Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Three: Morality

Nik had spent the entire day in silence. He was back to sitting in the back of a wagon, but with the added discomfort of being surrounded by stallions he'd never met, wearing heavy armor and carrying weapons. Their hooves never left their hilts, always ready to arm themselves at a minute's notice. It was not unlike his ride to the castle, except Fluttershy wasn't with him to ease his anxiety.

When it finally came time to stop for the night, it took several minutes for the guards to come and let him out so he could sit next to a fire and eat something. Thankfully, Twilight and Spike came to join him, so he had someone to talk to.

"We're so close to the end, now," said Twilight, starting her meal. "You nervous?"

"That's one way to put it," swallowed Nik. "There's an excitement to it, in that I'll be able to stop and appreciate what Equestria has to offer without needing to run for my life, but I'm also nervous that it might not work. What if it fails?"

"Don't worry, Twilight smiled. "We've done all of our research, and we know how to make sure it succeeds. Right Spike?"

"I don't know, Twilight," grumbled Spike. "While it seems likely to work just fine, there's always a chance something will fail with the ritual. Not to mention that it's been several hundred years since this was done. What if the records missed something?"

"Oh, come on, Spike, you did the research yourself."

"That's why I'm worrying. If you'd done the research, I wouldn't doubt a word of it. With me, on the other claw, I'm only eighty-five percent sure."

Twilight shook her head. "I'm sure you did your best, Spike. Nopony's going to fault you for missing something that the vast majority of ponies know nothing about."

Nopony would. Nik, however, was not a pony. His life was on the line. "Are you certain there's not some other source you can check with? Eighty-five sounds like a really low number to me."

"Eighty-five is far more likely than not to end with a positive result," Twilight scowled.

"Let's say there's a fifteen percent chance that the field ration you're eating has been contaminated," reasoned Nik. Twilight dropped her fork and began frantically examining her food.

When she found nothing wrong, she glared at Nik, then realized his point. "I suppose that's fair enough. But let me try it this way. I have one hundred percent faith that Spike did all of the research he could, and that he wrote down everything that was important. There's a reason I trusted him to take care of the research while I was away. He can absolutely be trusted to make sure we're doing things right."

Spike smiled slightly at the praise. He was somewhat used to the comment, but experience had taught him not to dig for more. It was nice just being appreciated. Still, in the back of his mind, he wanted to be absolutely certain that he didn't doom this human. That fifteen percent chance was weighing on him just as much as it was on Nik.

Spike's meal was different than Twilight's and different from all the other ponies'. He had about half of the normal ration, plus a few gemstones he'd brought along with him. Nik knew there were edible rocks, but he'd never seen any creature actually eat this much stone. It was quite a sight to see.

"So you eat stones?" asked Nik.

"Gemstones," corrected Spike. "It's something all dragons do."

"I wonder if they're different to the gemstones in my world? Do they have tastes to them?"

Spike fished around in his bag and produced a few. "Emeralds have a very savoury flavour to them, like a really strong herbal thing. Topaz can be kind of sour, sometimes. Amethysts are bitter, but some dragons still like them. Rubies are usually spicy, but if you age them just right, they become super sweet. But you don't need to age sapphires; they're already sweet."

After a short pause, Nik asked, "What about diamonds?"

"Ugh..." Spike grimaced and shook his head. "Really, really dry. You can't eat just diamond." In an effort to appease his taste buds, he chomped down on a topaz.

"Can ponies eat them?"

"Nah, it's just us dragons, mostly. I don't know of anything else that eats these."

Nik let out a sigh. If ponies couldn't eat them, he probably couldn't, either. That would have made for an interesting experiment, but he would rather keep his teeth. After all, he didn't have a set of dental records to replace them. That would certainly be difficult to do. Still, having a vague idea of how the flavours worked would be useful if ever he cooked for a dragon again.

"So what do humans eat?" asked Spike, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Hoomans," corrected a guard. "They're called hoomans."

"Humans is correct," confirmed Nik, not to take sides, but to make sure that the information was correct. "Mostly, we eat similar stuff to ponies, but with a few exceptions either way. I can't eat most flowers, but I am capable of eating meat."

"Like the stuff dogs eat?" Spike turned up his nose at the thought.

"I met a much larger dragon that had no trouble eating meat," answered Nik. "It's a possibility for you, too."

"I try to make sure he sticks to vegetarian stuff," interjected Twilight. "It can be rather demeaning to have him eat things that most ponies would only feed to dogs and cats. In my case, I try to treat him as one would treat a pony, so I just never really gave him any meat. I wouldn't even know how to safely prepare it for a dragon."

Nik looked down at his food. From prior interactions with other humans that had showed up, some information had been exchanged, and something dubbed "Human Food" had been provided to him. It was actually just a canned stew, but it was on par with the MREs that Twilight and Spike had been issued.

"Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to teach," he shrugged. "If this does work, and we all survive, I'll make you something fit for a dragon. I may have to take a few attempts, fidgeting with gemstones, but I'll try to come up with something. It's the least I can do."

"You'd do that for me?"

Nik nodded. "But only if this ritual of yours works. If the world is destroyed, I won't have a chance."

With a somber nod, Spike steeled himself. "I'll double-check every step to make sure things are going correctly. You can count on me."