Day's panel flickered and then died out. Internally he berated himself, he couldn’t believe how careless he had been. How could he have gotten so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t realize she might walk in at any moment and hear him. He searched futilely for something to say but couldn’t think of anything meaningful or even coherent. Nothing he could possibly say would end well or at least in a way that would work well, especially if he needed to hide things from her like Princess Luna asked of him. It might have been an act, though he didn’t believe it, that she was putting on to get him to tell her more about himself and his past. Still, he couldn’t leave her so distraught. After a minute of internal struggle and awkward silence that left him uncomfortable he couldn’t think of anything else he could do, so he did the right thing.
“Sit down. This is going to take some explaining.” Day sat down on a cushion at a table and pulled another one in front of him. He leaned against a table as Twilight slowly and cautiously approached him. Before she could sit, they heard a knock at the door. Day looked at the clock in surprise.
“It’s the middle of the night...” He growled, “Do people... ponies... come here this late usually?” He started worrying that the unintended lightshow he’d just put on had drawn attention to the library. The last thing he wanted was some kind of spectacle made of him and the oddity he admitted he was.
“No...” Twilight replied quietly. She crossed the room to the door and peered out a peephole. She suddenly yanked the door open and pulled a pony in - an impossibly pink and bouncy one.
“Pinkie! What are you doing here?!” Twilight questioned her friend tiredly. Her expression smoothly shifted to mild exasperation and she cut Pinkie Pie off before she could even begin speaking, “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. Can you come back later? When it’s day time?”
Day titled his head and watched the pair. Twilight seemed to have an air of patient annoyance around her, as if she were barely reining in a wish to lecture Pinkie Pie. He supposed that for such an analytical pony, Pinkie Pie was the ultimate in mindblowing happenings and conversations - not the best thing to deal with in the wee hours of the morning. Pinkie Pie was different than the evening before. She still had a big smile on her face and her eyes seemed alight with happiness but there was something else there: something alien and off. She looked haunted.
Day interrupted, “I think she should stay...” Both mares looked at him simultaneously, one with gratitude and the other with mingled anger and exasperation.
“Thanks, Day! You’re the only one that lets me ignore the Machine. That’s never happened before - can I marry you?” She quietly bounced over to Day’s side and laid down next to him on a magenta pillow that had suddenly materialized beside him.
Twilight shook her head and closed the front door before sitting down. Day would have answered back jokingly to Pinkie’s request under normal circumstances but her words were making serious alarm bells go off within him. It wasn’t helping that the alien look in her eyes had changed to a complete and all-encompassing feeling coming from her.
“Of course he won’t Pinkie. You can’t just go asking anypony that.” Twilight answered after a few seconds of silence. Day shook his head.
“Hold on a minute...” Day said quietly. Twilight gaped at him incredulously, “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t mean marrying her.”
Pinkie Pie shuffled closer to his side and bumped up against his metal hips. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Day made a note to change his clothes soon he only just realized how tattered they seemed after running through the forest.
“What’s the Machine?” Day asked Pinkie. He unconsciously emphasized the word. It had power - meaning beyond what it literally defined.
Pinkie Pie shuddered, shook her head, and closed her eyes. Her voice was perfectly flat and emotionless when she replied, “You know it. You saw it. In the cold, cold, lonely, lonely, dead, dead void.”
Twilight stared at her friend almost fearfully. The penultimate word Pinkie spoke was heavy - literally so. Around them, the air crushed inward and became utterly cold and still for the briefest of moments. Instinctually, she knew no mere magic could conjure up the effect she just felt and it was terrifying.
Day looked into Pinkie Pie’s eyes for a moment longer, into the alien presence and intelligence that hid behind the facade of happiness, joy, and laughter.
“Yes.”
“What?!” For the second time that night, Twilight’s angry cry filled the library. She stared at her friends and Day like they were insane. She looked back and forth between Day’s serious face and Pinkie’s unusually serious and thankful one so quickly Day wondered how her neck didn’t snap.
“I’ll explain, if you let me. I wasn’t before but... things just changed. There’s nothing I can do about Celestia’s order to you, at least in the legal sense, but honestly I don’t care. So, would you like to know what’s going on. Really going on?”
He continued before she could even respond, “Princess Luna defied God. And I don’t mean in the way you’re thinking. From what I understand, you have two goddesses that are your rulers. In my old world, they would rate as minor demi-gods - the spawn of the true God. Not just a being that controls the sun or moon or night sky, but one who created everything. One who made complexity, causality, reality - the stuff everything can exist within and the conceptualization of reality in the first place. It is the first observer and the last.
“Honestly, I didn’t believe Luna when she told me about this. Even if the idea exists in my old world, believing it is something entirely different than understanding it. Too many things that are happening that are coincidence; but too much has happened for me to ignore this anymore. This whole thing started, from my perspective, three to four days ago. Something, presumably God, took me from my home and killed me. Tortured me. And left me in the void. It was horrible.”
Day paused for a moment to push the memories away. Twilight immediately filled the silence with questions, “Where were you from? What’s torture? What’s this void?”
Day replied, “I was from a planet named Earth, assuming this is the same universe, it’s somewhere out there.” He pointed up through the roof. “As for time, I don’t know anymore. I spent a long time in the void, I know it was a long time but not how long, there is nothing there. You are nothing when you’re there. When I woke up in the forest the first time, I could have been older than Celestia or a few minutes older than when I was killed. I don’t know when I am.
“I... don’t know if you’re serious about that second question. You don’t know what torture is?” Day asked.
“I’ve never heard of the term. So no.” Twilight replied. Day looked down at Pinkie Pie and she shook her head. Day was surprised, he at least expected the pony that knew so much of what she should not know to know.
“Then I’m not telling you.” Twilight opened her mouth to protest but Day held up a hand. “No. I know this seems silly and arbitrary but I refuse to introduce such an evil concept to you. I’ll speak to Luna about it, but I won’t be responsible for contaminating your culture with something so... sick and disgusting.”
“For your last question... I don’t know what it is. It just exists. Or doesn’t. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. It’s like being in a box in the dark without knowing you're in a vacuum sealed box except you don’t think the box is there when it really is there while not actually being there.”
“What?” Twilight deadpanned. Her confused expression was back. Day shook his head.
“Told you. Moving along. Luna went head to head with God and she won. She broke its plans, changed everything. She knew what was going to happen to Celestia and she knew that I was the only chance she would have to change anything. She didn’t explain why, just said that I was part of God’s original plan for their lives.”
Twillight interrupted, “So Princess Celestia-”
“I don’t know. According to Luna, everything is in disarray. Nothing is set in stone anymore. We’re making a new future now. The end point will always be the same but our path, our actions - those are going to be different.”
“So now we’re here. Luna didn’t want to involve anyone, well, except for Fluttershy I guess and I think you heard what I thought about that, right?” Day waited and was rewarded with a nod in confirmation.
“You weren’t supposed to be in on this, I wasn’t clear why, but now you are. Honestly, I don’t think we could stop you if you really wanted to interfere. Luna says the future is completely uncertain, but she’s acting like she knows exactly what’s going to happen.” He paused for a moment. “Well, she does, but only to a certain extent. Point is, I’m arbitrarily adding you to the party.”
Pinkie made a series of celebratory sounds and held up a cardboard sign that read “Congratulations! Twilight Sparkle has joined the party! All characters gain +10% bonus to experience gain!”
Day looked at the sign and snorted. Twilight looked confused.
“As for Pinkie... I’m not going to marry her. Hmm, that might be interesting though... but anyway, I’m not marrying her. She’s being exposed to the void and I won’t let that continue. If that means she needs to stay near me, then so be it. I won’t let anyone be hurt by it after I spent so long there...”
Pinkie Pie repeated her music from before and somehow changed the words on the sign to read “Congratulations! Pinkie Pie has joined your party! All characters gain Laughter Aura and Day Roark gains his first wife! Day receives a +15% bonus to staying power!”
Twilight looked confused again. Day looked up at the sign and choked.
“What!?”