The Devourer

by Dandelo

Ch. 1 - Thickening Clouds

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
and with straight aeons even death may die.

H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City

---

Five days before the last sunrise

“I’m so happy it’s finally happening!”

“Me too,” he replied dreamily. His voice was shaking with excitement. “Me too. Even though I had to wait so long… it was worth it… if this is what comes out of it, every second of waiting was well worth it.”

She teared up. “I’m so sorry that I’ve been so blind. I couldn’t see that you’re such a wonderful, nice, charming and downright attractive dragon! You don’t deserve me! You hold so much love in your heart that it would be enough for every pony in Equestria!”

“But still, I have chosen you, Rarity.” He took her hoof in his claws.

“Spike, dearest, embrace me with your strong arms.”

His green eyes were sparkling as her perfect hair was fluttering around his forehead and cheeks. A gentle breeze caressed her perfectly kempt fur and the flaming sheen of the setting sun was drawing beautiful pictures on her body. The lush summer pastures were glowing on the beautiful hill where they had been hiding. The air was full of the gulden dust of dawn. Birds were chirping in the trees and the rustling of leaves filled their ears but in this moment the only sound that mattered were the sounds of their beating hearts.

It was the perfect moment. It was perfect for Spike and Rarity.

“Every gemstones pales in comparison to you, Rarity.”

“Oh Spike…”

“I’ve been seeing my whole life, but still I was blind before I met your beauty, my dearest Rarity.”

“Spike…”

“I love you, the most beautiful of them all.”

He pursed his lips to kiss his beloved.

“I would love for you to open your eyes.”

“They are open. You have opened them for me, my darling.”

“No, Spike. Really.” Now he noticed a shift in her voice. Immediately the perfect moment was blurring. “You should open your eyes and wake up for once.”

Somepony started to giggle and in this moment everything vanished: the light, the birds, the whispering… and Rarity. Her snow white fur and her sapphire blue eyes were darkening and her bouncy mane was straightened. The sky was approaching fast and marked by lines that started to form shelves full of books.

Twilight giggled again. “Slept well?”

Spike needed a few moments to realize that this had all been a dream. He rubbed his eyes when he suddenly realized that he had almost been about to kiss Twilight. Twilight, who just moments ago had been the pony of his dreams – in every sense of the word.

Spike winced and wiped his mouth. Embarrassed, he looked away from the violet pony and could feel the blood rushing through his flaky head. He cleared his throat. “Twilight! Twilight, I, uhm… well, I… good to see you’re finally awake… uhm… did you, did you sleep well?” The baby dragon kneaded his claws and avoided to look his counterpart in the eyes. The claws on his feet were digging into the cushions of his bed.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Spike amused as well as sympathetic. Then, she tilted her head and grinned wholeheartedly. “What’s good is definitely that you didn’t kiss me, Spike.” She chuckled again.

“Yeah… about that… I would say we just forget that.”

He mumbled the last words so much that Twilight was hardly able to understand him. The unicorn shook her head in disbelief. Oh, Spike… she thought and rolled her eyes when she turned around and went down the stairs. “Just stand up, sleepyhead!” she called when she stepped on the first step.

Spike smote his forehead. “Always at the good parts,” he mumbled and yawned. Only now did Spike realize how tired he still was. He took a look at the clock and rubbed his eyes again because he still could only see fuzzily.

The clocked showed 08:03 a.m.

Let’s have breakfast, just eat something…

He got up, stretched and went downstairs too. With her back to Spike, Twilight was sitting at a table and reading a book while scribbling down a few notes. Spike cleared his throat again but Twilight didn’t react. He licked his lips but it was to no avail – they still were as dry as before. A little bit lost, he stood in the middle of the room and shifted his weight uncomfortably. Every now and then he opened his mouth without saying something. Bright sunlight streamed through the window and Spike could see dust particles spinning around in the rays of light. Somehow, Spike was yearning to be like a speck of dust: floating through the air, empty-headed, careless and free.

“Spike?”

He flinched.

“Please send this note.” She passed him a scroll. Without a word he took it and burned it with his magical flame after he had opened the window.

“Do you think she will answer this time?” he asked. His gaze was following the flying sparks of the message.

“I hope so,” Twilight said and turned her back to him once again. A trace of worry resonated in her voice. “I’m waiting for a message for two days now. The Princess never is late with her messages!”

“But why?” Spike closed the window now.

“Who knows… she’ll be very busy, don’t you think?”

“Or something happened to her.”

Twilight wheezed and looked over her shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said confidently. “Princess Celestia is the ruler of all Equestria! What in the hay could possibly happen to her?”

And what about Nightmare Moon? Spike thought, but didn’t voice his concerns.

“I’m sure there’s nothing wrong. And, to be honest, two days isn’t that much after all. You’ll see, this evening at the latest we will hear from her again. And there will be a logical explanation for this. There always is.” After a short pause she addressed her books again.

“Yes… you’re probably right.” He rubbed his arm and took two small steps forward. “Ah and I wanted to say, you know, because of what happened earlier…”

“What do you want to say?” she asked kindly.

“… did I talk in my sleep again? Did you hear a lot of what I was saying?” He bit his lips.

“Oh no, no!” she laughed. “Don’t you worry. I didn’t hear much at all, you just babbled the whole time. And now be a good assistant and get me Magical Mysteries and Practical Potions.”

“I’m on it!” Spike got up, pleased that he could be of service. He walked into the next room. “Ah, there it is… Magical Mysteries and and and and… oomph… argh… puh. I always forget how heavy this book is.”

“I am sure,” Twilight exclaimed, “that this is no problem for your strong arms!”

The next sound she heard was the hollow thud of a thick leather binding when Spike dropped the book.

“… Rarity will never find out about this, okay?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Of course, Spike,” she assured him while he dragged the book to her. Without so much as looking at her he put the book on the table and sneaked upstairs. Suddenly he felt the overwhelming desire to bang his forehead against the wall. Again and again, until he had forgotten everything about this morning.

“Of course,” Twilight mumbled again, but no one could hear her in the otherwise empty room.

You’ll see, this evening at the latest we will hear from the Princess again.

She had yet to see how right she was with that assessment.

~ ~ ~

It was a warm and calm morning. The day promised to be hot – the blue sky was a deep ocean, the rising sun a lonely ship, the few fleecy clouds a sparkling spray. A few ponies were on the street, holding down their jobs or playing. But most of them were at breakfast or even still sleeping. The air was full of insects whirring and birds chirping. Sunlight was reflected in the windows, almost as bright as the sun itself.

Spike stretched himself. “I am so hungry,” he groaned.

“You’re right, we’re really late with breakfast,” Twilight answered, leaving the library after Spike and locking the door.

“I can’t even imagine why this took so long,” Spike retorted, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm.

“Well, Spike,” she began and started with her teaching voice as if she was in front of a class, “knowledge doesn’t come from nothing. The brain is like a muscle – if you don’t train it, it gets weaker and weaker every day.”

“Yeah yeah, something something,” Spike yawned bored.

“Even the ancient scholar Soar Graces once said: There is only one good for ponies: knowledge. And only one evil: ignorance.”

“But wasn’t this the same pony that said: The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing?”

While they talked they were walking along the streets. Around them voices rose and fell when foals played together or laughed out loud. Doors were opened and closed, pedestrians were crossing their path and gone the next instant.

“This is knowledge, Spike,” she said impatiently. “This is something you only learn after a life of studying. Many ponies are studying every day but aren’t any wiser at the end of each. Of course you don’t simply understand like that.”

“I didn’t say that I wouldn’t understand it!”

“Oh, so you do understand it?”

“Urgh… I can’t think with an empty stomach.”

Twilight wheezed. It felt good to get confirmation. But there was one thing she actually agreed on: her stomach was growling. “Okay, what do you want to eat?” she asked while she looked at the innocent plays of a group of foals.

“Creme cake would be awwwwesome!”

“Well then let’s – wait, what?” Twilight was struggling to get her thoughts In order. “You want to have cream cake for breakfast?”

Spike blinked at her. “What makes you think I would?” he finally asked after five seconds of silence. “You wanted the cream cake.”

“No. I would know if I did.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t say it.”

“Well, I did.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to blink confused. She gazed up in the sky - where the voice was coming from. “What in the hay…”

“Ewww, Twilight, why would you want to eat hay when you can have a big greasy cream cake?”

Like an oversized party spider with only four legs Pinkie Pie rappelled down a balcony attached to a huge paper streamer.

Twilight raised an eyebrow while Spike was laughing at the sight of Pinkie Pie. “Why are you up there, Pinkie?” she asked even though she didn’t have much hope for a clear answer.

Her assumption was right: “I was lurking.”

She hesitated. “Well, that’s an alarming thought,” she finally replied and smiled precariously.

Pinkie Pie rappelled a little bit more until only a few inches were separating the ponies. Her eyes were wide open and her head tilted. With a wide grin, she showed all her teeth. Twilight could feel her warm breath on her mane. Seconds were passing. Pinkie was grinning. And staring. And staring. And grinning.

“I’m hanging here since yesterday.”

“You’re joking…”

“You took your time to finally come here!”

“So you want to tell me that you’re hanging here since Wednesday because you were waiting for us?”

“No,” party spider Pinkie replied. “It’s Tuesday.”

“Pinkie, it’s Thursday.”

Grinning. Staring.

Staring. Grinning.

“You’re just putting me on your hoof.”

“No, Pinkie. I’m serious.”

“You’re weird, Twilight!”

“I’m weird?” she asked with vigor. “You are the one who is clinging headfirst on a paper streamer!”

“I’m not clinging, silly. This would be way too tiring. Nono. I’m glued to the paper streamer. My newest invention.”

“In-vention?”

“Yessss.”

“So you’re…. Inventing… things?”

“Yes yes yes.”

Deep furrows appeared on the violet pony’s forehead when she raised her eyebrows. “Please tell me that’s not true.”

“Okay. It’s not true.”

Twilight drooped. And Pinkie grinned. And stared.

Stared. And grinned.

“Hey, Twilight!” she shouted enthusiastically. “What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?”

“Pinkie, I really don’t have time for your…”

“A carrot!” Pinkie snorted. “Funny that you don’t know that with all the books you’ve read. I mean, how likely is that? Maybe you didn’t read the books at all but just pretended to? Did you? Did you?”

Twilight made a long face.

“Hey Twilight. What about the cream cake now?”

Spike was answering before Twilight had the chance to. “Just… let her be,” he tried to pacify and touched the unicorn’s shoulder. “She’s just being herself. Come on, let’s go eat.”

“You’re right.” She paused and smiled a bit. “It’s too early in the morning and without a proper breakfast you shouldn’t have too much… Pinkie Pie.” Spike smiled too and together they went their way.

“Twilight!” the earth pony shouted behind them. “Twilight! Spike!”

They ignored her shouts. “You know what bothers me even more than the fact that she is lurking on other ponies?”

“What's that?” Spike asked.

“Twiliiiiiight!” Pinkie’s voice was getting quieter and quieter the farther away they were.

“Her inventions. I really don’t want to know what exactly Pinkie thinks of as an invention. Or… what she already did invent.”

“True… a scary thought.” Spike scratched the back of his head. Just thinking of Pinkie’s inventions made him shudder. He wouldn’t put past anything past the pony.

“Well, as long as she doesn’t work on an invention to transform all of Ponyvillle into a giant cupcake I think we’re safe. Oh, thinking of that, I wanted to study a new spell with which I can make her sweets grow bigger. As a surprise. We really have to work on that.”

Spike pulled out parchment and a quill. “Let’s put it on the list.”

“While we’re on that, please take notes: Memo for myself…” And so they went on. The pony dictated, the dragon took notes. After a short time Spike and Twilight were hidden behind the corner of a house. Pinkie was looking after them. She still was hanging headfirst on the balcony and a fresh breeze made her swing like a pendulum. They hadn’t reacted to her calls – and the streets were suddenly completely silent. No pony was showing. The earth pony just had one question:

“How in the hay shall I get down here now?”

She pedaled her legs and pulled on the streamer but it was to no avail. The glue was holding her firmly in place.

The party spider dangled alone and sad in the air. Meanwhile big clouds were showing on the horizon – harbinger of a storm.

~ ~ ~

They finally decided for a bistro at the market square. Twilight ate a sandwich with turnip chips and a salad. Spike was fine with only a plate of hay biscuits that were garnished with a few small emeralds. The bistro was well attended at this time of the day and it took them over ten minutes until they were finally being served. The waitress – a young earth pony with a honey yellow fur and a mane the color of cinnamon – apologized profoundly for the delay when she brought them their food. It seemed as if she hadn’t been working there for too long because she had trouble balancing the plates on her hooves. When she turned around her tail hit Spike in the face.

“Well she definitely won’t get a tip,” he said sourly while rubbing his cheek. “But the cook is my friend. I love emeralds!”

“Well, we’ve been in Ponyville for a long time now. Many ponies have put gems on the menu now that there is a dragon living among them,” Twilight explained. “Of course, this also shows on the tab. But hey, these are things you do to keep your friends happy, right?” She giggled. “And don’t be too hard to the waitress. You see how full this bistro is.”

“Do you know her?” Through his full mouth his voice sounded muffled.

“She borrowed a book last week. Collected works – Pony Literature and Pony Poetry of the Last Two Hundred Years. I’m not surprised you don’t know her,” she anticipated his question. “You went shopping if I recall correctly.”

Spike licked the empty plate that was now showing only his reflection. “What’s her name anyway?”

“Glory Morning. A very talented actress, they’ve told me. She needed the book for her theater rehearsals. At the end of the month she has a performance in the theater in Trottingham.”

Spike whiped his mouth. “If she is that good why is she working here?”

“She says that her parents don’t have money to pay drama school for her. At first she had a few minor rolls in the theater in Ponyville but then she got a lead because the other actor was unavailable. And just during this performance – call it chance, call it luck – there was a member of the Canterlot theater in the audience. He discovered her talent and took her in. And because they were so pleased with her performance she now is allowed to perform in Trottingham.”

“Wow, that’s really cool! But…” Suddenly, Spike seemed very worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m feeling bad now because I didn’t want to give her a tip.”

“Aww, you’re cute, Spike.” Twilight giggled again. She ate the remainders of her meal with a smile on her face and put the money on the table. Spike gave something of his own money in order to quieten his conscience and breathed a gasp of relief. Then, they left the bistro.

This was a moment that Twilight and Spike would remember for years to come.

“What did you do before you found out?” they would ask. “Where were you? With whom did you talk? Did you suspect something?” All of these questions had yet to be asked, by themselves as well as by others. Because as they opened the glass door and left the building, as they stood in the bright sunlight, as they looked into the sky and caught sight of a horde of pegasus ponies, as they looked at each other in confusion and as they finally found the cause of the babble of voices…

As they did all this, life the way every pony knew it stopped.

This summer morning would go down in history as the morning in which peace was leaving Ponyville and all of Equestria. The morning when Princess Celestia entered the town with hundreds of ponies of all races: haggard, tired, and distressed.

They were far away from the city boundaries but they could still hear the noises – the mumbling, the stomping of hooves – miles away. Twilight and Spike weren’t the first at the scene of action. A lot of curious onlookers were already there, some of them just arriving.

Ponyville’s city boundaries at this place were right next to grass plains that separated the houses of Ponyville with a small forest, not nearly as big as the Everfree Forest but nevertheless lasted until the mountains. A well-worn street, almost nothing more than a dirt track, was laying beneath the treetops of the broad-leaved trees. Normally hardly used by anypony except for a leisurely walk, this was now the showplace of a bizarre scene that was beyond words. A never ending flow of ponies were following the trail thoughtful and calm like a huge funeral march. Their eyes were looking straight at the ground or blank into the distance. Some of then had already arrived at the grass plains and were hesitating as if they weren’t aware what was happening, where they were or what they should do now. When it seemed like they would stand still or even turn around, they finally started to go on – albeit very slowly. They didn’t speak, they didn’t make any attempts to notice the world around them.

In front of all them was Princess Celestia, flanked by three royal guards on each sides, all of them in golden armor. She walked with the grace worthy the ruler of Equestria: proud, noble, beautiful. But something about her behavior was different.

Even from the distance, Twilight noticed that her motions were stiff and lame, almost forced, as if she was barely able to stand up.

As soon as Celestia was appearing from the trees Twilight walked towards her – ran towards her – finally started to sprint. “Princess! Princess Celestia!” she shouted when she finally was in front of her.

In her eyes she could confirm what she already had suspected: something sinister had clouded her mind. The Princess looked Twilight in the eyes, obviously trying to hold her composure up. She opened her mouth but couldn’t find any words. Her lips were quivering and her gaze was not unlike a mother’s gaze that had just found her daughter after a long search. It surprised Twilight even more that the Princess passed Twilight without a word.

She looked after her. The way the Princess had looked at her – the aura that had surrounded her – all of this stopped Twilight to walk up to her and ask her every question that raced through her mind. Silent like phantoms the ponies were sneaking past her – as if they were nothing more than fog that was filling up a deep valley. She recognized a lot of them from her time in Canterlot and even knew some names.

Suddenly a shadow was falling from the sky and tumbling directly on top of her. The shadow had a voice and Twilight needed a few seconds to understand why it was the voice of her friend Rainbow Dash.

“What is happening? What does the Princess want? Did you know about this?”

A few moments passed. “I know as much as you do,” she finally said.

“What’s with this crowd here?” She didn’t even try to quieten her voice although she didn’t try to address the ponies of Canterlot. It seemed like she felt as much as Twilight that nopony would actually answer them.

“I don’t know…”

“Something big is going on, don’t you think?”

“Rainbow, I just don’t know.”

They were both silent. More and more ponies were surrounding them. Rainbow Dash looked around, squinting her eyes and protecting them from the sun in order to see better. “I don’t see the end. There are so many ponies. And… what…” She gasped. “See you later!” she said tensely and flew away. Twilight couldn’t see where she was going or what she had seen.

All the while Princess Celestia had arrived at the city borders. The latecomers were gathering behind her back. Twilight who up to this moment had stood still like a statue now ran back to the city, leaving the late ponies behind and pushed past the ones that were in front of her. She went to the other clueless ponies in the hope of finally finding an answer to what was happening.

A minute or so had passed and both sides were growing: the curious onlookers on the one side, the silent ponies on the other side.
“Your Majesty, may I ask what this is all supposed to mean?”

Mayor Mare was stepping forward. Everypony was staring at her and the seconds that were passing between the question and the answer were stretching like an infinity, filled with breathless, deadly silence.

Finally, Celestia answered: “My beloved subjects, citizens of Ponyville. I’m coming to you with a huge request. These ponies” - here, she spread her wings to add weight to her words (Twilight noticed that they were full of dust and dirt) – “need your help. An inconceivable disaster has plagued them and I don’t doubt they didn't come here in in vain.”

“But what…”

“I know that this is really a huge request,” the Princess ignored the mayor’s words. “I know that there are a lot of questions. And I will answer them – tomorrow. There will be a gathering at the market place, at 10 o’clock, and I will explain everything. Until then all ponies that arrived with me have to be housed in this city. Please give them board and lodging and care for the wounded.”

A cry of horror flashed through the crowd, followed by loud mumbling. Terror was reflected in the faces of everypony – there was not even one pony that didn’t looked sorrowful or was snuggling against a relative. They all were looking for the answers that they didn’t get.

“Dark times have begun in our beloved land,” the Princess continued. “A time of turmoil. Something unthinkable has occurred. Now more than ever we have to stick together to avert doom. As ruler over all of Equestria I’m declaring a state of emergency!”

And with that, there was silence.