Lyra and Bon Bon were many things to many ponies. Some just thought of them as a harp player and a candy maker. Some others may have known the truth.
Lyra pretended to have terrible scoliosis, which is why she could often be seen slumping on a park bench. She would tell anyone who asked that it was the only way she could get comfortable with her poor, crooked spine. The fraudulent medical insurance money was laundered through Bon-Bon’s candy shop. They also did contract killings and fraudulent acquisitions.
But none of that was why I had met with them that day. In the darkened room at the back of Bon Bon’s shop, I pushed a piece of paper across the table to them.
Lyra took it and held it up. She and Bon Bon glanced at each other. “This is it?”
I nodded. “I’ve got the money. Just get it done.”
“It’ll cost you, especially if this is going to be as hard as you say.”
I slid a bag of bits across the table. Getting up, I nodded to both of them and went out the door.
The very fate of Equestria depended on Lyra and Bon Bon to deliver. It was kind of important. However, it would either get done or it wouldn’t, and there was no use worrying about it until it either did or didn’t happen.
I bet you’re wondering what it was. That’s the beauty of me narrating. It creates suspense.
Lulz.
I put the request out of my mind and kept walking. Ms. Harshwhinny, the Equestria Games inspector, was in town, and I decided to steer clear of her. She was kind of schizophrenic, going from brusque to unbearably happy at the drop of a hat. Most ponies didn’t see that, only experiencing her bad side. Her bad side was mean and her happy side was annoying.
I saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders going off to practice something. It looked like a song and dance routine. I still hadn’t got around to building them a robot that I had promised. My mouth involuntarily twisted, my nose scrunched, and my eyes looked away as I thought of it.
I stopped. What the hell was that? I shook my head. Aloud, I said, “I promise that I’m going to build them a robot.”
It happened again. Damn, that was strange. So far, it was the only promise I had ever failed to fulfil. Maybe that was why?
Anyway. I got moving again.
I met Trixie down at the library. She’d agreed to come by and talk with me. Sunset saw the two of us walk in. We sat down before she spoke. “Would you like some tea?”
Her voice was barely audible, and I think it was the first time I’d ever heard her speak without previously being spoken to. Trixie gave her a smile. “That would be nice, thank you.”
As Sunset went into the kitchen, Trixie turned back to me. “So dad, I think you were just about to tell me about space?”
“Yeah, I can’t really put it off any longer.” I sighed. I didn’t want to do this, but if I had to, Trixie might as well be the one to listen.
“So, you knew this was an artificial world,” I began. Trixie nodded. She’d had time to get used to the idea. “The thing is, while it’s a really detailed landscape, there’s nothing out there in space besides the planet, sun, moon, and stars that you can see in the night sky. Or there didn’t used to be, anyway.”
Trixie frowned but didn’t interrupt as I went on. “Think of it like a hollow ball. The planet is in the center. The sun and moon go around it. The stars decorate the inside surface of the ball. I’m guessing things are this way because this world, this universe, is artificial and only what was needed for it to exist was created.”
I let that sink in. Trixie nodded. “You sound like you understand this very well.”
“I had a lot of time to think while I was in space.”
That got a smile out of her. Just then, Sunset came back with the tea. She steeped it carefully and served Trixie and I. After putting the cups down, Sunset stood awkwardly for a moment before slinking back to the kitchen and out of sight.
I took a sip of the tea and wished I hadn’t. I don’t really know if it was good stuff or not. I don’t like tea, period, and so was no judge of quality.
“So what happened when you got out to the edge of the universe?” Trixie asked.
“That’s the thing. I never got there.” I gave her a look to make sure she understood. “This universe was artificially created to encompass the space it needed to. When I got out there to the edge, it expanded to accommodate me. If it hadn’t, I would have crossed the edge of the universe and been outside of it.”
I titled my head. “While we know from experience that traveling to other universes is possible, you can’t get there by physically moving. You get there by dimensionally moving. Each universe that you go to has its own finite limits. You can’t go outside a universe. Probably.”
Gesturing around me, I said, “This universe is pretty small as they go. It only had one planet in it. Because you can’t leave the universe, it has to expand to keep you inside. By taking that trip out into space, I was effectively creating new territory in the universe.”
Trixie digested that for a moment and then asked the question that I had been dreading. “So what was out there?”
I had known it was coming, but I still had to take a moment to face it. “It was me. Not in the literal sense, but because I was the catalyst for creating a new piece of the universe, it was effectively made in my image. It could only be composed of what I knew. It couldn’t be anything random or something I didn’t know about, because there was nothing else out there to be creating it.”
“That sounds…very deep.” Trixie frowned, but then her look brightened. “I can see the advantages of being familiar with things because they were being created from your mind.”
“Except for the things I didn’t want to be familiar with. You can’t just pick and choose your mind, Trixie. When I said that I was experiencing things pulled from my mind, I meant everything in my mind. Worst fears, deepest shames, the whole lot.”
“You did that for months?” Her voice had gone quiet and she stared at me.
“Yeah.” I took a breath and looked up. “What’s worse is that all that stuff was being created and made real, not just relived.”
I forced myself to smile to distract her from asking further questions. “On the plus side, I got really in touch with myself.”
Trixie chuckled. “I’m just glad you opened up to me, dad. Honestly, I expected you to say about three paragraphs on the subject.”
I laughed with her. “Or just gave a one-line summary. ‘I was in space, a lot of shit happened, some more shit blew up, and then I got back here, the end.’”
I thought for a moment. “Honestly, that’s pretty accurate. Space explosions get boring after a while.”
A couple of days passed and the gang made ready to leave for the Crystal Empire to see the Crusaders perform their little routine for the Equestria Games.
I say “the gang” because it’s much easier than listing all the ponies by name and I didn’t have a cutesy collective title for them. I was never really into puns, and anyway, calling them the Mane 6 was usually never accurate if Spike, Trixie, the Crusaders, or myself were also there.
While we were packing up to go, Daring Do showed up in town. She was in disguise, but I knew who it was as soon as she walked into the library.
She met with Trixie about the upcoming book deal. They talked it over until it was time to go, and Daring said she would wait until Trixie came back to keep working on it.
We left Ponyville on the train. The route took us through Canterlot, where Twilight got on and I got off.
I had some business with Luna and decided that skipping a little ceremony before the actual start of the Equestria Games was acceptable.
I passed Twilight at the station. She was looking a little taller these days and with a longer horn. Growing into being an alicorn, I supposed. We both only had time for a quick greeting before she had to go and I had to visit the castle.
There were some files spread on Luna’s desk when I walked in. They had some unusual titles. She greeted me and we sat.
“I’ve officially shut down the Mares in Black, and we’ve commenced the setting up of the new organization,” Luna told me. “I have the files here for a few of our high value assets. I’d like you to read them and get familiar. But first, take a look at your records and make sure they are accurate.”
I glanced at the folder she pushed across the desk at me. The title was Alien. It was a decent codename, I supposed, and kind of accurate too.
Opening it up, I saw that all the pages were blank. Luna said, “Hold still.”
I looked up, pausing to let her cast a spell that settled somewhere between my ears. The pages in front of me suddenly filled with text and other information. It was fairly scant, only revealing public details about me. I was happy to see that Luna and her underlings hadn’t managed to pry out anything that I didn’t want them to see.
“Here’s a quill if something needs updated,” said Luna. I considered that. Should I change anything?
I flipped through the pages, thinking about it all. I thought of my experiences in space. It was a lot of information to write down, something that I didn’t really want to do at the moment. Maybe it could be summarized. One sentence? Nah, I could do better than that.
I thought about what I should write. What had changed about me since I’d been forced to battle my own mind for months? Everything I had seen and faced down, of course. Twilight’s initial observations about me when I’d gotten back were probably accurate. Something about me was different.
I picked the word to write: fearless.