I am Twilight Sparkle no more.

It all began with the Tree of Harmony.

I bore witness to something I may not have been meant to see, and that may very well have been the catalyst that sent me spiraling down into a world of impossibility and madness.

The Tree reached out to me, spoke to me, showed me things I could have never conceived of before, or could've ever hoped to understand, not as I was. I was still far too young, too eager to know the truth... too foolish.

Perhaps taking advantage of my foolish curiosity, the Tree showed me a dream. It was a dream so vivid as to be more akin to a vision than a creation of my own subconscious.

It was unlike any kind of dream I'd had before, and in the days that followed I had many more like it. They were visions of horrendous and unspeakable things—things I would've once shuddered to think about... but now...

Now I am getting ahead of myself.

My name was Twilight Sparkle, and I was once the Princess of Friendship. I thought myself a champion of 'Harmony' along with those who were once dear to me. To some, I was a friend, to others, I was family, to one... I was once a faithful student.

I've studied and mastered spells thought to be impossible for any unicorn to learn. I've brought several powerful villains to their knees and have made them see the error of their ways, I've opened an institute promoting the ways of friendship and 'Harmony', all of this with the help of those who were once dear to me.

My dear, dear friends... but no longer.

In my obsessions I threw away those connections, I threw away everything I had ever known and loved all for the sake of 'Harmony'... the true 'Harmony'. I delved deeply, perhaps too deeply, into the secrets of our world—secrets that may have been best left as they were.

Secrets that changed everything I knew about myself, my friends, ponykind... and 'Harmony'.

It is no longer for me to say, whether I had made a horrible mistake or not, but at the very least, I can tell you of the madness I had wrought, the horrors I had unleashed. I could tell you of the Tree of Harmony and its true nature. I would tell you of my story, and maybe then, you'll be able to decide for yourself if I did the right thing.

It is no longer for me to say, for I am no longer of that world.

It was I who bore witness...

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I suppose I have nopony to blame but myself for what I saw that night.

It was supposed to be nothing more than a fun camping trip in the Everfree—a well thought out and perfectly planned retreat that would give me a chance to spend some quality time with all of my friends.

We'd all been absurdly busy, both within, and outside of school activities. I myself had a particularly full schedule with my duties as Headmare of the School of Friendship. It was Starlight Glimmer that had ultimately convinced me that we all needed to take some time off and do something fun.

Feeling she was right, I began the painstaking process of planning this retreat. I planned the date, the campsite—which I had opted to set up right next to the Tree of Harmony, the provisions, the wards I'd created and cast around the Cave of Harmony to keep away the more dangerous critters of the forest, and several activities to keep things fun and exciting during the trip.

The day arrived and we all set out into the Everfree and towards the campsite I'd prepared. Aside from a few distractions here and there, things were proceeding rather well. Unfortunately things began to go awry when Pinkie Pie rushed on ahead of the rest of the group.

Not helping matters was Fluttershy, who'd been distracted and lagged behind to the point that we had all lost sight of her. Things naturally snowballed from there, and what was supposed to be a simple trek through the forest to the campsite, soon became a hectic search to find our missing friends.

It was a trying task, made all the more difficult by the fact that some of my friends were acting strangely. Pinkie's behavior in particular, now that I think back on it, was not dissimilar to how she acted when Discord had hypnotized her, albeit with less anger and more apathy.

I should have been more suspicious than I was, and perhaps I might've been had my mind not been so focused on finding everypony and getting things back on track. Perhaps there may have been some merit to what Pinkie said to me when we eventually found Fluttershy.

Perhaps I had been a bit too preoccupied with seeing everything I had worked so hard to set up go to plan, and hadn't paid enough attention to the needs of my own friends. At the time however, I was upset and lashed out, and thus began the arguments.

We all eventually found each other and it seemed there was much confusion to be had amongst all of us. Hurtful words and harsh accusations were thrown every which way, causing frustration all around to build to new levels.

In retrospect, it had been such a silly and meaningless squabble over a simple misunderstanding. We should have resolved it easily, as friends would've and should've, but the heated voices and stomped hooves grew into a chaos such that Discord would be proud.

It was at that point that I had decided I had enough.

I needed space, I needed some time and a place to think, and so I did the one thing I should've never done. Without so much as a word to the others, I left, storming off into the underbrush and heading deeper into the forest.

Rather than deal with anymore of their nonsense, I chose instead to make my own way to the campsite. Applejack knew the way well enough, and once they had all settled back down like I knew they eventually would, she would lead the way for the rest of the group.

I stopped only once, just out of sight of the bickering mares, and found that they hadn't even realized I was gone. In my own fit of anger and frustration, I stomped off into the trees and was soon gone.

It was some time before my ire finally abated, and I soon found myself filled with regret over my own actions. As the Princess of Friendship, I, more than any of them, should've been the one to stay and resolve the matter between us, but I fled.

I don't know what caused me to react that way, but I had gone far, and was nearing my destination. Even through the thick foliage I could tell it was growing dark, and Luna would soon be raising the moon.

I reasoned that it would soon become too dangerous to search for my friends on my own, and they were safer in a group either way. Certainly I had magic on my side, but it was always better to err on the side of caution, not to mention I could already sense the wards I had erected just up ahead.

With one last worried glance back to where I'd come from, and a somewhat heavy, guilt laden heart, I pushed forward. As I got closer to the camp, and the day grew darker, my worries increased exponentially.

In my growing panic, my mind began to concoct all sorts of terrible events. I was riddled with even more guilt at the thought that some horrible fate awaited my friends because I wasn't there with them, and the thoughts gnawed at me relentlessly.

By the time I reached the cave and had passed into the safety of my wards, I was all but ready to turn right back around and gallop off in the opposite direction towards where I'd come from, despite the danger. If the girls were in trouble, I needed to be there to defend them, I thought.

As I turned to leave, I was suddenly aware of an odd series of sounds. It sounded like there was magic being cast somewhere deeper into the cave, and it was powerful magic at that. Then the magic cut out and I heard a loud cry, followed by several more.

They were all startled cries, and their startling familiarity made me pause and turn around in shock. The voices had come from the direction of the camp, and as the cries continued, my heart began the thunder in my chest.

It sounded like the girls were in trouble, for it was their voices that I heard, much to my horrified disbelief. How had they made it to the camp before me? What was causing them all that distress? Were they being attacked? Had my worst fears come to pass?

All these questions bounced about in my head and before I myself even realized it, I was already rushing off in that direction. I could have easily teleported the required distance, but the fear and dread thwarted any attempt at proper concentration.

Putting it out of my mind, I ran, and didn't stop until I had reached the area where I had set up camp. I soon reached the Tree of Harmony, and what I saw was not at all what I was expecting.

The Tree of Harmony had sprouted several tentacles, the limbs ghostly yet tangible all the same. To my horror, they were all wrapped tightly around each of my friends save Starlight who was nowhere to be seen. To my bewilderment, one of the mares was none other than myself, and I looked as though I was struggling the most out of all of the girls.

As if the situation wasn't confusing enough, I spotted the tall black form of Queen Chrysalis off to the side, watching the display with just as much shock as I was. I turned my attention back to the tree just in time to see the tentacles tighten around the girls.

I felt a strong pulse of something emanate from the ethereal limbs, and in an instant, right before my eyes, my friends and the mare who shared my likeness melted as though they were wax that had been put too close to the fire.

I screamed.

I was unsure if it was from the terror I felt, or if it was the agony of watching my friends being melted into puddles. Perhaps it was both, but whatever the case may have been, I felt powerless to stop it. I galloped forward, ignoring the words my double spoke, ignoring Chrysalis, ignoring just how suspect this whole situation really was.

The Tree of Harmony was killing my friends, and that was all that mattered in my mind.

I eventually reached the tree, but It was far too late, and the damage had been done. They had all been melted and warped into unrecognizable shapes. I let out a heartbroken wail as I reached out a hoof towards the mares I'd grown to love as much as my own family.

I didn't know what I was expecting to accomplish with my actions. Maybe I just wanted to be close to them, maybe I wanted to join them, I couldn't say with my own thoughts in such turmoil. I didn't get a chance to dwell on it for long however, as a blinding flash of light suddenly erupted from the tree and lit up the cave. The light was tangible and powerful enough to throw me backwards against a far wall.

Images flashed through my mind then—things I couldn't quite understand or even describe properly. I saw visions of swirling darkness, an endless array of stars, I saw myself, a serene smile upon my face, I saw the Tree of Harmony, I saw a familiar monument deep within a forest somewhere.

I saw a mountain, I saw it crumble, I saw a pillar of that same swirling darkness rise in its place, I saw the beginnings of something much larger than the mountain itself crawl its way out of the depths of that darkness.

Then consciousness returned.

I gasped and choked and coughed as I struggled to rise from where I lay on the ground. My body ached terribly and my mind was in complete and utter disarray from everything I'd seen.

I looked up and towards the Tree, only to scream again when I saw the shining form of myself staring back at me with unblinking eyes and that same serene smile I had seen only moments ago. Chrysalis and my dead friends had disappeared while I was indisposed, and it was just myself and the thing standing at the base of the glowing Tree of Harmony.

It took a sudden step forward towards me and I scrambled away, shrieking for all I was worth. The only thing I wanted to do in that moment was escape. Tears in my eyes and my heart fit to burst with terror, I found my footing, and turned away from the creature imitating my form.

I fled the cave and didn't look back.

I don't know how long I galloped through that forest, nor did I know where exactly it was that I was headed. The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to get away. I had to get away from that tree, I had to get away from the death of my friends, I had to get away from those terrifying images that had assaulted my mind.

I had to get away from the insanity of everything I had seen in the Cave of Harmony.

As I leapt through some foliage, I hit something solid and tumbled backwards onto my haunches. Shaking my head, I looked up to see that I'd galloped right into a stunned Applejack. My mouth dropped open as I looked past her and saw the rest of my friends bringing up the rear, some of them still arriving through more foliage opposite of where I was.

For a long moment I simply sat there, mouth hanging open and eyes wide with disbelief. They were all here, all of them, alive and healthy. They looked worried, and when they all spotted me, they rushed to see if I was okay, but I was still reeling from the shock of seeing them all here in front of me.

I had just watched them all die a horribly gruesome and painful looking death, yet here they were. The implications were lost amidst the torrent of emotion that washed over me. At some point I realized I had pulled Applejack into a bonecrushing hug, sobbing with relief all the while.

No doubt my friends were just as bewildered as I should've been at that moment, but I didn't care. I was just happy to see them all alive and unharmed. Eventually the rest joined Applejack and I, the singular embrace becoming a large group hug. It was warm, it was heartfelt, it was soothing, it was comforting.

It was friendship, and it was exactly what I needed right then.

All too soon the hug broke and words of concern and forgiveness were exchanged between all of us. I of course, told the rest of the group of what I found in the Cave of Harmony, and they responded with the expected looks and exclamations of horror and confusion.

I did not however, tell them about the brief vision I had experienced, nor did I tell them about my other look alike.

For some reason I couldn't fathom, I felt the need to keep that to myself. It was almost an irresistible compulsion in fact, and it was a compulsion I readily obeyed. I didn't want to burden the others anymore than I already had. They were growing nervous as it was, and I didn't want to throw more fuel on the fire.

At least, that's what I told myself.

After some discussion, it was agreed that Chrysalis had been up to no good once again, and had somehow created clones of all of us. That would've explained everypony's odd behavior over the course of the trip, but just what was her goal? What did Chrysalis hope to accomplish at the Tree of Harmony with these clones?

Thinking about the Tree of Harmony sent a chill down my spine, and it was only with great, but carefully hidden reluctance that I agreed to follow the rest of my friends back to the Cave of Harmony to investigate.

While they discussed various possibilities about what it could all mean, I dragged my own hooves behind them, eyes downcast, and my body shaking slightly. My thoughts went back to everything I had witnessed, including the vision, and I almost didn't notice when we finally reached the campsite.

It was Rainbow's voice that snapped me out of my downward spiral, and as I looked back up, my eyes widened yet again. Rainbow Dash had stated, with some annoyance, that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

She'd been right, as far as I and the rest of the girls could see. When I had first enter the cave, I had seen that our campsite was a mess, no doubt destroyed by the clones when they entered.

Now however, as we all made our way to the camp, there was nothing to indicate that anypony aside from myself had ever been here. The tents, the fire pit, the tree, everything was exactly as it should've been. There was no unsettling glow about the Tree of Harmony, there was no ghostly tentacles or ethereal replica to speak of.

It was as if it had all just been some kind of horribly vivid nightmare, and judging by the way some of the others looked at me, it seems they may have believed that to actually be the case. Still, I know what I saw, and I had my aching bruises to prove it.

I tried once more to explain, and the rest lent sympathetic ears, but I could tell they no longer believed me. Fluttershy herself had even suggested I may have simply taken a tumble and hit my head at some point. I wanted to get angry, and I was certainly frustrated, but I held my irritation in check.

We had all just gotten over our earlier argument and there was no need to start a new one. I instead forced myself to join in the activities I myself had planned, laughing and playing right along with the others.

It was all a front however, and my thoughts refused to be quelled so easily. Even as we settled in for the rest of the night, I never stopped thinking about what had transpired. I was almost certain I would suffer some horrendous nightmare involving what I'd seen, and that made it difficult to fall asleep.

When I finally did succumb to my exhaustion, I closed my eyes and slept, but I did not dream.

I heard the wretched song...

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The rest of the trip went off without a hitch and while that night hadn't fully left my mind, I found I was able to refocus on my duties as both the Princess of Friendship, and the Headmare of my school.

Forms were filed, schedules were created, classes were planned, students and teachers alike were attended to when the need arose, and life in general for me at least, had regained much of its normalcy. Still, the Tree of Harmony and my strange and frankly terrifying vision was always there in the back of my mind.

I did what I could to distract myself from the memories. I threw myself into my work, I made sure to find some more time to spend with my friends, I even made appearances during some classes to give some of my own advice on friendship and the tenets of Harmony.

For a time it seemed to work, and the thoughts began to grow more distant, almost as though they really were a nightmare I'd had some time ago. Unfortunately every time I let my guard down, every time I let my mind wander, my thoughts always inevitably turned towards either the visions, the Tree itself, or that thing that took on my appearance.

The thoughts pulled at me, always poking and prodding me from a distance, and I found it harder and harder to concentrate as the week passed. There was also the issue of Chrysalis and her possible plans, but I had already informed Celestia, and she assured me she would see to it that the Queen's activities were investigated.

I didn't bother mentioning what went on in the Cave of Harmony. I already tried to tell the girls, and if they didn't believe me, I doubted Celestia or Luna would. I loved my friends and my previous mentor dearly, but if history had taught me anything, it was that baseless accusations and wild claims would get me nowhere fast.

If I was going to tell Celestia and my friends the whole story, I needed some kind of evidence to back it up. The problem was that, for as much as the thoughts of that tree filled my head, I wanted to be nowhere near the Tree of Harmony if I could help it.

I hadn't had any nightmares about the events that had transpired, which I was grateful for to be sure. That relief was stifled however, by the fact that I hadn't had any kind of dreams whatsoever since that night. It worried me, and yet I did not think to bring the matter to Luna.

As with the urge to hide my visions and my ethereal look alike from my friends, this too was something I felt I needed to keep secret. Again the reasoning escaped me, and with each passing night, some nameless dread would begin to creep upon me as I lay in my bed, despite the fact that I did not dream.

Spike had taken notice of my growing unease and restlessness, but I was always quick to brush aside his concerns. It was just nerves, I told myself it was just the stress of my workload, and the mental strain the horrible memories of that cave were putting on me. Doubtless this constantly tightening knot of dread in my stomach would unravel itself soon enough.

I was wrong.

It had been a little over a week since the retreat, and as I was beginning to settle in for the night, the unease that had been building suddenly became a nameless fear. I had just laid down in my bed, only to jerk back up again, my wide eyes twitching this way and that, looking for something in the shadows.

There was, of course, nothing to see, and my pounding heart began to settle once more. The fear vanished as soon as it had come, leaving me wary and slightly on edge. I stayed sitting upright for a few more moments before finally letting myself relax, lying back down, and closing my eyes.

I was gone in an instant.

Fog.

The world was completely shrouded in it, and I could see no more than maybe six or seven yards beyond its thick grey walls. What little I could see was slightly blurry and unfocused, as if I was seeing the world through some sort of haze.

I sat alone in a grassy area, the greenery beneath me soft and warm, and a heavy thicket of trees, tall and imposing before me. I recognized these trees, but at that moment, I couldn't place them for the life of me.

For I don't know how long, I sat there staring at that line of trees and wondering whether or not I should move forward. It seemed to be the only way to go, and yet I hesitated, unsure and wary of just what awaited me within the confines of that forest.

It was then that it appeared.

From out of the trees some tall, formless black silhouette began to emerge, and for a moment, I was filled with a familiar terror and a sudden desire to flee, but the urge passed as quickly as it had come.

The shape fully revealed itself to be none other than me, yet I couldn't help but feel that there was much more to this reflection. I was struck with the sense that something wholly alien and unknowable hid just behind those wide unblinking amethyst eyes and small, innocent smile.

It was alluring in a way I couldn't describe, and I found myself drawn to the strange creature. I watched as it approached me, never breaking eye contact, never losing its easy stride, never once dropping that small smile.

Then it stopped before me, perhaps a few hoof-lengths away, and stood there. I waited to see what it would do, not having moved an inch from where I sat. I waited not with fear or uneasiness, but rather with bemusement and curiosity.

It spoke.

I saw its mouth move in such a way that it was clearly communicating, but my ears could not pick up the sound of its words. Somehow, despite the silence, I still understood what it wanted of me. Without hesitation, I obeyed, following it as it turned and retreated back into the forest.

I entered the forest and the fog seemed to close in around me, obscuring most of the flora. The forest itself was silent, and if there were animals present, I neither saw nor heard them, not that I was paying any attention.

At that moment I only had eyes for the reflection trotting ahead of me. Its hooves made no sound, and it almost appeared to be gliding along the dark ground strewn with roots, vines, and fallen leaves.

The odd sense of familiarity grew stronger as we continued down the path towards an unknown destination. As I followed the creature, I began to pick up a sound, distant, but most definitely there.

I could only just pick it up, and what little I did hear of it baffled me. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard, and its source eluded me. The reflection ahead of me made no comment, nor did it even seem to notice.

It simply continued to trot along, never moving too far ahead or getting too close to where I was. The fog continued to obscure, yet I never once lost sight of my look alike. The sound gradually grew louder, and I felt a sudden chill run up and down my spine at the noise.

It was something akin to a song, but only in the vaguest of descriptions. The sounds, the pitch, the melody, these were all things I tried and failed to grasp, and I was unable to properly put anything I heard into actual words.

The longer I was subjected to the horrid sound, the deeper my fear became.

Just as I felt I couldn't take anymore, the otherworldly cacophony suddenly ceased and the fog fell away, revealing a cave. This cave too was familiar to me, and though the increasingly overwhelming fear had abated, the constant foreboding had not.

The creature I'd been following all this time stopped just before the mouth of the cave and turned to me. Its eyes twinkled brightly and its smile widened into a joyous grin before it vanished from sight.

I was left alone to face whatever was in that cave.

I lingered at the entrance for a short time, feeling as though there would be no turning back once I stepped through the entrance. I knew somehow that I would be at the mercy of whatever awaited me here, and I could feel my decision pressing down on me like some great and terrible weight.

I pushed on, my curiosity and determination strong enough to move my hooves across the threshold separating knowledge from ignorance. I trotted into the cave and moved down the sloping and jagged stony pathway towards an unknown outcome.

It wasn't long before I reached my destination, and what I saw was enough to give me immense pause. Standing tall before me was the Tree of Harmony, but something was wrong.

The sense of familiarity and recognition that had been growing so strong as I proceeded further, vanished completely. It had the appearance of the Tree of Harmony to be sure, but the warmth was gone, there was no Harmony to be had here, at least, not as I knew it.

In a very real and disquieting way, I had no idea what I was looking at.

I stared at the tree, my mind in a daze and my stomach twisted in knots from the sheer wrongness that pervaded my senses. Almost unbidden, my hooves carried me closer to the tree, and as I neared it, I stretched out one of my hooves towards it.

I wanted—needed to be closer to the tree. I needed to know why it felt so different, I needed to know what my reflection had known, I needed to find the origin of that terrible yet provocative song. I needed answers, and there was no doubt in my mind that this tree was somehow the source of the knowledge I coveted above all else.

The tree responded to my desire, but not in the way I had expected or hoped. Rather than simply revealing its secrets, it lashed out, six writhing, undulating, ghostly tentacled limbs emerging from its branches and wrapping around my startled frame.

I cried out in alarm, but no sound escaped my lips, I tried to pull away, but the tree only tightened its grip and pulled back harder. My struggles were laughable in the face of the tree's power, and my resistance was short lived.

It dragged me forward, pulling me into itself as I silently screamed for help, for mercy, for anything that would save me from whatever it had in store for me. Unfortunately it was not to be, and as I reached the tree's center, my vision went white.

When my eyesight cleared again I found I was no longer in the cave, nor was the tree anywhere to be seen. Instead, I found myself floating amidst pitch black darkness on all sides. All around me I could see countless motes of light—twinkling stars in the distance.

I could see swirling galaxies, planets, and moons of all sizes both big and small, both near and far. Even in my boundless horror I knew that I had somehow reached a domain far beyond my understanding.

Here was a place not even Celestia or Luna could reach with their vast power, and beneath my terror, I felt oddly humbled by it all. I couldn't tell how long I floated among the darkness and starlight, but as I watched and listened, I began to hear that eldritch song once more.

It had returned, louder and more terrifying than ever before, my mind and body shaking with the force of it. The sound came from all around me, but I could practically feel the source of the sound in this place.

A shadow passed over me then, and I turned out of reflex, only to see what I believed to be yet another planet, this one a rusty red in color and silhouetted by a bright star shining somewhere behind it. It was terribly close, and as I observed it, I began to realize that this 'planet' was the origin of the wretched song.

I wanted to get away, but I remained frozen where I was.

I knew, perhaps instinctively, that nothing good would come of being near this thing and its song, but I couldn't move an inch. I couldn't turn my eyes away from the massive celestial body, and I was forced to watch as the center of it slowly split open to reveal a single, burning red eye.

Its gaze tore at every single part of me, and I tried harder to free myself of the unknown force that held me there, to no avail. I remained as I was, watching as the impossibly large thing grew even larger in size, or that's what I thought to be the case at first.

I quickly realized however, that its size wasn't increasing, it was getting closer. It was quickly closing the distance between us, its alien song swelling with some renewed sense of urgency or purpose.

As it neared me, I let out a ragged scream, the sound of my own voice finally ripping its way from my throat. I continued to scream as my vision once more faded to white, completely unaware that I was returning to the waking world.

Returning to my own world.

I woke up screaming, my eyes wild and my breaths coming in short, ragged gasps. I thrashed about, or at least I tried, but there was something holding me down. For a moment, my panic increased and I only tried harder to escape, but then a voice, as calm and as clear as a quiet moonlit night reached my ears.

I turned to see Luna standing by my bedside, her horn lit and her expression warm and reassuring. I looked down at myself and saw my body outlined in a magical aura the same color as Luna's magic.

Her soft and calming words washed over me, and I finally began to calm myself, my heartbeat gradually returning to normal. after another minute or so, I informed the Night Princess that I was okay, and she relinquished her hold on me.

It was then that I noticed both Spike and Starlight standing on either side of Luna, their faces a mask of concern and, in Spike's case, a bit of fear. As it turned out, I had been screaming loud enough to hear throughout my entire castle, and it wasn't just wordless screams either.

Starlight mentioned I'd been speaking some kind of weird language she'd never heard before. Both her and Spike had heard it, and from the looks of it, my words had unsettled them immensely.

I of course, had no memory of doing such a thing, and they of course, questioned me, asking me what had happened. Luna asked me what I had been dreaming about, something I found extremely odd given who she was.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach when she told me she couldn't reach me in the dream realm. She spoke of some kind of mysterious force that pushed her away, rejecting her outright. There was apparently nothing she could do to fight against it, so she instead arrived at my castle, hoping to rouse me from my slumber the mundane way.

I was both shocked and disturbed at the implications, but I had no explanations to give to the worried ponies and baby dragon. Just remembering what I'd seen in that dream had me trembling, and I refused to subject them to that knowledge.

It was clear that was no mere nightmare. It felt too real, too vivid for me to ever believe it was anything other than a vision—maybe some kind of terrible, unfathomable premonition. In the end, I told them I couldn't remember what I'd been dreaming about, but each and every one of them were clearly unconvinced.

At their insistence, I promised them I'd let them know if I ever recalled anything about it. That seemed to mollify Spike and Starlight for the most part, but I could tell Luna didn't want to let this go. Thankfully she said nothing more on the matter other than to tell me that she'd be informing her sister of the matter.

After a few more reassuring words to Spike, he and Starlight left the room as well, leaving me alone with my thoughts. There was certainly much to think about, and none of it was pleasant to consider.

The look alike, the tree, that song, and what I saw in 'that place', I couldn't make sense of any of it. I didn't know what it all meant, but despite myself and my fears, deep down I still wanted to find out.

Whatever I thought about that nightmarish vision, the curiosity I felt had been very real.

I chose my path...

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If focusing on my daily life had been difficult before, it was near impossible now.

Any hopes I had of continuing on like I had been were dashed the moment I had a single second to myself. Even during the busy, and often stressful, hours I worked as Headmare, I found my mind drifting further and further away.

Any attempt at distraction was futile, and even those close to me, my dearest friends couldn't pull me away from the dark and terrible images of ethereal clones, monstrous trees, and otherworldly beings of terrifying power and presence.

Still, I tried to focus for the sake of my friends, my loved ones, and the students if not my own sake. School trips, field days, special guests, a day at the spa with Rarity and Fluttershy, and various other activities served as admirable, if ultimately pointless, ways to spend my time.

At one point, I'd even had the other three Princesses come in as guest teachers for the day. That had turned out to be a mistake, as when everything was said and done, they spent the rest of the time fretting over my current state, and I was certainly in a state.

I hadn't slept at all since the nightmare, and while that was nothing new, given my propensity for late night studies, it had gotten somewhat out of hoof. It'd been easy to hide my lack of proper rest at first.

My daily routine of good hygiene, and a little magic here and there to hide the bags under my eyes and my constantly frazzled mane and tail, were enough to keep suspicions to a minimum, but the cracks had eventually begun to show despite my efforts.

Getting to sleep wasn't all that much of a problem, as I knew several spells I'd picked up from Luna for such an occasion as this. The true problem lay in the fact that I had no desire to sleep, lest I had another vivid nightmare.

Every time I laid down for the night, it was as though I could feel some kind of horrible pull at my consciousness. The fear was enough to keep me awake for the duration of the night and in the end, what little sleep I did get wasn't really sleep at all, but a magical substitute.

I'd fallen back on a spell I'd used in my youth when I was still Celestia's student, a spell she'd forbade me to use again for the sake of my health when she'd found out about it. It was a spell I used to activate the various functions the body went through during sleep while still awake.

While an effective spell that left you awake and refreshed without the need to sacrifice consciousness, it still paled in comparison to actual rest, and the effects became less potent the more it was used.

It was also getting more difficult to dodge the questions of those close to me. It was clear by this point that they knew something was wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to tell them the truth... not yet.

All of this had gone on for almost a month, and it was after a particular incident that I decided enough was enough. Both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had visited my castle one evening for a sleepover.

I agreed of course, more than happy for the company, and desperate for any kind of distraction from the long hours I spent simply staring into the fireplace of my sitting room, my mind in a sleep deprived daze and my thoughts centered on the subjects I'd been trying to avoid.

I felt I also owed it to the mares, as well as Spike and Starlight, both of whom opted to join us. In the last week or so, I'd been so distracted by my own issues that I'd begun neglecting my duties as Headmare.

What work I did get done was becoming sloppy and full of mistakes and errors in judgment. This, much to my shame and guilt, left both Spike and Starlight to pick up much of the slack.

So it was that Fluttershy and Pinkie spent the night in my castle. For a time, things seemed well, and between Fluttershy's calm reassuring presence and Pinkie's boisterous, and upbeat attitude, I was actually able to relax and enjoy myself somewhat.

It was when we had all settled down for the evening that the trouble began.

As we all prepared our beds for the night, I began to notice Spike and the other three mares giving each other furtive glances when they thought I wasn't looking. Whenever I caught one of them watching me, they looked away or pretended to be doing something else.

It didn't take a genius to guess at what the issue might've been, and I didn't blame them for being skittish and dancing around the elephant in the room that was my sorry condition. Still, it galled and confused me that they didn't come right out and say anything.

I thought to call them out on their behavior when Spike suddenly spoke up, apparently not able to stay silent anymore. As I'd suspected, they'd all been extremely worried, and the sleepover was meant as a means to get me to 'open up' about what was bothering me so much.

They'd tried waiting to see if I'd say anything on my own, and when I didn't they got even more worried. Once Spike had started talking, the others were quick to join in, and I soon found myself surrounded by worried expressions and concerned inquiries.

I reacted badly at first, my fear, my panic, and my stress causing me to lash out at them. I said things I hadn't meant, and once I started, I couldn't stop myself. They'd wanted to know what I was so worried and upset about, and in my anger, I told them, though not about the dream.

I took the opportunity to vent my frustration at their lack of support regarding what I'd gone through in the cave, and how they completely brushed my fears and worries aside, just like they had during the Want-it-Need-it incident and just like they had during the wedding.

I knew it was opening old wounds that had long since been closed, and I knew it wasn't fair, as I wasn't completely in the right in either of those circumstances as well, but I couldn't help myself at that point. I was irrational and irritable from lack of sleep, and that had played a big part in my breakdown.

My ire died out when I finally took a moment to breathe and saw that I'd made Fluttershy cry and Spike back away behind a disappointed Starlight and Pinkie. That was when all the fight left me, and in its place I felt hollow and guilty.

That the nightmare had such a hold on me and my life sickened me, and I wanted nothing more than to be rid of the memories of it and that night in the cave... but no.

I couldn't just rid myself of those thoughts, and it was time I stopped running from them. I had already admitted to myself that I wanted to know more, yet I fled from the mystery like a scared little foal, giving up on proper sleep, letting my life fall to the wayside, and hurting the ones I loved.

No more, I thought.

This had gone on long enough, and it was time to face those fears. I began to feel the only way to do that, was to confront the source. I needed to do something, I needed answers, and for the sake of my sanity and those close to me, I needed to get to the bottom of this.

Even as I gave all my friends profuse apologies, I was already making plans for another trip into the Everfree Forest, alone. I wanted the rest of the girls to join me, but this was still something I felt I had to do on my own.

I didn't want them involved until I knew more about what I was dealing with, so in the meantime, I made my excuses about why I hadn't slept and decided to risk letting myself drift off into unconsciousness.

Oddly enough, there was no irrational fear, or terrible vision-like nightmares this time around. Surrounded by Spike, Starlight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, I fell asleep without incident, though I was once more bereft of any kind of dreams whatsoever.

When I awoke, I found that the sun was high in the sky and the others were nowhere to be seen. Looking around, I noticed a letter had been left on my bedside stand, and upon reading I discovered I'd been left alone to sleep in. and sleep in I did.

It was almost afternoon by the time I'd gotten out of bed, but that didn't bother me like it normally would've. School was out for the day, and I had a trip to plan, so everything had worked out more or less the way I wanted.

I spent the rest of that day gathering what I'd need for my expedition, going so far as to purchase a journal specifically for the occasion. I'd planned to make this an extended investigation, and had intended to document my findings on the Tree of harmony and the thing that shared my likeness.

Once I'd gotten everything ready, I wrote down the events that had already transpired, including what happened in the Cave of Harmony, my vision, and the nightmare I'd had. The girls came to check on me just as I'd finished casting a few spells to protect my journal from the curious eyes of other ponies.

I informed the others I was feeling much better, which thankfully wasn't a lie, though I made sure to keep my impromptu trip under wraps and my supplies hidden. Spike and Starlight, who'd both gone out to give me some space, remained in the castle while the others left.

When they asked me what I'd done all day, I merely told them I'd been catching up on some reading I hadn't been able to do with how busy I was. That seemed to satisfy them, and they left me alone, though I could tell they wanted to say more, perhaps about the dream I still hadn't told them about.

Time passed and evening eventually gave way to night as Luna raised the moon. Both Spike and Starlight were set to turn in for the night, but not before checking on me one last time. I assured them there'd be no more sleepless nights and wished them a good night before heading back to my room.

I'd given Spike his own room in the castle at his insistence, and never was I more thankful that I had than now. Once I was alone, I cast a simple static illusion spell, creating an image of my own sleeping form. After a moment's thought I decided to go the extra mile and make it as life-like as possible.

Satisfied with my work, I pulled my supplies from within the closet where I'd hidden them behind several outfits Rarity had made for me over time. Saddlebags in place, I grabbed my journal and, with a magenta colored flash and a soft pop, I vanished from the room, making sure to reappear a good distance away from the castle.

The instant I was outside, I cast a cloaking spell and scanned the area to make sure nopony saw me. It may have been a bit much perhaps, but I wanted nopony to know where I was going and I didn't want to explain myself if I got caught.

Once I was sure there was nopony around, I took one last look back at my home before spreading my wings and taking off towards the Everfree Forest. Making my way through the forest at night was an incredibly foolish thing to do, and I was fully aware of that.

It was made all the more terrifying an experience given what I expected might happen, but the thing was that I wanted something to happen. I'd planned on it.

I had no deathwish by any means, and I was ready and willing to defend myself if necessary. Scared as I was though, this needed to be done, and now I felt, was the best time to do it. I swallowed my fear and mustered every ounce of determination I had as the forest came into view.

I would find out what this all meant one way or another, and if some malevolent force turned out to be the cause, my friends and I would do everything in our power to stop it, at least, that's what I told myself.

I was a foolish, foalish mare in the end.

I trotted amidst the silent trees...

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I made my landing at the edge of the forest, and for a moment I simply stood there. I scanned the trees with a nervous gaze, the similarity of my current situation to that horrid dream not lost on me.

Already I could feel something wrong in the forest, and I hadn't even made my way inside yet. I half expected my other self to come waltzing right out into the open, but after several moments of inactivity on my part, nothing happened.

The night remained quiet, save for the sound of rustling leaves on the wind. I shivered and looked about, a chill passing over me that I was certain had nothing to do with the slightly chilly air. Still, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Deciding I'd stalled long enough, I once more shored up my courage, adjusted my saddlebags, and pressed forward into the murky darkness of the Everfree. I'd lived in Ponyville for a good few years now, and my friends and I had made several trips into the Everfree for one reason or another.

I couldn't speak for the others, but I myself had made note of several landmarks within, and was confident in my direction, even without a map. Still, I was wary of the nighttime dangers each twist and turn might've contained, and kept my eyes and ears open as I slowly and carefully made my way through the thick underbrush.

I stumbled a bit here and there, doing my best to duck beneath the gnarled branches hanging low overhead. I missed an upturned root or two in the almost absolute blackness surrounding me, but I did an adequate job in stepping over any smaller obstacles in my way.

I allowed the rays of the moon, scarce as they were, to light my way, and was thankful that it was bright enough to travel by, even if only just. I didn't dare to cast any sort of magelight for fear of attracting some carnivorous denizen of the Everfree... or worse.

The noise I'd been making as I blundered my way through the trees had been loud enough as it was, and my nerves were already rattled from imagined horrors lurking in the dark. As I made my way deeper into the forest and towards the Cave of Harmony, I began to have doubts.

I thought myself prepared for whatever terrifying revelation awaited me in the cave, or even in this forest, but as my mind wandered, I couldn't help but wonder at the hideous, mountainous thing I saw crawling its way out of that great, pitch black pillar in my vision.

I'd only gotten a glimpse before the vision ended, but it was enough to send more chills down my spine, and what little I did see, I couldn't even begin to describe in any reliable detail. I wondered, not for the first time since making my way into the Everfree, just what I was getting myself into.

I wondered at the mysterious forest and the oddly familiar rock formation therein. As with the creature from beneath the mountain, the image of the formation had been far too brief, and, much to my frustration, I couldn't pull the memory of where I'd seen such a place to the surface of my mind.

Just why, and how was it that the tree had shown me such cryptic, horrifying, and portentous visions? What did they mean, and what did the unblinking mimic with the soft smile have to do with it all? If this strange and unnerving look alike did indeed have something to do with those images, then what did it mean to gain by showing me?

My thoughts continued on in this manner for a good while and the distraction helped to settle my frayed nerves somewhat. As I took a moment to reassert my focus towards the world outside my musings however, I felt an unpleasant tingle at the base of my neck, and shivered as it spread throughout my entire body.

I slowed to a stop, looking this way and that. My eyes were wide and searching, the thump of my heart becoming louder in my ears. I felt as though something was watching me, but I couldn't hear anything, nor could I make out a sound, no matter how I strained my ears.

The silence, in fact, was absolutely deafening.

There was no wind, there was no rustling of leaves or settling of stone. I heard no animalistic cries nor the skittering of the creatures that called this forest home. It was a silence fit to make my ears ring, and in that silence I could now clearly make out the heavy, quickening thump of my heart and the increasing rapidity of my breathing.

I could see nothing beyond the rays of the moon, and yet, I could still feel the gaze of something in that insurmountable darkness. I slowly made my way forward once more, my legs shaking slightly and my eyes scanning each and every tree around me.

I wanted to run for fear of being attacked suddenly, I wanted to scream the almost unbearable silence away, I wanted to cast a light so bright as to imitate Celestia's sun itself. I wanted desperately to banish the encroaching darkness and bring forth the silently creeping monstrosities I was all but certain it held, if for no other reason than to be rid of this gut wrenching dread.

I did none of those things.

Instead, I reigned in my rapid breathing and moved forward slowly and deliberately, making as little noise as equinely possible. It seemed a futile effort, as each and every step sounded as though it was magnified tenfold in the eerie quiet of the forest.

Each minute that passed by felt like an eternity, and that horrible sense of being watched by some malevolent force never once abated, but still I pressed on. By the time I finally reached the clearing where the Cave of Harmony resided, my breath had grown shaky, and a cold sweat had broken out across my brow.

I had to stop myself from breathing a sigh of relief, as I felt the suddenness of the sound would cause whatever was out there to fling itself from out of the trees and tear me to pieces, such was my fear as I carefully stepped out into the clearing.

I was astonished.

I'd made it out of that ominous thicket of trees unmolested, despite all my fears and worries, despite the unsettling quiet, and despite the malicious presence I'd felt. I didn't stop to celebrate my good fortune however, and quickly closed the rest of the distance between myself and the cave ahead.

Almost as soon as I stepped into the cave, that ever present feeling of eyes watching me from a distance faded entirely. At the same time, the silence around me became far less stifling, allowing me to hear the echo of my hoofsteps, the steady drip of condensed water somewhere deeper within, and the soft howl of wind as it passed through the mouth of the cave.

My relief was short lived however, as I discovered that the cave itself had become oddly cold, the drastic drop in temperature making me shudder slightly. The air outside had been getting steadily colder as the night wore on, but this was a chill of a different breed.

It didn't feel at all natural, and as I stood there, just past the entrance of the cave, I was struck by how foolish I felt in attempting such a trek on my own. I'd come too far to turn back now at any rate, and I wasn't keen on traveling through the forest again so soon, not with that foreboding atmosphere and the unseen eyes lurking just beyond my vision.

I shuddered once more at the thought, and began to make my way down the narrow, uneven, stony slope that led to the bottom of the cave where the possible source of all my fears and curiosities lay. The Tree of Harmony was soon within sight, and as I neared it, my steps began to slow.

I gazed upon the tree with no small amount of nervousness and hesitance, finding I was not nearly so eager to undertake this task as I'd been before. Flashes of that abominable nightmare assaulted my mind, and I could almost hear the unearthly song of that frighteningly, mind-bendingly gargantuan monstrosity playing in my ears.

I swallowed and took a few more halting steps until I was standing not more than a few yards away from the tree. I maintained my alertness, watching for any sudden movements, waiting for any ghostly white tentacles to sprout from the many oddly twisted branches.

My wary gaze passed over the six stones embedded in the softly glowing tree, and a pang of worry, doubt, and even a small bit of betrayal stabbed at me suddenly. The Elements of Harmony, those shining stones that bore the likeness of each of my friend's cutie marks, with my own at the very center.

That the Tree of Harmony could possibly hold such terrifying secrets was something I never could have expected, and I found myself re-evaluating everything I knew about it and the Elements of Harmony. The Elements were a force of good, that much I knew to be certain.

As the name would suggest, they brought Harmony to the world, they maintained order, and up until the evening I stumbled upon the cave on my own, I'd been under the impression that they would never bring any harm to even those who opposed Harmony and everything it stood for.

Now I found myself unsure, my beliefs shaken, and the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that I didn't know for sure if it caused any harm. I never thought to ask Discord or Luna what it'd been like to be struck by the Elements, never wondered whether they'd been conscious during their terribly long imprisonment.

The very idea was repellent in the extreme, and perhaps that was why I'd never given it a single thought. Had I been trapped in stone or sealed within the moon with my consciousness intact for a millennia, I would've found the embrace of death a comfortable one.

But no, that couldn't have been the case, as Luna was still very much sane, and Discord had been mad even before his imprisonment in stone. Though the deaths of Chrysalis's clones had been disturbing to behold, and the image still made me queasy, they'd no doubt been born of some heinous dark magic.

Certainly its methods may have been a tad extreme, but in the end, the Tree of Harmony was simply protecting itself while ridding the world of the dark impostors. I told myself it was for the best in the end, and continued to tell myself that until I believed it.

Perhaps this was all simply a misunderstanding on my part, I began to think. Perhaps my ethereal clone was part of the tree, and perhaps they'd shown me the vision and that nightmare as a warning of things to come, and meant for me and my friends to stop it somehow.

It made a great deal of sense to me, and I was almost ready to believe it. I wanted desperately to believe it, but then I remembered that empty, unblinking gaze that seemed to swallow me whole, the lack of warmth emanating from the Tree of Harmony even now, and more recently, the sheer malevolence of the forest I'd just traveled through.

The Everfree Forest had gained a reputation for the dangers held within, but I hadn't felt maliciousness like that since the spread of Discord's plunder vines, not in the forest anyway. This however, felt far different—far worse than anything I'd ever experienced before.

Never had I suffered a disturbing silence like that in my entire life, and I prayed to Celestia that I'd never go through such an ordeal again. Trotting through that forest, I felt that, had I taken one single step off the path I'd been traveling, I wouldn't have made it out of the forest at all, and even if I had somehow, I wouldn't have done so with my sanity intact.

These events were what made me doubt what I thought I knew, and they were why I hadn't moved any closer to the tree. As in my nightmare, I felt no comfort being as close as I was, and though the Tree held its familiar glow, it was cold, as cold as the rest of the cave itself.

After a minute or so more of watching and waiting, I chose to move closer, a teleportation spell just at the tip of my horn should a repeat of my nightmare occur in reality. When nothing happened, I grew a bit bolder and took a few more steps forward, circling around the tree, observing it from as many angles as I could.

Save for its strangely cold glow, the Tree of Harmony remained inert as I continued my inspection, and as several minutes passed without incident, my nerves settled and my curiosity began to take over.

I stepped away from the tree and pulled my journal and a quill from one of my saddlebags. Making sure I was a good distance away, I began to write down my findings, or bizarre lack thereof, on the Tree of Harmony.

I also chose to document my harrowing trip through the Everfree, giving much detail to the unnatural silence and stillness, along with the piercing, malignant gaze I felt throughout most of my journey. I wrote too of the uncanny cold of the cave and the tree itself, noting that the warmth and comfort I'd felt so many times before had been completely absent.

It was then that I remembered the strange sensation I'd felt when the tree attacked the clones. Just before it melted the impostors into grotesque, lumpy masses of flesh, I'd felt a sudden pulse of some kind of unfamiliar energy, the sensation of which was altogether unpleasant and had made the skin beneath my fur crawl with fear and disgust.

Just what had that been exactly, I mused, and did it come from the tree itself, or something else entirely? I couldn't say, and the Tree of Harmony was giving me no answers, much to my growing disappointment and frustration. Despite this, I did not give up, and was prepared to spend a good deal longer here in this cave if need be.

That wouldn't have been the case mere minutes ago, but the lack of any activity, my growing curiosity, and my own not insignificant reluctance to tread back through the forest, kept me rooted to the spot. Time passed as I continued my observation of the tree—minutes turning to hours with nothing to show for my perseverance.

I'd long since gone through the provisions I'd brought along, and my eyelids soon began to grow heavy with the threat of sleep. I cast the familiar spell to keep myself awake, only to find that it no longer held any effect.

Though I'd managed to get a full night's rest the night before, I was still in no shape to weather another sleepless night, not without the full effect of the spell keeping me alert and active. Not even my growing panic was enough to stave off the inevitable, and though I tried to fight it, my head slowly sunk down to rest atop the cold hard stone beneath me.

I felt something then, just before I completely lost consciousness, but in my sleepy haze, I couldn't be sure if it was real or not. Just as my head reached the ground, I felt something cold and soft lift it back up again by the chin.

I blinked hard, trying to push back against the oncoming slumber in order to see what had caught me. My gaze, blurred as it was by eyelids heavy with exhaustion, met a familiar glowing lavender shape, and the last clear image I saw before sleep claimed me, were those wide, staring eyes of deepest amethyst.

I dreamt of monstrous musicians...

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When I awoke next, it was suddenly, and with no small amount of terror and panic, my mind alive with scarcely remembered visions of an indescribably horrendous place full of cosmic chaos and madness far beyond that of what even Discord could accomplish.

It was not unlike the mystifying and terribly vast domain of the planet beast I'd stumbled upon once before. More so than even the domain of my previous nightmare, I felt I did not belong in this place. I felt as though I'd made some terrible trespass into the layer of ultimate cosmic evil, or the realm of some ancient malevolent god.

Images of massive, writhing things made of countless ropes of slimy flesh and bulbous eyes flashed across my mind. The blasphemous creatures danced about in an erratic and frenzied manner, frantically piping on strange instruments with an almost religious fervor.

Wrapped in long, spindly digits at the ends of their slimy, ropy limbs, the instruments were akin to flutes and horns. I knew not how they played them, for they had no mouths with which to blow out each sickening note, yet play they did all the same.

I would've hesitated to call the sounds they made music, and if it was indeed some type of song they played, it was unlike even that of the impossibly large, planet-like monstrosity I'd had the displeasure of beholding in my previous nightmare.

There, in that inexpressible, indefinable dominion with its writhing, towering eldritch horrors and music unfit for mortal ears, I had never felt so insignificant, so powerless as I did then. The experience was almost enough to break me, and I was sure it would have had my mind seized onto the entirety of said experience.

As it was however, I could not remember much beyond a few brief glimpses, and I was glad of it, for what little I did remember was enough to tug at my sanity. Despite the gaping holes in my memory, I could tell that this nightmare—and I say that with a healthy bit of uncertainty—was far more horrifying and visceral than the nightmare before it.

A startled cry had escaped my lips, but nothing more thankfully, and as I sat there, trying to catch my breath and quell the shaking in my limbs, I finally began to take notice of my surroundings. To my shock, I found myself sitting upright in my own bed, staring wide eyed around my bedroom in the Castle of Friendship.

Confusion took hold of me as I tried to think back to what had transpired the night before, and after a moment, I remembered, with startling clarity, the trip I'd made through the Everfree Forest. I remembered all too well, that unsettling journey and the purposeful foray into the Cave of Harmony.

I'd been observing the Tree of Harmony for any signs of strange activity, but my observations bore no fruit. Eventually, in my extreme exhaustion, I had fallen asleep right there on the cold hard ground, but that was not the end of it.

Something else had happened to me, that much I knew for certain, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what it had been. I did not remember leaving the cave, nor did I remember trekking back through the forest, yet here I was, safe and sound in my own home somehow.

Was it a case of somnambulism, or something else? Perhaps Spike or Starlight saw through my ruse and went looking for me? That they, or any of my other friends, had found me unconscious in the Cave of Harmony seemed as good an explanation as any, yet I couldn't shake the feeling it had been something altogether different that pulled me away from that place.

It had been an unnerving and surreal night, and I was not above believing I had somehow been spirited back to my home by some other, unknowable force. In any case, I had made it back, but what of the tree and its lack of activity, save for the eerily cold glow?

What of this new horrific nightmare I'd suffered? Why it came to pass and what it meant, I didn't know, but I was starting to believe this wouldn't be the end of it, not by far. As I continued my attempts to steady my shaky breaths and rapidly beating heart, I remembered the saddlebags I brought with me, and the journal therein.

I squinted against the early morning rays of the sun shining through my window as I looked around the room for my bags. Curiously, and somewhat disappointingly, I did not see them at a mere glance. My eyes then landed on the nightstand next to my bed, and I was surprised to see that my journal sat, unassuming atop it.

Rather than any kind of relief at not having left the thing behind, I felt instead, an odd sense of foreboding as I gazed upon the book. I had no idea how it had gotten there, or where my saddlebags were, but that was not the source of my unease. I had the strangest sense that somepony, or something had tampered with my journal somehow.

It was with some reluctance that I reached for the journal, and when I finally did, I'd done so without the use of telekinesis. I couldn't quite fathom why, but I didn't want to touch the thing with my magic, and so I grabbed it with a hoof and brought it towards me.

I stared at it for a moment or two, turning it around in my hooves and trying to find out just what it was about my own journal that disturbed me. Resigning myself to whatever happened next, I finally pulled the journal open and flipped through the pages one by one.

Upon reaching the end of my documentation I froze, my eyes wide with disbelief and my heart heavy with a dread that was becoming all too familiar. At the very bottom of the page was a passage I most definitely did not remember recording at any point during my stay in the cave.

Despite that, I recognized the writing as my own, though it was terribly shaky and erratic in its composition. The passage was fairly short, and was just legible enough to read clearly, though I couldn't make any sense of it. The words, if they could be called words at all, read as thus:

'Kadishtuor ph'nglui fhtagn n'ghftnah... Ehye ehye llll mgeplllln'gha h' ahf' ah n'gha ng n'ghft ephaimgah'n'ghft r'luh ehye... Yog ahmgr'luh yeeogng uaaahnythorr cahf ahnythor nilgh'riyar ahna r'luh ph'nglui h' n'ghftnah ng mgah'ehye mgleth mguln ot ah'legeth mgn'ghft... Uh'eor ah'n'ghft ahor mghlirgh mgr'luh...'

One could've dismissed this as gibberish—the scribblings of a madmare, or a foal who did not yet know how to write proper Ponish. I felt, however, that this was not the case, as the words, unfamiliar as they were, still seemed to have a structure of some sort.

It seemed to me as though this were written in some other language completely unfamiliar to me. It was not Old Ponish, nor was it similar to any other languages I'd come across in my years as a student of Celestia, or as a scholar in general.

How and why was it then, that I'd written these words down in my journal, and what did they mean? I couldn't even hazard a guess, but what I did know, was that I found the words abominable and repulsive.

Merely looking at the hideous scrawl gave me a strong urge to fling the journal clear across the room in disgust. I stayed both my hoof and my magic however, and forced myself to study the words carefully. I focused on those words in the desperate hope that I could blot out the memory of that wretched place and all that dwelled within it.

The more I read through the odd collection of letters, the more I was convinced that it was possibly some kind of archaic written language, perhaps the writings of some old, long forgotten civilization.

How I'd managed to write out something I'd never seen before baffled and worried me. I was however, every bit a scholar, and the prospect of a hitherto unknown, and possibly ancient race that had yet to be discovered, awakened the philomath in me.

The fear, disgust, and uneasiness were all quickly being stifled beneath my growing curiosity and a new sense of wonder and excitement. My excitement only grew as I realized this could be just the clue I'd been looking for, and as speculation after wild speculation ran through my mind, I closed my journal, set it aside, and flung myself out of bed, eager to begin my research.

On my way to my own personal library, I ran into Starlight and Spike, both of whom were happy to see that I was in such high spirits. Their reaction gave me pause, and when I'd asked them if they'd noticed anything strange that night, they replied that they'd seen nothing out of the ordinary.

Spike had come to check on me in the middle of the night, and found me, or rather my magical double, sleeping soundly. This of course, meant that neither had come to take me back to the castle, and nopony else had known that I'd even left.

What then, was it that had brought me back here?

The question had caused the more troubling memories of that trip, and the following nightmare to creep back into the forefront of my mind, and, in a panic, I quickly bid the two farewell and hurried off. A few moments later, I'd mercifully managed to once again push the thoughts back down into the deep recesses of my psyche where I hoped they'd stay for the foreseeable future.

An eager smile returned to my face and I continued on my way to the library, satisfied that I could finally make some progress. I was blinded by my scholarly zeal, and from the moment I set hoof in the Everfree Forest that night, I continued to make nothing but terrible, terrible mistakes.

I set out to find my answers...

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The following few days passed by in a haze of disappointment and frustration on my part. I'd left the mysteriously written passage in my journal, and had documented what little I remembered of my latest nightmare, along with a footnote regarding the strange scrawl I'd written at some point in the night spent in the Cave of Harmony.

Having done that, I turned to the various texts I held within my own library, seeking to solve the riddle of that odd language. After an hour or so of scouring the many bookshelves in my library however, I found, unfortunately, that I had very little on the subject of linguistics.

I did, at one time, possess a few texts regarding information on various cultures, but they were among the many tomes that did not survive the tragic destruction of my old home when Tirek had attacked.

Indeed, a great many of the books I'd either owned, or that were donated for use by the general public, had been reduced to mere ash in the wake of the magical explosion. The very thought of what had transpired that day was enough to rouse both my ire and sorrow anew.

Tragic though the razing of the Golden Oaks Library may have been however, it was in the past and done with. More troubling was the severe lack of literary resources in my castle. I'd meant to replace the books I'd lost, but it had been a painfully slow process, and I had not made nearly as much headway as I'd wanted to.

Thus, I had to look elsewhere for information for the time being. In normal circumstances, this setback would've been minor, and easily overlooked. Unfortunately, these were far from normal circumstances, and I still felt that my research required the utmost secrecy, lest those close to me get dragged into the dark mire that was the mystery of the Tree of Harmony and my visions and dreams.

Still, I was beginning to realize that I could not keep my investigation under wraps indefinitely, and would sooner or later require aid of some sort in my research. As it stood, I was beginning to feel that I had few options left to me.

The School of Friendship, of course, had its own decently sized library open to student and staff perusal. I knew however, that the facility within the school lacked the particular resources I was looking for.

I'd hoof-picked each and every textbook in the library, and while a large part of them included studies on the various cultures of Equus, none of them would give me any sort of clue as to the origin of the strange and unsettling script.

As a Princess and Celestia's former protégé, I had unfettered access to the Royal Archives deep within Canterlot Castle, as well as the more restricted sections of the Public Canterlot Library. I realized that this was indeed a boon for my research, but the inquiry that would no doubt come of such an endeavor caused me to hesitate.

Just as I was beginning to resign myself to a worrying visit to my hometown, Rainbow Dash arrived that very afternoon, unwittingly providing me with the solution to my problem. Apparently, despite my attempts at subtlety, my as of yet fruitless research into this cryptic language had not gone unnoticed.

Evidently, Rainbow Dash had come to check on me on behalf of the rest of the girls. It was something that was becoming all too common these days, but I didn't blame them of course, as I'd hardly been acting myself as of late.

While I certainly appreciated the sentiment, I had to admit to myself that the constant distractions and display of worry had begun to wear on my nerves somewhat. Still, the concern was genuine, and I smiled and greeted my cyan friend as I let her inside.

Spike had offered to make us lunch and roughly half an hour or so later, Spike, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, and myself had all sat around the dining room table, sharing an afternoon meal together. Rainbow insisted on eating outside on this particularly sunny afternoon, but I declined, stating I still had much work to do.

She'd been a bit put out, but relented, and we all spent a good while discussing the various goings-on around Ponyville, and I took the opportunity to find out what my other friends had been up to outside of school duties.

I'd hardly been out and about these past few days, and I had to admit, it was a nice change of pace hearing about events outside my current obsession. Eventually, and inevitably, the topic of conversation had moved onto myself and what I'd been up to, sequestered as I was in my castle library all this time.

Now, I'd thought much on how to go about approaching the topic of my studies, and after some figurative hoof-wringing, I'd decided on a course of action. I'd stated before that I was an avid scholar, and this was hardly a secret to anypony that knew me, or knew of me.

With this fact in mind, I simply stated, in as passing a tone as I could muster, that I'd found some evidence that could possibly lead to the discovery of an ancient and long forgotten race. I told the others that I wished to learn more, but that my research had hit a wall, and thus, the isolation.

It was, more or less, the truth of the matter, albeit vague in detail, but it did, at the least, seem to satisfy the others. As I spoke, I failed to fully contain the excitement and frustration I'd experienced upon my discovery and subsequent investigation, but oddly enough, that only seemed to work in my favor.

The others expressed their interest in my work, and it was then that Rainbow Dash made mention of Daring Do, and how she had made a similar discovery in the past. My mind latched onto that information, and as I thought about Daring Do and her exploits, an idea began to develop.

A.K. Yearling was an author renowned for her series of action-adventure novels starring the titular character of Daring Do and her many escapades. It was a series of books I'd introduced Rainbow Dash to sometime ago, and it was sometime later that the pegasus had found out that Miss Yearling and Daring Do were actually one and the same, the former merely being a pen name.

It wasn't a well known fact, and Daring Do herself kept to remote locations to hide her identity as an adventurer. I'd found out from Rainbow Dash about the situation, and had even had the pleasure of visiting Daring Do myself on a few rare occasions.

From what I'd been told, and what Daring had told me herself, the mare had graduated from Miskaponic University in Tackham with a PhD in sathiriology¹. It made sense, as Daring had traveled all over the world, uncovering all kinds of strange and exotic places and objects in her adventures.

She was an expert in her chosen fields, one of which I knew included linguistics, and the fact that she stayed out of the public eye was another boon I could take advantage of. As I continued to listen to the others chat over our hot meal, I mentally made rearrangements to my plan, and opted instead to pay the adventurous author a visit.

I'd have to expose the strange and horrifying events that plagued me, but in this case, I was not so anxious. If anypony would know the value of secrecy, I was certain it would've been Daring Do, thus, I made my decision to confide in the mare much of what I knew.

I did not, of course, tell Rainbow Dash of my intentions, as the mare would never let me leave without her, being the fan that she was. With my path set, and a plan in motion, I finished the afternoon luncheon with my friends and bid Rainbow Dash farewell. Unlike my hasty and admittedly ill conceived trip into the Everfree, I resolved to make better preparations for my trip this time around.

It took a good deal of time to prepare for my trip, as I had to travel far northwest across the Galloping Gorge. The journey to Daring's residence alone would take me at least two days by train, and another day by flight—longer if I stopped to rest along the way.

Though I had intended on requesting Daring Do's help in my endeavors, there was much more to the trip than the mere discussion of such an eerie script. I planned to track down the source of this puzzling script, and had hoped to gain Daring's aid in my search. With her expertise, I was confident I could make some headway into solving the mystery set before me.

With these hopes in mind, I sent a letter detailing a bit of what I'd wanted to discuss to a close contact of Daring's located in Vanhoover. I had gained knowledge of this contact through Daring Do herself after having expressed an interest in discussing her many archaeological findings within the Tenochtitlan Basin.

Unlike my excitable cyan friend, I'd grown far more interested in Daring's scholastic contributions to the various fields of sathiriology. It was a sentiment which the mare evidently appreciated enough to invite me back to her abode if I so wished, and if she wasn't terribly busy.

I'd accepted the offer graciously, but had neither the reason nor opportunity to actually take her up on the invitation until now. It took the better part of a week for Daring to respond, but in the end, she agreed to meet with me, both intrigued and somewhat troubled by my plight.

By my estimate, the trip could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on what we found, and so I ordered all my affairs accordingly. There was no feasible way to hide my lengthy excursion, so I did, in the end, gather everypony together and divulged my intentions to my friends, family, and the other Princesses.

Though I did not tell them the true reason behind my journey, I did inform them of a certain clue that could lead to a truly wondrous find, and let Rainbow tell them the rest. I kept the nature of the find a secret, or rather, a 'surprise' until I knew for certain what I was looking for, and begged everypony else's discretion as well.

I did get suspicious looks from some of the others, particularly Luna, Applejack, Starlight, and Spike, but, to my immense relief, they supported me all the same. Most of them however, were merely worried for my safety, and in Rainbow's case, green with envy. She insisted on accompanying me, as I knew she would, but I, along with the others, succeeded in talking the pegasus down.

Before I'd gotten the idea to visit Daring Do, I'd arranged to have some artifacts sent to the School of Friendship for a school wide event I'd dubbed, the 'Spellenger Hunt'. Celestia had been kind enough to oblige, and though I'd initially thought to postpone the event until my return, I instead chose to let Starlight handle it.

I'd already created several contingency plans in the event that the rest of the girls and I would have to leave the school for an extended period of time, and one of those plans had included instructions on how to run the school—instructions I now bequeathed to Starlight and Spike to follow in my absence.

Discord made an appearance just as I was set to leave, and though he'd tried to hide his desire behind his usual chaotic shenanigans, it was clear he wanted to be a part of the event as well as the running of the school.

While I would in no way allow the draconequus to head my school, I did, albeit with some reluctance and against the protest of many of my friends, allow him to participate in the Spellenger Hunt with the others, so long as he adhered to Starlight's authority and followed the rules I'd laid down.

Discord had, with his own reluctance, agreed, but I, along with the others, remained skeptical. Still, I hadn't included the Lord of Chaos in any of the activities involving the school as of yet, and agreed with Fluttershy that it was only fair he get to participate. Aside from that, I trusted the soft spoken pegasus to keep him in line.

And so, with everything in order, I packed away the supplies I'd need for the expedition. Two days and one heartfelt surprise farewell party later, I set off for the Ponyville Train Station to board the Friendship Express. Once I'd boarded the train and had taken an isolated seat near the back, I took the opportunity to pull out my journal and look over what I'd written so far.

Gazing upon the foreboding scrawl still sent a very real chill down my spine, and though a small part of me wanted nothing to do with the whole business, an even larger part of me was ecstatic at what I might find, and I couldn't help but look forward to my meeting with Daring Do.

I was all but certain our expedition would be something to remember, and eager as I was, I gave no thought to the possible horrors I might find waiting for us somewhere out there.

I met with a peculiar stallion...

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It was during my travel to Daring Do's abode deep within the remote forests beyond the Galloping Gorge, that I had my first encounter with a strange and altogether unsettling stallion. Looking back, I suppose this experience, I fear, may be where my descent into madness and the occult truly began.

I was still aboard the Friendship Express, the locomotive currently bound for the station just past the mountains east of Vanhoover. In retrospect, I would've done well to simply take the train west to Vanhoover and make my way northeast into the forest, but my nagging and almost feverish need for subtlety bade me travel the more scenic route to the east instead.

Of other ponies traveling aboard the Friendship Express, there were very little. I'd seen perhaps two or three other passengers upon wandering the cars, and those I came across were content to mind their own business.

Aside from the odd friendly greeting, I left them to their devices and spent most of the trip reading through one of the novels I'd brought with me for the long trip. I silently remarked to myself how strange it was to see the Friendship Express so devoid of passengers, but in the end, I merely reasoned that there weren't a lot of ponies that traveled out this way by train.

Satisfied with that answer, I focused my attention on the book before me, and did not stir for several hours. It would not be the first time that I had become so engrossed in a single work of literature—far from it, but even entranced as I was, I could feel the niggling ever-present thoughts behind my actions.

Certainly I enjoyed the novel I'd been reading to be sure, but my desire to drown myself in those pages stemmed from more than a leisurely way to pass the time. As the train moved further from civilization and out of the pegasi controlled weather zones, the clouds began to thicken and darken, releasing a steady, and dreary downpour.

The rain, though not heavy, lasted for most of the day, and well into the night. While the patter of raindrops against the window normally put me at ease and in a state of contentment, for a reason I could not fathom, it now put me on edge, and my thoughts grew as dark as the clouds outside my window.

It may have been the combination of the slow, dull roar of distant thunder and the relative silence of the cabin I alone resided in, but I found myself assaulted by the memories of what I'd gone through thus far. Though important and no doubt meaningful, these memories, dreams, and visions were nevertheless unpleasant.

I did not wish to think upon them if I had no reason to do so, and so I opted to drown out the morbid thoughts by immersing myself in wholesome works of literature far removed from the macabre content that dwelled within my memory.

It worked for a time, and I managed to while away the dull grey afternoon and dark stormy evening without incident. It was when the first night on the train had completely fallen that things changed, and decidedly not for the better.

Just when I'd finished the last few pages of the book I'd been so desperately focused on, I heard a soft knock at the cabin door. Gentle though it may have been, the suddenness of the sound was still enough to give me quite a start. I eyed the door warily, wondering just who out of the very few ponies aboard would bother to see me at this time, and to knock so politely.

Despite my several hours of reading, I still remained somewhat on edge, but despite this, and my better judgement, I bade the guest enter. Once the cabin door slid open and that guest had crossed the threshold of the doorway however, I felt a sudden and intense regret.

A stallion trotted into the cabin with a sort of casual, easy gait that matched the friendly smile upon his face. He was a rather tall earth pony, and his coat was of a simple, unassuming tan color.

His deep black mane was short cropped and immaculately maintained, and he hid his eyes behind dark, circular sunglasses. He wore pants and a large, old fashioned tailcoat, the end of which reached down past his tail and almost slid against the floor of the train.

His queer clothing, like his short cropped mane, was of the deepest black in coloration, and as I watched him approach closer to my seat, I had to suppress a shiver. Though I'd never met him before, I could tell there was something oddly familiar, and inherently vile about this stallion.

What's more, I had not seen this stallion board the train, nor did I see him as I made my way through each of the cars. The train hadn't stopped since its departure from the Ponyville train station, so he couldn't have come aboard at any point afterwards.

It was wholly possible that we simply missed each other as I made my way to my cabin, but somehow I highly doubted that was the case. Whatever the case, the sight of this stallion did nothing to ease my worry, despite his affable expression and pleasant tone as he spoke.

HIs tone, as he greeted me and apologized for the intrusion, was deep, but not terribly so. He seemed polite, almost to a fault and when he requested to take the seat across from my own, I found myself unable to say no. He thanked me graciously and took up the seat opposite mine.

For a long moment, perhaps longer than necessary, I simply stared at the stallion. He was by no means an unattractive sort—far from it in fact, but rather than attract me to him, his chiseled features repelled me for reasons that seemed to dance just out of my reach.

If he noticed or took issue with my gawping, he did not show it, rather, he had turned his gaze, hidden as it was behind those dark shades, towards the window, vocally lamenting the terrible weather. I managed to collect my wits soon enough and after a hasty and awkward apology on my part, I forced a smile upon my face and introduced myself to the stallion.

He responded in kind, introducing himself as Doctor Sound Mind. He claimed to be a psychologist from Vanhoover, and was on his way back home. I found that difficult to believe, not only because I did not trust this Sound Mind, but also because the train was not bound for Vanhoover.

When I told him this much, he merely gave a hearty chuckle and waved the matter away, stating that it was an honest mistake on his part. I remained unconvinced, but chose to move the topic of discussion elsewhere. When I remarked upon his strange attire, he informed me that he had a fondness for the fashion of Equestria's early modern era, with Trottingham in particular being an inspiration.

Our small talk went on in this manner for several more minutes, and I found the stallion's presence had become easier to bear the longer we talked. To my surprise, and delight, he knew, and had seen much of Equestria over many years, and had many interesting stories to tell.

For my part, I told him of the many adventures my friends and I had been on, and was shocked to learn that he'd already known of our exploits. I suppose it wasn't all that surprising considering what the rest of the girls and I had accomplished together, and the fact that I was indeed the Princess of Friendship, but the depth of his knowledge still caught me a bit off guard nonetheless.

It was at this point that the conversation took an unexpected, and unsettling turn. As I finished telling Sound Mind of my school and the trials I'd had to go through to get it officially registered, he suddenly fell silent and merely watched me for a time.

It had gone on long enough that I once again grew nervous and wary, that same sense that something was off once more crawling its way into my mind. My unease was only doubled by the fact that I could not discern his expression behind those dark sunglasses.

Deciding I'd had enough of this eerie silence, I made to speak, but Sound Mind had been the faster of us and spoke first. He began to make strange inquiries, asking me if I'd been getting enough sleep or if I'd been hallucinating or seeing strange waking visions.

Needless to say, I was taken aback, as I hadn't once mentioned anything of the sort, and gave no indication that any of this had been the case whatsoever. Even more unnerving was the abrupt change in his tone and demeanor as he needled me with questions.

He'd gone from polite and jovial to grim and focused, almost demanding answers of me as the questions went on, and I answered. I couldn't stop myself, and I answered every one of his questions with unrestrained honesty. I told him of my dreams, my nightmares, my visions, my research into these and the Tree of Harmony, my trip into the Everfree and even where I was headed next.

I told him everything, the words coming out of my mouth in an unstoppable torrent. My heart hammered in my chest and a primal fear overtook me as some malign force continued to pull the words from within and out into the open. The terror continued to mount as the stallion's voice grew deeper, and I could almost hear something beneath the dark tone.

In my panicked state I couldn't be sure, but it almost sounded as though I could hear a faint buzz accompanying his words. I couldn't focus on it for long, as my head began to pound painfully, and my vision began to blur somewhat.

Just when I thought I could take no more, the stallion ceased his unrelenting wave of questions, the faint buzz disappearing and his tone once more that of pleasant conversation. My terror yet remained however, and his words did not end there, for he had more to tell.

He spoke to me of a coming darkness the likes of which not even the far older Princess's had ever seen. He told me that, whether I wanted to or not, I would be the one to unleash that darkness, but he also told me not to fear, for the darkness would bring the truth to light, and that all would be made clear in due time.

I listened, horrified by what I was hearing but unable to speak on the matter. Complete and utter terror and bewilderment had rendered me silent, and I could only listen to Sound Mind's grim and portentous words.

He continued to speak even as he stood up and began making his way back to the cabin's entrance. He implored me to keep my journal close at hoof, for it would lead me to the answers I so desperately sought.

With those last words and a friendly smile upon his face, the stallion that called himself Sound Mind bid me good night and told me with an absolute confidence bordering on arrogance, that we would meet again. He gave one last nod of acknowledgment before sliding the cabin door open and stepping outside.

The door slid closed and I was once more alone with nothing but the sound of rain pelting the windows next to me, and the soft, muffled clatter of the train's wheels as they sped across the tracks outside.

I sat there in my seat, my book fallen to the floor and forgotten, and my entire frame shaking violently. I could feel the cold sweat beading across my forehead, and took several deep gulps of air as I attempted to calm myself.

Whoever that stallion was, it was clear that there was much more to him than he let on. I got the impression that he had already known much, if not all, of what I'd been forced to tell him, and I wondered at his true intent. Why the façade of kindness, and why go through such an interrogation?

Why did he seem so familiar?

He'd said we would meet again, and, with a terrible sort of certaintly, I knew he was right. I knew we would see each other again, and I feared and dreaded what may come of that next meeting.

As I thought on his words—in particular, his mention of the 'coming darkness'—the image of that swirling dark pillar rising from beneath the mountain pulled itself from my memory and I shuddered again. If Sound Mind was to be believed, that may very well have been the darkness he was talking about, and evidently I was to bring that to bear.

I didn't want to believe it, and for the most part I didn't believe it, but still, there was some doubt and uncertainty that could not be denied. He'd also said that some great truth would come to light in the wake of the oncoming darkness, but the meaning of those words eluded me.

I suppose he may have meant that a truth would be revealed about the Tree of Harmony, but I couldn't be sure, and in my present state, I was unable to properly grasp any kind of understanding of the situation.

The experience had left me in a horrible way, and for a while I could scarcely collect my own thoughts. Eventually, and thankfully, I managed to reclaim my faculties, but by that point, I felt drained, weak, and tired.

With all that had happened only moments ago, I did not want to sleep and didn't believe that it would come so readily, yet the soothing patter of rain against the window began to lull me, and my eyelids soon grew heavy.

Before I knew it, I was, reluctantly, but inevitably, whisked away into subconsciousness.

I gazed into the blackest abyss...

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That night I dreamt not of unfathomable eldritch horrors, but of various places, both familiar and not at all. In the bowels of my subconsciousness I wandered across an infinitely dry and expansive desert. I lost my way in a complex and convoluted network of crystalline caverns.

I wound my way through what appeared to be a massive subterranean city made of stone—its many massive structures in various states of ruin and decay. I dreamt too of hiking up those tall mountains and peering down over the edge of a mighty cliff at the endless sea of trees far below. I saw once more, the strange monument deep within that thick forest, positive that I knew it from somewhere, but unable to recall where.

As I made my way towards the center of that strange and ominous monument, I felt the stone platform beneath my hooves give way, plunging me into a darkness so profound that I feared I'd soon forget what it was like to bask in even the dimmest of light. I could not tell how long I was left to flounder about in that endless sea of black and silence, but I felt it was too long by far.

Then came the chill.

A freezing cold sensation wracked my body, its bite intense enough to pierce the bone and turn the marrow to ice. I felt myself shake and shudder uncontrollably, certain that I would die from the shock, but I did not, and that was not the end of it.

A sudden and horrendous itching in my eyes tore my focus away from the cold, and though my desire to rub and scratch at my face was almost manic, I didn't seem to have the means to do so. All too soon, the horrible itch had intensified to the point that I would've gladly torn my eyes from their sockets to rid myself of the sensation.

As if the experience weren't nightmarish enough, I began to hear something in the distance. It was faint at first, but seemed to grow in volume by the second, and when I finally heard it clear over my extreme discomfort, my mind grew hazy with a fear not unlike that of the prey soon to be devoured by the predator.

The sound, as I heard it, was loud, repetitive, and natural. The closest I could compare it to was the slow, steadily flapping wings of some great avian creature. With each slow and heavy beat of its no doubt massive wings, the creature in the dark, whatever it may have been, drew closer and closer, and I could do nothing but silently suffer as the biting cold and terrible itch overwhelmed me.

Then just as I was sure the unseen beast was upon me, a shrill, echoing whistle jolted me awake. I gave a surprised and terrified shriek, startling the conductor who'd apparently come to rouse me from my slumber.

It took me several moments to regain my bearings, as my vision was extremely limited and I could barely see anything at all. For a second I feared I had gone blind, but gradually, my sight began to return, though my eyes were somewhat sore and I could still feel phantom sensations of the unbearable itch from my most recent nightmare.

When I finally calmed down enough to think clearly, the conductor inquired about my health. I told the concerned earth pony stallion I was fine, and that it had only been a nightmare, but he remained unconvinced. When I asked him why, he had informed me that he'd originally come to tell me that the train was nearing my destination.

As he was making his way back towards the coach I was in, he heard an agonized scream from up ahead. The stallion hurried the rest of the way to where I was, and when he pulled open the door, he found me thrashing about wildly, my own hooves scraping viciously against my face.

From what the conductor described, I was completely oblivious to the outside world, and would not wake for anything, save the deafening whistle of the train as it prepared to pull into the stop. I listened to the stallion's account with a mounting unease, but managed to maintain an outwardly calm and collected expression.

I spent the next few moments trying to convince the conductor that I was fine, and he moved on eventually, most likely because he had to keep the train on schedule rather than because he thought I was truly well. I thanked him as he escorted me off the train, but just as I was about to depart, he called out to me one last time.

When I turned to inquire as to what he wanted, he simply stared at me with the strangest look. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to decide against it and shook his head before apologizing and returning to the train. A few moments later, the train pulled out of the stop with another shrill whistle and continued on its way.

I watched it go for a few seconds before adjusting my saddlebags and heading into the train stop. The rain had passed by the time I'd arrived, and it looked as though Celestia had only just raised the sun. It was only then that I realized the journey by train was supposed to take at least two days, and I'd only been conscious for one of them.

Much to my shock, I'd completely slept through the second half of my trip. I remembered my latest dream well, and as I stood there in a stunned stupor, I wondered just how long I was made to wander those landscapes, and why. What was I doing? What was I searching for?

Whether it was one continuous journey to the mysterious and familiar mountains, or whether or not I was randomly jumping from location to location, I did not know, but I did know what my ultimate destination had been.

That frustratingly familiar and terribly ominous monument.

That was where everything had fallen apart, and that was when and how I came to know true darkness. The horror, the silence, the indescribable chill, and that maddening itch. I wondered if that was what death felt like, and if the monstrous beating of wings I'd heard was some kind of demon come to drag me off to wherever the dead were meant to go.

But no, that was not the case, and I stood here, alive and basking in the warmth of the early morning sun. I could tell however that this had been more than a dream. I could still feel that itch, distantly, but as surely as I could feel the wooden platform beneath my hooves.

My eyes were still slightly sore, and I found that the soreness grew marginally worse in the sunlight. Deciding not to aggravate the situation any more, I quickly made my way into the stop to purchase a map of the surrounding area. There were no other ponies at the stop aside from me and the older pegasus mare that worked the counter, something I found oddly comforting.

When I went to purchase my map however, I saw that the mare behind the counter was giving me the same odd look the conductor gave me before he returned to the train. When I asked her if there was something wrong, she leaned in close, squinting as though she were looking for something in my facial features.

An awkward moment of silence passed by and the mare leaned back once more, mumbling something about her old eyes playing tricks on her. Somewhat perturbed, I asked again if something was wrong, but she waved away my concerns, retrieved a map for me, and sent me on my way.

The mare up until that point had been fairly friendly, so her sudden desire to see me gone, was a bit odd. I was left rather put out, but more than that, her behavior only confirmed that something was wrong with me. I'd felt it in the itching and soreness in my eyes that had yet to abate.

These were not mere phantom sensations, and I was now certain that whatever afflicted me was visible for all to see. Those that did see, didn't seem to like what was displayed, and though I severely wished not to, I resolved to find out just what it was about me that had unsettled the conductor and the old mare at the train stop.

As I stood at the stop, I pulled a book out of my saddlebags and focused my attention on its maroon cover. I'd failed to bring any sort of mirror or really anything with a reflective surface with me, but I didn't need anything of the sort.

Being an avid student of thaumatology, I'd studied all manner of spells both fantastical and mundane, both practical and cosmetic. In this particular instance I opted to pull from my not inconsiderable font of magical knowledge, a spell meant to cast a reflective surface upon any object so long as it was flat and tangible.

The spell was cast upon the cover of the book and I was finally able to see what it was about my own visage that caused such unease. At first I could see nothing out of the ordinary, but upon closer inspection I could tell something was off. leaning in close, I focused my gaze on my own eyes, and that was when I saw it.

My normally amethyst irides had dulled to a slightly darker shade, and the pupils had noticeably contracted, though that may have simply been due to shock. What could not be explained away so easily was the slight deformity one could see if one looked close enough.

My pupils were no longer perfectly round as they ought to have been. Rather, it looked as though somepony with a particularly unsteady hoof had tried and failed to draw a completely flawless circle, the result of which would've described my eyes well enough.

It was hard to see at a glance, but anypony who held eye contact for a certain period of time would eventually notice something was amiss. Horrified by this new discovery, my spell faltered and failed, and I nearly dropped the book altogether.

I caught it in my magic however, and returned it to one of my bags before turning to stare out at the vast forest between the Galloping Gorge and Vanhoover. I was in a daze, disturbed and confused at what had happened to me, to my eyes.

My prior dreams and nightmares had been as terrifying as they were mystifying to be sure. To date, I still hadn't found out just how I'd managed to emerge unscathed from the Everfree during my previous nightmare, nor did I know how or why I'd written that cryptic entry in my journal.

As baffling and unnerving as all that had been however, none of what happened to me then had been the cause of such a physical and unnatural change as this. As I thought about what this could mean, how it related to my most recent dream, how I could possibly fix it, and what my friends would say if I couldn't by the time I returned, my panic began to rise anew.

Thankfully I was alone for the time being, and had time to think of some sort of solution to my dilemma. I could always cast a glamour over my own eyes to make it seem as if all was normal, but, while minimal, the drain of my magical reserves would be continuous, and should I lose focus for even a moment, the spell would break entirely.

As I pondered my options, my thoughts eventually turned to Daring Do, and her vast knowledge of the arcane and occult, a knowledge that admittedly far surpassed my own. If anypony knew of a solution, or at the very least what this could all mean, it would be Daring Do.

I'd already shared with her some of the details of the strange and horrifying events that had befallen me, and this was simply another issue that needed looking into. It was also during my rumination that I remembered the encounter I'd had with the stallion dressed in black.

That too was something I'd need to discuss with Daring, as I was certain that Sound Mind was no normal stallion. With all of this in mind, and the hope that the adventurous pegasus would be able to help me unravel this morbid mystery, I spread my wings and took to the sky, heading westward over the forest.

I still had a day's travel ahead of me, and it was my earnest wish that it be an uneventful affair. With all I'd had to endure by now, I would've been a fool to expect as much, but still I held fast to the hope that all would end well.

Despite the dreams, despite what I'd seen, despite my harrowing encounter with the strange stallion on the train, and even despite this new and distressing development, I still held fast to that hope, because I was beginning to fear what would become of me and my sanity if I didn't.

Was it a blessing... or a curse?

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My initial flight over the unnamed western forest was as uneventful as I hoped it would be, and for a time, I was able to enjoy the cool breeze that buffeted me as I soared low over the sea of trees below me. It was a different sort of chill from what I'd experienced in my dream. It was a tranquil, yet bracing sort of chill that I couldn't get enough of.

The only thing keeping me from complete contentedness, was the blasted soreness and irritating itch in my eyes. No matter how much time passed, the irksome sensations never seemed to fade—that is, until the hour began to grow late.

I'd occasionally stopped to rest whenever I saw a clearing below, the length of my journey requiring it, and I'd found that the sensations were much less bothersome beneath the shade of the trees where there was ample shadow to hide from the light of the sun.

From what I could tell, my retinas had somehow become oddly sensitive to light, and this worried me a great deal. It was not a severe aversion thankfully—far from it, but it was enough to cause some noticeable discomfort. More than once I ruminated on just how this was possible, and what had caused such a change.

It was clear that the dream had much to do with it, though by what kind of magic I wasn't sure. I wasn't even fully convinced that it was magic that had done this to me, and given what I'd been through, it may very well have been due to something beyond my capacity to understand.

Still, beneath all the discomfort, confusion, and unease, my insatiable curiosity and studious fascination were roused. The idea that I might've been gradually changing into some creature of the night like the vampony legends of old crossed my mind, but I laughed the notion away.

This change, however it may have originated and whatever it may have been, was not the result of some mythical monster from a foalish Nightmare Night story, I was all but certain of it. Whatever did this to me, was no doubt connected to everything else that had happened over the course of several months.

As I thought about my dream—as I thought about that terrible black abyss, I too thought about the words of the eerie stallion in black. He had mentioned much about a coming darkness and my involvement in bringing it about. I had to assume that this new development was somehow related, but how?

Why did it happen? How did it happen? What was that beast in the dark and what had it intended to do? Questions heaped upon questions and yet I had no answers for any of what I was experiencing. Until I met with Daring Do, I could only document these frightening experiences within my journal, and document I did.

Day eventually gave way to night, and it was as Luna had raised the moon that my worries began to give way to intellectual intrigue. Night had fallen, and with it, the soreness and itching had all but vanished. I could still feel it vaguely, but it was a mere whisper compared to what it had been before during the day.

As if that hadn't been enough, I could see fairly well in the unlit darkness, moreso than I normally would've been able to during a particularly bright full moon. My urge to study this phenomena had increased significantly, yet I was also self aware enough to realize just how odd the change in my demeanor was.

I eventually found yet another clearing and touched down to make camp for the night. I put up my safety wards and set up the tent I'd magically shrunken and stored away, then set out to grab some wood for a fire. As I began my trek through the darkened forest, I went about casting some magelight from my horn, only to gasp and clench my eyes shut from the bright magenta flare.

I quickly put out the light and blinked away the spots in my eyes. To my amazement, I found I didn't need the light to see my surroundings. It was still dark and there were still shadows through which I couldn't see, but I found I could get along well enough without any visible light source save for the pale light of the moon.

Standing here in this dark wood, I was forced to confront the fear I'd held since the discovery of my affliction. Something unnatural had occurred during my dream, and as a result, I'd been changed, there was no denying it now.

While I could still see just fine for the most part during the day, my vision now leaned more nocturnal than diurnal. What's more, I felt oddly at ease in my current surroundings, perfectly content to wander about this dark wood on my own.

It was nothing like my journey through the Everfree, and for once, beyond the fear and uncertainty, I felt a relief that I hadn't felt in months. Still, something was terribly wrong and despite my fascination, I grew wary of this unexpected development.

I thought on what this could mean, and I found the words of Sound Mind returning to me once again. That I had experience such horror after that unsettling encounter with the stallion in black could be no mere coincidence, that at least, I was sure of.

Unable to do anything about my current predicament, I decided to leave it alone for the moment and continue my errand. I wandered the woods, gathering what I needed for the campfire, and wondering whether or not it would even be necessary, given my apparently enhanced nighttime vision.

Then, as if to remind me of the other practical use for an open flame, a cold wind blew past and cause to me shiver slightly in its wake. I pressed onward and, within the next half hour or so, I returned to my campsite with an ample amount of firewood.

Once I'd set the campfire ablaze, and made myself comfortable next to it, I spent the next few hours simply gazing up into the night sky and, perhaps unwisely, ruminating on everything I'd experienced up to this point. I perused my journal, carefully trying to pick apart what I'd written so far in order to make some sort of sense of it all, only to fail utterly and miserably.

Though I'd had many adventures in the past, nothing like this had ever happened before, and I was woefully unprepared for such things—such mysterious and morbid things as the recent events that had befallen me.

The world around me was quiet, save for the soft crackle of the open flame before me. As with the darkness, the silence was not at all like that of the Everfree. The lack of noise was, in fact, rather comfortable and, feeling at ease, I allowed myself to drop my guard for the moment.

Taking advantage of that comfortable silence, I became somewhat introspective for a time. I thought upon the unease, uncertainty and outright horror I felt regarding my predicament, and how it was at great odds with my insatiably curious and polymathic nature.

I was fully aware of the possible danger and utter stupidity of what I was trying to accomplish. I was aware that I should've simply let things be as they were, for if the dreams and visions were anything to go by—and they were at that—things would become a lot more grim.

What awaited me down the path I had chosen for myself, I knew not, but still I pressed onward, pulled forth by a desperate need to know, and the promise of truth, grave or not. I also needed to know what had set these events into motion and why.

What were these strange and monstrous entities that haunted my dreams? What in Celestia's name did I see upon being cast into those horrid, star strewn domains? Was it vivid, nightmarish fantasy, or a sign that there was more to our universe than I could have ever possibly imagined?

How was the Tree of Harmony involved? Who or rather what was that doppelgänger really? Many were the days I could've spent pondering such questions, yet for all my internal queries, I remained frustratingly devoid of any answers. That would soon change once I reached my destination, but, being the kind of pony that I was, it galled me that I was unable to resolve the riddles on my own.

I had learned much of friendship since my days as the Princess's protégé, and with that, I'd learned to rely on others when the need arose. It was only now that I had time to reflect, that I realized I had well and truly begun to relapse back into the mind of the pony I had once been during my life in Canterlot.

I told myself time and again that I was foisting this burden upon myself to spare my friends and family from the horrors I now faced, and it was true enough at first. I felt however, that these reasons were becoming a bit less altruistic and a bit more selfish and personal in nature.

Though it perturbed me greatly, I ultimately decided not to change my current mindset, as it was the only thing keeping me moving forward at this point. I desperately clung to my inquisitive tendencies, for I feared I would either go mad or flee and abandon my search altogether without them, and that was something I could not and would not abide, not now.

The only thing I could do now was steel my resolve and pray that Daring and I would discover the truth behind these inexplicable and unsettling events. Though I succeeded in finding the strength to press forward, my lingering worry kept me awake for much of the night—a lingering worry that not even the quiet serenity of my camp could quell completely.

After some idle reading by the warm light of the fire, I did eventually manage to gain a few hours of dreamless sleep, for which I was thankful. Morning came far too quickly for my liking, and to my dismay, the itch and soreness from the day before had not waned in the slightest, though it hadn't gotten any worse.

Another casting of my mirror spell revealed no change in the slight deformity that had developed in my tired eyes, and with that, I was forced to accept that this may not have been some temporary affliction. I had maintained a small hope that the oddity would fix itself given some time, but no more.

I decided to move forward with the assumption that the change was permanent until proven otherwise, and so resolved all the more to find a cure, no matter how convenient or interesting I found it. This was not meant to be, and if I let things continue on as they were, further changes might await me, and they might not be so benign as this.

After a quick breakfast prepared in advance, I stowed my camping supplies away and set off once more into the morning sky. I was more eager than ever to reach my destination and consult with Daring Do, and when I finally spied the small and somewhat ramshackle cottage in the clearing some few hours later, I wasted no time in alighting upon the mare's doorstep.

It called to me, that vile grimoire...

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After a few moments of polite, but insistent knocking, I heard the familiar voice of Daring Do from within the cottage assuring me that she was in and prepared to meet me. She pulled open the front door and it was with great relief that I looked upon her smiling visage in the doorway.

I noted, with some slight amusement, that the mare had forgone her customary tactical safari wear and pith helmet. She instead chose to greet me in the guise of A.K. Yearling, complete with red horn rimmed glasses, purple shawl, and cloche hat. Her smile fell slightly as she took in my appearance, particularly where my eyes were concerned, but it didn't bother me overmuch as I had been expecting such a reaction.

It was just as well she see me in this state, for it would only further prove the dark and terrible nature of my plight. Though she looked troubled, Daring did not let her gaze linger for longer than a moment and with a quick greeting, she allowed me entry into her abode.

The interior of her home was far removed from what I'd seen the last time I visited. In the past, there had been a sort of organized chaos of haphazardly placed artifacts of all kinds, shelves of books old and new pushed against the walls with no regard for propriety, and near the back was a desk overflowing with various maps, worn writing utensils, old scrolls, and half read tomes.

It seemed now however, that Daring Do had decided to reorganize the entire cottage—though whether it was in light of my visit, or because she'd simply wanted a change of pace, I couldn't say for certain. The hardwood floor was uncluttered, both the desk and many of the artifacts had been moved to a cellar below the cottage, and the bookshelves had been lined up in a neat row along one wall.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a fireplace I hadn't seen before. In the dim light of the main room, a small fire blazed above the hearth, its soft light illuminating a low coffee table that sat between two plush armchairs. The drastic change had given the cottage a far more pleasing, and somewhat cozy aesthetic.

As I admired my surroundings, Daring Do took the opportunity to put on some tea. I eventually set my saddlebags aside and settled into one of the cozy armchairs by the fireplace as I waited for Daring to finish in the kitchen. In the meantime we made an attempt at small talk, with some success.

It turned out the mare had recently traveled all the way out to a remote region somewhere in Abyssinia to investigate a mysterious illness that had suddenly struck a small village. She was no doctor, but had received word that the illness was born of an ancient curse come to life.

The tale was as fascinating as it was horrifying, and I found myself enthralled. All too soon however, the tea had finished brewing and Daring Do set the tray holding both the pot and two teacups down on the table before taking a seat in the other armchair—her grim countenance reminding me of the grim reality of my own situation.

A tense sort of silence fell over the room as we each partook of a steaming cup of cinnamon tea. I tried to enjoy it as best I could, and it was certainly a delicious blend to be sure, but my enjoyment was marred by the thought of what Daring Do and I would soon be discussing.

The first and foremost question Daring Do had posed however, was the nature of my affliction. I of course, should've expected as much, and was all too willing to oblige her an answer. I told her of my meeting with the mysterious stallion aboard the train, and the following dream that left me unconscious for a full day.

I told her of how I was fully convinced that it was that dream that had somehow affected me in such a way. As I spoke to Daring of the effects of the affliction, I pulled my journal from my saddlebags and passed it on to her, urging her to peruse what I'd documented so far.

For some reason I'd expected more reluctance from the mare and was surprised to see that there was none. She took the journal and, without hesitation, flipped through its pages, scanning the words with an ever deepening frown.

She was still reading when I finished my recollection of the events aboard the train, and did not respond right away. I poured myself some more tea to steady my nerves as I waited—the remembrance of Sound Mind's sickening presence causing a slight tremble in my hooves.

Her expression grew graver still as she quietly closed the journal and set it on the table between us. She returned her attention to me, and I found myself feeling a touch uncomfortable under her intense scrutiny. She looked troubled naturally, but there was something else in her eyes that I couldn't quite place, and it made me nervous.

Upon asking what her thoughts were on the matter, Daring leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes and took what I presumed to be a calming breath. Once she'd gathered her thoughts, she opened her eyes once more and spoke, her tone clear and measured.

"If I were any other pony, I'd find your tale quite hard to believe, Miss Sparkle. Indeed, if I were of a more zealous mindset when it comes to the forces that protect us from disharmony, I'd even go so far as to say that your writings on the Tree of Harmony in particular were utter blasphemy. I'm not exaggerating when I say that a lot of what I've read sounds like the ravings of a complete madmare... but luckily for you, Miss Sparkle, I know better.

"I've seen many strange and horrifying things over the years—things you could not possibly imagine. I've seen both the best and the worst this world has to offer, and believe me when I say that Equestria is practically a paradise—a utopia, compared to some of the locations I've been. What I mean to say, is that I have learned not to take everything I hear at face value, because in my experience, many things are not often as they seem."

Daring paused a minute, her gaze sliding from me to the journal she'd placed on the table, then from the journal to the fireplace. Her eyes lingered on the crackling flames above the hearth, and her expression was quite hard to read. I thought to say something on the matter, perhaps to give my own two bits regarding what I'd seen, but before I could decide for certain, the mare spoke again.

"These visions of yours—these dreams, these nightmares... I can't say for certain as to why you've started having them or what they portend, and honestly, I don't know quite what to make of your current condition. I could make any number of guesses, but I'm afraid none of them would bode well for the world if they turned out to be correct. Before I attempt any kind of explanation however, there is a particular object I've stumbled upon during my many travels that I feel I should show you."

At that, Daring Do rose from her seat and motioned for me to follow her outside the cottage. Curious—and somewhat shaken by her words—I followed swiftly behind as she led me out the front door and around to the back. Behind the cottage was what seemed to be the entrance to the cellar I'd been told of earlier.

A thick metal door covered the entrance, barring any entry into the depths of the cellar itself. I noticed with some bemusement that there was no handle of any sort, and the door was little more than a large square slab of black metal. My inquiry about the design was met with a sly smirk from Daring Do, who answered not with words, but action.

She moved to stand before the entrance and placed a hoof on the center of the metal slab. To my astonishment, lines of white light began to snake their way out from beneath Daring's hoof and form themselves into a complex magic sigil that expanded to engulf nearly the entire surface.

Daring removed her hoof a moment later, and the sigil slowly faded away, leaving the surface blank once again. Before I could question the mare about what I'd seen, there was a muffled click, and the slab split down the middle. Both sides swung up and outward to reveal a set of stairs leading down into darkness.

Daring Do wasted no time in heading down into the cellar, and after a brief moment, I followed after. As we descended, Daring explained that she'd made drastic changes and improvements to her home after it had last been ransacked by Caballeron and his gang.

She'd called in several favors and had the cellar built beneath her cottage in order to house the objects and artifacts she deemed too dangerous or valuable to keep out in the open. Upon the cellar's completion, she'd gotten a unicorn friend of hers well-versed in the study of sigil magic to seal the entrance so that it would only open by her touch.

As an avid student of various magic of all kinds, I could tell at a mere glance that the sigil crafted into the metal was a masterwork, and assured Daring Do that she had very little to worry about with such a seal as this.

I could see a faint light as we neared the bottom of the staircase, the source of which was revealed to me a moment later as we reached the lower level. What I initially thought were candles or maybe lamps Daring had brought from above, were actually luminescent crystals placed into the walls at regular intervals, bathing the entire room—which itself was much larger than I expected—in a soft amber glow.

All around me I could see many strange and wondrous odds and ends of all sizes placed neatly on various shelves, or atop pedestals, in glass cases and chests both of metal and wooden make. There were even a few bookshelves placed at one end of the spacious cellar.

After gaining Daring Do's consent, I gravitated towards the various bookshelves before me, and upon these shelves were tomes the likes of which I'd never seen before. There were several books with spines both thick and thin, and pages both few and plenty. At a glance, I could see that many of these tomes were written in languages I couldn't comprehend, and some even had a sinister air about them.

These books both fascinated and repulsed me, and had I been given the chance I may have pulled a few of them open to study their contents despite the foreboding I felt from many of them. I knew full well that it may have been a terrible idea, but books, no matter their content, were a great weakness of mine.

It was as I was perusing the rows of strange and foreign literature, that I began to feel an odd sensation tugging at me. I wasn't quite sure what I felt, but whatever I had sensed made my horn tingle unpleasantly. I couldn't tell if the feeling was magical in nature or not, but the odd sensation felt eerily familiar.

Daring Do seemed to have noticed my confusion and discomfort, because she was quick to voice her concern. I confided in her that something within the cellar was causing me to feel strange, and upon hearing what I had to say, a look of realization passed over her face and her mouth dropped into a troubled frown.

She pulled me away from the shelves of books and together we headed deeper into the cellar. As we trotted past the many artifacts Daring had collected over the years, that sensation began to grow stronger, and I knew then that I was reaching the source, for I could almost feel it pulling me closer.

Then, at last, I saw it.

Sitting atop a small stand on a shelf near the back of the cellar, and encased in glass was a book. Though it sat amongst several other admittedly more fantastical objects, to me at least, it was far from unassuming. The tome itself was in horrid condition, but that in no way detracted from the sheer sense of unease that practically overwhelmed me as I gazed upon it.

It was a grimy, tattered thing, bound in dark leather with heavily rusted metal clasps adorning the sides. There were hints of an intricately designed cover, and I could even make out a few unfamiliar sigils similar to those used in sigil magic. Most of what adorned the surface however, including much of the now illegible title, had been worn away by time and poor handling.

I suspected the tome was some sort of grimoire based on what little I could discern of the cover. What appalled me even more than the sorry state of the book, was the utter foulness of the aura coming off of it. The horrible sensation had increased tenfold, as vile as it was intoxicating.

I didn't know whether to move forward or shy away, and in the end, I simply stood there, dumbfounded and slightly dizzy from the confusing assault on my thaumic senses. It was so familiar, that sensation, and yet, I couldn't place it for the life of me. At loss of what to do, I turned to Daring for answers, and, much to my relief, she did not disappoint.

"This strange and unsettling tome is, in fact, what I wanted to show you, Miss Sparkle. I came across this book during an expedition into the ruins of an ancient temple in the eastern deserts of Saddle Arabia. The temple itself had long since been buried deep beneath the sand, but I found a way in, and I still shudder to think about what I saw there in that place.

"There were countless detailed paintings that stretched along those cracked and decrepit walls, sometimes across entire corridors. They depicted images such as I'd never seen before, and told a tale that shocked and horrified me. These paintings told of a time long before the advent of the wendigoes, and indeed, even long before the rise of the three pony tribes themselves.

"The paintings told of a time when the land was far different than it is now—a time long ago, when our equine ancestors first arrived and settled upon these lands. From what I could gather, all seemed well, and our ancestors were able to eke out a modest living. After a time, they began to grow as a civilization, and soon sought to expand their reach. If these paintings were to be believed, it was at this point that the ancient equines discovered that they were not the first to inhabit these lands.

"I'm not sure what the specific catalyst was, as some of the paintings were either worn away or unclear, but the ancient equines, through their fervent expansion into more and more territories, managed to wake something from within the depths of the earth. Eventually they reached what would one day become the land of Equestria, and stumbled upon a cave of sorts.

"Something—I'm uncertain of what—happened in this cave, and due to this mysterious event, a dark and terrible evil was unleashed. From out of the ground, a great pillar of blackness burst forth, seemingly without the slightest warning. From within that pillar, came some unspeakable monstrosity of titanic proportions.

"It appeared this nameless horror had power enough to blot out the moon, the sun, and the rest of the stars, bathing our world in complete darkness. I know it might seem a trivial task for our two Princess's or the Lord of Chaos to accomplish these days, but you must understand that this was ages before Celestia and Luna existed, and the sun and moon presumably moved under their own power. I've done my research, and if past records match what I saw in that temple, this nightmare had taken place long before even Discord roamed the earth.

"That, unfortunately, is all I was able to glean, as the rest of the corridor where I'd stumbled upon these paintings had collapsed. I tell you this in part because of the vision described in your journal, that of the pillar of swirling darkness rising from beneath the mountain. That vision is what worries me the most, but it is a discussion that can wait, and I apologize for my digression. What you really wanted to know about, was the tome I found in that very same temple, correct?

"Well, I'm sorry to say that, though I've held onto the book for some time, I don't really know all that much about it. I found it among the rubble of a partially collapsed room in the temple. It had been the only thing I found in that temple worth bringing back, as every other artifact I'd found had been completely destroyed or was otherwise irrecoverable. The fact that this book survived in even its current condition is nothing short of baffling, and yet, given what I've seen within, that only worries me more."

Here, she turned her attention away from me and eyed the book with no small amount of wariness. It showed in her eyes, her posture, and her tone as she spoke again.

"I of course, attempted to read the book, but in doing so, I gained nothing beyond a horrid sense of foreboding and disgust. I have, at the very least, a passing knowledge of all known languages, but I'd never seen any such language as what's written in that book. The illustrations I saw were of twisted and terrifying monsters not unlike the ones described in your dreams. I saw pictures of horrible things with countless tentacles, bulbous eyes, and formless shapes—all kinds of maddening creations that make my stomach turn just thinking about them.

"That alone was reason enough to bring the book to your attention, but what cemented my decision to show you this repulsive tome, was the strange text written in that journal of yours. I have no doubt that those words were the same as some of the text I'd seen in that very book."

I was completely stunned in the wake of the revelations I was hearing. That my vision in the Cave of Harmony and those words I'd written in my journal had some possible basis in reality made my head spin and my heart beat quicken with fear and disbelief. What's more, that grimoire most likely held the answers I was looking for, but it was a dangerous thing.

It was clear that Daring Do was having second thoughts about bringing me down here to see this ominous book, and this was confirmed when she retreated away from the encased tome and urged me to do the same. When I asked if I could take a closer look, she thought on the matter for a moment before denying me, stating that, while she had meant for me to read it originally, my reaction to its presence worried her greatly.

I made an attempt to change her mind, but the more I insisted, the firmer her rejection became, and in the end, I had no choice but to concede. I found it frustrating in the extreme, but upon exiting the cellar, that oddly alluring yet repulsive sensation vanished, and I found I could think much more clearly.

With my mind no longer clouded by the pull of that grimoire, I mulled over Daring's words and realized she was right. I needed to keep far away from the book and seek my answers elsewhere. Whatever its contents held, no matter how useful and no matter how I desired to read through its ancient, yellowed pages, I had the feeling the knowledge would be far from worth the risk.

I strove to conquer my fear with knowledge...

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While Daring and I had been wandering about the cellar, the clear blue sky had become marred with the appearance of a sizable thunderhead on the horizon. There was still some time before the downpour reached the cottage—an hour or two by my reckoning—but I could already hear the soft rumble of distant thunder.

We'd both made ourselves comfortable within the confines of the cottage long before then; though I worried at the thought of what may happen to this dwelling should an especially horrendous thunderstorm occur. Daring Do however, assured me that I had nothing to worry about, as the entire cottage itself had been warded against lightning strikes through the use of a lightning rod spell.

I did very little to mask the relief and bemusement in my voice when I asked why she hadn't simply maintained the weather over her own home. Her answer had been simple and altogether not that unexpected given her reputation. She told me that, in her many travels outside of Equestria, there were many places similar to the Everfree Forest in that pegasus magic did not affect the weather.

Over time, she'd grown used to such a phenomenon, and had even grown to enjoy the weather as it naturally occurred. I did not entirely share her sentiment, but decided not to speak anymore on the matter—not when there were far more pressing matters to discuss.

Though the strange and ominous grimoire still weighed heavily on my mind, I did my best to set that aside as Daring Do and I moved onto the next order of business. Now that she'd shown me that dreadful tome in the cellar below, Daring took the opportunity to help me step by step, piece together what the events could possibly mean.

I wanted to discuss in detail why the Tree of Harmony had acted the way it did upon my initial arrival; I had suspected it was due to some kind of future event that would doubtless occur very soon. Daring Do—though equally as troubled by what I'd seen in the Cave of Harmony—was far more concerned with what had recently happened on the train.

Of particular interest to Daring was my interaction with the mysterious stallion in black. Sound Mind had mentioned that I would be the one to set these future events into motion, so it would stand to reason that if I simply did nothing, nothing would happen. This was in part why Daring had decided not to allow me access to that ancient grimoire, her fear that somehow, such a thing would lead me down that very path to ultimate ruin.

While it made sense from a purely logical standpoint, there was still the issue of the self-fulfilling prophecy to consider. There was every possibility that the stallion in black had been lying, but if I took his word as immutable fact, then there was no measure that would prevent me from accomplishing the inevitable.

Still, it was far too early to give up now; even if the words of the self proclaimed doctor were true and I was to bring about some horrible darkness, there was still the matter of the truth within that darkness that he spoke of. What truth could have possibly been gained? What truth was worth risking the release of some maddeningly terrifying beast from an impossibly ancient era?

I posited that there was no truth worth putting the world in such peril. Despite this firm belief, the mystery still needed to be resolved and there was my altered sight to consider as well. I knew with every fiber of my being that probing deeper into this madness was a move of profound stupidity, but at this point I felt I had no choice.

I could only hope Daring Do would be able to rein me in before whatever dark forces at work led me astray, as I was beginning to suspect they might. Upon voicing this concern to Daring, she assured me she would do all in her power to make sure a total descent into insanity did not come to pass.

Regarding these malignant forces, Daring was all but certain Sound Mind was at the very least among them, if not the outright cause. Given what had transpired between myself and the stallion, I was quick to agree and prayed fervently that we wouldn't meet again, despite the doctor's confident claim of the opposite.

We soon put the subject of Sound Mind behind us for the moment to discuss the possible connection between my dreams and what they could mean. I thought back to that first night in the Cave of Harmony; to the night of the horrible display of power that the Tree showed. I remembered the burst of energy that had sent me flying head over hooves into the wall and the vision that had resulted upon impact.

That initial vision at least, did have some plausible explanations. The most plausible explanation that I could think of was that the Tree was warning me of some imminent danger that needed to be stopped. It was the easiest and most simple explanation to accept; it was the explanation that I desperately hoped was correct, for if not, then I dreaded to even think on the other possibilities.

There was also the issue of my unsettling look alike and what its role had been in all of this madness. That creature alone gave rise to countless questions that cost me many nights of proper sleep. The magical fabrication that Chrysalis created had been just that—a fabrication born of dark magic.

That eerie smiling thing, that horrible ethereal mockery of my likeness... that was something altogether different. It had haunted me like some malevolent spectre, and yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that it had some kind of purpose beyond driving me insane.

Daring and I had set my journal down on the table between us and occasionally referenced its pages when appropriate. We poured over the content within, searching for clues in my writing, searching for answers hidden within the questions and seeking possible explanations regarding the nightmares, or visions as they might've been.

From her cellar, as well as from her own collection within her cottage, Daring had produced a few books for reference. Some tomes I recognized, such as Predictions and Prophecies, Mysterious Magical Maladies, Ghosts, Goblins and Ghoulish Figures, and even Somnium, a work written by Princess Luna herself on oneirology.

Other texts were more obscure; rare, foreign and older works I'd either never seen before or had only heard of in passing and hadn't had a chance to read myself. These books were more or less the same as the ones I recognized, though most of the information written in these tomes were of a more archaic and somewhat sinister nature.

Together Daring and I spent a good deal of time studying these tomes and discussing ideas and theories. We hadn't even noticed the downpour outside had finally descended upon us, at least not until a mighty clap of thunder shook the entire cottage. Even then we continued our tireless pursuit of answers without so much as a flinch.

In the end, little progress was made where orthodox research was concerned. I hadn't learned very much more than when I'd attempted to study this horrifying phenomena on my own; even with Daring's help all we'd gained were either unfounded, unprovable, or sometimes even downright nonsensical theories—none of which I hadn't already thought of myself.

The only conclusion I'd come across that I was certain of, was that my dreams and nightmares were anything but. They were indeed far closer to actual visions than dreams, but the visceral, tangible quality of these visions made me think there was something more to what I was experiencing when I closed my eyes.

I often felt as if I was actually being whisked away to another time and place—another domain where madness of an entirely different breed from Discord's lurked. The fear for the loss of my mind and my very life at least, was real, and I strongly believed that this fear wasn't entirely unfounded.

All of my visions contained some manner of unspeakable alien horror seemingly from beyond the stars or perhaps another realm. This may have been the case, but thinking upon it, I realized that aside from that fact, nothing else about these visions seemed to be connected.

The only other real constant had been the look alike; looking back however, I hadn't actually seen the creature since my last baffling expedition into the Cave of Harmony—not in my visions, nor in reality. For some reason I couldn't fathom, that brought me far more anxiety than any actual relief.

In any case, I had the distinct feeling that I hadn't seen the last of that look alike, nor would it be the last time Sound Mind would show his face. Those were problems I would have to deal with at some point in the future, but for now I decided to end our foray into the study of these alien creatures and their purpose.

I'd mentioned the mysterious monument I'd seen to Daring Do, and in that regard, the mare seemed to have some ideas. Unfortunately my recollection was vague at best, much to my frustration. I'd written of it in my journal, but when I tried to describe the monument in any real detail, the particulars always seemed to escape me.

I knew this monument existed somewhere near the mountains in my visions, and I had a feeling I'd been there before. I was all but certain I'd been there before, and indeed, that I should know it intimately, but still I failed to grasp the exact location. Thankfully Daring Do was well experienced in this area and it was to that experience that I deferred.

With what little information I was able to provide, the mare managed to narrow the possibilities down to three locations. The first two were ruins; one located in a remote forested region near the Marewenzi Mountains in Zebrica, and the other in a smaller forest near the Smokey Mountains to the south of where we were.

The third option I knew without a doubt to be the correct choice, for I had indeed been there before. The third location was the ruined monument of Ponehenge in a thick forest at the base of Foal Mountain. A profound sense of both relief and dread washed over me at the mention of that place, and memories of the events that had taken place amidst those stone spires rose to the surface, for better or worse.

In a way, it made a certain sort of sense.

Ponehenge was steeped in Equestrian history, and it was there that the Pillars had made their final bid to seal away the Pony of Shadows—a terrible creature of immense darkness in its own right. Perhaps, in the distant past, Stygian had stumbled across the same knowledge that I had so recently. Perhaps he had embraced the very forces that were now hounding me in this day and age.

Perhaps he'd heard the whispers of the ancient beast that blotted out the sky and drowned the world in an endless sea of black. If so, then there may have been some merit in communicating with the displaced stallion on the matter. It may have also been a prudent move to speak with Starswirl himself.

If anypony could shed some light on this dismal situation, I was sure it was the Element of Sorcery. Yes, I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of it before, but resolved to seek the old stallion's advice and that of Stygian as well when I next found the opportunity to do so.

Even with all the research we'd done, there were still far too many questions than answers, but at the very least, we now had some manner of lead to go on. There was a possibility that my arrival at Ponehenge might make matters worse, but I still felt it needed to be done. That ancient ruined monument was at the center of this mystery, and I would find my way there one way or another eventually, I could feel it.

I thought it best to at least travel there with somepony who knew their business and could react with the wisdom, confidence and swiftness that came with experience. When it came to delving into the depths of a dark and potentially deadly mystery such as this, I couldn't have asked for a more capable companion than Daring Do.

My friends, those I left behind to trot this perilous path, were better off ignorant as they were. This endeavor promised to be unlike anything I'd ever undertaken, and while my motivations had altered somewhat, I still wished with every fiber of my being for their safety.

Outside the rain refused to die down, and there was little else to do other than research and planning. To that end, we spent the rest of that afternoon and much of the evening planning out our next course of action. I was very much against heading straight for Ponehenge without any prior knowledge of what I was getting myself and Daring into, so my suggestion was to first travel to Saddle Arabia.

I wanted to see for myself this old temple buried in the sands of Saddle Arabia's eastern deserts. Daring Do had initially been against it, but she acquiesced once I mentioned that I knew of a spell that could restore the remainder of the mural painted across the walls of the corridor she'd come across.

That mural alone I felt was worth the journey, but I also believed there may have been other secrets hidden in that ancient temple that Daring may have missed. She assured me otherwise, but something—some kind of hunch told me there was more to see than just old paintings lost beneath the sand.

If all went well, then we would pay a visit to Stygian, then seek out Starswirl wherever he'd disappeared to since his return. We could have spoken to the other Pillars, but I had my doubts as to how useful they'd be in providing us the information we sought.

I finished that day weary, but satisfied that we'd finally carved a path forward. Daring and I spoke of other, more trivial and day to day matters over a warm dinner by the fireplace. She had little to offer in the way of an extra room, but I assured her I was content with sleeping in the main room, so she brought me a blanket and pillow before retreating to her own room for the night.

I took the quiet moment of solitude to write our findings down in my journal. As I listened to the crackling of the slowly dying fire and the soft pattering and dull rumble of a gradually receding rainstorm, I felt at peace. I felt as though it had been far too long since I was truly content; not even the minor yet persistent itch in my eyes was enough to sour my mood in that moment.

For once, the fear, dread, and uncertainty of my situation had receded with the days frustrations and did not reach me. For that I was grateful, and once I'd finished writing in my journal I embraced the siren's call of sleep with open hooves. The memory of that accursed grimoire once more wormed its way into my mind, but I paid it little heed.

Sleep came easily enough, and yet I still failed to dream a proper dream.

It found me, and I could not resist...

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I was jolted suddenly awake not by the smell of breakfast or the light of the sun, nor at the behest of Daring Do herself, but rather a familiar unpleasant tingling in the horn. The strange sensation shot down my spine and made me gasp and shiver involuntarily, and I sat up from the comfortable chair in which I'd fallen soundly asleep.

I scanned the room around me, panicked and tensing for danger of any kind, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. The fire above the hearth had long since gone out, and I found the main room both eerily quiet, and terribly dark. The darkness as it was didn't bother me overmuch and I could still see well enough with my enhanced sight, but I could feel that there were more disquieting things at work, even if it seemed otherwise.

A glance towards one of the windows revealed only the slightest hint of dawn on the horizon. I estimated maybe an hour or two before it came time for Celestia to push the sun into its inevitable ascent past the distant mountains. As the initial shock began to abate, I could hear the soft rhythmic sound of snoring coming from the room at the back of the cottage. The sound was somewhat reassuring and told me I was the first to wake, which was just as well.

As comforting as it was knowing Daring Do was nearby, the assurance did nothing to quell that horribly irresistible pull at my mind. It took me little time to recognize the sensation as what I'd felt back in the cellar below; the same sensation that I'd felt when I was near that ghastly tome.

Realizing this, I found myself suddenly overwhelmed by an odd sort of excitement that I wouldn't have been able to explain were I asked to. Perhaps it would've been more accurate to call it nervous anticipation of some as of yet unseen discovery. That unnatural tingling in my horn and down my spine seemed to tug me towards some unknown destination, and—perhaps against my better judgement—I let it lead me without restraint or resistance.

I hadn't taken more than a few steps towards the saddlebags I'd placed upon a rack near the cottage entrance when the odd tingling became a steady pounding in my horn; a malevolent pulsing presence in my mind. The world wavered in my vision and I staggered somewhat drunkenly the rest of the way towards the rack.

Something was there, in those bags, something I wanted—something I desperately needed to see. Even in my addled state I knew that there was something completely and utterly wrong about the whole thing, but I couldn't bring myself to care; not when what I sought was so close!

The very idea of using magic to retrieve the object felt blasphemous for some reason. As I finally made my way to the rack, it was by my own hooves that I unfastened the straps holding the bag shut and pulled out the dreaded thing I knew I'd find within.

To my horror and bewilderment, I held none other than the ancient, tattered grimoire that had been safely tucked away beneath Daring Do's cottage. Just as baffling was the disappearance of the fog that had clouded my mind and the immense relief that soon followed after.

It was as though some great weight had been lifted from my shoulders as I stared open mouthed at the thing in my hooves. The confusion remained, but the horror quickly gave way to a queer sense of peace, as if the tome was finally where it belonged. I sat transfixed and disbelieving, my mind racing to find the answer as to how such a thing could've found its way into my possession.

Had some mysterious and unwholesome force once again taken hold of me during my lapse in consciousness, moving my sleeping form about like a puppet on a string? Had I unwittingly played the part of a simple thief on the whim of something I couldn't possibly understand?

Or was it merely another possible case of sleepwalking on my part?

Whatever the case may have been, I'd now gotten hold of that thing which I'd been both so eager and so terrified to obtain. I brushed a hoof over the worn cover with a care and gentleness usually reserved for a foal, marveling at what little detail I could still make out upon the ancient leather surface.

The book was strangely warm to the touch, as though left by the light of the fireplace overnight. This surprised me, as I'd expected it to be cold as the grave to match its ominous air and sinister nature.

The cover itself was indeed made of actual leather, but I'd expected as much and it did little to bother me. As I continued to ponder the circumstances in which the tome had come to rest in my saddlebags, a sudden and irresistible desire to pull back the cover and browse the contents within seized me.

I was no stranger to the siren's call of a good book, but this was a need unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. This was not simple curiosity at work, but something far stronger; far more compelling and heinous in nature. I hastened to pull the book open, but hesitated at the last moment in a final bid of self control.

I feel it was that last effort that saved me, for just that instant, I heard the tell-tale sounds of Daring Do stirring from the back room. The urge to peruse the tome flared again, but it was too late; the moment had passed and the unnatural desire to read gave way to thoughtless panic as I heard the unmistakable sound of hooves plodding along the hardwood floor towards the main room.

Quickly I replaced the grimoire back into my saddlebags, and closed the latch not a moment too soon. Daring Do emerged from the back room a moment later, sleepy eyed and yawning widely. I bade the mare good morning, though my thoughts remained on that tome and what would've happened had I not stopped myself from reading it when I did.

I realized with a slight shudder that, had I been allowed to continue reading, I felt I may not have been able to stop. Daring Do had spoken of the odd, indecipherable language of the book, but by this point I was convinced that if I were to read that script, somehow all would be made clear. I dreaded to think what sorts of morbid and gruesome things I would find within those pages.

And yet, I couldn't bring myself to tell the other mare I'd stumbled across the thing in my saddlebags. Some deeper part of me didn't want to let the tome go. The morning passed by as though nothing was out of the ordinary and, much to my own shame and disgust, I had not once mentioned the grimoire to Daring Do.

This was the pony I'd be trusting my life and sanity to, and still, despite the danger and—or perhaps because of the terrible temptation, I couldn't bring myself to reveal my own misdeed at keeping my possession of the book secret.

Guilty and nervous though I felt at the thought of not only pilfering a precious treasure from a mare whom I admired greatly, that was not enough to get me to return the tome to its owner. I could still feel its sinister hold on my mind as Daring and I prepared to set out on our journey, but said nothing about it to the other mare.

Daring Do had taken note of my immense unease and inquired the issue out of concern, but I deflected the question, citing a minor headache from the day before as the source of my discomfort. I told her to think nothing of it, and as we left the cottage and began our nonstop flight to the train station, I realized there was no turning back now.

I'd knowingly put myself in a precarious position, afraid that it would only be a matter of time before I could no longer resist the grimoire's allure. The tome was a heavy weight in my bags, but I couldn't deny that deep down I felt a sort of dark satisfaction knowing I held such an unfathomably old and as of yet untapped font of knowledge.

Doing my best to push all thoughts of the book aside, I returned my focus to the task at hoof. Daring and I were to board the train and take it all the way to Canterlot. There we'd take an airship southeast across the Celestial Sea to the Saddle Arabian port city of Dammare. From that point on it would be a no doubt tiresome trek through the Saddle Arabian desert until we reached our destination.

The full trip would take upwards of a week to complete by mine and Daring's estimate and we both agreed it would be best to avoid any unnecessary stops on the way. We'd pick up such supplies as needed for our trip through the desert once we reached Dammare.

I admit to more than a bit of reluctance on my part to meet with the other Princesses in Canterlot, and in truth, it was only after a minor panic attack that Daring decided against a potential meeting altogether. I agreed readily, and with that decided, we made our way to Canterlot. Despite my worries about the mysterious grimoire and a possible encounter with my friends or loved ones, the journey to Dammare was fairly painless and uneventful.

There'd been no unwanted encounters with friends or family, no strange and horrifying experiences or dreams on my part, and even the desire to read the grimoire, while initially strong, began to wane as we traveled. At some point I found it much easier to ignore, but I never forgot that the book was there in my bag.

Our journey was going so well in fact, that I began to grow suspicious—wary of some unknown disaster lurking just out of sight and reach until the time was right. My suspicion grew into a minor, but terribly acute sense of paranoia as we neared Saddle Arabia and the port city of Dammare.

I held my fears in check until we reached Dammare, but it was clear to Daring that something was wrong. I admitted to the mare my concerns and she suggested we take a couple of days to rest and recuperate in the city. I almost declined and insisted we push forward, but it didn't take much convincing on Daring's part to persuade me.

It may very well have been that I needed to rest my weary mind, and so we chose to stay the next few nights in a hotel Daring Do was familiar with. The lodgings were comfortable, the atmosphere pleasant and the Saddle Arabian citizens friendly and welcoming. If anypony had noticed my affliction, they spoke nothing of it, for which I was rather grateful.

In an effort to quell my mounting stress, Daring Do offered to give me a tour of Dammare. She'd already been to the city more than once, and knew it well. I declined the offer initially, but acquiesced eventually, hoping it would do me some good. Together we took some time to admire the city before returning to the hotel for the night.

I'd been expecting something a bit more exotic, but in many aspects, Dammare was similar to any other city such as Manehattan or Fillydelphia. Still, there was the odd foreign structure or two, and just traveling the city I could tell Saddle Arabia was rich in a culture different from my own.

It was quite a fulfilling experience and I was glad for it, but then it came time to return to our lodgings, and that was when all sense of reason left me. I was tired, my mind weary and my body spent from keeping constant guard against an enemy I could not see nor even knew for certain was there.

The first mistake I made was the choice to acquire a room separate from Daring Do.

On the surface, I wasn't sure what had possessed me to do such a thing, and I had no doubt it was a rather odd decision from Daring Do's perspective, but in reality I knew exactly why I'd made the decision. I had thought myself free of the grimoire's influence, but it had always been there, lurking in the darkest recesses of my mind.

By the end of our tour around the city, I could hear it calling out to me again, and I was in no fit state to resist. Daring suggested we stop by one of the many lavish restaurants in town for dinner, but I gave her a polite but firm refusal. At this point I knew well what I was about to do, and was unabashedly eager to turn in for the night.

I partook of a quick dinner at the hotel and gave a brief 'good night' to Daring Do before hurrying back to my own room across from hers. Finding solitude at last, I bolted the lock on the door and, with that same nervous anticipation I'd experienced only a few days ago, retrieved my saddlebags from their resting place beside my bed.

There was no horrible tingling this time around, nor was there any lightheadedness, or strange tugging sensation or anything of the sort. There was no need of any of it I think, for I had found what I so feverishly sought and so desperately wish I hadn't found. There was no time wasted in pulling the tome from the bag and with that, I once again held what may possibly have been the answer to all of my questions.

That most ancient and accursed grimoire.

It still felt warm to the touch and its presence remained paradoxically comforting and distressingly ominous. That same dread and tight knot of guilt in my chest welled up within me, but as I stared at the cover of that old and tattered tome, I felt it far less keenly than before.

I thought back on what I'd told Daring Do; how we'd find some other way to solve the macabre mystery of Ponehenge and the dark secrets of the Tree of Harmony. I suppose it may have been my idea of a last ditch attempt to persuade myself to stop while I still had some of my wits about me, but it was to no avail.

The tome was in my possession and that unnaturally powerful need to see the contents within had once more taken hold. With a shuddering breath and my heart pounding wildly beneath my ribs, I made myself comfortable upon the bed, opened the grimoire, and began to read.

I waited for something; some sign that I'd unleashed some gruesome alien entity from beyond all imagination, but the room remained quiet and I remained yet alone. There was no sudden biting chill in the air or malevolent presence like I expected, and I gave a heavy sigh of relief before reading the tome in earnest.

Though no great horror came of it, I still found reading the grimoire to be both a queer and unsettling experience. At first, I could make neither heads nor tales of the script. It had indeed been the same sort of scrawl I'd written in my journal, just as Daring had surmised.

The images alone however, were enough to make my stomach turn. Just as Daring described, I would occasionally stumble across depictions of unspeakably hideous monsters that I knew for certain could not have possibly existed anywhere on this planet. At the very least that was my hope, for just the sight of these terrifying beasts was enough for me to believe none of my friends or I could stand up to them.

These creatures were not the only oddity I came across as I perused the pages of the grimoire. I also bore witness to the images of not ponies, but people. They looked nothing like what I'd seen beyond the mirror, and yet they were still unmistakably human. My mind would've reeled at the thought of what this could mean, if not for the gruesome and disturbing acts and rituals on display.

Scattered amongst the otherworldly monsters, the unfamiliar runes and sigils, and indiscernible text, were detailed sketches of humans in the act of what I could only assume were ritual sacrifices. Bodies of both humans and animals lay on altars or in the middle of massive rune inscribed circles surrounded by dozens of candles.

Some remained whole and others were splayed open as though on a dissecting table. This alone would've been enough to sicken me to my very core, but it didn't stop there. Many of these scenes showed the humans prostrating themselves in one way or another before some kind of awful tentacled monstrosity the likes of which I'd only seen in my dreams and visions, perhaps worse even.

These humans were sacrificing other humans to these grotesque alien beings almost as if they were gods. The realization left me dumbfounded and horrified, but this was not enough to sate my ravenous curiosity. If anything it only grew stronger, for I had no context for any of what I was seeing.

I need to know more, and so I continued to carelessly flip through the tome, trying to find something I could understand. There had to be something here I could read; some passage or phrase or word—anything. I grew frantic and needy, my hooves sweaty and my eyes wide and searching.

Then I turned the page one last time and stopped cold.

Up until this point, I had no recognition of any of the creatures I'd come across. Each one had been more horrendous than the last, but they were not familiar to me, until I saw the depiction of the thing taking up the majority of the page I'd turned to.

It wasn't as gruesome to look upon as many of the other creatures I'd seen thus far, but this image above all others, made me tremble with a fear I hadn't felt since that first traumatic nightmare. The picture lacked both color and the maddeningly massive presence of the entity I'd seen within that dream, but there was no mistaking the rough spherical shape or the baleful glare of that single burning eye.

My breath grew short and my heart thundered fearfully in my chest at the sight. I felt the air grow colder and colder around me and the malevolent presence that had been so strangely absent at the beginning was closing in. As the memories of that horrid vision—that mind rending nightmare, ran through my mind, I became less and less sure of whether or not what I was feeling was real or imagined.

There were words scrawled at the bottom of the page below the image, and it was several more moments before I realized I could read them. At first I was convinced I'd been seeing things in my fear induced delirium, but with each passing moment I grew more certain that what I read could be nothing other than modern Ponish, and it read as thus:

Reviled is the wandering moon that sings its siren's song of waking, for it is Ghroth, the Harbinger who rouses the sleeping with its wretched music of the spheres.

Upon reading the passage, I quickly snapped the book shut and returned it to my bags with shaking hooves. I didn't quite know what to make of what I'd read, but I did not like the implications in the least. It would have been one thing to simply see the image and read the words written on the page, but if this tome was to be believed—and I had no reason to doubt it—I had most likely heard that dreaded 'music of the spheres'.

I certainly witnessed this Harbinger for myself, of that there was no doubt whatsoever. In reading the grimoire, I'd obtained some much needed answers, but the questions only continued to mount higher and now I feared the situation was far more dire than I could have known.

My last act that night before slipping into bed was to once more document all I had learned in my journal. Now that I'd gained this knowledge, a new dilemma presented itself in the form of revealing said knowledge to Daring Do. Should I tell her the truth of the matter and make known my theft of the grimoire, or weave a story of nightmares and revelations?

A part of me wanted nothing more to do with the book, but another, louder part of me knew I wouldn't give it up—I couldn't give it up, not now that I could read the words. As horrified as I was, I needed to know more. With this grimoire, I might've been able to expand upon whatever discoveries Daring Do and I might make within the confines of that ancient temple in the desert.

No, I would not reveal that I'd taken the tome, not until the truth of what in the world was happening came to light. I would push past my fears and continue to read the old yellowed pages of this invaluable book to the end if I had to. With newfound resolve I nearly retrieved the tome from my bag, but before the thought could properly come to fruition, an unexpected wave of drowsiness overtook me.

I was all but certain sleep would not find me after what I'd read, but in mere moments my eyelids grew too heavy to lift and the world as I knew it faded away entirely soon after.

The ominous ringing of bells filled my mind...

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It was as if I'd shut my eyes and stepped away from one reality, only to wind up in another. Gone were the trappings of the exquisite suite in which I'd stayed, replaced by the cyclopean masonry, tall dark windows, and looming grey pillars of a massive temple the likes of which I had never seen before. The sights I witnessed as I wandered the many dark halls were completely alien to me, and yet I couldn't help a strange sense of familiarity—as though I'd come home after countless years away.

It felt as though there had been no distinction between when I was pulled into slumber and found myself within the ageless stone temple. I could not for the life of me understand how I knew this strange place to be what it was, nor did I know how I had come to be here or why. These questions, I found, did not bother me overmuch, and as I roamed elaborate ritual chambers and great libraries unsurpassed in their majesty, I began to feel that my wandering was not aimless.

In this nameless temple I was not alone; I was among creatures—some vaguely equine in shape whose features were hidden behind heavy black cloaks. The various rooms that filled the temple were swathed in near pitch blackness, but even in that blackness I could still see and sense that there was a subtle surrealism to their forms—some sort of wrongness I couldn't place by simple sight alone. Then there were those things that were not equine—tall, twisted shapes shrouded in a darkness so deep as to be beyond reason.

Though my sight remained mostly unaffected by the darkness that surrounded me, of the tall spindly creatures I could only make out the merest suggestion of disjointed limbs. I could hear the muted but distinct sound of flapping wings as the things glided almost silently along the floor, but the cloaked ponies—if ponies they were—seemed to pay them no mind. I was among them all, following in their wake as they all moved towards some unknown destination within the temple.

With the equine creatures there was a kind of kinship, and I wondered vaguely if I was the same as them. I thought that I must be; is that not why I was there? Did I not desire to share the same fate as the rest of those whom I followed? I wanted what they wanted, even if I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was, but the thought filled me with an elation I could scarcely describe and I decided then that yes, I was among my own. I continued to follow through black corridors whose walls were adorned with unsettling images I could not recall. I trotted past heavy oaken doors, down countless flights of stairs, and through wondrous rooms full of strange treasures both terrifying and beautiful.

All the while there was not a speck of light to drive away the constant shadows that filled every corner. Despite this fact, the darkness held no sway over me nor my vision and I pressed on unabated, the path still clear before me. I don't know how far I trotted or how deep below the surface I had gone, but eventually we reached our destination. I, along with the procession of equine shapes and shadow things, had gathered in a wide chamber whose ceiling stretched higher than it had any right to.

With its polished marble columns, stained glass windows, wide circular structure, and the large raised platform and stone altar at the far end of the room, the chamber seemed more like a cathedral than anything else, though if there had been pews before they were long gone now. What was left were the many stone steps leading up to the raised circular platform where the altar lay. High above the altar, suspended by a great stone arch that stretched across the entire chamber, were three large bells—each three times again the size of a normal pony.

Even undisturbed and silent, something about these bells resonated with me, and a shiver of what might have been anticipation or elation wracked my body as I gazed upon the worn bronze bells. As the others filtered into the cathedral like chamber, I could sense that they all felt the same as I did. We had all been drawn to the unheard call of the bells above, and I knew then that the clanging of those bells would herald the beginning of a great change upon the world. A terrified cry in the blackness ripped my attention away from the glory of the bells and was drawn to the platform below.

On that platform were two figures; one stood before the crowd—another pony creature robed in black, its face hidden from view by a dark hood. It held before it an open tome not unlike the one I held in my possession, though not quite the same either. It stood silently and expectantly as more of us gathered into the chamber, ignoring the desperate cries of the other figure behind it. The other creature was a mere pony—a mare that had been strapped to the altar by metal clamps.

I watched in morbid fascination as the mare struggled, her head thrashing about wildly and her wordless screams full of fear and agony. From where I stood I couldn't see her face, but amidst the agonized howls I soon heard the mad rantings of the suffering mare. She screamed of eyes that burned like fire and of a horrendous itching that could not be quelled. So great was her pain that she all but begged somepony to gouge her own eyes out of their sockets, yet her pleas remained unheard or otherwise ignored by the pony creature in front of her.

The creature instead addressed us, and I found I couldn't comprehend the strange words it spoke. Like the bells however, those words resonated, and I found myself enraptured by its speech. As it spoke, it raised the tome high, and a moment later I felt the ground shift and shudder beneath me. The mare's screams reached a fever pitch, but I myself didn't panic, nor did the other creatures around me, and soon enough the minor quake passed. The robed pony thing continued its speech as though nothing of note had happened, and before long it gestured to the distraught mare, then to bells high above.

We all watched as one of the bells began to chime, seemingly of its own volition. It was a deep and powerful sound that reverberated throughout my entire body and with its heavy peal came another quake—this one much stronger than the last. Whatever light had been left in the temple quickly began to wane in the wake of the bell's deep sound, and it wasn't long until the blackness had become absolute.

Save for the mare, this turn of events only served to excite the crowd of twisted beings all the more, and I felt more than ever that I was among those fervent creatures. Small amounts of debris fell from the walls and ceiling, and the mare screamed louder than before, but the sermon—or whatever it may have been—continued on without restraint. There was now a palpable sense of zealous expectation in the air, and as the second bell rang out, the anticipation I felt became near unbearable.

The quake had gotten worse but that mattered little in the face of what was to come. Then another, more familiar sound reached my ears. Quiet at first, the sound grew steadily louder, and soon I could hear the slow, rhythmic flapping of wings. Within moments, the sound grew so loud as to completely drown out the clanging bells, screaming mare, and quaking earth all at once. With a sudden clarity that bordered on holy revelation, I knew that the bells had awakened a primal and all consuming shadow—an ancient horror that refused to suffer the light, and so it drowned the world in inky black.

We welcomed the coming darkness, we reveled in it; it was our salvation and we accept its advent with open hooves, even as we took our knives and stabbed our own and each others eyes out. 'You don't need them' a voice whispered in my mind, 'they serve no purpose here and so you must cast them aside'. The words pulled at me and I could not, nor did I try to resist them. I eagerly complied, letting loose a mad laugh as I pulled a jagged knife from my own cloak and went to work.

The malformed shadow things descended then; they swept over the shackled mare like a living tempest and began their feast. The sounds were horrible, but didn't last long, and soon the mare was silenced. Then, through the horrid shrieks of pain and laughter, there came a loud crack from above. Something heavy crashed to the ground with a dull thud and a muted clang, and in an instant, my elation turned to dread. Without warning, bright light seemed to burst forth from every direction, and in that moment, all became a chaos of furious shouts, flashing steel and spraying blood.

With a sharp gasp, my eyes flew open and I was once again blinded by an unseen light. This time however, amidst the lingering terror, I was quickly able to discern that the light source was no more than the shining rays of the morning sun filtered through the a window beside my bed whose curtains were left wide open. I turned away from Celestia's sun with a small cry, my malformed eyes throbbing painfully in the wake of its light.

I quickly snapped the curtains shut against the daylight and turned away from the window entirely. It took a moment for the pain to dim and the spots to vanish from my sensitive eyes, and another moment to remember where I was, but that too came to me soon enough. The fear of some vague, half-remembered nightmare eventually settled into an unease that refused to abate.

Something profoundly disturbing had risen up within my subconscious, of that I was certain, yet for some reason I was unable to grasp all the details. The only memories that stood out to me were the horrific sounds of terrified, agonized screams and laughter fit to make the demons of Tartarus shudder with revulsion—that, the darkness, and the deep, sonorous ringing of bells. Even in its incomplete state, the memory was enough to make me shiver involuntarily.

Still, despite the persistent unease, I felt that same sense of familiarity that had plagued me every now and then since this madness began. It was when I thought about the sound of those bells that something else in my subconscious stirred, and a moment later I turned a wide eyed gaze towards the small dresser next to the bed I'd yet to remove myself from. There, sat on the dresser in all its hideous glory, was the old tome I'd obsessed over just that night. More memories flooded my mind of what I'd found in those pages, and what I'd finally stumbled across before sudden sleep had claimed me.

Almost as if pulled by some sort of instinct, I reached for the tome, but stopped myself short. As much as I wanted to continue my exploration into the depths of that vile text, it was something else that had drawn my thoughts. With an effort, I pulled my attention away from the tome for the moment and instead reached for my journal, which lie next to the tome. I didn't know what was guiding my actions as I pulled the journal close and began flipping through its pages, but it didn't take long before I realized what I was searching for.

Whether it had been part of my vaguely remembered dream or bizarre reality, I hadn't been able to say for sure, but for brief period of time, I'd been able to read the alien script in the tome. As I turned the pages in my journal, I thought of those same words I'd scrawled at some point during my journey into the Cave of Harmony. I wasn't sure what it had to do with the bells, but something told me it was important and I felt all the more that it was as I reached the page I'd been looking for. I stared at the words I'd unconsciously written in the journal with a tumultuous mix of shock, apprehension, and a sort of scholarly excitement.

My fears and hopes had been confirmed; the words, once alien and unknowable to me, were now clear as any written in modern Equestrian society. I had no idea of what it could mean that I now understood, and as I read the words, my elation gradually gave way to more confusion and uncertainty. The passage—words that I myself had written in some unrecalled fit of madness—read as such...

'Knowledge waits in shadow... one once consumed by It who is Death and Darkness will reveal the Hidden Ones... Seek out the three instruments that must always remain hidden in Its shadow and let Insight banish ignorance... Only blind can the faithful See...'

I read the passage several more times in an attempt to absorb every detail. The words, clear as they were, held no immediate meaning for me save for the mention of these 'instruments' and my dream of the bells. Was it possible that the two were connected? I wasn't altogether sure, but the passage as a whole seemed to be instructions—guidelines that would lead to some greater truth. Something else I pondered was what was meant by 'one once consumed by It who is Death and Darkness'. I wondered at who the line could be referring to. I hadn't known many creatures who'd readily fit into the category.

Among those who could be counted, one could argue that Princess Luna would be a candidate, but somehow I had the distinct feeling she wasn't the one the line was referring to. That left King Sombra and Stygian as the only other ponies I could think of, but it may just as well have been a creature I'd never met before. I thought upon the matter for another few moments before setting the thought aside. As it stood, Stygian was the only viable source of information in this regard—at least, for the time being. I briefly entertained the notion of consulting with Luna, but the idea was quickly discarded.

I still had no intention of involving the other Princesses or my friends in this matter, and was only after a promise of confidentiality from the two that I'd speak of my situation with Stygian or Starswirl—if I managed to find their whereabouts. I'd already gotten as much from Daring Do during our research and had every intention of making sure she kept her word.

Pushing the thought aside, I found my eyes lingering on the last line of what I'd written. 'Only blind can the faithful See...'; those words had sent a strange thrill through me when I first read them, and it troubled me greatly. It made me think back to the dream I'd had on the train and of the current condition of my eyes. Was it coincidence? Was the line meant to be taken literally or did it have a deeper meaning? For all I knew it may have been both, and at that moment I had no desire to find out.

Despite all my ruminations on what had just been revealed to me, I never once forgot the tome still sitting atop the dresser near me, and—deciding I'd gleaned all I could from the passage for the time being—I set the journal aside and reached for the tome. I knew deep down that the answers would make themselves known to me in time, but perhaps I could get a head start by researching the contents of the tome. I could now, through some unknown means, read the text, and while the mystery behind what had prompted my sudden understanding of said text galled and worried me, I nevertheless accepted and even welcomed it.

I hesitated only for a moment, thinking of the page I'd stumbled across in that tome the night prior; the sight of that beastly planet-like monstrosity flashed through my mind for an instant, and just for that instant, I began to retract a sudden shaky hoof. Ghroth the Harbinger it had been called—a creature so impossibly large that it could imitate a moon traveling the cosmos; a monster whose horrible music could wake sleeping gods. The tome didn't say as much from what I could recall, but without a doubt I knew that's what the passage had meant.

What I had yet to find out, is why I had dreamt of Ghroth and its foul music of the spheres. As things stood I could only speculate on the matter, and as I thought of this and other nightmares and events that had befallen me of late, my ruminations and theories only grew all the more grim and macabre. The fact that I was unable to entirely recall my latest nightmare was troubling to say the least, but it hadn't been the first time that had happened. Much like my glimpse into that primordial realm of eldritch musicians, this nightmare, though mostly forgotten, had felt real—tangible in a way that made it seem as though I'd all but traveled to another plane of existence entirely.

All of my nightmares had affected me in that way, and the fact that I now suffered some strange affliction after being exposed to one of these nightmares was enough to convince me that this may not have been too far off the mark. If this were true, then the implications were all the more terrifying to consider, but consider them I did. I considered the possibility even as I once again began to reach for the tome, for though these thoughts and many others had stayed my hoof, it was for only a few moments, and like the tides pulled by the moon, I was once more drawn to that ruinous book.

I crossed the threshold...

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Exactly how long I spent pouring over the tome's contents, I wasn't sure. As I flipped through the yellowed pages of the book, expanding my mind and eagerly absorbing the details of a world and creatures literally alien to me, time seemed to lose much of its meaning.

My horror had long since given way to complete and utter fascination. The scholar in me had taken over, and I—without worry or hesitation or even conscious thought—had committed to internalizing every twisted monstrosity and heinous ritual I came across while reading. So immersed was I that I failed to hear the persistent knock at my door, and it was only when the tell-tale sound of a turning doorknob reached my ears that I roused myself from my fugue.

At that moment, reality crashed back down around me and panic seized my heart at the thought of Daring Do entering the room to find me in possession of the tome. My fear was no longer her discovery of my breach of trust, but that the mare would attempt to rob me of the knowledge I so desperately desired. She couldn't know that I'd taken the tome not only because I hadn't finished researching its contents, but because I was afraid of what I might do to keep the book in my hooves. A sort of quiet frenzy came over me as I waited for Daring Do to enter the room, but it wasn't long before I realized she'd failed to get the door open.

I allowed myself a small, relieved chuckle as the mare knocked again and inquired about my well-being. I had locked the door the night before and had completely forgotten in the wake of my strange dream and obsessive perusal of the tome. Making sure to place the tattered tome well out of sight, I unlocked the door and bade Daring Do to enter the room. Despite my assurances that all was well, she eyed me strangely nevertheless, but I was not caught and so didn't let her look bother me overmuch. I discovered that only an hour and a half or so had passed during my reading session, though it certainly felt much longer than that.

I was surprised to find that I was disappointed that I hadn't been able to continue my study of the book's contents, a sentiment far removed from my initial disdain and fear of the thing. My eyes had been thoroughly opened to wonders and horrors the likes of which I'd only seen in recent memory, and I now had names I could put to some of the terrifying creatures I'd seen. For all that I'd read, however, I had found no mention or even a trace of the black creature I'd seen in my initial vision—that massive monstrous black thing that had crawled its way up out of the mountain in an ever-expanding pillar of darkness.

Many questions remained, but the answers would have to stay just out of reach for the moment. Now it was time for Daring and I to make ready for our arduous trip through the vast desert that lay further east of Dammare. It was late in the morning by the time we finished packing our essentials into our saddlebags and it wasn't long after that we left the hotel. Perhaps noticing my immense discomfort as we made our way through the city, Daring Do went out of her way to procure for me one of the traditional headdresses I'd seen many of the other Saddle Arabian mares wearing around the city, but it did little to block out the scathing light of Celestia's sun.

I appreciated the gesture all the same but was beginning to feel somewhat uneasy as the mare continued to give me that strange look she'd given me back in my room at the hotel. It took me several moments to realize it was the same sort of look I'd received from the old mare at the train stop near the forest by the Galloping Gorge. I felt the blood drain from my face as I thought about the implications of what that look might mean, and though I was reluctant to ask, I had to know. Mustering up some semblance of composure, I questioned Daring about her strange looks, and the answer I received was dismaying, to say the least.

Seemingly embarrassed that she'd been caught staring, she apologized but looked no less troubled as she explained that my lavender coat had noticeably darkened a shade. Surprised, I stopped and took a moment to observe myself and sure enough, my fur had changed from its lavender hue to a purple shade that matched that of the scales of my faithful assistant. Daring went on to say that she hadn't been certain back at the hotel, but now that we were out in the sun, the change was much more apparent. What's more, she'd also noticed that the deformity in my eyes had grown more prominent than it had been the day before, which most likely would've explained the increased aversion I felt the sun's rays.

Whatever was happening to me, it was getting worse, and I had no doubt it had something to do with that vaguely remembered dream of the night before. I resolved to check the full extent of the changes at the nearest opportunity but was able to set the issue aside for the moment. Though the shock and unease were great, I found both passed much more quickly this time—almost worryingly so—and with a simple reaffirmation of our resolution to resolve this mystery, Daring Do and I continued forth until we made our way out of the city.

Once we had passed the borders of Dammare, we spread our wings and took flight, hoping to make good time as we soared towards the distant and endless dunes of white sand. The heat was intense, but it was nothing compared to the constant burning that assaulted my eyes. It was bearable, but only just, and I found myself wishing more and more for night to fall. The night would bring with it a bitter cold that would no doubt cut straight through my coat and into my skin, but the thought was almost comforting to me.

I, of course, told Daring Do none of these thoughts or complaints, and for the first hour or so of flight, I was content to keep my silence, but the flight quickly grew dull and both the burning in my eyes and the general heat soon grew to be too much. In an attempt to distract myself from the discomfort, and curious about our destination, I questioned Daring about this ancient temple buried in the sands. It was clear from her troubled expression that the mare was reluctant to talk about her past expedition. She'd told me much about the wall paintings she'd seen within the temple's depths, but very little about the temple itself and what was in it.

"Of all the ruins I've been to, this temple may be one of the most unsettling. If I may be completely candid, Princess, I'd still much rather we turn back, but if your affliction is getting worse and this is our only lead, then we may have no other choice but to proceed. Despite my misgivings, I do believe the answer, or at least part of that answer lies inside that temple.

"Still, it is a place best left buried by the literal sands of time in my honest opinion. The temple is caved in at several different points and I was unable to plumb its full depths, but what I found was enough to give me an idea of the horrible acts committed in the past. Long rusted tools used in ritual sacrifice, altars stained black with ancient blood, the twisted remains of creatures that may not have been—no, clearly were not entirely equine, and I've no doubt I would've found much worse had I been able to make my way further below.

"Fear and superstition are both things that don't come easily to me, but in this case, I know without a doubt that there is a malignant presence in that place, even now. What I found there—the tools, the altars, the remains—those were not enough to deter me from my expedition. No, it was an older, much more primal fear, Princess. It was the fear of the dark, the fear of whatever might have lurked in that darkness. The deeper I delved, the darker my world became, and once I'd traveled deep enough, once my vision had faded to nothing, I began to hear things; whispers in the dark, unnatural echoes in the silence.

"There was a terrible itching my eyes that only grew worse as I continued on, and before I knew it, I'd scratched at them until they were red. I imagine it was much like how you had described in the dream you had during your trip to my home, and that's what made me so reluctant to agree to this endeavor. There is something deep in the bowels of that temple—something old and very evil. If we're to undertake this expedition, we will have to tread very lightly, and that means following my lead to the letter."

At this, Daring Do gave me a significant look, one that spoke of dire consequence should I ignore that rule. Naturally, I agreed to defer to her experience, having planned to do so all along, and that seemed to satisfy her. She nodded and continued speaking, her countenance growing somewhat rueful, if still deeply troubled.

"You might think me a coward despite my name, and you're free to think as much. I certainly did once I finally made my way out of that horrible place. It wasn't until I was safely outside the temple's walls that I began to wonder if what I'd experienced was all in my fear-addled mind, and eventually, I was able to convince myself that that was the case, but faced with the idea of going back, I'm not so sure. I've explored countless old temples and ancient cities over the years, and have seen several crumbling monuments and monoliths from all over the world, but this place feels far different than any of the other ruins I've ever been to.

"That temple and everything in it feels... out of place, like something that fundamentally shouldn't exist in this world, and yet it does. Still, this temple has revealed that there is a large gap in history, and though the risk is great and some knowledge is best left alone, I can't in good conscience leave a mystery that groundbreaking unresolved now that there's a chance to uncover the truth, so I suppose I sympathize with your plight somewhat in that regard. We both might be fools for doing this, but that doesn't mean we have to be reckless, Princess, so I say again, tread carefully and follow my lead closely once we arrive."

I voiced my assent once more but the response was brief and distracted. My mind was elsewhere, lost in the remembrance of my latest dream. As little as I remembered of what had transpired, I'd retained enough to know that there was a connection of some sort—another possible vision of what was to come perhaps. That my appearance had changed yet again was troubling, but I felt all the more that we were getting closer to the answers I sought. Like Daring Do, I was certain whatever we found would be unpleasant and possibly life-threatening. Whatever secrets were buried along with that temple might even exacerbate my condition, but I was ready to take that risk if it meant getting closer to the heart of the matter.

Worry for what the near future might bring stymied any attempt at casual conversation between Daring and I, and the rest of the trip was relatively quiet as a result. The two of us were lost in our own thoughts, and as night fell and we stopped to set up camp, I couldn't help but wonder if my companion understood the gravity of my current situation. Could she see the depths of my growing obsession? The complete and utter need to know despite my fears and uncertainties? Did she realize what I might be willing to do to root out the source of all this madness? I found it highly unlikely, else she'd have most likely abandoned me and my journey before we even started.

I know I could have left well-enough alone.

I realized that if I were to stop here and now, there would be no risk of me bringing about this terrible darkness to Equestria and the rest of the world. I understood and acknowledged that I was pulling myself and Daring Do further into a black hole from which there was no escape. I knew all of this, and yet for me, there was no turning back. Daring Do may have had her own reasons for agreeing to take me to this ancient temple, but looking at her asleep in her tent, watching her chest gently rise and fall and her peaceful countenance, I knew she was getting in over her head... but I wouldn't tell her—I couldn't.

There was something in that temple that I needed to see, and I couldn't allow any hesitation to get in the way of that—not mine and not Daring's. Several more thoughts ran through my mind as I continued to watch the sleeping mare, but ultimately I decided a deep and thorough rest would suffice. One simple spell was all it would take to ensure she'd be all but dead to the world. Perhaps a good night's sleep would wash away the lingering doubt, I thought. It was as good a solution as any, and I had more reading to do as it was.

After making sure Daring Do was taken care of, I put out the fire and made my way to my own small tent. I rummaged around in my saddlebags until I found what I was looking for and left the way I came. Outside the tent, I settled down next to the darkened firepit and sighed in contentment, reveling in the gentle yet frosty breeze that blew through my coat. With the fire gone, the only light for miles came from the stars and Luna's moon. That was more than I needed to take advantage of such a picturesque desert evening, and an engaging book I could read beneath the light of those stars made the experience that much more satisfying.

I began my descent into darkness...

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The enchantment I'd placed upon Daring Do, while harmless in the short term, would be detrimental to her health if left alone for too long. I left her to slumber long enough to finish what remained of the tome's pages, a feat I managed to accomplish just as the beginning of the sun's rays peeked out over the sand-strewn horizon.

I myself hadn't slept an ounce during the night but found I was no more weary for the lack of rest. On the contrary, it almost seemed as though I had more vigor than the day before—a surprising, if not unwelcome development to be sure, but all the more proof of my strange and ominous changes. Setting my worries and ruminations on what I'd read aside, I stowed the tome away, released my sleeping enchantment from Daring Do and roused the mare to full wakefulness.

According to Daring Do's map, there was still a little less than half a day's journey by flight until we reached our destination. Unfortunately, it would take us much longer to make it there, as no more than two hours or so after we'd taken wing, we were nearly ripped from the skies by a sudden and vicious sandstorm. We managed to avoid such a fate thanks to Daring's foresight, but we were grounded as a result and had to continue on hoof from that point. The sandstorm lost most of its rancor not too long after it began, but what remained still made flight all but impossible.

I was able to shield Daring and myself from the majority of the whirling, stinging sand through the use of a modified spell, but it was not a permanent solution, and I prayed the storm wouldn't last too long, lest the feat drain me to exhaustion before we even arrived. For the next few hours, the sandstorm raged on and by its end, we had no choice but to stop so I could rest and restore my thaumic energy. It took far more time than either Daring and I would've liked, as my magic reserves ran fairly deep. It took so long in fact, that we both decided it would be best to move on though I was only at about half strength. The rest of my magic would accumulate on the way so long as I didn't do anything to magically strenuous.

With the sandstorm gone and our coat and feathers newly cleaned of any excess dirt, we were once again able to take to the skies and did so with all haste. The rest of the trip went by without any more incidents, but we hadn't made good time as a result, and it was nearing evening by the time the ancient structure we were looking for came into view. Just seeing its silhouette in the distance, I could tell that Daring Do was right in that the temple was something out of place in this vast empty desert. It reminded me somewhat of the illustrations I'd seen of the massive ancient cathedrals once erected back when ponies still practiced religious worship of Princess Celestia, though the axis tower in the center was far taller and more pronounced than the other four towers surrounding the structure on each side.

As we made our way closer, I could see that the structure was slightly tilted, and there was evidence that much of it had long since been buried in the sands of the eastern Saddle Arabian desert over many years. That any of the building remained above the surface at all was a miracle, or perhaps it may have been a testament to just how large this temple truly was. I was even more surprised to find that the dark grey stonework, while discolored and chipped with age in some places, was still largely intact with little deterioration. The design of the temple had been incredibly ornate in its day, though the luster and majesty had long since faded now.

Still, my astonishment didn't end there, for as I followed Daring as she circled around the building, I could see that most, if not all, of the windows dotting the ancient stone walls retained the stained-glass work. Of what the windows depicted within the weathered glass I could no longer discern, but something about the temple's preservation made me uneasy and suspicious. Looking at the structure from every angle, the temple could hardly be called a ruin! And yet, though I was no architect, there was a strange sort of beauty I could see in its design—an appreciation or a kind of... respect for how the place stood so firmly against the ravaging hoof of time.

In contrast, Daring Do's expression was tense. The mare looked as though she wanted to be anywhere but here, and I couldn't blame her for that. It was certainly an ominous place, and my strange respect for it didn't change that in the slightest. We continued to circle around the temple until we came to one of the very few broken windows near the top of the center tower. We carefully made our way inside through the window, and upon entering the tower itself, I was immediately struck with several unpleasant sensations at once. Amidst the arid haze of dust and ash doing its best to clog my lungs, there was another smell permeating the air—something foul and old and cloying, like the stench of a long rotted corpse.

While this terrible odor assaulted my nose, my heart was struck by an odd, but overwhelmingly strong sense of nostalgia. Truthfully the sensation had been there since I laid eyes on the ruin, but it was minor enough that I hadn't registered it until now. It was almost like being back in the Golden Oaks Library after all this time, but the experience, strange as it was, was marred by a familiar and unwelcome pull at my thaumic senses. It was the same feeling I'd gotten from the Tree of Harmony and the nameless tome, which could only mean that whatever was here in these ruins had to be related to this ongoing mystery.

The combination of this strange nostalgia, the unplaceable shift in the thaumic field, and the abhorrent stench altogether was a sickening mix, but in a way, it also gave me hope in the form of answers to the questions plaguing my thoughts and quite literally driving me insane.

Looking about, a single ray of sunlight lit the interior, but it was enough for me to see that we'd landed in a surprisingly small circular room of some sort. The air was choked with sand, and large piles of it had built up in a few corners of the room, no doubt blown in through the broken window. I swept my disbelieving gaze across the room and it took me an instant to realize that there were several things wrong. All around me I could see the grim results of what may have been some kind of terrible struggle. Among the many piles of sand and debris left from the crumbling walls and ceiling above were the scattered, blackened, ashen remains of what I believe was a large desk, an ornate chair, and several old bookshelves strewn across the dirty stone tiles that made up the room's floor.

Daring Do had mentioned the remains of twisted creatures that were not entirely equine so I had prepared myself to see the same. What I saw splayed out around the blackened wooden scrap were indeed remains—skeletal remains to be exact—but these were without a doubt, very much the remains of regular equines. Looking a bit closer, I could see several black stains marring the floor and walls of the room and bits of worn and tattered cloth here and there. Also scattered about the room along with the few cracked and bleached skulls, ribcages, femurs, bits of tibiae and the like, were objects that I felt ought not to be there—namely blades and armor rusted dark red with age.

I slowly trotted about the room, taking in the scene and pondering the meaning behind the barding that covered some of the more intact skeletons. Once again I found my dream returning to me, and with that in mind, it didn't take me long to arrive at few conclusions. I stopped my wandering and grimaced at the wanton destruction, feeling a horrible sense of dismay and letting the smell of ash and dust fill my nostrils. The sight, taste, and smell all began to paint a gruesome picture in my mind of a grim and futile struggle for survival, and the countless ancient tomes that had once filled the ruined bookshelves all being put to the torch. With all the sand and the fact that most of the skeletal remains were separate and spread among several other bits of debris, it was impossible for me to tell exactly how many ponies had died here—impossible without a thorough search at least.

So lost in my own musings about what could've transpired so long ago was I that I'd nearly forgotten Daring Do was present. I only realized once more that she was there when she bade me follow her through an empty doorway and out of the room. I could tell she wasn't eager to be here, but rather than follow right away, I took one last look around the room. Aside from the ruined desk, bookshelves, sand, and skeletal remains, there was little else of note... and yet I felt there was something I was missing—a nagging sensation that I'd forgotten something important.

I turned to ask Daring her opinion on what I'd seen, but the mare was already making her way down a darkened hall and towards an old spiral staircase that led further down. I frowned as I watched her go, feeling again that sense that something wasn't right. The mare's face was set in a grim line that gave almost nothing away, but she moved as though she was being stalked by a demon right out of Tartarus. Looking back into the room we'd just come from, I tried to figure out what it was that held me there, but nothing came forth. The room was silent save for the distant howl of the wind outside the temple, and the air was dusty and hot, and yet I felt something cold suddenly settle over me, causing me to shiver involuntarily.

A soft whisper reached my ears then—a whisper so quiet and incomprehensible that it could've been my own imagination. I wanted to believe it was my imagination, but I knew it wasn't, and that was enough to finally pull me out of whatever hold the room had on me. With another small shiver, I turned and quickly retreated from the doorway before following Daring Do down the old crumbling spiral staircase. Whatever may or may not have happened in that room, I knew it had little to do with the answers I sought.

No... what I needed to see was much deeper below the surface, I was all but certain of it.

From out of the darkness, faith was born...

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As Daring and I made our way deeper into the bowels of the temple ruins, I began to realize the full meaning of Daring Do's words—what she'd warned me about as we trekked across the desert.

There was a certain otherworldliness to the temple that made my hair stand on end. Wandering these time-worn halls was an almost dream-like experience, and I strongly felt that it was no mere coincidence given my most recent nightmare. Upon first entering the ruins I could already feel that something was off, but what I'd seen at that point was not completely outside of my expectations. It was as we traveled further down that I truly began to understand.

It wasn't long after we had left our entry point that the sun's light began to fade. It took me some time to realize just how dark the temple had gotten, and I hadn't even noticed until Daring Do stopped to pull an unlit torch and some matches from her saddlebags. She pulled another torch from her bag and offered to do the same for me, but I declined, perfectly capable of making my way without one. With that done, we pushed deeper into the ruins, barely uttering a word between the two of us. Nerves, wonder, and my own thoughts had rendered me silent for the most part.

Many of the rooms that dotted the ancient halls were lost to us, buried entirely beneath the stony debris of the floor or ceiling that had collapsed within. Pitfalls were common and for one without wings or the ability to teleport, a single misstep would certainly be fatal. With many of the windows still intact, very little sand had made its way into the ruins, but much like the room we'd used to enter the ruins, the air was choked with dust and ash. Of the chambers we were actually able to enter, most of them held nothing of interest. As more time passed we did finally make our way to the hall Daring Do had spoken of—the hall whose walls painted a dark and terrible history the likes of which I was sure not even Celestia or Luna knew about.

I took some time to pour over the work, marveling at just how images so crude could be so detailed and intricate all at once. The wall upon which the paintings were done, was far different from the dark grey stone that made up the rest of the old temple. It was made of a grey stone much lighter in color and smooth all the way across the hall; the wall was completely seamless in a way that should've been impossible given the length of the hall and how primitive the ponies who'd built this temple must've been—if ponies they were. Upon the smooth stone, the images displayed in black paint took up the entirety of the wall from top to bottom, spreading across from the beginning of the hall to the other side.

Granted, the other end of the hall was blocked off by a particularly severe cave-in just as Daring had mentioned previously, but it was clear that the paintings continued on past the rubble. The paint itself was just as mysterious as the artwork; a quick thaumic scan indicated that it was made from an as of yet unknown substance. In seeking an answer from Daring Do, she explained that whatever was used as the pigment, binder, and solvent for the paint were all far removed from anything that had been used in the last few millennia to date. It was a fascinating revelation to be sure, but I soon turned my attention back to the painting as a whole, looking over the crudely made equines and paradoxically detailed yet simplistic scenery.

It truly was painted in such a way that a clear story was being told, one that could be easily understood without words. Without realizing it, I'd made my way across the hall until I reached the debris blocking off what remained at the other end of the hall. The stones that made up the debris were fairly large, and looking above me I could see that the cave-in continued up past the ceiling. There was no way to accurately gauge just how bad the cave-in really was, but based on sight alone it may have been more than I could handle on my own, even with my prodigious magical strength. I could perhaps transmogrify the grey stone into sand to make it easier to move, but that would present problems of its own. Accounting for factors such as mass and volume and without knowing just how much debris there really was, it may have even made matters worse—perhaps even fatal.

To my shame and frustration, and despite how I had assured Daring Do of the contrary, I could not clear the debris from the hall—not without risk of worsening the cave-in as a result. Daring Do was understanding of our plight if a touch disappointed. Dispirited and more than a little upset with the situation, I gave the wall one last look before Daring and I moved on. I didn't let the development keep my spirits down for long, as there was far more to see of the temple than this, and something told me I would have my answers either way... more answers than I could've ever wanted to know.

Though we'd stumbled across more remains along the way—more signs of some great struggle that had occurred—many of the rooms were either almost completely empty or the objects and furniture therein falling apart with age or reduced to burnt, blackened rubble. Many times my curiosity threatened to get the better of me, but Daring was always there to pull me back to my senses. Again I found her behavior rather odd given that our purpose was to investigate the ruins. It was almost as though she was pushing me towards some unknown destination within the temple... or perhaps trying to stop me from looking too deeply into any one clue into the past. It may have been that I was reading too much into her actions, but another part of me believed I wasn't too far off the mark.

That alone was not the extent of her strange behavior. There were moments where she had much more to say about the ruins—musings on the overall architecture or thoughts on the origin of the rusted armor seen on many of the skeletal remains and the like. There were some areas, at least in the beginning, where she was content to take her time and thoroughly explore what the ruins had to offer. There were other times, however, where a brief once over was all she gave before quickly moving on, her face grim or unreadable. The latter seemed to be the case more and more with each descent we made further down. When she finally fell completely silent and her expression grew troubled, I couldn't blame her.

I'd seen much of what Daring Do had told me about by now—chambers that were filled with all manner of lethal tools, destroyed altars, mummified bodies strung up in ways that showed clear signs of intentional mutilation, and a marked increased in the body count as we went on, from both what I surmised were knights and cultists of some kind. It was becoming more and more apparent that a large scale battle had taken place, and the outcome hadn't been pleasant for either side. The increasing amount of withered corpses displayed suggested the worst of the fighting had occurred somewhere within the lower levels of the temple. We both did our best to ignore the remains with middling success and proceeded down yet more staircases.

I was unsure of just how much time had passed since we entered the temple, and my sense of time felt skewed, but I knew it had to have been a few hours at the least. It had most likely grown dark outside the ruins, but that meant little to me. I suspected we'd almost, if not already, made our way below the sands outside. We'd gone down several staircases throughout our exploration; there were some points where I'd had to make use of my magic to clear a path, but many times the cave-ins were so severe that we'd had to double back and find different paths altogether. All the while I could feel a subtle but noticeable change in the atmosphere.

Eventually, it began to feel as if the temple was alive—as if it was breathing. The once featureless and mostly uniform halls began to twist and turn in ways that made no sense. The dark grey walls grew darker and had gained a slight sheen, as though covered in some kind of shiny viscous slime. A foul stench rose up seemingly from the depths below, the odor almost enough to make me gag in disgust. Each winding hallway began to make me feel as if Daring and I were wandering the slowly rotting intestines of some colossal creature on the verge of death. Our journey thus far had been relatively benign but it's here at this point that Daring Do's troubling recount of her previous exploration became my reality.

The ambient howl of distant wind had long since faded and both the silence and darkness had grown far too heavy and oppressive. The only sound to be heard was the oddly muted clop of our hooves against the cobbled stone floors. The shadows around us felt like a physical force, doing its best to snuff out any source of light that fell upon it. Daring Do had procured several torches for the expedition, and each one lit was expended more quickly than the last until there were no more, leaving me to light our way with my magic on her behalf. The spell was incredibly simple and required little energy on my part, but even then I could feel some unseen force pressing down upon my horn, trying to choke the magenta glow out of existence.

I wasn't sure if Daring Do could see it the same as I could, but the many halls and chambers we wandered into had grown massive in size—far larger than would be needed for any creature; large enough for a well-aged dragon to make its home. The deeper we went, the more cyclopean and unnervingly unorthodox the architecture became. The walls no longer seemed to be made of uniformly placed grey stone, but of some kind of smooth blackened rock; something that looked like obsidian, but had the properties of diamond. I had never seen nor heard of any such stone, yet something about it, and the rest of my surroundings felt... welcoming—familiar in a way that felt like home; familiar in the same way I felt as I wandered these black halls a mere two nights ago in my mind.

Yes, this was without a doubt the same temple from my dream, I was certain of that now. Unfortunately, that realization and the queer sense of nostalgia I felt did nothing to staunch the sickening unease I felt as we moved ever forward towards an unknown destination. It was also around this time that I began to notice a distinct lack of skeletal remains and dried out corpses scattered about the ruins. I'd gotten so used to the sight of them by now that the abrupt absence of any bodies left me on edge. Already unnerved, I was starting to wonder if we'd somehow moved beyond the ruins and stepped right into another world entirely somewhere along the way. The air had become cold and stagnant and heavy with a foreboding presence that pressed upon my mind like an iron vice, making my head throb painfully.

It was all I could do to keep my simple light spell going... but I had to. I knew that if I let go of this spell for even an instant, something would come for us. Struck by a sudden and horrifying realization, I knew now why no remains littered the floors like we'd seen above. There were monsters in this darkness, shadows creeping within shadows—one of the oldest and most primal fears made real. I remembered them, those silent, wretched, winged things. Down here I could remember their hunger... remember the madness. I recalled how they had devoured that poor mare bones and all, feasting until there was nothing left on that bloody altar. I may not have known exactly what transpired in the depths of this nightmarish place, but one thing I understood with complete clarity was that those creatures never left.

They still wandered these black halls, alive, ageless and eager for the flesh they'd long been denied by time; it was more than a feeling, more than some hunch or supposition... it was an absolute, immutable fact. If we continued on this path without my mage light to guide us, our demise would be assured as certain as the sunrise Celestia brought forth each and every day.

Matters were only made worse when Daring Do began to scratch at her eyes. It was an occasional gesture at first, something done so irregularly that it could've been mistaken for simple irritation due to the dust in the air. Now, however, the scratching was almost constant, and though the mare gave no vocal complaints, I could tell it was getting to her. I saw her ears twitch nervously and her wary eyes dart this way and that in the darkness. After a few moments, she stopped moving altogether; she turned to me and spoke in a harsh but quiet whisper. Her wide eyes were already red from having scratched at them non-stop and her face had become suddenly fearful and even a little desperate.

"You can hear them, can't you? The whispers? The voices? I can't understand what they're saying, but they're so loud... I-It's not my imagination... I knew it wasn't my imagination. We shouldn't be here... I shouldn't have come back... we've gone so much further than I ever dared to go alone. I-It's like a nightmare I can't escape... by Celestia's shining grace my eyes burn... a-and those sun forsaken voices! We... W-We should leave now while you still have some magic left... never should have come back..."

The mare was growing hysterical, becoming far more terrified than I'd ever seen her before. It was like I'd braved the depths with an entirely different pony altogether... but I couldn't blame her for her fear. She didn't know what was down here like I did, but she could feel it. Aside from when we'd first left the room at the very top of the ruins, I hadn't fallen prey to any such malevolent whispers, nor did I feel the same horror—unease and foreboding certainly, but the raw, mind-bending fear just wasn't there. Still firm and resolute in my mind was my desire to find out what secrets were hiding in the darkness. I was close—so very close... but Daring Do was proving to be a problem, a liability now that we'd come this far.

Together we stood, surrounded on all sides by shadow with only my light to shield us from the horrors lurking not so far away. I wracked my brain, trying to find a solution to my predicament... when I heard it. A voice—not like the malicious whispers that plagued Daring Do, but something else. It could barely even be called a voice in fact; it was more a series of thoughts, ideas filling my mind that I knew were not my own. Under normal circumstances, I would never think these types of thoughts, never consider them as any sort of viable option... and yet, with my answers so close I found myself... sorely tempted by these thoughts.

These thoughts and ideas promised a simple solution to my problem, they promised me safe passage to my destination, they promised a deeper understanding of my plight. I was 'chosen', I was 'faithful', I would come to no harm so long as I abandoned the false 'light'. To walk in darkness was to know the truth. Only blind can the faithful See.

Only blind can the faithful See.

Only blind... can the faithful See...

Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Daring Do's voice, but it was far away... so very far away. I could still hear the fear in her voice, but that fear was tinged with worry and confusion. She was baffled by my silence, put off by my expression. She called my name, but I failed to heed her call, there was no need. I'd finally found a solution, one that had been staring me in the face ever since we reached these hallowed halls—no, ever since I had that dream back in the hotel. I had already known what to do, the clues were already there, hidden in plain sight. My dream, the tome, this place... all of it made one thing very clear to me. It made clear that there would be no moving forward without a sacrifice of some kind. If I wanted answers, I would need to cast away the light and in doing so, open up a new path.

Daring Do called my name again with more urgency, and this time I gave a response, a quiet and heartfelt apology—the last words she would ever hear. I wanted to weep and beg for forgiveness as I let the light from my horn die out, but the tears wouldn't come. Upon the release of my spell, the shadows came rushing back in to swallow everything, and with them came a numbing chill cold enough to freeze my blood. There was a heartbeat or two of silence before Daring Do's bloodcurdling scream echoed through the gargantuan hall. The sound carried on ceaselessly, high in pitch and gut-wrenchingly tragic, and I stood there, my eyes shut tight and my entire frame shaking from both the cold and the horrible weight of what I'd just done.

It wasn't long before I heard the scream begin to fade into the distance, accompanied by the sound of flailing hooves sliding against stone, and it was only another few seconds later that the sound of Daring's screams cut out entirely, leaving only the quiet sound of something quickly being dragged across the floor away from me, the noise unbroken by any kind of struggle whatsoever. After what felt like an age, all returned once more to silence, and in that moment, as I opened my eyes, something fundamental to my very being was ripped from me—something I would never get back. I had said before that there was no going back, but that had never been as true as it was now. The only thing I could do now was continue my journey alone, and perhaps that was for the best.

I'd found another guide, after all... something else to light the way forward on my path to the truth.

My path forward was made clear to me...

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I felt free in a way—liberated, released from shackles I hadn't even known I'd been wearing. Maybe what I'd done had broken me, maybe I'd finally given in and accepted my role in this tragedy, whatever that exact role may have been. Perhaps it was simply relief in the knowledge that I would finally be granted some semblance of the truth behind my misfortune... or it could be that I was just pleased to be alive.

Whatever the case may have been, I chose not to dwell on Daring Do's fate as I let my memories guide me to that place of worship that I saw through the eyes of another. I was still unsure of whether or not this 'Sight' was meant to be something literal, spiritual, metaphysical, or something else entirely, but in the literal sense at least, the black corridor Daring and I had been traveling was far clearer in my eyes now than it had been by mage light. Everything in my vision had gained an unearthly luminescence; the obsidian-like walls had a pale glow about them and though the foul stench of death and decay still filled the air, the constant foreboding that clung to my mind had faded to the point where it could be easily ignored.

The creeping shadows had taken Daring and retreated to the depths from whence they'd come, leaving me to make my way to my destination in peace. I was left alone with my thoughts—forced to endure a maelstrom of mixed emotions on my own, but I knew that was exactly how it had to be, and so endure it I did. Thankfully my grim ruminations were short-lived, as it wasn't long before yet another ancient structure came into view. After what I surmised to be half an hour or so more of travel, and descending one final flight of stairs, I finally arrived at the very depths of the ruins—the lowest level of the temple meant only for the eyes of the truly 'faithful', or so I guessed.

Upon reaching the bottom of the steps I saw that I had come to another corridor, though it was less like the cavern-like halls from before and more like the actual temple above. There was only a single corridor stretching roughly a dozen or so yards across; The walls were still made of that strange black stone, but far flatter and smoother, as if sculpted by a professional mason. Lining either side of the hall were pillars built using the same stone, and at the end of the corridor was a large doorway through which lay my final destination. Cautiously I made my way across the hall, finding no reason to be afraid but feeling tense all the same. Within moments I stood before the colossal doors, stopping just short to look them over in awe.

The doorway itself wasn't completely free of debris and the area around it showed clear signs of a violent break-in. Two halves of what was once a massive pair of double doors lay broken into large chunks on the ground. From the looks of them, they'd been made of the same black stone as the rest of the interior and, contrary to my expectations, were unadorned with any kind of symbolic design, or indeed any kind of design at all. They'd been massive in scale and featureless but even reduced to simple debris, the fallen doors somehow still managed to instill intimidation and even a kind of reverence within me.

It was sad in a way, to see something that was once so grand defiled like this, and for what? What had transpired here in this place and the temple above? Some kind of raid? An overly violent attempt to stop some heinous rite enacted by nameless cultists? That seemed to be the most likely answer given what Daring and I had seen throughout this expedition, but then who were these knights? And what of the cultists? Were they the 'Hidden Ones' mentioned in the message I wrote within my journal? What rite were they trying to enact? If my dream was anything to go by, they'd been trying to call something, sacrificing some poor mare to bring forth something from somewhere... but what? And from where? Surely it couldn't have been that monstrous beast from my vision? The questions continued to pile atop one another as I stood there, but the answers would continue to elude me if I didn't move forward, and so I did.

There was a moment of hesitation before I tentatively stepped through the doorway, over the shattered stone doors, and into the large 'cathedral'. It was almost exactly as I remembered it from before; a massive circular chamber whose ceiling was so high above me that it was rendered completely hidden in the shadows, hidden even from my twisted sight. Bearing witness to this place outside of a dream somehow made the experience even more surreal, and I found myself wondering if there was even a ceiling at all or if the chamber was simply built beneath a gateway into some empty starless void. The thought of such a thing made me shudder involuntarily and I averted my gaze away from the 'ceiling' to take in the rest of the room.

What should have been an empty room devoid of all but a few very important details, now looked like some ancient battlefield. Like the temple above, countless pieces of rusted barding, blades, ritual knives and torn and tattered black cloth littered the blood-spattered cobbled stone floor as well as the steps leading up to the raised platform near the back of the chamber. Unlike the temple above, however, there were no corpses to be seen within or among the rusted, worn, and bloodied armor and cloth—no flesh withered and dried with age, no bones bleached by time, nothing save for the dried and blackened blood etched so permanently into the floors and walls that it all may as well have been part of the chamber itself.

If I hadn't known any better, I would have believed all the creatures here spirited away by some unknown force... but that wasn't the case. The victims of this tragedy, whatever it may have been, had all most likely met the same fate as Daring Do. Whether or not it had been before or after they'd slain one another, or even during all that chaos, I wasn't sure. All I knew was that those winged, gluttonous beasts had eaten their fill here in this sacred chamber, devouring the many knights and cultists not fortunate enough to escape in time. It was all a sickening sight to behold, and I now understood why I hadn't seen any remains on the last couple of floors, but even this gruesome display wasn't enough to completely distract me from what lay at the top of the steps on the raised platform.

There, fallen on its side at one end of the platform was a bronze bell far too large for any one pony to carry. It was a bell I recognized all too well, it was the object that stuck out most in my mind from that dream—one bell of a set of three whose ominous yet irresistible sounds together would herald a great change that would doubtless shake the very foundation of our existence. Before I was even aware of it, I'd made my way up the steps and onto the stone platform, my eyes having never left the bell. As I moved to get a better look, I stumbled, barely catching myself in the process. I looked down to see the ground rendered cracked in some places. I followed the cracks in the floor to the altar where the mare had been sacrificed.

Much of the altar had been smashed to rubble along with much of the floor beneath it. Looking back towards the bell, then to the great stone arch above me, I realized the bell had fallen and impacted the altar before rolling to a stop where it now lay. Both the other bells remained suspended high above, silent and unmoving but even so, carrying that same enthralling aura about them. I thought back to my dream and understood that whatever ritual had taken place had failed most likely due to the untimely assault of these knights and the fall of one of the ritual bells. It all clicked together in my head, but there were still yet more questions to be answered. Namely, what was I meant to do here? I'd seen the bells with my own eyes—the 'three instruments that must always remain hidden in Its shadow'—but I felt these weren't what I was meant to see, at least this wasn't all.

There was something else, something I was missing, some piece of the puzzle that was still hidden from me. I furrowed my brow in thought as I pulled my journal, a quill, and some ink from my saddlebags. In the overbearing silence and overwhelming gloom of the 'cathedral', I documented all of my experiences since mine and Daring's departure from Dammare. It took the better part of an hour, and once I'd pinned everything down I rose from my haunches, resigning myself to search the chamber for whatever I was missing. The moment I stood up, however, something dragged my attention to the altar. It was a sensation not unlike that of the foul aura the tome emitted. Wary, I rose from my haunches and prepared to investigate when a sudden voice rang out from the darkness around me, its deep timbre pleasant, welcoming, and terribly out of place.

"You seem rather lost for somepony who's finally found their way... unsure despite the conviction you displayed mere moments ago... perhaps I can be of some assistance in that regard... if you'll have me that is..."

I recognized the voice, and as the owner of said voice stepped out of seemingly nowhere and trotted calmly, almost leisurely into my field of vision smiling his affable smile, I felt a horrible mix of dread and confusion. There, standing before me and giving a slight yet courteous bow, was none other than Sound Mind, looking just as dapper and friendly as I remembered with his perfectly cropped mane and old-fashion black tailcoat. Dumbfounded, I could only stare at him as he looked back at me, his gaze piercing through the very depths of my being despite his calm smile and the fact that I couldn't see the eyes hidden those dark circular glasses. Possibly realizing that I was at a loss for words, the stallion spoke again, his smile widening just a touch.

"An absolute pleasure to see you once more, Twilight Sparkle. I did tell you we'd meet again, did I not? And now here we both are in this ancient tomb, two souls trotting down a certain path not because we want to, but because it is necessary... you've made your decision... you've cast aside most of your doubts... and now I am here to help you along that path. It will not a pleasant journey going forward, Miss Sparkle; you will lose much, but gain even more in return... and I will be here not just as a guide, but as a friend—somepony you can rely on in these trying times that await you.

"Your recent experiences have opened your eyes to what lies 'beyond', but everything you've seen up until now has only been a mere glimpse of the truth you seek. You once denied the path set before you, and I can see that in some ways you still do... but once all is laid bare for you to see with your own eyes, you will realize that there is no escaping what's to come... so please, allow me to accompany you on this path we both travel and I can guarantee you'll reach your destination a much wiser mare than when you first began... and if you still have doubts... I bring you a gift—the 'missing piece of the puzzle' if you will..."

With these words spoken, the stallion reached into his coat and from it pulled a book, a tome not dissimilar from the one I held within my saddlebags. He held it out to me, urging me to take it, and I did so almost involuntarily, my curiosity once again overwhelming my caution and pushing me to do so. Unlike the tome in my bag, this book's cover was unadorned with any kind of esoteric markings whatsoever, leaving the front completely black save for the title, and in remarkably good condition compared to the tattered state of the book I'd taken from Daring Do.

The title itself was engraved in silver and written in a language entirely unfamiliar to me. It wasn't the same as that eldritch and arcane lexicon I'd become accustomed to, but even as the actual words continued to confound my eyes, their meaning slowly but surely came to me and the title, translated into Ponish, escaped my lips in a soft whisper before I could stop myself...

'The Book of Iod'.

A vision suddenly came to me then, an image taken straight from my dream. I saw the familiar scene of a cloaked pony-like creature, his face hidden beneath the shadow of his hood. He stood tall and proud atop a stone platform, speaking to the fellow worshippers that had gathered below him. His speech was passionate and full of zeal; words full of nothing but love and praise for their unholy and vaunted 'God of Death'. In one twisted hoof, he held aloft a book, the Book of Iod—a mysterious text whose pages contained both horrors and wisdom beyond measure; the 'bible' from which the hooded pony read aloud the unholy 'scripture', the truth to end all lies, the truth to end all truths.

Yes... this was that book, I realized, and with that realization came a question, one that I wasn't sure I wanted to be answered. Nevertheless, I turned my disbelieving gaze from the book to stare at Sound Mind, that question spoken only through my expression. The stallion seemed to understand, as his smile grew just a bit more mysterious, but he did not give a vocal answer to my unasked question. I searched his face, looking for any deceit, but finding none. I didn't trust his motives, but it seemed he truly did want to help me find my answers, and he was right.

There was no going back after what I'd allow to happen to Daring Do. I had come this far and though I hadn't checked recently, I was certain my affliction had only gotten worse. I was marked, cursed both physically and mentally; Had I quit my journey here, there would be no fixing me, and my friends and family would ask questions—questions which I'd have no answers to... but this stallion, Sound Mind... he was clearly not a normal pony, but perhaps that was exactly what I needed. Somepony who was mired in the same madness that continued to hound me may have been just what I needed to understand that madness. Perhaps I could use him to gain the knowledge I sought, perhaps he'd be using me, but either way I began to doubt I would make it much further on my own, and that it would be much more difficult to face those I still needed to talk to by myself.

It took another few moments to come to a decision, during which Sound Mind waited patiently for my answer, but eventually—grudgingly—I elected to allow the stallion to guide me down this supposedly necessary path. In the end, it was not a path I wanted to travel alone, and back then, I still believed I could diverge if I so wanted... but I was wrong, and Equus paid the price.

An encounter I wasn't prepared for...

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Having made my decision, I felt both a sense of relief, like a weight lifted from my shoulders and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, as though I'd somehow signed a deal with a demon. In a sense, I suppose I had, but I found the more I thought about it, the less it seemed to matter in the end. I'd chosen my path, and I would continue down it until I found out what the world was hiding from me. That said, I was unsure of how to proceed in the short term. I'd originally planned to seek out Stygian along with Daring Do, but as I was, and with what had transpired, that seemed a foolish notion now.

Still, I had apparently gotten what I came here for, and so, stowing my 'gift' away in my saddlebags for the moment, I moved to exit the 'cathedral', physically and mentally preparing myself to trek all the way back to the surface. I'd intended to think of a plan of action as I made my way up, but Sound Mind had another suggestion. I didn't want to rely too heavily on the stallion. suspicious of his motives as I was, but he was quick to assure me that he had my best interests at heart. Inclining his head politely, he stepped past me and down the steps, stopping just at the bottom and beckoning me forward.

After a moment, I followed with slow tentative steps, still wary of his intentions but curious to see what Sound Mind would do. Once I was close enough, the well-dressed stallion continued trotting forward, but as I made to follow him, the world began to shift around me, the walls and floor wavering in my vision. That mysterious and malignant aura I'd felt so many times before buried its way into my head, my horn burning with the force of it. An intense bout of vertigo made me feel as if the world had flipped sideways and I clenched my eyes shut as I fought against the urge to be violently ill.

Just like that, the pain and discomfort vanished as quickly as it had come, almost as if it had never been. I cracked my eyes open slowly at first, worried about what I'd see, but they snapped open fully upon seeing countless sand dunes stretching endlessly across the horizon, the smooth sand dyed an almost pale white in the light of the moon high above. I could feel my hooves sinking slightly into the sand beneath me and a bitterly cold breeze caress my coat, making me shiver slightly. It was far colder than it had been that last time I'd spent the night in the desert, but even then it didn't bother me overmuch. More concerning was the method in which we'd been transported to the surface. I turned to look behind me and sure enough, the ruins towered over me, impossibly tall and incredibly imposing from this close.

To my side stood Sound Mind, still smiling his affable smile, though it had turned somewhat apologetic as he saw my baffled and indignant expression. Before I could demand any sort of explanation, the stallion simply stated that time and distance didn't matter to a creature who could see beyond such concepts and had even suggested that I too would come to understand this soon enough. The very prospect was fascinating in the extreme, but while my scholarly curiosity was piqued, this only made me more aware of how alien this stallion truly was. Just who was Sound Mind? What was Sound Mind? What secrets, what wisdom—what madness lay behind those dark glasses?

Certainly, a capable unicorn could use magic to shove aside the laws of physics and warp their way across a great distance, but what Sound Mind had done—whatever that may have been—it wasn't mere teleportation. The thaumic field had been horribly twisted out of balance within the ruins, and it had only gotten worse deeper into its depths. Was I to attempt such a jump at that distance in such conditions using magic, it may very well have killed, or at the very least, magically maimed me. Sound Mind, however, looked no worse for wear despite what would normally be a rather reckless feat, even for somepony of my magical capability. Though I would've preferred some kind of warning prior to the unpleasant experience, I let it go and instead focused on what to do next.

I wanted—needed to study the Book of Iod, but I also needed a place to do so discreetly, a more comfortable and less exposed place than the Saddle Arabian desert to think and plan a new course of action once I'd read my fill of the book. What happened next would ultimately depend on what I found within the confines of that 'sacred text'. It took little time to think of my next destination and, with a reluctant request to Sound Mind to do so, we shifted once more to a new location though I was surprised to find the experience much less jarring than it had been before. In an instant, we'd arrived once more in the isolated forest west of Galloping Gorge. In the distance, a few yards away in the middle of a small clearing I could see the familiar shape of Daring Do's cottage.

I turned to Sound Mind, puzzled as to why we hadn't appeared inside the cottage as I'd intended, but Sound Mind only shook his head and silently motioned for me to watch the clearing. I did so, wondering what the issue could possibly be, but as I observed the cottage I quickly understood that something was wrong. A soft amber glow could be seen in the window and the door to the cottage stood slightly ajar. My breath caught in my throat and I felt my heart pound just a bit louder and faster in my chest at the sight. Somepony or something had gotten here before me, who or what could it have been? Why were they here now? Was somepony trying to find me? One of my friends come to check on me? Doubtful at this time of night. Possibly some villain come for revenge against Daring Do? A thief? Or perhaps just a curious traveler who'd somehow stumbled across this place on the way to their next destination?

Whatever or whoever they may have been, I didn't want to take any chances as I was now, so I retreated further into the trees in an attempt to keep myself hidden should the intruder come out of the cottage. I bade Sound Mind do the same, but to my shock, he had already vanished, gone completely from my sight. There was little time to dwell on this development, as just at that moment my ears picked up the slow groan of a heavy metal door being pulled or pushed opened then closed once more a moment later in the distance, followed by the tell-tale clop of hooves pounding softly against the dirt.

The sound seized my attention and I turned back to the cottage to see to my further surprise, not one of the girls come to check on me—not a villain out for revenge nor an invading thief or curious traveler—but the Princess of the Night herself of all ponies. I watched, mouth slightly agape in utter bafflement, as Princess Luna cautiously stepped out from behind Daring Do's humble abode and into the moonlit clearing. For a brief minute, she simply stood there just outside the cottage, her ethereal mane like a self-contained sea of stars billowing in an eternal breeze and her downcast expression deeply pensive and terribly troubled. With the lights left on, the door left ajar, and Luna herself emerging from Daring Do's cellar, it didn't take much to deduce that the mare had been investigating the cottage... but why?

Had she simply been worried about me and had taken it upon herself to check on me after all in the place of my other friends, or was there something more? Did she know something of Daring Do's demise? If so, how was that possible? Why was she here, and why now of all times? Questions upon questions stacked themselves atop one another as I retreated even deeper into the trees, now desperate to stay hidden from view. Unfortunately, my decision to move further away proved to be a mistake, as, despite my attempts at subtlety, the sound of leaves, dirt, and twigs being crushed beneath my hooves was enough to alert the other Princess. Her ears perked up and my heart raced as her head snapped up and over to my general direction.

I stood frozen in the shadows, my every muscle tensing with unrestrained terror as the Princess' eyes narrowed with suspicion. She took a slow and deliberate step towards my position, then another, and a few more before stopping short just a yard or so away from the edge of the clearing. I held my breath as she searched the trees, her eyes shifting this way and that. She frowned in consternation and lit her horn, casting a spell that made her irides glow like frosty blue embers in the night. Despite my efforts to remain silent, a sharp gasp escaped my lips, for I recognized the spell being used. It was a spell to enhance one's natural sight by several degrees, and with that, my attempts at stealth were now in vain.

I felt all hope drain from me, replaced by fear and panic as Luna reeled back in surprise. For a long moment, we locked eyes, mine wide with terror and hers wide with shock and confusion.

"What manner of creature are you?" the Princess exclaimed, her voice tinged with disgust and hostility. Unable to come up with an appropriate response, I simply stood locked in place as she took in the sight of me. Slowly, her expression changed from one of wariness to one of recognition and soon after, utter horror, "no... it cannot be... Twilight? Twilight Sparkle... is that you?"

I closed my eyes and turned away, unable to bear her words and horrified expression. The last thing I'd wanted was to see any of my friends or family like this, and though I had no idea of the extent of my physical changes, it was clear they'd become so severe that I was nearly unrecognizable. Faced with such an unexpected and unwanted encounter, the only thought to grace my mind in that instant was escape—escape from this place, escape from Princess Luna, escape from her words, from her eyes that looked at me with fear and confusion. My horn flared to life, blazing with thaumic energy as I pumped more fuel into a teleportation spell that would send me somewhere far away from here. I heard Luna cry out my name, begging me to wait, pleading with me stop and talk to her, but I didn't listen. I could do no such thing, not as I was now.

Ignoring her words, I blinked out of existence in a blinding flash of magenta and reappeared several kilometers east of the cottage, my blind and hasty teleport having brought me right to the edge of the Galloping Gorge. So great was the strain of what I'd done that upon my arrival my body almost immediately seized in agony and my horn burned as if it had been doused in magma, but I rode out the pain, simply satisfied that I was alive and had escaped Princess Luna's gaze. Once the pain had subsided somewhat, I pressed forward, afraid to stay in one place for too long lest the Princess track me down. I spent the next few hours or so in a haze, my mind paradoxically sharpened and sluggish from both my recent experience and the aftershocks of pushing my magic past its limits in a desperate bid to flee.

In a daze, I descended the cliffside, having somehow found a path down into the gorge in my delirium. I believed I might've heard the sound of Luna's voice calling me from high above at some point, but it may very well have been the paranoid workings of my own rampant imagination. I paid it no mind and continued my reckless descent until at last, I found myself wandering the rather humid interior of a large moist cavern situated near the bottom of the rockface. I'd long since lost track of time and had no idea how long I stumbled about, but I eventually regained some of my bearings. Feeling battered, bruised, weary, and sick, I came to rest against a particularly large stalagmite jutting out of the ground nearby.

For a time I remained slumped against the slick stone, retching profusely and attempting to catch my breath. My emotions were left in tatters, my thoughts inundated with the implications of what my being discovered by Luna could mean for me and my research. They would come looking for me, and it would only be a matter of time before they found me and started asking questions I, in no way, had any intention of answering. It took me a good minute or so before I realized tears had begun spilling from my eyes, but even then I did nothing to stop them. Overwhelmed, I wept openly, sinking to the floor as I let my breakdown run its course. I almost didn't notice the gentle touch of a hoof resting itself on my shaking shoulders.

Looking up through a haze of tears, I saw the softly smiling form of Sound Mind staring back at me. His dark glasses gave nothing away, but that didn't matter to me, nor did I care at that moment to ask where he'd disappeared or why. All that mattered was that he was here now, that somepony was here. I thought back to the words he'd spoken in the sacrificial chamber. I thought back to Luna's reaction to my appearance and understood that even if I couldn't trust his motives, Sound Mind might've been the only one I could rely on going forward. Had he allowed himself to be seen by Princess Luna, perhaps things may have gone a lot worse than they did. It was a simple rationalization, but an effective one.

The longer it took for me to solve this mystery, the more monstrous I would become in both mind and body. Looking at Sound Mind, feeling his twisted aura and seeing that smile that looked just ever so slightly off, I could tell this stallion was like me somehow—no, worse than me. He was a true monster, a horrific enigma wearing the skin of a pony. I couldn't fathom his true nature or intent, but the more time I spent around him, the more I could 'see' it. Still, even knowing this brought a strange sort of comfort in that I wouldn't be judged or abandoned for whatever I was becoming. If I somehow fell to this 'darkness' before I was able to accomplish my goal, at the very least I wouldn't be alone.

Something bothered me about that thought but I was too exhausted to delve too deeply into it. Without realizing it, I had rested my head on the cool wet ground beneath me and my eyes had closed themselves almost involuntarily. I didn't know if Sound Mind was still there, but I knew he would be there when I next awoke, and so with my emotions once more in check and my worries suppressed for the time being, I let my weary body rest and consciousness fade as sorely needed slumber took hold.

Was there still a pony left beneath the surface?

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A distant but melodious parade of musical notes reached my ears, pulling my subconscious mind from the black void of a dreamless sleep and causing me to stir, but not fully awaken. It was a strange sound to be sure, but not entirely unpleasant I found, and, now curious to discover the source, my eyes slid slowly open.

The first sight to greet my eyes was a vast cavern carved of black stone. There was no entrance or exit to be found, making me feel as though I'd awoken in a massive earthen tomb rather than a cavern. There was a certain weight to my movement as I tried to rise—a heaviness that shouldn't have been but nevertheless was. I felt like a stranger in my own skin, each and every shift of my body feeling wrong in a way that I couldn't fathom in my groggy state. The second thing I noticed as I tried to regain my bearings was the much smaller form of a pony standing before me. Bemused, I lowered myself to get a better look, only to realize that the pony I was looking at was a lavender alicorn mare.

She looked back up at me with eyes of glimmering amethyst—eyes that would've been beautiful had it not been for the terrible emptiness within. The mare's form was semi-transparent, glowing with an ethereal light; a shining beacon in the darkness. Her smile was wide and friendly at first glance, but as with her eyes, there was nothing beneath the outward expression. I'd seen this mare somewhere before, and though her name escaped me, there was an air of something about her that made me uneasy. The longer I observed this apparition the more I felt as if I was forgetting something... something important. I began to feel as if there was something I was supposed to be doing, some task I was meant to accomplish.

Try as I might to find the source of this sensation, nothing came to mind. As tired as I was, I could barely muster the energy or desire to care. It wasn't long before I began to lose interest in the mare and I found myself once again lowering back to the ground, eager to return to my slumber. My eyelids had only just started to slip shut when the smiling apparition stirred. I opened my eyes fully and watched as her smile vanished, leaving her features blank. She raised an upturned hoof and, where there was once nothing, a small white writhing mass appeared. Though it was no larger than her hoof, there was an indescribable hideousness about the thing that restlessly squelched and squirmed in the mare's grasp. Still, it had caught my interest, and so I once again rose to my full height and waited to see what would happen next.

The mare eyed me for another few seconds before looking down at the squirming mass in her hoof. Without any sort of preamble whatsoever, she dropped it on the ground at her hooves and stepped back as it quickly burrowed itself into the rough patch of dark dirt. For a long moment, all that could be heard was the sonorous music that continued to play somewhere in the distance, but then, before my very eyes, something began to grow from where the thing had buried itself. It was only then that I understood that the small writhing mass was a 'seed' from which a new 'tree' was being born.

In a matter of minutes, the 'seed' had grown from a tiny bright blue 'sapling' to a full-sized tree whose twisted branches flared out in every direction. Its strange jagged crystalline structure cast a radiant light within the tomb of black stone and from each branch hung several small white orbs that were more akin to ornaments than actual leaves. Seemingly as if by some instinct, I recoiled from the light, emitting a sound utterly alien to my own ears in my initial displeasure—a sound loud enough to drown out the distant music and set the earth quaking slightly.

Said displeasure didn't last long and was quickly replaced by further interest as I lowered myself back down to eye the 'tree' more closely. Embedded within the center, pulsing with its own eerie black light, was a strange gem shaped like a six-pointed star. Upon five of the branches were five more gems, each resonating with a dark glow that drew me in, causing something in my memory to nearly shake itself loose. Even as I struggled to understand what it all meant, I felt a hunger grow within me—a hunger for something immaterial. I drank in the sight of that star-shaped crystal as if that alone would sate this strange and powerful hunger. I slowly reached out to touch it, and as I did, I could hear the distant music gradually grow louder in pitch, filling my ears with its increasingly discordant tone.

My thoughts grew confused as several writhing black limbs began to envelop the tree, slowly—almost languidly—curling their way around its glowing branches. The eerie anti-light emanating from the gem in the center seemed to grow in intensity and an instant later I found myself assaulted by countless white tendrils that had emerged from the tree. The limbs were ghostlike in appearance but far from intangible, and before I could react, I was pulled towards the tree. My entire body was wracked with a sudden pain so intense that all thoughts fled from my mind. The last thing I saw before my vision went white was the face of that ethereal mare, her empty smile once more spread across her face as she looked on.

I felt myself pulled in every direction at once. The music had grown so loud that it drowned out everything else. It was all I could hear, it and the pain had both become my entire existence and for the briefest of moments, there was nothing else. Then, all at once, everything snapped back into place and I found I was once again back in the cold void of space, now fully cognizant of who and what I was as I floated among the endless myriad of stars. Though this place had once filled me with an unfathomable sense of terror, I now felt a strange sort of calm—a peace that I couldn't quite describe. The music continued to fill the universe around me and somewhere far below me, I could see two celestial bodies both familiar in their appearance.

One could be mistaken for a rusty red moon had it not been for the blazing red eye at its center and the neverending 'song' it emitted as it wandered the cosmos, the other I knew was once my home. I watched with a dispassionate gaze as the moon-like creature slowly passed over the much larger planet, casting a shadow that gradually spread across the entire world until it was fully engulfed in a darkness so absolute that there was little distinction between it and the rest of the pitch-black void surrounding me. Both the sun and moon quickly followed suit, blackening as if infected by the same necrotic disease that had claimed the planet the other two celestial bodies encircled.

Even as the creature moved on, its task seemingly done, the shadow remained, and in the wake of the fading song, I could hear them... those horrid screams—the wails of those whose fates had been sealed by forces they could never hope to understand or prepare for. Among those screams, was the alien wail of once such force, something that had awakened from its long slumber to once more reign over a world devoid of light. I watched it all, feeling a touch of pity... but nothing more. Eventually, the screams died out and all returned to silence save for another sound that, amidst the deafening screams and wails of the damned, had escaped my notice until now.

As I was suddenly and violently yanked away from the scene and forced into true consciousness, I could just make out the dying echo of bells ringing a somber yet beautiful tone across the void.

I awoke with a start, my body feeling terribly out of sorts as I scrambled to my hooves. In an instant, I'd gone from deep sleep to full awareness, and it took me a moment to mentally recover from the rather jarring experience. The dream, the nightmare, the vision flooded my mind with confusion and understanding in equal measure. There was much about what I saw that I didn't fully comprehend, but that was only because I hadn't the context for it. One thing I now knew for certain, however, was that the Harbinger was coming and that its song would signal the end of the world as we knew it. The thought that I had somehow drawn its attention to our humble little planet crossed my mind, but I dismissed the notion as ridiculous.

After all, what was I but an insignificant speck in the nigh endless expanse of the cosmos? No, what undoubtedly drew Ghroth to my world was the thing that had most likely been sleeping beneath Foal Mountain for countless millennia—an ancient, eldritch creature for whom I had no name. This was, of course, all speculation for the moment based on mine and Daring Do's research, but I was convinced that this was the case, and thanks in no small part to Sound Mind, I may have had a way to find a concrete answer to many of the questions my latest vision had added to the others that continued to haunt me.

An excitement I hadn't felt since my initial study of the nameless tome overwhelmed me as I pulled my saddlebags from where I'd dropped them before. Whatever I hadn't been able to find in that nameless tone may very well have been in the Book of Iod, and I could hardly suppress my curiosity as I reached into the pouch that contained the book in question. Unfortunately, any sense of wonder or excitement I felt at that moment was washed away in a sea of confusion and concern as my front leg came into view. I remembered feeling odd upon waking but had pushed that aside in favor of the vision, but now, as I stood there in the damp cavern I'd woken in staring at my leg, I began to get a sense of just how much I'd changed over the last few days.

My coat had once again shifted in hue, this time from a royal purple to a darker violet, but that was far from the worst of it. The dark violet fur that covered the limb looked strangely glossy in the dim light of the cave, almost fake in a sense—like a changeling's chitin if it were a different shade and covered in fur. As off-putting as the sight was, far more unsettling were the many small, but clearly visible cracks spread across the entire length of my leg. It all brought to mind the image of an ill-treated porcelain doll, and that only served to drive home the idea that my coat and the skin beneath were somehow fake in their appearance. In a way, it made sense given how oddly... constrained I'd felt since waking only moments ago, like I'd been squeezed into a suit made far too small for my frame.

"You feel as though your skin is not your own, but rather a shell that hides what you're becoming, a hollow vessel to be cast aside once the true 'you' has been fully realized. Make no mistake, Miss Sparkle, there is a price to be paid for the kind of truths you wish to uncover, one that you pay even as we speak."

At the familiar voice, I turned to see the stallion who'd spoken those portentous words standing just a short distance away next to a small twisting rivulet that led deeper into the cavern. Sound Mind inclined his head in greeting and spoke again once he had my attention, his voice pleasant but his charming smile devoid of any real emotion.

"While I would like to think you had a restful sleep, Miss Sparkle, it would appear I'd be mistaken given your reaction upon waking. Ah, but that aside, I'm sure you're eager to see the full extent of your... transformation. I trust it'll come as quite a shock, but rest assured, as your guide, I will not allow this unfortunate circumstance to hinder your path to the secrets that remain yet hidden beyond the veil. So come, take a look for yourself..."

With that proclamation, Sound Mind stepped aside and gestured to the murky water silently trickling through the cavern near where he stood. I looked from Sound Mind to the rivulet, pondering my changes and the lack of horror on my part. There was a fair amount of worry, but even that was gradually reduced at Sound Mind's words and the only other strong emotion that came to mind was my immense curiosity. With that being the case, I made my way over to the small stream and, with one last look at Sound Mind, peered into the grimy water. One spell later and the water's surface became as reflective as a mirror.

Just as Sound Mind had predicted, I couldn't help but let out a small gasp of shock at what stared back at me. I was quite literally a broken creature, my face and chest area a mess of deep fractures that varied in size and severity. In some cases, I could even see small black tendrils slipping in and out of the larger cracks in my glossy violet coat. My face it seemed had suffered the worst of whatever foul curse had befallen me. My visage—while riddled with the same jagged, crisscrossing lines that covered my forelegs—remained intact for the most part, as did my horn and half of my mane.

Again I was reminded of the porcelain doll as I took in my crumbling veneer. The left side of my face, just below my horn and reaching down to just right above the jawbone, had completely broken away along with the entirety of my left eye. What was revealed beneath the surface was not bone or muscle or anything of the sort one would expect to see past the skin, but something that, in my opinion, might've been far worse. What lay beneath was something wholly inequine—a writhing mass of living shadow, twisted umbral matter that bled into my mane and left one half of it whipping and thrashing about like a mess of miniature cephalopodic limbs.

It was a ghastly sight and upon witnessing it for myself—if it had been half as bad as this before I'd fallen asleep—I couldn't blame Luna for her reaction. A small shudder passed through me as I thought back to the winged shadow beasts below the temple and wondered if they had once been normal ponies like me. That I would become just another one of their number was not an idea I wanted to entertain, but as things stood there was nothing I could do. I turned to check the rest of my body and found that the cracks in my coat stopped just before my wings, leaving the rest of my body unblemished save for the strange gloss and dark violet color. I half expected my cutie mark to have changed along with the rest of me, and it had somewhat.

For the most part, it was the same as it ever was, but the six-pointed magenta star in the middle now pulsed with an eerie black light. That it was the same sort of unnerving anti-light I'd seen in my vision did not escape my notice, but rather than worry me, it only further stoked the blazing fire of my curiosity. Looking over myself once more, I turned back to Sound Mind with a look of grim acceptance, any anxiety I had left draining away with the knowledge that nothing could be done except to push forward. Sound Mind nodded and smiled back at me as if to reassure me that everything would turn out just the way it was meant to. Whether that was good or bad I had no idea, but I chose to set that aside and focus on my study of the book.

If the latter half of my vision meant what I thought it did, then it was that much more important that I solve this mystery, and quickly. There was no time to fret over my appearance or the ramifications of revealing myself to my friends, not when there was research to be done. With that in mind, I returned to my saddlebags, pulled both my journal and the Book of Iod from their resting place, and let the rest of the world fall away as I lost myself in the pages of yet another tome that should have never seen the light of day.

I found the means to seize what I desired most...

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I had chosen to retreat further into the cavern to ensure my privacy and peace of mind as I read through the Book of Iod. I'd traveled deep enough that no light from the world outside could reach me, and with my ever waning need or desire to sleep—recent events notwithstanding—time had been reduced to little more than a stranger to whom I paid no heed.

For what may have been several hours, I devour the blasphemous text in full without rest, only pausing every so often to document my musings or add new theories to my journal. A contentedness had settled over me that I hadn't felt since before that ill-fated trip into the Everfree with my friends—a different time that felt like it had happened an age ago. The deeper I delved into my research, the easier it became to push all other worldly woes aside, for what I'd discovered within the Book of Iod was far too fascinating to tear my attention away from for even a moment.

All manner of arcane truths made themselves known to me through this book, and I absorbed every bit of its ancient lore, concepts, precepts, and even the lessons it had to teach. Like the nameless tome, the Book of Iod too imparted knowledge of horrendous rituals and terrifying creatures of cosmic descent, and with the two together, I began to understand just how little I knew—how little any of us knew. There was so much more to be discovered outside this world than within it, and I realized such knowledge would be impossible to obtain through normal means. In that way, I'd come to feel a sort of gratitude for the events that had led me to where I was now.

Without them, I would have remained blind in a much more mundane sense—ignorant of the horrors and wonders that existed just outside our collective periphery. Of course, this was to say nothing of Sound Mind. For all the knowledge that spilled forth from the book and for as much as I understood that he was not at all as equine as his outward appearance suggested, I could find nothing about the kind of creature he really was, nor could I discern his motives or true nature. He remained an anomaly that couldn't be properly uncovered—a mystery to be unraveled in his own right.

As I began my studies the stallion had made it clear that he had no intention of feeding me the answers I sought, but his words were unnecessary, as I had no intention of asking for his help on such matters. We both agreed that he was there not as a teacher, but a guide only—something to help keep my eyes forward and focused towards my ultimate goal. And so it was that Sound Mind had left me in that cavern to continue my research alone, promising to return to my side when he was needed again. I wasn't sure when that would be, but I didn't concern myself with his words or absence and in fact, was glad he'd taken his leave. His overwhelming presence had proven to be a distraction, and that was not something I needed now when I was so deeply entrenched in my work.

As wary as I was, I also felt that Sound Mind was a mystery that was best left unsolved, at least for the moment. There were other revelations to be uncovered, and through my extensive research, I had finally managed to put a name to the as-of-yet unnamed creature sleeping deep beneath the earth's surface. The Cult of the Hidden Ones worshipped and revered the ancient monstrosity as the Old Night, the Dark Silent One, and, in some circles, a god of death. Zushakon was the name given to their god, a towering abomination of unfathomable darkness spawned countless eons ago from the Unbegotten Source. Neither book gave any insight as to what this 'Unbegotten Source' was or where it originated from, but it was clear by the text that neither Zushakon nor its mysterious 'source' was native to this planet.

It wasn't all that much of a stretch given what I'd seen, but there was no explanation of how Zushakon had arrived here from beyond the stars to begin with. In fact, a worrying amount of what I'd read remained unexplained or unverified or outright incomplete. While I could link much of the text to my own experiences in order to gain some plausibility, the lack of truly verifiable information left a sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the fact that neither book had a penned author attached to them. When exactly were these books written? Where had the writers of these tomes gotten their information and how? As much as I was learning, there were still many questions that remained unanswered, and just as I'd expected, additional steps would need to be taken outside of my isolated studies.

I still needed more pieces than what I'd been given thus far if I was to form a full picture of what was going on. Thankfully the Book of Iod had provided some solutions that would make my investigation much easier. Ignoring the many rituals used to summon creatures from another domain, there were several smaller rites one could use to cloak one's true appearance, remain unseen in plain sight, move great distances such as Sound Mind had done, and many more besides. Some rites required sacrifices both great and small, but others merely required a certain set of sigils be drawn, a strong mental focus, and that the right words be uttered aloud.

Through a great deal of painful trial and error, I had found, much to my delight, that a natural magic user such as myself could twist their thaumic energy in such a way as to make certain rites work without the need for sigils. With additional practice, the required words needed only to be thought rather than spoken aloud, but as convenient as this solution was, there were drawbacks to be considered. What was cast wasn't strictly 'magic' but a force far more alien and esoteric. As an apparent result, while much easier to cast than normal magic, the rites put a certain amount of strain on the natural thaumic field—some more than others.

I wasn't sure what effect it would have if the rites were used in excess, but I didn't want to find out. I'd also discovered, through means I take absolutely no pride in and dare not speak about aloud, that this method couldn't be used to complete the rites that required sacrifices. Still, what I could use was enough to aid me in my endeavors and with my research finally having hit a wall, I felt it was time to use these newfound abilities to enact my next plan. It was risky, but there were certain ponies I needed to consult with. After reading the Book of Iod I had more questions that needed answering and hypotheses that I needed to verify, and there were only a select few ponies I knew of that could help me.

With my mind set and my hesitation cast aside, I packed my books and journal away in my saddlebags, then cast three rites in quick succession—one rite to hide my hideous new form beneath the veil of the pony I'd once been, another to hide my presence from the naked eye, and a third to take me directly to my castle to speak with my number one assistant. My actions had a noticeable effect on the thaumic field, but no lasting harm seemed to come of it so far, so I bore it and pushed through the discomfort. I arrived within the study of my castle only realizing moments before that I cast no protection against the light outside the cavern I'd come from, but to my surprise, I hadn't needed it.

Where I expected the burning and itching of my eyes to have worsened significantly, there was no pain as I took in the afternoon sunlight cast through one of the many windows and reflecting off the various crystalline pillars in the study. The development puzzled me for a moment before I eventually came to the conclusion that Sound Mind must've somehow done his part to aid me as he said he would. I couldn't be sure that was the case, but there were other matters to concern myself with at the moment so I chose not to dwell on it. For now, I cast my searching gaze around the study and saw that I was alone in the room. With this in mind, I took a few precious seconds to ruminate on everything that had happened to me and how long it had actually been since I last set hoof in this castle.

It really had felt like ages, but there was a surprising lack of nostalgia or sentimentality for my home; the crystalline walls, the blackened hearth, my desk, the many bookshelves that lined the walls, and the various gifts and other trinkets I'd collected over the course of my adventures with the other girls all conveyed a hollow feeling inside me—an emptiness and discomfort that made me feel as if I was no longer welcome here after what I'd done. More than a little put off by the sensation, I grimaced and hurried out of the study, suddenly eager to be done with my task and gone from this place. Having gained a much greater understanding of the world around me, I let the arcane senses I'd learned guide me to Spike's location, and was relieved to find the baby dragon alone in my room.

With one last check to make sure there was no presence other than mine and my assistant's, I released the glamour that kept me hidden from view and flashed into my room through a normal teleportation spell. My sudden appearance startled the baby dragon, but such a reaction was to be expected and I paid it no mind. The sight of his small, slightly pudgy form and his innocent face gave me momentary pause. I looked, quite mistakenly, into his draconic jade eyes and guilt for my ill deeds and obsessive behavior reared its ugly head. As quickly as the emotion had come, I shoved it away, cast it aside where it wouldn't hinder me from doing what had to be done.

A mental reminder to myself that it was far too late for regret was sufficient to regain my senses and, ignoring the dull and distant ache in my heart, I wrapped Spike in a hug and assured him that I was okay. Any fears I had of the rite failing to keep my true visage hidden were quashed thoroughly as Spike unreservedly returned my affection. The drake, of course, had many questions, but I begged him to hold off as I inquired about Starlight Glimmer and the other girls whereabouts. He informed me that, as I suspected, they had all set out to search for me. With a slight bitterness in his voice, he mentioned how he'd been told to wait here back in the castle in case I returned.

Luna had indeed informed Spike and the others of my hideous transformation, but again I assuaged his fears with my presence and words of comfort. I also learned to my relief, that Luna had not yet discovered what I'd truly been up to during my time away, or if she had, she hadn't told the others, but it was clear Spike at least had guessed that something was horribly wrong. Unwilling to let the opportunity pass, I—revealing some of, but not the entire truth of the matter—told the baby dragon that in my research I discovered that there were malevolent forces at work that sought to destroy Equestria, and in my folly I'd fallen victim to a curse and had cloaked my true appearance through the use of magic. Again the questions came and again I urged my assistant not to worry overmuch or pry too deeply for his own safety.

I could tell that Spike was uneasy and couldn't help but wonder suspiciously if it came from just my words alone or a subconscious cognizance of the changes that lay hidden just beneath the rite. Whatever the case, I reassured him with the promise of a solution to rid myself of this nameless curse. Pulling a piece of parchment, some ink and a quill from my saddlebags, I began to pen a letter as I explained the similarities between my affliction and the darkness that had overtaken Stygian so long ago, and that Star Swirl would know of a way to lift the curse. Fortunately, after ridding Stygian of his dark influence, I had the foresight to inform Star Swirl of communication by dragonfire, a spell I was surprised to find was one of his own creation.

And so, having written out a formal yet heartfelt request to Star Swirl for his aid, I gave my number one assistant the letter to deliver, instructing him not to read its contents and pleading him not to tell any of the Princesses or my other friends that I had come here or what I was planning, not until I talked to Star Swirl and lifted my curse. I had hoped to rely on his implicit trust to keep him silent on the matter, but he instead insisted that I talk to the other girls and fix the problem together. In hindsight I supposed I should've expected such an answer and it was clear he did not want me to leave again, but the sentiment only served to irk and delay me further. Still, I suppressed my irritation and promised to speak with everypony else once I'd discussed my situation with Star Swirl.

That seemed to be enough to convince him for the most part and he did as he was told, sending the letter off to the wizened stallion, wherever he may have been. It was clear from his expression that Spike was still against my wishes, and as we waited for a response he continued in his attempts to convince me to bring the others with me, but I would not relent. Speaking to Star Swirl alone was enough of a risk as things stood, and should things take a turn for the worst, I still would've preferred the others not get caught in the middle of it all. Thankfully it wasn't long before Star Swirl's reply came in a brilliant burst of bright green flame, and as I'd hoped, he had agreed to a discreet meeting to discuss my rather harrowing dilemma.

Having also been told of the whereabouts of Stygian through the letter, I had obtained everything I needed and could finally depart this place, my home that felt more and more unfamiliar with each passing moment. I bid a solemn farewell to Spike who tried one last time to convince me to stay and merely nodded sadly in response when I gave my inevitable answer. Without further preamble, I stowed away Star Swirl's letter and excused myself from the room, after which I quickly used another rite to shift to a location far removed from Equestrian lands. Apparently Star Swirl's travels had taken him to east-central Zebrica far to the southwest of the Equestrian continent. My next destination would be a remote village situated in Tambarare za Kaskazini, the Northern Plains.

After the misunderstanding that had arisen around Zecora, back when I was still relatively new to Ponyville, I made an earnest effort to learn more about Zebras and their customs, so I was not completely ignorant of what I might find, but there was still much I had yet to learn about Zebrica. I would have liked to make additional preparations, as I'd never been to Zebrica before now, but I couldn't afford the luxury, not when my friends and the Princesses were searching for me. I had begged Spike not to tell the others of me, but I knew the drake; I knew how much he cared for me, and I knew that if it was for my sake, he would tell the others despite my wishes to the contrary. I could see the intent in his eyes even as we said goodbye.

It was for that reason that I'd carefully plucked a loose scale from his hide as we embraced and used it as a catalyst in a certain rite moments before I left the castle behind. It was a relatively harmless thing that suppressed the memories of the target for a set period of time depending on the catalyst used. For a simple scale, I could expect the effect to last three or four days at the very least—plenty of time to accomplish my next couple of tasks. I hadn't wanted to resort to more occult means when it came to Spike, but if needs must, then I wouldn't hesitate, not anymore. There were more powerful rituals to complete wipe the memory of an individual, and some spells that could also function the same way. Unfortunately, those rituals required much greater sacrifice, and the casting of normal unicorn magic—unlike the rites I'd been using—was a clearly visible and audible action that needed close contact to work.

No, this was enough for now, and with that done, I could now turn my full attention towards my inevitably troubling discussion with Star Swirl regarding the true nature of the Tree of Harmony.

I came to know true madness...

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The directions Starswirl had provided in his letter were clear and concise enough to follow even without the aid of a map. I had no detailed map of Zebrica specifically, but the instructions written by the wizened old stallion and the world map given to me by Daring Do before our departure to Saddle Arabia was enough to get a general idea of where my next destination lay. Farasi Mweupe was the name of the village according to Starswirl; it was an isolated town whose small community barely classified it above the size of a hamlet—a fact that did not bother me in the slightest and, in fact, would make things easier should the worst occur.

My intent was to appear somewhere unseen just outside the village and enter by inconspicuous means so as not to alarm the locals or Starswirl with my sudden presence. The rite I'd cast did indeed put me exactly where I'd expected to appear, but the moment I arrived, I could feel immediately that something was wrong. I'd touched down in the middle of a wide-open field of tall grass beneath the shade of an unfamiliar tree. The sun above beat down on me mercilessly and—while I still felt no real pain caused by the light of the sun's rays—my stomach churned with immense discomfort and I felt an unsettling sense of exposure as I took in the cloudless blue sky.

The heat was somewhat mitigated by a slightly cool breeze that disturbed the relatively motionless tall grass, causing large patches of it to ebb and flow like a brilliant golden sea. It was a breathtaking scene to be sure, but my eyes were drawn not to the sea of golden grass before me or the lightly shaded backdrop of majestic mountains in the far distance, but to a large clearing several dozen yards away, sitting just on the edge of my vision. Within the clearing, I could just make out a small settlement surrounded by high, sturdy-looking uniform walls made from what appeared to be the local timber in the area. The thickly thatched roofs of several structures could also be seen peeking just above the surrounding walls, and seeing all of this, I was convinced I'd reached my destination.

Still, something pulled at me, a strange sensation that I was being watched from a distance. Something called to me from that village, and I was certain it wasn't Starswirl. No, this was not Starswirl, but something wholly different and yet something I'd felt time and time again lately—an otherworldly force not dissimilar to that which permeated the depths far below the ruined temple back in Saddle Arabia. I didn't know who or what that sensation could've possibly come from, nor had I expected it in the slightest, but who or whatever it may have been, it was waiting for me.

Wary of the situation, I began making my way towards the village moving around the settlement until I spotted a large set of wooden gates built into the walls. The gates were somewhat crude but looked no less solid than the walls around them, and seeing them, I began to wonder what such a small and remote town would need with such defenses as it had. From the outside, it looked almost militant, the impression not reduced any by the two burly zebra standing guard on either side of the current open gates. While they were adorned with the same kind of golden rings Zecora wore about their neck and biceps, they wore no actual armor—though, given their size, they hardly looked as if they needed it. Each guard was just as large as, if not larger than, Big Mac and resting on their withers were equally large spears—weapons that looked well-made and deadly as one could imagine.

Their faces were hard as stone, their eyes alert and unflinching as they scanned the field for any potential threats. As I trotted into view a few yards away, they turned those unflinching gazes toward me, their suspicion as sharp and instantaneous as the spearpoints they snapped in my direction. One of the guards called out to me suddenly, his voice as gravelly as pavement and deep as a trench. I, in my lack of knowledge when it came to the Zebrican tongue, failed to parse his words and merely froze mid-stride. I couldn't tell whether or not they'd seen through the rite and glimpsed my true self, and was about to weigh my options, but then I noticed that the other guard was eyeing me strangely, his spear slightly lowered and a bemused look upon his face. A moment later his bemusement turned to recognition and he, in turn, whispered something to his fellow warrior.

The shouting zebra paused in his incomprehensible tirade to listen, confusion twisting his countenance. While I could hear every word they spoke, I still was unable to understand the meaning, though one phrase did catch my attention as one of the guards seemed to put far more emphasis on it as he gestured to me. The more suspicious of the two looked surprised but nodded a moment later. He still looked somewhat displeased at whatever had been said but gave no complaint or argument. Once the hushed and hurried conversation was over, they both lowered their weapons and trotted inside the open gates, one of them silently motioning for me to follow. I followed obediently, relieved that the situation had resolved itself for now.

As we entered the little town of Farasi Mweupe, I let my eyes wander to the scenery before me. Each structure seemed to be made up of a combination of finely sculpted bricks of light tan clay and smoothly cut wood. Zebrican reed was used for the thatching of roofs on most homes. It was clear by the intricate design that they weren't just simple huts, but neither were they the complete ideal of the truly modern structure you'd seen in most towns in Equestria, the older fashioned Equestrian settlements such as Ponyville notwithstanding. All in all, the masonry and woodwork of these structures gave Farasi Mweupe a rather odd bent. All around me—moving in and out of homes, tending to mundane tasks and everyday chores, chatting with friends and neighbors—were the residents of the village.

Zebra of all ages roamed the village; mothers and fathers tended to their rambunctious young foals while the elderly did what they could to contribute to the village, limited as they were by their advanced age. Their traditionalistic wear of golden jewelry, coats striped in striking patterns of black, white, and even grey, and intricately shaved, tied, or wrapped manes and tails all smacked of a truly cultured community of creatures. Such a sight would have moved me deeply had it not been for their eyes, staring at me as I passed by with the same suspicion and accusation as the guard before. Everywhere I was led, the activity would cease momentarily and the air would grow just a little more tense—the world just a little quieter in my wake. In the ensuing silence, I would occasionally hear that same phrase the guard had spoken earlier whispered by the townsfolk.

I watched with some minor consternation as husbands stood protectively in front of their wives or mothers hurriedly ushered their foals into their homes, all the while never taking their eyes off of me. I had the thought that this must be what it feels like to be treated like a dangerous animal or some lowly criminal. The idea amused me in a way, but I dared not let that amusement show, instead keeping my outward expression stoic and focused on the path ahead. Eventually, the guard escorting me through the village led me to the center of Farasi Mweupe, where what must've been the largest of the huts stood tall and imposing—easily reaching at least two stories. Like the other huts, this too was made of clay bricks, wood, and reed, but the rounded walls were adorned with a complex pattern of geometric shapes painted in various greens, reds, and yellows.

What was more noticeable and of far more concern to me was not the design, but rather the fact that whatever strange force had called to me was coming from this hut. There was no mistaking that sensation, and this was where I felt it the strongest. I could feel the gaze of something pressing down on me, but I was unable to tell if it was malevolent or not. It was a vague presence hiding its intent, and that gave me pause. Intrigue and worry filled me in equal measure and I surmised that whatever this presence was, was the cause for the quiet yet palpable unrest I'd seen around the village. As much sense as that made, it still begged the question of what it had to do with their attitude towards me. I had some idea of what it could mean, but I dared not jump to any conclusions, although I couldn't help but wonder if those words I'd been hearing from the villagers also had something to do with the situation.

Two more guards with short curved blades sheathed and strapped to their sides stood on either side of the entrance to the large hut, Zebrican mares who were smaller in size than my current escorts but no less intimidating for it in the slightest. As we came near, the mares looked our way and one of them called out to us, much like what had happened at the village gates. There was another brief conversation between each of the four guards and once it was done the two stallions retreated back the way we'd come and one of the mares stepped inside the hut, presumably to inform whoever was inside that I was here. Unsure of what to do, I attempted to follow the mare inside, only to be rebuffed with a rather rough shove and a harsh, if not fully understood, word by the remaining mare.

It didn't take very long before the other mare returned, though this time she'd brought a familiar face with her. Stepping past the dark curtain that served to cover the doorway was Star Swirl the Bearded himself, dressed in his iconic bell-adorned cloak and hat. His gait as he trotted out of the hut was light but confident and his expression grim and slightly introspective. His dark violet-grey eyes met mine and a thrill of fear sent my heart racing. His gaze seemed to pierce through me, and for an instant, I was afraid he'd seen through my guise. Thankfully my fears were unfounded, as his eyes softened slightly a moment later and he graced me with a polite, if somewhat curt, greeting.

"A pleasure to see you again, Twilight Sparkle, although I must admit I hadn't expected you to arrive so soon after my response to your rather troubling letter. I am curious as to how you managed to travel such a long distance in so short a time—and with no apparent issues in finding your way here no less. Not even I could accomplish such a feat as that, not without ample preparation at least. Ah, but such questions can wait for now. There are far more worrying events to discuss at the moment and I have a very good reason to believe your plight may be involved somehow. Come, before we talk I wish to... show you something."

Leaving the two guards behind, he gestured for me to follow him inside the hut. I did so without hesitation, though I didn't fail to notice the inscrutable look he cast my way just before he turned away from me. Nervousness began to build within me but I pushed it down and focused on what awaited for me as the old stallion led me inside. As I expected, the interior decorations were reminiscent of Zecora's tree hut, if a bit more auspicious. Ornamental masks along with a minor assortment of flasks and other various bottles full of what I could only assume were unlabeled tonics of some sort hung from the walls or were stocked on different shelves or tables. Opposite the entrance was a set of wooden steps leading to a second floor and in the middle of the room was a fire pit that looked as if it had been recently snuffed out.

Next to the blackened fire pit sat another zebra, this one an elderly stallion whose withered and shaking frame, long wilting grey mane, and thick drooping eyebrows belied sharp cobalt blue eyes shining with untold wisdom. Much of his frail form was hidden beneath a dark brown cloak that was a match for Star Swirl's own in terms of resplendence. His grandiose look was embellished with the several gold necklaces of various sizes and shapes hanging around his neck, most of which were inlaid with jewels of differing colors. If I were to hazard a guess, I would've assumed the stallion to be the Elder of the village, or at the very least, somepony of great respect. The zebra stallion wore the same kind of look as Star Swirl—a look that only grew more grave as he laid his sleepy eyes on me. Before I could think too much on the matter, Star Swirl spoke again, motioning to the elder zebra.

"Twilight, I would like you to meet Alemayehu. He acts as the village Elder, storyteller, and oral historian here in Farasi Mweupe. You'll have to forgive him if he doesn't greet you directly, despite his oratorical roles, and while he can speak and understand both modern and old Ponish perfectly well, he rarely speaks at all unless he feels it necessary to do so."

As if to prove Star Swirl's point, Alemayehu merely gave a slow inclination of his head, a quiet greeting which I returned with a very slight smile, just wide enough to be considered a polite gesture. I was about to return my attention to Star Swirl when the Elder spoke, his voice soft but clear, and carrying with it a certain power and weight that sent chills down my spine.

"The Janga Jeusi... I feel its foul presence stirring within you, filly... just as it does within her... she is gone, lost beneath the roiling black sea... but there is still hope for you yet... do not let it consume you as it has her... or we shall all suffer a terrible fate..."

Janga Jeusi, the words that seemed to strike fear and wariness into each and every villager that uttered them aloud. I still didn't know what the phrase meant, but given new context, I now had an idea and could see all too well why it would evoke such a response. That aside, who was this other creature that the Elder spoke of? Another victim suffering from the same circumstances? And what's more, whoever it was, they'd apparently fallen farther than I had... but how? Who was this victim? Who could it have possibly been? Were they waiting upstairs? I voiced my inquiry to Alemayehu, but he gave no answer, save a slow, sad shake of his head.

The ancient zebra continued to stare at me with his impossibly deep gaze, but evidently had nothing more to say, so I instead turned to Star Swirl. The stallion's frown deepened, but he too had nothing to say on the matter. It almost seemed as if he'd expected the Elder's words, though it appeared he was expecting me to wait and see for myself. Rather than answer my questions on Alemayehu's behalf, Star Swirl silently beckoned me once more before making his way up the wooden steps to the second floor, the old zebra watching us intently as we began our ascent. I followed after, left to ruminate on Alemayehu's ominous warning in the tense silence.

Before either Star Swirl could make it past the second step, however, there came a sudden cackle from above. Behind Star Swirl I stood frozen in place, my eyes wide with shock and bewilderment. The laugh was far from what one would consider normal; it was a twisted sound full of desperation and madness, and as its sickening peal floated down from the floor above, recognition began to mingle with the initial surprise and confusion. I knew that laugh, and as the horrid sound died down, the voice that replaced it only confirmed my growing suspicion.

"Finally... finally, S-She's here! It's Her isn't it, Star Swirl? You've... y-you've finally brought Her here to see me haven't you? Yeesss, She has c-come to me at last! I can f-feel it... I can feel the... t-the Dark radiating off of Her... in waves! Quickly, bring Her to me! I've waited so long... t-too long... She'll know what to do... S-She must! She is Blind... She can See! She c-can show me the way! I... I know it... I feel it!"

The mad raving once again devolved into laughter unhinged enough to make my blood run cold. I wanted to turn away, to flee from the insanity that awaited me at the top of these steps, and yet I couldn't. I knew who I'd see once I reached the top, I knew she was the last creature I wanted to see, and yet I had to. The call was too strong, the pull too powerful to ignore. Even as I continued to resist I was already pushing past Star Swirl, practically flying up the stairwell in my haste to reach the one waiting for me. In seconds I'd made it to the upper floor and what I saw was who I expected, but not at all what I expected.

Standing before me in the center of a room bare of all but a series of complex sigils painted upon the floor was Chrysalis, the former Queen of Changelings. The insectoid mare was a horrendous sight to behold; the crown upon her head had mutated and elongated into a mass of twisting black tendrils that entwined themselves into her dark cerulean mane. Her insectile wings had vanished, replaced by two sets of skeletal black wings and several more flailing tentacles that had grown from beneath her blue-green carapace. Each of her hooves was bound to the floor by brilliant white shackles borne of magic, and a white ring of that same magic had been affixed to the base of her jagged black horn—both spells presumably of Star Swirl's own design.

I had thought myself a grotesque abomination, and I was, but this was far beyond the pale—too far. It was an unforeseen development so hideous and outlandish that I could only stare on in a twisted sort of awe. Her expression was the epitome of ecstasy and agony, a look made all the more disturbing by her eyes, or rather the lack thereof. It looked as though the former Queen had, at some point in her madness, torn out her own eyes, leaving nothing but empty sockets from which spilled forth a foul black mist. If this was who Alemayehu had been referring to, then he was right in his assertions. Chrysalis was far gone, even further than I was... but how had this come to be? What path had Chrysalis taken to change so drastically?

As I pondered the answers to these questions, that sad, desperate, broken laughter continued to echo endlessly throughout the room.

Was there wisdom to be found in that madness?

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My mind raced with possibilities of what could have transpired to reduce Chrysalis to such a state, and each idea seemed more absurd than the last. As stricken as I was with Chrysalis and her transformation, I took no notice of Star Swirl's arrival. It was only when he'd stood next to me and spoke that I remembered anypony else was here beside myself and Chrysalis.

"Celestia and Luna have been searching for Chrysalis ever since you told her of the doppelganger incident in the Everfree Forest, but try as they might, they were unable to locate her whereabouts. Eventually, they enlisted my help, but even with me at their disposal, I am ashamed to say I faired as well as they did in the end. I know what you are about to ask, but rest assured, while it is indeed my spells and sigil work that keep her bound, it was not by my hoof that she was captured.

No, she arrived here in Farasi Mweupe two days prior without warning, much like you did here today. When she stood before the gates to the village she did not look half as monstrous as this, nor was she so horribly addled as she is now, not outwardly at least. There was a slight altercation with the guards upon her sudden appearance, but she was not hostile and merely asked to meet with the Elder. I had arrived here the day before and so went to meet with Chrysalis along with Alemayehu.

I suppose you can imagine my surprise at the sight of the Queen of Changelings standing just outside the gates, tall, imposing, and strangest of all, blindfolded. I could make neither heads nor tails of it until she spoke her demands. As if her arrival here of all places wasn't strange enough, she offered herself up willingly, her only demands being that she be kept here and that we tell nopony of her location. She even allowed me to bind both her body and magic as you see now. When I asked her of her intentions, she turned to Alemayehu and said only one thing in response..."

Before Star Swirl could finish his explanation, Chrysalis—who had gone oddly silent save for a few sick giggles—chose to speak. Her voice was brittle and weak yet somehow still powerful and imperious; it was a voice filled with as much pain and reverence as it was mirth and arrogance. Hearing that voice, I again wondered just what trials she must have gone through to wind up such a depraved and pitiful creature.

"I... 'I am m-meant to be here... to wait f-for Her arrival'... And now you... you are h-here at last. Now I n... n-need only wait for destiny to r-run its course. I have seen it... the future is... is already writ in stone! Th-there's... there's nothing you can... c-can do to stop it, old f-fool! Nothing any creature can do! I kn-know you know w-what's... what's coming, Star Swirl... I know you f-fear it... oh how you fear w-what the future brings... what awaits us all... I can taste that fear e-even now... b-but it's too late... too late..."

It would've been terribly easy for anypony to dismiss the mad Queen's words as the insane ramblings of a truly disturbed individual had they not seen her for what she actually was, but even so, I knew better, and so did Star Swirl if Chrysalis' words were to be believed. I waited for Star Swirl to respond, to deny or rebut her claims, but he remained silent, his narrowed eyes fixed on the raving Queen and his mouth set in a thin line. It didn't take a changeling like Chrysalis to see the truth of the matter. Beneath his grim silence and stoicism, even I could see that Star Swirl was indeed afraid, but knowing that failed to answer the question of exactly what it was he knew. Chrysalis simply laughed again as if to mock his lack of a reply, then turned to face me, her mouth twisting into a hideous smirk.

"G-Go on, Star Swirl, tell Her what it is that you've... k-kept hidden from the rest of the... the world... th-that's what She's here for af... a-after all... so tell Her... tell Her wh-what you've hidden from C-Celestia and t-tried to hide from Luna for so long... s-so many sssecretsss... and I kn-know them all, Star Swirl. If you... y-you don't tell Her... then I will... oh I'll t-tell Her all about what the 'S-Seed of Harmony' really was... I'll tell Her... tell Her wh-what the T-Tree did to me... what it's doing t-to Her... wh-what it's inevitably g-going to... to do to us all if left a-alone... I'll tell Her Star Swirl... I have... so much t-to share with you... T-Twilight Sparkle... so many wonderful things..."

Until her last statement she continued to speak to Star Swirl, but never once did she take her ghastly sightless gaze away from me. Crazed and corrupted though she may have been, I drank in her words nevertheless—let them soak into my mind until they were all I could think about. All my answers, everything I'd been through, all the terror and insanity I've had to endure... if I were to believe Chrysalis, they were all right here before me. I was tempted to believe her, so tempted to believe her every word, but I couldn't... not yet. She was compromised; she may have gained some insight into the knowledge that existed beyond the veil of our limited reality, but it was clear she had sacrificed her sanity in the process. So instead I once again turned to Star Swirl, all but demanding to know if Chrysalis' claims held any truth.

"Utter madness," he muttered before letting out a sigh of resignation, "the Queen of Changelings is beyond help, but she is... not entirely wrong. There are things the other Pillars and I have hidden from the rest of the world—things I myself have hidden from even the other Pillars, things neither they nor the rest of the world is ready to know, secrets best kept hidden lest something truly terrible is unleashed," he finally turned to look at me, his face set in a hard scowl, "you've touched upon truths that will end up destroying you, just as they did Chrysalis and nearly did Luna before her... and Stygian before either of them... you already know this and yet you will not stop here—you can't, and so it falls to me to guide you away from this path you've set for yourself. Come, let us leave this wretched soul; Chrysalis as she is now will only drag you down further, mire you in the same darkness and madness that infects her."

With those words, he turned and began heading back down the stairs. I gave Chrysalis one last look, only to see that same smirk plastered across her twisted face. A flicker of doubt crossed my mind for a brief moment, but I let it pass and turned away to follow after Star Swirl. Before I could so much as reach the first step, I froze in my tracks, my mind suddenly and violently assaulted by the words of the abomination standing behind me.

He will not tell you everything, Twilight Sparkle... he is too afraid of what may come if the whole truth is known. That is why he agreed to my terms... that is why he convinced the Elder to keep me here. Were he able to, he would have simply destroyed me, but he knows he cannot... not anymore. He knows these pathetic shackles are insufficient to hold me... but I've no need to break free. Go... listen to his tale... and once you realize he speaks lies you will return and you yourself will free me. Hurry along now... we have so much to discuss... my Goddess...

Confounded by her last words I looked back to the crazed Queen, but she only laughed that sick laughter, though now it carried the hint of one who knows more than they ought to and refuses to tell—a laugh that was not quite mocking but certainly knowing. Again that temptation to stay and here her out hounded me, but again I told myself she could not be trusted. If her words rang true then I would see for myself rather than take what she said at face value. I was no longer completely ignorant of these secrets, and so I would be the one to judge whether or not Star Swirl spoke the truth. With that thought in mind and the echoing laughter of Chrysalis in my ears, I descended the stairs and returned to the first floor where Star Swirl and Alemayehu were waiting.

Down below, the firepit had been relit in my absence and around the crackling flame sat Star Swirl and the Elder, the latter of which gently and silently motioned for me to sit beside the two of them. They both looked just as grave as when I'd first seen them, grave and expectant. Not wanting to keep either of them waiting, I took a seat beside Star Swirl and Alemayehu nodded once in satisfaction. The Elder closed his eyes and for a long moment, nopony spoke, the other two presumably waiting for Chrysalis' laughter to die down. It did after another moment and where I expected Star Swirl to begin his explanation, it was Alemayehu who spoke first in the ensuing silence—his voice far more powerful and robust than it had been when I first heard it, yet still somehow carrying a softness to it.

"Listen well to the words I speak, filly... for this is the tale of the Janga Jeusi... the 'Black Catastrophe' which befell our world several millennia ago during the dawn of ponykind... and it is a tale that you must hear before all else..."

History once lost was revealed to me...

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Long ago, long before ponies set hoof upon the lands that would become Equestria—long before the Windigos and the Coldest Winter nearly brought ruin to the divided nations of Earth, Unicornia, and Pegasopolis—back when our world was still in its infancy and even before our common equine ancestors were simple beasts grazing upon the fields, it is said that a god descended upon this earth from a realm beyond our reach. This god was said to be a god of boundless wisdom and endless fecundity and its countless offspring said to be the progenitors of the many fantastical creatures that now roam the land.

It is even believed that by the grace of this 'outer god' we were given the gift of magic itself and thus our evolutionary path was altered inexorably. This god, this entity from beyond the stars, came to be known by early researchers of the occult as the Unbegotten Source, and even among the most dedicated seekers of arcane knowledge so little was known about its existence that it remained an esoteric myth, a tale destined to fade from history—lost beneath the sands of time and forgotten save for those learned few who kept the story alive.

This tale is not of the Unbegotten Source, however, but rather the thing that was told to be the first and most malignant of its brood—a creature whose proposed existence was documented in much more detail once upon a time. Ancient writings once told of a Black Day brought about by the Dark Silent One, a beast of unfathomable size and terrible cruelty. The Dark Silent One, if the lost records were to be believe was the first creature to spawn from the Unbegotten Source and soon after its birth, it hid deep below the earth where it would remain in endless sleep, for it could not and would not suffer the light.

The beast drew power from the Dark and having remained dormant within that darkness for millions of years prior to the dawn of intelligent life, it was a powerful entity indeed. Had it been left alone to continue its eternal slumber there is little doubt we would've ever been aware of its existence, but that outcome was not to be. The ponies of old, in their ignorance, stumbled upon its domain and awakened the beast—a terrifying monstrosity so powerful as to be considered a god in its own right. In its terrible wrath, it tore the sun the stars and the moon from the sky, drowning the world in absolute darkness and sowing seeds of madness and chaos in its wake.

Unleashed in its entirety, the Dark brought with it endless hordes of black demons that devoured the flesh and wicked corruption that twisted the mind and body. Countless lives were lost during the Black Day and though many tried to flee from the angry god and its demon spawn, most did not make it. It is unclear as to exactly how long the Black Day lasted, but its conclusion was just as abrupt as its beginning, or so writes the ancient wandering Saddle Arabian prophet Nyar in his teachings. In his scripture, the prophet writes that 'in the hour of greatest despair, the Light of Judgment gathered at the throne of the Dark Silent One and thus was the Firstborn and its ilk cast back down into the Black Pit from whence they came'.

He goes on to write that this 'Light of Judgment' cleansed the world and its denizens of any lingering madness and restored harmony to the land, but it remains unclear how it was done or where this 'Light of Judgment' came from. Some who followed Nyar's teachings believed the answer to both these questions to be a divine intervention by the Unbegotten Source, but no creature who knew of the tragedy was completely certain. Though an actual name for the beast was never officially given by Nyar himself, later cultists known only as the Hidden Ones would come to call it Zushakon, or Zulchequon in some languages.

The Hidden Ones were a group of twisted individuals who worshipped the beast as the Old Night and a merciless death god. For reasons unknown, their aim was to bring forth the Dark Silent One so that it could once again drown the world in a dark mire. Using Nyar's wisdom as a basis for their own teachings, the Hidden Ones built temples, held sermons, performed loathsome rites, and made numerous sacrifices to their god. When word had gotten out that they had found a means by which they could reawaken Zushakon, a force consisting of knights, mages, and victims who'd managed to escape the clutches of the cult were gathered to oppose them.

After amassing a sufficient number within their ranks, this group systematically rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed any members of the cult of Hidden Ones they could find, along with their scriptures and temples. Heavy losses were incurred on both sides, but eventually, the cult was razed down to its last member by those righteous souls. With the cult gone, the last remaining members of that group made it their duty to purge the memory of Zushakon and the Black Day from the world, and in that endeavor, they largely succeeded. By the time of the Great Divide and the ensuing war between the three pony tribes, any remaining evidence of Nyar's teachings and the cult of the Hidden Ones, along with the wandering prophet Nyar himself, had already been summarily wiped from history, save for one exception.

Of those scant few who retained the eldritch knowledge first transcribed by the great prophet Nyar, the Mamaanu Tribe of Zebrica were among the first and last to adopt these esoteric tales as part of their cabalistic folklore and have kept the mythos of the cult of Hidden Ones, Zushakon, and the Black Day alive through oratorical retellings of the Black Catastrophe, the 'Janga Jeusi', ever since. The knowledge of these stories, as an iron-clad rule punishable by death, did not leave the tribe. As such, the zebras of the Mamaanu Tribe are—to this day—the only creatures with complete knowledge of the great and terrible beast that is purported to once more slumber eternally deep beneath the earth... or so it went for a time, but such earthshattering truths are not so easily suppressed for long, no matter how grand or sweeping the effort...

And so ended the tale of the Janga Jeusi as told by the Elder Alemayehu. It was clear there was quite a bit more to the story and I still had several questions—far more than I did before, in fact—but evidently, the Elder zebra had said his piece and was unwilling to say anymore. Instead, he turned his sleepy, expectant gaze to Star Swirl, who'd been listening silently throughout with a pensive expression. With a heavy sigh, Star Swirl open his eyes, eyes that had been closed while he was deeply lost in thought, and turned to me. When he finally spoke, it was with no small amount of reluctance.

"I've no doubt that you're wondering, among other things, just how this nameless group managed to rid the world of its memories involving such a catastrophic event? Well within the truth lies my greatest triumph... and my greatest shame. You see, the other Pillars and I are much older than history would have you believe, Twilight Sparkle—quite a bit older in fact. I can, with the utmost certainty, confirm that there was indeed a terrible war between the three pony tribes, and it was that war that brought forth the wrath of the Windigos which in turn brought about The Coldest Winter. Before that war, each of the pony tribes had already been united as one whole, settling Equestria together with no discrimination or prejudice. I can say this, because my own personal history, along with those of the other Pillars, predates the Great Divide that split us all apart.

"Most of the Pillars were born in the relatively peaceful era following the fall of the Dark Silent One, during a time when the world had finally recovered from that horrifying ordeal. We ponies, as well as many of the other creatures that existed at the time, were nothing if not resilient, and so it took little time for civilization as a whole to move on from the past and look towards the future. As optimistic as our outlook was, however, those rare few who lived through those literal dark times upon the new continent could not forget what had transpired, no matter how much they tried, and I... I was among those few who made it out of that nightmare alive. I was young then... barely older than a colt..."

Star Swirl fell silent and visibly shuddered, his eyes clouding over with the distant memory of what he'd gone through so long ago. I watched him carefully, stoically, though I reeled internally at the implications of what I was hearing. I had to remind myself that there was still more to the story, and so I bit back my inquiries and waited for the old stallion to continue, which he did after a few moments.

"The Black Day... for those who were fortunate enough to have already settled on distant shores it was merely an unsettling phenomenon in which their world grew black as pitch. For myself and those other far less fortunate souls that chose to migrate to the new lands that would become Equestria, it was Tartarus on earth—worse! There are no words to describe the horror, the madness of it all. It was a miracle that I escaped at all, let alone with my sanity intact... but escape I did in the end.

"Like everypony else who lived during that time, I didn't know from whence the Light of Judgment came, but it was certainly a glorious sight to behold. A literal shining beacon in the darkness, it was beauty indescribable, and once it washed over me, I felt a sense of peace and safety unlike anything I'd ever known. This perhaps may have been why the rest of the world was able to cope after such a short period of time, but though it might've been the greatest boon we could've been given, it did nothing to wash away the memories, and so those few who survived the ordeal suffered.

"The land that would become Equestria had been abandoned and those like myself chose to live elsewhere on other lands spread across the seas. For the next few years, I wandered lost in a daze and trying to forget the horrors I witnessed with little success. Those who had never set hoof in those lands were unaware of what had really transpired—the surviving friends and family who had yet to follow their loved ones to that cursed continent remained wholly ignorant of the truth and I would not be the one to enlighten them. This, I realized, proved to be a mistake, as only a decade or so later, yet another attempt by the ponies and a few of the other races of old were made to settle on those lands.

"I was against it, tried to warn those who would listen that it was not safe, but I dared not offer a full explanation and only spoke in the vaguest of terms, thus I was ignored—even branded a fool and a madpony by my peers. How quickly they forget, I thought at first. Even if they hadn't borne witness to the same madness I did, it had been no secret that the cause of the Black Day had originated in those lands. However, as more time went by and civilization gradually expanded on the new continent, my fears began to wane, and eventually, I returned to the place I promised to never tread again. I had to see for myself that there was no longer anything to fear, and through my travels, I met my companions, those who would later become the other Pillars of Old Equestria. Despite my initial misgivings, I would soon come to see that there truly was nothing more to fear, and so I made a life for myself in a small nameless village on the new continent."

A small, wistful smile crossed Star Swirl's face as he spoke, but it quickly disappeared upon his next words, replaced with a cold look I'd yet to see from the old stallion until now.

"It wasn't until much later in my life that I discovered the existence of a stallion wandering the land and calling himself a prophet. Just what he was a prophet of nopony knew, but stories began to circulate about what had truly happened on this continent during the Black Day—whispers that were more than idle gossip and mere rumors. Horrified by this sudden development, I desperately sought the source, only to find that this wandering prophet—a Saddle Arabian stallion calling himself Nyar—had made it his mission to spread the truth of that day.

"And so my hunt for this stallion began—a hunt that lasted far too long and bore no fruit until it was too late. My intention was to stop the madpony from revealing any more than he should have, but by the time I managed to track him down, he'd already gained a sizeable following and from his teachings, a hideous cult had already been born. I pleaded with Nyar to stop, warned him that no good would come of this knowledge but just as before, my words went unheeded. In my foolish desperation, I attempted to gather creatures to my own cause, to speak out against Nyar and his teachings but it was a plan doomed to failure, for I had grown older by then—sufficiently old enough to be written off as unhinged and senile.

"Though I'd grown to become a great scholar and powerful mage, at the time I lacked the charisma necessary to unite several different creatures together under one cause. And so I sought somepony to rally others against Nyar and his followers in my place. I found the answer to my prayers in a mare who'd recently escaped captivity at the hooves of the Hidden Ones. She was in a terrible state—permanently scarred both mentally and physically. I cared for her, nursed her back to health as best I could and in time she grew from a frail, broken shell of a pony to a mare with an insatiable thirst for vengeance against the cult that had ruined her life. She wanted justice for what she and countless other victims had been through and from that desire came the group that would become Luce Prima, the 'first light'—named so for the mysterious Light of Judgment that had banished the wretched Dark and brought peace back to the world.

"Moved by her devotion, I did what I could to support her and together we spread our own truth to whoever would listen. The mare had a talent for words that I never possessed, not even today, and through her efforts, we achieved far more success at recruiting allies than I ever could alone. Coincidentally, or perhaps by some strange quirk of fate, each of the future Pillars of Old Equestria, all now grown into proper adults, came to join us against the cult of the Hidden Ones. It wasn't long before we gathered enough strength to bring down the rapidly growing cult, and so we began our own personal war against the Hidden Ones."

Star Swirl's cold expression fell away to reveal one of immense guilt and regret. There was no pride in his next words, no triumph or satisfaction or earnestness, only a deep remorse for what had come next.

"War... yes, war was an apt name for what would come to pass. Before I knew it, our leader had gathered enough followers for an army, and treat them like an army she did—her own personal army to wage a small scale war against her enemies. Many died on both sides, and while I too raided the cultist's foul temples and fought my fair share of battles, I took no pleasure in the slaughter. One of our members discovered that the Hidden Ones had finally found the means to revive the Dark Silent One, but by then I was sickened by the path our leader had taken and left Luce Prima before the final battle commenced within the last standing temple.

"I convinced the other Pillars—who by then had become my closest acquaintances if not full-fledged friends—to come with me, and together we tried to find some other means by which we could stop the influx of knowledge that should have never been allowed to flourish. Even without my help, Luce Prima had emerged victorious, though the mare I had once consider as close to me as a daughter was slain in the final battle against the cult. I mourned her loss, but by then the Pillars and I had all agreed to go our separate ways, splitting apart to find our own solutions to the problem, and eventually, I found one. Fighting my advanced age, I searched the world, traveling from the Frozen Peaks of the North to the scorching, rocky wastes of the Dragonlands. It took me far longer than I'd hoped, but ultimately I found it... by chance I stumbled upon the Unbegotten Source."

Before I could properly express my shock, Star Swirl held up a hoof to silence me. His features grew stern and in his eyes, I could see a strange gleam. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but at the shake of his head, I grudgingly acquiesced and fell silent, though my questions still danced on the tip of my tongue. Satisfied, the stallion continued.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Twilight Sparkle, and while I sympathize, I must also apologize. I am bound by forces far more powerful than I—than any of us—to keep the whereabouts of the Unbegotten Source and all its secrets hidden, thus I cannot reveal what I know of it. What I can tell you is that by its unfathomable power I was able to accomplish my goal. By the Unbegotten Source, I was granted certain knowledge and life eternal, though regrettably, I am stuck as the old stallion you see before you today. With this newfound knowledge, I gathered the Pillars once more and, after having them swear a binding oath of silence, granted them the same gift given to me.

"I did not tell them of where I'd obtained my gift or the knowledge I now held, but it still wouldn't do to have them speak of what I could do. And so we set out on a century-long journey to remove any and all traces of information regarding the Dark Silent One and the Black Day. The Mamaanu Tribe, whose Elder at the time had once been a wandering Zebrican scholar, had taken Nyar's teachings and incorporated them into their own lore. I discovered this and intended to wipe the memory of what they'd learned clean from the entire tribe, but Somnambula and Rockhoof, both of whom had lived in villages with similar traditions as the Mamaanu, spoke against me, and so a pact was made instead—a bond of silence similar to the one I'd placed upon the other Pillars.

"That done, we moved on, and eventually, only those born within the Mamaanu Tribe could know of the Black Day and the monster that caused it—and yes, any attempt to break the pact would result in the death of the culprit. Judge me if you must, but with our goal in sight, I refused to take any chances. With that, I had thought, perhaps foolishly, that we succeeded, but we were careless in the end—I was careless. Thinking our job done, the Pillars and I once again went our separate ways to live out our own immortal lives. We did our best to fade into obscurity, and in that, we too succeeded, but little did any of us know that all of our efforts would come crashing down around us only a few decades after the reunification of the three pony tribes.

"Little did we know that we would be forced once more to the forefront of history; we would fight against a great many evils, I would come to tutor the two future rulers of Equestria... and the thing slumbering in the Dark would come to whisper its blasphemous words into the ear of an innocent young stallion..."

There was no truth to be found in salvation...

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Granted eternal life though I may have been, I was exhausted, Twilight Sparkle—all the Pillars were. I'd spent much of my long, long life traveling the world, worrying about what the future would bring and trying to save creatures who didn't and couldn't understand the dire threats hiding within the shadows. I was so absorbed in my task, so obsessed with my mission that almost two hundred years seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, and yet when it was all over I found myself... drained. My fatigue with it all overwhelmed my vigilance and now, looking back, I can see exactly where I went wrong, but alas, hindsight is of no help to us now.

In any case, I was ready to finally settle down and live the rest of my days in quiet solitude. For a time that's exactly what I did; I built myself a humble cottage far from the rest of civilization, sequestered myself within the confines of a forest near the Foal Mountain Range to spend my days ruminating on the knowledge I'd obtained from the Source. I was a changed stallion, haunted by what I'd seen, what I'd done... what I'd learned—and I still am. Dreams of vile black creatures and unspeakably hideous god-like beings from distant stars plagued my mind, much like I'm sure they do yours, Twilight Sparkle. I assure you, my solitude was not as pleasant as I hoped it would be, and before long I felt as though I might be crushed under the weight of my past, driven mad by the very knowledge that helped me wipe our dark history from the world.

I very well might've if it hadn't been for a chance encounter with two strange little fillies from a distant land. Two foals, a filly bearing a white coat not quite yet in their teenage years and a filly of a dark blue shade not much older than a newborn, stood before me. I knew not where they came from, only that their names were Celestia and Luna, and that they were left at my doorstep with no memory of their home. Ponies with both wings and a horn—alicorns they were called, according to the note I'd found inside the worn and grimy saddlebags of the older filly. How they'd managed to make it to my home on their own was beyond me, but the eyes of the white filly bore the look of one who'd traveled far and seen much—perhaps not nearly as much as I, but enough to worry me all the same.

That note, though it did not specify and hadn't the name of the writer attached to it, spoke of a far off land inhabited solely by this race of 'alicorns' who lived separately from the other pony tribes; it spoke of how this land was ravaged and ruined utterly by a great disaster and how these fillies were sent here to Equestria to fulfill a certain destiny. No more details were given than that, and at the time I was wary of the two. I had asked the white filly how they'd come to arrive at my secluded home of all places, and she only spoke of a stranger shrouded in a dark cloak who'd pointed the way. Needless to say, this was alarming, and my suspicions only rose that much more, but I took them in nevertheless—if nothing else to try to learn more about them and alicorns in general. I'd never heard of such a tribe of ponies before and the scholar in me refused to pass up the opportunity to learn something new.

It was that same scholarly drive that drove me to eventually become their teacher, and as the years went by, those two began to fill in the hole left by the one I had once considered the daughter I never had, though I foolishly refused to show anything that would've conveyed such a sentiment to the fillies. No, I held these emotions within myself, and when it came time to leave them—when I was called away by the other Pillars and a young stallion calling himself Stygian—I chose to answer the call of duty. Stygian had somehow found and gathered us all to stop a great evil plaguing his village—an evil that may have affected the rest of Equestria if left unchecked. While I was wary, I couldn't sit idly by while innocent ponies suffered, not when the other Pillars had already agreed to help.

I never discovered who it was that led Celestia and Luna to me, nor had I discovered any more about the land they'd come from, and though I did learn very early that alicorns were powerful creatures, I wouldn't know of the siblings ability to control the sun and moon until you and your friends released me and the other Pillars from our prison. Celestia in particular, despite her young age, had proven to be a very capable pony, and so I chose to leave her and her younger sister alone, promising that I'd be back soon and believing the filly, now in her early teenage years, could take care of herself and her sister. Unfortunately, that would be the last time I saw both Celestia and Luna for well over a thousand years...

Most of what followed next I knew from Star Swirl's journal, including the banishment of the Sirens and Stygian's fall to darkness. I knew now that, like Alemayehu's tale, there was far more to Star Swirl's story and what was written in his journal than he let on. So far it hadn't seemed like the stallion was lying outright, but intentionally or no, I could tell he'd left some details out, such as the name of this mare he'd come to know as a daughter and the actual fate of the wandering prophet Nyar. I had my suspicions and had come to a few conclusions on my own based on the research I'd done, but the fact remained there were questions Star Swirl had yet to give any answers to.

Setting aside my curiosity regarding the leader of Luce Prima and the Saddle Arabian prophet Nyar—and as fascinating and insightful as this tale had been—none of what I'd been told so far explained anything about the true nature of the Tree of Harmony. Again, I had a new set of hypotheses to work with, but no concrete answers. That Star Swirl was unable or possibly just unwilling to tell me more about the Unbegotten Source was a large sticking point, especially if what I suspected about its relationship to the Tree of Harmony was true. I found myself reconsidering the mad Queen's words and wondering if it was easier to simply go to her to fill in the gaps that Star Swirl had left in his tale. Before I could think too far along those lines, however, the stallion spoke again, evidently not finished revealing what he knew.

"There is little else for me to tell you that you and your friends do not already know, but while you may know the majority of what befell Stygian, the Pillars and myself, you do not know everything. In your letter, you stated that you came here to seek help for the curse that's taken ahold of you, and while I plan to do what I can for you, I know, even without Chrysalis having revealed as much, that that is not the true purpose of your visit. Under false pretense, you came here seeking knowledge—the same knowledge I sought and obtained so long ago.

"You came here to find the origin of the Tree of Harmony, yes? Well, allow me to elucidate if you would, the true nature of Harmony itself. Harmony, as you know it, does not exist. It is not inherently a force of 'good', though considering its purpose, I would certainly describe it as such. Regardless, it is not represented by the virtues of strength, beauty, hope, healing, bravery, or sorcery as I'd written in my journal, nor is it representative of the virtues present in you and your friends. Like many of the other preternatural forces that make up our world today, so too was 'Harmony' born of the Unbegotten Source.

"It was a power birthed solely to keep the Dark Silent One and all that spawned from it at bay, a gift granted unto us by the Unbegotten Source to protect this world from that threat. Harmony, as you may already know, is not a tool to destroy; It will instead purge and if it cannot accomplish that, it will banish, it will ensnare or entrap or entomb. Harmony is all around us; like air, it is invisible and intangible, but it exists; It cannot, however, be harnessed by ponykind without a catalyst. I and the other Pillars could not reach Stygian once he answered the call of the Dark, nor could we destroy him once he became the Pony of Shadows. And so, faced with the dire threat that was the Pony of Shadows, I traveled once more to the Unbegotten Source to seek aid.

"I had already discovered a means by which to seal the corrupted stallion away where he could do no harm, but it required the sacrifice of each of the Pillars, including myself. We were more than willing to give our lives if needed to protect Equestria, but I also knew that would not be enough. If the Dark Silent One could influence the world and its creatures even through its deep and eternal slumber, then we would need somepony or ponies who could fight against that threat when we were gone. If the Dark returned to menace our land once more, we would need the power of Harmony, and so, as my final act before our inevitable sacrifice, I planted a 'seed' bequeathed to me by the Unbegotten Source.

"This 'seed' would eventually grow into the catalyst we would need to harness the power of Harmony and by extension, the power of the Unbegotten Source. It would eventually become the Tree of Harmony. This, Twilight Sparkle, is the true nature of the Tree of Harmony, and while I could not predict how such a power would come to be implemented, I know that as long as we have the Tree of Harmony, we will be able to fight back against the Dark and any other dangers that arise from it. The era of the Pillars of Old Equestria has passed, and both you and your friends are now the bearers—the inheritors of our legacy."

With these words, Star Swirl rose to his hooves, his eyes boring into mine and his expression resolute. Just as before, I could see an odd gleam in his eye, and though I still didn't know what it meant, I found I didn't like the look of it in the slightest. The stallion seemed to stand tall and imperious as he continued, his next words carrying an unsettling sense of finality.

"Even as villainous as she was, Chrysalis was still a creature of Harmony, but now she is a foul blight on this world, an evil that must be purged, and you above all else, cannot be allowed to fall to the Dark just as Stygian and Luna did so long ago. It is possible to rid you of the Dark Silent One's influence, but for you it will be a process that requires time and patience, time being the one thing we do not have while Chrysalis remains as she is. Alas, I no longer have the power I once had, and so it falls to you, Twilight Sparkle. Before I can heal you, you must gather your friends and use the power of Harmony to banish Chrysalis while you are still able to wield your Element."

This was no mere request, nor was it a simple plea, but a demand spoken with absolute authority. Just for a moment I felt compelled to obeisance, but a voice in my mind rose to the surface, speaking out in resistance. There was a certain wrongness about the situation that, while not entirely clear to me yet, was made terribly apparent by Star Swirl's words—by his increasingly intense and hostile expression. There was a sudden air of danger about the stallion, something that told me it would be more prudent to flee lest my life become forfeit. So shocked by the violent change in atmosphere was I that any sense of trust and safety vanished entirely.

Put on edge, I too rose to my hooves as I eyed the old stallion warily. Did he really have my best interests in mind? Was he truly willing to help me? He would have me believe so through his words, but his body language, his expression, his entire demeanor said otherwise. And his story, there was something about the latter half of his tale that nagged at me—something that I felt I was overlooking. Again it wasn't so much that he was telling an outright lie—though that was entirely possible—it was more that something was missing. Somehow I felt as though I'd failed to see the whole picture, I was certain of it in fact. I decided then and there that for all her madness, Chrysalis was right. I may not have been able to trust the corrupted Queen, but neither could I rely on Star Swirl.

I turned once more to Alemayehu, wondering if he too could see the unnerving turn this discussion had taken, but the Elder merely bowed his head, as though in acceptance of whatever was to come. That simple gesture was enough to instill a sense of panic within me and almost unbidden, I slowly backed away from the two older stallions. When I voiced my unease and hesitation to Star Swirl, that strange gleam in his eyes brightened and his nostrils flared in sudden indignation, though his face remained calm otherwise. He took a menacing step towards me and it was at that moment that I realized the unsettling gleam in his eye was madness. It wasn't the same insanity that plagued Chrysalis, but rather the madness of a true zealot—of somepony who'd lived a hundred lifetimes of obsession.

I could see it in his eyes, hear in his voice as he spoke; I realized with horror that this was the true face of Star Swirl the Bearded. Beneath the wise and righteous façade was a stallion broken and buried by his past, and it took me far too long to understand. Where there was once warmth, wisdom, and confidence, his voice and words now only conveyed ice cold enough to freeze my blood.

"Come now, girl, don't be daft. You have friends and family that are terribly worried for you. Even now they're searching all of Equestria to find you, and yet you're here, far from home and trying to push yourself further and further into a dark abyss from which there is no escape. You are a smart mare, Twilight Sparkle, surely you see that no good can come of this path you trot? There is salvation to be found in Harmony, and once Chrysalis has been taken care of, all will be as it was and we can finally put the past to rest." Still, I hesitated and said nothing in response, much to Star Swirl's obvious irritation. His eyes wandered to the saddlebags I had yet to remove from my back and lit up with sudden understanding then. "Of course... how could I have been so blind as to ignore that possibility?"

I tensed as Star Swirl's horn suddenly sparked to life with a pale white glow. At the same time, I felt my saddlebags remove themselves from my back and cried out in alarm and indignation as they were dragged through the air and towards the stallion. I watched as Star Swirl flipped open the bags and pulled from them my journal and the two tomes I'd kept hidden before dropping the rest to the floor.

"As I suspected," he muttered to himself as he eyed each book in horror and disgust, "so this is how you've come to know so much, and you've even documented your findings. Celestia has told me before that you are quite the bibliophile, and knowing that, you've most likely already read through both of these, maybe more than once... perhaps it is too late for you after all... well I suppose there is one way to find out now that I have a better understanding of just how much you may have learned."

Star Swirl turned to me then and a brief flash of his cold grey eyes was the only warning I received before a terrible pain wracked my body. I screamed in agony as my carefully crafted veil of normalcy was violently torn away, revealing to Star Swirl the monster I'd become. I stood exposed, the cracks in my frame more pronounced than before and bits of my flesh flaking away like old drywall. Beneath my skin, and covering the majority of my visage was a writhing mass of shadow. Black tendrils licked at the air, thrashing about as if they had a mind of their own. I shook with fear, pain, and a sudden fury the likes of which I'd never felt before. My journal and the tomes were dropped and forgotten as Star Swirl quickly back away from me, his face twisted in both terror and anger.

"You... you... witless mare!" he roared in abject frustration and dismay, "you've gone too far, haven't you? You've already crossed the threshold! I knew you'd delved into forbidden lore, I knew you'd had the dreams, but to think you'd already fallen this far..." he paused and shook his head vigorously before schooling his features and taking a bold step forward, "...no, it's not too late, not yet. I can still salvage your soul, I can lift you out of the darkness, but you must abandon your misguided pursuit of the truth! I've told you all you need to know, Twilight Sparkle! Let the past have its secrets and look towards the future! Think of your friends, your family! Think of Equestria and the fate of the rest of the world! Think of what will happen if you continue down this path!"

On and on he went, desperate to save me from myself, but his words failed to reach me—his pleas buried beneath my growing anger. I knew not where this sudden ire came from, but it was deep as an ocean and as black as the space between the stars. Slowly but surely it overtook the pain and fear, even as I gathered my belongings from the floor where Star Swirl had so carelessly dropped them. The tendrils that had emerged from beneath my flaking skin and fur twisted and lashed out with more ferocity than before, as if to mirror my anger. Somewhere in the far distance, I could hear Alemayehu's remorseful tone as he said something in his native tongue, possibly a prayer for all our sakes. Whatever his words meant, it didn't matter, neither of their words mattered to me.

Carefully I returned each of the tomes and my journal to my saddlebags and replaced the bags onto my back before turning my attention back to Star Swirl. By some miracle, I was able to quash my burning rage and turn it into something more focused and far colder. Star Swirl couldn't be trusted; he had no true desire to help me, he wanted to use me, to destroy me for what I'd become—what I knew. Even if his intentions had been pure, there was no way he'd let me go now that he knew the lengths to which I'd gone to obtain the knowledge I possessed now. Let the past have its secrets and look towards the future? Pah, the hypocrite! He made a good show of 'looking towards the future', but in reality, he was just as ensnared by the past as I was, just as insane as he claimed Chrysalis to be—more so even!

No, there was no helping me now, I already knew that much; I'd accepted as much, and was willing to bet Star Swirl knew this much as well. He didn't want to help me, he wanted to stop me, I was a villain in his eyes, an evil to be snuffed out like those who came before me—like Chrysalis. What I sought wasn't 'salvation', what I sought was the truth. What I sought was knowledge. No amount of pleading would deter me from the path I'd set for myself, and yet Star Swirl, blind as he was by his own past and morals, wanted to take that all away from me. He would upend everything I'd suffered for, everything I'd sacrificed, and for what? I'd seen the end of the world, I knew what was out there. I knew what was coming for us all.

Yes, I couldn't go back now and there was no point either way. All that was left for me now was to unlock the secrets hidden in the past—secrets Star Swirl had so desperately tried to wipe from history. I had learned much from this venture, but it wasn't enough, I needed to know more before it was too late, and if Star Swirl refused to reveal everything he knew... well... I'd been granted another option now, hadn't I? That's right, there was no need to deal with Star Swirl's ridiculous zealotry. If he wanted to keep his silence about the Unbegotten Source, he could have his silence... but if I wanted to continue my pursuit of the truth I had no choice but to ensure his complete silence.

It was truly a harrowing experience at the time, but looking back I find it amusing how much a strong conviction can change one's perspective, especially when faced with death—both when facing death, and dealing it to others. Then again, perhaps it wasn't conviction that compelled me to take up the hunting knife hanging from the wall, perhaps it wasn't determination that bade me stab deep into my barrel and spill my own blood; Thinking about how I used that blood to draw complex arcane sigils—how I chanted those blasphemous words in that ancient and profane language—I wondered if maybe I'd simply snapped. I wondered if maybe my actions that day were born of a mind that had finally collapsed under the weight of what I was doing to myself and to the ones I loved.

Whatever the case may have been, I no longer cared about the consequences. I was certain Star Swirl would try to stop me once he realized my intentions, but I knew he wouldn't succeed, rather—I had faith that I would prevail, and so I took no notice of him as I continued to chant amidst the sigils I'd drawn in my blood.

"Throdog nnnogor ot shuggnglui, Yog-Sothoth... Y' goka ya yaor gn'th'bthnk ph'nglui llll k'yarnak ymg' r'luh... Y' ymg' stell'bsna, mggoka fahf vulgtmor ng ahh'lagln cahff ph'nglui ah'legeth n'ghft shogg!"

These were the words I spoke, this was the chant I used to invoke the power of a god. In my bout of insanity, I was unsure if such a ritual would even work, but I continued nonetheless, a twisted grin splitting my face as the blood sigils began to glow a deep crimson. It had worked! The Opener of the Way had answered my call! Taking a moment to take in my surroundings, I could see that Sound Mind had appeared at some point and was staring down a wide-eyed and paralyzed Star Swirl with a smile that seemed almost apologetic. The well-dressed earth pony said something to Star Swirl, but I failed to hear it over the sound of the earth rumbling beneath my hooves.

The two Zebrican mares guarding the entrance entered the hut in a panic just as the space directly above Star Swirl ripped itself open. The stallion stared into the black abyss that had opened up before him, his face contorting into a mask of horror at whatever he'd seen beyond the gate. His horn lit up, no doubt with a teleportation spell in mind, but it was far too late. His horn sparked and sputtered to no avail, the spell dissipated and the immortal mage was pulled screaming into the darkness by some unseen beast. What little I did see of the creature that had emerged from the gate to drag him in was too hideous and horrifying to describe through conventional means.

Terrified cries rang out all around me as more of the villagers flooded into the hut. I stood in awe and horror at what I'd accomplished, marveling at how easy the feat had been even as my lifeblood continued to spill forth from my barrel. I was so enthralled by what had happened that it took me a moment to realize the earth hadn't stopped quaking, and another moment to realize that the ritual wasn't yet over. More gates appeared, splitting reality open and swallowing villagers whole like voracious maws. The Elder had already been taken and though the rest tried to run, most had no chance of escape. The world around me fell into terrified confusion and mayhem, and among it all stood Sound Mind. The stallion approached me as calmly as ever and whispered something in my ear, a reminder that I still had some business to attend to.

Realizing he was right, I turned my gaze towards the ceiling, listening to the raucous laughter that emanated from above, loud enough to be heard even over the chaos below. Casting aside both my doubts and awe at what I'd done for the moment, I teleported to the second floor to find Chrysalis now unchained but otherwise right where we'd left her—her monstrous form doubled over as she continued to cackle with undisguised mirth. I stood alone with the mutated creature, Sound Mind having vanished once again now that he'd evidently completed his task for now. As Chrysalis attempted to compose herself I took the time to ruminate on my actions. I'd cast the ritual in a fit of madness, complete unaware of just how devasting the results would be.

I'd gone too far, and because of it the whole village of Farasi Mweupe would suffer, but that was irrelevant now. None of it would matter in the end because there was something far worse in store for all of us, at least, that's what I told myself then. That's what I would continue to tell myself as I commit one atrocity after another. Chrysalis eventually regained her composure, and as she looked at me I knew she could tell what I was thinking; eyes or no, her expression said it all. No words were spoken between us, all that needed to be said had been conveyed in the simple fact that I was here standing before her. And so together we took our leave, paying no heed to my wound as it slowly closed on its own, ignoring the screams of the villagers below and abandoning Farasi Mweupe to its grisly fate.

Far below, a discovery and a promise were made...

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The Unbegotten Source...

Everything I'd discovered up until now—everything I'd ever known, every secret that had yet to be revealed, much of life as I knew it... all of it seemed to come back to this mysterious font of knowledge, this all-powerful primordial god which shaped the future into what it is now through endless parturition. Just what was it really? From what realm did it emerge to grace this planet with its presence and why? And perhaps most importantly, where was it hidden? All these things I had hoped to learn as Alemayehu and Star Swirl revealed Equestria's true history, and much of what I received instead were answers that only brought about more questions.

And so ultimately I turned to Chrysalis for those answers which I'd been denied by Star Swirl. Chrysalis who had become a horrific cackling abomination; an unsightly wretch of a creature maddened and corrupted by the unearthly truths and otherworldly perception she was forced to bear. Upon our escape from the doomed village of Farasi Mweupe, Chrysalis had led me back to the unholy cathedral far below the ancient sandblasted temple hidden deep within the eastern desert of Saddle Arabia. I now knew this place to be the last standing temple belonged to the Hidden Ones, as well as the sight of the final battle between Luce Prima and the twisted cult. It was here in this place hidden and forbidden to all but those chosen by the Dark that she revealed the truths Star Swirl refused to share.

Among those truths was the reason behind her hideous transformation and how she'd been granted knowledge that by all rights should have belonged to Star Swirl alone. She'd learned all she knew not directly through the Unbegotten Source as Star Swirl had, but rather indirectly through the Tree of Harmony. In halting stutters and a voice wracked with what I could only describe as a strange agonized jubilation, Chrysalis told me of how she too had been affected by the vision imparted to me by the Tree. Unlike my vision, which I'd come to realize was most likely Zushakon's second awakening, her's was of something altogether different but, according to her account, far more horrifying.

She told me of a meeting with an entity whose appearance was the very antithesis of reason and sanity. The sight of that creature alone had been enough to chip away at a mind that in all honesty was already well on its way to a complete collapse. To Chrysalis the unfathomable entity spoke, its words filling every facet of her psyche and viciously tearing away everything the former Queen knew about the concept of 'language'. On the edge of reason and stability and unable to comprehend what she'd seen or heard, Chrysalis fled the Cave of Harmony and the Everfree Forest—the doppelgangers and whatever prior plot she'd concocted using them all but forgotten in the wake of her vision.

Where I eventually sought to understand my vision and what it meant, Chrysalis had only ever tried to escape it. Where I saw abstract horrors of all kinds, she only ever dreamed of that nameless being and its impossibly abstruse words. She suffered that vision over and over again, night after night until she forced herself to stop sleeping altogether, much as I had, only her visions weren't confined to her subconscious mind. Her decision to forgo slumber only made things that much worse. In her lack of sleep she began to see things—hideous creatures in every shadow, grotesque shapes oozing and crawling and skittering and bubbling out of every crack in the wall or hole in the ground. Soon after those images began to plague her, the voices came, filling her ears with those same incomprehensible 'words' spoken by the thing in her vision.

Had I heard this tale prior to my own experiences I might have dismissed hers as mere visual and auditory hallucinations brought on by severe sleep deprivation, as would anypony else, but I knew better. The sights that awaited her whether asleep or awake and the ruthless burning and itching of the eyes that seemed to be an inevitable affliction eventually drove the Queen to tear those eyes from their sockets. It had been a vain attempt to find relief in darkness, for without her sight, she believed herself free of her waking nightmares along with that torturous itch. Unfortunately, the act only forced her to confront the thing which haunted her every thought; without the light, she could no longer escape its maddening visage or the wretched words it spoke.

Subconscious or no, it was there waiting in the Dark and Chrysalis had unwittingly trapped herself within that eternal abyss. With nowhere else to turn, nowhere to hide and no longer able to run, the former Queen of changelings could do nothing but relinquish her sanity. She could never have known then that it was only with a mind so thoroughly and irreparably broken to pieces that she could finally comprehend the creature and its words, and so, without the filter of reason and rationality, the vile utterances that spewed forth from its ghastly maw were clearly and fully understood by the insectoid mare.

This unspeakably hideous being—this dweller in darkness, by its own words was a messenger acting upon a greater will, an absolute will that demanded complete obeisance. It knew of me, it knew of my quest to seek the truth and it bade Chrysalis follow me, for I would be the one to show her all that was meant to be Seen once the fated hour was at hoof. It told her of the true past and of future events yet to come, it told her what would inevitably become of me should I continue to act as I had been. All of this knowledge and more had been shared with the broken Queen, and the price that had been paid, what it had cost was her mind, body, and soul. Warped by the very powers she tried to escape, she was no longer a creature that was meant to exist in this world or any other.

I had already begun to suspect that I was becoming much the same and yet I pushed on. I had no choice but to persist, and not even my waning equinity would stop me. With this in mind, I brought forth my journal and pressed the abominable mare for more details, taking the time to document both her words as she spoke and an account of prior events. To begin with, much of what Star Swirl and Alemayehu told me had been more or less accurate, however—according to Chrysalis—Star Swirl had indeed twisted his recount of the past in some ways to better fit his own narrative. In one instance for example, if the mad Queen was to be believed, it had been not this mysterious traumatized mare whom Star Swirl had taken in, but rather the old stallion himself who'd pushed for the complete annihilation of the cult of the Hidden Ones.

Yes, he'd taken her in, nursed back to health, and cared for the mare, but that had all been part of a greater scheme—a means to an end, or so Chrysalis claimed. In actuality, the mare herself—a pony who's name Star Swirl could not even remember—wanted nothing more to do with the cult. She'd been hurt, she was vulnerable, and the nameless mare wanted nothing more than the affection of somepony who cared. Star Swirl had given her that affection yes, but it was he who whispered words of revenge and hatred into her ear, it was he who convinced the mare to gather ponies to his cause and take up arms against the Hidden Ones.

It was my idol, the pony I looked up to the most save for Celestia that fought the hardest during the raids. To hear Chrysalis tell it, the stallion had used his prodigious talent for magic to slaughter the members of the cult with impunity and when it came time for the final battle, Star Swirl had entered the fray, only to pilfer the means by which the Bells of Awakening could be safely summoned before fleeing the battle entirely and leaving that poor mare to die with the rest. Evidently this hadn't been the first nor the last of the heinous deeds Star Swirl had hidden from me, but I refused to hear any more of the stallion. In some ways, the idea that Star Swirl could be that kind of stallion was hard to believe, but in other ways, I wouldn't have been surprised to find that what Chrysalis posited turned out to be the truth.

When I thought back to his demeanor upon our first meeting, I could believe that it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Still, it wasn't so much that I couldn't bear to hear more, it was more that his intentions meant nothing to me. It was what came of his intentions that intrigued me, and it seemed Chrysalis was finally coming to the main point she'd been trying to make, specifically regarding the Bells of Awakening. The Book of Iod mentioned the bells and that they alone could rouse the Dark Silent One from its eternal slumber. It was written that those unworthy to lay their hooves or magic upon the bells were driven to insanity if they made any such attempt.

Interesting as that was, where the bells came from, how they were made, and who had brought them here were all another mystery that the book hadn't touched upon. That was to say nothing of this 'means' by which they could be moved or summoned without losing one's self to madness in the process. The mad Queen had gone on to explain that it had been none other than the wandering Saddle Arabian prophet Nyar who'd headed the cult of the Hidden Ones. As I suspected, it had been this stallion who'd originally penned both the Nameless Tome and the Book of Iod. He had been the first to worship the Dark Silent One as its prophet, and it was by his hoof that the vile cult came to be—a simple enough conclusion to come to, given what I'd already been told by Alemayehu and Star Swirl.

As the leader of the cult of Hidden Ones, Nyar had been there at the final assault initiated by Luce Prima, and according to Chrysalis' account, Star Swirl himself had slain the wandering prophet before stealing a certain amulet hidden within the cloak of the now-dead stallion and making his escape soon after. The amulet in question is what allowed one to move the bells freely without fear of repercussion, and I could only assume Star Swirl had taken the enchanted trinket out of some sense of obligation to keep it out of more dangerous hooves. This, however, did raise a few questions, such as why the stallion had left the bells here and whether or not he'd kept the amulet with him. If he'd been pulled into the abyss along with the amulet, then I had no way of taking it back.

A deep sense of frustration nearly overwhelmed me at the thought, even as I wondered why I would need such a thing. I hadn't intended to use the amulet, but now that I knew of it, something compelled me to seek it out—most likely the same dark forces that compelled me to continue this perverse and much-maligned path of self-destruction. Chrysalis, laughing in the face of my vexation, was quick to inform me that the amulet had in fact not been lost. Much like Daring Do and the sealed cellar beneath her cottage, Star Swirl had hidden—amongst other arcane and dangerous artifacts—the amulet beneath the ruins of his forest cabin. At this news, my frustration evaporated, the emotion replaced with immense relief. I turned a thoughtful gaze towards the single bell that had fallen from the tall stone arch high above.

In a brief bout of self-reflection, I realized that I might've fallen far enough that I could most likely lay my own hooves upon the bells with little to no consequence. Spurred on by my curiosity and unable to stop myself, I reached out to do just that, only to be stopped by Chrysalis, who warned me against the action. It seemed I hadn't sunken quite deep enough yet despite everything I'd done up until now—an oddly disappointing realization, but I let the matter go, as even if I could touch the bells, I'd only be able to carry or teleport one with my magic at most given the size and mass. No, if I were to move these bells, I'd need the amulet either way.

Setting my musings aside for the moment, I began to ask Chrysalis what she knew regarding the Tree of Harmony and its connection to the Unbegotten Source, but she denied me an answer, instead posing a question in its place:

"W-Why ask me... when you c... can ask... a-ask the Tree itself?"

Dissatisfied with the answer I'd received I replied with the fact that I'd already made an attempt to study the Tree to less than satisfactory results. In response, the mad Queen assured me that my third, or perhaps fourth journey into the Cave of Harmony would bear far greater fruit. She'd said the words with the absolute conviction of somepony who knew the secrets the future held, and to my surprise and slight consternation, I was beginning to believe she really had such foresight. Choosing to heed the corrupted mare's advice, for now, we set our course for the Cave of Harmony deep within the Everfree... but before I set out for our main destination, I chose to make one last stop to the ruins of Star Swirl's cabin. The amulet called to me, and like every other 'voice' that led me to this point, I would not ignore that call.

Whether or not I had any intention of using it, I would have that amulet.

I found my way into the vault...

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The air felt wrong.

The moment Chrysalis and I arrived in the forest adjacent to the Foal Mountain range, I could feel that something had changed, and drastically at that. Perhaps it was something to do with the forest itself or perhaps this ambient malevolence assaulting every sense and nerve originated from that ancient altar built deep within this very location, or it may very well have been the mountains themselves. It was written in the Book of Iod that Zushakon's throne was housed somewhere far below the mountain range that served as the massive backdrop to the mysterious altar that was Ponehenge, and what I'd discovered so far seemed to indicate that to be the truth, but what of the altar itself?

Neither book in my possession made mention of Ponehenge and yet it was clearly meant to play some role according to my visions. It had been the site where Star Swirl and the rest of the Pillars sealed the Pony of Shadows away, but that didn't explain the origin of the altar itself. Was it built by Star Swirl for the express purpose of sealing away the monster that Stygian had become, or had it been here before? If the latter held true, then who had built it and what had been its purpose? If Ponehenge was built in Zushakon's name it would stand to reason that the Hidden Ones would've used it to enact their ritual to awaken the Dark Silent One, but they hadn't.

Two possibilities came to mind, one being that the ritual could only be performed under certain conditions—conditions which made Ponehenge ill-suited for the task. The other possibility, and one I believed to be increasingly plausible, was that Ponehenge, those who'd built it, and its purpose were all unrelated to both Star Swirl and the Hidden Ones. It was entirely possible that Ponehenge had stood within this forest long before ponies had settled upon these lands. Perhaps there had been some long lost sapient race that had lived here, built this monument and died out before our ancestors had arrived.

Still, that did nothing to explain its presence in my vision or its use by the Pillars, but that was a mystery to ponder at another time. Putting aside that digression, for now, I returned my thoughts to the malignancy permeating the air. The more I focused my senses, the more familiar the atmosphere became, and it wasn't long before I realized it was the same presence I'd been feeling throughout my journey, only much more potent. I found it rather odd; I felt that same presence just as strongly within the cathedral, but outside of that ancient and forsaken place, the sensation made my remaining flesh crawl beneath my dark violet coat. Even more perturbing was that I hadn't found said sensation all that unpleasant. Upon seeking the input of my unhinged companion, Chrysalis only had the following to say:

"The hour... i-it nears... the... t-the Dark is spreading... its influence... e-even in slumber it knows... it knows, Twilight S-Sparkle... the Old N... Night... it s-stirs r... restlessly in its d-deep sleep... g-grows restless... i-impatient even... e-even as it dreams... but soon... sssoooonn..."

Her strained words devolved into psychotic peals of laughter fit to make the vilest of demons shiver in fear and disgust. As she spoke her eyeless gaze had wandered to the distant peaks of Foal Mountain and a hideous grin full of sick glee and anticipation had spread across her face. Her words, broken and ominous as they were, sent yet another strange not-so-unpleasant shiver down my spine, one I tried to ignore as that same cackling nightmare continued to lead me to what remained of Star Swirl's old forest home. All along it had been the Dark that I felt, that queer sensation that had followed me ever since I'd first caught a glimpse of the Tree's true nature. I'd heard as much several times before in the recent past but hadn't thought to put two and two together until now, much to my own chagrin.

That aside, I had been initially surprised to learn that Star Swirl had built a cabin here and that I hadn't known of it or seen it on my first foray into this forest. There was no mention of it in the old stallion's journal, nor had Celestia or Luna told me of its existence. That Star Swirl had settled so close to where Zushakon was said to slumber eternally may not have been mere coincidence, in fact, I was certain it was not, but why he ever would if he'd been so keen to escape his past as he proclaimed, I did not know. Was his cabin meant to be kept a secret? Had he fancied himself some sort of guardian or sentinel keeping watch over the resting place of the Dark Silent One?

Nopony other than perhaps Celestia or Luna could say, and given my mad and admittedly hasty actions against the stallion, asking Star Swirl himself was no longer possible. At the thought of what I'd done, something resembling shame or remorse began to creep upon me, but I viciously shoved the sentiment back down for fear that it would overwhelm me and drive me to do something drastic and permanent in my overwrought contrition. By my hoof and through the invocation of powers unimaginable, Star Swirl was no more; He, along with Daring Do and the villagers of Farasi Mweupe had been stolen away by the abyss, or what foul horrors lurked therein, as we all would be in due time. There was no longer anything for it, and so there was no need for such sentiments as regret or remorse.

The only path forward left to me now was to learn all I could, as I had been, and I continued to tell myself that even as Chrysalis and I finally reached our current destination. As we approached the cabin, the reason for my not having seen the structure before quickly became evident. I would have passed it by again had Chrysalis not pointed out a powerful glamour that completely hid the cabin from both physical and thaumic senses. Once I was made aware of just what type of spell had been used, it was a simple feat to dispel the entire enchantment. A powerful mage Star Swirl may have been, but magic in all its forms was my talent, and I'd learned both how to enact and counteract this spell and a few other spells like it long ago.

Even if I hadn't already known of the spell, it most likely would've been no great task to analyze and remove it, given time. Thankfully I hadn't had to, as time was something I felt we all had very little of. With the spell removed, Star Swirl's old home was revealed, and to look upon it, one could hardly call the ancient structure a 'ruin'. The cabin, for how old it was, still appeared to be mostly intact; it was a small, unassuming little abode—even smaller in scale than Daring Do's cottage. Though the wood the cabin had been built of looked somewhat moldy and withered with age even from a distance, that seemed to be the only indication of its longevity. Otherwise, Star Swirl's old hermitage had stood the test of time splendidly—a little too splendidly I thought.

It was no great leap to assume the cabin had been kept from complete time-worn collapse by yet another enchantment. If that was indeed the case, then I considered myself grateful, as that made it that much easier to investigate. Still, this was Star Swirl's own home, and if he had some hidden vault beneath his cabin full of arcane and dangerous artifacts, then I was all but certain he'd put into place, measures which would prevent entry to any wayward thieves and the like who might've been clever enough, or lucky enough to stumble upon this place and its secrets. A quick thaumic scan of the abode was enough to confirm my suspicions, for I had discovered several more enchantments placed upon the cabin, many of which I was entirely unfamiliar with.

Now, as I'd said before, I could parse and counteract these unfamiliar spells on my own given time, but again, time was a luxury lost to me. There had been so many enchantments upon the cabin, in fact, that to unravel them all would take days if not weeks of analysis and counter-spell weaving. No, that wouldn't do at all, but all the same, I refused to be denied when I was so close! In a sudden fit of desperate genius, or perhaps desperate madness, my mind conjured an idea. It was dangerous, it would most likely push me closer to the abyss, but I did not doubt that it would work. I had found a way to channel the esoteric force I now knew to be 'the Dark' through the same channels I'd used all my life to channel magic.

Despite the name, this feat wasn't to be confused with Dark Magic, for Dark Magic was an abominable amalgamation of thaumic energy and the otherworldly energy from the abyss, also evidently known as the Dark. I know this because I knew what it felt like to cast Dark Magic. I had done so before, and after having learned and used these rites, I could say with complete conviction that Dark Magic, diluted as it was by the addition of thaumic energy, paled in comparison to the pure, unfiltered power pulled forth from those forbidden and unknowable realms inhabited by cosmic outer gods who knew no limits and defied equine understanding at every turn. Chrysalis called it the Dark, as did Star Swirl, but I knew there was far more to these rites than simple darkness.

Perhaps we as a species were ultimately born of an entity beyond this world, but despite whether or not that is the truth, this was and is a power not meant for use by lesser beings like us. In using it—in simply embracing it—it changes us in hideous ways. It perverts our minds and bodies until there is nothing left but a monster. There may have been examples from the past, but I needed to look no further than myself and the grossly mutated mare beside me. I knew all of this; I understood what it meant to wield this kind of power—to seek this kind of knowledge—and yet I could not stop, and it wasn't completely for want of knowledge either. No, if I was being completely candid with myself, I would have to admit that there was a certain thrill to be found in using the eldritch arts.

Magic had always been, and still very much was, a large part of my life. I had shaped my youth around it. It was my talent, and though I'd neglected my dedication to learning all I could about it as a whole in recent years due to my focus on my school and the magic of friendship, this entire endeavor had brought me back to a time when magic meant more to me than anything else. I welcomed that feeling with open hooves, found myself reveling in it, and it was this power I drew from the corrupted air around me that allowed me to bypass Star Swirl's enchantments. Though the enchantments were many, they'd already been weakened by the unearthly aura permeating the forest.

By taking in that malignant energy and focusing it on one point, I was able to disrupt the natural thaumic field to such a degree that each and every spell placed in or around the cabin broke down and dissolved in a near-instant. All it took was that final push, and the magic crumbled to nothing; it was both beautiful and heartwrenching to witness, much like a tragic tale of unrequited love. My hasty and ill-advised plan had worked, but the result had left me with conflicting sentiments and though I was wary of possible consequences that might yet be brought about by such a disruption, these worries and mixed emotions would get me nowhere. Schooling my features and shoring up my convictions, I approached and entered the cabin, Chrysalis following along close behind me.

At first glance, the interior looked much as I had expected the home of a reclusive mage to look. There was little in the way of actual decor or creature comforts within. The large singular room that was the entirety of the cabin had mostly been taken up by the many bookshelves that lined the walls and a sizeable if rather simplistic wooden desk pushed into one corner. Beyond the long-dead fireplace, what looked to be a ratty makeshift low profile bed and small wood stove, there was nothing more of note to see. Utilities were scarce if not completely non-existent, and the place had been stripped of anything and everything that might've had any value attached to it. There were no books upon the shelves, nothing atop the desk, no provisions to be seen at a glance, no paintings or pictures adorning the walls... nothing.

Given how small the cabin was and the fact that I'd only seen one bed barely large enough for one pony, it was hard to imagine anypony other than Star Swirl taking up resident here. There certainly didn't seem to be any room for the two would-be students he'd taken in, even as foals. Though much of the cabin's exterior and all of its interior remained intact, there was an obvious air of desolation and decay that was felt more than seen. The thick and musty stench of mildew and dry rot that filled my nostrils was evidence enough that not all had been spared from time's wrath. Whatever the cabin might've been in the past, it was nothing more than a moldy and abandoned old hovel now, or so it appeared.

Even if Chrysalis hadn't told me of Star Swirl's hidden vault below the cabin, I wouldn't have believed for a moment that this was all that remained. There had been only one way into the vault once according to the corrupted mare in question. Star Swirl had etched a hidden teleportation sigil of his own creation upon the floor, one which could only be activated by way of a certain incantation that only he knew. It was old magic—again, not dissimilar to the seal covering Daring Do's cellar, but far more arcane and complex, just as I would've expected of a mage of Star Swirl's caliber. Unfortunately, the old stallion had—at some point after my friends and I released him and the other Pillars—returned to his home and destroyed the only means by which the vault could be entered. Of the complex sigil that had once been etched into the floor, there was no trace. Our path forward had effectively been sealed off.

I wondered at both the true depths of the mad Queen's insight and Star Swirl's reasoning for his actions. There would've been no purpose in removing the sigil unless he knew somepony would try to take what he'd hidden below. He'd already hidden his cabin from prying eyes so why the additional precaution? The only answer I could come up with looking back on the events that had led me to this point was that Star Swirl had returned and removed the sigil as a precaution once he'd heard about the incident involving the doppelgangers and the Tree of Harmony. I'd given a fairly detailed account of the horrifying event, but at the time I hadn't considered the fact that Celestia or Luna would tell Star Swirl of what happened or how Star Swirl would've reacted to such news.

Of course, knowing what I do now about the stallion and his history, it makes sense, but knowing the likely reason that he removed the sigil didn't help me in the slightest. Even with the rites I'd learned at my disposal, I could no more transport myself to my desired location than if I were to use a simple teleportation spell. Like a teleportation spell, I still needed some kind of idea of where I was to go—a detailed description or pinpoint accurate directions at the very least. Despite the vast font of knowledge at her disposal, Chrysalis was also of no help in this regard, but thankfully I had another ally to guide me past this roadblock in the form of Sound Mind. The stallion had always, up until this point, shown himself when I needed his assistance and this time was no different.

I expected Sound Mind to appear before me as he had in the past, but to my surprise, I was the one who was whisked away through the same means the stallion had used to spirit me away from the cathedral below ground. Briefly fighting off the nausea that threatened to overwhelm me, I regained my senses only to find that I was no longer in the old cabin. I found myself in a small enclosed underground chamber that immediately brought to mind the tomb-like cavern that was my resting place within my most recent vision. There were several differences, of course; natural grey stone had replaced the black walls that shined with an unearthly luster and the entire chamber was lit with brightly burning sconces whose magical flames cast an eerie blue glow.

I stood in the center of the chamber and could see beneath me a complex sigil etched into a large grey stone platform built into the ground. I could tell at a mere glance that without the connection to its counterpart above ground, the magic within the sigil had gone eternally dormant. There was no way for me to tell how far down below the surface this chamber had been built, and if Sound Mind hadn't come to my aid there would've been nothing I could do to enter this place, as there were no exits or entrances to be seen save for the currently inert teleportation sigil. As I observed my surroundings I also noticed with slight bemusement that I had arrived here alone. Neither Sound Mind nor Chrysalis was anywhere to be seen and I stood in complete and utter solitude and silence save for the constant crackle of flames above.

While somewhat disconcerting, I was quickly learning to accept the unexpected and given the wonders and horrors I'd seen thus far, I refused to be shaken or deterred by my sudden isolation. Sound Mind was a being beyond my current comprehension and Chrysalis was no longer a creature who needed my pity or concern. I put them both out of my mind and instead focused on what lay before me. Where I expected to see a veritable treasure trove of forbidden artifacts and tomes, there was very little, much to my disappointment. Compared to Daring Do's many shelves of esoteric tomes and ancient artifacts, Star Swirl's collection was severely lacking—a fact I found rather odd considering his vastly longer lifespan.

I saw, lining the walls of the chamber, many pedestals and altars of varying sizes. Atop those pedestals and altars were displayed a multitude of objects, one of them I recognized as none other than the Alicorn Amulet worn by Trixie what now seemed like an age ago. That he'd hidden such a thing away from the world was no surprise, and I could even surmise that he may have learned of the foul treasure from Zecora, whom Rainbow Dash had given the amulet to after the incident involving the reformed showmare. What baffled me was when he'd collected the thing and why. Had it been around the same time he sealed off his vault? I had no answer and the question was irrelevant to my current objective either way.

For a brief moment, I wondered if this was in actuality the amulet I'd come here for, but dismissed the notion as I approached the pedestal it sat on. I felt no desire to wield the amulet knowing that it would only be a matter of time before I became a slave to its will. Vile though my actions thus far may have been, they had been mine to take and I refused to let that amulet distract me from my purpose. I was deafened to its call by a greater power, and so it held no interest for me. I turned my attention to the other artifacts on display and found another artifact I was surprised to see. Though I had only seen it once before in old texts, I was quick to recognize the small grey talisman in the shape of a bell.

The Bewitching Bell, a talisman just as dangerous as the Alicorn Amulet if not more so. From my past foray into ancient artifacts, I had known the Bewitching Bell to be lost to time after it was taken from its original owner Grogar by Gusty the Great. How and when Star Swirl had obtained it, I did not know, but though the talisman took the form of a bell, it was not the object I sought, so I let it be. I continued to search the pedestals, and while I did see a few other strange and exotic artifacts, talismans, and fetishes, I could tell through some queer seventh sense—as with the Alicorn Amulet and Bewitching Bell—that none of these treasures were the key to controlling the Bells of Awakening. Furthermore, many of the pedestals held nothing atop them, leading me to the possible conclusion that if there had been more here, those missing objects may have already been pilfered by some thief or taken by Star Swirl himself to another location.

Whatever the case might've been, it looked as though the specific amulet I had come here for was not here. A rage wholly uncharacteristic of somepony like myself threatened to consume me, just as it had when I'd confronted Star Swirl. It was a growing fury fit to tear down the chamber around me, my own safety and the artifacts that remained be damned. Before I could make what may have been one of my worst mistakes yet, however, that fury was quelled by the sight of a singular tome. Something about it had caught my eye and that detail had been enough to calm my mind to the extent that I could once again think clearly. Upon closer inspection, the tome appeared to be a journal, a journal which bore on its worn brown cover the image of a cutie mark strikingly similar to my own.

Adorning the cover was the familiar shape of a six-pointed star. Its cool magenta hue was offset by the many smaller white stars encircling it. Completing the image were two stylized wings of a brilliant golden hue overlayed atop the circle of white stars on either side. Beneath the mark on the lower left side of the cover, in a small, heavily faded golden cursive font were words written in Old Ponish. Sufficiently fluent in the archaic language, I was able to translate what was written as 'property of Shining Dawn'.

I looked towards the heavens and saw the beginning of the end...

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Among the few hidden items I'd seen in the chamber, this journal was the only piece of text on display. Whether there'd been more or if Star Swirl simply hadn't bothered to collect any other tomes or scrolls or the like, I didn't know. What I did know for certain was that the journal was clearly out of place when compared to the other objects around me. I hadn't yet removed any of what sat upon these pedestals lest I active some sort of trap or failsafe put into place by the old stallion, but again my curiosity was getting the better of me. Another thaumic scan of the small underground chamber revealed yet another enchantment, one that had been placed upon each pedestal and extended to the inert sigil carved into the platform that sat behind me.

The sigil's purpose was twofold, and what I'd initially mistaken for inactive and harmless sigil-based magic had, in actuality, been part of a seemingly simple yet fiendishly elaborate trap set by Star Swirl. Unlike the powerful glamour placed upon the cabin itself, the finer details of this enchantment escaped me, but what little I could deduce at a glance indicated that the careless removal of any of these treasures would result in the activation of whatever foul trick was attached to the sigil. If I were to hazard a guess as to what that trick may have been, I would surmise that I would be trapped down here, or perhaps the entire chamber would collapse. Without proper research on how the spell worked, I could only make vague assumptions.

Thankfully, and rather surprisingly given who had most likely set the trap, I simply had to apply the same tactic I'd used to dismantle the wards layered atop and around the cabin. The task was all the easier once I magically snuffed out the flames bathing my possible would-be tomb in deep azure light. I expected the flames to be malicious in nature—possibly part of another trap set by Star Swirl—but though another thaumic search revealed the flames were magical, it appeared the spell that had given the fire its cool blue hue had simply been done as an aesthetic choice. One last examination of the enchanted pedestals showed that the spell woven into the pedestals had indeed been broken down and removed entirely.

The ease with which I'd been able to bypass Star Swirl's wards led me to wonder just how prepared the stallion had been for a user of the eldritch arts to invade his home and vault. Had I used the Dark in a way he could have never predicted? An unlikely notion, but possible. If what the stallion was to be believed, he'd been granted knowledge and immortality by the Unbegotten Source. He'd said nothing, however, about obtaining the gift of precognition, and if foresight wasn't the case, then Star Swirl would have had to rely on his own limited insight. Then again, it may very well have been that he was unable to ever find a counter to the method I'd used. It was possible that he'd hidden the amulet I sought elsewhere and sealed off the entrance to his vault for that very reason.

Whatever the case may have been, there was no way of knowing now and there was no need to worry. The chamber could not hold me as I was—not with the rites I knew. I maintained a vivid image of Star Swirl's cabin in my mind, as well as any other number of locations around Equestria, and—unlike a simple teleportation spell which was limited by the distance one could travel without fatally burning their magic away—this was enough. I had no way of entering the vault on my own, but now that I was inside, leaving would pose no issue whatsoever. The amulet was nowhere to be seen and I might have left it at that had it not been for the time-worn journal that had caught my eye. It was why I remained and why I'd taken the effort to dispel the trap.

It didn't seem to relate to my quest at all and yet I reached for it nonetheless, a niggling feeling I couldn't quite place gnawing at the back of my mind when I beheld the cutie mark engraved on the cover. The feeling was not the same as that which had compelled me to seek out the amulet, but rather something more... mundane. It was a natural intuition or a suspicion of sorts—a hunch that I would find something interesting and relevant within the pages of that old journal. With the enchantments no longer a threat, I reached out with my magic to take the journal from the pedestal, but the moment I enveloped what I thought to be a simple written record, my vision went black and the world seemed to lurch violently around me.

I felt my consciousness begin to dull; vague images swam in and out of the darkness and incomprehensible sounds distant and muffled reached my ears. Shock and confusion that had been overwhelming a moment ago melted away as a familiar sensation took hold. I had experienced this sensation before in the moments immediately preceding the entry into a particularly lucid dream. I was unsure of what was happening, how or why, but somewhere beyond the thick haze that had entrapped me was that aforementioned suspicion quickly cementing itself into a certainty. Realizing what was most likely coming next, I let my consciousness fully fade. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the all-encompassing curtain of darkness fell away and my eyes were opened to a different consciousness—my mind and body fully and willingly given over to an existence far older than my own.

Twilight Sparkle was no more, and in her place was a pegasus mare cold, alone, and in pain. Her withered, half-starved frame shivered and shook—whether from fear or that cruel biting cold she no longer knew. Trapped in an iron prison deep beneath the earth, surrounded on all sides by black stone walls and indescribably hideous things that crept among the shadows, the mare could do nothing more than lament her fate. She'd long since given up begging for her life or freedom from this neverending nightmare. She had tried so many times before to end her wretched existence by her own hoof—tried to spare herself from the horrors she knew awaited her within that light-forsaken ritual chamber—but they would not let her.

They had plans for her, dark and twisted plans that required her life intact and her blood unspilt until such a time was necessary. 'This time' they would say, 'with this sacrifice all will be as it should have been before'. Over and over again they would repeat the same thing, over and over again they would praise the Dark Silent One, over and over again they would sacrifice countless ponies to their death god. Young or old, mares or stallions, colts or fillies, it didn't matter to them so long as they could reawaken the Old Night... and yet all their sacrifices thus had been in vain. For all the blood drained from their victims, for all the ponies devoured by those unspeakable, unnamable things lurking in the darkness, for all their eerie chants and zealous sermons and horrifying rituals, there had been no grand reawakening of any god.

All their efforts had so far been in vain, but still, they continued their inequine ways. The mare, doomed as she was to fall victim to the same black fate that had already befallen so many others before her, had all but lost hope, along with a good portion of her sanity. Such was to be expected after the treatment she'd received for so long—how long she was uncertain, for day and night meant nothing within the confines of her underground prison. Time was strange and unreliable enough as it was, but for the mare, it had become a foreign entity. She had no idea of how long it had been since she was captured, stolen away in the night and forced to endure days, months, possibly years of torture, isolation, and darkness.

She'd become numb to the distant screams of fear and agony, the terrified pleas of the other would-be victims, and the unearthly words chanted by her cloaked and hooded captors. The cloying darkness, the torture, the isolation, and those foul creatures, however, had slowly but surely chipped away at her mind, driving her ever closer to a madness from which there would be no recovery. The mare lay curled up in her small dark cell as she ruminated on these things, her once bright amethyst eyes now devoid of any spark of life and her heart now heavy with cold despair and bitter resignation. Lost in her aimless, wordless, fearful mumblings and with her empty gaze fixed upon the far wall of her prison, she was slow to register the tall and imposing figure standing just on the other side of the iron bars behind which she was held captive.

The figure, wrapped in his 'holy' robes and black cowl, had materialized suddenly and silently before the mare like a ghost in the night, his features hidden by the shadows around him. He spoke, and it was his voice that finally caught the mare's attention. Her shivering frame stilled, locked into place by horror so profound as to make her physically ill. He had come to her before with his empty assurances and foul scriptures and twisted prayers spoken in that hideous alien language. She trembled at the sound of his too smooth voice touched with more than a hint of Saddle Arabian descent as she always had, but this time she knew something was different. She could feel it in his voice, hear it in his words.

Has my time finally come, she thought. Will they offer me up to their god as yet another sacrifice given in vain? Am I never to see my precious husband or darling little colt again? All these questions and more ran through her nearly broken mind as the figure call her name, yet she did not have to wonder long, for the figure—the heinous monstrosity of a stallion, spoke his piece and at his words, the mare was left speechless with shock and bewilderment. The stallion, without explanation or preamble, pulled open the door to her cell and stepped inside before telling the mare of a message delivered from the mouth of the Dark Silent One itself, a message meant for the one who bore the six-pointed star—the mare's own cutie mark she realized.

He whispered to the mare of a future where she did not die in this cell nor tied to a cold stone slab surrounded by the chanting Faithful. He hissed to the mare of a different fate, no less grim but far more meaningful. He chuckled darkly as he spoke of his own impending death at the hooves of another—one whom the mare would come to know well. He continued to whisper and hiss and chuckle and as he did so, the mare could only stare at the stallion, eyes wide and disbelieving. Then the words came no more, and as his words faded into the endless black, unfamiliar sounds and images began to take their place. The mare, perhaps in finally succumbing to her madness, saw many things—some she did not, nor could ever understand and some that awed and horrified her in equal measure.

Broken and disjointed images of battle, gruesome and plentiful, filled her mind which in turn filled her ears with the sounds of clashing steel and screams of rage and pain and fear and agony. Such sounds were nothing new to the mare, but the coppery scent of blood that assaulted her nostrils was so strong that it brought the mare to her knees and caused her to be violently ill. Her own final moments flashed before her eyes and it was indeed a fate just as grim as she imagined if not more so... but that was not the end. She too saw visions of a world—a future that existed beyond her death.

An old stallion fled the battle laden halls of a dark temple, his face shrouded in shadow and the dull glint of a strange bronze amulet about his neck, A war fit to put the previous visions of battle to shame spread across the land; ponies of all tribes fell to those that were once their kin like wheat in a field to the farmer's sickle even as a bitter cold the likes of which nopony had ever felt—nor would ever feel again—descended upon the fields of slaughter. Two fillies, one barely older than a newborn, alighted upon the shores of the land that would be known as Equestria after the war in a brilliant flash of light. Both were ponies that bore the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn and both were alone, injured, and afraid; of what, the mare knew not.

Vision after vision continued to pour into the mare's mind and somewhere in the chaos, she swore she could hear again the stallion's smooth, Saddle Arabian accented voice, though she could no longer tell where his words ended and the visions began. A gasp escaped the mare's lips as she eventually bore witness to the birth of a unicorn filly who shared her likeness in almost every detail. She watched as that filly became a mare. She watched as the mare became a hero. She watched as that hero was then reborn as a member of that strange amalgamation of the three pony tribes. Such images brought an odd sense of hope to the mare trapped in her prison below—a hope that soon turned to further horror as the nearly identical mare in her vision fell from grace, eventually becoming worse than the monsters she fought against.

Then that poor mare, whose body was wracked with terrible shivers and whose mind was shaken by awesome and awful revelations, heard the bells. She heard the mad laughter, she felt the earth quake violently beneath her, she saw the mountains crumble, she saw the sky darken as some great and terrible cosmic entity blotted out the sun high above, she heard the eldritch song it sang as that thing once slumbering eternally now rose from the shattered peaks, and the mare screamed as the rest of her sanity fled. The visions came to an end, but certain sounds and images remained burned in her brain. That mare whose face was so similar to her own and whose flank bore that same six-pointed star, that loathsome, unnatural song, and the stallion's voice as he whispered his final words to the mare.

"Can you hear it, O bearer of the six-pointed star? Can you hear the Harbinger's endless Music of the Spheres?"

And as the world came into focus once more, I could hear it, I—an alicorn mare whose body had been mutated into something grotesque and abominable by higher powers and whose flank did indeed bear a six-pointed star—could hear that foul music ringing in every corner of my mind. The image of my cutie mark had changed from its original magenta hue to a blackened and pulsating reminder of the depths to which I'd fallen and continued even now to fall. To me, at least in the moments following my slow and hazy return to both consciousness and the present, that was of little concern. There was something far more worrying to consider as I opened my eyes and blinked away the blurriness that clouded my vision, but in my daze, I failed to grasp exactly what that was.

I groggily awoke from my reverie, lying supine with my eyes fixed to the slightly rotted ceiling of Star Swirl's cabin. Somewhere nearby I could hear a panicked voice in the distance, more a hiss than a cry, but the voice was drowned out by the music that even now filled my ears with its eerie and uncanny tone. A sudden tremor beneath my hooves was sufficient enough to drive me to full wakefulness and as I rolled over and stumbled to my hooves my bewildered gaze fell upon the entrance to the cabin. The front door had been left open and I could see Chrysalis beyond it, standing just outside with her hideous face upturned towards the sky above. From this distance, I couldn't make out her expression, but the music, now a constant presence in my mind, had died down enough that I could hear her words.

The mad queen seemed to be shouting angry curses at something I could not see where I stood. It was a ridiculous sight to behold, but something about this whole situation sent a dreadful chill down my spine. The tremor had died down quickly enough, but the unease within me only grew as I tried to make sense of what had happened in the vault and how I'd returned to the cabin. My saddlebags sat beside me and I wasted no time in searching them for any kind of clue that may have appeared. Unfortunately, the journal I meant to take with me was nowhere to be found and the amulet was still missing, though now I knew through my latest vision of what the amulet itself would look like once I found it, and I would find it. I grimaced as the walls and ceiling of the cabin creaked and groaned ominously.

Placing my bags atop my back, I quickly made my way out of the cabin and towards Chrysalis, who, upon spotting me, rushed over and placed her twisted hooves on my shoulders. Her face was a terrifying mask of desperation and her voice shook as she spoke to me. She asked me of the amulet's whereabouts to which I responded with a shake of my head and an accusation of my own. She was, after all, the one who'd told me that the amulet had been left behind in Star Swirl's vault. It was clear I had been too quick to trust her word and it had gotten me nowhere. But to this, Chrysalis only shook her head and spoke again, her voice strained.

"The... t-the amulet w-was taken to the vault... by Star Swirl... af... a-after his return... of this I am certain... if... if it is not there... th-then it w-was taken by another... th-the one who waits for you... in th... the Cave... w-we must get that amulet... Twilight... S-Sparkle... the hour is nearly u-upon us... the Harbinger... i-it comes! Y-You must be the one to... t-to awaken the Old Night... i-if you fail... all will be for naught... w-we will perish... with the rest of them... quickly, Twilight... th-the... the Harbinger approaches... already I c-can hear its... its vile song!"

The corrupted queen once again turned her fearful gaze skyward and this time I followed that gaze. What I saw made my blood run cold, for in the sky just barely visible with the naked eye, was a distant shape—a dark but prominent speck really. It was still too far to be accurately identified by a normal pony without the aid of a powerful telescope, but I knew exactly what it was, for I was the one who had brought it here. I had seen it in my dreams more than once, and now those dreams had finally become a reality. As if to drive the point home, the music in my ears began to swell once more and another small tremor followed in its wake, shaking the ground beneath me. amidst the portentous cacophony of the alien music and rumbling earth, I swore I could hear a deep groan resound from beneath the mountain.

I knew then at that moment that Ghroth had set its burning sight on Equestria and the rest of the world, and that our time would soon be at an end. Just as Chrysalis said, I would perish with the rest of the planet without ever having discovered the full truth, without ever seeing what lay at the end of the path I'd chosen, and even as terror flooded my veins, I refused to accept that. If I had to rouse Zushakon from its slumber myself then so be it. It would reawaken and the world would end as I knew it either way. There was still time left, and in that time I vowed then that I would recover the amulet, uncover the Unbegotten Source and its secrets just as Star Swirl did, and if need be, awaken the Dark Silent One.

I would not die in vain with the rest of the world, my sacrifices would not be in vain, and so long as I was able to reach the truth that lay at the end of my path, the Dark Silent One could have its throne. With those thoughts cemented and my convictions set, I fled the rumbling forest for my next destination, wondering all the while just what and who would be waiting for me within the Cave of Harmony and dreading the possible answers that came to mind, for among the many sights I saw through that mare's eyes were the images of two others who had known of the amulet's resting place and I knew at least one, if not both of them would be there to greet me.

All my sins were laid bare before me...

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The jump to my next destination did not go as planned. Rather, as I attempted to make the transition from the forest near the Foal Mountain Range directly to the Cave of Harmony, I felt a different, yet not altogether unfamiliar force rest control of the rite from me. In an instant, I knew I would not arrive where I meant to, but I found I could do nothing to stop what happened next.

At that moment, in that instantaneous shift between my reality and whatever lay beyond, I felt something reach out and tear my mind from my body. In the mere blink of an eye I had become a consciousness removed from earthly flesh, a soul without a vessel. I was everything and nothing all at once and in this state I saw... no, I was made to see the world from not one, but all perspectives. I was made to relive that horrible experience within the Cave of Harmony—to relive the dreadful night that set into motion the events that would lead me down the path I'd taken up until now. Helpless in the iron tight grip of the force that held my mind captive, I was made to watch my own horrendous descent into both literal and figurative darkness.

Through my own eyes, I watched as Daring Do was dragged screaming into the endless shadows beneath the desert temple. Through her eyes, I watched horrified as I ignored and turned away from her terrified cries—snuffing out the only protection holding those floating horrors at bay. Through her eyes, I saw a callous mare heartlessly cast her friend aside all for a glimpse of some greater truth—her remorseful yet grimly resolute expression the last thing Daring Do saw before she herself was pulled away to be devoured by those haunters of the Dark.

Reality warped again and I was once more bearing witness to Star Swirl's gruesome downfall at my hooves. I felt again the white-hot pain of the hunting knife as it pierced my flesh. I felt again how the pain ebbed as my bloody rite took hold and tore open a hole into the 'Other Side'. I felt again the fear and awe that overtook me as I, at that moment, truly began to grasp the entirety of what I'd gotten myself into—the unfathomable scope of what I'd unleashed upon our world. From my occult research, I knew; I'd learned of the existence of these god-like cosmic beings and the unknowable domain in which they resided, but it wasn't until I invoked the power of the Key and the Gate that I truly understood and in the end, I had gained a new respect for such terrible power.

Star Swirl, somewhere amidst his crippling fear of the Dark, already knew some semblance of that same respect and so knew the truly vile depths of the unforgivable sin I'd committed. I knew this through him, I felt the panic and terror and despair of this stallion, saw my own atypical fury and madness transform me into something hideous through his eyes, just as I had with Daring Do. I saw the unhinged smile spread wide across my broken and twisted face even as I drove the hunting knife into my barrel. I saw the rite performed to terrible perfection—the sigils woven in blood and the words chanted in an eldritch language not meant for the equine tongue.

Through Star Swirl himself I knew that the stallion had indeed tried to stop me, and may very well have if not for him. For a brief moment, Sound Mind, that pony who was not a pony, made manifest a sliver of the power he held to keep the stallion at bay. I hadn't heard, caught up in my madness as I was then, but through Star Swirl's eyes—through his ears, I was able to hear perfectly well the words Sound Mind spoke, what he'd said as he stared the stallion down, looked into his eyes. No... as he directly looked into my eyes through him.

"Try as he might, Twilight Sparkle, even this one cannot deter you from the path you trot, and he will not, for he is a mere observer... an aberration that should not be... a wayward Spirit who must return to that place far beyond time and space from whence he came... who must return to his master... to that Abyssal Idiot... that Daemon Sultan who sleeps eternally upon Its throne within the center of ultimate chaos, amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes..."

Even as Star Swirl, in his horror, tries to make sense of Sound Mind's words, my own mind reels at the implications of what I'd heard, though I am momentarily distracted as my, or rather Star Swirl's vision is arrested by the nameless, formless terror lurking within the abyss that had opened up above him. I feel his horror, his panic, and desperation as he attempts to flee, and that is the last thing I feel from him before that lurking terror rips him from this plane of existence and pulls him into the yawning void, never to be seen again. It was no doubt a horrid sight, but I find my mind distracted from the old stallion's fate by Sound Mind's words and my own predicament.

Even as more images flashed across my vision—as I witnessed the earthly consequences of my actions through the hearts and minds of all those affected—I thought back to him. Free from the shackles of mortal flesh I had gained a sort of omnipresence. In these forced visions I could see that the unnatural tremors had affected not just the ground around the Foal Mountain Range, but the entirety of Equestria as a whole. They were relatively minor quakes, causing some unease and confusion amongst the majority of the populace and nothing more, but I knew that would change as it moved closer. Most could not see what I saw there in the sky, but those few who were more observant did, and of course, they wondered.

Some within those observant few began to make vague yet troubling connections and soon, once they eventually pieced together the tragic puzzle, they would spark a panic the likes of which Equestria had never seen before. It would only be a matter of time, but none of that mattered to me, not when I had my own quandaries and goals to focus on. If my suspicions were correct and Sound Mind had indeed spoken of that creature, then that would mean that we—all of us, had played host to and had even been ruled by an entity born within that cosmic primordial soup of madness and chaos. If such a thing was true, then why? Why had he come here?

Sound Mind had called him an observer, but that thing had meddled in the affairs of our world many times over countless centuries and continued to do so even now. Even now he had separated me from my body, such as it was, and held my mind captive. Even now he was impeding my progress and impressing his will upon me, forcing me to watch as those I knew worried and fretted over my disappearance. In my omnipresent state, I had been thrown into the recent past and watched through icy blue eyes that were not my own. My presence within the Dream Realm could not be hidden from her, but she had been denied access to my dreams by a greater power, one she knew—or rather thought she knew—all too well.

Worry had turned to suspicion after hearing Daring Do's account of my strange changes and even stranger nightmares through an oneiric encounter with the archaeologist, and as her covert investigation led her to stumble across the very unicorn she'd been searching for, suspicion had become conviction. An explanation was hardly needed for what she saw that night, as my horrid visage told her much of what she had already known and feared deep down. When she had contacted Daring Do I knew not, but the pegasus, curiously enough, hadn't informed her of where we were headed and she had still followed me to her eventual doom beneath the temple. It was a mystery to be certain, but one I cared little to uncover.

I continued to see one vision after another of the recent past and present from every conceivable perspective imaginable and answers I never asked for seemed to rapidly fill my entire being, such as it was. Had I not been untethered from my earthly bonds I feared my mind would be unable to handle the mental strain of it all, but as things stood, it was simply a fascinating distraction and nothing more. As I tried desperately to think of a way to return to my body and the journey at hoof, another voice rose from the ether, its tone—his tone hiding deep sorrow, regret, and anger behind bitter resignation and childish petulance.

"Had I not been a simple observer, Twilight Sparkle, I would have done much more than this, but alas, a higher authority than my own forbids it. I've tried for well over a millennia to defy the true cycle of Harmony, but in the end, I could do nothing to undermine the machinations of Ubbo-Sathla—not while the Masked Messenger walked and continues to walk amongst you mortals. You and the others thought my reign of chaos brought nothing but misery and despair? None who were alive then and very few who live now have seen the horrors that lie within the depths of true chaos.

"Compared to the one who bears the moniker of the Crawling Chaos, I am a saint, a king no less benevolent than your once-vaunted Sun Princess—a spirit far closer to 'order' as you ponies perceive it than 'chaos' as it truly exists. You, Twilight Sparkle, have begun to understand what it is to experience true chaos, as will the rest of the world soon enough, and now that you are under the watchful eye of the Faceless God, under his direct influence, there is little more I can do than this. All that I show you now—what you once had, what you've chosen to throw away, what you've brought about in your foolish quest for answers—you will forget all of it, your past memories buried and abandoned beneath countless eons.

"There will come a time, however, where you will have to face yourself and your sins, and when that time comes, those abandoned memories will rise to the surface bit by bit, piece by piece until you have no choice but to accept who and what you once were as well as what you've become—of this, I've made sure. In many ways, you may find me a jester—a trickster and a deviant out for my own amusement, but know that I take no pleasure in what you've done and what's to become of this world. You could have turned away from it all in the beginning, you could have left well enough alone, sought help from your friends or the other Princesses.

"You had every chance to diverge from this path, you alone could have ended this tragedy before it began, but you chose instead to pursue your precious truth to the very end... and now the world will suffer for it. Despite what I may say, I have always expected better of you, and yet you disappoint me in the end, Princess of Friendship. I owe you nothing given your actions, but I will save you all the same. Even if it takes the better part of an eternity. I will bring 'Twilight Sparkle' back because that is what she would've wanted, the kind and forgiving pony that she is.

"I do this not for you, but her. I do this because that is what it means to be a friend, a concept you've already begun to forget. It's regrettable, but I'm afraid this is all I can do now... I must return... even now I hear the call of Nuclear Chaos drawing me back to that wretched place... ah, but I wish I could have spent more time with that mare... just a bit more time... then maybe... maybe..."

I could feel the ethereal grip holding my consciousness hostage loosen even as the voice spoke its last wistful words, and it wasn't long before the images dispersed entirely, leaving me once more to aimlessly tumble about in a dark void somewhere between time and space. For a brief moment, it seemed as though my mind and soul would be lost to oblivion, a notion that caused abject terror to completely overtake me. My fears, thankfully, were unfounded as I soon felt myself pulled as if tethered by some chain back to my body. Somepony or something had anchored me to the material world and after what felt like an eternity, but was perhaps more akin to a moment or two, I again felt the surprisingly cold embrace of my broken shell, my flesh which had been irreversibly warped by the ancient and eldritch powers that be.

Disoriented by the events forced upon me, I blearily took in my surroundings. It was clear from a mere glance that I had not arrived in the Cave of Harmony as I'd intended, and instead had appeared in a place I vaguely recognized but could not fully recall. On the cold stone floor beneath my hooves, writ in what may have been chalk of some kind and glowing with a dim white light was a complex amalgamation of glyphs and lines arranged in a series of circular sigils not dissimilar to the one I'd seen in Star Swirl's vault. In my dazed state, it took a moment to sink in, but I was eventually able to recognize the work beneath me as a summoning circle.

I had been summoned to this vaguely familiar place like some otherworldly deity, and though I yet again saw no sign of Chrysalis, I did spot my presumed summoner standing stiff and silent a short distance away. The figure—a pony by their stature—was wrapped in a dark brown cloak, their features hidden under a hood they'd pulled close around their face. The heavily cloaked figure stirred suddenly, perhaps realizing I had finally noticed them, and with a slightly halting gait, they came forward. As the pony drew closer their unsure steps grew more steady and confident—almost eager. The summoner slowed to a stop a few feet away from the circle and before I could inquire as to their identity, the pony raised a hoof and pulled back their hood to reveal, much to my shock, that I'd been called by none other than Stygian, the lanky unicorn stallion grinning from ear-to-ear as he spoke.

"In all honesty, I was unsure if this would work as I'd intended, but by the grace of the Old Night, here you are! Welcome once again, Princess, to the Well of Shade. The few Faithful who remain have been waiting ages for this day, and with your arrival and the Harbinger's descent, we can finally begin..."

A future set in stone, a path paved by the distant past...

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The Well of Shade, a large underground reservoir built deep beneath the isolated town of Hollow Shades ages ago and the supposed site of Stygian's fall to the otherworldly powers that be. It was here that the Pillars, myself and my friends quite literally pulled the corrupt stallion from the shadow that had taken hold of him, or so I thought. Evidently our triumph against the Pony of Shadows was not so cut-and-dry, and there was far more to the stallion and his motives than even Star Swirl could have guessed.

As Stygian led me deeper into the massive cistern below the pungent marshes of Hollow Shades and further into parts yet unknown to me, he spoke belatedly of events soon to come now that I was here—events that evidently been thousands of years in the making. That he didn't seem at all bothered by my increasingly alien appearance didn't escape my notice. If anything, he seemed more intrigued by my no doubt hideous transformation. I was certain my body had undergone yet more disturbing changes, but I'd gone far beyond the point of worrying over such things given everything else that was at stake. Upon asking the stallion of his intentions and about my current predicament in general, his response was a soft chuckle and a slightly wistful gaze, his eyes fixed on the damp ceiling and his mind going someplace far from here.

"I've no doubt that by now, you've heard of them, haven't you? The Cult of the Hidden Ones? Well, I have quite an involved history with them. Suffice it to say that my worship of the Dark Silent One runs in the family..." his wistful expression suddenly twisted into a dark scowl as he continued, "...and that I had much more reason to despise Star Swirl the Bearded than I initially let on. I know what you've done, and you have my thanks for doing what I could not, Princess. You've done me and my family a great service by having rid the world of that stallion."

I was unsure of how to respond to Stygian's gratitude, so I simply chose to say nothing in turn. He didn't seem to mind and continued on nonetheless, explaining himself and his intentions as we made our way through a twisting corridor and down a dark, damp, and rather steep and winding stairwell. The lanky stallion told me of his father who—through a 'gift' granted by the leader of the cult and the eldritch powers of their death god—had been given a life extended far beyond that of a normal pony. This 'gift' unfortunately had also corrupted his physical form, much like the other cult members, Chrysalis, and myself. During the purge spearheaded by Star Swirl and his 'daughter', the stallion had managed to escape the slaughter of his corrupted kin and went into hiding for several years.

During that time he hid his involvement with the Hidden Ones along with his true appearance using similar methods as I had previously. He'd even gone so far as to settle down, marrying a mare he met some years later and having a foal, that foal being none other than Stygian. Several more years went by and to hear Stygian tell of it, it was only after he'd left home to seek his own destiny that Star Swirl had finally tracked down his father, killing the stallion on the spot and permanently wiping away all memories surrounding the cultist from his mother, and that included any memory of Stygian himself. The then young stallion had come home after several months to find a long dead father and a missing mother, with the culprit nowhere to be seen.

Unaware of the culprit's identity, Stygian set off to look for him and his mother, finding out in time that his mother had moved from their isolated home to a distant village with no recollection of her son or husband. He recognized that a spell had been cast on the mare, but even with such knowledge, Stygian was no learned mage. The stallion had no talent for advanced magic, and Star Swirl's was of the highest caliber. He could not reverse the effects of the spell, and so he had no choice but leave his mother as she was for the time being. What followed was a classic story of revenge as Stygian vowed to seek out the stallion that tore his family apart. It was early in his investigation that Stygian discovered the terrible secrets of his father's past.

Within his foalhood home, hidden well away from prying eyes inside his father's study, Stygian stumbled upon a hoof written letter along with a tightly sealed black box. The only thing written in the letter addressed to Stygian himself was vague directions the young stallion was to follow should his father perish suddenly. Try as he might, Stygian was unable to open the box, and so with no other leads, he set out to follow the instructions given to him by his dead father, taking the sealed black box with him and hoping all would be revealed in time, and in time they were. Following the path his father had set for him, Stygian eventually learned of the Hidden Ones. He learned of his father's role within the esoteric cult, he learned of their downfall at the hooves of Luce Prima and of his father's murderer.

The trail of answers led him from one horrifying truth to another, and at the end of that hideous path full of dead ends and hardship, he found a certain tome written by the Wandering Prophet. Its title was written in a language unknown to the young stallion, but within the book itself were words whose meaning he could not understand, not at first. Stygian's voice grew weary as he told me of the countless days and nights he spent poring over the tome's contents until finally, one day he discovered that the book held within its pages the story of events that would come to pass as written by the Wandering Prophet and as prophesized not by the Wandering Prophet himself, but another pony entirely—a mare who'd received a vision of the future bestowed upon her by the death god his father had worshipped so long ago.

"Imagine my surprise to find that my own name had been written in that book," Stygian continued with a small chuckle of amusement, "to discover that long before I was born I already had a role to play in the grand scheme of things—and quite a prominent role at that," a brief moment of silence passed between us as he led me down a darkened stone pathway built over a large underground channel. By the looks of it, this channel had been built ages ago and it was positively labyrinthine in its construction, but Stygian pressed forward as deftly and as confidently as though he'd lived here his entire life. Eventually, he spoke his next words, his tone growing wistful and reverent as he continued, "It was around the time I finally began to understand just what it is I'd come across that the Old Night called to me.

"When I discovered the meaning behind those cryptic words I was more than a bit skeptical, to say the least, but as I read more of the book I started to doubt myself and my sanity. When I began to hear voices whispering in my mind, however, I was convinced my tireless efforts had finally driven me mad. That was until the voices showed me a vision—a vivid dream of Star Swirl's fall brought about by a mare wielding a power unlike any I'd ever seen. Upon waking I scoured the book until I came across a passage that described the very event I'd seen the night before. That went a long way in convincing me that perhaps this wasn't all my imagination after all.

"While I would have liked to have confronted the stallion directly—to have caused his end with my own hooves—I hadn't the power to do so, not on my own. The entity whispering in my mind called itself Zulchequon, and it promised me that if I were to do as the book dictated, if I were to mold this possible future into a reality—to create this self-fulfilling prophecy if you will—then I would at least have a hoof in Star Swirl's eventual demise."

And so, with the voice of Zushakon guiding him, Stygian agreed and faithfully carried out his role. Using only a sliver of the Dark Silent One's power to slow his aging long enough to carry out his duties, the stallion set the events that would ultimately lead me here into motion. I admit I was surprised to find that, among many other coincidental happenings, it was Stygian who guided the two would-be Princesses to Star Swirl's doorstep. Knowing Star Swirl would pick up on any overt evidence of Zushakon's influence, Stygian was careful to avoid any use of the eldritch power at his disposal, save for the bare minimum needed to fulfill his role.

That and the sight of the other Pillars he'd gathered were sufficient to fool the old stallion despite his slight wariness of Stygian. Though Stygian never fully gained Star Swirl's trust and was ousted from the Pillar's inner circle, that was precisely what he'd been counting on, and it was only then that he fully gave himself over to the Old Night, mixing his alien power with the magic of our own world to create the façade of a creature born of dark magic, the Pony of Shadows. All played out exactly as it was meant to, and the Pillars along with my friends and I were none the wiser. It was so absurd it was almost laughable; his desire for revenge would help shape Equestria into what it was today, and his continuing devotion to the eldritch deity his father had worshiped before him would see the end of that very nation along with everything else, and I was the pawn in an ancient game I hadn't even known was being played.

Alas, what was done could not be undone, and so despite this new knowledge, my goal remained unchanged. Where I thought there would be bitterness and betrayal, I found that no such sentiments clouded my mind. I'd known through Shining Dawn that Stygian had been involved in some way, but this was beyond what I could have ever expected from the stallion—so far beyond what I expected in fact that I couldn't help but be impressed by the stallion's dedication. It was enough to motivate me to pursue my own goals with even more fervor than before, and if working with Stygian hastened the process, then all the better for me.

Still, as always, there were questions that still needed answering, such as where Stygian had been after his 'reformation', what he'd been doing since, what he planned to do now, and what had become of this tome of prophecies and that sealed box. Most important of all, what had happened to the amulet that was supposed to be sealed within Star Swirl's vault? Out of the two ponies I suspected to have stolen it away, it was beginning to look like Stygian was the more likely culprit.

"All good and fair questions, Princess," the stallion replied as he telekinetically pulled an old and slightly rusted lever mounted on a nearby wall. At the flip of the lever, there came a loud click and the large bronze sluice gate that barred our way forward slowly raised with a mechanical groan that was practically deafening in the relative silence of the underground channel, "I've been busy making preparations for this day as you can no doubt imagine. I've gathered the minimum number of followers necessary to carry out a certain ritual that will give you the answers you seek and allow you to confront, unchallenged, those who would stand in your path. Unfortunately, I don't hold the amulet you seek, but it will be bequeathed to you once the time comes. As for the box and tome..."

The stallion trailed off and stepped passed the open gateway, motioning for me to follow in the process. Beyond the gate, I could see what looked to be a massive chamber. Within the chamber itself, the channel beneath the stone walkway deepened into a wide basin, at the center of which was a large raised stone platform. The maze-like channel that had been built most likely ages before the cistern above had long since been abandoned, and what little rancid water that remained had gathered within the basin. The circular chamber connected not just this channel, but three others, all of which were closed off by different sluice gates. By the looks of it, there'd once been four stone bridges connecting the various walkways directly to the central platform, but all save the one before me had crumbled away with time.

Though it wasn't pitch black and oozing with nearly as much malevolence, the chamber reminded me to no small degree of the cathedral below the temple, and I suspected that wasn't mere coincidence. There were no pews to speak of and no sacrificial altar on which to place a victim, and in place of said altar was a single wide stone pedestal with a small rectangular object placed atop it. The pedestal stood in the center of the platform surrounded by yet another complex sigil consisting of a series of interwoven runes and pentagrams painstakingly etched upon the floor in what may have been blood by the look and smell of it. The metallic stench was thick enough to cut through the myriad of other foul scents that permeated the chamber. Although it also may have been the metal sluice gates blocking access to the other channels, I had a strong feeling that wasn't the case.

More intriguing was the appearance of three other cloaked and hooded figures standing on either side of and behind the pillar, all of them clearly ponies, or at least equine in some shape or form. To my further surprise and curiosity, one of the figures was markedly smaller than the rest and I couldn't help but wonder just who these creatures actually were. Each of them stood on the platform looking just as Stygian did when I first saw him. They all stood rigid as statues and were just as quiet, all their gazes seemingly fixed on the object sitting on the pedestal.

As Stygian moved into the chamber I noticed each of them stir and turn to us, though none of them spoke a word and I still couldn't make out their features from beneath their hoods. After a moment of contemplation, I turned to the cloaked pony that had led me here for an explanation. Seeing my questioning look, Stygian turned and nodded toward the platform ahead of us, his somewhat jovial expression gone, replaced with an oddly subdued smile. A strange gleam entered his dull azure eyes as he spoke, a gleam much like the one Star Swirl wore at the end of his tale. Though he spoke to me, his voice was far away, as if speaking to something or somepony distant and intangible.

"...Everything is exactly where it needs to be, Princess. You and I, the tome and the box, Chrysalis and your friends, the Harbinger, the Tree, and so much more besides... every piece in its place, just as He wills it. And soon... very soon... the Old Night will rise... and by its power, you will begin your second ascension..."

I gazed upon the god which existed at the beginning and the end of time...

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I was fairly certain that by now my features had become all but unrecognizable. Without looking I could tell that the majority of my original visage had broken away, revealing whatever hideous creature I'd become underneath. I no longer felt like myself, but that wasn't to say the change was uncomfortable. On the contrary, I felt oddly liberated, as if my original body had always been some kind of outer shell holding my true self within and it was only now that I could sense that disparity between that outer and inner self. That such a horrific change should end up feeling so natural in the end, it made me question whether or not I'd had any real equinity at all to begin with or if this eldritch monstrosity was hiding just below the surface all this time. I would have dismissed the notion as ridiculous mere moments ago, but that had been before Stygian informed me that I was to undergo a 'second ascension'.

Monstrous as my appearance may have been, my bewilderment at the stallion's statement must've still been quite evident, because he gave a slight chuckle when he turned to meet my response. All I'd wanted was to finish what I'd started and satiate my undying curiosity, but it seemed Stygian... no, it wasn't Stygian but those higher powers he answered to that had other plans for me. Stygian, like myself, had only been a pawn dutifully carrying out his role. I understood that now, but I'd come too far to turn back now. There was no stopping what was to come, so ultimately I could only press forward, and if Stygian was to be believed, the answers I'd given up everything I'd ever loved or otherwise cared for were finally within my reach.

All that said, I still required an explanation regarding this 'second ascension' but unfortunately, Stygian's reply as he made his way towards the others silently waiting deeper within the chamber was a cryptic one.

"I don't, nor can I, claim to know the motives of those outer gods who reside beyond our own reality, but what I can tell you, Princess, is that you've caught their attention, and that is an honor if ever there was one..."

With those ominous words, the stallion ushered me further into the damp chamber and toward the blood circle where the other three robed ponies stood watching with a silence that seemed almost reverent from my perspective. I returned their stares, attempting to see the hidden features beneath each of their hoods, but even with my warped vision, I could see nothing of their faces. It was as if they had none within that swirling black void and I began to wonder if maybe it were for the best that I not see. I thought to ask Stygian of where he'd obtained these 'followers', but decided against it for the moment. There were more important matters at hoof, such as discerning the contents of the small black box that lay upon the pedestal at the center of the blood circle. As I moved closer, Stygian began to explain, his tone hushed, but the excitement no less clear in his voice.

"For years, a select few members of the Hidden Ones—my father among them—had tried and failed time and again to accomplish what only Starswirl was able to. For years they sought to find the forbidden realm of the Demiurge—the Unbegotten Source itself, Ubbo-Sathla, hidden somewhere in this world. Ultimately they despaired of ever finding that sacred place, that is until the Wandering Prophet Nyar provided from sources unknown a solution in the form of the object that sits within the very box you see before you..."

Stygian paused as he laid his eyes on the box in question. A spark of something I couldn't quite place entered his strangely dull gaze and looking at him, I got the sense that he was lost in thought or perhaps trapped within a memory of times long since past. Whatever the case may have been, he regained his senses quickly and motioned for me to stand before the pedestal. I comply without complaint and, satisfied, he continued speaking, all the while moving into position to complete the circle of ponies surrounding me.

"Shortly before Starswirl and his wretched 'army' attacked the final temple, Nyar entrusted that box to my father and instructed him—among other vital tasks—to keep it safe until such time as it was meant to be opened. It was the Wandering Prophet's foresight that ultimately allowed my father to escape Starswirl's slaughter and with one of the Hidden One's greatest treasures in hoof, he fled the temple. Neither he nor the other members were ever told what the box actually contained, only that the object inside would grant another means by which one could obtain the limitless wisdom of the Unbegotten Source..."

He turned his attention from me to one of the other robed figures standing opposite him and nodded. I followed his gaze just in time to see the cloaked pony give a slow nod of affirmation in return. A moment later there came the tell-tale sound of magic being channeled through a horn and a large black tome appeared in a flash of bright blue-grey light to float before the pony who'd summoned it. The tome was large, thick with the thousands of pages that no doubt filled it. Unlike the faded images and title upon the cover of the Nameless Tome that I possessed, the cover of this book had no title or image. Needless to say, the tome had piqued my interest, but there was something else I'd noticed that was far more distracting. Though I heard the sound of magic, no magical aura lit the horn of the caster, leaving their identity yet unknown to me. Before I could read too deeply into that, Stygian's voice pulled my attention back to him.

"Princess, I know without a doubt that you are the one meant to open that box but know that once the box is opened, whatever experiences you've had up until now will pale in comparison to what you will experience once you gaze upon the object inside. Our role is to act as lifelines keeping you—or rather your mind—tethered to this place. If you were to open that box and peer inside without this ritual, you would lose yourself entirely, never to return. We are here to help you, but even so, there is still some risk involved if you are unprepared, so I will ask: Have you steeled your mind, Princess? Are you ready to lay eyes upon the Beginning? To potentially sacrifice your very existence to obtain knowledge not even Starswirl himself was able to glean from the Unbegotten Source?"

For a moment—just for a brief moment—I hesitated to answer. Given everything I'd already abandoned and what I stood to gain, the answer should have been a simple one. It should have been easy to say I was prepared to continue no matter the cost, but I was surprised to find it wasn't quite that easy. Something, some lingering doubt suddenly made itself known and silenced the answered I would've otherwise given without hesitation. Perhaps it was my last remaining shred of reason telling me that I may not have been ready to face what lay inside that box. The unexpected anxiety made something as simple as opening a box seem like a daunting and borderline insurmountable task.

Feeling somewhat pensive, I turned away from Stygian's expectant gaze and slowly made my way to the edge of the wide platform. I cast one last glance back at the stallion now eyeing me with a curious frown before turning my eyes downward toward the murky water surrounding the large stone platform. It was barely visible in the dim light, but on the surface of that fetid water, I could see the reflection of a creature that no longer resembled the mare known as Twilight Sparkle staring back at me. I could see a hint of what I once was in the scowling dark violet muzzle upon my face, but everything above that was a horrid sight to behold. The thing that returned my stare was no longer equine.

Eyes were missing where they ought to have been, only to be replaced with others in places they ought not to be. A pulsating, writhing, living mass of shadow that had once been my mane sat atop my head. Dark fur and skin cracked and split and broken away in large pieces, revealing more of that hideously squirming darkness beneath. I was a monster, an unsightly marriage of shadow and flesh. Putting a blackened hoof to what was once my chest, I could still feel the muscle and bone beneath, but it was soft and pliable like clay. I smiled and pushed just a bit further until I could feel it, the soft and irregular beat of my own heart. To anypony watching, it would've been a strange and unsettling sort of smile, but I could do nothing else but smile that eerie smile as I dropped my hoof back to the ground.

Yes, I'd known all along, but I wanted to confirm it for myself; with changes this drastic there really was no going back now. Even if the world hadn't already been doomed to fall to the sleeping god beneath Foal Mountain, there was no happy ending for me. I had no reason to hesitate anymore and with a renewed sense of what I couldn't decide was determination or resignation at what was to come, I returned to my place before the pedestal and the box that sat atop it. This time my answer came readily and without fear or anxiety. Stygian's face lit up at my willingness to cooperate and his smile widened into the excited grin of a colt being given exactly what he wanted on Hearth's Warming.

"Excellent! I suppose you had your doubts, but in the end, I expected nothing less, Princess... Very well, then we have no time to waste. You've almost reached the end of your trials, Twilight Sparkle, but while this may be the most difficult hurdle you've faced up until now, I have no doubt you will push through it and move ever higher. Now, if you've cast aside your misgivings, we shall begin..."

As he finished speaking the smile slid from his face and I could feel a drastic shift in the atmosphere. It was such that it made what remaining skin I had left crawl in what could have been unease or anticipation, or perhaps both. Stygian once more turned to the pony in possession of the large tome and gave one last nod, this one carrying the weight of finality. We were all about to cross the threshold, past which no return would be permitted. I watched as that tome opened before the pony, watched them magically flipped through several pages until they found the right one. Then, after a short but heavy beat of silence, the pony began to speak in a slow, monotonous, almost hypnotic drone.

The words she spoke—for it was clearly a mare that spoke them—were familiar to me, as alien and unsettling as they were to any sane pony. Unexpectedly, the voice too was familiar to me, though I couldn't quite put a name to the voice. Who was this mare who so diligently and unhesitatingly spoke such blasphemous and vile words? Before I could think too hard on the matter, the voice of the other two mysterious ponies joined their droning voices to the chant, one more of which also sounded vaguely familiar to me. As they continued their incantation, the blood sigil beneath our hooves began to shimmer and glow a deep crimson.

There was a sound like a deep slow hiss that came from everywhere and nowhere at once. The sound reached my ears and tore through my mind, its reverberations leaving me oddly weak in the knees. I felt rather than saw Stygian's eyes on me and as I turned to the stallion he bade me open the box in a tone that echoed queerly off the walls of the surrounding chamber. I obeyed without question, using my monstrous black hooves to pry open the box. I felt strangely disconnected from the act—as if I was watching somepony else open the box. Though that box should have been sealed, it opened at my touch as easily as if it had never been locked in the first place, and inside was the object that would grant me the knowledge I so desperately pined for. A brief moment of confusion crossed my mind as I stared at the contents within.

A single cloudy white crystal sat snugly in the box, its size roughly that of an orange and its shape a clear oblate spheroid. Just the sight of it was enough to push everything else out of my vision and though it looked benign enough, I felt the crystal sucking me in. The longer I looked into its cloudy surface, the harder it became to look away. After a time I could see a faint light in the crystal's center, one the seemed to grow brighter with every passing second. That strange sense of disconnect intensified drastically and my world became hazy and dreamlike. Where there was once only Twilight Sparkle, there was now a feeling—a certainty, that I was also a different creature in a different place in a different time staring into this same oblate crystal.

Slowly, over time the presence of Twilight Sparkle began to fade. The dank chamber and chanting ponies around me fell away to be replaced by an entirely different scene. Here there was no Well of Shade and there was no Twilight Sparkle. I was no longer the twisted mare who'd trotted a path of ruin but Nec Divinos, a Hidden Ones cultist and accomplished unicorn mage whose leader had tasked me with the unsealing of a mysterious chest containing a treasure said to contain the wisdom of a god. I acquiesced, happy to be of use to the speaker for the Dark Silent One, and after no small amount of effort, the seal was undone and the crystal was released from its ornate prison.

As I inspected the crystal, I found I couldn't look away, a sudden desire for the knowledge it contained overwhelming me. I watched, mesmerized as the crystal began to glow with an eerie light and once again I felt myself sinking into that light, falling into the crystals cloudy depths as if I was falling into a dream within a dream. Before I knew it, I was elsewhere, no longer the Hidden Ones cultist Nec Divinos but rather an old griffin antiquarian of some renown. I saw the world as he saw it long ago; I lived my life as he must have, and eventually, I moved on, my consciousness wildly and violently thrust across time and space before sinking ever deeper into the past.

I was a proud thestral warrior fighting for my life and my queen against the wretched forces of the Solar Tyrant. I was one of the thousands of changelings newly spawned from the carnivorous plant that had grown from a fetid pond teeming with foul magic. I was an imprisoned unicorn, stolen away from my home in Equestria to a distant kingdom by a vile magician. I was a slave, laboring deep within the icy mines of Sombra's frozen empire to the far north. I was a reputable mage of the royal court serving under the newly throned Princesses of the Kingdom of Equestria. I fought bravely as a rank and file earth pony soldier protecting my family and country from Pegasopolitan invaders.

I was a terrified villager fleeing from the ineffable horrors dwelling in the endless and absolute darkness swallowing the world. I moved past the nightmare, living innumerable lives and dying innumerable deaths along the way, be they sapient, sentient, or otherwise; there was no living creature whose existence my consciousness did not encroach upon. As I passed into a prehistoric era in which no intelligent beast could or would ever dare to thrive, my consciousness finally began to fade into the everflowing river of eternity. I had long ago forgotten the being known as Twilight Sparkle and could only move against time's flow, helplessly dragged along by some unseen and unknowable force leading me closer and closer to the source and the end.

I watched as the beast that would be known as Zushakon sank down into the depths of the earth for the first time. This went far beyond any mere dream or nightmare; no meager vision could compare to the reality of events playing out before me. From my metaphysical state somewhere in-between time and space, I saw that towering pillar of shadow bursting forth from unknown depths and shrouding the sky in a cold and empty blackness. I saw the massive winged monstrosity that flapped and slithered and dragged itself down beneath the newly formed earth to begin its deathlike slumber and had I still been flesh and blood, I might've lost my mind. As it stood, however, I could only move onto my final destination.

In the planet's infancy—in a time before life could have existed in any form, when much of the molten rock that would form the earth's crust had yet to fully cool, I knew without knowing that I had reached the end of my journey through countless aeons. It was here, amidst the bubbling, boiling, steaming primordial marsh that had once been a shallow impact crater half a kilometer wide, that I finally found Ubbo-Sathla, the Unbegotten Source and the ultimate End. With neither visage nor appendages nor internal or external organs to speak of, the titanic shapeless mass sat as an absolute ruler among its kingdom of putrid vapors and primeval ooze. From its slimy undulating body, it birthed its children in an endless stream, the amoebic forms—the blueprints of all life as I would know it millions of years from now—spilling into the protomorphic soup.

This was Ubbo-Sathla... and yet...

For all its inconceivably horrifying and disgusting glory, Ubbo-Sathla itself was not the source of all unearthly wisdom, but rather its guardian. The forbidden and unfathomable knowledge of the gods—the very cosmic secrets that would later be held by Yog-Sothoth, the Opener of the Way—was first inscribed upon the many monumental tablets embedded and strewn haphazardly about Ubbo-Sathla's grotesque bulk. Though I hadn't the means to make use of the knowledge as I was now, I'd obtained all of what my world's history had to offer me. It was from these mighty, transcendental tablets, however, that I could learn the ultimate truth of what lay beyond that history and perhaps all of what the future would hold. I could see past the limited scope of my own reality and gain not just mere glimpses, but complete insight into hidden realms I'd, up until now, only touched upon.

It was all there before me, so close that I need only let the unknown forces that be pull me just a bit further... but it was not meant to be, not entirely.

I had barely cast my mindless yet wholly omnipresent gaze over the sacred words etched into those tablets when something—some strange sensation tugged at the consciousness I'd no longer even been aware of. Shock and bewilderment were the first sentiments that assailed my slowly reawakening mind as it was yanked from Ubbo-Sathla's eldritch mire at the beginning of time and sent wildly careening forward into the future. Disorientation made billions of years and countless lives pass by in an instant, but I still felt each and every second as keenly as if I was being reincarnated over and over—experiencing endless births, living an endless number of lives, and dying again and again only to be reborn in a seemingly endless cycle until...

My world suddenly went white, and somewhere in that blinding abyss, I could hear a voice—several voices shouting, screaming in pain and fury. I could hear, as if from beneath a bed of water, the familiar sounds of spells being cast in the midst of some great commotion or vicious struggle I couldn't see. Somewhere, somepony—a mare by the sound of it—was chanting unintelligible words in a strained and desperate voice, but I hadn't the wherewithal to discern exactly who it was. I was still lost, my consciousness now hopelessly and helplessly wrapped in a white haze, a heavy, snowy blanket of nothingness. How long it took I couldn't say, but eventually, gradually, the haze began to clear and I began to regain a sense of self, though my own identity still escaped me.

Then the chanting stopped and everything came back to me all at once as the desperate mare called out my name in an agonized cry. The dreamlike sensation enveloping me vanished and for the first time in what truly felt like an eternity, I was Twilight Sparkle. The modern world came back into focus and above the confusion and disorientation that had yet to fully abate, I could feel a growing migraine from the overwhelming thoughts and memories whirling in my head along with a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. In a sudden panic and with an effort that went beyond grueling, I pushed the pain caused by the flood of knowledge I'd acquired aside and looked around me, my bewilderment reaching new heights at the sight that greeted me.

At a brief glance, I could see two of the four cloaked ponies that had initiated the ritual crumpled and unmoving upon the mossy stone floor. The blood circle had been broken and the hoods of both ponies had been thrown back to reveal the faces of those who'd conspired with Stygian. The sallow-faced, brown coated unicorn stallion I didn't immediately recognize, but the other pony I knew all too well. Across from the stallion lying unconscious was Moon Dancer, my long time friend and rival in the pursuit of thaumatological study. The mare's mane, usually tied up in a knot, had come undone and spilled across her yellow-grey features and her thickly rimmed glasses lay broken a short distance away. Even further away I could see the large black book that had been used in the ritual lying in tatters, many of its ancient yellowed pages scattered about the chamber.

Wondering what to make of the situation, I turned to take in the rest of my predicament when the sound of another spell being cast caught my attention. Still dazed, confused and in pain from my pounding migraine, I was slow to react to whatever spell had been released and an impact that shook my brain was the last thing I felt before I was swallowed in a dreamless black void.

I obtained the key I needed to open the final gate...

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For what could have been a mere moment or perhaps an eternity, time abandoned me. It threw me into an indescribably horrendous sea of angles that existed long before history. No, the angles existed outside of history—adjacent to it.

The things that time forgot or would not touch existed through these angles and, for I did not—could not know how long, I was just another object lost in that bizarre and mind-bending sea. The angles. They were a prison from which there could be no escape. Yes, there was no escape from the angles that existed outside of time but I did not despair. There were creatures that moved through angles, unspeakable monstrosities by conventional standards—unfathomable beasts that navigated this twisted angular realm not meant to be seen by any save for perhaps the Blind Idiot God itself.

No, I did not despair at my predicament nor did I fear those beasts which prowled this place that was not a place beyond time. Fear was beneath me, and madness was far behind me, for I saw them.

It was only for an infinitely brief moment and I was only allowed the barest of glances, but I saw them. I suffered the unbearable existential pain of living countless lives since time immemorial. I lost my sense of self so that I could find the truth, and I had! And by some cosmic miracle, I remember it all! Ubbo-Sathla, the Demiurge. Ubbo-Sathla, the Source and the End. I bore witness to the Unbegotten Source as it was when the world was yet in its infancy. Within its hideous protoplasmic bulk, it held many monumental tablets upon which was transcribed the sacred knowledge of the Elder Gods.

And I—an insignificant, infinitesimal speck of nothing in the greater expanse of the cosmos—was given the honor of casting my unworthy eyes upon those tablets. I absorbed what little eldritch knowledge I could glean, inherited it, made it my own. What those tablets contained should have been incomprehensible to a creature like me and in a sense, I suppose it was—that is until I found myself lost within the angles out of time. It was in this place—and only in this place—that a being like me could ever hope to comprehend the knowledge of an Elder God without fear of madness or cosmic retribution.

I know not how I came to be here, but what once was an existential fear unlike anything I'd ever known gradually became gratitude for the gracious opportunity I'd been given. My grasp of the unknowable had tightened considerably but remained yet incomplete. Still, it was enough to keep those beasts, those dreaded Hounds, at bay. Without the knowledge I'd obtained, I knew for certain that they would pick up my scent and come to hunt me down. As it stood, however, I'd obtained the know-how to avoid such a fate and I allowed that same understanding to guide my enlightened mind slowly but inexorably out of the inescapable prison of angles and back into the tumultuous throes of time...

It was the music that assaulted my senses first.

It was everywhere, it was everything, it wrapped around me and revitalized my body and soul. Within its unearthly melody, I felt a sense of pleasant connectedness analogous to that of a lazy afternoon spent with a treasured book. My eyes had yet to fully open, but even without sight, I knew it was up there and that it was coming closer. I knew that it was close enough now to be seen by the masses—inconsequential creatures who would soon fall to the darkness and chaos brought about by Zulchequon's awakening. Even without the use of conventional sight, I could see the Harbinger clear as day, belting its otherworldly music of the spheres across the sky.

It certainly was music fit to wake any of the Great Old Ones from their deathlike slumber, but it would not be enough, not this time. As I was now, I understood that Ghroth and his melody alone would not be enough to fully rouse the likes of the Old Night from its deep sleep beneath the earth. The Bells were needed along with someone to ring them. I was the one chosen to take up this task by the Crawling Chaos, that wily Servant which came to me and guided me in the guise of a wandering stallion calling itself Sound Mind.

The Outer Gods, the most powerful of the Eldritch Beings, called for Zulchequon's awakening and so it fell to me to carry out their will. I did not know their reasons, nor did I believe I was meant to, but I would do what I must all the same. Who was I—what was I to go against the word of such beings? I was nothing compared to their presence. But somehow I felt that the truth of that fact would soon change if I could but accomplish the one task given to me. If I could bring the Dark Silent One to open its eyes, I had faith that the final gate at the end of the path I chose to walk would open to me—a gate that, when opened, would lead me to the knowledge I failed to obtain back then.

And when I finally passed through that gate, when I finally gained the truth I so desperately desired, I believed that I would become something that could exist alongside those unfathomable beings rather than beneath them.

I would not suffer the same fate as Barzai the Wise of Ulthar. In my pursuit of the truth, I learned of a man from a distant world that lay in a dimension separate from my own. This man, in his hubris and arrogance, claimed himself to be greater than the earthbound Great Ones. Thinking himself safe from retribution, he invaded their forbidden sanctuary and proclaimed them weaker than he because of the meager knowledge he'd obtained. While it was true that he had learned enough to stand among the Great Ones, he did not know enough to stand above them.

The fool—ignorant of the Other Gods who existed above and protected the Gods of Earth—paid for his folly when those Other Gods came for him at the summit of Hatheg-Kla, but I would not make the same kind of mistakes as he did. Unlike Barzai, I knew my place in the cosmos. I knew that without earning the favor of those Other Gods, the greatness that Barzai spoke of could never be possible. I was fully aware that the knowledge I had gained was incomplete and I would work to rectify the issue.

With these thoughts and convictions in mind, I finally opened my eyes and acknowledged my surroundings. Like Chrysalis before me, I found myself imprisoned—suspended within a sort of stasis field borne of dark magic powerful enough to keep me contained even with my relatively newfound potential. While the chains that bound the Mad Queen were far more powerful, this field, imperfect as it was, was much more appropriate for holding the kind of creatures that Chrysalis and I had become. I could not move, nor could I speak through normal means. All that was left to me was my sight and awareness.

Rather than lament my current predicament, I was impressed with how thorough the caster had been in utilizing the magical tools at their disposal.

Neither Stygian nor Moon Dancer or the other hooded ponies were present from what I could see. Instead, what greeted my eyes were the grim features of none other than the Lunar Princess. Behind her, standing a slight distance away were a number of familiar faces, the remnants of a life I had abandoned what seemed like forever ago. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Princess Celestia herself all stood alongside one another with faces twisted in sadness, fear, anger, and all manner of other unpleasant emotions.

With them stood the original Pillars of Equestria, or those that remained. Among the crowd, it was their eyes that held the most understanding of what they were dealing with, but only insofar as what Star Swirl had deigned to disclose to them. Just by looking, I could tell Luna had some idea, but her insight fell woefully short of what I now knew. The rest were laughably out of their depth, and that was true even for Celestia. What's more, I could see the radiant form of the Tree of Harmony standing tall behind them all. To me, it was like a monument to their collective ignorance regarding the true nature of 'harmony' and the world we lived in.

They had brought me to the very place I was meant to be.

They came together in an attempt to pull me away from the path I had traveled, not even realizing that I was already at the gates at the end of that path. Still, I could certainly understand their sentiments even if I could not and would not accept them. They watched me with eyes clouded by ingrained preconceptions and earthly attachments. Those with weaker constitutions shied away from my monstrous appearance in abject horror, but none ran from what they thought was their duty as Guardians of Equestria.

The Pillars had even gone so far as to collect the same relics and artifacts that were once used to seal Stygian away. I was certain they would attempt to bring me back to my senses—to redeem me as it were. There was no chance that the other Elements would accept anything less as long as they were convinced I could be 'saved' so there was no doubt that the artifacts were meant as a precaution should the worst come to pass. I once stood among them, so I could understand their desire to return me to who I was before the incident within that very cavern.

Princess Luna and the Pillars were of a different mindset than Celestia and the ones who still called me a friend. I could see in their eyes that I was a lost cause—a monster who had fallen too far to be saved, and they were right in a sense. I surmised that were it not for the intervention of the others, there would be no negotiation. They would seal me away in 'Limbo' without hesitation or regret. All I could really feel at the notion was a deeper sense of pity.

Limbo would not hold me, nor would it do anything to stop the coming of the Harbinger or the machinations of the Servant. Even if I somehow failed in my task, I was sure Sound Mind would find another to take my place. I may have been chosen to bear this burden, but even at this stage, I was still expendable in 'his' eyes. That was the truth of the matter, but not one of the creatures standing before me was willing to accept it.

Once upon a time their courage and dedication would have moved me—it would have moved mountains. Unfortunately, I knew better and had realized that they were simply misguided, as was I. And so it was with eyes full of detached pity that I returned their emotional gazes. I briefly entertained the idea of educating them all in what I had learned, but ultimately chose instead to sate my idle curiosity with a question.

What have you done with Stygian and the others?

The barrier in which I was trapped had prevented me from speaking aloud and so I was forced to take an alternative and will my words directly into their minds—an unexpected feat that caused every creature present to flinch in shock and horror. Their eyes widened and their faces paled and this too was a reaction that I could wholeheartedly understand. It was nothing more than simple telekinesis, a skill that any unicorn could master with enough training.

The skill in and of itself was nothing impressive, but as I had come to expect, even my inner voice—like the rest of me—was far removed from what it once was. I imagined it was this fact that caused such a stir among my captors. I took no delight in frightening them and found their reactions rather tiresome, so—wanting my answer—I asked again. The initial shock had worn off, but the silence was still my only response. I looked to each one of them and saw that the majority would not look me in the eye at my question. Grief was prevalent among Celestia and the Elements, but interestingly enough, I could see more than one hostile glare pointed in Luna's direction.

Luna, perhaps sensing their gaze, stepped forward. If she was bothered by the stares, she did not let it show. Instead, her eyes remained locked on mine and her expression grew hard as steel—a look that was reflected on a few of the Pillars as well. When the Lunar Princess spoke, it was with a voice laden with ice and full of conviction.

"Those that had allied themselves with Stygian are currently being held within Canterlot Castle's most secure dungeon until further notice. as for Stygian himself... We attempted to reason with the stallion, but he did not give us the chance to bring him back with us and so we were... I was left with no choice... I did what I had to do."

And so Stygian's life had come to an end by Luna's hoof.

All that meant to me was that the stallion had fulfilled his role, and I was sure that had he been present, he would have agreed. With his task complete, he likely felt no need to resist the call of death, and in death, he was likely granted a new existence. Death, after all, is a concept that can be easily overcome if you've made the proper sacrifices. I mused on the matter for another moment or two before Luna continued.

"And now that I've answered your question, I have a question of my own. Where is Star Swirl? What have you done with him?"

It was a question I should have expected, but in all honesty, I had forgotten about the old stallion. Now that I remembered, I couldn't help but mentally chuckle as I recalled his features just before he was taken from this realm into horrors unknown. In my stasis, I managed a smile that must have been the stuff of nightmares to those that saw it and gave my reply in the form of my own question.

Are you sure you want to know? I can tell you the answer, but you, Luna, and the rest of the Pillars—you know that once I reveal the truth to the others, there will be no turning back. Are you willing to let your sister and the rest of the Elements shoulder that burden, Luna?

I could tell them what I knew and the majority of them would be horrified yes, but the knowledge could be just as tempting as it was horrifying. There was always the chance that one of them would find the same path I did and it would be so easy to follow it. Once you began walking it was easy to keep going. Would Luna be willing to allow such dangerous knowledge to be heard? Had she already told them?

No.

Their stricken faces and horrified silence said all I needed to know about the answer. If she had told them anything, it was not nearly enough for them to fully comprehend what they were getting themselves into. It was also clear to me that not a single pony desired to know the truth of what I had done to Star Swirl, not even Luna. I watched her struggle, waiting to see what would come to pass in the battle between her desire to know what happened to her old mentor and her desire to keep what she knew of the truth hidden.

In the intermittent silence, I looked to the Pillars and saw them in very much the same predicament. The Elements were just as conflicted, if not more so, though with their uncertainty came more than a little confusion. Celestia, who had apparently decided that she had stayed quiet long enough, turned to speak to her sister—no doubt to inquire as to what it all meant—but before she could, another, smaller creature suddenly made itself known. Pushing his way past those that towered over him was Spike, the assistant I had once relied on more than any other creature.

I had wanted to leave the drakeling to his own devices, to let him decide for himself what he wanted to do but yet there he was. He raced past the surprised Lunar Princess and towards me as fast as his little feet would carry him. He stopped right at the edge of the barrier before looking up at my suspended form with eyes wide and desperate for an answer. I expected him to berate for my actions, to plead with me to return to the way I was, but the drakeling surprised me with his words.

"Why? Why didn't you let me help you, Twilight? What was so horrible that you couldn't even tell your number one assistant?"

With tears spilling down his scaly face he begged me for an answer. He begged me for the truth. It was he and he alone who wished for the knowledge that I had to offer. As he stared unreservedly into my monstrous eyes he did not see a monster. No, what he saw was a mother who had abandoned him, and what I saw at that moment was a child who did not want to be left behind. He wanted to be by my side so badly that he was willing to risk his very sanity to help me. It was then that I realized that I might have been too quick to write him off when we last met. It made me wonder what could have been if I had taken him with me.

Would he have followed after me on this dark and twisted path if I had revealed my true form back then and told him to join me?

Seeing him now, I was less sure than I had been when I last returned to my home. I was now, in fact, almost certain that he would have at least considered it. As I pondered on what to make of the situation and what my response was to be, the other Elements and Celestia finally took the opportunity to speak their own minds. Suddenly it was as if Spike's earnest plea for answers had opened the floodgates. I was assaulted with a veritable torrent of questions and criticisms and entreaties and support, but none of that mattered to me.

At that moment, I only had eyes for the baby dragon standing before me. The rest was only so much white noise. I ignored it entirely in favor of my renewed interest in Spike and to the drakeling alone I asked questions that I found myself eager to hear the answers to.

Asking me to mend my ways and return to who I once was is an exercise in futility. I cannot and will not stray from the path I have chosen. Knowing this, would you still assist me, Spike? Would you hear all of what I had to tell even if it means you may end up as I have? Would you join me in my endeavors and stand by my side as I undergo my Second Ascension?

Would you throw away everything you have ever known as I did and abet me, my number one assistant?

If he still chose to reject what I had become and what I had to do, then he would fall to the ensuing chaos and madness like the rest, but I made no mention of that. With my eldritch capabilities, I could have compelled him to follow me without question, but I made no move to do so. I wanted him to decide whether or not to join me of his own volition. For the briefest of moments he hesitated. Surprise gave way to doubt and indecision as he turned from me to look at the others.

Luna, who had been quietly observing our outwardly silent exchange, must have noticed something was wrong. As her eyes met Spike's, her face grew pale and when she looked from Spike to me, her wary expression turned to one of terrifying realization. She cried out to Spike, begging him not to do anything rash or foolish, but by then it was too late. Spike had returned his gaze to me, his features brimming with a newfound sense of both trepidation and determination. He nodded without another word and with the unexpected but not unwelcome aid of my assistant, I had almost no reason to be here.

Despite the Mad Queen's claims, there was nothing more to be gleaned from the Tree of Harmony—nothing that I had not already learned from both Star Swirl and the distant past. The Tree itself was simply another of Ubbo-Sathla's 'children'. Harmony in and of itself was exactly as Star Swirl described it but in planting the seed he obtained from Ubbo-Sathla, he eventually and unwittingly gave rise to an eldritch creature with a will of its own. Rather than the mindless catalyst that he intended, that seed instead grew into a being that could bend and twist 'harmony' to fit its own wants and needs.

I could only make my own assumptions about why the Tree had blessed me with the vision of Zulchequon's awakening that night, but whatever its reasons, it didn't matter now. What mattered now was that I collect the last piece I needed to finally finish this puzzle. Singling out the one who imprisoned me, I channeled one of the dark rites I had learned and spoke the words never to be spoken by mortal creatures.

Na'ah'ehye ya!

Luna stiffened at the unearthly command, her eyes glazing over and her face growing expressionless. In a show of absolute obedience, the Princess of the Night brought her magic to bear and undid the barrier she had cast upon me. There was a brief moment of stunned silence as I gently alighted upon the ground. As I touched down and refocused my attention on the enthrall mare, the rest of the group finally came to their sense as they realized their plight. Pandemonium ensued as the Pillars struggled to act before I could make another move.

They raised their artifacts in preparation to seal me away and bid Celestia do the same. In Star Swirl's absence, his role in the ritual had evidently been thrust upon the Solar Princess. A glance in her direction showed that she indeed held his journal. Unfortunately, like the Elements, she found herself caught in a situation she had no way of understanding. Not only that, but my words and her sister's strange behavior had thrown her and the other Elements off. It was too late to act now.

Ah mgephai!

The second of my commands put a stop to their panicked actions. The tables had turned, and now they were the ones standing immobile and unable to speak—all of them save for the Lunar Princess, who remained motionless and ready to obey my every whim. I cast a glance in Spike's direction and although he wore the same uncertain look from earlier, he made no move to stop me or make any protests. Satisfied, I made my way over to Luna and spoke my last command in that otherworldly tongue—the last words I would ever say to any of them.

Goka ya hnahr'luhnah.

I knew it either had to have been Luna or Stygian who took the amulet I needed from Star Swirl's vault. If it hadn't been Stygian, then that left the Princess of the Night to steal away the one thing I needed to pull the Bells from beneath that desert temple. I was proven correct in my assumptions when the amulet appeared between Luna and me in a flash of azure light. At my command, she had retrieved it from wherever she had stowed it away, and with it in hoof, I no longer had any reason to stay in that cave.

I wasted no time in invoking the same rite I had used to traverse the distance between Equestria and Zebrica. I had no more words to spare for the others and had no desire to hear what they had to say so I left them as they were when I first saw them—their faces all frozen in fear, despair, anger, all manner of other unpleasant emotions. Without any fanfare or even so much as a farewell, I vanished from the Cave of Harmony, taking Spike and the amulet with me to where I knew the Mad Queen would be waiting.

All the while, the Harbinger high above continued to emit its siren's song.

I met my fate at the altar...

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The stirring of the Dark Silent One beneath the mountain sent tremors rippling throughout Equestria and likely the world beyond. If I pricked up my ears and listened carefully, I could hear already the distant yet clearly maddened cries of those who could not bear the Harbinger's hideous and unearthly song.

A bleak and horrifying era of madness and chaos would soon fall upon the earth just as it did so long ago and this time I would be the catalyst to bring that era forth. This time there would be no heavenly light to banish the darkness. With the blessing of the almighty Outer Gods, I would fulfill my role and drown the world in a wretched black mire from which there would be no escape.

I would not stop until I saw the truth that lay beyond the gate with my own eyes, and yet!

Even now, when the end was in sight and resistance was rendered meaningless, there were those that would continue to struggle in vain. This I knew, for upon my arrival to Ponehenge where the final ritual was to take place I was met not with the Mad Queen, but my own brother and a sizeable contingent of the Royal Guard under his command.

While frustrating it was not wholly unexpected when one considered the circumstances. After all, I had no recollection of how long it had been since I escaped from that incomprehensible sea of angles. What's more, I no longer had possession of my personal effects—the tomes and my journal no doubt seized by the Lunar Princess when I was captured.

Whether my captors had read through those tomes or my journal or not, I hardly had to wonder if this ambush was Luna's doing. She seemed the most adamant to prevent the inevitable and I would not put this last desperate and ultimately futile attempt to hinder my progress past the mare.

When pushed, Luna could be a ruthless and cunning mare, much moreso than her Solar counterpart. She had shown as much in putting a swift end to Stygian's ritual along with his life. Though they'd spoken little during my confinement, I could tell at a glance that the Pillars felt the same. Although I suppose that had more to do with my hoof in Star Swirl's fate than anything else.

Where Celestia and the Elements were concerned there was nothing but longing and forgiveness. They would have me returned to the Twilight Sparkle that had been before my fateful foray into the Crystal Caverns—before my path to enlightenment began. Such a wish was wasted on me and I had no more patience for their sentiments.

In Spike, there was a strong sense of familial devotion. It was not quite the bond of a mother and his son nor was it entirely that of a brother or sister either, but something in between. A powerful sentiment yet it was heavily tempered even now by darker emotions such as doubt and fear among other things. In the eyes of my brother, I saw much of the same, though he hid his softer emotions behind a stout heart and a steely gaze of determination.

Shining Armor loved me as much as a brother could love his sister but he also loved his country, and at the end of it all, he was a soldier through and through. He had the compassion of my old mentor but the cold decisiveness that had allowed the Lunar Princess to put Stygian down. And so the stallion had a choice to make.

Would he fulfill his duty as Captain of the Royal Guard and put an end to me and my ambitions? Would he forsake that duty in an attempt to reach out to me like the Elements and Celestia? It mattered not to me what actions he ultimately chose to take. In the end, I would accomplish what I set out to do. There would be no stopping what was to come.

It was not mine, but the will of those eldritch deities from beyond that bade Equestria be swallowed by darkness. I was under no illusion that my actions were in the right and should those left behind to endure the chaos to come survive to write it, I was all but certain history would see me as the villain who destroyed the world.

That was a truth I had come to accept and nothing—not useless platitudes or caring words or even death would stop me from seeing what was beyond the gate. I would not falter! I would not waver! I would not wait for Shining Armor to choose! Now was the time to act!

With but an arcane word I could and would render my brother and his Guards helpless as newborn foals just as I did to the others in the Crystal Cavern. The one meant to be the sacrifice to Zushakon was nowhere to be seen but that was of little consequence to me now. I now had plenty of souls to offer before me and any one of them would suffice.

Alas, before I could utter a single blasphemous syllable my words were stolen away from me by another. A clear and strong and familiar voice rang out from everywhere at once. The voice sang a song of silence in the ancient tongue I thought only I had bothered to learn. My own voice was bound by a rite of silence and I found that I could not speak.

My shock at this sudden and entirely unwelcome development had only just turned to rage when another rite was invoked binding me where I stood. Rage had quickly turned to horror as I realized the words spoken were the same I had used mere moments ago to keep both the Elements and Pillars at bay. It was the same rite I meant to use to detain the Royal Guard and yet I was bound.

I knew well that I myself was not immune to this eldritch power as I was now. If I was, I would not have become this horrific thing of flesh and shadow. I thought myself and Chrysalis the only creatures willing and able to invoke the ancient tongue but against all expectations, there was another. With another word from the disembodied voice, I felt even my natural magic drain away, leaving me the helpless one in this situation.

As if waiting for just such an opportunity, my brother and the rest of the Royal Guards closed in, entrapping and subduing me on the spot. Spike, no doubt bemused and afraid, cried out in surprise as he was magically pulled from my side and into the waiting throng of soldiers. Forced to the ground, I looked up to see Shining Armor approach me, his steely gaze replaced with one of guilt, pity, and a deep sense of loss.

With a grimace born of intense emotional pain, he leaned closed and muttered a heartfelt apology. Unable to respond, my fury and panic went ignored as he and the other Royal Guards stepped aside to reveal the culprit—the mastermind behind this ambush and my detainment. Like the reaper come for my immortal soul did Luna appear.

In one moment there was empty space, and in the next the mare stood before me, imperious and swathed in a familiar inky black aura. There was a different air about her now as she looked down upon me with eyes devoid of sorrow or pity. Physically—save for her eyes and that overwhelmingly sinister aura—the Lunar Princess looked no different from what I and the rest of Equestria had come to know.

And yet there was a drastic shift in her cosmic presence, something wholly different from what I had felt and seen in the Crystal Cavern. One look at the mare was all it took for me to understand that she knew far more than I initially believed. Whether she had delved as deeply into the abyss as I had I could no longer say, but in my blind hubris, I fell for her ruse and had only myself to blame.

"You overestimate yourself, Twilight Sparkle," came Luna's powerful voice, "though my efforts to put an end to your foolish endeavors have been stymied time and time again I have never once been more than a hair's breadth behind you.

"I know that you were aware of my own investigation into the truth Star Swirl hid from my sister and me, but you were careless not to consider just how much I have actually learned over these past few centuries. I know far more than you think, whelp."

I could neither say or do anything against her words restrained as I was. What's more, I could not refute those words even had I my freedom. She had been on my trail all along; I knew this, but I was a fool not to realize just how close she'd actually been this whole time.

She knew of the Nameless Tome's disappearance from Daring Do's cottage. From her oneiric rendezvous with the mare during our trip to the temple in the desert she had likely worked out our destination. She knew of Star Swirl's hidden vault and knew to take the amulet from within. The Princess would have had no reason to do such a thing unless she already knew of my intentions.

I would scarcely be surprised if it was due to Luna's efforts that her sister, the Elements, and the Guards that restrained me remained unaffected by Ghroth's song. Though her wit had allowed Luna to get close enough to ruin Stygian's ritual, it was ultimately my own ignorance and arrogance that saw me captured back in the Well of Shade.

My current state was due to my own folly and single-minded determination. Just as the Princess of the Night had said, I couldn't look away from my path long enough to see that she was right behind me all along. All I could do was grit my teeth in silent anger and bow my head in abject humiliation at this horrible realization.

"While it is true that I was never able to fully discover the truth behind our world's history as you have," Luna continued, heedless of my predicament, "I did long ago discover another way to learn of the cosmic truths hidden from me by my mentor. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, do you know of the Dreamlands? I am sure you have come across mention of it in your research, no?"

I had indeed discovered the existence of that fantastical world beyond our own time and space. The Dreamlands, or the Dream Realm, where gods and monsters and all manner of otherworldly creatures in-between were said to dwell. It was a land not unlike my own yet fundamentally different in its design.

The inhabitants of the world I belonged to may have been shaped by an outer god, but when placed next to the Dreamlands there was no comparison. In my studies, I came to understand that the Realm of Dreams was itself shaped by the many cosmic truths I so desperately wanted to learn. As a result, that place was closer to the arcane and occult than Equestria could ever hope to be.

Would that I could have traveled to such a place back then, I could have taken my research to far greater heights, but I had thought it an impossibility. To access that wondrous realm would have required me to find a peculiar stairway within an ordinary dream, and my dreams from the very beginning of my journey had been anything but ordinary.

I had entertained the idea of Luna having entered the Dreamlands given her propensity towards oneiromancy but eventually dismissed the notion. The gate to that realm was guarded by two powerful judges known as Nasht and Kaman-Tha. I had thought, with her meager knowledge in all things occult, she would not be judged worthy to enter but it seemed that was yet another foolish assumption on my part.

"I too learned of the Dream Realm, you see," Luna explained, "I discovered many ways to enter that place though the only viable means I found back then was to find that ghastly stairway. It took several years but eventually, I managed to find and descend the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber.

"I faced the judgment of Nasht and Kaman-Tha and yes, I was found worthy to enter the Dream Realm and so I did by way of the Enchanted Wood. For reasons I still cannot fathom, I was only allowed entry once, but I saw and learned much during that time.

"I have seen the ruins of Sarnath. I have narrowly escaped the clutches of the dreaded moon-beasts. I traveled aboard a mystical ship and discovered islands both infinitely wondrous and ineffably horrifying. I lived for a time in the town of Ulthar where no man may kill a cat and have done and seen so much more besides.

"It was in Ulthar that I met and even briefly studied under Barzai the Wise before his untimely demise at the summit of Hatheg-Kla. It was from his teachings, in fact, that I learned to walk the dreams of others. What I mean to say in revealing this to you, foolish mare, is that I am not nearly as ignorant of the truth as you likely believed me to be."

At that moment, with all that was said, I was forced to accept that I'd been bested. In my rage and envy, all I could do was watch as Luna magically retrieved the amulet that had fallen to the ground some distance away. She considered it for a moment before placing it in the hooves of a nearby Guard and turning her attention back to me.

"You have done well to escape me thus far, Twilight Sparkle—and I am truly sorry it has come to this—but this horrid path of madness and destruction you continue to walk ends here. I have read of what you mean to do, and so long as I live, I will not allow you to reawaken your dark god."

It was a promise, words said with all the conviction and finality of a judge, jury, and executioner. That was it, I thought to myself. She was going to do away with me just as she did Stygian and there was nothing I could do but laugh and so I did. I laughed at my foolishness, I laughed as my ambitions crumbled to nothing right at the very end. I laughed as the gate at the end of my path closed before my eyes.

It was an unhinged and inequine sort of sound fit to make even the staunchest of Guards shudder in discomfort, much like the cackle of the Mad Queen herself. As I thought on the absence of Chrysalis and my fate at the hooves of Luna, a memory and a realization suddenly came to me and I laughed all the harder.

The Lunar Princess meant to kill me—to violently rip my soul from this mortal coil. I could see it in her sorrowless, pitiless eyes. She meant to do away with me just as she did with Stygian. Perhaps, despite her cold gaze, she saw it as a mercy. Perhaps she saw as simply carrying out her duty to protect her subjects. Perhaps it was simple hatred or revenge for the death of her old mentor.

Whatever her reasons may have been, it was clear to me that while Luna may have known more than I initially thought, she hardly knew everything even having read through my journal or the tomes. Or it may have been possible that she misinterpreted the text. I don't know which, but for all her supposed knowledge, she knew nothing of Zushakon's true nature or that of the Ritual of Awakening.

If she had, she would never have even attempted to take mine or Stygian's life. If she truly understood just how that ritual worked, she would've realized what Chrysalis and I already knew. But no, rather than attempt to understand, Luna instead conjured a magic-born blade of light with which to steal my life away.

It was a thing of beauty, imbued with arcane runes likely meant to smite creatures like me where they stood. She raised the blade high and, before the horrified eyes and desperate screams of my faithful draconic assistant and beloved brother, brought it down upon my neck, separating my head from my body in one swift, clean motion.

It was there, in that place, on that unholy altar that Twilight Sparkle died, but what Luna failed to see in her evident wisdom was that when it came to the Dark Silent One, death was a blessing. For only blind can the faithful see...

...and only in death can the faithful truly feel alive.

I finally grasped the truth that lay just beyond the gate...

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My life, my name, my memories, my entire existence up until then had all been rendered meaningless with one quick and brutal swing of a blade. For most, death was an inevitable end—an unavoidable and inseparable part of life. Past that horrifying and inescapable threshold called death, all thoughts and consciousness cease to be and in the end, one's soul is left to drown eternally in a pitch-black sea of nothingness.

This I know, for it was my initial experience upon losing my life at the hooves of the Lunar Princess. Unaware and incapable of thought, my own soul was left to drift aimlessly in that black sea for what may have been eons or perhaps only a brief moment. It was a time I should not have been able to remember having lost everything that made me who and what I was, and yet I did and still do.

I still remember, and the memory of that time still makes me shudder with an acute sense of dread I had long ago thought I'd left behind. To recall one's nonexistence may seem an impossible and frankly absurd concept, but for those who have transcended that inevitable end called death and grasped a new life the impossible is very much possible.

To know what it is to lack an existence is a horrifying concept, one that even now I would be far more content without having experienced for myself. Were it not for the grace of the one that pulled me out of that nothingness and into a new existence, I would still be as blissfully unaware as a fetus yet to leave the womb.

That is not to say that I'm not grateful—far from it. I met and accepted my end with the faith that the truth I sought was somewhere beyond that end. I had once thought Chrysalis to be the sacrifice needed to reawaken the Dark Silent One but that was not the case. Her death at the altar, had it occurred, would be a boon rather than a hindrance.

So long as she died on that altar and the bells were rung, my task would be complete. In my incorrect thinking, it would hardly matter who had slain her. All I had to do was raise the amulet and summon the bells, but this was not true. The Mad Queen's absence, the appearance of the Royal Guard, Luna's intervention, and my death.

Not until my final moments did I realize that all had played out as it was meant to. Neither had Chrysalis nor Sound Mind abandoned me to my fate. Rather, it was simply not their time to appear. In the end, I was the one meant to be the sacrifice upon the altar. My destination—the gate at the end of my path could not be reached while I still walked among the living.

My second ascension was inexorably linked to the reawakening of Zushakon and Zushakon above all else was a god of death and darkness. If I was to find the gate that would lead me to the truth and my own awakening, it was only natural to embrace both for only in death could the faithful feel truly alive. And within my demise, I did indeed find the answer.

Within that endless nothingness, I was lost, but a deeper darkness found me and brought me back into being—its arrival heralded by the mighty beat of unseen wings. The sound, like rolling thunder in the absolute silence, was enough to pull my mind from the void. All at once, my consciousness was returned to me, and with it my memories of that very void from which I'd escaped.

Had I a physical form and lungs then I would have screamed. I would have screamed and screamed and screamed and I doubt I would have ever stopped for the horror of that memory. Stripped of my mortal flesh and left adrift as mere soul-stuff as I was, I could make no such sound. The only thing left to me was the all-encompassing terror of my predicament.

It was then that the winged thing prowling that interminable sea of darkness fell upon me. Even devoid of all physical sensations I could still feel its monstrous jaws close around me, but that was not the end of me. No, I was not sent back into that deeper void, but rather found myself in a nightmarish but not entirely unfamiliar place.

It was a place I had seen only at a glance within a distant dream. It was a place that practically defied description. In my tireless hours of research, I could only find a single reference—a small passage that did little to convey the complete and utter breakdown of reason and order that I saw then.

...and on its nighted throne does it dwell, awaiting in eternal repose within an abyssal domain far beyond time and space where reality as we know it cannot reach. That Outermost God whose perpetual slumber is forever accompanied by the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes...

Both Sound Mind and Discord had also alluded to that place and the unfathomable entity that dwelled therein. The Abyssal Idiot—the Daemon Sultan whose domain sat within the center of Ultimate Chaos. At that time I knew little of what either of them spoke of—no, what I failed to understand back then was the scope of what they had referred to.

In that domain, amidst the horrendous piping and loathsome drumming of those mindless tentacled abominations, was the truth I sought. It was all there in that dream, that vision that I saw a small piece of the truth and had not even known. This, however, was no small glimpse as seen in a mere vision, this was reality. This was far beyond and above reality.

This was the Center of Ultimate Chaos, and before me in all its unutterable and inexpressible hideousness was the creature who spread madness and chaos even as it slept its endless sleep, the Outermost God, Azathoth. I had never once heard its name but the knowledge was there as if it had always been.

I had no eyes with which to see and yet Azathoth's twisting and writhing and bubbling form filled my vision nonetheless—its size and shape of a caliber that could not be pinned down by the ponish language or any other. Its sheer presence seemed to radiate not only absolute madness but also blasphemous knowledge, for I learned far more than its name by simply being so close.

The fleeting nature of existence, the transience of life, the universe as I once knew it, nothing but a dream born of a sleeping god who is unaware that it is dreaming. That was the truth I'd been searching for this whole time. It was a truth I would have never believed had I not been pushed through the gate.

The gate at the end of my path was not an entrance but an exit—an escape from the neverending dream of the Blind Idiot God. Past that gate were Azathoth's domain and the true home of Discord and the Faceless God who had introduced itself to me as Sound Mind. He did not make himself known to me, but I knew the draconequus was there lurking somewhere in that Nuclear Chaos.

I knew he'd been twisted back into his true shape and rendered nothing but another mindless musician like the rest. It was a sad thing to be sure looking back, but Discord's fate was far from my concern. Pedestrian worries such as that could be afforded by a sane and logical mind. This unspeakable domain was an insuperable distance from concepts like sanity and logic.

They did not apply before Azathoth and his eldritch musicians and I was forced to cast them aside. Then again, my reason might have already left me long before Luna had taken my head. Nevertheless, it would have been impossible to maintain any semblance of rationality with so much information pouring into my mind like an unstoppable torrent.

With no corporeal body to speak of, the sleeping chaos before me, and a nigh-infinite flow of knowledge assaulting my mind, I was lost in the throes of madness for I do not know how long. Time was irrelevant in this place—a single moment wholly indistinguishable from countless eons—but eventually another entity emerged from beyond the unlighted depths of Azathoth's domain.

It was a creature whose true form was of a transcendent sort of vileness not dissimilar to that of the great slumbering thing at the center of all this insanity. It was a form unfamiliar to me, yet I knew three of its many faces all too well. Just as it guided my actions as the affable psychologist, Sound Mind, so too did that selfsame creature guide the cult of the Hidden Ones as the Wandering Prophet long before my time.

Even in the very beginning back in the Crystal Cavern where it had all started, it had come to me time and again in the guise of that hollow-eyed doppelganger with the empty smile. It was always there, pushing me ever forward on my path. It was only now, in this abhorrent realm where knowledge and chaos flowed in an endless and unrestricted torrent, that I understood. Within this ineffable nightmare made real, I finally and fully understood what my journey meant—how it had been shaped by that creature.

He, or rather it, had finally shown itself for what it truly was—the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep—and it had come for me. Through arcane methods I would only understand after the fact, the towering abomination was somehow able to salvage and restructure my thoroughly broken mind into something whole again, if irreparably and atrociously warped by what I'd now seen and understood.

It was Nyarlathotep who guided my twisted soul from the center of ultimate chaos and back through the gate once more into Azathoth's eternal dream. From there, with knowledge unbound by the constraints of order and causality, I passed through the endless black sea unhindered by the shadow of the Old Night and found my own way back to Equestria and the vessel I left behind.

They all danced to the tune of her madness...

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I returned to the world of the living amidst anguished wails and tempestuous cries of voices I recognized—loved ones who believed they had lost somepony dear. Still incorporeal and all but imperceptible to those around me, I took a moment to observe the scene before me. Spike had thrown himself over my gruesome remains atop the altar—his tiny, scaly body shaking uncontrollably as he sobbed and screamed.

Surrounding the altar in an uneven half-circle were the rest of the Guard, many of them showing varying degrees of shame or discomfort at the sight of the grieving drakeling. Further from the center of the altar was my brother and the Lunar Princess. Even from a distance, I could see grief and fury etched into every line of his face. I could hear the hostility in his voice clear over the dissonant cacophony of the Harbinger's bloodcurdling melody.

His ire, unsurprisingly, was aimed at none other than a collapsed Princess Luna. The sight of Luna herself, however, I found very surprising. The mare had fallen, likely knocked to the ground by Shining Armor from what I could see of the situation and her bleeding muzzle. Her face was pale and horror-stricken, her eyes locked not on her assailant, but rather the very monster which she had slain.

So great was the apparent shock of what she'd done that she hardly seemed to hear the enraged stallion standing above her. To hear my brother speak of it, his initial role and that of the soldiers under his command were told only to detain me so that Luna could invoke a rite meant to banish me from this dimension similar to what I'd done to Star Swirl although somewhat more benign if I had to guess.

The expression upon Luna's face was a clear enough indication that Shining Armor's words had a ring of truth about them. My cessation was never her intention and yet the conviction in her eyes as she struck me down was absolute. To me, this could only mean that she was compelled by some power beyond her control—a will other than her own.

With quivering lips and a voice trembling with fear and dismay, the mare herself uttered those very same words. And with those words my suspicions were confirmed—all had happened as it was meant to. The mare knew all too well the weight of what she had done and that evidently included Stygian's death as well.

None of it had been her intention and I was all but certain I knew who had truly been behind her murderous actions. Excluding the Crawling Chaos, there was only one creature I knew of who had the power to overcome Luna's will and the purpose and foresight to orchestrate events to play out as they did.

Who could it be but that broken creature? That wretched Seer? Who else but the Mad Queen, Chrysalis? Who else would have deliberately planned for these events to take place? Who else but she had both the experience in subterfuge and subtlety and the capability and foreknowledge granted by the Masked Messenger?

To that insectile mare, my return was a foregone conclusion. It was simply a matter of nudging events in the right direction. As if to prove what I already knew, a sudden and familiar peal of laughter rent itself from the mouth of the fallen Princess. It was a deranged cackle—a terrible, unearthly sound that echoed across the entire forest surrounding the Ponehenge altar.

Half a minute or so went by before the insane laughter died down and left silent every creature present. No further wails emerged from Spike and all fury had drained from Shining Armor in an instant. For a moment the only sound to be heard was the foreboding music of the Harbinger, whose moon-like bulk continued to draw ever closer as if pulled by the formless black beast stirring beneath the earth.

Then, with all eyes centered on her quivering form, Luna began to rise to her hooves. Another violent fit of shaking stymied her attempts and she once more fell to the ground in a trembling heap, a wordless groan rising from her throat. It was a pitiful, torturous sound that started low and slowly crescendoed into a piercing squeal of agony.

Shining Armor quickly scrambled away, his eyes wide with alarm and horror as he watched the mare flail about wildly. Her legs began to twist and contort at impossible angles, her eyes rolled madly in her head while the rest of her features became nothing more than a rictus of unimaginable pain. Cries of panic and dismay rang out as the entire contingent of Guards flocked around their Princess, but what could they do?

Uncertain of the situation and unsure as to whether it was wise to approach the mare, they could only bear witness to the grotesque sight, only listen to the sickening snap of bones and pop of tendons as they broke and realigned themselves over and over again in an endless excruciating cycle.

For the Princess, the unfathomable pain she endured must have seemed like an eternity. In reality, however, her agonized throes had only lasted a few dozen seconds at most. Then, like the flip of a switch, everything snapped back into place. The Princess slumped back down onto the ground like a puppet whose strings had been suddenly and completely severed.

Another ominous silence fell over those gathered as they gazed upon the weakly twitching Night Princess with pale faces and open-mouthed shock. Luna, her own jaw slack and her cold blue irides rolled up so as to show only the whites of her eyes, remained unresponsive and unmindful of the attention.

A deep and breathy sigh spilled from her muzzle then, bringing with it a baleful black smoke. The thick and tenebrous smog seeped from her mouth, nose, and eyes in a heavy torrent before rising high above and over the startled rabble. It moved with a purpose, twisting and arcing as if guided by an unseen hoof until it reached the center of the altar.

Spike, who had yet to part from my remains, watched in terror as the inky black smoke descended upon his general location, though he did not move. Rather, he once again threw himself over my headless corpse in a vain attempt to shield my body from some perceived defilement by the smoke. It was a touching gesture, if wholly unnecessary.

The black smog finished its descent, landing beside the protective little drake. In lieu of dispersing like any other heterogeneous mixture of a similar nature, the smoke thickened further as it hit the stone. The formless mass warped and distorted and grew in volume—condensing and solidifying into something resembling an equine yet not at all.

Before long, the remaining wisps of ebony smoke finally dispersed to reveal the abhorrent eldritch monstrosity once known as Chrysalis. With a mad cackle of triumph, the Mad Queen swept her eyeless gaze over the assembled Guards before her. More inky smoke billowed from her empty sockets and a wide, repulsive grin split her face as hackles were raised and blades were drawn on instinct.

Before any of the soldiers could make a move, Chrysalis spoke, licking a forked black tongue over her lips and letting out a sickly giggle.

"Sh... Shining Armor, it's been... quite s-some time since I last saw your f-face," she began with no small amount of glee, "y-you have... have no idea th-the joy it brings me to have you h... here to witness this moment! I only w-wish that harlot... were here with you... yeeessss that w-would be positively delightful... b-but... I suppose it hardly matters in the end... a-after all..."

Shining Armor stepped forth, cutting off the rest of Chrysalis' words with a wave of his spear and furious demands to know of the fate of the Lunar Princess and the Mad Queen's role in my slaughter. Chrysalis merely cackled again in response before giving her answer.

"Y-Your precious moon princess yet lives... b-but that is all I can say for... for certain," she answered, "she has s-served her purpose... her fate beyond that role... wh-whether she lives or dies... m-means nothing to me... and y-your sister..."

Chrysalis turned her attention to my body and the baby dragon unavailingly attempting to shield it from view. She lowered herself until she was eye level with Spike and spoke, her twisted grin briefly softening into something far gentler. Her voice was soft and reverent—motherly even as she addressed the drakeling—but was still loud enough for every creature present to hear.

"...I have freed Her from the shackles of Her ignorance and led Her to the truth She so desires," she said with nary a stumble or stutter to be heard, "weep not, little hatchling, for our Goddess will return very soon, and Her resurrection will herald the coming of a beautiful new era.

"It will be glorious—a caliginous utopia ruled by an Old God who once laid claim to this land long ago," the zealous queen stepped away and stood up straight before turning to gaze up longingly at the heights of Foal Mountain, "She will tear this wretched kingdom out by the roots and return the world to its rightful ruler! With Her Sight She will show us the way, and as She ascends so too will we!"

...and thus, I am Twilight Sparkle no more.

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As she continued to speak her soft words gradually grew into exultant cries of sheer fanaticism—her voice brimming with a nigh maniacal religious fervor. That fervor quickly dissipated as the tell-tale pop of a teleportation spell caught all ears in the vicinity.

Chrysalis and the others turned to find none other than Princess Celestia standing tall and alert a short distance away. In her wake, she'd brought with her every other pony I'd trapped within the Crystal Cavern. How they had all managed to escape my rite and deduce that I'd come here I was unsure until I saw the expressions of my former companions.

There was fear and uncertainty there, yes, but I could also see something more than that. I could see a deeper horror in their eyes. I could see understanding and a vague dread of sorts that wasn't there when we'd last met. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy—some had found the fruit of forbidden knowledge far more bitter than others, but they had all partaken.

It came to me then that their release was, in all likelihood, due to Luna's interference. As for how they had all discovered whatever they now knew in such a short amount of time, that remained a mystery. Perhaps that too was Luna's doing. perhaps they had somehow discovered my notes or the tomes. Perhaps the Pillars had decided to reveal to them all the true history of Equestria.

Whatever the case may have been, Celestia and the rest were no longer entirely ignorant of what lay beyond the veil of normality. Now it appeared both the Elements and the Pillars of Harmony had arrived just in time to bear witness to the final act.

It didn't take long for the Solar Princess to find her sister, her body still limp and unmoving save for an occasional involuntary twitch. The rest of the world seemed to slip away from Celestia as she rushed to Luna's side, crying out her name in abject horror. In response to her sister's queries and pleas and assurances that all would be well, Luna appeared to come to her senses somewhat.

Her eyes refocused on the mare before her, though they were cloudy and distant and wide with terror. It was as if the Lunar Princess was looking past Celestia and toward some freshly remembered nightmare. Her mouth opened, her lips moved and she spoke in a hoarse whisper so weak as to be nearly inaudible.

"Sister... I've... I've made a grave mistake... th-the amulet... she cannot be allowed to have it... I hadn't... I never meant to... b-but if she lives... her resurrection...

"The Old Night... The thing beneath the mountain... i-it will be... the end of us all... Please... get the amulet... a-above all else... do not let her have..."

The rest of her entreaty withered and died in her throat. Having used the last of her strength the mare faded once more into the cold embrace of insentience. Distracted as the Solar Princess was with the well being of her sister, the same could not be said for the rest of those she'd brought with her.

A few words with Shining Armor were enough to give them all a rough idea of the situation. The sight of my body and the Mad Queen's ghastly appearance was enough to send a fresh new wave of terror and distress throughout the newcomers. Spike called out to the others for help as was expected, but it was the powerful and rapturous voice of Chrysalis that carried to the crowd.

"A-And so you've all come... just as I knew you w-would!" she cried out, her previously perfect prose once more halting and broken under the weight of her madness, "a-and now... finally... th... the s-stage is set! The audience has... h-has gathered! The time... i-is... now!"

As if in response to her final words, something in the already tense atmosphere shifted drastically. An ominous weight hitherto unfelt or outright ignored began to press down on everypony present. It subdued and swallowed up any lingering anger, panic, or dissent among the group, leaving behind only a nameless and immutable sense of dread.

I too felt that weight even incorporeal as I was—though it was not dread that permeated my soul, but purpose. Up until now, I had been content to observe as events played out—as fate danced to the Mad Queen's captivating tune. Now, however, the time had come, just as Chrysalis said. The finale had arrived and it was time for me to play my part.

Already the sky seemed to darken unnaturally as if the mountain was unable to fully contain the will of the stirring god deep below. Beneath the churning darkness beginning to envelop the sky the signs were starting to show; bemused and frightened, the crowd complained of a powerful itch in their eyes and terrible whispers in their minds—the voices powerful and ancient and incomprehensible.

"Ah, th-the Harbinger's music... that b-beautiful melody wh... which can rouse the soul of... even the Great Old Ones..." Chrysalis cried suddenly, "b-but alas... the wretched Moon Princess has... h-has shut your eyes and ears t-to the cosmic minstrel... and its w-wondrous sound..."

She spread her skeletal wings wide and raised her ecstatic expression to the tainted sky above. The black tendrils splitting her mutated flesh and carapace twisted and writhed hideously as if to mirror her jubilation.

"...b-but fear not, you poor creatures... for I w-will lift the veil... I will sh... show you wh-what is hidden beneath... so listen... listen to the unparalleled p-perfection that is the m-music... of the spheres!"

A single word bellowed to the heavens by Chrysalis in the eldritch tongue stilled the air.

For the briefest of moments, silence fell over the world—a silence so completely and utterly absolute that the very concept of sound seemed to vanish into the yawning void. Then, like a heartbeat, the world pulsed with cosmic intent. The sound which had been stolen away from the universe suddenly came rushing back into existence, bringing with it a deafening symphony of madness and destruction.

Elsewhere in Equestria the earth continued to rumble and crack and split apart, felling entire towns in the wake of violent tremors. Monstrous tidal waves swallowed the coast burying whole cities beneath countless tonnes of water and displaced sealife. Hurricanes that no pegasus could ever hope to control tore at both the very roots of innumerable trees and the foundations of ponymade structures alike.

At the base of Foal Mountain as if by some universal exception, Ponehenge still stood relatively unaffected by the carnage encasing the land within its grasp. Though such a luxury hardly registered to Celestia, the Elements and the rest whose terror-stricken faces were all raised to meet the sky—or rather to meet the horror that blotted much of the sky from their view.

Due in no small part to Luna's continued efforts in hiding the truth, it appeared my former friends and allies had been largely unaware of that cruel and pitiless charnel moon, completely heedless of the burning red eye encroaching upon the planet like a deadly shroud. But now Chrysalis had opened their eyes and ears to the rust-dyed herald of the apocalypse looming overhead.

"N-Now, here... on the eve of a n-new beginning," Chrysalis began, all four of her blackened and ossified wings once more spread wide, "b-beneath the t-torrid gaze of the Harbinger... our Goddess will r-rise once more!"

Though her relentless fervor and dramatic flair had long ago begun to wear on me, I nevertheless was compelled to oblige the zealous mare. The hour was at hoof and it was long past time to fulfill my task, and so I awakened. Amidst the raucous laughter of the Mad Queen, the terrified cries of the Elements, and the discordant aria of the Harbinger I allowed my warped spirit to return to my headless carcass.

Spike and Chrysalis were the first to heed my revival, the former desperately scrambling away with a horrified shout. Tendrils of shadow and dead flesh wreathed together into a hideous black mass that pulsed and oozed and bubbled and churned as I rebuilt and remolded my body. In my shapeless, half-formed state I could hear everything around me.

I could hear Spike beside me calling out my name with an uncertain mix of fear and hope. I could hear the Mad Queen's exaltations, loud and victorious at the sight of my rebirth. I could hear the cries of those whom I once held dear—their attention torn between the sky, the altar, and the maddening influence of the God beneath the mountain.

As my amorphic flesh solidified to take on a more defined equine shape, I heard the pounding of rapidly approaching hoofsteps against the stone. I heard the sound of steel piercing flesh and cries of pain, outrage, and shock. A shouted command pierced through the chaotic cacophony, an order to take the amulet and flee.

I needed no eyes or ears to know that the situation had changed. Chrysalis had lowered her guard and like the soldier he was, my brother had not hesitated. He'd taken action and was attempting to turn the tides of fate to his favor as much as was possible given the circumstances. With the amulet already in their possession, Celestia simply had to retrieve it from the Guard and teleport away.

All this I grasped in an instant, as did the Solar Princess it seemed, for despite finding herself in the same predicament as the Elements and the Pillars neither did she hesitate in her response. I could understand her desire to fulfill her sister's plea, but it was a wish that could not and would not come to pass.

Heedless of my still morphing body, I reached out with a thought and seized the Solar Princess just as she'd taken the amulet from the Guard whom Luna had entrusted it to. In the same breath, I pulled Shining Armor away from Chrysalis and brought both of them before me. I tore the amulet from Celestia's magical grasp before casting the two struggling ponies aside.

With the amulet back in my possession and my resurrection complete, I had all I required to close the final act. With greater control over my own mass, I had allowed my body to shape itself into the alicorn I had once been before eldritch powers had mutated me. A mockery to my former friends and allies no doubt, but I merely sought to give shape to what I already knew.

Creating an entirely new form would have taken far too much time and in all honesty, I had no desire to return to the twisted and abominable creature I'd been before. Though despite taking on my original form, I felt no connection to it. Indeed, I felt no sort of connection to who I'd been at all. Upon inspecting myself and those around me, there was only an odd sense of detachment and discomfort to be had.

Much like when I had last returned to my castle, I felt far too strongly the sense that I was no longer welcome. The world, this false reality called 'life', I felt nothing but rejection from it, like I was a stranger or perhaps an invader—an entity to be cast out. I had even been branded it seemed—the mark of a six-pointed star imprinted upon each of my eyes, their amethyst-tinted shape replacing my original irides.

I scarcely had time to think too deeply on what the brand could mean before I was pulled from my thoughts by the desperate call of Twilight Sparkle's name. I refocused my attention to where I had thrown my former mentor and brother. I was greeted to the sighted of both ponies rising to their hooves with the help of both the Elements and the Pillars.

It was Celestia herself who had called out to me in one last hopeless bid to appeal to my equinity. They had all fought through the burning itch in their eyes and malevolent voices in their minds to reach out to me one last time. Admittedly it was an impressive feat and seeing that I couldn't help but think back to the words Discord spoke to me before he was pulled out of the dream and back to where he belonged.

It was entirely possible that I had been too quick to give in to my own madness and I had certainly underestimated the mental fortitude of my once beloved companions. Still, those regrets were far behind me and at this moment there really was no turning back for me—not after all that I had seen and done.

I was fundamentally and irrevocably changed, no longer the creature they once knew. If I showed them the truth, would they join me? Surely not, and it was foolish to try and sway any of them, but a hesitant touch of a claw upon my leg served to remind me that one creature among them was willing to at least attempt to understand.

Spike, his eyes so wide and fearful and yet earnest and full concern for me and for those trying to reach me. He turned to the others, then once more to me and I was unsure of what he saw in my eyes but whatever it may have been filled him with a deep sense of both sorrow and understanding. He made only a single request of me.

He bade me let them all go, and it was a request I had no qualms about granting. They had no desire to face the truth as I did, but I supposed that could not be helped. I no longer had any compassion for any of them, but neither did I hold any lingering malice or hatred. They were free to do as they wished so long as they didn't interfere with my goal.

In response to their supplications, I told them as much, going so far as to bid them hurry back their loved ones. The world was falling apart after all and there was no guarantee that their lives would be spared when the Old Night awakened.

Chrysalis, much to my surprise, did not protest my decision. She simply stood beside me and watched them all with contempt and pity oddly enough. The wound she sustained at the hooves of Shining Armor had already vanished as if it had never existed at all. With no dispute from her, the others stood conflicted for a short time.

Eventually, however, any hope they had for my salvation withered away, replaced by concern for the ones they could still save. Shining Armor turned away, immense pain evident in his expression as thoughts of Cadence and Flurry Heart no doubt filled his mind. Celestia made a half-hearted plea to my draconic companion, but even she could see the resignation in his gaze.

He had made his decision to stand by me and, like them, would not be swayed. And so the Solar Princess took hold of her insensate sister and gathered every other pony present before vanishing in a brilliant flash of golden light. I had fulfilled Spike's request, and whether they all lived or died was no longer my concern.

My only desire then was to awaken Zushakon and leave that realm far behind me. Equestria no longer held any meaning for me and though I had learned a great many things, my thirst for knowledge remained unhindered and unrelenting. I would continue my endless pursuit of higher knowledge, for I knew there was still much more to learn—much more to understand.

If Spike and Chrysalis wished to follow me into depths unknown, they were free to do so at their own peril. Chrysalis had already been forced to cross that threshold but the fledgling dragon was yet untouched by the truth and so had yet to suffer the consequences that came with it. Should his convictions falter he could very well forfeit his sanity when the time came.

Such was my final warning to Spike, and with the reaffirmation of his determination, I put the matter out of my mind and the last of my lingering equinity to rest entirely. With the raising of the amulet and the calling of the bells in the eldritch tongue, I abandoned the name Twilight Sparkle. With no regrets, I discarded everything she had ever been, loved, or represented.

The earth shook beneath me and the air shuddered around me as I spoke the words that would summon forth those bells of horror from deep beneath the ground. With a sound like a raging rockslide two of the many mastodonic pillars of stone on either side of the altar rose up to meet one another overhead.

Bending in an unnatural curve, the two pillars formed a wide stone arch, not unlike the one I'd seen within the cathedral below the desert temple. The sky, already dipped in unearthly shadow, began to blacken further. In the ever-expanding darkness, the burning red eye of Ghroth shone brightly high above like some infernal beacon of judgment in the night.

Then the first demoniac chime rang out, resounding across the darkening sky. Spike was the first to cry out, closing his ears to the sound though he had nothing to fear. A rite kept his sanity in check and his eyes clear—not by my hoof but that of the Mad Queen. Perhaps she considered the drakeling a kindred spirit of sorts. Perhaps she simply wanted to see him fall as she and I had.

Or perhaps it fell in line with her role as the wretched Seer. The answer eluded me and I had no inclination to give chase. Obscured inside the cloying shadow of the Old Night, the low clang of the second bell reverberated throughout the forest. Foal Mountain rumbled ominously, its quaking violent enough to shake loose entire trees from the mountainside.

Laughter could be heard among the violent tremors. The Mad Queen howled with perverse delight, demanding the terrified baby dragon once more open his eyes and ears to the tenebrous torrent. He did so, and as he raised his emerald eyes to the mountain, the toll of the third and final bell echoed.

With the final knell of the third bell, my vision was realized at last. The peak of Foal Mountain erupted in a deafening explosion of debris. The entire mountain groaned and roared as if in agony as it was rent apart down to the base. From deep below, a spiraling pillar of antilight burst forth—its tempestuous aura so dark as to surpass the blackest pitch.

A turbulent gale raged on as the mountain shook itself to pieces, bringing with it the malodorous stench of death, decay, and some other unnamable vileness. A sepulchral whisper of insatiable hunger could be heard in the squall. I felt the soft caress of something cold brush against my coat before it passed me by and vanished deeper into the forest.

There would be more of them, I knew. They would spread across the world like a wildfire and feast and feast and feast until there was nothing left, just as they did in ages past. From out of the crumbling ruins of Foal Mountain their master began to rise. An appendage of some kind began to emerge from the spiraling pillar.

Then another, and another, and many more besides, each and every one large enough to cover half the distance of the mountain itself. The black beast continued to rise from its nighted depths until had gained enough leverage to crawl its way out of the mountain. As it stretched across the ground it unfurled a pair of truly immense wings—wings whose size could be measure in miles and whose shape made a mockery of what it meant to be avian.

With a mighty beat of its wings and its ravenous horde in tow, Zushakon took to the skies. Spike, Chrysalis, and I watched as it disappeared across the treetops, its destination beyond my understanding or concern. I had accomplished my task. I had fulfilled the prophecy laid out within Stygian's tome. I had awakened the Dark Silent One and my 'ascension' had already come to pass.

There was no longer anything tethering me to that world, and so, it was time for me to take my leave. With my senseless assistant and the Mad Queen at my side, I vanished from Equestria. With no intention of ever returning to that world, I cast a rite that would take me to another time and space—one that would take me to another place I longed to go.

Even now, I know not what became of the world I left behind, and eventually—somewhere amidst the countless eons I've spent wandering the cosmos—I found another place I could call home. As time passed I changed more and more, moving further and further away from who and what I was, all for the sake of knowledge.

My memories of Equestria and the friends and family I abandoned to their fates faded away, replaced by innumerable lifetimes worth of new memories. But in the end, just as Discord had promised, those memories returned piece by piece and now I find myself looking back on my past. Though it is no longer my place to say whether or not my actions were right or wrong, I sometimes can't help but wonder...

Was all my knowledge worth the madness and chaos I've wrought in my wake?

It Sleeps Beneath Foal Mountain

by the7Saviors

I am Twilight Sparkle no more.

It was I who bore witness...

I heard the wretched song...

I chose my path...

I trotted amidst the silent trees...

I dreamt of monstrous musicians...

I set out to find my answers...

I met with a peculiar stallion...

I gazed into the blackest abyss...

Was it a blessing... or a curse?

It called to me, that vile grimoire...

I strove to conquer my fear with knowledge...

It found me, and I could not resist...

The ominous ringing of bells filled my mind...

I crossed the threshold...

I began my descent into darkness...

From out of the darkness, faith was born...

My path forward was made clear to me...

An encounter I wasn't prepared for...

Was there still a pony left beneath the surface?

I found the means to seize what I desired most...

I came to know true madness...

Was there wisdom to be found in that madness?

History once lost was revealed to me...

There was no truth to be found in salvation...

Far below, a discovery and a promise were made...

I found my way into the vault...

I looked towards the heavens and saw the beginning of the end...

All my sins were laid bare before me...

A future set in stone, a path paved by the distant past...

I gazed upon the god which existed at the beginning and the end of time...

I obtained the key I needed to open the final gate...

I met my fate at the altar...

I finally grasped the truth that lay just beyond the gate...

They all danced to the tune of her madness...

...and thus, I am Twilight Sparkle no more.