The Elder Sign

by Mithos

The Keepers of the Night

“So what do you actually remember?” Hex asked in response.

“Everything,” I answered curtly, “And then some.”

Hex groaned, rubbing his eyes in frustration, “Emerald, Emerald, Emerald…a one in five chance and you win the loony lottery.”

Hex rose to his hooves and started pacing in and out of my vision at the foot of my bed.

“I can probably guess what you remember,” he began.

“You remember two versions of the night. In one, you started drinking before I arrived. Hoping to gain a charisma boost, trying to calm your nerves, whatever the reason, you drank yourself stupid. You embarrassed yourself in front of Princess Celestia, you said some naughty things to Princess Luna, and you threw up all over yourself, just to name a few highlights.

“Plausible, right? Believable?” A small smile appeared on his face with these words like he was trying to lead me into some joke. It scared me. I don’t know why, but the look was simultaneously familiar and so unlike him.

“On the other hoof…” Hex continued, “You also remember a different series of events for the night. But you gotta wonder…did that night really happen? After all, you remember running into Blue Sky in the first memory, but this time she detonates an explosive charge that nearly kills you! The best part? You wake up to find no evidence whatsoever!

“This time, you do meet Luna, and you do have a rather pleasant conversation. She was pretty nice, even though you hit her when you originally met oh so long ago at our graduation.”

HP began grinding his teeth as he growled, “You even met that fffffffff-annoyance, Captain Stonehoof.

“Yet…that wasn’t all that happened…was it Emerald?” Hex said slowly, stopping at the foot of my bed. He became quiet, staring off into space.

I stayed silent. Hex didn’t want an answer. He knew the answer already. This was his little performance.

“And then…” he said quietly.

“And then…” he repeated slightly louder.

“And then…” again, this time at normal volume.

A twisted, toothy smile appeared on his face. He nearly screamed, “And then! A shoggoth! A shoggoth in the main ballroom! How crazy is that! How insane! How MAD! Such a story couldn’t have happened, couldn’t be true!”

He began laughing, a laugh devoid of anything resembling joy. It was the kind that made your coat crawl, the kind that comes after the evil villain has explained their master plan to destroy the world, the kind you would expect to hear coming from a murderer standing over a fresh kill.

Hex calmed down slowly, the laughter dying down into a small chuckle before becoming silence. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, running his hoof through his mane as he trotted back to his seat and sat down.

“So tell me Emerald,” He asked slowly, “Which one is the truth?”

I was scared. I have never seen Hex act like this before.

But I didn’t hesitate, “The shoggoth. Stonehoof. Luna. The mare. That’s what happened.”

“Are you sure?”

I looked Hex in the eye as best I could (I was still strapped down after all) and said, “I have no doubts.”

Hex sighed deeply. He closed his eyes.

Silence filled the air. The only noise was the low hum and occasional beep coming from the machines I was hooked up to. Hex seemed to be thinking; he gets like this whenever he has to make a decision he considers ‘serious.’ All other times he usually just goes with the first choice that pops into his head. Sawbones hadn’t moved very much from where he was standing, observing silently.

But it was he that finally spoke and broke the silence, “Director, might I ask what you are thinking?”

Hex shook his head. His hoof began tapping the floor. He didn’t respond beyond that.

After another short silence, Sawbones said, “You know there isn’t anything that can be done.”

Hex shook his head again. The tapping became louder and more forceful. I knew better than to bother him. Did Sawbones?

Nope.

“Captain Stonehoof said that-” he began.

Hex suddenly stomped his hoof loudly, exclaiming, “I don’t give two bucks what Stonehoof wants! This falls under my prevue, as part of the Incident Clean-Up standard operating procedure! If I deem him sane, he’s free to leave!”

Sawbones posture immediately straightened and stiffened. His mouth clamped shut and his eyes widened. He looked scared.

“And if I recall correctly,” Hex continued loudly, “Emerald here took down a shoggoth three times the size of any we have seen before. He saved not only my life, but Princess Luna’s as well.”

He looked back at Sawbones, “Considering he isn’t drooling out of the side of his mouth and hasn’t shown any major indicators, I think my analysis is not only correct, but completely valid as well.”

Sawbones gulped and stuttered, “Y-yes, but the…the princess wanted to ensure…”

Hex waved his hoof impatiently, “Yeah, yeah, bias and blah blah blah.”

He turned back towards me and said, “Princess Luna trusts my judgment. In all these years, I have never faltered. If I thought him a danger, I would have wiped his memory personally. In my opinion, he is sane.”

There was a slight pause as a sly smile appeared on his face, “And…this works out rather nicely…”

Sawbones looked confused, “But…sir, you don’t actually intend to-”

Hex nodded. Sawbones stopped talking and nodded in agreement.

Hex leaned towards me and said, “You asked, ‘Who are the Keepers?’ If you want to know, I will tell you. I’ve pestered you and misdirected you long enough since you awoke today. In the past, I’ve deceived you, misled you, and even called you crazy. It’s time you knew the truth…if you really want to know it.”

Before I could respond he raised his roof and said, “But! Once I finish answering that question, I am going to ask you to join us. You’re destined to do great things. I want to ensure they’re the right things for the right ponies. You’ll do that, with us.”

I had to ask, “Uh…what will happen if I refuse?”

Hex leaned back and said, “Well…first we, as in I, would probably rip out your memories. ALL of your memories. We haven’t figured out a good middle ground yet…so when we have ponies like you, who are…stubborn…about false memories, we either leave them alone to go mad or wipe their memory completely. After that we would pop in a new back story and characterization, relocate you, give you a new identity, and let you loose!”

“Huh…I see…” I mumble.

“Yeah, and we couldn’t be friends anymore,”

“Oh well, in that case that sounds pretty good. Seems like a bonus to not be your friend anymore,” I said, a small smile on my face.

HP punched me in the shoulder for that, “Very funny featherbrain!”

Hex and I started laughing. Despite being strapped to a hospital bed and most likely a prisoner, I was relieved. Hex hadn’t really changed very much. Of course, he hasn’t made any sexual references, so that was different, but that was a good thing.

“Oh! That’s right…” Hex suddenly said, clapping his hooves together, “seeing as you won’t keep that false memory either way, lemme just…get that out…”

Hex stood and moved to a spot right next to my head. “Now…I want you to clear your mind…” he said quietly, “and imagine…a peaceful, beautiful beach…”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I haven’t been to a beach, but I’ve seen photos and stuff. So I quickly picture what I think being at as beach would be like. The waves, the sand, the sun…it’s all very relaxing…

“Now imagine…somepony you’re attracted to…in a swimsuit…”

I snapped my eyes open, “NO.”

“Emerald, you have to do it. Trust me; I know what I’m doing.”

“Didn’t you just say you’ve lied and deceived me and a bunch of other not trustworthy things?”

“Yeah, but that was less important stuff!”

“I don’t really think this will work. I can’t trust you. How is this supposed to remove whatever you did to my brain?”

“Emerald, who is Director of the Keepers of the Night here? Hmm?”

“I don’t know, you haven’t actually told me anything!”

“Ok, I’m the Director, I’m trustworthy, now shut up and imagine it or you’re gonna have that memory in your head for the rest of your life!”

I grumbled under my breath.

“Look, the process requires you to be relaxed. Normally, we would knock you out and wait for you to wake up in a couple hours, but I know you want answers ASAP, so just do this, relax and we can move on,” Hex explained.

I rolled my eyes, “You’re sure this is necessary?”

Hex smiled and nodded. I still don’t trust him.

I let out a long sigh and closed my eyes. I imagine the scene again. And…I imagine…something…

“Yoink!” Hex suddenly exclaimed. The image disappeared from my mind.

I also feel dizzy. VERY dizzy. I open my eyes and see the room spinning out of control and shut them again. I clench my teeth to prevent from vomiting.

I hear Hex say brightly, “Hmm…black is classic, but I feel Luna would look better in…perhaps dark red?”

I quickly open my eyes, still dizzy, and focus on the spinning image of Hex holding…WHAT IN THE WORLD?

“Yeah, I ripped the thought clean out of your head,” Hex said as the image rolled itself up and disappeared in his coat pocket, “Isn’t that cool? We use it for interrogations and- Whoa, calm down Emerald!”

If I wasn’t trying to escape earlier, I sure am now. Forget the Keepers, I just want to get free and beat the living snot out of him!

All my thrashing and struggling got me nowhere. Nowhere and tired.

“Emerald, if you don’t calm down, I’m going to shoot you full of morphine and come back in a few hours,” Hex looked over to Sawbones and motioned him over. Sawbones had a stern look on his face and only shook his head. “Ok, I can’t shoot you full of morphine, but I will leave and just let you lay here for a few hours.”

He muttered out of the side of his mouth, “Never lets me do what I want…”

I slowly relax again. But I’m still probably going to kill him when I get free. I hope this glare translates that to him…

Hex stepped back to the spot he was in before messing with my head. “Alright, all you need to do is try to bring up that night. Just focus on you getting wasted and acting like an ass.”

I didn’t close my eyes. I hope this glare can set him on fire.

Hex rolled his eyes, “Emerald, the sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can finally get to the point of this chapter.”

OK, that confused me, “What are you-”

“Don’t worry about it, something a friend taught me about walls. Now just think about that memory.”

I give Hex one last glare and close my eyes. The memory comes back clear and in unreal focus. Before the first part finishes the image disappears again. The dizziness sets in and I almost lose my lunch…or…whatever I have in my stomach.

“There we go,” Hex said brightly.

Once my vision stopped spinning, I opened my eyes to find Hex holding a small strip of movie film. Though I can’t see it in detail, it looks like each frame is moving!

“Will the wonders of science ever cease?” He said as he moved it closer to me, “We call it a false memory. This is just the physical manifestation of it. See, sometimes ponies remember things we may not want them remembering, so we implant a false memory in their heads. Normally, the false memory takes over and seems like the only thing they remember. Whenever they call up that event, the false memory comes to light. Some ponies are stubborn though, and the false memory never really takes hold.”

The film was only a few frames long, but each frame contained one of the events I remember from the false memory. Now with it removed, all I can I remember is the events with the shoggoth and the like. I was more interested in how such magic works than scared…but I was a little scared. The idea that there was a spell that allowed one to replace a pony’s memory was unsettling, to say the least.

The film floated back to Hex. With a tap of his horn, the film burned into flames and turned to ash.

“Now that you’re brain is all better and I have deemed you sane, let’s get you up,” Hex said brightly. He seemed to take this whole situation in his usual manner. With a quick flick of his horn, the bindings on me were released and I was finally able to move.

Easier said than done of course. I was lying comatose in a bed for five days, so I wasn’t exactly able to get up and go galloping. Most I could was sit up and get a little more comfortable. Hex thankfully got a pillow for me and Sawbones left to get something for me to drink.

Hex settled back onto his stool as I finished the water I was brought. “Now that you’re free and relaxed and not trying to kill me, it’s time I finally answer your question,” he said.

He took a deep breath and began, “The Keepers of the Night is an organization dedicated to the protection of Equestria from behind the scenes. I am the Director, technically the second-in-command. The Keepers works to protect Equestria from the various threats that the ordinary public doesn’t or shouldn’t know about.

“We use covert methods to deal with threats in a quick, efficient, and clean manner. Any witnesses are dealt with, and all evidence of our existence is wiped. The only ponies that know what has happened are the Keepers. We seal away dangerous magical artifacts, fight cultists, and defeat the monsters that are unnatural to Equestria and our world.

“To put it simply, the Royal Guard is the visible force of Equestria. They’re the ponies you see stopping criminals and wear shiny armor and stuff. The Keepers have no uniform. We are faceless. We are everywhere. For twelve centuries we have worked in the shadows. Every village in Equestria has at least one of our agents there on surveillance. Larger cities obviously have more. Unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi, griffons, dragons, anyone and everyone can be one of us.”

Hex stopped and asked, “Any questions?”

I was still trying to understand everything I was just told. I didn’t know where to start next. I just went with my gut, “What do you mean ‘monsters unnatural to Equestria?’”

“The Great Old Ones,” Hex answered simply, “They came long before ponies from beyond the stars. They have been and will always be. We wage a constant, never ending struggle with them since Alhazred first wrote the Necronomicon.”

“Wait, what? I thought you made up all that stuff for your books!”

“Ah! An ingenious idea, if I say so myself. You see: I was raised to be in this position. A member of the Lovecraft family has always led the Keepers of the Night. When my father…stepped down…I took over while I was still in school. I decided then to try a new strategy with information control.

Think of it this way: somepony runs up to you in the street and raves about the return of Cthulhu. What do you think? ‘This pony is crazy! It’s just a book!’ See, It’s not that we dress up lies as the truth. We dress truth as fiction.”

I didn’t know what to say. That’s exactly what I would think. The books were known as simply stories. Most ponies thought Hex a twisted writer. No pony thought they were real, except the really weird ones.

“Who was Alhazred?” I asked next, remembering the zebra from my dream.

“Alhazred was a scholar in the Zebra Lands. He traveled around the world, visited several ruins and saw many terrible things. The visions he saw…drove him mad. He wrote a book. A cursed book. Any who dealt with this book were driven mad by what was contained inside. To this day, he is remembered in many villages simply as The Mad Zebra. The book was translated by the first of my family and became known as the Necronomicon.”

“So the Necronomicon exists?”

“Of course. It’s a veritable encyclopedia of the Great Old Ones and their minions. It contains spells, anecdotes, descriptions, and illustrations, everything that Alhazred learned about them.”

I became silent again. I felt like I knew this already. Well, I did. Hex wrote about it in his books, but it’s weird hearing it’s now real. I still had one question to ask.

“How does Luna fit into all this?”

A grin appeared on HP’s face, “Oooooo! Wanna know about your special somepony hm?”

I could feel myself blush. Especially after remembering the junk he pulled on me trying to get that false memory removed.

Hex cleared his throat, “We originally started as an underground organization. About sixty years later Princess Luna took over and we became official. When she disappeared, Princess Celestia led us. With her return, Princess Luna is once again leading the Keepers of the Night. I run it day to day while she comes in for most major decisions. She herself has faced many monsters the two of us can only barely imagine.”

I became silent again. I was trying to take everything in, but even then I felt like I only scratched the surface. The Great Old Ones, The Keepers of the Night, Luna, HP Lovecraft, Alhazred…

“Now…I told you a very brief history of the Keepers of the Night. I have answered several questions, and I feel I have given you a picture of the organization I run. Now comes your decision.

“I want you to join the Keepers of the Night. You’ll be trained in magic, espionage, combat and secrecy. You have a talent for this. The Elder Sign appeared as your cutie mark after I gave you my rough drafts. It’s your special talent, not Arcane Magical Research or whatever story you made up. I was born to lead the Keepers, you were born to fight as one of us.”

Hex straightened up a little, “However…I have to warn you. The missions I’ll send you on may end in your death. You will be fighting monsters that drive ponies insane with a single look, cultists that follow no laws of logic, and face things that should never have been in existence. Death is always possible…but that may be better than the alternative.”

He fidgeted a little. Hex was nervous, slowly picking his words as he spoke, “The…most of the unicorns in the Keepers are dedicated to magic combat, especially with the Elder Sign. It is powerful, one of the few spells that works against the Great Old Ones. But…it comes at a price. Every time you use it, the magic saps your strength. I’m not talking physical or even magic, but your mind. Most ponies working in the field actively fighting…they go insane after a few years. Some barely survive their first year without some level of insanity. First nightmares…then hallucinations…hearing things…and then you’re gone. Very few ponies have survived long in the field, but we need them. I won’t lie; you’re going to be in the field.”

Hex suddenly perked up, “But maybe with your special talent being the Elder Sign, you may be immune to the effects! When you fought that shoggoth, it was running from you! Even I couldn’t defeat it! You not only protected us, you repelled and destroyed it!”

He took a breath and calmed down a bit before continuing, “If you do decide to join, you’ll have to give up your job. No one can know what you do. You can still live with Moorfrost at your apartment, but you will be traveling a lot. Before that of course, is training.”

Hex stopped talking and asked, “I can give you some time to think it over. You want me to come back later?”

I shook my head. I already knew my answer. Hex warned me he would ask, and despite the dangers, I didn’t change my mind.

“I’ll do it. I’ll join you.”

Hex tilted his head, slightly surprised, “You sure? I mean, you may die or go crazy!”

I nodded.

“You’ll have to give up your job and other jobs you may want or have.”

I nodded again.

“There’s a lot of training, and classes, and tests and it’s all very difficult.”

Nod again.

“We get paid pretty well, so that’s good…but don’t think you’ll have a ton of mares throwing themselves at you like there are with me!”

Does the Elder Sign cause narcissism? Perhaps narcissistic delusions?

“It’s a commitment Emerald. Once you join, you can’t leave. I just want to warn you now!”

I groan and say, “I know the dangers, I hate my job, will you just shut up and let me join already?”

I shake my head and say, “Look, I spent a good portion of my time since graduation wishing something incredible would happen. I wanted to be important! But it wasn’t going to happen. Now you offer me an adventure and a chance to make my mark on history, even if only a select few will know about it. Why in the world would I give that up to be some loser desk jockey?”

Hex smiled and said, “Alright then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He offered me his hoof. I reached over and shook it.

“Welcome to the Keepers of the Night.”

Comments

[Aslfrasle]

Neat-arino, new chapter!
The thing I enjoy the most about this story is how it feels like an action/adventure movie
Have a Moustache!

[Mithos]

2172872 Thanks!