//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: Option Three // by Mirta //------------------------------// Princess Celestia knew Anonymous had woken up when she saw the ceiling above his bed turn from an undefined white blur to a far more detailed representation of the paint and the bumps it had in it. He groaned and rubbed his forehead before propping himself into a sitting position with his hands. As he looked down, the ceiling became a blur again but she could see the pictures of ships his covers had on them. The little bit of faint, greenish light from the nearby streetlight that made it through the closed curtains wasn't nearly enough to see color, but Celestia still saw the blue of the waves and the yellow and red of the ships. “Every morning I wake up, and hope the first thing I see will not be you. But every time I wake up, you are sitting right there just to remind me of my mistake.” Anonymous let out a groan and ran his fingers through his hair while muttering something she didn't understand. “And I keep telling you to stop blaming yourself of it. All you wanted to do was return home; I cannot blame you for it.” He blew some air out of his nose in a way that resembled a chuckle as a twisted smile took over his face. “And which one of us has driven himself halfway insane by spending several days poring over the data generated by two inter-dimensional jumps and comparing it to his calculations, only to find out he made a mistake in assuming the machine would not find a nigh-infinite supply of power to kick itself into a positive feedback loop? I ignored the first rule of amplifiers and built one with poles in the right half of the complex pane and assumed a limited power supply would limit its output.” Celestia couldn't quite meet his eyes as he looked at her, for she didn't even understand what he just said. Her heart wanted to talk him into forgiving himself, but he sounded like he really had broken some base rule that should never be broken. “But you're right about one thing: I did not mean to do any of it. That does not change the fact that it happened and that I am responsible for it, or the fact that my so-called friend has decided to spread the story as far and wide as she can despite the fact that nobody believes her?” It happened several days ago. She'd got sucked into his world and had woken up to find out she was only a part of his mind and only saw what he saw, or remembered if it wasn't in his line of sight. None of the other humans had reacted to her speech or gestures even when she'd waved a hoof right in front of their faces when he had gone to meet them. She'd trotted right through them when she'd tried to ram into them to get them to quit fooling around. “Say, I have been thinking about this.” Anonymous put his spoon back into the cereal bowl. “Why was I drawn into your world? Was it the only one? Pure blind luck?” His brow furrowed as his eyes bored into Celestia. “It's because of the horn piece. It acted as an anchor and drew you to Equestria.” “Hm.” He thumbed his clean-shaven chin. “So after I got there, my energy level or something started draining and you thought it could be dangerous.” She nodded at him, raising a brow at him after she'd done so. “If my energy level started draining after I came to your world, what has happened to your energy level now that you're in my world?” “I...” Celestia felt her eyes lost focus as she recalled the conversation she'd had with Twilight. She didn't feel anything weird, but then again she didn't have a body either. Or rather, she did but it was not in this world. Was it enough that her body was in Equestria where it could replenish its supply of magic? “...I'm not certain.” She swallowed quite loudly. “I never told you why I had to return, did I?” The hinges of the closet creaked quietly as Anonymous pulled it open and reached downwards to get his shoes out. “No. I always thought it was something personal, like a mare and foals.” His fingers stopped their dance with the shoelaces as looked up and at her with a raised brow. “I do not have a wife or kids. The girl I am seeing is... well, I have known her for many years but both of us have had others. Maybe we will end up together one day. But she is not why. Remember when I told you of the horn shard?” “You said it was sold as an occult item and was for black magic?” He stood up and reached into the closet again, this time taking out his jacket. “Well, yes. But it is only a small piece of the whole thing. I left the larger part behind and now I am afraid the people I worked with will figure out what I did with it and replicate my results.” Celestia felt her ears perk up. Was he really so worried about what his people would do? “Why keep that a secret? I would have done everything I can to aid you.” He pulled a beanie over his head and placed a gloved hand on the door handle before pausing to look back at her. “If you want to help me now, you could go to sleep. It should be about the time for that. I really do not need any distractions.” Celestia caught herself nodding off soon after they got on a bus. She hadn't had nearly any control over when she slept for the last few days, and had been awake for the whole night when Anonymous slept, so it did not come as a surprise to her. “I'm going to sleep now.” Either Anonymous did not hear her or then he did but didn't want to look odd talking to nothing, but he didn't react in any way to her words. She laid down on the aisle, put her forehooves under her chin and gave in to the waves of drowsiness. She dreamed of lying in bed, like she had every time ever since it happened. She couldn't see anything. Her eyes were closed and she couldn't open them, not matter how hard she tried. Sometimes, if she tried really hard, she could make her right ear twitch slightly, but otherwise she could not move. It was like she had been cast in concrete. The sound of hoofsteps came from somewhere. She had completely lost track of time due to her sensory deprivation and thought it was just her brain making up something to fill the void, but the sound persisted and became louder. It was coming closer, and soon she heard the click and a creak of a door opening. “Luna, are you sure this is a good idea?” Twilight's voice. Her right ear twitched. She tried to open her eyes, move her head, lift the covers off herself, anything. But she couldn't. “Of course. Why would it not be?” Luna. She was close. The scent of fresh pancakes reached her nostrils. “It's just... Never mind.” If only she could move, tell them she was there, they could help. The sound of cutlery hitting dishware filled her ears, and she could smell the sweetness of whipped cream mixed with pineapple and blueberry. “Look sister, isn't it glorious?” Somepony touched her. Grabbed her hoof. “I-it's fine, let me help.” Luna's voice trembled and Celestia could feel the shakiness of the hoof that had grabbed hers. “Here, y-you like strawberries, right?” A berry was placed in her hoof before the hoof was pressed into something damp and foamy. “There.” Please, she pleaded to whatever force holding her there, let me move. Just a bit. A hoof, my lips, anything. But her hopes were in vain. The only thing that made her move was Luna as she put another berry into the hoof she was holding and pressed it into the foamy substance again. “That wasn't so hard, was it?” Celestia heard a sniffle and felt a droplet fall on her covers. “This-” Luna's voice broke. She sniffled again, and then Celestia heard a multitude of crashes, clinks and smashes from around herself. Something heavy, warm and soft fell on her. She felt her cover get damp near it. “She's not coming back, is she?” Celestia woke up to find herself in Anonymous' room. The bookshelf and the books in it were illuminated by the lamp hanging from the ceiling, but the words on their backs meant nothing to her. A mess of thin cables crisscrossed on the floor, all leading to or from the device of his that was in the middle of the room. He was sitting on the chair made of old, heavily worn wood, intensely studying the screen of his computer. “How long did I sleep?” She rose onto her hooves and stretched a rear hoof as far back as she could, letting out a satisfied groan, then repeated the procedure with the other hoof. “About seven hours. Long enough for me to do almost everything I had to.” He spun himself around on the chair, hanging an arm over the backrest. “Oh. And what was it you had to do?” Her mind was still muddled by her sleep and she couldn't think as clearly as she would've liked. “Here, take a look...” He stuck a hand in his pocket and dug out a bundle of fabric, then pulled one corner until something conical rolled onto his hand. Celestia's eyes went wide as she recognized the grooved object. “All I had to do was tell them I had forgotten something in the laboratory when I was fired.” She stared wordlessly at the horn in his hand. Only a tiny piece near the point was missing. “There is a handful of adjustments I still have to do and then I will gather all my plans and sketches. Then I will send them, and us, back to your world.” “Are you ready?” He was squatting beside the pile of paper. The machine on top of it made clicking noises as he pressed some of the buttons on it. “I suppose I am.” Celestia sat down next to the pile, her heart pounding in anticipation. Anonymous kept clicking the buttons without pause. “There we go, now I only have to-” Bang. There was a sudden flash of light inside the machine accompanied by a loud noise. Anonymous flinched away from it and shook his hand like he was trying to cool it down while muttering something she couldn't understand. “What happened? Are you okay?” She stood up and trotted closer to see that one of his fingertips was blackened. A thin stream of blood was oozing form under the fingernail. “Stings like a...” He said something she couldn't understand again. Then everything stopped. For a moment, the entire world stood still. A tiny pinprick of darkness appeared in the machine. The whole room stretched infinitely towards it, never quite reaching it. There was a sudden flash.