End of time

End of Time

        The town - Ponyville, Twenty four remembered Twilight had named it - was bustling when their group of three entered the city limits. Even on the outskirts, the village had ponies: the wounded, and the medical staff who were tending to them; natural after a battle

        He walked through the rows of ponies, all darkened by the night.The moon was bright, however, and Twenty four could see some with missing hooves, some with painful-looking wounds, others missing entire limbs.

Twenty four felt nothing as he looked at the soldiers, for he had seen enough combat to know that it was inevitable to not have wounded or dead after such a battle like this. Likewise, the ponies looked up at Twenty four with awe in their eyes, along with fear and, obviously, pain.

        They finally walked past the makeshift hospital, and as they entered the more populated parts of the town, Frost spoke. “I hear that there’s a hospital near here - a real one - but that the commanders still aren't entirely sure whether or not there are still enemies in there. ‘Till they are, those poor guys will have to make do with what they’ve got.”

        Twenty four nodded in understanding. “Well, if we can put aside the wounded for now, I’d like to-” he stopped as he saw a group of three soldiers making their way towards him. Hm, seems I have some visitors, he thought, and started to move forward to meet them.

        When the trio reached him, they each bowed slightly. The lead soldier, obviously one of a higher rank than the other two, spoke. “Greetings, Twenty four. Your presence is requested by commander Twilight Sparkle. We are here to lead you there.”

        Twenty four looked back at his friends. “You guys go on ahead, I’ll meet up with you later. This won’t take long,” he said, though he wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth.

“Mh, it better not. We’ll be waiting for you,” Frost said in response. Then the two ponies moved past Twenty four, heading to what seemed to be a bar… or “tavern” if he was reading the sign correctly.

Only then did he notice that their written language looked more like random glyphs than anything that resembled written English. Probably just a… cognate? Yeah, that’s it, Twenty four thought to himself as he followed the guards through the streets, to whatever destination they were leading him to

When they finally reached their destination, Twenty four was not sure whether he was impressed or not. The location where he was supposed to meet Twilight was… A giant tree. Really? Twenty four thought as he walked alongside his escorts.

Even if it was just a tree, it was hundreds of times thicker and taller than anything he had ever seen on Earth. It looked like it could have been a house, which it probably was, and surrounding it was a translucent, purple dome - magic.

He was expecting himself to slam into the wall painfully, but he passed right through it, as did his guards. Not paying much attention to that, however, Twenty four continued to walk closer and closer to the red door of the tree.

When he finally reached the entrance, the door glowed blue, and swung open. Standing in the interior of the tree was a guard, who gave him a salute. Returning the gesture loosely, Twenty four passed through the door, two of his escorts stopping short of the entrance and moving into positions on the outside of the tree.

The higher-ranked soldier followed Twenty four into the tree, and led Twenty four quickly to a stairway that led down into a basement of some sort.

Even with the short amount of time he had to inspect his surroundings, Twenty four saw bookshelf upon bookshelf. So, it’s some kind of library? Hm, never read much myself… he thought as he descended the stairs to the unknown location below.

When he stepped off the final step, the same guard in front of him, he realized that it was in fact a basement. Bookshelves lined the walls here, too, and a large desk covered in paper stood in the center of the room. Amid the piles of sheets was Twilight, looking up at him, her face serious, even after a victory.“You may leave us now, General,” she said to the last of Twenty four’s escort. Bowing, he moved out of the room, and back up the stairs.

Mh, a general, escorting me? Well, don’t I feel special, Twenty four thought as he walked up to her. “You wanted to see me, Commander?

Twilight nodded.“Yes, I wanted to talk to you about your involvement in this war. You fought in the most recent battle, correct?”

“Yes, I did, couldn't just sit on the sidelines, could I?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at his choice of words, but continued.

“Yes, I heard descriptions of you fighting with some kind of…” she flipped through a few papers. “‘Magical knife’?”

“Well, it wasn’t magic. Just technology. I’m not sure how it works, but when I hold the knife, it can cut through things - well, I only tried it out on armor, but I’m sure it can cut through other stuff too.”

“Is there anyway we could study your technology to improve our forces?”

“I… don’t think so. The technology in here is very advanced. Even I don't entirely how all it works myself,” Twenty four admitted.

“I… see. Well, if you ever get the chance, will there be a way for us to at the very least inspect your armor and weaponry?”

“Of course, when I get the chance, I can let you inspect it.”

“I suppose you want to know additional information on the war?” Twilight asked. That was what Twenty four had wanted to know.

“Yes, if you can spare anything.”

“Very well, what is it you-” Twilight was interrupted as the voice of the general came from the top of the staircase.

“Commander, the battle reports have come in.”

“Very well, I will see to them immediately,” Twilight called back, her face suddenly looking weary and stressed. “I suppose I will have to answer your questions at a later date. I have to deal with the reports, however.”

“I understand, Commander. Hope the papers won’t be too harsh?” Twenty four said, Twilight smiling slightly. “I’ll be on my way. Goodbye, Twilight.”

“Farewell, Twenty four. But before you leave… you don’t think you could tell me your real name?”

“Whenever I get around to it, I sure will,” he answered.

Making his way up the steps, he exchanged salutes with the door guard, and made his way outside. Now, where is that bar… err tavern?

Twenty four sat awkwardly - most likely because he was sitting on a seat built for a creature half his size and weight. Not even counting the weight of his suit, as he had only now realized how light it was - surprising when compared with the weight of gear back in his own time.

The suit was not only lightweight, but also seemed out of place in his current location.  Well, it would seem out of place everywhere, now that Twenty four thought about it, even in his own time.

I’d wonder what people would think if I walked down Main street with this on. Twenty four chuckled to himself, imagining the expressions of pedestrians as he strut down what he remembered to be one of the busiest streets in New York. Ah, how I’ll miss that place…

        “So, Twenty - can I call you that? Maybe ‘Four’, for short?” Star asked, snapping Twenty four out of his daydream.

        “Hm? Oh, sure. It’s your call, Star,” Twenty four replied.

        “Well then, Four, how about you tell us how you got here? I only saw you talk with the commanders and suddenly you’re on our side,” Star said, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

  “I’d like know as well,” Frost said. “I didn’t even see you until Star pointed you out; well, we saw how helpless”-he chuckled slightly- “ you looked, and, well; you know the rest.”

“Yea, and in return, we can give you some details on this war, or anything about us, if you want,” Star added, sounding close to begging Twenty four for his story.

Well, at least he shows enthusiasm, Twenty four remarked. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll tell you how I got here,” he paused to clear his throat, then began. “Hm, well, I don’t know how I can make this make sense, so I’ll give it my best shot-”

“How about you tell us what you are first?” Star realized he had interrupted him, and quickly added, “I mean… if you want.”

“Fine,” Twenty four said, shooting Star a glance… well, if he didn’t have his suit covering his face, he would have shot him a glance that he would have seen. “I am a human. Homo sapien, though I’m probably pronouncing that wrong,” he chuckled. “My kind are…” he paused, unsure of what words he should choose.

Should he try to make his kind look godlike in front of these creatures? Make his name feared throughout his enemies, but at the same time his friends? He decided no, he would describe them as he knew his kind were.

“...Creative, adaptable, we can take any situation that’s against us and turn it in our favor, make it work for us… We invent machines to help us make life suitable to our needs, destroying what we see fit to make life better for others… and at the same time we can use our knowledge against one-another. Wars, terrible wars, started over the smallest of problems. We’d kill anything standing in our way, even if that means going through each other. We put boundaries and labels on everything we saw; people; land. It made us farther away from each other, even when we lived only a few miles apart. And when the time finally came for us to stand together…” Twenty four looked up. Both Star and Frost were staring at him, their eyes wide.

“Wait… what happened? Some kind of... final war? Did your people kill each other off?” Star asked, next to him, Frost seemed to be wanting the answer to the same question.

“No, what happened was… we were attacked by ponies. Your kind,” as Twenty four said this, a look of shock appeared on Star’s face, and he spoke.

“What? But… does that mean… your people live in the…”

“The Farlands,” Frost supplied. “Yes, interesting. Does that mean that your kind were the ones who had been killing all the exploration crews we had sent?”

“I’m not sure, it could be, but since there are plenty of predators who could have killed them off too,  I can’t be sure. But I can tell you what happened on that final war with your kind. Your kind were being led by Princess Celestia. My kind  had first met with your leader when giant ships powered by coal landed off the shores of Africa - one of our continents.”

“At first, we had no idea what you ponies were, so we sent diplomats, politicians, and military to the place where we had gotten reports of flashing lights and explosions - like a full-scale war was going on. I was there, and when our forces reached the area…”

“What? What happened? What did C-” Star was cut off as Frost covered his mouth with a hoof. When he removed it, Star grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m just really curious about this… I mean, when I saw you just take down that soldier with one blow, and then seeing what you did with that knife, well you can’t blame me for being interested, now can you?”

Twenty four sighed quietly. “No one said I was mad at you, Star, you’re just a bit… enthusiastic.”

“Mh, I’ll second that,” Frost said. Star shot him an exasperated look. Frost was about to say something to the youth, when Twenty four interrupted.

“Hey! Well, do you want to listen to me, or not?”

        “Yes, please continue, I want to know what happened!” Star said in a voice that sounded nearly pleading.

        “Okay… Well, when our forces made it to the village, we saw that the whole population had been vaporized - no bodies, no nothing.         And standing in the middle of it - was Celestia. We tried to communicate, but nothing happened. Then, Celestia attacked.”

“Soldiers came at us from all sides, we were only lucky that unicorns had not been able to figure out how our weaponry worked ‘till after the first few battles. We narrowly got away, but not without losing a fair number of people.”

“Well, I can see Celestia doing something like that,” Frost said.

“M-hm, well, anyway. There was a lot of fighting around the world in all of our other countries, the weakest falling first. It was chaos. Thousands of people left without homes, and hundreds of thousands dying… I was sent to do certain missions around the world, under the command of the G.A, the Global Army. Assassination, sabotage, you name it; I’ve done it.”

“Well, what happened next?” Star asked. “How did you come to get here?”

“As our countries fell and our armies were defeated, only a few remained. One of them was my country, but even then it was starting to lose ground by the day, until, finally, the ponies reached New York. It was the last safe place left in the country, and we were all but finished. Now, this is where I come in again. I had been called to New York for something, what, I did not know.”

“We were at the very end when I was finally showed what I was supposed to do. My kind had been developing a secret weapon-”

“-That suit! That’s the weapon, right?” Star blurted.

“Yes… it was. Well, turns out that they had made it so this suit could handle  traveling back in time… only problem was that we still didn’t know how to use time travel. So, we captured some unicorns, and, somehow, made them use magic on me to send me back in time… and I ended up here.”

“That’s it?” Star said.

“Well, what? It’s just a shortened version of it. I don’t want to bore you with all the facts. Besides, you have some stuff to tell me.” Twenty four said, gesturing in turn to the pair of ponies, then to himself.

“Well, wait, wait,” Star started. “Can you tell what weapons you have? Other than that knife? Like what you hit that soldier out with when I first-”

“All right. Ugh, how do you put up with this guy, Frost?” Twenty four asked the elder pony.

        “Ah, a question I ask myself every day,” Frost answered. “Just tell ‘em, and we’ll tell you what you want to know.”

        “All right, but I’m not describing them in detail, Star,” Twenty four looked at the pony.

        “Wooo, come on, then,” Star responded, an odd grin on his face.

        Twenty four reached down and pulled the pistol free from its holster. Holding it up for the two to see, he held it as if he was about to fire it. It was also the first time he had time to inspect his weaponry, and certainly the gun in his hands was state-of-the-art.

        The whole thing was a silver metal, with black rubber for the grip, looking similar to a regular gun. But that was were the similarities ended. Where the hammer would usually be, there was a small rectangular box, with a small screen set into it and small holes on the side. The gun was twice the width of a normal pistol, and seemed to be only fireable with two hands. He wasn’t sure what the screen was for, but he would find out when he had time.

        “This,” Twenty four gestured with the pistol, “is a ‘gun’. It launches pieces of metal using magnets at very high speeds, with different projectiles - bullets - doing different things. Some can explode, some can stun someone, but I don’t think that’s an option with this small gun.”

        Twenty four reached behind him to grab the rifle off of his back, but felt something pull at the pistol in his hands.

He looked down to see that the weapon was glowing creme colored - magic, and that specifically of - “Star!” Twenty four shouted at the pony - who, in turn, fell off his chair and collapsed on the floor. The magic disappeared afterwards. “Star, are you really so impatient, or stupid… or both?”

“Sorry?” Star tried, but he got no ground with Twenty four. Or Frost, who started speaking to the youth in a harsher tone than Twenty four had ever hear him use.

“No.” Frost said, looking down at the pony. “Why would you do something like that? He didn’t even explain how it worked, and yet you still try and grab it with your magic? What if you set it off? You could've hurt somepony! I’m not your father to go around telling you what to do.”

“Yes, you’re... not... father. You’ll never be” Star said, looking up at Frost with a pained and sorrowful expression.

The two stared at each other for several moments until Frost grumbled in response, and lowered a hoof to help Star off the floor. Once he was back on his hooves, Frost spoke to Star. “Ahh... I’m sorry if… I didn’t mean anything by it. You know that. I just don’t want to see you make some stupid mistake, we’ve been through too much together.”

Star looked straight at Frost as he replied. “I know, I know…”

Twenty four coughed, getting the two’s attention. “Now, if we’re done with the arguments, how about my questions, huh? Firstly: Who are you guys? I’ve told you a bit about myself, now it’s you gotta return the favor.”

“All right,” Frost turned to face Twenty four. “Well, not much to say about us, really. We both used to live in Manehatten, which was a closely guarded city back then. I used to be a weather pony there and Star lived with his parents, we were neighbors… That was until the Rebellion came and liberated the city. Lots of dead ponies… among them were Star’s parents. I found him, saved him from some guards, and I suppose I adopted him, becoming a stepfather of sorts. Teaching him how to fight, how to survive in a battle, the basics,” as Frost spoke, Twenty four made a mental note to ask him more about his past, he seemed to have a very special set of skills for just a weather pony… whatever that was.

“Hm, I see, so how about these ‘Elements of Harmony’? Anything on those things?” Twenty four asked, hoping to find an answer. Those pieces of jewelry that could turn dozens of soldiers into statues had certainly piqued his curiosity.

“Well, as far as we know,” Star answered, “they’re magical objects that only the Bearers of Harmony can use. Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Each representing their own element: honesty, magic, loyalty, laughter, generosity, and kindness,” Star finished with a wide smile, obviously proud that he could be teaching Twenty four something.

Frost and Star continued informing Twenty four on what the Elements were, as well as basics of ponies, things that he didn’t know. Apparently, pegasi could control the weather, but had not been able to ever since the battle.

Eventually the time came when the trio was asked to leave, and they complied.

Rain had started up, making the already-dark night even harder to see in. “I guess you can come find a place with us for the night, Four,” Star said to him as they walked through the streets.

“Really? I mean, if you don’t mind-”

“-Oh, enough of that!” Frost interrupted. “You’re a friend and friends help each other out. I assume Commander Twilight must have been too busy to get you accommodations, and the camp is too far away from here, so you’re comin with us.”

They continued to stumble through the streets, until, finally, they reached a house they could use for the night.

It was a big house; each of them had their own room, which was fine with Twenty four. And now the only problem is taking this thing off…

Twenty four decided to start with something simple. “Open,” he said. A series of beeping followed.

Voice authorization confirmed. Release?

“Yes,”The suit began to shudder, and the back of the suit gave way, with Twenty four spilling out onto the floor, the suit remaining upright.

“Wow…” Twenty four heard Star’s voice, but his eyes hadn’t adjusted from the constant red tint for him to open them. “You’re a really weird looking thing, aren't you?”

“Shut it, Star,” Twenty four replied. “Can’t say your kind were too pretty looking when we first saw them.”

“Hm, up and out I see,” Twenty four opened his eyes to reveal Frost and Star both standing by the door, looking down at him. “No, for once, Star has a point: you are pretty funny-lookin,” he heard a chuckle from Star, and he groaned.

“Enough of that, I have a very important question to ask you,” Twenty four said as he stood up from the floor.

“And that is…?” Frost retorted.

“Where is the bathroom in this place?”