//------------------------------// // 16 - Occluded Hero (Tragedy Part 3) // Story: Bat's Academy // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone The buildings flew past me as I ran across the rooftops. Neighdo was a blur. One I didn’t care to focus on. One I couldn’t afford to focus on. I could feel my heart with the back of my mind. It was screaming in something beyond mere agony. If I wavered for even a moment in my crystal clear, laser focused, precision efforts to plan my pending attack… I would fall deep into a black abyss from which I doubted I would ever recover. No! No! Don’t even think about THAT, Sherbert. Focus on the job at hoof. I was a Shinobi, not the Mare With no Name, John Neightrix, or Officer Murphy. I couldn’t just go in guns blazing and take everything down via sheer balls of steel. I needed a plan. I didn’t have my Gi on me. I could go get it. Though, I did feel that potion Tami gave me starting to fade. Either it wasn’t meant to fully restore your stamina, but merely replenish some of it, or I was seriously injured somehow and pushing myself way too hard with the dead-sprint I’d been doing for the last five minutes. Yeah, getting my Gi was a bad idea. I’d have to improvise. That was fine. I had stealth op training. I could find everything I needed inside. First, I would acquire one of their uniforms. These wings would have to go. I’d hide them with an illusion. Change my face up. Don’t imitate a specific student. Just appear ordinary looking. Second, acquire a shiv. A teleport strike while he’s not looking will be the most effective. Preferably materialize with the blade inside the target. There’d be a kitchen. It would have knives. We’d find that. Third: Locate Xii and exterminate. Accept any consequences for this action, be it death at his student’s hooves, or being arrested. Yes. That plan would work. I reached the edge of a rooftop, one of the last ones before I’d have to take to the street level as the forested section of the district was coming up, and its canopy was just too thick to do tree running in. I gave my magic a quick pulse as I jumped, spreading my wings to glide and get the extra distance. My hooves left the rooftop, I began to soar through the air, and then i just stopped. Instantly. With no discomfort. Just like pausing a movie. “Huh?” I asked of reality itself. I swished a hoof at the air below me. It wasn’t solid. I wasn’t atop an invisible platform. I wasn’t glowing, no unicorn had grabbed me. My wings didn’t let me hover like this. I’d been using them to glide the whole way over. The flying bu- The air in front of me flashed white. Bright white. The light forming a vertical streak before radiating outwards. Discord. Nothing else had magic that looked like that. Not even any of the others of his kind. The Spirit of Chaos slid out of the light much like a snake slipping through a crack in a wall. For one terrifying second he looked at me with genuine hatred. Hatred mixed with worry, fear, and- FEAR!? What in all of Existence could make a deity who was the anthropomorphic personification of chaos itself afraid!? While I tried to sort that out, Discord froze, frowning apologetically as he looked at me seemingly with pity. He recoiled back on his serpentine body slightly and stroked his beard with his lion’s paw while looking me up and down. “Well, at least you’re not what I thought you were,” he said with genuine relief. “What’s going on?” I asked my ears laying flat with fear of my own. “Why are you worried? What’s wrong with me?!” Something had to be wrong with me. Discord had come out of that teleport ready to destroy! What the flying buck could possibly- Discord snapped his talon, and a globe of darkness surrounded the two of us like a shell made from obsidian. He produced my messenger gem with a twitch of his paw and held it in the center of his palm. “It just so happens that I need some help,” Discord said with a nod, looking directly into my eyes, or rather, seemingly through my eyes. “But we’ll need a little privacy.” “Right, which is what the bubble’s for,” I said dumbly. “̟B̬͇̝̖͐̄͜ͅo͔̠̳͓̖͂̀̔́õ̹ͭ͆͊̾͑ͮp̰̗̩̭̼͍̈̔!̩̤̙͆͋͒ͭ͗̃”̦̩̦̰͍͖̍̽̎ ̝̽ͪ̍ͫ̔̃ͤ̀D̤͔̬̥̀̕i͈͚̰͔̥ͬs̒̽ͦ̉ͫ҉̳̯̝c̥̙̹̮̜̗̐̇͒ͨ͆͌̐ȍ̲̼̙̤̍͑ͫr͙ḍ̲̠̦ͣͤ̉͘ͅ ̯̭͉͖̪s̆̍͏a̠̥̠͈̝͓ͦͫͫͅi̞̤̫̎̃ͥ̋ͪ͋ͪd͓͓̩͐ͭ ̶̄ͭ̋̇̓a̜̦̹ͬ́͗̏̄̚s̲̭̭͌ͪ̌̈ ̷̘̦̜̭̼̩̹ͮ͆ḥ̯̻̏ͩͫ͟e͎̳͓̘͔ ͓̻̟̱͗̽ͥ̎͟ͅt͂ͧ̄̍̊͑ͩa̯̠͙̻̅p̆̾̈̓͐͗͏̯̥̘̦p̟ͯ̃̒ͪ͒̓ͨȇ̷̹ͥ̈̊̾̚d̡̊̈́̿ͬ̏̿̆ ̹͞m͗͘y̲͔̲̳̪̖̺̔ ̌̎̓͐̋̽͏g̢͛̐̀͌eͤ̊ḿ̭͕̽̓ͭͅ ̪̯̻̪̀͗̒w͓̳̽͒͗ͅĩ͔̟̌͌̆̎ͨ͛̕t̪̥̼̜̲̼̍ͥͩ̂̈́ͫ̃͢h̤͉̱̍̆̕ ̳̺̱̬̞̘̿̍͑͒̔ͧ͐h͎̠̙̞͂̌ͮ̂̑i̙ͣͤ͗͘s̔̅͑̂͗̈ ̳̘̩͍͖̹ͅc̜̭̘̉l̰̝̜̟̹̺͙ͣͩ͐͐ͩ-̰̻̯̻̟̕ ████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE ███████████ - ████████, Neighpone “What the hay!” The Emperor exclaimed, jumping up from her seat as the recording morphed into a static image of a CD lying atop a grid with Discord’s laughing face floating above the disk. “To be fair, I think he can just see magic. There’s no way he didn’t know I was recording everything she saw,” Rojā said as he hit the fast forward button on his remote control. “But he looked at me!” The Emperor insisted, staring at the ancient Test Pattern in horror. “DISCORD WAS MAD AND LOOKED RIGHT AT ME! PANTS TO BE DARKENED!” “He looked into the camera. He’s a trixter type. He didn’t look specifically at you,” Rojā said with a shake of his head. “Every report I have say’s that Discord isn’t omniscient. None of the Arameneli are.” “It’s a gut feeling,” she said with a frown as she took her seat once more. “We don’t hear a thing from this conversation, do we?” Rojā nodded. “I’m afraid not. Nothing I could do could get anything to happen other than for the head to repeat ‘ah ah ah! You didn’t say the magic word’ over and over again. And before you ask, it wasn’t ‘please’.” The Emperor sighed and rubbed her head for a few moments. “You think that Discord told her to do it, don’t you?” she asked. Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.” “Unfortunately, since we can’t know, I can’t give that possibility any weight in my judgement,” the Emperor said adamantly. “And even if he did, legally speaking, unless he threatened her, there’d be nothing to do anyways. The law is the law.” “I still would like to think that she had a very good reason,” Rojā stated as the footage started to play again. “Oops! Let me just rewind a bit.” The Emperor steepled her hooves in thought. “However, Sherbert is right. Knowing what made Discord act like that is something very important to know. Once this is done, Rojā, I want your cell to try and find out. I refuse to not know.” Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone The Unseen Conversation ”Boop!” Discord said as he tapped my gem with his claw. I blinked once. His switch flip from super serious to the normal silliness he embodied was like a slap to the face. “I- I don’t,” I stammered. “What’s going on?” Discord snapped his talon, conjuring an ordinary folding chair, and took a seat upon it in mid air. “That is a question with a very complicated answer, Sherbert,” he said, waving a paw to drag me closer to him. “Before I answer it, let me just clean you up a little.” Clean me up? I mean, I guess I had to be pretty dusty, and a bit scorched, and otherwise grungy from the fight with Mai, but... “But why though?” I asked, tilting my head. Discord reached out with his talon, and grabbed my forehead. I expected pain as his nails dug into my forehead, but instead, nothing. I felt nothing. As he retracted his hand, a long thick strip of nothing pulled away from me, like he was pulling a rope through a hole in a bucket. I felt… cold. Discord balled the nothing up, and tossed it from paw to talon a few times. It was… Unsettling. It wasn’t as if he were merely tossing a black ball back and forth. No. It was… Nothing. A blank space within space. A hole, that behaved like an object in and of itself. A thing that was not a thing. “Can you see this?” Discord asked me, as he tossed the nothing-ball up, playing a short game of hacky sack with it. “Or do you think I’m doing some sort of interpretive dance?” “I… Both see, but also don’t see, a nothing that is something,” I said with a wince at just how incoherent I sounded. He nodded once, looking at me extremely critical. “I’m not… Comfortable being serious for long periods of time. So please don’t interrupt me,” he begged. “This situation is very serious. So serious that I’ve sealed this pocket of the universe off from the rest of it, temporarily disenchanted your messenger gem, and am jamming your watch, so we can be absolutely certain no one is listening. “Since you can see this, you need to know something that no mortals should know. You must also Pinkie Promise to never, ever, discuss your knowledge of this thing with anyone who doesn't already know of it.” Discord paused and gestured at me with his talon, prompting me to swear. I nodded. “I promise to never tell anyone what you are about to tell me, unless they already know about that thing,” I swore. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Discord snapped his talon, and the nothing returned to rest in his paw. “This, is Voidstuff,” he explained. “It’s the stuff which fills the space between universes. How much do you know of my kind and our role in maintaining this universe, Sherbert?” “Not very much,” I admitted with a small blush. He nodded once and snapped his talon, the ball of Voidstuff vanishing completely into the burst of light. “Understandable. We don’t exactly tell mortals much about what we do. A shame really, you can be some of the most fun things within the entirety of creation itself!” He sighed. “But we do exist for a purpose. It’s our job to make sure that this universe exists forever, and that everything in it works exactly as described in the rules we were given.” “I know that,” I said, wondering why he was giving me a lecture about the purpose of the Gods. Discord nodded once. “One of the tasks is to keep this universe free of things known as Voidborn. Specifically, that’s the job of my great great great grandson, Chief- Um, well, you’d only know of him as War. “When Voidstuff, or Voidborn, gets inside a universe, it’s a very very bad thing. Voidstuff is raw potential. It can become, or be made, into absolutely anything. Even impossible things. It can do things even I can not do. All because the inherent property of true nothingness, of the Void, is to make something. “Voidborn are creatures which Voidstuff has made, that simply appear within the Void. The vast majority of them are extremely hostile, and very dangerous. They seem to exist only to destroy, and are quite capable of killing myself and everyone like me. They are very bad news. “How bad? Well, while eavesdropping on my own creator, I happened to learn that this universe exists as a lifeboat to escape a universe that ONE ancient Voidborn had gotten its tendrils into and was devouring. That’s how bad this stuff is. “And you came into contact with a magical effect created via Voidstuff. This means Chief missed one while defending a breach into the universe. We would know if a powerful Voidborn had gotten in here, we would simply feel it. Since we had no clue about, well, whatever corrupted you, it must be a very minor incursion. Perhaps just a few cultists being fed energy, at the worst it's a single minor Voidling. “I need to know exactly where you came into contact with that Voidstuff.” Well, that left absolutely no room for error! Doing my best to suppress the loud screaming that was my own fear, I gulped and nodded. “The obvious thing was the suit of armor Mai was wearing when we fought. It had a bubble around it that just… Deleted magic. But she was completely fine inside it. K-Kazumi… She said that should have disintegrated her.” Discord nodded and stood up, folding up his chair, and also removing it from existence. “Thank you very much, Sherbert. Please wait here a moment while I take care of that cleanup, and then come back here to finish with you.” “Wait!” I said, the fur on the back of my neck standing on end. “But you said I was contaminat-” “I took the Stuff that was killing you out already. I’ll fix everything I can when I get back. I need to know what did it. One moment,” Discord said, vanishing with a snap of his talons. And then reappearing with a flash of light slightly to the left of the one he made when he vanished. Before the first flash had even begun to fade. Discord stretched his arms over his head as he remembered. “Whew! That was rather exhausting. I didn’t keep you waiting, did I?” He asked as he lay down in mid air, seemingly tired. “Um, you literally arrived the moment you left,” I replied. “Can you time travel?” “Yes. It’s been five hours for me. Cleaning up that armor was… Tricky. So was tracking down where it was made. But that’s all been taken care of,” He said with a smile. “The truly exhausting part was throwing Luna and her girls off the trail.” “Wait, they're here!?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat at the thought of some of my biggest heroes seeing me snap like I had when Mai… Killed her. Discord nodded and reached behind my ear, producing a life size Lyra plushie, complete with her Knight’s uniform. I couldn’t help but be impressed with the life-like level of quality, until I realized that Discord had just conjured it. “Yes, here you are, fanfilly,” Discord teased just before yawning. “Before you ask, I had to throw them off the trail. There are some rules even I can’t break. One of them is allowing powerful mortals to know of the Void.” I took the plushie and stuffed it into the magic pocket in my left vambrace. Life was on something of a ‘take things from Sherbert’ crusade. At the very least, i was keeping the stupid joke plushie. At least at the end of this mess I’d have something… "Sooo, are we going to erase my memory of all this?” I asked hesitantly. Discord shook his head. “Oh, Sherbert… I’m sorry, but I can’t do that to you. Not with how much of the Void you were exposed to. Once you can physically see it, there’s nothing that can be done to make you forget. “Let’s get you as fixed up as best we can.” I frowned. The realization that my energy had been falling because I had been dying hitting home hard. “So… What happened?” I asked. Discord sat up and conjured a tiny version of myself into the palm of his paw. “You are an Ancient Unicorn, complete with their physical magic. It’s very simple stuff. It allows you to temporarily transform your own body to make it better. Of course, you know that. “What you don’t know, is this.” Discord tossed the tiny me upwards, and the illusion unfolded, becoming a lifesize picture of my spine, and more importantly the gems implanted in it which allowed me the limited spells I had. I nodded in realization. “The magic decided my gems were a body part,” I said with an understanding smile. “Bingo!” Discord laughed. “It altered them. Thing is, crystals like that take power to change. Unlike your body, they won't return to normal once your magic leaves. Since you’re not Twilight, I assume you don’t know that illusion and transformation magic is, well, technically speaking, quite close to one another. “That nifty little illusion toy you got for yourself seems to have become a transformation spell instead. And once that happened, the magic you were throwing around like a sack of anvil shaped kittens, used it to do what you told it to do. Improve you.” “And that made me become an alicorn?” I asked skeptical. Discord shook his head rapidly. “No no no no! You didn’t do that. Though Luna said the transformation effect is eerily similar. What happened is your uncontrolled magic and glitchy gemstone were creating an entirely new demi-god type form. But it was interrupted by you running face first into Voidstuff designed to make magic go away. “Whatever you would have become, that’s now lost. Forever. You have two options. Well, three, but I don't think you want to keel over dead. I can either try to get you as close to how you used to be as possible, or I can try and complete as much of your transformation as possible. Pick one. And be quick! I’m getting tired of being professional.” I raised an eyebrow. “Um… Why are you being so-” “Because I need your help. Voidborn can hide from us, but not from you. Not anymore. I know you won't say no, because you’re a good pony at heart and don’t want the world to end,” Discord said with a sad smile. “I am sorry, by the way. I never thought we would need a pony’s help. The last time this happened was, oh… Several hundred million years ago. This sort of thing is more rare than Twilight choosing to not read a new book.” “You need my help?” I asked worriedly, trying to take a step back, but my legs just wiggled since I was still frozen in place. “I do. So which is it? As you were, or as you could have been?” Discord asked with another yawn. “Please hurry.” The only reason I felt I could face Xii and win was because I had thought I was an Alicorn… I needed the power boost. “Finish as much of it as you can, please,” I asked. Discord nodded and snapped his talon. I felt icy cold again as more Voidstuff slid out of me. Not as much as before, but it seemed thicker. More like molten metal than a rope. I felt my bones pop and crunch as they shifted. I braced myself for pain, but none came. I could feel things sliding under my skin, which also felt very hot. Something flashed white, looking back to see where the flash had come from, I saw my left flank. I had it. I got a cutie mark! AT BUCKING LAST! I had NO IDEA what it was! It was a lightning bolt which pointed up, and kinda looked a bit like an arrow, with a blue streak trailing behind it which formed a circle around the lightning bolt. “Ah! So that’s what that bit of magic was,” Discord noted. “Cutiemark stuck in that tangled mess of mana. Alright, let me just nudge a few more things. You’re still a tangled mess, but I almost have the knots undone.” “What’s it mean?” I asked curiously. “It looks sort of like the software upgrade icon for my watch.” Discord facepawed and loudly groaned into his paw. “What were you doing when this thing tried to manifest and failed?” “Improving mysel- Oh,” I said, facehooving as well. “My special talent is self-improvement. At least, magically speaking. I kinda suck at just being a better pon-” I felt a few more bits of me shift around, then a massive migraine blindsided me. The pain was intense enough for me to scream. “That’s as far as I can take it,” Discord said, the pain stopping immediately. “Kazumi is filling your mind right now, isn’t she?” I nodded and opened my eyes, “Yeah… I… I swore I would avenge her. How did you know I was thinking of her?” “Because of this,” he said as he pulled a large standing mirror from behind his back. I looked into the reflection, noticing that I was taller by a good bit. It’s weird that I noticed that first because- “I- I'm a thestral!” I yelped as I saw my lack of a horn and well, the normal bat wings attached to my shoulderblades. Nothing else had changed, just my height, and tribe. Discord nodded. “Yes. I just turned the transformation back on, and fed you power. It was still your magic doing the work. Your love for her influenced the change.” “But I don’t want to be a batpony!” I yelped fearfully. “Don’t worry, just a little bit of magic and this will have you looking like your old self,” Discord said as he tapped my forehead gently. “That’s right!” I said with a grin. “You said it warped into a transformation stone!” “Yes, and also no,” he said with a smirk. “I’m afraid that I couldn’t remove all of the Voidstuff from you. Some of it is well, a part of you now. Inseparable. You’re a mishmash of- Um, it’s just simpler to say you’re a shapeshifter now. As in, your form is whatever you want it to be. “I’d say like a changeling, but you won't gain any special powers or magic from shapechanging. Just the body itself. That’s the gem’s part. The Voidstuff’s part lets you simply imagine a body you want and just BE that thing you imagined. Hence why you’re currently a batpony. “Being somewhat composed of potential creation is rather nice, isn’t it?” I frowned, and closed my eyes tightly. I reached for my magic, worrying I couldn’t find it without a horn… But it was there as always. Or rather, most of it was. I could still feel the magic I used to boost myself, or use a TK punch, and my telekinesis itself, but everything else? Completely gone. Not a drop. Maybe it would come back if I were a unicorn? I pushed it towards my implanted gem, and pictured my old self as clearly as I could. I saw the bright white flash even through my shut eyelids. When I opened them, I was my old unicorn self again. But my magic didn’t return to the way it had been. That was enough for me to fundamentally understand what had happened. I’d asked my magic to improve everything, and that counted itself. It absorbed the week parts of my unicorn magic, so, um, all of it. What remained was a vast pool of very focused energy. I could easily push my body to a superequine status for… For some amount of time. I couldn’t tell exactly how long. But it would be a long time! I could feel it. I had more power than I had before by a lot. But none of that magic was for spellcraft. Not one drop. All of it was physical in nature. The slim chance of learning wizardry I’d had before was gone. I would forever more be limited to self-enhancement, telekinesis, and the short range teleport and transformation powers my gems provided me with. Okay. That’s fine. I can deal with that. “Okay,” I said after taking it all in. “I understand what happened to me now. What do you need?” Discord smiled and slithered through the air like a snake to take a position in front of me where he conjured a chalkboard. “I need you to be a hero,” he said as he began to draw an odd looking sigil in the chalkboard. I blinked. “Um, come again?” “You know, that hero thing you’ve always wanted to be? I need you to do it now,” he said, taking a step back from the board so I could see what he drew. The sigil looked like nonsense to me. It had to be an insignia, rather than an arcane device. It looked like a backward question mark, a fishhook, and an exclamation point arranged in a triangle around a little dot they all shared as a ‘base’. “This is a Voidborn glyph. It’s how they write. I’m afraid I don’t know the language,” Discord said as he pulled a book labeled ‘Equish-Voidborn Dictionary’. “Unfortunately this book doesn't actually exist.” I nodded. “Okay. Why is this symbol important?” “It serves as a magic circle, and allows for Voidstuff to be infused into it and- Well, you know, do magic. This one was made out of copper wire on the inside of your former enemy's barrel-plate,” Discord said with a frown. “It… Seems more powerful than the few we’ve encountered before. Especially since the dojo Mai lived at is… Invisible to me.” “Woah, woah, woah, you can’t see the Flying Horse!?” I asked, ears laying back in alarm. Discord shook his head again, flashing a rather creepy smile my way. “No. But I know where it should be. Which means they are using one or more of these glyphs to hide that building from all anthropomorphic manifestations of fundamental concepts.” “Which implies they know they should hide from you if they are using this stuff,” I said with a grim nod. “Exactly. But they don’t know that your little brush with the Void means you can see it. They can’t hide it from you,” Discord said with a sly wink as he snapped his talons, summoning a box of matches into the air in front of my face. “All you need to do is sneak in there, destroy the glyph, and then I can get rid of this threat before it becomes a real problem.” I frowned. “That’s it?” I asked skeptically. Discord nodded and gave me a smile. “I can’t do this alone. If I try to clean up Voidstuff I can’t see, I could accidently doom everything to, horrible things. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy chaos, and while few things would cause more chaos than a sudden Old One invasion, I would much rather be the only thing causing chaos in this universe. “After all, mischievous chaos is much more fun for everyone than ‘brain trying to escape your ear insanity inducing horrors are eating our world’ chaos.” I nodded sharply. “Yeah… So, I can be the one to prevent that from ever happening?” I asked, realizing that well, this was it. This was the big thing I would do. This is what would make me a true hero. This is what would make me worthy of being a member of my family! “That’s right,” Discord said, floating over to me and giving me a very brief hug. “And you already ARE one. If you hadn't fought Mai, Luna would never have sensed you transform and summoned me to find out what was going on. We would have never known about this cult. Thank you.” Discord cleared hs throat and floated away from me. “Though, there’s one little problem,” he said sadly. “I know you want to be known as a hero, but no one can EVER know about this.” I nodded. “You already made me promise not to tell,” I said as I looked at the board, memorizing the glyph’s shape. “I don’t care if others know I saved the world. I’ll know, and that’s good enough for me. I’ll do it. Let me out.” Discord smiled in relief. “Thank you, Sherbert. Now, since the super serious, doom and gloom, terrifying tedium has been resolved, I can stop being serious,” he said with a happy laugh. “Go ahead and take care of your part. The next time we see eachother, we’ll go animate some flowers and make them fight inside of a little bread coliseum or something. “Oh! I should mention that plush is- Eh, you’ll figure it out. It will be fun. Don’t worry, it’s safe fun. I remembered Fluttershy forgot your birthday when you were eighteen is all. And well, I also owe Lyra a revenge for a prank of hers. Ta ta!” I felt I should ask about that, but realized that the situation at hoof needed to be dealt with first. Discord snapped his talon, vanishing at the same time as the opaque bubble around me. Surveillance Footage Resumes To my surprise I didn’t fall straight down, my jump’s arc continued through, allowing me to land on the roof I had been aiming for without any difficulty. The moment I landed. I began to plan. New plan. Forget Xii. Didn’t need to kill him anymore. All I had to do was search the place and destroy any █̘̱̱̤̭̰͈̔█͊̀̃̐█̬͉█̗̠̗̼̫͓͇̚█̙̄̓̏̓̏̇̋█̳̤̰̓͛͌̃̍̈́ I could find. ████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE ███████████ - ████████, Neighpone “Pause,” the Emperor ordered as the horrible staticy shriek made bouth herself and Rojā wince in pain. “How… How often did she think about whatever Discord is censoring on the way over?” Rojā cleared his throat. “Um, quite a lot.” The Emperor rubbed her temples. “I really, really don’t want to hear that again.” “Want me to skip to the final confrontation again, Ma’am?” Rojā asked with a frown. “Because naturally she’s thinking about whatever that word is the entire time she’s infiltrating. Whatever it is, she’s looking for them ALL over the place. Even on the bottom of furniture.” “Why didn’t you edit the beeps out?” The Emperor demanded angrily. “I did. They go back in after the video is done rendering,” Rojā grumbled in the unmistakable voice of a stallion experiencing a technical problem from Tartarus itself. “Ah,” the mare applied understandingly. “Well, I don't really need to see the whole infiltration. We already know she can fool our own disguise experts, it’s easy to understand how she got inside the public building. Let’s just see the result of her work.” “Yes, Ma’am,” Rojā said with a nod, quickly skipping ahead and then hitting play. The projection changed, showing Sherbert’s PoV as a bookcase door in a library slid open. “I was shocked as the door slid open,” her inner monologue said, sounding rather surprised. “Honestly, since it’s title had been Dark Sacraments, I’d just wanted to see if the book had the █͙̟̟͉ͫ̓̏ͣ█͂͋ͮ͊̌█̦̞̞̯ͣ͗̃͊̚█̶̖̖̬̌ͯ̑ͪ̔█̡̰̟͍ͫ█̨͉͒̀ͩ̆̄̚ on it’s cover.” “AAAAAA!” The Emperor screamed, clamping her hooves over her ears. “It’s like one drill in one ear, and another drill in the other ear, and they’re meeting in the middle!” Rojā nodded once. “I know… I’m sorry. Don’t worry, there isn’t much more of th-” The projection showed the bookcase slide completely aside, revealing a stairway down to a hidden chamber. A stairway lined with black tapestries, which presumably had the marking Sherbert was looking for on them. However, each of the symbols was completely obscured by a different thirty year old cheesy porn pinup which looked to have been cut out from life sized posters. All of which were snapshots of adorably effeminate stallions dressed in Playcolt Bunny outfits. The Emperor blinked in mild surprise at what she presumed was Discord’s choice of censorship. Censorship which in and of itself was nonsensical. Had the spirit of Chaos wished to truly hide something from others, he could have easily corrupted the entire recording. No, he wanted her to see that something was wrong here, but not exactly what that was. A strange state of affairs to be certain. A true puzzle, one which the Emperor immediately began to solve, distracting her from the matter at hoof by more than a little bit. “Well… This is going to make paying attention to what’s going on hard!” She said after a few seconds, referring to the mental puzzle she was solving. Rojā nodded and turned his face away from the Empress’s bashfully. “Um, yes,” he agreed, shyly looking away from one of the cuter pinups. The Emperor blinked, noticing the difference between their distractions and smiled. “This is why it took you two days to prepare your case, isn’t it?” “NO!” Rojā protested with an indignant stompy. “There was years of footage to go through, time code, and then cut into clips. Besides, Lii is cuter than any of them.” The Empress shot her captain a grin. “Did you check?” She teased. “... Just shut up and watch the thing,” Rojā grumbled. Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone I had to say, using a copy of a book called ‘Dark Sacraments’ to hide your creepy staircase down to the evil chamber of █̬͚̖͙̫█̹̙̥͈́█̷̰͇̜̙̱̃̅͌́̃ͤ█̥̟͈̮̜̀█̙̺̹█̢͔̂͐̑█̸̪͇̘̥̗͖ͫͧ͗̓̂█̯̗̖̭̮̀̀ͭ̔̉͠ stuff is pritty dumb. Then again, it wasn’t titled in Neighponese, but in Equish. Perhaps they were banking on- On someone assuming it was misshelved. And picking it up. And this was a trap. A trap I’d already most likely begun. I looked down the long stairwell, my eyes tracing over the granite flagstones into the distant room below. It could be an illusion… But I was on the ground floor. There could be a hidden basement chamber here. You wouldn’t dig one of those just for a trap. But at the same time, you wouldn’t hide it with a bookcase door that’s triggered by a book on that bookcase. Because every book on that shelf will get handled by somepony at some point. Especially when the trigger book looks out of place. So this door had to be recently altered. For me to find, judging by the fact that the book was titled in Equish. Which mean they knew I was here. Their means of detection had to be arcane. I’d used my improved disguise powers to assume the form of a fairly bland looking Earth Pony stallion, and had gotten a uniform from a clothes line. All while remaining in full stealth mode. I’d talked with a few people to look normal. I’d spent a few minutes practicing in the training yard to further sell the image. I’d spent a good three hours walking arround and looking for the █̝̗͈̖̞̫͊ͥ̽█͈͙͖̞͎̙̯̾̾͑ͫ█̰̺͍͔█̬̝̂̾̓ͭ͊̚█͕̖͍̿ too. No one had stopped me or said anything suspicious. They had some sort of magical security that either detected the shapechange I was using, or had been scrying the fight with Mai and knew I was coming. But why the trap? There would be plenty of ways to kill me while I was looking around. Well, assuming they knew WHERE I was within the Flying Horse Dojo. They wouldn’t set up this chamber for me to find if they did. They’d just have a dozen people attack me at once. Meaning I had stealth going for me even though they knew I was here. Meaning that room down below was what I was looking for, and also where they had set their little trap. But more importantly, it meant they knew I was going to be searching this place. Not good. I put the book back on the shelf, the door closing as swiftly and quietly as it opened. I wasn’t going down there. Not yet. I had a plan. Leaving the small study, I exited the building and crossed the courtyard to the dojo’s dining hall, and entered the kitchen through the back door. I’d been through here before, but the kitchen had been empty at the time. Now a few cooks were walking around, getting the kitchen ready for dinner. I cleared my throat to get their attention. “Hey, so, I was asked to bring a barrel of cooking oil to Master Chinatsu’s room. Where do we store those?” I asked casually. One of the cooks, a purple and gray spotted pegasus mare looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Um… Why does she need that?” She asked, one ear flopping slightly. I shrugged. “Beats me. She asked me to get one, so I am,” I replied, flashing her a ‘I’m just as confused as you’ expression. The mare nodded towards one of the pantries. “That one. Make sure you get a barrel of the cheap stuff. If she’s going to waste it on some weird martial trick, it’s not going to be the good stuff,” she grumbled as she turned back to the recipe book she had been reading. I trotted over and opened the pantry door. It was full of barrels, mostly wooden ones, with a few metal ones here and there. It didn’t matter what kind I got, so I just grabbed the first one I saw and started to roll it out of the kitchen. “Thanks!” I called to the cook. “Hey! Wait!” she snapped. “That’s peanut oil! Don’t you know what oils are expensive?” I did not. I shook my head. “Uh, no?” “Oh for buck’s sake,” she grumbled as she trotted over to the closet, and retrieved another slightly larger barrel. “This is corn oil, dirt cheep. She can waste this one.” I nodded and switched out the barrels, pushing the new one towards the door. “Sorry. Thanks again,” I called. The cook waved a hoof dismissively and returned to her work. That settled it. They didn’t know who I was. Or at least, the cook wasn’t in on it. I rolled the barrel across the training yard. I was only questioned once, and a simple ‘Some kind of strength and endurance training thing, apparently’ was enough to get the instructor to leave me alone. It was funny just how different real stealth is from fictional stealth. Everyone notices the guy peeking around a corner and action rolling into the shadows. No one questions the stallion rolling a barrel any further than ‘wait, why?’ Master Yoshi had been so right about this sort of thing. Just make it look like you belong and you own the place you’re infiltrating. I rolled the barrel back into the small study I had discovered before, and moved it up to the bookcase, and then shoved it upright, and smashed the top open with a quick punch, immediately yelling. “Ah crap!” to make the snap sound like an accident. Sure enough, a stallions’s voice called out. “What did you break?” “Just a chair. The leg snapped when I sat down,” I yelled back. “It’s cool, I know a repair charm.” “Ha! Fatflank,” he laughed. Smirking at the fact I’d gotten away with that, I closed my eyes and focused on my transformation spell, returning to the thestril shape I’d been given. I had no idea how big of a room was down below, or if there was some sort of maze of rooms. A batpony’s hearing would help a lot down below. As soon as the flash of light cleared, I took the Dark Sacraments book down from the shelf once more. The bookcase once again immediately slid to the left, revealing the hidden passageway. Rather than head down the stairs, I began to implement my plan. I grabbed a legfull of books from the shelf, then looked around for Twilight, just to be safe. What? EVERY Ponyvillian would do the same exact thing if they were doing what I was about to do. As soon as I was certain she wasn’t in this library, I quietly began to rip out the pages from the books a hooffull at a time. As soon as I had a large stack of loose paper, I crumpled them as quietly as I could and dunked them into the oil, let them soak a bit, then set the oily papers on the floor. Time for part two. Using my teleknesis, I scooped up globs of the oil, and dropped them slowly onto the █̪̯͍ͭͥ͗̋̐͑█͚̹̣͖̱̠͖̎͐█̗̗̰̤͍͍̩ͬ͆̾ͦͫ█͙̣̮̊̆̓̀̽͑ͣ█͍̣̞ͫ͗̉ͭ s in the center of each hanging tapestry, and made sure that the oil soaked the walls from the tapestry to the floor. That would take care of those. But there could be more. I’d have to go down and see if there was any more of them below. But first, a distraction. Taking some of my papers, I levitated them into place around the steps, making sure to cover the majority of them with a page. Then I took the broken board from the top of the barrel, and wedged it into the bookcase so the door couldn’t slide shut behind me. Admittedly, that was something I knew I wouldn’t have thought of yesterday. Whatever improvements my little stunt had made, I definitely had gotten a bit smarter too. I should have through to try a flat out ‘upgrade everything plz’ years ago… Refocusing myself, I picked up the barrel, turned it upside down, and floated it down the stairwell, making a trail of oil that went all the way down to the bottom, connecting the papers and the tapestries. Cooking oil isn’t flammable, per say, you can’t just light it on fire directly, but it will burn. It just needs to get hot first. A small paper fire will do. As soon as the papers were suitably soaked, and the stairs covered in oil, I gave the barrel a telekinetic shove, and threw it, sending it smashing into the room below. Immediately, a thick purple ray of light smashed into the barrel, the crack of a spellrod echoing up the stairs as the attack connected. Ah ha! Knew it! I focused my magic and teleported down, facing the direction the beam had come from. The room below was small. Basically a stone meditation chamber. Oddly it also contained an alter on one side which had the █̟̬͇͍ͭ̈̃ͫ█̓ͫ͛█̳̳̎͋͊█ͥ̾͂█͈̥̰̜̠̼̆ carved deep into its almost black hardwood top. Only one pony stood in the room. And old unicorn stallion. Dark green fur, with  mud colored neatly trimmed mane, graying, but still quite fit. It had been a long time since I’d seen Xii. Almost four whole years. But I still recognised him. His eyes widened as he saw the barrel, and then me. Understanding he’d missed his shot he turned the silver spellrod my way, readying another blast. I focused again and teleported to the other side of the room, arriving closer to the altar. I scrambled behind it, seeking cover. Hopefully he wouldn’t know where I had teleported too. Fighting a martial arts expert in a small room wouldn’t be a problem, but fighting an armed unicorn in close quarters? Not without an extra advantage. I should have turned on my super-mode before going down here. Idiot! “I didn’t expect you to go fetch a distraction,” Xii said, his hooves clicking on the stone floor as he moved, looking around for me. “Quite the surprise when you didn’t immediately come down here. Rojā trained you well.” I slowly slid the kitchen knife I’d taken on the first trip through the kitchen out from my stolen uniform, and held it ready in my left hoof. Maybe if I got him monologuing… “Funny thing is, you could have had me on your side instead,” I mocked. “Indeed,” the old stallion agreed. “But dwelling on past mistakes isn’t productive. It’s recent mistakes which are far more important to deal with.” “What, like, ordering your psycho granddaughter to kill my wife?” I asked with an angry growl. No! No, don’t get angry. You’ll make a mistake. My ears twitched as Xii moved. I wasn’t really quite able to understand the sound like a sonar. Kaz said that's what it was like I guess it took practice. But I could hear well enough to understand that Xii was moving to the left, and closer to me. I started to shuffle towards the left side of the altar, getting ready to preemptively strike. “No. That wasn’t me, that was an ally of mine,” Xii corrected. “Mai was a failure. Little more than an effective thug. I was done with her. My friend, however, wanted exactly what she could provide. No, my mistake, was fetching a Soul Blade for Mai when she returned.” “And why’s that?” I asked, reaching the left most side of the altar. “Simple, Mai failed, like failures do. It took a lot of resources to acquire that weapon from it’s former owner. It would have been better used by someone else. Mai’s successor, as it were,” Xii said casually. Ohhh, wait a minute, he’s chatty because I’m chatty. We have the same strategy. Shit! He knows I’m here, and that I know he’s there. “You’d think that giving her a █̦͚͉͈͙̈́̾ͨ͋█͙̭̭̩̯̠̱̍̃ͤ̿̈́̑█̖̣͓̮̹͔̞̃̽̑̒ͬ█ͧͧͪ̏̌̾̚█̞̱̺̲̿█͚̰̖̱͎͍͂͒█̝͖̘̘̏́̓█͖̟█͈̙̠̮͔ shield would be a bigger waste than a sword,” I pointed out, hoping that revealing I knew what this room was for would shake him up. “It is… But I didn’t think you knew of the Outside,” Xii said wearily. “You’re not Orange Sherbert, are you?” Oh ho! Is that an opportunity I sense? Yes, I think it is. A plan quickly formed in my mind. People existed in that place, and Xii clearly thought I was one of them. Apparently they could possess people. “No… But I know what she knows, and that means I especially hate you too,” I lied. “Ah, I see. You must have slipped inside her when Sherbert ran headlong into Mai’s shield while casting spells, like the empty headed nobody she was. Surely you can push aside a dead mortal’s desires,” Xii said diplomatically. “I know your kind isn’t as powerful as some believe. You will need help, and I could use some help from one such as you.” YES! Jackpot! “Perhaps I could,” I agreed. “But killing you does sound fun. That’s my primary goal here, have a little… Fun.” Hopefully that sounded evil enough. “Will you at least hear my offer?” Xii asked. “And know that I am not helpless. This spellrod was enhanced by my Patron, who I assure you is more powerful than you are.” “If you have all that power to command, then you don’t need me. I don’t buy that,” I laughed, not even needing to lie for that one. “Ah but I do. My Lord is happy to give me a weapon here, a spell there, but I have yet to please him enough to be granted true favors. Howeaver, I assure you, this rod can kill a lesser █͐͗͌͐█̝͇͂ͪ̌ͨͧ̍́█͇̳ͧ̑́͒ͨ█̻̻͉̮͔͙̣ͫ̈█͖̺̝̳͚͕̘ͬ̊̎̇̇ͫ͊█̼ͣ͑̊̚█̩̬̞ͭ̈ͅ█͇̉̇̈́̂, such as yourself,” he insisted. “What is it you want?” I asked, frowning slightly. Did Discord think it went this far? Well, he did say they formed cults. So, yeah he had to have expected this. “I want your help infusing a mortal with █̹͋̾̌█̏͌ͮ̓█̬█̺̙͚̫ͩͥͤͫ̿̎̚█̓̐ͥ̉█̤͉̼͍͇̌█̜̠̳̟͚͑̽̓█͔̮̜̳̜͈̓͗̎̍ͅ█͚͓̠̯͔,” Xii said plainly. “I want your help to create an immortal, ageless, wise, and powerful being native to this plane of existence.” Shit… I hadn’t thought up a new plan yet. I thought I would have by now. I couldn’t use those matches Discord gave me to light the stairs on fire yet, I needed to stop Xii and break this alter first. Maybe a TK punch to shatter the wood top? Yes, but Xii first. How? “Why do you not want to make yourself immortal?” I asked, to keep the time buying conversation running. “I’m not interested in being immortal,” Xii laughed. “Neighpone has remained weak and pathetic for too long. Our ancestors were proud warriors, and now our children live simple, empty lives, never knowing the glory of conquest. I want to see a new era dawn, and then pass on. “Of course, with Equestria being a global superpower, we can’t return to the ancient ways without a demi-god of our own. As I know your kind can create one for me, it is my duty to create, raise, and train our future Emperor, the first of a new Imperial line. It is not my destiny to be that ruler.” Wow. Okay. So, his motivations are launching total war and committing treason apparently. I wasn’t expecting him to be that kind of evil... “What would I get out of this deal, should I assist you?” I asked, my mind starting to work overtime on an attack plan. “For starters, I could give you all of the failures to do with as you pleased,” Xii offered happily. “If your mind is influenced by Sherbert’s memories as you claim, I imagine you’d enjoy killing Mai again, yes? Well, since she was my first attempt at infusing a pony with the █̥̝̖̫ͩ͗̊̀ͤ██̥̮̝͙ͮ̍̚█̺̱̫̩̻̥ͯ̔, in a way each of them would be another her. “Why don’t you come out from behind that altar and we discuss this business arrangement like civilized people?” BUCK! Did he totally buy this lie? If yes, did he really intend to make a deal with the thing he thought I was, or did he just want me to leave cover to shoot me? After all, he already had a deal with someone else. I couldn’t imagine they were very willing to sh- Oh sweet bucking Luna! ‘She was my first attempt’. That’s why Mai was an evil psychopath! And Xii intended to make MORE. Killing him was no longer personal. He had to die for the sake of literally everyone’s safety! Even if he failed to start a new Empire, he was going to make more and more serial killers as he tried to achieve his goals. I had to do something. Come on brain! Use those smarts you had a minute ago! “I would, but the odds of you blasting me when I stand are too high. Let us continue talking like this, until we establish trust,” I asked. Something metallic thumped down onto a hard wooden surface. “I’ve set my weapon down,” Xii said simply. Had he though? He could have just struck the alter’s top lightly. Screw it. There was no safe way to do this. Power up! I closed my eyes and reached for my magic, and once more pushed it out into my whole body, just like I had before. I felt the change almost immediately. The world seemed sharper. Smells were more potent. I could hear everything far better. I felt strength flow into my muscles. Okay, let’s go! I turned around, tilted my head to the left, and raised up slightly, just enough to peek over the edge with one eye. Xii’s spellrod lay flat against the altar top. Aimed directly at my eye. His hoof resting on the rear end of the glowing, still very much active rod. He fired. The purple beam of light raced towards me. I teleported. His ray blasted a chunk of stone out of the wall. Another millisecond and I would have been minus a head. Xii whirled around surprisingly fast as I appeared behind him, but not fast enough. I lashed out with the kitchen knife, burying it deep in his barrel. I followed the stab with a punch, my free hoof striking the knife’s handle and ramming the blade into him flush with the pommel. Xii gurgled, the spellrod clattering to the stone floor as he dropped it, then wordlessly crashed to the ground in a heap. I wasn’t falling for that. I charged a TK punch, and smashed open the back of his skull with a burst of blue magic. Feeling my enhanced state starting to fade back to normal, I charged a second punch spun around, and punched the evil symbol atop the altar right in the dot! The old wood splintered. I changed another punch, and hit the same spot. The wood cracked, my magic racing across the surface, ripping a large crack through the sigil. A horrific shriek blasted out of the altar The moment that happened, black tendrils of nothingness reached up from the crack lashing out, seeking anything to grab onto. I screamed and jumped backwards, moving out of reach before one could snag me. My rear hooves hit the barrel fragments… Remembering my previous plan, I reached out with my telekinesis and grabbed some of the paper wads, and jammed them into the remains of the barrel. The tendrils continued to grow as I fumbled with the box of matches, getting one to light on my third try. I dropped the match onto the paper. “By fire be purged!” Discord’s voice shouted as the paper and barrel ignited way faster than it should have. A small part of my mind panicked even more at the magical ignition. Another small part laughed as I remembered the box had been branded ‘Chaos Co. Realitycleanser’. The rest of me screamed in terror at the entire situation and telekinetically threw the burning barrel onto the altar, then teleported to the top of the stairwell. “̟̟͔̭̻̳̐̿̀ͣẎ̠̖̙͎̬̙͈͗̒̾̈o̤̦͈͍̙̤̓̅ǘ̱̫̦̪͉͌͋ ̍̇ͭ̅̾̓̑t̹͓̬̼̼̔̌͋̂̍o͕̞̎̄͊ö͔̃̌͋ ̼̿s̙̰͈̝̝̉͐̾h̑ͮå͉̘̦̻̹̬̣̋͑̑ͭ̆̐l͔͙̟ͬͮ̄̄̑ͪl̺͔͙ͅ ̯̥̰͎ͦͦ̆̊͒̚ḇ͇͎̭͎̈̓ͬ͋͑ͦͅu̥̜̮̰̫̗ͪ̏ͤ͆ͣ̄̐r̯̳͙̻̤̮̩̓͆n͙̗̺̱͈͕̋̋͑̾ͅ,̞͚̳̇̾͑ͦͧ̿̊ ̜̞̹͔̞͈̏̇̍̈́͂ͩͩͅm͉͓͚̗̯͍͍̽͊̈́o̼̻̝̣͆̍͊̊̓r̯͈͈̞̎̑̈́̆̔͆t͕̤̙͉̱̮̥̆ͪ͋̃̚ȃ̗̤͚͍̣̭̌l̞!̜̦̟̩̰̜”̺ a scary-calm, genderless voice said over the crackling flames. The trail of oil and paper I’d left on the stairs ignited all at once. The intense wave of heat slapped at me, but after feeling the heat Mai’s flamer gave out, it didn’t really phase me. What did was the wall of fire leaping away from the burning oil and setting the entire library ablaze in mere seconds! I felt my enhanced state fade away completely. Not from it’s influence, just from the time expiring. If I made it out of here alive I was going to train in super-form endurance. I turned and ran out the door, jumping through a wall of flames. Into another wall of flames. Because the entire building was on fire. ████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE ███████████ - ████████, Neighpone Rojā pressed stop. The recording switched off, returning to the chapter menu he had created. “There you have it, Ma’am. My entire case,” he proclaimed. “Sherbert was guilty of murder in the case of Mai, but exemporating circumstances mean she should not be punished. As for Master Xii, she did kill him, but the stallion was a traitor and guilty of conspiring against the Empire and peace itself. As for the fire, she only set a stone structure’s contents aflame, and did so under the orders of one of the gods. “She did not intend to burn down the entire Dojo, nor would it have burned down had that, thing, not caused the fire to spread. The second murder charge is not legal, and even if she had not turned herself in, should be dismissed as she stopped a criminal in progress who was using deadly force against her. That’s self defense. As for the arson charge-” The Emperor held up her hoof. “Rojā,” she said slowly. “What makes you think we can dismiss these charges?” “Because she’s innocent,” he said, face scrunching in confusion. “She is,” The Emperor agreed. “Then what’s the problem!?” Rojā demanded. “When I pardon someone, I am legally required to state why they are being pardoned, in as full detail as I can,” she reminded. “There’s a good reason for that. It prevents judges from misunderstanding why a criminal was pardoned, and thus, upholds the spit of the law. “Xii was most certainly not the only member of this conspiracy. The Flying Horse has dojos in every major city. We have clean up to do, and if I pardon Sherbert, they will know that we know they exist. Sherbert must take the blame for this. Otherwise, the entire nation is at risk from Xii’s second in command deciding to strike openly before we can purge them.” Rojā’s ears fell. “I… I thought you would be fine lying on the form,” he said sadly. “I’m not,” the Emperor said adamantly. “Even if I was, that would likely alert the remaining cultists.” Rojā glared at the Emperor, barely keeping control of his rage. “So an innocent pony rots in prison for however long it takes to finish this!?” He demanded angrily. “No,” the Emperor said with a shake of her head. “It is my job to keep this nation safe, and to uphold justice. I will not keep a hero prisoner. Nor will I ruin her reputation at home. Here is what I will do. “I will write a letter to Princess Luna explaining the situation in full, and then formerly release Sherbert to Luna’s custody. Since Sherbert is a foreign national, she is hereby to be deported from Neighpone, and barred from returning. “The official story will not be a lie. Sherbert had been declared the subject of a blood feud, and in her grief at the death of her wife, attacked and killed the head of the household responsible for the feud. Nopony will think ill of her for that, and it’s true. As for the fire, we will say the fight started it. This is after all, true. “These charges will be dropped later, naturally. Once the cult is gone. More of the full story may or may not be declassified one day. But for now, we must maintain the story, as there is no way in Tartarus I’m going to let the public know that there’s some alien force that’s willing to make deals for immortality. “This entire story is hereby classified as Top Secret, no one is to speak of it except over Dark Net channels. I will devise a plan to flush out the remaining cultists soon. “I have to go now. There’s paperwork to be done before I must get ready to deploy. Sherbert will be released to Luna in the morning.” “Wait!” Rojā begged as the Emperor stood up to leave. “What about her education?! She missed the finals for high school, and she was set to train to master level over the next year.” The Emperor paused, then nodded to herself. “I’ll issue her an honorary High School Diploma. As for her training, she has to leave the nation. I’m sorry.” The holographic projection flickered and died. Leaving Rojā alone in the dark room, wondering how he could give his disciple the final gift she had earned a thousand times over when he wouldn’t be there for her anymore.