Pas D'arms: Paz in the Dark

Published Sep 19, 2022, 1:42:56 PM UTC | Last updated Sep 26, 2022, 4:07:58 PM | Total Chapters 2

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Chapter 1: Paz in the Dark

What frightened your character as a child? You may be as serious or silly as you like.:

 

 

There was a point in his foalhood where he was in fact, not even a little bit afraid of the dark. He felt quite bold and impressive over this, knowing that other foals his age were still jumping at shadows. 

 

Why should he be afraid of them after all, he was sort of shadow colored himself, and shadows made for the absolute best place to hide for games. That was how a young Pas D’arms felt about the whole thing anyway. 

 

 He was proud of himself for being afraid of very little, though honestly if you had asked his parents, at least one of them might have privately grumbled something about him only not being afraid of things because other people were busy being afraid on his behalf while he charged in. 

 

 Charging in would remain a trait for which Pas was well known for years to come. Fearlessness however…

 

 It was a Nightmare night event. Someone had brought back the idea from travels, a night full of ghost stories. It was a delightful idea in theory. A set of candles, one for each pony, and each candle blown out one by one as the story finished to increase the atmosphere. The thrills were delicious, and he really was enjoying being safely frightened… until the last story.

 

 And then someone launched into a tale about the Umbrum. Creatures of shadow, of darkness, of anger and despair that had sprung from somewhere underneath the Crystal Empire. Supposedly they had spawned the dread King Sombra, but otherwise were noncorporeal. Terrible monsters literally made of darkness seeking freedom and to snuff out the light. Who knew where they might be now, were they all -actually- trapped by the crystal heart, or were more of them lurking in the darkness, even now? Perhaps they still hunted to find their lost king, their great tie to the physical realm. Perhaps even… they looked to replace him. And where else would they begin searching but in ponies that resembled them? Those would surely be the least safe, dark coated and dark maned, easy to steal away into endless shadow to unknown fates. 

 

 He wasn’t the only dark coated pony there, but he was definitely the youngest, and the one who had the hardest time trying to shake it off. It was just a story, after all. No one really believed the Umbrum were anything more than legends, not like -real- danger, such as Wild Magic or BugBears. Heck, Timberwolves were a provable threat you could see and touch and… but then again…

 

 Would you really be able to -prove- the darkness was not to secretly be full of Umbrum? Would they have taken him away before now, or was it because they were waiting until he was around the age many ponies got their cutie marks, but hadn’t yet? Maybe they hoped to use that somehow in their dark magic? Would they be able to convert him into something dark and terrible, a new Sombra? 

 

The more he thought about it, the more plausible and dark the schemes these unseen creatures seemed, and he ran home with as bright a light spell as he could cast. It took several more years before he was able to talk himself into going into a dark room alone, just in case he never came out, and he’s still secretly a little afraid that the Umbrum might be real, and that his gray coat may somehow be related to their existence. 

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