Dusk Falls

by NorrisThePony

An Ocean of Sludge (VII)

Luna, as it turned out, would have arrived in Dusk Falls at around the same time I first set my head to my pillow and fallen to sleep. For the first time in my stay in Dusk Falls, I had reason to enter the immense hotel overlooking the ocean and town, particularly beautiful from Luna’s suite at the very top of the five-story building. We had neglected to make any arrangements on where she would be staying when she paid me a visit, and it looked as though this were something she had taken upon herself to sort out.

Her solution was quite acceptable, for it allowed me—as I have just said—reason to enter the building I had been admittedly curious about. Her suite took up the entirety of the fifth floor, with multiple balconies and even a rooftop garden. I followed her as we flew through the dead of the night, the city streets deserted but the boardwalk bustling with life as usual. We did not speak for the duration of the flight, as Luna silently stopped flapping her wings and glided towards a particular balcony, her hooves touching down in a graceful landing.

She led the way into the suite. The first room was her bedroom, and it would seem we would be traveling no further, for she trotted over to a beautiful rococo coffee table and picked up a familiar looking book off of it.

“Shall we go outside?” she asked, using the book to motion back where we had come. I nodded and we both sat on the balcony. Crystalline Falls were immediately visible, as were the soaring walls of the ravine slicing through the trees and rock.

“Can I ask where you found this book, Celly?” Luna asked once we were both seated. “Because you said it’s under public domain. It isn’t. It was under public domain, but presently it has been pulled from circulation on the grounds of its questionable content.”

I rose an eyebrow but said nothing. I could already see where this was going, and I was hardly surprised it was this point Luna had chosen to jump off from.

“It’s one thing to inform the public of beasts like parasprites or wendigos. It’s quite a different thing when you start informing the public how to bring about mass destruction using them. This book is like a macabre spellbook disguised as an encyclopedia.”

“So I figured. What specifically did you find which piqued your concern?”

“Chapter Five of the book, the one you asked me to focus upon, is entirely devoted to a substance known as the Smooze.”

I nodded slowly. The name was certainly familiar. Not from experience, but rather from passing knowledge; as if I had once read a long forgotten myth about it that I no longer recalled with complete accuracy, but knew enough that its mention rung some bells. From what I could recall in that moment, the Smooze was a sludge-like substance which could be either moderately upsetting or catastrophically dangerous, depending on the specifics.

I relayed these memories to Luna, who nodded to confirm that they were correct albeit rough and non-specific.

“Yes. According to the book, the Smooze is a formless, as you said sludge-like entity,” Luna opened the book, and I could see that she had highlighted and bookmarked many varying areas all concentrated around one area which I presumed was the chapter in question. When she had seemingly found what she was looking for after briefly flipping through, she passed the book over to me.

Depicted across the entirety of one of the pages was a sizable glob of blackish purple. Grotesquely formless as it was, it was not lacking in actual appendages, but it seemed like they did not have any concrete place in the creature's body. It had a mouth and eyes...in fact, it seemed to have many. Or perhaps what I was actually seeing was more than one of the creatures clustering and flowing together like some freakish, otherworldly carnal ritual. It seemed to have other appendages, too, the occasional long strand of sludge stretched to resemble arm-like tendrils, sometimes even complete with claws looking as long and sharp as a longsword blade.

The bottom of the creature was just a mass of tiny tentacles, looking not dissimilar to whale baleen but thicker and of the same deep purple as the rest of the Smooze. Across the dozens of mouths I saw no teeth, but this was hardly enough to reconcile for the otherwise horrifying nature of the pictured beast.

“It is incorrect to call this creature malicious,” Luna said, seeing my widened look of discomfort. “For the Smooze does not have much for an actual brain, and therefore has no conscious thought process.”

“So I presume it does what its instincts tell it and nothing more?” I asked.

“Yes, exactly.”

Instead of meeting my eyes, Luna continued staring out at the still pine trees as she spoke, a distant look of melancholy clouding into her gaze.

“Did I ever tell you about the caterpillar dream, Celly?” she asked. I was a little taken aback by the absurdity of the question, but managed to maintain my composure and tell her that no, she had not. She nodded, sighed, and began her long recount:

“It was perhaps the oddest nightmare I had ever seen, and I don’t believe I have seen one since that has quite disturbed me so. I do not even remember whether it was a colt or filly who had dreamed it, all I remember was entering what seemed to initially be a perfect, peaceful utopia that only an innocent youngling would have the capacity of dreaming with such inspiring vivid clarity.

“I wonder if this child was the son or daughter of a botanist or entomologist, because the thematic consistency of the dream was one of insects. Specifically, it seemed, caterpillars. Upon entering, I was greeted to what seemed to be an ideal world for a creature whose one sole purpose is to eat. There were no predators, no natural occurrences to interrupt their feast. I saw thousands of caterpillars all consuming every leaf in their path. It took some time for me to realize that I was actually viewing a nightmare, and not the opposite I had initially expected.

“I watched as every tree in sight was stripped of all life, and in minutes I was looking at a barren, lifeless plain crawling with millions of these harmless insects which harboured virtually no predatory instincts. And then something quite odd happened. With all else gone and the hunger still in its mind, the caterpillar which this dreaming young pony and I had first noted with curious fascination suddenly and inexplicably turned to the first one beside it...and tore the poor creature apart with fangs it could not have possessed.”

Luna finally looked to me, gauging my reaction. I was quite obviously disturbed, but I believe confusion was the greater focus in the expression I gave Luna in response.

“That is all very...interesting, Luna, but how does it relate to anything?”

“Well, I thought it was quite obvious,” Luna scoffed, blushing a little, “I was drawing an analogy to the Smooze, for the two creatures are surprisingly similar. The Smooze has no malice or instincts, it simply has one thought on repeat in its mind: feed.”

“Feed...on what?” I warily asked.

“Anything.” came Luna’s grim reply. “Or perhaps more accurately—”

“Everything.” I cut in, bringing a hoof to my face and sighing loudly through my nose. Luna’s lack of subtlety and insistence on dramatic flare would perhaps be entertaining to a pony less stressed as I was.

“Yes. Well, situationally, the answer would be yes. However, what the Smooze consumes depends on what it was necessarily created to consume.”

I rose an eyebrow, prompting further explanation from Luna.

“If its purpose is to consume...gems, for example, then it will not rest until every gem in Equestria has been consumed. But if its purpose is to consume magic...or even life...a single liter of it could bring about global decimation.”

Suddenly, Luna’s choice of dramatic flare felt a lot more justified.

“You mentioned it being created to consume?” I prompted. “Created by whom? Or by what?”

“Ah, perhaps a better word would be summoned. Through magic, I would assume,” Luna shrugged. Evidently, the book had not elaborated further on that particular matter. “It needs to be given something of sustenance to actually grow, however.”

“Which is what its ‘diet’ is determined by.”

“Exactly. Celestia, let’s look at the facts fairly briefly, shall we?” Luna cleared her throat and locked eyes with me once again. “One: we know that ponies are going missing, but not killed, and instead kept in Dusk Falls under some sort of coma. Two: we know that something in this town has expressed interest in immensely dangerous arcane magic, and a desire for nopony else to know of what it is they are planning. Hence the library book vandalism.”

“You think that something is harvesting the magic energy of ponies for this...Smooze?” I said, quickly connecting Luna's two points together.

“It lines up with the blood fog. You were seeing the last waste of spent magic, leaving a source of no more usefulness.” Luna said. I remembered with a shudder the book which had been turned to no more than ash, wondering to what extent the demonstration related to the reality of what was happening. “Assuming they were to do so, they could potentially have it in their power to take control of Equestria and kill anypony who stands in their way.

We both fell silent for almost a minute, as we both contemplated the validity of Luna’s hypothesis. It was perhaps still only that—a mere hypothesis—considering what speculative evidence we had to support it, but nevertheless I could see no flaws in the reasoning behind it.

“I suppose it is our most likely theory,” I conceded eventually. “Did the book say anything of how the Smooze was summoned?”

“I believe it touched briefly on how unicorn magic could not be used. Nor changeling or alicorn, for that matter.” Luna shuffled a little, grabbing the book off the table and promptly leafing through it. “Ah yes, here: ‘the Smooze is not of this world. Simply put, magic from this world cannot impact it in any sense.’”

“So then what is thinking of summoning it...isn’t a pony? And is capable of wielding magic beyond that of the conventional sense?” I quickly muttered his name before logic bade me keep the idea in my head. “Discord…”

“...is still stone.” Luna shook her head vigorously. “I thought the same, initially. It’s not him, Celly. Besides, this would be unnecessary for him anyways. You and me both know that we wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he were striking at us from the shadows.”

I nodded in agreement. We had barely made it through our first confrontation with him, but then again we had been young even by the standards of the mortal ponies around us.

“Do you remember the times when Discord ruled Equestria, Celly? When we were just little fillies?”

“Of course I do,” I said. As fillies, all we had ever known was the doom and despair Discord’s corrupt Equestria brought. It wasn’t until we built our own Equestria from the grime and poverty Discord had left behind that we saw anything that even remotely resembled what Equestria looks like today.

“Do you remember the fairy tales you used to read me at home?” Luna pressed on. “Before we were alicorns?”

“Ah...vaguely. Luna, where are you going with this?”

“There were...monsters in them, Celly, the sort of which could never exist in our world,” Luna seemed to be proceeding cautiously, the delivery of her sentences slowing to a crawl. “I didn’t know it at the time, but later in my life I would see them on a nightly basis, but in the dreams of other ponies. I’ve always found it curious how the same creatures seem to always manifest themselves into our fearful minds regardless of the world around us, or whether or not we had ever seen them before.”

Luna shuffled, nervously brushing her blue hair out of her eyes.

“Bluntly put: it seems like the Boogey Mare is always consistent. Even to ponies who have never heard mention of her at any point. A pony raised in a...a cave, would still have nightmares the same as another raised in a city. I have always wondered...where these monsters come from. I think that to presume we know of all there is to fear is...foolish. There is so much more to fear from things not even from our known world; from the deep reaches of the night's darkest hours, or the most isolated corners of the furthest reaches of the stars.”

“Awfully philosophical this evening, aren’t we?” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh, shut up,” Luna responded with a barely repressed giggle. As tense and morbid as our conversation had been, it felt liberating to have some topic to talk with in which we were not bickering or bitterly disagreeing. And presently, it seemed like our conversation couldn’t be any further gone from the ponies, politics, and jealousy that had caused the rift between us to begin with.

"Have you seen anything at all that may serve as a clue towards pointing out what creature we're up against, Tia?" she asked.

"Aside from a strange set of prints on the beach, no."

"Hoofprints?"

"I do not know whether they belong to a hoof or not. Judging from their odd spacing, I don't believe so."

"Could you perhaps depict them for me?" Luna asked.

I nodded, and she rose, trotting into her suite for a moment before quickly emerging with her familiar black journal and a quill. She flipped to a blank page and passed it to me.

As best I could, I sketched the print while recounting the circumstances in which I'd seen them to Luna. She listened intently, while I strained to depict the prints as accurately as I could with just my memory as a resource. When I was finished, I passed the notebook over to Luna for her judgement.

"Hmm...interesting," she murmured to herself. "The spacing is odd. Are you sure these are accurate?"

"As accurate as I could make them."

"They look almost like they belong to a biped," she said, and then shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's quite difficult to say with certainty."

Evidently, she did not think much of the lead I had presented, because she was quick to shift her concerns towards pondering what further could be learned in place of the pathetic information we currently had.

“What is to be done next?” she asked.

“Next? I am to retire for a few hours,” I said, coupling it with a dramatic yawn, “And then, come morning, I aim to show you this town and relax.”

“But we’ve made so much progress, in this one night alone!” she protested.

“Which is why we’re entitled to a break, Luna. Come on, the reason you’re here is for the Summer Sun Celebration in a few days. Otherworldly horror can wait a few days—”

“This is just stupid, Tia. I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” she rose to her feet, grabbing the book, swiftly flipping to the grotesque picture of the Smooze, and waving it right in my face. “This is important. Not...not Ferris Wheels and funnel cakes!”

“Luna, we are important!” I rose as well. My voice raised to a level I had not intentionally brought it to, but by then it was too late to turn back. “That’s why you’re here! Do you have any idea how much I’ve been looking forward to just...being your sister again?”

“Ponies are in pain, Celestia. Equestria might be in danger. Gauge what’s more important.”

I was about to protest, but the words could not seem to arrive. She was right, but the last thing I wanted to lose was a sister. If there was one thing I had been shown, it was that as of late, the only time Luna and I were not at each other’s throats was when there was something of greater threat to the two of us to focus on. When we were alone and with nopony else, we were every bit as bitter and unpleasant towards each other. Was this the relationship we wanted for each other? Seeing ourselves as mere tools for each other? Tools which existed solely for each others benefit, each with our own abilities, divided by a gap so wide it seemed impossible given how similar we were at our cores.

The spatial distance between Dusk Falls and Equestria...the literal distance between us, had perhaps put a stop to our daily bantering, but it had replaced it with something equally as troubling. With so many miles dividing us, and with all the effort that went into simply seeing each other, we were now so alien to each other, even more so than before. We could not do anything as sisters anymore because to do so would require so much planning that the entire point was lost. And when we were together, or when Luna did arrive in Dusk Falls, it wasn’t for ourselves. It was because a task needed to be completed, and we needed each other to do it. Whether the task was a monster which needed to be slain or at least stopped, or a missing colt who needed to be found, it was always priority.

Perhaps once the task was done, and whatever loomed over Dusk Falls was gone, Luna would once again see a day of Ferris Wheels and funnel cakes with her older sister as anything more than childish folly not befitting the mares our conflict had twisted us into.

It was a wishful fantasy, but I saw no harm in carrying onto it a little longer.

Comments

[Rune Soldier Dan]

Mostly reiterating my earlier notes - the interplay between Celestia and Luna remains natural and excellent. They are on the same side, but remain very much not on the same page. One can readily see how they are managing to annoy each other even in the now-undeniable face of conspiracy.

Using the Schmooze as the Horror of choice feels a bit odd... but then again, its purple incarnation is plenty disturbing even in the old cartoon. Any sort of life-like image of it would certainly bring to mind the sanity-blasting old ones of Lovecraftian lore.

All remains good.

[Sunny]

6323020

I do like the construction of it, too, in that it can be manifested in numerous ways, explaining the difference between Green and Purple Smooze - and this new one seems distinct from each.

Also we have a universe of Lovecraftian Horrors in the shadows, it would seem. Curious to know more of them.

[G-AB Acid]

I honestly can't believe how awfully under-appreciated this story is, honestly.

Anywho, I really enjoyed Luna's description of The Smooze... reminded me of Lovecraft's Cosmic Indifferentism even though it had nothing to do with it. However, I would love oh-so-much to read your characterization of young!Luna dab into this subject a bit, but oh well...
Came here to impart this piece of knowledge.

I'm also fairly curious as to how this story will lead to the segregation betwen Luna and Celestia, culminating in the Nightmare Moon transformation/possession/wh. I mean, I don't honestly know if I will even see such a thing, but all pre-NMM stories that explore the Celestia/Luna dynamic automatically make me believe that they will, invariably, build up to a tipping point in the fracturing of said dynamic (even if the NMM scenario itself isn't explored). Anyway, onto the next chapter!