The Music of the Spheres

by MrBossMan

Apollyon

Twilight Sparkle shifted nervously in her seat, watching the meager silhouette of Ponyville recede into the distance. Spike had unwittingly allowed her to oversleep, which meant that she and her friends had left a good ninety minutes later than she would have liked them to. The unicorn couldn’t help but wonder whether their tardiness would net only disapproval from the Princess, or instead something far worse for the fate of Equestria.

“Well?”

Twilight, wide-eyed, turned from the window to see Rainbow Dash staring expectantly at her. In fact, all of her friends were doing so. “... Oh.” In her hurry she had avoided telling them exactly why they were going to Canterlot until they had gotten on the train, saying she would explain on the way. She still hadn’t said anything.

“Well,” the unicorn began, “last night I was stargazing, and I noticed this really weird distortion in the sky. I think it might have been a faraway black hole, but I’m not sure. I sent a letter to Luna about it, detailing all of my observations. She sent back this.” A scroll levitated from the saddlebag sitting next to her. It hovered to Applejack, who read it aloud to everypony.

“So that’s it?” said the earth pony when she was finished. “Ya don’t know anything else?”

“Not really.” Twilight shrugged, then looked thoughtful. “Well, actually...”

“Yes?” Rarity prompted.

“Right after I sent the letter, a fireball flew across Ponyville and into Canterlot Palace.”

“What?!” said almost everyone at once.

“Oh, it didn’t crash into it or anything. It just kind of... slowed down and went around a few times. Then it just floated into an open window, almost like my letter.” Twilight smiled sheepishly, realizing that she wasn’t making much sense.

All five of the other ponies were speechless for a moment. Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up. “Wait, was that the big boomy rumbly sound this morning?”

“Oh, I heard that as well,” said Rarity. “I wondered what was making such a dreadful noise--it was a beautifully clear night last night, not a cloud in the sky. There’s no thunder scheduled for days.”

“Do you know what it was?” Fluttershy asked, directing the attention of the group back to Twilight.

“Umm... I think I’ve decided that it was an enchanted meteor of some sort. It went too fast and too far for it to have just been a spell cast by a unicorn--plus, even though I didn’t get a good look at it, I think it was too big, too. So I followed an old axiom of reason: ‘Once you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.’”

“But who would enchant a big rock?” asked Pinkie.

“And how?” Rarity added.

“That’s what I’m not sure about,” Twilight replied. “Who, how, why--there’s no logical answer. What kind of pony would send a cosmic fireball slowly and safely into the Palace? Was it just to demonstrate how powerful they are?”

“What if they were trying to kill the Princesses?” Rainbow Dash posited.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie concurred. “There’s probably a lot of baddies who would want to hurt them!”

Twilight shook her head. “No, that can’t be it. Not only could either of them stop it pretty easily, but they’re immortal--they can’t be killed, anyway.”

“M-Maybe it was d-dragon fire?” Fluttershy stuttered nervously.

“Dragons can’t guide their fire like that, especially not from a distance. There would need to be a unicorn nearby to enchant it or guide it, and that makes just about as much sense as the meteor idea. You girls have experienced it first-hoof: most dragons aren’t very friendly toward ponies.”

“Now wait a second,” Applejack said. “Did this all happen before or after Luna sent the letter?”

Twilight thought back for a moment. “It was before, but right before. She was probably already sending it by the time the meteor got to the Palace.”

“Then it has nothing to do with why we’re goin’ to Canterlot.”

“... Probably not,” Twilight conceded.

“So why are we going to Canterlot?” Fluttershy asked.

“I suspect it has something to do with the black hole,” Twilight said. “But I don’t think you can blast away an incredibly powerful cosmic force with the Elements of Harmony. It could be a scientific summit, but in that case I don’t know why all of you are coming along.”

“It’s probably some sort of bad guy we’ll have to fight,” Rainbow Dash proposed, not exactly disappointed by the prospect.

“One that moves the stars?” Rarity asked.

“Nightmare Moon kept the sun from coming up,” Pinkie pointed out. “And Discord messed up day and night and made the sky all different colors.”

“I thought that was just an illusion,” Fluttershy murmured, though she was largely ignored.

“If it’s some sorta threat to Equestria like that, the Princess woulda been more urgent,” Applejack argued. “Showing up at noon wouldn’t be much help against the likes a’ Discord.”

“Girls!” Twilight said. “We’re here.”

The train braked slowly to a halt. The six ponies rushed down the stairs and across the platform. Twilight noted the time displayed on the clock above the station--almost one o'clock. They were an hour late.

The friends galloped through Canterlot as quickly as their legs could take them, but not far from the front gate of the Palace they ran into a dense and seemingly disconcerted mob of ponies. Twilight recognized a few faces, and otherwise knew very well the poise of some of the unicorns--most of these were Canterlot ponies, though only most. Whatever had drawn the crowd, it had drawn them even from outside the city. “Hey, what’s the big deal?” Rainbow blurted. Trumpets began to blare.

They were just out of view of what the ponies were looking at. Twilight searched with her magical senses, finding a break in the crowd a couple yards away in the direction that everypony was facing, just barely large enough to fit the six of them. “Teleport! Gather up!” she commanded, and her friends did as instructed. They disappeared in a flash of light.

At the far end of the translocation spell, Twilight immediately looked up, being well acquainted with this part of Canterlot and knowing exactly what was attracting the crowd. She locked onto a balcony jutting out of the tower above, which she knew served as both a pegasus takeoff zone and an aerie for Royal decrees. It was clearly functioning as the latter presently.

However, nopony at the moment was standing at the railing. Princesses Luna and Cadence were standing on the lefthoof side of the door, the former with a small frown and fearful eyes, the latter visibly shaking with terror. Princess Celestia was on the opposite side, her brow furrowed in a look of staunch defiance. The Sun Princess noticed the light of Twilight’s blink and gave her a sidelong look, shaking her head slowly. The unicorn nodded once in understanding.

It was then that the doors flung inward, engulfed in an onyx aura and a dark, inequine figure was silhouetted in the archway. As it stepped into the light, the unicorn saw that it was like no creature she had ever encountered: its bottom half resembled a black-furred pony, tall like Celestia though much bulkier. Where the pony’s neck would have been there was instead a torso that approximated that of a minotaur, covered with the same black fur. Atop its shoulders sat a head that looked rather like a stallion’s, though with a somewhat flatter face. Its eyes were blacker than anything Twilight had ever seen, as if they literally absorbed every light wave that touched them--no irises, just pupils and coronas. Hair, like smooth wisps of dark smoke but with some faint, ghostly luminance, poured from its head. There was a crown at the top made of immaculate gold--the upper half of its body wore a golden breastplate and rerebraces, the lower half golden barding, and its hooves were similarly shod in gold. A set of scarlet wings were folded against its flanks, and another pair draped over its upper shoulders like a cape. In one of its hands it held an ornate golden staff, topped with the astronomical symbol of Sagittarius: ♐.

As the creature passed the Princesses, each of them, with varying hesitation, bowed low to the floor. A harried murmur rose throughout the crowd, and Rainbow Dash took a step forward, her face set in a determined scowl. “Wait!” Twilight cautioned. “We can’t go up there yet.” The pegasus sighed dejectedly and heeded the warning.

Moments later, a deep masculine voice boomed almost unnaturally through the air, loudly and suddenly enough to cause half the ponies present to jump. “I am Apollyon,” he said, and Twilight saw as he spoke that his mouth was full of sharp, carnivorous teeth. “Manifest of Sagittarius A*. Father of this galaxy. And your King.”

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