Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Three: Morality

Nik knew he had been struck by lightning. He knew he'd been on the battlefield. And now he found himself surrounded by clouds. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Whether by nature or by his foe, he was now dead, and he needed a moment to breathe before seeking his judgement.

The clouds swirled as a golden light approached. It seemed to reflect a series of numbers, geometric equations, and mathematical formulas. It was all flashing by so fast that he couldn't make heads or tails of them. Even if he could read them, he couldn't decipher them. He saw a Greek letter in one of them, and once it progressed that far, he was lost.

"You have made a great effort to come here," said the light, using Nik's voice. "Are you ready to proceed?"

Nik shook his head "I don't know. I'm not sure what's happening."

"Then let me answer for you. You are not ready. You have no idea what you're doing, or even why you're doing it. You're only here because the crazy blue unicorn with the metal wings told you it was what you needed to do, and while you don't trust him, the little yellow pegasus that's responsible for taking care of you trusts him implicitly. She wouldn't harm you, right? So you followed her all the way out here, while she was chasing that crazy unicorn. Does that sound about right?"

Nik slowly nodded. "So you've been watching us this whole time?"

"The whole time. I've been with you every step of the way."

"Then why didn't you help us!?"

"Because shut up. I don't need to help you, it's not my job to help you. You can help yourself, or you can rot away. I don't give a shit, either way."

"So you've been helping our enemies!?"

"Again, why would I give a damn about what they do? I do not take sides, I do not play favourites, and I do not give a fuck what anyone thinks."

"Then why are you here?"

The light chuckled. "Because you went through all the trouble to call me. Now, it's time you quit bitching about how unfair your life is and start thinking about why you woke me from my nap. As much as you hate me right now, you'll be even worse off if I become angry."

Nik squatted down and rubbed his face. "What do you mean, I called you here?"

"You gathered those little stones and had somepony cast the spells. Big fight going on down there, too, so it must have been a pretty big deal. You couldn't even wait for the battle to stop."

"I didn't start that fight."

"But you've had every opportunity to stop it. Think of all of the suffering that could have been avoided if you'd just died like a good little boy. There's the easy answer."

"I don't want to die!"

"And that's why you kept fighting, and extending the suffering of those around you. And here we are."

Several other orbs of radiant light showed up through swirls in the clouds, all of them matching the colours and position of the orbs in the platform, except in a square instead of a circle. To Nik's right, they were orange, yellow, green and blue. To his left, grey, purple, light blue and dark blue. Behind him, black and white. And in front of him was the one filled with numbers and such. It was offset to the side, leading him to believe there was one more that was about to show up, but nothing appeared.

"Right, let's have this meeting come to order," called number. "Let's hear why we're all gathered here."

The area fell silent. Even though nothing nearby had eyes, Nik could feel them on him.

"Well, speak up, Nik," said number. "What do you want?"

He hadn't been made aware of the process for doing this, and was caught off-guard. "I want the world to stop ending, in a way that doesn't involve me dying."

"That sounds reasonable," said black in a deep, somewhat cold voice.

"You wouldn't know reasonable if it bit you in the balls," sneered white, a high, shrill voice. "What's one life in exchange for billions? And that's not counting those who have already died for his sake. Were their deaths reasonable?"

"All will die eventually," added purple, smooth and even.

"What matters is that they enact their will," confirmed dark blue, slow and raspy.

"Still, I would like to see an end to the killing," argued medium blue, her voice backed by echoing chimes. "Only then can those harmed begin to heal."

"Hear, hear," chirped yellow.

"You and your bleeding heart," growled orange. "For fucks sake, let them all die."

"I second that," chirped yellow again, contradicting themself.

"I don't give a damn whether we kill the human or not, so long as we stop this horrid blight on my beautiful land," boomed green slowly, their voice super deep and strong.

"We hafffe to decccide sssomething," hissed grey, dry and scratchy. "Ifff none offf you lot are going to ssstart the tally, then I will: I sssay we grant the human hisss requessst. Ssstop the dessstruction offf the world, erassse all need to hunt him, and dump hisss body in the plane offf hisss choiccce."

"If you are to do that," replied green, "Then I will add the following caveat. We need to repair the two worlds that have clashed, and separate them permanently."

"Yeah!" clapped orange. "Burn the fucking bridges! Let it all crumble away into ash!"

"Not so fast!" interjected dark blue. "Those bridges must remain. They grant access to a new opportunity, the ability to establish a connection of knowledge. We cannot deny the two realities their ability to communicate!"

"I will not let those connections go," added light blue. Nik could swear he'd heard that voice before, but did not recall where. "They need to remain, as does the memory of this ordeal. Otherwise, repeats of this blunder will cause their destruction. Especially when the inevitable life form slips through your claws."

"You mean through your fins," corrected purple. "It is your domain to wipe memories. I would just as soon see the boy die. It's no skin off my nose to take one more soul."

"You have neither skin, nor a nose!" shouted white. "Nor does your opinion matter. If we kill him right here and now, we fix all of the problems in one fell swoop. All in favour?"

"You would opt for the easy solution," scoffed black. "That's all you are, is an easy solution. Just because it suits your needs does not mean jack shit. I say we let him live and fix this whole mess. That's seven of eleven wanting him to stay, and you lose."

"You nefffer were good at counting," hissed grey. "Myssselfff, Krogghm, Chrysssi, Fffolkosss and yourssselfff. That'sss fffifffe."

"Keep your tongue between your teeth, thithter dearetht," mocked black. "I thimply cannot underthtand a word coming out of your mouth. And that makes eight to nothing, case closed. Lunch, anyone?"