The Nightmare Procession

by Dashie04

The End

Author's Note:

I recently listened to The Black Parade, and I found the album to be amazing. The storyline’s great, and I’m a sucker for Rock Operas.

So, when I found out that many people had tried to make a The Black Parade story, but none finished, I told myself that it was something I wanted to do. This won’t update daily— every chapter’s probably going to be more complicated than 1k words. It’s unclear if it even will update regularly, but I want to finish this.

That being said, I hope you enjoy! Constructive criticism is allowed and encouraged!

Influences: The Black Parade

Take a seat right there
Every stallion and mare
And all the creatures in between.
May I tell you a story
You’re encouraged to enjoy
Come one, come all and you’ll see.

A story of a griffon who wanted some change
For old Griffonstone cultures and ways.
But his dream fell apart at the seams.
While some may complain in painful drawl,
Come one, come all, let me show you firstclaw
The wreck of a story that is me.

---

I lived once.

I know, big shocker, everycreature lived once. However, I mean to say, I lived once.

How’d I live? You’d like to know, wouldn’t you?

Well it all started on the day of my birth, born to two loving parents and in the middle of the shithole that is Griffonstone. I was called Geode, reportedly for the glimmer in my eyes, which reminded my mom of precious jewels.

Griffonstone sucks. Everygriffon cares for themself, and they’re so strict. You couldn’t even have any fun around there. I went to school, thought of my aspiration, and of course, had “friends”.

What’d I want to be? Well, in Griffonstone, you really only have two choices, miner or military. Though, the really lucky ones got to be dictator!

So, I chose a third option, musician. Griffons seem to like Rock music, maybe because our claws are more dexterous than hooves. It might also be because Equestrians always seemed to care more about friendship than actually getting anything done, though they still did the EDM stuff.

Thus, our story truly begins the day that school got out for the summer. Summer in Griffonstone is basically a slightly more sweltering winter, but at least you got out of school. Even if that school was probably better than the house you lived in.

I was talking with my friends outside before the “get out” bell, though they were more like acquaintances. Griffonstone didn’t do friends. The moment you got too close to someone is the moment they send you to the gallows, metaphorically, but it might as well feel that way. They didn’t care for friends, and I didn’t either.

Goldflower, a pretty golden griffon, was probably the one I cared about the most. I distinctly remember her saying that day, “Hey, Geode, what are you doing after school?”

“Absolutely nothing,” I responded, “I’m just going to sit in my run-down house waiting for my parents to get out of the mines. I might find a book, I might even be able to read it.”

Then another acquaintance, one whom I’ll call Grainy, because that’s what they preferred to go by, they had a slightly more unkept mane, a browner coat. They said, “Geode, I know Griffonstone sucks, there’s not a single griffon that would disagree. An Equestrian shack has better living conditions than the average Griffonstone house. But, what exactly are you going to do about it?”

My final acquaintance, Granite, as his name would lead you to believe, a grey griffon with flecks of black, chimed in, “I do have to ask you how exactly you plan on going about it, Geode.”

“Well,” I said, “I’ll wait for some huge event to happen and capitalize on it.”

The “get out” bell rang, and me and my acquaintances walked together to avoid the griffons checking for stragglers. The schools are indeed nicer than the houses, and that shouldn’t come at a shock at this point. Griffons stayed back all the time.

Granite pressed, “Well, what will this earth-shattering event be?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll have to be more than my mom coming back from work.”

Goldflower’s coat glistened in the sun, she turned to me. “Grandpa Gruff’s going to have to die or something,” she stated.

“I’m surprised he isn’t dead yet,” I responded.

Goldflower continued her practiced speech, “I mean, I’m all for some change, but we still need something of that magnitude to happen, even though I’d rather do it now.”

Grainy concurred, “If that were to happen, I’d be behind you the whole way. Not necessarily now.”

“Trust me, I’ll do something,” I responded.

Soon, we had to part, I flew back home, as one usually does after school. I then sat down to read a riveting book that I’ve already read a dozen dozen times. It was just time killing until somegriffon got home.

My entire life was time killing, there was nothing worthwhile to do. It was about as entertaining as that riveting book.

Still, that’s how it was. Wake up, eat rock-hard food that probably went stale while the last king was still reigning, wait, wait, eat more food, wait, then maybe my parents would get home and actually talk about things.

That’s how it was in summer. This summer, however, was different. There was more. The monotony of the summer was broken by a huge event. The event I had been waiting for. I could finally talk about how bad Griffonstone was.

But the problem, the event happened to me. It was large alright, but I was caught in the crossfire.

I was reading a slightly different book that I’d also read a million times. Not much else to do, really. Suddenly, there was a massive pain in my skull. It throbbed like the bass drum in a military band. It felt like a mace hitting me repeatedly. How long it had been there, I don’t know, all I know is that is was there faster than the Wonderbolts on a good day.

I had had a sudden pain due to a massive problem with me. Welcome to my life.

Just when things start looking up, they’re torn back down again. I can’t do anything to stop it, it just plows through me and my dreams with the efficiency of a sledgehammer. That’s what my life has done to me. Someday, I’ll be doing something that might finally do something for Griffonstone, but then, the harsh truth finally sets in.

“Welcome to the Nightmare Procession.

We hope you enjoy your stay.”