The Presence

by Erol carstein

The Presence

“Again ... Show me again”

The words echoed through the silence of the library, shattering the empty, solemn atmosphere of knowledge that lay dusted on the cover of ever book.

As the words slowly died out, the silence returned blanketing all in the weight of knowledge, the authority of learning.

“Please ... Show me again”

Twilight stared into empty space, her eyes open but unseeing. Her sense awake and aware, but rendered useless. With a single, shaking hoof, Twilight reached out and pawed at the empty air in front of her, grasping for something that she couldn’t truly comprehend.

The minutes ticked by, the faint clicking noise of the clock as the pendulum swung back and forth on its path the only noise to be heard, save for the unicorns shallow, gasping breaths.

The summons weren’t working, but then again, they never did. Beyond the edges of her mind something teased at her sanity, a sort of awareness, something that was watching her.

She could feel its weight upon her mind, as gentle as a feather, but still overwhelmingly powerful.

Slowly, as if unsure about what she was really doing, the unicorns horn began to ever so gently glow, its magenta light shimmering an flickering into existence, its ethereal light casting a phantom glow on the walls of the dark room.
She reached out with her mind, edging trot by trot towards the weight, her soul leaving the safety of her body to enter the immaterium, the void beyond perceivable reality.

The realm of magic.

She came into contact with the presence, feeling as her consciousness and proximity drew its full attention.
The unicorns eyes went on unseeing, completely lost to the world around her.

She felt the presence turn its full attention to her. And in a split second she felt the weight of eons of watching and waiting come crashing down on her. She gasped as for a fraction of an instant she became aware of everything, not just that of her world, but of every world, of every single one of the innumerable spaces that existed beyond her own.

She couldn’t take it, something within her snapped. She stood on the edge of an abyss, as vast, soul crushing emptiness that threatened to reach up and consume her if she dared remain for even another instant.

And then she felt the presence permit her, and the weight suddenly dissolved. With a laboured gasp for air, the unicorn returned to her corporeal form, her soul withdrawing for the space between spaces and filling the vessel of her body one more.

She collapsed, overcome with an intense dizziness that took her breath away. It rang through her head like a whistle, beat in time with her heart like a drum, pounded away in her ears.

And when she stood back up, it was there, watching and waiting.

The presence.

It had taken a different form this time, making a selection from its unlimited vessels to appeared in front her different than before.

“Twilight Sparkle, your hunger for knowledge never fails to amaze us”

The creature was tall, much taller than she was. It stood upright on two legs like a dragon, its arms crossed over its chest, a faint smirk on the edges of its lips. It’s voice, the voice it had just used, a deep thunder that was filled with immeasurable power.

“Again ... please show me again” Twilight managed, her head spinning and bile threatening to rise up at the back of her throat.

The presence smirked, chuckling to itself “Again. That’s all you ever ask us, to show you again” the creature moved its arms from its chest and slid then into what appeared to be holes in the surface of its fabric garments “Will you never tire? Will the sheer immensity of what you have learned never be enough for you?”

Twilight shook her head.

“As we thought, as we knew. You’re hungry, Twilight Sparkle, we can see that. You hunger for knowledge, thirst for it like a traveller in the waste. Never truly satisfied by what you learn, you always come back for more” It chuckled again, a mirthless sound, as if her hunger where not something to be proud of “If only you knew, Sparkle. If only you knew”

“Knew what?”

“We believe you know what. This thirst will destroy you, Twilight. You gorge yourself but are never satisfied, eventually your gluttony will consume you” the presence laid a hand on its chest, over what Twilight guessed to be its heart “And when it does so, you will join us, and we will be all the more stronger”

Twilight shuddered at the words, their message sending a chill down her spine in a way she didn’t understand.
“One more time, that’s all i want. Show me one more time and I’ll never come back, I’ll never ask for me”

At that, the presence truly laughed. It started as another slow chuckle, a deep growl within its chest. But it slowly built, rising in volume to become a roaring crescendo as the presence threw its head back.

“We already know you will come back again, Sparkle. And just as we know that we know that you will come back after that as well, and after that, and after that, and after that, it will never be enough, do you understand that? You are already part of us, you are already one of us”

Twilight was trembling, uncontrollably shaking from horn to hoof. “Please!” she begged, closing her eyes to the apparition “Please just show me! Mock me if you have to, but please just show me again!”

The presence regarded her for a moment, watching her with eyes that had seen the entirety of eternity and watched whole worlds die in an instant. And then it stretched out its hand to her, the pale, long fingers reaching out like those of a spider.
“We will show you ... if that is what you truly wish” The smirk was gone, the flickering, mocking glint in its eyes now vanished like morning mist. “There’s still time to turn back, Twilight” It’s voice was different now, not so deep, not so ancient. It sounded like the voice of a worried child, lost and alone and afraid “You don’t have to do this. Turn around, wipe the spell from your mind, and forget that you ever saw the void. It’s hold on you isn’t total yet, Twilight. Turn and flee now and you won’t doom yourself like I did, there’s still time to save yourself”

Twilights eyes swept from the presences eyes to its still outstretched hand, waging an internal war over whether she should heed the creatures warning, or take the offer and see the void just one more time.

“One more time ... That’s all I need, just to see it one more time”

She looked back up to the creatures green eyes and saw the disappointment there, before, with an imperceptible shift, the presence regained control over its vessel. It smirked knowingly, all ready in the full knowledge that the mare would never be able to resist.

Twilight reached out with a hoof and gentle placed it in the creature’s hand, shivering as its ice cold fingers wrapped around her limb.

“As ever Twilight” it said in its deep voice, the voice of the child now completely gone, leaving no hints “We can read you like one of your open books”

A flash, a spark, and then they were gone.

Reality changed around them, warping and shifting as it was bent to the will of the ancient presence. There was darkness and then light. She saw everything and nothing. All the colours of the rainbow danced before her in the most vibrant display of chromatography imaginable, only to be replaced by complete darkness, void of any colour or warmth, soul crushingly cold.

“Show me a world. Show me your world” Twilight whispered, her eyes unseeing in the blinding immensity of the void
The vessel simply nodded.

There was no way to mark the change, no perceivable event to mark the transition between reality and the void. In one moment Twilight was drowning in the pure, unadulterated spectrum of creation. The next she was standing on firm ground, a frigid wind whipping through her mane.

Before her stretched out a vast city, miles upon miles of habitation stretching away to the horizon until it disappeared from sight. Though it was night time, and the clouds in the sky hung black and heavy with the promise of a storm, the world was full of light. From every building, every street, the glow of cold, harsh, brilliantly bright light could be seen, illuminating the world with its harsh radiance.

Rising up out of the city was a spire of incredible proportions. It clawed its way up into the sky, a massive tapering spiral of jet black that drank in the light of the city around it, stabbing up into the sky like a god from the centre of the earth had shoved a knife out through the skin of the world to stab out at the majesty of the heavens so far above it. Her eyes followed the spiral as it coiled up and up, until miles about the ground it tapered off into an impossibly thin tower that kept going, rising all the way up through the clouds to pierce the atmosphere and reach into the cold, immense void of space beyond.
“What is this world?” She asked, her eyes staring out at the cityscape with reverent curiosity.

“This is my world, Twilight sparkle. This is the world of humanity” the vessel whispered. The voice had changed again, returning to that of the child. Twilight glanced across to see the vessel staring out at the city with sad eyes, eyes that where filled with longing. “This is the world of my species, my race. As much as the world of Equestria is your home, this world of Terra is mine”

“This city ... That spire. I’ve never seen anything like it” The unicorn looked to the skies, up at the all encompassing mass of black sky “The night here is so dark, and so cold”

“That’s because it is not night, Twilight” The mare turned to the vessel, so see it gazing out into the infinite vastness of space above them “Once, this world had a sun. Once, the light of day shone down upon this world. Once, child where raised to believe that the sun kept us safe, kept us warm. But now, it is gone”

“How? How could a whole sun just ... go?”

“Humanity is an infant species, Twilight. Their race is barely more than a few millennia old. Like children they fumble in the dark, seeking to find a light they will never live to see. From the very beginning they were blinded by their own greed, their own spite, and in their malicious doldrum of ignorance they didn’t truly understand the impact they would have on their world. They scoured the earth for resources, plundering the land of its wealth and robbing the environment of its habitat. Humanity killed its own world, and not satisfied they took to space”

The vessel pointed to an empty point of sky to the east. “Once, the sun rose at that very point every day” it turned to the west “And set at that point every day”

“I don’t understand”

“Humanity mined its sun for raw hydrogen, seeking to use it as a fuel source once the earth had become barren. However, in their greed their consumption was unregulated. The displacement of hydrogen altered the equilibrium of the sun, and it collapsed under its own gravitational pull, leaving the skies dark and dooming the race to a slow, freezing death of its own making”

Twilight pause, unable to understand why a race would do such a thing to its own world, eventually she asked “You said that this was your world?”

“Yes, yes we did”

“But, how are you part of the presence?”

At that the vessel sighed, a simple expression, but one that conveyed a sense of profound sadness “I was chosen, Twilight. Picked out from my race by a selection process whose criteria i couldn’t even begin to comprehend. The presence, the void, it chose me, and i became part of it” The vessel turned to Twilight, once again, she could see it had the eyes of a mere child “This is why i warned you, Twilight. The presence has set its gaze on you. You are its next prize, the next item in a catalogue of lost individuals, and when the void comes to claim you, there will be no escape. The presence is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful. Once it has chosen you it is impossible to run, for there is nowhere it cannot find you, and when you become one with us, you will live for all eternity, and watch helplessly as all those you’ve ever know wither and die, and you will not be able to save them”

Silence lapsed between the two. For a good hour, Twilight and the vessel simply stood watching the city and its enormous spire, the chill wind freezing the mare to the bone.

“Let’s go, i want to see one more world” The vessel turned to her, and she could see that the child who had spoken to her was now gone, once again suppressed by the overwhelming power of the void.

“Oh, and which world would that be?” it rumbled in a deep voice, the smirk returning to its lips.

“You know which”

“Of course” the vessel said, reaching out to grab her hoof with an ice cold hand “The Terminal World”

They blinked out of existence in an instant

Reality began to warp, stretching and bending into mind numbingly impossible shapes before it resolidified in an instant, leaving the mare and the vessel of the presence in the folds of an entirely new world.

≤ΘΘΘ≥

The sky was a roiling storm of fire.

The earth was an ashen waste of desolation.

Everywhere, for as far as the eye could see and beyond, destruction reigned free.

The Terminal World, the place where all things came to an end, the living hell, the graveyard of broken dreams, the place where the hopes and dreams of species unnumbered came to waste away and die under the merciless weight of time.
The majesty of it took her breath away, the pall of fear and anguish in the air sending an incomprehensible terror through her heart and soul

She couldn’t hear the presences laughter, but she could feel it, the void around her thundered, nonexistent matter quaking under incredible forces.

“BEHOLD!” the vessel boomed, gesturing with both hands at the hellscape before it.

“THIS IS THE DEATH OF ALL THINGS! THIS IS THE TRUE TERROR OF THE SOUL! THE TERMINAL WORLD, THE FURNACE IN WHICH ALL HOPE AND INNONCE IS CRUSH AND FORGED ANEW, SO THAT THE TITANS OF THE VOID MAY FEAST FOR ETERNITY ON THE ANGUISH AND SUFFERING OF ALL MORTALITY!”

As if in response to the vessel, the land around them became to buckle, hills rising up out of the land to reach into the raging inferno of the heavens before crumbling down into dust. The storms of fire in the skies roared and shrieked, the heat of the flames burning even higher to scorch at the mares coat and blister her skin.

“THIS IS YOU FATE MORTAL! THIS IS THE FATE OF YOU AND YOUR KIND! WHEN THE SUN DIES AND THE LIGHTS IN THE HEAVENS GO OUT WE WILL COME FOR YOU AND YOU SHALL ALL KNOW TURE AGONY! WE WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER UNTOLD AGONIES FOR ETERNITY AS THE GODS OF OLD REJOICE IN YOUR ANGUISH!”

The vessel grabbed her with clawed hands and dragged the mare close. This close to the vessel she could see jet black eyes, and a fanged maw lined with vicious, drooling teeth that wanted nothing more than to sink into her skin and rend her flesh.

“NO!” she screamed “NO, LET ME GO!” The vessel dragged her closer, until she was a mere inch from its razor sharp fangs, feeling the warmth of its foul, rotten breath on her face.

With chuckle, the vessel dropped her to the ground, letting her fall hard into the red earth. Twilight shivered as she slowly picked herself up. Above her the vessel was cackling madly, its head thrown back to the roaring sky.

“What’s the matter, Mortal? Too afraid to see the face of your doom?” the vessel reached down and grabbed her mane with a cold hand, wrenching hard to tug her head back sharply “You sealed your own fate when you first called us from the void, you may as well look your doom in the eye”

Twilight dropped her head to the ground, whimpering in pain. The vessel chuckled again “Ahh, the power of the void, the influence of the presence. None can ever resist its pull” the vessel dropped her mane and grabbed her hoof instead “The Terminal World, such an amazing place, it never ceases to amaze us how strong it can affect mortals”

Another flash, another rift torn in the fabric of reality, and once again they were gone.

≤ΘΘΘ≥

“Promise me, promise me you’ll never summon the presence again”

The child within the vessel stared at Twilight with pleading eyes, begging her to heed its warning.

“The void will consume you if you let it; there is no escaping its influence. Please, just promise me that you won’t summon the presence again”

Twilight was shaking all over, her body, mind and soul gripped in the vice like hold o a crushing chill.
“You ... You already know that i can’t do that” she said.

“Yes ... I’m afraid we do” The vessel began to fade, its outline slowly dissipating and blurring as it drifted out of existence “Goodbye, Twilight. We’ll see you soon”

“Wait! Before you go, can i ask something?” the mare asked, turning to ace the fading vessel, which nodded silently “Who are you?”

“Once, i was a child. I had a mother who gave birth to me and raised me, and a father who worked hard to support me. I had a brother i used to annoy and a sister who i used to cherish. Now i am part of the presence, and it is a part of me”
“Will you ever be able to escape?”

“No one escapes the presence, Twilight. The power of the void is too strong” It was almost gone, only the residual traces of its outline remaining, with its features slowly drifting away.

“What was your name?”

“My mother called me Darling, my father called me Son. My brother called me Bro, and my sister called me Big Brother”

“But what did you call yourself?”

The vessel smiled. A sad smile filled with reminiscent sorrow.

“I called myself Erol, and i was only fifteen years old when i died”

The vessel disappeared entirely, leaving the shaking mare alone in the library. Chilled to the core, she slowly ascended the stairs to her room and collapsed on her bed, swiftly losing herself to the call of sleep.

“I’ll get rid of the book tomorrow” she mumbled to herself as she faded away “I’ll never summon the presence ever again, i promise”

Even as she said those words, she knew they were a lie.

≤ΘΘΘ≥

I wrote this because i got bored, constructive criticism appreciated.

Comments

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

The Devil - Dawnbringer

[Hope]

Having a happy ending may not be possible in this particular story, but I can hope.

[flipey21]

A wonderful story.

[Silber-Baren]

This reminds me of the end of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull's ending when the Russian girl is vaporized by the aliens. This would totally happen to Twilight.