Strength to protect friends. Not light, nor darkness. (Broken worlds)

Weeks of working in the castle of Wewelsburg have past like a water in the river. At first, Any kept on getting lost in ancient halls and Nathan´s guidence proved to be essential. After about five days of life in the castle, blue haired brony finally got used to it.

Of course, there wasn´t too much time to do so, since he and other people were every day discussing about all possibilities, which they could implement into the Equestria. Turned out, that the biggest problem was Nathan´s hobby – King Sombra´s origins. Make a backstory for him wasn´t too difficult, but there was dark magic, which had to properly explained and most importantly – sealed somewhere, so only they knew, where to find it. Any expressed his opinion, that it would be best, if there wasn´t dark magic at all.

This option was declined, because – as he later understood – there had to be balance between good and evil and the best way to achieve that, was to have a power, which evil could potentionaly use. Of course to counter that, there were Crystal Heart and Elements of Harmony.

Even though this question was propably the most difficult, it couldn´t stand up to the importance of having a matrix, which would hold the Equestria in the empty world. As professor Werner explained to him, to get the “file” as everybody called it, into empty world, they had to create a hole in it´s reality. Unfortunately people hadn´t equipment to close it permanently, so for creation of Equestria´s beta version they agreed to create a matrix, which could as well be a permanent solution, since there was no possible way to break it.

Like this continued works two more weeks and during that time, the team closed up all important holes in Equestria´s world building. They hadn´t as much hard time as other people had - other teams, often made from dozens of people had to fill shops with merchandise, put animals into woods, plains and on sky, create backstory for every pony, who had any kind of connection with projects that Any´s team worked on and of course give flavor and smell to every possible thing on the continent and beyond it.

But at the end, all work has been done and Any, Nathan and four more people who worked either with them, or on other important projects, were being prepared for transfering into now completed beta Equestria.

“So, how are we going to get there?” asked Any and suspiciously looked at a giant machine with four beds, every one of them with leather belts for hands and legs. To be honest he was kinda scared, though he already knew that he has to die somehow, so they could transfer his soul into a body in Equestria, but who wouldn´t be scared in such situation? And the fact that Nathan was also shaking and had pale face didn´t really calmed him down.

“First you should know how does the soul work, because in order to get us eventually back here, we need our original bodies to be workable. So, lot´s of people thinks that soul is in your heart, chest or whatever. In fact it´s in your brain. Soul and your stamina, what you gain from eating and sleeping are two thigs, which keeps your mind going.

But it´s not directly in your blood either, it´s kinda hard to explain. Simply said, professor Werner and other scientists invented a poison which works like opening a bottle and pouring out the content. This is what´s going to happen with your soul, while the body stays perfectly functional. This machine will catch it and direct it into the Equestria, so you didn´t simply died.”

“Aha, and when we´ll go back the “liquid” will be just poured back to it´s bottle, right?”

“Yes.”

“So let´s do it.”

All four men lied down on the beds and scientists, who were operating with machine tied their hands and legs.

Before the poison was injected, Werner came to them and said: “Boys, you have no idea how am I jaelous at you. You are going to see the real Equestria and we have to stay here and wish you good luck.”

“To be honest I am so nervous right know, that I would gladly swapped my place with you.” answered him Any and tried to smile.

Professor stepped back and robotic arms came down from the ceiling, each holding one injection of transparent liquid inside.

“Good bye.” professor Werner waved his hand and watched the mechanic arms to inject the poison.

* * * * *

So, this is what people feels, when they experience clinical death?

He flew, even though he hadn´t a body, as far as he knew and saw things, even though he knew he hadn´t eyes to look around. Any just knew that was moving and he just knew that there were things around him. Though, calling them things would be inappropriate, because those were worlds. Sometimes he could feel something inside, but most of time not. Those times were, when worlds, he flew by, were the empty ones.

He hadn´t time to think about why they didn´t choose an closer empty world, because something in front of him was requiring his full attention. That something was nothing else then a world, but this one shined with all colors of rainbow and even with few more on top of that. In his spectral mind he knew that it was his destination. Equestria.

He tried to prepare somehow, even though he didn´t know how it will be like to suddenly in a pony body. He knew that it was going to be a pony, because all memebers of their group requested the race and appearance.

The colors were coming closer and closer, until Any suddenly opened eyes, like if he just woke up. And immediately screamed in pain. Every move was followed by agony, like if every muscle was being torn apart and every bone crushed.

His neck quickly filled with a liquid and he felt the taste of blood on his tongue, stopping him from screaming. He coughed it up, but the pain wasn´t weakening, but increasing. His skin and lungs felt like if they were burning and on top of all that he was caughing even more blood.

The only thing he could think of was, that his new body wasn´t used to movement or to simple living, but that didn´t ease the pain.

Any didn´t know how long did convulsions lasted, how long it took, before the pain left, or when he stopped caughing blood. The only thing he cared about at the end was that he was still alive. And with that in mind he lost consciousness.

Hours past, until Any woke up. To his relief the pain was almost away, but moving was still quite painful and the taste of blood in his mouth didn´t disappear either.

Nathan!

He and Nathan were together in one small group, which was supposed to go explore the Crystal Empire. The other two groups went into Ponyville and Canterlot.

“Are you alright?” asked and immediately realized, how much stupid question that was. He looked at lying grey unicorn, with black coat, covering his cutiemark and the same hairstyle as Nathan had and was shocked by amount of blood around him. Not just grass, but his coat and fur were soaked by it, when organs, which never worked had to suddenly do stuff.

Any realized, that he propably looked just as terrible, but that wasn´t his concern at that time. He walked towards his friend, not even minding that he hadn´t human legs anymore, and touched with his hoof Nathan´s neck, to check, if he was still alive.

Fortunately he was breathing and the second Any touched him, his eyes opened and Any realized, that even as a pony he still had them green, not fitting to his main colors.

“Can you stand up?”

“I...guess.” unicorn frowned with pain, but eventually menaged to stand still. “I didn´t expect the transfering to be so painful.” rasped with voice still tired from screaming. Any knew that it was terrible to think, but he was glad that he wasn´t the only one who lost the control over his feelings.

“We should go find a lake and wash the blood off, then we can go on our way to the Crystal Empire.”

“Sure. Let´s go.”

While slowly walking, Any stared at his surroundings and on his new body. He almost expected to see pixels, but he was pleasantly suprised. Even though everything looked like from the show, the leaves and grass were moving in the wind and everything felt like back on Earth. If they´ll menage to make the transfering less painful then he could easily imagine this world to be their new home.