//------------------------------//
// Chapter 79: A Visit 
// Story: Daring Do and the Hand of Doom 
// by Unwhole Hole 
//------------------------------//

Light faded. Stone faded. Even the growths of organic machinery began to fade. They were dead. They had been dead for some time. The whole of the machine that had been built around the embryonic vandrare had died, as it had performed its function. Now all that was left had the dull gray consistency of aged trash, and in some places looked like it too, where fragments of older, well-thought-out devices and forms had been imbedded in a matrix that was anything but haphazard. 
“This place is a maze,” said Rainbow Dash.
“It had better not be! They’re tedious and we DON’T have time for that!”
“It is not a maze,” said a voice.
Absence appeared beside Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash cried out and jumped back. For one moment, there had been nothing there but empty space- -and then a white Pegasus had materialized from nothing. 
“ABSENCE!”
“In more ways than one,” said Daring Do. She pressed her hoof against the white pony, and it passed directly through. “It’s a hologram or a spell.”
“Perceptive,” said Absence. Her voice was airy and distant, and her eyes were blank. “But limited. This projection is something more. As you can see.” She tapped Daring Do’s shoulder, pushing her back slightly. The hoof was solid but very cold. 
“Either way, we don’t have time for it.”
Daring Do forced Rainbow Dash along, even though the latter was lagging. Not that she needed to worry. As they ran, the projection- -or whatever it was- -trotted alongside them. 
“I don’t understand what you are attempting to do,” she said at last. “You are minor parts of a process that was started eons before the birth of this universe, and that will continue for eons after. Insignificant, even.”
“I’m not insignificant- -” protested Rainbow Dash.
“She’s not real,” said Daring Do. “She’s just trying to mess with us.”
“I am real,” said Absence. “In a sense. I am the pony you knew. Or what remains of her. A tiny fragment, now running within a nearly complete mind. But her mind cannot render speech, nor can it comprehend spoken words. I suppose I am therefore serving as an interface.” She paused. “Just like the Exmoori mare.”
Daring Do shivered, and Absence smiled, even though she could not possibly have seen. But something else had.
“Absence,” Rainbow Dash slowed and addressed the projection. “Please. You have to listen to me, right now. You have to fight it. You have to.”
“Fight what?”
“Don’t joke about this!” screamed Rainbow Dash, suddenly absolutely serious. “I know you can do it! Come on, you have to get it out of you!”
A look of comprehension passed over Absence’s face. Daring Do had no idea how old she was; her age could be less than five years, or well over a century. For a moment, though, she just looked old. Old and extremely tired. “I was not designed to fight, Rainbow Dash.”
“But I’ve seen you do it!”
“Physically, yes. But that was something I learned. It was not my destiny. This is. To wield the Hand of Doom. Or be wielded by it. To be one with whatever it becomes.”
“That’s HORSE DUNG!” cried Rainbow Dash. She reached out and grabbed the projection by the shoulders. She did not phase through, but from the look on her face, Daring Do knew that Rainbow Dash realized just how cold and unpleasant touching the image was. Except that rather than recoil with disgust, Rainbow Dash’s face contorted with intense concern. “You don’t have to do what they tell you! You can be anything!”
“And could you NOT be, say, the Element of Loyalty? A Wonderbolt?” She paused. “A friend?”
“I chose those things!” argued Rainbow Dash. “Look me in the eye and tell me you chose this!”
Absence looked her in the eye, but did not speak. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash,” she said, her voice almost sounding normal. “This is the way it must be. It is too late for me. I will cease to be when she is born. Until then, I am bound to her. To her fate. And I accept that fact. But I wish it could have been different. Maybe we really could have been friends.”
“But we- -”
The projection vanished in an instant, and Rainbow Dash fell through the empty air and drifting ash where it had once been. She caught herself, but realized that she felt exceedingly cold. She was breathing hard; the dial in her chest was clicking rapidly. 
“Rainbow- -”
“She’s still in there!” Rainbow Dash pounded her hoof against the uneven floor. “She’s still there! Celestia DARN it! How am I supposed to- -I can’t, not if she- -she’s still- -”
Daring Do put her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “I think she knows,” she said. “That’s what she was trying to say.”
“Wh…what?”
Daring Do nodded solemnly. “She knows what you’re trying to do, but the vandrare doesn’t. Either because it isn’t fully awake yet or maybe because it isn’t actually able to understand things like that, not without a brain to help it along.”
“But if she knows, then it knows. It’ll try to stop me.” Perversely, Rainbow Dash almost seemed to take comfort in that fact. 
“Not if she’s preventing it from knowing. But if she is, it’s taking everything she has. We have to hurry. Please, Rainbow Dash.”
“But I can’t…”
“When have you ever said that?”
The tone in Daring Do’s voice was harsh, and Rainbow Dash looked up at her, shocked. 
“When have I what?”
“You’re not a pony who says ‘can’t’. Since when do you make excuses? I didn’t think you did, or even knew how to.” Daring Do glared at her. “I’m starting to think you’re not the pony I thought you were. If you’re going to give up that easy, I was an idiot for taking you on a mission like this.”
Rainbow Dash frowned, her temper flaring. She stood up suddenly.
“I can. Of course I CAN. That’s what I’m afraid of. Isn’t that obvious? I mean, if you could do it, wouldn’t you?”
“If it meant saving Equestria? Without hesitation.”
Rainbow Dash glared at her for a moment, and then turned back to the path. “Then maybe you’re not the pony I thought you were either.”