You may know the story of the Four Horseman, and more importantly, of the horseman War, who doomed humanity to witness the End Times, yes? And what of his brother, the Grim Reaper? Death always maintained his brother's innocence, even until the end...

But our story does not begin with the end of Humanity. No, this tale is far older, during the time of Creation; when Death kept the balance, as was his duty given by the Charred Council. The Nephilim were all but destroyed, their souls kept safe by our skeletal Horseman and his mind still fresh with the genocide of his fellow brothers.

Our story begins with a tear in reality, within the deep of a forest bordering a town. That town's name was Ponyville...

Zecora was patrolling the woods, looking for a particular strain of mushroom Miss Cheerilee requested. It was intended for a muscle relaxant she regularly ordered from the resident witch doctor, hence the need to gather more. Diving deep into the Everfree was never a safe idea, but having swept the perimeter close to her hut, the zebra had no other choice. Diving deeper and deeper in, she found herself so deep within the forest that she came across the old ruins of the Castle of Two Princesses, and it took her all of half a second to decide whether it was a good idea to turn back. She knew what dark magic still lingered there. It was best to leave it be.

Sighing in defeat, Zecora trotted back to her hut mushroomless, planning to get more another time when it was much easier to see them. It was late in the evening, truthfully the best time for foraging more than just once client's ingredients list, as was the plan. Cheerilee would have to wait, she decided; Going back to the safety of her hut was at the top of the list now. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, the zebra spotted a flash of green coming from within the castle remnants, followed by a thundering "BOOM!" Staring at the moon's position in the sky through the canopy, she sighed and turned back towards the ruins.

"If it is bigger than I can contain, perhaps the princesses can spare me the pain..." She mumbled, cautiously approaching the light source. Magic such as this popped up in the forest now and again, leaving it in a more chaotic and wild state every time. Mostly it was small portals or transmogrification spells, probably caused by the chaos seedlings Discord planted over a millennia ago to choke out the healing magic of the Tree of Harmony. It was nothing she couldn't handle with her specially made zebrican bombs; just one toss nearby and it instantly detonated at the first touch of foreign magic, cancelling any active enchantments and dispersing any pooled mana. But this? This seemed different, felt... Old. Exceptionally old, even older than the Princesses.

Cautiously trotting closer, she found where the portal appeared. It seemed that dark magic from earlier felt like playing tonight. She delved deeper into the decrepit castle, landing not too far from the previous housing for the Elements of Harmony. It was just around the corner of the doorway when she sensed how powerful this ancient magic really was.Not willing to get too close, the zebra observed the portal for a time, determining if it was dormant and just flaring up, or if something, or even worse, someone was summoning it. It rippled and distorted the air around it, the epicenter of the gateway not showing an afterimage- a clear sign it had yet to form completely. Looking towards the ground, she began to see all life near it begin to decay, fueling the ring of teal fire making up the structure of the portal. Dark magic indeed was the source of thid spell, seemed. Once all life was properly snuffed out in a perfect circle surrounding it, what happened next caused Zecora to flee in panic:

Runic symbols burned their way into the ground, forming a border for the decayed life. The act itself wasn't disturbing to her, no not at all. In fact, it was commonplace to have binding runes appear to anchor a powerful spell such as this one. No, the thing that disturbed her the most was the tongue in which it was carved in. Her masters told her of a Prophecy the elders have written in this same speech. Only they knew what it meant, which is why they recorded the words down in modern Equestrian. "Liewe gode, nee!" She spoke in her native tongue, running as fast as she could back to her hut.

Once she arrived, the zebra slammed the door shut and turned off all sources of light; Her torches, the fire to heat her cauldron, even the wall sconces were torn off and broken. If it really was the First Sign, the next wouldn't be too far behind. She boarded up all her windows, then swiftly began to look for the ingredients she needed for the only protection circle capable of stopping whatever that portal summoned. Wolfsbane, Poison Joke root, and Manticore Tooth were all thrown in her mortar and pestle, being ground to a fine paste as quick as she could work her hooves. A thundering BOOM suddenly shook the whole hut, sending vials flying off her shelves and the windows to rattle. "Dit is te gou!" Not even bothering to get her brush out, Zebra frantically scrawled a small runic circle around her using the tip of her hoof, sweat pouring off of her coat.

Sitting in the circle with an overwhelming sense of dread, she waited and waited for whatever would come through that portal, praying that her Circle of Protection worked. Suddenly, the house shook again, but this time at a deep and rumbling whinny of an ethereal horse. Yelping, she closed her eyes as tight as she could, visibly shivering with fear. A resounding clopping of hooves echoed outside the hut, slowly making its way to the front. If she kept her eyes open, Zecora would have noticed everything outside her protective warding either decayed to dust or froze over with an ethereal frost.

Thud, thud, CRACK! Whatever it was that came through, at least it had manners, she thought. Each step closer to her cowering form echoed throughout her home, sounding like the pounding of a gavel at a courtroom hearing. The creature inched closer, sending the mare into tears, just far enough away to be within hooves' reach. It poked and prodded at the lettering surrounding her, a dissatisfied snort leaving the creature's face and sending a chilly mist through the air. Backing away, it began to rummage through the hut, looking for something. Small scraping noises could be heard upon the wood flooring, ending with whatever tool the creature used to carve sent sprawling away.

Another ethereal whinny and boom shook the house again, signalling Zecora to finally uncover her eyes. What met her sent chills down her spine: a set of hoof prints leading to her circle were burned into the wood. Not etched, not dented: burned. Just to the right of the final hoof prints a message was carved into her floor:

Fetch your rulers, pray to your gods. My master approaches.

-Despair

This message deserved only the highest authority in the land, and with unnatural speed, Zecora hastily sprawled a letter to the only being capable of delaying The Prophecy of Endings:

"Dear Princess Celestia..."

Author's Note

There will be an end to this, and if you already guessed, it ain't gonna be nice.

Fun fact, had to do a google search for a good language to use for Zebra. Went with Afrikaans, due to the very stiff sounding words. German was a close second.

If you wanna know what the translations say without Google fucking it up, in order the words are:

(1st line) Dear Gods, no.

(2nd line) It is too soon!

Anyways, an idea I tried before but didn't stick too well. Instead of writing it like a series, as is the norm for my crossover fics, this is just gonna be short and end pretty quick. Won't be sectioned, but it will still be a bit lengthy.