Our Sun Shines No More
Chapter One: The Legend

I never knew my father. They, my friends, all claim that he was a hero to our kind- yet all that remains of him in me is the mere shadow of a memory, fading deeper into the reclusiveness of my mind. What I do know of him is only a fragmented collage gathered from the legends and rumors of his intrepidity. I remember nothing of him from my childhood, as he had abandoned my heart long ago. They all say that was fighting for us, but I was reluctant to believe this. How could I call the stallion who had forsaken me a 'hero'? I never knew my father.

When I was a very young colt, I never understood what he fought for or why it was so important to him. In truth, I selfishly believed that he simply didn't care for me or that he would rather 'work' than love me. But it was only until the night of the Incident when I realized that he had always come home with bloody stains on his coat. He had seemed weak and faint at heart, as if his soul suffered from some incurable disease. While I watched from afar with an envied glare, my father's heart, as everypony claims, slowly crumbled to dust. The moon was omnipresent that night, like an enormous all-seeing-eye that hovered in the heavens. That night, my father didn't return. It was that night when our kind rose up from the valley of ashes with a burning fury and my father became glorified as a martyr.

I've been hidden away from the world by my 'friends' who feared that someone would try to silence me, like my father. Rarely, if ever, I would be blessed with a boon of sunlight- but light, too, would be quickly drowned in the darkness of the Depths. In my room, I studied politics and sociology as I'm doomed to uphold my father's legacy. I yearn to escape; to see the trees, the streams, and the mountains like those in my books. Neither the cheap paper nor the wild imagination in my head brought rest to my burning desires. I sigh at these dreams, the dreams of the impossible.

I placed my head on the corner of the table and I lost myself in these dreams. Then I awoke at the booming roar of reality.

"The Stars must fall," echoed my father's haunting words, "for the freedom of our ponies."

This is why I continue, for the ponies. It'd always been for the ponies. But, I wonder: will there be freedom for me?

The dimly lit room shook at the tremors from the surface world. Every so often dust would fall from the ceiling in tufts, burying the already dust laden textbooks. A faded portrait of my father, worn away by neglect, hung proudly from the wall - faceless. Two ponies sat in this room, one of which was I.

"You can't do this, you can't escape. You know they'll find you."
The voice was from a mare, a unicorn, with a mint green coat who sat directly in front of me. Her mane, cut short, was free-flowing and clear of any knots. On either side of her flanks were her cutie marks, golden rays of the early morning sun. She was my one and only friend in this institution of emotional solitude, and she was the only one who I trusted wholeheartedly. She grabbed my hoof.

"I'm going," I attempted to nudge her off, "and don't try to stop me."

"But you can't!"

"I can."

"Don't be silly!"

"I'm not joking." The air in the room began to grow thick with tension. "Today, I'm going to escape, right out those vault doors."

"Y-You're serious aren't you?"

"Why not?" I felt the anger inside myself begin to a boil. The very earth, too, seemed to erupt with my fury. "What's the purpose of me sitting here, watching from safety while everypony who I say to be fighting for are out there dying?" I shouted. This was the first time I shouted at her. "With every day, more ponies come to my hooves, desperately crying for me to save their loved ones. I can't. I can't even give them an answer!"

She retreated.

"Don't you see? I should be out there, with them!" I pointed my hoof towards the ceiling. Several meters above our heads through the stone reinforcements was freedom. "I want to see the outside world - the world that I've dreamed since I was small."

"But you're our beacon of hope, our only light in these times."

"But why? My father?" I scoffed. "I never knew my father, and he is certainly not who I am."

"I don't care if you're not like your father, Lucian. You're still important to us all." Her rose eyes glittered in the fluorescent light. "I can't imagine losing you."
I blushed. I've known that she developed strong feelings for me over the years, but my status of to-be-liberator prevented her from making any advances. Although I never confessed, I, too, cherished her as more than a friend.

"Dawn," I said, holding her hooves, "you know that I can't stay here."

The rumblings gradually softened and then ceased. The room was silent and we sat staring at each other, wondering if this would be the last moment we would share together.

"Who am I to say 'I am my father'? I've done nothing to prove my worth, as I am neither brave nor strong. It's hypocritical if I were to say that I should be worthy to be called a hero because of my father. But let me make this clear: I am not my father. I'm tired of the legacy which precedes me, and you know that I have to escape this prison. I want to see the world and find myself - my true self and my true self-worth. I need to learn who I really am."

Surprisingly, I saw a single tear fall from the corner of her eye. I've never seen her cry before.

"Promise me that you'll be safe." Dawn threw herself onto me.

"Cross my heart..."

"...hope to fly..."

And in unison, "stick a cupcake in my eye."

I galloped away into the main hall. Although I've lived in the Depths for my entire life, the hallway was still a sight to behold: marble ceilings rose to near endless heights, rainbow colored jewels littered the walls, embroidering it in equally colorful sparkles, and thousands of ponies jammed every nook and cranny. This was the heart of the Depths, the home of the Resistance movement.

"Hold your horses!"

Something strong took a hold of my mane and then pinned me to the ground. I instantly knew by the gruff voice that it was none other than the General. The General, as everyone called him because of his claims to have lost his name in the midst of war which was stolen by an enemy gypsy - a ridiculous tale. He was the leader of all the guards and unfortunately, my military strategist. Already, his coat of bubblegum pink has lead to the death of at least two enemies in laughter, but it was his equally bubbly persona which made me deeply embarrassed to even trot by his side.

I pried his hoof out of my mane. "I'll be a stallion in exactly in a month, General, I'm not a foal anymore. Please, just stop the games and act like a stallion of war for once." I may have stated that with obvious exasperation, however, the General was oblivious to everything.

"Did you see me? I could have been an assassin hiding among the crowds, and right there - you'd be dead! Have you seen an assassin before? Of course not! But I have. Oh, your father would not have been proud at all, Lucian. No, no, not at all. In fact, I think he would want you to be placed in the Inner Depths for protection!" He took a great breath of air, ready to continue jabbering off again.

But, like usual, I simply walked away.

And like usual, he followed.

I cantered through the crowds, parting the candy-colored sea while attempting to escape the obnoxious stallion. I glance behind to see that he was no longer there. Relieved, I turned myself around.

He was in front of me. "... and what would your father have done? Well, he would most likely have called me! Of course, I would have..."

I shook my head in disappointment and held my hoof to his mout. It was sticky. "Stop for a moment."

He gesticulated with his hooves, zipping his mouth and for once was silent. Although he had the advantage of several decades over me, nopony spoke when the heir was about to speak business like his father.

"If you're going continue following me, at least give me a debriefing for today's battles."

He was overly excited at this request that he launched himself like a pink rocket several meters into the air. None of the passersby stopped to investigate the source of the explosion. Explosions were common in the Depths.

After prancing circles around me, he calmed himself to tell me the war stories. "Squad Hayfry was quite successful today; only one death. Ten more were injured, but I'm optimistic that they'll live for at least another day"

I began to formulate my escape. Enlisting in the militia was synonymous to suicide. Most 'volunteers' were prisoners forced to sign away their families and lives. I knew that the front gates were always guarded by the Third and Fifth Battalions. Additionally, all imports and exports were inspected and, to this day, nopony has even been able to smuggle a single grain of rice past our Search Squadrons.

"Our scouts in the Everfree Desert have completed their mission, but nopony from their squad has arrived. Also, napalm supplies are running low so we might need to send some colts to find some materials."

I could never disguise myself as a Service Colt, orphans whose sole purpose were to serve the Resistance. Ventilation ducts were controlled by the Central Ward, the eyes of the Depths. I almost abandoned my dreams of ever seeing the blue skies then and there, until I saw it. I found my failsafe route of escape which had been in front of my eyes for all these years, and only now have I noticed the...

"...oatmeal! Can you believe it?"
"No. No, I can't, General." I ignored him blatantly and instead stared at the library. "Would you like to join me with those books, General? You know those long books with long words."
The General mouth twitched for a split second. "Oh, no, I'm terribly sorry. Would you look at the time, I'm late for a meeting with somepony over there." His hoof pointed towards a playground, into a crowd of children. "Farewell!" As if books were a vile poison, he immediately sprung away while singing random and gory war songs.

I escaped into the library, desolate like the day prior. It seemed that with the technological innovations, ponies began to lose sight of the older traditions, for example, reading physical books. Colts and fillies read 'books' from their magical devices and in doing so they learned to disown the notion of knowledge. I, personally, could not live without the cool touch of a book's binding.

I shouted. "Still here?" My echo answered back. I approached Dawn, who sat behind the returns desk reading an ancient tattered book. On the cover was a glittering portrait, a silhouette of a unicorn or possibly an alicorn. Although decorated with great detail, the color of the binding was faded to near grey due to time. In ancient Equestrian text, the title read The Elements of Harmony.

"What're you reading that kind of book for?"

"It's nice to have a break from wartime propaganda," she lifted the cover and pressed her hoof firmly on the word 'Harmony'. "This is something we haven't had for centuries now."

I rolled my eyes. "We can all dream."

"It's my dream."

"What?"

"Harmony. My dream is for everypony to live in harmony."

I was about to chuckle, but her stern stare made my throat seize. "W-well read some for me." In my free time, when I should have been in my classes, I would come to the library - a haven for Dawn and me. We shared countless hours reading to each other from the pages of the infinite aged books and scrolls.

"It's quite interesting, actually." She flipped through the pages ferociously, more excitedly than I had ever seen her before. Maybe, this book gave her the hope of a dream fulfilled; great, for this era was of insomnia and nightmares.

"There was this corrupt princess named Nightmare Moon, who was defeated by six heroes who wielded the Elements of Harmony. And see here? Less than a year later, a draconequus named Discord rose up and nearly destroyed Equestria. Once again, the Elements of Harmony stopped his chaos. After that was the rise of the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, who was defeated with the most powerful element: love."

She quickly glanced at me, and her eyes shone the purest shade of ruby. She then hurriedly flipped to the next page, but suddenly, the tome slipped from her hooves and landed on the floor, causing a single sharp sound to echo through our very souls for eternity.

"What's wrong?" I jolted to her side.

She stood petrified. The lights above our heads seemed to dim and her eyes no longer reflected ruby, but blood red. She stared at me, lip trembling. "There is no more."

"What?" I stared at the book, thick with hundreds of pages still unread. "Of course there has to be more! Look!" I leaned over to retrieve the fallen book from the side of the mahogany table. I held the corner to the next page and turned.

Unlike the previous pages, which were ornate with soft pastels, this page was streaked with deep red blood. A single message was written in the center and eerily seemed to bleed. I paused, frozen at the words in disbelief: "The Fall of Harmony". Six ponies lay sprawled at the base of the page, butchered with charred hooves. Standing above them was a single white alicorn with an odd celestial presence.

I slammed the cover shut and slid it across to the far end of the table. I refused to believe such libel that defaced our proud history. Our textbooks claimed, ever since we were foals, that harmony never existed in Equestria. Decades were never marked by peace, but by warfare. It was century in the midst of the rebellion against the White Stars, dictators of Equestria, that I was born in.

"It's only a foal's tale, Dawn. We know none of it's real - it can't be. It doesn't fit with our books."

"But how do you know?" She drew a long breath and then exhaled. "Nopony from the Depths have seen for themselves the truth. Everything we know is what they tell us, and I'm tired of trotting in the darkness, Lucian, I want to see the light."

"Sunlight? You know what always they tell us: light blinds us."

"Don't you see?" She galloped towards the window which faced the other buildings. "We're already blind, living in this darkness."

I contemplated her speech. I knew that Dawn always spoke metaphorically, and I knew that her aspirations would have lead to her becoming a wonderful writer. Our dreams shared, by far, more similarities than differences; we wanted to find the truth. She was the only friend who would help me on my journey, but I couldn't bear the guilt if she were to be hurt because of my seemingly fruitless pursuits.

"And..." She walked to behind the counter and brought out a single tube of blue paper. "We can escape, together."

"Together?" I struggled to act surprised. I knew that she wouldn't let me leave alone.

"Let's go." She unfurled the blueprints of the underground city and that was the beginning of my nightmares.

Author's Note: This will be, by far, the happiest chapter ever. Expect much darker content next chapter!