When you look into the abyss of night, sometimes you might ask yourself, “What’s out there.” In truth, is that a question you want to ask? Maybe it was just the nature of ponykind, or an inherent trait that has been with us for all of our existence. Either way, I found myself starring - starring with all the carnal desire for sustenance that affects the deepest part of our psyche. Never blinking, eyes always open; expecting. I was expectant of what I knew was true, what I hoped wasn't, but never-the-less there. The blackness that hides in the shadows; it was what makes your hair stand on the back of your neck, yet was never there when you turn around. That uneasy feeling you get while you’re alone by yourself, but somehow you know that isn’t the truth.
Paranoid, they called me. A sick, terrified pony who was scared of their own tail. In truth, they are the truly crazy ones, for they didn’t know the truth; I envied them. If they knew what I knew, they would never leave their homes. You would see all shops closed, all houses boarded up, and all fillies looking towards their parents for a fleeting light in the darkness. Yet they played outside where the blackness of the world was lurking, always watching - searching for whatever it craves. Even though I knew of its existence, it was still as much a mystery to me as it was to those who lived their lives blindly while it continued to exist in our backyards. If I knew what It wanted, maybe then I could have reasoned with it.
No, it can’t be reasoned with, it doesn’t care for us. In turn, I didn't care for it, and I wished for it to disappear - vanish from the face of Equestria. Somehow I knew it known that that is what I hope for; it took special interest in me after all. It stared at me, and I back at it. It stayed there, knowing - knowing the fate in which that confrontation was leading. I was okay with that, after all, I wouldn't have to worry about the blackness after that was over. I found comfort in that strangely; was I weird? Oh, of course I was, being a element bearer does make you an exception among other ponies. Though, I didn't find myself all too special, it wasn't like I contributed much to my group of friends. They were the ones who did most the work, and carried the weight of the world on their backs. I prayed to Celestia that they didn't befall to the fate that which this empty, darkness brought upon us. I cared for them too much for them to be enshrouded by that void, it wouldn’t have been kind of me to wish it upon another instead of taking it for myself.
The nebulous, blackness of its being shook me to my core. I may seem like I speak of this in a light that makes me convey a feeling of acceptance towards that situation, but in truth, I was as terrified as a elephant was to a mouse. I wish I was an elephant at that moment, at least they were absent minded of that truth, and large enough to have guts to face it if they ever found out. I got strength where it counts, though. My friends seemed to tell me that all the time, the time that we'd soon lose to that dim, murkiness. It was like my world was underwater, and I was an eyeless fish with no sense of direction. The only thing keeping me together was my passion to be there for the ones I love, for I would never live with myself if they were in my position. I’d sooner face down a dragon the size of Canterlot mountain, then let that misfortune grasp my friends with its icy claws of cessation.
I could hear a cacophony of bitterness surrounding me; had it begun already? I asked myself. It was bound to happen eventually, we could have only stared at each other for so long before one us took the incentive. Good thing it made the move, though, I would only make that situation more dire if I decided to act in any way. It drew near, yet never left a trail. It basked me in its shadow, yet there was no light. It hungered for a meaning, yet it had no consciousness. It brought me to its realm, yet I felt nothing. was that it, was that the end of me. Lost to what was inevitable, losing all that I had lived for?
I was somehow floating in that blackness, somehow still alive even after it had already consumed me. I tried to breath, yet no air was taken. I tried to move, yet no motion was in action. All I could do was just stare at the new state of existence that I found myself in. Alone and with nothing to make heads or tails of, stuck in an everlasting state of perpetual forgetfulness. Always having the sense of fading, yet still keeping my consciousness. It was like I was being drained - drained of all that made me, myself. I didn't want to leave, but I knew that I could do nothing to prevent it. All I could do was wait for that bleakness to carry on with its course
For some reason that bitterness and emptiness got worse, leaving me to lose track of how long I've been there. Its lack of anything that took up space messed with my mind. I felt sick, yet my stomach made no move. Blinding - blinding from the lack of light, no solitary flame or beams to carry me to another plane, anything but that would have brought me to a sudden state of euphoric exasperation. Too bad I knew that simply wouldn't be so, the hold it had on me was absolute, and without restraint. Suffocating me from how close it felt - it felt like it was inside me, molding me into something I was not. Not a pony, not anything that could be considered sane by the standards of nature. I would have complained if I had a voice to speak my mind; a shame that it wrapped my tongue tightly in a knot.
It felt like decades passed, centuries, however long I was there waiting for a single clue of what to come next, I knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant. I knew that I was going to become a thrall to that foggy existence that I found myself engulfed by, stuck forever in a constant war that had no battles. My soul boiled, yet there was no source of heat. I was tired, yet my eyes wouldn’t move. I felt heavy, yet the solitude of that world made sure I wouldn’t fall. Dying - dying to grasp a figment of an idea of what was to befall me, to somehow find a reason behind that thing's intent. Even if the chances of it having a goal were as slim as a anorexic pony, I needed to know for the sake of my being, and so I could remind myself that I was real. Not some pitiful, quaint, and meek pony who could only be more of a liability than an asset. I would instead be brave for helping all those I loved from that existence, I would not be meek if I stood in the face of that atrocious mist, and I would be the pony I always wanted to be. One who could prove her worth to the world, prove that she could help out too, for that was the most I could do to repay for all the times my friends and loved ones have helped me.
A eerie, shrill noise that had a staticy aftereffect surrounded my head, pushing deeper, and deeper into my fragile skull. I tried to let out a scream of pain, yet my voice never left me. I Tried to reason that would be over soon, yet it felt like weeks passed. It was like a knife was going through butter - the butter being my thoughts, dreams, and aspirations. It saw through me, it saw what I was, what I was going to be, and what would be the end of me. It took my shape, it took my form, it took everything that made me unique, and clouded it with the tar-like tendrils of its being. I stared into its eyes, It stared into mine. I stared with all the ferocity one would in front of a mirror, except that mirror was no reflection, no mirage, or trick of the mind. In front of me was the same blackness that engulfed me with a body of its own; my body.
It looked right through me, head tilted, and skin flaky. Its form seemed to twitch, yet it made no incentive to approach me. My mouth would have been open if I had control of it, instead, it just watched me with hungry eyes. Not the eyes of hunger for sustenance, hunger for something only I could provide.
“Greetings…” Its voice seemed to vibrate through the fabric of reality. “Don’t give us that look, we only wish to give you a bit of aforementioned look into what is to become of your future. You should consider yourself special, you’re the only one to have known of our existence the whole time we’ve been here.”
My throat seemed to flare with the sensation of heat, my vocal chords became alive once again. “W-what do… you mean?” I asked with all the dread that a plague would give a civilization. “Who... what are you?”
“You already know that answer.” It said to me simply, its voice flat, yet still keeping its power. “You know what we are, for we’re closer to you than you might think.” It looked upon me with empty eyes - eyes so cold it would have gave an inferno a sense of wintry.
“N-no, I don’t understand. Why are you here, why are you doing this, what is it that you want?” I cried out in desperation for a meaning for all of that frightfulness. “I’m s-sorry if I have offended you in anyway, just please let me know.”
“We are not offended, for that would be just as much a offense to us as it is to you.” It moved around the questions I asked like a slithering snake in a chamber full of crevices. “Ask yourself this, what is it that you ponies are starting to lack, what is it that you ponies are craving? There has to be one detail about your kingdom that isn’t so pristine.”
I thought - thought with the intensity of an erupting volcano, yet my thoughts would not spew out of my brain. “I don’t know, I don’t know anything that is wrong with my home. Everything, and everypony seems to be alright. Why do you ask me this?”
“Hmm…” It thought to itself, leaving me to bask in the oblivious fog that lapped at my sides, filling me with a sense of ennui. “Perhaps we’ve come to you too soon, your energy supplies seem to be just fine.”
That puzzled me like an everlasting labyrinth, “W-what do you mean, energy?” If I were able to tilt my head in question, I would have, Instead I continued to stare into its eyes - eyes that spoke volumes, yet held no answers.
“Lets just say… it’ll be a mutual problem of ours. We are, as said, more like you than you think.” It gave me a grin, a grin that held unfathomable levels of knowledge; lost souls looking for a divine answer, and a irrefutable sense of maliciousness.
“I’m s-sorry… I don’t understand.” I wish I could have wept then, it felt like a river laid behind the dams of my eyes. Like a passage to a land that held comfort, yet was guarded by a blood hungry dragon. What few tears came, were the remnants of an entire people, lost forever between the struggle of life and death.
“You will soon…” It said to me simply, the ensnaring blackness that held me in its cesspool like confines slowly begun to release me from that bleak, horror that was my life. It felt like I was opening my eyes for the very first time, the beams of the sun's heavenly delight basking my being as a laid there in the center of town - my town. All the towns ponies were gazing upon me, a mix of confusion and curiosity crossing their expressions.
I then looked around, seeing no more darkness. Was it gone, have I been crazy all along? I asked myself internally, looking upon the ones I call my brethren, my fellow inhabitants of Ponyville. As I stood, a filly came up to me, a familiar one. She looked upon me as if I had the answers to life itself, the reason we were here, and the meaning of the universe.
I felt comfort in that, I felt that the world was finally making sense. My anxiety started to wilt, my fears begun to drift away in the breeze. I was finally able to calm myself into a sense of satisfaction in life. If only that were to stay the same for the next coming moments. I then looked to the sky to see the blackness again, the same dread that filled my soul returning to me with all the force of a raging typhoon. Except this time everypony else was able to see what I was able to, covering their mouths in fear, and running in panic knowing all too well what was to come when trouble was brewing.
“Fluttershy?” Asked the filly beside me, “What is that?”
From the darkness came the first of us, the last of us, and the end of us. From the fog came the first light, the last dark, and the internal struggle. From the murky sea of despair came the first joy, the last sorrow, and the moral compass that guided us. From the mist came the first hope, the last loss, and the answer I was seeking all that time. “It’s us…”
