//------------------------------// // Chapter One Hundred Six // Story: HiE - A Hollow in Equestria // by Charlie_K //------------------------------// Chapter One Hundred Six "So. Why you're here in Equestria," Discord began as he leaned back in his chair, making himself comfortable for what ultimately laid ahead of them. "I'm afraid a concise answer to that question isn't all that simple, or even straightforward. It's all rather involved." "If I have to state the obvious, and tell you to get on with the explanation, I can promise that you won't like the consequences that will be had from such," Ulquiorra explained in a calm yet simultaneously disturbing tone. "Right then," Discord replied, "first the short, simple answer. You're here because a "boots on the ground" approach to doing business was needed in order to keep Equestria safe. You're essentially what you might call an independent contractor, brought here to deal with the threats that could end Equestria by putting an end to Twilight and the rest of her friends. I'm sure you understand that if they die then the Elements of Harmony become useless. And having an extra set of hooves, er, hands on deck, serves to lessen the possibility of that becoming the case." "A logical conclusion, and a wise course of action. That much won't be denied. But it still leaves the question of how I came to be selected for such a task," Ulquiorra pointed out. "What is it about me, specifically, that made you decide I was most qualified for undertaking such a mission?" "I'm getting to that part, I promise," Discord stated in the most assuring manner he could muster. "In simplest terms, you were selected because you were the most qualified individual for the job, based on a wide variety of criteria. I wasn't about to assign the task to just anything that happened to be convenient and available at the time." "Oh, I can't wait to hear this," Celestia muttered. If Ulquiorra really was the most qualified individual for keeping Equestria safe from what Discord was alluding to, she couldn't help but wonder who and/or what hadn't made the cut. Celestia's barb went unaddressed as the display behind Discord once again changed with the snap of a claw, now showing faces. Many faces. Potentially thousands of faces. Some of those displayed were familiar to Ulquiorra, as they were his fellow Arrancar from Hueco Mundo. Even some Shinigami. But the vast majority of the faces he was seeing were unrecognized, and there was no way of telling just where they were from. Begging the question of just how many universes/realities/planes of existence had Discord scoured before settling on him? "Obviously whoever was selected for the task needed to be quite strong for facing whatever threat might arise in the future. Strong enough to take on a dragon at the very least, obviously. The fact it was a physical strength is simply an added bonus," Discord explained. A number of pictures currently on the display darkened, with a red diagonal line being drawn through them from left to right at a downward angle. Suggesting those individuals had simply not met the first part of the criteria. "But strength by itself, physical or otherwise, is utterly useless; pure dumb muscle would never suit this world's needs, so whoever was selected needed significant intelligence as well. Not just raw intelligence either, but logical thinking, deductive reasoning, practicality and pragmatism, the ability to contemplate the possibility of matters beyond their own understanding, the ability to adapt to new situations as they arose, and a great many other areas of thought. They needed to possess the skill to recognize that something was wrong, when they couldn't be told the facts of the matter directly." More pictures went dark and were marked through. "In addition, we needed someone who could be trusted. Someone with ambitions of world domination and their own ruling over others was something we simply didn't need, even during the best of times. Being untrustworthy is a bad combination with that aforementioned significant intelligence. No, whoever was selected, they needed to be someone who not only understood loyalty, but willingly embraced it themselves. There's no place in this world for chronic backstabbing disorder, and we didn't need one more thing to defend against, with all we would be having on our plate already." Again, more faces went dark and marked through, decreasing the number of candidates even further than before. "The ability to kill was also very important. Not simply the ability to physically commit such an act, but the mental strength necessary to follow through with such a decision if it was deemed necessary, without getting hung up on the morality of such, or being bogged down by the emotional weight involved with such a course of action. Although at the same time, it had to be someone who didn't view killing as the default answer for every situation that arose, or who treated it with glee and engaged in murder at the drop of a hat because they enjoyed ending the lives of others. We needed a professional who understood this very well." The number of images that went dark and were marked through was... surprisingly few this time around. "Now, I could go through the whole myriad of qualifying factors that had to be considered, whittling down this list bit by bit until we get to you specifically. But cutting to the chase, in addition to every other category that had to be met, even those we haven't mentioned yet, we needed someone whose own story back in their world had essentially come to an end, so that they wouldn't be missed if they just suddenly disappeared one day. Their coming here was going to be a one-way trip with no way back, and I wasn't exactly keen on throwing other realities into this particular type of chaos just for our own benefit. That's not entertaining at all, nor very sporting if you ask me." Nearly all of the faces went dark and were marked through simultaneously. Whereas there had been potentially thousands before, there were barely twenty now. And as far as Ulquiorra could tell, he was the only one from his own reality that was still present among the finalists. "But most important of all, what we needed was someone who would have a good reason for being close to Twilight, Fluttershy and the rest of their friends in the event of an emergency, without simultaneously seeming out of place with their presence." Ulquiorra suddenly found himself very, very alone, with his image the only one still highlighted on the display, leaving him the equivalent of a white dot in a veritable sea of all-consuming blackness. How very familiar. Just as it had appeared, the entire display vanished in the same fashion, the area seemingly becoming lighter in the process. "What made you so special, so unique, so qualified for this mission, Ulquiorra?" Discord asked in an almost rhetorical manner as he turned his focus solely on the Espada now. "That would be you yourself specifically. You came from a background beyond the comprehension of most in this world. A background that would've broken the minds of most ponies forced to experience even a fraction of it for themselves firsthoof." Celestia unintentionally winced at Discord's words, but ultimately said nothing. "Back when we first met and introductions were being made? When I said you could benefit from friendship, I was stating fact rather than expressing opinion," Discord continued, uninterrupted by Celestia's physical gesture. "You came from a place that would be a literal Hell to anyone in this world. You were a misanthropic, heavily nihilistic individual who firmly believed happiness could only come in the form of one having nothing to lose. Yet despite all of that, you changed. In the span of just a few days, upon encountering certain unique individuals who outright defied your logic and view of the world, you found yourself forced to reevaluate your own limited beliefs in light of new information you couldn't reconcile away." Try as he might, Ulquiorra simply had no idea of what to say at this point in time. Rarely was he rendered speechless, but it was certainly happening right now. "In a lot of ways, Ulquiorra, you're very similar to our own Twilight Sparkle. You could not only benefit from the magic of friendship, but you actually possessed the capacity to do just that, just like she did. And that's ultimately what made you so perfect for the job; more perfect than anyone else who could've been selected. Your capacity to learn and benefit from what so many ponies take for granted, provided you with the perfect opportunity and reason to actually spend time with Twilight and her friends. Meaning-" "Meaning that while I went about learning the same lessons that Twilight Sparkle herself learned during her time in Ponyville, I would have a statistically greater chance of being present in the event something went wrong, and they found themselves in a potentially deadly situation as a result. Which, by extension, would mean providing a statistically greater chance of Equestria and its residents surviving a potentially cataclysmic event, than if anyone else were selected instead," Ulquiorra surmised. "Essentially, yes," Discord confirmed. "It had to be you, and your unique circumstances, you're the only one who could make everything work properly. Anyone else wouldn't have reason or need to associate with Twilight and the others, meaning their presence would serve no purpose, and just potentially make everything worse as a result." "Why didn't you just ask instead?" Everyone paused to silently look in Ulquiorra's direction at the presented question, having not expected that to be his given response. They then looked back at Discord, waiting both for an answer as to why, and if it really would've been as simple as all that. Even Discord seemed puzzled by the question. "What, ask? Just like that?" "Had the request for help simply been presented at the time of our first meeting, it would've been accepted once all the relevant details had been laid out," Ulquiorra explained as he stood up from his chair and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Being adrift in the void as I was, the opportunity to make myself useful would've been taken. Instead you decide to go about orchestrating what has to be the most convoluted, nonsensical approach to a basic problem that I've ever seen in my existence. Weeks of effort could've been saved and better utilized, had the straightforward approach simply been carried out." "Well, lad-" "My name is Ulquiorra Cifer." "-I suppose I could've gone and done things differently," Discord admitted reluctantly. "But again, the chaos/order divide is still very much in effect, so there was only so much that I could reveal in a straightforward approach. Also, think of it as a secret test of character to see if you were really what we needed. You're thrown into a very foreign world, told that you're free to do as you please. You come across just enough information to let you realize on your own that something's wrong. You have the opportunity to simply walk away and do nothing to help because you're not under orders to help. And what do you do in the face of all this? You practically dive headfirst into unraveling the mystery before you, all the while learning how to work with others and utilize their strengths, and take up the task of defending this world without ever being asked to do so. If that doesn't speak highly of your character, then I honestly don't know what would." Despite there being the urge... maybe even an unconscious primal desire... to verbally rip into Discord for his attempts at justifying such a convoluted, nonsensical approach to how he conducted himself, Ulquiorra found that he simply couldn't. Yes, it was convoluted, far more than even Princess Celestia's approach to dealing with the changelings. But at the same time, there was a certain logic in the approach that was hard to deny. Aizen's plan for motivating Orihime Inoue to willingly come to Las Noches was far more straightforward and subtle, but it could also be deemed convoluted, and likely to fail if not applied against the right sort of mentality. He could justify his actions as being nothing more than his own attempts at following Princess Celestia's orders when they had first met. But the part about not doing anything to cause harm to the residents of Equestria, or put them at risk, was heavily ambiguous when it was analyzed and dissected as to just what that entailed and didn't entail. It could've easily been interpreted in a manner to justify a lazy, even cowardly approach to situations and staying out of the way of danger; especially in his case when his strength was taken into consideration. But he hadn't done that. Instead he'd deliberately chosen to interpret her orders in a manner that allowed -even justified- his getting physically involved in dealing with numerous threats that has arisen. The dragon, the changelings, the manticore, and then Nightmare Moon. None of which he'd been required to do, and yet had done so regardless, and of his own volition. He had rationalized it all as being a way of justifying his existence in this world. And yet... had it been something more than merely that? Something that even he wasn't consciously aware of at the time? "Is this ultimately what it means to be a hero? To undertake a task, even when you don't have to do such?" he found himself wondering. Had his fight with Ichigo Kurosaki really served to change him that much from what he was? Had the illogical words from the woman had that much of a profound effect on him? Had the quincy's futile but desperate struggles impacted him more than even he'd realized? He didn't know. Annoyingly, he simply didn't know. "It was still a convoluted, nonsensical approach to engage in," he commented, it being the only thing he could think of in response. "Yes, yes, yes, I'm sure we've thoroughly established that fact by now. So then, onto new business!" Discord stated. SPLAT Discussion was abruptly ended as a cream pie came flying out of nowhere and impacted against Discord's face, easily shattering into a gooey mess. It was later revealed to be a coconut cream pie, as chunks of coconut shell were seen in the filling as it fell to the ground. Silently, slowly, Discord wiped the mess off of his face with his lion's paw, a look of disbelief beneath the residue he hadn't managed to get off. "Alright, who threw that?" No one came forward to confess. If anything they all looked just as confused and uncertain as Discord himself, looking about the room in hopes of identifying the source of the disturbance. "Whatever," Discord sighed and shook his head. "Discord," Twilight spoke up, "you went the long way about explaining how you brought Ulquiorra to our world to protect us from unforeseen developments in the future, correct? Developments coming about from our reality being knocked off its intended axis, right? Why stop there?" "I'm not sure I follow," Discord replied. "Now that the problem has been identified, why not go further to try and tip the odds more in our favor? Instead of expecting Ulquiorra to do everything on his own, why aren't you bringing in reinforcements from other worlds? Maybe, oh I don't know, a battalion or two of soldiers who fit some of the other criteria Ulquiorra had to meet? I mean, now that he's here and we've identified the problem, couldn't we outsource to other competent beings who could coordinate with Ulquiorra, since his strength is apparently limited?" "Oh, how delightfully militaristic," Discord commented with faux cheerfulness. "As logical as that approach might sound on paper, Twilight, I'm afraid it wouldn't work out in the long run from a practical standpoint. Something like that would only add unnecessary complications that make the entire problem worse. Just the logistics of trying to get everyone together on the same page and organized would be an undertaking that even you couldn't manage. No, the fewer outside influences we have to balance, the better off we'll be overall. Ulquiorra might be limited by being only a single individual, but he's our best available option in all this." "I don't believe you," Twilight replied bluntly and crossed her forelegs over her barrel while scowling at him. "I don't blame you. But seeing as how I'm the one who would actually have to invest the time, effort, and magical resources to make everything work out, I'm vetoing that proposal here and now. Too many cooks ruin the soup and all that," Discord replied firmly. What followed was an intense staring competition between the two, each trying to glare the other into submission through their own annoyance. If not for Celestia placing a wing on Twilight's back, there was no telling how long the two would've continued being at odds with one another. "I suppose I should be thanking you for the help and information you have been able to offer us, given your circumstances limitations," she sighed as she rubbed Twilight's back in an effort to soothe her student's current mood. "Ulquiorra may be limited to one, but he's been invaluable to us." "Thank you, 'Tia, it's certainly nice to be appreciated once and a while, rather than being cursed out and shouted at by everypony who doesn't understand a good deed when they see it," Discord replied. "You know what, Discord? You're absolutely right. It is nice for one to be appreciated," Celestia agreed and stood up from her assigned chair. The others watched as Celestia took a breath, and closed her eyes in concentration, before returning to her regal form, standing just as tall and majestic as ever. She opened her eyes, wearing that serene look that only she could pull off so effortlessly, as she adjusted her position to better face Ulquiorra where he stood. "Ulquiorra Cifer. My name is Princess Celestia, one of the rulers of a land called Equestia. We haven't officially been introduced yet, so I know these are hardly ideal circumstances to be making a request of you, but I'm afraid we find ourselves in a spot of trouble and don't have much choice. Our world, our kingdom, and our dear subjects, are all under threat from forces and factors we find ourselves ill-equipped to deal with on our own. I know it's asking a great deal of you, especially so soon after having just met, but could you help us with our plight? Could you come to Equestria and help us protect our little ponies from these threats?" The entire display was... nonsensical to say the least. That was the simplest, most concise way Ulquiorra could describe what he was seeing. Had Princess Celestia taken leave of her senses? Had she forgotten that this wasn't their first interaction? What was the meaning of this? Unless... the hypothesis relating to his interaction with Pinkie Pie on his third visit to Ponyville had been more accurate than he realized. Was this, in her own way, Princess Celestia's efforts at attempting to make up for the harshness she'd demonstrated upon their first meeting, and learning of the true nature of his character? Then again, he had said that he would've helped if the request had simply been made. And this was certainly a formal request for aid being presented to him right now. "I don't know how much assistance I can provide you with, given that I know so little about your circumstances. But I will do what I can. I accept your request." Psychology was a soft science, amounting to little more than educated guesses. But perhaps it was one he would need to develop a better understanding of. Perhaps this was simply how pony brains worked, and he simply needed to learn how to work with them for best results. Much as was done in his first interaction with Twilight Sparkle, he extended his right hand towards Princess Celestia, with her mimicking the gesture until they touched, performing an impromptu hoof/handshake. Once the exchange was completed, whatever concentration Princess Celestia was using to hold herself together apparently ceased, as she immediately reverted back to her smaller form once again. "Touching, dear sister," Luna commented, "but onto more serious matters. Discord." "Present," Discord replied. "Perhaps later, if you are a good boy. But for now it is business that must be tended to," Luna replied. "My sister may be trying to play it off, but I know better. The both of us are far too weak to raise and lower the sun and moon, respectively. And as much as I would like a stretch of nights for at least a few days, I highly doubt our subjects would appreciate it. So until we have had a chance to recuperate? Raising and lower them at the appropriate times?" Celestia frowned in response, but ultimately chose to say nothing. She would deal with Luna later. Lest they descend into a battle of the raspberries in front of everyone. They really didn't need that right now. Discord mumbled to himself and rubbed his chin in thought as he pondered the request. "I don't know, Lulu, something that orderly for that long is really approaching the threshold here," Discord pointed out. Before sighing and shrugging. "Eh, sure. There will certainly be a bit of an artistic flare in how I go about doing it, just so things don't get to be too orderly around here, but for the most part it'll be just fine. Just release whatever sort of press statement you need so your little ponies don't panic too hard if the sun does loop-de-loops in the sky without warning." "Good then. Our plates will undoubtedly be full enough come morning. We are going to need all the rest we can get if we are going to properly return to form for our dear subjects," Luna surmised. "You know what, Luna? You're absolutely right," Discord replied as he slowly raised his eagle talon, "everybody needs the chance to rest up..." Nurse Sweetheart yawned as she made her way down the halls of Ponyville General Hospital. She had unfortunately drawn the short straw of checking on Rainbow Dash at this miserable hour. She suspected it'd been rigged against her, as she had slightly more energy than the rest of the staff at the moment, but she couldn't prove it. It would have to wait until later. Right now she was far too tired to care after the night they'd all been having, what with triage in the town square, and caring for the injured in the aftermath. Despite all of the excitement of the evening, and the number of injured patients being tended to, adrenaline could only carry a pony so far, and she was anxiously looking forward to the end of her shift rolling around so she and the rest of the night shift staff could finally get some rest, and turn over responsibility to their day shift counterparts. The moment her shift was up she was going to find the nearest comfortable spot in the hospital, and promptly drop right there and then. But, work first, rest later... The door to the room was closed upon her arrival, which struck her as a bit out of the ordinary, but not to the point of paying any special attention to it. It could easily be explained by any number of things and simply wasn't worth worrying about right now. She pushed it open as quietly as possible before slipping inside. She knew about the others deciding to spend the night with their friend, but she was unprepared for just how they'd planned to do that, and very nearly stepped on one of them before catching herself at the last second. She shook her head in dismissal, before refocusing her attention on the appointed task at hand; that being checking on the actual patient in the room. In her current tired state, and given the low-light condition in the room, she could be forgiven for nearly missing the additional guests in the room who hadn't been present previously. If not for the sudden snort of a snore, they might've otherwise gone unnoticed until morning. Over in the far corner of the room, partially obscured by the shadows, was the Espada, sitting on the floor and leaning back against the walls for support as his head hung low, to the point his chin was touching his chest. His sheathed sword was removed from his belt and resting against the wall not far away from his position, while an unfamiliar mare rested her head on his lap like a makeshift pillow. A mare who, upon closer inspection, looked suspiciously like a white alicorn with a pink mane and tail and sun cutie mark. This night was just proving to get weirder, and weirder by the moment. all she could do as a nurse was shake her head, and refocus her attention on the actual patient at hoof. She would make mention of this at the front desk shortly, and let them decide how and when to go and sort everything out. She simply wasn't getting paid enough to worry about all of these non-medical developments occurring without warning. Had she been paying more attention to a greater extent of her surroundings, she might've noticed how the new alicorn shifted her position, but otherwise didn't stir or move from her current spot. Not that her impromptu perch seemed to even register the movement. As deep and sound as his slumber appeared to be currently, for all intents and purposes he was dead to the world. Whatever rest they were currently getting, they were obviously in desperate need of it. For what would ultimately be coming in the following days, they would undoubtedly need all the rest they could get.