"Don't be afraid, brothers and sisters! The Dead God Salzar will return once again to collect all the blood of the living and purge the lands with his children! For it is his will! All blood shall return to the Dead God! The heathens will be punished!"

Two guardponies jumped on the podium, grabbed the cackling madpony and took him away in front of the eyes of a large audience that came to listen to the "speech". The bearers of the Elements decided to go around and ask how it all happened while Celestia was forced to look at one of the members of the royal guard, perhaps the most prestigious military position in Equestria, the elite of the elite, dragged away like any commoner. Not only it was sad, but also humiliating.

Now, to a simple pony living in the capital of Equestria, this might have been an extremely rare sight, maybe once in a lifetime. When it happened, it would always be a pony who had such traits as their talent. Such individuals would do something simple yet efficient enough to draw everypony's attention, like yelling out loud or throwing pies in somepony's face. But this... this was on a whole new level.

The bearers returned to Celestia, each with a valuable piece of information that helped her unravel the mystery. A mystery that served only to make the Princess feel horrible about herself.

It all happened so suddenly. There was this armor-clad pony walking down the streets, staring forward as if mesmerized, moving his mouth as if speaking to somepony, yet not one passer-by heard him say anything. There was even a colt who approached the guardpony, staring in awe at the majestic member of the royal guard. However, the guard pony ignored the colt completely and continued walking forward, despite the colt showering him with praise as much as any colt his age would.

Then, as if on command, it reached the podium, jumped on it, turned around and started yelling. What the guardpony yelled about was not remembered completely, partly because it was a very long speech and partly because the audience gradually grew bigger, meaning that some came a bit later and thus unable to know what was said in the beginning. Luckily, some ponies were able to remember at least a tiny piece of the whole thing. The following are pieces of the madpony's fanatical talk.

"...All begins and ends with Salzar, the Dead God. The blood that runs through our veins belongs to him and him alone. Yes, you heard me correctly. The blood is not yours. You are simply holding it for someone else. But now that he has returned, said blood must also be returned, for the blood of the living belongs to the Dead God..."

"...rejoice! Rejoice! The Dead God walks among us! What deity is capable of doing what he did?! What deity could give birth to the Great Lake, the lake out of which his avatar was born?!..."

"...My whole life was that of servitude. I lived only to serve the tyrant that runs Equestria! But no more! No more! The Dead God spoke to me, whispered to me, showed me the truth! Indeed brothers and sisters, there is a whole world beyond this one! The realm of the Dead God's children! The Void between worlds is their domain!..."

"... But prove it to me! Prove that you are worthy to receive the glorious gift of reunification! I will be detained, as it is written by fate! But fear not, as I will return to my shackles, you will be free to advance on this broken world and bring the end of all times. The end, where all shall be reunited with Salzar, making the Dead God complete! Where all wrongs will be righted, wrongs committed by those who you praise even to this day! These wannabe goddesses, who manipulated the course of our destiny, will receive punishment from Salzar himself for their blasphemy and crimes against ponykind!..."

"...The end of all times will also bring a final end to the Ancients, the past lords of Equus who were cast into the formless aether by what they thought to be their allies. They were rocks on our paths, slaughtered our brothers and sisters, all for another attempt to regain control of what they lost a long time ago. And yet... and yet, we must be thankful to them, for while they are our sworn enemies, they did a great job by keeping all kingdoms busy long enough for our ranks to swell in thousands! Still, they are unaware of the world's history, much like their representative, a sworn enemy of the Dead God. The Ancients are completely unaware of our end game and, when they finally find out, it will be already too late to stop it! Where once we suffered the ultimate defeat, our return shall be reborn in the form of the Ghizhir, forerunner of the end of all times, the voice of Salzar himself!..."

The revelation left a mark not only on Celestia, but on the bearers themselves. Ranging from shocked faces to worry and outright rage, the emotional burden proved to be too much for some, as Fluttershy almost fainted from the terrifying words. The one known as Pinkie Pie helped her the very moment she saw her best friend in sucha pitiful state.

"But that is impossible!" Twilight protested. "There are no more covens on whole Equus that are left intact! How do they plan to-"

She, like Celestia, immediately received her answer. Five minutes after the mad guardpony was taken away, somepony, a mare to be precise, yelled out loud words that would be soon stuck in the minds of everypony present for days to come.

"Let the blood flow!"

In an instant, just like that, the citizens of Canterlot scattered in random directions, as a colt yelled loudly. It was a yell of agony, of somepony who was stabbed when least expected. As more and more ponies moved away, the elements and the Princess were able to see the culprit of a crime that happened in front of their very eyes.

The criminal, a mare with golden mane and red fur, sporting a chef's hat, held a knife in her mouth, which was used to stab a half-grown colt in his stomach, spilling the blood all over the floor. Immediately, several guards surrounded her as she began hissing like a snake. But that wasn't the disturbing part. The disturbing part, according to Celestia, was how calm did the elements reacted to it all. They were simply so busy with defending Equestria against both Ancients and the cult, that it left a big impact on them. She still remembered how some of them cried when they first saw true carnage on the battlefield...

"What the buck is her problem?!" Rainbow Dash yelled angirly. She had to be held down by a certain pony with a hat to prevent her from doing anything rash. "How could that sicko do something like that?!"

Everyone heard Twilight gasp. "What if... and I know this may sound crazy... but what if all that talk had somehow affected everyone else?"

Now her friends gasped in return. The shyest of the bunch dared to ask.

"What... do you mean?"

"It's strange, I know! But... there are spells that can do that kind of thing. But the problem is, their users must cast them first, which in itself takes a lot of time. So my question is, how did that guard do that if he was talking to the crowd all of this time?"

"Couldn't he have done it sooner?"

"No, no." She shook her head. "For the effect to kick in, the speech should have been short, yet perfect. That guard looked like he was talking for at least half an hour."

Celestia couldn't take it anymore and sighed loudly, enough to draw everyone's attention. "I'm sorry, my little ponies. It's all my fault." She moved her eyes away from the staring student. "I recognized that guard. He was supposed to protect the book in my absence."

"Book?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"A... coven, was found in Ponyville." She winced slightly when the bearers started panicking. "It was destroyed and the traitors imprisoned... however..."

"However?" Her student pressed on.

"Several artifacts were found. All of them were destroyed, except for one."

"The book?"

"Yes. The book."

"And what does the book talk about?"

"It is a... I don't even know what it is, I'm afraid."

"Huh?"

"The first few pages were incoherent ramblings that I couldn't make nor head nor tail of it. Few pages later, and it started talking about a tribe of, what I think it described, Diamond Dogs."

"Diamond Dogs?" Applejack asked. "Ah am confused. What the hay those have to do with any of this?"

"According to the book, whoever wrote it fought mercilessly against every warrior that the tribe's leader sent in their way, only to... defeat, the leader and take their place."

"Now that you mention it..." Twilight placed a hoof under her chin. "Didn't some of the many reports claim that Diamond Dogs attacked some cities, caravans and... well... everything else?"

"Correct, my dear student."

"Hmm... all of this is very strange..." Twilight hummed. "Can I take a look at it?"

The answer stabbed Celestia's heart far more efficiently than any sword on Equus ever could. She even took few hoofsteps back and gasped, realizing her mistake. Of course her student would ask to take a look at it, bookworm that she was. But this situation was horribly different.

"I..." She stuttered. "I-I'm afraid that won't be possible."

"But-"

"My no is a no, please understand."

"But I can take care of myself! I could handle it with care and-"

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia shouted. "You won't touch that book until I say so! End of story!"

Then, realizing what she did, Celestia lowered her head in shame, apologized to everyone, turned around and walked away. However, such outburst of anger surprised the bearers, especially Twilight, which led her to believe that there must have been a very good reason as to why did the Princess act so surprised and angry. To her, it was obvious that she was trying to protect everypony by staying as far away from the book. She connected the dots in her head with the recent events, and realized that, if that guardpony read the book, the very book that Celestia was talking about, then that meant...

"He was the victim!" She suddenly shouted, to everyone's surprise.

"What are you talking about?" Rarity inquired.

"Hear me out, Princess said that the guardpony was put in charge of keeping the book safe, right? So if he did, then obviously he must have read it, which makes me wonder as to why. The royal guards are the most loyal ponies in all of Equestria. They follow every order that the Princess gives them. So why did he read that book?" She turned to her friends. "Why would a loyal pony disobey her orders?"

"Maybe he wasn't so loyal as you say. I think he lost his marbles." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof at the side of her head.

"No, that's not it." Twilight shook her head. "I think... that the book had somehow forced him to read it."

"Are you suggesting that the book was enchanted with such a vile spell?"

"I think so, Rarity. But in all honesty, I don't know. There is simply so much I still don't know about, even after all of this..." She trailed off, lowering her gaze. "I am such a failure."

"Hey, don't say that." Rainbow Dash hugged Twilight. "You are no failure."

"But... but..." She almost started crying. "I couldn't save them... I am... too weak to save anypony..."

"Twi..."

"How can I be a Princess if I can't even defend my own subjects?"

The remaining bearers came close to Twilight as well, performing a group hug.

"Don't worry, Twilight dear."

"Yeah, we will totally kick them all in the rear!"

"Our friendship is far stronger than all those meanies!"

Twilight Sparkle sighed in relief and smiled weakly. "Thank you. Thank you all."

The group hug lasted for a couple more seconds in an awkward silence. Twilight turned to her friends and smiled, proud that she had such loyal friends.

But there was something in the sky she couldn't see clearly. A black dot of sorts, that seemed to expand with every minute. It didn't go left or right, then it hit her...

Whatever it was, it was coming towards them.

Author's Note

So here is the third chapter. What can I say? Well, I dunno how many other authors write, but I basically make the plot as I go (which, I have to admit, can sometimes be rather hard but totally worth it). I also have to warn you all, that sometimes, depending on the chapter, there won't be bits from the sacred book of the cult, just like in this one. Don't worry, there will be more of it, but it will appear when, in my opinion, the time is right. I already have some ideas for the next chapter and there might be a possibility that it will happen there. But I guess you will have to read more to find out! ;D