//------------------------------// // The First Prophecy // Story: Last Ditch // by MaxKodan //------------------------------// Last Ditch Chapter 8: The First Prophecy Max Kodan Rainbow Dash exploded through the last cloud in the sky, laughing triumphantly. She grinned to herself through her heavy breathing. Cloudclearing was her job, but it could also be a great form of stress relief. She wiped her brow and surveyed her work. The sky was almost completely cleared. Wait, almost? She squinted out into the distance, towards the setting sun and saw one she’d missed. She sighed, feeling the cross between frustration with herself for missing one and glee that she could get a good flying start to make this cloud bust completely and totally awesome. For a moment, as she wound up, she wondered if she could time a Sonic Rainboom just as she hit the cloud. Now THAT would be awesome. The blue pegasus grinned at the thought and rocketed forward, knowing that she couldn’t actually build up enough momentum to hit her signature move. She’d make it a grand display nonetheless. Her eyes narrowed as the wind rushed past her face. She was horizontally level with the cloud now. Just a few more seconds and she would blast the thing to oblivion. She echoed a countdown to awesome in her head. 5... 4... 3... Rainbow Dash gasped to herself, but didn’t have time to stop. The cloud, as she grew closer and closer, looked pitch black. She yanked herself backwards harshly, her right wing protesting sharply. The sudden change of speed started her tumbling haphazardly towards the dark mass. She felt the breath ripped from her lungs even as she approached caused by the centripetal force rather than the expected poison of the cloud. Her body crashed through the cloud and a few moments later she hit the ground hard, again on the wing that had been troubling her. Her still-closed eyes winced at the feeling. She groaned to herself, but breathed shallowly. It was hard, but she knew the only thing to do was to open her eyes. So she did. Slowly, painstakingly, she creaked her eyes open just a crack. What she saw was a complete relief. The sun was playing more tricks on her. From her position, the cloud had been a silhouette: The white remnants of cloud that were now fading proved that to her. The weathergirl heaved a sigh of relief as she pushed herself to her feet. She tested the wing she’d landed on. It hurt just to stretch it out: She’d pulled a muscle pretty badly. For now, that was ok. For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel like flying. ----- It wasn’t all that long before Rainbow realized that she would have trouble getting to her house. That was the down side of living in a cloud. That and the unexpected thunderstorms. Either way, it was getting late, and finding a place to sleep was top priority. For a moment, she thought of asking one of her friends if she could spend the night. The mental conversation she held with each of them didn’t end well. Each of them would think that she was scared of the nightmare she’d had. But she just needed a place to sleep for the night. She crossed her arms and sighed, thinking hard of a solution. Well, the clouds were clear. Perhaps a night under the stars wouldn’t be all that bad. At some point the sun had sunk below the horizon. The terror she’d felt only moments before now reared it’s head in a different form: Fatigue. She groaned and stretched, heading towards the nearest tree to herself. Using all the strength she had left, she gave herself a mighty push with her legs and beat her wings as hard as she could once. It sent a stab of pain down her spine, but it was just enough to get her to a wide branch that she could lay down on. Relaxing felt good. The tension drained from her wing and the throbbing dulled. She’d had many an injury, and this one was no different. She’d be flying by tomorrow. Full speed in 3 days. She let the thought of soaring through the air soothe her as she drifted slowly into a deep slumber. ----- When Rainbow Dash awoke, it was still night time. She groaned and rolled over, attempting to bring the covers over her head. It was then that she remembered that she didn’t have any covers. And that she was sleeping a tree branch. And the tree branch wasn’t wide enough to roll over on. WHUMP!/ Gravity must be getting it’s revenge on her today. But her wing didn’t hurt as badly, and she had landed on her good side anyway. Dazed, she forced herself to stand. With a yawn, she turned her gaze upwards. Still dark. In that case, back to sleep. As she stood to walk towards the base of the tree, not wanting to re-injure herself, she saw the sun peeking it’s head over the horizon. “Mmm...What a nice sunrise...” She smiled to herself, admiring the view. The sunrise....the... “Wait...” Her eyes shot to the sky again. Still black. “N-no way!” She felt herself fall into a panic, her breath already shortening as she remembered her dream. And this time, no matter which way she looked at it, the black wasn’t going away. This time it seemed to be the real thing. Her brain was screaming at her legs to run, but they wouldn’t move. She stood there planted to the ground, unable to lift a hoof. A million thoughts barraged her psyche. She needed to find that spell. To do that, she would need to release Disc-NO! She shook her head. She couldn’t free him. That would just make things worse. She needed to run to Twilight, and she needed Spike to send a letter to Princess Celestia. Yeah, that would be the best thing to do... She whipped her head around. Last night she was so tired that she hadn’t paid any attention to where she’d laid down for the night. She blanched when she realized the truth. The unwitting pegasus had taken a nap within a stone’s throw of Discord. She didn’t remember being in the statue garden, but there she was, and there he stood, face frozen in shock. Her legs moved without her thinking. She slowly paced up to the statue, her mouth agape in awe. He had the answer. He knew the spell. Release me. Release me, and I’ll fix it all. His voice echoed through her mind. She stared into his eyes. Even in their petrified state, they were somehow hypnotic. Dash thought and thought, all the while staring into his eyes. Eventually, the thought of Cloudsdale encroached her mind. In the middle of the night, the entire city choking, dying... The shiver that it sent down her side was just enough to tear her gaze from his eyes. It was a lucky happenstance that it did, as well. The moment her eyes left his, they fell on something else interesting. His tail. A scroll that she had never seen before, just as petrified as it’s holder, was wrapped by the end of his tail. Even from this distance, she could see the words imprinted on it. “Abhichaara: A Message for the Future.” She approached it cautiously, but quickly. She glanced back to the rest of Discord’s body, but it remained motionless. “You know what, Discord...I’m the Element of Loyalty. I won’t release you...” She raised a hoof to the scroll, and with the very tip of it she touched the stone paper. “But I helped seal you in there, and I can get a part of you out. Especially if that part is just this piece of paper here!” From her hoof, the color of the statue changed. The scroll, and just the scroll, took on the color of stained oak and parchment. The constitution changed, and the paper softened, falling out from the curled end of the tail and landing with a heavy “Thwump” on the ground. The pegasus could hardly believe she did it. She blinked in surprise, staring down at the scroll. She had released the curse, but just on the all important artifact. The rest of the statue remained untouched. She snapped out of her victory and reached her neck down to grab the string that tied the scroll. She swung it up and over her shoulder, then turned away. “Alright then! So long, sucker! I got some black magic to bust!” She kicked some dirt back onto the base of the statue and threw herself forward. Her wing was still too injured to fly, but she flapped them anyway to give her a little extra speed. Behind her, the statue stood, completely still, completely silent. ----- About an hour later, Twilight Sparkle stood on the balcony of the main hall. She raised an eyebrow, looking over the scroll that Rainbow Dash had run up to her with. It did seem to detail the phenomenon exactly: A spreading darkness covering the sky. She looked up past her reading to inspect it once more. Within the last 30 minutes, the black mass had doubled in size. Still something troubled her aside from the danger. “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but...” Twilight turned to look at her anxiously pacing friend, “Where did you get this scroll? I’ve never even heard of this Abhichaara...” “Just read the spell!” Dash shouted. “I can explain everything later, but if we wait too long, who knows what’ll happen!” She shot a glare at the unicorn, but almost immediately softened. “Ah, I’m sorry, Twilight, I just...this is really bad, right?” Twilight sighed and nodded, turning back to her work. She studied the end of the scroll and took a deep breath. This was a tough one indeed. She closed her eyes tightly and focused, dropping the scroll from her magical grasp to give her all to the spell. She hunkered down and her horn glowed a more and more intense purple. Rainbow Dash looked up, biting her lip nervously. If this didn’t work... The pegasus began sweating profusely, but she didn’t make a sound. Whatever she was doing to cast this spell, she was working hard at it. Her body began to shudder, her tail straightened, her mane began to lift off of her neck just a little. Dash’s eyes shot back and forth between the oppressing cloud and her distressed friend. Finally, something changed in the cloud. The pegasus readied herself, taking the jar that they had prepared earlier into her mouth. The Abhichaara began to change in color, now glowing slightly purple. A light sound began drifting from Twilight’s mouth, and her legs began trembling. Dash hunkered down, shivering just a bit. It would hurt like hell on her bad wing, but she was prepared to go as fast as she could. “Come on, Twilight, come on...” She muttered under her breath. Finally, the low moan from the unicorn turned into a loud cry. The purple color completely overtook the cloud, and like a rubber band it snapped inwards, compressing to a tiny point. Dash leaped into action and beat her wings furiously, making a beeline for the place the Abhichaara had collapsed to. Preparing the jar, she grew nearer and nearer, and with a final flap she swung the jar forward, entrapping the tiny pebble-sized mass of shifting black color that remained. The jar swung and locked shut with the momentum. The pegasus returned to the balcony and her friend, who was lying on her side, breathing heavily. She herself landed tenderly and placed the jar on the floor before falling over, cringing at the throbbing in her sore wing. About five minutes later, she struggled to her feet, and urged Twilight to do the same. They both stood wordlessly, and after catching their breath Twilight picked up the jar and placed it in her bag. Too tired to speak, Rainbow Dash rerolled the scroll, swinging it over her shoulder. No more than ten minutes later, the pair had passed out on the floor of the library, snoring silently. ----- Spike, being the industrious dragon he was, grabbed some blankets for the both of them, took the bag and the scroll, and laid everything neatly on the table. Then, taking advantage of the situation, he leaped into his own bed for an early-morning nap. On the table, the black mass inside the jar bounced around energetically. For now, however, there seemed to be no escape for it. Later, the two would handle it. Right now, both of them drifted into a silent, dreamless slumber.