Equestria: Rise of Cataclysm

Equestria. The land of ponies.

A land filled with sunshine and rainbows, magic and harmony. From their castle in Canterlot, at the very heart of Equestria, the kind and benevolent rulers, Princess Celestia, Regent of the Sun, and Princess Luna, Queen of the Night, governed the lands, ensuring both peace and happiness for all of their subjects. The majestic castle, set into the side of Canterlot Mountain, provides view to many of the land’s wonders, from the ice-covered mountains of the Frozen North, to the grandiose Pegasi city of Cloudsdale, to the quaint little town of Ponyville and the wild Everfree forest.

But look even further, past the Unicorn Range of the West, past the Crystal Empire of the North, past the extravagent, luxurious Las Pegasus to the south, and past the rustic frontier town of Appleloosa beyond that... and you'll see what has come to be known as the Badlands; a seemingly endless expanse of red dust and sand,  where predators roamed free and only the strong survived. Save for the changelings, a race of shape-shifting insect-pony hybrids that fed off the love of others, there was no intelligent life here. Not on the surface, at least.

A the very center of the Badlands, a single solitary mountain jutted out from beneath the barren wasteland, it's peak reaching high into the clouds; Mount Cataclysm. Once an active volcano, Mt. Cataclysm now lie dormant, a stagnant existence amidst a every-shifting sea of sand. Deep beneath the sleeping giant, hidden from the eyes of mortal beings, and known to none, save a few, lie a single, yawning cavern; a chamber, once lavishly decorated, now lay in utter ruin, the once stunning tapestries, now piles of dust, and the exquisitely carved statuettes eroded to dust, a single pool of lava filling the room with an earie red glow.

Seated at the far end of the cavern, a throne stood atop a raised dais, its black glass spikes crumbling with age. On that throne sat a figure known only to a few; a single dragonnequus, stone features unmarred by the test of time, and red ruby eyes glaring out, angry at the world that had slighted him.

Above ground, life went on. A certain dark Alicorn had returned from exile, and was made to see the light once more. A lonely god, spirit of chaos and disharmony, had broken free of his rocky prison only to be sealed away once more, and later released, as he too was shown the light of friendship. A tyrant king, bound in shadows and sealed in ice, rose again, only to be dethroned.

A tremor shook the entire cavern as these events did unfold. Loose stalagmites falling to shatter on the cave floor, what remained of the broken stone monoliths came crashing down, the dust from the tapestries swirled about violently on an invisible gust of wind.

And the ruby eyes of the dragonneguus shattered, as if made of broken glass, revealing two swirling orbs of crimson red.

Cataclysm had returned to Equestria.