//------------------------------// // Prologue - bookhorse125 // Story: 40 Years // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// It all started… he wasn’t even sure how long ago now. Just that it was very long ago, very far, and very tiring. So much had happened… One of the downsides to getting trapped inside of a single realm for thousands of years was that you tend to forget things. You have trouble remembering what those other realms looked like, and what the ponies there were like… You have trouble picturing anything other than this small world that he was trapped in, despite the fact that he had been out there, had seen how big the multiverse was, had jumped from world to world, reality to reality, over and over again, so that he had seen more than these ponies would ever see. And now… now it seemed unlikely that he would ever see any of it again. He growled as he thrashed against his bindings, trying for the billionth time to free himself, but the magic held fast. And, for the billionth time, he cursed the name of that infernal unicorn who had dared to put him in this position. She had stolen his bell and used its magic to trap himself, who had been rendered powerless, in this inescapable prison before he could escape and jump to another world. How could he have made such a careless mistake? He was the almighty Grogar, master of darkness, emperor of shadows, creator of monsters. He had been jumping worlds for as long as he could remember, and was well versed in the protocol. Get in. Assess this world for a bit, determining its strengths and weaknesses as well as any potential heroes or pesky ponies who might pose a problem. Create a new bell, dispose of those troublemakers, and take over the world. Easy. Soak in the relishing power for a while before somepony inevitably rose up against him. Defeat them, and if they defeated him, slip into a new world before they had the chance to trap him permanently. He had to keep finding new worlds, even if he was pushed out of so many. Even if he had lost so many times, he had to keep going, to find a new place for the darkness to spread. Everywhere he went, he spread a little bit of darkness, and it inevitably had to stay behind when he left. That darkness would manifest itself in that world, creating monsters and spreading hatred and anger even when Grogar wasn’t there. It was the darkness’ nature, after all, and the reason he had to keep jumping around. The darkness always wanted more… This was the price of power that he had to pay, but he had been more than willing to pay it. He was one of the most powerful creatures in all of existence, with abilities that no one else would ever possess, with power that most could only dream of! But all of that could be taken away. He could sense the darkness growing restless, being trapped here in this… this land of ponies for so long. What was it called again? After so many different worlds, he would lose count… Ah, yes. Equestria. That was what it was called. One of only a few lands that he had managed to conquer and hold on to for a while before he had to jump again… The number of kingdoms that he had demolished and taken over were dishearteningly few for the amount of power that he had. There was Equestria, of course, and an old city called Tambelon, he believed, and a few others. He couldn’t stay for very long. If he did, the darkness would get angry that it had nothing to feed on, and would threaten to leave, and then where would he be? A powerless nobody trapped in a world that despised him and wouldn’t hesitate to destroy him. That was why he had to keep moving on, had to keep giving the darkness what it wanted, or suffer the consequences of failure. There was only one other time that he had made this careless mistake - with Tambelon. It was one of the first cities and lands that he had conquered, and he was still getting used to the whole idea. He thought that, with the darkness on his side, he would be invincible. But those annoying ponies trapped him and the city he had conquered in a kind of netherworld, much like where he was now, unable to leave. But he was able to harness his anger and desire for revenge to create a new bell, and return to that land and wreak vengeance upon it. However, once again, he was defeated, but before he could get trapped again, he slipped away into another world. Some of the worlds he let be - they were too pointless and lacked too much magic and importance for him to bother taking it over. Others were already destroyed, and the land was just now clawing its way up from the ashes, and there was no point in getting involved in those kinds of affairs. When he came to Equestria, he was delighted. So much magic and power was thriving in this world, but the ponies that inhabited it didn’t realize their potential! Grogar took more than he had ever taken before, and his monsters and shadows roamed free across the land, doing what they did best. It seemed as if he had finally found a place that the darkness would be satisfied with, and that he would be able to hang on to. But that cursed upstart unicorn Gusty had to come along and ruin everything. He hated her, hated all the ponies who helped her do it. But she was gone, and his quarrel was no longer with her… but with this world. He couldn’t just leave and let this world, which had bested him, keep going on. He wasn’t going to let it think that it had won. It would be just like he had done with Tambelon - he would return once and make them think that he was still out there, still lurking in the shadows, waiting for a moment of weakness in which to attack. If he won, perfect! If he lost, he would move on, find a new world for the shadows to inhabit. But that all depended on him being able to get out of this prison… Grogar wasn’t sure where his prison was, but he did know that, while he couldn’t see anything, he was able to sense magic in itself. It was one of the abilities that the shadows gave him, and he used it to try and direct himself towards the worlds with the most magic. But magic had been very… strange the past few… years? Months? Whatever. It seemed to blink in and out of existence as fast as he was able to jump between worlds. It would be startlingly ripped away, before a magical blast would ring over the land and bring it back. It reminded him, in a way, of how he would take over Equestria and the other pony lands… and how he was always thwarted. But his prison had been growing weaker, the bonds strained over time. He was so close to breaking free… so close to victory… When suddenly everything was gone. He gasped and lifted his head, and was startled to see, not darkness, as had been all that surrounded him for the past millennia, but a wall made of rock, the sheer size of it stretching up until it dissolved into shadows, and he could see no further. The walls of rock belonged to a cave, which was almost completely empty except for a singular stone tablet sitting in the center, the granite surface carved with all kinds of symbols, some of which he recognized, some of which he didn’t. The floor of the cave was covered with… was that snow? A freezing wind blew through the cave, and Grogar shivered. It had been so long since he had last felt the cold… so long since he had last felt anything… all of it had been stolen from him… He turned around and noticed the large exit from the cave, and snorted. He thought that these ponies would have thought that he would be able to eventually escape from the prison they forced him into. They should have come up with a backup defense mechanism… but, clearly, they were not as intelligent as he was. Sometimes he wondered how they were able to defeat him. Laughing to himself, Grogar stepped out of the cave… and immediately ran into something. He stumbled back, shaking his head to clear the nausea, and saw nothing but air where he had been met with an obstacle. He frowned, and carefully reached out until he felt something… something solid. But he could still see nothing except… Where his hoof met the object, it sent out golden ripples, like an invisible- An invisible shield. Grogar groaned and rolled his eyes. If this was the best that they could come up with to try and keep him trapped here, then they were truly every bit as dumb as he thought they were. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and called upon his shadowy friends. There was a screeching roar, and as his horns lit up, bright yellow crackling with black lightning, figures of shadows and beasts and monsters roared past him, summoned from the very essence of his being, and began pummeling at the shield, ripping out chunks of it, hitting it over and over again until it finally flickered a faint golden light… and disappeared. A freezing wind roared into the cave, blasting the shadowy creatures to splinters, and Grogar raised his hoof to shield his eyes from the blast. The wind picked up flakes of snow and spun them around until they took the form of a pony standing in the cave, her pale coat rustling in the wind and her horn lit up. Grogar’s breath caught in his throat. It was her. The cursed unicorn who had gotten him into this whole mess - the so-called Gusty the Great. His horns lit up once again, and with a roar, he concentrated all his energy into a massive blast of energy that shook the room and caused rocks to fall from the ceiling, plummeting into the snow that was clustered on the ground. But the figure of Gusty remained the same, glitching a little, but not disappearing. He had suspected this. He had known that she couldn’t possibly still be alive, nor could any of her friends, but he couldn’t resist the chance to blast her and at least feel like he had more or less gotten his revenge. He settled back, dousing his horns, frowning at the ghostly apparition. Shattering the shield around this place must have caused some sort of counterspell to appear, and he wanted to know what she might have done to keep him there so that he could guard against it. The ghost of Gusty opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the cave. “I know it shall not last,” she said to herself, her voice echoing around the small space. “I know that you shall be free eventually - you are far too strong to be permanently restrained in such a way.” Ah-hah, he thought smugly. Even she admits my immense power! Gusty’s horn lit up brighter, burning away the shadows and filling the cave with a brilliant white light. “But I also know,” she said, her voice growing louder and stronger, gaining depth and volume like a hundred Gustys were speaking at the same time, growing so powerful that Grogar winced, even though this must have happened long ago, “that this land - that this universe is too vast for you to contain, and that you have made enemies along the way. I know what you have done, and I know that it is only by working together that we may permanently defeat you. And so I enchant this place so that, when you have broken free, it may summon heroes from across the stars and bring them here, to this place, so that they may unite and defeat you once and for all. And may these be my last words.” The figure of Gusty turned around, and her piercing eyes met his and, even though he tried to tell himself that it wouldn’t be possible, she seemed to see him, to know where he was. “I curse you, Grogar,” she said, her voice at the kind of powerful magnitude that it had been when she had trapped him in the first place. “I curse you that you may never leave this world again, that you shall be trapped here for all eternity, never able to leave, for you have done too much damage to be let free again. I curse you, that this shall forever be your prison.” Her horn grew blindingly bright before it burst, and the figure of Gusty the Great was gone. Grogar stared… before shaking himself and pushing those thoughts from his mind. Gust was long gone - she couldn’t curse him now. And she had nowhere near enough power to do so. Even the prison she had trapped him in had grown weak. There was nothing more that she could do - that any of them could do. Those so-called heroes that she had tried to summon from across the stars? Pah! He would deal with them. As he dealt with all of them. Grogar shook his head and turned away, strutting out of the cave and calling the monsters and shadows he had left to thrive in this world to come to his aid, so that he may gain enough power to attack… and finally take what had always been rightfully his. As soon as he left the cave, his hooves stepping outside of the boundary that had been once enclosed by the enchanted shield left by the pony who had created this place, the rough stone in the center of the cave suddenly lit up, each of the individual carvings and symbols glowing with a pulsing white light. Glowing cracks appeared in the stone, connecting each individual symbol and letter, and once they were all connected, the entire stone was encased in blinding light that shot into the sky in a massive column of power. The light condensed into a shimmering orb before bursting into dozens of smaller orbs that drifted off across the night sky before vanishing into worlds unknown. And so it began.