Time: Unknown. Place: Unknown

I wait.

I have never been patient, but regardless, I wait.
Because waiting is all I can do. That much has become clear over the years.
Has it been years? Perhaps it has been decades, even centuries. I would have counted the days, but the day never ends. The sun merely stays frozen in place in the sky, glaring down at the barren ground. There are no plants, no moisture, no life. However long the sun has refused to move seems to have left virtually nothing alive. Nothing except me.

I searched far and wide across this land, but found nothing but devastation. Where there were rivers, there are now cracked grooves in the ground. Where there were lakes, there are desolate pits. Where there were oceans... You get the idea.

It was during one of my early aimless wanderings that I actually came across something. As I flew through the dust-riddled air I managed to spot a light in the distance. A strange, purple-blue light. I was ecstatic. It was the first thing I had seen in this wasteland that wasn't just more dirt, dust, or rock! I beat my wings faster than they had ever gone before. I buzzed through the air like a hornet from hell. As I came closer I could spy movement. Whirling forms dancing through the air around the light. I kept flying, ignoring the strain of my wings that begged me to stop. Then I finally saw it.

It was the Rift Gate.

Two enormous circles made of dingy, copper-like metal spinning in circles. One circle within the other as small spheres and arches of the same metal orbited around it.

It was the Rift Gate. The same Rift Gate that had brought me to this place.

Except now it was open.

I didn't care that I had somehow circled back to the same gate I had come from, all that mattered was that the gate was now open!
The light whirling within the gate called to me like a flame to a moth. I could escape! I could be free! I could have my revenge!
I dive-bombed for the gate, refusing to miss this chance. If I had gone any faster I would probably have broken the sound barrier, but each second of travel seemed like an hour at that point.

Equestria - Minutes before the Rift Gate activated

Princess Luna was lost. Lost to dark powers beyond her understanding. The benevolent Princess of the Night had become the monstrous Nightmare Moon, and sought to overthrow her sister, Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Sun.

Celestia had no desire to fight her own sister, but Nightmare Moon had no such qualms, and struck her sister down with a powerful blast of purple-tinted magic. As Celestia fell from the sky, Nightmare Moon cackled in victory.

But Celestia wasn't finished. She returned to face her sister, now bathed in the rainbow glow of the Elements of Harmony. As the magical gemstones whirled around Celestia, they gave off trace amounts of harmonic energy. When Celestia and Nightmare Moon opened fire upon each other, their magics clashed and radiated magical energy throughout the area. Energy that was familiar to an ancient artifact that had been locked away within an underground chamber of the Castle of the Two Sisters. An artifact that nearly a thousand years ago had been fueled by the Elements of Harmony to banish a terrible enemy away from Equestria. This enemy had been shown to be able to feed off magic, and so using the Elements directly on him had been deemed too risky. Neither Celestia or Luna knew where the artifact had come from, but their court wizards and archeologists had believed it to be a gateway to another realm far from Equestria. And now, with the Elements active once more, the gateway followed suit.

The gateway began to float off the ground, its pieces swirled around it, and its magic ignited, opening the portal.
While the sibling squabble of the century raged in the sky, this gateway floated serenely in the air in its underground chamber.

Then Celestia triumphed over her Nightmare Moon, using the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister to the moon, where she would be forced to remain until Celestia could find a way to save her from the dark forces that had taken hold of her mind.

With that, the Elements' power faded, and slowly but surely the gateway began to lose power as well...

I reached out for the gate as I dove. I was about to touch it. I could practically taste the Eco in the air.

And then it fizzled.

The light warped.

The circles stopped spinning.

And I dove straight through those empty circles right before I plowed into the ground with enough force to shatter stone.

Once I regained consciousness, I dug myself out of the crater I'd made as quickly as my mangled body would allow. I then looked back toward the Rift Gate... and saw it lying in the dirt, inactive once more.

I roared with a rage that echoed across the lands for miles.

I clawed at the ground, I punched it, I fired off Dark Eco blasts left and right. I didn't care that I was wasting energy and attacking lifeless dirt, I needed to vent and there was nothing else to take my rage out on! Then just as I was about to try and hurl the Rift Gate over the horizon, I stopped, and I realized something.

The Rift Gate had opened.

It could open again.

No! It would open again!

I would not be denied my freedom! My vengeance! This gate would open and free me from this barren wasteland! It was just a matter of time. And time was all I had now. Time and my hatred.

And so I waited. First for my body to heal, and then for the gate to open. I carried it with me wherever I went. It was nearly twice my size, but I still carried it. Eventually I managed to find a cave that was large enough for myself and the gate. I made it my home.
My refuge from the sun.

And I waited.

I did anything I could to pass the time.
I used my claws to carve images into the walls. Pictures of my past victories, of my children, of my enemies...
...
The pictures of my enemies I soon clawed at with reckless abandon and fury.
When I ran out of walls, I started to weave with my spider silk. I made countless patterns throughout the cave, like skull-faced snowflakes of woven steel. I eventually even tried to knit my silk with my claws, making ropes, rugs, and the occasional robe that I could wear when I shapeshifted into a more humanoid form. When I ran out of silk, I started to think. I started to think about what I would do once I was free, where I would go, how I would get my revenge...
All the elaborate ways I would slaughter my enemies... All the Eco I would eat... *Drool*

I could have tried laying some eggs that could hatch into some of my more intelligent soldiers for companionship, but I knew that even my vast internal Eco supply couldn't be limitless, and creating life would take more energy than I could afford to expend.
For the same reason I chose to forgo practicing my shapeshifting. It was just too draining.

And so I waited.

And I waited...

Deep down, I knew that there was a chance that the gate might not open again, but I had hope. If it opened once it would certainly open again.

... Right?

...

Suddenly there was a flash of light and the Rift Gate started to float off the ground.

"Oh, thank Gol." I said with a relieved sigh.

Author's Note

I was originally thinking of calling this "Metalheading to Equestria." But that seemed like such a silly pun.
So I've had a few ideas for FiM fanstories, but this one just seemed to click for me as soon as the idea wormed its way into my head. Not entirely sure where this will take me, but I knew I needed to actually get something online to show even a smidgen of commitment.
Anyway, I'm new to writing for others, so I'll appreciate some constructive criticism. Spelling, format, descriptions, etc. Fire away!

Edit: 1/31/17 - Changed "thank God" to "thank Gol."