When Darkness Falls (Reboot)

(This chapter was written by yours truly: FlimFlamBros.)

There was once a time when Equestria was a land of peace and harmony, a land that was blessed with happiness, and spared the horrors of war and conflict.

We were as foolish as foals to think that it would last forever, and in the end, we probably should have seen it coming. Nothing gold can stay, a friend of mine once said. A little poetic for my taste, but it was no less true: ’Nothing gold can stay, in the wind it blows away. It will never be the same, for him it was a game.

Games. That what he called it: A little game. A bit of harmless fun and mayhem to loosen us all up. I remember how this had all escalated. The chaos, the misery, the pain. It was all just a joke to him, a silly practical joke from the king of mischief. Apparently, the dead ponies and the burning of my home town could be seen as pretty fucking hilarious. I watched as their blood poured down like waterfalls, bones crushed by falling walls...as my parents were mauled and torn apart...

My name is Asher. I was a typical Pegasus: A dark grey coat, long messy black and white mane and tail, wings, the whole nine yards. I lived in a little mountain town called Aspen. I can’t remember the details of Aspen, only that it was beautiful, with small, cozy cottages dotting the rocky landscape. It had that sense of sanctuary to it, a sense that we eventually found out to be false. It was the fake haven that dotted the side of Mt. Hedon.

The actual mountain was not that high, only half the height of the Canterlot mountain. There was a small amount of snow capping the tip, but the mountain was mostly covered in dense forest. Because of this, Aspen was primarily a lumber town. Midway up Mt. Hedon was a waterfall that flowed out into a stream, snaking its way down the mountain and through Aspen, until finally forming Lake Aspro.

I used to live in a fairly normal, two story home, with plain siding and many windows. My mother loved to let light into the house, mostly so she could read her books. Both my mother and father worked for living by making instruments, which ranged from trumpets to lyres.

My father was an Earth pony named Elden. His coat was a rusty brown, and his tail and mane were dark gray, cut very short. My mother, Sun Rays, was a watery blue Pegasus with a copper colored tail and mane.

Then there was me. My coat is gray like a shadow, my mane and tail are black with white tips, and my eyes are a lush green. Like my mother, I was a Pegasus. In my youth, I heavily enjoyed flying. I would perform acrobatic stunts, tricks, and shows for the townsfolk. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that joy, however, or any real joy, to be frank. But I’m getting there…

I was soaring across the sky, as I sometimes liked to do when I had breaks from training. My father had always pushed me towards a military career, always saying that I would have to be strong one day, and that I had to be able to protect my loved ones. Poor bastard. He never knew how right he may have been. I hated it, the training that is. All I ever wanted to do was to be a performer, to perform tricks in front of millions of awe-inspired ponies. Maybe I could even join the Wonderbolts one day! Thinking back, it all looked like a pipe dream.

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“Hey Asher!” a voice called from below me. I looked down in response. It was Cloud Walker, a strangely named grey and purple Earth pony, that also happened to be my best friend. “Ashey, get down here! I need to talk to you!” I hated when he called me that. I reluctantly glided down to him and sat down on one of the many tree branches.

“What’s up, Cloud?” I asked, lying down on the tree branch. I let my legs hang down lazily, swinging in the breeze.

“Guess what? I figured it out!” he shouted happily, jumping up the branches with unnatural agility. He was a strange one, Cloud Walker. You could easily tell that his mother was a Pegasus. With the way that he seemed to jump from branch to branch, you could have sworn he had wings. “I figured out how we can get out of this town!”

I rolled my eyes. “Not this again,” I said bluntly. Another fun fact about Cloud: He really wanted to be an adventurer, like Daring Do, or the founders of Equestria. Every week or so he would come up with some hair-brained scheme to raise enough money to fund an exposition. He would keep going on about all these unexplored lands that lay beyond the mountains and seas that surrounded Equestria, and how he was going to be the first to discover some new land, calling it, ‘Cloudtopia’.

“You don’t understand, Asher!” he explained, swinging onto the branch I was sitting on. “I worked out all the kinks this time! It’s absolutely, positively foolproof!” he cried happily.

“And what would it be this time?” I drolled with fake enthusiasm. “Is it better than your plan to sell our bodies? Because that was my personal favorite.”

“Mine, too!” he said happily, oblivious to my sarcasm. “But this one is even better!”

I sighed. “Let me guess: We rob a bank?”

“Nope.” He responded.

“We sell lemonade?”

“Err! Wrong!”

“We ask our parents for money?”

“Of course not!”

Scratching my head, I asked “Then, what is it?”

“We leave!” he said proudly.

I sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. “What?!”

“We leave!” he repeated. “We just take what we can in our saddlebags, and just take off! Who needs money when we can travel town to town and work odd jobs to fund our travels?”

“Cloud, listen to yourself” I said sternly, and with concern. “Are you seriously just thinking about jumping ship and leaving? What about our parents? Do you think that they’ll just smile and wave goodbye to their sons?”

“They won’t care.” he mumbled. “I know mine won’t. They’ve been looking for an excuse to kick my flank outta here for a while.”

“Well, mine are a little more strict than that.” I muttered. “My father still has me training with the cadets. He’d shit a brick if he found out I went on some random vacation.”

“Adventure.” Cloud corrected.

I sighed. “Whatever you wanna call it, I just can’t do it.” The truth was, I would give anything to leave this town. I wasn’t really into the ‘adventuring’ thing like Cloud Walker was, but I felt trapped here, under the cage of my father and his desire for me to be a Royal Guard one day.

Cloud moaned, as he usually did when I was uncooperative. “C’mon, Ash!” he whined, “I can’t do this without you! I need a partner, a compadre, a teammate. I need you, dude.”

“Sorry, Cloud,” I said, shaking my head. “I just can’t leave right now.”

He sighed, hopping out of the tree and landing with a little grunt. “Well, whatever. I’m leaving. If you change your mind, I’ll be heading down the mountain at sunset.” he said, happily trotting towards town. “Later!”

The relaxed and nonchalant way he said his last word let me know that he wasn’t entirely confident in his decision. After all, if this truly was goodbye, I’m pretty sure he would’ve given me a giant bear-hug, like he always does when we are about to be separated for a long while. I knew he wouldn’t leave without me; he depended too heavily on the companionship I gave him.

I let myself fall backwards out of the tree, doing a mid air twist, and spreading my wings. I flew in the opposite direction from Cloud. He lived on the west side of Aspen, while my folks and I lived on the eastern side.

In a few short minutes, I saw my plain old house. It was just like all the rest, the only differences being the names on the mailboxes. I landed a few feet from the door and opened it. My mother was sitting in her favorite rocking chair, reading one of her many books. She looked up at me, smiling at me with her amber eyes.

“Hello, sweetie!” She cooed. “How was your day today?”

I walked by her and jumped on the couch, sinking into the soft cushions. “Same as any day, I guess.” I replied.

My mother resumed reading her book. “So, nothing interesting happened at all, today?”

“Nope.”

Unsatisfied, she continued to probe. “Nothing at all?”

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” I responded, annoyed.

She closed her book and placed it on the end table. “Are you okay? You seem a little distant, today.”

“I’m fine, Mother,” I grumbled, burying my face in one of the throw cushions.

“You don’t sound fine.” she said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I said, hoping to end this conversation.

“So, you did have a bad day.”

I glared at her. “I didn’t say that! I said, I didn’t want to talk about it!”

“Don’t raise your tone at me! I am your mother!” She snarled.

“Whatever,” I groaned. I could be very difficult to live with sometimes.

My mom was about to say something to me, but she instead just muttered something under her breath and went back to her book. I rolled over on the sofa, trying to find a comfy spot in the cushions.

I laid there in silence until the swing and following slam of the door broke it.

My father had burst open the door, his normal calm and collective self riddled with worries, visibly sweating. He looked towards me and my mother. “We have to get to town hall, right now!” he shouted.

My mother got up immediately, running to my father’s side, and secured her coat from a nearby coat rack. My father ran down the hall towards the bedrooms and ran in. He emerged a few moments with a saddle bag in his mouth. “Asher, put this on!” my dad mumbled through the straps of the bag.

He threw it at me and I quickly slipped it on, still very confused. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“I don’t know, boy,” he grumbled, “but the mayor said that everypony needed to assemble at town hall immediately, and to pack all that we can carry.” He ran into the kitchen and shoved all the contents of our fridge into another bag. “Something big is about to happen.”

I groaned a little as I followed my father out the door. “Dad, this is Aspen. Nothing ever happens in Aspen.” I deadpanned.

We walked to the center of the town. It wasn’t very far from our house, so the walk was short, and without conversation. Weaving through the crowd, I found Cloud Walker standing with his parents, whom also all had saddle bags strapped on. Cloud noticed me and gave me a big obnoxious wave, so I walked over to him.

“Dude, what’s going on?” he asked me.

I shrugged in response. “I’m just as confused as you are, Cloud.”

“ATTENTION, EVERYPONY!” a loud voice said on a microphone, grabbing everyone’s attention. I looked up to see an older, grey maned mare standing behind a podium. It was Aspen’s Mayor.

She began her impromptu conference. “I have just received dire news from Canterlot.”

There was nervous banter in the crowd as the Mayor continued. “The Princess Celestia warns us that...” she paused, sighing heavily, “...that the Spirit of Chaos, also known as the infamous Discord, has escaped his stony prison, and has gone on a rampage across Equestria.”

The ponies in the crowd began to panic, screaming as they pushed and shoved each other, looking for refuge. “PONIES, PLEASE!” She shouted, the crowd immediately falling silent. “Thank you. Now, we need to evacuate Aspen and descend down the mountain in an orderly fas-”

BOOOOOM!!

The large town hall exploded, crumbling on top of the mayor in seconds. Everypony gasped, frozen in shock. A few seconds later, from the rubble emerged a large and strange creature. It was a dragon, but not quite a dragon. His limbs were all from different animals: Legs of an alligator and bull, claws of an eagle and lion, and a head that was a mix of a pony, goat, deer and unicorn.

“Hello, my little ponies.” the strange beast giggled, looking down at the trembling audience. “I am the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, the beacon of insanity that shadows everypony’s heart. I am Discord!” he said with a thunderous, maniacal laugh. “Thank you all for appointing me as the new leader of your town! Now, this is the part when you all bow.”

The sky grew dark as pink clouds blocked out the sun. It began to rain some strange liquid. Cloud let one of the drops fall onto his tongue.

“Chocolate milk?”

Nopony did anything, still too afraid to react or respond. “HELLOOOOO!” called out Discord, crossing his mismatched hands together. A bolt of green lightning shot down from the sky, striking an unlucky unicorn, who immediately burst into a swarm of yellow butterflies. “I said, BOW!”

Afraid of a similar fate, everypony, including myself, all dropped to one knee and bowed our heads down. Everypony except my father, however.

“You think that you can scare me?” My father yelled at Discord. “You’re nothing but some crack pot, half-pony wannabe!”

I glanced up, but kept my head low. “Dad, what are you doing?” I whispered frantically.

His eye darted down at me. “Protect your mother.” he grunted.

“What?” I asked, but he ignored me. All he did was walk toward the demonic creature, who was looking amused at the tiny pony.

“What do we have here? Look out, folks, this pony’s going to vanquish me!” the King of Mischief said sarcastically, throwing his arms up. “And what makes you such a brave pony?”

“It’s simple,” My father began. “I won’t just bow down as some hideous thing destroys my home!”

Discord disappeared in a flash of light and glitter, re-appearing next to my father. “Aww, that’s so noble of you.” He jested. “Tell me something. What do you do for a living, brave pony?”

My father stuttered, unprepared for such an off-base question. “I...I make musical instruments.”

“Is that so?” Chuckled the Lord of Disharmony. “And what is your favorite?”

“...Guitars.”

“What a fabulous coincidence,” he smirked, staring closely into my father’s eye, giving him a snide smile. “That’s mine as well.”

I watched in horror as my father was struck with green lightning. Almost instantly, his neck began to stretch out, becoming longer and longer as my father screamed in agony. His legs and tail began to fuse to his body, and his nose started pressing into his face.

I stared helplessly as my father was slowly being turned into a guitar.

He looked at me. I could see how scared he was, and my father was never scared. Our eyes made contact as he screamed out the last word anyone would ever hear from him.

“RUN!!”

Everypony was thrown into a mass panic, shoving and pushing each other to get out of town square. Discord laughed as he watched the ponies, all of us scurrying around like headless chickens. I grabbed my mother and ran, with Cloud following close behind.

“Where are you ponies going?” Discord cackled, raising his new guitar over his head. “The chaos has just started!” He smashed the guitar to the ground, causing a colourful explosion of yellow and pink. Dozens of ponies were caught in the blast, and were disintegrated.

Discord flew into the air, giggling like a madmare as he flew through buildings. They either exploded in multi-coloured fire or melted into a strange brown goop. “Isn’t this fun?!” He shouted, twirling around in the air, shooting bolts of purple magic at the fleeing ponies. Anypony that came into contact with it was immediately transformed into a strange object, or simply exploded in a bloody mess.

I led my mother and Cloud through the streets, weaving around the screaming ponies. I watched as, in front of me, a large, black stallion was transformed into a sofa. I jumped over it and took to the air. I turned back to check on my mother, and could see that she was still on the ground. Something was wrong.

“Asher!” Cloud called up to me. “She’s stuck in some pink stuff!”

“Did we step in some of my special bubble gum?” A playful and booming voice echoed. From a burning cottage, the Draconquus appeared, a deranged look in his malformed eyes. “Let me see if I can help.” He raised his eagle claw, a large orb of green energy pulsing in his talons.

I screamed in terror, diving in to try and save my mother. A beam of energy had shot out of the sphere. It was too late.

Cloud managed to jump out of the way, just barely dodging the bolt that collided with my mother. Her body quickly expanded as if she was being blown up like a balloon. She kept rapidly inflating, her coat becoming see-through, much like stretched out rubber. Soon she was floating in the air, like a giant, round balloon. Her terrified face stretched and warped on the side, moving slightly. How she could still live in that form, I’ll never know.

“Oh, dear,” mused Discord, causally flying over to my inflated mother. “I’d really hate to burst her bubble...” He flicked open one of his claws. “But, it’s just so tempting!” He laughed, poking my mother with his sharp finger. The nail dug deeper into my mom, pressing down harder and harder until finally-

POP!

She burst, like the giant inflated balloon she was transformed into.

POP. There was no bloody mess, no buckets of gore or brains splattered everywhere. There was nothing but my mother’s popped, rubbery skin fluttering slowly down from the air. A small chunk fell in my hooves. It was labelled with the picture of a trumpet, a few musical notes stamped to the side.

It was her Cutie Mark. The texture of it felt like latex.

POP went my mind. I felt an insuppressible rage swell up inside of me.

I flew towards the thing that had just killed my parents as fast as I could. I had no idea what I was doing, but I didn’t care. that bastard had just killed both of my parents, and I wasn’t just going to stand around and let him kill other pony’s parents, as well.

“Hey, it looks like we have a fighter!” Smiled Discord. Quickly readying another blast of green magic in his paws, he threw it at me. However, I was ready for it. Using an aerial maneuver I learned in Flight Camp, I flew out of the way, and continued my course towards him. “And a fast one at that!” Discord added.

“I’ll kill you!” I screamed, bolting towards that smug face of his. When I was at point-blank distance, he effortlessly grabbed the tip of my tail. I helplessly stopped, buzzing in his grasp like a trapped fly.

“That seems a little harsh...” he mumbled sarcastically, “Jeez, did I kill your parents, or something?” The frown on my face gave him his answer as he smiled, wiping a non existent tear from his eye. “Well, boo hoo to you, kiddo! That’s just how the game works!”

“That’s all this is to you?!” I shouted. “This is all just a big game?!”

“Life is a game, colt, and we’re just the players,” he said, bringing me closer to his face. “Some of us, however, don’t play fair.” He giggled. “I like you, though. You’ve got spunk!” Discord said, poking me in the stomach.

An electrifying pain shot through me, starting from where he poked me and spreading throughout my body. It hurt so much, I couldn’t even scream.

“Goodbye, pony!” the Monster of Mayhem said, flicking me away with his talon like I was some sort of insect. “May we meet again, someday!”

I hurtled in the air, spinning round and round in a dizzy spin before I opened my wings, slowing my momentum and regaining my balance. Somehow, in my rage, I was able to ask myself a couple of questions: Why did he let me go? Why kill everypony else and let me live? What did he have to gain?

“Asher!” a voice called from below me, ending my trance. I looked down. Somehow, Cloud Walker had survived. He was running out of town, and I quickly followed, soaring high above him. We left the burning village and entered the forest down the mountain.

The same thoughts as before were running through my head as I clenched my chest, the pain still throbbing where Discord had touched me. What did he do to me? This pain was completely foreign, stranger than anything I had felt before.

I couldn’t think of it too much, however. I had to focus on getting out of that hell hole and finding help. The Royal Guards, the Princesses, anypony that could help to stop that beast.

That creature who killed my parents. That monster that destroyed my home. That thing that had treated it all...

...like it was one, big, fucking game.

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