//------------------------------// // The Beginning... // Story: A Timeless Hell // by EternalShadow54 //------------------------------// A Timeless Hell... Chapter 1- The Beginning... "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." -Sydney J. Harris "Pain... pain is all I feel... it's all I know... ponies think they know pain, the true conception of agony and torment... but they know nothing of my hell... my timeless hell that repeats itself over and over in my mind..." He took a deep breath before he continued. "How I wish for death... to embrace its gentle call and rid myself of this world into the next... to once more feel the soft touch of my mother's love... the wonderful safe feeling of being in my father's arms... and the heartfelt companionship of my dear siblings..." Everypony in the bar turned ear to this strange stallion as he took a sip of his drink. "I'm chosen... cursed with the duty of destroying the ponynomicon... the only thing keeping my miserable life going... Ironic, isen't it...?" The room was in dead silence while he finished the drink up. "I can't die... not until that accursed book has been burned by the fires of oblivion itself... it won't let me..." The stallion removed his Solar Empire armour from around his chest, revieling a large hole punctured through where his heart would be, surrounded by the numerous other scars that seemed almost patternized around his body. "This... was when my demons were able to take over... to break free of their cage and torture my soul as they saw fit..." He sat back down, glaring at the bar tender as he held out his glass for a refill. "I'm guessing you would like to know my story too, huh? About how this all came about?" The stallion he was talking to first simply stared in awe, slowly nodding his head to the green eyed pony who gleamed with a dark air around him, scratching his dark brown mane. "Where do I begin..." "I was born in a quaint town, my mother and father owning one of Equestria's prestige farms in the south... My sister, Sally Shine, was the family's prime example of our great history of artist... while my four brothers... Rocko, Night Quick, Light Stick, and Grady Don... were the usual batch of farm lackies that we also had a reputation for... I was born a stallion, so they didn't think me any different than my brothers..." "I grew up working the farm... every day toiling the fields... and every night tending to the flocks... I hardly had time for myself... but one day, I found my sister's sketch book... calling my name as I passed it by... I knew I could be in huge trouble for taking what's not mine... but I didn't care... I started to draw in my spare time... what little bit I had... and my artistic talents came to life... the paper before me becoming a whole new gateway... a gateway to a world that I could create with my own two hooves..." "As you can plainly see... I'm a unicorn... and unicorn's horn acts a strange way at times... drawing you to your destiny at the most unexpected of times... but lets just say... I wish mine hadn't..." "If you'll look, you can see that my cutie mark is a pencil... a simple artistic tool... used to create the worlds within my mind that I mentioned earlier... you would think that this means that I'm an artist... a pony with the ability to draw or write anthing that my heart would desire... but this is only another part of my curse..." "My horn drew... or should I say "wrote" my destiny alright... You looking for the pony for this wretched worldly state... an answer to the hell you now live in as well... you should look no further... In my sleep, my magic took over without my control... my dreams upon those of undead creatures and monsters alike... let me put it simply for you... I'm the author of the ponynomicon... my artistic abilities combined with those of my nightmares... all put into making that damn book..." "I had a love back then... or should I say, I will have a love soon... a special somepony to care for... She was beautiful... a gem brighter than the clearest of diamonds... how I loved her... or will love her... I forget sometimes what time it is..." "After that night... that horrible night when she read the book... opened those evil pages and recited those damned incantations... the night I lost my family... my friends... my town... my soul... how was she to know... how was Treanie Trot to know what she was doing... how was my love to know..." "I knew I should have destroyed that monstrosity upon ponies... that wretched book of the damned... but I was scared... my destiny was intertwined with those binded pages... my life literally connected to the accursed thing... so I hid the book... sealed it away in a locked box... and buried it beneath the family tree... just outside the house... why she watched me... waited until I was gone to emerge from the bushes... and to dig up what I had created..." "That night dragged on... I don't believe the sun ever rose again after that night... the screams of horror and pain from within your own town... your friends flesh torn apart by undead monsters that could only be concived in dreams... you family slaughtered by your own bastardizations... your one true love... swallowed up by the darkness as she screams your name... I can still remember how after the bloodshed... they bowed to me... I was their master after all... the one who had made them..." "I don't know if my destiny was to become the next ponymancer... the next dark ruler of Equestria... but I did know that what had happened... happened... I never can forgive myself... not for what I done... I took the book... the very fiber of my being peeling away as I started to rip the bindings apart... but the book has a mind of its own... a sense of humor so to say..." "I only reached halfway through the damned thing before I suddenly blacked out... my senses all failing me at once... I opened my eyes... the world a different place than I remembered it as I arose... All the chaos... the blood... gone before my very eyes..." "What do you suppose is worse... to see a loved one die... or to know it's going to happen... I'm sure just thinking about it is pretty sad in itself... but I have no choice in the matter... all three happen to me every day... in my dreams... and my life..." "Like I said... I'm cursed... cursed with the blessing of immortality... and the power of time travel... you would think I would be ecstatic... overjoyed to never worry about death... but that's a stupid conception... I would welcome death... only if it would accept me... but the damn book won't allow it... won't grant me the privalige... the pleasure..." "It taunts me... casting me through different time periods... laughing at me as I always have to start anew... make a living for myself once more... like I said, I forget what time it is... whether I appear a century in the past... or a mellinuim in the future... I can't remember... It always happens when I sleep... the book mocking me with his control of my night time slumber... revaging my mind for more sadistic creations to add to its collection... importing that night into my head with every blink... and sending me through to another time..." "I was lucky once... the damn thing forgetting the day I created him... placing me in the same hour that my beloved town was destroyed... It was too late to try and help them... help my family and friends... but I could change it all... finish what I started... I had the chance to right what I had wronged..." "I found the book... the evil binded pages half torn as I held it once more in my hooves... anger flowing through my veins as I began to conclude what was begun... when it happened..." "I felt it... the sweet sting of death as my inner demon came forth... appearing from behind... and impaling its blade through my chest... tearing through my already weak heart... I released my grip upon the book... my breath escaping my lips as if fell to my knees... my inner rage consuming me as the flames of hell swarmed around... engulfing my every attempt at another life giving breath... while I watched my darker side stich the bindings... and read an incantation from my accursed scourge against Equestria..." "I can't really say that I tried too hard... deaths embrace closing arounds me... my journey through this hell called life finally coming to an end... I began to let go... to just give way and let the flames take me... but my demons had other plans for me... calling me forth from the grave I was entering... and stealing my only chance at true happiness... closing the door I had sought for tirelessly... and laughing in my face while I sat there... watching as I could do nothing to stop it..." "Eventually, sleep did come to me... though it was quite some time before it did... I had enough time to give my town a proper burial... and burned the remains of the ruins... My demon had run off with the ponynomicon... his sinister grin as he vanished still haunting my thoughts... the hole within my chest burning with the pain of a thousand suns..." "I figured I would need protection... armour for the next time I faced my demons... so, when I arrived at the time of Celestia's rule... which, depending what time it is... you know about this or not... I decided to join her royal guard... swearing my loyalty to her and becoming one of the Solar Empire... It wasn't one day after swearing in that I disappeared again... flung through time and winding up somewhere else on account of "my own" sadistic humor... and I can never forget the pain..." "I have spent the rest of my life since then... searching through time itself... and even battling my own creations with my bare hooves... looking for the oppritunity to rid this world of that damn thing... to right my wrongs... to make a monument to all my sins... but let me tell you something... time... does not heal all wounds... remember that..." "That's my story... my life in a nutshell... I will continue to walk through my life... walk through my own hell to correct my doings... to defy my destiny... and save this world from my own evil..." He stood up from his stool, chugging the last bit of his drink before laying some bits on the counter. "I believe this should cover it..." He turned for the door, walking a slow pace before somepony called from the silent crowd that had listened to him. "Who are you?" the pony asked. He stopped, holding the door open as the storm outside pelted him with rain. "The name's Downpour... Davy Downpour..."