Chapters Chapter 1 - A Dark Fortune
Wind rustled through her multi-coloured mane as she flew faster than she had ever flown before. Her wings strained in utter exhaustion as she flew still faster and faster, she knew today was the day, Pinkie had foretold something falling from the sky as well as a doozy, she had said both predictions were pertaining to Rainbow, that’s how she knew it was today.
Today was the day she died.
And it was about to happen, right when she was about to ace the wonderbolt try-outs, the very moment her dreams would have come true, at that very moment one stray piece of paper flew into Rainbow’s face blinding her momentarily, unable to move her front legs at the moment Rainbow shook her head violently in an effort to remove the cursed thing, but by the time she had finally freed herself from the paper it was too late, she’d been flying so fast she was at least 20 minutes away from the stadium, which was 10 minutes into one of the worst thunderstorms Equestria had seen in a long time. One bolt, carrying over a million volts of electricity, shot straight through the cyan mare causing every muscle in her body to stop for a few seconds; her lungs stopped breathing, her heart stopped beating and her wings stopped moving. Rainbow screamed in agony, but found no air in her lungs with which she could cry out her pain. Every inch of her body felt as if it was on fire getting hotter and hotter all the time, and although the bolt had passed through her for only a moment it felt like forever. Three seconds after the bolt, her heart was beating again, another second and air returned to her lungs and then after the next two seconds...nothing happened.
Her wings didn't start flapping, in a panic Rainbow desperately tried to move them, but the only response was a blinding pain shooting up her spine. Sneaking a peak at her back Rainbow saw the burnt mess that used to be her wings, the lightning had struck her flight feathers first and they were now gone, burnt away in to nothing but a fine black ash. It was at this moment Rainbow realised that this was it, this was her end, and instead of trying in vain to fly, for the first time in her life Rainbow Dash gave up. In exactly sixteen seconds she would hit the ground, her internal organs would be crushed by the impact and she would be dead. ‘Alright then,’ she thought to herself ‘I have one chance of getting this right.’
Two Weeks Ago……
“This is stupid.” Rainbow said to herself as she walked towards the massive blue tent, 'Madame Foresight – she sees all!' the sign above the tent exclaimed. Her, thee Rainbow Dash, going to a fortune teller! The very idea was ridiculous, but yet here she was. Now Rainbow wasn't an idiot she knew almost all fortune tellers were good for nothing scum trying to make a few bits giving ponies false hopes or fears. Almost all of them, but not Foresight; every prediction she had made, every reading she had given had been entirely correct, she didn't give vague messages that could mean anything, she gave dates, conditions on the day she’d even been known to give useless information on little details such as where a pony’s hat would be on the day of the prediction, how many hay fries would be left in their plate after the prediction had occurred and even sometimes which ponies would be there. That’s why Rainbow was here, she wanted her fortune told, she wanted to know if a certain blue, and rather famous, stallion would be in her future. You see ever since accidentally crashing into her on his way to a tour of the weather factory Soarin had been hanging out with Rainbow and she couldn’t help but fall for the handsome Pegasus, he was well built, sweet, an excellent flyer and not to mention a wonderbolt, plus there was the fact that she'd always had a bit of a crush on him in the first place. She'd seen him sneaking a look at her flank every now and then and he would even blush when he spoke to her sometimes, that was why she needed to know if she had a chance with him, which, she reminded herself, was why she was here.
Sucking in her pride Rainbow walked into the gloomy tent. The tent flap closed menacingly behind her and in the dim light given off by some very inefficient candles Rainbow could just barley make out the dark purple interior of the tent. Walking towards a table draped in a blood red fabric, in what she assumed was the middle of the tent, Rainbow saw Madame Foresight, Her curly light blue mane and equally curly tail shone in the dimly lit room as did her caramel coat. On her flank Rainbow could see a crystal ball cutie mark. Her pale blue eyes looked up at Rainbow Dash from behind a crystal ball and she smiled warmly gesturing for Rainbow to sit across from her.
“Hello there, I am Madame Foresight, tell me dear what would you like to know today?” Foresight asked in a calming voice that instantly made Rainbow feel more comfortable.
“Well,” Rainbow began, as she slowly sat down “there’s sorta this stallion that I sorta, you know, like and I kinda wanted to know if, you know, I was wasting my time.” Foresight smiled knowingly at the blushing pegasus and pulled her crystal ball towards her.
“Now I will warn you dear, ponies don’t always like what they hear and sometimes they don’t hear what they came to learn, it doesn't always work the way you expect it to.”
Rainbow nodded and gulped as the crystal ball began to glow. A faint humming echoed through the air as a light blue magical aura surrounded the fortune telling earth pony, slowly her pupils glazed over as she stared into the future. For the longest time Foresight just sat there gazing into her ball with her creepy eyes, Rainbow shifted uncomfortably, her eyes darting around the tent as she questioned her decision to ask about Soarin, then suddenly Foresight looked at Rainbow, Rainbow stared into those blue pupils that looked off into far beyond what any other pony could see and all Rainbow could see in those eyes now was sorrow.
“Rainbow Dash…” she said in a sad voice.
“But how? I didn’t tell you m…” she trailed off as Foresight held up a hoof to silence her.
“I see you Rainbow, in the future, but not what you wished me to see.”
“Then what?” Rainbow asked quietly as the fortune tellers eyes grew ever more sorrowful.
“I see your end Rainbow Dash and it is not far from now.”
Rainbow couldn't speak she just stared at the mare. 'My end?' she thought.
“I do not wish to tell you when your end comes, but I do not wish to leave you in the dark either, so I shall tell you this; your friend will foretell the day of your demise, and your very craft shall bring unto you your end.”
Rainbow sat there still stunned silent. She couldn't feel anything, she was completely numb.
“No charge today dear, I do not wish to charge you after causing you so much sorrow, now please go Rainbow Dash, your time is short and you should not waste it.” And with that Foresight left the tent, too upset to tell any more fortunes that day. Rainbow just sat there, staring off into space trying to process what she had just heard.
She was going to die. She kept repeating the words over and over in her head. She was going to die.
It was getting dark by the time Rainbow managed to get herself to move again. Slowly she walked home only flying to get up to her cloud home. There the numbness faded away and she cried herself to sleep.
Rainbow awoke the next morning determined not to die, she immediately flew to the library and started researching everything she could, spending hours and hours on end with all Twilight's precious books, but she kept coming up empty. Between juggling the hours at the library and spending time with Soarin Rainbow was getting very little sleep and was starting to loose hope, she had thought there would be a book on this stuff, there was a book on everything, wasn't there? It seemed a lost cause until a full week after her visit to Madame Foresight. Rainbow was in the magic section of the library when something caught her eye; the shelf she had just taken a book from had a different coloured piece of wood at the back, tapping it with her hoof made the old wood fall over reavealing a very old and very dusty book. Picking it up Rainbow read the cover, 'Things that I must not Forget' , looking inside the book she could see it was not a book, but actually a pony's journal. Fascinated by the old writing she paged through it. As she turned over yet another delicate old page she read a title that made her genuinely smile for the first time that week. Rainbow reread the title just to make sure she'd seen it correctly, 'Cheating Death, easier than I thought' finally she'd found what she was looking for. The journal listed how an old mares tale told of the only way to cheat death, according to the book any pony, regardless of race, could trick death and come back to life. It involved creating a potion, it looked more like a soup recipe to Rainbow to be honest, the potion was to be drank on the day of a ponies death, it would give them one chance to perform a powerful spell, a spell that would make Death forget about them, the only tricky part was you had to wait until the last second before you could utter the final words. It was on that same day that Soarin invited her to the private try-outs for the wonderbolts, this was her lucky day, and she was sure that with the journal tucked safely in her saddle bag she would have many more days to come.
Present Day
Rainbow opened her eyes and looked directly at the ground rushing up to her. She was ready. She closed her eyes and said goodbye, you know, just in case. And then she hit the ground. Rainbow felt the crushing pain, but only for a second and then it was gone. She couldn’t feel any pain anymore. Looking down she saw her body lying crushed on the ground, the sight made her feel sick and she instantly looked away, instead she decided to look at her now translucent hooves and then the rest of her ghostly body. “Alright then,” she said relieved to find her ghostly self looked nothing like the mess of her corpse.
When she looked up again she saw a sight that would have made her heart stop had it still been beating. A dark hooded pony stood about 20 meters away from her slowly walking closer. The pony was much taller than Rainbow, as tall as one of the Princesses. Rainbow watched in horror as the Reaper slowly walked forward, It's cloak turning into black mist that surrounded it’s dark hooves, red eyes glowing under it’s hood and the tip of it’s muzzle that stuck out was covered in a mask of bone. Rainbow managed to snap herself out of her panic and started quietly reciting the spell.
"Death be gone, don't come near
I shan't close my eye's it's you who should fear
I stand tall, for a secret I know
And you shall never strike to me that final blow
So death don't remember
death don't dare see
Forever and ever..."
Rainbow stopped her chanting as the timing of the last words was critical. Death stopped in front of her conjuring a scythe from thin air and holding it tightly in it’s mouth. It was terrifying, Rainbow's blood ran cold, she could fell tears run down her ghostly cheeks, Death raised it’s scythe high in the air and Rainbow gathered all her courage and determination, she would not freeze up! Death swung down. Just before the scythe hit her Rainbow shouted out the final words of her spell with as much passion and force as she could,
"DEATH FORGET ME!"
Death's scythe clattered to the ground. Rainbow opened her eyes, amazed that the final blow hadn't come. Looking up she saw death was still standing right in front of her, it's glowing red eyes stared at Rainbow first with shock and then with a look of hatred that was so deep it made Rainbow shiver.
"You were supposed to f..f..forget me." Rainbow struggled as Death stared at her.
Death just continued to glare at Rainbow for a long time, finally it spoke. The voice was strange it was neither male nor female and didn't come from one place, but everywhere at once creating a eerie echo, the only thing certain about Death's voice, was that it was outraged.
"HOW DARE YOU!" "Have you any idea what you've just done you stupid mare!"
Rainbow shrunk under the molten hatred of Death's gaze.
"WELL?!? HAVE YOU?!"
"I..I.." Rainbow tried, but her voice was gone, along with her courage. She was more scared now than when the scythe had been on a collision course with her neck.
"You thought you'd make me forget you, didn't you?" "You thought you'd cheat me and carry on as if nothing had ever happened, DIDN'T YOU?!"
"y..y-yes.." Rainbow squeaked. Suddenly Death's eye's changed, for a moment Rainbow could have sworn she saw fear, but it was almost instantly replaced by another emotion she had never expected. In Death's smouldering eyes Rainbow saw pity.
"You do not understand mare. What you have done is not temporarily stave of merely your own death, but the deaths of all."
"For all I know, death may never come to any being in Equestria again."
"We shall see if you still smile when you understand the gravity of your tampering with fate."
More hours crept by as Soarin continued to shout out to alert the search party, his eyes grew heavy and his throat hoarse as the night crept in. The rain had stopped an hour ago, but cold autumn winds blew across Soarin's wet body, making the night feel very cold. Two hours later the search party eventually found Soarin, fast asleep next to Rainbow Dash with his head still on her chest. His entire body was icy to the touch, had his heart not been beating the rescue pegasi would have thought he was dead, in fact they all agreed it was a miracle that neither him nor Rainbow were.
Many miles away from where the search party had found the two pegasus another search party had found something else. Princess Luna, escorted by two of her night pegasus guards stood on the edge of a massive crater. It had taken them quite a few hours to travel out his far. They were here because the Princess of the night had been roused from her sleep by the sudden arrival of a dark, ancient and powerful magic in Equestria that she'd never felt before. This crater was were it had arrived and where it still was. Luna waited patiently before investigating the crater, she would not do this without her sister. The magic she sensed inside the crater was far greater than her own and she wouldn't risk the lives of both her and her guards. Celestia arrived half an hour later and together the rulers of Equestria flew down into the crater, properly scared for the first time in over a thousand years. Upon reaching the bottom a pile of strange black cloth covered something lying down in the middle of the crater, with the arrival of the princesses it slowly began to stir.
"Who are you?" Celestia asked in her most demanding voice, embarrassed to hear just how much it shook with fear.
"What is thy business?" Luna asked equally as meekly as her sister.
The dark figure slowly rose revealing a cloaked pony taller than Luna, with smouldering red eyes.
Chapter 3 - The Darkest Power
Luna and Celestia waited for the dark figure to reply. Instead of say anything it looked at each of the princess' personal guards, first the two moon stallions Luna had brought with her and then at Celestia's two sun stallions, then finally back at Luna. Luna felt a chill run down her spine as she stared into those terrible eyes, but they weren't hateful they were worried.
"Dark times are coming."
"What dost thou mean by dark times?" She asked. The figure once again looked at each of the guards and then back at Luna, without warning the red glow of it's eyes intensified, Luna felt a massive increase in magical energy, so powerful it almost knocked her over.
'Impossible...' she thought, she had been sure the creature was using absolutely all its power before when she had first felt it's presence, but now it seemed she was severely mistaken. Luna looked to her sister, who looked back at her with the same fear in her eyes. Suddenly it's eye's went back to normal and the magic in the air was back to the strength it had been when they had entered the crater. Luna's eye's were locked onto those of the figure and although she wanted to she just couldn't look away, that was until she heard a thud to her right and then again and two more to her left. She quickly looked around to locate the source of the noise, what she saw were her moon guards lifeless bodies lying on the floor beside her turning to her left she saw that the other two thuds had been Celestia's guards. She leaned down and scanned her guard, but could find no trace of magic left behind from the creatures spell.
"This is impossible..." she heard her sister whisper.
"What is the meaning of this!" Luna cried out unable to stop herself.
"But dear princess, "You wished to know of the dark times, did you not?"
"Then is it you who shall bring darkness upon Equestria?"
"No."
Luna was taken aback "No? B-b-but if not then why cause four innocent deaths? HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO TELL US WHAT IS TO COME!!!" Tears cascaded down her cheeks, she was furious, Luna didn't care if this being was far more powerful than her, those guards had been the closest thing she had to friends and she couldn't stand that this cloaked monster just took them away from her simply because it could. The creature hadn't expected that outburst and Luna could see in it's eyes that it was clearly surprised, emboldened by this she took a few steps forward and yelled at it again.
"HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HELP!?!"
"Watch..." "Watch."
Luna stared blankly at the spot the hooded creature had been, unsure what to do next.
"Arghhh." Luna jumped at the grunting, she spun to her right and stared in shock as one of her guards started coming to, shrieking she backed away from him, Celestia looked over to see what her sister was screaming about and soon joined suit as all the guards started coming too.
"Sister?" Luna whimpered.
"Y-y-yes Luna?"
"Dost thou believe in the old tales of the undead?"
Celestia looked from guard to guard, they'd all come to now and were staring at the princess' with what was clearly confusion.
"Stand back!" Celestia said to the guards, the confused expressions turned into worry and the guards started looking themselves over to see what about them was scaring their princesses so much.
"What is wrong with us your majesties?" one of Luna's guards asked.
"Thou dost not know?" Luna asked in shock
"No Princess Luna."
"Thou was stone cold dead a mere minute ago! How could thou possibly not know?"
It was one of Celestia's guards that spoke up next "I remember it your majesty, but I thought I had been knocked out and it was only a dream. Are you sure we were dead?"
"Wait," Celestia said "What exactly do you remember?"
"Well, I suddenly felt different for and when I looked to my right I saw all the other guards floating above their bodies I looked down and I saw the same was true for me, and then I alerted the other guards of the situation."
"Yes" Luna's guard spoke up "I remember the same thing your majesties, but I too thought it was a dream." Luna and Celestia were worried, these guards had been dead and no magic either knew of could simply undo death, "Is that all you remember?" Celestia asked.
"I remember princess Luna shouting your majesty," one of the lunar guards replied, "Once the hooded figure left I remember getting this sudden urge to touch my body and when I did I was sucked back into it."
"Did that happen to all of you?" Celestia asked and each and everyone of the guards nodded.
"Alright then, I'd like you to all group together so I can scan you to see if anything is wrong with you." The guards immediately moved into a group and Celestia's horn started to glow like the sun, the glow enveloped the guards and for a full ten minutes the sun goddess scanned them. Cutting of the magic she looked to her sister and smiled "They are in perfect health there is absolutely nothing wrong."
Luna couldn't help but squeal with joy and in an instant she was hugging both of her stunned guards. Celestia gave a little laugh, her sister still had a lot to learn about acting properly. "Guards." Celestia said getting the attention of all the guards instantly, including those in Luna's vice-like embrace. "Go home you are all dismissed for the week." Celestia's guards saluted, and Luna's replied with a nod, giving them one last squeeze Luna let go of her guards who proceeded to follow the others out of the crater.
"Something is very wrong." Celestia said.
Luna looked at her sister, suddenly remembering exactly why she had been so happy to see her guards.
"We agree sister. That being was far too powerful and we feel that it was only showing us the tiniest bit of it's true power."
Celestia looked grim as she nodded.
"I scanned my guards and whatever that thing was it killed them, but there was no magical residue, which is impossible."
"So is being able to re-enter one's body after death," Luna said "Whatever it was sister it still is."
Celestia looked at her sister in shock. "Whatever do you mean Luna?"
"We still feel it, not nearly as strongly as before and we cannot say where it is, but we still feel it's power out in Equestria somewhere."
"I'm not surprised," Celestia said "I doubt this is the last time we'll see it."
The princess of the sun and the princess of the moon looked at each other with heavy hearts, slowly they took to the air and flew back to Canterlot.
