Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life - true, there were a dozen hideous monsters loose in the countryside, the CMC were missing, and a number of ponies were now homeless, but she was in her element reassuring them, helping them see the brighter side of things, and best of all, meeting new ponies. Most of the Ponyvillians, and the Royal Guards that had finally arrived from Canterlot, were preoccupied with the search for the three fillies, or Trixie and her unspeakable minions, or standing guard around the remaining beast until it could be taken back to Canterlot to be studied and hopefully returned to wherever Trixie had found it, but there was still the joy of meeting new ponies to fill her heart with gladness.
One such opportunity presented itself at the windmill. A strangely masked stallion was standing outside, looking up at the building and toying with a jam jar. “Eeeeee! New pony! Hello,welcometoPonyville! I’msureyou’regoingtoreallylikeithere, I’mgoingtohavetostartplanningawelcomepartyforyourightaway!”
“And hello to you, Miss Pie. I’m surprised it took you so long to find me. You’re quite right, I’m sure I’ll find Ponyville very entertaining.”
“Oh, you know who I am, that’s all spooky and mysterious, like your mask. I like masks. And hats and fancy dress costumes and Nightmare Night. Oooh! And PARTIES! I LOVE parties! Do you like parties, Mr. Mysterious Pony?”
“Miss Pie, where I come from is a place of never-ending music and dancing. And laughter. I make sure there’s a lot of laughter.”
“Really? Nopony is better at making ponies laugh than me – it’s what a Pinkie is here to do! What kind of music? Polka? Pop? Piano? Post-industrial? We’re got lots of musician-ponies in Ponyville.”
“Flute, mostly. Perhaps you’d like to come and visit, sometime.”
“That would be super-dooper-awesome! But I can’t today, I have to go see some ponies about some stuff. Somepony has gone completely oatmeal and we all want to help her out and stop her calling up big scary monsters from out of the infinite black reaches of space and time. Big scary monsters are scary. Are you here to help with the big scary monsters? I bet you are, Mr. Mysterious Pony!”
"Your insight is phenomenal, Miss Pie. I am indeed to help with the monsters. Or, rather, I'll be offering what assistance I can, after I find one Twilight Sparkle." He waved a hoof at the building. "But there’s no-one in?"
"Oh, did some silly pony tell you she lived in the windmill? Twilight lives in the library tree! I could show you over there if you like, and tell you all about Ponyville on the way! We're going to be BPFFs, I'm sure!"
"That won't be necessary, Miss Pie. There seems to be a lot going on in the town today, and your special skills are needed elsewhere, I'm sure.”
“I can’t wait to tell Twilight, she’ll be so happy that a Mysterious Pony is here to help!”
“Actually, Miss Pie, I’d rather you didn’t. You wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, would you?”
“Noooo... I bet Twilight will love her surprise!”
“I accept your bet. And I’m sure you and I will have a lot to talk about afterwards. Please, carry on with your errand – don’t let me detain you.”
“Waitaminute... what are you betting? Cupcakes? Are you betting she’ll like the surprise, or not li- hey, where’d you go, Mr. Mysterious Pony?”
***
Twilight stared at the pile of books and old maps across the desk and floor. Her magic shuffled them in a blur, and her attention flicked from one to the other, until she gritted her teeth in frustration. "This doesn't make any sense!"
"Ahem."
Twilight wheeled about. A masked pony was standing at the doorway of the library, watching her. "May I come in?"
"I'm sorry, but this is a really bad time, we've got a bit of an emergency on, but if you come back tomorrow I'm sure we'll have the library open again-"
"Perhaps I can help? Call me Herald."
"Herald? Does that mean Princess Celestia is coming? That's great! Did you bring any books from the royal library? Why are you wearing a mask, anyway? Are you from some kind of anonymous librarian order, or something?"
"Is that important right now? Perhaps you should tell me what you've learned so far."
"Oh, right." Twilight pulled another book out of the pile, and opened to one of the appendices. "We couldn't just stop Trixie when those things are with her, so it occurred to me that if we can figure out what she's trying to do then we can stop it without having to put anypony in danger. I thought I could identify the magic she was using, but I can't even tell what language she was speaking! Unicorn magic shouldn't even need verbal components! I can’t find anything on Ivory Tower, do you know who he is? And what kind of name is Azathoth, anyway?”
“One of the titles of the seething Chaos from which all worlds ultimately derive, Miss Sparkle, but please continue.”
“It is? You’ll have to show me where you read that!” Twilight turned to the two pets that shared the library. Owlysius and Peewee were staring at the newcomer, the phoenix given high little shrieks and the owl hooting in alarm. “What’s up with those two?”
Herald shrugged and glanced at the animals. “Be silent.” The birds cringed, and Owlysius fled into the night. “As you were saying?”
“Um... that was weird. Anyway, if I had some of the books from the royal library, maybe I could find some kind of weird pony magic that matches, but the only thing here that sounds anything like it is something somepony mentioned from Unaussprechlichen Colten, and that was just an old mare's tale."
"Really? What did they say?"
Twilight growled again, looking through the stack for a monograph on pre-alicornian astrological folklore.
"They said it was same language used in the Ponykotic Manuscripts, but THIS pony says it's all a lot of horseapples - err, pardon the language..." She blushed. Herald shrugged it off. She went on. "Even if the Ponykotic Manuscripts were in an early pony language then there's no way to translate it now, let alone know how anypony was supposed to pronounce it..."
"But what did it actually say?" He was closer now. Twilight found it a little creepy, actually. And she'd never met a pony with a coat colour that dark. The smile of the mask was odd, too... she shook her head to dislodge the doubts. Princess Celestia wouldn't have sent anypony she didn't trust.
"I don’t know. Well, the original translator says he knows, but the consensus is he was just making it up, anyway. Just old mythology about the stars and a few things they claimed were spoken spells, really. That's why I have a copy, you see? I wish I didn't have to stay here and help coordinate the search for Trixie and the girls - if I could just get to Canterlot and look up the original texts!"
"Yes, I understand. But go on."
"Something about the End Times - the greater cycle of the stars, and some... return of the Old Ones? Oh, and that all history will end when they come again, announced by their Messenger as the stars move to rightness. It's really silly. Everypony knows the Princesses are the only ponies that move stars."
The other's stillness was making Twilight's hackles twitch. The mask’s expression made it seem as though he knew all this already, and was just humouring her. And that was a really weird cutie mark... "Did this Messenger have any other names?"
"Oh, lots of names, or at least this unicorn claims he did. The Crawling Chaos - I wondered if that was another name for Discord, but the dates are wrong if the translation is even half-way accurate - the Faceless One, the Haunter of the Dark, the Herald... of... the... Outer... Gods..."
She turned, slowly, eyes widening in horror.
Herald smiled, very slightly. "I knew you were the dangerous one."
He took off the mask.