Shadows of Eden

by RoccoRoccs

Chapter 7: Capital Curse

"Dingy, I know some time has passed since our last message, but just know that it was not for lack of trying. I was, for all accounts, locked out of the central computer. I fear the new management is becoming wise to our undercover workings with the advanced spell matrix we are working on to bring you back home. Even worse yet, I fear there is more to this than meets the eye. I have not been completely honest with you DB, I have been holding back information to try and preserve your sanity.

I'm so sorry! I should have told you, but part of me wanted to spare you the horror. But I want you to know what we are up against, what YOU are up against and just how important it is that you stay in close contact with me. I overheard the admins talking the other day and... There was never any plan to bring you home, Spark just wanted to fill a void in their research. They kept us all in the dark about it. Not just you, but me, my team and Egress as well. Egress... I haven't been in contact with her since this whole thing started. I've tried to reach out to her, but she for lack of a better term has fallen off the face of the earth.

It's not like her at all. She would die for her research and now she's just... gone. I want to believe she ran, but I'm afraid that she was a knot to a loose end. The rest of us are working in silent, not telling anypony what we are doing, but we need you to work with us. We need you to go to the Capital City, Old Canterlot. There is a hub there that has not been used for more than storage in the last few years. It's where all our personal artifacts are stored after we leave our post. We are going to try and set up a transponder there in one of the crates. Use your scanner to identify the crate, I'm going to cast a spell matrix over it to read out my name. You will have to follow the instructions for it to work. If we want to pull this off safely, you will have to find a way to charge the spell matrix to 100%. It has to be at 100% or you will miss the timeline all together.

They are working on something big, Dingy. I'm not included in on their meetings, but I see the data, I see the patterns. they are working on something called 'Project Ele'. It doesn't follow the typical directive of naming, it doesn't even follow the typical direction of one spell at a time. Whatever it is, it is consolidating all the spells we have been working on into one. The implications of doing something like that...

Dingy, I don't know how you will feel about any of this after hearing it... But just know that since the moment you left, you have been the only thing on my mind. If I fall silent, continue with the plan. Just know that I am thinking about you, no matter how far away you are. I have looked at your file for so long I feel like I know you like a spouse, and if I know you like I think I do, you can do this. Stay safe.

Jet, out."

How many times have I listened to that message now... Ten? Twenty times? The sting of reality biting deeper every time I started it but the ending always gave me goosebumps. I hated Spark, officially now. I had every right to. But sitting here, just outside of Canterlot, after spending days in that bunker, all I could think of was one thing... Jet was thinking about me? Foalish thought for sure, but even still. Nopony had ever said anything like that to me before nor had they sounded so sincere about it. I was tired, hungry, pissed off and at the same time... excited?

I wanted to find a way to hurt Spark for this, I wanted them to pay for this! But at the same time, sitting here near the waterfalls overlooking a lush and green Equestria with Jet's words in my ears... I was finding it hard to place my anger. I'm sure she just meant that I was on her mind with everything going on, but my heart would not let it go. I think deep down I needed it to feel real, I needed to feel like somepony wanted me back home just to be there and not be a data point on a spreadsheet. Real or not, I was going with it.

"Dingy, we have been here for an hour." Rocket said.

"Isn't it all just so beautiful? This world?" I said, rising to my hooves and taking it all in.

"Yes. It is not crap at all. It is un-crap. She would have loved this."

"Very un-crap indeed... Wait, who's she?"

"Oh! A memory! A mare, a pretty mare!"

"You ok over there, Rocket?"

"YES! I am fine! I am Happy... Oh. I am sad. She is gone... I loved her."

Watching her go through a cascade of emotions in a matter of seconds was strange and sad all at the same time. Who was this mare she knew, that she loved? Her usual bubbly exterior faded to a dark blue stare off into space. My heart broke for her, but what could I do? I didn't even know when she existed.

"Hey... we've all got somepony out there. Maybe even me. It's not about them not being here anymore, it's about them being there to start with, right?"

"Yes. It is... But I still miss them."

It had been a long trek to Canterlot, made even longer thanks to my ghost pal's inability to get wet. We had to wait for paths to dry or find other ways around creeks and rivers. We tried her riding on my back, but her constant changes in temperature made it nearly impossible for me to stand it for more than a few moments. One second cold as ice, the next searing hot fire. It made the going slow and painful for us both.

I was starving, terrified at night and kept worrying about what would happen once I made it back. I had abandoned the thought of this plan not working. Every night that I closed my eyes I wondered if they would open again. It was only the thought of seeing Jet happy for a job well done that was seeing me through. I had read somewhere that prisoners often grow fond of their captors over time. Was that happening to me too?

Her message was the kick in the flank I needed to get moving and was still driving me. Was I reading too much into it or was there something there that I had not seen before? I admit I sounded foalish to even myself but... when you have nothing to think about but possibly dying, sometimes dreaming a little helps a lot. I was in a dark place when we arrived here in the capital and it was growing darker by the moment in my mind. But regardless, I was keeping my eyes on the light and maybe, just maybe making it back home to ask Jet out on a date. I mean, I would owe her my life, after all. It felt like the right thing to do.

"Ok, sparky... Let me send a reply back to Jet and we will get a move on."

My hoof worked the buttons on the Cuff until they found the audio reply button. My heart was pounding out of my chest with fear and worry, but I had to know. Talk about the mother of all bad timing. I was about to undergo a serious mission to get myself back home and here I was about to chat up a mare. With a swift tap I began talking.

"Hey Jet. I made it to the Capital. It was a long trek, Rocket needed a few stops to recharge, but we made it. I wish you could see it here... It's beautiful. I'm scared, Jet. Not of this place, or back home... I'm scared that you are risking your life to bring me back. I'm scared of what might happen to everypony with this project thing. But most of all, I'm scared of you. I know I'm probably working this all up in my head, but, I can't help but wonder if you feel the same way. I want to see you again, like really see you. When this is all over, promise me it won't be the last time we meet. Promise me that I'll get the chance to get to know you better."

I hovered over the send button for what felt like an eternity before finally pressing it. It felt like a weight was off my shoulders, but it had only been a few seconds and the anticipation was already killing me. Part curiosity, part longing for something I had never experienced before were battling with my mind of the constant fear that I could die here and never have a chance at a normal life.

We trotted through the open gates of Canterlot, the broken stone crumbling under each step deeper into the once great city. This place used to be such a beautiful township with golden spires and ornately carved stone... Now it was just a crumbling mess of collapsed buildings and lost memories. Long shadows cast far down the once busy streets like ghosts of what once was. It was eerily calming. Like there were monsters hiding behind every turn, inside every shadow.

"Dingy?"

"Hm?"

"Do you have somepony waiting for you?"

"Maybe? It's complicated. I hope so."

"I hope so too! I hope they are waiting for you when you come back!"

"Ok, hold up. What happened to wanting me to stay?"

"Oh I do! But if you have the feeling I did, back at the cliff, I want you to have it again!"

"Aww. That's sweet of you! But I don't know if she feels the same about me. I don't even know if I feel that way about her yet. For all I know it is all some strange mind trick I'm playing on myself to get through this all."

"Dingy?"

"Hm?"

"That thought was crap."

"I really wish I had never taught you that word..."

We trotted the ruins for hours as the setting sun stretched the shadow longer by the moment. It wasn't until I had bumped into my 5th wall that I started hearing noises. I was just finishing up my second round of cursing when the pitter patter of tiny claws started coming into earshot. At first I thought it was just dew dripping, but it was growing louder and more visceral with every passing moment.

"Rocket... Rocket! Did you hear that?" I said, crouching down behind a pile of rubble.

"Yes. It's the Blats."

"What the hell is a Blat!?" I whispered.

"Blind Rats. They have big teeth and sharp claws. The building we came from has hundreds of them in the basement. They really like water. They only come out at night to feed. They do not like the sun."

"What the hell, Rocket!? Why didn't you tell me about them earlier?"

"It didn't seem important." She said as she tested her hoof on a bare power line. Small sparks jolted out as she tapped it and then took it into her hoof.

Before I could slap her, one of the devilish things came into view. For some reason they looked way bigger when they were in the basement back at spark. Out here they were... almost cute. Big, furry, cute little... Ok, it just swallowed another Blat whole. Ok, we're leaving.

"Why are you leaving, we have to go to the building across the street" Rocket said as if this was normal.

"Nope, nope, nope! That's 10 pounds of nope in a wet 5 pound bag. Hell to the nope."

"There is no other way. This is a dead end, we have to cross here."

The thought of such a small creature being able to unhinge its jaw like that was really messing with me. If it could do that with such ease, what could it do to me? All I have is this suit and this stupid scanny thing to protect me. I looked out across the street and saw that more of them had begun to descend to see if there were any scraps left over. To my horror, they began to fill the shadowy spots on the street like a black swarm of gnashing maws and clicking claws.

"H-how? There were none and now there's 500 of them out there!"

"Look, across the street. That is the building. You just need to make it that far." She seemed to mumble through her down-turned gaze. She was looking at that power wire the way that Blats were looking at one another... if they could see.

"Yeah, but... Wait. How do you know that is the building?"

"I... I remember. I remember... I... Please, just give me a second." She said as she held the wire close to her chest.

I looked on in confusion. Here I was, surrounded by little monsters and my guide was going down memory lane. I had watched her charge up many times over the last few days now, but this was different. Her eyes, which had once been hollow voids, were beginning to grow brighter, more defined with each passing second. Slowly her form went from a deep cyan to a light blue and her mane began to gain form. What was I watching? This was otherworldly and this is just... natural? She started to tremble, rocking slowly at first and soon began to heave her chest as if she could not breathe. Was she... Was she dying!?

"Rocket! Snap out of it! Let go!" I urged but did not dare break above a whisper.

"No! NO! Not yet! Wait... I'm ok... I'm ok..." She said through light sobs and a barely shaken voice. She wasn't dying... she was crying.

"What's wrong? Tell me what it is and I'll help it make sense! The crap thing! Remember the crap thing?"

"I-I remember..." She said, letting go of the wire and throwing it to the side. "It hurts. I don't want to... It'll hurt too much!" She whimpered in her hollow tone.

"What hurts. Damn it, TALK TO ME!" Oops... too loud. All around us the streets fell silent. For a brief moment the world hummed with the distant ambient tone as though I was in a void. But it didn't last. Soon there was a deafening clatter of claws scurrying in my direction. "Oh hell..."

I looked up to see a proverbial army teeth and claws darting from shadow to shadow to where I was hiding. Their bright white teeth glimmered on the edges of the last rays of sunlight as they searched out my voice. I panicked, searching for anything I could find that was heavy that I could swing their way. Anything to protect myself. I laid eyes on a half broken stop sign and took hold of it in my hooves. "If I'm going to die here, I'm going to take as many of you little bastards with me as I can, so help me!" I grunted confidently as I very bravely wet my suit.

They were closing in, maybe a few dozen yards away. I clenched my hooves around the pipe and gritted my teeth. So this was it, I was about to die here, in a world with only one predator. I thought back over my life, it was too depressing to bear. I guess... better it be me than somepony who had loved ones. Try as I might to just give up and take what was to come, Jet entered my mind. I was letting her down, she was waiting for me on the other side. If I never came home, then how would they know what was to come... So many thoughts, so many fears... Com'on, Dingy... make or break time.

With all my strength and tears of fear in my eyes, I screamed and swung my weapon as hard as I could. With a loud clang the octagon fell on the first 5 of them to reach me with a horrifying crunch. I steadied myself against the concrete mound and stifled a wrench as I bounded up for another swing, bringing the edge down fast and swift into one of the beast's side. Blood poured and bones broke under my assault, it was by sear luck that the sun gave just enough light to bring them to a bottleneck. But behind me, the fast approaching shadows were bringing another wave of them closer by the second. How long could I hold out like this?

That thought was quickly answered as a failed swing missed one of the little monsters I was aiming for. With ferocity I had never imagined it bit down deep into my hind leg. With a kick I sent it flying into the mass that was gathering behind me. I gave out a sharp shriek of pain as another lunged for my belly and found my upper thigh. First pressure, then searing pain as its teeth punctured through my suit. Through the pain, I swung again, sending more Blats flying and frantically ripped the one from my thigh loose, giving it a hard stomp for good measure. Fear was fully set in when I looked up and saw even more pouring from the sewer grates but was quickly replaced with anger.

I began swinging wildly, the edge of my staff sending showers of sparks with every hit to the concrete. With every swing I screamed. With every clash of steel on stone I roared in anger from the pain, from the madness that I was being put through. Years of pent-up anger came out in a visceral blood rage. It wasn't long before I noticed that my back was no longer against the wall of rubble, I was advancing on them for a change. Deep down, I found something I never knew I had.

"BRING IT ON!" I screamed as I flailed and swung. I'm sure I looked ridiculous fighting my little rat army, but in my mind I was a superhero. I was ready to die but I was going to make them pay every drop of blood for this all you can eat buffet. Just then, I was knocked to the ground by a mass of claws. With a scream I felt a million tiny knives dig into my hide on my back, digging deep and pulling at my suit. I screamed in pain as I felt flesh begin to tear from all over my body and the trickle of warm blood running down my sides. I covered my face with my hooves and pulled myself into a ball to protect myself against the agony, but there was no escaping it.

"I-I'm sorry Jet..." I whimpered as the pain grew and I felt claw on bone.

"NO... NO!!!" I heard being shouted as my coat began to stand on end and a metallic taste grew under my tongue. A powerful reverberation began to grow under me as I saw light creeping into my vision through my hooves. With a powerful blast wave that pushed me down the sidewalk, I felt the small daggers being pulled from my back as the Blats were thrown from me. The deafening screech of hundreds of them dying at once only made me draw up tighter. What was that!? What just happened? But before I could look, I was rocked with another blast of hot magical energy.

I rolled to my stinging back and tried to gasp for air. I looked over my chest and saw the pulsating form of Rocket standing in the middle of the street. Waves of cyan and white fiery energy radiated from her like a ever growing spear that vaporized the creatures with every pulse. She trotted my way as her corona began to fade and with it came silence. There were no more clicks of talons on stone or gnashing... Just silence.

"Dingy! Get up! You have to get up to activate your Cuff's medical function!" She shouted. How the hell did she know that? I didn't even know that. I tried to roll to my hooves but the pain sent me screaming back to the ground. "You have to get up! I know it hurts but you can do it girl!" Great, another personality change. She was just full of surprises. One moment she's a moron, the next a bomb, now a scientist... What's next? Toaster oven!?

"I can't! Everything sucks!" I whimpered.

"You have to get up or... you'll die. Those things have venom in their claws!"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS!?" I screamed as I forced myself on my belly and tried to stand. On shaky legs, I managed to find my hoofing and sway in place long enough for my Cuff to figure out I was dying.

'Critical injuries detected... Synthesizing antivenom... Antibiotics injected... Administering collagen accelerate... Injecting antivenom..."

"OW! Oh wow that sucks! Ow,ow,ow!"

'Injecting .5 milligrams of morphine per kilogram for pain.'

"Ahhhh... Bwat's bletter..." I slurred as I felt everything go numb. "Twere twas dat eerlwhurl?"

"Dingy, those are the narcotics talking. Look, I don't have time to explain, but I know where we have to go and what we have to do."

"That's nice..."

"DINGY! There are more of those things and I can't pull that special little move off again. We have to go!" She said, pointing at the building.

"Ok. Can we get ice cream?"

"...Sure..."

"YAY! ICE CREAM!"

"SHHH! Quiet..."

"Yay! Ice cream!"

I was still loopy by the time we reached the interior of the building. I was lied to... there was no ice cream in here. The further we went, however, I began to come to grips with just how stupid I was being. That first surge of narcotics was heavy enough to take a few years off my mentality. The inside of the storage building looked like just that... a storage building with long hallways and hundreds of doors. How did Jet ever think I could find the right one in the first place? It would take me years to find it and even more while I was high as a kite. Thankfully Rocket seemed to know where she was heading. Maybe she was able to tap into a data line or something back there.

It sure wasn't the usual shower of sparks and destruction of private property I was used to seeing, maybe she learned more about this place. I don't know what it was about her, but this change in personality was welcomed. She seemed confident and sure of herself. Like something was driving her to help me. Just then, my Cuff beeped at me, then beeped again... and again... and again.

"Shut up stupid thing!"

"Dingy, you got a live message."

"How do you-"

"I programmed it OK? I used to work for Spark. I remember everything and I'm dealing with some serious guilt right now. Just... answer it, OK?" She roared in my face.

"Wow... grouchy pants..." I tapped the accept button and let the audio play.

"Dingy? I don't know if you can hear this, I'm transmitting through the building you are in. I'm relieved you made it."

"Pff... Yeah... I made nearly in one piece..." I muttered under my breath.

"What do you mean, nearly!? Are you ok!?" Jet shouted into the mic.

"JET!? You are talking to me!? Holy Crap!"

"Holy crap indeed. Look, we don't have much time and I need-"

"Time, time, time! We never have any time! Look, I've got a bad case of almost died and I'm dealing with some complex emotions that are severely impairing my ability to make sound decisions. I'm also high on morphine. Forget the mission for a moment, I need some answers."

There was a long silence from everypony both in the room and not as I stared at my Cuff drunkenly.

"Go ahead and let her vent... She's on morphine and I know where to go." Rocket said as she began studying a locked door to a room labeled 'Spark Industries Long Term Storage'.

"What was that!? Are you pulling some kind of joke?" Jet shouted through the Cuff.

"No. Turns out if you recharge a ghost long enough, they start to talk."

"Very funny, DB... Wait, recharge? Like... Magical energy recharge? You mean to tell me that thing I picked up on my scan data can gather energy?"

"Yup... She's a sassy one too. Set fire to the first place we slept... Blew up a bunch of Blat things a few minutes ago too. Slaved my life, no big deal."

"Ok, fine. What did you want to ask? Please make it quick." Jet asked in annoyance.

"Why are you doing all of this? Risking everything to bring me back?"

"Because it's the right thing to do, Dingy." She said matter of factly.

"Is that it? Because it's the right thing to do... nothing else?"

"Is that not enough!? Look, I feel gutted over what happened, I do! I want to make things right between us. What, you think I'm working with them? That I'm on their side or something? I can assure you that the moment you are back my flank is making tracks to some place warm and less smoggy. I want nothing to do with them."

"Ok. I understand." I mumbled out. Wow, I really was a foal wasn't I? All those feelings I had tricked myself into believing, all of those longing thoughts were just part of the stress. I was mortified to say the least.

"What? Did I say something wrong? Dingy, speak to me! I didn't mean it like that"

"It's ok. I'm fine. I just let my thoughts get the better of me, that's all." I spat out as I wobbled over to the door and looked over at the key pad.

Jet gave a long sigh and I could hear something crash to the ground in the background. I watched as Rocket rolled her milky white eyes and went back to the sign on the door.

"Look... Maybe there is another reason. Maybe I want to see you again for some reason other than guilt. But we will never know the answer to that question if you don't get your tan little flank back here, now will we?" My heart leapt. I don't care what my brain was screaming, I didn't care if it was all a joke. I needed a dose of hope right about now and I was going to take it. I'll save the pain for later... when I'm rejected.

"But I might not get back Jet..." I said as I Rocket began pointing out numbers for me to press.

"Don't say that! You came this far, just... a little further and you will be home. I promise! Just get to the other side of the door labeled-"

"Way ahead of you." Rocket barked as I pressed the final key and the door opened.

"Access granted." The door chirped and swung open.

"How did you- only a hoof full of ponies knows that code, I'm not even authorized to have it! I had to scratch it into my hoof to keep it a secret."

"Just have a medivac read for when she gets there. She's bleeding badly. There's a claw lodged between her 6 and 7th vertebrae that needs removed right away, it's leaching toxin." Jet said as she stepped inside the doorway.

"WHAT!? Dingy! Are you ok!? Oh dear maiden!"

"Calm down. Just do as I said and she will be fine."

"I'm ok, Jet. Just a little woosey."

"Ok, once you are inside, look for a crate labeled-"

'Transmission ended.'

"Shit! No, no, no! Come back! Stupid thing!"

Rocket let out a long sigh and trotted forward into the stacks of shipping crates.

"Ok, what gives. One second you are just blindly following, the next chatty as can be and now... annoyed?"

"Look, you are not the only... being... dealing with complex emotional issues! I'm happy for you, more than you could ever understand. She seems to like you a great deal and you might get out of this alive. But right now we need to get you back home. You have a job to do and I feel like I'm the only one doing it."

"GEEZE! Take it easy! First you don't want me to leave now you can't wait to get rid of me!?"

"NO!" She shouted as she spun on me. "I want to see this through. Dingy, you might not realize this, but I lost somepony very close to me. The more I 'recharged' I began to remember things about her. The more I start to miss her and now... I find out I'm what ultimately killed her through my actions. I would do anything to make it right. ANYTHING! I lived in the moment once and it got me here. I don't want to make the same mistake twice." She said as she turned and began looking at the crates.

"I'm so sorry... I didn't-"

"It's fine. Jet... She's not... I mean, she's... Look, I would hate for her to go through this, or you. If that means trotting this place for the rest of the days on earth, I will. I just feel like this... this might be a chance for me to make things right. A one in a trillion chance. I may be a ghost or something that I can't even conceive, but even I can tell she likes you. You just fought off a pack of Blats to get here, to get back to her, right? The last thing she or I want is to see you die when you are this close. Trust me, nothing will ever change that."

"We do crazy things for those we are fond of, eh? Com'on, let's find this crate."

She nodded and smiled and motioned for me to fire up the scanner. No sooner than I did, the room was bathed in a healthy glow of blue as it began searching the crates and reading them aloud. Long strings of numbers followed by single alphabetical notations were designated to all the crates rather than the usual composition and age. Spark must have started using these things regularly in their corporation to speed things up after I left. A sobering thought hit me. If they were using a piece of tech that was new and untested on me as a day to day item for shipping crates... Did I ever make it back? The world was unchanged. Did I have to make it back before things went into motion? It was all so much to dwell on and worry about. What if I made it back, helped bring about change, what would happen to Rocket?

She was holding on to some deep grief, would I have the chance to fix it? Would me making it back fix things alone? How far would I have to take this before I brought about real change? There was much more riding on this than me just finding my way back home. Ponies were counting on me whether they knew it or not. My Cuff beeped and began to vibrate as its beam landed on the crate we were looking for. It was awfully small for a piece of tech that would save me from a situation like this... Then again, not even 10 minutes ago I thought I was going to get ice cream, so what did I know? Apart from all the other boxes it looked like little more than nothing at all, but this box had a name and address attached to it. The others did not.

'Shipping crate: Destination. 6303 Capital Boulevard, Canterlot. Administrative Assistant, Jet Shade. Long term storage. Category: Personal Effects.'

"That's the one. Open it up." Rocket said as she totted over to the shelf.

I batted the box into my hooves from the top shelf and sat it down in front of me. You can tell a lot about a pony by the way they keep their things. Jet's box was covered in numbers and equations as though she had been working on something right up until the moment she had placed it here. In the top right corner there was a little doodle of a pony with a hoof to her chin in deep though. I couldn't help but give a chuckle at it as I looked the box over for a way to open it.

"What is so funny?"

"Oh nothing... Just a cute drawing."

"The box wears the marks of a pony who was very distressed... and you think it's cute."

"Yeah... Yeah I do. You wouldn't understand. Nevermind."

I fumbled with the box for a few moments before hearing a latch give way and the lid flip open. Half the contents fell out on the floor in front of me in a pile of memories and keepsakes, save for a little plug looking thing with an antenna on it.

"This must be it. Now, do I just eat it or..."

"Dingy, you are hopeless. It plugs into your cuff and it will talk to it."

"Where? There's not a plug anywhere on here! Trust me, I have been wearing it for nearly a week!" I said as I shook my head. The morphine was wearing off and I was becoming aware of a dull ache all over my body as time went on. I was beginning to sweat and my head was swimming from the drugs.

"Right there... above the screen. Flip the door open." With a tap of the hoof a little compartment was reviled to me hidden this whole time. The little square port had hundreds of tiny prongs in it that looked like gold and bluish metal. "Plug it in. What are you waiting for?"

With a firm press the device snapped in with a satisfying click and I watched as my screen lit up and began cycling loading screens and numbers rapidly. With a beep and a whistle here and there, the screen finally fell to a blinking prompt, 'press yes to continue'. I gave it a tap and was presented with a half charged bar reading 50% and a grey'd out prompt to launch the spell matrix.

"Only 50%... Jet said it had to be at 100% to cast. I can't walk that, I feel like I'm about to fall over right here."

"I know you can't."

"What if I plugged it into the wall, is there a way to charge this thing?" I said frantically looking the Cuff over for something else I missed.

"Dingy... It's no use. It charges kinetically or wirelessly. There is no plugging it in." She said as she trotted closer. "It needs a massive charge to get to 100%, something nearing a kilowatt of magical energy."

"SHIT! Why does everything have to be so hard? So that's it then... I just die here." I said falling to a pile on the floor.

"I know why I'm here. I know what I have to do." Rocket reached out with her horn and began channeling her energy into the little device. With each passing second I watched as brilliant glow began to wain.

"Rocket No! You can't do that. That will drain you to nothing!" I shouted as I pulled my Cuff away from her. "If you do that, you'll die."

"Dingy, it is the only way. Look around. Everything in here runs on solar power, no magical energy in sight. I'm the only magical source you have. Please... Let me do this."

"But... I don't want to hurt you." I said with tears welling up in my eyes.

"It won't hurt me." She said as she began channeling her energy into the antenna. I watched as the power meter grew and her brightness faded.

"I'm so sorry, Rocket. I'm so sorry!" I squeaked as I watched the meter click over to 90% charge..

"Don't be... We do crazy things for those we love..." It came out as a whisper as the last percent fell to 100 and she broke the tie to my leg. I watched as her form began to fall away into wisps of blue magic.

"Thank you, Rocket. I'll always remember you."

And with a flicker, she was gone. I looked down at my cuff and saw a blinking 'press yes to launch spell matrix'. She had gave her life for me, what life she had left, just for me to go home. I felt tears rolling down my face as I wobbled to the middle of the room. I had to find a way to make it right, I have to find a way for her to not trot the world for thousands of years.

"Ok... This is it."

I sniffed and wiped my eyes dry as I loaded the spell. With a trembling hoof I pressed the button. I felt the void open behind me and I began stepping back into the either. I felt my body go weightless just as the pain set in and my mind fell into darkness. I'll find a way, Rocket. I'll find a way.

Comments

[Sylica telca]

They are working on something big, Dingy. I'm not included in on their meetings, but I see the data, I see the patterns. they are working on something called 'Project Ele'. It doesn't follow the typical directive of naming, it doesn't even follow the typical direction of one spell at a time. Whatever it is, it is consolidating all the spells we have been working on into one. The implications of doing something like that...

My idea of them causing the mess in the future might be right

[Sylica telca]

Then rocker really was jet