Equestrian Darkness: Friendship's Requiem

by My Little Scribbler

The Horrors of the Past

Equestrian Darkness: Friendship’s Requiem
Chapter 2: The Horrors of the Past

In the cold void of space, energies were coursing through the solar system, triggered by an unnatural astronomical event. Magic of divine power descended from the stars and bounced off the planets and the sun like light against a series of mirrors. All of it headed toward Equestria.

For the first time, royal guards were brought into Twilight’s library as Princess Celestia entered. Although she was usually friendly and sociable, upon learning about Twilight’s discovery, she was stern and quiet.

Celestia examined the numerous papers that littered the secret room, carefully going through the photos and drawings as if it was a crime scene. As she looked through the room, Twilight explained what had happened that morning.

“And then Rainbow found this,” said Twilight. She pointed a hoof toward the heart in a bell jar. The heart had remained untouched since its discovery, still silently beating.

“This is strange,” said Celestia, her voice quiet and monotone.

“Do you know what it is?”

Celestia sighed with a shaky breath as if she was recalling a painful memory. “No, but the symbols around the room...I’ve seen them before.”

“Where?”

“Long ago, before Equestria, before me and Luna, and even before Discord, ponies used to believe in these four gods. I can’t remember the details, but I recall that according to legend, these gods came from another world and they settled here in Equestria. There was this feud between three of the gods, a battle that threatened to destroy everything. The most powerful of the four gods used his magic to banish the other three from our world and afterward, hid himself in an underground tomb to sleep until the end of days.”

“But what do they have to do with the heart and the runes?”

Once again, Celestia paused, indecisive of whether or not she should continue. “The Ancients, as the gods were sometimes called, were believed to be demonic beings of pure evil. If any one of them were to escape into our world, it would mean the end of all life as we know it.”

Twilight stared at the Princess with enthralled fascination. Her skeptic mind buzzed with questions and doubts, but out of sheer wonderment—or fear—she did not want to interrupt.

“Back then, ponies worshiped these gods in preparation for the end of the world. Through their rituals, they also believed it was possible to harness the power of the Ancients using runes like the ones you see before you. However, when Luna and I became the rulers of Equestria, we abolished the practice and destroyed all knowledge of the runes and the Ancients. That’s what concerns me though. How is it possible that they could be reproduced again?”

At that point, Twilight’s skeptical mind overrode her curiosity. “But surely you can’t be serious. Gods don’t—“

“FEAR NOT, MY LITTLE PONIES, FOR THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HATH ARRIVED!”

Searching for the source of the interruption, Twilight leaned over to see behind Princes Celestia. At the foot of the stairs was Princess Luna with her two royal guards behind her.

“Uh, indoor voice, Princess.”

“Oh...my apologies. We heard about what Twilight Sparkle found here and we wanted to investigate.”

Celestia turned to face her sister with a graceful spin. “Thank you for your concern, but I don’t need your help right now.”

“But there is forbidden magic afoot here. We cannot rest until we ascertain its origins.”

“There’s no need to worry. It’s clear to me that whoever built this room must have abandoned it long ago. The only object I found that might be dangerous is this artifact.” Celestia stepped aside so Luna could see the heart.

Luna recoiled upon seeing it. She glared at it, visibly shaking. “That artifact is evil. It must be destroyed.”

“But I don’t know what we’re dealing with here. I believe the best thing to do would be to keep it safe from prying eyes first, then decide on what to do with it.” Celestia directly spoke to the guards behind Luna. “Cover the artifact in a cloth and take it back to Canterlot. Make sure no one sees it.”

The two guards did as they were instructed.

As they carried the bell jar out, Luna said, “It is prudent that we destroy all evidence in this room.”

“Uh, Princesses,” spoke Twilight. “Would it be okay if I kept all this?” She used a hoof to gesture at the papers.

“Thou cannot. Where did the absurd idea come about?”

“Well, I want to help with the investigation, and I believe the answer may be in these papers.”

“We cannot allow thou to endanger thyself by—“

“I’m sure it’s fine,” said Celestia. “I doubt the runes are harmful when drawn on a piece of paper. Unless there’s another reason you don’t want her to look at the papers.”

Luna subconsciously averted Celestia’s eyes like a defiant child. She opened and closed her mouth with a huff as if searching for something to say, but nothing sprang to mind. It was only after a lengthy pause did she somberly responded. “Nay. We trust our judgment and will relent.” With a flash of light and without a single word, she teleported away.

Seeing Luna’s behavior weighed heavily upon Twilight’s thoughts. “Why was she so upset?”

“Before we took over, there were sects that worshipped the Ancients, and those sects committed horrible acts back then: they raped mares, tortured stallions, and murdered foals in ritualistic sacrifices to their gods. I wiped all evidence of their existence from recorded history in an attempt to stop the violence. If you want to rediscover these forbidden practices, you might not like what you’ll find.”

Two days passed since Celestia removed the heart, but its presence was still felt. Twilight leaned over the notebook she was reading, her candle blazing over its pages. Surrounded by demonic symbols and drawings of abominations and death, it quickly ate away at Twilight’s mind, leaving her drained and paranoid. She had the whole room lit with candles, fearing creatures in the shadows. While in that room, she left behind Equestria and was in a world where the supernatural reigned supreme.

The only written accounts that seemed remotely sane were medical transcriptions. All of which described patients who suffered from severe hallucinations or exhibit homicidal tendencies. Although each written account listed the usual subjects one would expect in a medical report—symptoms, medicines, treatments, and medical histories—but what caught Twilight’s attention was that the doctor who examined all of these patients was the same.

“Dr. Lionheart, MD, Clinical Psychologist,” read Twilight out loud. “Dr. Lionheart? Are you the one who wrote all this?”

Twilight had spent the better part of the day reading through the various journals and papers, leaving her mind swamped with images of the macabre and demented. After such a long day, her resolve to keep reading finally faded when she found a picture of Dr. Lionheart on one of the transcriptions. She shook with fright when she recognized Dr. Lionheart. She had last seen the doctor writing a cryptic message on her wall.

Desperate for something to take her mind off of her readings, she looked around and her eyes caught sight of a painting. It depicted a massive blob covered in eyes and mouths and topped with a crown of serrated teeth encircling a maw. Oozing tentacles wrapped around the pillars of the cave as if the monster was trying to break them off.

In Twilight’s blurred vision, she saw the eyes blink and move. She could have also sworn that the tentacles twitched as they pulled.

Twilight rubbed her eyes with her hoof. “I guess I’ve been reading too long.” When she opened her eyes again, she saw a long tentacle reach for her. She gasped in shock as she felt it constrict her in an iron grip. It was warm and slimy against her skin.

Twilight was frozen with fright as she was lifted from the floor. The monster stuck its putrid body out of the painting, its large mouth snapping and gnawing at the air.

As Twilight was carried closer and closer to the mouth, she began to panic, screaming and shouting with fright.

“TWILIGHT!”

As if nothing had happened, Twilight found herself at the desk again. She turned her gaze to see Spike at the stairwell, a worried expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I heard you screaming.”

Twilight looked up at the painting and saw that it was still and unmoving like normal. “That painting...i-it came to life and tried to eat me.”

“Twilight, did you have another dream again?”

“Maybe...But it was so real...”

Spike gazed at Twilight, his mind indecisively flipping back and forth over whether or not to feel sympathy or concern. “Come on Twilight, it’s getting late.”

“Okay, I need some sleep.” She snuffed out all the candles and headed for bed.

Deep within the Everfree Forest was a ruined structure that had fragmented and eroded with time. Hidden by supernatural forces, no mortal had visited the structure in millennia, leaving it abandoned and neglected. Even though the stonewalls had crumbled, the object it housed still stood.

That object was a sphere of glass, magically created and glowing yellow with supernal power. Although solid to the touch, it was not natural and was impervious to outside forces.

Just before sunrise, the energies from space began to build around the ruins. By the time it reached its peak, there was a sudden release of energy that passed through the glass. With an electrical buzz, the glass vanished, and a lone earth pony was revealed, freed from his prison.

The pony slowly erected himself into a hard stance, his heavily muscle-bound body flexed like living iron, moving with absolute fluidity as if he had not been paralyzed for centuries.

His coat was tinted blood red, a contrast to his coal black mane. Upon his head was a metal helm, a remnant of his days as a soldier. The helmet itself was made up of a single fortified crown with interlocking sheets that lay along the back of the pony’s neck. The top was shaped into a horrid skull, jagged and alien.

He opened his eyes, revealing white orbs. One look at those eyes and one might mistake him for blind. On the contrary, his vision was god-like, able to see everything with uncanny precision. No sound was beyond his perception. Smells were everywhere in a perfume of the world. Vibrations in the ground passed through his hooves, telling him of every living thing touching the earth. He could even hear the voices of ponies in Ponyville.

Amongst all the various noises, conversations, and indiscernible babble that blighted his ears, he was able to filter all of it until he heard the voices of ponies gossiping about a strange artifact found in a library owned by Twilight Sparkle. The pony galloped through the forest. Every tree and rock that got in his way was easily shattered into pieces, never impairing the pony’s sprint, not even slightly.

Comments

[Gypsy]

oh gawd don't tell me it's a crossover of THAT game.....

I tried...I tried to tell them...but they didn't beleve me. Damn them! Damn their eyes!

Strange creatures, the world in peril from unseen foes! ...the death...the darkness!

May the rats eat your eyes! I am now lost to your cause!

The darknesss comes... IT WILL DAMN US ALL!!!

[Ponyman]

30320
Dude, I believe you. You're part of the game was my favorite!

This should be interesting! And with news of a struggling Silicon Knights maybe making a sequel to save their bacon, we'll just have to wait....

[ErekLich]

Ooh, shattering trees as he passes...

Is this the Pious that serves Colt'hurrga?