Utter darkness. The entirety of the cave’s notable aspects were the ebony shadows and crumbling rocks. While dark and quiet, the emptyness almost seemed to move. The shadows gave off a life of their own, deterring any creature that sought the hollow, a deep deported dragon's lair. To the untrained eye, nothing was there; however, the cave was home to the darkness itself. The entity, more dark than the blackest night, stretched along the walls of the cavern, growing impatient. The entity that called this place home was silently plotting. It had been dormant for too long, its disciples too weak to conquer any significant portion of the land. Its power had grown, and after such a long slumber, it was finally time to wreak havoc upon those foolish mortals once more.

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Meanwhile, the not-so-well trodden path that led out of the cave and down the mountain led to a quaint little village. This village was Ponyville. The sweet summer air cast a spell of tranquility over it's inhabitants. Ponies were in the town square, trading and laughing, without a care in the world. Applejack herself was negotiating the sale of a couple of apple pies to some pegasus from out of town. Around the corner and down the street, Pinkie Pie was talking to Fluttershy outside of Sugarcube Corner, asking for some small trifle of a favor as Rarity walked up and discussed some affair of getting the friends together to hang out. Further down through Ponyville, a rainbow maned pegasus lazily trailed through the air, probably postponing some task that was required of her. Finally, at the end of the street a large tree grew, a combination of good soil and magic, that had been turned into the library of Ponyville, more commonly known as the homestead of one Twilight Sparkle and her number one assistant, Spike.

"No, no, no, no, no...” muttered Twilight, accenting each ‘No’ by tossing aside another book.

"Um, Twilight? What are you doing?” asked Spike, worriedly.

"No, no”, she continued before registering that her assistant had spoken. “What was that Spike? No, no..."

"You’re making a huge mess! I just cleaned the library this morning! Is this really necessary?"

"Of course it is Spike! I’m researching the polar opposites of the elements of harmony for a conclusive report I’m doing for Princess Celestia."

"So why are you throwing books everywhere?"

"Close, but no. Because I found a reference to some great evil that tried to destroy Equestria long ago. For whatever reason the elements weren’t enough to stop this creature when the princesses faced it and I was hoping to learn more about it." Twilight shuddered as though the mere mention of the monster was uncomfortable. "But there doesn’t seem to be any accurate descriptions of it in any of my other books!"

"Have you checked the Historical Encyclopedia of Equestria? I mean really, Pinkie finds everything so easily and you..." A flying book smacked into Spike on its way to join the dozens of others forming a pile in the center of the room. "Ugh... come on Twi, couldn't you look before throwing them?"

"Perhaps it would be noted under The Comparative Notes of Starswirl and Other Notable Unicorns of the Age!" Twilight exclaimed, obviously paying no notice to the astute baby dragon walking dizzily towards the kitchen.

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The floating pegasus sighed as she glanced around Ponyville. She was in search of her favorite napping cloud which seemed to have drifted off while she was practicing. She desperately needed a nap and it was nowhere in sight! Even the fastest pegasus in Equestria needs to take breaks every once in a while, after all.

Ah, there it was. Rainbow Dash grinned triumphantly and started towards the fluffy cloud, curiously nestled right above Twilight's home. As she lay down to enjoy the next however long she was out, she heard some curious rumbling. Not the I'm-hungry-and-need-candy rumbling, but a sort of muffled rumbling. She glanced around and spotted a few speckled storm clouds above a mountain in the distance.

"Well", Rainbow thought, "not my problem. It’ll probably get taken care off by somepony else, they know no storms are scheduled for today." Losing her fight to stay awake, not that she was fighting hard in the first place, Rainbow fell asleep.

A few hours later, back at the town square, a dark shadow cloaked the sky as blackened clouds rumbled ominously. Applejack was slowly pulling her cart down through the square when she heard a faint squeak.

"Hello, is somepony there?"

There was no immediate response so Applejack continued moving while observing that no other ponies were about with the storm hanging overhead. The steady pitter-patter of rain and whistling winds warned her to get inside before she caught a cold. Applejack thought that the unplanned rain was a mite odd, even more so that Ponyville's lead pegasus was not even attempting to clear the sky.

"Dash..." grumbled Applejack.

"Oh, um... I'm so very sorry Applejack. But you see... I'm not Rainbow Dash..." muttered a voice directly above Applejack.

"Oh! Hey there Fluttershy! Now I was just here thinking I had heard somethin'. Whatcha need?"

"Um, if you don't mind. Pinkie Pie wanted me to find you and ask if you wanted to come to a party at Sugarcube Corner."

"What would this here party be for?" Applejack asked questioningly, cocking her head to the side.

"Well, you know Pinkie Pie. Once her Pinkie-sense told her there would be a big storm, the first thing to come to her mind was to throw a party to keep everypony’s spirits high, hehe." Fluttershy grinned.

"Well best not keep her waiting. Let's get a move on."

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Just a few blocks away, Sugarcube Corner stood in all its delectable glory. Inside, one pink pony pranced about throwing streamers and tossing confetti around haphazardly as a single white unicorn mare sat upon a velvet cushion, outlining the latest fashion line that she was preparing to escort to Manehattan as her audience politely pretended to understand the subtle nuances of her craft.

"Pinkie darling”, Rarity began, slowly examining the decorations around the room, “don’t you think that there may be a few too many streamers? There’s not a spot of uncovered wall or ceiling to be found.”

“Silly Rarity, it's a party, you can never have too many streamers!" Pinkie Pie yelled over the music and the howling wind that had recently picked up from the rising storm outside.

“Wait, is that Gummy swimming in the punch bowl?" Rarity exclaimed as she dropped her cup, looking like she was going to be sick.

"So that’s where he went” laughed Pinkie. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

The door quickly opened as one orange earth pony tumbled in front of one spinning pegasus trying to stay aloft. The two ponies bounced across the room in a tumble of wind and leaves, their manes hanging damp. Rarity glared at their wet, untidy manes and rolled her eyes. She looked over to the open door framing the rain, watching as it began to increase in ferocity. The wind picked up leaves, small twigs, and pinecones in small spirals throughout the street. She pointed her horn towards the door and closed it with a brief glow of magic.

"Nice of you two dears to, well, drop in." said Rarity, still attempting to compose herself after deciding that from now on she would bring her own refreshments to Pinkie Pie’s parties.

"Hello y'all! It’s gettin’ windy out there, nearly got gusted into next week!" Applejack said as she attempted to dry off her hat and mane.

"YAY!" The pink pony exclaimed with excitement. "You made it to the party!"

"Hey, you two seen RD anywhere? She should be taking care of this here storm, and I haven't seen hide nor tail of her."

"I’m afraid not darling, but I am sure that she is fine and that everything..." Rarity began when the front door smashed open and Twilight Sparkle stood upon the threshold with a crazed look in her eyes as Spike nervously pulled a wagon full of sopping wet books behind her.

"Where in Equestria is Rainbow Dash? I have my own personal raincloud above my house that is getting flooded! You know, the house with all the books!"

"That's exactly what we were all discussing."

Thunder cracked all around the house, wind howled in constant torrents, trees cracked as they were uprooted. At this point, the noise of the storm grew deafening as rain cascaded outside of Sugarcube Corner. The five mares and one dragon settled down. Twilight eventually broke the silence once they had gotten comfortable.

"Ugh, let me try to locate her with a scrying spell."

"That’s gonna give you a headache again." Spike warned.

"Dash is our best hope of stopping this storm before it gets completely out of control. You have a better idea?"

The four mares huddled around Twilight, Spike merely drying off books and muttering to himself. Twilight concentrated, attempting to search for her friend amongst all the chaos. After a few moments, Twilight fell over and clutched her horn moaning.

“Told you, Twilight.”

“Not helping, Spike, urgh…”

The storm outside appeared to reach its peak, the booming thunder and flashes of lightning were concurrent, the wind screeched in torrents, and the downpour of rain threatened to flood the streets.

“Did it work? Did it? Did it? Did it? Did it? Did it? Did it?” Pinkie asked optimistically, hoping her friend hadn’t been hurt in the midst of this torrential downpour.

“YES!” Twilight yelled. Everyone shrunk a little or recoiled in the sudden outburst, most of all Fluttershy.

“I mean yes, it worked. She was napping when her cloud drifted away I’m pretty sure. Then there was just darkness for a while, until she finally flew back to Ponyville. She should be outside somewhere right now.”

“Tarnation! Napping for hours! She better be out there cleaning that storm.”

Then the door exploded. Flying through the room after its hinges snapped under the impact of a medium sized object, it embedding itself in the wall as its unlucky passenger slid to the ground. It was a pony, barely breathing. He moaned in pain as the five mares scurried to his side. Fluttershy tried to help him up when she noticed blood slowly pooling underneath the stallion. His chest had been caved in, bones cutting out through his skin and fur. Other than the storm, there was no sound in the room. Spike cried in his wagon. There had not been a fatal injury like this in the quiet town of Ponyville in years.

“Please…help…them…” The earth pony groaned quietly before closing his eyes and becoming silent.

“Oh Goddess. Is he?”

“Oh my, oh no, please don’t die…”

“I’m sorry ‘shy, there nothin’ we can do for him.”

“How could this have happened?”

“Who was he talking about?” Twilight glanced out of the doorway and was met with a horrendous sight, like something out of a nightmare. The storm was being guided to inflict as much damaged on ponies and the town as possible. Lightning struck the homes of Ponyville and fires raged, the rain having parted to allow the burning. The fires seemed to almost burn with hunger, leaping from building to building in a furious rage. Cyclones tore through the burning buildings, scattering ashes. Streets were gouged by the furious winds as the blood of the dead, struck by lightning or thrown against buildings, flowed in red currents. Some ponies were struck with debris, even impaled by timber. Ponies screamed and ran in every direction, trying to escape the violent wind that swept up ponies and slammed them back to earth. A cackling laugh swept over the town with malicious intent.

“I AM UNSTOPPABLE! RECOGNIZE MY GREATNESS! HAHAHAHAHA!”

Twilight looked up at a glimmer of color upon the blackened sky. A figure swept through the clouds at impossible speeds, controlling the currents.

“YOU CAN SEE IT NOW! MY POWER! I CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE! OBSERVE MY GLORY!”

Twilight watched as the figure swiftly swept down through the sky, as crackles of color and wisps of darkness snapped around her like electricity. She went faster and faster, speeding towards the ground, coated in color and darkness.

“Rainbo…?”

Then there was black.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading my first mlp fanfic! Any constructive crititcism is appreciated. Please note that this chapter is meant to be the prologue, therefore the point of view is not yet from Rainbow Dash. Don't worry, her trials and tribulation start in chapter one.

Any recommedations, tips, advice, or really anything would be helpful! Thanks!