Shadow Prophetby HeymanTheBronyChaptersChapter Two: The Purchasing of BreadChapter Three: Shadow's ConfessionChapter Four: Kiwi Muffin, Lime MuffinChapter Five: A Really Big RockChapter Six: The Beauty of the Poison JokeChapter Seven: The Effects of the Poison JokeChapter Eight: Chasing the RemnantsChapter Nine: Falling Through TimeChapter Ten: Temporal CoincidenceChapter Eleven: The Most Terrifying Thing EverChapter Twelve: The Chase BeginsChapter Thirteen: Not PermittedChapter Fourteen: KidnappedChapter Fifteen: An Elevating ElevatorChapter One: Why Welcoming Parties Are IllogicalChapter Two: The Purchasing of BreadMorning had come, and it harshly alerted Shadow Prophet to it's presence, sunlight shining directly in his face. He tumbled out of his bare-bones bed limply, his hooves hitting the floor. He instantly regretted his laziness. Two intense flares of pain shot up his legs, bringing him into a fully conscious state. His hooves had become terribly sore in reaction to the destruction they had witnessed the night before, and once he got up, he couldn't move without his face instinctively cringing. Wincing, he went to the front door, where there was a fresh glass of milk waiting. He downed half the bottle and set the rest on the floor next to the door. He then found his baggage in the utility closet and found his satchel with his money in the left pocket. Using his teeth, he swung the bag over his back and left for the market district of Ponyville, moving ever so slowly to avoid pain as much as possible. Once he was there, everypony, shopping or selling, looked him over at some point. Some murmured to each other, others waved at him (to which he couldn't return the gesture due to his hoof's condition), all of them moved out of his way as he passed. He didn't pay any attention. Well, not any different than back home, he thought. He looked at the shop signs, scanning for any kind of wheats shop. Eventually, he found a light brown sign labeling the store below it, "Grove Family Breads & Other Wheat Goods." Long name, but it got the point across. Standing at the register was a brown filly who seemed to be holding the post while her family arranged some different -colored breads within the shop behind her. As he came close, the filly said, "Good mornin', sir! How can I help you?" Her cheery attitude got a small smirk out of him. "Good morning to you as well. I'd like two loaves of bread, please," he requested, still wearing the smirk. "And what kinda bread would that be? We got the works, all kinds!" The filly seemed to fill with pride at that statement., and her chest seemed to rise a little. "White." The filly's pride faded quickly and she stared at him awhile. "Just... just white? I mean, we got all kinds-" "No thanks. I'd just like some plain white bread is all. Sorry if that disappoints you." The filly shook her head and smiled once again at Shadow. "Nonsense! I'll got getcha some!" She hopped off the podiumshe was apparently standing one and trotted off to one of her family members, presumably her brother. She tapped his shoulder and he looked down at her. She said something he couldn't hear, then the brother looked up at Shadow, who replied with a smile and a quick nod. He grabbed two loaves of white bread from the shelf he was arranging and handed them to her, saying something real quick to her as he did. She bounced back to the register and sat the bread on the table, smiling at him. "That'll be 6 gold bits, sir!" Shadow raised one of his wounded hooves and reached into his money pocket, grabbing for some. The filly looked at his bandaging for a while, then her eyes widened with dawning realization. "Hey, you're that stallion that saved Rainbow Dash last night! No way!" Shadow stopped, then looked at her. "You know about that?" "Well, duh! Only everypony knows! You're what everypony's talking about!" Shadow looked around him and noticed all eyes on him, but they looked away when he searched for them. That would explain a little, he thought. He pulled out six gold bits and dropped them on the counter next to the bread. "No no no!" The filly said, pushing the money back to Shadow, "Take it! It's the least I can do to thank you! Rainbow Dash is one of my favorite pegasi! Have you seen her sonic rainboom?!" "Well, I didn't know she was famous," Shadow said as he pushed the bits back across the counter. "Oh, yeah! And she's one of the six guardians who always save Equestria from disasters!" The filly saw Shadow packing the bread into the large empty pocket on his satchel and looked at the coins, then back at Shadow. "N-no, sir. You don't have to pay... here." She pushed the bits back to him. Once he laid a hoof on them to once again push them back to her, she stopped him by resting her hoof on his. He gasped, and quickly drew his hoof back. "Oh! Did I hurt it? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" "No. It... It's not that. I just..." Shadow stared at the filly for a while then said, "Just be careful getting off that stool this time." Not waiting for a reply, he pushed the coins so far they all fell off the counter and hurried off as best he could with his hooves. The filly looked questioningly after him for a moment, then started to step off the wooden stool she was on to pick up his bits. However, her hoof slipped and before she could grab onto anything she was on the ground, a small cloud of dust surrounding her. "Is she waking up?" Applejack. "It looks like it." Twilight. Her friends. They were all here. Where was here? The palace. Why was she here? Because of the... the... "Knife!!" Rainbow Dash screamed aloud as she jumped up straight in the bed, making all of her friends jump in turn. She looked around her, at all of her friends. Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all there, sitting around the bed Rainbow Dash was in. They all wore terribly worried faces. She saw she was in one of the many empty rooms of Twilight's palace, and this particular room happened to be furnished, though very basically. A bed, a bedside table, and a wardrobe. Along the crystal walls were two doors, one opened and leading into the hall, the other one closed, and presumably leading to the facilities. "Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, taking a step forward. Rainbow looked at her for a while, then asked in a quiet whisper, "How am I still alive?" All of her friends seemed uncomfortable, and none answered, Twilight even shrinking back and looking away. She insisted louder, "How am I still alive?" "Well, a weird stallion, really weird, now that I think about it," Twilight released, "he, this is going to sound really stupid, but he jumped in and caught the knife right before it hit you." Rainbow Dash looked down at her blankets, seeming to go into deep thought. It lasted for about two minutes, then she looked back at Twi. "Where can I find him?" Chapter Three: Shadow's ConfessionThe next day... "Yeah, right there! No wait, a little to the left! That's it!" The construction stallion called to the unicorn, who was using his magic to lift a sign up to the front of Shadow Prophet's house. It read, "Oddities." Short, but it got the point across. Eventually, the sign was rested against the nails placed in the wall, and the unicorn's magical aura faded away from it. The worker released a heavy breath, and one of his companions galloped up to him with a bottle of water, which he promptly downed. Inside the home of Shadow Prophet, he had remodeled the den, which was the room one would trot into upon entrance, into the interior of a shop. Earlier that day, along with the small construction squad, came all of his old belongings. When the carriage pulled up, he thought, Surprising. They didn't burn my house down in the short time between me leaving and them collecting my things. Four hours later, he had set it all up. Placing a two-headed skull on the edge of a shelf, he trotted back and examined his new store. "Pretty nice, if I do say so myself," Shadow said to himself. "Yeah," a voice behind him replied. Shadow twirled around and saw it was the blue pegasus he had risked his hooves to save two nights before. He remembered that he should replace his bandages. Rainbow Dash was standing in the door, looking drowsy and dazed, small bags under her eyes. She seemed distant, still recovering from the shock of almost having her eye gouged out from a cake knife five seconds after she had been having tons of fun. "Um, hi there... Rainbow Dash." Shadow didn't know how to treat this situation. He shifted uneasily from wounded hoof to wounded hoof. "I..." Rainbow looked to the floor, then back to Shadow, "I just wanted to thank you. I don't know how I could repay you." She said this in the raspy, quiet voice of somepony who hadn't had anything to drink so far today. The blue mare then seemed to think for a while before saying in the same voice, "I know. I could be your assistant for a while. You know, help you around the shop." Shadow shook his head, "No thanks. You don't need to repay me. It was an act of civil duty." He said this because he didn't want somepony in his mane trying to quote unquote "help" him. Rainbow Dash let out a quick breath, a one-beat laugh. "You know, when that knife was heading for me, everything slowed down. I felt like it was never going to get to me. But I knew that was a lie. I knew it eventually would hit me and pop my eye, leaving me half-blind for the rest of my life. But then you came out of nowhere, like some sort of guardian angel, and then it never did hit me. Thanks to you. And your sacrifice." She nodded toward his bandaged hooves. "And so if you won't let me repay you, at least answer me this: how did you get there in time to stop it? IT must have been only a second and a half or something. How did you react that fast?" Shadow's eyes widened and he started blubbering, "Well, uh, I... um, I, well, you know, I just..." A blue hoof a shade brighter than him was pressed against his lips, silencing him. Rainbow Dash was right in front of him. "Cut the crap," she said. " Just tell me. I only want to know the simple truth." Shadow Prophet sighed. He sat down on his rump and set his upper hooves on the ground in front of him. He looked down at the wooden floor, and started tracing the dark patterns in the floor's surface. He looked up at Rainbow Dash and said, "Promise you won't freak out." Rainbow Dash crossed her chest with her hoof. "Pinkie promise," she said. "Okay. To tell the truth, I've never really been... normal." Rainbow Dash sat down next to Shadow, listening intently. "Sometimes I like to deny it, or think that whatever causes it is gone, but it always stays. I..." he looked at Rainbow with a pleading face, and she somehow knew she was seeing a part of him only a small number of ponies had ever seen. "I can see into the future." Rainbow Dash instantly went into denial. "But that's impossible!" Shadow looked at her with that same pleading face, and she began to get angry. "What is this, some kind of practical joke? This is my life we're talking about, destiny! And you're going to joke about it and expect me to believe that crap?! Well I'm not falling for it, bud!" She put extreme emphasis on the word "bud," like she expressed all of her rage in that one title. Shadow's voice cracked, but it was calm, and he seemed on the verge of tears. "No, please, Rainbow Dash! They always said that! They always said it was impossible but it's not! I was far away from you, and I started running in there before the Doctor even fell!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her face and looked at him. Angrily, between gritted teeth, she said, "Fuck you," and yanked open the door, trotted out, and slammed it behind her. Shadow sat in his empty shop and stared with bewilderment at the door which Rainbow had left from. He sat there, and thought he may as well never move, may as well sit there until he died of either starvation or of thirst. But it was not meant to be, for only ten minutes had passed, before there was an angry knock at the door which Shadow was looking at. "Go away, Rainbow!" He yelled. The voice which replied was not Rainbow's voice, but Twilight's, "Let me in, Shadow Prophet!" The stallion looked back to the floor and said passively, "It's unlocked." The door burst open, hitting the wall and almost ricocheting enough to touch the Princess, but not quite. "What in the hay?! Rainbow Dash asked you how and you said you could tell the fututre?! Are you stupid?" "No, actually. I had a fine education, if the University of Fillydelphia is good." Shadow said in a once again calm tone. Twilight scoffed, turning her head up at a diagonal angle for a moment, then looking back at Shadow on the floor. "What, then? Why would you joke about something like that?" "I wasn't joking." "Yes you were! Everypony knows that there's no spell to tell the future!" "I don't use magic. Ever. This is a natural ability." Twilight looked at Shadow Prophet for a long time, searching for some sign of fakeness, some sign of a jokester or a liar. When she found none, she began to soften. "If that's so, please explain it to me." Shadow looked up. "It's a long story." "I've got plenty of time." "Okay then." When I was born, my parents named me through that flash of intuition all parents have, and the nurses at the hospital where I was born all asked my parents if they were sure that was what they wanted to name their baby. They insisted that that should be my name. Later, when I went to school, of course kids made fun of me for my odd name. They always asked me to tell them their shadow's destiny. It was immature and wasn't that funny, but it never got old. It was only in the fifth grade that I got a hint as to what my name meant. One day, some of my few friends and I went climbing through the rock farm nearby, I forget who owned it. Anyways, we were trotting along this large mountain of rocks, when I suddenly saw something that I somehow knew was going to happen soon. I saw a giant colorful explosion in the west, and saw it causing an avalanche where we were standing! Then the vision was gone and I looked to my right, and there it was. The rainbow colored detonation in the flesh. I knew from school that it would take a minute for the sound to get to us, so I started head-butting my friends and they started running, without question. The sonic boom hit us, and I could just barely hear the sound of rocks loosening above us. It's hard to explain, but I was getting flashes of the near future and being in real time almost... simultaneously. At one point, I pushed them out of the way of a huge boulder; they would have been flattened to sheets of paper had I not intervened. However, the boulder pinned my tail down, almost got me. I couldn't pull it out, and I asked my friends for help. They didn't answer. When I looked at them, they looked... scared. Of me. At the time I didn't understand. I asked for help again, and they just ran away. Left me there. I had thought they were going to get some help or something, but nopony came for me. Eventually, I had to pry my tail out myself, and that took about an hour. I was terribly angry that my friends had betrayed me like that, so I went storming into town. And... Shadow's voice cracked. Twilight had been listening so intently, she didn't notice that Shadow had begun crying. His eyes were red, and hot tears dribbled down his muzzle. "Hey, if this is hard for you, I can understand-" Twilight started. "No. I have to tell it. I've always had to tell it." He continued. Apparently... a lot can happen in an hour. Like the spreading of a rumor, the acceptance of said rumor as truth, and the inevitable backlash. I arrived at my house, and it was surrounded by denizens. They were throwing stones at my house. My parents were both in there. I ran up to the crowd, and I yelled for them to stop. They turned to me and one said, "Look! There he is!" I saw through a gap in the mass, and there, through the shattered windows, I saw my parents, crumpled on the ground. So many emotions flooded through me at that moment. Hate, fear, anger, despair. They all mixed together into a deadly brew, and just as the mob was about to throw their stones at me, I screamed. My horn shot out a beam of magic that shattered the stones in midair. For a moment there was silence, then one yelled, "He used his dark magic again! He'll kill us!" Then they all scattered away, like frightened mice. Of course it wasn't dark magic, it was pure magic, known to do almost anything. I hadn't had much training in how to use my horn correctly, and the magic was only released because of my emotion. But fear can make ponies believe strange things. I ran to my parents, and nudged them lightly. They didn't move. They weren't breathing. Their eyes stared at nothing. I sat in between them, crying, but keeping a straight posture. I felt that if I showed weakness, the would come back and stone me. Then I saw them, sitting outside, looking at me with stupid faces. My friends. "You did this!" I yelled to them, once again feeling that mix of emotion. "It was you! Why?!" They ran away. They always ran away. That night a lot of things went through my mind. But the one subject that stayed on top of all the others was revenge. "Do you know what it's like to bury your own parents in your backyard?" Shadow asked Twilight, whose mouth was quivering. There was no reply. None was needed. I walked into school, and everypony I passed stared at me with awe and fear. You know what I did? Looked evil. On purpose. I gave everypony a look that said, "If you cross me, oh boy, you'll be in for a ride." I always kept my head at an angle that cast a shadow over my eyes. And then I went about school as usual. I did it just to scare the crap out of everypony in that horrible town. You see, I had pieced it together in the long time I had had to think the night before. My friends had thought I used dark magic to cause the avalanche to try to kill them, and that it had backfired. So while I was stuck, they went and told everypony about it. They all thought I was some horrible sorcerer that was bent on destroying them all. I thought if I acted the part, I would be pleased in seeing them cower away from me. I was. But not for too long. I didn't come back the next day, and I never did. I stayed at home and usually sat in the place where my parents died. Nopony ever came in, or even came close to the house. Pretty soon , I ran out of food. I left my old home finally, and tried to get some sort of work. Obviously, nopony would even take me in, let alone give me a job. They were all too scared or hating. Except for one mare. Sunshine was her name. She lived alone in her house, and didn't believe I was evil. When I fell asleep on her lawn one night, she opened the door and asked me to come in, that she had a blanket for me. In my desperation I did, and she had much more. She gave me a blanket, a mattress, and even some cookies and warm milk. For a few years I stayed with her, and she had to keep me a secret. Once I was old enough, she saved up enough money for me to move away. I hated to leave her, but I knew it was my only option. However, somepony saw me on my way to the hot air balloon station, and we had to outrun a mob to be able to board the balloon. But... Sunshine got caught. The last I ever saw of her was her being dragged away by her front hooves. There was a long silence, then Shadow concluded, "So that's my story." Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Partially because she was too stunned to talk, but mostly because she didn't know what to say anyways. In the end, Twilight mournfully stood up and slowly began to leave. At the door, she gave Shadow Prophet a respectful nod, then flew away. Chapter Four: Kiwi Muffin, Lime MuffinShadow was sitting at the counter, his face slumped in his hoof, the other ringing the service bell repeatedly, when the front door opened. He instantly straightened and said, "Welcome to Shadow's shop of oddities, how may I help you?" But when he saw who it was he froze, then jumped under the counter. "Come out, I'm not going to punch you," Rainbow Dash said. Shadow poked his head up slightly, and saw behind Rainbow Dash was Twilight, and some other mares. The crowd just kept on getting bigger. An orange mare stepped forward, she was wearing a stetson, even though she was inside. "Twi' told all of us yer story. And we all do think it's a mighty heavy story. But... well..." She seemed to be trying to find the correct words, to soften the blow. Rainbow Dash looked to the floor. "You'd understand if we didn't quite... well... we can't really believe the whole... psychic thing," The orange mare finished. "Thank you, Applejack," Twilight said. "Well, it didn't look like anypony else was thinkin' uh sayin' it," Applejack replied. A white mare with dark purple hair said, "Oh, you do understand how we can't believe you, right, dearie?" "Yes, I understand. That doesn't mean I like it, however." Rainbow Dash looked up the wall, not wanting to even look in the direction of the conversation. But Shadow could see the tears that had welled up in her eyes. Twilight stepped forward. "I need more proof before we can believe any of this." Shadow sighed."Okay." He slowly trotted over to the door and turned the, "Open," sign to the, "Closed," side. Rainbow Dash looked at Shadow and asked, "Why didn't you use your magic?" "I never do," he replied. "You've said that before. What does it mean?" Twilight asked. "After the... incident, I was too scared to use my magic for such a long time, that once I was over my fear, I couldn't anyways. Even if I wanted to. Too much excess." "What?" Twilight asked. "You know the gland specific to unicorns that produces small amounts of magical energy even when a unicorn is not using it?" "Yes." "I didn't use my magic for five years. Therefore, the small amount produced by that gland built up, to dangerous levels. If I tried to use my magic today, it could wipe out everything in about ten miles." "...Oh." "Come here, Twilight.You're clearly the one who needs the most convincing." Shadow stood behind the wooden counter and beckoned Twilight, who trotted up to the other side. "Give me your hooves." She stat her hooves on the table and Shadow rested his on top of them. He breathed in sharply, and Twilight felt a cold shiver come over her. Shadow closed his eyes and seemed distant, like he was dreaming. He began to speak. "I see... a... bakery. Sugar Cube Corner. It's morning-time, tomorrow, and you're there to get a breakfast muffin. You want Kiwi, but they're all out, so you get lime. You start freaking out after breakfast an start chasing me down, calling me a stalker. You... wait. There's something really big up ahead. A... you're... sailing out to Eternity's Crossing? And, then... oh my-" Twilight drew her hooves back and Shadow opened his eyes. "What? Eternity's Crossing is one of the most dangerous seas in all of Equestria, why would I sail out there?!" Twilight asked. "I don't know, that's what I saw." He replied. "And what's this about you being a stalker?" "I don't know. That's what I saw." Twilight scoffed. "You're crazy." "Maybe," Shadow said matter-of-factly. Twilight thought this over, then said, "Come on, girls. Let's go." All of the mares left, and Twilight gave Shadow a suspicious glance. He smiled in a sarcastic way and waved. The next morning... Twilight Sparkle woke up in her bed and yawned loudly, stretching her hooves. She looked at the ceiling for a minute, then slumped out of bed. After she was ready to kick off the day, she wondered, still a little groggy, where to go for breakfast. A muffin sounded nice. Mmmm... kiwi. This was a tangy morning. She nudged Spike's bed and asked, "Hey, sleepyhead. What do you want form Sugar Cube Corner?" Still dreaming, Spike muttered, "Rarity..." Twilight held back a snicker. She left for SCC, and once there, saw a big sign labeled, "OUT, SORRY," set across the picture of a kiwi muffin. Dang! Well, lime is the closest thing. I guess I'll get that, Twilight thought. She ordered one, and sat outside, eating her muffin. At one point, she looked down at her muffin, down the street Shadow's oddity shop was, and almost choked on a piece of lime. Chapter Five: A Really Big RockShadow smiled when he saw an extremely... well... pissed Twilight Sparkle banging at his door. He unlocked it and swung it open. "Good morning. What can I do you for?" This sarcastically cheery greeting angered Twilight further. "Have you been following me?" She asked. "Nope. But I did predict your future yesterday, and now you're assuming I've been watching you long enough to develop a probability calculation as to what you would do this morning. So you're here, following the prediction perfectly, as time would have it." Twilight seemed about to pop from anger, but then she froze, and began to smile. "No," was all she said. "No?" "No. You said I'd chase you. So I'm not going to. Poof. There goes your little psychic theory." Shadow Prophet instantly recoiled from her, as though she had whipped him. "No. No! Don't do that! You have to chase me!" Twilight smirked. "Stop it. You lost. There is no way one can tell the future, and now you see-" Twilight's lecture was cut off by a tremendous thunderclap that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere; there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. "There it goes," Shadow said as the thunder slowly died away. "There what goes?" Twilight asked, worried. It sounded like something had just exploded. "The universe." That was the end of the line for Twilight. "How long would you recommend treatment, ma'am?" the nurse asked politely. Inside she felt like she was about to explode. Here she was, clearly talking with the newest Princess of Equestria, with everypony, even the crazies, staring dumbfounded at her. The obvious question on everyone's mind was, What in Celestia's name is Princess Twilight Sparkle doing in the mental hospital? It was clearly answered by the tied up blue stallion she had hovering behind her, but it was nonetheless a very strange thing to see. "I'm not crazy! I'm telling you!" Shadow complained. "Oh, I don't know. After you hear this, you might be able to decide," Twilight replied, ignoring Shadow. She moved him up to the desk next to her and asked him, "What did you say was happening?" Shadow rolled his eyes, as though she had asked him what two plus two was. "The structure of the universe is collapsing in on itself due to the creation of a temporal paradox, made when you refused to chase me through town under the impression that I was a stalker." "And why, exactly, was the result of that incident a paradox?" Twilight calmly asked. "Because all time is a pre-decided progression. When you strayed from your pre-determined timeline, it caused a rip in the fabric of space-time." Twilight looked at the nurse and smiled. That was all the proof of his insanity she needed to give. The nurse looked baffled by all this timey-wimey talk, and eventually gave up trying to decipher the stallion's strange words. She said, "Mmhm. Well, I think I'd... better go ask the, uh, doctor. Doctor Brownhoof. He might know." She spun around and trotted through a thick glass door which only allowed a blurry and distorted vision of what was on the other side. She tapped somepony on the shoulder, who turned around. She said something to him, and he said something back to her. She led him back to the front desk, and a brown stallion watched and listened as Twilight asked the same questions and Shadow Prophet replied with the same answers. Once they finished, the doctor said, "Hmm. I'd say for starters he should definitely stay the night. We'll test him and ask him questions. Then we can come to a conclusive and more accurate estimation as to how long he should remain in treatment." Shadow was extremely annoyed by how the doctor spoke of him in third person, as though he wasn't right there, listening to the whole thing. "Thank you, doctor," Twilight replied with relief. She levitated Shadow over the desk and plopped him down into a chair. Her aura faded away, and she happily trotted off out the door. The nurse turned to Shadow, and saw him spinning wildly in the chair, holding on to the edges. She stopped it and used her teeth to untie the bonds around his chest. "I'm not crazy, you know," he said as he shook himself out of the loosened rope. "Mmhm," the nurse replied, obviously not believing him. Shadow stopped, looked at her a moment, then went back to escaping Twilight's bonds. Meanwhile, in Ponyville... Boom! The explosion rocked Twilight, who was almost at her castle, to her core. She almost fell over. She immediately darted her head around. In the Southeastern part of town she saw a large cloud of smoke rising up into the air. She instantly spread her wings and shot towards it. Once hovering over the site, she gaped. Below her was a meteor the size of her palace, maybe bigger! She slowly lost altitude and landed on the ground, folding in her wings. Already on her fur there was a thin layer of soot, but she seemed to not notice. The only thing she was paying any attention to was how the giant meteor, of all the places it could have landed, it was right on top of Town Hall. During lunch break. It was almost a miracle that not a single pony was in the building at the time the meteor had crashed. Twilight waved some smoke out of her face and edged forward towards the giant rock. She gasped as she saw a small spot of blood very close to the boulder. There were no ponies around it, though, so whose blood was it? Twilight heard the flapping of very large wings, and turned to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna landing at the site. "Twilight, do you know what this is?" Celestia asked. Twilight looked behind her at the boulder, and the small puddle of fresh blood. "No. It just came out of nowhere. There was no warning... I didn't even notice it falling." Celestia and Luna examined it for a moment longer, then Luna recommended, "I think the first step would have to be getting it out of the way." "Yes," Celestia confirmed. "We must use all our magic to lift this meteorite out of the town. We should put it down near the Everfree, far away from everypony." Celestia looked at Twilight Sparkle for confirmation, who nodded. Together, they flew into the air and channelled all their combined magic into lifting the giant rock. It was still a hard task. The thing was even heavier than it looked, which, when you considered how big it was, was certainly saying something. The boulder levitated, slowly but surely, off the ground, and it took about ten minutes to move it to the edge of Ponyville. The princesses released their magic, and the rock landed with a loud thud! Twilight didn't consult the other princesses, she just turned around and flew back to the rubble of Town Hall. Landing at the site of destruction once again, she ran around the debris to the place where the blood was. She looked over the the area nearby that had previously been covered by the meteorite. There didn't appear to be anything much there. Then she saw it. Something completely impossible, it defied the rules of logic, physics, time. All of those were tossed out the window into a tornado when Twilight saw it. With effects that great, the actual physical item wasn't much. Ten blue hairs sitting on the ground, their roots having been ripped out. Twilight remembered Shadow Prophet's story. He said a boulder had landed on him. He said he had had to pull his tail out from under it. That was years ago in a rock farm in Phillydelphia, but here in Ponyville that same boulder had fallen out of nowhere and even left the remnants of Shadow's struggle to escape it. "It fell through a hole in time. One of many. One of many already here, and one of many more to come..." Shadow trailed off, sitting on the edge of an old mattress in the South Wing of the mental hospital. Chapter Six: The Beauty of the Poison Joke"Are you sure of that, son?" Doctor Brownhoof asked Shadow. Shadow Prophet sighed, annoyed. What, did this stallion think he was just spouting out nonsense? ...Probably. "Yes. I firmly believe it." "You firmly believe that," the doctor looked at his clipboard, "the Universe is folding in on itself because of a temporal paradox created when Princess Twilight removed herself form the pre-decided flow of time, which was caused and can only be caused when a pony knows their own future, and that in about three days there will be nothing left of what was once known as existence?" He looked up and raised an eyebrow. Shadow, sitting on a chair on the opposite end of a plastic table as Doctor Brownhoof, had his front hooves crossed. He lifted one, scratched his nose, then moved it back. He nodded and said matter-of-factly, "Yes." Doctor Brownhoof nodded, then got up and left through a door on his side of the table. This gave Shadow time to let off some steam. He jumped out of his chair and bucked it across the room. It hit the wall loudly, then fell to the floor even louder. Shadow ran around in a circle three times, then ran a hoof through his hair. He looked up at the ceiling and yelled,"Twilight, you stupid, stupid... you don't know what you're doing! Why did you do that?! You stupid freaking bi-" The door started to be unlocked, and Shadow grabbed his chair, tossed it to the table and sat down in it, placing his hooves in his lap, looking completely calm. Doctor Brownhoof stuck his head in the door and said, "Come on, son. Follow me." Shadow Prophet relucatntly slid out of his seat and trotted intentionally slowly across the room, if only to mildly annoy the doctor. That night... In his bed, looking up at the horribly plain ceiling, Shadow could feel the nightmares that filled the hospital every night. Innocent ponies who had been claimed by the ill fantasies of their own minds, unable to escape until the time when the sun rises. It stopped him from getting a good night's sleep, as you might imagine. He tossed and turned under his sheets that barely offered any warmth at all. He eventually got out of his bed and decided that he may as well get to know the place he would be in when it all ended. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but the marble floors still made clopping sounds as he trotted around. Nothing that would wake anypony, but if one were paying close attention... "Hey!" Shadow froze completely as a flashlight was shone in his face. It was a night guard who had been standing too still for Shadow to see in the dark. "What're you doing out of bed this late?" The guard asked, shining his flashlight on the floor and coming closer to Shadow. "Oh, um, me? I was just, uh..." he decided to take the confusion route. It was his best option at this point. "I wanted to walk on the wall so I could fly upside down to the bakery and order three doors." The guard's eyes opened wide and he stared at Shadow with a dumb look. "What?" he asked. "Glibll-de-gobble-de-gook. You sure are a fine cook!" Was Shadow's reply. The guard stumbled backwards a bit. "What? I don't- you didn't- I'm not a cook, I- wha?!" The guard noticed too late that Shadow was making a run for it. He turned his head and whistled for backup. Shadow Prophet was headed for the door. It was unlocked, he could see the left door hanging open. He ran into it, expecting it to open, but instead it budged slightly and didn't move much farther because of the chain on it. He ended up ramming his whole left side into a metal door, and let me tell you, that's not the best thing to do when you're trying to outrun a bunch of guards. Now Shadow was locked in his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, once again being stricken with insomnia. He kept on scanning the room, but the only thing in it was a small table with a clock on it. Just as Shadow was about to climb into bed in vain, there was a draft coming from nowhere in particular. Shadow lifted his head as the strange wind ruffled his mane. He looked around the room once again, and this time there was something new. A flower sat atop the table, right next to the clock. It took Shadow a moment, but then he realized what kind of flower it was. A Poison Joke. Shadow jumped onto his bed and pushed himself back up against the wall. Where the hell did that come from?! Shadow thought. He knew about how the flower caused annoying and ironic symptoms, and how it was different for everypony. What he didn't know is what it could do to him. Shadow realized that backing up wouldn't do a single thing; it was a freaking flower, it wasn't going to get up and walk around. Calming, Shadow edged closer to the dangerous flower and began to wonder. How did it get here? Where did it come from? He knew it had something to do with Twilight's Paradox, but what, exactly, he was unsure of. Shadow began to get very curious as to what the flower actually meant. It was obviously here for some sort of reason, and Shadow wanted to know what that reason was. Warily, he reached his hoof out and grabbed the stem, being very sure to not touch the blue cup-like top. He examined the flower while holding it at a distance, and eventually brought it closer to his face. Once the top of the flower was aligned perfectly with his eyes, a magnificent flash of light shined out from within it. He did not recoil, because the light was warm and welcoming; it could not mean any harm. He stared into the pit of the Poison Joke, and saw the things to come. They were not his visions, but only his eyes could see it. The images came in detached flashes, jumping around in time, skipping over the broken record. He saw Twilight Sparkle, running after somepony, saw Rainbow Dash, the poor soul, fall out of the sky and land in the water. He saw darkness, living dark. It enveloped him. Then it was gone and all that was left was a voice. A deep, scratchy voice that resonated through Shadow's entirety, passing through him as though he wasn't there. "Now you see, boy," it said menacingly. It repeated it's message constantly, taunting him. "Now you see, boy. Now you see, boy. Now you see, boy." He didn't. He didn't see. Couldn't see. It was dark. Too dark to see. But he could smell. Smelled it just fine. It smelled like antiseptic, and sulfur, it was horrible, like- Shadow came out of trance only to realize his nose was buried in the bud of the flower which he had previously been so cautious about. His eyes widened, and he tossed the flower to the ground and crushed it with his hoof, knowing that was not the best course of action to take. There was nothing he could do now. All he could do was wait for whatever was going to happen, and hope for the best. There was a loud rumble outside. "May Celestia have mercy," Shadow said. Chapter Seven: The Effects of the Poison JokeTwilight Sparkle ran about the castle, screaming. Things had been going completely insane all day, and she needed to let off some steam. All day ponies had been sending letters and requests for the strangest things. A few examples were how all the sugar in all the bakeries in town had been mysteriously replaced with salt, how all of the text in every book in town had all been mysteriously replaced with large, jumbled letters splattered about the page that all spelled out, "Now you see, boy," nonstop, through the whole thing, how all of the writing on young fillies' assignments at school had been flipped upside down, how clouds were running away from pegasi and storming on unsuspecting ponies whenever possible. The list just went on and on. Twilight sat down at her large crystal chair (she never liked referring to it as a throne, though the word, "chair," certainly had less of an impact) designated by the symbol representing her cutie mark at the top of it. She began to contemplate the events that had passed recently and anything that may have caused them. The answer snapped almost instantly into her head. Shadow Prophet! He had said the Universe was collapsing. Of course that was crazy talk, but he might know something about what was really happening. So, without further ado, Twilight left for Equestrian Mental Health Facility. "Yes, Princess, he's right in this room, just down the hall," said Doctor Brownhoof as he greeted Twilight Sparkle yet again to the asylum. He thought about not telling her about the patient's escape attempt, but then realized she would probably find out anyways. "And, um, last night, he tried to, er, made an attempt to-" Brownhoof was cut off. "Escape. Get out. Return to society," Shadow Prophet said from his room, his voice coming out between the grates in the door. Twilight looked into Shadow's room and saw him sitting on the floor, looking at the ceiling. She turned around and looked at Doctor Brownhoof. "Is this true?" She asked. Brownhoof nodded, not wanting to upset the Princess further. Twilight looked back to the holding cell, and used her magic to open the door. Doctor Brownhoof would've objected, but decided against it. This was the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria, and she was clearly very agitated. Twilight trotted into the cell, and closed the door behind her. "Alright then. Tell me what you know about what's going on," Twilight said calmly. Shadow Prophet lazily moved his gaze over to Twilight with uninterest. "What? What's happenin' ?" Shadow spoke in a slow, slurred voice that made Twilight think of him as drunk. "You know, chaos, impossibly odd things, impossibly creepy things! You know something about them, don't you?" Twilight accused. "Pfffft!" Shadow exclaimed, throwing his head back a little. "I don't really... I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a craaaaaaaaazy pony," Shadow said, spinning his hoof in a circle next to his head. Then he stopped, and in his eyes Twilight saw what looked like he had come to the ultimate epiphany, and had discovered the answer to all of life's problems. "Oh, thaaaaaaat!" He said, pointing a hoof at Twilight. "Yeah, yeah, yesh, da whole galaxy exploding and such. Yeah, we're all gonna die." Twilight became very serious. "What?! What do you mean? You think we'll die?! Aren't you a little upset about that?!" "Boof, calm down, misses grumpy-wumpy," Shadow said, leaning away from her. "Whas so bad about dying?" Twilight groaned and facehoofed. What had these doctors had him take? "Why would dying be a good thing?" She asked. "Why not?" Shadow replied. "I don't really care. So what if everything goes away? I don't much care for everything anyways." Shadow slowly picked himself up and dragged himself over to his small bed. He climbed into it and pulled up the covers, turning away from Twilight. "What are you doing?!" Twilight demanded. Shadow waved his hoof at her. "Go away, I wanna die without somepony screamin' in my ear." Twilight gave up talking to him. She looked around his room and wondered if the confinement could have driven him loopy. Then she saw an eerily familiar shade of blue sitting in the shadow under the small bedside table. Twilight inched closer to it and was overwhelmed by a rotten, horrible smell. She recognized it instantly as the notorious Poison Joke. What was a dangerous flower like that doing here in Shadow's cell? Twilight didn't necessarily have the time to sit down and contemplate all of the questions this sparked, so she ran over to Shadow, and leaned in close on him. She sniffed. Yes, the scent of the flower was definitely on him. She looked around frantically for a moment, then almost had a heart attack as the loudest thunderclap she had ever heard sounded directly above the facility. While Twilight screamed for just a second, Shadow seemed completely unfazed, and as the thunder faded, she could hear him snoring peacefully. She could also make out a lot of other sounds, which were a lot clearer than they should have been, through a thick steel door. It was screaming and lots of running, along with some laughing and crying. Twilight instinctively looked over to the door of the cell, but was caught off guard by there no longer being any door. It was gone. The only sign that a door had existed at all were some empty hinges screwed into the wall. Twilight edged towards the door, but froze as a royal guard galloped past her in fright, paying almost no attention to her and looking behind him. A second later, he was followed by a white mare with a nightmarish gleam in her eyes who had gotten hold of a long silver knife. She was obviously some sort of patient, considering her white sheet-like gown she wore. It occurred to Twilight that Shadow's door might not have been the only one to randomly (and quite inconveniently) vanish. She knew that to get to whatever washroom this place had so she could get some hot water, she would have to make a run for it. And whatever happened would happen, may Celestial help her. So, pushing all thoughts of what kinds of wackos were running amok, Twilight tensed her muscles, and shot forward. In times of great stress, like, let's say, running through a building full of potentially dangerous and completely insane ponies, one's adrenal gland produces a rather helpful hormone known as, "adrenaline." This, "adrenaline," would be one way to explain why Twilight Sparkle screamed the entire way through and empty hallway. On the other hand, excuse me, hoof, Twilight later stated that it felt like there was something following her, and she knew it wasn't a pony. She felt it was trying to stop her, and that it knew exactly what she was doing. This can be easily debunked as simply a delusion caused by the stress of her situation, or, as previously stated, just a side effect of the large amount of adrenaline running through Twilight's blood at the time. Twilight ran straight through the door labeled, "Washroom," and stopped as it closed behind her. Whatever that strange presence was, it was gone now. She spun three hundred and sixty degrees, looking for a sink or anything that pumped water. She saw an opening that led into the showers, and galloped in. It was humid, even though the showers looked like they hadn't been used in quite a while. She ran to the nearest shower head and turned the red-colored knob to the left. Instead of hot water, Twilight heard a low grumbling sound from within the wall. She pressed the side of her head to the wall, listening closely. She heard something. Something... coming closer. Twilight's eyes widened as she heard a deep growling voice yell, at a volume that rose alarmingly fast: "BOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" Then, when Twilight expected some evil monster to reach out and grab her, a tile she had her head against blew out of the wall, knocking her over on her back with an, "Oompf!" The Princess looked moved her head up in time to have her face splashed with high-pressure freezing cold water. It billowed out of the hole like a waterfall, and was soon followed by the other shower heads in the room. Twilight scraped at the wetted tile floor until she was out of the immediate danger the waterfall from the hole posed. She turned over and coughed up water for a minute, then stood up. Her eyes were only half-open, there was chlorine in the water, and it had seriously irritated her eyes. She noticed the sound of the water had stopped, and the room was very cold. Twilight Sparkle blinked some water out of her eyes, and looked around. Her vision was a bit blurry, but she could still make out what had happened. All the water, already on the floor or still falling, was frozen solid. It was a strange and yet beautiful sight. Her hooves were even stuck in a puddle that had frozen in a nothingth of a second. Her hair was also partially crystallized and stiff from frozen drops of water. Every breath was a small puff of steam. Water still pouring out of the shower heads had frozen in long icicles, splashes of water had frozen mid-splash, all of it was very, very confusing to Twilight. What if, Twilight found herself thinking, he's right? She shook her head, denying her own thoughts. There was some sort of logical explanation for all this, there had to be. So, with a conflicted mind, Twilight pulled her hooves out of the thin ice and magically melted the rest of the ice, moving through the steaming hole she left. She headed onward, through another passage that was at the end of the showers when she trotted in. She was relieved to see a simple sink, and a bucket near it that was collecting water from a drip in the ceiling. She used her magic to lift the bucket and absentmindedly dumped it out and moved it next to her as she slowly and carefully reached out with a trembling hoof to pull the red-labeled lever. She rested her hoof on it, and jerked quickly, recoiling instantly, expecting another waterfall. She breathed a sigh as steaming water billowed out of the faucet. Twilight filled her bucket up and turned off the faucet. She galloped through the already-melting frozen showers, out the door, into the chaos, and back to where she came from. Finally back in Shadow's room, Twilight saw Shadow looking out of his barred window, smiling as though the greatest show on Earth was playing outside. She felt a twinge of annoyment at this somehow even-odder personality Shadow currently possessed, and supposed that was the irony. He was perhaps the strangest pony she had ever met, yet now he was stranger than that. Twilight hesitated for just a moment, then splashed the steaming water on Shadow. Please work,please work, please work, Twilight thought. Shadow Prophet didn't react. He didn't care. Twilight's tense muscles were about to relax in the acceptance of defeat, when Shadow suddenly jumped in the air. "YEEEEOOOOOWWWW!!!" He yelled aloud, falling onto his thin bed and slapping himself all over. "Hot! Hot! Hot! Verrrrrryyyy hot!" He half-screamed, half-mumbled. He caught sight of Twilight and stopped instantly. He looked at her with disapproving eyes. He didn't say anything, but his look got it all across. Once he felt the message had been received, he jumped up and looked out his barred window once again. Instead of smiling, though, he said, "Oh, sweet Celestia's shit!" He then looked at Twilight with a now panicked look. "Twilight!" He yelled unnecessarily. "Yes?" Twilight replied. "The rip! It's grown! Half of Ponyville is gone!" He jumped down from the bed and was about to rush past Twilight when he stopped just short of the doorless doorway. "What is it?" Twilight asked. She turned around, and saw Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootalloo, standing next to each other, smiling evil smiles, and giggling evil giggles. Twilight was about to ask what the girls were doing here, but Shadow spoke first. "Oh no. Remnants." Chapter Eight: Chasing the Remnants"What?!" Twilight looked at Shadow, confused. "Remnants? What are those?" Shadow recoiled slowly from the fillies, but they never moved. Without looking at Twilight, Shadow explained, "They're the leftovers of time. Events that never happened, but could have. When things like this happen, they tend to slip through." Twilight nodded, though she had no idea what Shadow was talking about. She studied lots of things, but temporal relativity she had not gotten around to. "Well, they still need to be out of here," Twilight said. She looked at the girls with a firm but not angry look and said, "Look, I'm not going to ask how you got here girls, but staving off a bunch of loose psychopaths is not your special talent. So follow me, we're getting out of here." Applebloom moved forward, still smiling rather creepily, and whispered, "No. You follow... us." She and the other two turned and ran, their bodies moving like smoke, it looked like there were no sudden movements, even though they started running after standing still. Their hooves made the quietest clopping sounds Twilight had ever heard, but she still saw it as her duty to stop the girls, especially since they were in danger in this place. "Girls! Get back here right now!" Twilight ran off, leaving Shadow standing in his cell. He looked behind him at his small spring bed and his grease-blackened table and said to himself, almost whining, "Oh, I really wanna stay!" Then he looked out at Twilight chasing the three fillies. "But... Ugh, I hate me." Having more self-loathing thoughts, Shadow galloped after Twilight. The girls ran extremely fast somehow, too fast for Twilight. She flapped her wings to help her move faster, but she never got any closer to the runaway girls. How is this equinely possible?! Twilight thought as she started to breath heavily. She knew she wouldn't catch them, but she had to keep going. Eventually and inevitably, the girls ran out the front door, which was also gone, it appeared. Behind her, Twilight could hear Shadow yelling her name. "Twilight! Wait! You don't know what you're doing!" His yelled didn't stop her.mWhat kind of friend would she be to let Applejack's little sister, Rarity's little sister, and Rainbow Dash's practically little sister run away in a town with a bunch of knife-wielding mental patients in it? Definitely not the greatest one. "It means they're not real! Twilight! They're not real!" As the five-participant chase continued through town, it caught the attention of many ponies. As destiny would have it, among those disturbed by the chase were Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. They all thought it be only polite to follow after Twilight, even if they weren't really sure what was going on. Twilight could feel her legs burning painfully, but she tuned it out, focusing on the foals. She wasn't particularly focused on where she and the fillies were headed however. They were running at a terribly fast speed directly towards the shore of Eternity's Crossing, the most dangerous sea in the whole world. As Twilight's hooves began stepping on hot sand,her vision automatically adjusted,and she saw the waves washing on the shore. She skidded to a stop, bu the grils continued to run. Between breathes, Twilight said, "Wait! The-the- iz dangerous! Don't go out there!" They didn't listen. Without so much as a splash, they went into the water, slowly going under, still running. Twilight looked on, terrified. They were going to drown out there! Behind her, Shadow Prophet came to a halt. "Twilight! Don't chase them, it's pointless. It's like chasing a rainbow." Twilight ignored him. Everything he'd been saying recently was all nonsensical crap. There was a loud buzzing, crackling sound, "BZZZZZZCCCCCCRRRRRRRSSSHHHHHH-POP!" From off to the left. Twilight and Shadow looked over instantly and saw a small wooden boat, bobbing up and down in the water, oddly steaming. Twilight, without thinking, darted after it. "No, Twilight, please!" Shadow begged. Of course, she didn't listen. He followed her and when she jumped in the boat and started moving forward with her magic, he grabbed on to the back. The five other ponies ran up to the shore and stopped at the edge of the water, looking on, extremely confused. "Is it jus' me, or is Twi sailin' into Eternity's Crossin' with Shadow holdin' on the the back uh the boat?" Applejack asked. "Oh no, he's going to get all wet," Fluttershy whispered. "Well, at least then maybe his mane won't be sticking out everywhere like Albert Einstein." Rarity said. "Who?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Oh, you know, the-" There was another clap of thunder. "Oh. I can't seem to remember. Huh." "Twi! Whadya think yer doin'?!" Applejack called out. From the boat, Twilight called back, "I've gotta save them! They're gonna drown!" "Who?" Twilight didn't respond. Her magic faded from the boat and it slowed to a halt. She instantly jumped into the choppy waves of the water. Shadow pulled himself into the boat and lay on the floor for a moment, coughing up salt water that had gone up his nose and down his throat. Once he could breath normally, he got up and looked over the edge of the boat Twilight had gone down, trying to find her. "Sis', what's happenin' out there?" Applejack turned to see Applebloom, looking worried, with Scootalloo and Sweetie Belle behind her. She hooked her hoof around her sister's neck and said, "I have absolutely no idea." They both looked back out to the water. Shadow was now looking over the other side of the boat, off to where the ponies could not see from where they were. He was no longer looking for Twilight, and stared out into the ocean, frozen. Twilight, under the water, spun around, looking for the girls, but they were nowhere to be found. In despair, she climbed back aboard the boat and looked at the shore, where Applejack stood with... the three girls next to her. They were completely dry and looked worried, they certainly didn't know what was going on. At this point, Twilight wasn't sure she did either. She backed up and bumped into Shadow Prophet, who was leaning over the boat's edge. "What are you looking at?" She asked. He turned to her. "You haven't even seen it yet, have you?" He asked her. Twilight shook her head, confused. Shadow pointed up at the sky, and Twilight followed his hoof. She gasped and almost fell over the side of the boat. In the sky, above all of Equestria, was a giant black circle about twice the size of the sun in the sky. Clouds were moving towards it, and once they got close enough, they flew into it and shrank until there was nothing left. The range of how far clouds were before they began being sucked into it was visibly growing rapidly. Twilight couldn't think. Her brain froze up like Windows Vista in its attempt to wrap itself around what she was seeing. She stared so long that she no longer saw it, only looked at it. "Do you believe me now?" Shadow asked. She spun around to face him and a hundred things went through her mind all at once. A hundred ways to tell him that he was wrong yet again. But all of them were dead leaves twirling vainly around a great and strong tree of a thought, the inevitable acceptance of what was happening, and that Shadow Prophet was right. She nodded. Shadow nodded in return, seeming to understand what was going on in Twilight's head. He then pointed out to the ocean. "That is what I was looking at. It's far worse than the black hole in the sky." While also realizing that it was a black hole, Twilight looked out to the endless sea. All across its surface were lines that closely resembled cracks with white light shining through them. While the water moved, the cracks stayed steady. Occasionally, a small wave would rise over the crack, and fall down into it. As it went down into it, there was faint but noticeable crackling sound, like something being charged with electricity. This was all a little much for. Twilight, and she just shook her head in disbelief. Her surprise meter had been worn down to a blunt, and now she believed she had seen all there was to see. She was wrong. There was a low grumbling sound from deep under the water, a sound almost too deep for ears to perceive. It seemed to spread out across the water like a drop of food coloring in a glass of water, liquidly moving around until it consumed all of the water. Then, one of the cracks out on the sea went from white to black in a fashion that looked as if something had moved over and blocked out the light. It had. Suddenly, out from one of the larger cracks, slithered a long, tall beast of darkness. It was what you could not see that made it terrifying. It did not seem to wear, but to be a giant black cloak, and it never made a single sound as it moved and slithered like a snake fleeing from danger. It was so tall and so dark that it engulfed Twilight's boat completely in shadow. All the ponies that could see it, which was pretty much every pony in Equestria, cowered in pure despair at the sight of the horrible thing. It outstretched its long, cloaked arm very slowly and from it spilled out more shadowy blackness, and this took the shape of a giant scythe. Twilight and Shadow only looked on, not being able to think at all as they shivered uncontrollably; partly of the uncomfortable cold the beast let off, but mostly of blind fear. On the shore, the five mares watched in disbelief as the creature cocked its cloaked head, examining the ponies on the boat. Flutter shy fainted. Rarity, in spite of her love of her hair being put up, yanked it down to cover her eyes. The three fillies curled up in balls around Applejack's legs. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, felt hate and anger instead of fear. Just what the hell did this thing think it was doing? Did it have any ideas who it was scaring senseless? The Princess of Friendship! She wasn't sure, but she believed you could serve some time in jail for that. In her rage, she flew, rather unstealthily, to the ponies' aid. She could tell that both were too terrified to be able to do anything, and that she would have to get them out of there. While the creature still looked on, not interrupting, she lifted Twilight from the boat, who was sweating coldly; she didn't blame her. The dead weight of a shocked Twilight was almost too much to lift, but Rainbow Dash managed, through much struggling. Veins showing on her neck, Rainbow slowly but surely began moving Twilight to shore. The large cloaked thing turned its head slightly to see, but only for a moment before refocusing its attention on the boat, where Shadow cowered away from its gaze. Through gritted teeth, Rainbow managed to say, "Come on, Twi. All I need's a little help!" Hearing, but not replying, still somewhat lost in the haze of her attempt at comprehension, Twilight flapped her wings. It wasn't much, certainly not enough to lift the Princess off the ground without support, but it felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted to Rainbow. She flew much faster to shore, and once there, lightly set Twilight down, who flapped her wings a few more times before stopping. She didn't fold them in, just let them fall to her sides. Rainbow turned and set out towards the boat again to get Shadow. Shadow, who was peeking at the idle monster over the rim of the boat, caught Rainbow Dash's figure out of the corner of his eye. He instinctively looked right at her, and was simultaneously hit with a very clear vision. Rainbow Dash flies down to pick up Shadow Prophet. The beast utters a low growl, almost of annoyment. As Shadow watches, it raises one long, cloaked hand and strikes Rainbow Dash clean across the head, knocking her unconscious. Her limp body sails toward the water , and with a loud splash, sinks down under. Shadow shook his head, clearing it. He looked back up at Rainbow Dash and began shouting at her. "No! Turn back now! Go away!" He was waving his hooves over in the direction of the shore. Rainbow Dash stopped an asked, "What?" Shadow cupped his hooves around his mouth and shouted, "Move in the opposite general direction of this damn boat!" Rainbow Dash, still unable to hear, began moving closer to hear Shadow better. The beast then let out a loud, almost annoyed growl. IT slowly raised its long black cloaked hand, leaving behind a trail of smoke which dissipated quickly. Shadow pointed at it, hoping Rainbow would see what was about to happen. She turned around, and her eyes widened as the giant hand came towards her. She put up her hooves in a futile attempt to stop it, and it hit her. It only struck her head, but it twisted it sideways and Shadow thought he saw a small amount of blood fly out of Rainbow's mouth. The force of the blow also sent her spiraling diagonally towards the water, and much faster than if she had simply begun free-falling. She shot below the surface of the water with a stinging SPLASH! and Shadow could see her sink below. The beast moved its hand back to its side. Shadow began paddling with both hooves over to where Rainbow met the water, hoping she hadn't already gone too deep. The thing's gaze followed him all the way, not breaking even to see Twilight fly up next to him. Twilight Sparkle fired off a great blast of magic at the beast, but once it reached it, the magic that was so well concentrated into a fast beam of purple energy dissipated into slow, black smoke that moved around wanderingly, never leaving his aura of coldness. Seeing it made Twilight feel lightheaded, and she retreated, seeming very confused to her friends. Shadow stopped paddling and reached into the water, almost yanking his hooves back out instantly. He was very close to the beast, and the water surrounding it had a horrible feel to it, akin to the feeling you get when you lick the top of a 9-volt alkaline battery. Shadow, however, kept his hooves in the water, trying to ignore all the things that were going on and focus on getting Rainbow Dash out of the water before she drowned. Then a thought hit him. Why was he doing this? Why was he trying to save this mare who he had only talked to twice, and one of those ended in her insulting him? Why? He then realized that, ever since the horrible tragedy in his hometown had hit him and changed his life, he had never had a true friend, and he was reaching out to these ponies because they were trying their best to be hospitable to him. While Twilight had dragged him to the assylum, she was doing it to try and help him. She had even broken him out of the poison joke's enchantment. Rainbow Dash did end up insulting him, but that was after wanting to know things. Twilight had been on the verge of tears after hearing his story in summary. These ponies were as close as he had ever come to anypony that actually cared about him. It was a shocking revelation that hit him like a lightning strike; it had great impact, yet it also came in a split second. Shadow only hesitated for a barely noticable moment before continuing his search. His hooves touched wet fur, and he instantly wrapped them around it and pulled with all his strength. An unconscious Rainbow Dash, drenched in water, was pulled aboard and dropped on the floor of the boat. Shadow sat across form her, breathing heavily. He was distracted by the creature which he had almost forgotten about. It let out a terrible screech, and it lurched forward towards the boat. Shadow put his hooves up, but he didn't have to. The thing never touched him. Instead, it became thin and blanket-like, making a dome of shadow over the boat. The thing went down another crack in the water, so now its lower end was flying out of one crack, and its upper end was flying into another. It moved faster and faster, making a current of wind which began to pull the boat along its path. Realizing this, Shadow tried to paddle again in the opposite direction, but the current was too powerful, and there was nothing he could do to stop the boat being pulled towards the crack in reality. As the boat came up to it, Shadow was overcome with the odd sensation of being manipulated like clay. The crack was thin, far too thin for the boat, let alone anypony on it, to fit through. So quantum reality compensated. The boat and its two occupants were flattened almost to the width of a piece of paper, but they were not harmed in any way. To both, it only came as a weird tingle. The boat slipped into the crack, and behind it the rest of the beast followed. As its tail went in, the crack behind it sealed shut, letting out a thunderclap sound. The ponies on the shore were unsure of what to do. Don't blame them, you would be too. Chapter Nine: Falling Through TimeShadow felt like he had a really bad hangover. His head throbbed with all the intensity of someone kicking it from the inside, trying to escape. He rubbed his temples and groaned, wondering how long he'd been sleeping. He opened his eyes, and saw the interior of a boat. What? What am I doing in a boat? He thought. Looking to the other side of the boat, the thought was quickly followed by: Why is Rainbow Dash asleep in the boat with a big bruise on the side of her face? He looked up to where the sky should've been, and this time, the thought was: What in Celestia's name is going on?! Above him, colors zipped by at incomprehensible speeds on a black background, making lines of speeding color. Shadow climbed up to the side of the boat and looked over the edge. More speeding lights of color on black backgrounds. All around. Beneath too. They were in a circular tunnel of color. Shadow though this couldn't get any weirder, but then another him climbed up the outside of the boat and looked at him. He looked at himself for a while, before his doppelganger lifted a knife from out of nowhere and slowly pressed it against his own throat, until it slid through and came out the other side. Then he smiled and laughed aloud. Shadow closed his eyes, and when he opened them again the other him was gone. He looked ahead, wanting to see if there was any end to this psychedelic passage, but saw no end near. Then, something that had been too thin to see from the side began to turn its face towards him. It was a window, a plane of glass, and on the other end was not the rest of the tunnel, but a bright blue sky with faint clouds in it. The window became perpendicular to the boat, and Shadow saw that the boat would crash into it in a second. He ducked, not wanting to be in the way of shattering glass. In the land of the Texas Metroplequine, or Texas Metroplex, as it is called in our world, there is a nice town named Midlothian. It is a suburban place where children can run free and play with their friends in the dewy fields and make memories that last a lifetime. It is worth mentioning that this is located in a grasslands, the Blackland Prairies, to be exact. So here, a lot of the grassy fields remain pure and undeveloped. It is a beautiful place, one of the last few pure places in the country of North Americlop, or North America, as it is called in our world. It is in one of these undeveloped patches of land, far away from where anypony could see it, that our characters enter this world, and subsequently, the second act of our story. High in the air, a window was shattered by an airborne boat. Not something you get to see every day, which is why nopony saw it. The window wasn't there a moment before the boat shattered through, and it wasn't actually there when it did shatter through, either. It stood in a metaphysical spot between the portal the boat was in and the Texas Metroplequine. So when it shattered, there was no glimpse into the portal, a boat shattered through the other side of a window that wasn't there. It's actually better that nopony saw it, because seeing what I have just attempted to explain would require a temporary shift into 4-d, or even 5-d, and seeing that with 3-d eyes would be like trying to play a blu-ray on a DVD player. It would turn your fragile eyes inside out. Good thing nopony in the boat had their eyes open either. The boat fell through the sky, and Shadow felt cool wind brush past his fur as it leaked through the boards of the boat, and loved it. He didn't think about why wind was coming from the bottom of the boat, or why he was slowly moving away from the boat as it fell faster, he just welcomed it greatly. Then he realized what was happening, looked over the edge, saw a grassy ground heading straight for him, and screamed. Crash!! the sound disturbed the mare who was swinging on her ever-so-familiar swing. She brought it to a halt and turned her head to where the sound had come from. Over the fence, a few feet away, she saw some trees rustling unusually. She heard groans of pain, and jumped out of her swing, breaking into a gallop through the small yellow apartment buildings and around the perimeter fence. In the open field out front was, the mare was greeted with a strange sight indeed. A boat lay on the ground, in pieces, looking burnt, with two ponies in it. One was unconscious, the other was rubbing his temples and groaning. The mare galloped over to help, but the one who was awake held his hoof up at her in a, "stop," signal. She did stop, but raised her hoof and considered continuing. She instead sat down, worried. She looked around her and then asked, all at once, "Who are you? How did you get here? Why are you in a boat? Who's your friend?" The awake one held his hoof up again, and she closed her mouth. "Ugh, questions, questions, questions! It's as though you wanted to know things." He stopped rubbing his temples and opened his eyes. The mare was shocked for a moment, staring into those eyes. They reminded her of somepony she knew, even though they weren't the same color. It was their essence. She couldn't quite put her hoof on who it reminded her of, though. The blue pony said, "My name... my name is Shadow Prophet. I fell out of the sky, because reasons, and that," he stopped for breath, then pointed at the unconscious mare, "is Rainbow Dash. Who, may I ask, are you?" Politely, she replied, "Raven Wing." Then what the blue stallion had said processed. "Wait, did you say Shadow Prophet? Rainbow Dash?" She looked at the sleeping mare and for the first time noticed the rainbow-colored mane. She looked back at Shadow, and again asked, "You're Shadow Prophet?!" Shadow held up his hooves in defense. "Yes! Why? What did I do?" Raven Wing screamed. Chapter Ten: Temporal Coincidence"Why the hell are you screaming at me?!" Shadow asked, extremely confused. Instead of answering, Raven Wing quieted, and started trotting around in circles. She looked at him. "You can't be real! You're fake!" Shadow felt a little insulted by Raven's statement and stood up, looking her directly in the eyes. "Good Madame, I must assure you, with a rather high level of confidence, that I, Shadow Prophet, am one hundred percent real." Raven Wing looked at Shadow, surprised. "Wow. You really are Shadow Prophet." Shadow looked around, feeling a sudden chill. "What's so amazing about me? I'm just like the next pony," he lied unnecessarily. He felt watched. "You don't even know, do you?" Shadow looked around again. Something was getting closer, he could feel it. He looked back at Raven. "What? What don't I know?!" "You're just a story." The news hit Shadow like a bucket of ice water. Or maybe it was whatever was coming. Shadow became very confused. "What? How am I just a story? I'm right here, in front of you! Hello!" He waved his hoof in a greeting. Raven Wing didn't seem to fully understand it either, and she sat down. She looked at the grass, and then jumped back up. Shadow looked at it too. In sharp waves, the grass was turning from a lavish and healthy green to a curled up and dry yellow. Every second or so, the grass would become thinner and drier, dying scarily quickly. "From over the hill and around the run," Shadow found himself saying with no control. "Comes the one made of shadows, the Dark One." The last part made him shiver, and it made Raven shiver too. Then, from just around the corner of the fence nearby, came a low moaning sound, a kin to an old man who hadn't had a drink of water in all his life. On the ground there appeared a long shadow of the approaching figure, its head moving side to side like a pendulum as their hooves moved them forward. Both Shadow and Raven broke into a cold sweat as they stood, frozen in place, only able to wish whatever was coming was friendly. It would be an understatement to say they were surprised to find that the shadow had no owner. It came around, the shadow's hooves coming to an end, where they should meet the bottoms of real hooves. But there were none. The shadow stopped, as if realizing there was no possible way for it to exist. But instead of blipping out of existence, it left its boundaries. It climbed up, leaving behind its world of second-dimensional dependence, and coming into three-dimensional independence. It was real. It was still the epitome of darkness, bore no features, and was weirdly see-through. Shadow stood still, while Raven Wing came out of shock and tumbled over on her back. She then flipped herself over, jumped up, and sped off towards her home. The shadow slowly and liquidly moved towards Shadow, whose eyes widened. It stopped only a few steps away from him, and Shadow's eyes rolled up in his skull and his eyelids closed. He was in white. Nothing more. Just white. Whiteness. Everywhere. It didn't hurt his eyes, though. Across him was a stallion in a business suit. He stood in the white as well. But he acted like it was a common thing to be in. He trotted towards Shadow and looked at him with mild interest. He had a well-maintained mane, and was colored a dark brown. He lifted a clipboard that wasn't there before up to his face and read it over. He flipped one page up and Shadow say on he back were largely printed words. ALL YOU THINK, ALL THE SAME. THINK QUITE WRONG, ITS ALL IN VAIN. ALL YOU THINK, ALL THE SAME. DO IT RIGHT, THERE'LL STILL BE PAIN. Shadow would've asked the stallion about this, but he could not speak. The stallion flipped the page back into place and dropped the clipboard. It never landed. It was just gone. He looked at shadow, and his face broke into a smile. Not a creepy smile, just a smile of pure happiness. Then he said, "They were right, weren't they? You're the one!" "Hurry! Get over here, you idiot!" Raven Wing yelled, her head poking out from behind the fence. Shadow was yanked out of his trance by that yell, and the first thing he saw was the shadow creature leaning over Rinbow Dash, who was groaning in pain. It held its dark hoof over her body, and kept moving it over her, just above her. Shadow knocked the hoof away, and when his met it's, he felt an extremely unpleasant coldness, and a shock went through his body. The creature moved back and let out a hiss, but it was not normal in any way, by a hiss' standards. It was deep and grumbling, and after it the monster became a dark mist, floating away in tendrils, disappearing into the ground. Shadow grabbed Rainbow Dash's hoof and wrapped it around her neck. He dragged her out of the boat and carried her over the edge of the fence, where Raven was waiting. He dropped Rainbow on the ground and said, aggravated, "Thanks for the help." Raven did feel guilty for abandoning Shadow, and assisted in taking Rainbow Dash back to her apartment. She left Rainbow in her bed, and tossed some blankets over her. Rainbow subconsciously pulled them up and turned over in the bed. Outside the room, Shadow was waiting. He looked around. There was one short hallway that turned to the right to enter the last room, which was storage. Before the hall there was a small den which held two strange mechanisms that Raven told him were a, "television," and a, "computer." Shadow had never heard of either. On the other side was a small kitchen holding other strange mechanisms Shadow hadn't bothered to ask about. One was large and white and rumbled like it was going to explode. Shadow intended to keep an eye on that. Raven Wing stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. When she looked at Shadow, she laughed out her nose and looked away, still unable to believe his existence. Shadow said, "Well, I guess you'd like us to sit down and talk for a while." Raven, without looking back at Shadow, nodded. Shadow slid off of the wall that had been supporting him and headed for the den. Raven thought that, just for a moment, she had seen Shadow's, well, shadow flicker, for just a brief second. It was probably nothing. She followed Shadow. "So... I guess I should start with how I got here," Shadow said, sitting across a dinner table from Raven. He laughed. "Even now I'm still not sure." Raven shook her head, which confused Shadow. She said, "I know how you got here. That's the thing. I think I have more to explain to you than you do to me." Raven rubbed her temples, then started. "A few months ago, I think it was April, my boyfriend got on a website-" Shadow interrupted. "What's a website?" Raven looked up in surprise at Shadow, then said, "It's... a place where... ponies put things so that other ponies can see them and comment on them." Shadow nodded, and she continued. "This website, FiMfiction, it's called, was a place where you could write stories based off a show. Anyways, he started to write there, and his first story was called, 'Shadow Prophet.'" Shadow shook his head, not understanding. Raven Wing looked up at the ceiling then back to Shadow, wondering how to word it. "You are... a fictional character. My boyfriend created you, you're just a figment of his imagination. His really weird imagination." Shadow nodded, then said, "Those sort of things are theoretically possible." Now it was Raven's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?" "Well, the differing worlds have more links to each other than portals. Sometimes certain beings have copies of themselves in certain worlds, sometimes the world in question is only a fiction in another. I think one of the links between my world and yours may be the boy writing that story. I think he knows things." Raven understood enough of what was said. "Really? Then why don't we go ask him? He's just down the block, I can take you there." Shadow shook his head. "No, no. If I am meant to meet him, I will meet him. I don't think it'd be a good idea to force things like this. Especially when one of the worlds is collapsing." Raven nodded. She said, "I read the last chapter. 'Falling Through Time.' I couldn't read the very last bit, because my internet router crapped itself again." Shadow didn't know what an internet router was, but he deduced that when it, "crapped itself," it severed her connection to the wherever the story was being stored, the, "website." "That's good. I'm pretty sure if you'd read too far you would've read into the future, and that could be really bad for all of us." Shadow would've kept talking, were it not for a rainbow-haired pegasus throwing a book at his head. "Yow! What in Celestia's name..." Shadow was pushed to the ground by Rainbow Dash, who was in a panic. She had dreamed that Shadow had kidnapped her and was holding her hostage. When she awoke in unfamiliar surroundings, she assumed it must be true. With Shadow out of the way, Rainbow Dash galloped for the door. Raven Wing fell out of her chair in surprise, but Rainbow didn't acknowledge her. She yanked the door open, looked for a solid second at the death-creature made of shadow standing on the doormat, then ran the other way, screaming. Chapter Eleven: The Most Terrifying Thing Ever"CRAP! CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!" Shadow yelled, as Raven was far closer. She jumped up and galloped to the door, pushing it shut. But it didn't close. The shadow pony stuck its hoof out with impossible speed and the door bounced off of it, smashing Raven's face. She staggered back and held her hoof up to her nose, which had begun to bleed from the impact. Shadow grabbed the book that had been thrown at him and flung it towards the creature. It went through it entirely, causing it to turn yet again into a spreading mist. But it did not stay that way. Once the book was on the ground, the mist moved quickly and quietly over to Shadow, wrapping itself around his hooves. Shadow tried to step away from it, but it continued to envelope his hooves.It began spiraling around his legs, working it's way to covering him completely. Some of the dark mist floated up and into Shadow's nose. When he breathed it in, he gagged. Then he gagged again; a dry gag. He tried to grasp his throat, but could not move his hooves. His eyes bulged as he gasped for breaths he could not take. Raven wiped her bloody nose and took action. She leaped forward and, not knowing what else to do, stomped around in the mist. It moved away from her when she did, and little by little it was dissipating. She clapped her hoof on Shadow's back, and he coughed up a ball of black goo, which bounced and rolled out the door, the mist following it. Behind it, the door slowly creaked shut. Raven Wing stared at the door, Rainbow Dash poked her head around the corner, and Shadow gasped for breath. A drop of blood from Raven's nose fell to the carpeted floor, and upon seeing it, Shadow was filled with a sudden surging rage. He moved forward slowly, opened the door, and stepped outside into the warm, sunny Texas day. He looked around, but could find no trace of the monster that had dragged him through worlds and had its heart set on tormenting him. Shadow looked up to the sky and yelled, so hard that his voice hurt, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!! WHAT?! DO YOU WANT MY LIFE?! THEN COME AND TRY TO FUCKING TAKE IT!!" There was a tap on Shadow's shoulder. He turned around and punched it, expecting the shadow-thing. Instead, he punched an orange mare wearing a blue uniform that read, "Midlothian Police." He was about to apologize, but then the mare grabbed his hoof and put hoofcuffs on it. She said,"You and your friends are coming with me." Shadow realized that these Midlothian Police must be like the Royal Guard or Equestria. "Crap," he said. He had been cussing a lot recently. Shadow paced his small cement cell, wondering just what the hell he was going to do. He had to do something. There was a potentially fatal beast out there, and here they were, cooped up in these small cells in the back of the Police station, the only inmates in the small hallway behind the office where the officer (Carrot Top was her name) was filling out paperwork, occasionally looking up at the three inmates, as though they might vanish if she didn't look at them often. The jail-room was light by a single faint glowing orb that hung from a wire in the middle of the hall. Shadow had seen these in the ceiling of Raven Wing's apartment, but they were protected by glass and shined a lot brighter. The orb flickered every once in a while, which Shadow found to be terribly distracting. Shadow stuck his hoof out of his cell and waved it up and down, catching the officer's attention. "What do you want?" She asked accusingly. "Yes, well, erm... you see... Could you fix this, um, light...thing? It's really annoying," Shadow said with absolutely no confidence whatsoever. The officer's cold stare had drilled into him and sucked it all out. Carrot Top laughed aloud. "So what? I don't have to do crap for you! Look, if you don't like the flickery light, then how about this?" The officer got up and went to the doorway that led into the jail-room. She flicked a switch that stood mounted on the wall outside the doorway, and the light went out. They would have been in total darkness, were it not for the light coming from the officer's office. She went back to her desk and sat down, ignoring Shadow and the other ponies. Shadow smiled nervously and said, "Um, okay. Thanks," before pulling his hoof back into his cell and flopping down on his small, gross bed. "Great plan." Shadow pushed himself up and turned to see Raven Wing in the cell across from him, looking through the bars accusingly. Everypony had been looking at him accusingly recently. "Sorry. I didn't know she was so... yeah. You wouldn't have done any better, I'm sure," Shadow said. Raven scoffed. "Sure." Carrot Top snapped, "Hey! Quiet in there!" Raven flashed an angry look towards the police officer, then asked her, "How long are we going to be in here," then, in a truly painful attempt at being polite to the officer, she said through gritting teeth, "ma'am?" "Well, the rainbow one was clearly hit across the head by one of you, she was also screaming at one of you. There were sounds of fighting and your blue, frizzy friend disrupted the public greatly. I'd say either until tonight, or overnight. Now shut up,I'm trying to work." "Hugs and kisses to you too," Raven muttered sarcastically. Shadow groaned with his face buried in the bed. Overnight? Who knew what kind of damage that creature he'd unwittingly released could do in twelve hours? In ten minutes alone it'd gotten three ponies arrested. I bet my bottom dollar it planned for that to happen, Shadow thought. I thought it was some basic creature that just wanted to kill us like a barbarian. But I was wrong, wasn't I? This thing, whatever it is, wanted us out of the way. And it did it rather cleverly. Shadow found his voice out of his control again, and somepony else whispered out of his mouth, "The Dark One." Raven looked at him for a moment, then looked away. Shadow's eyebrows furrowed. Wait. What if it wasn't trying to get us out of the way? What if it's just trying to drive us mad? It certainly looks like that's what it's been trying to do. But if that's true, then... "It's here," Shadow realized, jumping up from his bed. He galloped to the corner of his cell, attracting the attention of Rainbow Dash, who had been silently sitting in the same cell as Raven, looking at the grossly stained bed, Raven Wing, and Carrot Top. "Hey, Carrot! Carrot the Parrot, listen to me!" Shadow yelled at the officer. She gained a very angry face. "What did you just call me?" "Carroty Parroty, the one and only carrot-making parrot!" Raven gave Shadow a look like he was insane, but Shadow ignored her. Shadow closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, while Carrot Top stomped around her desk and up to his cell. When she was right in his face, Shadow's eyes snapped open. "Yes. That's what they called you when you were little, wasn't it?" He said. Carrot Top's eyes widened. "Little bitty Parrot Pop, gross, shy, and weird," Shadow chanted. "Little bitty Parrot Pop, don't be shocked if she grows a beard!" Tears trembled on the officer's eyes, threatening to spill over. "How... how do you know that?" She asked shakily. Shadow whispered, "Let us go, and I'll tell you." The officer wiped her eyes and then looked to the floor for a moment. She looked over to the keys to their cells hanging on the wall, thought for a moment, then, "No. No, I can't." She didn't look at Shadow Prophet before returning to her office. Shadow reached out his hoof and waved it around again, but she ignored him. She sat back down in her desk and massaged her temples for a moment before returning to her work. "Wha... how did you do that?" Raven whispered. Shadow looked at her and said, "Let us go, and I'll tell you," sarcastically. Then , he froze, and his pupils dilated. He gasped coldly, and looked into the office. Raven and Rainbow followed his gaze, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until they noticed a second shadow on the wall, standing right next to Carrot Top's shadow. "What the-" Raven started, but Shadow held his hoof up to his mouth, symboling a, "shush." Raven quieted, and watched in part-awe, part-terror. The shadow on the wall reached out to the officer's shadow and tapped it's shoulder. Carrot Top jumped and looked around her, not noticing the extra shadow. She brushed her shoulder and then looked back at her work. The no-pony shadow violently grabbed Carrot's shoulder and wouldn't let go. Carrot Top tried to move her shoulder, but found it was being held in place by something she couldn't see. The shadow took it's other hoof and swiped it across Carrot's shadow's face quickly. On Carrot's face, a large bloody cut appeared at a diagonal slant, and she screamed in pain. The shadow began dragging Carrot's shadow closer to the wall, and the officer was pulled out of her chair and dragged along the floor. She kicked and screamed, but with nothing to do to stop the shadow, it was pointless. You can't hurt a shadow. Both the shadows became more clear and defined as they neared the wall. The pony-less one had no distinguishable features whatsoever. Carrot touched the wall, but she didn't stop moving. She began to absorb into the wall. He shoulder spread out and vanished as she was dragged to wherever the shadow was taking her. Apparently, being flattened into non-existence is not very comfortable, as Carrot Top began screaming at the top of her lungs, and she started crying for her mom. The ponies in the jail-room all looked away, unable to watch as she was slowly and painfully murdered. When the screaming stopped, Shadow Prophet took a glance at the wall. Carrot Top was gone, but her shadow still stood alongside the other one that had dragged her into oblivion. Her shadow trotted into it, and vanished. And just like that, Carrot Top was no more. Shadow believed nothing more horrifying could happen than what he had just witnessed, until the murdering shadow began to move towards the jail-room. Chapter Twelve: The Chase Begins"No, no, no! What do we do?!" Raven screamed, backing up to the farthest part of her cell. The shadow came nearer to the jail-room. Shadow Prophet began looking around for something to use to defend themselves. There was nothing he could use, the only possibly defending items were in the Late Carrot Top's office, but there was no way they were going to be able to get in there. Shadow, out of ideas, began to think about how they could avoid the shadow. Then a simple and obvious fact popped into his head. "It's a shadow!" "Yeah? So?" Raven asked frantically. "So... the lights are off in here! Shadows can't exist where there is no light!" Raven realized this and sighed in relief. The shadow approached, but when it came to the border between the lightness of Carrot Top's office and the darkness of the jail-room, it stopped. It could not venture any further. Shadow laughed. "Ha! We beat you with something so completely simple! It's hilarious!" He started doing a little happy dance around his cell, and Raven smiled in spite of herself. Shadow Prophet was certainly a strange character. Much like sompony she knew... The shadow moved away so that the ponies could not see it. It was on the wall on the other side of the jail-room. Then, with a loud clank, the lights slowly came to life. Horrible white light filled the jail-room, and the ponies screamed. Rainbow Dash and Raven Wing took off and flew up to the roof of the cell. The lights in the hall were located higher then the ceiling of the jail cells, so there was darkness on the roof. They were safe. Shadow, on the other hoof... "Get under the bed!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him. The shadow moved its way into the jail-room, appreciating the light far too much than any creature has a right to. Shadow dropped flat to the ground and slid under the thin space in between the jail cell bad and the cold cement floor, where no light shined. From his vantage point, he would only be able to see hooves if anypony were to arrive. Inevitably, he saw the shadow of hooves that had no owner, and cringed even though he knew he was safe in the darkness. The shadow stepped up upon the bed and the mattress began to bend downwards, as if somepony were slowly lowering a large weight upon it. The bed began to crush Shadow's back, and he found that he could no longer take large breathes. He could only take in short gasps of air, and those were quickly getting smaller. Even though he knew it was the worst possible thing to do, Shadow stuck his hooves out into the light and began flailing them around, begging for help in the only way he could at that point. He tried to scream, but with his shortness of breath, all he could manage was a weak, "Haaaaaaaah..." Raven Wing saw the empty shadow covering the bed completely and crushing it down on the helpless blue pony, and she took action. She flew over to her bed, waving for Rainbow Dash to follow. Together, they lifted the gross, orange, stained bedsheets off their own beds and carried them over to the edge of their cells. Following Raven's instruction, they both flung them outwards repeatedly, until Rainbow's successfully wrapped around one of the light bulbs that shined down on Shadow's cell. The light didn't go away completely, but it became very faint, and the shadow quickly moved away into better lighting. Shadow climbed out from his bed and tried to run. He stumbled a few times, but managed. He ran directly past the shadow. It reached out for him, but without looking, Shadow batted his hoof around, knocking the shadow away. He ran to the cement wall and rammed it with his horn. He grimaced and collapsed after meeting the wall, but unicorn horns are stronger than any material, so it remained intact and broke a large chunk of cement out of the wall. It landed next to him. He climbed up again and lifted the chunk. It was very large and apparent that it was extremely hard for Shadow to lift it. But he still did and threw it at the metal poles which barricaded him. It broke two poles that had major rust on them with a loud, "Thwong!" then shattered in two on the ground. Huffing, Shadow limped out the opening, not stopping for breath. He moved over into the office, and Raven thought for one terrible moment that he had ran away. But he returned with keys and unlocked the doors to the girls' cells. In between heavy breathes, he managed to say, "Come... on! Get out!" Raven Wing galloped out, followed by Rainbow Dash, followed by Shadow Prophet. The Dark One vanished in a shadow of smoke. "Okay... stop! Please!" Shadow begged after running for ten minutes away from the police station. The mares stopped, and Shadow looked at them. "I... I can't... I..." He collapsed on the grass, panting for breath. "I need a break." Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, come on! Not now! You didn't need a break when we were being flung between worlds!" Raven Wing gave Rainbow Dash a dirty look, and the blue mare sat down in the grass obediently. Raven sat down next to Shadow and observed him for a moment, too tired to move, having been flung across space and time only to almost be killed by a shadow creature. He did need a break. His eyes were closed, but she could tell he was still awake. "You didn't need to save us, you know. You could've left," Raven pointed out. Shadow smiled, his eyes still closed. "No I couldn't." "What do you mean?" "The business man. He said I couldn't." "What business man?" "I don't know. He told me I had to take you both with me, no matter what." "Hmm." Raven began to worry about Shadow Prophet's mental stability. Shadow slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head. He looked around. "The Dark One is coming. We'd better get out of here." "Oh, so now it's the Dark One?" Rainbow Dash asked. Shadow stood up. "Yup." He looked around again. Suddenly came a large zapping sound that filled the air. "What's that?!" Raven asked. Shadow looked at a lone tree and smiled. "That, my friend, is a pand-dimensional rift. Time to go." He trotted over to the tree, and put his ear up to it. The mares followed behind him, confused. "It's inside this tree." They were about to ask, then Shadow ripped a piece of bark off the tree. Behind it was a large expanse of bright blue light that had beams of white light shooting out of it in all directions. Shadow, without hesitation, stepped into the light. The mares, not sure of what else they could do, followed. Chapter Thirteen: Not PermittedTime is a figment. A creation of the simplistic three-dimensional mind in its attempt to comprehend the vast incomprehensibility of the Universe. There is no time. No time. No time. No time. No time. No time to mess around. "There's no time to mess around! Hurry!" Shadow shouted. The mares were not faring well within the dimensional rift. They kept on waving their hooves about, and were coming terribly close to the lighted edge of the portal through worlds. Shadow was not exactly sure of what would happen if you fell out of a dimensional rift, but he could imagine it not being very good. They were also lagging terribly behind Shadow, who was acting as though he had done this many times before. It was a weightless environment, but there was a strong current that pulled you helplessly to wherever your destination was to be. Shadow wondered where the portal would take them. He was rather surprised to find that, once he shattered through the closed window of time, he was inside a hallway. A rather dull hallway, mind you. He didn't like it one bit. It had white tile flooring and white walls. There were no lights to be seen, but there was light nonetheless. the mares that had been lagging behind suddenly fell out of the air and landed on top of Shadow. Raven came first, then Rainbow Dash, who rolled off of Raven's back. Shadow and Raven opened their eyes to discover that she was on top of him in a most humiliating and suggestive fashion. Raven's face turned bright red and she jumped off of him. She looked down the hall while Shadow picked himself up. He looked to Rainbow Dash, who was looking down the hall in the other direction. She hadn't seen the embarrassing accident. Good thing, too, Shadow thought. The hall was identical on both sides. It seemed to go on for a few yards, and on either end was a turn that led off to some other lighted area. "Where... where are we?" Raven Wing asked, still dazed from the journey. "I was about to ask the same thing," Rainbow Dash stated, also quite dizzied by the experience. Only Shadow, a thin and weak-looking pony compared to both mares, was ironically unfazed. He started down one end, then stopped, turned around and started down the other. "I don't know. I have no idea. We could be anywhere in time and space... I think." Raven had many questions, but the one that came to mind for no reason except that it's answer would be more valuable than any others was: "How do you know all this wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff?" He turned to her. "When you read the story before you met me, I assume you read my palaver with Twilight about my past?" She nodded. "That was a very abridged version. While I was in Sunshine's care, I didn't have much to do. She was studying theoretical physics, and had loads of books on the subject. With nothing else to do for such a long time, I read every single one multiple times." "... Okay... I guess..." Was all Raven could reply with. She wished to know a more detailed version of his story. Perhaps her wish would soon be granted. But after the events currently passing had transpired, when there was time for such things. Shadow waved his hoof - Raven noticed a rather fresh scar streaking across it in a horizontal line - signaling for them to follow him. They did. Close together, the lost ponies headed down the strange hallway, wondering what they would find at the end. But the end never got closer. Well, at first it did, but there was a point where it stayed put, and while they did continue to trot, the end never came any closer. They eventually broke into a desperate gallop, but no matter how fast they ran or how far they trotted, the end of the hallway was never reached by any of them. "What the heck is going on?!" Rainbow Dash asked after a failed attempt at flying there." Before Shadow could say that he didn't know, two brown ponies in very nice business suits came around the corner. One was a mare, the other a stallion. Both were wielding a large chart in front of them and were examining it closely, so they didn't notice the out of place ponies instantly. "Um, hey!" Shadow called out. The ponies looked up simultaneously with surprised expressions. "Do you happen to know where we are?" "How would you have gotten here without knowing where you were going?" The mare asked. "I... um, could you just tell us why we can't go down this hall?" Shadow asked, unable to answer the mare's inquiry. The business ponies looked at each other, then back at the trio. "If you can't move anywhere, you're unauthorized," The stallion said. "What?" "You're not permitted to be here," The mare clarified. Shadow laughed nervously. "Well, if you could just lead us to the-" He didn't finish his sentence before the mare raised her hoof and stomped it on the ground. A large blue light surrounded the ponies, accompanied by a loud ZZZZZZAP! Then they were sitting on a bench along the wall of a hotel lobby. Shadow looked around. The hotel was rather nice looking. It had patterned carpets and carpeted walls. It also had a very high ceiling that was embroidered with gold paneling. Bellhops and other assistants trotted here and there offering to help customers. It wasn't terribly busy, but busy enough for no pony to notice three ponies appearing out of thin air onto a bench. "I know this place," Raven said. "It's a hotel right next to my town." While it was good to again be on familiar ground, it was also a very bad thing. It meant that the Dark One would easily find them now. And there was nothing they could do about it. Chapter Fourteen: KidnappedThey booked a night. Well, they didn't really book a night. More like Rainbow Dash picked a lock on a room and they stayed there overnight. Later, Shadow would regret the decision. But then, he would think, there really wasn't any other choice, was there? There were two beds in room 237, and it was decided very quickly by the mares that they would get both beds and he would sleep on the floor. "Oh, come on! Please? You two could sleep in the same bed!" Shadow begged. They said simultaneously: "What? No!" Shadow sighed in defeat and agreed to sleep on the floor. They were all terribly tired and passed out right as their heads hit their pillows. They slept silently for about three hours, then it happened. It started with a lamp in the corner of the room flickering for a moment, then turning on, even though the switch that controlled it stayed off. On the wall the lamp was next to, the foreboding shadow appeared out of the shadow of mist on the wall. Next to where is stood, the shadow of a doorway appeared, so dark that you couldn't see the wall anymore. The ponyless shadow approached the sleeping Rainbow Dash and hovered over her. Shadow Prophet mumbled in his sleep and turned over on the floor towards the active lamp. The sudden light woke him up and he was for a moment confused. He sat up and saw the Dark One's shadow on the wall next to Rainbow's bed. "Rainbow Dash!" He yelled. Raven Wing and Rainbow Dash both jerked awake. The moment Rainbow's eyes opened, the Dark One's shadow jumped out of the wall and into 3 dimensions, as it had done when they met for the first time. It grabbed Rainbow's hoof and before she knew what was going on, she was on the floor and being dragged by a demonic shadow creature. Not a great way to start your day. Shadow grabbed at Rainbow's hoof, but was dragged with her, not even slowing her down. Raven jumped at the shadow creature, but she went right through it, landing on her hooves and looking around, confused. The shadow headed towards the doorway shadow, and once it was in front of it, it stopped moving, calmly reaching out a transparent hoof towards the wall. Shadow tugged at Rainbow's hoof, but even though the creature wasn't paying any attention, he couldn't get her out of its grip. "Come on! Pull harder!" Rainbow begged. Shadow pulled as hard as he could, and Raven went up behind him, wrapped her hooves around is waist, and pulled him. All they managed, however, was to lift Rainbow into a plank position. Meanwhile, the beast put its hoof on the wall and turned it. There was a sound that was like an echo of a turning doorknob, and then the shadow pulled, opening a door that appeared as it opened. It wasn't made of shadow, but black wood. It pulled Rainbow Dash again as it went through into the darkness beyond, yanking her right out of Shadow's grasp, who tumbled and fell on his side next to Raven Wing. Rainbow screamed as she was pulled through the door, and it closed behind her, silencing her scream. The door vanished in the shadow of a mist-like effect, and the lamp turned off with a click sound. Raven, who was sitting on her flank, leaning backwards with her front hooves on the floor behind her, stared into the darkness. There was nothing there. There had been, but it was gone now, and it wasn't coming back. In about thirty seconds, the shadow had already taken one member of the group, it could easily get the rest of them. In the silence, Raven heard Shadow crying. It wasn't a loud sound, but a very soft and consolidated sob. "Shadow?" Raven asked, turning her head to where she thought Shadow would be. "It's hopeless," he said in a wobbly voice. Definitely crying. "I can't stop that thing, I can't get back home, and I can't stop the Universe from ending completely. It's all hopeless. I'm just an insignificant little speck who's trying to change the direction the river of consequence flows, but it's more of a Niagra Falls than a river." Raven didn't know how to respond. But then she did. "Yes, you can. You just have to believe in yourself." "Oh, don't give me that soppy, cliched bullcrap," He replied. "But it's true. There are hundreds of ponies who were as 'insignificant' as you think you are, but because they believed that they could do great things, they ended up becoming great. It's all a matter of will, and I was pretty sure you had a strong one for a while." Shadow didn't respond. "Either way, lying there and crying isn't going to help anything. You need to get up and think of what to do next. I haven't known you for long, but I do know that you can be good at getting out of a tight spot most of the time." There was a shuffling, sound, the sound of Shadow standing up. He trotted across the room and turned on the light. "Isn't that dangerous? It could come back," Raven said. "No. I don't think it even wants us. It was just that we were in it's way." "What do you mean?" Raven asked, standing up. Shadow had red, puffy eyes, but the tears were gone. "I think," Shadow started, moving over to Rainbow's bed and sitting down on it. Raven sat on her bed across from him, listening intently, though she was sure she probably wouldn't understand most of what he would say. "that that... thing isn't just some random monster. I think it's much more important than you think. I think it's the Angel of Death." Raven did understand this, but now she was wishing she didn't. She looked around the room in spite of herself. "You've probably already read about how I saved Rainbow Dash at my welcoming party." "Yeah," Raven replied. "I never liked how she was dancing with Doctor Whooves." "Who's that?" Shadow asked. Raven waved her hoof. "No pony. Never mind." "Well, I think I saved her from death. And I think I wasn't supposed to do that." "What's your point?" "Basically, Rainbow Dash cheated death, so death came around for a personal visit to take her with him. This whole time, it was Rainbow who was being chased by the monster. Not you or me." The epiphany momentarily sucked the breath out of Raven's lungs. She began to think back, and it did make sense. "So... what do we do?" "The Universe is still collapsing, and there are still lots of rips in space-time. We find one of those, and begin our search for Rainbow Dash." Chapter Fifteen: An Elevating Elevator"Hey, Raven, wake up!" Shadow begged, shaking the sleeping mare in her bed. "Leemeelone..." she muttered, turning away from him. "No! We've gotta get outta here soon! The cleaning lady could come along and report us for not paying for the room!" Shadow retorted. "Ugh..." Raven moaned, knowing this was true and that she would have to get out of bed. Moving like an inchworm, she slithered to the edge of the bed, and promptly fell off the end of it. "AGH!" She yelped as she hit the floor, and Shadow couldn't contain his laugh. Now fully awake, Raven jumped up, and her face turned red as she yelled at Shadow to shut up. He did, but still a few giggles slipped through and he had a big smile on his face. Raven went over to the coffee machine, which was half-full; Shadow had made coffee an hour before (Raven knew this because the smell had brought her to a half-conscious state, but she had decided to go back to sleep). While she poured herself a cup of the caffeine-rich drink, Shadow went into the bathroom and grabbed the two towels hanging from a pole above the toilet and brought them out, slinging one over his shoulder and tossing the other over Raven's face. She pulled it off and asked Shadow, "What's this for?" He replied, "Hey, we're going on an inter-dimensional journey. If you're gonna be jumping around the multiverse, you gotta know where your towel is." Raven was surprised for a moment. "Where'd you hear that?" Shadow looked back her, also surprised. "What, you've never heard of The Ponyhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It's a good book, with some good advice." "You mean you've never seen the movie?" Raven asked. "What's a movie?" Shadow replied. "Never mind." She dismissed. She had almost forgotten that there was no electricity where Shadow came from. "Well, drink up, then we gotta get going. Oh, and considering the circumstances, I think it'd be best to drink it pure and black, for the full effect." Shadow said to her as he went around making the room look like they hadn't been there. "What?! No! Coffee's disgusting without creamer," Raven argued. "Alright, but don't fall asleep on the job." Shadow replied. "Yeah, because it'll be so boring jumping from world to world that I would fall asleep." Raven remarked sarcastically. She poured herself a cup of coffee and added creamer and sugar, then sipped it slowly. She took a deep breath as the coffee's warmth spread all over her. This was just what she needed right now. Shadow was much less relaxed. He started towards the door, stooped, started towards Raven, stopped, started towards, the door again,then stopped, and said to Raven, "I'm gonna go see if we can use the elevator." "Okay, just don't die of stress while you're out there," She replied. Shadow smiled for just a second, then went out the door, propping it open with a phone book. Outside the room, he felt exposed, like the police might jump out at any second from around the corner and tell him to freeze, which he would do regardless. He went down the carpeted hall and turned at the middle to what was more of an indentation than another hall. Along all three sides of this indentation were two elevators each. Shadow went to one at random and pushed the button that would call the elevator for a downward trip. Instead, the button above it, which pointed upward, lit up. Confused, Shadow looked up at the digital display, which read "1". As the number changed to "2", the elevator passed the closed doors, and from the edges and the middle came a bright white light, flooding through every crack, then it went up, and was gone with the elevator. "What the..." Shadow pushed the down button again, but the up button stayed lit up. The numbers on the display began to rise faster and faster. "3", "4", "5", "7", "9", "12", speeding up too fast for the counter to keep track. The elevator doors began to shake violently, and there was a noticeable whirring sound from within the shaft that rose and rose in pitch as the elevator went faster and faster. Shadow stepped back in awe as the counter passed the number 50, knowing that the hotel had only 20 floors. The counter stopped counting numbers after it reached 99, and began to read "∞". Suddenly, the whirring and the shaking stopped, and the display changed once again to, "GOD". It stayed there, saying only that, doing nothing else. Shadow was confused and scared. With a million thoughts running through his head, he galloped back to the hotel room, bursting inside and grabbing Raven Wing's hoof. In surprise, she dropped her coffee cup, and the drink spilled all over the tabletop. "Hey!" Raven yelled. "What do you think you're doing?!" Shadow frantically shushed her, and the serious look on his face made quieted her immediately. He let her go and waved for her to follow him. She did, following hm out of the room. There, he stopped and went to kick the phone book out of the door, locking it shut behind them. He led Raven down the hall to the elevators. As soon as they came into eye contact with the elevator Shadow had tried to access, the doors opened, revealing a steamy inside. "What the hell is this?" Raven asked. Shadow shrugged and pointed at the floor number display. Seeing that it read, "GOD", Raven's eyes widened. "This is like some weird creepypasta." "Yeah, whatever. We should go in." Shadow said. "What? No, we don't do that. We can do a lot of things here, but that isn't one of them." Raven replied. Shadow looked her in the eyes. "Do you trust me?" He asked. "W-what?" Raven replied. "What do you mean?" "I know I haven't shown it much, but I can be a leader. I can shine a flashlight through the immense darkness in those other worlds. I know things. But for this all to work, I need you to trust me." Raven looked at the elevator, then at Shadow's serious expression. Finally, she said, "Yeah. I mean, yes, I trust you." "Good. Then we're going in there." Shadow began towards the open elevator doors. Raven Wing, however, stayed put. Shadow turned around, went to her, and looked at her for a moment. Then he took her hoof into his, and led her to the elevator. She went next to him, and realizing what she was doing, the intimacy of it, her cheeks turned red. Once inside the elevator, though, Shadow slipped his hoof away from hers. The moment, they were both inside and standing still, the doors closed. The elevator didn't even move before the two were whisked away. The Universe flying past you like leaves in the wind, except you're the leaf. Then they weren't in the Universe anymore. Then they were nowhere. Then they were somewhere, but within nowhere, a place somewhere has no business being. Shadow Prophet and Raven Wing found themselves sitting in gray plastic chairs in the waiting room of an office building. In front of them was a boxed room with windows, in which sat a white mare with brunette hair wearing purple glasses and filing some paperwork. As they became aware of their surroundings, they both got out of their seats and trotted uneasily to the desk. The mare did not notice them. Shadow cleared his throat. The mare stopped writing, then looked at the two ponies. She squinted through the glasses at them, then looked back to her paperwork. Shadow was about to clear his throat again, when the mare said with a very high level of not-caring and boredom, "Please return to your seats, your Agent will be right with you, courtesy of the G.O.D." The last part made Shadow raise an eyebrow. "What? The G.O.D.?" The mare ignored him. Shadow sighed and returned to his seat. Raven was about to ask the mare another question, but decided against it. She didn't look like the type that had much patience. Raven also returned to her seat. They sat for a minute or two, not speaking, not moving. Then, from behind a door that had a paint job so similar to the wall that they had not previously notice it, there came the sound of running. The running's volume increased until out burst a tired-looking brown stallion in a business suit. He trotted up to the mare after catching his breath and said, "Maurice, what did I tell you about being rude to the clientele?" "Meta, go complain to Jehovah about it if it annoys you so much." She retorted in the same monotonous and boring voice. "What? No! Of course not! How could I approach... Him?" He panicked for a moment, but caught himself. Calmly, he trotted over to the two extremely confused ponies. "Hello, confused equines! My name is Meta Phoreal, I will your agent today. Please follow me," the stallion requested. They did, feeling completely numb. Chapter One: Why Welcoming Parties Are Illogical(Intro Song) The multi-colored hot air balloon hovered over Equestria, passing over forests and small towns, the bird's eye view making them look like ant-hills. The warm breeze blowing through his hair made him feel clean and fresh, like all of his troubles were being blown away. He didn't ever look back to where he was leaving, not even when he was positive he wouldn't have seen it anyways. As he approached his destination, he truly felt as though that... thing had left him. Though, deep down he knew it was still there, and he knew it would probably be a great source of trouble. But none of that mattered as he landed on the cement square in the open field of Trans-Equestrian Airlines Landing Site #6. And when he opened the straw door on its side and all the ponies jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" he almost forgot to act surprised. "This is a great party, Pinkie! You sure do a great job at making ponies feel welcomed!" Twilight Sparkle said, having to talk loudly for Pinkie to hear her over the Vinyl Scratch music and laughing ponies. "Thanks! I think it's great too! Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie Pie ran off; well, not so much ran off as spun around in circles while heading in one general direction. She stumbled a couple of times, but made it into the dance floor without injuring herself. Twilight couldn't look over to the dance floor that long without her eyes tearing up; the floor was made up of super-bright flashy color-changing tiles that could easily give one a migraine. Seeing as how she was having a good time, and everypony else seemed to share the feeling, Twilight wanted to see how the new stallion the party was being thrown for liked it. She wandered through the crowds of laughing ponies, most laughing only because they drank too much apple cider and not because anything particularly humorous was happening. She squeezed herself through tight groups of ponies that just stood around, getting in other ponies' ways. Twilight looked around for a while until she noticed a lone blue pony, sitting far away from the party in a dark bench, facing away form it as well. Twilight thought, This can't be him, can it? The one pony the whole party is for is the only one who doesn't like it? Ironic. She found that the crowd of partying ponies ended rather abruptly as it looked like she was leaving through a living wall. The lavender alicorn trotted over to the old wooden bench where the pony sat and asked him, "Why don't you come join the party? It's pretty fun, I'm sure you'd like it." For a moment the blue stallion didn't move, like he didn't want to, but then he turned and looked at Twilight. He was a frail-looking and smaller than average stallion, and his horn almost looked worn. His mane was attempting to grow forwards while he brushed backwards,making it stick out all over the place, and it was a much darker blue than the rest of him. His eyes, on the other hoof, stood out. His eyes were very gray, and anypony could easily get lost in them. "No. The party... I wouldn't like the party." He started his sentence strong, but ended weakly, and turned back around and slumped his head on the table. "Come on! What's not to like about it?" Twilight asked. The stallion looked back at Twi, annoyed. "The whole thing. I just don't like these kind of parties." "What kind?" He waved his hoof over at the party, "That kind. Welcoming parties. There's no point to them." "What are you talking about?" Twilight trotted up to the stallion and closely observed him. He returned her studying gaze with a look that clearly said he didn't want to talk. The mare's head retracted slightly. "Well, somepony comes along and moves into town, and that doesn't happen often, right? So, naturally, whoopee!" The stallion was almost glaring at Twilight and waving his hooves in the air like he was partying. "But all this party is is celebrating something that nopony really cares about, just so that the next morning everypony can wake up with hangovers and a big mess to clean up. All that nonsense for nothing." Once he was done, the stallion let his hooves fall back on the wood and laid his head in them, closing his eyes. There was another silence, Twilight wondering what to ask this pessimistic pony, and she eventually came down to one question. "What's your name?" The stallion opened one eye and looked at Twilight, apparently shocked she was still there. "What, you threw a party for somepony, and you don't even know their name?" "I didn't throw it, and nopony's told me yet." He closed his eye and said, "Shadow Prophet." He didn't say anything else, and Twilight looked back to the party, over to Shadow, then left for the core of the celebration. "Whoo! Come on Rainbow! Dance with the Doctor!" Somepony in the mass cried out. It was replied to with lots of screamed cheers. Rainbow Dash was then pushed onto the dance floor, as was Doctor Whooves, who had come for muffins with Derpy, but had decided to stay for the party once he had heard about it. Both of them smiling, they began to quickly move about the dance floor together withe the beat of the music. A couple of yards away from the edge of the party, Shadow Prophet stared at the mass of excitement with dull, almost nonexistent interest. Suddenly, his face was washed over with absolute terror, and he immediately shot off toward the crowd. Once he reached the clearly defined outer wall of the party, he was terribly cramped, having to push ponies aside and squeeze himself together as much as he could. "Ow! Sorry! Excuse me," he kept on saying, as he inched ever closer to the dance floor, where Rainbow Dash and the Doctor were. On the other side of the dance floor, Twilight was trotting around the edge of the thick mass of ponies around the ones dancing. She heard an, "Oof!" and looked over to see the tip of a blue horn poking out of the crowd, moving towards the dance floor. Twilight thought, what in the hay is he so worried about? She started towards him, meaning to ask what he was running in for. But she was distracted by a loud, "Watch out!" She looked to the dance floor but could see nothing, so she flew up in the air, knocking some ponies below her back and a couple of drinks over. What happened next happened in only about five seconds, but for Twi, it felt like an eternity. Some drunk pony had tossed a half-eaten piece of cake out onto the dance floor. The Doctor happened to be heading in the direction of that cake. When he stepped on it, he slipped, spinning around before falling over. He grabbed for Rainbow Dash's hoof, and she was dragged forward a little before pulling her hoof from his grip. He crashed right into the table with the cakes and snacks on it, knocking the whole thing over, spilling cake all over him almost to the point where you couldn't see him. Then, one of the knives on the table, covered in frosting, flew in the air. This moment seemed slower than all the others, and Twilight could remember it vividly to this day. The knife flew at a horizontal angle directly at Rainbow Dash's surprised face. In slow motion, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash unfurl her wings, but she knew that Rainbow wouldn't make it away in time. Then the most improbable thing happened, something she could never have anticipated. Shadow Prophet, the pessimistic anti-social stallion, slid out from under the crowd and into the scene, putting his back hoof down and stopping in front of Rainbow Dash. He then reached his hooves up in the air and grabbed the knife, centimeters away from the blue mare's eye. Down on the ground, something Twilight couldn't have seen or heard, Rainbow stared at the knife for a long while. Shadow had caught it by clamping it with both of his front legs, just below his hooves, so the knife had finely sliced into his skin. A single drop of blood fell from his reddening leg, and Rainbow's eyes followed it all the way to the ground. Then, everypony lost it. Ponies ran around, some helping push the table up, others starting to clean up the spilled goods (Pinkie running around lapping up the splattered cakes). Twilight flew down and grabbed Rainbow's shoulder, who jumped a little, looked at her friend, then curled her wings back up. She looked back at Shadow, who was being asked by Nurse Redheart to come with her. He returned her gaze when she looked at him, and Rainbow turned to trot away with Twilight. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight sounded frantic, and she was looking hard at Rainbow's face. There wasn't as much as a scratch, but Twilight did notice her friend's eyes seemed distant, and she wasn't talking at all. She wasn't even moving that fast, which she always did, trotting or flying, she was moving at a slow, rhythmic pace. She's in shock, Twilight thought. "Rainbow, why don't you sleep at the castle tonight? Come on," Twilight tugged lightly at Rainbow's shoulder in the direction of her palace, and the blue pegasus turned without hesitation. "Ye-ow!" Shadow yelped as Nurse Redheart splashed some alcohol on his front leg. "Sorry! Not much else I can do," She said the last part absentmindedly as she dabbed some soothing cream on a long strip of bandaging. "Hold it out!" She was mildly surprised to see he had lifted his hoof up to her before she started her sentence, but payed it little mind. As she wrapped Shadow's leg up, she asked, "So how did you come in in time to stop that knife hitting Rainbow Dash?" She looked up at his face, still wrapping. "I guess I was just lucky," He replied the moment she made eye contact with him. Redheart could tell he was holding something back, but it wasn't her job to start arguments with her patients, so she replied with a doubtful "Hm". She took her bottle of alcohol and splashed on his other leg. This time instead of a yell, he clenched his eyes shut for a moment. They grow up so fast, the Nurse thought jokingly. She applied the cream to another strip of bandage and wrapped it around his other leg. There was already a thin line of red on the first bandage showing. Seeing this, she just handed Shadow her roll of bandage, she had plenty more at the hospital. "Put a new one on every two or three days, okay? And don't put too much pressure on your hooves. Think you can get home?" Nurse Redheart asked. "Yes," Shadow replied, jumping off the examination table, flinching for a moment, then trotting out. Not so much as a thank you. Nurse Redheart forced a smile and said, "Get well!" as he left. Finally reaching his vacant house he had made his first monthly payment on before he flew over, he opened the door with his hoof and limped inside, kicking it shut behind him. There was no furniture yet, but he had a mattress in his room, with a bedsheet and blanket, and once he got under the covers, he looked at his wounded legs and sobbed, not out of any physical pain, but from memories still fresh in his mind.
Chapter Two: The Purchasing of BreadMorning had come, and it harshly alerted Shadow Prophet to it's presence, sunlight shining directly in his face. He tumbled out of his bare-bones bed limply, his hooves hitting the floor. He instantly regretted his laziness. Two intense flares of pain shot up his legs, bringing him into a fully conscious state. His hooves had become terribly sore in reaction to the destruction they had witnessed the night before, and once he got up, he couldn't move without his face instinctively cringing. Wincing, he went to the front door, where there was a fresh glass of milk waiting. He downed half the bottle and set the rest on the floor next to the door. He then found his baggage in the utility closet and found his satchel with his money in the left pocket. Using his teeth, he swung the bag over his back and left for the market district of Ponyville, moving ever so slowly to avoid pain as much as possible. Once he was there, everypony, shopping or selling, looked him over at some point. Some murmured to each other, others waved at him (to which he couldn't return the gesture due to his hoof's condition), all of them moved out of his way as he passed. He didn't pay any attention. Well, not any different than back home, he thought. He looked at the shop signs, scanning for any kind of wheats shop. Eventually, he found a light brown sign labeling the store below it, "Grove Family Breads & Other Wheat Goods." Long name, but it got the point across. Standing at the register was a brown filly who seemed to be holding the post while her family arranged some different -colored breads within the shop behind her. As he came close, the filly said, "Good mornin', sir! How can I help you?" Her cheery attitude got a small smirk out of him. "Good morning to you as well. I'd like two loaves of bread, please," he requested, still wearing the smirk. "And what kinda bread would that be? We got the works, all kinds!" The filly seemed to fill with pride at that statement., and her chest seemed to rise a little. "White." The filly's pride faded quickly and she stared at him awhile. "Just... just white? I mean, we got all kinds-" "No thanks. I'd just like some plain white bread is all. Sorry if that disappoints you." The filly shook her head and smiled once again at Shadow. "Nonsense! I'll got getcha some!" She hopped off the podiumshe was apparently standing one and trotted off to one of her family members, presumably her brother. She tapped his shoulder and he looked down at her. She said something he couldn't hear, then the brother looked up at Shadow, who replied with a smile and a quick nod. He grabbed two loaves of white bread from the shelf he was arranging and handed them to her, saying something real quick to her as he did. She bounced back to the register and sat the bread on the table, smiling at him. "That'll be 6 gold bits, sir!" Shadow raised one of his wounded hooves and reached into his money pocket, grabbing for some. The filly looked at his bandaging for a while, then her eyes widened with dawning realization. "Hey, you're that stallion that saved Rainbow Dash last night! No way!" Shadow stopped, then looked at her. "You know about that?" "Well, duh! Only everypony knows! You're what everypony's talking about!" Shadow looked around him and noticed all eyes on him, but they looked away when he searched for them. That would explain a little, he thought. He pulled out six gold bits and dropped them on the counter next to the bread. "No no no!" The filly said, pushing the money back to Shadow, "Take it! It's the least I can do to thank you! Rainbow Dash is one of my favorite pegasi! Have you seen her sonic rainboom?!" "Well, I didn't know she was famous," Shadow said as he pushed the bits back across the counter. "Oh, yeah! And she's one of the six guardians who always save Equestria from disasters!" The filly saw Shadow packing the bread into the large empty pocket on his satchel and looked at the coins, then back at Shadow. "N-no, sir. You don't have to pay... here." She pushed the bits back to him. Once he laid a hoof on them to once again push them back to her, she stopped him by resting her hoof on his. He gasped, and quickly drew his hoof back. "Oh! Did I hurt it? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" "No. It... It's not that. I just..." Shadow stared at the filly for a while then said, "Just be careful getting off that stool this time." Not waiting for a reply, he pushed the coins so far they all fell off the counter and hurried off as best he could with his hooves. The filly looked questioningly after him for a moment, then started to step off the wooden stool she was on to pick up his bits. However, her hoof slipped and before she could grab onto anything she was on the ground, a small cloud of dust surrounding her. "Is she waking up?" Applejack. "It looks like it." Twilight. Her friends. They were all here. Where was here? The palace. Why was she here? Because of the... the... "Knife!!" Rainbow Dash screamed aloud as she jumped up straight in the bed, making all of her friends jump in turn. She looked around her, at all of her friends. Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all there, sitting around the bed Rainbow Dash was in. They all wore terribly worried faces. She saw she was in one of the many empty rooms of Twilight's palace, and this particular room happened to be furnished, though very basically. A bed, a bedside table, and a wardrobe. Along the crystal walls were two doors, one opened and leading into the hall, the other one closed, and presumably leading to the facilities. "Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, taking a step forward. Rainbow looked at her for a while, then asked in a quiet whisper, "How am I still alive?" All of her friends seemed uncomfortable, and none answered, Twilight even shrinking back and looking away. She insisted louder, "How am I still alive?" "Well, a weird stallion, really weird, now that I think about it," Twilight released, "he, this is going to sound really stupid, but he jumped in and caught the knife right before it hit you." Rainbow Dash looked down at her blankets, seeming to go into deep thought. It lasted for about two minutes, then she looked back at Twi. "Where can I find him?"
Chapter Three: Shadow's ConfessionThe next day... "Yeah, right there! No wait, a little to the left! That's it!" The construction stallion called to the unicorn, who was using his magic to lift a sign up to the front of Shadow Prophet's house. It read, "Oddities." Short, but it got the point across. Eventually, the sign was rested against the nails placed in the wall, and the unicorn's magical aura faded away from it. The worker released a heavy breath, and one of his companions galloped up to him with a bottle of water, which he promptly downed. Inside the home of Shadow Prophet, he had remodeled the den, which was the room one would trot into upon entrance, into the interior of a shop. Earlier that day, along with the small construction squad, came all of his old belongings. When the carriage pulled up, he thought, Surprising. They didn't burn my house down in the short time between me leaving and them collecting my things. Four hours later, he had set it all up. Placing a two-headed skull on the edge of a shelf, he trotted back and examined his new store. "Pretty nice, if I do say so myself," Shadow said to himself. "Yeah," a voice behind him replied. Shadow twirled around and saw it was the blue pegasus he had risked his hooves to save two nights before. He remembered that he should replace his bandages. Rainbow Dash was standing in the door, looking drowsy and dazed, small bags under her eyes. She seemed distant, still recovering from the shock of almost having her eye gouged out from a cake knife five seconds after she had been having tons of fun. "Um, hi there... Rainbow Dash." Shadow didn't know how to treat this situation. He shifted uneasily from wounded hoof to wounded hoof. "I..." Rainbow looked to the floor, then back to Shadow, "I just wanted to thank you. I don't know how I could repay you." She said this in the raspy, quiet voice of somepony who hadn't had anything to drink so far today. The blue mare then seemed to think for a while before saying in the same voice, "I know. I could be your assistant for a while. You know, help you around the shop." Shadow shook his head, "No thanks. You don't need to repay me. It was an act of civil duty." He said this because he didn't want somepony in his mane trying to quote unquote "help" him. Rainbow Dash let out a quick breath, a one-beat laugh. "You know, when that knife was heading for me, everything slowed down. I felt like it was never going to get to me. But I knew that was a lie. I knew it eventually would hit me and pop my eye, leaving me half-blind for the rest of my life. But then you came out of nowhere, like some sort of guardian angel, and then it never did hit me. Thanks to you. And your sacrifice." She nodded toward his bandaged hooves. "And so if you won't let me repay you, at least answer me this: how did you get there in time to stop it? IT must have been only a second and a half or something. How did you react that fast?" Shadow's eyes widened and he started blubbering, "Well, uh, I... um, I, well, you know, I just..." A blue hoof a shade brighter than him was pressed against his lips, silencing him. Rainbow Dash was right in front of him. "Cut the crap," she said. " Just tell me. I only want to know the simple truth." Shadow Prophet sighed. He sat down on his rump and set his upper hooves on the ground in front of him. He looked down at the wooden floor, and started tracing the dark patterns in the floor's surface. He looked up at Rainbow Dash and said, "Promise you won't freak out." Rainbow Dash crossed her chest with her hoof. "Pinkie promise," she said. "Okay. To tell the truth, I've never really been... normal." Rainbow Dash sat down next to Shadow, listening intently. "Sometimes I like to deny it, or think that whatever causes it is gone, but it always stays. I..." he looked at Rainbow with a pleading face, and she somehow knew she was seeing a part of him only a small number of ponies had ever seen. "I can see into the future." Rainbow Dash instantly went into denial. "But that's impossible!" Shadow looked at her with that same pleading face, and she began to get angry. "What is this, some kind of practical joke? This is my life we're talking about, destiny! And you're going to joke about it and expect me to believe that crap?! Well I'm not falling for it, bud!" She put extreme emphasis on the word "bud," like she expressed all of her rage in that one title. Shadow's voice cracked, but it was calm, and he seemed on the verge of tears. "No, please, Rainbow Dash! They always said that! They always said it was impossible but it's not! I was far away from you, and I started running in there before the Doctor even fell!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her face and looked at him. Angrily, between gritted teeth, she said, "Fuck you," and yanked open the door, trotted out, and slammed it behind her. Shadow sat in his empty shop and stared with bewilderment at the door which Rainbow had left from. He sat there, and thought he may as well never move, may as well sit there until he died of either starvation or of thirst. But it was not meant to be, for only ten minutes had passed, before there was an angry knock at the door which Shadow was looking at. "Go away, Rainbow!" He yelled. The voice which replied was not Rainbow's voice, but Twilight's, "Let me in, Shadow Prophet!" The stallion looked back to the floor and said passively, "It's unlocked." The door burst open, hitting the wall and almost ricocheting enough to touch the Princess, but not quite. "What in the hay?! Rainbow Dash asked you how and you said you could tell the fututre?! Are you stupid?" "No, actually. I had a fine education, if the University of Fillydelphia is good." Shadow said in a once again calm tone. Twilight scoffed, turning her head up at a diagonal angle for a moment, then looking back at Shadow on the floor. "What, then? Why would you joke about something like that?" "I wasn't joking." "Yes you were! Everypony knows that there's no spell to tell the future!" "I don't use magic. Ever. This is a natural ability." Twilight looked at Shadow Prophet for a long time, searching for some sign of fakeness, some sign of a jokester or a liar. When she found none, she began to soften. "If that's so, please explain it to me." Shadow looked up. "It's a long story." "I've got plenty of time." "Okay then." When I was born, my parents named me through that flash of intuition all parents have, and the nurses at the hospital where I was born all asked my parents if they were sure that was what they wanted to name their baby. They insisted that that should be my name. Later, when I went to school, of course kids made fun of me for my odd name. They always asked me to tell them their shadow's destiny. It was immature and wasn't that funny, but it never got old. It was only in the fifth grade that I got a hint as to what my name meant. One day, some of my few friends and I went climbing through the rock farm nearby, I forget who owned it. Anyways, we were trotting along this large mountain of rocks, when I suddenly saw something that I somehow knew was going to happen soon. I saw a giant colorful explosion in the west, and saw it causing an avalanche where we were standing! Then the vision was gone and I looked to my right, and there it was. The rainbow colored detonation in the flesh. I knew from school that it would take a minute for the sound to get to us, so I started head-butting my friends and they started running, without question. The sonic boom hit us, and I could just barely hear the sound of rocks loosening above us. It's hard to explain, but I was getting flashes of the near future and being in real time almost... simultaneously. At one point, I pushed them out of the way of a huge boulder; they would have been flattened to sheets of paper had I not intervened. However, the boulder pinned my tail down, almost got me. I couldn't pull it out, and I asked my friends for help. They didn't answer. When I looked at them, they looked... scared. Of me. At the time I didn't understand. I asked for help again, and they just ran away. Left me there. I had thought they were going to get some help or something, but nopony came for me. Eventually, I had to pry my tail out myself, and that took about an hour. I was terribly angry that my friends had betrayed me like that, so I went storming into town. And... Shadow's voice cracked. Twilight had been listening so intently, she didn't notice that Shadow had begun crying. His eyes were red, and hot tears dribbled down his muzzle. "Hey, if this is hard for you, I can understand-" Twilight started. "No. I have to tell it. I've always had to tell it." He continued. Apparently... a lot can happen in an hour. Like the spreading of a rumor, the acceptance of said rumor as truth, and the inevitable backlash. I arrived at my house, and it was surrounded by denizens. They were throwing stones at my house. My parents were both in there. I ran up to the crowd, and I yelled for them to stop. They turned to me and one said, "Look! There he is!" I saw through a gap in the mass, and there, through the shattered windows, I saw my parents, crumpled on the ground. So many emotions flooded through me at that moment. Hate, fear, anger, despair. They all mixed together into a deadly brew, and just as the mob was about to throw their stones at me, I screamed. My horn shot out a beam of magic that shattered the stones in midair. For a moment there was silence, then one yelled, "He used his dark magic again! He'll kill us!" Then they all scattered away, like frightened mice. Of course it wasn't dark magic, it was pure magic, known to do almost anything. I hadn't had much training in how to use my horn correctly, and the magic was only released because of my emotion. But fear can make ponies believe strange things. I ran to my parents, and nudged them lightly. They didn't move. They weren't breathing. Their eyes stared at nothing. I sat in between them, crying, but keeping a straight posture. I felt that if I showed weakness, the would come back and stone me. Then I saw them, sitting outside, looking at me with stupid faces. My friends. "You did this!" I yelled to them, once again feeling that mix of emotion. "It was you! Why?!" They ran away. They always ran away. That night a lot of things went through my mind. But the one subject that stayed on top of all the others was revenge. "Do you know what it's like to bury your own parents in your backyard?" Shadow asked Twilight, whose mouth was quivering. There was no reply. None was needed. I walked into school, and everypony I passed stared at me with awe and fear. You know what I did? Looked evil. On purpose. I gave everypony a look that said, "If you cross me, oh boy, you'll be in for a ride." I always kept my head at an angle that cast a shadow over my eyes. And then I went about school as usual. I did it just to scare the crap out of everypony in that horrible town. You see, I had pieced it together in the long time I had had to think the night before. My friends had thought I used dark magic to cause the avalanche to try to kill them, and that it had backfired. So while I was stuck, they went and told everypony about it. They all thought I was some horrible sorcerer that was bent on destroying them all. I thought if I acted the part, I would be pleased in seeing them cower away from me. I was. But not for too long. I didn't come back the next day, and I never did. I stayed at home and usually sat in the place where my parents died. Nopony ever came in, or even came close to the house. Pretty soon , I ran out of food. I left my old home finally, and tried to get some sort of work. Obviously, nopony would even take me in, let alone give me a job. They were all too scared or hating. Except for one mare. Sunshine was her name. She lived alone in her house, and didn't believe I was evil. When I fell asleep on her lawn one night, she opened the door and asked me to come in, that she had a blanket for me. In my desperation I did, and she had much more. She gave me a blanket, a mattress, and even some cookies and warm milk. For a few years I stayed with her, and she had to keep me a secret. Once I was old enough, she saved up enough money for me to move away. I hated to leave her, but I knew it was my only option. However, somepony saw me on my way to the hot air balloon station, and we had to outrun a mob to be able to board the balloon. But... Sunshine got caught. The last I ever saw of her was her being dragged away by her front hooves. There was a long silence, then Shadow concluded, "So that's my story." Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Partially because she was too stunned to talk, but mostly because she didn't know what to say anyways. In the end, Twilight mournfully stood up and slowly began to leave. At the door, she gave Shadow Prophet a respectful nod, then flew away.
Chapter Four: Kiwi Muffin, Lime MuffinShadow was sitting at the counter, his face slumped in his hoof, the other ringing the service bell repeatedly, when the front door opened. He instantly straightened and said, "Welcome to Shadow's shop of oddities, how may I help you?" But when he saw who it was he froze, then jumped under the counter. "Come out, I'm not going to punch you," Rainbow Dash said. Shadow poked his head up slightly, and saw behind Rainbow Dash was Twilight, and some other mares. The crowd just kept on getting bigger. An orange mare stepped forward, she was wearing a stetson, even though she was inside. "Twi' told all of us yer story. And we all do think it's a mighty heavy story. But... well..." She seemed to be trying to find the correct words, to soften the blow. Rainbow Dash looked to the floor. "You'd understand if we didn't quite... well... we can't really believe the whole... psychic thing," The orange mare finished. "Thank you, Applejack," Twilight said. "Well, it didn't look like anypony else was thinkin' uh sayin' it," Applejack replied. A white mare with dark purple hair said, "Oh, you do understand how we can't believe you, right, dearie?" "Yes, I understand. That doesn't mean I like it, however." Rainbow Dash looked up the wall, not wanting to even look in the direction of the conversation. But Shadow could see the tears that had welled up in her eyes. Twilight stepped forward. "I need more proof before we can believe any of this." Shadow sighed."Okay." He slowly trotted over to the door and turned the, "Open," sign to the, "Closed," side. Rainbow Dash looked at Shadow and asked, "Why didn't you use your magic?" "I never do," he replied. "You've said that before. What does it mean?" Twilight asked. "After the... incident, I was too scared to use my magic for such a long time, that once I was over my fear, I couldn't anyways. Even if I wanted to. Too much excess." "What?" Twilight asked. "You know the gland specific to unicorns that produces small amounts of magical energy even when a unicorn is not using it?" "Yes." "I didn't use my magic for five years. Therefore, the small amount produced by that gland built up, to dangerous levels. If I tried to use my magic today, it could wipe out everything in about ten miles." "...Oh." "Come here, Twilight.You're clearly the one who needs the most convincing." Shadow stood behind the wooden counter and beckoned Twilight, who trotted up to the other side. "Give me your hooves." She stat her hooves on the table and Shadow rested his on top of them. He breathed in sharply, and Twilight felt a cold shiver come over her. Shadow closed his eyes and seemed distant, like he was dreaming. He began to speak. "I see... a... bakery. Sugar Cube Corner. It's morning-time, tomorrow, and you're there to get a breakfast muffin. You want Kiwi, but they're all out, so you get lime. You start freaking out after breakfast an start chasing me down, calling me a stalker. You... wait. There's something really big up ahead. A... you're... sailing out to Eternity's Crossing? And, then... oh my-" Twilight drew her hooves back and Shadow opened his eyes. "What? Eternity's Crossing is one of the most dangerous seas in all of Equestria, why would I sail out there?!" Twilight asked. "I don't know, that's what I saw." He replied. "And what's this about you being a stalker?" "I don't know. That's what I saw." Twilight scoffed. "You're crazy." "Maybe," Shadow said matter-of-factly. Twilight thought this over, then said, "Come on, girls. Let's go." All of the mares left, and Twilight gave Shadow a suspicious glance. He smiled in a sarcastic way and waved. The next morning... Twilight Sparkle woke up in her bed and yawned loudly, stretching her hooves. She looked at the ceiling for a minute, then slumped out of bed. After she was ready to kick off the day, she wondered, still a little groggy, where to go for breakfast. A muffin sounded nice. Mmmm... kiwi. This was a tangy morning. She nudged Spike's bed and asked, "Hey, sleepyhead. What do you want form Sugar Cube Corner?" Still dreaming, Spike muttered, "Rarity..." Twilight held back a snicker. She left for SCC, and once there, saw a big sign labeled, "OUT, SORRY," set across the picture of a kiwi muffin. Dang! Well, lime is the closest thing. I guess I'll get that, Twilight thought. She ordered one, and sat outside, eating her muffin. At one point, she looked down at her muffin, down the street Shadow's oddity shop was, and almost choked on a piece of lime.
Chapter Five: A Really Big RockShadow smiled when he saw an extremely... well... pissed Twilight Sparkle banging at his door. He unlocked it and swung it open. "Good morning. What can I do you for?" This sarcastically cheery greeting angered Twilight further. "Have you been following me?" She asked. "Nope. But I did predict your future yesterday, and now you're assuming I've been watching you long enough to develop a probability calculation as to what you would do this morning. So you're here, following the prediction perfectly, as time would have it." Twilight seemed about to pop from anger, but then she froze, and began to smile. "No," was all she said. "No?" "No. You said I'd chase you. So I'm not going to. Poof. There goes your little psychic theory." Shadow Prophet instantly recoiled from her, as though she had whipped him. "No. No! Don't do that! You have to chase me!" Twilight smirked. "Stop it. You lost. There is no way one can tell the future, and now you see-" Twilight's lecture was cut off by a tremendous thunderclap that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere; there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. "There it goes," Shadow said as the thunder slowly died away. "There what goes?" Twilight asked, worried. It sounded like something had just exploded. "The universe." That was the end of the line for Twilight. "How long would you recommend treatment, ma'am?" the nurse asked politely. Inside she felt like she was about to explode. Here she was, clearly talking with the newest Princess of Equestria, with everypony, even the crazies, staring dumbfounded at her. The obvious question on everyone's mind was, What in Celestia's name is Princess Twilight Sparkle doing in the mental hospital? It was clearly answered by the tied up blue stallion she had hovering behind her, but it was nonetheless a very strange thing to see. "I'm not crazy! I'm telling you!" Shadow complained. "Oh, I don't know. After you hear this, you might be able to decide," Twilight replied, ignoring Shadow. She moved him up to the desk next to her and asked him, "What did you say was happening?" Shadow rolled his eyes, as though she had asked him what two plus two was. "The structure of the universe is collapsing in on itself due to the creation of a temporal paradox, made when you refused to chase me through town under the impression that I was a stalker." "And why, exactly, was the result of that incident a paradox?" Twilight calmly asked. "Because all time is a pre-decided progression. When you strayed from your pre-determined timeline, it caused a rip in the fabric of space-time." Twilight looked at the nurse and smiled. That was all the proof of his insanity she needed to give. The nurse looked baffled by all this timey-wimey talk, and eventually gave up trying to decipher the stallion's strange words. She said, "Mmhm. Well, I think I'd... better go ask the, uh, doctor. Doctor Brownhoof. He might know." She spun around and trotted through a thick glass door which only allowed a blurry and distorted vision of what was on the other side. She tapped somepony on the shoulder, who turned around. She said something to him, and he said something back to her. She led him back to the front desk, and a brown stallion watched and listened as Twilight asked the same questions and Shadow Prophet replied with the same answers. Once they finished, the doctor said, "Hmm. I'd say for starters he should definitely stay the night. We'll test him and ask him questions. Then we can come to a conclusive and more accurate estimation as to how long he should remain in treatment." Shadow was extremely annoyed by how the doctor spoke of him in third person, as though he wasn't right there, listening to the whole thing. "Thank you, doctor," Twilight replied with relief. She levitated Shadow over the desk and plopped him down into a chair. Her aura faded away, and she happily trotted off out the door. The nurse turned to Shadow, and saw him spinning wildly in the chair, holding on to the edges. She stopped it and used her teeth to untie the bonds around his chest. "I'm not crazy, you know," he said as he shook himself out of the loosened rope. "Mmhm," the nurse replied, obviously not believing him. Shadow stopped, looked at her a moment, then went back to escaping Twilight's bonds. Meanwhile, in Ponyville... Boom! The explosion rocked Twilight, who was almost at her castle, to her core. She almost fell over. She immediately darted her head around. In the Southeastern part of town she saw a large cloud of smoke rising up into the air. She instantly spread her wings and shot towards it. Once hovering over the site, she gaped. Below her was a meteor the size of her palace, maybe bigger! She slowly lost altitude and landed on the ground, folding in her wings. Already on her fur there was a thin layer of soot, but she seemed to not notice. The only thing she was paying any attention to was how the giant meteor, of all the places it could have landed, it was right on top of Town Hall. During lunch break. It was almost a miracle that not a single pony was in the building at the time the meteor had crashed. Twilight waved some smoke out of her face and edged forward towards the giant rock. She gasped as she saw a small spot of blood very close to the boulder. There were no ponies around it, though, so whose blood was it? Twilight heard the flapping of very large wings, and turned to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna landing at the site. "Twilight, do you know what this is?" Celestia asked. Twilight looked behind her at the boulder, and the small puddle of fresh blood. "No. It just came out of nowhere. There was no warning... I didn't even notice it falling." Celestia and Luna examined it for a moment longer, then Luna recommended, "I think the first step would have to be getting it out of the way." "Yes," Celestia confirmed. "We must use all our magic to lift this meteorite out of the town. We should put it down near the Everfree, far away from everypony." Celestia looked at Twilight Sparkle for confirmation, who nodded. Together, they flew into the air and channelled all their combined magic into lifting the giant rock. It was still a hard task. The thing was even heavier than it looked, which, when you considered how big it was, was certainly saying something. The boulder levitated, slowly but surely, off the ground, and it took about ten minutes to move it to the edge of Ponyville. The princesses released their magic, and the rock landed with a loud thud! Twilight didn't consult the other princesses, she just turned around and flew back to the rubble of Town Hall. Landing at the site of destruction once again, she ran around the debris to the place where the blood was. She looked over the the area nearby that had previously been covered by the meteorite. There didn't appear to be anything much there. Then she saw it. Something completely impossible, it defied the rules of logic, physics, time. All of those were tossed out the window into a tornado when Twilight saw it. With effects that great, the actual physical item wasn't much. Ten blue hairs sitting on the ground, their roots having been ripped out. Twilight remembered Shadow Prophet's story. He said a boulder had landed on him. He said he had had to pull his tail out from under it. That was years ago in a rock farm in Phillydelphia, but here in Ponyville that same boulder had fallen out of nowhere and even left the remnants of Shadow's struggle to escape it. "It fell through a hole in time. One of many. One of many already here, and one of many more to come..." Shadow trailed off, sitting on the edge of an old mattress in the South Wing of the mental hospital.
Chapter Six: The Beauty of the Poison Joke"Are you sure of that, son?" Doctor Brownhoof asked Shadow. Shadow Prophet sighed, annoyed. What, did this stallion think he was just spouting out nonsense? ...Probably. "Yes. I firmly believe it." "You firmly believe that," the doctor looked at his clipboard, "the Universe is folding in on itself because of a temporal paradox created when Princess Twilight removed herself form the pre-decided flow of time, which was caused and can only be caused when a pony knows their own future, and that in about three days there will be nothing left of what was once known as existence?" He looked up and raised an eyebrow. Shadow, sitting on a chair on the opposite end of a plastic table as Doctor Brownhoof, had his front hooves crossed. He lifted one, scratched his nose, then moved it back. He nodded and said matter-of-factly, "Yes." Doctor Brownhoof nodded, then got up and left through a door on his side of the table. This gave Shadow time to let off some steam. He jumped out of his chair and bucked it across the room. It hit the wall loudly, then fell to the floor even louder. Shadow ran around in a circle three times, then ran a hoof through his hair. He looked up at the ceiling and yelled,"Twilight, you stupid, stupid... you don't know what you're doing! Why did you do that?! You stupid freaking bi-" The door started to be unlocked, and Shadow grabbed his chair, tossed it to the table and sat down in it, placing his hooves in his lap, looking completely calm. Doctor Brownhoof stuck his head in the door and said, "Come on, son. Follow me." Shadow Prophet relucatntly slid out of his seat and trotted intentionally slowly across the room, if only to mildly annoy the doctor. That night... In his bed, looking up at the horribly plain ceiling, Shadow could feel the nightmares that filled the hospital every night. Innocent ponies who had been claimed by the ill fantasies of their own minds, unable to escape until the time when the sun rises. It stopped him from getting a good night's sleep, as you might imagine. He tossed and turned under his sheets that barely offered any warmth at all. He eventually got out of his bed and decided that he may as well get to know the place he would be in when it all ended. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but the marble floors still made clopping sounds as he trotted around. Nothing that would wake anypony, but if one were paying close attention... "Hey!" Shadow froze completely as a flashlight was shone in his face. It was a night guard who had been standing too still for Shadow to see in the dark. "What're you doing out of bed this late?" The guard asked, shining his flashlight on the floor and coming closer to Shadow. "Oh, um, me? I was just, uh..." he decided to take the confusion route. It was his best option at this point. "I wanted to walk on the wall so I could fly upside down to the bakery and order three doors." The guard's eyes opened wide and he stared at Shadow with a dumb look. "What?" he asked. "Glibll-de-gobble-de-gook. You sure are a fine cook!" Was Shadow's reply. The guard stumbled backwards a bit. "What? I don't- you didn't- I'm not a cook, I- wha?!" The guard noticed too late that Shadow was making a run for it. He turned his head and whistled for backup. Shadow Prophet was headed for the door. It was unlocked, he could see the left door hanging open. He ran into it, expecting it to open, but instead it budged slightly and didn't move much farther because of the chain on it. He ended up ramming his whole left side into a metal door, and let me tell you, that's not the best thing to do when you're trying to outrun a bunch of guards. Now Shadow was locked in his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, once again being stricken with insomnia. He kept on scanning the room, but the only thing in it was a small table with a clock on it. Just as Shadow was about to climb into bed in vain, there was a draft coming from nowhere in particular. Shadow lifted his head as the strange wind ruffled his mane. He looked around the room once again, and this time there was something new. A flower sat atop the table, right next to the clock. It took Shadow a moment, but then he realized what kind of flower it was. A Poison Joke. Shadow jumped onto his bed and pushed himself back up against the wall. Where the hell did that come from?! Shadow thought. He knew about how the flower caused annoying and ironic symptoms, and how it was different for everypony. What he didn't know is what it could do to him. Shadow realized that backing up wouldn't do a single thing; it was a freaking flower, it wasn't going to get up and walk around. Calming, Shadow edged closer to the dangerous flower and began to wonder. How did it get here? Where did it come from? He knew it had something to do with Twilight's Paradox, but what, exactly, he was unsure of. Shadow began to get very curious as to what the flower actually meant. It was obviously here for some sort of reason, and Shadow wanted to know what that reason was. Warily, he reached his hoof out and grabbed the stem, being very sure to not touch the blue cup-like top. He examined the flower while holding it at a distance, and eventually brought it closer to his face. Once the top of the flower was aligned perfectly with his eyes, a magnificent flash of light shined out from within it. He did not recoil, because the light was warm and welcoming; it could not mean any harm. He stared into the pit of the Poison Joke, and saw the things to come. They were not his visions, but only his eyes could see it. The images came in detached flashes, jumping around in time, skipping over the broken record. He saw Twilight Sparkle, running after somepony, saw Rainbow Dash, the poor soul, fall out of the sky and land in the water. He saw darkness, living dark. It enveloped him. Then it was gone and all that was left was a voice. A deep, scratchy voice that resonated through Shadow's entirety, passing through him as though he wasn't there. "Now you see, boy," it said menacingly. It repeated it's message constantly, taunting him. "Now you see, boy. Now you see, boy. Now you see, boy." He didn't. He didn't see. Couldn't see. It was dark. Too dark to see. But he could smell. Smelled it just fine. It smelled like antiseptic, and sulfur, it was horrible, like- Shadow came out of trance only to realize his nose was buried in the bud of the flower which he had previously been so cautious about. His eyes widened, and he tossed the flower to the ground and crushed it with his hoof, knowing that was not the best course of action to take. There was nothing he could do now. All he could do was wait for whatever was going to happen, and hope for the best. There was a loud rumble outside. "May Celestia have mercy," Shadow said.
Chapter Seven: The Effects of the Poison JokeTwilight Sparkle ran about the castle, screaming. Things had been going completely insane all day, and she needed to let off some steam. All day ponies had been sending letters and requests for the strangest things. A few examples were how all the sugar in all the bakeries in town had been mysteriously replaced with salt, how all of the text in every book in town had all been mysteriously replaced with large, jumbled letters splattered about the page that all spelled out, "Now you see, boy," nonstop, through the whole thing, how all of the writing on young fillies' assignments at school had been flipped upside down, how clouds were running away from pegasi and storming on unsuspecting ponies whenever possible. The list just went on and on. Twilight sat down at her large crystal chair (she never liked referring to it as a throne, though the word, "chair," certainly had less of an impact) designated by the symbol representing her cutie mark at the top of it. She began to contemplate the events that had passed recently and anything that may have caused them. The answer snapped almost instantly into her head. Shadow Prophet! He had said the Universe was collapsing. Of course that was crazy talk, but he might know something about what was really happening. So, without further ado, Twilight left for Equestrian Mental Health Facility. "Yes, Princess, he's right in this room, just down the hall," said Doctor Brownhoof as he greeted Twilight Sparkle yet again to the asylum. He thought about not telling her about the patient's escape attempt, but then realized she would probably find out anyways. "And, um, last night, he tried to, er, made an attempt to-" Brownhoof was cut off. "Escape. Get out. Return to society," Shadow Prophet said from his room, his voice coming out between the grates in the door. Twilight looked into Shadow's room and saw him sitting on the floor, looking at the ceiling. She turned around and looked at Doctor Brownhoof. "Is this true?" She asked. Brownhoof nodded, not wanting to upset the Princess further. Twilight looked back to the holding cell, and used her magic to open the door. Doctor Brownhoof would've objected, but decided against it. This was the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria, and she was clearly very agitated. Twilight trotted into the cell, and closed the door behind her. "Alright then. Tell me what you know about what's going on," Twilight said calmly. Shadow Prophet lazily moved his gaze over to Twilight with uninterest. "What? What's happenin' ?" Shadow spoke in a slow, slurred voice that made Twilight think of him as drunk. "You know, chaos, impossibly odd things, impossibly creepy things! You know something about them, don't you?" Twilight accused. "Pfffft!" Shadow exclaimed, throwing his head back a little. "I don't really... I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a craaaaaaaaazy pony," Shadow said, spinning his hoof in a circle next to his head. Then he stopped, and in his eyes Twilight saw what looked like he had come to the ultimate epiphany, and had discovered the answer to all of life's problems. "Oh, thaaaaaaat!" He said, pointing a hoof at Twilight. "Yeah, yeah, yesh, da whole galaxy exploding and such. Yeah, we're all gonna die." Twilight became very serious. "What?! What do you mean? You think we'll die?! Aren't you a little upset about that?!" "Boof, calm down, misses grumpy-wumpy," Shadow said, leaning away from her. "Whas so bad about dying?" Twilight groaned and facehoofed. What had these doctors had him take? "Why would dying be a good thing?" She asked. "Why not?" Shadow replied. "I don't really care. So what if everything goes away? I don't much care for everything anyways." Shadow slowly picked himself up and dragged himself over to his small bed. He climbed into it and pulled up the covers, turning away from Twilight. "What are you doing?!" Twilight demanded. Shadow waved his hoof at her. "Go away, I wanna die without somepony screamin' in my ear." Twilight gave up talking to him. She looked around his room and wondered if the confinement could have driven him loopy. Then she saw an eerily familiar shade of blue sitting in the shadow under the small bedside table. Twilight inched closer to it and was overwhelmed by a rotten, horrible smell. She recognized it instantly as the notorious Poison Joke. What was a dangerous flower like that doing here in Shadow's cell? Twilight didn't necessarily have the time to sit down and contemplate all of the questions this sparked, so she ran over to Shadow, and leaned in close on him. She sniffed. Yes, the scent of the flower was definitely on him. She looked around frantically for a moment, then almost had a heart attack as the loudest thunderclap she had ever heard sounded directly above the facility. While Twilight screamed for just a second, Shadow seemed completely unfazed, and as the thunder faded, she could hear him snoring peacefully. She could also make out a lot of other sounds, which were a lot clearer than they should have been, through a thick steel door. It was screaming and lots of running, along with some laughing and crying. Twilight instinctively looked over to the door of the cell, but was caught off guard by there no longer being any door. It was gone. The only sign that a door had existed at all were some empty hinges screwed into the wall. Twilight edged towards the door, but froze as a royal guard galloped past her in fright, paying almost no attention to her and looking behind him. A second later, he was followed by a white mare with a nightmarish gleam in her eyes who had gotten hold of a long silver knife. She was obviously some sort of patient, considering her white sheet-like gown she wore. It occurred to Twilight that Shadow's door might not have been the only one to randomly (and quite inconveniently) vanish. She knew that to get to whatever washroom this place had so she could get some hot water, she would have to make a run for it. And whatever happened would happen, may Celestial help her. So, pushing all thoughts of what kinds of wackos were running amok, Twilight tensed her muscles, and shot forward. In times of great stress, like, let's say, running through a building full of potentially dangerous and completely insane ponies, one's adrenal gland produces a rather helpful hormone known as, "adrenaline." This, "adrenaline," would be one way to explain why Twilight Sparkle screamed the entire way through and empty hallway. On the other hand, excuse me, hoof, Twilight later stated that it felt like there was something following her, and she knew it wasn't a pony. She felt it was trying to stop her, and that it knew exactly what she was doing. This can be easily debunked as simply a delusion caused by the stress of her situation, or, as previously stated, just a side effect of the large amount of adrenaline running through Twilight's blood at the time. Twilight ran straight through the door labeled, "Washroom," and stopped as it closed behind her. Whatever that strange presence was, it was gone now. She spun three hundred and sixty degrees, looking for a sink or anything that pumped water. She saw an opening that led into the showers, and galloped in. It was humid, even though the showers looked like they hadn't been used in quite a while. She ran to the nearest shower head and turned the red-colored knob to the left. Instead of hot water, Twilight heard a low grumbling sound from within the wall. She pressed the side of her head to the wall, listening closely. She heard something. Something... coming closer. Twilight's eyes widened as she heard a deep growling voice yell, at a volume that rose alarmingly fast: "BOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!" Then, when Twilight expected some evil monster to reach out and grab her, a tile she had her head against blew out of the wall, knocking her over on her back with an, "Oompf!" The Princess looked moved her head up in time to have her face splashed with high-pressure freezing cold water. It billowed out of the hole like a waterfall, and was soon followed by the other shower heads in the room. Twilight scraped at the wetted tile floor until she was out of the immediate danger the waterfall from the hole posed. She turned over and coughed up water for a minute, then stood up. Her eyes were only half-open, there was chlorine in the water, and it had seriously irritated her eyes. She noticed the sound of the water had stopped, and the room was very cold. Twilight Sparkle blinked some water out of her eyes, and looked around. Her vision was a bit blurry, but she could still make out what had happened. All the water, already on the floor or still falling, was frozen solid. It was a strange and yet beautiful sight. Her hooves were even stuck in a puddle that had frozen in a nothingth of a second. Her hair was also partially crystallized and stiff from frozen drops of water. Every breath was a small puff of steam. Water still pouring out of the shower heads had frozen in long icicles, splashes of water had frozen mid-splash, all of it was very, very confusing to Twilight. What if, Twilight found herself thinking, he's right? She shook her head, denying her own thoughts. There was some sort of logical explanation for all this, there had to be. So, with a conflicted mind, Twilight pulled her hooves out of the thin ice and magically melted the rest of the ice, moving through the steaming hole she left. She headed onward, through another passage that was at the end of the showers when she trotted in. She was relieved to see a simple sink, and a bucket near it that was collecting water from a drip in the ceiling. She used her magic to lift the bucket and absentmindedly dumped it out and moved it next to her as she slowly and carefully reached out with a trembling hoof to pull the red-labeled lever. She rested her hoof on it, and jerked quickly, recoiling instantly, expecting another waterfall. She breathed a sigh as steaming water billowed out of the faucet. Twilight filled her bucket up and turned off the faucet. She galloped through the already-melting frozen showers, out the door, into the chaos, and back to where she came from. Finally back in Shadow's room, Twilight saw Shadow looking out of his barred window, smiling as though the greatest show on Earth was playing outside. She felt a twinge of annoyment at this somehow even-odder personality Shadow currently possessed, and supposed that was the irony. He was perhaps the strangest pony she had ever met, yet now he was stranger than that. Twilight hesitated for just a moment, then splashed the steaming water on Shadow. Please work,please work, please work, Twilight thought. Shadow Prophet didn't react. He didn't care. Twilight's tense muscles were about to relax in the acceptance of defeat, when Shadow suddenly jumped in the air. "YEEEEOOOOOWWWW!!!" He yelled aloud, falling onto his thin bed and slapping himself all over. "Hot! Hot! Hot! Verrrrrryyyy hot!" He half-screamed, half-mumbled. He caught sight of Twilight and stopped instantly. He looked at her with disapproving eyes. He didn't say anything, but his look got it all across. Once he felt the message had been received, he jumped up and looked out his barred window once again. Instead of smiling, though, he said, "Oh, sweet Celestia's shit!" He then looked at Twilight with a now panicked look. "Twilight!" He yelled unnecessarily. "Yes?" Twilight replied. "The rip! It's grown! Half of Ponyville is gone!" He jumped down from the bed and was about to rush past Twilight when he stopped just short of the doorless doorway. "What is it?" Twilight asked. She turned around, and saw Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootalloo, standing next to each other, smiling evil smiles, and giggling evil giggles. Twilight was about to ask what the girls were doing here, but Shadow spoke first. "Oh no. Remnants."
Chapter Eight: Chasing the Remnants"What?!" Twilight looked at Shadow, confused. "Remnants? What are those?" Shadow recoiled slowly from the fillies, but they never moved. Without looking at Twilight, Shadow explained, "They're the leftovers of time. Events that never happened, but could have. When things like this happen, they tend to slip through." Twilight nodded, though she had no idea what Shadow was talking about. She studied lots of things, but temporal relativity she had not gotten around to. "Well, they still need to be out of here," Twilight said. She looked at the girls with a firm but not angry look and said, "Look, I'm not going to ask how you got here girls, but staving off a bunch of loose psychopaths is not your special talent. So follow me, we're getting out of here." Applebloom moved forward, still smiling rather creepily, and whispered, "No. You follow... us." She and the other two turned and ran, their bodies moving like smoke, it looked like there were no sudden movements, even though they started running after standing still. Their hooves made the quietest clopping sounds Twilight had ever heard, but she still saw it as her duty to stop the girls, especially since they were in danger in this place. "Girls! Get back here right now!" Twilight ran off, leaving Shadow standing in his cell. He looked behind him at his small spring bed and his grease-blackened table and said to himself, almost whining, "Oh, I really wanna stay!" Then he looked out at Twilight chasing the three fillies. "But... Ugh, I hate me." Having more self-loathing thoughts, Shadow galloped after Twilight. The girls ran extremely fast somehow, too fast for Twilight. She flapped her wings to help her move faster, but she never got any closer to the runaway girls. How is this equinely possible?! Twilight thought as she started to breath heavily. She knew she wouldn't catch them, but she had to keep going. Eventually and inevitably, the girls ran out the front door, which was also gone, it appeared. Behind her, Twilight could hear Shadow yelling her name. "Twilight! Wait! You don't know what you're doing!" His yelled didn't stop her.mWhat kind of friend would she be to let Applejack's little sister, Rarity's little sister, and Rainbow Dash's practically little sister run away in a town with a bunch of knife-wielding mental patients in it? Definitely not the greatest one. "It means they're not real! Twilight! They're not real!" As the five-participant chase continued through town, it caught the attention of many ponies. As destiny would have it, among those disturbed by the chase were Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. They all thought it be only polite to follow after Twilight, even if they weren't really sure what was going on. Twilight could feel her legs burning painfully, but she tuned it out, focusing on the foals. She wasn't particularly focused on where she and the fillies were headed however. They were running at a terribly fast speed directly towards the shore of Eternity's Crossing, the most dangerous sea in the whole world. As Twilight's hooves began stepping on hot sand,her vision automatically adjusted,and she saw the waves washing on the shore. She skidded to a stop, bu the grils continued to run. Between breathes, Twilight said, "Wait! The-the- iz dangerous! Don't go out there!" They didn't listen. Without so much as a splash, they went into the water, slowly going under, still running. Twilight looked on, terrified. They were going to drown out there! Behind her, Shadow Prophet came to a halt. "Twilight! Don't chase them, it's pointless. It's like chasing a rainbow." Twilight ignored him. Everything he'd been saying recently was all nonsensical crap. There was a loud buzzing, crackling sound, "BZZZZZZCCCCCCRRRRRRRSSSHHHHHH-POP!" From off to the left. Twilight and Shadow looked over instantly and saw a small wooden boat, bobbing up and down in the water, oddly steaming. Twilight, without thinking, darted after it. "No, Twilight, please!" Shadow begged. Of course, she didn't listen. He followed her and when she jumped in the boat and started moving forward with her magic, he grabbed on to the back. The five other ponies ran up to the shore and stopped at the edge of the water, looking on, extremely confused. "Is it jus' me, or is Twi sailin' into Eternity's Crossin' with Shadow holdin' on the the back uh the boat?" Applejack asked. "Oh no, he's going to get all wet," Fluttershy whispered. "Well, at least then maybe his mane won't be sticking out everywhere like Albert Einstein." Rarity said. "Who?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Oh, you know, the-" There was another clap of thunder. "Oh. I can't seem to remember. Huh." "Twi! Whadya think yer doin'?!" Applejack called out. From the boat, Twilight called back, "I've gotta save them! They're gonna drown!" "Who?" Twilight didn't respond. Her magic faded from the boat and it slowed to a halt. She instantly jumped into the choppy waves of the water. Shadow pulled himself into the boat and lay on the floor for a moment, coughing up salt water that had gone up his nose and down his throat. Once he could breath normally, he got up and looked over the edge of the boat Twilight had gone down, trying to find her. "Sis', what's happenin' out there?" Applejack turned to see Applebloom, looking worried, with Scootalloo and Sweetie Belle behind her. She hooked her hoof around her sister's neck and said, "I have absolutely no idea." They both looked back out to the water. Shadow was now looking over the other side of the boat, off to where the ponies could not see from where they were. He was no longer looking for Twilight, and stared out into the ocean, frozen. Twilight, under the water, spun around, looking for the girls, but they were nowhere to be found. In despair, she climbed back aboard the boat and looked at the shore, where Applejack stood with... the three girls next to her. They were completely dry and looked worried, they certainly didn't know what was going on. At this point, Twilight wasn't sure she did either. She backed up and bumped into Shadow Prophet, who was leaning over the boat's edge. "What are you looking at?" She asked. He turned to her. "You haven't even seen it yet, have you?" He asked her. Twilight shook her head, confused. Shadow pointed up at the sky, and Twilight followed his hoof. She gasped and almost fell over the side of the boat. In the sky, above all of Equestria, was a giant black circle about twice the size of the sun in the sky. Clouds were moving towards it, and once they got close enough, they flew into it and shrank until there was nothing left. The range of how far clouds were before they began being sucked into it was visibly growing rapidly. Twilight couldn't think. Her brain froze up like Windows Vista in its attempt to wrap itself around what she was seeing. She stared so long that she no longer saw it, only looked at it. "Do you believe me now?" Shadow asked. She spun around to face him and a hundred things went through her mind all at once. A hundred ways to tell him that he was wrong yet again. But all of them were dead leaves twirling vainly around a great and strong tree of a thought, the inevitable acceptance of what was happening, and that Shadow Prophet was right. She nodded. Shadow nodded in return, seeming to understand what was going on in Twilight's head. He then pointed out to the ocean. "That is what I was looking at. It's far worse than the black hole in the sky." While also realizing that it was a black hole, Twilight looked out to the endless sea. All across its surface were lines that closely resembled cracks with white light shining through them. While the water moved, the cracks stayed steady. Occasionally, a small wave would rise over the crack, and fall down into it. As it went down into it, there was faint but noticeable crackling sound, like something being charged with electricity. This was all a little much for. Twilight, and she just shook her head in disbelief. Her surprise meter had been worn down to a blunt, and now she believed she had seen all there was to see. She was wrong. There was a low grumbling sound from deep under the water, a sound almost too deep for ears to perceive. It seemed to spread out across the water like a drop of food coloring in a glass of water, liquidly moving around until it consumed all of the water. Then, one of the cracks out on the sea went from white to black in a fashion that looked as if something had moved over and blocked out the light. It had. Suddenly, out from one of the larger cracks, slithered a long, tall beast of darkness. It was what you could not see that made it terrifying. It did not seem to wear, but to be a giant black cloak, and it never made a single sound as it moved and slithered like a snake fleeing from danger. It was so tall and so dark that it engulfed Twilight's boat completely in shadow. All the ponies that could see it, which was pretty much every pony in Equestria, cowered in pure despair at the sight of the horrible thing. It outstretched its long, cloaked arm very slowly and from it spilled out more shadowy blackness, and this took the shape of a giant scythe. Twilight and Shadow only looked on, not being able to think at all as they shivered uncontrollably; partly of the uncomfortable cold the beast let off, but mostly of blind fear. On the shore, the five mares watched in disbelief as the creature cocked its cloaked head, examining the ponies on the boat. Flutter shy fainted. Rarity, in spite of her love of her hair being put up, yanked it down to cover her eyes. The three fillies curled up in balls around Applejack's legs. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, felt hate and anger instead of fear. Just what the hell did this thing think it was doing? Did it have any ideas who it was scaring senseless? The Princess of Friendship! She wasn't sure, but she believed you could serve some time in jail for that. In her rage, she flew, rather unstealthily, to the ponies' aid. She could tell that both were too terrified to be able to do anything, and that she would have to get them out of there. While the creature still looked on, not interrupting, she lifted Twilight from the boat, who was sweating coldly; she didn't blame her. The dead weight of a shocked Twilight was almost too much to lift, but Rainbow Dash managed, through much struggling. Veins showing on her neck, Rainbow slowly but surely began moving Twilight to shore. The large cloaked thing turned its head slightly to see, but only for a moment before refocusing its attention on the boat, where Shadow cowered away from its gaze. Through gritted teeth, Rainbow managed to say, "Come on, Twi. All I need's a little help!" Hearing, but not replying, still somewhat lost in the haze of her attempt at comprehension, Twilight flapped her wings. It wasn't much, certainly not enough to lift the Princess off the ground without support, but it felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted to Rainbow. She flew much faster to shore, and once there, lightly set Twilight down, who flapped her wings a few more times before stopping. She didn't fold them in, just let them fall to her sides. Rainbow turned and set out towards the boat again to get Shadow. Shadow, who was peeking at the idle monster over the rim of the boat, caught Rainbow Dash's figure out of the corner of his eye. He instinctively looked right at her, and was simultaneously hit with a very clear vision. Rainbow Dash flies down to pick up Shadow Prophet. The beast utters a low growl, almost of annoyment. As Shadow watches, it raises one long, cloaked hand and strikes Rainbow Dash clean across the head, knocking her unconscious. Her limp body sails toward the water , and with a loud splash, sinks down under. Shadow shook his head, clearing it. He looked back up at Rainbow Dash and began shouting at her. "No! Turn back now! Go away!" He was waving his hooves over in the direction of the shore. Rainbow Dash stopped an asked, "What?" Shadow cupped his hooves around his mouth and shouted, "Move in the opposite general direction of this damn boat!" Rainbow Dash, still unable to hear, began moving closer to hear Shadow better. The beast then let out a loud, almost annoyed growl. IT slowly raised its long black cloaked hand, leaving behind a trail of smoke which dissipated quickly. Shadow pointed at it, hoping Rainbow would see what was about to happen. She turned around, and her eyes widened as the giant hand came towards her. She put up her hooves in a futile attempt to stop it, and it hit her. It only struck her head, but it twisted it sideways and Shadow thought he saw a small amount of blood fly out of Rainbow's mouth. The force of the blow also sent her spiraling diagonally towards the water, and much faster than if she had simply begun free-falling. She shot below the surface of the water with a stinging SPLASH! and Shadow could see her sink below. The beast moved its hand back to its side. Shadow began paddling with both hooves over to where Rainbow met the water, hoping she hadn't already gone too deep. The thing's gaze followed him all the way, not breaking even to see Twilight fly up next to him. Twilight Sparkle fired off a great blast of magic at the beast, but once it reached it, the magic that was so well concentrated into a fast beam of purple energy dissipated into slow, black smoke that moved around wanderingly, never leaving his aura of coldness. Seeing it made Twilight feel lightheaded, and she retreated, seeming very confused to her friends. Shadow stopped paddling and reached into the water, almost yanking his hooves back out instantly. He was very close to the beast, and the water surrounding it had a horrible feel to it, akin to the feeling you get when you lick the top of a 9-volt alkaline battery. Shadow, however, kept his hooves in the water, trying to ignore all the things that were going on and focus on getting Rainbow Dash out of the water before she drowned. Then a thought hit him. Why was he doing this? Why was he trying to save this mare who he had only talked to twice, and one of those ended in her insulting him? Why? He then realized that, ever since the horrible tragedy in his hometown had hit him and changed his life, he had never had a true friend, and he was reaching out to these ponies because they were trying their best to be hospitable to him. While Twilight had dragged him to the assylum, she was doing it to try and help him. She had even broken him out of the poison joke's enchantment. Rainbow Dash did end up insulting him, but that was after wanting to know things. Twilight had been on the verge of tears after hearing his story in summary. These ponies were as close as he had ever come to anypony that actually cared about him. It was a shocking revelation that hit him like a lightning strike; it had great impact, yet it also came in a split second. Shadow only hesitated for a barely noticable moment before continuing his search. His hooves touched wet fur, and he instantly wrapped them around it and pulled with all his strength. An unconscious Rainbow Dash, drenched in water, was pulled aboard and dropped on the floor of the boat. Shadow sat across form her, breathing heavily. He was distracted by the creature which he had almost forgotten about. It let out a terrible screech, and it lurched forward towards the boat. Shadow put his hooves up, but he didn't have to. The thing never touched him. Instead, it became thin and blanket-like, making a dome of shadow over the boat. The thing went down another crack in the water, so now its lower end was flying out of one crack, and its upper end was flying into another. It moved faster and faster, making a current of wind which began to pull the boat along its path. Realizing this, Shadow tried to paddle again in the opposite direction, but the current was too powerful, and there was nothing he could do to stop the boat being pulled towards the crack in reality. As the boat came up to it, Shadow was overcome with the odd sensation of being manipulated like clay. The crack was thin, far too thin for the boat, let alone anypony on it, to fit through. So quantum reality compensated. The boat and its two occupants were flattened almost to the width of a piece of paper, but they were not harmed in any way. To both, it only came as a weird tingle. The boat slipped into the crack, and behind it the rest of the beast followed. As its tail went in, the crack behind it sealed shut, letting out a thunderclap sound. The ponies on the shore were unsure of what to do. Don't blame them, you would be too.
Chapter Nine: Falling Through TimeShadow felt like he had a really bad hangover. His head throbbed with all the intensity of someone kicking it from the inside, trying to escape. He rubbed his temples and groaned, wondering how long he'd been sleeping. He opened his eyes, and saw the interior of a boat. What? What am I doing in a boat? He thought. Looking to the other side of the boat, the thought was quickly followed by: Why is Rainbow Dash asleep in the boat with a big bruise on the side of her face? He looked up to where the sky should've been, and this time, the thought was: What in Celestia's name is going on?! Above him, colors zipped by at incomprehensible speeds on a black background, making lines of speeding color. Shadow climbed up to the side of the boat and looked over the edge. More speeding lights of color on black backgrounds. All around. Beneath too. They were in a circular tunnel of color. Shadow though this couldn't get any weirder, but then another him climbed up the outside of the boat and looked at him. He looked at himself for a while, before his doppelganger lifted a knife from out of nowhere and slowly pressed it against his own throat, until it slid through and came out the other side. Then he smiled and laughed aloud. Shadow closed his eyes, and when he opened them again the other him was gone. He looked ahead, wanting to see if there was any end to this psychedelic passage, but saw no end near. Then, something that had been too thin to see from the side began to turn its face towards him. It was a window, a plane of glass, and on the other end was not the rest of the tunnel, but a bright blue sky with faint clouds in it. The window became perpendicular to the boat, and Shadow saw that the boat would crash into it in a second. He ducked, not wanting to be in the way of shattering glass. In the land of the Texas Metroplequine, or Texas Metroplex, as it is called in our world, there is a nice town named Midlothian. It is a suburban place where children can run free and play with their friends in the dewy fields and make memories that last a lifetime. It is worth mentioning that this is located in a grasslands, the Blackland Prairies, to be exact. So here, a lot of the grassy fields remain pure and undeveloped. It is a beautiful place, one of the last few pure places in the country of North Americlop, or North America, as it is called in our world. It is in one of these undeveloped patches of land, far away from where anypony could see it, that our characters enter this world, and subsequently, the second act of our story. High in the air, a window was shattered by an airborne boat. Not something you get to see every day, which is why nopony saw it. The window wasn't there a moment before the boat shattered through, and it wasn't actually there when it did shatter through, either. It stood in a metaphysical spot between the portal the boat was in and the Texas Metroplequine. So when it shattered, there was no glimpse into the portal, a boat shattered through the other side of a window that wasn't there. It's actually better that nopony saw it, because seeing what I have just attempted to explain would require a temporary shift into 4-d, or even 5-d, and seeing that with 3-d eyes would be like trying to play a blu-ray on a DVD player. It would turn your fragile eyes inside out. Good thing nopony in the boat had their eyes open either. The boat fell through the sky, and Shadow felt cool wind brush past his fur as it leaked through the boards of the boat, and loved it. He didn't think about why wind was coming from the bottom of the boat, or why he was slowly moving away from the boat as it fell faster, he just welcomed it greatly. Then he realized what was happening, looked over the edge, saw a grassy ground heading straight for him, and screamed. Crash!! the sound disturbed the mare who was swinging on her ever-so-familiar swing. She brought it to a halt and turned her head to where the sound had come from. Over the fence, a few feet away, she saw some trees rustling unusually. She heard groans of pain, and jumped out of her swing, breaking into a gallop through the small yellow apartment buildings and around the perimeter fence. In the open field out front was, the mare was greeted with a strange sight indeed. A boat lay on the ground, in pieces, looking burnt, with two ponies in it. One was unconscious, the other was rubbing his temples and groaning. The mare galloped over to help, but the one who was awake held his hoof up at her in a, "stop," signal. She did stop, but raised her hoof and considered continuing. She instead sat down, worried. She looked around her and then asked, all at once, "Who are you? How did you get here? Why are you in a boat? Who's your friend?" The awake one held his hoof up again, and she closed her mouth. "Ugh, questions, questions, questions! It's as though you wanted to know things." He stopped rubbing his temples and opened his eyes. The mare was shocked for a moment, staring into those eyes. They reminded her of somepony she knew, even though they weren't the same color. It was their essence. She couldn't quite put her hoof on who it reminded her of, though. The blue pony said, "My name... my name is Shadow Prophet. I fell out of the sky, because reasons, and that," he stopped for breath, then pointed at the unconscious mare, "is Rainbow Dash. Who, may I ask, are you?" Politely, she replied, "Raven Wing." Then what the blue stallion had said processed. "Wait, did you say Shadow Prophet? Rainbow Dash?" She looked at the sleeping mare and for the first time noticed the rainbow-colored mane. She looked back at Shadow, and again asked, "You're Shadow Prophet?!" Shadow held up his hooves in defense. "Yes! Why? What did I do?" Raven Wing screamed.
Chapter Ten: Temporal Coincidence"Why the hell are you screaming at me?!" Shadow asked, extremely confused. Instead of answering, Raven Wing quieted, and started trotting around in circles. She looked at him. "You can't be real! You're fake!" Shadow felt a little insulted by Raven's statement and stood up, looking her directly in the eyes. "Good Madame, I must assure you, with a rather high level of confidence, that I, Shadow Prophet, am one hundred percent real." Raven Wing looked at Shadow, surprised. "Wow. You really are Shadow Prophet." Shadow looked around, feeling a sudden chill. "What's so amazing about me? I'm just like the next pony," he lied unnecessarily. He felt watched. "You don't even know, do you?" Shadow looked around again. Something was getting closer, he could feel it. He looked back at Raven. "What? What don't I know?!" "You're just a story." The news hit Shadow like a bucket of ice water. Or maybe it was whatever was coming. Shadow became very confused. "What? How am I just a story? I'm right here, in front of you! Hello!" He waved his hoof in a greeting. Raven Wing didn't seem to fully understand it either, and she sat down. She looked at the grass, and then jumped back up. Shadow looked at it too. In sharp waves, the grass was turning from a lavish and healthy green to a curled up and dry yellow. Every second or so, the grass would become thinner and drier, dying scarily quickly. "From over the hill and around the run," Shadow found himself saying with no control. "Comes the one made of shadows, the Dark One." The last part made him shiver, and it made Raven shiver too. Then, from just around the corner of the fence nearby, came a low moaning sound, a kin to an old man who hadn't had a drink of water in all his life. On the ground there appeared a long shadow of the approaching figure, its head moving side to side like a pendulum as their hooves moved them forward. Both Shadow and Raven broke into a cold sweat as they stood, frozen in place, only able to wish whatever was coming was friendly. It would be an understatement to say they were surprised to find that the shadow had no owner. It came around, the shadow's hooves coming to an end, where they should meet the bottoms of real hooves. But there were none. The shadow stopped, as if realizing there was no possible way for it to exist. But instead of blipping out of existence, it left its boundaries. It climbed up, leaving behind its world of second-dimensional dependence, and coming into three-dimensional independence. It was real. It was still the epitome of darkness, bore no features, and was weirdly see-through. Shadow stood still, while Raven Wing came out of shock and tumbled over on her back. She then flipped herself over, jumped up, and sped off towards her home. The shadow slowly and liquidly moved towards Shadow, whose eyes widened. It stopped only a few steps away from him, and Shadow's eyes rolled up in his skull and his eyelids closed. He was in white. Nothing more. Just white. Whiteness. Everywhere. It didn't hurt his eyes, though. Across him was a stallion in a business suit. He stood in the white as well. But he acted like it was a common thing to be in. He trotted towards Shadow and looked at him with mild interest. He had a well-maintained mane, and was colored a dark brown. He lifted a clipboard that wasn't there before up to his face and read it over. He flipped one page up and Shadow say on he back were largely printed words. ALL YOU THINK, ALL THE SAME. THINK QUITE WRONG, ITS ALL IN VAIN. ALL YOU THINK, ALL THE SAME. DO IT RIGHT, THERE'LL STILL BE PAIN. Shadow would've asked the stallion about this, but he could not speak. The stallion flipped the page back into place and dropped the clipboard. It never landed. It was just gone. He looked at shadow, and his face broke into a smile. Not a creepy smile, just a smile of pure happiness. Then he said, "They were right, weren't they? You're the one!" "Hurry! Get over here, you idiot!" Raven Wing yelled, her head poking out from behind the fence. Shadow was yanked out of his trance by that yell, and the first thing he saw was the shadow creature leaning over Rinbow Dash, who was groaning in pain. It held its dark hoof over her body, and kept moving it over her, just above her. Shadow knocked the hoof away, and when his met it's, he felt an extremely unpleasant coldness, and a shock went through his body. The creature moved back and let out a hiss, but it was not normal in any way, by a hiss' standards. It was deep and grumbling, and after it the monster became a dark mist, floating away in tendrils, disappearing into the ground. Shadow grabbed Rainbow Dash's hoof and wrapped it around her neck. He dragged her out of the boat and carried her over the edge of the fence, where Raven was waiting. He dropped Rainbow on the ground and said, aggravated, "Thanks for the help." Raven did feel guilty for abandoning Shadow, and assisted in taking Rainbow Dash back to her apartment. She left Rainbow in her bed, and tossed some blankets over her. Rainbow subconsciously pulled them up and turned over in the bed. Outside the room, Shadow was waiting. He looked around. There was one short hallway that turned to the right to enter the last room, which was storage. Before the hall there was a small den which held two strange mechanisms that Raven told him were a, "television," and a, "computer." Shadow had never heard of either. On the other side was a small kitchen holding other strange mechanisms Shadow hadn't bothered to ask about. One was large and white and rumbled like it was going to explode. Shadow intended to keep an eye on that. Raven Wing stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. When she looked at Shadow, she laughed out her nose and looked away, still unable to believe his existence. Shadow said, "Well, I guess you'd like us to sit down and talk for a while." Raven, without looking back at Shadow, nodded. Shadow slid off of the wall that had been supporting him and headed for the den. Raven thought that, just for a moment, she had seen Shadow's, well, shadow flicker, for just a brief second. It was probably nothing. She followed Shadow. "So... I guess I should start with how I got here," Shadow said, sitting across a dinner table from Raven. He laughed. "Even now I'm still not sure." Raven shook her head, which confused Shadow. She said, "I know how you got here. That's the thing. I think I have more to explain to you than you do to me." Raven rubbed her temples, then started. "A few months ago, I think it was April, my boyfriend got on a website-" Shadow interrupted. "What's a website?" Raven looked up in surprise at Shadow, then said, "It's... a place where... ponies put things so that other ponies can see them and comment on them." Shadow nodded, and she continued. "This website, FiMfiction, it's called, was a place where you could write stories based off a show. Anyways, he started to write there, and his first story was called, 'Shadow Prophet.'" Shadow shook his head, not understanding. Raven Wing looked up at the ceiling then back to Shadow, wondering how to word it. "You are... a fictional character. My boyfriend created you, you're just a figment of his imagination. His really weird imagination." Shadow nodded, then said, "Those sort of things are theoretically possible." Now it was Raven's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?" "Well, the differing worlds have more links to each other than portals. Sometimes certain beings have copies of themselves in certain worlds, sometimes the world in question is only a fiction in another. I think one of the links between my world and yours may be the boy writing that story. I think he knows things." Raven understood enough of what was said. "Really? Then why don't we go ask him? He's just down the block, I can take you there." Shadow shook his head. "No, no. If I am meant to meet him, I will meet him. I don't think it'd be a good idea to force things like this. Especially when one of the worlds is collapsing." Raven nodded. She said, "I read the last chapter. 'Falling Through Time.' I couldn't read the very last bit, because my internet router crapped itself again." Shadow didn't know what an internet router was, but he deduced that when it, "crapped itself," it severed her connection to the wherever the story was being stored, the, "website." "That's good. I'm pretty sure if you'd read too far you would've read into the future, and that could be really bad for all of us." Shadow would've kept talking, were it not for a rainbow-haired pegasus throwing a book at his head. "Yow! What in Celestia's name..." Shadow was pushed to the ground by Rainbow Dash, who was in a panic. She had dreamed that Shadow had kidnapped her and was holding her hostage. When she awoke in unfamiliar surroundings, she assumed it must be true. With Shadow out of the way, Rainbow Dash galloped for the door. Raven Wing fell out of her chair in surprise, but Rainbow didn't acknowledge her. She yanked the door open, looked for a solid second at the death-creature made of shadow standing on the doormat, then ran the other way, screaming.
Chapter Eleven: The Most Terrifying Thing Ever"CRAP! CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!" Shadow yelled, as Raven was far closer. She jumped up and galloped to the door, pushing it shut. But it didn't close. The shadow pony stuck its hoof out with impossible speed and the door bounced off of it, smashing Raven's face. She staggered back and held her hoof up to her nose, which had begun to bleed from the impact. Shadow grabbed the book that had been thrown at him and flung it towards the creature. It went through it entirely, causing it to turn yet again into a spreading mist. But it did not stay that way. Once the book was on the ground, the mist moved quickly and quietly over to Shadow, wrapping itself around his hooves. Shadow tried to step away from it, but it continued to envelope his hooves.It began spiraling around his legs, working it's way to covering him completely. Some of the dark mist floated up and into Shadow's nose. When he breathed it in, he gagged. Then he gagged again; a dry gag. He tried to grasp his throat, but could not move his hooves. His eyes bulged as he gasped for breaths he could not take. Raven wiped her bloody nose and took action. She leaped forward and, not knowing what else to do, stomped around in the mist. It moved away from her when she did, and little by little it was dissipating. She clapped her hoof on Shadow's back, and he coughed up a ball of black goo, which bounced and rolled out the door, the mist following it. Behind it, the door slowly creaked shut. Raven Wing stared at the door, Rainbow Dash poked her head around the corner, and Shadow gasped for breath. A drop of blood from Raven's nose fell to the carpeted floor, and upon seeing it, Shadow was filled with a sudden surging rage. He moved forward slowly, opened the door, and stepped outside into the warm, sunny Texas day. He looked around, but could find no trace of the monster that had dragged him through worlds and had its heart set on tormenting him. Shadow looked up to the sky and yelled, so hard that his voice hurt, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!! WHAT?! DO YOU WANT MY LIFE?! THEN COME AND TRY TO FUCKING TAKE IT!!" There was a tap on Shadow's shoulder. He turned around and punched it, expecting the shadow-thing. Instead, he punched an orange mare wearing a blue uniform that read, "Midlothian Police." He was about to apologize, but then the mare grabbed his hoof and put hoofcuffs on it. She said,"You and your friends are coming with me." Shadow realized that these Midlothian Police must be like the Royal Guard or Equestria. "Crap," he said. He had been cussing a lot recently. Shadow paced his small cement cell, wondering just what the hell he was going to do. He had to do something. There was a potentially fatal beast out there, and here they were, cooped up in these small cells in the back of the Police station, the only inmates in the small hallway behind the office where the officer (Carrot Top was her name) was filling out paperwork, occasionally looking up at the three inmates, as though they might vanish if she didn't look at them often. The jail-room was light by a single faint glowing orb that hung from a wire in the middle of the hall. Shadow had seen these in the ceiling of Raven Wing's apartment, but they were protected by glass and shined a lot brighter. The orb flickered every once in a while, which Shadow found to be terribly distracting. Shadow stuck his hoof out of his cell and waved it up and down, catching the officer's attention. "What do you want?" She asked accusingly. "Yes, well, erm... you see... Could you fix this, um, light...thing? It's really annoying," Shadow said with absolutely no confidence whatsoever. The officer's cold stare had drilled into him and sucked it all out. Carrot Top laughed aloud. "So what? I don't have to do crap for you! Look, if you don't like the flickery light, then how about this?" The officer got up and went to the doorway that led into the jail-room. She flicked a switch that stood mounted on the wall outside the doorway, and the light went out. They would have been in total darkness, were it not for the light coming from the officer's office. She went back to her desk and sat down, ignoring Shadow and the other ponies. Shadow smiled nervously and said, "Um, okay. Thanks," before pulling his hoof back into his cell and flopping down on his small, gross bed. "Great plan." Shadow pushed himself up and turned to see Raven Wing in the cell across from him, looking through the bars accusingly. Everypony had been looking at him accusingly recently. "Sorry. I didn't know she was so... yeah. You wouldn't have done any better, I'm sure," Shadow said. Raven scoffed. "Sure." Carrot Top snapped, "Hey! Quiet in there!" Raven flashed an angry look towards the police officer, then asked her, "How long are we going to be in here," then, in a truly painful attempt at being polite to the officer, she said through gritting teeth, "ma'am?" "Well, the rainbow one was clearly hit across the head by one of you, she was also screaming at one of you. There were sounds of fighting and your blue, frizzy friend disrupted the public greatly. I'd say either until tonight, or overnight. Now shut up,I'm trying to work." "Hugs and kisses to you too," Raven muttered sarcastically. Shadow groaned with his face buried in the bed. Overnight? Who knew what kind of damage that creature he'd unwittingly released could do in twelve hours? In ten minutes alone it'd gotten three ponies arrested. I bet my bottom dollar it planned for that to happen, Shadow thought. I thought it was some basic creature that just wanted to kill us like a barbarian. But I was wrong, wasn't I? This thing, whatever it is, wanted us out of the way. And it did it rather cleverly. Shadow found his voice out of his control again, and somepony else whispered out of his mouth, "The Dark One." Raven looked at him for a moment, then looked away. Shadow's eyebrows furrowed. Wait. What if it wasn't trying to get us out of the way? What if it's just trying to drive us mad? It certainly looks like that's what it's been trying to do. But if that's true, then... "It's here," Shadow realized, jumping up from his bed. He galloped to the corner of his cell, attracting the attention of Rainbow Dash, who had been silently sitting in the same cell as Raven, looking at the grossly stained bed, Raven Wing, and Carrot Top. "Hey, Carrot! Carrot the Parrot, listen to me!" Shadow yelled at the officer. She gained a very angry face. "What did you just call me?" "Carroty Parroty, the one and only carrot-making parrot!" Raven gave Shadow a look like he was insane, but Shadow ignored her. Shadow closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, while Carrot Top stomped around her desk and up to his cell. When she was right in his face, Shadow's eyes snapped open. "Yes. That's what they called you when you were little, wasn't it?" He said. Carrot Top's eyes widened. "Little bitty Parrot Pop, gross, shy, and weird," Shadow chanted. "Little bitty Parrot Pop, don't be shocked if she grows a beard!" Tears trembled on the officer's eyes, threatening to spill over. "How... how do you know that?" She asked shakily. Shadow whispered, "Let us go, and I'll tell you." The officer wiped her eyes and then looked to the floor for a moment. She looked over to the keys to their cells hanging on the wall, thought for a moment, then, "No. No, I can't." She didn't look at Shadow Prophet before returning to her office. Shadow reached out his hoof and waved it around again, but she ignored him. She sat back down in her desk and massaged her temples for a moment before returning to her work. "Wha... how did you do that?" Raven whispered. Shadow looked at her and said, "Let us go, and I'll tell you," sarcastically. Then , he froze, and his pupils dilated. He gasped coldly, and looked into the office. Raven and Rainbow followed his gaze, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until they noticed a second shadow on the wall, standing right next to Carrot Top's shadow. "What the-" Raven started, but Shadow held his hoof up to his mouth, symboling a, "shush." Raven quieted, and watched in part-awe, part-terror. The shadow on the wall reached out to the officer's shadow and tapped it's shoulder. Carrot Top jumped and looked around her, not noticing the extra shadow. She brushed her shoulder and then looked back at her work. The no-pony shadow violently grabbed Carrot's shoulder and wouldn't let go. Carrot Top tried to move her shoulder, but found it was being held in place by something she couldn't see. The shadow took it's other hoof and swiped it across Carrot's shadow's face quickly. On Carrot's face, a large bloody cut appeared at a diagonal slant, and she screamed in pain. The shadow began dragging Carrot's shadow closer to the wall, and the officer was pulled out of her chair and dragged along the floor. She kicked and screamed, but with nothing to do to stop the shadow, it was pointless. You can't hurt a shadow. Both the shadows became more clear and defined as they neared the wall. The pony-less one had no distinguishable features whatsoever. Carrot touched the wall, but she didn't stop moving. She began to absorb into the wall. He shoulder spread out and vanished as she was dragged to wherever the shadow was taking her. Apparently, being flattened into non-existence is not very comfortable, as Carrot Top began screaming at the top of her lungs, and she started crying for her mom. The ponies in the jail-room all looked away, unable to watch as she was slowly and painfully murdered. When the screaming stopped, Shadow Prophet took a glance at the wall. Carrot Top was gone, but her shadow still stood alongside the other one that had dragged her into oblivion. Her shadow trotted into it, and vanished. And just like that, Carrot Top was no more. Shadow believed nothing more horrifying could happen than what he had just witnessed, until the murdering shadow began to move towards the jail-room.
Chapter Twelve: The Chase Begins"No, no, no! What do we do?!" Raven screamed, backing up to the farthest part of her cell. The shadow came nearer to the jail-room. Shadow Prophet began looking around for something to use to defend themselves. There was nothing he could use, the only possibly defending items were in the Late Carrot Top's office, but there was no way they were going to be able to get in there. Shadow, out of ideas, began to think about how they could avoid the shadow. Then a simple and obvious fact popped into his head. "It's a shadow!" "Yeah? So?" Raven asked frantically. "So... the lights are off in here! Shadows can't exist where there is no light!" Raven realized this and sighed in relief. The shadow approached, but when it came to the border between the lightness of Carrot Top's office and the darkness of the jail-room, it stopped. It could not venture any further. Shadow laughed. "Ha! We beat you with something so completely simple! It's hilarious!" He started doing a little happy dance around his cell, and Raven smiled in spite of herself. Shadow Prophet was certainly a strange character. Much like sompony she knew... The shadow moved away so that the ponies could not see it. It was on the wall on the other side of the jail-room. Then, with a loud clank, the lights slowly came to life. Horrible white light filled the jail-room, and the ponies screamed. Rainbow Dash and Raven Wing took off and flew up to the roof of the cell. The lights in the hall were located higher then the ceiling of the jail cells, so there was darkness on the roof. They were safe. Shadow, on the other hoof... "Get under the bed!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him. The shadow moved its way into the jail-room, appreciating the light far too much than any creature has a right to. Shadow dropped flat to the ground and slid under the thin space in between the jail cell bad and the cold cement floor, where no light shined. From his vantage point, he would only be able to see hooves if anypony were to arrive. Inevitably, he saw the shadow of hooves that had no owner, and cringed even though he knew he was safe in the darkness. The shadow stepped up upon the bed and the mattress began to bend downwards, as if somepony were slowly lowering a large weight upon it. The bed began to crush Shadow's back, and he found that he could no longer take large breathes. He could only take in short gasps of air, and those were quickly getting smaller. Even though he knew it was the worst possible thing to do, Shadow stuck his hooves out into the light and began flailing them around, begging for help in the only way he could at that point. He tried to scream, but with his shortness of breath, all he could manage was a weak, "Haaaaaaaah..." Raven Wing saw the empty shadow covering the bed completely and crushing it down on the helpless blue pony, and she took action. She flew over to her bed, waving for Rainbow Dash to follow. Together, they lifted the gross, orange, stained bedsheets off their own beds and carried them over to the edge of their cells. Following Raven's instruction, they both flung them outwards repeatedly, until Rainbow's successfully wrapped around one of the light bulbs that shined down on Shadow's cell. The light didn't go away completely, but it became very faint, and the shadow quickly moved away into better lighting. Shadow climbed out from his bed and tried to run. He stumbled a few times, but managed. He ran directly past the shadow. It reached out for him, but without looking, Shadow batted his hoof around, knocking the shadow away. He ran to the cement wall and rammed it with his horn. He grimaced and collapsed after meeting the wall, but unicorn horns are stronger than any material, so it remained intact and broke a large chunk of cement out of the wall. It landed next to him. He climbed up again and lifted the chunk. It was very large and apparent that it was extremely hard for Shadow to lift it. But he still did and threw it at the metal poles which barricaded him. It broke two poles that had major rust on them with a loud, "Thwong!" then shattered in two on the ground. Huffing, Shadow limped out the opening, not stopping for breath. He moved over into the office, and Raven thought for one terrible moment that he had ran away. But he returned with keys and unlocked the doors to the girls' cells. In between heavy breathes, he managed to say, "Come... on! Get out!" Raven Wing galloped out, followed by Rainbow Dash, followed by Shadow Prophet. The Dark One vanished in a shadow of smoke. "Okay... stop! Please!" Shadow begged after running for ten minutes away from the police station. The mares stopped, and Shadow looked at them. "I... I can't... I..." He collapsed on the grass, panting for breath. "I need a break." Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, come on! Not now! You didn't need a break when we were being flung between worlds!" Raven Wing gave Rainbow Dash a dirty look, and the blue mare sat down in the grass obediently. Raven sat down next to Shadow and observed him for a moment, too tired to move, having been flung across space and time only to almost be killed by a shadow creature. He did need a break. His eyes were closed, but she could tell he was still awake. "You didn't need to save us, you know. You could've left," Raven pointed out. Shadow smiled, his eyes still closed. "No I couldn't." "What do you mean?" "The business man. He said I couldn't." "What business man?" "I don't know. He told me I had to take you both with me, no matter what." "Hmm." Raven began to worry about Shadow Prophet's mental stability. Shadow slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head. He looked around. "The Dark One is coming. We'd better get out of here." "Oh, so now it's the Dark One?" Rainbow Dash asked. Shadow stood up. "Yup." He looked around again. Suddenly came a large zapping sound that filled the air. "What's that?!" Raven asked. Shadow looked at a lone tree and smiled. "That, my friend, is a pand-dimensional rift. Time to go." He trotted over to the tree, and put his ear up to it. The mares followed behind him, confused. "It's inside this tree." They were about to ask, then Shadow ripped a piece of bark off the tree. Behind it was a large expanse of bright blue light that had beams of white light shooting out of it in all directions. Shadow, without hesitation, stepped into the light. The mares, not sure of what else they could do, followed.
Chapter Thirteen: Not PermittedTime is a figment. A creation of the simplistic three-dimensional mind in its attempt to comprehend the vast incomprehensibility of the Universe. There is no time. No time. No time. No time. No time. No time to mess around. "There's no time to mess around! Hurry!" Shadow shouted. The mares were not faring well within the dimensional rift. They kept on waving their hooves about, and were coming terribly close to the lighted edge of the portal through worlds. Shadow was not exactly sure of what would happen if you fell out of a dimensional rift, but he could imagine it not being very good. They were also lagging terribly behind Shadow, who was acting as though he had done this many times before. It was a weightless environment, but there was a strong current that pulled you helplessly to wherever your destination was to be. Shadow wondered where the portal would take them. He was rather surprised to find that, once he shattered through the closed window of time, he was inside a hallway. A rather dull hallway, mind you. He didn't like it one bit. It had white tile flooring and white walls. There were no lights to be seen, but there was light nonetheless. the mares that had been lagging behind suddenly fell out of the air and landed on top of Shadow. Raven came first, then Rainbow Dash, who rolled off of Raven's back. Shadow and Raven opened their eyes to discover that she was on top of him in a most humiliating and suggestive fashion. Raven's face turned bright red and she jumped off of him. She looked down the hall while Shadow picked himself up. He looked to Rainbow Dash, who was looking down the hall in the other direction. She hadn't seen the embarrassing accident. Good thing, too, Shadow thought. The hall was identical on both sides. It seemed to go on for a few yards, and on either end was a turn that led off to some other lighted area. "Where... where are we?" Raven Wing asked, still dazed from the journey. "I was about to ask the same thing," Rainbow Dash stated, also quite dizzied by the experience. Only Shadow, a thin and weak-looking pony compared to both mares, was ironically unfazed. He started down one end, then stopped, turned around and started down the other. "I don't know. I have no idea. We could be anywhere in time and space... I think." Raven had many questions, but the one that came to mind for no reason except that it's answer would be more valuable than any others was: "How do you know all this wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff?" He turned to her. "When you read the story before you met me, I assume you read my palaver with Twilight about my past?" She nodded. "That was a very abridged version. While I was in Sunshine's care, I didn't have much to do. She was studying theoretical physics, and had loads of books on the subject. With nothing else to do for such a long time, I read every single one multiple times." "... Okay... I guess..." Was all Raven could reply with. She wished to know a more detailed version of his story. Perhaps her wish would soon be granted. But after the events currently passing had transpired, when there was time for such things. Shadow waved his hoof - Raven noticed a rather fresh scar streaking across it in a horizontal line - signaling for them to follow him. They did. Close together, the lost ponies headed down the strange hallway, wondering what they would find at the end. But the end never got closer. Well, at first it did, but there was a point where it stayed put, and while they did continue to trot, the end never came any closer. They eventually broke into a desperate gallop, but no matter how fast they ran or how far they trotted, the end of the hallway was never reached by any of them. "What the heck is going on?!" Rainbow Dash asked after a failed attempt at flying there." Before Shadow could say that he didn't know, two brown ponies in very nice business suits came around the corner. One was a mare, the other a stallion. Both were wielding a large chart in front of them and were examining it closely, so they didn't notice the out of place ponies instantly. "Um, hey!" Shadow called out. The ponies looked up simultaneously with surprised expressions. "Do you happen to know where we are?" "How would you have gotten here without knowing where you were going?" The mare asked. "I... um, could you just tell us why we can't go down this hall?" Shadow asked, unable to answer the mare's inquiry. The business ponies looked at each other, then back at the trio. "If you can't move anywhere, you're unauthorized," The stallion said. "What?" "You're not permitted to be here," The mare clarified. Shadow laughed nervously. "Well, if you could just lead us to the-" He didn't finish his sentence before the mare raised her hoof and stomped it on the ground. A large blue light surrounded the ponies, accompanied by a loud ZZZZZZAP! Then they were sitting on a bench along the wall of a hotel lobby. Shadow looked around. The hotel was rather nice looking. It had patterned carpets and carpeted walls. It also had a very high ceiling that was embroidered with gold paneling. Bellhops and other assistants trotted here and there offering to help customers. It wasn't terribly busy, but busy enough for no pony to notice three ponies appearing out of thin air onto a bench. "I know this place," Raven said. "It's a hotel right next to my town." While it was good to again be on familiar ground, it was also a very bad thing. It meant that the Dark One would easily find them now. And there was nothing they could do about it.
Chapter Fourteen: KidnappedThey booked a night. Well, they didn't really book a night. More like Rainbow Dash picked a lock on a room and they stayed there overnight. Later, Shadow would regret the decision. But then, he would think, there really wasn't any other choice, was there? There were two beds in room 237, and it was decided very quickly by the mares that they would get both beds and he would sleep on the floor. "Oh, come on! Please? You two could sleep in the same bed!" Shadow begged. They said simultaneously: "What? No!" Shadow sighed in defeat and agreed to sleep on the floor. They were all terribly tired and passed out right as their heads hit their pillows. They slept silently for about three hours, then it happened. It started with a lamp in the corner of the room flickering for a moment, then turning on, even though the switch that controlled it stayed off. On the wall the lamp was next to, the foreboding shadow appeared out of the shadow of mist on the wall. Next to where is stood, the shadow of a doorway appeared, so dark that you couldn't see the wall anymore. The ponyless shadow approached the sleeping Rainbow Dash and hovered over her. Shadow Prophet mumbled in his sleep and turned over on the floor towards the active lamp. The sudden light woke him up and he was for a moment confused. He sat up and saw the Dark One's shadow on the wall next to Rainbow's bed. "Rainbow Dash!" He yelled. Raven Wing and Rainbow Dash both jerked awake. The moment Rainbow's eyes opened, the Dark One's shadow jumped out of the wall and into 3 dimensions, as it had done when they met for the first time. It grabbed Rainbow's hoof and before she knew what was going on, she was on the floor and being dragged by a demonic shadow creature. Not a great way to start your day. Shadow grabbed at Rainbow's hoof, but was dragged with her, not even slowing her down. Raven jumped at the shadow creature, but she went right through it, landing on her hooves and looking around, confused. The shadow headed towards the doorway shadow, and once it was in front of it, it stopped moving, calmly reaching out a transparent hoof towards the wall. Shadow tugged at Rainbow's hoof, but even though the creature wasn't paying any attention, he couldn't get her out of its grip. "Come on! Pull harder!" Rainbow begged. Shadow pulled as hard as he could, and Raven went up behind him, wrapped her hooves around is waist, and pulled him. All they managed, however, was to lift Rainbow into a plank position. Meanwhile, the beast put its hoof on the wall and turned it. There was a sound that was like an echo of a turning doorknob, and then the shadow pulled, opening a door that appeared as it opened. It wasn't made of shadow, but black wood. It pulled Rainbow Dash again as it went through into the darkness beyond, yanking her right out of Shadow's grasp, who tumbled and fell on his side next to Raven Wing. Rainbow screamed as she was pulled through the door, and it closed behind her, silencing her scream. The door vanished in the shadow of a mist-like effect, and the lamp turned off with a click sound. Raven, who was sitting on her flank, leaning backwards with her front hooves on the floor behind her, stared into the darkness. There was nothing there. There had been, but it was gone now, and it wasn't coming back. In about thirty seconds, the shadow had already taken one member of the group, it could easily get the rest of them. In the silence, Raven heard Shadow crying. It wasn't a loud sound, but a very soft and consolidated sob. "Shadow?" Raven asked, turning her head to where she thought Shadow would be. "It's hopeless," he said in a wobbly voice. Definitely crying. "I can't stop that thing, I can't get back home, and I can't stop the Universe from ending completely. It's all hopeless. I'm just an insignificant little speck who's trying to change the direction the river of consequence flows, but it's more of a Niagra Falls than a river." Raven didn't know how to respond. But then she did. "Yes, you can. You just have to believe in yourself." "Oh, don't give me that soppy, cliched bullcrap," He replied. "But it's true. There are hundreds of ponies who were as 'insignificant' as you think you are, but because they believed that they could do great things, they ended up becoming great. It's all a matter of will, and I was pretty sure you had a strong one for a while." Shadow didn't respond. "Either way, lying there and crying isn't going to help anything. You need to get up and think of what to do next. I haven't known you for long, but I do know that you can be good at getting out of a tight spot most of the time." There was a shuffling, sound, the sound of Shadow standing up. He trotted across the room and turned on the light. "Isn't that dangerous? It could come back," Raven said. "No. I don't think it even wants us. It was just that we were in it's way." "What do you mean?" Raven asked, standing up. Shadow had red, puffy eyes, but the tears were gone. "I think," Shadow started, moving over to Rainbow's bed and sitting down on it. Raven sat on her bed across from him, listening intently, though she was sure she probably wouldn't understand most of what he would say. "that that... thing isn't just some random monster. I think it's much more important than you think. I think it's the Angel of Death." Raven did understand this, but now she was wishing she didn't. She looked around the room in spite of herself. "You've probably already read about how I saved Rainbow Dash at my welcoming party." "Yeah," Raven replied. "I never liked how she was dancing with Doctor Whooves." "Who's that?" Shadow asked. Raven waved her hoof. "No pony. Never mind." "Well, I think I saved her from death. And I think I wasn't supposed to do that." "What's your point?" "Basically, Rainbow Dash cheated death, so death came around for a personal visit to take her with him. This whole time, it was Rainbow who was being chased by the monster. Not you or me." The epiphany momentarily sucked the breath out of Raven's lungs. She began to think back, and it did make sense. "So... what do we do?" "The Universe is still collapsing, and there are still lots of rips in space-time. We find one of those, and begin our search for Rainbow Dash."
Chapter Fifteen: An Elevating Elevator"Hey, Raven, wake up!" Shadow begged, shaking the sleeping mare in her bed. "Leemeelone..." she muttered, turning away from him. "No! We've gotta get outta here soon! The cleaning lady could come along and report us for not paying for the room!" Shadow retorted. "Ugh..." Raven moaned, knowing this was true and that she would have to get out of bed. Moving like an inchworm, she slithered to the edge of the bed, and promptly fell off the end of it. "AGH!" She yelped as she hit the floor, and Shadow couldn't contain his laugh. Now fully awake, Raven jumped up, and her face turned red as she yelled at Shadow to shut up. He did, but still a few giggles slipped through and he had a big smile on his face. Raven went over to the coffee machine, which was half-full; Shadow had made coffee an hour before (Raven knew this because the smell had brought her to a half-conscious state, but she had decided to go back to sleep). While she poured herself a cup of the caffeine-rich drink, Shadow went into the bathroom and grabbed the two towels hanging from a pole above the toilet and brought them out, slinging one over his shoulder and tossing the other over Raven's face. She pulled it off and asked Shadow, "What's this for?" He replied, "Hey, we're going on an inter-dimensional journey. If you're gonna be jumping around the multiverse, you gotta know where your towel is." Raven was surprised for a moment. "Where'd you hear that?" Shadow looked back her, also surprised. "What, you've never heard of The Ponyhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It's a good book, with some good advice." "You mean you've never seen the movie?" Raven asked. "What's a movie?" Shadow replied. "Never mind." She dismissed. She had almost forgotten that there was no electricity where Shadow came from. "Well, drink up, then we gotta get going. Oh, and considering the circumstances, I think it'd be best to drink it pure and black, for the full effect." Shadow said to her as he went around making the room look like they hadn't been there. "What?! No! Coffee's disgusting without creamer," Raven argued. "Alright, but don't fall asleep on the job." Shadow replied. "Yeah, because it'll be so boring jumping from world to world that I would fall asleep." Raven remarked sarcastically. She poured herself a cup of coffee and added creamer and sugar, then sipped it slowly. She took a deep breath as the coffee's warmth spread all over her. This was just what she needed right now. Shadow was much less relaxed. He started towards the door, stooped, started towards Raven, stopped, started towards, the door again,then stopped, and said to Raven, "I'm gonna go see if we can use the elevator." "Okay, just don't die of stress while you're out there," She replied. Shadow smiled for just a second, then went out the door, propping it open with a phone book. Outside the room, he felt exposed, like the police might jump out at any second from around the corner and tell him to freeze, which he would do regardless. He went down the carpeted hall and turned at the middle to what was more of an indentation than another hall. Along all three sides of this indentation were two elevators each. Shadow went to one at random and pushed the button that would call the elevator for a downward trip. Instead, the button above it, which pointed upward, lit up. Confused, Shadow looked up at the digital display, which read "1". As the number changed to "2", the elevator passed the closed doors, and from the edges and the middle came a bright white light, flooding through every crack, then it went up, and was gone with the elevator. "What the..." Shadow pushed the down button again, but the up button stayed lit up. The numbers on the display began to rise faster and faster. "3", "4", "5", "7", "9", "12", speeding up too fast for the counter to keep track. The elevator doors began to shake violently, and there was a noticeable whirring sound from within the shaft that rose and rose in pitch as the elevator went faster and faster. Shadow stepped back in awe as the counter passed the number 50, knowing that the hotel had only 20 floors. The counter stopped counting numbers after it reached 99, and began to read "∞". Suddenly, the whirring and the shaking stopped, and the display changed once again to, "GOD". It stayed there, saying only that, doing nothing else. Shadow was confused and scared. With a million thoughts running through his head, he galloped back to the hotel room, bursting inside and grabbing Raven Wing's hoof. In surprise, she dropped her coffee cup, and the drink spilled all over the tabletop. "Hey!" Raven yelled. "What do you think you're doing?!" Shadow frantically shushed her, and the serious look on his face made quieted her immediately. He let her go and waved for her to follow him. She did, following hm out of the room. There, he stopped and went to kick the phone book out of the door, locking it shut behind them. He led Raven down the hall to the elevators. As soon as they came into eye contact with the elevator Shadow had tried to access, the doors opened, revealing a steamy inside. "What the hell is this?" Raven asked. Shadow shrugged and pointed at the floor number display. Seeing that it read, "GOD", Raven's eyes widened. "This is like some weird creepypasta." "Yeah, whatever. We should go in." Shadow said. "What? No, we don't do that. We can do a lot of things here, but that isn't one of them." Raven replied. Shadow looked her in the eyes. "Do you trust me?" He asked. "W-what?" Raven replied. "What do you mean?" "I know I haven't shown it much, but I can be a leader. I can shine a flashlight through the immense darkness in those other worlds. I know things. But for this all to work, I need you to trust me." Raven looked at the elevator, then at Shadow's serious expression. Finally, she said, "Yeah. I mean, yes, I trust you." "Good. Then we're going in there." Shadow began towards the open elevator doors. Raven Wing, however, stayed put. Shadow turned around, went to her, and looked at her for a moment. Then he took her hoof into his, and led her to the elevator. She went next to him, and realizing what she was doing, the intimacy of it, her cheeks turned red. Once inside the elevator, though, Shadow slipped his hoof away from hers. The moment, they were both inside and standing still, the doors closed. The elevator didn't even move before the two were whisked away. The Universe flying past you like leaves in the wind, except you're the leaf. Then they weren't in the Universe anymore. Then they were nowhere. Then they were somewhere, but within nowhere, a place somewhere has no business being. Shadow Prophet and Raven Wing found themselves sitting in gray plastic chairs in the waiting room of an office building. In front of them was a boxed room with windows, in which sat a white mare with brunette hair wearing purple glasses and filing some paperwork. As they became aware of their surroundings, they both got out of their seats and trotted uneasily to the desk. The mare did not notice them. Shadow cleared his throat. The mare stopped writing, then looked at the two ponies. She squinted through the glasses at them, then looked back to her paperwork. Shadow was about to clear his throat again, when the mare said with a very high level of not-caring and boredom, "Please return to your seats, your Agent will be right with you, courtesy of the G.O.D." The last part made Shadow raise an eyebrow. "What? The G.O.D.?" The mare ignored him. Shadow sighed and returned to his seat. Raven was about to ask the mare another question, but decided against it. She didn't look like the type that had much patience. Raven also returned to her seat. They sat for a minute or two, not speaking, not moving. Then, from behind a door that had a paint job so similar to the wall that they had not previously notice it, there came the sound of running. The running's volume increased until out burst a tired-looking brown stallion in a business suit. He trotted up to the mare after catching his breath and said, "Maurice, what did I tell you about being rude to the clientele?" "Meta, go complain to Jehovah about it if it annoys you so much." She retorted in the same monotonous and boring voice. "What? No! Of course not! How could I approach... Him?" He panicked for a moment, but caught himself. Calmly, he trotted over to the two extremely confused ponies. "Hello, confused equines! My name is Meta Phoreal, I will your agent today. Please follow me," the stallion requested. They did, feeling completely numb.
Chapter One: Why Welcoming Parties Are Illogical(Intro Song) The multi-colored hot air balloon hovered over Equestria, passing over forests and small towns, the bird's eye view making them look like ant-hills. The warm breeze blowing through his hair made him feel clean and fresh, like all of his troubles were being blown away. He didn't ever look back to where he was leaving, not even when he was positive he wouldn't have seen it anyways. As he approached his destination, he truly felt as though that... thing had left him. Though, deep down he knew it was still there, and he knew it would probably be a great source of trouble. But none of that mattered as he landed on the cement square in the open field of Trans-Equestrian Airlines Landing Site #6. And when he opened the straw door on its side and all the ponies jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" he almost forgot to act surprised. "This is a great party, Pinkie! You sure do a great job at making ponies feel welcomed!" Twilight Sparkle said, having to talk loudly for Pinkie to hear her over the Vinyl Scratch music and laughing ponies. "Thanks! I think it's great too! Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie Pie ran off; well, not so much ran off as spun around in circles while heading in one general direction. She stumbled a couple of times, but made it into the dance floor without injuring herself. Twilight couldn't look over to the dance floor that long without her eyes tearing up; the floor was made up of super-bright flashy color-changing tiles that could easily give one a migraine. Seeing as how she was having a good time, and everypony else seemed to share the feeling, Twilight wanted to see how the new stallion the party was being thrown for liked it. She wandered through the crowds of laughing ponies, most laughing only because they drank too much apple cider and not because anything particularly humorous was happening. She squeezed herself through tight groups of ponies that just stood around, getting in other ponies' ways. Twilight looked around for a while until she noticed a lone blue pony, sitting far away from the party in a dark bench, facing away form it as well. Twilight thought, This can't be him, can it? The one pony the whole party is for is the only one who doesn't like it? Ironic. She found that the crowd of partying ponies ended rather abruptly as it looked like she was leaving through a living wall. The lavender alicorn trotted over to the old wooden bench where the pony sat and asked him, "Why don't you come join the party? It's pretty fun, I'm sure you'd like it." For a moment the blue stallion didn't move, like he didn't want to, but then he turned and looked at Twilight. He was a frail-looking and smaller than average stallion, and his horn almost looked worn. His mane was attempting to grow forwards while he brushed backwards,making it stick out all over the place, and it was a much darker blue than the rest of him. His eyes, on the other hoof, stood out. His eyes were very gray, and anypony could easily get lost in them. "No. The party... I wouldn't like the party." He started his sentence strong, but ended weakly, and turned back around and slumped his head on the table. "Come on! What's not to like about it?" Twilight asked. The stallion looked back at Twi, annoyed. "The whole thing. I just don't like these kind of parties." "What kind?" He waved his hoof over at the party, "That kind. Welcoming parties. There's no point to them." "What are you talking about?" Twilight trotted up to the stallion and closely observed him. He returned her studying gaze with a look that clearly said he didn't want to talk. The mare's head retracted slightly. "Well, somepony comes along and moves into town, and that doesn't happen often, right? So, naturally, whoopee!" The stallion was almost glaring at Twilight and waving his hooves in the air like he was partying. "But all this party is is celebrating something that nopony really cares about, just so that the next morning everypony can wake up with hangovers and a big mess to clean up. All that nonsense for nothing." Once he was done, the stallion let his hooves fall back on the wood and laid his head in them, closing his eyes. There was another silence, Twilight wondering what to ask this pessimistic pony, and she eventually came down to one question. "What's your name?" The stallion opened one eye and looked at Twilight, apparently shocked she was still there. "What, you threw a party for somepony, and you don't even know their name?" "I didn't throw it, and nopony's told me yet." He closed his eye and said, "Shadow Prophet." He didn't say anything else, and Twilight looked back to the party, over to Shadow, then left for the core of the celebration. "Whoo! Come on Rainbow! Dance with the Doctor!" Somepony in the mass cried out. It was replied to with lots of screamed cheers. Rainbow Dash was then pushed onto the dance floor, as was Doctor Whooves, who had come for muffins with Derpy, but had decided to stay for the party once he had heard about it. Both of them smiling, they began to quickly move about the dance floor together withe the beat of the music. A couple of yards away from the edge of the party, Shadow Prophet stared at the mass of excitement with dull, almost nonexistent interest. Suddenly, his face was washed over with absolute terror, and he immediately shot off toward the crowd. Once he reached the clearly defined outer wall of the party, he was terribly cramped, having to push ponies aside and squeeze himself together as much as he could. "Ow! Sorry! Excuse me," he kept on saying, as he inched ever closer to the dance floor, where Rainbow Dash and the Doctor were. On the other side of the dance floor, Twilight was trotting around the edge of the thick mass of ponies around the ones dancing. She heard an, "Oof!" and looked over to see the tip of a blue horn poking out of the crowd, moving towards the dance floor. Twilight thought, what in the hay is he so worried about? She started towards him, meaning to ask what he was running in for. But she was distracted by a loud, "Watch out!" She looked to the dance floor but could see nothing, so she flew up in the air, knocking some ponies below her back and a couple of drinks over. What happened next happened in only about five seconds, but for Twi, it felt like an eternity. Some drunk pony had tossed a half-eaten piece of cake out onto the dance floor. The Doctor happened to be heading in the direction of that cake. When he stepped on it, he slipped, spinning around before falling over. He grabbed for Rainbow Dash's hoof, and she was dragged forward a little before pulling her hoof from his grip. He crashed right into the table with the cakes and snacks on it, knocking the whole thing over, spilling cake all over him almost to the point where you couldn't see him. Then, one of the knives on the table, covered in frosting, flew in the air. This moment seemed slower than all the others, and Twilight could remember it vividly to this day. The knife flew at a horizontal angle directly at Rainbow Dash's surprised face. In slow motion, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash unfurl her wings, but she knew that Rainbow wouldn't make it away in time. Then the most improbable thing happened, something she could never have anticipated. Shadow Prophet, the pessimistic anti-social stallion, slid out from under the crowd and into the scene, putting his back hoof down and stopping in front of Rainbow Dash. He then reached his hooves up in the air and grabbed the knife, centimeters away from the blue mare's eye. Down on the ground, something Twilight couldn't have seen or heard, Rainbow stared at the knife for a long while. Shadow had caught it by clamping it with both of his front legs, just below his hooves, so the knife had finely sliced into his skin. A single drop of blood fell from his reddening leg, and Rainbow's eyes followed it all the way to the ground. Then, everypony lost it. Ponies ran around, some helping push the table up, others starting to clean up the spilled goods (Pinkie running around lapping up the splattered cakes). Twilight flew down and grabbed Rainbow's shoulder, who jumped a little, looked at her friend, then curled her wings back up. She looked back at Shadow, who was being asked by Nurse Redheart to come with her. He returned her gaze when she looked at him, and Rainbow turned to trot away with Twilight. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight sounded frantic, and she was looking hard at Rainbow's face. There wasn't as much as a scratch, but Twilight did notice her friend's eyes seemed distant, and she wasn't talking at all. She wasn't even moving that fast, which she always did, trotting or flying, she was moving at a slow, rhythmic pace. She's in shock, Twilight thought. "Rainbow, why don't you sleep at the castle tonight? Come on," Twilight tugged lightly at Rainbow's shoulder in the direction of her palace, and the blue pegasus turned without hesitation. "Ye-ow!" Shadow yelped as Nurse Redheart splashed some alcohol on his front leg. "Sorry! Not much else I can do," She said the last part absentmindedly as she dabbed some soothing cream on a long strip of bandaging. "Hold it out!" She was mildly surprised to see he had lifted his hoof up to her before she started her sentence, but payed it little mind. As she wrapped Shadow's leg up, she asked, "So how did you come in in time to stop that knife hitting Rainbow Dash?" She looked up at his face, still wrapping. "I guess I was just lucky," He replied the moment she made eye contact with him. Redheart could tell he was holding something back, but it wasn't her job to start arguments with her patients, so she replied with a doubtful "Hm". She took her bottle of alcohol and splashed on his other leg. This time instead of a yell, he clenched his eyes shut for a moment. They grow up so fast, the Nurse thought jokingly. She applied the cream to another strip of bandage and wrapped it around his other leg. There was already a thin line of red on the first bandage showing. Seeing this, she just handed Shadow her roll of bandage, she had plenty more at the hospital. "Put a new one on every two or three days, okay? And don't put too much pressure on your hooves. Think you can get home?" Nurse Redheart asked. "Yes," Shadow replied, jumping off the examination table, flinching for a moment, then trotting out. Not so much as a thank you. Nurse Redheart forced a smile and said, "Get well!" as he left. Finally reaching his vacant house he had made his first monthly payment on before he flew over, he opened the door with his hoof and limped inside, kicking it shut behind him. There was no furniture yet, but he had a mattress in his room, with a bedsheet and blanket, and once he got under the covers, he looked at his wounded legs and sobbed, not out of any physical pain, but from memories still fresh in his mind.
