//------------------------------// // Before Him All Shall Scatter // Story: Where the Sun is Silent // by Cynewulf //------------------------------// “Sister, I am afraid.” Luna’s voice broke the silence of Celestia’s golden Conference Room. Shining had left to take a patrol into the city, leaving Cadance behind with the royal sisters. The other two alicorns looked at the Princess of the night then back to each other. “As am I. We were perhaps unwise to forget about him. It had simply been so long that I assumed he would never return. The last time that he came to Equestria was a hundred years after you left, Luna.” Cadance was silent, not old enough to have seen the being in question herself. Instead, she stood beside Luna and tried to comfort the now distraught mare. “We—I still remember it all. How does one forget such a creature as Nyarlotep? Before I… left, his coming bathed the land in blood. It made me wish for Discord, for he was only a trickster and a knave. The Crawling Chaos is something beyond us.” “Perhaps,” Celestia said shortly, unwilling to agree. Instead, she thought of Twilight. “We were only two against him then, as well.” “And we were strong,” muttered Luna glumly. “We were younger, too. In better shape. The land was strong and still knew hardship…” “Luna,” Celestia said in a soft rebuke. The younger princess looked up, surprised at the steel in Celestia’s voice. Celestia continued, “We also had no idea what he was like when first he came to us. Now we have knowledge. My monster-slaying days are long passed, yes, but my magic has not truly atrophied. You forget the Elements, as well—worn by brave ponies.” Luna’s countenance did not improve. She nodded, but belief did not touch her eyes. “Yes. Perhaps we are not that much worse off than we were when he came to avenge his spawn the first time. But that fight… I have nightmares more then a millennia later. I still see him, Lord Nyarlotep of the Thousand Faces, the essence of chaos itself with ten thousand eyes and legs… crawling up the road to Canterlot with such sounds… how space bent around him…” Luna’s voice was hollow, and Cadance shivered, moving away from her slightly. “I’m so afraid. He will find us. My night is no longer my own. I share it with one who would scatter the stars, sister.” Celestia, reined her anger in. Luna had not had a thousand years to school herself in outward calm, and she could hardly expect it now. Instead, she turned and paced while Luna was despondent, and Cadance sat frozen and frightened. She had been so proud of Twilight and her friends in the aftermath of Discord’s return. There’d been no thoughts in her mind until long afterwards about what had happened last time that Discord had been defeated—how, only a short time later, the vast and far more terrible creature that had spawned him had come. The Elder God had heard a call for something in the dark and cold spaces beyond her sun and had wandered until, with great violence and loss of life, he had landed in the heart of Equestria. He was a shapeshifter, taking a myriad of forms with ease and speed. When at last he’d retreated from Canterlot, wounded, he’d been almost impossible to find again. Their hunt had taxed Celestia’s enormous patience. Every day he wore a new face and spoke with a new voice, spreading madness. She’d known him by his work as soon as the reports of mysterious murders had filtered into her office. But what was he doing? He reveled in chaos and death, and he had always loved to find the cracks in the kingdom and in lives and drive wedges into them. The breaking apart of minds and hearts was almost as delightful in his dark gaze as was the suffering of the small. He had bathed the Zebrahara in blood and left it lost in war, driven nobles mad, and led them to eating their own heirs. Gleefully, with strange and eldritch joy he had danced a merry blood-waltz all the way to Jannah, in the west. Celestia did not want to think about that city and what he had almost done before the Sepia Gate. Instead, Celestia thought of Twilight, and in the back of her mind, a nascent realization was desperately fighting its way into the foreground. “Cadance,” she said, startling all three sisters as the sound shattered the heavy air like a hoof through glass, “come here a moment. I’d like to ask you about the members of Twilight’s wedding party. One in particular.”