It was Equestria where the rain drops blood instead of water, and the blood goes through the walls and through the paintings on the walls, and the paintings drip the blood onto the floors making the houses reek of murder, and the murderous stench wafts through the smoke of the crumbling chimneys making it hard to walk around the land without feeling sick. It was Equestria that was suffering it's own great depression. For has hard as the ponies, pegasi and unicorns tried to smile, the ruler of the land Lord Tirek would demolish the fun instantly.
And even though it was fifteen years ago...the ponies, pegasi and unicorns still remember that day when the rainbow reminded them. Now there were no rainbows, but even if there were, they would still bring a sharp shudder to everypony instead of a warm hug. Fifteen years ago, when Lord Tirek was defeated by Princess Twilight Sparkle and restored the magic of everypony, he was sent back to Tartarus forever. But something must've happened through the next few moonless nights, as Tirek escaped once again and rampaged all of Equestria without a second thought. He sucked in the magic of the Celestia, Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armour, Prince Blueblood and Discord in one breath and imprisoned them to Tartarus. That was all he needed to do. Their magic was so powerful that he was able to be in his strongest form again. On top of this, he now had the ability to raise the sun perform endless chaos (he had no need for the power of love and friendship). This threatened the rest of Equestria, and so the entire land had no choice but to bow down to the centaur and honour him as the new king. Everypony was surprisingly still allowed to use their magic, but only under Lord Tirek's strict rules. This is only the beginning of the great depression.
Despite his desire to steal more magic at frequent executions, Lord Tirek kept four of the most powerful ponies safe. He needed King Sombra to look over the Crystal Empire, he knew Chrysalis' changeling army would be useful (and she was quite smitten by him too), Luna needed to raise the moon as he already rose the sun (which is hard work even for Tirek's power)...and then there was Fluttershy. There was no mistake that Fluttershy was indeed beautiful, so no matter how useless she was to him he wouldn't let anyone harm her. She was to be locked in his castle and forced to be his wife, even though she was already devoted to Discord.
A few years after Tirek's coronation, Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armour and Prince Blueblood died of starvation in Tartarus due to the lack of food already happening in Equestria. Tirek would rather feed Fluttershy and her friends instead of the prisoners. Because the element of magic herself died and didn't pass on her magical teachings, the elements of harmony became useless to Tirek and were handed to someone else to hide them. This left only Celestia and Discord to stop Tirek, but it was no use. Unless Tirek dies, there is no other way for Equestria to be like it was before.
The depression only grew worse and worse. And at the same time, Discord's desire for revenge grew...every time he saw the rain drop blood. But now fifteen years has passed. His and Celestia's sentence was over. They ignore the bloody rain, take a ship, and head to Canterlot.
