The Black Stallion
is a 2002 My Little Pony fanfic by Moondust2 about a guard pegasus' encounter with the titular black stallion.
In the unnamed pony's tribe, there's a mythical black stallion. Since anyone can remember, he's been watching over the tribe from afar. It's said that the Rainbow itself appointed him to watch over the ponies. When ponies die, the stallion comes for them.
Though, it's technically a My Little Pony fic, nothing in the story itself clearly ties back to the series, besides the references to rainbows and the implications that ponies are generally brightly coloured, so it can also be viewed as an original work. It depicts a different naming structure than used in canon and features the ponies in a tribal society.
This fanfic provides examples:
- Dark Fic: It's likely one of the earliest dark fics in the franchise. It's a somber story dealing with the subject of mortality.
- Fantastic Racism: Black ponies are despised and ostracized by the tribe. All-black ponies are seen as outright demonic. Few black ponies last past foalhood. The ones that do are treated as outcasts.
- The Grim Reaper: The black stallion acts as one to ponies. He watches the tribe from afar and takes ponies away once they die.
- The Hero Dies: The story starts with the black stallion coming for a pony. As it turns out, he's there for the protagonist, who is killed by a hungry nyru.
- Incurable Cough of Death: The first sign that Retari was deathly ill was that he had a cough that wouldn't go away.
- Mature Animal Story: The protagonists are talking ponies but the story is a Death Fic about mortality in a tribal society.
- No Name Given: The protagonist is never named.
- Snow Means Death: Winter is an especially dangerous time for young ponies. The main character's younger brother, Retari, died during winter.
