Lonely Among Us

I woke up in comfy bed - this time for a change, the room was very bright. My body was killing me, I felt like I was hit by the truck or worse - my skin was burning, and my head felt two sizes too small for my brain.

My vision was still a blur, but I could make out some figures around my bed, talking.

“... It was HIM? I thought only you and Luna could do that…” the voice sounded familiar… Twilight Sparkle?

“Apparently it is no longer true - his powers are equal to our own, if not greater… but also, very chaotic,” I realized, this time it was Celestia.

“Indeed - we shall be glad my sister was nearby, as the consequences could be far worse,” this was definitely Luna's voice.

“What are you going to do?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know… but it is obvious something needs to be done - because presently, he is a danger to Equestria," Celestia responded, sounding concerned, "also - I am afraid he might have been involved in... Certain other affairs.”

“What is she talking about?” I said to myself. I didn’t like where their conversation was going - I decided to join in.

“What other ‘affairs’?” I asked calmly, as I sat up in the bed.

Celestia sighed loudly. “For some time now, we were getting reports of ponies, dying publicly in unexplained circumstances. I examined their bodies myself and found out that, everyone had traces of powerful magic at work," the princes said with stoic, yet still, very concerned voice, "powerful enough, to completely replace the victim’s own magical essence - killing him in the process.”

“But what does that have to do with me?” I asked confused.

This time Luna answered, “Only a few creatures we know of, possess such strong magical capabilities, to kill another being in public without being seen or leaving a trace - even fewer, have the ability to do that by forcing its own magical aura over somebody else's-”

Luna was interrupted by her sister, “Only us, Discord, Sombra and few other individuals, can do something like that - but we already checked them all out, their magical signature simply doesn’t match.”

I didn't like where this was going at all - I was accused of being many things, but never a murderer - and it hurt. “Let me get this straight… you think I killed those guys? How could I? I arrived four days ago! And two of those days I spend in Fluttershy’s home, recovering from my injuries,” I said, with an angry voice.

“But are you sure about that?” Celestia asked calmly.

I gave her an annoyed look. “Huh? Of course… I stepped into the quantum chamber in my world, and then woke up in diamond dogs lair.”

“But you don’t know how much time had passed before you woke up - do you?”

“Well, let's see… APE, check logs from internal chronometer and tell us how much time has passed between me, entering the chamber, and waking up in those filthy mutts lair.”

There was a moment of silence, but then APE gave me the bad news, “Unable to comply, I am sorry sir, but logs from that period are not available - log system was shut down due to damage."

“Lucky me... That still proves nothing-” I was interrupted by knocking on the door.

Quickly, a guard had stepped in, gave Celestia some envelope and left, alongside Princess Luna. I could see Celestia's face had saddened, as she read something inside. Finally, after a minute of silence, she gave me the envelope. “Unfortunately, this confirms my fears, captain.”

It was some kind of a report. I could see the header stated: ‘Magical profile comparison chart for subject JG and victims.’ The paper was full of mathematical analysis, charts and other stuff. Below all the technobabble, I finally saw a single statement which pierced through my soul like a hot needle: ‘Average probability assessment: 85%.’

“Impossible…” I said with barely audible voice, as depression struck me down.

For all these years, I did what had to be done - all the killings were for the greater good, or to save the life of the innocent. Occasionally, I felt regret - sometimes even long periods of remorse struck my mind, but in the end, I knew that I killed because I had to. But now - if this was true - then for the first time I was responsible for the death of someone innocent, and what’s worse - I didn’t even remember it...

After what seemed like an eternity, Celestia broke the silence, “This doesn’t prove that you are guilty, captain, but… you do have a problem with controlling your magical - or shall I say ‘technological’ - abilities, and with such powers unchecked-”

I interrupted her before she could finish. “I can fix that - APE, adapt our nano-tech, so no such uncontrollable outburst of energy can ever happen again,” I order - only to be shot down.

“I am sorry, sir, but I am unable to comply. According to my analysis, the outburst happened because nano-probes had tried to directly assimilate this world's quantum particles. Since the local particles contain 3000% the amount of energy, the Earth counterpart does, it caused self-sustainable cascade reaction. Adaptation is possible, but it will take months.”

APE response angered me - my damn technology was enough to make me immortal, but it couldn't adapt to some new quantum particles - it felt like someone's idea of a bad joke. “So what’s your recommendation, then?! I sit on my ass and do nothing, while my body burns this place to the ground?!”

“Sir, I would recommend total isolation for the adaptation period,” APE responded calmly.

It took me a moment to realize what APE just suggested. He was right, of course, I was a threat to Equestria, but the perspective wasn't pleasant - after 300 years of isolation, when I finally found somebody to talk to - I was to be sent away. I glanced at Celestia, and realized what she was thinking about - this was bad. “You want to put me there, don’t you?”

She closed her eyes and responded with a heavy heart, “I… I don’t want to do this, but I don’t see any other choice for the time being-”

“Your Highness, you can’t be serious!” suddenly Twilight who has been listening to the whole time, jumped to my defense. “After what happened to Princess Luna, I cannot believe you even consider, sending someone else there!”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! I don’t like this any more than you do, but…” they started to argue fiercely. I took this opportunity to check my situation.

This damn power outburst had damaged me again, but I still was in pretty workable condition, with about 20% power. I looked around and quickly realized I was in one of the castle’s towers, I could see the lights of Ponyville in the distance.

Then it struck me - there was a place I could hide, and not be a danger to anyone - the Everfree forest. Fluttershy told me - it’s not well mapped, and ponies don’t go there often - she also mentioned there are many caves there - including some, that go deep underground - all I had to do is find one.

For a moment I thought, about asking Celestia for the approval, but when I saw her and Twilight still arguing my survival instincts kicked in - it was now or never.

“...you don’t know if he is responsible, how can you-” Twilight was suddenly interrupted by the sound of breaking glass, as I jumped out of the window.

***

My jump was far from perfect, I started to spin in the air, and the ground was getting closer and closer. I managed to say, “Oh shi-” as I landed... Flat on my stomach, with a loud 'thud' sound. “Ugh… this is gonna leave a mark.”

As I stood up, I heard Celestia shouting from the tower window, “Guards! Catch him!”

There was no time to lose - I ran as quickly as possible towards Canterlot’s giant waterfall, passing garden attractions, and statues. I was about 500 meters away when some pegasus guard had knocked me over - and then two dozen more ponies joined him. None of them was a match of course, but I didn’t want to hurt them too badly - they were just doing their duty after all - so instead of using brute force, I set my build-in particle cannon to stun and started shooting.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Three guards were lying on the grass stunned from pain, the rest was trying desperately to hold me down, but it was no use - with a combination of strength and precision, I was knocking them down - one by one. Still, more and more kept coming. Soon, I was surrounded by about 40 angry horses.

“Oh, I don’t have time for this, sorry guys…” I said and then released, a single spherical blast that knocked them down, all at once.

I quickly got up and glanced at my handiwork: all the guards that just a moment ago surrounded me were now lying in agony - some were only stunned, others were burned, a few were bleeding. “...that was a bad idea…” I thought to myself, but since there was nothing I could do - I started to run towards the waterfall again.

About 50 meters away from my destination - I felt a powerful blast to my legs and fell down. When I turned around, I saw another guard - a unicorn - standing above me, holding me down with his magic.

“That’s far enough! Surrender in the name of Celestia!” he said with a confident voice.

“Sorry friend, no can do... Look - I don’t want to hurt you, let me go,” I asked gently when I saw the Princess in the distance and more guards on the way.

“Never!” he responded, increasing his grip.

“For fuck's sake - why all of you, have to be so stubborn… Very well, you want to do it the hard way... SO BE IT!” as I finished my sentence, I released another powerful energy blast.

While it did break me free of his magical grip, it didn't knock him out. He was still standing above me with an angry face, trying to hold me down with his hooves. We started struggling.

He shot me a few times with his magic, causing some minor damage. I tried to get him off with my strength, but every time I did, he just jumped back at me - stubborn bastard. Celestia and her guards were closing in - it was now or never - I finally decided to shoot back... Only to realize he was protected by some energy shield.

“Shields holding, eh? Let’s try this!” I shouted as I had grabbed him and sent energy directly through my hand. As predicted - his shield couldn’t stop that. He was still struggling through the pain - I must say, I admired his determination - but his power was fading fast. Finally – after a few more seconds, I was free.

Suddenly I heard a scream coming from a distance, “SHINING ARMOR! NO!” it was Twilight. Only then, I realized that while we were struggling, we were sliding downhill - and now, were only a few meters from the precipice! I already stopped my motion, but the stunned stallion was still going - out of control.

Time stood still - thousands of scenarios were playing in my head - my brain processing them one by one. The conclusion was always the same - I made a wrong choice, I messed up - and now, an innocent person was going to pay for my mistake...

As a soldier, I've made many mistakes - some only costed a lost military hardware, others costed the life of my fellow troopers - but to my knowledge, I have never taken the life of the innocent, and I wasn't about to start that day. "Hold on!" I shouted and milliseconds later - jumped to the rescue.

I quickly realized I didn't even calculate the jump - it was all instinct. As I was flying through the air, time slowed down again - I could see Shining Armor was starting to fall down, his lower body was already below the ledge... Getting lower and lower…

“GOTCHA!” I shouted as I grabbed the stallion’s hoof. On his face I could see horror mixed with confusion - he definitely didn't expect the rescue would come from me.

I had to use both hands to hold him, and now we were both slipping down. “HEY! Help me, dammit, and hold on!” I shouted to him - he understood and grabbed my left hand tightly.

My right hand quickly let go and went behind me - trying to hold on to something. And it worked - I had grabbed some object, and it started to pull us back. Only after, we were both on the safe ground, I realized that I was holding to Twilight’s horn the whole time. Celestia and her guards were only meters away.

“Run…” Twilight said, with her soft voice, while hugging her brother.

I thought about it for a moment, I was only meters away from the precipice, I could probably make it... But I decided not to. “No, this is enough,” I shook my head.

Twilight was confused and surprised. “But… why? She is going to…” she asked, with tears in her eyes.

“Twilight…" I shook my head again and responded with my eyes closed, "I don’t want to be the cause of any more deaths or suffering, you almost lost a relative because of me - what do you think, she'll do if I escape?”

“Probability indicates, a full-scale pursuit will be ordered,” APE responded to my question.

“Exactly - and there will probably be casualties… No, this ends here,” as I responded, Celestia’s guards were already all around me. “I surrender.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, but I think she knew I was right - she just put her head down, and stared at the ground, as tears were flowing from her eyes.

***

I was taken to the ‘departure point’ - as we arrived, I could see some contraption: in the center, there was a spherical pad, surrounded by something that looked like a few gyroscopes merged together.

“Please, step on the pad,” Celestia asked - or rather - commanded, with a firm voice and I complied. She had begun to charge her horn, but before she could discharge it, a blue blur landed in between her and me - it was Luna… and she looked angry.

“SISTER! We don’t believe what We are seeing! Stop this foolishness right now!” she shouted with anger, catching Celestia off guard.

After a moment, the Princess of the Sun responded - calmly but firmly, “Luna, step aside - this has to be done.”

Luna didn't comply - on the contrary, I could see that Celestia's comment, only fueled her anger. “NO!" she shouted with her 'royal voice' "We shall not allow this! As only We know what awaits him there!”

Both sisters were staring at each other - Luna with anger, Celestia with confusion - I knew she didn’t want to hurt her sister, but I could also see, she was determined to do what she planned - I decided to step in.

“Princess… please, let it go,” I said to Luna with a calm voice - now she was confused.

“But… my sister is planning to-” she started to speak, but I interrupted.

“I know… but as I explained already to Twilight - I prefer this, over being the cause of more suffering and deaths… It’s logical.”

“Logical?! This isn’t logic! This is insanity!”

I sighed loudly and responded with some sadness in my voice, “It is painful, but it is logical - as someone once said: ‘The needs of the many outweigh, the needs of the few.’”

It took a moment for the blue mare to process what I just said, she opened her mouth a few times, probably trying to put forward some counterargument, but deep in her heart, she knew I was right. Finally, after some time had passed, she responded with sorrow in her voice, “Or the one... We… I believe I understand."

Celestia was listening calmly to our conversation - surprisingly, she had shown no emotions. “I am sorry this has to be done, but… I am glad you understand the reason - and I sincerely hope this is only temporary.”

“I do understand - but that doesn’t make it right. I’m only willing to do this to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, nothing more. And by the way, do you remember, our little chat earlier and what I said about politicians?" Celestia put a puzzled expression on her face. "I’m sorry to say, there was no pleasant surprise - you act in the same way as the rest of them. Now, do your thing, and let’s get this over with.”

Princess glanced at the ground with shame and hesitated for a moment. Suddenly, her horn started glowing, the intensity increasing with every passing second. Then energy discharged from it, and hit the first gyroscope ‘thing,’ then jumping to another, and another, in the end - hitting the pad I was standing on. Two seconds later, there was a bright flash…

When my eyes adjusted, I had found myself on the gray surface of the moon - my body was burning, as it tried to adapt to the lack of oxygen.

“Alone… again...”