The Corvus Prince

by Daemon McRae

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Feathers ruffle and hackles raise
Under the Prince’s sweeping gaze

He takes it in, the dying land
And trudges on through tides of sand

No flesh or bone or breath remain
His presence naught but inky stain

The shades of beasts are all that’s left
In this land of life bereft

The castle was swiftly locked down. With Celestia unconscious, it fell to Luna to lead not only the employees of the Castle, but the country itself. The words was spread about the cats, though not as quickly as she’d liked. She was already getting reports of other ponies falling unconscious with cats for shadows. More disturbingly, it seemed that the cats now wore the pony’s shadows.

Discord had disappeared to gather Twilight and her friends, to much protest. He had been adamant about keeping Fluttershy away from such danger, but Luna had driven home the point that, should they need the Elements, they would need ALL the Elements. He hadn’t returned yet, either because gathering them all was proving more difficult than she had thought, or because Discord was delaying their return as much as he could.

The citizens of Canterlot had demanded answers, upon seeing the Castle’s gates, windows, and other points of egress shut tightly. Thus, Luna now stood on the grand balcony, addressing a select few members of the media and City Council. “Citizens!” she declared, in her best Royal Canterlot Voice. In other circumstances, she would be enthused to be using it so blatantly. She greatly enjoyed doing so. Just not in such sad circumstances. “It falls to us to inform you that Celestia has grown ill!” A measured sentence, not quite a lie, but nowhere near the truth. “Fear not, our little ponies, as we have tracked the source, and are addressing it accordingly! This lockdown is merely to ensure the good health of the citizens outside of the Castle! There have been reported cases amongst the staff, but they are few and far between!” There were only two-dozen casts in a Castle of three hundred ponies, anyway. Or, at least, she hoped that made a difference. “We are simply following protocol. As such, the Day and Night Courts will be closed for the next few days, as our dear sister recovers. We ask that you be patient, as we take the necessary precautions!”

There was a murmur of dissent amongst the crowd, quickly overtaken by the media’s demands for answers. “The nature of the illness,” she continued, grasping bits and pieces of questions stemming from the cacophony, “Has been determined. It is an old disease, brought about by exposure to an ancient text! Our dear sister merely inhaled the dust from a long-untended tome. We apologize to the citizens who ere exposed to the disease before we were able to identify it! However, we have a local expert on this affliction, and are bringing in outside help, as added assurance!”

This mixture of blatant lies and half-truths had been discussed in advance, and seemed to serve its purpose. It helps that the lie was based on previous events, when Luna herself had fallen ill after digging out her old diaries, and taking in a lungful of dust that had been there for centuries. Fortunately, the cure for Insomnambula had been discovered a hundred years prior, and she had merely been stuck in Astral from for a day or two.

How she wished the answers were so simple now. She addressed a few more questions with some white lies and empty comforts, then sent those attending away. Returning to the inner chambers, she was met with a small stampede of mares running to meet her. Twilight and her friends had arrived. “What happened to Celestia?!” Twilight demanded. “Is she ok? What happened to her? Where is she?” she rambled on, her deep concern for her mentor evident even in the way she trotted impatiently in one spot. The rest of the Elements also voiced their concerns, in their own unique manners.

“Calm thyself, Twilight Sparkle. I am glad you and your companions are here. I would appreciate your insight into the matter. Discord mentioned that you had some… experience with older texts, even mysterious ones,” Luna said calmingly.

“Actually,” Discord said, appearing off to the side, partaking in a cup of tea he felt was owed him, given the rude interruption earlier this morning, “What I said was we needed the Princess of Books. If anypony knows more about that horrible thing than I do, it’s somepony who never stops reading.”

Twilight gave him a dispassionate glare, then returned her attention to the reigning matriarch. “What are you talking about? I thought you said the princess was sick?”

Luna motioned for them to follow her, and led the precession of ponies and draconequus to Celestia’s chambers, where she lay unconscious, though breathing normally, in her bed. In fact, she looked less like she was ill, and more like she had simply gone to bed. Laying on a table in the middle of the room, by itself (Luna distinctly remembered a tea set sitting next to it, as well as a couple of quills), was the large black book.

Twilight considered the large tome, then her mentor’s restful condition. At least, apparently restful. Luna saw her move towards the alicorn in bed, and raised a hoof to stop her, instead guiding her rather urgently to the troublesome text.

Sparkle reluctantly relented, and approached the book, followed a few paces behind her friends, who up to now had opted to stay quiet. Well, until Applejack spoke up. “What is that thing?”

They circled around the table, carefully approaching it, but nopony seemed willing to touch it. Luna didn’t blame them, even if they didn’t know what it did. Or had done.

Or, at least, she thought. Rainbow Dash took one look at the book, and reeled back. “The hay is that doing here?!” she demanded, almost faltering out of the sky.

The other girls gave her curious looks. Twilight said, with no lack of disbelief, “Rainbow Dash, it’s a book. An old one. No offense, but I doubt you know what it actually is.”

“Heck yeah I do! So do you! We read that Daring Do book together!” Dash explained.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, then the other, in an expression that decently mirrored her mentor’s from a few hours ago. Then she looked, wide-eyed, at the book. “You mean that’s-”

Rainbow nodded, not answering. The est of the girls just looked at the two impatiently. “Do one a’y’all wanna explain what’s goin’ on here?” Applejack demanded.

Twilight slowly approached the book, and answered. “There’s a Daring Do book in the middle of the series that got a limited print. Rainbow and I both have copies, of course,” she gloated, then coughed, as the array of looks she received indicated that now was not the time. “It’s called Daring Do and the Sunken Archive. It’s about an ancient library at the center of the world, under the deepest ocean, where all of the most evil and corrupt books and artifacts are kept. This book was one of the major parts of the story. It’s called The Penumbral Son, but that’s not the real name of the book. The Penumbral Son was an old pony’s tale from before… before you were banished, Princess,” Twilight added apologetically.

“Do not worry about my feelings, Twilight Sparkle, we have more pressing concerns,” Luna said firmly, but sympathetically.

“Right,” Twilight nodded, continuing. “The real title is The Last Rites of the Corvus Prince. The Penumbral Son is a false front, to get ponies to read the book. The legend was about a lost heir to the throne of Equestria, lost forever in another dimension during an eclipse. The real thing is much more troublesome.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow added, taking over. “This Corvus Prince dude is like, not even a real pony. He’s just aa… what’s that thing where one thing is used to describe another thing?”

“Metaphor,” Twilight answered.

“Right, that. He’s a metaphor for the end of the world, or something. Apparently the book is like some weird how-to guide on bringing about the end times!” she ended, her voice rising to a crescendo.

Luna was skeptical. “If such a tome existed, I think I would have heard of it by now. I am aware of the legend of the Sunken Archive, although it’s not beneath the ocean. It’s approximately two miles underneath the Capital city of Saddle Arabia. Although its purpose is much the same. And in all my times visiting the Archive, I’ve never once come across this book.”

Discord scoffed. “Of course you haven’t. You’d have done something about it long before now. The book isn’t really a book, you know. It’s a… thing, from somewhere else. It just looks like a book when it wants to. It’s smart, smarter than you think. Old Corvus was a devious, patient sort, after all. He knew how to play the Long Game. Took me centuries to find a way out the last time I ran across him.”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head, giving the tome a curious glance. “Why don’t we just ask Corvus to, you know, NOT end the world?”

“Pinkie, dear, if Discord is bothered by this… Corvus fellow, I doubt he’s the kind that can be talked to,” Rarity said placatingly.

“Actually, you can talk to him all you like,” Discord muttered. “Wouldn’t do you a word of good. He’s implacable. Doesn’t stop for anything. He’s not so much a force of evil as he is an instrument. He’s entirely about function. It’s not that he’s a violent fellow, as a matter of fact. But, according to him, he has a job to do. It just so happens that that job is-”

“-the end of the world,” the book finished. All present jumped, backing away from the book, as it flipped open to one of the solid black pages. The ink receded in patterns across the page, until the block of ink had become the image of a rather dashing, if dispassionate, stallion. “Hello, Discord.”

“Corvus,” Discord said dryly. “What brings you around this time?”

“Oh, I’m always around. Just waiting for somepony to find me. You all seemed to be struggling with some of the more basic concepts of my existence, so I thought I’d elaborate. It felt like the polite thing to do,” the book, Corvus, explained.

“Um, thank you?” Fluttershy said quietly, not sure whether or not to run away from the talking book.

The image bowed it’s head politely. “Of course. Discord is correct. I wish no ill will upon any of you. Unfortunately, it just to happens that I have a duty to fulfill. This book is simply a tool. I have many tools, scattered about the land. This, of course, is the only one active right now, but it matters not. I only need the one. And should you find a way to disable it, I will simply wait until another is activated. I have no illusions of being unstoppable, or undefeatable. Merely inevitable. The mare you refer to as Daring Do disabled this tool once. So I simply moved it. You, Luna,” he added, turning to the Princess of the Night, “Have indeed crossed paths with me a few times, though I wore a different face and name. I believe you are familiar with The Nightmare?”

Luna’s entire body tensed. “That was YOU?!”

Corvus nodded. “Indeed. The end of daylight would have brought the slow, cold end to the world. Then I would have driven you to end the night, as well, after those whom you’d sought to rule died in droves under your care. Of course, the rest of you,” he nodded to the Elements, and Princess Twilight, “succeeded in thwarting that plan. I bare you no ill will, mind you. You simply fought to survive, and won. It is in your nature, as the end of all things is in mine. I like to think of myself as very pragmatic. As Discord stated, I have a certain affectation for the Long Game. Truth be told, I’d like to think I could grow fond of you ponies, were I capable of emotion. After all, once the world has ended, what more is there for me to do? I will no longer exist, either. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I will be ‘pulling any punches’. I have work ahead of me. I will do what I will do, and this time, I’m afraid none of you can stop me.”

“What makes you so sure?!” Rainbow said defiantly. “You said so yourself that we beat you over and over again!”

Corvus shook his head, a large frame with a great mane of long, unkempt black hair. Or, it looked black. There was only one color of ink in the book, of course. “No, I said you’d disabled my tools. This time, I will not be leaving things to their own devices, content to wait until my machinations have worked themselves out. No, you do not face a mere tool this time.” He pressed a hoof against the frame of his portrait, and the page bulged forward. Soon after, the hoof rose in a tide of ink, much like the cats had. The ponies backed away as he surged forward, crawling out of the book.

Once they got a good look at him, he looked only partially like a pony. Still as black as the ink he’d emerged from, his front hooves hit the floor, followed shortly by rear paws. They noticed that only his front half was that of a pony, the back half that of a great black cat. His wings unfurled, pitch as the rest of him, still dripping ink on the floor. Or what they all hoped was ink. His pony half was that of a classically handsome stallion, similar to depictions on the front of romance novels.

Although, given that he had arisen from a picture book, it was entirely possible that he merely chose what he wanted to look like. He panned his gaze across the group, and said simply. “This time, you face me.”

That was when the first crow hit the window.

Comments

[Thorai]

Ooh my, now it's getting REALLY dangerous!

[SIGAWESOME]

8468191

now it's getting REALLY dangerous!

Indeed.

I am getting a certain "Nyarlathotep" vibe from Coruvs here, serving the will of Elder Things lurking outside the world...