[Redacted]

by McPoodle

Prologue

Betwixt Brown and Gold 6:

[Redacted]

- Prologue -

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In her dreams, the ponies were fleeing, always fleeing.

They ran and flew as hard as they could, but it was never enough to escape. Their place of origin was a terror too awful to name, and their destination was a place equally horrifying.

In between, for this brief moment, they were safe, but only barely, for it was catching up to them.

Vinyl Scratch’s ears were full of the sounds of hooves pounding, of wings beating, of voices neighing in fear. No words could possibly suffice at a time like this, so no words were uttered. The smells of fear, of hopelessness, of failure, were everywhere. And clods of earth thrown up by pounding hooves assaulted them, as if the very earth had rejected them just as everyplace else had.

The dreams varied in how long they felt to Vinyl in the morning. Sometimes only a few minutes. Usually an hour or two. And one time, it felt like the dream lasted for days.

But it always ended the same way: Vinyl’s footing would slip, and she would be swallowed up by the crowd, her last sensation that of being unknowingly trampled to death by her friends and family.

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The war was entering its second month.