It was impossible, he decided. It simply couldn't be true. Of all the things that could possibly happen, why did this have to happen, at this time, to him?! Why him?

Light Flow sat against a tree in the yard of the schoolhouse. He clutched a brown-colored book in his hooves as he stared with a pouty expression towards a pony playing on the swing set.

Orange Hooves.

His frown deepened, and he cursed under his breath with words his mother would never approve of. But he didn't care. The characters in his new book used those words, so why shouldn't he?

He had never wanted to see those orange hooves ever again, and even worse, now he could see the pony attached to them. Oh how he wished he could go back to not knowing what she looked like. Though, If somepony were forcing him to be completely honest, he would say that the filly with the triple apple cutie mark was, in a word, cute.

But if anypony just asked what he thought of her, he would say she was incredibly ugly. He would say that he hated the dumb orange apple pony. He would say that he didn't like her long, blonde mane that caught the light in a near-perfect facsimile of a beautiful meadow's day. That he didn't enjoy the way that she set it in a ponytail so that her soft, lovely face was always in view. He would say that the subtle orange shades of her coat were an eyesore and that they certainly didn't remind him of a sunset. And he would, above all else, condemn those deep green eyes that sparkled in the sunlight like perfect emeralds.

He hated the color green. And he didn't even really like the color yellow either, or orange. He didn't even really like apples at all, or sunsets.

He turned his attention away from the disgusting filly, and her disgusting antics on the disgusting playground equipment. Instead, he focused on his newest obsession, conveniently symbolized by the brown book he was holding in his hooves. It was a relatively plain book, unremarkable to any who saw it, but Light Flow considered it a personal treasure of his.

'The Necromancer and the Night'

His previous frown slipped away, and was replaced by a dumb smile as he stared dreamily at the book. He couldn't believe he had never heard about Necromancy before. Well, he could believe it actually. It was pretty easy to completely miss the existence of the dark art.

From what he could gather from the book in his hooves, as well as a big book he found at the library that had a bunch of laws in it: Necromancy was an super touchy subject. Extremely taboo, as well as being extremely illegal, he hadn't even been able to find out what the penalty was for studying it.

He imagined it wasn't good.

He didn't care about any of that though. It wasn't illegal to write fiction about it, and that was all that mattered to him. After he discovered the book during that stupid Saturday evening, he had been reading it almost nonstop. He was almost done with it actually, and he would've finished by now if his stupid mother hadn't told him to go to school. He was planning on going to the library after school to talk to the librarian about more books on the subject.

He smiled as he took the book in his red magic glow, and opened to where he had placed his bookmark. He was right at the part where the Necromancer resurrects his Dark Mistress, and they formulate their plan to overthrow the Princess. In the back of his mind, he idly wondered why such sacrilegious material was allowed to exist, but he found that he didn't really care. As long as he wasn't going to be arrested for reading, he would stay his current course.

Because he loved Necromancy.

It was the coolest thing he had ever read about! Screw those dark-and-broody plotholes that sat around moaning about the futility of life or whatever! Now he could read about real dark-and-broody villains that actually did things, and sat around boasting about the perks of un-life!

The idea of raising the dead was so incredibly awesome! It was the darkest and most vile thing he had ever heard of! Shackling those who have passed from this plane of existence to your unbreakable will, and forcing them to do your bidding? Commanding dark legions made of undying zombie ponies, who have no fear or morals? Creating a catalyst to hold your soul in, and becoming immortal?

That's another thing he loved! Immortality had always been a hot topic in his books, since living forever is a horrible, never-ending ride of constantly watching those you love die. Forced to forever stay distant from those around you, for fear of getting too close to anypony that would surely die in a blink of the eye. Embracing a fate of eternal loneliness, only ever watching over the place you used to call home as it gradually changes irrevocably!?

Or something.

But Necromancy solves those problems! You can just bring your loved ones back to life, and live together with them forever!

Not that he had loved ones. Villains can't have loved ones, because they can be used against them.

He grinned behind the safety of his beloved book. It took him a while to learn that it was okay to show feelings besides anger, as long as no one can see you. Hiding your emotions is a sign of depth of character, or at least that's what he had read. Truth be told, he didn't even really understand what 'depth of character' even meant. From what he could gather by reading, it meant that a character that only has a few traits is badly written, and uninteresting.

He knew he didn't have that problem though. He was a deep, interesting villain with a tragic backstory!

Unfortunately, because he was so busy pondering the depth of his character, and fabricating tragic events to monologue to heroes about: he completely missed the bell that let the foals know that recess was over. The sharp ringing noise was rendered deaf to his ears, and he continued to sit there stewing in his own thoughts until he became aware of a pony approaching him.

His ears stood up straight, and a shiver went up his back. He had thought he had seen a flash of... orange? He lifted the book in his magic up a little and caught a clear view at a familiar sight. He smacked the book into his face and groaned out loud.

Orange Hooves. Of course.

"Hey sugarcube, you know it's time to- Wait a minute...." He couldn't see her, but he was assuming the totally-ugly apple pony was making some sort of ugly scrunchy face. He heard a gasp, and he hit himself in the face with his book again, knowing that this situation could be nothing but bad.

"I recognize you! Yer that rude kid from the other day!"

Rude...? Him? He was the rude one?

He felt his anger rise in that way that he had carefully cultivated, and he lowered the book so that he could see the other pony. He glared with his best Angered Glare into the unflinching green eyes, and attempted to will the annoying fly into leaving him alone. Couldn't she see that he was trying to read?!

The clearly stupid orange pest took a step back. Likely in fear of his practiced scary expression. He had worked a long time to make his face contort in ways that could shock anypony into a deep, instinctual fear. He internally grinned in triumph. It was working!

"You okay there 'pardner? You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?

His face almost literally deflates. Suddenly, his face took on a stony, neutral expression as his suddenly overtaxed mind struggled to comprehend the words. His jaw hung open, and his ears pressed themselves against his head; as if somepony had pulled his plug, and he had completely lost power.

"Uh! Are you okay?! Your face is gettin' really red!"

He couldn't think. He felt as if lava was filling up his head and pouring out of his ears in the form of great big rolling clouds of smoke. He continued to stare unblinkingly at the pony who he suddenly had no strong opinions about. He didn't really have any thoughts about anything at the moment. The only thing in his head was a record player, playing the same thing over and over again, like it was stuck.

"You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?---You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?---You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?---You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?---You need to use the bathroom or somethin'?"

"Uh.. Wait here! I'll go get the nurse!" The strange pony in front of him shouted with a panicked expression on her face, before galloping off towards a building he wasn't sure he had ever seen before.

Anypony watching the spectacle would have observed the weird brown pony continue to gape at nothing, before eventually falling over in a dead faint.

What they wouldn't know, however, is the last thought that ran though his head before he lost consciousness. As his internal record player finally managed to unstuck itself, it wheezed out one last thing before exploding in a great burst of flames.

"Does my scary face really look like that?"

Author's Note

Hey there. I already wrote an AN, but then I accidently deleted it, so I'm just gonna tell you to comment your thoughts on the story so far. Do it, you won't.