These Final Days

3,000 years ago...

"And from now until the end of time, all of you ponies shall refer to me as Discord! King of Chaos and Lover of Fun!"

All the ponies around the towering draconequus cowered and covered their heads as they bowed before him. All the birds in the air and in the trees had stopped chirping happily, and nopony dared to speak a single word, either to each other or in response to the King of Chaos. It was completely silent.

Discord blinked and looked around at his subjects. None of them were looking up at him, and for a moment he almost felt sad. What fun was there to rule a whole magnificent country only to be ignored? There was no fun at all in that!

"HEAR ME, ALL OF YOU!!" he suddenly shouted in his most terrifying voice, which made many ponies to yelp and cower even more. Discord flinched in surprise at the response and was unable to hold back his stupid grinning and teary laughter. "Oh, you ponies! You crack me up, I— I can't even—" his voice was cut off by his hearty, and yet scary laughter as he started chortling.

Nopony dared to even look at him. His laughter was of the most frightening magnitude: in fact, many found themselves frozen in place.

When he was able to get ahold of himself, he held his aching stomach as his laughter died down. He forced himself to stop, then took in a gasping breath, then sighed deeply. "Eh-heheh..." he wiped a tear from his eye and fixed his short mane. "Ahem. Well then, it looks like all of you ponies will be living under my rule now. It's been fun conquering your capital," he chuckled and snapped his fingers.

In the blink of an eye, a golden throne appeared right in front of him. He went over to it and reclined on it in the most exotic way, all while continuing to look at his subjects and the area around them. With another snapping of fingers, a piña colada appeared in his hand and he sighed contentedly to himself, taking a sip. When he finished gulping the beverage down, he stared at his subjects, who were still cowering stupidly before him. He stared at them in annoyance. "Well? What are you doing? Get to work! Do something for your own good! For my entertainment!!"

And with that, the thousands of ponies surrounding him scrambled up as one, hurrying to get to the safety of their homes— if they still remained.

Discord found himself chortling once more. "Oh, ponies!! Stupid little ponies! You all crack me up so!" he let out another gale of laughter.

All around him, the capital city that was once the pinnacle of pony civilization and engineering was aflame. Wooden and straw buildings were burning, while those that were attacked before the draconequus's "magnificent" speech were blackened and had already collapsed.

The Lover of Fun's rule had begun, and there was no stopping it.

———

800 years later...

All around and throughout the pub, ponies of all classes and occupations sat and drank together. A soft commotion filled the poorly kept hall, the volume reminiscent of a movie theatre before the movie began. In a darker corner of the brown-walled bar, a musician sat down beside a piano as he played the fiddle somberly, his mane and coat ragged and messy. On each table, a single candle lit up the immediate space around it where ponies sat, and a few chandeliers hung from the ceiling, lit by candles and amplifying the light with triangular-carved glass. The pub was dark, but there was enough light to make it an ideal place to stay, even during the wee hours of the morning.

The main door swung open, catching the attention of the pub's owner, a bartender managing the entire place by himself. He pulled away from the glasses he was polishing to greet the newcomer.

"Hello there, and welcome to the Great Pub. What can I get 'ya?"

A weary and tired unicorn stallion limped over to sit down at the counter. He sighed to himself and looked up at the bartender. "Give me yer strongest drink..." he muttered quietly. His brown eyes were dull and puffy, his dark brown mane was quite unkempt, and his clay-colored coat had numerous scratches all over, with many spots missing hair.

The bartender, an Earth pony with a tan coat and a black mane, looked quite worried for this pony. He shrugged after a moment and went off to prepare his drink. When he came back a few moments later with a bottle of the strongest whiskey in his inventory, he poured the tired stallion a shot. "'Ya look pretty beat-up, my friend. Tell me, what's been causin' 'ya so much trouble?"

The unicorn attempted to lift the small glass up with telekinesis, and failed. Growling in annoyance, he tried once more, and quickly downed the shot in a single motion, almost dropping the glass when he put it down. He had to collect himself before responding, quite hot-headedly. "It's... it's those damn Overseers at my job! They caught me trying to catch a break at the factory, an' they come over and whip me jus' so I could keep workin'! It ain't fair at all, they should-a' at least given me some warnin' of sorts, or maybe, even better, a frigging break! I'm sick of it all!" He pounded his hoof hard on the wooden counter, causing a hollow bang to echo throughout the counter.

The bartender didn't look at all displeased by the way this pony was acting in his bar he owned. Of course, he'd seen it before, and this wasn't nearly as bad as the antics as some of the other ponies who came in to drink. "Eh, heh. Ain't that why you're here?" he chuckled softly. "Go ahead and jus' drink 'ya'r worries away. There ain't nothing wrong with that, especially when everypony's doin' it, and all the bad stuff's happenin' to them too. And seeing 'ya'r state right now, 'ya can go ahead an' have this whole bottle of whiskey. It's on the house," he nodded to the stallion, who gave him small smile in reply.

"Thank you, friend," he murmured and poured himself another glass with a much better-controlled state of magic, and gulped it down with a vigorous shake of the head and a crisp, "Ahhh!"

The bartender chuckled and went off to the other end of the counter to tend to more ponies who were walking in. Business was good, especially during the later part of the evening. Obviously, that was when work for many ponies ended.

It was a grueling atmosphere and environment nowadays, Equestria was. Ever since Discord had proclaimed himself as leader of the country such a long time ago, everypony seemed to be toiling themselves to no end as part of the chaotic leader's workforce. And for what? Nothing seemed to be getting done or being built at all. It was just one grand scheme for Discord to keep himself entertained and occup—

BANG!

Each and every pony in the pub jumped at the loud noise. It was the loudest explosion any one of them had heard in quite a while, and it aroused much confusion and curiosity. A few ponies from inside got up from their seats and went over to the doors and windows to peek outside.

The bartender, shivering a little, craned his head over to try to see what was outside. Half-expecting it to be a hostile visit, the sight that greeted his eyes was amazing and quite the opposite.

A magnificent display of color broke the darkness of the night. A beam of white light surrounded by black, blue, and golden swirls shone down on a wide spot on the ground; it was as if a blinding spotlight had come down from the heavens to light up this one area on the ground— an area where three shapes stood. Around it, blue, golden, and black fire burned, encircling the edges of the pillar of light that reached up to the stars. Wind blew surrounding its edges, almost like a tornado.

"Attention, all ponies of The Great Mane! We have come to liberate you!" came a voice that sounded as if it couldn't have come from a pony older than 15 years old, and yet at the same time it was so loud and clear. It was the second-most astounding factor at this sudden occurrence, second only to the sheer amount of color emanating from this amazing spectacle.

The bartender, along with a few other ponies, cautiously walked out from the bar to see what this whole phenomenon was about. After a few moments of slow, wary footsteps, the bartender was the first to completely exit the building to approach the divine shapes in the middle of the town square not too far from his bar. Fear filled his heart at the sight before him.

"W-What are you?! Who are you?!!" he stuttered, having to raise his voice considerably over the wind to make himself heard.

The three outlines within the blinding stanchion of light now became more pronounced. All three of them seemed to be fillies, no taller than the height of a mature stallion's shoulder. They turned their heads to face him almost simultaneously, making him flinch and sweat a little. He couldn't help but move to turn away to run back into the bar fearing for his life.

The filly in the middle suddenly stepped out from the pillar of light, causing it to break off and disintegrate, much like a dissolving tornado; the wind ended immediately. She was the tallest of the three, with a dazzling, nearly blinding coat of white. Her pink mane seemed to be moving like a dancing flame with a life of its own, and the same went for her tail: it was moving as if an eternal wind caused it to move so celestially.

"W-Wait!" she whined, quickly approaching him. "Don't be scared! We just want to help you!" she exclaimed upon seeing him move to escape back into the bar to hide.

The tan Earth stallion's face flinched. He quickly faced her and began backing up when she approached him; he didn't seem to hear what she had said. "Y-You... What are you?! Y-You have... w...wings...! And a horn?!" his eyes were wild in fear and confusion. What did these otherworldly beings want? He hadn't seen ponies with wings... and a horn... at the same time... before!

She blinked up at him with her light magenta eyes and stopped right where she was. She didn't take another step forward, in case it would have scared him even more; she didn't want that, and her intentions were obvious enough. The stallion slowly let his guard down just a little bit so he could see her better. After looking her over another time, he spoke again.

"Don't... don't hurt us..." he clenched his jaw. "We're just trying to live our lives the best we can... please don't hurt us..." he shielded his face once more.

When he looked back up at her, he was surprised to see her holding her hoof out to him, as if to help him up to stand. At this, he gulped and gingerly reached out to take it, and almost immediately he was heaved up back on his feet.

Boy, she was strong.

"We're not here to hurt you," she murmured and stepped back to give room between them. She was flanked on either side by the other two, who seemed to be her two sisters: on her right was a younger alicorn with a navy-blue coat and a light blue mane, and on her left, pressed up against her, was another alicorn with a deep, dark gray coat and a pitch-black mane. She continued to speak to the bartender, who was, surprisingly, approaching them.

"Then what do 'ya want? I-I have some fine drinks inside this ol' pub of mine, and I'd be willing to drop the price d—"

"We're here to incite a rebellion against your leader, Discord. Remember him?" she replied, quickly fluffing her pink mane up with a quick shaking of the head.

He nodded vigorously.

"Well, we want the same thing that you do: for him to be gone from our lives. We want to be free too, and... and when our mother and father died, we had to step in and do something to continue their vision for Equestria. We've been waiting to show ourselves to you for so long, but it's only really happened today. Won't you join us?" she asked, almost pleading.

He arched an eyebrow at them, seeming to become at least a little bit bolder in his movements and actions towards them. "How do I know that I can trust 'ya? And what else, how do I know that you three little ones have enough strength to take down Discord? Hmm?"

She blinked and, without speaking, her horn suddenly glowed the most dazzling golden color he had ever seen. She turned her head towards the middle of the town square and a bright, almost blinding light suddenly erupted and formed into a sphere, which she guided to the middle of the town square where it could now be seen that hundreds of ponies stood, staring, having come from within their homes to witness this spectacle. Having previously used the darkness of the night to quietly investigate this confrontation between three alicorns and the quite popular town bartender, they were now completely revealed by this artificial daylight.

If that act of almost divine magic wasn't enough, nothing would have convinced the bartender. Thankfully, it was more than enough, and the bartender eventually gave in to the sight before him. "Y'know, the way you came here, with that fancy spotlight of 'ya'rs from the sky— I thought I was seeing things. But now I know that what I'm seeing is for real, and..." he bowed his head down low in deep respect for these young ponies. "...and now, I think I'm ready to believe 'ya. I'm going to put my faith in 'ya three and take it that you really can defeat that... that Discord somehow. But I'm only hopin'," he sighed, and managed to put on a real smile of hope, the first real smile he'd had in a long while.

Her lips twinkled back at him, and she glanced around at everypony else who had just arrived. She watched them all warily for a moment, holding her two sisters close to her under her wings, before turning back to the bartender.

"If we're going to take Discord down, we're going to need a really strong fighting force. We three can't do it alone, so... do you think you can help us find some ponies to recruit?" she asked, seeming to have to swallow her pride just to admit her situation. She even looked irritated at herself.

"Well, 'ya'r in luck," the bartender beamed. "I happen to know almost everypony in this town, and I'm pretty sure they all want the same thing that we both want. I can show 'ya around the place and introduce you to a few ponies who can get this job done!"

The pink-maned alicorn's face brightened, and she gave a small, excited bounce. "Ohh, yeah! Alright! Let's go then!" she immediately turned and trotted hurriedly to the nearest pony in the town square. Her sisters gave each other a look before following, but before they could make any considerable distance, the bartender called out to her.

"Hey! Wait! What's 'ya'r name?" he hollered out to her.

She smirked to herself and cleared her throat, turning to face him completely before answering. Her two sisters flanked her on either side, who were looking on silently and shyly. "It's Celestia! And don't mind Luna and Stella here, they're too shy for their own good!" she finished cheerily before turning and galloping towards the town square to get the revolution up and running.