Darkness, Everlasting

Chapter 1

“Spike! I can you get me that new book that just came in? The one titled The One Hundred Prophecies of Neighstradamus.” The purple mare stood near a bookcase in her library, making room for a new tome that had just arrived for her beloved collection.

“Got it!” The purple dragon came running over as fast as his small legs could take him, carrying a large, blue book above his head. He handed it to Twilight, who then checked its condition. It was very, very, very old. Its cover was faded and worn, with patches missing revealing the moth-eaten holes in it. She opened it up, and the pages were yellowed with age. On each page, there were just a few lines written, each obviously done by hand.

“Wow! It looks far older than I thought. It could be as many as two hundred years old. Maybe even older. I wonder who Neighstradamus is, anyway. I have never heard of him, have you Spike?” The purple dragon shook his head.

“I donno. Maybe it says it in the book.” The unicorn began flitting through the pages to the beginning of the book, and there she found a page of acknowledgement to the pony spoken of.

“Apparently he was a farseer, famous in his time for making unbelievable predictions that always came true. He lived… over two thousand years ago? That’s even older than the princesses!” Even Spike was surprised at this revelation.

“Hey, if he was really a farseer, maybe he knew about Nightmare Moon and Discord!” The baby dragon reached for the book, but Twilight set it on a desk just out of reach.

“Don’t be silly, Spike. I doubt there is anything referring to-” She had flipped towards the end of the book, and there it was. The Eclipse.

“The Eclipse: One thousand years from now, there will be two, one of Day and one of Night. Darkness will brew within Night, and Night will shut out Day, and take rule of all. Then, Day will shine true, wiping away the darkness of the moon and restore harmony at the price of Day’s solemn sister.”

Twilight gaped at the page until Spike managed to balance on top of a stack of books. He too soon began to gape, until the unicorn flipped the pages again.

“That’s just a coincidence. There’s no way that he could have foreseen Nightmare Moon…”

“Discord and Disharmony: There will be a mighty god, whom will unleash great chaos on the lands. Six of true heart will step forward to challenge him, and only one will stay true. When all hope seems lost, lost memories will burn anew and harmony will strike down chaos, restoring the order once more.”

More gawking. The unicorn began flipping through the last few pages, each revealing all of her and the Elements of Harmony’s greatest feats so far, from the Crystal Empire Wedding to the defeat of King Sombra. The final page, however, was something she did not recognize.

“Darkness Everlasting: Two millennia from now, a veil of ancient evil will arise from the earth, and feed Its mad, deathless hunger with the life of all. No pony will be safe from Its dark embrace, not even Sun nor Moon nor Love. Chaos will thrive in the darkness. But when it too is consumed, the stars will shine, lighting the path to salvation.”

There was quiet, as the two tried as they could to figure out the meaning. Spike spoke up:

“I… I think it is talking about the end of the world.” He shuddered at the thought, while Twilight brushed it off.

“Oh, come on Spike. Now that’s silly. Everypony knows that there is no such thing as the apocalypse,” scolded the mare.

“Then what about the rest of the predictions? They all came true.” Twilight Sparkle swallowed at this, realizing that she had nothing to counter this. The prophecies were far too accurate to be simple coincidence, and if ninety-nine have been resolved...

“And, Twilight… how old did you say this Neighstradamus guy was?” She swallowed again, now thoughts of doom seeping into her mind.

“I-if this book has accurate dates… Exactly tw-two thousand y-years ago.

*CRASH*

“What was that?” yelped Spike, jumping onto Twilight’s back.

“Maybe… maybe it was Owlowiscous knocking something over,” Twilight soothed. However, they both knew that the owl was far too nimble and intelligent to do something like that. That, and that it sounded like an entire chariot crashed into the upstairs bedroom.

The two of them slowly made their way upstairs, and what they found shocked them both. Before them, lay the wreckage of a Crystal Empire chariot, having plowed through the roof into the bedroom of the library. Debris lay strewn about, and in the moonlight seeping through the destroyed ceiling, they could pick out a few shapes. In the corner of the room, lay a solitary, unmoving wing buried under some rubble. Owlowiscous. Then, they saw movement in the chariot. Having been spooked by the book, neither dared move forward. That is, until they saw the tall figure of Twilight’s brother arise from the wreckage. Although Twilight felt the urge to rush to his side, something about him stopped her. In the dim light, they could only pick out his mane and white coat. While there were splotches of red on him, he seemed otherwise unscathed.

“Twily! Oh, thank Celestia I found you! I have to get you to safety! Something has gone horribly wrong, and I need to get you out of here!”

“What is it? Why did you come though the roof?” the mare took a step towards her brother, but Spike halted her advance. When she looked at him, all he did was breathe a gust of fire in the direction of Shining Armor. That’s when Twilight realized what was wrong.

What stood before her was her brother, yet not him. The Thing before her had his coat, his mane, his voice, and even his Cutie Mark, but the resemblance stopped there. The Shining Armor before her had a portion of his neck torn out, and half of his face was missing. His eyes were a milky yellow colour, without any pupils. His lips were also missing, and his gums were peeled back to reveal rows of jagged teeth, stained red with blood. The fire dissipated, but the image in Twilight’s eyes did not. Not even the dim light fooled her now, the mockery of her brother’s flaws being so obvious that she was surprised she didn’t notice immediately. The imposter sighed.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, Twily. I was hoping I could just kill you quickly, so that I wouldn’t have to fight you. So I could spare you the horror. But I guess it’s never that easy. Oh well, I guess you will have to be a snack instead.” He took a stance, and lunged.