Tabitha moved to step forward into the yawning abyss that was once the door of the only other human she knew as a person in Equestria. What had happened to him anyway?

Bubbles stepped in front of her, holding the spear aloft in her magic, even if it quivered a bit, clearly a significant effort to keep it up. "I'm your protector, remember? I'll go first." She turned towards that darkness and strode forward, swallowing thickly. "Just, ya know, stay behind me." She didn't say it out loud, but 'closely' was added without the word.

Together, they all pushed through the space that felt somehow like no space at all, and were in a different place. A room with doors in every direction, many at unnatural angles, some going right through each other despite the impression that they could, in theory, walk through any one of them and it would be different than the other.

Thoughts of the doors came to a crashing halt as Tabitha found a familiar presence. The squid, or was that an octopus? was sprawled out across the non-space, glaring at them with one big eye with barred pupil. Its massive tendrils twitched softly, but it hadn't immediately attacked them.

Bubbles held up the spear, shaking all the more viciously with the subtle 'wrong' that emanated from the creature. It was not of Equestria, or even Tabitha's world, or any world, perhaps?

Tabitha stepped forward, uncertain what they were seeing. She did spot that her fey friends looked ready to get to blasting and she held up a hand. "If it wanted to attack us, it would have already."

The creature furrowed a slick brow. "You are not here to battle?"

Spring returned the gesture. "I thought we had. Mysterious alpha, what do you intend?"

Tabitha gestured at the massive bulk of the creature. "You, what do you want? Are you here to just hurt and kill people?"

The creature's brow came down in a frown. "The continued breath of non-essential fragments mean little to me. Caretaker. This is your realm, is it not?"

Dark hissed faintly under her breath. To hear a fellow warrior dismissed so casually, to think his death meant nothing to this... thing...

~Easy. I think Tabitha has this one.~

~How can you know?~

~She's the Caretaker, remember? I think she's growing into it.~

Tabitha nodded. "It is, and you're an intruder. Will you listen if I tell you to go away?"

"I would not." The group tensed, ready for battle. "I wish to request residency."

Horpip burst into laughter. "Damn abomination's ready to play by the rules? You must be desperate."

The creature scowled at Horpip. "Would it displease to crush that one?"

Tabitha put a hand out in front of Horpip. "Enough damage for one day, thank you. Now... about that. People who live here have to follow specific rules. Are you willing to abide by them?"

Spring shook her head. "Creatures of this ilk are not known for hono--"

"An oath given has power," spoke the creature in a booming chorus of voices. "I may not agree often, but what is said cannot be unsaid. If your rules are obeyed, do you swear protection?"

Bubbles shook her head in a violent shake. "What the flip?! You tear apart part of the building and then you want protection?"

Tabitha reached down to give Bubbles a gentle stroke across the withers. "Easy, but she's right. Why all of... this, just to ask for a room? You could have done that in the first place."

"An error of judgement/lapse of thought/miscalculated plan," it said in different voices. "I need a place to rest. Creature of the Second Order, do not forget that it is the First Order that created you, and continues to create. A universe awaits my work, that it may know the pleasures and pains of life in all its futile struggle."

Tabitha didn't quite get it. "What is the First Order?"

Spring advanced. "I can answer that. According to some doctrines, the First Order were the creatures that existed with the birth of reality, some say before it. They helped shape the basic flow of it, but are not, themselves, part of that flow." She looked the great creature up and down. "Do you claim to be one of them, born before anything existed?"

"To claim is to imply uncertainty." Its voice became that of a small female child. "Will you protect me, Caretaker?"

Tabitha shivered. "Don't talk like that. What do you even need protection from? You seem quite capable yourself."

"It is perhaps hubris," it spoke in an elderly tone. "There is no 'largest'." Its voice dropped to a gentle whisper. "Growth takes time."

Bubbles suddenly thrust her spear into the ground, letting it rest, point embedded. "No! No no no! You don't get to just... this! You killed somepony, and you got another either dead or worse around here. You just want us to let it all go?"

Tabitha glanced at Bubbles. "She brings up a rather... important detail. We do need him back. You have a pony here, I gather?"

"Do I?" A tendril reached up into one of the many doors, withdrew, then tried another. In a sing song, it spoke as if nothing were happening, "It has been a busying time."

Horpip drew his pipe and soon took a draw from it. "How can you expect any such creature to have the start of a hint of what matters to us?"

The creature fixed its eyes on Horpip. "An agreement is plain. I have given my terms." Its voice shifted to hardened steel. "Do you refuse?" The voice snapped to a happy grandmother. "Oh, here it is." The tendril drew back to reveal a pony with wide eyes, shivering intensely. "Is this what you seek?"

Tabitha gestured to the ground. "That's him. Please put him down. Why did you take him anyway?"

"I did not," it spoke with frank sincerity. "Others took my entry as an opportunity. Grant me shelter and this break in your precious Second Order will be mended." The voice become a myriad of laughter. "We will all win!"

Dark narrowed her eyes. "What have you done, precisely, since arriving here?"

One of its tendrils pointed to Tabitha even as another set the traumatized pony down. "I struck the Caretaker."

Tabitha huffed a bit. She remembered that lashing blow, but her body was resilient. It barely rated as a bruise. "Wait, you grabbed our friend. White fur, two legs? He had a spear, but he dropped that when you grabbed him."

"Did I? I did. It managed to escape me. Very impressive." The creature's eye moved from one party to the next. "Why are they not present?"

Bubbles clopped the ground. "You killed him!"

Its voice turned to a confused mess of voices. "We did not!"

Tabitha held up a hand at either. "Easy..." She could see the pieces coming together. "I don't think it did it."

Dark shook her head. "How can you be sure? Who's to say it's being truthful?"

Tabitha clenched her right fist. "It's a hunch. It's time for honesty, and agreements. We either come to an accord, as has been said before, or we don't."

Two of its tendrils clapped together. "You are refreshing to broker with. Even with the inevitable end of a mortal existence, you are willing to proceed. It is clear why you are the Caretaker. Will you protect me?"

Bubbles shook her head a little. "You're the boss, boss."

The others seemed to be sharing a similar thought with varying levels of skepticism, but none moved to contradict Tabitha.

Tabitha rolled a hand. "If you do become a resident, we will try to protect you like anyone else that lives here."

In an excited male voice, it practically squealed. "Excellent. Speak your terms." One of its tendrils reached for Tabitha directly. "Curious creature. You reek of several worlds and farther. If I did not know better." Its voice became that of an old man. "I would think you one of us."

Spring slid smoothly between the two. "She has nothing in common with... you."

Tabitha gently nudged her aside. "It's a compliment." Even if she didn't want to share much in common with the eldritch beast. "Now, I'm going to show some trust. I'll get a contract to go over the rules, play nice while I'm gone?"

Bubbles snorted. "I don't think I even want to know what it considers 'playing'."

"I could show you." A tentacle waggled in front of Bubbles even as the guardian paled and backpedaled away.

Tabitha gave a final nod before she left, presumably to get the rental papers.

Horpip waved his pipe lightly at Spring. "You've chosen a hell of a companion. Willing to negotiate with... this."

Spring put a hand on her hip. "She is doing what many fail to accomplish. Are you jealous? My lovely alpha will create peace with an Old One. That's no mean feat."

Dark had her eyes on the beast, refusing to look much away. "The things you must have seen."

It looked back at Dark with the one eye that faced them. "The full magnitude," it sighed out, then raised to a whimsical female tone. "It would destroy your minds to consider half of it."

Dark lifted her shoulders. "Tell me then. How was the universe created? Did it start with the sun as many theorize?"

It laughed as a chorus, as if an entire stadium of people were laughing, giggling, hooting, and howling before it settled to a studious male voice. "It is only natural that creatures as yourself see yourselves as the center, your world, significant. Were you to cease today, this very instant, the universe would not notice. When you are gone, reality will continue. Before you were here, it moved. You are not even a grain of sand on a beach."

Bubbles shuddered, but moved in front of Dark. "Stop making fun of her! She's going to help protect your slimy flank, remember?"

The voice became that of a withered female crone. "We do not forget." Its voice rose to a teen aged male, "Does that make us 'friends'?"

Spring perked up at that. Could such a thing have the same troubles she once had? "Do you know what friendship entails?"

In a scholarly voice, it spoke, "In theory."

Spring flashed a warm smile. "Loathe as I may be to admit it, we have something in common."

Horpip snorted, almost coughing on his pipe's smoke. "Lass? Yer joking, right?"

That eye focused on Spring. "Creature of the Green Order, wielder and protector of that which is destined to die, what familiarity do you claim?"

Spring gestured across the group. "I came here, like you, an alien to this world. I was... scared, and confused. They lent gentle hands and we have become a thing I never truly realized could exist outside of rigid accords and doctrine. They care for me, not because they must, but because they want to."

Bubbles quirked a smile. "Ha! Tabitha taught you how to be friends."

Spring held up a finger. "Tabitha was part of it, my mighty beast, but Coco was far more pivotal. She had every reason to despise me, but she showed kindness instead. She has welcomed me into her family."

A tendril reached down, wagging in front of Spring. "What use is friendship if death will remove any such bond?"

Spring lifted her shoulders. "I do not intend to allow death to claim my family quickly, but even should they pass, I think I am better for this time, than to never have had it to begin with. "

"What are you all talking about?" Tabitha was returning, paperwork in hand.

"You have prepared your terms?" A tendril reached for Tabitha. "I would see them."

Tabitha surrendered a slip to it, but it did not 'read' the paper, merely held it still a moment before its bulk quivered. "The terms are acceptable. Payment is rendered." The tendril drew back, letting the paper flutter to the ground as another came forward, bulging a the tip, fatter and fatter before it exploded in a sickening squelch. Blood and viscera dripped down among gold and gems in a shower.

She cringed at the display. "Not the usual way... Still, hell, a deal's a deal." She held up that paper. "Sign here."

The still-injured tendril lashed out at the paper, leaving a bloody mess that hissed and boiled a moment before it came together to make a sigil so complicated that it seemed not only three-dimensional, but shifted depended on the angle viewed and over time. How many dimensions did its name have? "We have reached an accord."

Dark stepped forward. "One thing."

It looked to Dark. "Do you oppose this agreement?"

"Not exactly." She glanced around warily. "You can't stay here, in this room. This one was already taken. Can you move through the building without more damage?"

There was a moment of silence before its great mass slid between physical dimensions. As it flipped through fourth and fifth spacial folds, it distorted and folded in unpleasant fashions before it stopped on a much smaller form.

It was like a pony, black and slick skin with no fur in sight. Its head was huge and bulbous, with small tendrils dangling from the front of its snout like a curtain. Its eyes shone with various hues, still barred in its alien way. Its tail was a writhing batch of tentacles, wriggling faintly as it approached the group. Smaller, but no less disturbing. "Is this acceptable?"

Author's Notes:

I'm home!

And the building gains a new occupant.

Happy... ending?