Anthology of Graybles

by Str8aura

Octavo (Twilight; Dark)

Twilight Acorna Sparkle, age 27 in most forms of human years, seen currently with her muzzle buried in a book, as per the norm. Student of one of the glorious diarchs of Equestria and well-known resident of the small village of Ponyville, already the site of multiple dangerous, unsettling, or vaguely odd happenings since the day it was founded. For the residents, these have become everyday life, and yet still are these happenings natural; part of an easily understandable and recognizable food chain ponies have managed to escape with their easy access to raw magic.

It is that which can't be understood that Ms. Sparkle is currently studying, and being only equine, she must understand this by the end of the night in order to rest easy. Rain pours outside, the Moon lovingly wraps the land in it's lullaby, and the light of Twilight's torch continues to burn as our subject today reads on.

She first became consciously aware of the oddities she studied several weeks ago, shortly after the unexplained destruction of Devil's Reef, a coral reef located deep in the ocean bordering Manehattan, and the subsequent body washed up on it's docks several days later. Said body receiving widespread media attention due to it's unnatural texture and the odd lack of lungs, or a head for that matter. Although omitted by the news, the obvious connection was immediately made by the public, and whispers of a secret war-thirsty society of Sea Ponies were passed for a short time later before being largely forgotten. Nonetheless, it was enough to pique Twilight's interest.

While absentmindedly researching the various conflicting myths of Sea Ponies, she became sucked into the realm of cryptids and strange encounters, struggling to find a reasonable explanation, and only finding more questions; stories of attempted scryings into the space between spheres that only yielded brief glimpses of strange flying carcinous creatures, whispers of a fate watching being dubbed "Mother Horse Eyes", and the repeated sightings of abominations in and around various towns such as Innsmuzzle, Arkham, and Dunwich.

These findings baffled and infuriated her more, until she finally came to the book she now reads; a book of collected scribblings, texts, and papers collected by a Mr. Angell and originally created by believers in a being who will bring about the end times to all but his most trusted followers. As her mind silently ruminates on names and figures, she begins to piece together the understandings of said believers, and their chant uttered in rituals akin to those of Nightmare Moon's followers.

"Ph'nglui mglw'naf-", she silently whispers to herself, before stiffening and abruptly stopping. She takes a moment to make sure nothing has changed before continuing on with her study.

As she turns a page, a cube of text instantly draws her eyes, overshadowing everything else on the page and locking her mind onto them. Although the line is short, she finds herself re-reading it again and again, becoming more feverish until she becomes wholly unable to pull her eyes away. As she looks over them, becoming acutely aware of her loss of functions. seven words are branded into her subconscious, and the thaumic nerves leading into her horn are pushed to their limits. Without realizing it, she is uttering each word; carefully and one by one, the syllables force themselves out of her throat and from out between her teeth, greeting the world with a cold aura that fills the room like the light from her torch.

"Ashonai, Ebiris, Urshoring, Kvanti, Pythan, N'gurad, Feringomalee!"

At the last word, her horn glowed brightly, and her iris sunk back into a milky white light flowing out of her eyes. At once, her mind was filled with a vision beyond that which she had ever witnessed; a limitless scry beyond any plane of sight, as she sees for the first time the universe as it was; images of doorways of flesh, a pulsating form of malevolence, sound twisted into something beyond form, and billions of galaxies winking in and out of existence flash before her in an instant. At the end of that instant, she beholds a great explosion, brighter than anything she has ever seen, far out into the void, creating form ex nihilo and destroying that which isn't, and just as her eyes open and she musters the energy to scream-

It's over. She sits alone in her living room, with a torch lighting up the book before her, and the room is quiet for a long minute.

Observe Twilight Acorna Sparkle, resident of a world far from ours jerk her head up to a faint yet powerful thump. Ruminate on her natural, equine quest for knowledge as she raises her head to a window, peering through the rain. And learn, try to learn from the story of a girl you will never meet, whose mistakes will never affect you, and whose knowledge will never be yours as she sees the distant shape of a figure raising his head to the heavens and crying out to all who may hear him.

Author's Note:

The picture that prompted it

Comments

[Sir Starshine]

Always nice to have a little Lovecraftian horror with breakfast.