The High Blue Ceiling & The Low Dark Everywhere

"Have you ever wondered where the sun goes when it's dark?"

It was another cold, wet night in Trottingham when I asked myself that question. I can barely remember my own mother's face, let alone where I grew up or where I asked myself that question, but everything after that's as clear as polished crystal. You see, the rest of the kids were all asleep, and due to some pedophile caretaker harassing the fillies after hours, the help wasn't allowed to stay overnight anymore. The job of making sure we weren't up all hours doing Celestia knows what fell to a little old mare by the name of Pillowcase. This is all in hindsight, because at the time, I didn't know why all the big ponies had just up and left. I wasn't bothered too much though. In fact, I was actually relieved. It made my nighttime... actives much easier to do, and I didn't have to coldcook in a broken down pub anymore, so that was a plus.

I remember it pretty distinctly, actually. We all lived in one of those old fashioned Platinum Age houses. You know, the ones where the piping's made from crystal and the walls kind of glow with enchantments? Those ones. Anyways, all the younger foals were asleep, and the older bucks were out on their nightly rounds. I knew a couple fillies who pushed the local street corner. Pushing meaning 'selling drugs' for all you non-versed. There was one guy who I swore was seventeen, he used to launder money for the local Capos before he tried skimming some profit from Kayf's gang. That ended about as well as you'd expect it to. Needless to say, he isn't with us anymore.

Where was I? Oh yeah! So there I was, making what I like to call a Wild Card. See, what you do is, you take five or so sapphires, which are semi-precious so you can find them anywhere, really, you can use whatever semi-precious gem you want. It just depends on how much you can get, and what quality. Me personally, I like uncut sapphire, but each to their own. So, continuing onwards, what you do is, you grind them all up with magic or a magical grinder or just a plain old grinder, until they're a nice fine powder. If you're using uncut gemstones, then you can use a filter. It should be a fine filter, to separate the gem from the sediment and other minerals. Add a 30% liquid nitrogen solution, seven cups of crushed up Poison Joke, stir it all up, freeze it 'till morning, and voila! It's one of my more personal favorites, and I was just lucky enough to score some liquid nitrogen after Pop Rock, one of the Pusher fillies I was talking about earlier, came into some. She didn't tell me where she'd gotten it from, but she was a pretty cool girl, so I let it slip.

What it basically does, again, depending on what type of gemstone you used, is cause an... opposite reaction. Take the Sapphires for example, if you threw a Wild Card at a pony, they'd be a bit put out by someone throwing explosive glitter at their face, sure, but they wouldn't mind. Everypony else though, would mind, because the pony in question is fully on fire. They can't feel it, and it doesn't do any damage, but it's on fire. See, that's the beauty of it. The Poison Joke reacts in direct opposition to the gemstone's magical property. The concoction usually works best with Quartz because ponies usually use it as a magical amplifier, which means it doesn't have any specific properties of its own, which means the Poison Joke just makes its own properties, it can get fucking great.

Sorry, sorry, I'll get back to the point.

So there I was, sitting in little kitchen. The brew wouldn't be cold enough until morning, but I couldn't go back to sleep, which is why I was sitting there, cooking up another batch with some quartz, when the question hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember sitting down and just... thinking about it for the longest time. So long, that I ended up forgetting to add the liquid nitrogen, which just turned the quarts-joke paste into a catastrophe that melted into the countertop and turned it orange. I remember gazing out the window into the drizzling rain, out across the street to the giant, incandescent lights of the Currency Exchange building. I mean, really, where does it go? It's a giant flaming ball for Celestia's sake! Where does it go at night? If its a clear day, I can usually see the moon from afar, but I never see the sun at night when I look real close.

I wonder if the Sun's like one of Luna's stars, and it's just out here, shining on us and keeping us all warm and fuzzy.

Does it feel? Can it feel? What does it feel like to be put down at the end of the day and be sent to oblivion? Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of theories, not that Celestia's tried to disprove them, or even try to explain where it goes. I just don't know, nopony really knows.

And, as nutty, convoluted, and confusing as it all sounds, that's the story of how Equestria's first Anarchist came into being. Some may call it the road to truth, and others'll call it the road to redemption. Me? I'd like to call it the road to destruction, because that's... basically what happened.