Time and Relevancy
Time no longer had meaning for him. Yes, he was aware of how many years had passed since that day but unlike the ponies he watched in secrecy, he no longer feared time or bothered trying to outsmart it like he had once before. Instead, he merely drifted along with it, both eager and not eager to reach the end. Still, time had it's uses. It helped him sort his thoughts and stop from them all becoming jumbled as days became months, months became decades and decades became centuries and millennia.
One thousand, eight hundred sixty-seven days since that day. Had it been that long? He was sure it had only been five hundred years the other day. He furrowed his brow and frowned. Despite his best attempts, time did get jumbled at times, no matter how much he tried. Oh well, there was no point worrying, what difference did a thousand years make? None, in his mind.
But, to the ponies below his window, he realized that it probably meant a lot. He watched them from above, as Pegasi, Terrainites...Earth Ponies that is, and Unicorns rushed about. Parents rushed to get their children to school, businesscolts and mares rushed to gulp down as much coffee as they could, lest it turn cold and ponies of all sorts were in a frenzied hurry to get to their jobs or to their destination. These were only some examples. He watched as a young mare, who he had came to know as Roseluck, became enraged as she realized her shipment of flowers was late by an hour. An hour? An hour was insignificant really, especially for one who had lived to see the founding of Equestria. He shook his head and turned away.
Time wasn't the only that he no longer understood. There were many things, such as love, friendship, material desires. All of these things he found to be worthless and pointless. He was aware that he was a hypocrite, for once lusting for these things and the fact that the kingdom of Equestria had been founded on two of those things, though with as much as gold and jewels that decorated Canterlot, it was possible the third was also true.
His eyes turned to a young couple, two unicorn mares as they stepped out of townhall, with marriage papers in the grip of the purple one while the ivory coated one placed two gold bands on each of their horns. He sneered, disgusted. It wasn't the fact that he had anything against same sex relationships, honestly. It was the fact that they bothered. Were they not aware that most likely one or both of them would cheat on the other? Or that they'd end up divorced? Or perhaps they would grow to an old age together, only for one to die years before the other, forcing the other to spend the rest of their pathetic life, crying over their grave.
What a waste. It would sound very critical to others, to hear what he was thinking, but the truth was that he had seen it many times before. Many being a word that could no longer be defined as the amount of examples were in the thousands. The perks of being him was that he blended into the background and over the years, he had taken to listening in to all the gossip he could and watching all those he could.
He shook his head as already he realized that the marriage between the two mares was already on it's way out. He watched as the ivory one stared at several mares as her partner's back was turned. He would give them perhaps a year, perhaps two before their marriage broke apart and a few months before the ivory one began slipping up. He turned his attention away, growing bored and in need of something new to look at.
He found it seconds later, two chariots descending into town, each surrounded by a group of eight guards. He didn't even need to look at the ponies in the chariots to know who they were. Celestia and Luna. Ah yes, his once star pupils. When had he last taken a glimpse at them? The coronation of The Puppet if he recalled. Speaking of which...There she was, The Puppet, emerging from her castle to greet The Puppeteer and the other puppet. Twilight Sparkle. Or rather Princess Twilight Sparkle. He snorted. If only she knew, yet she seemed to be too stuck up Celestia's ass to know that she was nothing more than a pawn.
Perhaps one day she would figure it out, it would be interesting to see. After all, he did love a good confrontation, or perhaps a battle to the death. Like when Luna had originally turned into Nightmare Moon and she and Celestia had battled for fourteen days and fifteen nights before the younger sister was banished to the moon. That had been fun to watch, as hundreds upon hundreds of ponies were pitted against each other, killing in the name of their respective princess. Shame nothing similar had happened since then. Sure, there was the Griffion War that had happened a few hundred years back, and there had been the return of Discord, Nightmare Moon as well as Sombra and the changeling incident but those had all been quite boring as they lacked bloodshed. He realized he had became quite sadistic, but the truth was that there was little else to entertain him anymore.
In the beginning, after he had gotten over that day, he had taken to imagining the life and background of any and all ponies he spied on, then turning to learning their secrets and at one point he had even tried meddling in their lives. Take the panties of one mare and place it in to the bedroom of a married couple, watching as the wife became enraged and demanded to know why there was another mare's underwear in her bedroom. Still, nowadays he merely watched ponies and learned their secrets for necessity and hope that something interesting would happen but nothing ever did.
He watched as the three princesses conversed, Twilight being over enthusiastic while Celestia gave her fake smiles and nods and while Luna feigned interested and glanced around the streets of Ponyville. Briefly, she looked upwards and both their eyes connected. A frown appeared on her face, as they stared at each other. Inwardly he chuckled, no doubt she was wondering who he was and why he was so familiar. Little did she know that he had been there for every event in Equestria over the last few thousand years, watching from the shadows. He stuck his tongue out at her, which caused her to arch a brow and turn to her companions, seemingly growing disinterested with him, most likely passing him off as insignificant. If only she knew the truth. The trio conversed for a while longer before they departed from where they had landed and headed back to Twilight's castle.
Ah well, they probably weren't discussion anything interesting to begin with. He began the task of trying to find something else to watch when several thuds came from below him. There was somepony coming up the stairs or rather hopping up the stairs. He didn't even have to look to know who it was. He had become much too familiar with the sound of his current host. Speaking of which, he really had to consider moving on soon before people began getting wondering about him. The door to the room he was in, slammed open, in stepping a earth pony mare with pink bouncy hair and equally pink fur and bright aqua eyes. She grinned as she caught sight of him and trotted over to him, lifting him up.
"There you are Gummy! Guess what? Princess Luna and Celestia are in town and they've invited us to tea at Twilight's! Well they invited me but I'm sure they won't mind if you tag along!"
The baby alligator known as Gummy said nothing, then again it wasn't like he could. He just blinked his eyes and tried his best to look like the stupid lizard he had passed himself off as for the last two millennia. He allowed himself to be placed upon the mares back and to be dragged out of her bedroom, towards the large, gastly crystal tree palace. He found himself thinking, about the beginning when he had first been turned, how desperate he had been to communicate, to turn back.
He remembered the day the two sisters had arrived at his study, looking for him, only to find his study destroyed and a small alligator inhabiting it. He remembered how they overlooked him, how they scoured the place from top to bottom, wondering where he had gone. At that time he had tried to make contact, he had tried dipping his talons in a inkpot and writing on a scrap piece of paper to give a plea to the sun and moon princess: Pupils! Help for thy have turned into a small infant alligator!
He had watched as they completely missed his note and had left him after they had removed several of his journals. That journal. The one with the spell The Puppet had used to transcend. If only she knew that the spell she had used was a fake, the original changed by the Sun Princess for her own personal gain. He remembered the original spell, how could he not?
From one to another, another to one. One destiny, forever reversed and diverted. Bound by Tartarus and the gods above, the mark of the caster is freed from Death's Chains.
Ah, if only he knew beforehand that the gods had a sense of humor. Still, he had achieved his goal in a sense. Immortality. Though he sure hadn't expected to end up as an alligator. Still, he no longer cared. He lost all sense of purpose ages ago, long before the return of the Moon and the Chaotic Spirit. The pink mare stopped, which dragged him back from oblivion. They had reached the castle and his host was knocking upon the door to the Puppet's castle. It was opened nearly immediately by an old colt dressed in exquisite clothes. The Butler. He welcomed them in or rather the Pink One in and then proceeded to escort them to the large sitting room that was to be used for this afternoons tea. Inside, Puppets and The Puppeteer were all waiting. Seven mares; two Pegasi, three alicorns, one unicorn, and one earth pony with it becoming two the moment the Pink One stepped inside.
The Puppet stood up and walked over to greet her friend. They hugged and smiled at each other and the others greeted the Pink One as well with smiles and greetings.
"Finally! Now we can get started!" Said a puppet known as Rainbow Dash. Always so rude and brash. No doubt she was excited to get the event underway because it meant that the sooner it started, the sooner she could leave.
"Welcome Pinkie Pie, it's great to see you again." Speaks the Puppeteer, smiling down at everypony. Pinkie Pie breathes in the smiles and greets Celestia with her own smile as she hops over to one of the free seats and plonking down.
"Hey'ya! P.C! Oh hey, I hope you guys don't mind but Gummy has been looking a little blue so I dragged him along. The alligator sighs as he's dragged off of the Pink One's back and dropped on the table without warning. He's used to it but at the same time he feels annoyance as she pets him roughly on the head. He just blinks and sticks out his tongue, continuing to put on the act. Luna seems to be curious and slightly alarmed as she lays eyes upon him.
"Thoust might be wrong, but I do believe I spied this same alligator staring at me from the window above the corner shop." She spoke, frowning.
"What? Oh yeah, Gummy likes staring out the window. I don't know why, but it seems to be his favorite pastime. He's always having inner diologues with himself about life and stuff. Kinda boring honestly."
Ah yes, he always forgot briefly about her powers. He was convinced she was a seer given how much she seemed to know. It was not just that but he knew the signs. The sleep talking where she mumbled prophecies, the way she woke up screaming, her pupils fading from existence and how her eyes glowed an erry blue. His eldest, Platinum had been a seer as well and he watched her struggle with gift along with her blindness.
Luna seemed confused as the Pink One said this.
"Truly?"
"Nah... Well maybe, images are always getting jumbled."
"Images? Jumbled?"
"Hey, muffins!" Like always, the Pink One was quick to move on from the topic, leaving everyone in the room but two confused to what she had meant. The Puppeteer and the alligator. She was aware of the Pink One's gift, that he was sure of. The extent, he wasn't sure. He was aware the friends knew about her Pinkie Sense and perhaps so did Celestia. But perhaps not the visions and prophecies. While the others soon found themselves moving on and talking about little, useless things, the blue alicorn seemed still intrigued with him.
"Tell me Pinkie Pie, how old is this...Gummy?" She's suspicious but he doubts she has a clue to who he really is. If she didn't figure it out two millennia ago, she probably wasn't going to now. A brief glimmer of hope rises in his chest briefly before being crushed. He chides himself for caring about escape when everything is pointless. He should be used to this by now.
"Eh, Gummy? Probably going on eleven years give or take. I don't know the exact age, I found him in the pond near my family's rock farm when I was a filly." The Puppet spit out her tea, spewing it on to the fine, tablecloth, forever staining the precious material.
"Eleven years? That's impossible, you told me yourself that he's a baby alligator! If he was, he would have grown by now!" The Pink One goes silent, realizing what she said. But she only goes quiet for a second as she knows that being serious and quiet attracts attention, especially from her friends. Briefly, he feels a bit of fear, wondering if his masquerading is at and end. He realizes, he's come to enjoy this life.
"Eleven? Oh I meant three. Sorry, I was just thinking about how many muffins I can shove into my mouth!" And with that, tea resumes and they all return to their conversations though he is aware of the odd looks from The Puppeteer and Luna. Perhaps they'll place him, perhaps they won't. Perhaps they'll realize that even at three or so years old, he should at least have teeth by now. It doesn't matter. He gives the Pink One a lick on the hoof and she looks down with a smile, a silent understanding between the two. He glances out the large window in the sitting room, upon Ponyville and realizing that he had overstayed his welcome with his current host.
He feels guilt briefly before it melts away. Tonight, he will depart and leave for another city or town in search of a new host or family to care for him. He recalls all the memories he's had with Pinkie Pie, the walks, the feedings and playdates and adventures and feels slightly nostalgic but soon it fades like everything else. Perhaps his new host will be as equally interesting, or perhaps they'll be as equally boring as many of them before. Perhaps in the upcoming centuries, the Puppeteer will finally be dethroned and The Puppet will realize her mentor's true intentions or something equally interesting would happen. It wouldn't really matter though, whether the future was interesting or boring. Nothing really had meaning for him anymore and time, especially time, was no longer relevant for Starswirl The Bearded.
Author's Note
I had this idea ever since the Slice of Life, you know when Gummy is having the dialogue about the baker or something? This was the end result, not sure how I like it but meh../
