Prologue: Error
Embers. Ashes. Very little was left to prosper after the battles between the Lords and the everlasting dragons, the flames themselves going through nearly every trial except being extinguished. The fire was (and barely is) a moderator of sorts, representing the presence of both Light and Dark. Sadly, it was from the Dark that the Souls of the Lords emerged, interfering with the neutrality of the Age of Ancients and decimating their otherwise still and grey world with disease and despair, effectively wiping out the majority of the everlasting dragons and forcing their newfound status onto the stained earth.
And as the fire fails more and more throughout the centuries, true darkness is given a faint but existing reign over the lands, serving only to spread its influence as far as the flames cease. The Abyss, a collection of this madness, is a place where even the bravest of the Undead fear to tread, as doing so would mean instant demise to what was left of their person. Still, there were hardly any Undead who would take upon a task of any caliber, as the new stasis of the world literally gripped onto their souls, trapping them forever in a lifeless, uneventful limbo.
The Abyss, though conscious to a certain degree, did not complain, as it's only function was to disperse. The way things were going for it, there seemed no reason to act towards anything, let alone transgression.
This is why it made it's first and final mistake.
One particular tendril of darkness achieved a distance greater than its others, cleaving through the nothingness without a care in the world. As it slithered about its seemingly barren surroundings, the vine noticed a familiar energy directly in front of it. It was darkness by appearance, but as the tendril tried to link with its supposed kin, something peculiar happened.
It rebounded. Hard.
Pain was a trait shared by many sentient beings and organisms. But the pain that the Abyss felt then and there wasn't direct--in fact, it hardly [felt a thing. What was damaged was the constant flow of the faintest pride in its existence, one of the very few things it was able to actually feel. And so the only prompt given to the sentient pool of blight was to bend whatever had opposed it's will into submission.
The same tendril used to make initial contact with the rogue entity was destined for a second attempt, as it launched itself with such a velocity the matter and space around the assault quivered and groaned. Once the extension of darkness was closing in on the point of opposition, it sharpened its end to accommodate for a quick and powerful blow.
At first, the piercing of the darkness proved to have shattered whatever forcefield had bounced it back before. What the Abyss hadn't predicted was the outcome of its victory. As the tendril kept going and stretching and piercing, it broke through another barrier, this one much less challenging.
It was also the gateway to the tendril's demise.
~Meanwhile, in Equestria~
The Everfree Forest was nothing short of exciting. Timberwolves, hydras, animals made up of varying constellations--it had it all. There was even an ancient castle at the center that stood as one of Equestria's oldest architectural pieces. Though it isn't visited due to the life-threatening perils residing around it, its value was something that has lasted generations.
Values that were instantaneously launched into the night sky by a pillar of absolute darkness.
The tendril had erupted from underneath the base of the castle, knocking down supports and the roof itself while still leaving a near-perfect circle from its origin. The Abyss was initially stunned with all of the new data it was collecting. Had it reached the other side of its own plane? Where exactly did its extension protrude from? All of these questions were answered by the acknowledgement of a certain sphere in the sky:
The moon.
Slowly but surely, the tendril began to deteriorate under this new source of light, leaving only a large wisp of, at a glance, what appeared to be black smoke. The Abyss bellowed from the hole it left, enraged that its folly gave way to something that possessed the potential to obliterate and end its existence. Furthermore, moonlight made its way through the rift in space, piercing the darkness as it had with its last victim.
Quickly, the Abyss made its move. Two more tendrils were summoned and sent towards the light. Once there, they would take turns converting themselves into more solid matter, ripping themselves apart bit by bit and hurling their masses onto the hole, creating a makeshift plug. Taking notice of the light still emitting from the spaces where these masses did not cover, more and more vines were sacrificed to fill in the gaps where the light filtered in, creating a vertical but absolute pillar of their own with concentrated darkness. The light did little to the newly compacted darkness, as it took a much longer amount of time to affect even a fraction of what it had accomplished with the first intruder.
Only two pairs of eyes in Equestria witnessed these events in succession...
~At Rarity's Boutique~
Sweetie Belle hated having to stay up and listen to her sister slave relentlessly on her work. It was well past midnight, and all she wanted to do then and there was to drift off into dreamland.
Her sister's sewing machine had other ideas, however, as it buzzed and whirred and screeched through the night, somehow making it all the way upstairs into Sweetie's room. She stuffed her head under as many pillows as she could possibly summon to her aid, but it was to no avail. The only thing left for her to do now is to wait it out and stare at the sky, hoping for
sleep to pull her in instead.
Little did she know that she was going to get everything but sleep that night, as her eye catches something a little to the left of what she had been watching moments before. It was almost invisible against the night sky, but she was able to distinguish the evil streak of darkness erupting from the direction of the Everfree Forest. Sweetie only watched as the anomaly deteriorated almost as quickly as it came, seemingly fizzling out under the moonlight.
Her curiosity peaked, Sweetie knew what to do. With experience, she opened up her window and slid down using her trusty rope that was utilized during her adventures with her friends. Not wanting to waste any more time, she began to trot towards the ever-exciting lure that was the Everfree Forest...
~At the Princess's Castle~
Atop the highest balcony, a certain alicorn princess was not pleased.
At all.
Her dark blue coat reflecting the light of the moon, she flared her wings and took off towards the evil energy that threatened the peace of Equestria's night.
Author's Note
*First time doing something like this. I had a lot of fun writing this small slice of what's to come, as it really clarifies what I have to work toward in the future. It also gave me some other neat ideas that I think y'all are going to like. Stay tuned. ;D
*As a precaution, if the story cover doesn't show, I'll post a link somewhere on my user page showing off what I drew for this fic. I think it came out pretty nice, but that's just me.
