While it was not unusual for the halls of Canterlot Castle to be quiet, the eerie silence that permeated throughout the marble structure was simply unnatural. No shuffling of the maid staff, no rustling of groundskeepers, no clinks of bored guards adjusting their armor. All that could be heard, were the panicked, but determined, clacks of a pony's hooves making their way to the throne room.
Raven Inkwell had always prided herself in her knowledge of Equestria's political spheres. As secretary and royal advisor to not one, but two alicorn princesses, she was oftentimes the most informed pony across the continent. At this very moment, however, Raven was in the dark. Quite literally, too; the light that shown through the palace's tall corridor windows was just barely dim enough to be able to see with.
Just as the silence, it was an eerie, unnatural glow. It held not the welcoming warmth of the sun, and neither the cool compassion of the moon. The unicorn carried on. Were she to stop and think of all the possible disasters that could have befallen both princesses, and by extension Equestria as a whole, it would drive her mad.
As she neared the throne room, her ear twitched. She slowed down. For the first time since she started her journey, she heard something other than just her hoofsteps. It was an oddly-pitched drone - a monotone howl. The longer she listened the higher her anxiety rose.
Its tone caused her natural instincts to scream at her to run. To escape, far from whatever monstrosity lay behind those gilded doors. To hide and never again show herself to the dangers of the world. To scream, and add a voice to its unholy chorus.
As she nearly hyperventilated, she caught a glimpse of her breath, now visible. Raven suddenly noticed the dry, piercing cold, breaking her out of her stupor. She shivered for several reasons. She stared up at the throne room's mountainous doors, and she had never before felt so small.
Steeling herself, she pushed forward. One of the mighty doors slowly creaked open just enough for her to stick her head through, revealing the interior. Her breath hitched at the sight of the once-brilliant throne room bathed in a darkness so thick it could be touched. She felt as if it were pulling her deeper into the black, and she slowly stepped her way past the doors, unable to resist.
Whether by some form of mind control or the fundamental force of gravity, Raven was dragged pace by pace towards the dais that once held the two sisters' thrones. Her eyes fell upon something she had not noticed before. A swirling black.. something floated above the dais. It looked like the center of a whirlpool, ripping the very fabric of reality into itself. Surrounding it was a sphere... no, disk? Disks? Whatever its incongruent, mind-turning shape, it was made of pure light.
Despite how brightly it shined and shimmered, it cast nothing. A selfish beacon of false hope, a distant glitter of safety to trick fools into a hungry maw. Raven realized that this oppressive anomaly was the cause of the throne room's, and possibly Canterlot's, artificial darkness. She watched, unable to turn away, as it wrenched the little light that still wisped in through the stained glass out of the very atmosphere.
She put all of her effort into keeping her hooves planted upon the solid floor. The object's pull was strong, and violent. Raven struggled to keep her footing, lest she be lost to whatever void hummed before her. Suddenly, she was released. She stumbled a little from the disappearance of the opposing force.
Looking back up at the anomaly, it seemed... dimmer, somehow. Not its outline of pure light, for that shape and its intensity never wavered. The darkness within had been noticeably quelled.
Her ears twitched, and she noticed the long droning howl of it had ceased. The creeping silence from before had returned in full, causing a shiver to run up her spine. The rapid shift in the room's tone was leagues more unsettling than the voidthing itself.
As Raven looked around for the possible cause, a red-orange glare caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Two new shapes sat perfectly still not far above the swirling sphere: rings of pure energy, red and orange and yellow and menacing. They whirled and twisted like wheels of fire, and their gaze cut through the darkness as if it were not there.
They flicked down to the shaking unicorn, and blinked.
A flash of teeth became visible, barely lit. They were sharp, and adorned a predatory smile. A voice not unlike a choir came from them, as if several ponies were speaking in tandem.
"Raven Inkwell, our darling advisor!" she cooed. "So nice to see a loyal face. How may your Queen serve you?"
Before the unicorn could answer, the mystery figure's mane and tail flared to life. In a split second, the room's oppressive blackness was replaced by the mesmerizing glow of a flowing nebula in all its glory.
Now clearly visible, Raven took stock of the usurper's form. The pitch-black fur of a bodytype not unlike the Princesses' lay sprawled across a regal loveseat, radiating an almost holy afterglow not unlike her mane. Rather than the decorative regalia forged of gold or silver, this "Queen" was partially clad in a utilitarian armor plated of a red metal Raven did not recognize. Her mane billowed through her neckplates, almost as if formless and made of gas. It was bright, laden with stunning hues of every color as they blended and swirled. Within glittered thousands upon thousands of stars, and Raven swore she could see them coalescing and forming before her eyes.
Finally, the anomaly. It sat, uncharacteristically submissive, within the Queen's neckpiece. Open and split at the front to accommodate it, the one piece of regalia she wore clasped around it with four hooks as if it were a centerpiece diamond. As much as the red-steeled regalia held the anomaly in place, so too did its gravity grip it upon her neck.
The Queen looked down at her new subject with amusement.
"Enraptured by our beauty, are we, Miss Inkwell?" she teased, once more flashing her teeth.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Raven swallowed her nerves. Looking back up into the roiling flames of her eyes, she straightened herself, and mustered the courage to speak.
"Wh-who... who are you?" she squeaked.
"Mmm... We suppose introductions are required," the alicorn purred. "We are Sunless Star. Though you may appease us greatly, little one, by simply calling us 'Queen'."
"Qu-queen? What... what have you done with the Princesses?"
"Ah! This confusion is going to happen often, is it not? We are one in the same."
"Huh?"
"We have become one, little Raven," she clarified. "All four into a single being of unparalleled perfection. Infinite. Divine."
"All... all four? Cadence? And Twilight, too?" Raven quivered, beginning to take a step back.
"Ohoho, not quite! An astute guess, but one lacking intimate details. Celestia, Daybreaker, Luna, and Nightmare Moon," she nodded, as if reciting common knowledge. "The loving Sun, and it's violent Supernova. The caressing Moon, and the callous Void that accompanies it."
Raven was unable to form any words. Celestia AND Luna? Nighmare Moon?! Who was Daybreaker? Was this all her doing? Were they working together?
"We can see you're still processing things, little one," Sunless said, breaking Raven's train of thought. "Perhaps you can digest this another time, hm?"
The unicorn merely nodded her head in acquiescence.
"Marvelous!" The Queen slid off of the loveseat, and stood to her full height. This new shape the Princesses and their counterparts had taken was far taller, far more imposing than before. "Come with us to the war room then, little Raven. We have need of your quick wit for the upcoming subjugation!"
"Subj.. what?! Subjugation?!" she sputtered.
"Why yes, darling," Sunless Star affirmed coolly. "This world is so dysfunctional, and we seek to amend that."
Raven Inkwell was frozen in fear at the implications. No matter how much she willed herself to follow, her legs refused to move. "Wh-what if... wh-what if they say no?"
"They will find our terms will be to their benefit," she stated. She did not turn back to face Raven. With no remorse, compassion, or emotion in her voice, she continued. "After all, We will not cease until all are one. Be it one in harmony..." the howling from the anomaly once more pierced out, and Raven barely stopped herself from tumbling forward as its gravity gnashed at her. "...or in ash."
Author's Note
Completely forgot to add this: the "howling" of the black hole anomaly is based on it's actual sound!
Take a listen, and you'll get what I mean by calling it a "howl": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tXhBLg3Wng
