Tales of Past Times: The Scourge

In the quiet evening of the great nation of Equestria, a young colt begs his father to tell him one last story before bed time. His father sighs, agreeing to it. Tucking his son in, he opens an old book. Starting from page one, he looks up to his eager son, seeing the beaming interest on his face. He quietly chuckles to himself before starting with the first words.

It has been many years since he read this story, and still believes it to be rubbish, but his son would find no difference in his own beliefs. He remembers his father reading this to him when he was young, as if it was a family tradition. He wonders where this story can from, who wrote it? He one day asked his father that question, many times in fact. Yet, he would only recieve the same response, "Time was weaved into this book, my son. Time wrote it."

The stallion shook his head, shaking the thought off. The young colt laying in his bed didn't seem to care either way, he just wanted the story to be told. The stallion coughed, clearing his throat. "Once upon a certain time, a old evil was released unto the land of Equestria and beyond." The young colt shifted with excitement, which got small chuckles from his father.

"It was said that a creature from another world entered our own. First thought to be a monster, later became a hero amongst our ponies. Yet, what we thought was soon rewritten as he fell into corruption, eventually leading the entire country into a dark era. We trusted the creature, and we payed the price with our lives. Yet, it didn't end there. Using a magic so dark that nopony could even conceive, he forced their soul back into the body, forcing them to his will. We were caught off guard, nopony expected this from the hero we once praised." The stallion flipped the page.

"Our leaders, the princesses left us to die. It was too sudden, unexpected of them. They swore to protect us with their lives, yet they left us with no leadership, no belief of winning. However, from their loss, the six rose to the throne, swearing to lead our ponies through this dark era, and to defeat the dark evil threatening to destroy our land. For once, we actually believed we could win this war, so we fought with all our might, until the end. Yet, the end wasn't what we thought. Wasn't what we wanted. What happened in the end was something we thought we could never forget, yet somehow we-

"Left side! Watch your backs, they're coming on to us!" Cyan said firing various spells from his horn, many which blinded his vision, obviously too powerful to look at. "Damnit! I'm out!" He said, looking to his friend, the squad medic.

"Cyan! Last pot, make it count!" The medic screamed, tossing him a vial of blue liquid, which Cyan caught with his magic.

Flying projectiles flew over their heads in every direction, the sound of cannons, and artillery filling the cold winter air. Cyan sprinted a few feet ahead tossing himself down into a foxhole he made earlier that day. He forced himself against the dirt, cracking open the vial. He immediatly drank it's contents, feeling a new rush of energy pulse through his body.

He grinned, laughing even among the thousands being slaughtered beside him. With a burst of energy he shot out of the hole, forming a force field around him. "Here comes the pain train, you undead meatbags!" He screamed, focusing all his energy into a single shot. His horn starting to glow, and the aura around him grew brighter then ever before. In between his charging he glanced over at his team, giving the signal.

"That's the signal, let's move! Arc, Get us out of here!" Riptide said, charging her horn to throw various shots of blue energy outward to the enemy.

The squad tactician slid behind a piece of metal, trying to find some cover, "Wait for Cyan to release the bomb! That's when we'll move!"

"Too much power! I can't..." Cyan writhed with agony as his horn exploded, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The magic released into the air, exploding on Cyan's body.

"Cyan! No!" Riptide screamed, rushing towards Cyan's body, visible from the plumes of arcane smoke around him. Tears starting forming in her eyes as she thought of the possible outcomes of the situation of this event. She thought she would have lost him, the only pony she ever loved. The future they could have had together, the times they could have spent together, forever lost. She ran harder, ignoring the sounds of her brother telling her not to. She ignored everything around her, even the dead charging at her from afar.

She approached his body, stopping to see the results of the explosion. His horn was gone, just a stalk of it left sticking from his head. Several of the shards were impeded in his body, and he was losing a lot of blood. "No, no no no! I can't lose you now, not now!" She writhed in pain, her heart being crushed by the display before her. She forced her head into his chest, crying hard into him now. "Please! Just please, Light, for this once, don't let him die." She prayed, focusing magic into her horn.

She charged all she had into a single spell, one that she developed in her own training of the magic arts. She closed her eyes, the stinging of her own tears pushed her beyond the limits she previously known as her own. With a shock, she shot the light into his chest. She waited, hoping for the best. She for once glanced around her, finally taking notice of the dead running straight to her. She closed her eyes, holding her love in her hooves.

The world seemed to stop, as she opened her eyes once more. She immediatly held her head against his chest, listening for any signs of a spark of life within him. For an eternity she waited, even for the smallest sound of a heartbeat. Yet, it never came. She realized that he was lost, and there was nothing left she could do. This realization made her snap, letting her emotions free from the prison it was kept inside.

The sounds of battle stopped, the screams, and the cries of the fallen stopped. The only thing audible was the cries of a desperate mare, sending several shots of light into her lovers chest. Cyan's team approached, Riptides brother forcing her off his former leaders body. "Enough, he's gone. There's nothing we can do, Riptide."

She sniffed, "He can't be. He never dies, he just can't be gone." She whimpered, trying to force her tears back inside it's prison. The mass of dead retreated by an unknown force, for no apparent reason. But that didn't matter to the team, what mattered was that they were alive, at least some of them, for others were not so lucky. The emotional scene was interrupted by a foul wind sweeping through the air. Everyone opened their eyes, expect Riptide, who was busy crying her eyes out in her lovers corpse.

"A touching love story isn't it?" A voice said from within the mist.

Snaps' eyes widened, "Is that..?"

A mad evil laugh filled the cold air, getting louder. From within the mist a figure, on two legs walked into view. With it, a sword glowed, its mere presence disgusting to the everypony around it.

"Yet, all stories come to an end, don't they?" He asked, chuckling to himself.

Riptide completely ignored his presence, lifting her head from her lovers body, "He's dead. He's actually dead."

The dark figure laughed, "maybe I can fix that for you?"

"It's him, it's actually him." Snap said, cowering in fear.

"The Dark One."