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..."