//------------------------------// // Behold a Pale Horse // Story: Haylo: Sky Torn Asunder // by Avalanche56 //------------------------------// Chapter-5 Behold A Pale Horse August 5th 2552 Everfree forest, Equestria As he breached the canopy of the Everfree forest, Lukas soon spotted a small town to the west, ‘that must be Ponyville, Rainbow Dash did say it was to the west.’ Back on the ground Rainbow Dash was slowly recovering from the shock of watching Lukas rocket off into the sky without warning, after picking her jaw off of the ground she decided to stop sitting around and start following him. Rainbow Dash quickly took off and found Lukas hovering 20 feet above the canopy, ‘how is he doing that? He doesn’t have wings…’ Rainbow Dash was pulled out of her internal inquiry by the sound of a voice, Lukas’ voice to be exact. “Well speak of the devil, look who finally decided to show up, and here I was thinking you were the fastest flyer in Equestria.” Lukas spoke in a mocking tone while there was undoubtedly a smile under his visor, Rainbow couldn’t see it. “Hmph, I’ll show you that I am the fastest flyer in Equestria before the end of today,” she paused for dramatic effect, “by challenging you to a race!” “A race eh? Well, what are the rules to you challenge?” Lukas asked after contemplating the idea of a little friendly competition. “Simple, the first one to Ponyville library wins, that would be the big tree in the center of town.” She gestured with a hoof towards Ponyville. “Ok, but you have to take it easy, we both know you’re far from fully healed.” Lukas said in a tone that bid no argument. “Fine, I’ll go easy on you, but I have to warn you, I’ve outrun wolves before.” She said with a confident smirk. “Let me remind you none of those wolves were from another planet.” Lukas said with an equally confident smirk. “Yeah yeah, anyways, READY!SET!GO!” and with that Rainbow took an early lead, but Lukas had the wonder of space age technology to aid him in this endeavor. After about 30 seconds of flying Rainbow Dash decided to look over her should to see how Lukas was doing. He was doing fine, a little too good actually. “SURPRISE MUTHA FUCKA!” He yelled as he barreled past her at speeds more impressive than those of most other pegasi. Dash wasn’t just another pegasi though, and she wasn’t about to let some guy beat her in a race, the sky was her domain! Rainbow Dash redoubled her efforts and actually started trying to fly instead of lazily flapping her wings. For the next three minutes, Rainbow Dash and Lukas flew neck and neck, both where confident in their chance for winning. As they neared the outskirts of Ponyville Rainbow started to pull ahead of Lukas with considerable speed. This of course only served to boost her ego even more now that she was going to beat a space alien in a race! ‘Oh look she’s pretty fast,’ Lukas contemplated this statement in his head before laughing at himself, did she really think that he was gonna let some horse with wings win a race? That would be a bad first impressions for his race on this planet. After giving himself all the more reason to win this race he decided to go all out, ‘who cares if I win, as long as I don’t lose I’m content with life.’ And with that bit of sagely advice he activated his jetpack’s afterburners, these jetpacks were surprisingly powerful, enough even to lift a SPARTAN-II several hundred feet before slowing down. Lukas weighed as much as a feather when compared to the half-ton SPARTANs and he flew accordingly. - - - - - - - Today was a special day in Ponyville, not so much for all the inhabitants of the as for a certain lavender colored unicorn. Today was the anniversary of the beginning of her tutelage under Princess Celestia. Aforementioned Princess planned to enjoy the day with her prized pupil Twilight Sparkle, she had arrived about an hour ago and they had spent the time enjoying each other’s company in the warm embrace of the sun. As the two magical beings sat outside on large plush pillows talking about days past over a cup of tea, they noticed something rather odd, Rainbow Dash, the friendly neighborhood weather team captain and speed enthusiast, was flying through the air relatively fast. This wouldn’t have been such an odd sight if it hadn’t been for the bandages wrapped around her flank and for the fact that she was being chased by a large white and red thing, a large white and red thing that had no wings to fly with, but was still flying and was gaining on Rainbow Dash with considerable speed. And if that wasn’t the icing on the cake then it must have been the fact that they were headed straight towards the Golden Oaks Library, which Celestia and Twilight bot sat in front of. After completing a double team spit take, Celestia and Twilight both looked at one another in shock, Celestia being the first to recover quickly ordered her Royal Guard escort which included Shining Armor and some generic Royal Guard Pegasus to help Rainbow Dash and incapacitate the creature chasing her. “Guards!” the princess called out in an authoritative manner, “Apprehend that creature!” Normally Princess Celestia Maintained a calm demeanor, and while that was still true on the outside, she was rather bummed out on the inside that such an odd thing would happen on the day of the year that she most looked forward to. “Yes Princess,” the guards said with a salute before turning to face whatever danger lay ahead. Turns out that danger lay about 10 feet ahead. And it was doing anything but laying. It was, in fact, moving at such a speed that the captain of the Royal Guard barely had enough time to throw up a shield, which the living projectile smashed right through. - - - - - - - “I HAVE MADE A BAD DECISION!!!” Lukas screamed in fear as a shield wall was erected before him, only to be smashed away by his head. It slowed him a considerable amount and also served to knock him senseless, he tumbled a few yards, his jetpack having stopped after his first roll on the ground. When he stopped, he lay on his back and could make out the face of a large white horse looking down at him in anger and confusion. Before slipping into the familiar realm of unconsciousness he spoke a single sentence, “behold, a pale horse, and the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him."