What Now?

by Q-22

A Summary of a Pretty Good Deal

This was nice.

He was sipping hot chocolate.

Through a tiny straw, since he hadn't gotten used to his hooves yet.

He, Him, The Guardian. Enjoying a pleasure as simple as this in the presence of what he knew to be the two major heads of an entire nation, in a different reality. It was absurd, he knew, but when it came to existing as either an existentialist or an absurdist...Well, while he did find purpose in action, and had lived most of his second "life" under that mindset, every new revelation about his existence whispered to him that, ultimately, nothing mattered in the grand scope of everything because the grand scope of everything didn't exist, and he was one of many anomalies in a pattern that had previously dictated all prior struggle (the REAL kick was that the pattern didn't matter either, so, he just went with trying to keep everything he cared about from the approaching mass-extinction).

The times being what they were, nihilism had crept ever so slowly into his head. A few minutes of self reflection midway through a firefight had brought on an epiphany. If none of it mattered in the long run, he wouldn't care if the long run mattered or not, and thus went about doing everything he had set out to do because it was the only thing he could have done other than stopping.

And, if he were to be honest with himself, stopping would have been a lot worse than going.

By then, he held the lives of millions in one hand and the deaths of thousands in the other.

He had grown powerful.

He was a player in the game, not a piece.

What he did, how he chose to go on, would have a permanent effect on-

So yes. He was perfectly happy sipping on his hot chocolate while he thought of words to say. If Ghost had already been talking, he wouldn't have to, right? Though, that did beg the question of what Ghost had said while he was asleep. The best course of action, as it seemed to him, would be to immediately ask about the contents of Ghost's words. He was just about to stop sipping and open his mouth to say something when his focus was cut off by the fact that Celestia was already talking, and he had been phased out. The willpower to process the words being directed at him suddenly reappeared, and he did his best to figure out what was being said to him.

A few seconds of conversational assumptions later and he had pieced together that he was being told that Ghost and the Princesses had gone over the odd events of the past day or two and had worked out a little deal that went something along the lines of agreeing to a list of terms in exchange for staying in a small cabin west-ish of the mountain and by a nearby town.

The exact wording didn't quite stick, but, in roughness, the terms went something like this:
- Don't cause mass hysteria
- Don't intentionally start a cult
- Don't intentionally attract the attention of known or unknown hostile powers
- Don't consume the magic of ponykind to become the most powerful
- Don't mess with the timeline(s), as they're already screwed up enough as it is
- Don't summon an eldritch horror near populated areas
- Don't summon an eldritch horror that could be considered hostile without means to quickly "put it back"
- Don't forget to make tea and scones if you summon an eldritch horror that could be considered friendly
- Don't loom too intensely around the shorter ponies
- Don't engage in typical or atypical villainy
- Don't consume- okay I'm sure the point has been made by now

All he had to do was, well, not do any of the stuff mentioned above (and a few more similar, but increasingly specific, "don't"s) and he got the keys to a lovely little cottage until someone more in-the-know figured out what the hell was going on. All in all, wasn't a bad deal.

Comments

[TheStoryWe-ver]

All he had to do was, well, not do any of the stuff mentioned above (and a few more similar, but increasingly specific, "don't"s) and he got the keys to a lovely little cottage until someone more in-the-know figured out what the hell was going on. All in all, wasn't a bad deal.

That feels so much like real life some times.
...Should I be concerned?