//------------------------------//
// The Path of the Fallen 
// Story: Rainbow's Quest 
// by Zetriax 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 19- The Path of the Fallen
Rainbow Dash stepped onto the train behind Shadow Flare and Scootaloo. There were only a few passengers in their car. The three took a seat near the back.
Rainbow had hardly sat down when the train started forward. As the train picked up speed Rainbow gazed out the window. The trees and fields began to blur together as they gained momentum. This was how time felt to her. It began to go by faster and faster until it was hard to focus on any particular thing. She sighed heavily, turning her attention to the inside of the train.
Scootaloo shifted in a rather impatient looking way. She caught Rainbow’s eye and asked, “How long is this ride?”
Rainbow pondered for a minute before answering. She had taken this trip several times. “I’d say about three hours. Although, I remember one time, the train had to take a detour. That was the day the Cakes were entering in that dessert contest. It took all night to get there.”
Scoots’ eyes grew wide. “Well, I hope to Celestia we don’t have to take a detour! It’s already going to take long enough!”
“We’ll be there before you know it,” she reassured the orange pegasus pony.
Rainbow stretched her feathery wings. They felt tight as she pulled on them. Since arriving to the future, she’d been flying around less than she used too. Maybe the overall attitude of seriousness was weighing her down. That was something she would have to change. Her wings needed daily exercise and she was slacking off a bit. Just because she had a world to save didn’t mean she should put aside her health. There would be time enough to walk around when she grew old.
Shadow Flare, who was sitting in the seat across from the pegasi, watched as she stretched. “What are wings like? I mean, do they feel weird?”
Rainbow paused from her routine. “Not really. We pegasi are born with them, it feel no different than a tail or a leg. Much in the same way you’re born with a horn.”
An unreadable emotion seemed to cross Shadow’s features, but it passed as quickly as it had come. “Yeah. I guess it would be like that.”
Rainbow folded her wings neatly to her side and settled deeper into her seat. It would be a while before they reached Canterlot; she may as well get a bit more sleep. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift into sleep.
---
“And who might you be?”                                                                        
“I am nameless, soulless. I don’t even know if I even exist.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you wouldn’t, princess. You belong in this world. I belong to nothing!”
“Guards get rid of him!”
“Oh, you won’t get rid of me.”
“Sister! Warn Princess Twilight of this dangerous pony!”
“Oh, it’s not her I want. It’s you two!”
“What? What are you doing? What are you…”
Silence.
---
Rainbow woke with a jolt. What were those voices in her dream? Who were the ponies talking? She shook her head. Ever since Luna visited her dreams, they’ve been getting more and more bizarre. Why couldn’t her dreams be normal? As if her waking world wasn’t hard enough to believe already.
Then the train stopped abruptly, making her lurch forward. Shadow gazed around, alarmed. The book he had been reading fell to the floor. Scoots also wore an expression of dazed confusion and anxiety. Then the screams sounded from the front cars. Rainbow pricked her ears in worry. What was going on up there?
Suddenly, the screams came to an abrupt halt. The air chilled and the sky itself grew dark. Rainbow could see her breath billowing in front of her. The door at the front of the coach slowly opened. Rainbow gasped. The creature that stood in the doorway was in the general shape of an alicorn, but could not be described as one any further than that. It was a creature made from shadows. She could actually see the wisps of darkness floating off the creature’s body. The eyes were orbs of blue light. But the creature’s most unusual feature was the clock embedded in its chest.
“A Fallen…” she whispered. Scootaloo whimpered beside her and sunk below the back of the seat in front of her in an attempt to hide from the Fallen’s view.
“Mama, I’m scared,” came a filly’s fear-stricken whimper from further up the car.
The shadowy creature turned its crystalline blue gaze toward the young foal. It spread its shadowy wings, darkening the coach even more. The clock in its chest began to whirl and an aura began to surround its horn. Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was a split second; but before anypony knew what had happened, everything went back to normal. The train was moving as if it had never stopped and the sky shone with full morning light. It was easy to think it had just been her imagination. However, a chill still lingered in the air, and everypony was silent with either horror or shock. The only sound came from a weeping mare, crying for her missing daughter…