Memories of a Future's Past

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"Hello again." Prism's sweet voice said as she looked into the device. "It's been awhile since I've just sat down and talked. It's been about two weeks since that....incident." She didn't know what to call it as it seemed to still be fresh in her mind. She shuddered slightly and closed her eyes while shaking her head trying to rid herself of those images. Opening her eyes she went on, "Things have settled down the last few days but I'm still not very sure what has happened to cause all of this. Is it possible that it is because of the Z.I.N.?"

She sighed softly as she put her hoof down and the girls could now see she was in a small building that has had half of it destroyed. Suddenly there was a slight beeping noise coming from somewhere that stayed in a consistent loop which perked Prism's curiosity. She seemed to be moving around the room looking for it before realizing it was coming from the device she wore on her right foreleg. Turning it to face her the six now could see her trying to mess with it to get it to stop beeping.

"Oh come on now." she grunted as she continued to play with it. "Aha! Got'cha. Now what is this?" Prism asked herself as a small submenu appeared on the screen which listed a few radio broadcasts. "Well this is new. I guess it can pick up radio signals too. Well might as well see what's on them." Three out of the four were nothing but static and as she switched to the last one a new voice was heard in the silence.

"Good evening everypony. We have some breaking news that just happened a short while ago. It seems two of the three missing Z.I.N. devices have been recovered safely. The third one is still out there and...wait a minute I'm getting an update here. One minute everypony." Prism listened closely and the silence seemed to last forever until the stallion spoke again.

"Alright everypony we have just received some new information regarding that missing Z.I.N. It seems that a Dr. Eddie Nyte had it in his possession but according to this information his body was found in the smoldering remains of what was left of his home. His daughter nor the device have been seen since. We caution everypony out there that if you see her to stay away for she is armed and dangerous." Prism couldn't believe her ears. Armed and dangerous? Me? The look on her face was a mixture of confusion and bafflement and she wondered if they even were talking about the right pony.

"We just received another update. It seems the government is handing out a one million bit reward to anypony who brings in the Z.I.N. They can be found at-" Click. Prism has heard enough. A reward for it now? They must be really desperate if they are offering that. Prism looked into it again and just chuckled as she sat down and shook her head.

"Well if I could get it off I would just take it in myself. Then again who knows what they would do to me. Probably just kill me like they did my father." She sniffled slightly at the memory then became very alert her ears twitching in several directions. "Oh shit!" she whispered as she got low and moved herself behind some fallen debris which used to be a wall.

"Where are you going?" a disembodied voice said.

"I thought I heard something over here. I'm going to check it out real quick." said another. A few moments late hoof steps could be heard as they stepped into the building. Upon stopping only after a few of them his voice could be heard again. "Hmm. I guess it's nothing." He seemed to kick at something which caused some dust to fall from above and the building shook slightly.

"Damn it what are you doing in there?" Called the other voice now more clearly.

"Nothing." the first one said as it sounded like he turned and started to walk back out. "But did you hear that announcement just now? One million bits for some stupid piece of metal." he laughed as his friend replied as they both moved out of earshot. Prism let out a breath she did not realize that she was holding in and laid on the ground.

"This is just great..." she said into the screen. "Now everypony will be looking for me. I need to get this thing off of me but first I have to find a place to hide. I guess until next time." she tried to smile and everypony watching could tell that it was forced before the screen went black and returned to the menu.

"Poor girl." Rarity said. "She looks better than the last time we saw her though." The others agreed as they conversed with themselves. Twilight was back to thinking again as she placed a hoof to her chin. Once again it was Rainbow Dash who brought her back to reality with her bluntness.

"Hey Twilight, out of all fucking books of yours none of them have any information on what's going on here?"

"Huh? What?" Twilight blinked before answering her friend. "Well I haven't gone through all of them yet, Rainbow Dash. Princess Celestia is still sending them to me and it will take time to go through every single one of them. I'm sorry I can't be much help."

"It's okay Twilight." Fluttershy said as she smiled to the Princess. "I wish there was something we could do for her though." she added worriedly. Twilight returned the smile to the kind pegasus before addressing the others.

"I do say though this is getting pretty interesting but I wonder what that last part was all about. This thing seems to be very important in some way to those ponies so much so as to put a bounty out for it."

"I'd say so." Apple Jack said. "I mean one million bits for this? And to think it was just laying in the dirt."

"They must not have gotten their hooves on it." Twilight added. "I think if they did all these recordings probably would have been erased by some pony." Twilight went back into thinking mode again and Rainbow just groaned in annoyance.

"Well I do say she is a remarkable pony." Rarity turned to Fluttershy. "She's already been through so much and it hasn't broken her spirit."

"Yes she has. I really hope she will be alright." As Fluttershy and Rarity continued their conversation Apple Jack turned back to Twilight once again breaking her out of her thinking bubble.

"Hey Twi, you think this isn't going to bring some kind of disaster to Ponyville is it?"

"Oh no I don't think something like that will happen, AJ." The Princess reassured her friend. "From what I have gathered so far this is just like someone's memories. Consider it like the journal we all write in just in a different format." Apple Jack nodded and started to get lost in her own thoughts. Turning her gaze back to that ever glowing screen Twilight wondered just how many files there were. Some of them did not work and she thought what if they contained some important information. Unfortunately for Twilight and her friends there was not much they could do about that.

"Well girls shall we see what's next on the list?" Everypony turned towards the Princess and gave their agreement. Turning her gaze back towards that floating pale green screen Twilight asked to play the next file on the list. As it began it's loading sequence Twilight couldn't help but think about this unicorn and her striking resemblance to Rarity.

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Heaving breathing and rapid movement was what came next on the screen. It looked like she was running through a street that was filled with crumbling walls, broken glass, and small craters which randomly lined the area. Stopping behind part of a wall that used to belong to a clothing store Prism tried to catch her breath.

"What...the...hell...." she breathed between every word. Shouting could be heard as she froze and looked around the area she ducked behind. "Fuck! There's no place to hide..." she said miserably. Turning slightly around the corner the six could now see who was making all that noise in the background. It was a group of about 5 earth ponies heading towards her direction. Darting out from her cover Prism took off running again as the ponies that were giving chase shouted some more.

"There's that little shit! Get her!"

"I can almost taste that million bits!"

"Don't let her get away!"

"Fuck she is quick for being small!"

Strange noises were heard almost like small but loud explosions seemed to dance around her every so often as she kept up her pace. Rarity made her own strange noise and remarked how the screen is making her nauseous from all that moving up and down. Prism suddenly turned and found herself trapped in one of the side alleys as she came to a sudden stop not far from the back wall. Looking around frantically she tried to find a way out but it was to no avail.

"She went down here guys!" called one of the ponies as Prism turned around and backed up against the wall. The girls could now see the ponies that were chasing her slowly move into the alley blocking her only way out. "Just give us the Z.I.N. and we'll let you go." the one in the front told her as he slowly moved closer. There was only about 100 feet between them now as Prism just watched him as she tried to reason with him.

"Please just let me be."

"Now why in the wide world of Equestria would we do that?" he taunted her.

"I can't take it off. Please...just leave me alone." Prism begged him once more.

"I'm sorry sweet heart but you see a million bits doesn't come around very often and we're not about to let it slip out of our grasp." As he spoke he kept moving slowly forward now only about 75 feet from her. "And don't worry," he added, "we'll get if off one way or another." With every slow hoof step he continued to move foward and Prism was running out of ideas.

"Please...I don't want to hurt anypony again..." she tried once more with compassion. The stallion just laughed at her as he is now 50 feet from her. The girls were on the edge of their seats watching all of this as he took another step forward towards that pretty unicorn. The other ponies farther in the back were snickering and talking amongst themselves not noticing the crimson glow around one of the larger dumpsters beind the stallion that was approaching her.

They now could see the light from her horn as she put all her magic making that crimson glow intensify into lifting the large metal object out of view as he now was about 25 feet from her before he stopped. He glared his eyes at her for a moment before tilting his head and asked, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"This!" she said right as it dawned upon him as his eyes went wide with shock. As he was in mid turn the glow faded from the area and a second later the large metal dumpster came crashing down on him covering the ground and walls with his bloody body parts. That got the attention of the other four earth ponies as they stood there in shock seeing their "leader" or what is left of him laying underneath the damaged dumpster.

"This bitch is crazy. Fuck the bits I'm out of here!" one of them called out as he turned and galloped away. The other three were unsure of what to do next. Do they try and get the device from her or do they turn tails and run like their friend just did. Prism made up their minds for them as she lifted a few smaller objects that happen to be laying nearby as the rest of the ponies backed out of the alley and galloped away after their friend.

"Why is this getting easier to do...?" she questioned herself as she dissipated her magic dropping the random objects she was holding. Sitting down with her back to the wall she said a quiet "I'm sorry." to the dead pony and wiped the small tears she had in her eyes before turning towards the screen.

"I'm so sorry." she said once more as she looked at herself tears glistening in her bright crimson eyes. As she attempted to dry them with her other hoof she closed her eyes, sniffled a few times and then the screen went black once again.