It Sleeps Beneath Foal Mountain

by the7Saviors

The ominous ringing of bells filled my mind...

It was as if I'd shut my eyes and stepped away from one reality, only to wind up in another. Gone were the trappings of the exquisite suite in which I'd stayed, replaced by the cyclopean masonry, tall dark windows, and looming grey pillars of a massive temple the likes of which I had never seen before. The sights I witnessed as I wandered the many dark halls were completely alien to me, and yet I couldn't help a strange sense of familiarity—as though I'd come home after countless years away.

It felt as though there had been no distinction between when I was pulled into slumber and found myself within the ageless stone temple. I could not for the life of me understand how I knew this strange place to be what it was, nor did I know how I had come to be here or why. These questions, I found, did not bother me overmuch, and as I roamed elaborate ritual chambers and great libraries unsurpassed in their majesty, I began to feel that my wandering was not aimless.

In this nameless temple I was not alone; I was among creatures—some vaguely equine in shape whose features were hidden behind heavy black cloaks. The various rooms that filled the temple were swathed in near pitch blackness, but even in that blackness I could still see and sense that there was a subtle surrealism to their forms—some sort of wrongness I couldn't place by simple sight alone. Then there were those things that were not equine—tall, twisted shapes shrouded in a darkness so deep as to be beyond reason.

Though my sight remained mostly unaffected by the darkness that surrounded me, of the tall spindly creatures I could only make out the merest suggestion of disjointed limbs. I could hear the muted but distinct sound of flapping wings as the things glided almost silently along the floor, but the cloaked ponies—if ponies they were—seemed to pay them no mind. I was among them all, following in their wake as they all moved towards some unknown destination within the temple.

With the equine creatures there was a kind of kinship, and I wondered vaguely if I was the same as them. I thought that I must be; is that not why I was there? Did I not desire to share the same fate as the rest of those whom I followed? I wanted what they wanted, even if I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was, but the thought filled me with an elation I could scarcely describe and I decided then that yes, I was among my own. I continued to follow through black corridors whose walls were adorned with unsettling images I could not recall. I trotted past heavy oaken doors, down countless flights of stairs, and through wondrous rooms full of strange treasures both terrifying and beautiful.

All the while there was not a speck of light to drive away the constant shadows that filled every corner. Despite this fact, the darkness held no sway over me nor my vision and I pressed on unabated, the path still clear before me. I don't know how far I trotted or how deep below the surface I had gone, but eventually we reached our destination. I, along with the procession of equine shapes and shadow things, had gathered in a wide chamber whose ceiling stretched higher than it had any right to.

With its polished marble columns, stained glass windows, wide circular structure, and the large raised platform and stone altar at the far end of the room, the chamber seemed more like a cathedral than anything else, though if there had been pews before they were long gone now. What was left were the many stone steps leading up to the raised circular platform where the altar lay. High above the altar, suspended by a great stone arch that stretched across the entire chamber, were three large bells—each three times again the size of a normal pony.

Even undisturbed and silent, something about these bells resonated with me, and a shiver of what might have been anticipation or elation wracked my body as I gazed upon the worn bronze bells. As the others filtered into the cathedral like chamber, I could sense that they all felt the same as I did. We had all been drawn to the unheard call of the bells above, and I knew then that the clanging of those bells would herald the beginning of a great change upon the world. A terrified cry in the blackness ripped my attention away from the glory of the bells and was drawn to the platform below.

On that platform were two figures; one stood before the crowd—another pony creature robed in black, its face hidden from view by a dark hood. It held before it an open tome not unlike the one I held in my possession, though not quite the same either. It stood silently and expectantly as more of us gathered into the chamber, ignoring the desperate cries of the other figure behind it. The other creature was a mere pony—a mare that had been strapped to the altar by metal clamps.

I watched in morbid fascination as the mare struggled, her head thrashing about wildly and her wordless screams full of fear and agony. From where I stood I couldn't see her face, but amidst the agonized howls I soon heard the mad rantings of the suffering mare. She screamed of eyes that burned like fire and of a horrendous itching that could not be quelled. So great was her pain that she all but begged somepony to gouge her own eyes out of their sockets, yet her pleas remained unheard or otherwise ignored by the pony creature in front of her.

The creature instead addressed us, and I found I couldn't comprehend the strange words it spoke. Like the bells however, those words resonated, and I found myself enraptured by its speech. As it spoke, it raised the tome high, and a moment later I felt the ground shift and shudder beneath me. The mare's screams reached a fever pitch, but I myself didn't panic, nor did the other creatures around me, and soon enough the minor quake passed. The robed pony thing continued its speech as though nothing of note had happened, and before long it gestured to the distraught mare, then to bells high above.

We all watched as one of the bells began to chime, seemingly of its own volition. It was a deep and powerful sound that reverberated throughout my entire body and with its heavy peal came another quake—this one much stronger than the last. Whatever light had been left in the temple quickly began to wane in the wake of the bell's deep sound, and it wasn't long until the blackness had become absolute.

Save for the mare, this turn of events only served to excite the crowd of twisted beings all the more, and I felt more than ever that I was among those fervent creatures. Small amounts of debris fell from the walls and ceiling, and the mare screamed louder than before, but the sermon—or whatever it may have been—continued on without restraint. There was now a palpable sense of zealous expectation in the air, and as the second bell rang out, the anticipation I felt became near unbearable.

The quake had gotten worse but that mattered little in the face of what was to come. Then another, more familiar sound reached my ears. Quiet at first, the sound grew steadily louder, and soon I could hear the slow, rhythmic flapping of wings. Within moments, the sound grew so loud as to completely drown out the clanging bells, screaming mare, and quaking earth all at once. With a sudden clarity that bordered on holy revelation, I knew that the bells had awakened a primal and all consuming shadow—an ancient horror that refused to suffer the light, and so it drowned the world in inky black.

We welcomed the coming darkness, we reveled in it; it was our salvation and we accept its advent with open hooves, even as we took our knives and stabbed our own and each others eyes out. 'You don't need them' a voice whispered in my mind, 'they serve no purpose here and so you must cast them aside'. The words pulled at me and I could not, nor did I try to resist them. I eagerly complied, letting loose a mad laugh as I pulled a jagged knife from my own cloak and went to work.

The malformed shadow things descended then; they swept over the shackled mare like a living tempest and began their feast. The sounds were horrible, but didn't last long, and soon the mare was silenced. Then, through the horrid shrieks of pain and laughter, there came a loud crack from above. Something heavy crashed to the ground with a dull thud and a muted clang, and in an instant, my elation turned to dread. Without warning, bright light seemed to burst forth from every direction, and in that moment, all became a chaos of furious shouts, flashing steel and spraying blood.

---

With a sharp gasp, my eyes flew open and I was once again blinded by an unseen light. This time however, amidst the lingering terror, I was quickly able to discern that the light source was no more than the shining rays of the morning sun filtered through the a window beside my bed whose curtains were left wide open. I turned away from Celestia's sun with a small cry, my malformed eyes throbbing painfully in the wake of its light.

I quickly snapped the curtains shut against the daylight and turned away from the window entirely. It took a moment for the pain to dim and the spots to vanish from my sensitive eyes, and another moment to remember where I was, but that too came to me soon enough. The fear of some vague, half-remembered nightmare eventually settled into an unease that refused to abate.

Something profoundly disturbing had risen up within my subconscious, of that I was certain, yet for some reason I was unable to grasp all the details. The only memories that stood out to me were the horrific sounds of terrified, agonized screams and laughter fit to make the demons of Tartarus shudder with revulsion—that, the darkness, and the deep, sonorous ringing of bells. Even in its incomplete state, the memory was enough to make me shiver involuntarily.

Still, despite the persistent unease, I felt that same sense of familiarity that had plagued me every now and then since this madness began. It was when I thought about the sound of those bells that something else in my subconscious stirred, and a moment later I turned a wide eyed gaze towards the small dresser next to the bed I'd yet to remove myself from. There, sat on the dresser in all its hideous glory, was the old tome I'd obsessed over just that night. More memories flooded my mind of what I'd found in those pages, and what I'd finally stumbled across before sudden sleep had claimed me.

Almost as if pulled by some sort of instinct, I reached for the tome, but stopped myself short. As much as I wanted to continue my exploration into the depths of that vile text, it was something else that had drawn my thoughts. With an effort, I pulled my attention away from the tome for the moment and instead reached for my journal, which lie next to the tome. I didn't know what was guiding my actions as I pulled the journal close and began flipping through its pages, but it didn't take long before I realized what I was searching for.

Whether it had been part of my vaguely remembered dream or bizarre reality, I hadn't been able to say for sure, but for brief period of time, I'd been able to read the alien script in the tome. As I turned the pages in my journal, I thought of those same words I'd scrawled at some point during my journey into the Cave of Harmony. I wasn't sure what it had to do with the bells, but something told me it was important and I felt all the more that it was as I reached the page I'd been looking for. I stared at the words I'd unconsciously written in the journal with a tumultuous mix of shock, apprehension, and a sort of scholarly excitement.

My fears and hopes had been confirmed; the words, once alien and unknowable to me, were now clear as any written in modern Equestrian society. I had no idea of what it could mean that I now understood, and as I read the words, my elation gradually gave way to more confusion and uncertainty. The passage—words that I myself had written in some unrecalled fit of madness—read as such...

'Knowledge waits in shadow... one once consumed by It who is Death and Darkness will reveal the Hidden Ones... Seek out the three instruments that must always remain hidden in Its shadow and let Insight banish ignorance... Only blind can the faithful See...'

I read the passage several more times in an attempt to absorb every detail. The words, clear as they were, held no immediate meaning for me save for the mention of these 'instruments' and my dream of the bells. Was it possible that the two were connected? I wasn't altogether sure, but the passage as a whole seemed to be instructions—guidelines that would lead to some greater truth. Something else I pondered was what was meant by 'one once consumed by It who is Death and Darkness'. I wondered at who the line could be referring to. I hadn't known many creatures who'd readily fit into the category.

Among those who could be counted, one could argue that Princess Luna would be a candidate, but somehow I had the distinct feeling she wasn't the one the line was referring to. That left King Sombra and Stygian as the only other ponies I could think of, but it may just as well have been a creature I'd never met before. I thought upon the matter for another few moments before setting the thought aside. As it stood, Stygian was the only viable source of information in this regard—at least, for the time being. I briefly entertained the notion of consulting with Luna, but the idea was quickly discarded.

I still had no intention of involving the other Princesses or my friends in this matter, and was only after a promise of confidentiality from the two that I'd speak of my situation with Stygian or Starswirl—if I managed to find their whereabouts. I'd already gotten as much from Daring Do during our research and had every intention of making sure she kept her word.

Pushing the thought aside, I found my eyes lingering on the last line of what I'd written. 'Only blind can the faithful See...'; those words had sent a strange thrill through me when I first read them, and it troubled me greatly. It made me think back to the dream I'd had on the train and of the current condition of my eyes. Was it coincidence? Was the line meant to be taken literally or did it have a deeper meaning? For all I knew it may have been both, and at that moment I had no desire to find out.

Despite all my ruminations on what had just been revealed to me, I never once forgot the tome still sitting atop the dresser near me, and—deciding I'd gleaned all I could from the passage for the time being—I set the journal aside and reached for the tome. I knew deep down that the answers would make themselves known to me in time, but perhaps I could get a head start by researching the contents of the tome. I could now, through some unknown means, read the text, and while the mystery behind what had prompted my sudden understanding of said text galled and worried me, I nevertheless accepted and even welcomed it.

I hesitated only for a moment, thinking of the page I'd stumbled across in that tome the night prior; the sight of that beastly planet-like monstrosity flashed through my mind for an instant, and just for that instant, I began to retract a sudden shaky hoof. Ghroth the Harbinger it had been called—a creature so impossibly large that it could imitate a moon traveling the cosmos; a monster whose horrible music could wake sleeping gods. The tome didn't say as much from what I could recall, but without a doubt I knew that's what the passage had meant.

What I had yet to find out, is why I had dreamt of Ghroth and its foul music of the spheres. As things stood I could only speculate on the matter, and as I thought of this and other nightmares and events that had befallen me of late, my ruminations and theories only grew all the more grim and macabre. The fact that I was unable to entirely recall my latest nightmare was troubling to say the least, but it hadn't been the first time that had happened. Much like my glimpse into that primordial realm of eldritch musicians, this nightmare, though mostly forgotten, had felt real—tangible in a way that made it seem as though I'd all but traveled to another plane of existence entirely.

All of my nightmares had affected me in that way, and the fact that I now suffered some strange affliction after being exposed to one of these nightmares was enough to convince me that this may not have been too far off the mark. If this were true, then the implications were all the more terrifying to consider, but consider them I did. I considered the possibility even as I once again began to reach for the tome, for though these thoughts and many others had stayed my hoof, it was for only a few moments, and like the tides pulled by the moon, I was once more drawn to that ruinous book.

Comments

[Not A Watermelon]

i’m lloigehye l' mgr'luh update!
ah'ehye bug!

[Mix-up]

Oh we really got some juicy stuff in this one, loved the description of the dream, so much fun to see Twilight surecoming to the madness to this ancient horror that his twisting her mind. I take it that the book is referring to Grogar's bell maybe that is my best bet, though I wonder if Erubis might be in on this too sense he is shapeless. Nice to see you back in at this story, can't wait to see more updates of your stuff.

[the7Saviors]

9799244
No, it's not Grogar, but the heralding of a rather more... obscure entity...

[Yosh-E-O]

Whoah! This was quite the chapter and certainly worth the wait to read.

The veil of reality is definitely starting to pull itself back as Twilight is being drawn ever closer to the unseen architects of time, space, and creation. Those who exist beyond the view of mortal eyes and who ever play constant influence on those unable to truly comprehend their omnipotent power within the multiverse.

This particular entity is certainly a most powerful one. Some of what occurred during the dream brings me back to the movie "Event Horizon". It was here that a majority of the influenced blinded themselves in an effort to appease that which had gone unseen. However Cthulhu has always been known to have such power, too. It may have been seen in but one part of the world for the briefest of moments but the influence was global if not even more widespread.

My compliments on the ritual scene. I definitely could see it playing out in all its terrifying glory. The tension of the mare's plight as the bells rang gave me chills. :)

[Chillean]

9799605
The nightmare was painted beautifully, this style of storytelling is really resonating with me. I'm glad to see something truly unsettling still being offered up to fimfic.

[Aether Spark]

I wonder when Twilight will figure out she’s essentially bringing about the prophecy she’s trying to avoid.