Shadow Prophet

"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.