It Sleeps Beneath Foal Mountain

by the7Saviors

All my sins were laid bare before me...

The jump to my next destination did not go as planned. Rather, as I attempted to make the transition from the forest near the Foal Mountain Range directly to the Cave of Harmony, I felt a different, yet not altogether unfamiliar force rest control of the rite from me. In an instant, I knew I would not arrive where I meant to, but I found I could do nothing to stop what happened next.

At that moment, in that instantaneous shift between my reality and whatever lay beyond, I felt something reach out and tear my mind from my body. In the mere blink of an eye I had become a consciousness removed from earthly flesh, a soul without a vessel. I was everything and nothing all at once and in this state I saw... no, I was made to see the world from not one, but all perspectives. I was made to relive that horrible experience within the Cave of Harmony—to relive the dreadful night that set into motion the events that would lead me down the path I'd taken up until now. Helpless in the iron tight grip of the force that held my mind captive, I was made to watch my own horrendous descent into both literal and figurative darkness.

Through my own eyes, I watched as Daring Do was dragged screaming into the endless shadows beneath the desert temple. Through her eyes, I watched horrified as I ignored and turned away from her terrified cries—snuffing out the only protection holding those floating horrors at bay. Through her eyes, I saw a callous mare heartlessly cast her friend aside all for a glimpse of some greater truth—her remorseful yet grimly resolute expression the last thing Daring Do saw before she herself was pulled away to be devoured by those haunters of the Dark.

Reality warped again and I was once more bearing witness to Star Swirl's gruesome downfall at my hooves. I felt again the white-hot pain of the hunting knife as it pierced my flesh. I felt again how the pain ebbed as my bloody rite took hold and tore open a hole into the 'Other Side'. I felt again the fear and awe that overtook me as I, at that moment, truly began to grasp the entirety of what I'd gotten myself into—the unfathomable scope of what I'd unleashed upon our world. From my occult research, I knew; I'd learned of the existence of these god-like cosmic beings and the unknowable domain in which they resided, but it wasn't until I invoked the power of the Key and the Gate that I truly understood and in the end, I had gained a new respect for such terrible power.

Star Swirl, somewhere amidst his crippling fear of the Dark, already knew some semblance of that same respect and so knew the truly vile depths of the unforgivable sin I'd committed. I knew this through him, I felt the panic and terror and despair of this stallion, saw my own atypical fury and madness transform me into something hideous through his eyes, just as I had with Daring Do. I saw the unhinged smile spread wide across my broken and twisted face even as I drove the hunting knife into my barrel. I saw the rite performed to terrible perfection—the sigils woven in blood and the words chanted in an eldritch language not meant for the equine tongue.

Through Star Swirl himself I knew that the stallion had indeed tried to stop me, and may very well have if not for him. For a brief moment, Sound Mind, that pony who was not a pony, made manifest a sliver of the power he held to keep the stallion at bay. I hadn't heard, caught up in my madness as I was then, but through Star Swirl's eyes—through his ears, I was able to hear perfectly well the words Sound Mind spoke, what he'd said as he stared the stallion down, looked into his eyes. No... as he directly looked into my eyes through him.

"Try as he might, Twilight Sparkle, even this one cannot deter you from the path you trot, and he will not, for he is a mere observer... an aberration that should not be... a wayward Spirit who must return to that place far beyond time and space from whence he came... who must return to his master... to that Abyssal Idiot... that Daemon Sultan who sleeps eternally upon Its throne within the center of ultimate chaos, amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes..."

Even as Star Swirl, in his horror, tries to make sense of Sound Mind's words, my own mind reels at the implications of what I'd heard, though I am momentarily distracted as my, or rather Star Swirl's vision is arrested by the nameless, formless terror lurking within the abyss that had opened up above him. I feel his horror, his panic, and desperation as he attempts to flee, and that is the last thing I feel from him before that lurking terror rips him from this plane of existence and pulls him into the yawning void, never to be seen again. It was no doubt a horrid sight, but I find my mind distracted from the old stallion's fate by Sound Mind's words and my own predicament.

Even as more images flashed across my vision—as I witnessed the earthly consequences of my actions through the hearts and minds of all those affected—I thought back to him. Free from the shackles of mortal flesh I had gained a sort of omnipresence. In these forced visions I could see that the unnatural tremors had affected not just the ground around the Foal Mountain Range, but the entirety of Equestria as a whole. They were relatively minor quakes, causing some unease and confusion amongst the majority of the populace and nothing more, but I knew that would change as it moved closer. Most could not see what I saw there in the sky, but those few who were more observant did, and of course, they wondered.

Some within those observant few began to make vague yet troubling connections and soon, once they eventually pieced together the tragic puzzle, they would spark a panic the likes of which Equestria had never seen before. It would only be a matter of time, but none of that mattered to me, not when I had my own quandaries and goals to focus on. If my suspicions were correct and Sound Mind had indeed spoken of that creature, then that would mean that we—all of us, had played host to and had even been ruled by an entity born within that cosmic primordial soup of madness and chaos. If such a thing was true, then why? Why had he come here?

Sound Mind had called him an observer, but that thing had meddled in the affairs of our world many times over countless centuries and continued to do so even now. Even now he had separated me from my body, such as it was, and held my mind captive. Even now he was impeding my progress and impressing his will upon me, forcing me to watch as those I knew worried and fretted over my disappearance. In my omnipresent state, I had been thrown into the recent past and watched through icy blue eyes that were not my own. My presence within the Dream Realm could not be hidden from her, but she had been denied access to my dreams by a greater power, one she knew—or rather thought she knew—all too well.

Worry had turned to suspicion after hearing Daring Do's account of my strange changes and even stranger nightmares through an oneiric encounter with the archaeologist, and as her covert investigation led her to stumble across the very unicorn she'd been searching for, suspicion had become conviction. An explanation was hardly needed for what she saw that night, as my horrid visage told her much of what she had already known and feared deep down. When she had contacted Daring Do I knew not, but the pegasus, curiously enough, hadn't informed her of where we were headed and she had still followed me to her eventual doom beneath the temple. It was a mystery to be certain, but one I cared little to uncover.

I continued to see one vision after another of the recent past and present from every conceivable perspective imaginable and answers I never asked for seemed to rapidly fill my entire being, such as it was. Had I not been untethered from my earthly bonds I feared my mind would be unable to handle the mental strain of it all, but as things stood, it was simply a fascinating distraction and nothing more. As I tried desperately to think of a way to return to my body and the journey at hoof, another voice rose from the ether, its tone—his tone hiding deep sorrow, regret, and anger behind bitter resignation and childish petulance.

"Had I not been a simple observer, Twilight Sparkle, I would have done much more than this, but alas, a higher authority than my own forbids it. I've tried for well over a millennia to defy the true cycle of Harmony, but in the end, I could do nothing to undermine the machinations of Ubbo-Sathla—not while the Masked Messenger walked and continues to walk amongst you mortals. You and the others thought my reign of chaos brought nothing but misery and despair? None who were alive then and very few who live now have seen the horrors that lie within the depths of true chaos.

"Compared to the one who bears the moniker of the Crawling Chaos, I am a saint, a king no less benevolent than your once-vaunted Sun Princess—a spirit far closer to 'order' as you ponies perceive it than 'chaos' as it truly exists. You, Twilight Sparkle, have begun to understand what it is to experience true chaos, as will the rest of the world soon enough, and now that you are under the watchful eye of the Faceless God, under his direct influence, there is little more I can do than this. All that I show you now—what you once had, what you've chosen to throw away, what you've brought about in your foolish quest for answers—you will forget all of it, your past memories buried and abandoned beneath countless eons.

"There will come a time, however, where you will have to face yourself and your sins, and when that time comes, those abandoned memories will rise to the surface bit by bit, piece by piece until you have no choice but to accept who and what you once were as well as what you've become—of this, I've made sure. In many ways, you may find me a jester—a trickster and a deviant out for my own amusement, but know that I take no pleasure in what you've done and what's to become of this world. You could have turned away from it all in the beginning, you could have left well enough alone, sought help from your friends or the other Princesses.

"You had every chance to diverge from this path, you alone could have ended this tragedy before it began, but you chose instead to pursue your precious truth to the very end... and now the world will suffer for it. Despite what I may say, I have always expected better of you, and yet you disappoint me in the end, Princess of Friendship. I owe you nothing given your actions, but I will save you all the same. Even if it takes the better part of an eternity. I will bring 'Twilight Sparkle' back because that is what she would've wanted, the kind and forgiving pony that she is.

"I do this not for you, but her. I do this because that is what it means to be a friend, a concept you've already begun to forget. It's regrettable, but I'm afraid this is all I can do now... I must return... even now I hear the call of Nuclear Chaos drawing me back to that wretched place... ah, but I wish I could have spent more time with that mare... just a bit more time... then maybe... maybe..."

I could feel the ethereal grip holding my consciousness hostage loosen even as the voice spoke its last wistful words, and it wasn't long before the images dispersed entirely, leaving me once more to aimlessly tumble about in a dark void somewhere between time and space. For a brief moment, it seemed as though my mind and soul would be lost to oblivion, a notion that caused abject terror to completely overtake me. My fears, thankfully, were unfounded as I soon felt myself pulled as if tethered by some chain back to my body. Somepony or something had anchored me to the material world and after what felt like an eternity, but was perhaps more akin to a moment or two, I again felt the surprisingly cold embrace of my broken shell, my flesh which had been irreversibly warped by the ancient and eldritch powers that be.

Disoriented by the events forced upon me, I blearily took in my surroundings. It was clear from a mere glance that I had not arrived in the Cave of Harmony as I'd intended, and instead had appeared in a place I vaguely recognized but could not fully recall. On the cold stone floor beneath my hooves, writ in what may have been chalk of some kind and glowing with a dim white light was a complex amalgamation of glyphs and lines arranged in a series of circular sigils not dissimilar to the one I'd seen in Star Swirl's vault. In my dazed state, it took a moment to sink in, but I was eventually able to recognize the work beneath me as a summoning circle.

I had been summoned to this vaguely familiar place like some otherworldly deity, and though I yet again saw no sign of Chrysalis, I did spot my presumed summoner standing stiff and silent a short distance away. The figure—a pony by their stature—was wrapped in a dark brown cloak, their features hidden under a hood they'd pulled close around their face. The heavily cloaked figure stirred suddenly, perhaps realizing I had finally noticed them, and with a slightly halting gait, they came forward. As the pony drew closer their unsure steps grew more steady and confident—almost eager. The summoner slowed to a stop a few feet away from the circle and before I could inquire as to their identity, the pony raised a hoof and pulled back their hood to reveal, much to my shock, that I'd been called by none other than Stygian, the lanky unicorn stallion grinning from ear-to-ear as he spoke.

"In all honesty, I was unsure if this would work as I'd intended, but by the grace of the Old Night, here you are! Welcome once again, Princess, to the Well of Shade. The few Faithful who remain have been waiting ages for this day, and with your arrival and the Harbinger's descent, we can finally begin..."

Comments

[Alondro]

Just get Sombra to blow the Tree up.

Because he can TOTALLY do that now! Thanks Season 9!

[Aether Spark]

Was that Discord who spoke to her?

[Cerilex]

I'm thinking that this story is related to "Life is Magic" based on what was just revealed.

[Blood Rarity]

[Yosh-E-O]

Ooh! I should have seen this coming but, alas, I did not. This is certainly quite the twist and shows how the corruption of Stidgen had gone a lot deeper than even Star Swirl may have believed it to have gone.

With this new development, we can only wait and wonder if there is any sort of counter / last ditch effort to stop this horrid fate from cming. Or is all hope truly lost?

[Mix-up]

Neat Stygian is still evil or at least his has a part to play in all of this. Now we get to see a little more of Sound Mind's true nature, and he was great in this. I wonder what Twilight looks like now, I was so hopping for a squid monster thing.

[Coretz]

I recant my previous inquiry regarding the nature of Discord.

[a pony in a man suit]

10024763
It must have been.

[AisheyruFox]

Discord...