An Epitaph

by TimeSolidMetal

Prologue

“I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because
I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.
I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path.
I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death
as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence,
and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting.”
-Roger Ebert

Prologue

The Canterlot senator looked down at his chest; his eyes began to shut as the life sank from his body like a rock to the bottom of the dark ocean. His thick, red blood pooled on the hardwood bedroom floor as he lied there, inert on his side by his bed. The lights were out, aside from the hallway lamp illuminating into the room slightly. He could feel a gushing wound left in his own chest, precisely over his heart. He twitched his hoof in an attempt to move, but he was ultimately too weak and lacking of strength to stand. He managed to cock his head up slightly, looking at a pony standing over him. The pony wore a grey hooded trench coat, with two white, angelic wings hugging tightly to his back, and the metal mask of the devil himself; it was a mechanical masterpiece. It had the features of a pony’s skull, with two adjustable lenses in the empty, cold, metal eye sockets. The poor senator couldn’t believe what he was seeing, in the sanctity of his own home. He was seeing his own murder…

“Why..?”