//------------------------------//
// The Blind God 
// Story: Thrackerzod 
// by Charx 
//------------------------------//

	The Blind God is incapable of defending his own.


Of all the insane things Thrackerzod had heard Pinkie Pie say, this was by far the worst. The Blind God? Incapable? Madness! Azathoth created the universe! It was created according to his will! Had Thrackerzod not been in public, she would have murdered Pinkie then and there, presenting her lifeless corpse as an offering to the daemon sultan. 

But alas, the Elders would have frowned upon her revealing her purpose in Equestria.

So......Pinkie believed that the the power of the Outer Gods was slipping. That was impossible, of course, the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods are infinitely less powerful than Azathoth and his spawn.  The Elder Gods did oppose them, however. That was why Tharckerzod and Hastur (and the other Elders) were frustrated by Twilight's alliance with Nodens. Maybe......but no. Twilight couldn'y have anything to do with what Pinkie described, the Blind God, losing grip. Twilight had held Thorabon, and now Xura? 

Impossible. One unicorn could not threaten the power of gods. And these weren't any old gods, not even the great ones. These were the Outer Gods.

Thrackerzod decided to look further into Pinkie's connection with the occult and the current state of Xura.


	XXXX


Pinkie Pie was weird. Thrackerzod already knew that. She was also somewhat of a conspiracy nut and a criminal. She was obsessed with the imbalance of power in Equestria, namely the rule of Princess Celestia. It all fit with Thrackerzod's theory that Pinkie was influenced by some alien entities, perhaps a Great Old One.  But that didn't necessarily mean she knew what she was talking about. Being corrupted by a Great Old One does not mean having access to their knowledge, and besides, even if any of the Old Ones thought the Outer Gods were losing power, they would quite simply be wrong. It was impossible.

There was another possibility. The Elder Gods opposed the Outer Gods, and they were on the same level of power as the Great Old Ones (though the Elder Gods opposed them as well). Pinkie could have been.....corrupted is perhaps not the best word. Thrackerzod hadn't known Elder Gods to say things like that. Not that she had met very many Elder Gods. Manipulated, or persuaded were better terms.

Yet Pinkie was clearly mad. And what would be the purpose? Elder Gods had no use for a random Earth pony. The Great Old Ones would do it simply because of their innate amorality. And Thrackerzod worked to bring Twilight Sparkle either to death, madness, or to her own side, for the fulfillment of the will of Azathoth! But the Elder Gods were weak and spineless.  Their power being limited by the idea that smaller races should be left undisturbed, it was unlikely that they would bother controlling some random pony.

Unless....they wanted Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie was an Element of Harmony, one of the closest ponies to Twilight. And Twilight was negotiating with Nodens. There was some deeper plot here. The Elder Gods were playing the same game Thrackerzod and Hastur were at: trying to control Twilight Sparkle.

	XXXX

So Pinkie was most likely more involved with the occult than Thrackerzod had previously concluded. But in order to confirm this, Thrackerzod would need to check on her comments on the Peninsula of Xura.

And that was why Thrackerzod said told the Cutie Mark Crusaders that they should try rock farming today.

"A rock farm?" said Apple Bloom, "Thrackerzod, I live on a farm, and the chores are bad enough with real plants. Besides, y'all can't grow rocks!"

"But what about our cutie marks?" asked Thrackerzod, "Is that not the purpose of our small collective?"

"Baby, I was thinking our purpose was going to the club for some rubs," said Scootaloo, "Hoo!"

Apple Bloom tilted her head in thought, "I guess I would like ta do somethin' that didn't involve murdering and/or, uh, seducing Twilight Sparkle."

"Baby, I'm telling ya, that mare will fall into my sweet hooves eventually. No one can resist the Scoot-a-booty-loo. Hoo!"

"We can talk with Pinkie," said Thrackerzod, "Her parents own a rock farm. It would be an excellent opportunity for us."

Apple Bloom's eyes grew wide, "Pinkie?! Do y'all think that's safe? Pinkie is........well, she's stark-bucking mad, that's for sure." 

"Would you rather help Scootlaoo relieve her urges?"

"I, uh," Apple Bloom sighed, "I guess not. Let's go talk to Pinkie Pie."

XXXX

It had taken lots of convincing, but eventually Rarity and Applejack had allowed them to go with Pinkie to her parent's rock farm. Pinkie herself had agreed quite readily to the preposition, saying that it would be an opportune moment to break the young foals from the lies they were taught in Equestria's schools.

In fact, she was ranting right now on the subject of Celestia's history, while they were nearing the rock farm.

"They tell you what she did, sealing Discord, banishing her sister, and they tell you it is good. They say she does it for Equestria, for you! But no! Believe not their lies! Yes. They lead to darker lies, to covered up crimes, ancient misdeeds of the most heinous and evil sort, and - "

"Pinkamena!" a loud voice called to them.

"Oh, finally we're here! I didn't think ah could stand another story 'bout how Miss Cherilee lies to us all day." said Apple Bloom.

"Father!" cried Pinkie, "You seem so different. So scarce. So much less.....hairy. Yes....."

"I finally got him to shave off those awful sideburns," said Mrs. Pie, "Doesn't he look better?"

Pinkie's eyes grew wide, "The sideburns are gone? All gone? So you say, and so it appears upon my father, so it must be. So.....HA! PINKIE IS VICTORIOUS! NEVER AGAIN SHALL THE SIDEBURNS THREATEN ME! YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!"

"Wait, the sideburns are gone?!" asked Thrackerzod. She looked at Mr. Pie angrily, "Your sideburns? But - I.....what do you know about the Peninsula of Xura?"

Mr. Pie was rather startled by this sudden question, and dropped the piece of straw he had in his mouth. He looked Thrackerzod up and down, as if analyzing her soul. Finally, he spoke.

"Say....why don't you come inside for a bit? We got soup."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders filed inside. Mr. Pie stood at the doorway, and put his hoof on Thrackerzod's shoulder as she passed.

"Say....let's talk in the other room."

Thrackerzod followed Mr. Pie to the next room, a smoking room, where he sat down on an old rickety chair. Thrackerzod opted to stand.

Mr. Pie produced a pipe from beneath his hat and lit it with a match, also from his hat. He brought it up to his lips for a puff before turning to Thrackerzod.

"My name.....is Igneous. Son of Feldspar Pie. And you?"

"I was birthed Sweetie Belle, but my true name is Thrackerzod."

Igneous leaned back, "Thrackerzod, eh? You sound like you're..........from a different place. Not wholly Equestrian. I suppose you get that a lot, but - HHR, HRH" he coughed, "But I think you're peculiar knowledge of, well, different places is more telling. Not something a filly should know about. But then again, " he looked knowingly into her eyes, "I wouldn't be so foolish as to think you are a filly, now would I?"

Thrackerzod was taken aback by his comments, but not enough to let it show. She had assumed Pinkie's father was rather like Pinkie herself, but he was evidently much saner, and much more knowledgeable. "You are correct. I am not as I appear. But neither are you, I assume. What do you know of Xura?"

Igneous leaned back, "Visited it in my dreams. A figure came to me upon moonbeams, and I went with him to Xura. We -"

"Did you go on a White Ship?" interrupted Thrackerzod.

Igneous seemed annoyed by her sudden question, "No, we didn't. The White Ship got destroyed, remember? Happened, well, millennia ago. No, he came a black ship. I know, I know, not so different. But this wasn't a sea faring ship. This was a flying ship. It had great sets of wings that grew out it's back. It looked just like a dragon, I swear it! I can remember it so fondly.........." he shook his head, "But enough of that. All I know of Xura is that it has a new ruler. And no, it's not my sideburns. That doesn't even make any sense."

"Who then!? Why are they allied with Twilight Sparkle!?"

He chuckled softly, "Now.....why would I tell you a thing like that?"

"I.....excuse me?"

"You cult followers are so predictable. You think you'll gain something, immortality, knowledge, or maybe you're just insane. But let me give you a little hint, 'Thrackerzod'," Igneous said, leaning in real close, almost whispering in her ear, "The Blind God is losing grip."

He coughed, pulling back, "I know, I know. Impossible right? But you don't know you're history. Back before ponies, when Earth was populated by a race called humans, a war started. The Elder Gods were the ones that caused it. They never liked the Outer Gods, you know? Well back then, the Outer Gods were unimaginably powerful. You literally cannot fathom their power. Yog-Sothoth, outside of space and time.

Well, they were just gods. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, extremely powerful gods. But still just gods. The universe could get along just fine with other gods. All the Elder Gods needed to do was fulfill the role the Outer ones played. So, they needed some one to match Yog-Sothoth, someone to match Nyarlathotep, and so forth.

They need not match them in power, only enough to complete their role in the universe. I know it sounds crazy, but the laws of the universe were slowly turned away from the Outer Gods as the Elder Gods, instead of gaining power, specialized in it. One Elder God started to hold a court similar to Azathoth's, and so the universe began to pay a small amount of attention to that court.


It was very small, of course, but the Outer Gods didn't tolerate anything. That was what really made things bad for them. They would have been fine if they had just ignored them. But no, Azathoth gave some screeching order, and so a war started. Under orders, the Great Old Ones attacked the Elder Gods, and were defeated quite badly," Igneous smiled, "A sight to see, it must've been. Humanity was destroyed during the war, and the weak god Discord was born from the Great Old One's leaking magic. Magic itself was introduced to this world. That's the only reason we exist. After the war, we evolved from what life remained.

So, yes, it's true.

It's slow. We'll probably be dead a billion years before anyone really notices it.


But the Outer Gods are dying. Slowly but surely, dying. Will the universe die with them?" Igneous coughed and took another puff from his pipe, "I don't give a damn."