Shadow Prophet

Shadow 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.