I glanced out from the cave Tempest had scouted for us now that the sun was beginning to set. "Still looks clear."
"Edward, I told you to relax. My enhancements are keeping me alert better than your bare eyes." I glanced back at Tempest, who was relaxing against the cave wall, shooting me an incredulous leer. I grumbled and stalked back to her.
"You haul me this far and handle all the survival nonsense. Least you could do is let me imagine I'm helping," I groused as I sat down beside her. She scoffed and punched me in the side. With her metal hoof, causing me to tense up and reflexively hug my elbow to where she'd struck.
"Stop complaining."
"Will do," I wheezed. With the exception of my low groaning, the cave was quiet for a few minutes before Tempest spoke again.
"Why did you make something like that.. Transmogri-whatever?" She asked with a mix of curiosity and shame.
I grunted and shook my head. "I didn't."
She groaned. "No, I know it's only a concept, but-"
"Yes, that's what I meant. I didn't even come up with the concept," I sighed. "Frankly, the idea of turning living things into unthinking machines is.. Unappealing."
Tempest blinked and furrowed her brow. "So.. I don't understand. Why was it in your files at all? Who came up with it? Was it Jury?"
I shook my head. "No. It's complicated," I took a breath and leaned my head against the cave wall. "Call it a knowledge exchange."
"With who?" I rolled my head to meet her eyes but didn't answer right away.
"You sure you want to know?" She blinked and considered my question for a minute.
"Well.. Does Jury?"
"Nope. She probably never even noticed the directory this stuff was hidden in," I grimaced. "Since I restricted the whole thing." She nodded slowly and thought for a moment.
"Who?"
"Myself," I replied with a snort. I looked at her and smirked at her confused reaction. "It's true."
"Huh?"
I nodded and sat up. "It's like this," I began, gesturing with my hands as I spoke. "We already know that this world and mine are separate dimensions, right? Well, I came across proof of more than just these two."
I swept my arm. "In fact, the space outside this plane is positively saturated with alternate Equestrias, where the tiniest little deviation leads to catastrophic differences in the long run," I took a shallow breath and turned back to her. "And I know of at least one that also has me in it."
Her eye were wide and darting around. "I- That's- Huh," she looked at the ground and pondered what I'd said. "And this.. other you made the.. whatever it's called?"
I rubbed my eyes. "Yep. A working model, as a matter of fact," I shuddered a sigh. "Which he got a lot of mileage out of before we ever made contact."
"Why?"
"He's an asshole." She flinched and frowned.
"If he's you I can't imagine he's all bad."
I raised an eyebrow at her and leered out the cave mouth. "Well, remember I said what separates those worlds from this one is little deviations?" I saw her nod and nodded back. "Well, what separates me from him is pretty small, but it plainly had a major impact."
"What's that?"
"Twilight and he were never friends," I hummed and scratched my chin. "In fact, based on his testimony, she and her friends never met either."
Less than half a day later, we found ourselves approaching one of the watch towers I'd ordered constructed. Like the central tower of the Citadel, it was a sleek, grey structure with faintly glowing blue windows and small hovering drones circling it. Occasionally the drones flew off and were replaced in orbit by others returning from patrol.
It was thanks to these constant patrols that we were spotted and the earth pony captain of this outpost came galloping out to see us once we were within twenty feet of her tower. I stood with my hands on my hips, staring her down as she slid to a stop before us.
"Supreme Administrator, sir!" She saluted with a quaver in her voice. Clearing her throat she looked between me and Tempest. "I uh, wasn't expecting you!"
She blinked and did a double-take at me. "Where's all your stuff?"
"We're in a bit of a crisis, so let us use your communications array," I replied with a scowl.
She flinched and looked back over her shoulder. "Inside? Uhm." Tempest and I shared a look before she clicked her gemstone eye on and scanned the tower.
"What's the problem, are you-" The door slid open, and I had only a moment to look up before Starlight Glimmer, who teleported up to me and planted her hoofs directly into my face.
A rattling clank jostled me back to consciousness and I blinked before scanning my surroundings. "Morning, Eddy. Sleep well?" I glowered at Starlight, who sat a few feet away from me while I was tightly bound. It looked like we were aboard one of the still-running old trains mainly used for cargo. Pacing beside her and between the crates in the car we were in was the obviously treacherous little guardmare I'd met at the outpost.
"We're dead. We're so dead. Awful idea. WORST idea!" The mare squeaked. I growled and scanned the car again.
"You sure are," I spat causing her to jump with a yelp. "Speaking of, where's Tempest?"
"We made like a bar of soap and gave her the slip. Was pretty easy compared to loading you onto this train," Starlight replied with a smirk before leaning in. "I'm hauling you straight to Twilight."
I flinched. "Twilight?"
Starlight hummed a laugh. "Once she sees you, disarmed, alone, tied up, and helpless, she'll have to budge. We can start making demands of your mare-friends, then," she snorted and shrugged. "If she's not down, well, I can probably twist Jury's hooves on my own with you captured."
"SO dead," the guardmare squeaked again. I growled and struggled against my bonds.
"Starlight, did you stop to ask yourself why I'm disarmed and helpless?"
"Figured we could cover that after I got you secured," she quipped before laying flat and gesturing to me with a wave of her hoof while resting her chin on the other.
I grumbled. "We're on the verge of a crisis. I need to contact Jury-rig before things escalate any worse. KS 6 is alive, and she's planning to transform the population into animunculi."
"Uh-huh," she replied with an eye roll. We locked eyes and I glared death her way before smirking.
"Even if you won't listen, in case you've forgotten, Twilight has a behavior collar on," I chortled darkly. "If she doesn't listen-"
"You won't use it, though," she said, smirking right back. "Maybe on Cozy, and definitely on Tirek or Chrysalis, but not Twilight."
My grin fell, but I held my glare. "You wanna bet?"
Her smug expression redoubled. "To borrow a word from your species, why the fuck do you think I'd risk bringing you to her otherwise?" I clenched my jaw and groaned.
"Bitch."
"Nutcase."
"We're dead."