Eternity's End

I trot at a fast pace through a forest- the Everfree, I think. I don’t know what I am doing here, or how I got here. The eerie silence pokes at every fiber of me, almost as if it is trying to claw me back further and further into the darkness of the trees. Shadows lurk, dancing across the ground as the branches sway softly in the night breeze, obscuring the moon from sight. The pitch black that lay beyond me beckons me, luring me further. I continue to walk, slowing my trot until I couldn’t hear the leafs crack underhoof.

A twig snaps, making me jump. It sounded like a gunshot that seemed to echo through the maze of trees. I stop walking, and don’t hear anything else, and assume it was myself. I raise a hoof to take another step, just as another snap rockets through the darkness. I turn on my hooves, coming face to face with Rainbow Dash.

But this isn’t Rainbow. It is a sick, distorted, mutilated version of the cyan mare. Her coat is covered with dry, crusty blood. Each movement she makes causes a faint crunching sound as dark red flakes float to the green grass. Her neck is twisted and snapped to the side, her head twitching slightly. She has the large head wound on her temple, bits of her skull lodged into the fleshy red inside of the gaping hole.

I try to scream, but the sound gets lodged into my throat, and I feel like I cannot breath.

“Why...” she utters, her voice scratchy and quiet. “... must... you... be... the... one... with... eternity... to... spend?”

Her voice sends shivers down my spine, the drawl of her words echoing and bouncing around in my skull. I start to back away slowly, her menacing eyes tearing me to shreds. But there was another look in her eye... sadness? fear?

“You... left us... to be... a princess...” she says. She coughs, a sputtering, wet but scratchy sound coming from her throat. Blood spatters on my face, the warm, thick liquid clinging to my coat. “Un... loyal...”

“Rainbow dash, I-”

“YOU LEFT US!” she shrieks. Her eyes turn completely black as she pounces, foam dripping from her mouth. I scream, trying to use my magic to protect myself, but nothing comes. She bit me in the shoulder, her teeth digging into my skin and causes blood to gush uncontrollably from the wound. “UNLOYAL!”

A burst of green and purple blasted her back off of me. It surrounded me, healing my wound and lifting me from the ground.

“I am your leader, and you will obey me!” I say, my voice sounding as if another one of me was talking along with me. I don’t know why I said this. But the words just came from my mouth as if they weren’t mine. “I am the Element of Magic, and all will obey ME!”

I look down at Rainbow. She isn’t a mess of gore anymore, but her normal self. She looks at me, terrified, and I want badly to comfort her, but I can’t control myself. It is as if another person is controlling me, or another power. My mind is racing, my heart beat feeling as if it were trying to beat my brain to the finish line. I feel a build up of magic in my horn, and with a flash, a beam of light is shoots towards Rainbow.

She screams as if her body were being torn to pieces. The light engulfs her, but I am still able to see her writhe in pain. Blood starts to pour from every opening it can as if her organs were liquefied. She shrieks in pain, her eyes rolling back in her head as blood runs down her face like tears. I try to stop, I try desperately to gain control of my mind, but the magic is uncontrollable.

“Twilight!” I hear. My vision starts to blur. Everything goes black, and when I come back, I am laying in my bed with Spike shaking me. “Twilight, wake up!”

My eyes open, and he sighs. “Oh, you’re awake. Finally. You were kicking and screaming.”

I wrap my forelegs around his neck and cry into his shoulder, and eventually, we end up with him sitting with my head in his lap, stroking my dark purple hair has I convulse with sobs.

“Shh...” he says softly, kissing my forehead. “Everything will be okay.”

I look up, my vision blurred by the tears that continue to form and stream down my face. “How could you say something like that? Nothing’s going to be okay! I have no idea how Celestia deals with this, seeing everyone just die right before her eyes! Everyone she’s ever loved! I knew from the moment I became a princess that I’d have to go through this, but not this soon...”

Spike looks down, averting my angry glare, not saying a word. I push him away aggressively when he tries to pull me into a hug, giving him a dirty look before I stumble down the wooden stairs.

"I'm going for a walk." I say, opening the door with my magic, my mind swimming with predictions of my future, thousands of years from now, and eventually, I find myself at Sweet Apple Acres.

I hear a thump of hooves meeting the rough bark of an apple tree, and turn my head to see a tired Applejack carrying a basket of apples.

"Applejack?" she looks up at me, surprised.

"What are you doin' awake, sugarcube?" she asks. It's comforting to hear the sweet accent in her voice.

"Uhm, bad dream. I decided to take a walk, to uh, clear my mind." I stutter. "What are you doing awake?"

"Ah like to do work 'round the farm when things like this happen. Helps clear mah mind, too." she says, kicking another tree, causing the bright red apples to rain into the baskets that surround the tree.

SQUEEK

"Aw, that ol' rusted hook is squeekier than a filly with a rubber duck." Applejack walks over to the barn, and I follow her. She looks around. "Where did that damned thing go?"

I step backwards, looking around for it. As I do so, I trip on a rope that ties around my ankle and pulls me up high.

"Twi-" I hear a sickening thud and a splatter of liquid on the barn floor. I start to be pulled back down by something, and when I stop, I am level with Applejack. She's dangling around on the hook, which was embedded into her neck. Her hooves flail and she looks at me with a look of desperation in her eyes, and then, they go glossy and lifeless. Her body stops shaking and just... hangs there. The hook had cut a large gash in the side of her throat, and her neck was bent sideways.

I start flailing, and somehow manage to free my hoof from the rope. I fall down on a bail of hay, hearing the snap of Apple's neck as her head collided with the ceiling. She slips off the hook, landing with a thud on the wood floors.

I jump to my hooves, backing away slowly from the body. My eyes feel like they might just pop out of my head, and my vision starts to distort. I close my eyes for a few seconds, and when I open them again, Applejack is on her hooves. She stands in a charging stance, her eyes looking at me menacingly. I would run, but I feel like my hooves are glued to the ground, my muscles refusing to do what my mind told them.

I blink, and when I open my eyes again, she’s closer. I can see the gash clearly now, and I feel was if I might just vomit right then and there, but I can’t do anything. She jumps at me, just as Rainbow did, and I scream, closing my eyes and placing my hooves in front of my face.

When I open my eyes again, nothing is there. Applejack’s body is lying where it was before. I hear the thundering of hooves coming near me, and i start to get to my feet to hide.

“Applejack!” I hear. It was Big Mac. He runs into the barn, seeing me standing there, shocked.

“Twilight...?” Then he notices the body behind me. “Did you...?!”

“N-no!” I say. “Of course not!”

He trots over to the lifeless body of the orange mare, standing over her as a tear drops from his eye. I feel my stomach heave again, and this time I don’t hold in. I throw up on the floor, falling to the ground as my vision goes blurry. I hear Mac say something, but I can’t tell what he said. And with that, my vision went black, leaving me in darkness.