Shadows

Tying the bridge across the chasm, Dash didn't look back before she rejoined the others.

"Let's get this over with." Behind her, blue mist winked out of existence.

The last willing action that Dash took before her nerve endings were burnt out was to knock Twilight out of the way of Nightmare's first magical volley. The last thing she heard was the sick sizzle of burning. The last thing she saw was the face of Twilight Sparkle, her face torn between a mixture of shock and regret. The last thing Dash knew was the cold hard bolt of magic that shot through her, assaulting her sanity and scrambling her senses.

Saying that the attempt on Nightmare Moon had gone wrong was an understatement. It was as big an understatement as saying that Celestia is sort of important, or that Rainbow Dash was sort of fast, or that Pinkie Pie is just a little bit crazy. The elements weren't summoned as a whole. Only four were summoned from the tiny fragments of the crystal shards, leaving Twilight floundering for the fifth.

"And Rainbow Dash who..." Dash waited for her to get a compliment from Twilight like the other ponies got before they got their magic necklace thing. "Who..." She couldn't come up with anything? "Who..." Nightmare Moon locked eyes with Dash meaningfully. "Look, it doesn't matter! All I know is that she represents loyalty!"

"Really Sparkle? You couldn't come up with anything for me?" Dash snarked out. The crystals came up from the circle of shards, though they were grey and looked cracked beyond repair. It circled Dash like a miniature tornado, albeit a slow one.

"All you did was fly a bridge over! Fluttershy did more than you!"

"Well excuse me for not havnig anything threaten me! All that was over there was some blue mist!"

"You are not being very harmonious. Can we get back to the issue at hand?"

"But you don't have the sixth element!" The crystals that were orbiting the ponies converged upon their respective ponies necks. Well, all except for Dash's the shard's simply refused to get any closer to her than they already were.

"She's right girls! I'm sorry, but without all six elements I can't do anything to her..." Dash tried to convince the shards to converge around here. She was completely unsuccessful, succeeding only in getting a long cut across hey right fore leg for trying to stop the fragments slow spin. Everypony in the room was looking at Dash, who could only sit there and look vaguely sheepish as she was orbited.

"HAHAH! And now to make you pay for your foalishness TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!" The air was filled with a charged current and the off putting smell of death and burning. While Twilight cowered in fear, a single point in space began to burn, sending off a cascade of sickly greens and browns across the wall. The point grew steadily bigger, the light trading brightness for surface area. Nightmare Moon cackled and that was all the warning she got before Dash found herself thrown across Twilight taking the entire spell into her. The satellites swarming Dash shot out in every direction, a few catching Nightmare Moon's face and drawing a single drop of blood. The drop fell and hit the ground. In a massive flash of light, Nightmare Moon was gone with Celestia in her place.

"I'm alive?" Dash asked out loud as Celestia explained her prison tied to her blood. Dash looked behind her, the color in the room leaving as she did so. "I'm dead aren't I..." She stated sadly. The color left her friends and Celestia, and they froze mid speech. The color was eaten out of the nights sky, and soon the moon was dead to the world. A single door lay open in the middle of the room. Death was there. Death had take the form of a grey alicorn with pupils that stretched over his entire eye, each leading into a pit of eternal darkness this time. Death had a soul in his mouth, a dark twisted soul that called out to her from across the room. Death caught her eye.

"Why hello Dash! Why can you see me on this fine day? Is there something wrong?" Death's new melodious baritone sang out through the crumbling courtyard, reverberating off the still forms of the 6 living ponies. Dash supposed her face said it all. "Don't tell me you died! You aren't on my list!"

"What? Can you return me to the world of the living?" Dash was incredibly hopeful.

"Yes..." Death looked away and ate the dark warped soul he was carrying. He just lifted up his mouth and swallowed it whole without chewing. "Sorry about the snack. I could return you to your body... But... How do I know you won't just take it for granted and die off the list." Death must've been surprised by anything not on the list she surmised.

"I promise I won't?" That probably wasn't going to cut it. Dash felt her hopes plummet.

"All you have to do is do well enough in a race. If you win, you can go free without me for the rest of your life. If I win, you owe me a few favors and you get to be brought back to life. It's win/win for you my dear." Death thought he was being remarkably charitable today. After all, it wasn't like he offered to bring things back to life on a daily basis.

"What's the catch?" Asked Dash, naturally suspicious of the physical manifestation of the very concept of Death.

"It won't be a physical race. I would win one of those instantly you see. Instead my dear, we will race with our very spirits! Our wills will participate in a race to the finish, sped on by our emotions and true feelings. It is not a matter of who is faster, it is a matter on who wants to win more. All you have to do is keep up with me Dash and I will bring you back to your body safe and sound. You have my word that I will hold my word." Death definitely desired to dare Dash, to convince her to race him.

"I accept, duh."

"Come closer Dash so I can tell you the race path." Dash hesitated for only a brief moment, deciding to try her best in this race. She stepped the few steps that separated her from Death, and stopped directly in front of her.

"This won't hurt."

"What?" Death's front hoof smashed down on Dash.

"Hey what was that for!?" Dash yelled, but the world around her had changed. Instead of the crumbling ruins of the old castle crisp blue sky surrounded her. Hey cyan wings were already out and flying, though she couldn't feel them.

"All you have to do Dash is want it." Death reminded her. Dash wanted to move up. She thought that she moved up, but there was no other objects around her besides Death who could have easily just moved down from her.

"Do you see that flag over there dear?" Death pointed towards a distant pinprick far off in the sky. Dash willed herself forward towards Death. Her wings were moving through the air without a sound, the air seeming to pass through them.

"First one there wins." And just like that Death was off.

Death slowly floated towards the flag. Dash willed herself to go faster than Death. The endless blue sky whizzed by her, the lack of reference points throwing her off. There was no feedback to the movement and Dash found herself stopping while she contemplated how to comprehend her own movement. Death continued floating slowly ahead. Dash decided to use the flag as a reference point. With what would have left a low whistle if she had been in the air, Dash instantly was ahead of Death, his slow smug smirk telling her that it wasn't going to be quite as easy as she thought.

"Why do you want to win?" It was a slow easy statement, but the deeper meaning struck her. Why did she want to live? She was a lonely pegasus, her fear of trying to make another friend after Fluttershy stopping her from having contact with others beyond what she had to. Would anypony miss her if she left? Would the one non pony she knew miss her? Probably not, and hadn't Dash been planning on moving away from Ponyville after this celebration? Dying would certainly be a way of getting away from it all. Certainly, dying would be best.

Dash fell farther and farther behind Death, his statement stopping her will from guiding her ahead. He looked back.

"Are you done already? What drives you? Why has it left?" His questions ignited something within Dash, a horrible infernal fervor to stop. Why was Dash so pathetic? Wasting her life away, ignoring everypony around her. Why was she born? What was her purpose in life? Why was she here?

"Pathetic. And here I thought I would get a challenge." She was pathetic, not even trying to salvage her life. Why was she already dead? She should've lived out the rest of her life as a leech on those that actually cared about life. Why did she die? She could've changed, could've maybe made a difference. She could've definitely beat Death at this race.

"Are you Rainbow Dash? The only mortal to ever step in the halls of death and live? The first mortal to lays eyes on me and leave? The one who makes the impossible possible and makes ponies true purpose clear? All I see is a pathetic pony who can't even get to the finish line." Death mocked Dash, quenching her restraint.

"Is that what you really think of me? You think I'd give up? I can change! This isn't over!" A sudden burning rage overcame Dash's depression, leaving only an unsettled blue sky where she had been. A single wave of pure distortion spread from the epicenter of where Dash had been. A single line rested between where Dash had been and where Dash was now, illuminating the path that Dash had traversed in her mental anguish. Death floated at the flag waiting.

"You took your time... was it something I said?" Death queried with a massive smirk on his face.

"You knew that was going to happen! You knew I wasn't living my life!" Dash accused. Death's smirk grew wider. "And now I owe you a few favors..." Death's smirk stretched until he literally had one from ear to ear, exposing a bit of Death's skull when he smiled. "Thanks..." Why was Dash thanking him? Death's smile shrunk until it looked quite a bit more natural.

"For what?" It was an honest enough question.

"For fixing me." It was an honest enough answer.

Dash's body lay on the ground, untouched by the events around it. Dead, it was clear that the large burnt patch was the entry point for the spell, the patch taking up all of her cutie mark and most of the surrounding area. The bright magenta eyes that were normally so bright and lively seemed dull and grey, like a frosted window. The body was broken and dead.

That wouldn't stop Dash. Death had led her back from the realm of the Sky and was upholding his word. Dash stared down at her own broken corpse and wondered if she would change, if she could change from her old ways. The flesh on the side of her empty receptacle of living slowly knit back together, the cutie mark reforming an the flesh unburning. The skin uncurled and was unrended, while healthy muscle overtook the old burnt out muscle. Dash felt herself settle back into her body. The color slowly returned into the world and with it came the pain. A horrible agonizing pain.

"She's ALIVE? Princess Celestia! She's alive!" Who was yelling so loud? It hurt. A purple blur stared at Dash.

"Twilight?" She moaned out. "Too...loud..."

"SHUT UP!!" Instantly the slight din from the other ponies celebrated stopped.

"How is it that you are alive? Twilight claims that Nightmare Moons' spell obliterated you." A necklace was materializing on Dash's neck. The process left a weird sensation, like a bug was crawling on her.

"Death says hi." Dash simply said. Luna whimpered faintly in the corner.

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