Lightning

by Mr Foster

Chapter 6

“C’mon, let’s go!” Shouted Rainbow Dash, who then flew into the portal. I flew in after her, and I found myself stripped of my flight control, just flying through different dimensions, or perhaps time. The first dimension was a time before ponies, and there was these massive reptilian creatures walking through the jungle. Then I hit the ground, and went through it, and I was falling through the air, smelling burnt flesh, and I looked down. The forest was barren, and I saw skeletons of ponies everywhere. I felt a sandstorm blowing me around, and I saw a mushroom cloud emerge in the distance. A mega spell? Perhaps. I went through the ground a final time, and found myself standing up on a black beach. Rainbow Dash was right next to me, and we looked at each other. We had a mixture of confusion, and pure happiness.

“Well, I think we’re here.” Said Rainbow Dash, slightly smiling. I looked around, the mist surrounding us. It was completely barren, but we weren’t alone. I saw red eyes all around us, and they were getting closer to us. Out of one of the mist clouds walked a changeling, but it was morphed, covered in blood, half of its face torn off. More deformed creatures walked out of the mist, including ponies, dragons, griffons, and even the once powerful chrysalis. She was drooling blood, dragging herself with her front legs. Her eyes were torn out, and she moaned with pain.

“Welcome to my realm, ponies.” I heard a voice say. A huge red Alicorn flew down from the heavens, her coat dark as blood, her horn and wings black as night. It had no eyes, instead stitched together sockets. It landed, grinning evilly at me.

“So, you are the two excuses for warriors Celestia sent after me?” Asked the Alicorn, whom I presumed was the goddess of destruction.

“Eeyup.” I say, slightly grinning. The Alicorn growled, and then appeared in front of my face, planting a hoof onto my chest. I immediately felt my chest close up, and I saw my whole mane and coat turn black. I sputtered out blood, and fell to my knees. I had been completely taken over by “dread” in a matter of seconds. But how? Could this Alicorn have connections with Discord, who’s lingering plus the pollution had caused the sickness. I stood up, barely able to keep my own weight, and the color subsided. I guess it was only temporary disablement.

“You’re going to be tougher than most of them, aren’t you?” Asked the Alicorn, kicking at the dirt. She raised her wings, trying to scare me off, when I saw it.
Her cutie mark was a white circle, surrounded by black liquid. In the middle, it had an outline of a flying Alicorn. It was also Equestrian oil’s logo. I gasped, and backed up a bit. I had worked for her, spread the sickness, and in fact, sent out her most important thing of all. I realized all of this sickness and madness that was going on was my fault, due to my loyalty to Equestrian oil.

“Yeah. I think I am.” I retorted, and I flew at her. I was already encircled in electricity, due to my anger of being duped into helping this treacherous monster.
I hit her with my hoof, and she was sent sprawling in surprise, being shocked. Rainbow Dash started to kick away the monsters, who were now trying to protect their master. Old ponies, dead changelings, even monsters, like a hydra, and a dragon, were now trying to kill me.
I lunged at the Alicorn, my left wing aimed at her neck. It grinded against her super tough skin, tearing some of the mechanical feathers off. I landed face first and made a recovery. The Alicorn turned around, lowering her horn. I dodged out of the way, but it was no use. She fired a red laser, which hit me square in the chest. My aura went down, and I was sent flying, as the red energy tore me apart. All of my cuts re-opened, breaking multiple bones, and ripping more cuts around my body. I hit the ground, and rolled over.

That’s when I saw it. About 200 yards away from me, in the black water, was a lone island, with a lonely looking pedestal. I saw a weird separation in the grey clouds around the pedestal, and it lighted up what was resting on top of it.

The guardian scroll.

“Rainbow Dash! Hold them off as best as you can!” I shouted, pointing at the pedestal. She immediately understood, and started fighting with fury I had only seen at the best young fliers competition, when she was chasing after rarity.

I jumped to my hooves, even though I had multiple fractures and broken bones, and sprinted to the water’s edge, where I was stopped by something coming out of the water. It was a monstrous copy of Fluttershy, one of Rainbow Dash’s friends in Ponyville. Her eyes were gone, leaving empty sockets, blood dripping out of them. Her mane was matted with blood and she had a big, metal, spiked collar around her neck, the spikes covered with blood. She had a chain and ball connected to her right back leg, and she was torn apart. I knew it wasn’t actually her, due to the lack of cutie mark, but it was still a disturbing sight. I jumped back, and I heard the cackle of the Alicorn. I turned away, and I saw another charge of energy coming from her horn. I raised my aura, trying to block the pure destruction energy that was coming out of her horn, but it was no use.

She hit me, the explosion of the energy only dampened by my aura, sending me skipping across the water. Bad mistake. I landed on the island, picking myself up with what little strength the explosion had left me, and walked to the pedestal. I took the scroll in my teeth, and I turned back to the battle going on at the beach. I heard a cackling, and I saw Rainbow Dash being captured by a mutated crocodile by the jaws. I saw blood spatter out of her mid-section, and I heard her scream in agony.

“Rainbow!” I screamed across the water. My aura grew, until I was completely engulfed in 6 inches of electricity. I ran across the water, seeing as how my wing was broken, but the aura kept me afloat. Rainbow Dash was engulfed in darkness, and I was left alone, in a ring of bodies. The bodies crumbled, turning into black dust. Just like I had seen at the camp near the temple.

“Failed again, have we? Don’t worry, you may have gotten the scroll, but I have your loved one. You have a choice. You can either go home, save pony kind, or you can save your beloved ‘Dashie’, but lose most of the pony race. Your choice, Lightning. I’ll be waiting.” Said the distorted voice of the Alicorn.

I pondered my decision. While it was true that I needed to get home, and save the ponies, I would have enough time, anyhow, right? I pondered that as well, and some of my geography classes came up in my head. Usually, when there’s a portal used, to go to a different dimension, time is usually multiplied by the number of users of a portal. There had been 2 of us, so time was sped up by 200%. This entire math thing was making my head spin. Now I figured out why Celestia only wanted 2 of us to go through, because if we had more, it would be harder to reach the deadline. If we wouldn’t have found this temple, then I would have never made the dead line, seeing as how the other portal was at the end of the Griffons lands, and it would be hard as hell to get to. I got a head ache, and I realized my magic was wearing off, and the pain was coming back. I threw off my saddle bags, and then applied some magic bandages, and drank a medical potion. While it did numb the pain, it wasn’t what I needed. I started walking down the beach, hoping for something that would never happen.

I had been walking for about 5 hours at this point, so it would be getting dark by now in Equestria. I had long thought about my decision, and that either way, I would lose. I guess the Goddess of Destruction was also pretty crafty, seeing as how she knew that Rainbow Dash meant a lot to me. I kicked a pebble along, and then I looked up to the sky. I saw the gray clouds shooting out lightning in the distance, and I had an epiphany. She would be waiting for me. That meant she wanted me to go to her. She knew I would get Rainbow Dash back, but she would stall in the process, so that I would never make it back in time. I knew what I had to do, but it was crazy.