HiE - A Hollow in Equestria

by Charlie_K

Chapter One Hundred Five

Chapter One Hundred Five

"I'm... sorry? Could you please repeat that?" Celestia asked uncertainly. "It almost sounded like you said-"

"That Ulquiorra is at risk of being wiped out of existence. That's exactly what I said, because that's the truth of the situation," Discord confirmed.

"Discord," Luna trembled as she spoke up, "if this is your idea of a joke then it is not funny in the least."

"If only it were a joke, Luna. Although I dearly wish that it were as easy to brush off as one of my jokes. But sadly that's not the case," Discord said with a weary sigh, "so help me, I've never been more serious about anything in my entire existence. This is all very, very much real, and just as frightening as it sounds. We're talking true spontaneous erasure here, without any warning beforehoof."

All throughout the library it was an explosion of chaos and fear, but from Ulquiorra's perspective all of the yelling and swearing had more or less morphed into nothing more than white noise that was impossible to focus on. It was all just a low-pitched whine in the background as his own thoughts were currently raging in his head.

Being a Hollow, he knew better than anyone that he could die at any given moment; it was simply the way things were in Hueco Mundo. Either a Hollow proved strong enough to survive and evolve, or they encountered a bigger, stronger Hollow and became food for them. In some cases it was even possible to be killed by mere reiatsu if a particular Hollow were of sufficient strength. But what Discord was talking about proved to be far more disturbing to contemplate than the natural order of his world. A violent death was something he was fully prepared to encounter and face if it proved necessary.

But being erased from reality, essentially by reality itself due to his own state of not being synchronized with it? That was something he had never given any consideration to being a possibility; why would he? And now that it actually was out there for such consideration, the notion was... he found himself honestly not wanting to think about it.

"Is this what it's like to feel fear? To be horrified?" he wondered as he tried to make sense of just what he was currently experiencing.

"Is... is there anything that can be done to prevent that from happening?" Celestia finally managed to ask.

"Well there's a very good reason for why I've been away for so long, and missed all the excitement. Ever since I discovered the truth of the matter, I've been working very hard to try and prevent that from actually happening," Discord replied and gave a weary sigh. "I can't even begin to detail all the work I've put in, as nopony here is capable of thinking in fifth dimensional terms."

"And... did it work? Is Ulquiorra Cifer... safe?" Luna asked shakily, almost afraid to put any real weight to her words out of fear that speaking wrong could cause something bad to happen.

"... I don't know," Discord reluctantly admitted.

The tail end of the green line was now blinking, showing a steep drop from a particularly high spike, before eventually leveling back out within the boundaries of the red line, and largely resembling the start of the display.

"At this point the best, most concise answer that I can give is... maybe. Ulquiorra could be with us for the duration of his natural Hollow existence. Or he could be gone today, tomorrow, next week, six months, or even five years from now, and we'd never have any warning beforehoof. He'd literally be here one minute, and gone the next. And this time it won't be because of his sonido."

Where there had been chaos and commotion just a minute ago, there was nothing but silence in the wake of Discord's grim news, as they tried to process and come to terms with this revelation, not daring to even make a peep.

"How did this happen?"

Exactly how long the horrified silence stretched on for was unknown. The only thing that was known, was that Twilight was the first to actually break it. As even in her own horrified state, the logical, scientific portion of her mind simply refused to be silenced at a time like this.

"Discord, h-how did something like this happen?" she asked again as she tried to compose herself. Answers were needed, and her being emotional wasn't going to get them. "Why is Ulquiorra at risk of ceasing to exist? Why is this happening just now?"

"In simplest terms, I guess you could say I... made a miscalculation," Discord admitted reluctantly.

"A miscalculation? What sort of miscalculation?" Spike asked, far more willing to speak up now that Twilight had gone first, essentially paving the way for them to join in.

"One of the most basic, yet simultaneously most devastating sort of miscalculations one could possibly make. When I found him back in his own reality, I looked into his character, his personality itself, and felt he could benefit greatly from the magic of friendship. I assumed I had the whole picture and knew all I actually needed to know. But it was more like a single puzzle piece out of many," Discord stated, before releasing one more in what looked like it was going to be a series of many tired sighs. "Perhaps I should've dug deeper. But as it turns out, some problems simply can't be found out until after the fact."

"What sort of problems?" Fluttershy asked, knowing the others would've likely been far more rude in trying to get answers if they spoke up first.

"As best I can determine, and believe me I've gone over the various factors quite extensively in trying to find the answer, Ulquiorra's incompatibility issues arise from his own strength. I know that doesn't sound like it makes any sense, and yet it's the only thing I can find to explain his. Our Espada friend here possesses both a type and degree of strength that simply isn't compatible with the physics of our world, like it is back in his world. And the greater the degree of strength he draws on, the greater that instability becomes as a direct result."

"That makes literally zero sense!" Spike interrupted, "nono, that makes less than zero sense! That makes negative sense; I feel dumber after listening to that! This is a bad comic book plot. What next, are you gonna tell us Ulquiorra is so strong he can punch reality itself and bring the dead back to life?"

"That story line was terrible," Pinkie added and nodded.

Several confused glances were exchanged by the others present, but Discord's explanation continued regardless.

"Well it's not anything quite that bad, although it is a problem in need of being addressed."

The display they'd been looking at previously was quickly expanded and enlarged significantly as Discord spoke, allowing for far greater levels of detail to be seen in the green line without the need to squint for making it out. Now there were a great many peaks and valleys before the high incline point that'd been used to mark the changeling incident back in Canterlot.

"Up until the incident up in Canterlot, the degree of incompatability was relatively minor; hardly anything that could be considered as putting him at risk of ceasing to exist as a result," he continued, drawing their attention to how the pattern was, for lack of a better term, largely stable with only mild-to-moderate overall variations. "At that point and beyond... well the figures speak for themselves, even if they have no words or voice to communicate with."

"Do ya mind gettin' ta the actual point, an' movin' past all the exposition?" Applejack asked, feeling rather impatient with Discord taking the long way around explaining things. The sooner they got straight answers, the sooner they could figure out how to help Ulquiorra.

"Well if you want to actually skip past all the exposition and world building," Discord replied in an annoyed tone, "in his present sealed form, even when demonstrating significant feats of strength, the degree of incompatibility he has with our reality is minor; more at the level of annoyance than an actual threat to himself or anything else. But when it comes to his resurrection that's a whole 'nother story to get into! Just the transformation itself is bad enough, but the longer he uses it, and the harder he uses it -stop giggling- the worse the incompatibility issue becomes as a result. For lack of a better explanation, Ulquiorra is too strong for our reality. And the harder he pushes against it, the harder it pushes back on him. But not being a spirit of chaos, he's uniquely vulnerable to that resulting pushback."

More silence followed Discord's explanation of the situation they found themselves in, this time resulting from confusion and uncertainty, rather than fear and terror.

"So..." Luna started slowly, "not knowing what you have done so far, what exactly can we do on this particular matter?"

"Not much, unfortunately. The best we can do is try to minimize the amount of time that he's vulnerable," Discord replied, before turning his focus to where Ulquiorra presently stood. "Now I know you likely don't need to be told this, but it still needs to be said for the benefit of others. Don't go utilizing your resurrection unless you're certain it's absolutely necessary. And when you do use it, try to limit its use to no more than three minutes at a time. That should limit the degree of incompatibility to a tolerable level. Anything after that, especially when under heavy use... well you get the idea."

"Duly noted," Ulquiorra replied, not even bothering with trying to correct his pronunciation at this point, or otherwise explaining why he wouldn't do something of that particular like anyway, even if the presented circumstances weren't as dire as was being suggested.

Unlike certain others, especially amongst the Espada, he had never felt the need to flaunt his strength for the sake of flaunting it. The situation with Ichigo Kurosaki notwithstanding.

"So that's ultimately the situation we find ourselves in right now. Ulquiorra's very existence is at risk of spontaneously ending without warning, and is only exacerbated when he does what he does best. And in an effort to prevent that untimely demise, I've wound up making myself far too weak to heal anypony right now. Now I know that's not a particularly high note to end on, but not all stories can have a happy ending," Discord said in conclusion.

Silence. Nothing but more silence in the wake. Far too much silence as far as he was concerned. Something needed to be done about that.

Although that something came in the unexpected form of Ulquiorra being tackled to the floor by a blubbering Pinkie Pie clinging to him as if for dear life.

The next thing they knew there were two Pinkies in the room, and both Ulquiorra and Discord equally found themselves on the receiving end of a tight hug before they could respond, although Discord at least remained vertical.

"Well now I'm pissed and depressed," Rainbow Dash sighed and hung her head, choosing to ignore the Pinkie situation out of concern for her own mental health. "I was gonna use this dragon form and light Discord's tail on fire when he wasn't looking. But I can't do that, now that I know he's actually been doing something important..."

Applejack snorted in response, caught off guard by the unexpected comment. But she took it in stride and just smirked, and reached over to rub her friend's scaly back. "There's always next time, sugarcube."

"Well I certainly do appreciate your restraint," Discord replied in a tone that was hard to tell if it was sarcastic or not. Although he did stop to pet his Pinkie's head, before turning his attention over to Ulquiorra as he more or less levitated his way back onto his feet. "Also, lad, if you have anything you want to do, or have potentially thought about doing, I'd recommend doing it while you have the opportunity. Within reason of course."

"I suppose I'll cross world domination off the list then," Ulquiorra replied without even thinking about it.

Once again the room was made silent. But this time it was a slightly different silence, resulting from what Ulquiorra had said, rather than the sense of lingering dread Discord's explanation had brought with it.

The silence was swiftly broken as the Pinkie currently hugging him snorted.

"Ulqy... Ulqy just made a joke," she snickered.

"Mr. Cifer's makin' jokes? Welp, that settles it, we're screwed," Applejack surmised. The situation they found themselves in probably had to be the worst case scenario imaginable, if Ulquiorra of all folks was actually being humorous.

"Darling," Rarity replied, "in a situation like this, I think it far more appropriate to say that we're fucked."

All eyes in the room were now on Rarity at her statement, even Ulquiorra's.

Rainbow Dash let out a hard laugh in response, nearly falling over backwards from her own amusement as she gripped her sides.

"She said "fuck" she actually said it! And I got to hear her say it!"

"Oh my," she squeaked out in response to the sudden attention. "I swear, I didn't mean to say that, it just slipped out, really. Frankly I blame it on this all being a dream. If we were awake I'd never be so vulgar."

Rainbow Dash simply laughed even harder, leading to her actually falling over backwards and landing roughly on the floor. Not that it served to stop her, however, as she continued to laugh regardless with her hind legs stuck in the air.

"Oh come now, it wasn't that funny," Rarity protested and let out an annoyed sigh. "Ulquiorra I do apologize. It was uncalled for, to suggest you being humorous was a bad thing."

"I will second that. Having a sense of humor is not a bad thing," Luna added. "I will also say that, while world domination is not likely to be a viable option, if he wishes to take over running Equestria, all he ever need do is ask and I would start the paperwork myself. It would be nice to take a vacation once in a while. Provided he can refrain from ordering or otherwise carrying out executions, of course."

"I can make no such guarantee," Ulquiorra replied indifferently, indirectly earning more laughs in response.

Celestia shook her head, deciding that now probably wouldn't be the best time to get into an argument with Luna over just how bad the idea of the kingdom being Ulquiorra's command could be. Even if a day off would be nice from time to time.

"I have questions."

Thoughts on what Equestria's military would look like under Ulquiorra's helm, and other potentially horrifying matters, were put on hold as Twilight spoke up.

"And you're going to answer them," Twilight continued as she looked directly at Discord.

"I am?" Discord asked, his tone of voice showing he viewed the statement as a challenge.

"You are," Twilight confirmed, "because Fluttershy's own well being could indirectly be at stake in all this."

"Oh now that's just hitting below the belt, Sparkle," Discord protested with heavy emphasis on his displeasure.

"Well I am at the right height for doing something like that," Twilight countered.

"Fine, fine," Discord sighed in defeat, "what're your questions?"

"Well to preface, I don't think even you would spend so much time detailing Ulquiorra's resurrección like you did without a very good reason to warrant such an approach; it's an awful lot of work to clarify how it's his released state that puts him at the most risk of ceasing to exist, rather than the less-detailed approach of simply letting us believe he's at risk in general," Twilight explained, allowing a moment for it to sink in before she continued. "Now, I can't think of a reason for why you'd do that, unless there's something you're not presently telling us, but yet wanted us to understand, if not figure out."

"Ah think Ah know where this is goin'," Applejack muttered and turned her attention away from Twilight, and over to Discord.

"As do I," Rarity added as she did the same.

"Now, I know you're hardly linear in how you do things, Discord, but I think you know far more than you're presently letting on. Why you're not letting on, I don't really care; you do you as you need to. But what I do care about are my friends, and if what you know involves them, I think we need to know too. And ever since the changeling incident, we've had five questions but no answers to go on, so let's change that right now," Twilight continued. "In less than two weeks' time since meeting Ulquiorra, we've been subject to two different attacks; first by an angry dragon laying in wait for us, and then a changeling takeover that very nearly succeeded. Now, I know this is Equestria, and it has its fair share of crises, but two in two weeks is way above the national average."

"Depending on whether it's an even or odd year, the national average of threats to Equestria is either one or two," the Pinkie currently hugging Discord interjected.

"Right. So the first question is, did you know that these incidents were going to occur? More specifically, did you know how they would actually play out?"

Now all eyes were on Discord, watching him expectantly while waiting for him to respond.

"... Yes. And no," Discord eventually replied, "I honestly wish you hadn't asked. But..."

A burlap sack appeared on the table in front of them, as a cat looking a great deal like Opal crawled out of it, and proceeded to scamper off to parts unknown.

"It's far easier to show you, than try to explain it with words. Bear with me," he continued as he slowly raised his eagle talon and snapped his claws.

In a flash the library setting was gone, replaced by what could best be described as the cosmos at large, surrounded by the unobstructed view of stars and planets far beyond their own. But they didn't have time or the opportunity to be amazed by the view, as every non-chaos user present was experiencing their bodies tensing and locking up as if they were being subjected to electrocution, while their eyes were whited out by a bright light shining outward.

The entire episode had barely lasted three seconds before ending just as quickly as it'd started. But it'd been more than long enough to leave a lasting impression on all of them, as they collapsed hard against the library floor, with nearly all of them screaming in the aftermath.

"The first time is always the worst," Discord commented after the fact.

"Discord," Luna croaked, barely finding the strength necessary to even roll over, "what... just what was that just now!?"

"That, my dear Luna, is the reason for this entire mess we presently find ourselves in," Discord began as he clapped his claws together, causing the initial display to disappear, and a new one to take its place behind him as he continued speaking. "First and foremost, the multiverse theory is actually fact. Let that sink in for a moment, but not for too long; I don't need your brains melting under the strain of what the unfortunate implications that might bring about."

"Too late," Pinkie grunted, now reduced to a single entity rather than two, and no longer able to hug anyone. "Ugh, somepony dream up a stomach for me so I can hurl..."

"Now onto the second and more important point. What you all experienced was something that is completely unprecedented within our reality. At some point, somewhere between the time of Shining Armor's wedding and the reappearance of the Crystal Empire, something in the great multiverse of existence for lack of a more appropriate term "shifted" and has essentially thrown our world off from its intended course," Discord stated. "The fate we were originally destined for is no longer set, and there's no telling just where things may go from here on out. Events of the future could have already occurred in the past, and events that should've already happened by now could occur at a point when the lessons learned there should've already been learned before now."

"Oh dear," Rarity murmured, "you mean like that horrible boat trip Applejack and I went on with Rainbow Dash last year?"

"We agreed never to speak of that again," Rainbow Dash grunted, before taking a breath and rolling herself over and more or less falling into a sitting position on the floor.

"Well in any sense that is a very good example of what I'm talking about. The lessons learned and difficulties experienced would make sense early on in your friendships, but not after having years to become familiar with one another. But in the present situation we find ourselves in, there's no such guarantee-"

"Discord," Celestia interrupted firmly, "assuming this is all correct and true, why didn't you warn us about all of this sooner?"

"Because, my dear 'Tia, of four specific reasons. First, at the time this event occurred I was still firmly cast in stone, and couldn't have informed anypony even if I wanted to. Second, when I finally had the opportunity to warn you about the truth, I was still very much evilly-minded and simply didn't care about the matter at the time; I had my own chaotic plans for the world, so what did I care if things got a little wacky? Third, even if I did warn you about what happened, it simply wouldn't have made any difference, other than causing unrestrained terror and panic. Something of this magnitude is far, far beyond the control of any of us; even I can't undo a reality-warping event of this magnitude. Reconciliation with the path we should've been on is impossible. We have no choice but to simply wait and see how things play out, and hope for the best. And fourth, the aforementioned chaos/order divide. The only reason I can tell you now, is because this is all being done via dream."

"Why tell us now at all?" Ulquiorra asked, once he finally had his bearings back, and was able to stand upright again. "You obviously had no intention of informing us about this occurrence, so what served to change your mind?"

"Well certain developments have forced my claw in all this, such as Twilight and the others apparently figuring out that something is up. So it was either come clean and provide exposition on what we're facing, or erase everypony's memory up to a certain point and maintain the charade as long as possible," Discord explained. "But after a while even that gets to be boring, so on with shaking everypony's beliefs to their very cores!"

"THIS IS SERIOUS YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Luna shouted furiously, however her lack of the Royal Canterlot Voice, and her own squeaky tone, had done nothing to aid in demonstrating her displeasure.

"And you think that I don't know that!?" Discord shouted right back at her, and anypony else who might've believed otherwise. But his tone was far more violent, far harsher, and easily shut them all up. "I know for a fact, better than anything, just how serious this situation truly is. So if I appear silly, I assure you it's a necessary defense to maintain what semblance of sanity I still have left in all this!"

The others were understandably taken aback, as this was the first time any of them could recall seeing Discord actually, genuinely angry.

"So," Zecora began as she tried to keep her tone calm. "The future is no longer set. Which is what many believed to begin with. How does this event change that, or otherwise serve to affect any of us as a result?"

Rainbow Dash did a double take in response. "Woah, you didn't rhyme? I thought you always rhymed."

"I am far too upset to rhyme at the moment. I will do so later on, when things are not quite so terrifying," Zecora replied, before standing up straighter and turning her attention back to Discord as she waited for an answer.

"Well it's certainly a good question. And one that certainly needs answering," Rarity agreed and looked to Discord for answers. "Honestly, Discord, I don't think you would've told us this without having a reason, and based on what you've said previously, I doubt it would be purely for your own entertainment. So how does this development impact us?"

"You won't like the answer. But I think we're far past that point now," Discord muttered and rubbed his antler before continuing. "It's true, I could've opted not to tell any of you about this, let you all continue living out your lives in blissful ignorance of the truth. I thought about doing it, but... that wasn't an option. Some time ago I started to get... well let's call them premonitions. Dark, disturbing premonitions of a future Equestria that'd fallen. Premonitions about the deaths of you and your friends, from threats you simply couldn't stop. Threats that I couldn't protect you against without hampering your own growth, and putting myself at risk of ceasing to exist in the process. Suddenly ignorance was no longer bliss but a liability. You had to know about these unfortunate facts for your own good."

There was a flash of purple light as Twilight teleported over to where Discord stood, and proceeded to envelop him in a firm hug with her forelegs around his waist.

"Thank you. If this is all true and accurate, thank you. I couldn't bear to lose my friends."

Discord merely patted her head, enjoying the appreciation he was getting for a change, rather than all of the screaming and accusations.

"I'll offer my own gratitudes later. But right now I have a far more pressing question," Celestia stated, "Discord. You said you received premonitions. Can you tell us what we can expect to face? Particular enemies? Dates? Times? Locations? Anything that would let us coordinate preemptive strikes?"

Discord shook his head in response. "I'm afraid not, Celestia, although I do like your thinking. But there was nothing definitive except for death and devastation if something wasn't done. I can't even give you clues about what to look for, otherwise you'll be jumping every time the wind blows at an askew angle."

"Then it would appear we have answers to questions one, three, four, and five. Leaving us with just question two remaining. Thus making it my turn to ask," Ulquiorra stated as he once again turned his attention to where Discord stood. "Not knowing any other details about what was involved, why did you choose me specifically to be involved in this matter? Out of any other potential candidate that could've been brought to Equestria, what was it about me specifically, that made me the ideal choice?"

Once again all eyes were on Discord as they waited for an answer to the presented question. A question that'd weighed heavily on more than a few minds since it was first presented. And now that an answer was in sight, the anticipation was almost palpable.

"I suppose you do have the right to know why you were brought here. Although you may not like the answer that you get, or where it may take you from here."

In a flash Twilight had been returned to her seat at the table, as had all the others, with even Ulquiorra being forcibly seated at a newly established chair, before Discord plopped himself down into an overstuffed recliner that popped into existence directly behind him.

"Buckle up, you're all going to be in for a wild ride."

Comments

[Black_Knight]

Well I guess this is what happens when you write fanfiction. You shift the timeline sometimes to a point where you don't know where it's gonna end. Or am I looking way too far on what is happening?

Otherwise, dark humour is best humour.

---

And ever since we the changeling incident,

"Ugh, somepony dream up a for me stomach so I can hurl..."

dream up for me a stomach

[Draco fox]

Oh I can't wait to find out been following this story sense the start keep it up

[Emperor of Jurai]

The reason you were picked? Simple my dear Espada...BECAUSE YOU ARE THE FAN FAVORITE OF YOUR LITTLE GROUP!!! Honestly the amount of readers you pull in by presence alone cannot be denied. Also you make for a wonderful straight man and foil to the rather emotional circus you are part of now.

[Nikolas]

The plot thickens.

[Dirty Bit]

I wonder how this'll play out post-explanation

10274322 It's true