Darkness. Silence. Solitude. Oblivion. It was so sweet while it lasted, well and truly. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry about.

First touch came back. She could feel the soft embrace of covers and quilts on her fur and a pillow under her head.

Sight came next. Soft light was gently pawing at her eyelids, begging for her to open them up and embrace the new day.

Hearing came last. The songs of birds outside and the rustling of trees in the wind outside gently drifted into her ears. Along with… something else.

“Is that… singing?”

Fluttershy opened her eyes and quickly scanned her surroundings. She was back in her own room, in her own house. She glanced up to the window to see that it wasn’t morning quite yet – the sun was going to rise soon.

Memories started seeping into her brain of the night before. The party being crashed, Twilight vanishing in the chaos afterward, finding her in the library…

…Nobody peering over a bookcase down at her…

She shook her head. “That was an awful dream,” she muttered to herself as she climbed out of bed. “Must’ve grabbed some wine by mistake and passed out.” She had nothing resembling a hangover, but she decided to ignore that.

As she fully began to wake up and her senses returned to full, she could definitely hear singing. A beautiful voice floated up from outside her house in a haunting melody.

“Come, little children, I’ll take thee away, into a land of enchantment. Come, little children, the time’s come to play, here in my garden of shadows…”

Fluttershy almost didn’t register her hooves moving forward toward the stairwell. She found the song creeping into her house almost… spellbinding. She wondered who it could possibly be. She certainly didn’t recognize the voice. It was female, soft yet dark, like a gentle breeze on Nightmare Night. The mysterious voice started cooing to itself in a mournful way that made the pegasus’ heart ache.

She arrived on the first floor of her home only for Angel Bunny to rush up to meet her. “Oh, Angel, there you are,” she cooed. “I had the strangest dream last night. You wouldn’t believe… hm?” She looked down at Angel to see him pushing on her foreleg as if she could shove her back up the staircase. The little rabbit looked… afraid. She couldn’t imagine why. A smile crossed her face. “Oh, are you scared of the pony outside?” She patted Angel on the head, earning a scowl from him. “I’m sure it’s nopony to be afraid of. She even sounds kind of… sad. I’ll show you.”

“Follow, sweet children, I’ll show thee the way, through all the pain and the sorrows. Weep not, poor children, for life is this way, murdering beauty and passions…”

A little stroke of fear crossed the pegasus’ mind at the sudden dark turn of the lyrics, but she didn’t stop her trot towards the door. To her surprise, Angel hopped in front of her and waved his arms around as if begging her not to go outside.

“Angel, what has gotten into you?” she asked the rabbit. “That mare outside sounds sad and hurt, and I can’t just leave her alone out there.”

Angel ducked under her and started pulling at her hind hooves, desperately trying to keep her from the door.

“Hush now, dear children, it must be this way, to weary of life and deceptions. Rest now, my children, for soon we’ll away, into the calm and the quiet…”

The mysterious mare started cooing to herself again, louder than before but still soft in tone. Her voice seemed to echo into Fluttershy’s very skull. It sounded like the laments of a hundred years worth of grief, and the pegasus could feel her heart break a little with every passing second she heard it.

Ignoring Angel’s frantic protests, she opened the door.

She immediately regretted it.

On the bridge just outside her cottage sat Nobody, his head peering over the edge of the bridge. He seemed to be looking over the brook by her house and into the sunrise as he sang in that haunting female voice.

“Come, little children, I’ll take thee away, into a land of enchantment. Come, little children, the time’s come to play, here in my garden of shadows…”

His song apparently finished, the … Fluttershy didn’t even know if he was a god or goddess anymore with that voice. The deity turned its head over to her and said in that same soothing female voice, “Ah, you’re awake, Fluttershy.”

“N-no I’m not,” Fluttershy stuttered as her legs quaked and she screwed her eyes shut. “This is all a dream, this is all a dream, this is all a dream…!”

Nobody let out a soft laugh. “I assure you, my dear, this is no dream.”

Fluttershy whimpered and covered her eyes with her hooves. “I’m just going to count to three, and I’ll be back in my bed, and you’ll be gone. One… two… three!”

She opened her eyes again, and much to her horror she was still in the doorway to her cottage and Nobody was still on the bridge gazing over at her.

“Why don’t you come over and have a seat with me?” Nobody asked, patting a spot beside… her, Fluttershy supposed. “The sunrise is quite beautiful this morning.”

Fluttershy froze up, stuttering, “I…I…I…!”

“You don’t want to test the patience of an elder god, do you?” When the pegasus didn’t answer, a tendril of nothingness sprouted out of Nobody’s back and slowly weaved its way through the air over to the panicked pony.

Fluttershy’s mind was wild with terror and her body seized up in fear as the tendril approached her. She couldn’t move; she couldn’t think; she could barely even breathe as the dark tentacle snaked ever closer.

The tendril stopped its approach when Angel leapt out from behind Fluttershy and landed on it, trying in vain to sink his teeth into the mass of oblivion. The tendril slithered back until it hung in front of Nobody’s blank face, the deity observing the rabbit as it kept trying to bite into her tentacle.

Terror didn’t flee from Fluttershy’s mind so much as get kicked forcefully into the corner. Her legs stopped quaking with fear, but with rage. Her wide eyes narrowed into a look of pure loathing.

“Get away from him!” The pegasus glided over to the dark deity and planted her hooves firmly on the ground. Her wings flared up behind her as she concentrated The Stare on the intruder.

Nobody turned her head to acknowledge the pegasus. “A valiant effort, but the thing is, Fluttershy, I have no eyes. I just feel the arrangement of atoms around my nothingness so that I can detect the shapes of objects – I have no sight to speak of.”

That did little to dissuade the yellow pegasus. “Put Angel down. Now.”

Nobody chuckled. “High demands for such a fragile creature.” She turned to regard the still clawing and biting Angel. “You two really do care for each other… don’t you? Hm.” The deity’s head tilted slightly before the tendril wandered back over to hover over Fluttershy. Nobody shook the rabbit until he plopped onto the pegasus’ back. “I had no intentions of harming either of you anyway; I just wanted to talk. The way you went out of your way to defend each other when there was no hope of surviving should I have chosen to get violent, though…” A dark laugh emanated from Nobody that sounded much more familiar. “I like that. I like that a lot.”

Fluttershy flared up her wings higher, shielding Angel protectively as she let down The Stare. “You’re going to destroy the world and you dare say you don’t want to hurt us?!” she snarled, taking a stomp toward the deity.

“There is such a thing as disparity between desire and action; that is the recipe for the emotion you mortals call regret,” Nobody said. Her tendril vanished as she turned her faceless head back toward the sunrise.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but let her rage recede into the recesses of her mind. Nobody had said those words as if she were quoting a textbook, but the pegasus could feel an undercurrent of sorrow – sorrow that she had experience with that emotion before.

With her rage gone, the full weight of what she had just done dropped on her head like one of Derpy’s slipped deliveries.

“D… did I just-?”

“Talk back to an elder god?” Nobody finished for her. “Yes you did.”

Fluttershy felt herself begin to shake. “And I-I could have-”

“Been wiped from the very fabric of existence? Yes, you could have,” Nobody finished again. The pegasus felt Angel hop onto her head and Nobody added, “Don’t give me that look, bunny; I’m only stating fact.”

Fluttershy felt very faint, and she felt her legs buckle under her when she felt something – several somethings, in fact – wrap around her and hold her up. She looked to see that several tendrils had sprouted out of Nobody’s back and had wrapped around her middle to help her keep steady.

“Now now, no fainting,” Nobody chided with a hint of the condescending mirth she’d known her for up to that point. “If you do that, you’ll miss the sunrise.”

Fluttershy managed to stabilize herself, and the tendrils vanished when she blinked. “M-Miss Nobody, wh-what exactly do you want to talk to me about? If, um, you don’t mind me asking,” she managed to stutter out.

Nobody sighed and shook her head. “Well, I was hoping that for once this would be one ‘the morning after’ conversation that wouldn’t be incredibly awkward, but bang goes that hope.”

The pegasus pondered for a second what exactly that meant before the implication smacked her in the face. “Y-you… I… and we…?” she squeaked as what felt like all the blood in her body rushed to her face. Everything when numb and then black as the ground rushed up to meet her.

She was quickly taken out of the sweet embrace of unconsciousness by a splash of water to her face. “Buck, I keep underestimating just how frelling fragile you are; it was only a joke!” she heard Nobody’s female voice say through her snickers.

“I am not f-fragile,” Fluttershy managed to cough out as she opened her eyes. She saw Angel looking over her worriedly with a bucket over his head, which he quickly set down. The rabbit shot a death glare at the god, who was looking over to the prone pony as she snickered. “And why exactly do you have to be so… so dirty all the time?”

The deity waved her hoof dismissively. “If Angel promises to leave the two of us be for now, I’ll answer your question. I’d prefer to speak to you alone.” Angel extended his middle finger on both paws in response, earning an uproarious laugh from Nobody. “Ohohohh, aren’t you quite the feisty one?”

Fluttershy gave Angel an assuring look. “Don’t worry, Angel. You go back inside. I can handle this.”

He shot a look back that plainly said, “Um, no, you can’t.”

Fluttershy sighed and nudged the rabbit with her nose. “Please…?”

Angel looked at her sternly for a few seconds before sighing. He gave her a look that said “Please be careful” before hopping back into her cottage, slamming the door behind him.

Fluttershy turned her gaze back to Nobody as she got back onto her hooves. The dark deity waved her over and patted the patch of bridge next to her again. The pegasus nervously gulped as she trotted over to Nobody, hiding her face behind the curtain of her mane and trying to ignore the fact Nobody was omniscient and could see it anyway. It took a lot of will and effort, but she eventually was able to drag her hooves over beside Nobody and sit her rump down beside the embodiment of the void.

“So, I guess I owe you an answer to that question?” Nobody asked.

“If you want to answer it,” the pegasus whispered as she kept her gaze to the ground and her face behind her mane.

“You don’t have to be scared of me, you know,” Nobody said softly. “I really don’t plan on hurting you or any of your friends.”

Fluttershy gulped again. “B-but… you’re planning to destroy the entire world – kill everyone.”

“When death comes by my hands, it’s completely painless. One second you’re alive, and the next second… you’re not,” Nobody replied. “It’s a much more merciful death than mortals often offer each other.” The pegasus briefly thought about whether Nobody was trying to convince her or herself, but didn’t voice it and prayed that Nobody couldn’t read minds.

Fluttershy inwardly squeaked to herself before gathering the courage to ask, “Excuse me, Miss N-Nobody, but how exactly do you know that?”

“I’m the keeper of forgotten memories; that includes the memories of the dead. Every single being I’ve ever wiped from the face of existence… I have all their memories, including the moment they died. They felt no pain.” The deity’s voice was wistful, mixed with sadness and a little bit of pride.

“I… I guess that’s nice of you…” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off, the young mare unsure of exactly how terrified she should be anymore.

Nobody scoffed. “When you have infinite power, there are infinite ways to abuse it. I like to think I’ve kept a pretty clean track record in the past few billion years.” The deity paused and added, “I admit I’ve done things I’m not exactly proud of when the noise has gotten to be too much, but everypony makes mistakes, right?”

“The… noise?” Fluttershy asked, uncertain she even wanted to know.

“All the sound in the universe,” she clarified. “I can hear it all – every single little sound in the vast expanse of everything. Every word, every breath, every heartbeat, every step, every clinking and clanking and whirring and humming of every machine…”

Fluttershy’s blood ran cold when she saw over a dozen tendrils start to snake their way out of Nobody’s back. They wriggled, writhed and lashed, lacking any of the control that the god had previously shown.

“…every deafening explosion, every sword clash, every gunshot, every blood spatter, every cracked bone, every battle cry, every scream, every dying breath…!”

With every word the god’s errant tendrils grew a bit longer and thrashed a bit harder. Fluttershy just watched them extend and writhe in terror, trying to stammer something – anything – out as she scrambled away from them on her back. Finally she managed with a shriek, “Nobody!”

The deity stopped her rambling and the tentacles vanished. She cleared her throat and said, “My apologies. I just… sometimes lose control of myself when I dwell on how horrid this universe can be.” She turned her head toward the prone Fluttershy and extended a tendril to help her back up to her hooves. “It’s one of the reasons I kind of like you – you’re such a quiet young mare, with little need for bluster. You barely add to the noise at all.”

Fluttershy gulped as she was set back into her seat by Nobody’s tendril. “W-well, Miss Nob-body… if you like me so much, why do you keep scaring me?”

“Because, my dear, when you’re unconscious you are so much quieter. It’s quite pleasant, really,” she explained.

“O-oh…” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off, unsure of what to say to that.

“I’m kidding,” Nobody snickered. “I actually find the sound of your voice very soothing and it’s certainly nicer than most of the other trillions upon trillions of voices I have to hear every second of every day.”

“Th-thank you,” Fluttershy whispered, stealing a glance up at the deity.

“You’re very welcome,” Nobody said back.

The two sat in silence for… Fluttershy didn’t know how long. Eventually she gathered up the courage to stop hiding behind her mane and actually look in front of her. Her eyes were greeted with the sight of Celestia’s sun rising just over the horizon. The sky was painted in vibrant reds, soft purples and wispy blues, each cloud sporting a golden lining as the night retreated behind them and the day stretched to begin.

“It’s beautiful,” she heard herself sigh as the sun quickly climbed across the sky.

Nobody chuckled softly. “I told you as much, didn’t I?” She let out a small sigh herself and added, “It’s always sunrise somewhere on almost every planet, and a small portion of my cosmic mind is focused on every one of them. I like to pretend it’s the only thing I can see and all I can hear is silence.”

“It must be nice, getting to see every sunrise across the universe.” A small smile found its way on Fluttershy’s face as she tried to think about what that must have been like.

“The novelty wore out after the first few million years after stars, planets and sunrises became a thing,” Nobody admitted, “and they’re far from the most beautiful thing in the universe, but they’re certainly up there. It’s one of the few perks of my non-existence.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, Miss Nobody, what is the most beautiful thing in the universe?” Fluttershy asked as she looked over to her companion, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“I’m not telling, but you’ll know it when you see it,” Nobody said with a knowing laugh. The deity paused and added, “Now, about your question…” She turned her head to the young pegasus and leaned in. “It was about why I’m so ‘dirty’ all the time, yes?”

Fluttershy blushed; she’d completely forgotten about that herself. “Y-yes, if you don’t mind answering.”

Nobody snickered to herself. “Well, sex is but an aspect and expression of love, is it not?”

“It c-can be,” Fluttershy answered, her blush deepening.

“Then this may be a bit of a shocker, but…” The deity’s voice trailed off and she looked around as if she were afraid anyone were listening in. She leaned in and said behind her hoof, “I’m all about love.”

Fluttershy felt her head about to pop again. “E-excuse me?”

Nobody giggled as she drew back to her full height. “I’m in love with love! Well, the concept and feeling of love, really,” she corrected. “Love is such a wondrous feeling – the greatest feeling in any emotional range of any species anywhere. I have millions upon millions of memories of the feeling of love within my consciousness, and they are by far my favorite memories to visit.” Nobody giggled again as she added, “I just find it so delightfully hilarious how so many sexual species react to sexuality, such an integral part of their existence. The most sublime expression of romantic love there is, and it’s as if they’re afraid of it! The irony is just so glorious, don’t you think?” She turned her head over to look at Fluttershy almost expectantly.

“I-it does seem a b-bit silly,” Fluttershy managed to stammer out.

“Of course, romantic love isn’t the only sort there is,” Nobody said, almost purring. “There’s also familial love – the love between siblings, for instance. Like the love you and Angel feel for each other. And don’t you deny it: I saw how both of you selflessly rushed to each other’s defense despite almost assured death,” she said with a wave of her hoof. “Despite being different species, the two of you keep each other in check not because it benefits yourselves, but because it benefits the other.” She sighed wistfully. “If only all beings were so lucky.”

Fluttershy thought for a few moments, a smile widening on her face with each passing second. “Yeah… I guess I really am lucky to have him.” She paused and added, “Nobody… can I ask you a very, very personal question?”

“I won’t stop you or punish you for it,” the deity said back.

Fluttershy looked shyly up at Nobody and asked, “Have you… ever been in love before?”

Several seconds of chilling silence passed between the two. “No, I haven’t,” Nobody finally admitted. “Though I have many memories of the feeling, they are but wisps compared to the real thing, and… I am incapable of feeling love for various reasons.”

Fluttershy turned her head and hid back behind the curtain of her mane. “I-I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “I would ask you the same question, but I already know the answer is yes.”

The yellow pegasus’ face once again turned very red. “Wh-what do you mean by that?”

Nobody snickered, the tinge of sadness gone. “There’s no use lying to a god such as I, Fluttershy. Ignoring your fillyhood crush on Rainbow Dash, I know you have quite… deeper feelings about somepony else.”

“S-so you can read minds?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“I don’t need to; just the way you look at her, the way your breath gets a bit shallow around her, the way your heart beats just a little bit faster – anypony with my omniscience could tell,” Nobody said. “When do you plan on telling her?”

“I-I really don’t know,” Fluttershy mumbled as she traced non-distinct shapes on the ground with her hoof.

“Well, the clock is ticking, Fluttershy. This may be the last day you ever get to see her, or ever get to hear her laugh, or feel the soft brush of her fur against yours, or smell her sweet aroma… I’d savor it for all it was worth, if I were you.”

“I-I still don’t really know, Nobody. What do you think she would say?” Fluttershy looked up to Nobody to see she was no longer there. She was left all alone on that bridge, the sun rising on the horizon as the young mare began to think over what she’d been told.

Darkness. Silence. Solitude. Oblivion. It was so sweet while it lasted, well and truly. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry about.

Not having to deal with her hangover.

Vinyl Scratch let out a pained groan as she stirred. Her head felt like somepony had hammered her own speakers into her skull, cranked the volume up to eleven, and left them on all night. Her mouth tasted like she had chugged a glass of griffin sweat, and she wasn’t keen on recalling why she knew what that tasted like. Every little sound was magnified tenfold, to the point even the sound of her own moans made her want to fill her ears in with cement. All she could register was that she was not in her own bed, which was a bad sign.

After the initial sensory overload died down, the DJ started to make sense of her surroundings. She wasn’t in her own bed, but she was in her own apartment, much to her relief. She was just sprawled out on their older-than-dirt couch. There were certainly worse places to wake up in the morning. She could hear the sizzling of a pan on the oven emanating from the hall, and smell the blueberry pancakes that were probably the cause.

With another soft groan, Vinyl crawled off her resting place and trotted down the hall, her legs shaking. She looked around the corner to see a familiar grey mare at the oven working her magic – well, not actual magic, but to Vinyl, everything Octavia did was magic.

“Good morning, babe,” Vinyl managed to mumble out, a soft smile on her lips as she sauntered into the kitchen and tried her best not to look like she felt like she had one hoof in the grave.

Octavia took a moment to flip the pancakes and set down the spatula in her mouth before greeting back, “Good morning, Vinyl.” She turned over her shoulder with a cocky smile but loving look. “You look like you had quite a wild night. How’re you feeling?”

“Babe, you and I both know that I feel as well as I look,” Vinyl chuckled, trotting over to her marefriend. “But thanks for asking, Octy.”

“You’re welcome, Viny,” Octavia snickered.

The DJ rolled her eyes. “You still gonna call me that after all this time?”

“You call me Octy,” the grey mare said back coyly, as if they hadn’t had that exact same conversation before.

“Yes, but Octy is cute; Viny sounds like the name of a pizza joint, sweetcheeks.”

Octavia let out a small snicker before suggesting, “Why don’t you just relax and take a seat? Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Thanks, babe.” Vinyl was about to go do as her marefriend bid her, but her red eyes caught sight of Octavia’s flank, and she couldn’t help herself. She leaned in and gave her treble clef cutie mark a lick, earning a shocked squeak from its owner.

“V-vinyl!” Octavia sputtered, her face bright red and turning to see the offender just smacking her lips.

“I knew there was a reason I called you sweetcheeks…” Vinyl giggled with a wink before she sauntered over to the table, putting an emphasis on each hip swing.

“You are just awful,” Octavia huffed half-heartedly.

“It’s part of my charm,” Vinyl said with a smirk as she took her seat.

Octavia just rolled her eyes and took the pan off the heat. Spatula clenched in her teeth, she moved the pancakes from the pan to a pair of plates. Setting the spatula down again, she huffed, “How do I ever put up with you?”

“I would say it’s because you love me, but I’ve gotta say that it’s the sex that seals the deal,” Vinyl snickered, floating the two plates over to the table with her magic.

With a bright blush and an upturn of her nose, Octavia sauntered over to her seat and set herself down. “Careful with the lewd comments, hon, or I swear I’ll announce to all in sundry that you prefer to be called Spanky in bed,” she said with a devious smirk and a look in her eye similar to that of a cat looking at a cornered mouse.

“Hey, hey, no need to whip out the Spanky card, babe,” Vinyl said with a nervous laugh as she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “We’re trying to keep our relationship on the down-low anyway, remember?”

“I know…” Octavia’s voice trailed off, and her amethyst eyes lost focus. She looked like she was looking past Vinyl instead of at her.

After a few seconds of silence, Vinyl said, “Are you okay?” She tilted her head in concern as she lifted up the syrup with her magic and poured it over her marefriend’s plate.

“Huh?” Octavia blinked a few times, looking at Vinyl in confusion for a few seconds. She quickly regained her composure and insisted, “Of course, hon. Everything’s fine. Thank you.”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow as she moved the syrup from her marefriend’s plate to her own. “Are you sure, sweetcheeks? You looked like you were thinking about something pretty hard.”

“Well…” Octavia’s voice trailed off again. Her eyes looked off to the side, refusing to make contact with Vinyl’s.

“Well?” Vinyl prompted as she started cutting into her breakfast.

Octavia’s eyes snapped right back to Vinyl’s with an unusually shy smile. “I was just wondering if we could… forget about the secrecy. Just for today? One day out on the town, just you and I.”

Vinyl’s eyebrows raised so much she thought they almost ripped off her skull. “Octy, baby, keeping our relationship a secret was your idea in the first place. You know what those stuffy Canterlot nobles think about filly foolers.” Her gaze hardened as she added, “I mean, none of my clients are nobles, so I have nothing to worry about, and everypony already knows what way my stable door swings, but you? You have a career to worry about! You played at the Grand Galloping bucking Gala last year! I know you love me and all – hay, what pony doesn’t? – but I’m not about to let you ruin your rep over me.”

“I know, I know; I’m painfully aware of that fact,” Octavia sighed, taking a bite out of her pancakes. “I’m just somewhat tired of all the hiding. When was the last time we even ate out together in public?”

“The night you asked me out,” Vinyl said, a small smile forming on her muzzle when she remembered that night – and their first kiss.

“Exactly,” Octavia said with a slight frown. “We haven’t even once kissed in public – besides, well, that night, and I was too overcome with passion to care at that moment, and we were horribly lucky there were no paparazzi.”

“Tends to happen to ponies around me,” Vinyl said with a chuckle before biting in to her breakfast. “My animal magnetism was just too much for ya.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “My point is that ever since we got together, we’ve been too afraid to act like a normal couple, and it’s all on my account.” She sighed and locked her violet eyes with her marefriend’s crimson ones with a pleading look. “Just… for one day, I want us to forget about that. I just want us to go out and have a good time, regardless of any stares we get. Please…?”

Vinyl looked long and hard into her marefriend’s eyes before she let out a sigh. “Okay; we’ll take the day off and spend it together.” She paused and added with a wink, “And if you end up regretting it, I promise my tongue and I will wash all your worries away.”

A bright blush found its way onto Octavia’s face once again, but this time she didn’t snap at the offender for it. “Thanks, hon,” she said meekly with a small smile. She sat up straight again and donned her composed mannerisms once more. “Let’s eat; I didn’t make breakfast for you this morning only for it to get cold.”

Vinyl chuckled. “Whatever you say, babe. We’ll plan our day after breakfast.” She tucked into her plate and hummed softly at the flavor, smiling at her marefriend. With a swallow, she opened her mouth to thank her, but decided against it. She just basked in the other mare’s company as a companionable silence fell over them and the sun’s light began to peek through their window. Next Chapter: Lacuna Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes