For the first time in a very, very long time, there was a noise coming down a particular street. The loose stones in its entryway rattled as a low, yet loud rumbling grew ever nearer. The golden gates barely held together as it was almost upon them. Finally, a yellow cab pulled up in front of the gates with two Discords seated inside.
“Awright. Last stop! End o’ da line!” the driver Discord said.
“Finally! You said that five ‘last stops’ ago!” Discord said, noting the golden gateway.
“Dat’s yer own damn fault fer not askin’ where Pallin Town was!”
“Is not!” Discord indignantly said.
“Yeah? Well, since I’m you, an’ it’s me sayin’ it’s yer fault, dat means you believes it too! Now, it is my great honor to say, ‘Welcome to Pallin Town, now GET OUTTA MY CAB!!!”
The entire cab retched and convulsed, until it spat Discord out of the backseat like a cat hacking up a hairball. Once he was out, the cab burrowed underground like a mole, and the hole filled itself behind it.
“Glad I’m out of that cab. That guy was starting to make too much sense,” Discord said.
He turned around and he saw the gates before him. What must have once been grand, tall structures made to welcome all who visited them to the happy little hamlet that waited just beyond. Now, they were a dismal, gruesome sight that welcomed only rot and ruin. And he had to walk past them. He reached out to open the hinged gates like a revolving door, or perhaps flap them upward like a pet door. Instead, under none of his own power, the gates fell inward, landing on the ground with a sickening clunk.
With his first step past the gates, the entire atmosphere seemed to change. The air felt harder to breathe in, and the dark sky overhead seemed more like the sickly red of rust, dotted with black clouds that harshly reflected the red light. And for no reason that he could think of, he began to feel a lingering sense of depression. A dark void from which there was no escape. And he was walking right into it.
“Welp. Nothin’ ventured,” Discord said, hiking up an imaginary pair of pants and floating across the ground.
His initial investigation didn’t yield much. He could see no immediate signs of struggle. Nothing to distinguish his destination. All of the buildings had been boarded up, and still smelled of dead meat, even after all that time had passed. Through it all, Discord was ever vigilant for an overgrown smile or a shrill laugh.
There was a creaking echo of thunder from the rusty sky overhead. A dull, earthy smell filled Discord’s nose as the distant rain closed in on him. The hot, humid presence of the rain preceded it before the water ever fell from the sky. Rain pelted the back of Discord, who drifted from one building to the next, fearing each time that he would see some bony hand reaching from between the boards, or see that horrible, crooked smile. One window that he looked through showed the scene of a filly’s bedroom. On her bloodstained bed was a teddy bear, sitting with its head limply to one side, watching the scene with its black, unblinking eyes. Whatever passed for pity in Discord’s mind made him magically turn the bear the other way so that it wouldn’t have to watch such horrors for all eternity.
He backed away from the window, feeling as if the rain were dropping some kind of gradually building weight on his shoulders. With a grunt, he shook his head and drifted away from the window, trying to get the image of that filly’s room out of his mind. He looked up, and dropped to the ground.
There was an enormous building, three stories tall, down the street from him. One that looked so dilapidated that it almost swayed in the breeze. The rain passed by in waves, blinking the windows at the top of the house in and out of sight. The front porch stretched forth like the open maw of some hungry beast, waiting for unwary travelers to disappear into its maw. Worst of all was how the boards of the windows all seemed to spread out into a wide, malicious grin. But, it was too late to do anything now. Discord was already on the front porch.
The very tip of his finger touched the doorknob. He didn’t know if it was his own volition or the house’s, but the door opened with a dull creak that seemed to echo into the darkness beyond its threshold. Discord pulled on his ear, and his eyes lit up like a pair of lamps. Instead, the light was absorbed by the dark, revealing nothing past it. Even though his feet fought him, he walked inside, and the doors closed behind him. It was then that the room revealed itself.
It was exactly as Discord had remembered it from his first nightmarish trip to that place. From the burnt curtains to the broken furniture. And the smell from the kitchen was creeping out like a million insects. Discord’s mind flashed with brilliance as he looked up to the ceiling, knowing that the laughing man was going to come down and strike. He looked up, and saw nothing there. Nothing but the dust that fell lightly from the rafters. And if he really listened, there was another sound besides the rain that was coming from up above. The sound of small, light hooves might have been happening in tandem with the fallen dust.
There were the stairs, right where he remembered them. Discord hovered across the floor and up the stairs, determined not to be taken by surprise. Any sign of trouble, and he was going to be gone, with or without Silver Blitz. At the top of the stairs, he was greeted by the sight of the row of photographs that he saw the last time. He looked closer at the one directly before him, and saw a familiar face. A pegasus filly with a white mane and silver coat.
The sounds of the tiny steps sounded from down the hall. There were the five doors. And the one at the very end was open. A sliver of light shone through its cracked frame, before a shadow passed over it. And again, and again. Without a sound, Discord floated down the hall to the room at the end. He peered through the crack of the door and saw a filly’s bedroom illuminated by a reddish lamp. In a moment, the room’s occupant stepped into view. It was Silver Blitz, dancing around the room as if she were in a trance. Her movements were slow and graceful, inviting all who watched her to join her. An impulse that Discord felt ready to obey. She was so beautiful for somepony so young. A silver beam of light from a dingy, dirty window. As she danced, Discord imagined himself dancing with her. She was calling out to him. And he was going to answer.
Silver Blitz continued her dance, waving her body in slow, circular motions, until she heard the quiet creak of the door. She jerked to a stop and saw the strangest creature she had ever seen standing in her doorway. A tall, slender, monstrous amalgam of many different creatures, watching her with mismatched eyes. Her entire body ceased to move when she saw it standing in the red light, casting its enormous shadow on the wall. It stepped inside, and the door closed behind it.
“Have you…been here before?” Silver Light asked.
The creature didn’t answer. It drifted across the floor, it’s mismatched limbs never touching the wooden floorboards. The length of its body circled around her. Silver Blitz tried to back away, but was stopped when her back hit the side of the thing. The creature stopped, eying her as a snake would a mouse. There was nowhere to run to when Silver Blitz felt the hands of the thing slide its claws from the top of her head, down her back and all the way to her flank. She watched as a giant, forked tongue slid from the lips of the thing. The tongue waggled toward her, and she winced as it dragged across her cheek and slithered across her lips to the other cheek.
“No…” Silver Blitz whispered.
The thing smiled wickedly at her and tightened the circle it had made around her, forcing her ever closer to its face. She could see a sick, malicious lust in its eyes as its tongue slithered forth again, passing over her tightly shut lips. The filly moaned loudly, trying her best to not open her mouth to scream. The circle tightened more, and she felt her lips against the lips of the monster.
All hesitation left her in that moment. She forcefully pushed away the head of the thing and scrambled over the side of it before she was entrapped in its body. Her hoof hit her end table, knocking the lamp to the floor where its shade fell off, revealing its dirty, reddish light in full. Silver Blitz huddled herself into the nearest corner, trying to find a way to escape the monster as it drifted toward her. There was nowhere she could go. The monster was almost upon her. Her hooves shot out and grasped the fallen lamp. She pressed the bare bulb against the thing’s neck.
The monster yelled loudly, its voice sounding like a mix of several creatures at once. Silver Blitz dropped the lamp and covered her ears as the thing rolled on the floor, holding its burning neck. In moments, the thing slowly stopped rolling and held its neck in one of its hands. It looked around the room, and saw the filly cowering in the corner.
“Silver Blitz?” it asked. “What have I been doing this whole time?”
Silver Blitz watched the creature, and quickly armed herself with the lamp again.
“It’s alright, kid. I think… I think the laughing man got me,” Discord said.
“The laughing man?” Silver Blitz asked.
“I think it did something bad to me. I’m alright now. I promise.”
Silver Blitz looked at him, slowly lowering her weapon. The lamp shook in her hooves as she looked at Discord, appraising every inch of him.
“You were here once before, weren’t you?” she asked.
“Yes. When you told me your name. That’s kind of how I found you,” Discord said, offering his hand to the filly. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
Silver Blitz warily eyed his extended paw.
“I promise you that I’d never hurt you in a hundred million years. Not on my own will. Please, trust me and I’ll get you somewhere safe,” Discord gently begged.
The lamp was put back on its table, and Silver Blitz put her hoof in Discord’s paw. With his talons, Discord snapped his fingers. But, nothing happened.
“Oh, shit…!” Discord whispered to himself. He ran to the door, practically pulling Silver Blitz behind himself. “Hurry! We’ve got to get out of here, before the laughing man catches us!”
“But, there is no laughing man,” Silver Blitz said.
They were in the hallway, and Discord stopped dead in his tracks. There was a red light coming from downstairs, and the sound of a heavy step. With the step came the sound of many clinking chains.
“Quick! Back this way!” Silver Blitz said, pulling Discord back into her room.
Once they were inside, she opened the wardrobe and stuffed Discord inside. Even though he barely fit, he was able to twist his body in a way that allowed him inside. The doors were slammed shut, leaving only a crack that Discord could peer through. From his tiny vantage, he was able to see Silver Blitz hastily put the shade back on her lamp before she resumed her dance, as if nothing had happened.
The sounds of the steps grew closer, chains rattling with every one of them.
“Silver Blitz,” a low, elderly voice called out, slowly drawing out every syllable of the filly’s name.
“In here,” Silver Blitz answered, trying to keep her voice steady.
The door opened with a loud creak, and Discord watched as an orange pegasus stallion with a red mane entered the room. On his flank was the mark of a knife slicing through a red berry. In an instant, Discord remembered seeing him in one of the photographs from the hall. He was standing next to Silver Blitz in that picture, smiling like a complete creep. Except that his coat was a much lighter shade in that picture, instead of the deep orange he now sported. He watched as the stranger watched Silver Blitz dance, saying nothing as he did. He just watched her in a way that Discord recognized as an evil kind of lust. A perverse desire for something forbidden. Something that no good-hearted creature would want.
The stranger slowly closed in on Silver Blitz, who stopped dancing. She watched in complete fear as the stallion stroked his hoof against her face.
“Please, no…” Silver Blitz quietly begged.
The stallion lowered himself down to her eye level, and dragged his tongue across his own lips, before inching it closer to Silver Blitz’s.
“Hooves off, foal-fucker!!”
The stranger had no time to register what happened. A sudden weight crashed against the side of his body, and he was sent sprawling across the bed against the wall.
“Hurry!” Discord said, taking Silver Blitz by her hoof and running to the door.
The stallion on the bed watched them go, just as his eyes turned into solid orange pools.
Discord led Silver Blitz down the hall as the sounds of splintering wood rapidly approached behind them. They got to the stairs and felt them rise behind them as they ran. They leapt off of the landing, just as the last step exploded in a shower of splinters. There was the sound of a ferocious roar upstairs. Discord looked directly at the front door, and saw it burst into flames, along with all of the windows. The fire swept across the floor toward the two. Discord took Silver Blitz up and ran down the hall, away from any doors that he knew led to the kitchen.
The hall was dark. Too dark to see even any doors that would have been on either side. Finally, they reached a dead end. They turned to run back, and saw the hallway narrowing, trapping them between its walls. At the far end, there was a red light and the sounds of rattling chains. The light was growing brighter, and the hall began to reveal itself. Something on the wall was bathed in the shadows. A part of the wall was pushing itself outward, and had an odd seam around it, which Silver Blitz ran toward.
“This way!” she said, pushing her hooves against the wall.
Discord did as she said, and started shoving his whole body against the hidden door. The sounds of the chains were growing louder as the seam on the wall started to crack. One last hit, and Discord pushed his way through the door, nearly falling down a flight of stairs when he did. He caught himself partway down.
“Come on!” he called back to Silver Blitz. When he looked back, he gasped.
Silver Blitz had taken the hollow-eyed form that Discord had seen her take the last time, before the laughing man took her.
“No…I can’t…” Silver Blitz fearfully said.
“Hurry! It’s coming!” Discord said.
“I–”
Anything Silver Blitz would have said was cut off when a hook at the end of a chain snagged the inside of her mouth. And it was followed by two more that dug deep into her empty eyes. Then another, which cut her from her stomach all the way down to her crotch, spilling a cascade of blood down the steps Discord stood on.
“Find the gold!” Silver Blitz said, her bloody tears raining on the ground.
The chains went taut, and Silver Blitz was pulled from the doorway. She tried to hold onto the frame, and was dragged out of sight. Then, the door slammed shut.
The entire world went quiet. No sounds were heard beyond the door. Not even the screams of Silver Blitz, or the rattling of the chains. There was nothing more that he could do for the filly, so Discord turned around and descended the stairs. The steps seemed endless, leading down much further than they should have. Finally, Discord’s mismatched feet felt the soft crunch of dirt beneath them. He reached out an arm and felt for the wall next to him. His claw soon found it, and he traced its length as he walked along. The basement seemed empty, for he hadn’t bumped his foot into a single thing along the way. Nor did his extended arm bump anything. The room itself was much like the stairs before it, seeming far larger than it should have been.
There was a tiny flash of light, and several sparks fell from above. Another flash, and a tiny light flickered dimly, barely illuminating the basement. Discord watched it flicker, as if it tried its damndest to stay lit. He then took another step forward, and another light lit above him. Further still, and another light flickered on. His skull tingled and his stomach sank. Somepony was expecting him.
Through the basement Discord went, his way lit by the feeble lights. Finally, he came to a door. One that was made of heavy iron and held together with rusty bolts. The circular handle hung in place, inviting Discord’s hand toward it. He reached out and gripped the handle, pulling hard. The door opened with a creak that sounded like a yawning beast that had just been awoken. Past it, Discord saw an unusual sight.
The room was smaller than the one before, and lit with small torches on the wall. The entire room was hewn from rough stone, and the way forward was covered by a blood red carpet. At the end, there was an altar set before a glowing orange void. On the altar was a brilliant, golden statuette of a phoenix.
He had been told to find the gold, and he had found it. Discord slowly walked forward, feeling a horrible shiver in his spine as he got closer to the altar. Something already knew he was there, and he was ever wary of a malicious grin appearing in the darkness. He was in front of the altar. All he had to do was take the phoenix. Just that, and he would leave. Discord reached his paw out, ready to take the statuette. His finger barely touched it just as he expected a shrill laugh to echo through the room. Nothing happened. He gripped the phoenix and prepared to take it with him. That was when the world went to Hell.
It started as a whooshing sound that came from deep within the glowing void behind the altar. One that grew louder and louder until a hot breeze shot forth that blew Discord backwards. He sat up and watched as two orange lights blinked open above the void, and the void itself rose up and closed like a set of jaws. A red, glowing tongue flicked from the closed mouth of the thing, waggling up and down with a low hiss.
Discord ran back the way he came, hearing the rumbling of the wall of the altar falling apart. He ran back into the dim basement, seeing the stairs directly ahead. He went as fast as his legs would carry him, when all of a sudden a wall of black scales slithered past him. The head of an enormous serpent turned to stare at him, threateningly flicking its tongue. A wave of its body and it slapped Discord across the room.
Discord reached back and bit his own tail, rolling like a wheel until he was able to skid to his feet. He watched as the thing slithered toward him with its glowing mouth wide open. He dodged just as it lunged at him. When Discord tried to run for the stairs, the snake lunged its head past him and destroyed the wooden stairs with its jaws. It turned to look at Discord, seeming to smile as it watched his terrified face.
His back was to the wall with no means to escape as the snake flicked its tongue at him, its endless black body slowly closing in toward him. Discord snapped his fingers, hoping that by some miracle he had regained his power. No such luck. He banged the wall with his fist, and felt something there. He looked and saw a box with a faded lightning bolt painted on it. A quiet tapping sound came from nearby. Looking down the way, Discord saw something that he hadn’t noticed before. A small window was up near the ceiling. And it was low enough for him to reach. He looked back to the snake as it slithered closer to him, its mouth opening ever so slightly to reveal rows of curved, needle sharp fangs. It reared up and swayed back and forth, before it lunged at him.
Discord dove to the side, and the teeth of the monster sank into the wall. There was a horrible flash of light as electricity crackled from the fuse box, and the lights showered the ground with sparks. As the monster thrashed in agony, Discord jumped for the window, finding that it opened upward when he pushed it. He squeezed his body through it, keeping the golden phoenix held firmly in his grip. Finally, he was out into the streets of Pallin Town, and he scrambled as fast as he could away from the devilish house. He looked back, and he saw that he was right in front of the house, staring at the front porch. The window he had crawled through was already closed.
It was a relief like he had never felt before to be out in the rain. Out of the house where evil lived. His heart stopped when he saw a pair of orange eyes glare at him from the window, and he clambered backwards along the ground.
“It can only follow you at night. Leave now,” Silver Blitz’s voice said, before it faded, and the eyes lowered from sight.
Discord watched the window, hoping that the filly would reveal herself. When she didn’t reappear, Discord noticed that the sun was coming up. For now, he was safe. And even though he failed to release Silver Blitz, he had done as she said and found the gold. He looked at the statuette, wondering what could possibly be so important about it.
“I’m gonna need some help on this one,” Discord muttered to himself.
He raised his paw and rubbed his fingers together, hoping for that miracle again. He snapped his fingers, and disappeared from existence.