Eternal Darkness: Pinkie’s Requiem
Prologue: The old farm
The carriage ride had given me some time to think. If Rainbow Dash were here she’s probably say ‘Pinkie Pie thinking? Not a good sign,’ or something, but I’m serious here. I started thinking about how time flies. I can still remember growing up on my old rock farm. Twilight always said that rock farming was impossible, and that nopony did anything like that, and that she didn’t get it. And to tell the truth, neither did I. I never questioned why we farmed rocks, or how doing something like that could earn us such a nice house. I just accepted it. I continued to accept it all throughout my life, up until that day before I got on that train, the day that I received that letter.
I remember waking up that morning suddenly, and scared. I had woken from a nightmare, though I can’t recall what it was about, merely that it scared me. I got up and started readying myself for the day ahead when I was hit with a Pinkie sense combo. Watery eyes, jelly legs, and my tail flattened; a memory wormed its way into my conscious thoughts. I tried to fight it off of course, “can’t be,” I thought, “I’m just remembering the combo wrong is all.”
I remember getting ready for another days work at Sugarcube Corner, when Derpy arrived. Normally I would’ve joked about us not being open yet, about how ‘we haven’t started making muffins yet’, or something, but when I opened the door I noticed that Derpy didn’t seem to be very jovial. Her lips hung low in a frown. She was squirming around at the front door, and muttering to herself. But worst of all were here eyes. Once I had opened that door, those eyes stared at me solemnly.
“Pinkie Pie?” she asked, I nodded yes, unable to respond in words. “I’m so sorry, but this is for you, if you need somepony to talk to…” She trailed off as I read the letter. It had the seal of the Royal Guard, but it wasn’t an invitation to another wedding.
It said that my father was dead.
I remember reading, and re-reading the paper. "We regret to inform you that you father, Rocky Road, has died of blood loss. Cause of death appears to be multiple slash wounds. He requested that you, and you alone, come to your family’s rock farm. He said that you would understand once you ‘saw what he saw’". My normally bright and colorful mane, styled like cotton candy, hung limp and colorless around my face. Tears welled up in my eyes, staining my eyes red. My heart ached, my stomach burned, and for hours I did nothing but cry.
I snapped back to the present. My mane was still limp and lifeless around my face. Black circles had begun to form around my eyes, from the lack of sleep the previous night. Despite moving away to Ponyville, I loved my father. Most children do, and no child ever really understands death. No child, particularly one obsessed with making ponies smile, can comprehend that some day, they will never be able to see their dad, or their mom, or their sister, or their friends, again. That they’ll go away, and never come back, you’ll never see them again. This is of course discounting the theory of life beyond death, in the Eternal Herd. Personally I don’t like to comfort myself with ‘possibilities’. As much as it would help, I was never taught about stuff like that when I was a child. Mother and Father taught us to be strong. They taught us to work with what we could see and hear, not with what believed. They taught us to harness the physical world, through our work with rocks, and the barren landscape we called home. They taught us how to fight, with swords and hooves. So that if the need ever came, we could defend ourselves.
As I stared out the window of the carriage, night fell. Luna’s moon rose high into the air, shedding a sliver of light across the dark landscape. Once again my thoughts drifted to memories of childhood. Sitting with my sisters atop the silo next to my home, and watching the moon rising.
“Inkie and Blinkie,” I wondered why Father didn’t ask for them as well. The letter had stated that I was to be the only one visiting the house when he died. Father had never been one to pick favorites, even when I got my cutie mark, I was the first of my sisters, he still treated us the same. The question hung in my mind the whole rest of the way.
Later in the evening I arrived at my old home. The rock farm stretched about half of the length of Sweet Apple Acres. I breathed in the dry air of my home. It was neither a pleasant, nor an unpleasant smell. Much like the rocks on the farm, it simply was. The carriage dropped me off at the south field, per my request. “I want to take in the sights.” I had remarked. The carriage driver had mumbled something along the lines of, “no sights to see” before driving off and leaving me to my nostalgia. The south field was basically empty, the definition of barren.
“I’m home.” I said quietly to no one in particular. I began my walk to the house in the center of the farm, and I started to remember my old life here. Watching the moon from the silo in the west field. Playing around near the forbidden shed in the east field. Moving the rocks from field to field. And my fighting lessons with Father in the north field. Choking back tears I continued, walking until I could see a flag bearing the insignia of the royal guard. The guards waved me over; I noticed that there was certain, urgency, to their posture.
“Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie?” One guard asked.
I shuddered at the use of my full name. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, but the only one that called me that anymore was… my dad. “Yeah, that’s me, but I’d prefer Pinkie Pie.” The guard nodded as he motioned me over to a casket, with a blanket thrown over it. Part of me was screaming, ‘Don’t open it!’ I honestly didn’t want to either. If I looked, it would forever be etched into my mind. If I didn’t, the wounds inflicted on my father, could simply be forgotten by time. Despite my inner protests I slowly pulled back the sheet. “Sweet Celestia, No.”
My father’s body was mutilated. Small cuts and bruises dotted his hooves, turning his normally brown coat, into a mix of blue and red and black. His glasses still rested on his nose, but now they were cracked along the glass. His eyes were bloodshot, and small as pins. His hair had turned greyer since I last saw him; even his eyebrows had turned grey. But my eyes were drawn elsewhere, namely his midsection. Along his midsection were three large gashes. The gashed were jagged, less like knife wounds, and more like a creature’s claws. Though I couldn’t figure out what kind of creature, out near my old rock farm no less, that would have claws nearly eight inches long. I clearly wasn’t the only one stressed about this; the guards seemed just as squeamish about the depth of the wounds.
“What could have done this?” I asked aloud.
“Don’t know, part of me doesn’t want to.” The guard replied. “We’re taking the body back to Canterlot for further study since we can’t do much out here.” He waved his hooves to the emptiness around us. “Shouldn’t worry though, we’ll figure this out, until then.” He grabbed a slip of paper from the casket. “His will, the part that includes you is what interests me though.” He pointed to one paragraph in particular on the page. “Says here that you’re supposed to be the one that inherits the farm, said that ‘Pinkamena knows how to look beyond time, to find the wall that binds.’”
I grabbed the paper in my hooves, and sure enough it was right there. Dad left me the farm. The tears started to come again, rushing in streams from my eyes. “Do…” I choked back tears, “do you think- that we’ll- ever know what?” The guard offered a hug, which I graciously accepted.
I cried into his shoulder as he cooed soft reassurances, “It’s ok” he said, “You’ll be ok”. It seemed almost robotic. Like he said the same speech that he gave me, to a hundred other grieving children. “The best that we can think of is a bear attack.” I broke from the hug, giving a glare back to him. “The amount of damage in the house is minimal, only serious damage in a few room.” He motioned to the gashes on his chest, “These wounds are animal in nature.” He gave a soft sigh, “I’m sorry, I really, really am, but we have nothing.” “Now listen, we have some extra room in the carriage, why don’t you grab some things and we’ll take you with us tonight, back to Ponyville if you want…”
“No.” I didn’t let him finish. I couldn’t. “I’m going to stay here, and investigate myself.” The guard started off on a tirade, talking about how ‘its not safe’ and ‘leave it to the professionals’. None of that drivel registered, I just shot back. “This is my house now, and I’m the element of laughter, I’m staying, you have a problem with it, tell Celestia.” The guard, possibly realizing the futility of arguing with me, motioned to his buddy to leave. The two readied their carriage, carrying the body of my father, and left. I stomped back into my house, and ran up to my room. I collapsed onto my childhood bed, and fell asleep.
Once I woke up and looked outside again it was darker than before. Looking at the clock I realized that it was near midnight. I shook myself to wake up further, and went downstairs. I slowly walked into my kitchen, the site of my Father’s murder. It wasn’t some ‘bear’ it couldn’t have been. Setting aside the obvious logical fallacy of a bear being near a rock farm, my father wasn’t a common pony. He could’ve fought back, but the way that he looked, it wasn’t a random animal attack.
One look into the kitchen confirmed my suspicions. My kitchen was a small, and normal for somepony who lived where we did. We had a small wooden stove, and several drawers and cupboards where we kept cooking supplies. The stove was torn from its previous place against our wall. The cupboard covers were ripped off and thrown around the room. The drawers were removed and tossed about the room. This wasn’t some animal attack. “Animals aren’t known for mugging ponies.” I muttered as I carefully sidestepped the broken wood, and stone strewn about my kitchen floor.
I thought back to what my father had written in the will, look beyond time, and find the place that binds. To anypony other than me, this would’ve sounded nuts. But I knew my father; I knew that he had to mean something by it. The first phrase, ‘look beyond time’ seemed strange at first, but I figured that it had to do with what Dad always said about time. He’d always said that ponies focused too much on time, on the when. He always thought that time wasn’t important, that it didn’t matter how much time you had to do something, just that it got done. ‘Place that binds’ was the part that threw me initially. I thought that it might mean that he wanted me to find the connection between the areas that were assaulted when he was attacked, so I started at the beginning.
‘Why the kitchen?’ The first question that came to mind was one of the easiest to answer, ‘they were looking for something’, I thought. So I asked myself a follow-up question, ‘Why the kitchen, and why the living room?’ The living room was another one of the areas that was torn apart, and it was right next to my kitchen.
I moved my investigation into the living room, where I discovered a similar situation to the one in the kitchen. My family’s couch and loveseat were flipped over, and the pillows and covering torn off. The wood in the fireplace was shredded, and several bricks slashed. The entryway to the next room over, the sewing room, was busted in several places. It looked almost as if a monster, something to big to even be in our home, was here. I noticed several similar markings on the doorway leading to the kitchen. ‘The fight went from the sewing room, to the living room, to the kitchen, so where did the fight start, and where did it end?’ I asked myself. While I knew from the guards that my father had died in the kitchen, I wasn’t so sure that it was the ‘end’ of the fight. There were no marks showing that a creature of that size exited my house.
‘So if it never left, did dad beat it?’ The thought seemed like a desperate wish, but the more that I thought about it, that was the most logical conclusion. After all, whatever had attacked my Father in the sewing room had barely been able to fit in our living room. If the monster could barely fit in our living room, than it couldn’t have left normally without making a sizeable dent. And why would it have left neatly? The only areas of the house that had been harmed in any way were the Sewing Room, Living Room, and Kitchen. Then it struck me. The only rooms that it hit were in the house, not near the entrance. ‘It was in my house to begin with.’
I ran back into the Sewing room. The room was small and tight, originally the baby room, it was later converted into a place for mom to sew and just have some quiet. The room wasn’t nearly as wrecked as the prior two either. A few scratches along the wall, but aside from that it looked fine. Then I remembered that the Sewing room wasn’t connected to any other room but the Living room. “Its like it just appeared out of thin air.” I was tired of this whole detective thing already. The guard was right; the case didn’t make any sense. It looked like an animal, but the damage inside was more in line with a mugging. Clear signs of a struggle are present, just only in certain sections of the house, with no clear starting position. I decided that the only sensible thing to do was to go to dad’s old study, maybe see if anything in there would help solve the mystery of the ‘randomly appearing and disappearing mugger bear.’
Dad was never bookish, like Twilight is, but he was an intelligent pony who liked to make sure that he knew everything about his work. His personal study, located on the top floor, and connected to his and mom’s bedroom, was where he kept all of his books. Once I was inside I was assaulted by the familiar scent of ancient dusty books. The walls adjacent and across from the door were bookshelves, covered in dusty old books of various subjects. Books on geology, astronomy, and meteorology lined his personal shelf, directly behind his desk, located in the middle of the room. The desk was exactly how I remembered it, clean. Still in something of an investigatory mood, I opened up the desk drawer, hoping that something in there would lend some idea of what attacked my dad. However, once I opened the drawer about four inches, a clicking sound signaled the opening of one of the side drawers of the desk. In the second drawer was a small golden bowl, with a small needle sticking up from the center.
‘Finally, a clue!’ I thought. Although the significance of the hoof-shaped bowl, didn’t click, still, I knew that had to be important. Father was never really known for being that obtuse so, I figured, he had to have some reason for having that in his desk. Possibly he left a clue to it in his bookcase. However, once I tried to grab one of the books, a dust cloud rose. The dust, seeping into my eyes and my mouth, caused me to stagger back. A sharp sting of pain shot through a forehoof, once I regained my sight I noticed that my hoof was impaled on the needle and bowl. Blood pooled in the bowl, causing an odd symbol to appear. I wriggled my hoof free from the needle, and got a good look at the symbol.
A series of clicks and whirs behind me signaled the movement of the bookcase. The bookcase slid back, and moved aside revealing a small hallway behind it, and a plush red door. Normally I would have bounded right in, but something about the door seemed… off. Regardless, I walked through the door, and was enraptured in a blinding white light.
The next thing I knew, I was in a completely different room, or another dimensional space altogether. The room, although it was more a large hallway, was tinted purple all across its walls and ceiling. The hall didn’t have much in terms of decorations, or anything for that matter, except for a few things. All along the walls were columns, with busts depicting many different creatures heads. Among the many ponies that decorated the top of the columns, there were also a few griffon and changeling busts on two or three of the stone slabs. But at the end of the room was a bronze statue of a seemingly pony-like creature, but with tentacles sprouted from its back. Three of these tentacles held aloft a book, a book bound with flesh and bone.
I was shaking, my breathing was coming harder and harder. I was used to doing things that ponies considered ‘impossible’, it was funny, but it was controlled. I always controlled myself. But here I was, appearing out of nowhere, to a place that I had never been before. My eyes nervously darted around the room, searching for an escape, but then I saw it. On the bust nearest to the book, there was an earth pony stallion’s face, scraggly, and wearing a large hat and reading glasses. “Daddy!” I ran for the column, ignoring my body’s protests for getting closer to the book. At the base of the bust was his name, “Rocky Road Pie,” my dad’s name. Below his name was a strange date, “980 C.E.” I said aloud, “the year 980 of the Celestial Era.” I wracked my brain for what that meant, once it hit me however… “My birth year,” I mumbled through the coming tears, “that was 23 years ago, the year I was born.”
My eyes began to water, blurring my vision. I sniffed and tried to swallow the tears. My sight was once again drawn to the book, now right next to me. The flesh stretched across the cover was shaven; bone was cut and stitched together to form the bindings on the side. My whole body tensed, my stomach turned and my throat burned. But despite my body’s warnings I reached a hoof towards the book. I touched my hoof to it’s cover, and nothing happened. But still my heart did not stop beating. I locked my eyes on the statue of my father, thought his stone face couldn’t move he looked as though he was comforting me. I gave a smile and opened the book, and my vision was clouded with darkness.
Year 16 D.E. (Discord’s era)
Sand, sand as far as the eyes could see, that was all that awaited Zealous Centurion and his squad. “Why would the griffons live like this?” One of his squad mates asked. It was a question that they asked every day that they were in the dunes. The ponies had been at war with the griffons for the past sixteen years, and Zealous had been part of that war for six of those years. He was a simple earth pony stallion, with a coat of black and a mane of light brown. His fellow soldiers were also earth ponies, as were all who were in Discord’s army. Unicorns and Pegasi had disappeared a few years after Discord had taken charge, and now many didn’t even believe that they still existed. Zealous knew though, his mother was a unicorn, he knew that they were still alive, and they had left to plan to overthrow Discord with the two princesses.
“Perhaps that’s why they fight us, they want somewhere nicer to live.” Answered his other squad mate. It was a conversation that they had many times, and it always came to that conclusion. Zealous stopped, as a scratching noise filled his ears.
“Hush.” He whispered. His squad stopped, raising their swords. A group of five griffons burst outwards and attacked the group. “Keep formation, take their wings for trophies!” Zealous screamed as he slashed his sword into a griffon’s beak. His squad mates followed suit, slashing at the griffons’ throats. Zealous ran at one of the griffons, which wore a large white breastplate, which marked him as a commanding officer of the griffon army. Zealous dove with his blade in his mouth, the griffon commander blocked with his own blade. Sparks showered the two as the blades scraped against each other. Zealous adjusted his grip on the blade and dove left, swinging himself around to slash the griffon across the back of the head. The rocks and sand beneath Zealous shifted, and he tumbled downwards, landing on a hard rock floor.
“Where’s the captain?” called one of his squad members, “You down there boss?”
“Yes,” Zealous replied, “I’m going to go farther in, look for a way out on your end.”
“Yes sir.” Both men replied.
“I didn’t know that griffons even had underground temples.” Zealous thought out loud. In all of his years of service he never noticed any places like this, not a single one in six years. The black-coated earth pony took this as an opportunity to investigate his surroundings. The walls and ceilings were the same dullish brown rocks, except for a copper slab overhanging the only exit in the room. The brilliant copper slab was only tainted by the presence of three words scratched into it. “Don’t enter, danger.” Zealous started to step forward, and heard a sickening crack come from underneath his hooves. He stepped back, and saw that he stepped on a bone covered in blood.
On the ground near his hooves, was a dead griffon with a gaping hole in its arm. The corpse’s arm was ripped open and the bone in question torn out, the rest of the body seemed relatively intact though. Zealous, in a moment of curiosity, grabbed the bone in his mouth, and pressed it against the scratches on the copper slab. “The bird ripped out its own bone, just to carve this message,” the earth pony muttered to himself, “what could be so important, that it resorted to self-mutilation?” The stallion dropped the bone from his mouth and, without hesitation, ran into the room beyond, but only ran for a short time before being engulfed by a strange light.
Once the light subsided, Zealous stood in the middle of a strange room. The walls now had a light purple hue. Along the walls were columns, seemingly meant to house busts of some kind, but all were empty, save one. Of all the columns only one had a bust atop it, and it seemed to be the griffon whose body Zealous had found. But Zealous’ eyes were drawn to the end of the weird room, where, upon a horrifying statue, was a book. The earth pony captain started, hesitantly, walking towards the book. A certain aura exuded from the tome, a certain crushing air. It was almost like the closer that he got to the tome, the thicker the air became. But he pressed on, his mind filled with thoughts of how his discovery would be celebrated. Discord would be more than pleased, a book that was previously in the possession of the bird-monsters.
He grasped the tome in his hooves, and the strange pocket dimension disappeared. Zealous blinked repeatedly, but found that he was no longer in the purple hallway, but instead back in the underground temple. He swiveled around, but the purple hued hallway had disappeared. Or rather, he had reappeared. Zealous gave a confused sigh. Discord would understand this, that’s all he needed to know. A light growling on the earth pony’s right snapped him out of his confused thoughts. Zealous drew his sword in his mouth, and carefully laid the book on the floor. He turned the corner to his right, and was faced with the ruby red rotting corpse of a pony.
Except it was moving.
The pony zombie was slowly walking towards Zealous, it’s teeth sharp and it’s jaw unhinged. It growled at the earth pony captain, spittle dripping from its maw. Zealous stood his ground, his sword held firmly in his teeth. He rushed at the zombie and swung. The blade dug its way into the corpse’s shoulder, but it wouldn’t dig any farther. Zealous jumped to the side to avoid the retaliating zombie, rushing back to the book. Mr. Centurion was a general who mostly did field work, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t smart. The appearance of the zombie pony happened in time with him finding the book, so there might be some connection. The earth pony rapidly opened the book, looking for anything that might help in his current predicament. On one page was a group of small carvings, and under them writing that supposedly translated the runes. “Runes?” he wondered, “Why do I think that they’re runes?”
The growling of the zombie behind him snapped him back to reality. He decided it was worth testing the ‘runes’, but first he needed a more… practical way of dealing with his new nemesis. Zealous rushed at the zombie, going into a slide and using his mouth to grab his sword by the hilt. The walking corpse bit into his flank, but Zealous managed to dislodge the blade. “Ah!” a sharp pain tore through his flank as he pulled away. The zombie kept its mouth on its prize, managing to pull away flesh. The wounded earth pony grunted and pulled away, rolling back to the book. Quickly he read the runes laid out before him on the first page.
“Here goes nothing,” Zealous muttered, “Antorbak Magormor Ulyaoth!”
A blue light engulfed Zealous’ hooves, and spread into the sword in his mouth. The earth pony noticed that the sword felt lighter, it felt stronger as well. The red-coated zombie rushed at Zealous, it’s maw opened wide and it’s teeth dripping red. The black-coated earth pony swung the glowing blade at the zombie’s leg, and slashed through the flesh and bone as though it were butter. The moving corpse fell to the ground after losing its balance with one of its legs. The living corpse squirmed and shuffled, trying to stand back up.
“By Discord’s fangs,” Zealous uttered solemnly, “was that all because of that spell?” If a single spell in some random griffon book could really do all of that then it made sense that Discord would be fearful of the return of unicorns, as they were more powerful than griffon mages. “But when he gets his claws on this Tome, not even the sisters will stand in his way.” The earth pony’s eyes were drawn back to the Tome. The runes that he read now glowed a light blue, and words appeared underneath them. “Ulyaoth project item?” Zealous read in a confused tone, “well then what is Ulyaoth?”
The earth pony’s line of thought was cut off by the sound of growls and shrieks coming from behind him. “More of those monsters,” he looked down at his glowing blue blade, “well then I guess I should see just how useful this thing really is.” Zealous charged towards the cacophony of shrieks and growls. The zombies, as Zealous began to call them, lined the hallway. However some of the creatures seemed to have a more purplish tint than the red one that he had maimed in the previous room.
The earth pony captain waded into the hoard of enemies, swinging his blade violently at the monsters heads. Zealous’ enchanted blade easily decapitating the red and purple zombie ponies. He stood in the center of the hoard and swung the blade in a circle, rending the corpse’s heads from their shoulders. Zealous Centurion laughed, a hearty deep laugh, which echoed through the halls. “It isn’t simply the royal pony sisters who will fall to emperor Discord now, all kingdoms shall kneel before him. If a mere pawn like me can do this much with one spell, I can only imagine what my emperor will do.” However just as soon as the captain had tempted fate the glow faded from his blade, and it dug into a wall, breaking off at the hilt.
“Argh, damn,” Zealous cursed, “well, perhaps…” He swiftly kicked the closest corpse in its jaw, giving him time to place the blade near to the hilt. “Antorbak Magormor Ulyaoth.” In a brilliant flash of blue light the blade reassembled before the earth pony’s eyes. The blade and hilt rejoined, and looked as though it hadn’t been broken at all. The blade now fixed Zealous continued to assault the zombies with renewed vigor, “such power, tis the power of a God.” It was as the last zombie fell that Zealous realized that the bodies of his enemies were disappearing in a puff of yellow smoke upon death.
Once again Zealous was confronted by an oddity, in all of his time in the army of his lord and high master, Discord, he had never once encountered enemies that would disappear upon death. “ By Discord’s fangs, I hope that my lord will have answers once he possesses the book.” Out of the corner of his eye the earth pony captain saw a bluish glint coming from the other room. He ran after it, chasing it through the rest of the temple, killing zombies as he went. Finally as he chased the light around a corner he came to a large circular room.
The room held three pedestals, and upon those three pedestals were three artifacts. On one was a red artifact in the shape of a large spider with an eye in its midsection. On another was a green artifact that seemed to be two spirals that intertwined in the center mass where two eyeballs sat. But Zealous was drawn to the blue colored artifact, the one shaped like a jellyfish. The blue artifact seemed to glow softly, and it seemed as though it was resonating with his still glowing sword.
“Are you enjoying the power I’ve given to you?” called a voice.
“Who’s there?” Zealous called back, “are you the owner of this book?”
The voice’s laughter bellowed through the room, “No, the Tome of Eternal Darkness is not mine.” Zealous’ eyes scanned the room, searching for the voice. “However,” the voice called out, “you have been invoking my name, in your spells.”
“Your name?” the earth pony questioned, “then you are Ulyaoth?”
“Yes,” Ulyaoth responded, still nowhere in sight, “I am the God you have invoked, I am the God of Magic itself.”
Zealous bowed in front of the blue artifact, “so then why have you given this power to me?”
Ulyaoth’s laughter echoed through the chamber once more, “I have given you nothing, you merely found the Tome, I have yet to offer you my power.” Zealous perked up, “You currently serve one of the children of my enemy, however I am willing to offer you true power, my power.”
“You ask me to betray my lord, Discord, I cannot do that.” Zealous shouted back at the artifact. “I am Zealous Centurion, one of the most trusted generals of the lord of Equestria, Discord.”
“You serve a false God,” Ulyaoth shot back, “I am giving you the chance to serve a truly powerful master.”
“I…” Zealous started to fire back.
“Grab the artifact, and I will make you my champion,” Ulyaoth spoke, causing the artifact to glow brighter. “You will be made immortal, you will have magic in your veins, you will be in command of a greater army than your lord, Discord, could ever hope to command.”
Zealous slowly walked towards the artifact. He dropped the sword on the floor, and left the Tome behind him.
“You will be…” Ulyaoth said as Zealous grasped the artifact, “my Lich.”
As Zealous grasped the artifact in his hooves a bright blue light shot out at him. Lightning arced through Zealous’ veins, and burned through his skin and bone. His mane caught fire and quickly burned straight off, his eyes melted. His coat was burned off, revealing his skin, which began to shrivel and blacken. He screamed and shouted as he rolled and writhed on the ground, trying to put out the flames caused by the lightning.
“Yes,” Ulyaoth said as everything went dark, “now you will make preparations for…”
I snapped back to reality, or rather my reality. I was back in my dad’s study, not in the weird purple dimension, not in the griffon kingdom. I put my hooves on my head, “I was in the griffon kingdom? I was a general in Discord’s army?” I scanned the room, and sure enough it was my dad’s study, it was almost as though I didn’t go through the door behind me. Freaking out slightly, and desperate for any grounding to the real world, as funny as that is coming from me, I scanned my father’s bookshelves, finding a history book.
“Discord ruled over the earth ponies of Equestria for 16 long years, the Pegasi and Unicorns having left to plan rebellion with the royal pony sisters.” The book that I grabbed already had bookmarks stuffed into several areas, almost like dad knew what I needed.
“During these years Discord began a war with the griffon kingdom to the west,” I read aloud, “however this would lead to his downfall in the year 16 D.E.” I realized that the year, 16 D.E., was the year that I had experienced when I opened the book, the Tome of Eternal Darkness. “During that year, 16 D.E., Discord’s forces in the griffon kingdom were wiped out mysteriously by an unknown magical force.” I realized it then and there, Zealous Centurion, he was the one who defeated them. Ulyaoth must have given him the power to destroy Discord’s army, but why? Ulyaoth seemed to have a grudge against Discord, why would he care? My eyes were drawn to the desk, where the Tome sat.
My ears perked up as I heard a scratching noise from downstairs. I placed my hoof on the Tome instinctively, as the scratching grew louder. My breathing grew shallow, and sweat dripped from my brow. It had to be the monster, the same one that killed my dad. I had to find a weapon, “maybe the spell that Zealous used will work for me as well.” I opened up the Tome, and turned it to the page that held the runes. Sure enough on that page were the runes that he spoke, Ulyaoth, Antorbak, and Magormor. But the rune that I saw earlier on in the golden bowl also joined them, and underneath it was the word Xel’lo’toth.
“Now I just need a weapon,” I thought.
The scratching noise was approaching, and it was accompanied by a thumping from the staircase. Panicking, I dove for the plush red door behind me. This time I didn’t end up in the purple hallway dimension, which I will henceforth dub Dimension X, but instead in a hidden room behind Father’s study.
To say that the room was simple wouldn’t be doing it justice. The room’s walls and ceiling were simply wooden boards, no wallpaper or paint covered it. The floor was about the same, just with a small simple beige rug in the center. The only wall that wasn’t simple wood was the one across from the door, which was covered in eight small boxes, each decorated with more of those runes from the Tome. And in the center of the room, was a pedestal adorned with a glass case, which contained a small sword.
I could hear the noisy beast approaching, growling as it attempted to smash through Father’s door. A smashing sound from the other room signaled that the beast had broken through.
The beast wasn’t red like the ones that Zealous had faced, this one was colored the same eerie blue that Ulyaoth was. The creature was a lumbering bear sized monster. It’s teeth and claws sharp enough to cleave a pony in twain with nary more than a single swipe. Its lumbering blue body was covered in wooden splinters and little splatters of blood.
Gripping the Gladius in my mouth I spoke, “Antorbak Magormor Ulyaoth!” The blade was covered in a harsh blue light, matching the color of the monster before me. I made my move, dashing forward at the beast, changing to a sliding position as I neared it, and swung my blade at its leg. When the blade met flesh it was met with hearty resistance, like I had tried to use a butter knife to smash a rock. I stumbled, giving the monster enough time to swing its massive arm behind it, and backhand my face, sending me flying back into out of the room.
I crashed outside the room, my head colliding with the stairwell. I cursed under my breath, remembering how easy Zealous made it look in the flashback. I ran through the flashback in my head again. Zealous attacked a colored-monster, failed, said a spell, killed a whole room of them as though they were flies and he was made of that weird poison that exterminators used. Ok, so my analogy kind of sucks, but still.
“Then again, the book had another name, right next to Ulyaoth.” When Zealous encountered Ulyaoth, the big blue God mentioned that he had invoked ‘his name’, but that he wasn’t the one who created the Tome. So by that logic then one could assume that he isn’t the only one of… whatever the fluff, forgive my language, he is. “Worth a shot, Antorbak Magormor Xel’lo’toth!” I screamed out, and the blade’s blue coloring faded, replaced by a sickly green.
The giant blue monster smashed through what remained of the doorframe to Father’s study. I gripped the blade in my mouth once again, and swung at the creature’s legs once again. This time the sword cut through the monster as though it was a localized detonation. Without it’s legs the beast fell to the ground, screeching and clawing. I swung the blade once more, slicing through the neck of the creature before me. Without it’s head the monster disappeared in a haze of yellow smoke. My nemesis defeated, and the adrenaline wearing off, I collapsed on my haunches. I started to fade off to sleep as a voice called to me.
“Pinkamena, remember what I taught you. Strength, is something that can be learned, something that can be taught and instilled into a pony through hard work. Magic, is merely another type of strength, meant for those who don’t posses the endurance to attain physical strength. But the Pie/Road family, we specialize in something entirely different, we posses something that gives us an edge. Our minds are greater, we can see what nopony wishes to see, what most ponies cannot ever begin to understand. Remember this and remember…
‘Two eyes can see what lies in front of your face, but a third can see through time and space.’”
Page 1: When the sky falls
Eternal Darkness: Pinkie’s Requiem
Page 1: When the sky falls
My head felt like it was going to split open. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. My mane still hung limply around my face, and next to me was the Tome of Eternal Darkness, a grim reminder of yesterday’s events. My dad died, I found a weird book in an alternate dimension, and fought a big monster thing. It was scary to me just how little I apparently knew, about dad, and about everything. Whatever these… things were, in the memory, or vision, or whatever it was, Ulyaoth told Zealous to ‘prepare for his coming’ or something like that. My hoof hovered over the cover to the Tome, causing a shiver down my spine. Part of me screamed, “take it to Celestia, or Twilight, they’ll help!” But another one, one that was more important than anything else, quickly silenced those thoughts.
“The thing that killed my Dad must’ve wanted this; this is related to his killer.”
That monster from yesterday must’ve been what killed Dad, and it must’ve been tearing the house apart for this Tome. A terrifying assumption, and a sad one as well, that my father was murdered for some book.
I hoisted myself off of the floor, my limbs crying out against the stress. Once on my hooves again, I grasped the book in my mouth. I stumbled down the stairs, dropping the book at their base while I flipped my kitchen table back to a standing position. I started to sift through the remains of my kitchen, hoping in vain to find something edible, so I wouldn’t have to go into town, leaving the house, and the Tome, behind. My thoughts drifted to the flesh-bound book lying in front of the stairs. The coarseness of the flesh, the stench coming off the book, the strangeness of the world where the book was located, my eyes locked on the Tome, my tongue tingling with the sensation of the bony spine in my mouth as I brought it down the stairs.
A knock on the door snapped me out of my remembrance. The knocking was quickly accompanied by a gruff male voice calling “Pinkamena.” I rushed over to the book, and pulled it into a little hiding hole under the stairs. I galloped over to the front door and swung it open, only to have a unicorn guard staring me in the face. “Miss Pinkamena?”
“Yes, yes that’s me, hello.” I said with as much cheer as I could muster.
“I was just wondering if you could use some breakfast, considering how beat up your kitchen was and all.” The guard used his magic to levitate a small cake box in front of me. “I know that you’re a little upset because we couldn’t do anything to help your father, but that doesn’t mean we have to be enemies,” he said as he clicked his teeth together.
I was confused at first, until I realized that I had been gritting my teeth without realizing it. “I don’t consider us enemies,” I said, “I just want to find out what happened to my dad, and since I can’t get any help from the guard…”
“Actually that was something we forgot to talk about yesterday,” the guard interjected, “this is technically an active case of the Celestial Guard,” he puffed out his chest proudly, causing me to notice that he hadn’t come here in his armor.
“And this being an active case means?” I asked impatiently. Partly I wanted to continue investigating the Tome, and because the cake that the guard had brought smelled damn good.
“If you find anything related to the case, anything that might implicate who wanted your father dead, you give it to me and I’ll bring it to Canterlot to be analyzed.” I could feel my chest tightening, and I could almost feel the cold sweat forming on my brow.
“Well,” I started, “it’s sad then that I haven’t found anything.”
“No offense,” the unicorn continued, “but I don’t really expect you to find anything that we didn’t.” He nervously shuffled around in his armor, “I was told to tell you that, but we did search the premises pretty well, we didn’t half-ass this.”
“I get it, come inside, I could use something sweet and chocolaty for breakfast right about now.”
Once the stallion and I had sat ourselves down at my kitchen table, and set the table with any unbroken china that I could find lying around, we both grew quite silent. I began ravenously devouring the cake laid in front of me, occasionally flitting my eyes upwards at my guest, making sure his eyes didn’t wander.
“So,” the stallion began, “what do you think?”
“About what?” I asked, I looked back down at the cake presented to me, “oh right, yeah it’s really good.”
The stallion smiled, “I’m sure that you could’ve done better, I visited Sugarcube Corner once, it makes the cooking at Canterlot Castle seem amateurish.”
I blushed a little at the compliment, “thanks. Crap, I just realized that I hadn’t asked your name yet!”
The guard chuckled a bit, “it’s quite alright miss, and my name is Life Guard,” he said as he reached out his hoof to shake. I returned the gesture and went back to devouring the sugary treat before me. The guard began to delicately eat the cake laid out before him. Using his magic to slowly skewer each small bite of cake and put it into his mouth, unlike me he also bothered to chew. After a few bites he stopped and just looked at me.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Umm, well...” he stammered, “I was wondering if Incantessa Octavia Pie was your sister?”
I looked up from my delicious delicacy at the blushing unicorn before me. Barely able to contain his fan boyish glee. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble,” I began, “but she’s getting married.” His blushing nervousness was replaced by a downcast frown. “She’s been keeping it on the hush-hush, but she’s getting married to some mare named Fiddlesticks, or something.” I just went back to my cake, best if I let him down fast; maybe he’ll leave so I can investigate the Tome some more.
“Oh...” Life muttered, “I-I always just assumed that, she...”
“Was just some lonely mare, looking to be swept off of her hooves.” I responded dryly, “trust me you ain’t the only one, I think even she thought that for a little while.”
“Are the two of them happy together?” the white-coated unicorn asked.
“Oh, yeah, they get all lovey-dovey whenever they’re in town, it’s crazy.” Applejack would have reprimanded me for lying, but I think it was necessary. Truth is I hadn’t had a lot of interaction with Inkie since she and went our separate ways. Heck, I hadn’t even recognized her at the Gala. Wasn’t to say that everything that I said was a lie though. I did know that Octavia, premier cellist of Canterlot Court was courting a farmhand named Fiddlesticks, and that they intended to marry. I also hadn’t seen Blinkie in years either; but I needed to get that guard out of my house, before he spotted the Tome.
Life Guard and I finished our meal in silence. Once finished he stood up to leave, “I thank you for the morning company miss Pie.” He bowed and began to leave, before turning to me, “if you want I can come back with some more food tomorrow, or the day after.”
“Thanks,” I responded, “but why are you being so nice?”
“A colt can’t be nice to a mare that just lost her dad?” he joked. “But seriously, Celestia was very impressed with your dedication, despite how they may have acted none of the guards wanted to be out here.” A pause followed his words, “Not that there’s anything wrong with here!” he quickly added.
“I’m not upset, but why are you here then, did you get the short straw?” I joked.
“I requested the position,” he stated frankly. “Like I said, I went to Sugarcube Corner and thought that you were a really good baker, so I wanted to help. Also, I wanted to ask after your sister.”
“Yes,” I responded “but now that you know…”
“It would be rather callous of me to stop helping you, in the few ways that I can, just because I found out that your sister is taken,” a flicker of sadness dotted his face, “like I said, I’ll return tomorrow, and the day after, I’ll return here with at least a breakfast of some kind as long as you need, before you can accept what the guards have, we’ll probably never know what took Rocky Road’s life, and I’m truly sorry for that.”
With that the pale-white unicorn began walking off into the distance, undoubtedly towards a guard carriage of some kind. “Hey,” I called after him, “call me Pinkie Pie, all my friends do.” He turned and nodded before continuing back to the guard carriage. Once he was gone I dashed to the small compartment under the stairs, and retrieved the Tome of Eternal Darkness.
I rushed upstairs with the Tome, and ducked into my father’s study. I placed the Tome onto dad’s desk, stopping to take a look at the hidden door behind the desk. The plush-red door stood ominously as another sharp reminder of the previous day. I wandered through the doorway once again, scanning the room for anything of interest. My eyes fell on a small crumpled piece of paper lying underneath the former resting place of the sword. I smacked myself for missing something so obvious.
Examining the page more carefully I noticed it was made of dried skin. It crumpled at the slightest touch, almost as if it was resisting being moved. Tentatively, I pick it up in my hoof, gently, as the page feels as though a stiff breeze would shatter it. My eyes dart between the page and the Tome, a thought wormed its way into my head. I placed the page in the body of the Tome. The page seemed to twist and bend its peeled skin, curling around the spine of the Tome. A bright flash accompanied the rejoining, and I fell unconscious again.
26 P.D. (Post-Discord era)
A chitin-coated creature shambled through the entrance to the ancient temple, located far within the borders of the Everfree. He is a simple changeling, a small, unimportant drone, without even a name to call his own. He is simply referred to as Drone #5065. But even a changeling was aware of the rumors of the Everfree forest, and what lay within it. The Everfree forest was considered a place of chaos. The Everfree was where the normal rules of the newly formed republic of Equestria didn’t matter.
The clouds, which now bent to the will of ponies, still moved along their own paths. The creatures of the forest, once loving creatures that would not even consider devouring a pony, now raged across the forest, consuming any poor creature that came within walking distance of them. So why was #5065 wandering through this horrid place? Why was he going alone into a terrible place such as the Everfree? Love. The love for a mare that his kind often fed on, but he was receiving through none of the deception his kind normally had to engage in.
Her name was Raspberry. That was the name of the mare that he loved, and it was at her request that he found himself wandering through this dreadful place. Raspberry was apparently working for the Princess of Equestria, Celestia, who had sensed a great amount of magical energy coming from the Everfree forest. The trade-off was simple, #5065 goes into a temple that Raspberry had located and retrieves an artifact, and Raspberry would agree to marry him. Drone #5065 smiled, rare for his species, and entered into the temple, head held high.
The air in the temple was musty; it felt like sawdust clouding his lungs. The stones that made up the floor and walls were cracked with age. They felt as though a swift kick would reduce them to dust. Columns sprang up from the floor, holding the golden ceiling aloft. The plainness of the floors and walls clashed with the elegance and extravagance of the columns and ceiling. The stone pillars were coated in paints, depicting ponies praying to a mysterious light shining down from the sky. The ceiling above was made of solid gold, the small slivers of light from the outside that peered through reflected off of the surface, and shown down on the pedestal that lay at the other end of the room, across from #5065.
The pedestal was also made of a solid gold, and took the form of two clawed hands, wrapped around one another, holding a large book aloft. #5065 cautiously took his first step deeper into the temple, his breathing shallow, and his eyes focused on the pedestal and the book. The walk across the temple floor to the pedestal felt like a lifetime, but finally #5065 reached his goal. In front of him stood the pedestal, and on it a book bound in flesh and bone. The changeling reached for his prize, but as he reached his hoof towards the book a blue barrier sparked into being, protecting the book. The changeling prodded the barrier with his hoof a few times, watching as the colored shield spread out from his touch, and seemed to invisibly cover the area around the book.
Undeterred, the drone examined the surrounding area. On either side of the temple, were large doors decorated with brightly colored murals. To the left was a door depicting a male and female pony in the midst of coitus. Their bodies merged, and sitting upright with an apple tree concealing their private parts. The door on the right showed the same female giving birth to a child. The foal, dripping in blood, is shown in the arms of the father, holding it above his head for all to see.
5065 moved towards the door that showed conception. He pressed his hooves against the smooth rock, which gave way with little effort. The rocks pushed aside revealing the room beyond. Dull fire emanated from torches in the corners of the room, as well as a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. At the edge of the room was another large mural, colored much darker than the murals on the doors. This one depicted a small group of ponies running from what looked like Discord. A bright yellow light shot out from the monster’s hand, engulfing the ponies in the painting. The ponies in the mural seemed… strange. Their forms were ragged and malnourished, and the light seemed to cover their genitals. The rest of the room was barren, except a strange mechanism under the mural, and a large slab, elevated about five feet off of the ground.
The changeling drone cautiously walked into the room. #5065 was drawn to the mural. The blackened color of Discord’s visage was striking and large, while the ponies were made to look so weak. He examined the mechanism located under the mural. There were three hoof-sized indents located far below the ponies, the yellow light, and Discord. Above the indents was text, written in ancient pony, which thankfully #5065 could read.
A summer of simplicity, a simple life that came to a head
A winter of darkness, chaos engulfed us
An autumn of scraps, a peoples half-dead, waiting for the end
A spring of abundance, the people rejoiced, for they were happy.
Those who worship the sun are fools,
Blinded by its rays, they cannot see the ground.
Those who worship the dark are monsters,
Turned to barbarism at the request of a mad god.
But those who worship life are given it in return,
They who are famished will be given food,
They who are barren will be made fertile.
Not the fools who worship the sun,
Not the darkness the covers the land,
But those who are at their lowest shall be made new.
Those who were last, will be made first, and the darkness and his evil will bow
To Us.
Drone #5065 looked upon the mural with caution and interest. The indentations were meant as a test, a test he would need to pass. He read and reread the passage again and again, attempting to piece together the solution. Finally, he cautiously pressed his hoof into the indentation below the group of malnourished ponies. Despite the miniscule pressure applied, the indented stone quickly slammed back, further into its slot. He then repeated the process for the switch under Discord, and under the yellow ray of light. As the last switch slammed its way into the slot the torches in the corners of the room went out, leaving only the light directly above the slab in the center.
“Uhnn,” a slight moan echoed through the room. #5065 swung his head around, trying to find the source of the sound. “Uhnn, ugh,” more sounds echoed, the voice sounded as though it was in pain. “Ahhh,” a scream pierced the room; the changeling pressed his hooves tightly against his head to block the sound, to no avail. The screaming continued for several more agonizing seconds, ending with sickening squelch sound. Drone #5065 removed his hooves from his ears and examined the room, his eyes locked on the slab, and his stomach turned.
The slab was covered in blood. The blood was pooling along the flat end of the slab, and continued to ooze from an unknown source. Suddenly blood began dripping from the air as well, with small droplets forming a few feet away from the slab. The invisible source of the drips began to move away from the slab and towards the mural. Blood continued to materialize from the air, #5065 shuffled away from the blood. Now pony voices echoed through the chamber, “Hear us, bless this new life, that she may make new life of her own!” #5065 continued searching for the source of the voices, but he was all alone in the room, despite the fact that it was as if the speaker were right next to him. “Let her rise against the Dark God, let her reject the Yellow God in service of the Corpse God!” the invisible voice screamed. Now blood began to pool along the ground in front of the mural, and the blood coming from the slab had stopped. “Now we shall give her mother as a sacrifice to the almighty, Mantorok, the corpse God!” this was followed a loud thwack, the sound of metal slamming into rock. #5065 examined the curved point of the slab, and saw it indent ever so slightly, as though an axe had slammed against it, and blood now ran from the curved point all along the ground. Sickened beyond belief, the changeling drone ran for the exit, slamming into the door, before opening it and tumbling through.
When the drone regained his balance he found himself in a strange room, different to the entrance where he had found the artifact. This room was much smaller, more of a hallway than a room. All along the hallway were columns, but only the ones to either side of Drone #5065 had anything on them. The one to his right was a bust of a griffon, and too his right was a pony. Across the way was a statue depicting a large pony-esque creature, but with large tentacles popping out of it’s back, and some of these tentacles were holding a book.
The changeling’s eyes darted around the room, searching for a way out. Behind him the door had disappeared, and there appeared to be no windows. The changeling pressed his hooves against the statue of the griffon, finding no indentations. After checking the other statue his eyes were drawn to the book at the end of the room. The book seemed to pull him closer, the monster statue’s eyes, a searing blood red, almost called to him. Before he knew it his hoof touched the spine of the book, engulfing him in a white light, and seemingly teleporting him back to the temple entrance.
5065 woke up to the realization that he was no longer alone in the temple. Huddled around the artifact was a group of ponies dressed in rags, many of them were Unicorns or Pegasi. In fact the only one that wasn’t was a Raspberry red earth pony, which just so happened to be Raspberry, #5065’s ladylove. The crowd of ponies murmured among themselves when the Changeling appeared, pointing to the strange book that now lay in front of #5065. Raspberry simply smiled and quickly trotted over to the changeling drone’s side.
“I told all of you that it wasn’t impossible!” she shouted, “Mantorok has chosen another to be his vassal, this is a sign, a glorious sign.” Raspberry leaned down and kissed #5065 on the cheek, causing a blush from the drone. “Tonight we shall celebrate, Mantorok will surely hear our prayers now!” The crowd agreed and began to funnel in foods and alcohol from outside the temple into its center. “Thank you so much!” Raspberry said to #5065 again with a kiss, “you’ve done so much, tonight we will be wed, in the manner traditional of my people.”
The changeling drone’s face lit up and he gave an affectionate nuzzle to his bride-to-be, but, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him, he pointed to the artifact in the center of the room.
“Oh, that thing?” Raspberry responded, “It’s an artifact that is meant to commune with a God, a God named Xel’lo’toth.” She paused and put her hoof to her chin in thought. “I suppose that you could say that we guard it, many years before I was born our people found a real God, named Mantorok.” Raspberry motioned to the bright light at the top of the columns, “He saved us from certain death, asking only for our help in protecting this treasure,” she motioned to the artifact, still encased in a strange magical shield. She tapped #5065 on the shoulder, “now come on, we need to get ready for the wedding!”
Preparation for the wedding only took about an hour. And soon enough Drone #5065 was standing in front of artifact, with Raspberry at his side and a throng of ponies in front of them, gorging themselves on various sugary treats. A male unicorn walked up to the two of them and levitated twin hoof clasps over to them.
“Today we celebrate a glorious union, this union under Mantorok, which means more children who can serve the great Corpse God,” the unicorn shouted.
Noticing #5065’s confused look Raspberry assured him, “all of us are considered children of Mantorok, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean anything serious.”
“We pray for this union, that Mantorok will see fit to bless them with a child.” The unicorn and the crowd cheered, before Raspberry kissed #5065, seemingly ending the ceremony. On the one hoof the changeling was under the impression that wedding ceremonies were supposed to be longer than that, but he was mesmerized by the sweet and seductive kiss from Raspberry. She pressed her lips against his and pushed her tongue into his mouth. She continued to take the lead, wrapping her tongue in long arcs around his. The drone decided to take some initiative, slowly sliding his tongue along the bottom of hers, meeting again at the tip.
After those glorious few seconds were over the unicorn who had led the ceremony put a hoof on Raspberry’s shoulder, and locked eyes with her. She nodded, and started towards the room that #5065 had visited before, a long smile across her face. The changeling stared lustfully after his new bride, which the unicorn noticed. “Now is the really fun part, go after her,” he said. #5065 coughed and tried to look innocent but the unicorn simply laughed it off. “The ceremony isn’t over yet, you have to consummate your new love before you’re officially married.” The crowd began to file towards the other door that #5065 didn’t go inside. “Now we all go and pray that your love will bear fruit, take a little time to psyche yourself up though, if you need it.” He patted the drone on the back and left for the door with everypony else, closing it behind him.
Drone #5065 was frozen in place. He looked at what he could see of his reflection in the artifact. He started to wonder if he should take the form of a generic stallion, to make it less awkward the first time. Then again wouldn’t that defeat the purpose? She had married Him after all. But then again, he was just a changeling, he had never heard of a changeling conceiving with a pony in their natural form. Drones did possess genitals but he had always assumed that they were meant to get the drone used to the idea of having them. Worried thoughts spun through the changeling’s mind; he pushed his hoof towards the artifact, causing the barrier to reappear. He tried to get a better look at himself in the barrier, which shattered under his touch, causing his hoof to touch the artifact. It glowed a sickly green and shot the changeling backwards into a nearby flesh-bound Tome.
Drone #5065 awoke on the mysterious slab in the consummation room from earlier. Lying next to him was the sleeping body of Raspberry, his love. His eyes darted around the room, but saw none of the horrors that had plagued it earlier. He warily stepped off of the slab, his hind legs wobbly, but was able to stand upright.
“Bad dreams?” called Raspberry, causing the changeling to swerve around to face her. He shook his head, his wife smiled seductively, “good ones then?” again he shook his head no. Drones didn’t have dreams, dreams were individual after all. #5065 knew that his wife wouldn’t understand his woes, as ponies were fearful and confused by anything that wasn’t them. Not that he could blame them, after the destruction wrought by Discord, the last of his kind, he could understand a touch of xenophobia. He looked around the room for anything that would help him change the topic, his eyes settled on the mural that contained the puzzle he solved earlier.
“Our history,” Raspberry responded to his wordless question, “how we came to be in this position.” She hoisted herself off of the slab, she pressed her hoof against the image of Discord. “Once, before Discord, Pegasi and Unicorns were more powerful than anything else in this world.” #5065 looked confusedly at her head and back, “I’m an earth pony, but my mother and father were unicorns, powerful ones too, Unicorn’s of the royal bloodline, rendered obsolete by the dual arrivals of the Princesses and Discord.” Her hoof slides along the yellow ray of light that led from Discord to the ponies. “When the Princesses gathered the Pegasi and Unicorns together to fight Discord they were worshipped, they were to become the rulers of Equestria. But some disagreed with them and went to fight Discord on their own, to earn back their kingdoms and the right to rule.” #5065 put his hoof on his wife’s shoulder, and gave her a soft nuzzle.
“They lost,” Raspberry stated, “but they lost more than their kingdoms.” She tapped her hoof at the ponies, “through magic that none of them even knew existed, Discord, what we call the Yellow God, cursed them, us, with infertility for the rest of time, that we, and our old ways of thinking, would slowly die.” Raspberry and #5065’s eyes fell on the poem below, “once he was defeated we asked Celestia and Luna for help, but they claimed they could not fix us, so we left, we believed that no hope was left for us.” Raspberry’s frown turned to a smile, as she returned the nuzzle of her new husband, “Mantorok saved us, through praying to him, and building this temple and altar, we were able to temporarily restore our fertility. That is why that slab and this room exist, they are the only ways that we’ve found to birth our children.” But the changeling was focused on something else, namely the mural. He remembered the poem, and the mural, and the slab, but one thing he remembered wasn’t there anymore.
The indentations below the mural were gone.
5065 tapped his hooves against the stone, searching for the indents. “What is it?” his wife asked. He made a motion to indicate that he thought that there were supposed to be buttons there, but Raspberry shook her head. “No, this isn’t some sort of machine, it’s just a mural depicting our history, so that we never forget what drove us to this, and our children will always know what we went through for them.” The changeling drone looked worryingly at his new wife, who nervously looked away, “you’re worried about having a kid?” #5065 nodded, “because you’re worried about me?” he nodded again, “well, yes, a lot of ponies from my clan do die in childbirth, I’d say probably 90%, but you’re the vassal of Mantorok, you bear the Tome, I’m sure that he’ll protect me...” #5065 shook his head, he pointed out towards the direction of his hive, a few miles out in the direction of the castle of the Royal Pony sisters, where they had hidden during the fight with Discord. “You want us to leave?” he nodded furiously, “I can’t just leave my people like that, I can’t...” Raspberry stopped herself, “you did that for me though,” she looked into his eyes, he stared back, begging her to go with him. “Alright, If you think it’ll be safer to have the baby somewhere else, then I suppose I owe it to you to try.”
A blasting noise from outside the room caused the two to jump, the Unicorn priest from before burst into the room, out of breath. “Both of you must run, the temple is being attacked, not sure who.” Another blast erupted from outside, the three ran out into the lobby, where many of the Unicorns of the clan were attempting to use force fields to hold the door to the outside shut.
5065 tapped Raspberry on the shoulder, and pointed again in the direction of the hive. “You want me to run that way? Why, what’s deeper in the...” she stopped and thought a moment, “The changeling hive you come from, they’d never think to look for me there!” He nodded, and used his magic to etch his number into the wall; he tapped his hoof against it. “#5065, if I tell them that then they’ll know that you sent me here?” he nodded, “Okay good, then we can just teleport outside and make a break for it.”
“Hold on!” the brown Unicorn priest cried, “we can’t leave without the artifact piece, lord Mantorok wanted us to protect it, and the Tome!” The door began to shudder with each successive blast against it, with many Unicorns fainting from overuse of magic. Raspberry ran for the artifact, with #5065 in pursuit. He tried to form words to tell her not to touch the artifact, but to no avail. Raspberry grabbed the artifact in hoof and, engulfed in a green glow she disappeared. #5065 screamed out, but the Unicorn priest grabbed him and shoved the Tome into his hooves. “You must run, Mantorok can surely take you to wherever the artifact sent her, go through the other door and keep going until you reach the sanctum.” #5065 ran to the door depicting birth and sprinted through, as he started to close the door behind him, he heard the doors burst open.
“You!” cried a raspy voice, “where is the artifact?” The pony who was speaking walked just into #5065’s line of sight. He wore golden armor, worn down from age to a rusty tint, his fur had clearly long since fallen off, and his skin was a dark blue. Where his eyes should’ve been were two yellow irises, surrounded by blackness. His teeth were rotted and filled with holes, visible due to his lack of a proper mouth or lips. Despite being an earth pony, he appeared to have magic, as a claw had erupted from his shadow and was choking the priest.
“You... cannot... win,” the priest mumbled with as much breath as he could manage. “It... Is no longer... here.”
The rotting pony’s shadow claw readjusted its grasp so it now grasped the priest’s head, before snapping it backwards. “Search the area, I want the artifact found.” The changeling ran deeper into the building, running past door after door, trying to evade the horrors that were all to close to catching up to him. He ran through room after room, searching for a way out, or at least some way that he could fight back. The changeling kept running until he barreled through a door into a wide-open room.
The room was huge, with seemingly no way out other than the way he came in. In the four corners of the room were large columns that bore the strange symbol on the Tome. The columns were made of limestone with gold etched along the top. And in the center was a large indent and within it laid a giant monster.
The large purple creature filled the entire crevice, and was made of eyeballs and tentacles. In its center was a large hole surrounded by teeth. #5065 started to back away from the creature, his eyes darting around the room, desperately looking for another way out.
“tHe ArtIfaCt?” echoed a voice. The changeling backed closer to the door he came in, sweat forming on his brow. “wHeRe?” The drone pointed towards the direction of the hive; the eyes of the monster in front of #5065 locked on him, following his hoof. “HmM…” #5065 frantically pointed behind him, stopping when the purple beast in front of him let out a shrill wail.
“So this is where you were hiding,” a familiar raspy voice called from behind #5065. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Mantorok.” The rotting pony from out in the lobby walked up behind them, flanked on all sides by zombies.
“zEaLOuS,” uttered Mantorok.
“And it appears you have found somepony else to use the Tome, trying to stop me are we?” Zealous questioned.
“YoU aRe A MoNsTEr, You CanNoT WiN LicH,” Mantorok screeched.
“We shall see,” Zealous said, “Antorbak Magormor Ulyaoth!” A bolt of energy flew from him and blasted #5065. The changeling landed on top of Mantorok, as the beast’s tentacles began to wrap around him, and drag him to the center. A loud screech erupted from the giant monster, and a flash of light destroyed the zombies accompanying Zealous, and blasted Zealous out of the room.
“SLeeP NoW, KnOW ThAT YouR WIFe SHaLl SurVivE.” Those words from Mantorok put a smile on #5065’s face. Even as he was dragged into Mantorok’s mouth and wordlessly devoured.
I woke up, armed with more knowledge than I started with. Firstly I know knew that the pages of the Tome were important, and that for some reason these specific pages, and memories, were important. But the biggest question that I was left with, was why this Zealous was so powerful now. I slowly wandered back into my fathers study, and started shifting through the books on his desk. I figured that if dad knew about the Tome and about all of this stuff with Zealous, and wanted me to find the book, then he would leave me some kind of clue as to how to beat him.
Among the books that were scattered around the desk was one opened to a section on pony mythology, namely an entry that read Lich. I read and reread the entry several times, the fact that it was written in ancient pony didn’t help matters. But using what I could decipher from my time as the changeling drone I understood enough. Enough that when I went to sleep at night the book’s passage rang through my head.
Lich: A Lich is a creature of immense power, summoned from death to serve a master. The Lich is gifted much of the power that its master has, and is ageless, able to live as its master intends. The only way to completely kill a Lich, is to attack it with a being of equal strength.
“Great,” I thought, “now I just need a God.”
