Meta Gamer in Equestria Bonus Chapters: Archimedes's promise

by reflective vagrant

Ch 9: To Bargan with Chaos

I was dreaming. I didn't know if all my Astral Judgements and all the time I spent with Princess Luna made me more attuned, or just more aware of it, or if I just happened to notice it occurring and the occurrences were actually closer to normal than I suspected.

Somehow on occasion, I knew I was dreaming, though I didn't have all that much lucid ability. The dream would still play out fairly randomly at times, or at other times it would linger on a subject that it chose as my mind mulled over it. The only real difference was that I tended to remember them, like a part of my waking mind was still hooked up. That may have been just the case because it usually left me not as rested as I could have been the next day. They weren't scary per say, but they were disturbing in some subtle way. It wasn't uncommon for me to have to work on translating my home world's songs for therapy as soon as the day's tasks allowed after I awoke from one.

After I had gotten over the reoccurring nightmare that plagued my mind a little over seven years ago, they were the closest things to nightmares I had anymore.

The dream was about how Hope had snuck out of her place one night and came to me, knowing I worked late in my workshop about two years back. During this dream the pressing events replayed in my mind. She said she had described a dream to her dad, but her dad was being too dismissive of it. So she came to see me.

After I had shown I was going to take her seriously, having knowledge of what could happen with bad dreams that had the chance to grow untreated can do, I got her comforted with the softest towel-turned-Hope-sized-blanket the workshop had and some of my green tea with as much sugar and honey as she wanted. I'd have gotten her coco, as we had discovered satyrs could process it like humans and the ponies of this land once she got off the goodberry spell's berries, but we didn't keep any in the shop.

With her not being a pony either, it was hard for a dream walker to tune in on her. So it had gone unnoticed. I told her that a dream walker would likely be better, but if she needed a comforting ear I'd let her tell me all she wanted to tell.

Ultimately, she did go to the dream walking guild with her father for help, but what she told me that night played in my mind.

She remembered someone carrying her in a hurried manner. The person holding her seemed like someone she could trust but something was wrong. The one that carried her was worried. Soon, she felt herself being passed to another, a stranger. She heard the voice of the one she could trust, and the voice of the stranger. They were both worried and afraid. After that she felt the stranger carefully cover her face to where she couldn't cry out as the stranger took her away from the one she felt she could trust.

She ultimately managed to get the help she needed, but I realized what her dream actually was. It was a memory. The memory of the night her father had to flee with her and leave her mother behind.

Her mother's life force was tied to the web of magic that protected the village and she would die if she tried to leave herself. Every Fey of that village save her father and herself had this restriction. Her father because he was the Speaker, the ambassador of the Fey. Then Hope was free of it because she was a newborn that had not yet gone through the ritual for her life force to be tied. This life force web of theirs was the sanctuary of the Fey and it kept them safe, but it was also their prison.

It seemed almost random as to why I was dreaming of this. As I began to notice I was starting to awaken, however, I remembered what brought it back up to me in the first place. This was also the night I told her about the "bad thing inside me," and how a dream walker helped me defeat it. It was the only way I could convince her to go to the dream walker's guild. Even if I watered down a few details to generalized metaphors like "the bad thing" and I knew she could at least see I was still being selective with my words, I made a point to never outright lie to her or dismiss her fears. It was something I could do for her as an uncle that her father couldn't always afford to do, as much as I could see it tore at his heart to lie to her. I had no doubt in my mind he had some words with the guild about the dream in private before they placed the non-pony marker paste on her face so they could help her with it. If I knew what the dream was, then surely he did too and had a reason for his choices.

Ultimately, Hope had explained the nice bat ponies helped her with her fear of being alone without any of her own kind. It was then her father made an effort to let her make more friends. She recovered and was happy again. That was enough for it to not be my place in the matter. So when I had to chance to talk about it, I didn't press him on his desire to keep it a secret from her, I just told him that I knew.

---

I awoke to a virtual riot going on in the cave's main hall. I felt like I had slept enough, but was definitely feeling like I could have utilized a little more peace and quiet. Looking around, I found the guards had stopped guarding me, so I made my way to the commotion.

Upon looking into the room, I saw Time Turner positively tied up in every way imaginable with every weapon in the room trained on him. For somepony who was the center of the wrong kind of attention, he seemed rather chipper.

"I'm telling you, they're delicious if you'd just let me bake you a few! You can have them with eggs, jam, even just with a little butter. They may not be the softest, but the texture grows on you! I swear!"

As I called to one of the guards, the entire room seemed to acknowledge my appearance, with the nearest spears and horns turning around and pointing at me.

"Shit! Maybe I was safer in my room!" was all I could say as I saw the head guard come forward with Diary, who promptly got my translation for the locals up and going.

"This trickster has just kidnapped our council mare to that blue box of his! I don't suppose you know anything about this?"

Time Turner looked over at us and called out, "Oh, come on! I told you I only borrowed her! She'll be back within the hour, I'm certain of it!"

He then looked at me directly and jutted his head up in recognition. "And leave him alone! He's a whole other level of innocent than me. He knows less about me than you lot do! No offense, Moss."

Bunny Angel and his draconiquis rival both came up from behind me, Bunny Angel placing a firm palm and a quivering set of fingers on my left shoulder, and the draconiquis placing his sharp talons ever so gently, but still kinda piercingly on my right.

"For once, my angelic rival and I wholeheartedly agree on something. Too much is at risk with her little venture into the blue box when the Doctor let her through the box's defenses. Both of you will be held hostage until she returns."

I did a head count as they made their points. Realizing it was Just Ebony Nexus and Archimedes in the blue box, I had to get in contact.

"Hey! Is everything alright-"

I was barely able to get that much of my message through before he cut me off.

"Please, Moss! Not now!"

I felt a flooding of sheer, tear jerking emotion come crashing into me in that brief message. At the same time my brief conversation happened, Time Turner called out "That's all well and good! I can understand your fears. But that doesn't mean we can't have a good breakfast while we wait."

The influx of emotion I was absolutely not ready for had me flat on the ground as Bunny Angel answered. "There will be no pleasantries of any kind until she is returned or you are slain in retaliation of her abduction at sunset!"

Bunny Angel seemed surprised at my sudden collapse, but just glanced at his rival and shook his head, blaming it on him. I couldn't see him, but something told me the draconiquis was resisting the urge to have his eyeballs drill into the back of my skull, I was so certain he was focusing his attention on me. I had that strong of a down the spine feeling.

It didn't take me long to realize what I felt from Archimedes. He was face to face with a past version of his beloved, whom knew who he was from her Astral Judgement of me. After thousands of years seeking to further her wishes after her death... I couldn't even imagine the emotion running through him. I barely had even gotten a filtered and restrained tip of the iceberg and it flattened me. They didn't even need to hold me at all. I would have fell on my own and I was going to be stuck there for a few minutes as I recovered.

Never the less, I was bound with my fingers locked in place and my mouth gagged, as was appropriate for restraining a humanoid caster. It was similar to how a unicorn mage would have a power dampener placed on their horn, but less expensive, simpler to pull off in a crude setting and more constricting. The worst part I would never quite get used to is how my fingers had to be locked into a wooden restraint that I couldn't just slip my fingers out of. The restraints were never quite the right size and my hands were always a little sore afterwords as a result. Thank goodness they never thought to use it as a torture device.

---

The drama died down but the tension didn't until a little less than an hour later. A commotion came from another room as the return of the council mare was being announced. When Ebony Nexus's dark crystalline form finally entered the room, I could feel Bunny Angel's grip on me loosen to the point of barely having a hand on me.

"You... You're crying. What's wrong?"

She ran up to him, then hopped her front hooves up and hugged him while smothering her face into his chest.

As I saw them embrace, I could see the tears flowing freely from her eyes and onto his torso. Separated from her crystalline form, I could see her tears also shared that crystalline like prism effect of the light shining through it.

She hugged him tighter as her head gave a sturdy nuzzling to his chest. "Absolutely nothing. I'm just a little overwhelmed. Moss's memories were real. They weren't the whole story, but they were definitely real."

She pulled her head back and looked Bunny Angel in the eyes and gave the most sincere, gentle smile I had ever seen.

"I also know exactly what has to be done to win the war."

She shook her head. "But know that I can't tell you the vast majority of it. If I say too many details of what has to happen, they won't happen."

She then looked over to the draconiquis still on top of me. "But I can tell you the key to victory, and the price we pay for it."

At this point, she jumped off Bunny Angel and started to walk up to the draconiquis as if there was nothing else in the room but the two of them. "The key is I found a way for us to seal up the rifts to where they can't break them down, and we will have the ability to maintain them indefinitely."

The room was silent for several seconds as she stared at him in such earnest that I could tell it creeped even him out.

". . . You have my attention, council mare."

". . . Are you certain that's the only requirements? The secret they kept for so long?" Another council member chimed in. He had transversed through a complicated spell that allowed him to come forth through Toad Oil's trunk at Ebony Nexus's calling.

"Yes. A mortal wielder of pure quintessence is all that it takes. The only way this normally happens is a priest, but our friend here from the future is living proof it's possible without one."

"So why can't we just use him?"

I shook my head. "Because while I don't call upon a god, I do call upon an immortal that's bound to me in using it in a near identical manner. Problem is that I'm from the future. His help is not exactly available "right now" and won't be for several thousand years. I reseal a rift in the future after it falls into disrepair, but I can't do the ones in the past, or what you see as the present. Even if I were able to call on his aid, I have to leave in the blue box again soon. At most I'd be able to do one. It has to be a mortal of this time if it's going to be done for every single rift."

Ebony Nexus sighed as well. "It also will permanently damage the immortal, similar to having one's hoof caught in a machine. A part of their essence will be passed to the mortal and permanently fused to their life force. It's the only way for a non-god to power such a bond, even in the future."

The draconiquis shook his head and pointed a thumb like talon at Bunny Angel. "Even if what you say is true, why me? Why can't my goody two shoed counterpart be the one that does it?"

Ebony Nexus sighed. "Because he has another role to play and is barely strong enough to play it. If he were weakened at all, then he would fail his part." I saw tears forming in her eyes briefly before she fought through them. "I can't say any more than that. While you are able to use both æther and quintessence, you can use both of them separately in a pure state. There is no other pure quintessence wielding immortal in the resistance. All the others use a blend. An impure quintessence immortal would only be able to infuse a mortal with impure quintessence casting."

She looked at Bunny Angel, then the other counsel member. "Above all else, the quintessence has to be pure and Bunny Angel cannot be compromised. You're the only donor that will work. Any other donor will lead to defeat."

The draconiquis looked skeptical. Crossing his arms, he gave a huff. "I may have invested a lot in this war, but I'm not stupid enough to do something that reckless and desperate, at least not for free. What could you possibly offer me in exchange that could merit wounding myself in such a way?"

He was looking directly at me, not Ebony Nexus. His stance was intimidating and it threw me off my center as he gave me a very judgmental, yet cold glare.

"A..a-a-a. Ahem. A name," was all I could sputter out. I knew I botched it the moment I said it.

He looked at me blankly, like he couldn't believe the absurdity of what I said, cocked his head and rubbed his temple at that same absurdity. "A name you say? I could give myself any name I wanted, and have in the past."

Ebony Nexus interjected, salvaging the situation and stopping him in his tracks before he could reach for me.

"A true name!"

His paw stopped inches from my shirt and his attention turned from me to her.

She stood her ground and spoke again. "A second true name. One of Equis."

He squinted at me. "A true name!? While something like that would be tempting, I don't believe for a moment any creature here or in the entirety of the resistance could give me something as powerful as a second true name. I've lived for more lifetimes than any of you mortals could count, and I have only heard rumor of such a duality existing, much less met one or seen how it could be done."

She smirked. "You're half right. None of us have that power. However, the Animus Mundi, that is to say Equis herself, does have that power."

The draconiquis looked at her in shock for a moment. "You really are serous, aren't you, crystal flank?"

Ebony Nexus gave only the slightest nod as she stared him down.

He shook his head, "Even if you are, good luck convincing her to trust a-"

"She's already agreed."

He blinked twice and paused for a moment to absorb what she said. "What!?"

"I spoke with her on this during Moss's Astral Judgement, when I knew you wouldn't think to listen in since you can't listen in on astral communication."

She took a breath. "That one was a doozy to do, keeping the two links separate, but I did it. She meditated on it and has decided she is that desperate."

The draconiquis squinted at her. "Surely she would be wise enough to know I would demand payment in advance. But why would she trust a chaos spirit to keep to my end if she doesn't even trust foreign druids anymore?"

Ebony Nexus had to suppress a small laugh as it tried to come out. "Because it's a double edged sword. If she gives you a name, you can't return to Toril so easily and abandon her. The name she would give you would keep you safe here, where you would never be able to be compelled to speak your Torilian name again. But it would also be an anchor. With how you already betrayed the other world, Equis would be your one safe haven, and your Equisian name would become a liability elsewhere."

She looked him dead in the eyes with a shit eating grin. "You'd be getting payed in advance, sure, but you would also be buying in. Betraying her after getting your payment would only hurt you too."

Bunny Angel chimed in. "And I can always just compel you with your Torilian name. I vowed to only use it to force you to keep your word, or to prevent an apocalypse level event. But even if it's only to an incorporeal entity like an Animus Mundi, a promise is still a promise."

The draconiquis stroked his beard and pondered as I chimed in. "Please do wait for me to be out of ear shot before you do that. If I learn his Torilian name, I die."

As I talked, he gave me his attention again. I could just barely hear him say, "A common ally..." as he continued to ponder.

After a moment, he stopped and looked at the group again. "We would still need a mortal to bind my power to. I can't be held responsible for them."

Bunny Angel nodded. "Indeed, but I can think of no mortal that would love to seal the rifts more than your apprentice, Diary."

Diary shot her head up from her cat nap. "Wait, what!? Me!?"

Bunny Angel nodded. "Think about it, you didn't join the resistance to fight the good fight. You did it to strike back at those that betrayed the Tabaxi settlements and intend to hunt them down until none are left. What way could you possibly hurt them more than to cut them off not only from the most lucrative colonies they will have in your lifetime, but also the survivors of your Tabaxi kin that came to this world to escape them?"

"It is what drives you." The draconiquis came up to her now standing form. A talon to the chin tilted her head up as he gazed at her like a vampire might gaze at his prey in an entrancing thrall.

He briefly turned his eyes to Bunny Angel. "Yes, yes! I know, no mind manipulation magic!"

He turned back to Diary. "But I don't need it, do I? The power to take vengeance, and to give you a new seed of hope at the same time? It's tempting enough on its own. Isn't it?"

She was looking at him almost like a cat looking at someone with a treat, but also with just a hint of intoxication on the thought of her goals being achieved.

Her master spoke gently. "I don't want much, as I'm already getting compensated. But what would it be worth to you? To be the one that strikes the heaviest and key strategic blow against them? To let them know it was specifically your ire that denied them? How much of that high quality loyalty that has you 'go above and beyond' would that be worth to you?"

I could practically see her drooling as her eyes rolled back in her head with a whimper, dropping ever so slightly off the talon at her chin.

She quickly recovered and smiled at him. "If it gets me my revenge? Enough to last the remainder of my natural days."

The draconiquis pulled his talon forward to Diary, then curled up his paw and offered it to Ebony Nexus as an approximate hoof bump. "Then we have a deal?"

Diary took the talon in her paw, but Ebony Nexus found the draconiquis's paw being lifted out of her reach just as she went for it. "I'm not making the deal to you. I'm making it to your master. She can agree by calling out the name she has picked for me after I take your hoof in proxy. Otherwise, if I don't get that true name promised to me, the deal is off."

He looked at Bunny Angel. "That should satisfy your rules and keep me out of an uncompensated deal at the same time, yes?"

With a nod from the celestial, the draconiquis lowered his paw again and Ebony Nexus met it with her own hoof.

At first, they just stood there, but I soon realized Ebony Nexus was tuning in her focus to talk to her master.

Her head went slightly limp but then nothing changed for a few seconds.

At first it seemed as if it had failed, but then I felt a compelling force pushing open the connection to the Animus Mundi. I barely could notice the draconiquis perking his hear up and realizing he was hacking into the Animus Mundi to listen in as well.

I heard quite clearly the statement the Animus Mundi of Equis practically screamed at every creature that could attune to her, everywhere on the planet.

"Draconiquis of Toril! You now shall be known on Equis as-"

A pause happened to make sure the thoughts had no blending. The next thought was isolated all to itself. It was a concept more than a word, but as long as one had a word for that concept, and understood it, that was how one was to pronounce the name. So naturally, my mind threw the associated word into this screamed thought. A thought full of vinegar and anger she had for his chaotic, border-lining toxic behavior, but a genuine thought none the less.

A thought I knew every being that could hear her, servant and druid, native or not, heard—sealing in his need to be loyal to her and her deal.

"Dⁱs_co^oo_oo^oo_oo^oo_rd!"

Comments

[Golden_Reflection]

Nice to see Discord getting is second True Name.