I really didn’t like the look on the Keeper’s face. Partly because it belonged to Angel but mainly because it looked silly. The Keeper was playing with the major expressions that humans could do. It said something about it being a long time since he took corporeal form.

Not one to argue with what essentially was a being way out of my depth, I just watched him with a varying degree of irritation as it contorted Angel’s face into a variety of improbable and sometimes impossible configurations. I turned my attention back to my Synch, running a diagnostic on the internal hardware. Who knew what the effects of whatever kind of travel I had done would have on the poor device?

I was pretty out of it so all I heard from the Keeper was:

“-we’re going to launch you back.”

“W-what?” I gabbled snapping out of the diagnostics screen, it was all green I thought gestured it away.

The Keeper rolls its eyes.

“As I was saying… hey! Are you listening?”

“I’m sorry, it’s hard to take you seriously when you make a face like that”, I pointed out testily, gesturing to the hideous creation plastered on Angel’s face.

The Keeper shot its hands onto Angel’s face.

“Oh, sorry. Got a little too carried away there”, it commented, fixing Angel’s features into something vaguely respectful.

“Why are you experimenting with facial features when you have them down to pat already?” I asked, throwing the Keeper off.

“Ah, well, you mortals have an interesting way of communicating.”

“How else would you communicate?”

The Keeper paused as if the thought just occurred to it.

“Well, there no reason we can’t try right?” It mused, then before I could react, it shot a finger at my forehead. My vision swam and the Keeper looked absurdly pleased.

I blacked out.

——

I awoke feeling a massive ache deep within my skull. It throbbed with every painful beat of my heart. My eyes slowly adjusted to Angel’s face pressed uncomfortably close to mine.

“Gah!” I would have fell but I was on my back already, instead my arms flailed about uselessly.

The Keeper smiled cheekily.

“Ah, a very pleasing reaction. You are forgiven for ignoring me.”

I put both my hands on my head as I pushed the Keeper off me.

The Keeper looked surprised and did its own flailing as it slid off.

“Ooff, okay, okay, enough fooling around. On with the program, as you mortals say.”

The Keeper cleared its throat, flinging a tuft of Angel’s hair behind its back and giving me a teasing glance. Disappointed when I didn’t give a reaction, it grumbled and continued with what it wanted to say.

“You can’t be here. You’re not supposed to”, it said pointing at me. The finger came close and I swatted it out of the way. I was fast losing my shock and awe of this apparently ‘divine’ being.

“Clearly”, I ground out caustically.

The Keeper raised its hands out in a placating gesture.

“I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that you were meant to stay in your universe, you weren’t meant to drift between them.”

“I got that”, I shot back testily.

The Keeper cleared its throat.

“Well, you know. It got a little complicated when you started ping-ponging between universes and causing chaos and havoc to them both.”

The Keeper waved out to the scenery around them.

“Tell me”, it said suddenly. “What do you see?”

I flopped down on the grass below me.

“I’m not sure what you want. I see sky, clouds, a meadow, green grass, things, what does this have to do with anything?”

The Keeper tapped the side of Angel’s nose.

“I see a dead world”, it replied, giving a discordant hiss. I shot up to my feet, wary.

The Keeper waved nonchalantly at me.

“Come now, if I really wanted to hurt you, would you still be alive? No? Good. Sit back down, enjoy the dead scenery.”

I sat back down, slowly.

The Keeper played with the hem of the white dress it wore on Angel’s body.

“Dead is what I mean when there is a garden world without intelligence, without life. Do you know what the goal of life is?”

I shrugged.

The Keeper sighed, jabbing me with Angel’s finger to accentuate each point.

“Typical mortal. Life is struggle. Life is hardship. Life is joy. Life is loss. Life is new. Life is old. Life is a tale of opposites. How can there be any life is there is no consciousness? You need a driving force, see? Take this for example-“ the Keeper kicked up a clump of grass “- fake. Not real. A mere apparition of the mind. Nothing compared to what we are. That includes you.”

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked, not really getting what the Keeper was trying the explain. Maybe I was being particularly dense that day but the Keeper didn’t seem to make even a bit of sense.

“You, you, you, you!” The Keeper growled, throwing up its hands. “Always you with you mortals. See the bigger picture. Am I not being clear? You are unbalancing the universes. The universes are houses for mortal beings like you. You mortal beings will eventually climb out of your cradle and claw your way up to where we are now. When you reach here, keep climbing. Climb, climb, climb!”

I struggled to comprehend what the Keeper was trying to tell me.

“So what you are saying is that we’re the precursors to you? And that universes are a kind of incubators for beings like you? And that you have a vested interest in maintaining some sort of balance within these universes”, I said slowly, getting an enthusiastic nod from the Keeper.

“Ah the mortal finally gets it in his limited understanding!” The Keeper cried, spinning around in glee. I observed its increasingly erratic actions passively, trying to digest this little bombshell.0

“What’s the point? Why create a race of god-like beings?”

“A ba-bup! We’re starting to cross bounds here. Rules are the rules”, the Keeper replied, playfully zipping up its mouth with an imaginary zipper. It mimed the lock and key motion too.

I sighed.

“So where to now?” I asked wearily, this whole thing was giving me a headache and it wasn’t just from that mind-blowing mind jab thing.

“That, young mortal, is something you will have to choose”, it answered, twisting a strand of Angel’s hair.

“I’ve given you some good points as to why you should return to your own world but the choice is ultimately yours”, it summated, throwing an easy grin at me.

“I have to choose because…” I prompted but the Keeper just stared at me with a sly smile.

“Right, rules… I think”, I muttered seeing the Keeper nodding sagely.

“If I return to my world there will be no repercussions?”

The Keeper’s grin widened.

“Oh I never said that”, it replied nastily. “I just said it was the better choice.”

I thought about my options.

“Seems like there is a strong case for me to go to my home world. I can stop Black Box, Equestria will no longer have to deal with a null being like myself and everything goes back to normal”, I thought out loud.

I looked back at the Keeper’s mischievous Cheshire grin.

“What happens if I go back to my world?”

The Keeper slapped me heartily on the back, an unexpected gesture from the Angel façade.

“I knew you were a special mortal, not the brightest but at least lucky enough to ask the right questions, the black reptilian mortal before you was less inquisitive, wanted to get back almost right away. Couldn’t do it immediately of course, those were the rules. Impatient one, that one, but the ones touched by Death are always the most interesting ones… Anyway, to answer your question, let’s cast our minds back to your book.”

“You mean my Synch?” I queried, tapping the silver circlet.

“Yes, Synch, book, same thing, different form”, the Keeper grumbled, waving a dismissive hand. “The book contains information about your world’s future, right?”

I nodded slowly. The Keeper’s grin practically split Angel’s face in half, it was incredibly off-putting.

“Guess who put it there?” It teased, bouncing on Angel’s feet in excitement.

“You?!” I gasped.

“Now the mortal gets it! That is the future of you staying in Equestria. Seems straightforward enough, right? Send you back to your universe?”

The Keeper laughed at my silent nod.

“There’s a trick, there’s a trap, though. Boo boo! You will die if I send you back to your world.” The Keeper shrugged. “Well maybe not straight away but you didn’t think the magic you nullified just went away? That energy is stored inside you, like a coiled spring. If I put you in your universe, you’ll be like a balloon in explosive decompression. Pop!”

“Oh ho ho ho! Looking a little hesitant now, are we? Don’t you want to save your existence? Conflicted with saving your own world? Done it once but won’t do it again? What’s stopping you?”

“What happens when I go back to Equestria?” I asked, I needed to know.

The Keeper’s eyes darkened.

“Same as I said before. Everything collapses. Everything dies.” Next Chapter: 4 - Effection Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes