The teleportation lasted for a few minutes—like the last time. Elin was right—it wasn’t that bad now—and i quickly got used to it. It’s much easier when you know you’re not really disappearing into nothingness—although it’s still a little unsettling.

For Milegold on the other hand... It was a whole other story. I almost thought he was going to faint from the sheer terror. But i knew that he would be alright. The place we were in was some sort of hall—a large fountain stood in the middle from which flowed abundant quantities of water. Hyperbears of all sizes and colours were scattered in small groups all around the room—looking at each other like they were having a conversation—yet a deafening silence reigned supreme, only broken by the sound of the water flowing. Despite our sudden apparition—not a single bear even seemed to pay attention to or even notice us.

Calling the decoration ascetic would be an understatement—other than the fountain, some marble pillars, some and tables, and a few pieces of greenery—the likes of which i had never seen before—nothing extravagant was in sight—even the hyperbears seemed to be holding mere glasses of water and nothing else.

One of them suddenly appeared in front of us—it was Elinbjörn.

“Long time no see,” he glanced at both of us. “Sorry for leaving you like this.”

“It’s only been three hours... Where did you even go?” i asked.

“My dad always insists that i take part in his boring meetings with his advisors, even though i couldn’t care less,” he rolled his eyes. “However this one was important, for once.”

“What could even be important?” my indiscretion got the better of me. “Things look quite good here.”

“Not here...” he stopped.

Elin’s naturally relaxed attitude turned into seriousness. He looked at Milegold for an instant—before leading me a few steps away from him.

“It’s about Equestria,” he looked me in the eyes. “Something about massive Griffking landings in Manehettan and Vanhoover.”

“Massive... What?” i hoped it was some sort of sick joke. “They were kicked out in no time? Right?”

Elin hesitated before continuing. “Apparently, they are rushing straight towards Canterlot, and Crystal City.”, he said. “Almost unopposed.”

My heart almost stopped. Vanhoover—that was only a couple dozen kilometers from where i lived. From where mom lived. I hoped she had fled to somewhere else in Equestria on time—but if they were advancing as fast as Elin said... For how long would there even be an Equestria? And dad... I prayed to Celestia for him to be okay.

“T-theres nothing that hyperbears can do about it? What did Björnling say?”

“According to him, Hyperbearia has nothing to do with this,” he answered, trying to not be too brutal to me. “He knows a few squads of our forces could wipe out an entire army that doesn’t possess Ursinochrome; if it even dared to go through the veil.”

I sighed. “Could you finally tell me more about this Ursinochrome?” i was getting a little irritated. “I think I’ve waited long enough to know.”

“All i can say is that...” he searched for his words. “It’s what’s making this whole place go round. The sun, the veil, teleportation, telepathy, everything, it’s all Ursinochrome.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, its power would make the elements of Harmony look as strong as your average earth pone. And yes i know about those.”

“But what is it? How do you even use it?”

“I told you, that’s all i can say.”

I remembered that book i had taken from Milegold. I had to read it. As soon as possible. I knew it could be the key to everything. If this Ursinochrome was so powerful—then i would need it to get out of here—and even more importantly—Equestria would need it for its very survival.

“Anyways, i know all this has been hard on you and on Milegold.” well guessed. “What about a little break?”

Elin manifested a small marble table in front of us—as well as a three large pillows—upon which the three of us lied down.

“Thanks.” it felt good to finally get some rest. “That was certainly; much needed.”

“I also thought you’d be hungry, so i brought something.”

I hadn’t eaten in almost a day—so i was certainly excited about the otherworldly foods i would try out in this mysterious paradise! Two plates appeared in front of me and Milegold. Inside each of them was... A whole live fish... Paradise or not, i had almost forgotten that this place was run by the bears. I looked at Milegold, he too seemed to share my disappointment.

“We’ll have to, uhm, pass, fish isn’t really our thing,” i tried to be as polite as possible. “What about you?” i hoofed him my plate. “I haven’t seen you eat either.”

“No thanks,” he pushed it away. “I told you, Ursinochrome powers everything. Hyperbears barely need to eat,” he manifested a glass of water for himself instead.

At this point—i wasn’t even surprised.

Milegold looked at me, “Nitta brought me a lot of cool things back in the daycare. I still have some,” he hoofed me an applebar.

Elin spat his water. “Nitta?”

“Yeah, Nitta, Osolveig, Melvedev, you know them right?”

“I do. But I’d prefer it if you ignored them.”

“Why so?” i seized the opportunity to find out more.

“Trust me, they just want something out of you,” i didn’t care to ask more questions. I was too busy clearing the water Elin had just spat at my face.

Elin noticed what had just happened. “Whoops. My bad...”

We ended up chatting and talking for hours on end—he told me some more about hyperbears and Hyperbearia—apparently, many bears had forgotten or never even learned how to vocalize, as telepathy was much more practical—Elin told me that he was afraid this would make future contact with non-hyperbears completely impossible.

However Elin didn’t believe it would ever happen—telepathy or not—hyperbears did not care the slightest about the outside world—in fact, they didn’t care about much. He scrambled to find words when i asked what hyperbears did in their day-to-day lives.

We also talked about some silly trivial things. Did you know that hyperbears could tan and turn red if exposed long enough to their sun? I certainly did not. The more you know.

Speaking of knowledge—Elin turned out to be very cultivated—nothing like what they tell you about the bears of old. We talked a lot about ancient Griffonian and Zebrican history—he was a huge fan of Karthina, good tastes. We even played a silly game of ‘Which country starts with this letter’—Milegold won this one, if you wonder—he was just too good—Elin had to pull out a world map to make sure he wasn’t just making up ‘Twizanyika’ and ‘Karkadannistan’.

Unlike other hyperbears—Elin seemed to actually care about what happened beyond the veil. He told me he wanted to visit Equestria one day—and he even admitted that he had a poster of princess Celestia where he hibernated—it was hard to hold my laughter. He also knew much more than me about the elements of harmony. Something that Milegold appreciated a lot.

Eventually, fatigue settled in—the day had been rough—and getting a good night’s rest was all Milegold could think about. Well more like a good day’s rest—since there was no night here.

Elin brought us to a large bedroom—unlike anything we had seen in this place—it looked more like you’d find in your average earth pone’s house... If you ignore the complete lack of windows, the freezing cold, and the overwhelming smell of fish.

“We made this room specifically for our unfortunate visitors,” he said. “Both of you should feel right at home, for my part I’m going to hibernate too,” he began walking away.

“Wait! One more thing.” Elin turned around to face me.

“Thank you for uhm, everything,” i blushed a little. “You’re definitely the nicest bear i know; i mean hyperbear.”

He smiled at me—and teleported away. I looked at Milegold—the mare had already fallen asleep.

But for me—it was not bedtime yet. As soon as i saw Milegold slumber—i pulled the book out of my bag.

Powers and Properties of Ursinochrome by Björnling

This was the one. Finally i would really know what is up in here. I look around me like i was about to steal an apple, and then, i opened the book. I quickly skimmed over the first pages—it seemed to mostly be boring things i already knew. ‘Razing of Vesalipolis...’—’Two hundred megatons of TNT...’—’Death of queen Chrysalis, decisive Hyperbearian victory...’—’Several hundred gigawatts of energy...’

Mixed with slightly more interesting knowledge: ‘Occupation of every changeling town in the span of a day...’—’Prevents all biological decay...’—’Usage by ponies and griffons deemed possible...’—’Proven ability to cure cutiepox...’—’Limited inter-dimensional travel...’ —’Powerful hallucinogen, aphrodisiac, and laxative...’

However—it was still nothing much. Before i could even yawn out of boredom and fatigue—i was already at the end of the book. Well—not really—a few hundred pages seemed to be left—but they were all... Blank? I tried to look for any sort of text in the rest of the book—i even shed ultra-crystal light to reveal any invisible ink—but there was; simply; nothing.

“That was a massive waste of time,” i sighed, disappointed. But as i was about to close the book—my crystal began to make this noise again.

I immediately closed the book, hid it under a blanket, and pretended that i was asleep. I thought Elin would teleport me somewhere at any moment—like the last time my crystal acted up. But as the minutes passed; nothing happened. It was like i had hallucinated it. I found the courage to open the book again—and skimmed over the first pages one more time to look for more details. I found... Nothing of value—but when i got the the blank pages...

H-how did that happen? Massive walls of text had appeared over all the pages that were blanked out—every single one of them. I looked at my crystal—all those pages must have come from somewhere—but it simply stood there motionless.

I cracked my hooves and stretched. It was going to be a long read—but i was sure it would be worth it. Knowledge is power right?

How wrong i was.

I carefully read the rest of the book, page by page, line by line, word by word.

The first chapter was filled with cryptic but polished drawings of all sorts of races and sub-races: bears, earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, griffons, zebras, penguins, buffaloes, even camels for some reasons. Each drawing had a few details written next to it: height, width, places of origin, and... A number between one and a hundred simply labeled as Ursinochrome.

For earth ponies it was fifty—for bears, a hundred—for penguins it was twenty—and for griffons, sixty—and, if you wonder—it was two for camels. For unicorns however—several numbers seemed to have been crossed out—each larger than the last—i could make out seventy-five—then a hundred and fifty—then—something in the four digits.

As i turned the page of the last drawing—a second chapter began. Simply named Extraction & Usage.

“Finally,” a spark appeared in my eyes. “Something useful.”

I read a page. Then two. Then three. Then ten. Then a hundred. The more i read. The wider my eyes opened. At first it was excitement and curiosity. But as i got deeper. It turned into stupor. Every page became harder to turn. Every word made my heart beat slightly faster.

For the sake of my equinity, as well as yours—i don’t want to detail too much what I’ve read in this forsaken book.

I could have made this whole notebook about what I’ve read in those few hundred pages and how horrible it was. But some things... Some things are better left forgotten. What I’m about to show you is merely the surface of the iceberg.

Extraction of Ursinochrome from typical unicorns is rather straightforward.

It consists in delicately removing the horn of the subject.

The soul of the subject must a remain fully intact.

Through all means necessary—the pain receptors of the subject must be kept as active as possible for maximum output. And for the process to succeed. The subject must obviously be fully conscious.

Massive quantities of Ursinochrome can be extracted from Unicorns through this process.

In fact—much more than from any other race.

Especially the more... Gifted ones—which today make are the bulk of our production.

Of course, the younger.

The better.

Ursinochrome can only be conserved in small colourful crystals. Along with the soul of its previous holder.

It may attempt to talk—to cry for help—but it must not be listened to under any circumstances.

After several hours—the soul will wither away. Then—and only then—can the crystal be used.

Every single sentence was worse than the previous one.

Every.

Single.

Sentence.

I still remember the full, detailed process to extract and make use of Ursinochrome—for obvious reasons—i will not write it down here—or anywhere—ever—hasn’t enough damage already been done? At some point—i just closed the book—i simply couldn’t continue further. The content of the last fifty or pages will remain lost to history—for history is the only one who can bear such horrors.

I was exhausted— but i could not sleep a single minute after reading this—everything was starting to make sense—in the absolute worst way possible. I knew what those three bears had been up to with Milegold. I knew what had happened to all the pones who came before us—never to return. I knew why Hyperbearia was so secretive—why nothing would come in or out—why they needed this massive veil to keep their horrors from washing over the world.

But... What about Elin? he knew about all this—why couldn’t he tell us—why couldn’t he get us out of here? Was he somehow protecting us? Maybe—he was definitely not like the other hyperbears after all. And he had become my friend but... I didn’t know if i could still trust him after what i had seen.

I looked at my crystal—it was still light blue like the brine. Yet i knew what was hiding inside now. I knew everything i should never have known. But most importantly, i knew how to get out of here.

And i knew that i had to do it.

Now.

I grabbed my crystal—and dashed towards Milegold’s bed.

“Wake up,” i tried to shake him through the blanket. “Wake. Up.”

“H-uh?” Milegold rubbed his eyes. “What’s the matter?”

“We’re going; now,” i grabbed Milegold’s hoof and held the crystal with my other one. According to the book—teleportation could be achieved by thinking as hard as you could about where you wanted to be, of course while holding the crystal as tight as possible. At that moment—all i thought about was home, my room, my town, my parents.

This was it.

This was the place where i wanted to be: home.

“Goodbye hyperbears!” i certainly wouldn’t miss this place.

My crystal lit up and the world around me turned weird—just like the first time.

However as the world went dark—and then back to normal... I couldn’t be further from home.

I tried to make out where this crystal had taken me. And the diagnostic was quick: i was on top of one of those bloody pyramids—turns out they were not actually pyramids—their top was not a peak, but a medium sized flat platform. We stood at vertiginous heights—the sun was brighter than ever—and clouds were a mere zebra’s jump away—thank boreas i didn’t look down.

Four bears stood in front of me—three of them were holding some sort of rifle; except that instead of a magazine or crystals those were loaded with one of those crystals. I recognized them—it was the three bears Milegold was talking to.

Between those three stood a larger, blue-eyed hyperbear with a slightly darker fur. I quickly recognized him too.

“Björnling...” i looked daggers at him.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Brine,” he slowly started walking towards me. “Let us have him, and we won’t reserve you the same fate; even though you already know way too much.”

“Stay the Tartarus back,” i placed Milegold behind me to shield him.

I’ll fight to the end i pawed the ground out of spite. If they get him, they’ll have to get me too.

I stood defiant—while the three guards raised their weapons and prepared to shoot.

I braced as i thought it was the end—even with the most powerful magic, i was fully outmatched.

Suddenly—a silhouette appeared in front of me.

“Over my dead body; dad.” the silhouette stood up between me and Björnling guards.

Elin! it was him! He was really our guardian bear after all.

“I won’t let you rip another being apart for some Ursinochrome,” he shouted. “There are better ways to survive than this. When will the massacre end?”

“And you? Elinbjörn?” Björnling’s blue eyes almost turned red. “I thought i had raised you to be a hyperbear and not a pathetic equine. I’ll deal with them whether you want it or not.”

“I thought you were better than this; dad.”

“Guards!” Björnling barked. As his two grunts aimed with their rifles.

Elin quickly grabbed our hooves and looked at me. “Quick! Your home!” he shook his crystal and hoofed it to me.

I closed my eyes thought as hard as i could—this time—i remembered Milegold’s admission party. It was so fun—i wished i could go back and forget all this. We weren’t worrying about things.

We were just... Home.

I simply wanted everything to be normal again...

“Brine... Brine!” it was Milegold’s voice, i opened my eyes back up. “We’re back home.”

Our living room had not changed a single bit since we had left. Everything was still the same—at the same place. I had to rub my eyes several times to believe what i was seeing. We were... Home?

I placed my head right next to Milegold’s.

“I’ll never put you in danger again. I promise. I’m never doing this veil-hunting thing again.”

As i looked around this place i had languished so much. I noticed a shadow on the other side of the room.

It was Elin—his crystal in paw—looking quietly through a window—was he seeing the night for the first time? I did not dare to interrupt him.

Suddenly—he shook the precious stone.

“What are you doing? Stay here! Why would you even think about returning to Hyperbearia!?”

“You’ve read that book...” he remained quiet for a few seconds. “Now you know full well that we are monsters; that I’m a monster.”

Milegold intervened. “You’re not! You just proved it—”

“There’s no other way than being one. Milegold.” he interrupted him. “Ursinochrome is something without which we can’t survive. We’re hyperbears; not bears. It’s them or us,” he looked at me. “You should know it, Brine.”

Elin was right—the book explicitly stated that hyperbears couldn’t survive without Ursinochrome—for the same reason why pones can’t survive without eating. After all—Ursinochrome powers everything.

There was no changing his mind. Elin did not want to be a monster—but it had never been up to him. Yet—i still couldn’t understand why he did not want to try and find another way. I knew so much at this point, yet i still knew nothing. But the truth was: he had no choice.

“If that’s what you think you want; i can’t stop you,” i took a deep breath. “So long, Elin.”

It took the bear a few seconds to respond. I thought I’d see him cry for the first time. “Farewell, Brine.”

Elin smiled—as closed his eyes—slowly vanishing into obscurity. For the very last time.

Unlike this place—i still miss him—sometimes. He might have been a hyperbear—a monster even—but at least he was a monster who understood friendship—and he understood it better than many pones ever will. Maybe one day he would ? My hopes were vain.

I walked to the window Elin was looking through. The night felt so good after having spent so long in everlasting daylight. But something was off. I couldn’t put my hoof on it.

Then i realized. All the buildings were empty. Not even a single light. Nothing. I looked at the clock in the living room. Midnight. Some pones should still be up at this time. Right?

“You see anypony?” Milegold shook his head.

“You’ve seen mom and dad?” he asked in return.

“No.”

I looked at the skate-park. Nopony. Not like i would ever go there again. Even the cinema—normally full of life at that time—was dark and devoid of all ponies. I walked towards my room—it had a perfect view on the main street. Surely some streetpony would be wandering around. But before i could get to the window.

BOOM! i heard a deafening blast coming from above.

I looked outside. Dozens of jets were scouring the skies above me.

I had almost forgotten what Elin had told me. The landings in Vanhoover. The march to Canterlot. The war had finally come to claim its due. The home i cherished so much was now fire and blood. I didn’t want to imagine what had happened to dad.

This will never end, i thought. Things will never go back to normal. I wanted to cry—i wanted to give up—but i resisted the urge—Milegold still needed me.

In despair—looked at my crystal—i still had it after all this—and it didn’t take me long to realize that... I now possessed a power and a knowledge that not even Celestia or Golden Morning could begin to imagine.

Is it my time to be a monster?

Author's Note

Author jumpscare! Boo! Bet i scared you.
If by some miracle of Boreas this manages to get a placement in the contest — message me at zzzispi#0000 on discord
If it doesnt however...
Message me anyways, I'd love you to rip this apart and make me a better writer.
I don't bite, I'm not a (hyper)bear.