for winter. If you keep your body cold, wrap it up airtight and use methods of preservation on yourself, I guess you can stay fresh for several months before even the first signs of decay appear,” Derpy explained.

“And, of course, the usual body care for ponies still works for the undead. If you clean yourself frequently, you make it difficult for bacteria and parasites to infest you,” Fluttershy added.

“So maybe I should use disinfectant instead of body lotion and shampoo?” Rarity suggested.

“I would be careful with that,” Derpy responded. “Sure, it kills off bacteria effectively, but they will eventually build up a resistance. The result would be much more aggressive bacteria that not only do much more harm to your body, but also pose a threat to every creature around you that is not a reaper.”

“Oh… I see…” the sick mare commented.

“Girls, this is really depressing to listen to. While I completely understand that you want to prepare for the worst, it mostly sounds like you have already given up on the chance that you might yet survive,” Twilight interfered suddenly.

“I’m sorry, darling…” Rarity responded, lowering her glance.

“Please, you have to keep on fighting. Fight for your life,” Twilight pleaded, shortly returning her focus to the alchemy kit and then lifting a test tube into the air by magic, letting it float over to her sick friend. “Here, try this one.”

Mutely, Rarity complied and drank the potion. She gagged shortly after finishing it and made an expression of revulsion.

“How do you feel now?” Twilight wanted to know immediately.

“Not any different. That just was pretty nasty and rough to the throat,” the white mare reviewed.

Twilight gave a short expression of disappointment, but then started brewing another potion right away. She had tried so many herbs, mushrooms, spices, essences and magical substances. One of them, maybe in combination with others, just had to work! It just couldn’t be that a stupid disease curse manages to beat her and cost her friend’s life! Maybe they should have gone through Manehattan after all. Since Toxica was the reason for the Kiss of Death, maybe she would be the solution as well. There just had to be a tiny patch of her poison clouds left somewhere. Twilight knew that just attempting to capture and analyze Toxica’s poison was beyond insanely dangerous. But for her friends, she was willing to risk everything. It might be short-sighted of her, seeing that the whole rebellion was running on her ideas and she should never risk her life like this. But that did not matter to Twilight. What mattered to her was saving lives, especially those of her friends. She would gladly sacrifice herself if that meant that just one of her friends could keep on living.

The purple mare had sunken so deep into her thoughts that she, just for a moment, did not pay attention to the potion she was brewing. She realized too late that the sensitive chemicals had lost their balance and reacted beyond her desire. Before she could stop it, all that was left inside the test tube was a dark gray, thick and smelly substance.

“Ugh, great…” she commented in frustration.

“Maybe you should just do one thing at a time, Twilight,” Fluttershy suggested. “Even you can’t keep track of everything.”

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle it,” the purple mare assured, then covered up the failed potion and stored it in her bag.

On a journey like this, it was crucial to not leave behind any evidence that they had been here. Throwing away a failed test potion would not only be bad for the forest, but would also leave behind evidence of their presence. It was better to carry it around than risking their path home to get blocked.

---

Half an hour passed and Twilight still had no luck in creating a cure for Rarity. Slowly, her confidence and determination began to shake. Maybe there really wasn’t a cure after all. Maybe there truly was nothing anypony could do for Rarity and the only options for her left would be to choose between death and unlife.

Just how could it all have come to this? Equestria in the hooves of a bloodthirsty, insane cult, the princesses pushed off from their thrones, many of Twilight’s friends dead and another on the verge of death. Her life used to be so stable and peaceful. Before Obsidian Shards, nothing even indicated that anything was wrong at all with Equestria, aside of some stray monsters in the unpopulated areas. It felt like this all happened so fast. Over a thousand years of peace and all the sudden, everything breaks down so rapidly. Why? Why now? How so suddenly? What changed to set this all in motion?

As Twilight pondered, she eventually came to a solution. She herself was the reason. She and all of her friends. As they defeated Nightmare Moon after her escape from the moon and set Luna free, the rules of the game changed. The demon queen was no longer a physical entity, but an ever-present ghost. A part of her had been following Twilight around since her birth. How much is Nightmare Moon truly able to see and hear in this form? Could she read the minds of everypony? No, unlikely. If that was the case, Equestria would have fallen much, much sooner and she would not have needed Blueblood to accomplish this. But one thing was clear: There still was a deep bond between the demon queen and her demon children. Whenever they mentioned Nightmare Moon, they spoke out her name with enormous respect. But was this a kind of love between a mother and her children? Or was it just mere narcissism? After all, demons are born out of the fragments of Nightmare Moon feasting on a pony’s soul. Technically, all demons are just tiny pieces of the demon queen, different variations of her insurmountable terror. No, they don’t know anything about love, friendship and family bonds. They were all just driven by the same motive: Total destruction.

One of the minotaurs suddenly stopped, making the rest of the group halt, too. Twilight instantly started to focus again. She ducked herself, listening carefully. Ahead of them, they could hear some leaves rustling. Then they heard a twig break. Someone or something definitely was not far from them.

Trying their best to make no noise at all, the whole troop carefully snuck into the next best nearby hideout. Minutes later, they could see ponies in heavy armor wearing capes with the BloodClaw symbol on them.

“The smell comes from over here. They can’t be far,” one of them commented.

Bad luck for the group. They crossed their paths with a troop of cultists patrolling the forest. Now, Twilight’s decision to keep the failed potion was backfiring on her. The cultists had picked up the scent and would find them soon.

But they had been in this situation before. Giving some orders to the others via gestures, Twilight arranged a pre-emptive strike. First, Fluttershy and Derpy hid in the shadows, tossing around sticks to create distractions. Then, one by one, the others started to sneak up behind the cultists, surrounding them from three sides. Swiftly, the reapers struck from behind, killing off two cultists silently without alarming the others and hiding their bodies. Next, Twilight successfully managed to use her magic to choke a cultist to death, creating an invisible sound bubble around him so he could not alarm the remaining ones. The griffons as well managed to kill off two more cultists, but then they finally were spotted. As the battle broke loose, already half of the cultists were dead. The remaining ones were no match for the close combat skills of the minotaurs. Not even a minute later, the entire patrol was eliminated without any casualties.

“Good job, everyone,” Twilight spoke with a sigh of relief.

She was about to turn around and keep on walking when Fluttershy suddenly held the purple mare by her shoulder.

“It’s not over yet,” she stated.

“Oh no… not him…” Derpy commented and started to get slightly tense and nervous. “How did he know we would be here?”

Twilight went back into battle stance and her horn lit up. She yet couldn’t see anything, but the fact that it were the reapers who first noticed their next enemy approach could only mean it had to be a demon. She already had a terrible suspicion whom it could be.

The troop clustered together, back to back. All eyes wandered around and Twilight especially paid very close attention to Rarity. Right now, she was far more in danger than anyone else present.

A short scream filled the air. As they looked towards its source, they could find none. Just a second ago, a griffon used to stand there. Almost instantly, another scream could be heard and a minotaur vanished into thin air. This tactic was familiar to Twilight, bringing confirmation to her suspicions.

“Slendermane,” she whispered, climbing on top of the carriage Rarity was laying in and towering above her protectively.

Luckily for Rarity, she was very exhausted from the heavy medicine and on the verge of passing out. She definitely did not need a panic attack right now. Eyes darted around again and just for a brief moment, a minotaur could spot the white demon in black suit in the corner of his eye. But he acted smart. Instead of charging right towards the enemy, he remained in place and just calmly informed the others.

The minutes passed. Slendermane kept himself out of any straight line of sight. He managed to abduct a few more griffons and minotaurs, but the troop did not split up. Then he suddenly changed his tactic. As Twilight blinked, the tall demon suddenly stood right in front of her, making her give out a short shriek. She could catch herself again within just the fraction of a second, giving her barely enough time to summon a force field around Rarity and herself before black arms began to wrap around them.

The purple mare could no longer see what was happening outside, but she could hear fierce fighting. Minotaurs were giving off battle screams, griffons were charging, the sound of clashing metal filled the air and every once in a while, a scream could be heard. Just as Twilight started to wonder why Fluttershy hadn’t used her stare on him yet, she could see her reaper friend through a gap between the black arms. Slendermane managed to wrap one of his arms around her head and rammed them into her eye sockets, blinding her. Fluttershy was struggling against the pain and grip, swinging her scythe around in attempt to break free, but to no avail.

The purple mare had to use all of her strength in keeping the force field up. Slendermane tossed them around, smashing the sphere against trees and rocks and tried to crush them with his powerful black arms. Twilight’s face showed enormous tension and sweat began to run down her forehead. At this point, she was forced to keep her eyes shut and use all of her might to protect Rarity. But even though she used her arcane magic, she slowly began to run out of strength. This demon was just so powerful.

The sound of her force field cracking filled Twilight’s ears. She knew he would be breaking through any moment now. Using the last of her strength, the purple mare teleported Rarity away. She didn’t even know herself where she sent her sick friend. Just somewhere outside of Slendermane’s range was all she could think of. Finally, the force field broke down. Twilight laid on the floor, gasping in exhaustion for a moment before she could focus again. Slendermane seemed confused. His faceless head kept moving around, apparently looking for Rarity. She would have loved to give him a cheeky smirk right now, but she knew she couldn’t waste time. While the demon was still confused, Twilight got up and started running.

The purple mare tried to reunite with her friends, but Slendermane blocked her path with his countless arms. The others tried to help her, but it seemed like he now had found a new target. Taking out their leader would bring enormous damage to the whole rebellion. At first, Twilight tried to fight back. But she just couldn’t keep up with the ever increasing number of black arms launching at her. It quickly became clear to her that fighting him was just too difficult for her. So Twilight decided to run. If Slendermane truly wanted her, he would have to catch her, she thought to herself. All she cared about was trying to lure this dangerous demon away from her friends.

Not long after she decided to flee, it became silent again. The rest of the group had vanished and she was in the middle of a seemingly endless forest. Twilight listened carefully, but Slendermane could move without making any sound. She kept on looking around but was unable to catch more than a brief glimpse of this ancient demon. Slowly, panic started to build up in her. She kept on running but Slendermane always seemed to be right behind her. Just what should she do? All alone, she stood no chance against him. Was this it? Was this the end of her?

The purple mare was panting heavily, running as fast as her legs allowed her to. Having exhausted herself so much mentally and physically forcefully reminded her of her organ damage, as she started spitting out blood while still on the run. The faceless demon appeared to her left. The faceless demon appeared to her right. He was coming closer and closer. Every once in a while, she could feel him teasingly trying to grab her. He relished her fear and panic. He relished that he could scare the leader of the rebellion out of her mind and make her run for her life.

At this point, Twilight was so much in fear that she started to cry. There was nothing she could do. He was coming closer and closer. While she was looking back to see how far away he still was, she suddenly felt a hard strike to her head. Twilight instantly collapsed unconscious.

---

The first thing Twilight noticed as she regained her senses was that she had a really bad headache. It took her over a minute just to come back enough to realize that she couldn’t move. Her eyes opened slowly. Everything was a massive blur at first, but she gradually began to focus. She realized that the place she was at was very dark. Some sort of cave or tunnel she figured, since the few things she could see were stones and stone walls. Narrowing her sight, she could see her own front legs in the corners of her eyes. She was restrained with some kind of rope. Twilight tried to free herself with magic, but her spells failed. There was something on her horn that seemed to prevent her from casting spells.

The purple mare tried her best to stay calm and analyze this situation. She started roaming through her memory, trying to figure out what had happened. The last thing she could remember was being chased by Slendermane, then everything went dark. Did he succeed? Had he captured her? If so, why didn’t he kill her? This also didn’t look like a demon stronghold, since there were no red eyes to be seen anywhere and the darkness in this place was black instead of red. How did she end up here?

Twilight struggled against the binds, trying to slide out of them. But whoever made those was very well experienced with knots. The more she moved, the tighter they became. Eventually, the noises she made were heard. Hoof steps could be heard approaching in her direction, causing Twilight to stop. Her eyes went wide and her ears raised up, fearful of what was approaching her.

The figure stopped with some distance in front of her. Twilight couldn’t make out what it was. She tried her best to appear confident, but couldn’t hold her increased breath rate and heartbeat back. She stared at the creature in front of her with a grim expression, waiting for something to happen.

“Don’t worry. You are safe. For now,” an unfamiliar female voice spoke calmly.

“I’m not sure if I should believe you,” Twilight spoke confidently.

“Those straps are for my own protection,” the mare replied.

“Why would I attack the pony who saved my life, assuming you were the one who rescued me from the demon chasing me,” the purple mare wondered.

“Because you hate me. You don’t know me yet, but as soon as you hear my name, you will hate me. You will try to kill me,” the mare explained.

“If that’s the case, why did you even bother to rescue me?” Twilight wanted to know.

“Because I need you to stay alive. I know who you are and I know what you do. I can’t let you go, yet. It’s not safe. You will have to stay with me for a while and you will have to endure being tied up. I’m not asking of you to trust me. I don’t trust you either. But as long as you are with me, nothing will happen to you. I would rather give away one of my hind legs than just so much as harm a hair on your head,” the mare in the dark promised.

“Well if you say so,” Twilight responded.

She still didn’t feel safe. Her expression as well as her body remained tense. Twilight didn’t really get what was going on or why this mare needed her to stay alive. She would need to find a way to escape. Soon.