Drifting Through Realities

by Thadius0

Chapter 13 - It's not that you installed a shiny red button, really.

Walking home left me a bad feeling in my stomach, like the sense of impending dread I usually got when I saw someone in robes or when I'd felt Presence in the latest portion of my life. It was the sense that all humans have, called 'Ackbar syndrome'. I knew what had triggered it, naturally, but I felt safe in the knowledge that the Clank wouldn't do more than fix the house and provide himself with a repair bay of some sort. Even with the thought that the Clank could make more Clanks to aid himself, I wasn't all that worried. Not really.

The day would have been perfect if not for my encounter with nobility. They seemed to be of the sort that had forgotten that the word had more than one meaning. A grey unicorn stallion with a significantly darker mane and blue eyes accompanied by a pale yellow-green unicorn mare with a blue-and-white streaked mane with blue eyes walked up in front of me with slight sneers on their faces. What clothes they wore covered their marks well enough that I couldn't see them to identify the pair by them. I halted in my merry jaunt back to Vinyl's and Octavia's and slowly dropped into my more practiced 'I see you and it's not good for you' stance. I widened my stance, lowered my center of gravity slightly, sent my conductive probes into my clothes and prepared to fire them up, and glared slightly at them. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Jet Set," the stallion said. "This is my wife, Upper Crust." I had to suppress a snicker as I connected their names with the idea of 'living in the upper echelon'. "We were just wondering when a fur-less minotaur like yourself would be leaving Canterlot."

I blinked at the insult, the emphasis, and finally the implications behind it all before laughing at the sheer pettiness of it. The two unicorns blinked at that before I held up a hand and managed to get a hold of my laughter. Then I recounted the tale of Raneria to them, or at least, the tale that had led me to hiding in a cave. "The last land I was in, I gave the king sound advice on how the nobility should serve the commoners. He liked it so much, he threw me a banquet to introduce the new ideas and myself to all the nobles at the same time. The nobility there was far more effective at threats than you are. I believe one of them insinuated that my head and my shoulders could do with some time apart from one another when he realized that the views the king was embracing were about to divest him of a good portion of his opulent lifestyle."

Their jaws dropped as my statement went on and on, and I pushed past them while chuckling and powering down my defenses. I'd barely gotten ten steps before I heard the wife speak up. "And you think your skill with words intimidates us?"

I turned on one heel and raised an eyebrow at them both. "If you think that my skill with words is the only skill I have, you are dreadfully mistaken. It is merely the easiest one to integrate into civilized life."

The two of them blinked before Jet Set smirked. "And neither is it ours. We have connections, ones we'd be happy to use to convince you to leave."

At that, I activated my clothes for a second and reveled in the shocked expression that crossed their faces. Interesting. Unicorns seem to be far more connected to magic than previous magi I've encountered. To the point where they can tell when I turn my clothes on. "That's a freebie for you two. Push me any harder, and I'll find proportionate responses."

I turned again and walked off, relishing that shocked expression on their faces. Ah, another for the memory vaults...

Walking in to Vinyl's and Octavia's place, I was greeted with silence for a moment. And then, music drifted from the basement. Low, slow, sorrowful music. I followed the sound to find Octavia sitting in the basement, a cello propped up next to her, the bow in her hoof and being drawn across the strings, her eyes closed as she focused on the music she was playing.

I couldn't follow the music. Mainly because once I drew close enough, the music stirred something deep within my soul. Pains long buried. Hurts long ignored. Trauma I had purposefully blocked out. Wounds I had mentally suppressed from my mind. That pit of things I couldn't deal with at the time had been unearthed and brought to the surface. The priest of Celestian in the last world had healed away the scars on my body that remained, but I could swear I could feel them again.

As the music stopped, I felt a tear slip down my left cheek. Octavia opened her eyes and saw me standing there, then blinked twice. "Oh. You weren't supposed to hear that."

I wiped the tear away and looked at it, then her. "You're very skilled. Can I ask the name of that song?"

Octavia smiled softly. "It doesn't have a name yet. It's not finished, after all."

I tilted my head slightly. "Why not?"

"Because while I know you have experienced pain, quite a lot of pain, I don't know all of it. Neither do I know how the song is supposed to end."

I blinked at that, surprised. She wanted to write a song about me? About my life? About how scarred I was? And she wanted to know how to end it? I...I was shocked. I walked a little closer and moved the cello to one side before taking a knee before her. "Why do you want to write a song about my life?"

She brought a hoof to my shoulder and looked in my eyes. "Because if you share your pain, it becomes easier. You don't have to carry this burden alone anymore."

I breathed deeply as the implication hit me. These ponies were truly good people. Willing to take on such a burden without even knowing how hefty it would be. I brought a hand to her face and smiled while brushing it with my thumb. "End it with a note of hope. Or rather, more than a note, seeing as how I'll be here for a century, plausibly."

She blinked, but smiled and nodded. I walked back upstairs, still leaking tears from the eye that could cry. Sympathy was something I'd encountered rarely. And it always brought me to tears that someone could have such a large heart that they could open it up to the burdens of mine.

On my way back to the house I'd rented on the morn of the next day, I ran into a unicorn stallion with a white coat with a blue mane and matching blue eyes. His mark was a trio of crowns with amethysts set in them. His companion was a white-coated unicorn mare who appeared to be very slender. Almost unhealthily so, in fact. Her mane was two tones of pink while her eyes were violet. Her mark appeared to be a trio of symbols that reminded me of France. Fleur-de-somethings, done in gold and violet. Gah, what was the name of that thing? Once they spotted me, they walked over and smiled slightly. "Well hello there, good sir. Am I correct in assuming you are the latest human to arrive in Equestria?"

Ah, here was a pony I could possibly get along with. At least he was trying to be polite about getting to know me. I nodded at the stallion before replying. "You would indeed. Eric O'Mally, good sir. And yourself?"

His smile only widened as he answered my question. "My name is Fancy Pants. My companion," and here the mare stepped forward and nodded at me, "Is Fleur-Dis-Lee." Ah, that was the answer to my question! "I've heard from some business associates that you have interesting ideas on nobility?"

I scoffed. "Interesting would be an understatement. A simple notion from my home, if you are willing to walk while we talk?"

As the two accompanied me to my destination, I mused over the two that I had met and said the first thing that came to mind. "The nobility's status is built on the back of the common folk. However, they forget that there are far more common folk than there are nobles. And while ponies seem far more peaceful than my kind..." I looked over to both ponies to see them nodding at the sentiment, "If there exists an unassailable fortress that can stand with the nobles inside while all the common folk are without, baying for their blood and just due, I've yet to see it."

I walked for a few paces until I noticed that my companions had stopped a while back. I turned to look at them to see their jaws had dropped. Fancy worked his jaw a few times until he coughed and managed to force some words out. "My word. While I don't think we ponies would go to the extremes your kind would, the notions are novel...and sound quite applicable."

I nodded and sighed. "Common sense seems to be less common the more money you accrue. After all, if it is common, then the nobility have no interest in it."

Fancy sighed as well, and Fleur spoke up next. "It is a sad truth indeed, but thankfully, myself and Fancy break the so-called 'norm', monsieur O'Mally." Ah, a French accent. Or is it Prench here? "We make sure to give back to the common pony when we can, in the form of cleverly disguised donations. The business owners here and abroad owe much to us, though all we tend to ask in exchange for our gifts is a modest return on our investments...along with their continued good will, of course."

I smiled, took a knee, and extended my left hand towards them. Fancy shook it first, followed by Fleur. "Were all humans like you, we would be far better off, I feel." I straightened myself before nodding and narrowing my gaze somewhat. "Though, that is not all you came to me for, I think."

Fancy chuckled. "Indeed not. I heard from those two that you have an ability to nullify magic that even a foal could sense when you activated it."

I scoffed and waved the notion off. "If that's what they want to think, let them. The truth is always less interesting when you know it and its trade secrets."

Fancy got this little glimmer to his eyes at those last two words. "Indeed, but marketing something that utilizes those secrets is always a lucrative operation, as long as the secrets are carefully hidden away from prying eyes."

I ran the sentence past my own noble-to-commonspeak filters and came up with this: I know it's not you but something you have, and there could be a market if there's extra you're willing to part with. I'm even willing to help hide the secret, it's that good a market. I shrugged at the thought, but let out a soft smile. "Indeed. An interesting proposal. I assume you'll be able to find me, should I put out word that I've changed my mind, but for now, I would like to get settled before causing any major waves in my latest, and plausibly last, home."

Fancy and Fluer smiled and walked off, with a parting shot. "Indeed we will, though do take care that next time, the channels aren't polluted."

Avoid those two, got it.

I had finally managed to return to the house following my impromptu meeting with tolerable nobility and smiled that there was no external modifications to said abode. At least the Clank had not brought any undue attention by altering the outside to the point where scrutiny would be brought down upon me. However, I had noticed that the few signs of wear and tear had vanished, which was typical of this type of Clank when it was told that something needed to be fixed. Hell, even the windows seemed polished. Walking in brought something that shouldn't have been a surprise, but was.

The entire interior was fixed to the point where the damage was gone. Hell, if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd seen it myself, I'd doubt that it had ever existed in the first place. I thought I could see the signs of fresh paint, even. I shook my head and smiled softly, then walked to the basement. There was only one noticeable difference there, in that one wall had a hole running at the base that was barely six inches tall. I thought for a moment and remembered the phrase that Agatha had told me.

"Tick tock! Tick tock, showtime!"

The little Clank walked out from the hole, and I smiled. That smile dropped as a small flood of other clanks walked out behind it, covering the floor in a sea of animate metal. Clearly, he'd fulfilled his objectives of fixing the house and creating a place to house not only himself, but the ones he'd also brought to life as well. Making a small army of helper Clanks appeared to have been an objective he fulfilled on the way so that he would have enough ma- er, Clank-power to do all that I'd asked him for in one night. I sighed. I should have expected this, I really should have. But at least the Clank was willing to listen to my directions and desires.

Then as I turned around to take in the horde of Clanks, my eyes fell on one wall and I could swear I felt my pupils shrink. I definitely felt the adrenaline hit my system as the panic set in. I then turned to the original Clank while pointing at the wall.

"Why in the name of Joseph," I said while my voice raised steadily and my pointing finger started to shake while still indicating the clearly labeled object that I objected to, "did you install a self destruct button for the house?!"

The cheeky thing just dinged four times, and I could swear it sounded like a laugh.