The Doom That Came To Ponyville.

Twilight Sparkle was puzzling over a pile of scrolls she found near a very tired Spike. Not that scrolls were anything to puzzle over, only Celestia knew how many she has sent, but rather it was the distinct otherness that the letter represented.

Now, she knew of the Night Court. Luna had made it very clear to any pony willing to discuss matters with her to come and visit during the hours it were open. In fact, the librarian noted, she was there at the very first one in a thousand years.

There were three others besides her, with the other two being a disgruntled Luna, a very sleepy Celestia, and one of the bat-ponies that served the princess of the night who was probably just trying to roll in the overtime.

But even with the oddly shimmering black letter before her, even with the striking image of a emerald dragon eye on the front reminding her to report to Celestia that Luna needs to know that that unfortunate shade of green strikes up images that are generally of the world-endy sort, was not her main concern.

Rather, it was the contents of the letter that sent a wave of emotions through her.

It was confusion, delighted shock, neurotic glee, and mild horror in that order.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

It is to my pleasure that I shall alert you that I have an assignment for you.

A very old friend of mine shall be arriving to your doorstep, and she is in dire need of your assistance. She is, as is the current saying, from a different era, the era in this case being the one before my sister was weaned. She is coming to Ponyville incognito under the impression that you are simply her room and board for two weeks time.

However, your true goal is to teach her on the magic of friendship, much like you have done for me. She is dearly out of touch with the world, to the point that I fear at times this is a folly and she must be expelled from Equestria at haste. However, I have faith in you.

My friends name is Shrub, but that is not her true name. I insist that you only talk about what she herself brings up and do not press her for details on the past. I shall make it known that she is far closer to such beings as Discord than to myself or my sister, but she is truly neither draconequus nor alicorn. She should arrive within the hour you get this note.

I have included all of the friendship letters you have written for my sister with this notice. I do believe she would find it helpful for your quest. My apologies to Spike.

I would also find it prudent to alert you that in distant times she was worshiped as a fertility goddess, and that her general portfolio of powers might include the following: Shape shifting, forcible bodily transformation, mind magic, plant control, animal control, summoning, and quite possibly every forbidden spell in the Darkmane section of the Canterlot Library. She’s stopped by once, you see, and that section should be named after her rightfully.

Also, I would suggest that she is to be kept indoors as much as possible and to not expose her to any creature that might agitate or annoy her. Try and keep contact with ponies outside of your circle brief.

Also, do not attempt to contact either me or my sister for two weeks time.

Your Other Royal Majesty.

Twilight looked at the letter again.

And again.

She looked at the scroll pile.

Sighing deeply, she slapped herself in the face with a hoof.

After a few minutes, she came to the conclusion that she was not in a horrific nightmare.

Frankly, she would prefer facing the Night Mare again.

…....

Outside of Ponyville, there was a dark figure trotting through the Everfree.

It was small, and bundled in a little robe that bulged at odd angles at times. It did not so much trot through the forest so much as glide, at a second glance, considering that trotting implied the use of four legs in a manner reminiscent of a horse.

Rather, the figure glided through the brush, as if the plants simply passed through it.

On closer inspection, it did.

Only once did a creature try and kill it.

It was elephantine in form, with a body made of stone and bone and magical either, and had the head that resembled what a great bird would look like if you removed the eyes and replaced them with smaller beaks, and replaced the beaks with toothed proboscises. It ruled that part of the Forest since the first saplings within it were sprouting, and it had felled dragons and worse in defense of its territory. It had haunted the forest since Discord was ruler of the land.

Within moments of raising a great pillar-like leg to crush the cloaked figure, it shattered into smoking black shards of nothing that bubbled and blackened whatever unfortunate thing touched them.

The forest was quiet for a long time after that.

She figure just trotted along and grinned.

…..

The library resembled the aftermath of a political revolution.

….

Blueblood stared glumly at the royal guards standing in front of his cell, counting down by the minute the two-week period he was sentenced to be over.

It was just a tiny attempt to overthrow his aunts, after all.

….

Books on every subject readily available to Twilight were scattered on the floor. Furthermore, much of Applejack’s snack cabinet, Fluttershy’s tea collection, Rainbow Dash’s headache reliever, and Rarity’s soothing candles were placed haphazardly around the room.

Pinkie was on vacation with her family, and would not be back in two weeks. Twilight was torn between laughing and crying at that.

Rarity tisked at Twilight using a friendship letter as a tissue and gave her a lily-white hanky instead.

….

Celestia looked on with barely repressed glee at the beach. Luna just gave it a weary glare.

While Celestia assured her otherwise, she still expected a sea-serpent to try and eat her.

….

“But what if I forget something! Or forget if I forgot it!” Twilight whimpered.

“Don’t worry; it’s probably going to be fine. Besides, Twilight, her name is Shrub. She’s probably a very nice pony who loves nature and animals, but is scared because she's not used to the hustle and bustle of pony life.” said Fluttershy.

A mild rustling of paper and the beat of wings alerted everypony in the room that Dash was finished reading the letter.

….

Blueblood wondered if asking his other aunt the day before yesterday if she had any old friends in a fit of mild displeasure would actually have any consequences later on.

“Ehh”, the prince decided, “probably not”.

...

“Hey guys, what’s a fertilitwhatever?”

Applejack groaned and buried her face into her hat.

….

Celestia sighed contentedly and sipped at a little expensive fruity drink that cost more than what the average pony in Equestria made in a year.

Luna, on the other hand, had discovered that there was, in fact, a sea-serpent in the general area of the bay, and was attempting to hunt it down and harvest its facial hair.

….

The figure briskly walked into Ponyville’s town market. Several ponies stopped to gawk at the figure, but eventually got over the oddity as just another fact of life.

That is, until somepony noticed Zecora in the market, which caused the collective citizens of the little town to bring a collective gaze to the silent figure walking among them.

It could have continued like that, too, if it were not for the involvement of Apple Family Values.

Applebloom, ignorant of the fears of every other pony in the market, waved in the general direction of the figure.

“Hey there, wanna buy some apples?”

The figure stood ramrod straight and slowly turned to the general direction of the little yellow filly with the produce cart.

Eventually, a distinctively unequine voice that reminded some of the gathered townsfolk a bit too much of the entity that crashed the Summer Sun festival two years ago burbled up from the cloak’s occupatiant.

“Would I!”

Smiling, Apple Bloom watched the pony take off its hood.

Her facial expression quickly went ridged, then, ever so surely, became downcast.

To a frown, at first, than a pleading quivering. Eventually, it became a look of primal open-mouthed horror akin to one gets when confronted with a harsh truth of reality, the one in case being “You are a speck in the cosmos, and in the end your life is worth nothing other than what amusement it could bring the lords of the universe.”

Meanwhile, as tradition foretells, the rest of the town was sent into hysterics. Zecora cursed frightfully in her native tongue and began fleeing to her home, and was followed by no small amount of ponies.

Several stalls collapsed with no apparent cause, and in just a few moments the only creatures outside in Ponyville was a pony and something that tried to look like one but was apparently failing miserably.

Shub-Niggurath took a one of the apples from the stall as she left, leaving a shaking wide-eyed filly with a few new mental issues behind her.

She took a bite of the apple.

She grinned.

It was wonderful.

….

“Thanks girls, I couldn’t do this without you all.”

A general nod of agreement went through the gathered Stable Elements of Harmony.

“Twilight, she’s probably okay, I am sure anypony Luna knows has to be pretty alright.”

Twilight sighed. “I know, Spike, but-”

The distinct sound of Ponyvillians screaming cut into the conversation like a knife.

Before anypony in the room could react, the distinct sound of hoof-on-door echoed from the other side of the library entrance, which crushed what was left of the conversation like a blunt object.

The ponies in the room gave each other knowing looks.

Spike spoke up first. “Maybe it’s not related.”

Twilight groaned. “Of course it’s related, Spike. It’s always related.”

The door was knocked on again.

Fluttershy, at this point, had fled the room and had flittered somewhere to hide, while Rarity levitated Spike in front of her face to use as a shield.

Dash, unsurprisingly, decided to take one for the team and opened the door.

“Hey there, welcome to Ponyville!”

Her irises quickly shrunk, and she fainted in a way that would have made the local fashionista impressed if it were not for the face full of dragon spine she was looking at.

Which was understandable.

The pony at the doorway was clearly not a pony. Yes, the pitch-black coat was mostly right, and the dusky hair was also spot-on. It had four hooves and a tail. Its eyes, while a fascinating swirly not-color akin to a mix of purples, greens, and blacks, were also of pony origin.

However, ponies do not have thickly-set pairs of curled horns dominating the sides of there heads, nor mouths of sharp teeth.

“Oh, hello there, fellow equine!”

Dash did not respond, being unconscious. Spike had his eyes shut. Applejack began humming to herself, dead to the world as she slowly rocked in place.

Twilight took a careful look at her guest, and began to weep.