In the offshore city of Manehatten, the local train conductor lay on the roof of the trains caboose, using his hat as a pillow. He was drinking deeply from a large green wine bottle, gulping loudly as the crimson liquid flowed down his throat. Most people would think drinking that much wine would be unhealthy, but that could be said for most enjoyable things.
"Aaahhh," sighed the tan-furred earth pony, popping the bottle from his rosy lips. "A pristine vintage."
He let out a few hiccups as he popped the cork back into the bottle, his face taking a light pink glow. There were few things that he enjoyed more than a good bottle of wine. Even though most of his friends told him it would only lead to trouble.
"Even my wife says I drink too much," he said to himself, looking to the bottle in his hooves with an almost affectionate gaze. "Well what does she know? She still thinks I'm cheating on her. Boulder Crush doesn't even sound like a mares name anyway."
That was the last time he ordered flowers from Canterlot.
He let out another hiccup, then closed his eyes, content with the warm glow settling over his body. But a huge gust of wind disturbed his rest, opening one eye in aggravation, he snarled. But both his eyes opened when the state of his surroundings registered in his hazy mind.
The entire world around him was bathed in an erie dark red, the sky a foreboding sight as it hung above like a blanket of blood. The wind whipped and turned, sweeping away his hat as he sat up, flabbergasted at the world around him. The sound of panic screams could be heard in the direction of the city.
Then the laughter started, a creepy, wet noise that seemed to issue from both above, and below.
"AT LAST," said a horrible voice, "At last, my view of this world is unobscured."
Movement from above brought the conductors attention, his mouth dropping open in a silent scream as he saw dozens of black tendrils slink out of multiple whirlpools that had appeared in the sky as it shifted to red. He looked at them, looked down to the bottle in his hooves, then looked back up. He swirled his tongue around in his mouth, tasting the lingering wine.
A second later, a green bottle shattered against the train engine's chimney.
---
It was the same all across the country.
In Cloudsdale, the pegasi stared on in shock as a vortex even bigger than their city opened, tentacles as thick as tree trunks slithering and weaving through the cloud pillars that held up the buildings. Panic ensued as ponies young and old scrambled to avoid being grabbed by the foul appendages. But it soon became more difficult as more and more whirlpools appeared all over the city.
"At last," said the voice from before, its presence still making all who heard it tremble."My influence is free to take root in this realm."
---
For the first time in its existence, the debauchery in Las Pegasus ground to a halt as all the denizens looked up at the tentacles that hung above them.
It was a horror that none had ever imagined even in the worst of nightmares. And it was right above them, for all to see. Sure enough, it did not take long for customers and employees alike to drop what they were doing and run away in a panic.
The imposing voice continued, spurring the fleeing ponies on.
"Already, I feel my influence spreading," said the voice, smaller tendrils blooming over the fanciest hotel in the city, weaving through the built-in amusement park. "Nothing can be hidden from me now."
---
In the square of Appleloosa, Sheriff Silver Star and Braeburn looked up as the sky filled with multiple intertwining black circular vortexes, black limbs stretching over the landscape. Ponies screamed and fled as they saw the sight above, having never seen a terror of the like before. And that voice was truly terrifying.
---
Among the teepees of the buffalo, Chief Thunderhoof and Little Strongheart, pawed the ground threateningly along with the rest of the tribe.
It was a scary sight above, but buffalo don't scare easily. These tentacles wiggling out of the holes in the sky were not going to intimidate them. This was their ancestors land, they were going to defend it with their hearts, bodies and souls, no matter what tried to take it.
"After so many long years," continued the menacing voice from before, the buffalo huffing threateningly. "I can finally breach the ether."
---
Back in Canterlot, the group of ponies surrounding Twilight could only watch as another large portal opened up, massive tendrils wiggling out.
This one opened so close to Canterlot, it blocked out all things above their spot on the cities edge. Twilight could only watch in shame, knowing that this was all because of her shortcomings. If she had been strong enough to defend Canterlot, this would not be happening.
Equestria wouldn't have been subjected to an entity it had never contemplated before.
Every pony, changeling, and dragon watched as this new portal revealed a glistening black sphere in the center of its tendrils. They felt their hearts stop as it split open, lazily and slowly blinking to reveal the grotesque yellow green eye with a gelatinous looking pupil beneath. They stared at it in terror, it stared back.
Princess Celestia had never seen such a horrible thing. Discord and Nightmare Moon held no candle to the thing that hovered before her capital, nearly encompassing the entire city. The sky was dark, something had stolen her and her sisters control over the sun and moon, and this was obviously the culprit.
And if it could do all this in a matter of seconds, just what kind of creature was it?
Princess Luna was the first of them to put on a challenging face. She herself had never seen such a monstrosity, but she had dealt with nightmares all her life. This thing was no different then the monster hiding under a fouls bed in the dead of night.
At least, that's what she told herself.
Princess Cadance sat rooted to the spot, holding Twilight closer to her. Her heart raced as what she was seeing became rooted to her soul for all eternity. As the Princess of Love, she had the ability to sense the desires of others, and as horrifying as this thing before Canterlot was, it had desires of its own.
And they were very cold.
Shining Armour could barely keep his shield up as he looked into the eye before them. He was responsible for the protection of Canterlot from all dangers and nothing would ever take first to that. Looking into that bulbous pupil made some primal fear inside him stir.
Looking into that eye was like looking into an endless void that could never be filled.
Rarity sat on her rump in shock, the eye above slowly blinking to the rhythm of her heart. Her whole core of existence locked up as she beheld the sight before her. As a lover of all things beautiful, seeing something so revolting yet terrifying just refused to compute.
How could something like this even exist?
Pinkie Pie looked above to the great eye in the sky, surrounded by weaving black tendrils. For once in her life, she wished her Pinkie sense had been wrong, for this was something so terrifying, she would never have believed it was real, had it not been right in front of her. And that laughter from before had burrowed into her soul.
For the first time in her life, Pinkie had been scared by a laugh.
Applejack stood were she was, totally petrified. Her lasso hung limp from her tail, she could not hope to even try to capture one of those huge tendrils, it would be suicide. However, she had no intention of fleeing, all of her friends were right here, and she was staying with them.
For even against something like this, she would stay by her friends.
Rainbow Dash was trying hard to curb her fears, but it was easier said than done. This sight was downright scary, even for the brash Rainbow Dash. Never before had she seen something so horrible. This thing made the dragon that had nested near Ponyville look like a kitten.
But Rainbow wasn't going to give in, especially with her friends on the line.
Everything Fluttershy knew became numb as she looked into the enormous eye that blinked lazily above. She had always been easier to scare than most ponies, and with such a eldritch horror before her, her whole being fell away. She felt reality weaken, her vision blurred and grew dark.
Then a pair of hooves wrapped around her shoulders.
Fluttershy looked up to see Rainbow Dash pulling her into her hooves, holding tightly. She looked into Fluttershy's eyes, their fear mutual, but also a reassuring presence. As if telling her she was there for her, that as long as she was there, as well as the rest of her friends, everything would be okay.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and sunk into Rainbows supporting hooves, willing to face this with the rest of them.
Twilight could only watch as the one thing she feared almost more than Chrysalis unfolded before her.
Spike stood were he was, shaking with fear as he looked into the huge eye above.
Pharynx and his fellow changeling minions could only watch as the eye drew its attention to their Queen, who herself had a look of unbridled horror on her face.
"What...?" She stammered, the eye she was held before looking at her with a hungry expression she knew all too well. "What...are you?"
A deep rumbling groan echoed through out the air.
"I...am Hermaeus Mora," answered the voice from before, the eyes attention solely on the ensnared Chrysalis now."The Woodland Man, the Gardener of Men, Daedric Prince of knowledge...and...FATE!"
Below, under Shining Armour's shield, Cadance and Shining both felt a twinge of familiarity when this thing announced its name, but were to focused on what was happening to concentrate on it.
Chrysalis could only stare at the thing above her, terror she had never known flooding her being. She did not know what a Daedric Prince was, but at the moment she did not care. What mattered was she was now realizing the true horror that she was up against now, bound in its tendrils no less.
"Let go," she whispered, but then her eyes erupted in tears of fear as she raised her voice as high as she could. "LET GO OF ME, YOU VILE CREATURE!"
Chrysalis channeled all her remaining power into her horn, lighting it up in her green aura. Twilight and her loved ones watched from below as their hated enemy brought her power to bear in the form of a great green ball of light at the tip of her horn. They watched as it grew from the size of a hoof ball to the size of a tower roof.
With a tear stained snarl, Chrysalis launched her attack at the entity in the sky, pulsating as it drew nearer to its target. But her mouth dropped open in dread as if passed through the tentacled eye as if it was not there at all, everyone present watching as it became visible from the other side and sailed off to the landscape below. Chrysalis stared up at the horror that still held her, no changes in the blinking of its eye, or the twirling of the tendrils.
"GGGGrrrrrooooaaaarrrrr"
But the roar that ripped through the air had such an angry edge it could cut the very wind.
"You dare strike out at me with your insignificant power, MORTAL?" Hermaeus Mora growled, Twilight arching an eye as she heard him use a different tone for the first time ever. "You....will be the first..."
Chrysalis saw another tendril extended out of the smaller vortex before her.
"To...submit your knowledge..."
"NO...!" Shouted Queen Chrysalis, squirming in the black tendrils.
"TO ME!"
A great scream echoed throughout the crimson day of Equestria.
Twilight and company all watched in horror, for silhouetted in the lighter color of the huge eyes sclera, they saw Queen Chrysalis with a tendril plunged through her head. It pierced under her horn and out the back of her head, making sucking, squishy noises as it undulated inside her. Her screaming swept through all who heard it, making them tremble with disgust.
Then all was silent.
Twilight's group looked up in time to see Hermaeus Mora drop Queen Chrysalis, who fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. They watched as she rolled to a stop before their shield, her eyes half lidded and her breathing slow. There was no mark where the tendril had impaled her.
No blood or wound, she looked completely unharmed.
But then her slow breathing stopped, her slitted pupils lost their color and turned gray.
Then all that could be heard was the wind.
Damn, he just sucked her brains out like the Brain Bug from Starship Troopers
You don't fuck with Hermaeus Mora... he'll
skull-fuckyou in the worst possible way.9467777
More like literally mind rape you
My point exactly. He'd suck out everything in yer head and drive you so insane, the Joker would be like "I ain't touching that with a few fucked up universes."
So... Does someone remember this? (Sorry, I forgot how to put videos)
Well fuck, that happened. But to be fair chrysalis kinda cause all of this to happen. I mean it’s her fault he got summoned and it was her arragence that pissed him off. But dam now I want to know what’s next cause I have a feeling this is only the beginning.
(starts reading chapter) yeah
(continues reading) yeah
(continues reading) yeah
(continues reading) yeah
(continues reading) yeah
(gets to ending) Aw she dead.
Hmm Still not really convinced that Discord would not be on par with Mora... There is the antimagic throne rock, but that may quite well affect also Mora Magic, so who knows...
Heh it could be worse, it could be Mehrunes Dagon or Molag Bal
Hurray the villain for the past 10 chapters is dead, that makes Mora the hero right?
9467777
Wait, He'll me
WHAT
How do we know that Chrysalis isn't conscious wherever Hermaeus Mora sucked her mind and soul? No doubt getting every aspect of yourself forcibly sucked out would be agonizing and traumatizing.
9467796
I love em I need em
More I must have MORE
Surprised that Twilight wasn’t all starry eyed and gushin in happiness of her Deidric-senpai.
Wuzzahhh.
A fitting end for such a Vain Creature! Does this mean Mora can now Shape-change like Changeling?
Also I don't think Mora will do much past this, Watch over Equus and Gain Knowledge? yes. Keep mentoring Twilight if she asks? yes. but interfere in the over all fate of Equestria and Equus? no. Interfering in the over all Fate of Mortals is not his overall modus operandi.
So is Chrysalis brain dead?
9468165
Think she might be all dead.
9468159
Why would he need to take the changeling shapeshifting ability? After all he is a Daedric Prince, he can already take whatever form he wants anyway.
I must say, while I do agree with your appraisal of his M.O. It's much more likely Hermaeus will end up fighting back after; the Mane Six (Minus Twilight), Luna, Celestia, possibly Cadence and Shining Armor (though it's possible Cadence and Shining might not do so, if they figure things out quickly enough) inevitably decide to attack him.
- Thunder
9468193
Yeah. You're probably right. Seems like it.
9468208
Does Mora have Shape-shifting abilities? I can't remember if it was ever stated in Lore.
Oh and I agree, but in that case it would be Self Defense on Mora's case. At this point he could be considered a Hero for Killing(?) an Enemy of Equestria (of which BOTH Twilight AND Celestia were wholly planning on killing any way) so I think at least Celestia would hold back.
9468338
Yes all Daedric Prince can Shape-shifting
9468532
Really? I thought Sheogorath was the only one who could shapeshift on the Mortal Plain?
9468338
9468532
jfyish is correct, all Daedric Princes are capable of shapeshifting. The reason is quite simple; a Daedric Prince doesn't have a true physical form, so due to their ethereal nature they can choose to manifest in whatever form they desire, in Hermaeus Mora's case, He usually chooses to appear to mortals (in his rare dealings with them) as a void of darkness, or as a grotesque mass of tentacles and eyeballs.
- Thunder
9468583
Hmm, makes me wonder why he didn't take an Alicorn form then? Dramatic Effect? Eh guess we will find out soon.
9468587
Actually the answer is a lot less exciting, his current grotesque and tentacled appearance is simply his preferred form, he even explained his reasoning as to why this is the case to Twilight a few chapters back.
- Thunder
9468602
That he did, but he could have kept that look while still being in a Pony form. In fact I think it would have had a much better effect then the one he took.
A Grotesque Pony with Large Tentacles protruding out it's back and a Single large eye as it's head projecting this much power? I would be bowing just to save my Arse.
9468724
One, that sounds utterly ludicrous. Two, Lord Hermaeus Mora would never lower himself in such a way as to take such a mortal form. Three, most of his primary chosen form is a swirling black cloud with varying numbers of eyeballs and tentacles. Four, he already has a perfectly functional physical body why would he need to change it? Five, his current form allows him to extend across multiple areas of Equestria at once while a pony body would not allow him to perform such a feat. Six Hermaeus taking a pony form would actually be less intimidating to any mortals (let alone ponies) due to the fact that even though uncanny valley would be a factor an equine form would still have a sense of familiarity. And lastly Seven, when has Hermaeus Mora ever cared about the opinions of mortals either way?
- Thunder
well ok then. i now feel sorry for chrisy. i'd rather her be killed by twilight.
9467908
I mean, yeah. They would actually do a lot worse than just laugh triumphantly and evilly, then get mad when someone attacks him. He's interested in all knowledge, not killing or enslaving everyone.
9467916
uuuuuuhhhhhhh thats a complicated question. some what i guess in a round about way, to be honest its more like they unleashed an unspeakable horror.
9469111
Between my lack of Skyrim knowledge and the author portraying Chrysalis as a child kidnapping, human/pony shield using, semi-genocidal Uber-villain: I can only assuming either you are trolling when you say unspeakable horror or the author is a shitty writer for making such a huge leap
9469148
Nope. Unspeakable horror is about right to describe Hermaeus Mora. best wat to think of his is an octopus with infinite tentacles and a lust of knowledge. He'd be more than willing (and most likely has) to doom a whole species just for what a few among them might know.
9469148
To be honest the authors portrayed mora pretty good but he also is still a cosmic horror that is much more dangerous than chrysalis. See mora a weird prince, he’s not so much evil, as goal oriented and he’s willing to do anything including some pretty horrific things. Like if mora thought that it would suit his goals he would be fine doing everything chrysalis has done and worse. At the same time he’s also pretty practicle and not a complete idiot or sadist. So he probably wouldent cause he would see no need to comit a genocide. Mora a unique Darrick prince and that’s why I loved seeing the author use him because plenty of people have argued about him and if his action classify him as evil or more morally gray. Personally I think he’s just beyond the mortal comprehension of morality and just Cares about results not really how he gets them, if he has to slaughter a million then so be it if he had a champion who could do it without spilling a drop of blood ok he’s fine with that also as long as he gets his knowlefdw or goal fullfilled.
9469148
Well, Elder Scrolls lore extends much further tha Skyrim.... nevermind. The case is that while Daedric Princes are quite defined in their interest, tha doesn't mean they cannot think and act "outside the box" As Dragstormer told, morality has no meaning for them. It doesn't mean they cannot feel simpathy, anger or hatred, but they have no moral compass to express it and they are allmigthy to do so which is worrying to say the least, i wouldn't be surprised if his AWESOME entrance in equestria has been due his eagerness in the prospect of new knowledge, not unlike Twilight, but god level. Also Daedric Princes doesn't lack sense of humor but once again you don't want to know what may pass as "humor" for them.
In short, all mighty beings with unpredictable actions and almost complete lack of morals quite qualifies as "unspeakable horrors"
I didn't expect that ending.
So scary lah.
And I hope Twilight gets this power becuase it fits her so good lahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Well... I was literally speechless until I started reading the comments.
Very good chapter
Welp, I'm guessing that's how he intends to take the knowledge from everyone in Equestria, let the skull fucking commence!
9467770 HA! Someone else who remembers that movie! (seriously the should have stopped at 1)
9469171
9469178
In short: Tentacle-Twilight version circa season 1.
Mora is a hero confirmed
9469296
You mean Arena and Daggerfall? The only Daedric lore I got out of those games was that "Daedric = endgame stuff".
I have never hated a background pony more than this character. I don't even like wine and the way you wrote this guy guzzling a wine bottle and calling it "A pristine vintage" made me want to smack him. I don't know whether to be impressed, offended, or disgusted.
9470447
It was a quit drinking message, especially if the world around you turns red while it happens
More please
now that the veil is broken, it's broken for all daedric princes, if one of the more benevolent ones doesn't establish dominion of it it could end up a playground for the less friendly ones.
9470401
Between Morrowind and Oblivion you get a lot more of stuff regarding those beings. Granted, they will mess you BADLY if you anger them... just ask the Dwemer
Yea it is really hard to laugh away your fear when that very fear is laughter itself