The Kingdom of Darkness

by abcd_z

Chapter 8

Author's Note:

Warning: it gets a little dark in this chapter.

It was nighttime on the Zebrafrican plains. Torches were lit in a circle around a roaring bonfire. Zebras danced wildly around the bonfire and wove their paths around the torches as they danced. They played the drums and made loud, ululating cries. The dancing and noise built to a crescendo and the flames of the bonfire grew in size and brightness until they became a white-hot flare. Every zebra flinched, turning their sights away from the blinding light.

Every zebra, except for one. Pernoa stared at the blinding flames unflinchingly. Invisible lines of force flowed between him and the conflagration. As Pernoa stared, a black hole in the very center of the white-hot flare suddenly appeared, like a plastic sheet burnt by an open flame. An invisible force rushed out of the hole, flowing along the lines of force connected to Pernoa. Pernoa collapsed to the ground and the bonfire immediately died, taking the light with it.

The sun rose the next morning on a scene of gruesome carnage. Vultures circled overhead. Every zebra that had been dancing was now dead, having succumbed to lethal injuries during the night.

Every zebra, except for one.

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Pernoa wandered through the empty village, mumbling to himself. "Have to get them before they get me. They're all just watching, waiting to see me make a mistake. Then they'll attack. But I'm too smart for that. I'll get them before they get me! Hah!"

A villager lay still on the ground near him, her lifeblood pooled on the ground around her. The villager stared at nothing as the rambling lunatic walked past.

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Pernoa lay on the ground, dead. Two heavily injured zebras slowly walked away from the site of the battle.

That night the two zebras went to bed. The next morning, one zebra ensured he would be the only one to wake up.

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A year later, that zebra languished in a prison cell. He rocked back and forth on the ground, talking to himself.

"I get it now!" he said. "Pernoa saw the truth of things! You have to strike hard and fast, before anybody can touch you. You can't let yourself have any weaknesses! I see the blinding light! I accept the truth of Pernoa! He died because he wasn't strong enough, but I am! I deserve the name! I'm Pernoa! I am Pernoa!"

Pernoa sobbed to himself in his jail cell.

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Three years later, Pernoa killed himself. Several days after that, his jailer snapped and took on the name Pernoa.

And so it went. Another death, another mind fractured. Over and over. Until finally, many miles away and many years later...

-----------------------------------------------------------

Paranoia's breath came in ragged gasps. He had managed to escape the guards, but not without taking some damage himself. He limped down the back streets, his wounds opening up again. He couldn't let anybody else get near him. He had to-

A soft light glowed in the nighttime darkness. A female unicorn stood nearby, her horn glowing a soft magenta light.

"Risky? Is that you?"

Paranoia snarled and dropped his weight onto his hind legs, ready to attack the unicorn.

"It's me, Feather Touch. You don't have to be afraid of me. You're safe here. Remember the promise we made?"

Paranoia snarled again, confused. He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts.

Feather Touch slowly walked towards him.

"We promised we'd always be there for each other. Remember when we made that promise? We spent hours at the beach together, just the two of us. And when night came, we cuddled up next to each other and kept each other warm. I never told you this, Risky, but that's when I knew I loved you."

Paranoia stiffened at this. Feather Touch took advantage of his hesitation to close the remaining distance between the two of them and kiss him on the lips.

"I love you, Risky," she said, tears streaming down her face. "Please come back to me."

Asterisk groaned as an invisible force lessened its grip on his mind.

"Please... get out of here," he said haltingly. "I don't want to hurt you."

Feather Touch wrapped her hooves around his neck and held him in an awkward hug.

"Shhhh," she said. "I'm not going anywhere, Risky, so you had better just beat this thing, you hear me? I love you, Risky, and I'm never letting you go."

Asterisk Lulamoon charged his horn with magic and pointed it at the ground. His charged horn flashed several different colors, quickly cycling between white, black, and an unhealthy bright green color. There was a bright flash of light that knocked Feather Touch to the ground. Asterisk collapsed to the ground, exhausted. On the ground in front of him was an amber sphere that briefly shone with runes covering its surface then went dead.

"Risky! Risky!" Feather Touch shouted panickedly.

Asterisk groaned and responded, "I love you too, Feather."

Feather Touch hugged him again and kissed him repeatedly.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, mister!" she said between kisses.

Asterisk Lulamoon chuckled. "I'll see what I can do."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

A bell above her rang as Twilight Sparkle entered Trixie Lulamoon's magic items shop. The shelves on the walls were packed full of odd items; crystal globes, scrolls, potions, and dozens of pieces of assorted junk. There didn't seem to be any order to the placement; several scrolls were piled up next to a rubber chicken, and both sat on a large coil of rope.

Twilight wandered around the room, idly inspecting the merchandise on display, when Trixie emerged from behind a door in the back of the room.

"Greetings!" Trixie cried. "I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, am selling ancient artifacts and magical wares! Behold: the magical omelette of Wazindaland!"

"I think you mean, 'amulet,'" Twilight said skeptically.

"It's that too!" Trixie said, levitating the object for Twilight's inspection. Against all odds, it did appear to be a fried egg made out of metal and placed on a necklace.

"Fair enough," Twilight said. "To tell the truth, I'm just browsing. I'll let you know if I see anything that catches my eye."

"Nonsense!" Trixie yelled. "Everything here is the most beautiful, lovely, and powerful magical item you've ever seen! No matter what you look at, it should catch your eye! That is, unless you're too stupid to know great magic when you see it."

Trixie got right up in Twilight's face and eyeballed her.

"You aren't too stupid to know good magic when you see it, are you?"

Twilight scoffed and turned away. Unfortunately for her, as she did so her hoof got tangled up with Trixie's and they both fell over. As Twilight fell she bumped a short white grecian pillar that held up an amber sphere. The pillar fell over and both the pillar and the globe made loud *thud* noises when they hit the ground.

"Ah hah! Ah-hah, ah-hah, ah-hah!" Trixie yelled gleefully. "You break it, you buy it!"

Twilight yelled inarticulately in outrage. "I didn't break it!" she yelled. "And I wouldn't have knocked it over if you hadn't tangled me up!"

"Doesn't matter! You break it, you buy it!"

Trixie pronked over to the fallen pillar and inspected it for damage, looking disappointed when she didn't find any. Then she inspected the amber sphere.

"Ah hah! There it is, plain as day! You broke the priceless antique heirloom, so now you have to pay for it!"

Twilight looked closely at the sphere.

"What, that? That's a hairline fracture. You can barely even see it!"

"Doesn't matter! I can't sell it now, so you have to pay for it."

Twilight fumed, then handed over the bits and left the shop with the sphere. Once Twilight left Trixie giggled to herself and said, "Thank God. I thought I'd never get rid of that ugly old thing."

Then Trixie thought about it for a second and added, "and the amber globe is gone, too!" and giggled again.

Comments

[Vigriff]

Trixie, what have you done?

[Liqwidice]

Well now we know what happened to the princess.

[Iron Sky]

This all takes place before Twilight and Celestia go crazy and try to kill the human?

[abcd_z]

5570578
Yup.

[Asashi - Dark Fist Inari]

*Sigh*.........why do I even bother....?

[WorldSmith]

... Huh. A literal villain/idiot ball. (well literally a paranoia ball, but literary...aly (words are silly peoples aren't they?) it amounts to the same thing.)

I like it. Having Twilight and Celestia etc as the villains of a HiE fic is a guilty pleasure of mine, but it can usually only be enjoyed if you don't think about it too hard. But this is a great way to have them be somewhat (or a lot) OOC without forcing your reader to just accept things and move on.

[Endlessshadow]

Talk about major paranoia. Wait is the cure is love then? Well shit this should end well. Also I still feel like Twilight would done something stupid even without the amber globe XD.

[Mr_Moon]

Wait wut canceled!?

Noooooooooooo

[abcd_z]

5906448
Sorry, but it turns out that writing comedy is much easier for me.

If you're curious, here's what I had planned out:

Derrick find an ancient artifact in the Castle of the Third Sister. It's a black bracelet that houses a benevolent and subservient AI. It bonds with Derrick, enabling him to use so-called dark magic.

Much later, Derrick faces Celestia. She has been completely taken over by Paranoia, becoming the solar equivalent of Nightmare Moon. At one point Derrick needs the AI to distract Celestia, so the AI drops the bomb that it killed Celestia's father when he succumbed to Paranoia many thousands of years ago, just like Celestia has. Celestia promptly attacks the AI's avatar, allowing Derrick to do whatever he needs to.

Also, as a side-plot, those two guards were going to form the nucleus of rebellion to oppose whatever force was corrupting the guards, eventually drafting all of the untouched guards into their service. The new army probably would have come into play as a deus ex machina to oppose Celestia once she took on her corrupted form (although there would have been a humorous squabble as they tried to agree on what to call themselves).

[Vindicar]

oh well...

[Void Gear]

so is the story up for adoption? it could be used as a great base for dark equestria stories if nothing else.

[abcd_z]

6228294

You'd have to submit the new story yourself, but I'd be totally okay with anybody taking my ideas and making something new with them. Hell, this story was created when I saw SaiyanUltima's "Seasons of Darkness" and got inspired to do something similar.

[Officer Hotpants]

Hm. I like it. It's funny but intriguing at the same time. I'll put it on watch just in case it ever comes back.

[wlam]

"I think you mean, 'amulet,'" Twilight said skeptically.

"It's that too!" Trixie said, levitating the object for Twilight's inspection. Against all odds, it did appear to be a fried egg made out of metal and placed on a necklace.

Someone's channeling CMOT Dibbler there, aren't they.

[wlam]

I've been having a complete blast reading this. I can't imagine for the life of me why you ever cancelled it.

[Fracturedheart]

As much as I hate to agree with wlam This is a good story.

[abcd_z]

6965127
6965537

1) The ratings dropped once I stopped rewriting Saiyanultima's story and took it in my own direction, and 2) When I try writing drama or adventure it's like pulling teeth. I feel like I have to slog through the parts I don't care about to get to the parts I do, and it usually causes a bad case of writer's block. After several months of never getting back to the story I decided to bite the bullet and pull the story's plug.

[Fracturedheart]

6967245 Bummer is was so good.

[wlam]

6967245

1) The ratings dropped once I stopped rewriting Saiyanultima's story and took it in my own direction

Shame. That's the part of it I thought was funny. The original story is garbage.

[Aunoraux]

I miss this story.

[Blaze the draconic mage]

Em sad it's cancelled this story was cool

[CosmosGalen]

Okay the original was better THIS is garbage, the xenophobic line was better the villain ball is asinine.

[Heat Signature]

10390872
FOR WHAT PURPOSE HAS THOU SUMMONED ME ONCE AGAIN TO THIS PLACE?!
SPEAK UP, AND LET THY VOICE BE HEARD BY MINE EARS!

[Red Neck]

Please continue