Fenrir Dire sat back in his seat, eyes focused on the desk before him, and bit on his bottom lip in a combination of exasperation and annoyance. His face, normally stoic and calm, looked completely exhausted from his, Case’s, Discord’s, and Twilight’s fruitless endeavor in searching for the perpetrator behind yesterday’s actions.
Case grimaced, and paced to and fro. Although Dire would normally question why she felt the necessity to join him in his office – especially given the current crisis – he said nothing of the sort, instead rubbing his temples.
At last, when Case stopped her incessant pacing, she looked over at him. “Um… sir?”
Dire looked up. “Yes? What is it, Detective?”
“Do you really think that it was such a good idea to leave her alone? Fluttershy, I mean.”
“I understand your concern, but it’s as I said.” Dire returned his gaze to his desk. “It is not our place, no matter how much you may wish it be so, that we could simply whittle away the hours there – you and I both have jobs to do. Besides,” he added, “she appears to be in good hooves… or hands, if you will.”
Case sighed, and looked past him and out of the window. “I… Yes, sir, I understand, but…” She waved her hooves about as if trying to find the right words. “It’s just… Well, I’m not sure how to put this, but…”
“No matter your feelings on this matter,” Dire said, pulling the manila envelope from the desk, and placing that note on top of his desk – that accursed image, taken from the third crime scene, “it does not change the facts of this. Detective Case, our role in this is finished… for now, at least.”
Case’s vision suddenly moved over to the note, and she stared at it. “I knew it,” she muttered to herself.
He raised an eyebrow in response. “You knew what?”
“The note, your actions these past few days… You’re still obsessed with RT-3, aren’t you?”
Silence completely overtook the room. In fact, the overall mood seemed to darken as Dire’s eyes narrowed at Case. She froze completely in response, even as he hissed through grit teeth, “We… are done here, Detective. Please exit the premises immediately.”
Case pushed through her terror, stepped forward, and slammed both of her hooves on Dire’s desk, taking him by surprise. “You…! It’s over! It’s done! You caught the guy, remember?! Or are you too busy obsessing over that to focus on this, huh?!” She leaned in close, and Dire almost felt himself shrink back in response. “That’s why, isn’t it? That’s why you were so obsessed with keeping that Fluttershy safe, weren’t you? It was because of–!”
“Be quiet!” Dire shouted, his voice completely losing its once-stoic tone, and his eyes became like ice. “Case. Leave. Now.” Every word was punctuated with complete and utter rage, anger, and hatred, and it took all of Case’s energy not to shudder at her partner’s outburst.
She grit her teeth, and turned away from him. “Tch…! Fine, sir,” she growled, “but don’t think that this is the end of this, got it?! I’m gonna get to the bottom of this little mystery if it’s the last thing that I do as a detective!”
“It very well may be.”
Shaking her head just once in reply, Case stepped over to the door, and – without taking so much as one look back – slammed it behind her. The sound echoed off of the walls; and it was quite possibly one of the only times that such a fight between a prosecutor and their detective had occurred in Canterlot’s law office.
Dire grimaced, and sat back in his seat. He stared down just once more at the note before him. Or, rather, a message, for it was less of a note on paper, instead having been written on the ground in the victim’s own blood.
After several seconds of simply staring at it, he threw it back into the drawer of his desk, and slammed the infernal thing shut. Dire placed a single hoof on his forehead, and let out a simple groan of annoyance and frustration. Several more seconds passed with him in that position before he reached into his desk, pulled out a new piece of paper, and began to write down a message to a certain somepony.
-- An Epic for Gilgamesh --
-- Episode 6: The Fruits of Our Labor --
-- Written By ZaleAcon --
“Another mug, Princess?”
Twilight glanced over to her side and saw a waiter, whose gaze was focused on the two empty mugs of coffee that sat on her table. “Oh… um, sure.” After the confirmation, she turned her gaze back to the window outside, where the pre-sunrise sky could be seen.
She was sitting in a simple coffee shop, neither posh nor famous, and she did not care in the slightest. The coffee itself was wretchedly bitter, likely not helped by her desire not to add any milk, cream, or sugar, but that was not the reason that she had gone there in the first place. And, even in spite of everything, Twilight mentally reprimanded herself for having awoken so early for coffee. Or she would have, at least, had it not been for her own inner turmoil.
The events of yesterday had made sleep all but impossible for her to endure. Not even the town’s excitement at Nightmare Night, just less than a week away, could quell the turmoil that had occurred – if anything, its dark and creepy nature only worked to twist the knife even further.
Between the threat letter to Fluttershy, Gilgamesh’s statements, and the sheer terror of the townsfolk that a monstrous killer was hiding in their midst, Twilight had found sleep to be extraordinarily difficult. She had tossed and turned beneath the covers so much that Spike had decided to sleep downstairs so that she would not awaken him, and the simple feeling of being alone only accentuated her own hidden fear.
She was vaguely aware of the sound of something being placed on the table before her, followed by a muffled “Here you are, Princess.” Using her magic, Twilight levitated the object, a small, ceramic cup, to her lips and drank deep. Although she coughed on the bitter flavor, it had not been nearly as bad as her original interaction with the substance.
“Hey, is this seat taken?” Twilight glanced up to see another unicorn mare, her light-blue coat extremely visible against the brown, gray, and black of the coffee shop. Without waiting for a response – not that Twilight had planned to give one, of course – the mare sat down, and rested her forelegs on the table.
The two sat in silence for several seconds, before the new arrival nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry about this, but… you seem a bit down. So… what’s the problem?”
Twilight didn’t say anything in reply, instead choosing to continue slowly and silently drink her coffee.
The light-blue mare nodded. “Right. I guess that…” She stopped, and shook her head. “Never mind. Guess it’s kinda weird to have a stranger ask that, huh?” She laughed awkwardly, and turned to look out the window. “Heh… it’s a beautiful dawn – um, pre-dawn – huh?”
For just a second, Twilight thought she could see something in the mare’s eyes, but that quickly vanished. “Um… yeah, I guess…?” she replied, although it was never something that she’d really thought about before; Twilight had seen hundreds of days like this, after all, so why would one be so different than the others?
“Yeah…” The mare looked over to the waiter, and smiled. “Hey, can I get something?”
The waiter nodded. “Of course, miss… What will it be?”
“Just a… uh…” The light-blue mare placed a hoof on her chin as if contemplating, before she smiled. “Yeah, uh… I’ll just take a normal coffee, please. Black, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, miss,” the waiter repeated, and stepped away from the table.
After several seconds of silence, the mare chuckled again, just as awkwardly as before, and said, “So… you’re Princess Twilight Sparkle, right? What’re you doing in a place like this?”
Twilight shrugged, but didn’t say anything in reply.
“Eh, I can’t say I don’t blame you. It’s… well… quiet here. Peaceful, too.” The mare placed a single hoof on the table, and started to trace something onto the stained wood. “Yeah.”
Another several seconds of that same, awkward silence passed before Twilight looked up. “Um… I’m sorry but… have we met before?”
“Nope.” The answer was both blunt and swift, with neither finesse nor grace in its delivery. “But that doesn’t really matter,” she continued, “now does it? Far as I’m concerned, I saw a pony who looked a bit on the sad side, so I thought I’d see what I could do.”
“I’m not interested in your pity,” Twilight muttered. Under normal circumstances, she would gladly have taken up conversation with this strange mare, but the whirlwind of events only served to deter her urge to talk.
“Probably not. But hey – might as well try, right?” The waiter returned and set the light-blue mare’s coffee mug in front of her, which she gratefully sipped. “It’s like my best friend always says: ‘Every creature deserves aid in their darkest hour, no matter the circumstances.’ Though he’s always prattling along ‘bout stuff like that.” She chuckled, though this time it sounded genuine.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at that, no matter how small it was, or how large the bags beneath her eyes had grown. “I… I guess,” she admitted, before frowning again. “But my problem’s not that simple – I have to help so many creatures, I…! I feel like I can’t help anypony…”
The light-blue mare smirked in reply. “Really? ‘Cause the last time I checked, you’re Princess Twilight Sparkle, not some run-of-the-mill showmare.” She took another sip of her coffee. “I’m pretty sure that you can do anything you want. Even if it’s something like, say… catching a killer.”
Twilight, who had been drinking from her own mug at the time, promptly spat coffee all over the table. “G… Wait, how’d you know about that…?” she gasped, still trying to remove traces of hot coffee from her nose.
“Trade secret.” Stretching her hooves up into the air, the mare let out a loud yawn. “I’m kidding, Princess – my best friend and I recently moved into this town. Looks like we picked a bad time, though…” Again that look appeared in her eyes, although Twilight could not quite place what it was.
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, and turned her gaze back to the window facing the outside world. “Yeah, I guess.”
The mare took one from her mug of coffee, and stood up. “Well, Princess, sorry that I wasn’t able to say much, but…” She shrugged, and rubbed the back of her head. “But, well, I’d better be goin’. Just remember, though – you’re stronger than you seem to think you are.”
She grinned and stepped over to the door. Before she stopped, the strange mare placed some money on the counter, thanked the waiter, and grinned over at Twilight once again. “Well… I’ll see you around, I hope. G’bye, Princess.”
Before Twilight could say anything in response, the light-blue mare had already left the shop, and she turned back to the window outside. Just over the edge of the horizon, the first signs of the rising sun could be seen.
“’Every creature deserves aid in their darkest hour,’ huh?” she heard herself murmur. “I wish it was that simple…”
But still, she could not shake the feeling that the mare had a point; she wasn’t going to find the one threatening Fluttershy’s life and she wouldn’t help all of the ponies of Ponyville by sitting around and moping, right?
So, using all of the energy that she could muster, Twilight stood up, and walked over to the counter. Like that mare before her, she paid for the coffee, thanked the waiter, and stepped out as the sunrise began to wash over her.
Today was a brand new day, after all, and she would not let it go to waste.
The sound of splintered wood was the only warning that Gilgamesh had before his door exploded open. Shards of what appeared to be birch showered the floor in front of it, and the light burst through the new opening and into his house.
He groaned, realizing that the so-called “light” consisted of the sun having only just peeked over the horizon, and rolled back onto his side. “T-Twilight,” he muttered, “can’t you just lemme sleep for once…? So tired…”
“Found ya at last, ya jerk!” came an indignant shout from the door, and Gilgamesh felt his eyes instantly burst open, the sleep literally tearing away from them.
Had he been any quicker, he would gladly have jumped up and run away. Instead, however, neither of those options was available to him as the voice’s silhouette blocked the door. Instead, Gilgamesh used the ancient art of pretending that he could not be seen by laying still, and hoping that the intruder would go away in due time.
“Ah’m not movin’ from this spot ‘til you come out here!”
Well, that certainly did not work as planned. In any case, Gilgamesh knew that the insane creature would likely attack him as soon as he stepped onto the ground. Then again, how could he know that? He didn’t know her – he surmised from the voice that the creature was female – personally. But still, he had to be careful and cautious, just in case she truly was a dangerous beast.
Gilgamesh stealthily stepped down, his feet making no sounds as they brushed against the wooden floor. Hurriedly, he placed his blade’s scabbard on his side, and set his hand on its hilt as he slowly walked over to the figure at the front door – or its remains, at least.
“Yes… can I help you?” he asked the equine, now able to see her features more carefully. She had neither wings nor a horn, but instead wore what appeared to be a straw hat on her head.
Her eyes were narrow, and her lips pulled back into an annoyed frown. “Yeah, ya can ‘help me’! Y’all’re that guy who stole all them apples from my farm the other day, ain’t that right?”
Gilgamesh felt his blood run cold. Just as he’d thought, it was that same, crazy beast that had threatened to slaughter him so brutally on his first day in the town. That statement had all but confirmed it.
“I… have no idea what is it that you are proclaiming,” Gilgamesh lied, feeling sweat on his brow. “Verily, this exposition of yours is utterly irrelevant to me, for I have not acted according to your theorem.”
The equine narrowed her eyes even further, but did not take her eyes off of him. “Twi’ told me ‘bout this… somethin’ about ya havin’ ta use words like that when ya were lyin’! Plus, Ah remember ya perfectly from then! Same gangly arms, same height…”
Gilgamesh crossed his arms, attempting to calm himself mentally and avoid any direct confrontation. He may have been one of the most dangerous warriors in the world, but even he knew his limits. “Alright,” he responded, “let’s say that I am this guy who committed this act of thievery. What do you want, exactly?” There, he’d managed to fix his language and make himself seem much more relaxed, even though he could still feel moisture beneath his helmet.
“Well, first of all,” growled the equine, “I want ya to reimburse me – no, my whole family – for yer thievery! Them apples ain’t as easy ta grow as ya seem to think!”
“Yeah, apples don’t grow on trees…” Gilgamesh muttered as dryly as possible. He blinked just once and grimaced; maybe this world was a worse influence than he’d originally assumed.
“What was that?!”
“N-nothing! No, I most certainly did not declare anything in that short span of time!”
If looks could kill, as the saying went, then Gilgamesh was completely sure that he would be ten times over. Instead – whether it was fortunate or not – he was still very much alive.
The equine grit her teeth. “Fine,” she muttered, “but that still doesn’t change what ya did! And not just them apples, either – Ah heard that ya destroyed that pitchfork of ours, which ya also stole!”
Gilgamesh stared down at the mare with the same annoyed look. “I don’t think that one counts. I was trying to save the diamond dogs, after all! And plus, look at what you’ve done here –” he gestured to what remained of the door “– so if anyone needs to be ‘reimbursed,’ I’d say that it’s me!”
“Tch! Ya wouldn’t open up, so I had ta take measures inta my own hooves. And it don’t matter if ya tried ta save those guys, ‘cause ya coulda done it without that pitchfork!”
“’Twas a trident, not some mere farmer’s tool!” Gilgamesh countered. “Stop dodging the reality of this situation – you completely obliterated my door, so I’d say that we’re about even, wouldn’t you?”
Instead, like some sort of stubborn, unstoppable force, the equine only became even more enraged by that. “We’re far from ‘even,’ Gilgamesh.” She stepped closer to him, causing him to step back in response. “Fine! Ah’ll concede that the tri… that the pitchfork’s covered, but the apples? Y’all’re gonna have ta pay me back for those!” Another step forward, and Gilgamesh felt himself literally become backed up against a wall. “And Ah’m not gonna take ‘no’ for an answer!”
“Fine, fine, fine!” Gilgamesh shouted, partly to keep the surprisingly terrifying creature from getting any closer. “How much is it that you want?! Two? Ten? Twenty?”
“Oh, no – it ain’t gonna be that simple, Ah’m afraid.” Her mouth twisted into a smirk. “Ya stole apples? Then yer gonna replace ‘em! Yer gonna replace all of ‘em that ya stole –” she leaned in closer, eyes narrowing even more than they already had been “– and make up for it tenfold.”
“T-ten…” Gilgamesh gasped, peeling himself away from the wall. “But that is…! That’s just…!”
The equine stepped closer to him. “It’s a fittin’ punishment for a thief like yerself… or are ya gonna just run away again? ‘Cause if ya’re gonna do that, Ah’ll just keep raising yer sentence even more! How’s twenty-fold sound? Fifty? Or maybe y’all’re in the mood for a hundred?”
“G…!” Gilgamesh managed to gasp, and the cold realization of the moment struck him like a train; if he fled, he would only be making everything worse on himself. If he remembered correctly, this insane mare was one of Twilight’s many friends, and given his track record with her, it was likely that her friends hated him just as much as she did.
“Well?!”
Gilgamesh grit his teeth. Farming wasn’t even the most difficult job for him to deal with, and planting and tending to ten trees would be of no consequence whatsoever – heck, he could probably finish it all within two hours, give or take a few minutes. But what truly got to him about the matter was the fact that he would have to swallow his pride in order to do so. A warrior such as him, so built for combat and war, going into a field to plant trees? It was unthinkable, demeaning, a waste of his talents!
Then again, wasn’t the piano, as well? Gilgamesh bit back the thought, but also kept inside the fact that he had found the instrument to be an excellent way to relieve stress in the past several days, especially given yesterday’s events. It had already been bad enough that he had so nearly broken down in front of the very creature that had driven him to such distress.
But he had to. Still, even through all of his pride, stubbornness, and desire to be in charge, Gilgamesh had to force himself to work with the possibly dangerous mare. “Fine,” he growled through his teeth, although he twisted them into a sort of disturbing smile. “Fine, just… let’s get this over with.”
“Believe me,” deadpanned the mare, “Ah just want the same thing. Oh, before Ah forget… my name’s Applejack.”
Of course it was.
Several scrolls, letters, books, and memos were sprawled out across the library floor, all of which were either opened, disheveled, or both. Twilight sat at her desk, looking over a particularly hefty stack of papers, before letting out a cry of irritation and throwing all of those onto the floor with the others.
Spike stepped around the mess, re-shelving the many works in an effort to avoid having to do it later. “T-Twilight…” he groaned in frustration and tiredness as the papers scattered all across the area, “can’t you… go a bit slower?”
She looked back over at him. “Sorry about that one, Spike,” she said sheepishly, “but I need to find information on this as quickly as possible, and all of these other things are just getting in my way!”
She was referring, of course, to the mysterious events of the past several days. Not only had Gilgamesh arrived in that time, but that strange bug had appeared out of thin air, that monstrous storm had occurred, and the death threat to Fluttershy had been sent. Twilight was absolutely certain that there was a connection between the cases, but no magic books that she’d been looking through detailed anything of the beetle-like monstrosity.
Contrary to her original thoughts on the matter, creating a storm of that caliber was a spell listed in at least one of her resources, but it was only to be cast by the most dangerous and magic-savvy unicorns – which was to say, maybe two percent of them at most. And even then, that was probably too high of a number due to many unicorns with that sort of magical ability being mostly specialized to a specific art. Not to mention the fact that the spell required hours of careful preparation, and even the slightest deviation would completely ruin it, causing potentially disastrous effects for the caster.
And, of course, that still left two matters incomplete: namely, the threat letter to Fluttershy and her treatment of Gilgamesh over the past several days. Of course, the latter could be dealt with at the appropriate time, but the former was too pertinent to ignore.
“Well, maybe it’s not as magical as you think,” Spike mumbled, stretched out his back, and rubbed at his sleep-deprived eyes. “Isn’t it possible that the bug thing just crawled in from some unknown country? Or maybe even Tartarus?” He yawned just once, and went back to picking a particularly large scroll off of the wooden floor of the library.
“No, and no,” Twilight said, her gaze turned back towards her latest inquiry (A Gathering of Magic, written by the famed wizard and knight, Coast Guard). “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna told me that a thing like that hasn’t been seen in Equestria since… well… it’s never been seen by anypony. Ever.” She glared down at the book, flipping through its pages with such speed that the poor thing was bound to be torn apart at the seams. “And it can’t’ve come up from Tartarus, Spike, because it hasn’t even been seen in there.” The book slammed shut, its contents proven to be completely worthless to her latest inquiry, and was unceremoniously thrown over Twilight’s shoulder.
Spike dove, catching the tome just before it struck the ground, and stood up. “So… whatever that thing was, it’s not from around here? Like… our world, here?”
“I think so, but… well, I’m not really sure,” Twilight admitted, perusing through a scroll. “Whatever it is, I’m sure that it’s connected to Gilgamesh showing up here… and to the storm two days ago, and to the incident with Fluttershy.”
“Well, we’ve always had weird things happen around here,” Spike deadpanned, “so why is it so strange that we have some other things happening now? I mean, a day where Ponyville isn’t put in some sort of danger seems more unlikely than one where it is.”
Twilight grimaced, and turned away from the latest object of her study to look over at him. “That’s… a good point,” she admitted, “but still, having so many of these unlikely events occurring so close to each other is just… well, it’s unlikely, for one thing.” Spike opened his mouth to say something, but Twilight cut him off: “And before you say anything about Pinkie, or anypony else, I want you to think about the fact that Gilgamesh and that beetle are literally not from our world – or at least, that seems to be the common theory with the latter…”
Spike grimaced, though he continued his work. “Yeah, I know that part… and I will admit that it’s a bit weird, but still!” He raised his arms into the air, rapidly flapping them about as if in an effort to validate his point. “Still, think about it, Twilight! Gilgamesh and that monster are aliens, kind of, but where did that thing come from?”
Twilight placed a hoof on her chin, as a memory poked at her brain:
“No, there’s just something familiar about this thing. It is odd, yet… I feel as if I've witnessed a creature like this before, somewhere…”
Her eyes became wide in realization, and she placed a hoof on the table in an effort to keep herself steady. “Gilgamesh… thought that it was familiar…!” she breathed. “But wait, does that mean that…?!”
Spike stepped over to her. “Um… Twilight, are you feeling okay? Wait… what did you just realize? What happened?!”
Twilight simply stared off into the distance, the dots connecting themselves in her head. If, as she theorized, the creature had really come from Gilgamesh’s world, then how had it appeared in Equestria? Or in any country of their world, at that? Hypothetically speaking, the strange beast should not have had a way through to their world.
“Did it stow away with Gilgamesh?” Twilight heard herself mutter. “But it couldn’t have, right…? Unless it managed to escape before I found him… But he didn’t say anything about it, so…”
She was brought back to reality by the sight of a purple hand being waved in front of her face. She blinked just once, before following the hand back to its source. “Oh, uh… Spike.”
“Twilight, are you feeling okay?” he repeated. “You just sorta… looked off into the distance, and then your eyes glazed over… and then you started mumbling to yourself…”
Again, Twilight blinked. Had she just gone off on one of Gilgamesh’s famous tangents? Well, she supposed that was what happened when she didn’t get enough sleep, and briefly pondered whether or not the same was true of him before the reality of the situation kicked in.
“Spike, can you finish up reorganizing these works?” Twilight asked, gesturing to the many, many different pieces of paper that still littered the floor. “I need to go and find Gilgamesh, and quickly!”
Though he opened his mouth to object to cleaning up the rest of the library, Spike found himself staring at an empty room, the door outside thrown open and Twilight rushing down the street towards the area of Ponyville where Gilgamesh lived.
Gilgamesh was, of course, not at home. At the moment, he was too busy hoisting a plow about the field to focus on such matters. His back ached, but he didn’t complain. His sides were cramping from the sheer weight of the accursed thing, but he still didn’t object to the treatment.
At least, he did not verbally. The confounded thing scraped through the dirt at a speed not unlike that of a snail, and likely weighed about five-thousand times as much. His shoulders cracked whenever he made even the slightest of movements, and the pain was even worse than picking up the boulders in order to save Grant’s friends two days ago.
He let out yet another grunt of pain as the obnoxiously slow device scraped across the dirt. It was a thing designed for equines, not humanoids, but Applejack had insisted that he be “strapped with it well an’ good,” or something along those lines. Still, at the very least it gave him the chance to wonder the various ways he could make her pay for the agony and humiliation he was enduring.
Yes, he had stolen her apples. Yes, he had stolen her trident. But she’d also completely obliterated his door, essentially blackmailed him, and forced him to perform hard labor in exchange for not making him do as much work later on.
Seriously, did the creatures of Ponyville exist just to make his life as painful as possible?
Another snap, followed by a particularly painful and disgusting pop, and Gilgamesh continued stumbling down the ten-yard stretch wherein he was to plant the ten new trees. On the plus side, he was at least halfway there.
On the minus side, his shoulders, upper back, and legs felt completely ruined by the labor. No matter what else occurred, his body simply was not built to carry a plow across the ground in that manner. It would have been far better had he just been given an easier way to sow the soil. It was in that instant that Gilgamesh questioned why he had jumped up and declared that he could, of course, carry the plow across the ground, even when Applejack had asked if it would be too much.
On second thought, maybe he really was the only creature making his life so difficult.
It would have been the perfect time to enter into one of his famous tangents, to hide away his mind as his body drunkenly stumbled across the path, only to awaken at the very end. But the pain was so great that any thoughts of doing so were only reacted to by what felt like a bolt of lightning running throughout his body.
It was in that instant that Applejack – who had been bucking at trees nearby – stepped over to him, and looked over his body with no small amount of pity evident in her eyes. “Um… Gilgamesh? Are ya sure that you can carry that thing ‘round? Looks to me like y’all’re havin’ yerself a bit of trouble with it.”
Gilgamesh’s only response was a groan of pain, followed by yet another bone cracking, possibly literally. Now was his chance to get that accursed contraption off of his back, but he still said nothing on the matter.
Instead, he merely scoffed at the idea. “Ha! Trouble? That is absolutely absurd!” He crossed his arms, wincing as they seemed to snap under the weight of the plow. “Gn… Yes, yes, of course!”
Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Listen, Ah know Ah don’t seem like the smartest apple in the bunch, but Ah can assure ya that Ah know when y’all’re lyin’ ta me, and ya ain’t the best liar, either. So,” she growled, “tell me the truth, won’t’cha?”
Gilgamesh rolled his eyes in response, his head being one of the few parts of his body that did not feel as if it was wont to collapse at any given moment. “I have told you nothing but the truth!” he lied. “I assure you that I am in no more agony than any other case of my life. Besides, carrying this contraption is certainly a simple matter!”
“Yeah, Ah’m sure it is,” Applejack muttered. “Listen, Ah know ya wanna be all tough an’ that sorta thing, but there ain’t no purpose to it! The point of this was ta get ya ta pay off what ya did, not shatter yer back!” As if to accentuate her point, she poked his spinal column, causing a large crack to emanate the area followed by Gilgamesh wincing. “See?”
But Gilgamesh was too stubborn – or, rather, too powerful! Yes, that was it – to admit his error in the moment, and instead continued walking down the path. “As I have said, I feel no pain from… Gak!” He let out a gasp of agony as his shoulders cracked again, the sound echoing across the entirety of the area. “U-urgh… Yes, I am… erk… f-fine…!”
Why could he not admit his flaws? He’d had trouble with it yesterday. He had admitted the truth, that the equines seemed to all deride him immensely, to Twilight without any sort of fear, so why could he not simply say that the plow caused him no small amount of pain? Was he so obsessed with his want to be strong that he was even willing to destroy his own body in order to be perceived as powerful?
But he wasn’t being powerful – he was just being stubborn and idiotic. The chance had been laid before him, and still he did not say anything that could help himself. A shame that he didn’t have any magic that could assist him in the given moment. Being able to shoot missiles from your hands, jump really high, and self-destruct only went so far.
That’s when a new thought exploded into Gilgamesh’s mind. Of course, it had been something that had never occurred to him before. Why would it have? Using a spell such as that in the given circumstances would have been useless, otherwise, but if he could increase his working speed…
The smallest smile fell on his lips, and Applejack raised an eyebrow in response. “Um… are you feelin’ okay, Gilgamesh? Ya just kinda spaced out there for a couple of minutes…” Despite the circumstances, she looked genuinely concerned. “If ya’re havin’ so much trouble with this, Ah could always go an’ get ya some water or somethin’…”
Gilgamesh’s smile broke out into a full grin, and he stood tall. “Of course!” he declared. “That is the solution!” Honestly, how could he not have seen it earlier? It was so obvious. And to top it off, he had somehow gone off onto one of his tangents even when plagued with so much agony. That hadn’t quite been what he had expected, and it was a pleasant surprise.
“Huh?” Applejack blinked just once. “What are ya talkin’ ‘bout?”
The pain briefly forgotten, Gilgamesh looked about the area, hoping that the spell would work properly. “Okay…” he murmured, ignoring the watchful eye of his captor – if she could be considered that, of course. “Haste!”
A greenish aura began to dance about his body as soon as the last letter left his lips. All at once, the world seemed to slow around him, if only marginally – or perhaps he was just moving much faster. In either case, the result was the same: namely, that Gilgamesh felt new vigor enter into his body.
Yes! It was absolutely perfect! He took a single step forward, and his body already felt far lighter. Now it just needed some additional touches, and he would be completely ready to venture further across the field the full distance.
“Alright, let’s see,” he muttered, looking deep within himself for additional spells to assist his current status. “Hmm, yes, this seems like it would do… Okay, Regen!” A new aura appeared about him, joining with the greenish one of Haste, and he instantly felt most of his pains begin to vanish. “Ah, perfect…”
“Um… Gilgamesh?” he turned to see Applejack, who was knitting her brow. “What was that fancy magic? And why’s yer color like that thing that came over here the other day?”
Gilgamesh straightened his back, the pain having mostly receded. “Well,” he admitted, “let’s just say that this should make the job far easier.”
Again, he took a single step, reveling in the new power that he seemed to display. And how odd it was that all that it necessitated was for him to be ridiculously stubborn, and to not accept help when he actually required it.
Gilgamesh suddenly stopped, realizing his error – he had already covered much of the track, and his body felt completely healed, so why was he so busy reveling in his own new strength? In fact if anything, he owed Applejack for having given him the ability to cast the magic, not himself; had it not been for her, after all, he would not have stopped long enough to have become engaged in that tangent.
But what surprised him more than anything was the discovery of how his magic could be used in far more than battle. Even the most simple, most mundane of tasks could be made far easier with the usage of simple time and blue magic… maybe even black magic could be useful – despite the fact that it was created specifically for combat. And the help of white magic – the ability to heal oneself or one’s allies – would obviously be helpful, as well.
Maybe if he ever got back home, he could work on implementing such an idea. After all, by that time Exdeath would surely be dead, right?
He suddenly felt a lump in his throat, but continued to soldier on. The end of the path was in sight, and he felt relieved at having almost finished the first step in paying off his debt. But still, that thought from yesterday continued to nag at the back of his skull like some sort of annoying worm.
What if he really couldn’t get home? What if he would be forced to spend the rest of his life, which he knew to be a very long one, trapped in this world, along with creatures that obviously despised him so greatly?
How long would it take before he sufficiently enraged them to the point where he would have to begin wandering again?
Alone.
He shuddered, feeling the weight of the plow, but not seeing it. The world had gone completely white before his eyes, and he stumbled in a drunken stupor down the path as the questions continued to chip away.
What if he never got the chance to see or face his rivals again? What if somehow he was destroying his world by not being there as he walked about, unable to do anything about his fate, or any others’?
What if that creature, Fluttershy, was cut down because he had abandoned her? What if Twilight truly did hate him so much that she wanted to see him locked away, no longer a threat to her world or her friends? What if they all hated him to that extent?
The world was still unseen, and Gilgamesh could not feel anything anyone. Everything seemed almost numbed to him, nonexistent. What did it matter, anyway? Unless there was some sort of miracle, he would never be able to return home.
At the moment, he would rather be within the rift. That would at least give him some hope of reprieve, but here? This dimension, world, universe, or whatever it could be considered seemed to have no true connection with his own. It simply seemed to be that Exdeath had overshot his original target, and nothing more than that. If anything, sending him to the world of the equines was a worse punishment than simply slaughtering him, or sending him into the rift between dimensions.
There, at least, he would not have to worry about the creatures around him despising him so much. There, at least, he could slaughter the beasts with nary a care in the world, no guilt, and no sorrow over it.
At least in there, he wouldn’t feel so terrified that a strange, pun- and pastel-filled world held a killer so insidious as the one who had sent that message, and he wouldn’t feel fear for the life of a creature he did not even know. No, the rift would have been a boon. The rift would have been grand. Perfect, even!
Gilgamesh blinked just once, and found himself walking straight into what seemed to be a tree, and Applejack yelling at him from behind, “Hey, Gilgamesh! Wake up, won’t’cha!”
The world came into view around him, the whiteness fading and being replaced by colors and shapes. He blinked again, and looked around him for several seconds, before turning back to the plow behind him before jumping in surprise.
In the time that he had been questioning everything about his own self worth, the worth the others saw him in, and whether or not the rift would have been a better place to call home, Gilgamesh had walked no less than one hundred yards. The path had been burned into the ground in his stumbling about, but the combined healing and quickening of his magic had left him completely numb to any pain that might have resulted from it.
He looked about him in a sort of daze, before looking over at Applejack. She grimaced, and shook her head just once. “Sheesh! If ya wanted ta pull that plow so badly, ya just had ta ask!” She smiled awkwardly and coughed. “Er… yeah, so…”
Gilgamesh looked about him again, still unbelieving of how he could possibly have moved so quickly. Granted, he had cast Haste, but that should not have given him that much speed. But still, that only begged the question…
“How long was I… er… ‘out’?” he asked.
“Out, huh? Well, Ah’d say that, uh… well, yer eyes glazed over ‘bout fifteen minutes ago, if that means anythin’.” She gestured to the tree in front of him. “Yeah, y’all’ve been walkin’ into that there tree fer the last five minutes, too.”
Fifteen minutes?! How could that possibly be? His tangents usually lasted no more than one minute, but that one had taken so long to fully accomplish. Were they getting longer? Was it because he was so tired?
He struggled to come back to reality, and to avoid going off on yet another one. “Er… yes, my apologies,” he said sheepishly. “I seem to have drifted off, there… It must have been a lack of sleep. Or something,” he added.
Applejack regarded him cautiously for several seconds, and let out a sigh. “Well, Ah can’t blame ya. Heard ya were up all night practicin’ that piano of yers. Guess Ah, uh… Ah shoulda woken ya up later, huh? Prob’ly’ve given ya a bit more rest, at least…” Her ears flattened, to the point where they could not be seen beneath her hat. “Ah… Ah’m sorry.”
Gilgamesh blinked. Wait, why was she apologizing to him? He was the one who had just randomly spaced out in the middle of his efforts, and had done more than one hundred times his original act just because he had been so obsessed with relieving his stress the night prior. If anything, he should have been the one saying that he was sorry.
He pulled the plow from his body, finally feeling very liberated of its weight, and free to roll his muscular shoulders without having to worry about his bones cracking relentlessly.
How the various weapons that he would always wield – often consisting of swords, naginatas, maces, and the like – weighed less than a common plow was something that he would likely question for the rest of his life. Or until he decided to ask. Either way.
However, he turned his attention to the disappointed mare in front of him, and nodded his head slowly. “There is no need for you to apologize,” he declared, placing his hands on his hips in that most heroic of fashions that he used. “Nay! It is entirely unnecessary, as you are not at fault here for what has transpired here!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Um… Ya seem kinda nervous, Gilgamesh. Are ya sure y’all’re feelin’ okay?”
“But of course!” Gilgamesh said, once more attempting to change his vocabulary in an effort to make himself appear more calm. How Twilight had realized that before him was something he would never quite understand, but that was a matter to be looked at later. “I… I feel completely and utterly fine. Yes, I… er… Why are you staring at me like that?”
Applejack’s head was craned forward, her body low on the ground, and her eyes a cold glare that seemed to delve into and strangle Gilgamesh’s very soul. “Oh, no reason,” she said, the most obvious sarcasm in the world evident on her words. “Course, not like ya would lie ta me, huh?”
Gilgamesh crossed all eight of his arms, and looked away from her. Suddenly, he wished that he had not awoken from that ridiculously long tangent of his. “N-no! No, no, of course not! Why would I ever make such an insidious… I-I mean, wh-why would I ever tell a not-truth? A very, very big not-truth like that, too.”
There, how could she question that sort of logic? Not only had he averted his abuse of massive words, but he had also managed to speak to her in a completely informal, calm manner.
Instead, the eyes of pure ice bit further into his soul, threatening it to be completely devoured, as Applejack straightened her back, her legs suddenly turning stiff. “Are… Are ya makin’ fun of me?!” she shouted in reply. “’Cause Ah ain’t no idjit, if that’s what y’all’re thinkin’!”
“No, no, no!” Gilgamesh said, trying to quiet the pure, unfiltered anger in her voice. “I-I would never think such a thing! Why would I ever make the assumption that your mental prowess is anything b–”
“Y’all’re doin’ it again, Gilgamesh!” snapped Applejack.
But he, in his stubbornness and momentary idiocy, decided instead to refute her claims. “I am doing no such thing!” he blatantly lied, before realizing just what he had said, and chose to change the subject in an effort to get away from the pony. “And besides, wouldn’t it be best if we start finishing this up? I’d rather not spend my entire day debating over points that, clearly, neither of us will win!”
After all, how hard was it for him to keep them from hating him? He wasn’t about to admit his fears; they would probably just laugh at him, or refuse to admit the fact that they all despised him so heavily. But in that case, why was Applejack so insistent on burrowing deep into his mind, on disarming his lies? It wasn’t as if it truly mattered in the end.
She stared at him for several seconds, both of them unmoving under the sun of the early morning, before she grit her teeth and let out a sigh. “Fine,” she muttered, “Ah’ll just get ya those seeds, and ya can… plant… the…” She blinked, and looked past Gilgamesh, prompting him to turn his head.
Behind him, a certain winged unicorn with a particularly purple body could be seen, sprinting as fast as seemingly possible. She ran up to them and paused, panting heavily.
“Twi’?” Applejack asked, cocking her head to side a bit. “What’re ya doin’ here? Ah thought ya were s’posed ta be in the library.”
Twilight Sparkle coughed, obviously still recovering from her run, and held up a hoof until she was entirely composed. Even then, she still sounded awkward.
Or, rather, she sounded like Twilight Sparkle.
Gilgamesh bit back the urge to put those words into thought, forcing back his current anxiety and anger at her until after he heard what she had to say.
“I-I was looking all over for you…!” Twilight gasped. “I ran to your house, but the door was broken down, so I spent the last hour asking around Ponyville trying to find you… and then somepony told me that you’d come here with Applejack, and…” She paused, thoughtfully. “Wait, what the hay are you doing here?”
Gilgamesh opened his mouth in order to speak, but Applejack got to it first. “Ah’m sorry Twilight… it’s my fault!” Her ears flattened. “Ah was still kinda angry at him for what he did four days ago, so Ah… uh…”
“So she broke down my door, blackmailed me, and forced me to perform menial labor,” Gilgamesh deadpanned, his face as neutral as he could possibly make it.
Twilight stared at him for several seconds, likely attempting to take in this new information. “Um… wait, you did WHAT?!” she shouted, turning back to Applejack. “I know he made you angry, but really? And Gilgamesh –” she gestured to his body “– what’s up with that coloration, too? Seriously, what’s going on here?!”
Applejack’s cheeks became bright red. “Erm… w-well, Ah… yeah…” She turned her head away, likely in an effort to avoid showing any more creatures the new coloration. “After he stole my pitchfork and all of them apples, Ah… Ah jus’ lost my temper… so Ah wanted him ta work off what he’d stolen!”
“Ten times what I’d stolen,” Gilgamesh said, still trying to keep his face neutral, but feeling just as sheepish to admit to his wrongdoing. “And I would have no qualms doing such a thing, normally!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, and looked between the two. “Okay… and what about that strange aura?”
“This,” Gilgamesh responded, striking yet another heroic pose, moving fairly slowly in an effort for his movements to be captured at normal speed, “is the combined effort of a regeneration spell and a speed spell. Both are fairly commonplace in my world, but are mostly used for the sake of combat, and combat alone. And,” he added, “are apparently very useful for pulling a heavy plow across several yards of land. Several dozen yards of land, I should say.”
“What…” Twilight’s eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets. “Huh?! B-but… but you… You ate that much?!”
Gilgamesh blinked, realizing the wrongness of his statement, and quickly waved his eight hands in an effort to dispel Twilight’s shock. “No! No, no, no, no, no!” How many times had he said “no” today? It must have been at least one hundred by that point. “I… erm…” How was he to explain the fact that he had completely lost consciousness halfway through the journey?
Luckily, he didn’t. “He just went and spaced out halfway through,” Applejack said, her face looking much less red. “He only had ta go ten yards, and he went a hundred instead! Can ya believe it, Twi’?”
“Let me guess: his eyes glazed over, didn’t they?” Twilight’s voice was completely deadpan.
“Yup,” Applejack said in reply, her voice similarly neutral.
The two simply stared at each other for several seconds, before they began to giggle. Although they covered their mouths with their hooves, the sounds of mirth were still quite evident, leaving Gilgamesh to question just what was so funny about it.
Gilgamesh waited until the two had calmed down, which took several minutes, before asking, “You seemed to be in a rush, Twilight. Do you need something?” Unlike the more informal tone he’d often used, this one burned with nothing but sheer distaste, scorn, and the smallest, smallest touch of bitterness. “Because if you do, I would be happy to help you with it.”
“O-oh, right…” Twilight said, the giggle-fest instantly forgotten. “Well, first of all… I wanted to apologize again about last night. And about all the other times, too.”
Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Why was she apologizing now? Did she not realize that it was far too late to undo the trouble, pain, and sorrow that she had caused for him? That his entire crisis that day had been entirely because of her, her selfishness, and her despise towards him?
Granted, he likely deserved much of it in his stubbornness and arrogance, and made a mental note to cut back on those in the future in order to avoid potentially angering the denizens of the world and finding himself banished.
Twilight took in a deep breath. “I… Okay, yeah, you were a bit of a jerk at the time. And arrogant. And you always bragged about yourself. And–” She paused, and let out a sigh. “Right. I could go on all day about how you broke into my friend’s house, or how you robbed my friend, or how you insulted everypony here, and tried to KILL AT LEAST ONE OF M–” She paused again, took in a deep breath, and let it out. “But… you also did some good things, too. And I owe you an apology for all the times that I really was a jerk to you – I guess it never crossed my mind that you had actual feelings.” She froze, realized what she’d just said, and pressed a hoof to her forehead.
“No, please,” Gilgamesh said, his voice dripping pure sarcasm. “Go on.”
“U-um… I… uh…” Twilight stuttered, coughed, and looked away, her cheeks now crimson. “I… I know that I made a lot of wrong choices based around you, so… I-I’m sorry.”
There were two options before Gilgamesh. He could either forgive Twilight for her acts toward him, in which case he would be the bigger creature – both literally and metaphorically. It would also give him the chance to prove that he was willing to give her a chance, secure his place in that village, make him seem normal, maybe let him finally get a chance to actually stay somewhere, relax, and…
The second option never even entered his mind after that point. It would have been foolish to have chosen anything else, especially given the terror that his latest tangent had filled him with, and the fact that its solution was so obvious.
“Very well,” he remarked, though it pained him to avoid gloating. “I shall accept your forgiveness.”
“Wait… y-you will?!” Twilight gasped, obviously not having expected that response. “I-I mean… I just thought that…”
“That I would make you jump through hoops, or some other thing as that?” Gilgamesh laughed, although it was less a “laugh” and more of a “half-hearted, semi-depressed chuckle” – the sound of a creature that had chosen the path of good over arrogance. “Ha! You wound me with your accusations, Twilight Sparkle! What reason would I have to do such a thing? None! Ha… Ha…” He trailed off, before rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
“Um… okay…?” Twilight said uneasily, raising one eyebrow before passing Applejack a glance. “Well… uh… in that case, can you tell me your opinion about something? It’s… um… it’s something that I’ve been worried about since this morning, and I thought that you’d know–”
The rest of her words became unintelligible as Gilgamesh blocked them from his mind. Of course, she wasn’t apologizing because she was legitimately sorry, or wanted his friendship, or anything like that – it was all over some stupid, probably meaningless question that meant absolutely nothing. Once again, Twilight Sparkle had proven that not only did she have a ridiculous name, but she was also only interested in Gilgamesh because of his abilities, and nothing more than that.
“– but yeah, like I was saying,” Twilight continued, pulling Gilgamesh back to reality. “About that monster from the other day… that weird, empty, beetle thing… You said that you remembered it, right? That you’d seen it somewhere before?”
Gilgamesh blinked just once, and placed a hand on his chin. “Yes, I believe so,” he admitted, “but what about it? Just because I recognized it does not mean anything! It is plausible that a beast such as that was bred in your land, right?”
“No,” Twilight replied. “It was… Well, nopony’s seen anything like it around here, so I wondered if it existed back on your world.”
“I see,” Gilgamesh said, rubbing his chin with one of his right hands. “So you presume that it came from my world?”
“Yeah. I think so, at least.” Twilight grimaced. “It makes the most sense out of all of our options, I think. Maybe when you came here, it hitched along for the ride?”
Gilgamesh shook his head. “I doubt that. It is possible that it came from my world – or half of it, at least – but it could not have come here with me.” Before Twilight could ask why, he continued, “As I just said, my world is actually split into two halves – but the part that I was in had no such creatures wandering it.”
Twilight blinked. “T-two halves? What do you mean by that?”
He sighed, and waved her off. “Eh, I can explain later. But for now, let’s just say that it would have been impossible for that thing to have followed me here.”
“Okay, then…” Twilight said. “But what if it came here some… other way?”
“’Some other way?’” Gilgamesh asked. “And what ‘other way’ could that possibly be? Like I said, it would be impossible for it have–”
“What if it was sent here, too?” Twilight asked, and the overall mood of the area shifted. “Or… what if it somehow crossed the border between our worlds?”
Gilgamesh instantly felt the world around him grow cold. Was it possible? No. It wouldn’t be possible for it to travel there of its own accord, especially given that their worlds were not interconnected in the same vein as his own world and Bartz’s. It would have had to enter the rift first – already an impossible feat for a literally empty being – and enter Twilight’s world from there, which would already be immensely difficult due to the rift likely not being open from there.
But what if it was sent over?
“Gilgamesh, are you feeling alright?” Twilight asked, for once looking actually concerned over his health. “Your face just turned completely white… Wait, did you just realize something about that creature?!”
Was it possible? Could some creature have sent it to Twilight’s world by accident – or worse, on purpose?
No. It couldn’t have been an accident; Banish was not a spell that functioned in that manner, as it required a focused and pointed destination for a creature to actually be thrown into that location, with even the slightest of deviations causing it to malfunction. Exdeath had obviously lost focus in casting it, which had thrown him into Equestria, and if the target had been the same area, it could not be a mere coincidence.
Applejack, who had just idly been watching Gilgamesh’s and Twilight’s conversation, stepped over to him. “Gilgamesh, are ya really feelin’ okay? ‘Cause if ya’re not, Ah can–”
She never finished that thought, however, as the sheer terror, horror, and fear gripped Gilgamesh like a vice. His legs gave way under him, and he felt himself fall back, his head colliding with the tree behind him. Luckily, his helmet kept the damage from being too great, but it was less the pain of falling into a tree and more so the fact that he locked his knees that led to Gilgamesh’s undoing.
The last thing he heard before the world turned black was Twilight’s voice, filled with genuine panic: “Oh, Sweet Celestia! Applejack, quick! Find something, anyth–!”
And then silence.
Dire looked up from his desk to the sound of a hoof rapping on his door from the other side. “It’s unlocked,” he said, just loud enough to be heard out in the hallway.
The knob slowly turned, before the door completely opened. A single pony, a familiar earth pony mare, stepped in, and closed the door behind her. “Prosecutor Dire,” were the only words she said at first.
He nodded in turn. “Miss Melody. I see that you got my message?”
As if in a sort of confirmation, she held the letter up and nodded. “Yes,” she said, “I… I received it just a few hours ago. Unfortunately, I was working at the time, so I was unable to completely read it over, but…”
Dire waved her off. “Don’t worry about it too much,” he said in his famous monotone. “But I take it you have realized just why I asked you to come here?”
“Let me guess,” Octavia said, stepping forward. “Did you find any new evidence regarding the case?”
“Yes. And I do believe that you’ll find it to be quite… decisive.” Dire reached into his desk, and pulled out a small piece of paper – a picture from one of the latest crime scenes. On it was depicted a single word, written onto the ground in the victim’s blood. He placed it on the desk in front of him, and rotated it so that his guest could see it properly.
Octavia reached down and picked it up, before her face went completely pale. “Wait a second, isn’t this…?!” She appeared to be hyperventilating, and quickly threw it back down.
“As I said,” Dire continued, “this is quite decisive, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Of course I do!” Octavia replied, her face pulling itself into a small smile. “This… this is perfect! We just have to show it to Princess Celestia, and we can get a retrial without any worries! And then… and then it will all…” She trailed off upon seeing Dire’s expression.
“Miss Melody,” Dire said, his gaze focused on the image, “yes, that will be very beneficial to our case, but… without the proper evidence, there is nothing to prove our point.” He looked up, and met her eyes. “Yes, it is decisive on its own… but it is by no means an instant victory. But,” he quickly added, “that is not to say that we are not close! We are almost there.”
Octavia lowered her gaze to the floor, and bit down on her lower lip. “But… can you, Vinyl, and I really find all of this…? There’s only six days left, after all…”
“Believe me, I understand that,” Dire noted, and he stood up from his desk, turning his gaze to the window and the world outside. “But we are far from alone, here – I asked Doctor Quill if he would look over some new evidence, and I requested Miss Watch and Chief Dreadnaught to ask for further information about the case.”
“That’s something, I guess,” Octavia said. “So… is that all, then? Because I really should get back to practicing.”
Dire felt the edges of his mouth twitch slightly. “For what? Lawyering or music?”
“Both,” she shot back, and turned to leave before stopping halfway. “Oh, and Prosecutor Dire – thank you for this. Even after that… that…”
“Mess?” Dire offered.
“Tragedy,” Octavia said instead. “Even after that, you still came and helped Vinyl and I so much… I’m somewhat sad that it’s coming to a close.”
Dire smirked, although he didn’t turn back to look at her. “I highly doubt that it will end here. If anything, I look forward to seeing what will happen afterward, after we put this wretched thing to an end… But until then, farewell, Miss Melody. And I hope to see you in court.”
Octavia nodded just once, and turned fully around. She got to the door and had it fully opened. Just before she stepped out, however, she turned around and took one last look at him, and the door closed shut.
Dire stood alone, once more, looking out the window and over Canterlot below. He turned to his desk, and that accursed note that rested upon it. Was he glad that new evidence had been discovered? Of course he was, but the facts remained that it was digging deep into his past – that uncomfortable, wretched, disgusting time that he would rather forget.
And that word – that one, monstrous word – only caused the bile to rise in his throat even more.
The moonlit sky gleamed outside of Gilgamesh’s new door, the old, splintered pieces of his previous one having been fully cleaned up and removed. As per the usual, he sat at his piano, fingers dancing across the keys in an effort to finally play something that sounded decent.
And, once more, the sound was something that was actually fairly good.
It was surprising just how quickly he’d been let out of the hospital, especially given that he had completely collapsed, but Gilgamesh was not about to complain. The event had not only allowed him to avoid telling Twilight about his fear, which even now ate away at him, and even made Applejack avoid making him finish his work in the field.
As the time had passed, so too had the spells he’d cast upon himself, but Gilgamesh did not care – at the moment, he was far too busy focusing on his own disbelief that the creatures of the world actually had worried about him, if only for a short period of time. Twilight had even requested his forgiveness, if only in a semi-sarcastic manner.
But, again, that was not what he was focused on at the moment. All that he cared about was putting his frustrations, fears, pains, and sorrows into the instrument before him, and feeling the music flow about his home. Everything else could be worried about tomorrow, when he would actually get the chance to focus on the things that had driven him to unconsciousness in the day.
And then he would finally be able to focus on just where that monstrosity had come from.