Last Ditch

by MaxKodan

The Fastest Thing Alive

A rainbow carved it's way through the forest, swerving perfectly between the trees. It burst through the outermost layer of foliage and shot straight into the air, then angled itself 90 degrees exactly and rocketed through the sky, skimming the bottom of the clouds before diving up through them. Each cloud it passed began to flip and spin and stretch, so that soon the rainbow that crossed the whole sky was trailed by an expanding mass of clouds pulled in by it's back-draft.

Rainbow Dash smirked to herself. She'd finally perfected it: The Sonic Rainboom. She now had complete control. It felt like the world around her had slowed to a crawl. She saw everything in front of her and could take her time, planning out in advance what would happen in mere instants. She took a breath: This was the most tiring part. The blue pegasus slammed on the breaks, beating her wings backwards and pulling herself up so that she could slow down as gently as possible. It took more effort than she expected, and by the time she stopped, she was tired and sagged a little in her flight. Still, she smiled to herself. This was the best part. Seeing the artwork she'd created in the clouds. She turned, panting softly, and admired her work.

At least, for a moment she did. Even as she watched, the clouds were still moving. That was normal enough, but they were starting to form something. The abstract beauty began to look vaguely familiar. It wasn't until the cloud apparition's eyes opened that she realized that the dragonlike body of Discord had formed behind her in the clouds, and was now yawning and stretching. "My, my, that's quite impressive, little filly," the clouds echoed. "I dare say stunning, beautiful! Good show indeed."

Dash couldn't move. Only after snapping out of her confusion did she realize that her wings weren't moving either, and she had to work them even harder to slow her fall and land on the ground safely. She gaped up at the clouds, not quite sure what to think. "Discord? What are you-...Shouldn't you be stuck in a statue somewhere?" She smirked, her shock giving way to confidence. This was obviously some kind of trick, and one she wasn't about to fall for. The clouds roiled around and reformed as a giant likeness of Discord's face, which opened it's mouth and spoke to her.

"To be perfectly honest, I am." His eyes rolled, as if reminding him was more annoying than infuriating. He shrugged, though how he did that with no shoulders, the pegasus couldn't say, and continued. "I just figured I'd take a little sabbatical to visit my favorite little speedster." He smiled, not unkindly, down from the blue sky.

"You took a break. From being encased in stone. I'm pretty sure that's now how it works." Dash frowned and tilted her head, genuinely confused. "And hey, why are you in the clouds? Why don't you come down here and talk to me face to face? Or are you too scared cause you know we'll just kick your mismatched butt again?" She grinned, hunkering down and digging her hooves in, kicking the dirt with her back legs as if she were warming up to charge right through his nimbus-ridden throat.

"Isn’t the better question why you aren’t coming up here? Perhaps you’ve forgotten, my little speedster, but it took six of you last time. By yourself? You don’t stand a chance against me.” He stuck his tongue out tauntingly at her and making some sort of rude noise. This was the last straw Dash needed before she snapped, thrusting herself forward with a war cry, speeding straight into the cloudy maw.

She almost immediately regretted the decision. The jaw was like a gateway to some other realm. She screeched to a halt and looked around, gaping at the new surroundings. The ground below seemed relatively normal. The sky, however, was in much worse shape. Everything was black. Not the normal kind of black, but a deep, inky, starless blackness. A lack of light that took on a physical presence. The pegasus found that it was hard to breath, and asphyxiation was creeping in. Every flap of her wings was strained and difficult, and the need to lower herself to the ground overpowered her desire to stay in the air.

Safely back on terra firma, the rainbow-maned hero coughed so violently she feared she’d regurgitate a lung. As she started to calm down and her breathing evened out, she felt a presence behind her. She swung around a bit too fast, and her head gave a good throb. Her vision settled and the two blurry figures solidified into one single Discord. He stood there, staring up at the sky, a grimace plastered on his face. Whether it was fake or not, the slightly addled pony couldn’t quite tell.

“It’s just awful, isn’t it?” The draconequus clicked his tongue and shook his head. “It’s a terrible sight, but I’m afraid it is quite well on it’s way. Have you ever seen anything like it before?” He looked down with something approximating sympathy at the staggering pony before continuing. “Of course you haven’t, it hasn’t been seen for thousands of years. See, it’s called “Abhichaara”. It spawned from a spell mishap a foolish unicorn mage attempted to cast back before Equestria was fully formed. He created a living black cloud that spread and choked the skies. The ground seemed safe, but then again, before they could see it’s effects fully, a group of other unicorns formed and banished the Abichaara. Or, something close to it. They missed a bit.

“It floated around a bit, just a tiny speck. But it’s on it’s way to Ponyville.” He stared down at Rainbow Dash. She was mostly snapped out of her daze, but she was stone silent. She was looking the entity of discord right in the eye. Lots of spunk in this one. “You’ve had a taste of it yourself. And once it gets here, it’s going to explode and grow and spread...And it will choke anything above the treeline. In less than a day it will reach Cloudsdale.” This struck a chord. The hard eyes twitched.

The pegasus worked to comprehend the information. “L-liar!” It was loud, but it was tentative. Discord smiled in return, shaking his head slowly.

“No no, my dear. I’m not lying. Not at all.” He leaned down and got close. Dash took a step back. He smiled widely and pursued. “The spell used to create this monstrosity was lost to the annuls of time. As was the spell used to get rid of it. But you see, something else was lost to time. Something you know quite well.” He paused. “Me, of course.” His eyes swirled as the clouds had before. Soon enough she was entranced.

“I know it. I know the spell. I know both of them. And I’ll give you the one that’ll stop all this. With a little help, you can get rid of the Abichaara forever. But I’m the only one who knows the spell. I’m the only one who can help you. So there’s only one thing you can do...”

He didn’t so much say what came next, but she saw it. Some kind of explosion, and the statue she saw cracked and exploded in kind, a bright white light blinding her.

She woke up just as the sun was creeping over the clouds. In a panic, she gazed around at her surroundings. She was in her bed in her home of clouds, but at first glance, the glare from the window made the walls look pitch black. She had no time for thinking. She leapt out of bed and rocketed out the door, flying as fast as she could away from something that may not have ever been there.