//------------------------------// // 12. To Deserve Their Fate // Story: Final Mission // by Sharp Quill //------------------------------// The parasprites had noticed our presence and were pressing against the force field, doing their darnedest to look cute and adorable. Even the buzzing of their wings sounded cute. Hard to believe they were among the most dangerous of monsters, leaving nothing but famine in their wake. If only I hadn’t been out of town when they had swept through Ponyville. “Ever wonder why parasprites are never found in the wild?” asked Beyond innocently enough. That got my attention. It was one of the big, unsolved mysteries: Where did parasprites hang out when they weren’t invading a town or ravaging crops? Nopony knew where they came from nor where they went. And since they eat just about anything and breed like… well… parasprites, what prevented them from turning all of Equestria into a wasteland? I gave Beyond an incredulous look. “Are you telling me that they’re released into Equestria from here? That afterwards, you somehow round them all up and bring them back?” “Not just your realm,” she clarified. “And we don’t exactly return them here.” She shrugged. “The way they expand their numbers, we’d have no place to put them all.” I shook my head. “But why?!” The lime-green rabbit frowned. “I can’t tell you, not yet.” “And what about the other monsters, like the ursa major?” “They are native to other realms.” “Even Discord?” The thought of an entire realm full of draconequi… no, I didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t answer immediately. “Draconequi are… different.” Oh, Celestia, there really are more than one. No more information was volunteered. “Let me guess, you can’t tell me more about them?” “You’re catching on,” she said with forced humor. “But truthfully, I don’t know much anyway.” Beyond again shrugged. “You could say they’re in a distant part of the org chart.” Remembering back, Discord had, in fact, said some things that could only mean he was not a free agent, despite his reputation, and that he had worked for and with others. Considering the raw power he had, what did that say about his superiors? I turned away from the force field and pensively walked a few feet. “Why are you showing me this?” “You do have options.” She made a hop towards me. “They’re not the options you want, I understand that, but we could use use your talents.” That made my blood boil. “Why would I want to help you do… whatever it is that you’re doing with those… things!” Beyond sighed. “Maybe you won’t. Just keep in mind there is much you don’t yet know.” And I have options you do not know. I just hoped that crystal worked. The rabbit hopped towards the door. “They should be finishing up by now. I’ll take you to the Gate room. From there you will return to your realm.” “Lead on,” I flippantly said. We went down the corridor to the back of the building. Along the way, we passed a graying unicat going the other way. Had the crystal been used on her without success? The Gate room was at the end of the corridor. At the back of the room was a crystalline, rune-engraved circle, large enough for an ursa minor to pass through—not that anything was going to pass through it, as it was up against the wall. Off to one side was a bank of dials, meters, and crystals, all giving the impression of being turned off. Beyond went over there, to what I guessed was a control panel of some sort, and started doing stuff. The meters and crystals came to life, with moving needles and colorful glows. A few twists of some dials, and a turn of a crystal knob, and she turned her head towards that huge circle against the wall. I shifted my gaze towards it as well… I saw Ponyville! The Town Hall, to be precise, practically glowing in the moonlight. I walked over and stopped right in front of it. It looked like I could walk right through. I lifted a forelimb and… “Don’t bother.” I froze in place and looked back at the rabbit. “It’s not fully open at the moment. You can see, but you can’t pass through.” I looked once more at my home—and it was my home, no matter what that rabbit kept telling me. Once I was through, I’d head to the castle and see Twilight… except it was already dark. My heart sank. There was no way I was going to convince Twilight to make a trip through the Everfree at night. I wasn’t keen on it myself. How late was it anyway? There were no ponies out and about. Was there even time to walk back to the old castle before the reset? Yet there was no place for me to spend the night in Ponyville, no place immune from an awkward conversation in the morning. “Is something wrong?” My eyes remained fixed on the image of home. With resignation, I said, “It would be best if you returned me to the castle where I’ve been spending most of my time.” “Which castle is that?” I looked at her in surprise. “You don’t know?” “Why should I?” Huh? Something wasn’t adding up. “You’re not keeping an eye on me, watching everything I do?” She gave me a confused look. “Why would you think that?” Either she was being deliberately obtuse, or I was missing something obvious. “You were there when I accidentally triggered a reset.” Her mouth made a silent ahhh. “I think I see the source of the misunderstanding.” I quirked an eyebrow. “And?” She looked inwards for a few seconds. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. I was keeping an eye on the bugbear, not on you.” I looked back at the Town Hall. No lights were on inside. I went through the motion of asking. “And why would you be doing that?” “You know the drill,” she apologetically said. I sighed. This secrecy was getting tiresome. What purpose did it even serve? A cheerful thought re-occurred to me: it only made sense if it was possible to undo what they had done to me—and, once it had run its course, no longer could it be undone. I could live with never knowing, so long as I lived. “You know the ancient castle in the Everfree, next to the Tree of Harmony?” Beyond nodded. “Yes.” “That’s the one. Twilight showed me a room I could use to spend the night.” She silently turned back to the control panel and and turned a few dials, the view through the Gate violently shifting as she did so. Within seconds, the ancient castle was visible. “I can put you in that room, if you show me where it is.” That would be convenient. Unfortunately, I didn’t know, exactly, where that room was on the outside. I compared what I was seeing with the view I remembered from the room’s window. “It’s not this side. Try the side around the left.” A few tweak of the dials later and that side of the castle had presented itself. “I think that’s it.” I knew it was on the second floor. I scanned the windows. One was not like the others. If she could put me within any room… It was tempting: no need for alicorns or draconequi. Just position this Gate inside that vault, and I had access to a time stunner. But how would I leave that vault? Certainly not through that Gate. I couldn’t let Beyond see me use that crystal. Even once the Gate was closed, she might still watch me for a while, wondering whether and how I exited the vault. And that’s all assuming she wouldn’t be bothered by the vault’s existence and report it to her superiors. I didn’t know what King Apollo had done to cross the line, but I had a sinking feeling Princess Celestia came uncomfortably close to crossing it herself. On the other hoof, Beyond had to have known about the time stunners in our possession when we were hunting the bugbear. There was no evidence she had been concerned. I made my decision, and pointed at the window. “That one,” I said. The vault was too risky. “It’s a new window, unlike the others.” The window rapidly approached. Suddenly, the view went dark. “I’ll have to switch to night vision.” Beyond tapped a crystal and my home away from home appeared in muted shades of gray. “That’s it,” I confirmed. She tapped another crystal, and the perimeter of the Gate glowed violet. Light from this side now spilled over into that room, overwhelming what little moonlight streamed through the window. “We can walk through now,” she said as she hopped over to me. “We?” I asked. She shrugged. “I’ve got nothing else to do right now.” She waved a paw towards the Gate. “After you.” Whatever. I walked right up to the Gate and stepped over the perimeter. I was home once more—for some definition of “home.” A fine layer of undisturbed dust coated everything, proof that a reset had indeed happened since I walked through the poison joke. Beyond hopped into the room and looked around. “I’m guessing this was all done recently.” “Yeah, it was.” I walked over to the window and looked outside. From the position of the Moon, it was late indeed, not far from midnight. “Still no working plumbing, though.” “You won’t have to put up with that much longer,” she said, trying to cheer me up. “As the resets take longer to complete, you’ll be spending more time in the Nexus.” That did not have the desired effect, of course. I turned around and… The floor caught my attention. The layer of dust. It was undisturbed. No hoof-prints. Or rabbit paw-prints. I scraped the floor with a hoof. The dust remained undisturbed. I glared at Beyond. Somehow this was her doing. “Right, you wouldn’t know.” I kept on glaring at her. “It’s not a big deal. Really. We’re still on Nexus time. That means we’re not quite physically present. Once I go back and close the Gate, I’ll drop you all the way back into this realm.” My glare weakened, though I remained silent. “I may have secrets,” she chided me, “but I’ve never lied to you. You can’t be on Nexus time when the reset begins; otherwise, we could have just kept you in the Nexus.” I turned away from her and went back to the window. “Can’t argue with that,” I said in defeat. “Can I ask another question?” “Sure,” she replied. “I’ve got a few more minutes.” I stared at Luna’s moon. “What did the cats do to deserve their fate?” “You mean that realm you got sent to?” I nodded. “Can you tell me what happened to them?” I suppressed my gut reaction. There was no reason she had to know what had happened; she was assigned to my realm, not theirs. I gave her the short version: “Their sky is full of runes that are slowly draining the magic from their realm.” I looked back at her. “Magic that powers their Sun.” She joined me at the window. “Yeah, that’s…” She gulped. “I’ve heard stories of that happening.” “But why?” She avoided my eyes. “I guess… I guess you could say they’ve outlived their usefulness… were more trouble than they’re worth… so the resources are being redeployed.” “I guess you could say many things,” I snarked. Beyond lethargically hopped—no, more like walked—back to the Gate. Just before she reached it, she stopped. Without looking back at me, she said, “They were a failed experiment.” The rabbit hopped through the Gate. A few seconds later, it closed, plunging the room into darkness.