//------------------------------// // 19. Walking Over My Grave // Story: Final Mission // by Sharp Quill //------------------------------// I woke up to shafts of light beaming through the window. Carefully, I got out from under the covers, stood at the edge of the bed, and looked down. The thin layer of dust coating the floor was completely undisturbed, just as I had expected; the hoof prints I’d left behind after I had undid the spell were finally gone. I hopped down to the stone floor and went to the window. My heart filled with joy when I saw the rune-free sky. That last reset, the twelfth, had wiped out the remaining months and then some to that fateful day. I had not been there to show Twilight those vaults, so Twilight had not experimented with the forbidden knowledge, and therefore the protocols had not changed. It also meant Lyra no longer had any knowledge of what had happened to me. As far as she was concerned, I had mysteriously vanished two years ago, along with my personal possessions and a good chunk of my kitchen downstairs. Almost certainly she had left Ponyville a long time ago. That she had waited for me after the previous reset, not knowing how long it’d be before I returned, was miracle enough. Several resets ago, I’d gone back to spending the night in the ancient castle, so as to avoid the risk of waking up in somepony else’s home. The Gate opened, as it had done so every morning since I’d moved back here. As had become my morning ritual, I passed through into the Gate room to pick up my saddlebags already provisioned with food and water. I suddenly stopped. Staring at me with three sets of eyes was a large dog—well, almost a puppy, really. I guess there are more where you come from, Cerberus. An unusually large crow swooped in to a hover in front of the three-headed dog. “Stay,” he said. All three heads whined a bit, but the dog stayed put, his tail wagging furiously. Satisfied his command was being obeyed, the crow turned around to face me. “He might lick you to death, but he’s otherwise harmless.” I was more intrigued by the crow. Did every species have a sapient version in some realm? It was sure starting to look that way. “We’ve got one too,” I replied. “A guard dog by the name of Cerberus.” Quite playful too, so long as you weren’t an inmate. I pointed at the dog. “What his name?” “That’s for his new masters to decide,” Beyond said from the console. “We’re sending him to the corvid realm, right after you return to your own. Their current guard dog is getting on in years.” You mean Cerberus isn’t immortal? There had always been a Cerberus guarding the entrance to Tartarus. I never knew the current Cerberus was just the latest in a long line of guard dogs. The immortal princesses had kept that detail to themselves. Beyond guessed what I was thinking. “I believe your current guard dog was delivered to your realm about two-and-a-half centuries ago. It’ll be at least another century before we deliver another.” “Is their mortality supposed to be one of those secrets?” I asked. “Nope. That decision was purely Celestia’s to make.” Huh. Well, there was nothing wrong about that choice. Tartarus would seem more forbidding if its guardian was believed to be immortal, possessing untold millennia of experience. I was just surprised that even us agents had been kept in the dark. I returned to the crow. “You’re a corvid too, aren’t you?” The bird nodded. “Are you making the delivery personally?” “Huh?” He was caught off-guard by the very suggestion. “No, no, I’ve been acclimating him to corvids for the past few weeks, that’s all.” He gave a nervous laugh. “It’s not like anybird remembers who I am, after all.” Yeah. I can imagine. Was anyone born here, or were they all like me? I was more interested in getting on with my day than in getting this bird’s life story; I’d have way too much time to do that later on, after another week or so. “Could you move the Gate to Ponyville?” I asked Beyond. “Will do,” she replied as she twiddled some crystalline knobs. It wasn’t the first time I’d made that request; it beat taking the journey through the Everfree. Seconds later, the view through the Gate shifted to the edge of the forest, the town clearly visible beyond the trees. I retrieved my saddlebags from where they rested against a wall and put them on, and trotted over to the Gate. The perimeter started to glow violet. “I’ll see you tonight at the usual time. I may be heading back to the old castle early, depending on what I find.” “No problem. I’ll check both places,” the rabbit replied. “Thanks.” I went through the Gate and into the forest. I stood there for a moment, examining the town. Nothing seemed different at first glance, apart from the skies lacking runes. One building would be different, as I knew all too well, and that would be my first destination. As it was still rather early, I didn’t encounter many ponies on the way to my old home, and the few I did hadn’t recognized me—nor I them, really. Without the inevitable questions slowing me down, it wasn’t long before I was standing in front of my old candy store. Except it wasn’t a candy store. Not that I expected it to be, of course, since I knew how Lyra had reacted the first time around, but I was sort of expecting it to be Pinkie’s pie bakery. It wasn’t that either. It was a music store. What had gone differently? I wondered. Several theories came to mind. Lyra probably sold the place much sooner than in that other alternate history, maybe too soon for Pinkie to be ready or able to buy it. A kitchen devoid of appliances wouldn’t have helped either; it’d increase the investment needed to convert it into a bakery. It made me a bit sad. That was silly, of course. I knew full well that once my existential separation had completed, any opportunity she may have had to setup business here would have vanished. “How do I find you, Lyra,” I quietly muttered to the realm at large. I could ask the proprietor of this establishment, but there wasn’t much reason to believe Lyra would have told her plans to a stranger. My best bet was still Pinkie Pie. So off to Sugarcube Corner I went. Upon arriving, I found Pinkie sitting with the other Element Bearers—including Twilight. Before I could remind myself that this Twilight wasn’t obsessed with the forbidden knowledge, Pinkie had noticed a new customer had entered and happily bounced towards me—then stopped dead in her tracks. “Bon Bon?!” Waving a nervous hoof, I meekly replied, “Hi?” That caught the attention of the others, naturally, and they all gathered around me. “How could you do that to Lyra?” Rarity demanded. Ugh. Here we go. It was such a pointless conversation, too. Just a few more resets, and they would have never met me. Nopony would then be hurt by my disappearance. Well, nopony but my parents, but that wasn’t a problem yet. Ponies with living family members rarely became Agents. “It’s a very long and complicated story,” I punted, to noponies’ satisfaction. “You wouldn’t happen to know where she is?” Rarity looked at me like a stain on her dress. “I can say with total confidence that she would not want us to tell you.” “Sounds about right,” I muttered as I turned around to leave. Odds were she was in Canterlot, not that there was much I could do about it today. Twilight suddenly teleported in front of me. “Just wait a second,” she told me. “You vanished without a trace two years ago, along with your possessions and even most of your kitchen. Lyra might have assumed the worst from you, but I still tried to find you. I couldn’t even figure out how you transported those appliances out of Ponyville.” She gave me a firm, if not unkind, look. “What happened?” I sighed, avoiding her eyes. It was still a pointless waste of time. “Please believe me, Twilight. I didn’t set out to hurt anypony, least of all Lyra, and there’s really no point in me giving an explanation. It wouldn’t change anything.” Twilight didn’t budge. None of the others were buying it either… well, Rarity and Rainbow Dash certainly weren’t. “I’d still like an explanation,” she firmly stated. I met her eyes. “Is that a royal command?” Twilight opened, then closed her mouth. She tried again: “No. Neither would I throw you into a dungeon for telling the truth.” “Twi, she is telling the truth.” Applejack moved towards her. “Maybe we should let her be.” Twilight looked back and forth between me and Applejack. She eventually stepped aside. “Thank you,” I perfunctorily said as I walked past her to the door. I woke up to… well, nothing. The gray void of a reset-in-progress surrounded me. It finally happened, just as I was warned: so much of history was being rewritten that it couldn’t finish before I woke up. That might turn out to be a problem; it certainly was an inconvenience. After getting up on my hooves, I looked around and spotted the open Gate. While I had to be in my realm as each reset started, I didn’t have to remain until it finished. I passed through the portal and into the Gate room. As usual, Beyond was at the controls. “How long before the reset completes?” I asked her. “A few more minutes, I’d say.” That wasn’t so bad. It was going to get worse, of course. With only four more resets left to go, each would erase exponentially larger chunks of my existence. Once this one completed, the sixteenth, Lyra would have never met me. It was a relief, to be honest. Her suffering had ended, and I was now a nopony to Twilight and her friends; indeed, to all of Ponyville. I hadn’t returned there since my encounter with them; now I had no reason to ever do so. Now that the thread of my existence had been completely separated from Lyra’s, I figured that future resets should no longer rewrite her past. It was time to track her down and find out what her life was like sans me. I intended to look her up after each reset, to see her life evolve as the next two decades flashed by. The reset completed after only a few minutes, as predicted. “Ponyville?” the rabbit asked. I shook my head. “Canterlot. That’s where she’ll be. I hope.” Beyond began turning knobs. “How do you expect to find her in only a few hours?” Good question. There was one pony I could think of who would have kept track of her, as she does with all graduates of her school; better yet, she would be quite interested in finding out what had happened to me fourteen years ago. “Move the Gate to the castle. I’ll guide you.” Under her experienced paws, it didn’t take long for a conference room adjoining the throne room to come into view. As I had expected, Celestia was there with two aides, going over the business for the day. Beyond looked at me with raised eyebrow. “Seriously?” “What’s the worst that can happen? She throws me in a dungeon? You can find me during the reset, right?” “Suit yourself.” She flipped a switch. “And yes, you’d be trivial to find in the void.” I walked over to the Gate and stood in front of it. “Open it.” “Just be aware I’m doing this only because there are still resets to come, so don’t get used to it.” “I hear you.” Beyond tapped a crystal. Celestia immediately jerked her head towards the open portal, her eyes going wide upon seeing me. She quickly turned her attention to her aides, who were gaping at me, flabbergasted. “Leave. Now. Do not mention this to anypony.” When they failed to move, unable to take their eyes off of the portal, she unceremoniously teleported them out of the room. I crossed the threshold, saying two words: “Existential separation.” The princess slowly nodded. “I suspected as much. I’m truly sorry; I must have failed if this has happened to you.” “Please, don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s complicated, it’s a long story and you won’t remember it anyway, but this time it was voluntary. You were even there when the spell was cast. In exchange, the forbidden knowledge and weapons sequestered in those hidden vaults in the old castle will be destroyed once my separation is complete.” “You know about that?” she gasped. Celestia glanced at the still-open portal. “There are now many things you no doubt know.” “There are some things I don’t know, and that’s why I’m here. I want to track down a former student of your school, Lyra Heartstrings.” “That won’t be a problem: she’s performing this afternoon with the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra. May I ask why?” It felt like walking over my grave to answer. “After The Agency was shut down, Lyra and I had found each other, and we’ve been happily living together for the past… for five years in Ponyville.” My head lowered. “She no longer remembers me, of course.” “Neither shall I after the next reset, I imagine.” I silently nodded confirmation. The princess gazed at me with a warm smile. “You’ve come a long way from the young mare who had lost her parents, seeking meaning in her life. I have little doubt you went on to accomplish much that has ceased to have happened.” She got up and approached the Gate, but did not pass through. “I’ve never had the nerve to cross over; the side-effects, I’m told, can be quite bothersome, even to one such as myself.” She turned away and stepped towards me with resolve. “Return here at three o’clock. You shall see Lyra perform and meet her backstage.”