//------------------------------// // Our Unwitting Replacements // Story: Tales of First Contact: Tragedy // by Banjo64 //------------------------------// White. All he could see was white. He shook his head, trying to think, but his thoughts were fuzzy. Where was he? Why was he here? Was he dead? He looked down at his hands. They seemed to be fine, but… something was definitely off about this whole situation. And then he heard someone crying. He turn around and saw what looked like a purple unicorn with wings. Sort of. It was very blurry, and seemed to be transparent, though it was kind of hard to tell as there was nothing but white all around them. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he figured that this crying creature was probably important. And he felt bad letting something cry so hard without trying to comfort it. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked. His voice had an unusual echo to it, but it got the unicorn’s attention. It looked up at him with eyes full of tears. “No. I’m not alright. I’ll never be alright now,” it mumbled, it’s feminine voice full of despair. He was surprised that it, no, she could speak, but decided to push on. “Why? What’s wrong?” he asked. Her expression grew desperate. “Please… please just go away. I… I don’t want to have to watch as…” she trailed off before she looked at the ground. “No… no, you deserve to know, at least. It’s not right for me to ask you for anything. Not now,” she said before turning back towards him. “Know what?” he asked. The unicorn hesitated. “Why you’re going to die,” she answered. He was somewhat shocked by this, yet for some reason he wasn’t too troubled. It just… didn't seem too big a deal. He somehow didn’t feel alarmed by being told he was dying. He knew that this wasn’t right, but he just felt so unusually calm. “I’m going to die?” he asked, his voice matching his mood. The unicorn turned away, but forced herself to look at him again. “Yes. Very soon. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it,” she said. “And you know why?” he asked. The unicorn looked ready to break down again, but she forced herself to speak. “A very long time ago, our civilizations spanned the world. Ponies, zebras, griffons, and all the rest. And we had magic, a form of energy that was the cornerstone of all life. But then, one day, we saw disaster coming. A great force that none of us could stop. All intelligent life on the planet was certain to perish, but we devised a plan to survive.” The unicorn took a deep breath, and let it out. “We combined our efforts, pooled together our magic, and created the ark. A massive vault with the most advanced spell ever performed in history. We wouldn’t survive the end with our bodies intact, so instead it was designed to preserve our memories, our souls, and our magic. We were to remain there, asleep, until the day came that life would return to the planet. Then, the spell would react and reincarnate us, but…” She sighed. “Something went wrong. The ark was supposed to open once life was detected, but it didn’t once life began to bloom again. Maybe the detection system failed. Maybe the ark ended up buried  deep underground during the calamity. All I know is that it didn’t work as intended and when the spell finally activated…” She shivered, but kept going. “When we sealed the ark, we sealed all the magic in the world with us. We thought that without magic, intelligent life couldn’t evolve. We believed that nothing more advanced than moss would ever grow. It never occurred to us that a new civilization might rise up from our ashes. We didn’t think it was possible! And now… and now…” Tears began to flow once again from the unicorn’s eyes. “You… you can’t create living bodies without raw materials. Moss and microorganisms would have been sufficient, but instead… instead…” The unicorn's body was wracked with sobs as she covered her face with her hooves. “Instead it’s… it’s using the best material it can find. A ready supply of all the necessary components. We didn’t know. We didn’t think…” She was overwhelmed, and collapsed to the ground with a wail of agony. He waited patiently. He had figured out where she was going with this, but he could tell that she needed to say this. Finally, she managed to choke it out: “It’s you! You and all your people! We're killing you! We’re killing all of you because we were too stupid to consider intelligent life without magic! We’re killing you and using your bodies to build new ones for ourselves! This wasn’t supposed to happen! It wasn’t supposed to be like this! We didn’t want to do this! I’m sorry! I’m sooorrryyyyy!” the unicorn wailed as she collapsed into a fit of uncontrollable sobs. He was… well, he wasn’t sure what he felt. He didn’t feel angry. He didn’t feel sad. He didn’t feel… anything. He just felt… empty. Hollow. But he knew he didn’t want the unicorn to just sit there and cry. Perhaps some part of him wanted to be upset about all this, but if he only had so much longer to live, he figured he might as well do something useful with it. After all, he still had one precious thing he could give her. He made his way over and pulled her into a hug. Time seemed to have no meaning as he sat there, holding the hysterical unicorn, feeling her tears run down his shoulder. He did notice, however, that the unicorn's body was slowly becoming more solid. At last, her sobs and wailing began to slow, and finally stop. “It’s OK,” he said. The unicorn pulled away to look at him, her eyes still full of tears. “No. It’s not OK. You’re only saying that because there’s not enough of you left be angry at me,” she said. He looked down at his hands. He could see through them now. “The process is nearly over. Soon, I’ll be complete in a new body and you’ll be…” the unicorn turned away. “I know. But before I go, I want you to know that I forgive you,” he said. She turned back toward him in shock. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t mean to do this. Don’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t prevent,” he said with a smile. “No… no please, I don’t deserve…” the unicorn stuttered. He just pulled her into another hug. He suddenly began to feel incredibly tired. He knew what that meant. “Can… can you tell me your name? I didn’t want to remember, but...” The unicorn whispered. His head was feeling fuzzy, but he managed to force it out. “John. John Barton,” he said. “John…  I… I… the spell wasn’t designed for intelligent life, and magic tends to make things like souls sticky. Maybe… maybe some small part of you will remain here, with me. If it does, I swear I won’t stop trying to find a way to bring you back. I promise,” said the unicorn. John smiled. “Thank you…” he whispered. He closed his eyes, and let the exhaustion take him away. It wasn’t that... bad, really. At least… It… didn’t… … hurt... … .. .