Broken Worlds: A Sea Of Tears

I scowled beneath my shades and bandana as I stood in the middle of a bustling crowd in the Wingapore marketplace. “You told me one night,” I said angrily to Gilda, who stood by my side as the two of us watched Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo dart from shop counter to shop counter, gazing in awe at the various trinkets that were for sale.

“They just want to do a little sightseeing,” the gryphon reassured me. “We'll be on our way in no time so you can get back to your big 'destroying BlackTech’ scheme, okay? Just let them be kids for a little while.” She let out a sad sigh. “That's quite the luxury for them these days.

“You remember being a kid?” She inquired cheerfully. “I know we're from different worlds, but I know human children, gryphon children, and pony children all enjoy playing and messing around.”

I shrugged. “I guess,” I replied nonchalantly. “I liked running around, climbing shit, jumping… I guess what I used to call 'fun’, I now call 'survival skills’.”

Gilda nodded. “Yeah, I used to like playing, too,” she said wistfully. “As time went on I usually stayed alone, but that's probably because I was a rotten bitch,” she added with a laugh.

I cracked a small smile, but narrowed my eyes when something caught my eye. “What the hell…” I pushed through the crowd toward a strange object hovering at the edge of the crowd, and eventually found it was some kind of RC helicopter. “Uh…” I said aloud.

The drone turned in mid-air and I saw a small camera affixed to the skids. “Oh, hello!” The drone said through a speaker, “you must be a tourist. Or perhaps a traveling merchant? Oh, it doesn't matter; everyone's looking to make a quick buck. You wanna make a little pocket change?” It's voice was quick and short-winded, almost as though it was moving from one subject to another as soon as it started.

“Uh…”

“Great!” The drone said excitedly. “Alright, just follow me, and try to keep up, okay?” Without another word, the drone whizzed off above the crowd. I stared for a moment, before the drone turned around and hovered in my face. “Come on, I'm working with some very sensitive equipment right now, and I could use a quick hand! Just a minute of your time, and I'll give you one hundred American dollars,” it offered pleadingly.

This caught my attention; US currency was still good in New Phoenix. “Alright, I'm coming,” I said, following the drone through the crowd and into the back alleys. It eventually led me to a run-down factory at the edge of town. It had two huge, industrial smokestacks on top of it, and roughly one-third of the building looked like it had been thoroughly scorched by a fire. I continued to follow the drone inside, through the grimy hallways until we emerged onto the factory floor.

I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye, and before I could react there was a blade pressed against my throat. “One more step, and the floor gets a fresh coat of red,” a feminine voice growled.

I glanced at the figure, and saw she was wearing armor crafted from scraps of metal and leather. The blade she used also appeared to be improvised from a couple of metal fragments that had been welded together. “Hey, let's just be calm,” I said slowly, wrapping my fingers around the handle of my machete. “I followed a little remote control helicopter here. I just wanna-” I quickly leaned backwards and grabbed the girl's wrist, twisting it until she dropped her weapon. I quickly kicked the blade away and aimed my machete at her chest. “Alright, answers. Now.”

Just then, a voice echoed throughout the room. “Hold it, hold it!” A set of lights clicked on overhead, illuminating the factory floor. There were several conveyor belts littered with scrap metal and electronic parts, and a mess of catwalks and cords hung overhead. “No need for hostility, Kai; I invited this guy here for some help.”

There were rapid footsteps on the catwalk above us, eventually descending until their owner arrived on the ground floor. He was a dusky-gray unicorn with a silver mane, and regarded me with a nervous but hopeful gaze. “Good to have you! I'm Wishful Sky, this is Kai Lin. I promise I'll give a more proper introduction in good time, but for now I have an experiment to finish!” He motioned for us to follow him up the stairs through the spiraling catwalk. “Quickly, now, we may not get another chance like this!”

We emerged onto the rooftop, where a strange contraption awaited us. It was almost indescribable, but it appeared to be connected to a pair of large wheels. Each of these wheels were connected to a large, ten-foot-tall antenna that pointed directly into the sky. The main portion looked like some kind of box, with a pair of rifles attached to it via spiraling cords; it looked like an arcade cabinet for one of those deer hunting games. “Okay, there's a storm brewing directly overhead,” Wishful Sky explained quickly. “I need each of you to stand on those wheels. The lightning will strike the antennas, at which point you'll both need to run as fast as you can to channel the electricity into this machine, which I've modified into a special energy weapons system!” He then pointed to a row of clothing store mannequins he had arranged at the other end of the roof.

The lightning crackled overhead, and Wishful Sky grinned eagerly as he booted up the console. “Here it comes!” He cried, pressing a series of buttons on a keyboard that had been sloppily welded to the counter. I looked at Kai, who shrugged as she began running, and I followed suit. When the lightning struck the antennas, I saw a power meter on the screen of the console fill and change from red to green, until the display flashed “Critical Capacity”. Wishful Sky used his magic to lift both rifles and take aim at the mannequins, and waited.

“Is something supposed to happen?” I called as I sprinted on the wheel.

Wishful Sky looked worried. “This isn't right,” he said, glancing at the screen for a moment. “Oh, wait, got it,” he laughed, and turned a dial on the side of the console. As soon as he touched it, a pair of twin beams erupted from the rifles, decimating the small army of mannequins he had arranged. I watched with wide eyes as the beams continued to bleed energy until the charge was depleted.

“Any chance you can make a more compact version of that?” I inquired with an impressed tone.

The unicorn looked uncertain. “At this point in time, I'm afraid not,” he reported dejectedly. “The energy requirements are a bit dodgy; it likes to suck up all the power at once, but doing that can overload the capacitors and cause it to explode. That's why I had you two running like hamsters; the energy can be channeled into the machine at a controlled rate rather than absorbed all at once. It's pretty cool, though, isn't it?” He let out a heavy sigh. “Just one of many pet projects I've been working on…

“Anyways, I promised you a payment for your assistance, didn't I?” He said suddenly, his tone brightening. “I have to confess, I don't have the money right now, but I can get it. I need to deliver a commissioned project I've been tinkering with to a colleague of mine, and while we're there I can give you your promised funds.” He seemed a bit nervous and awkward, but at the same time he had a layer of eagerness and hopefulness to him.

It reminded me of how I acted before I went out on my own.

“Yeah, I think I can deal with that,” I replied, remembering that Gilda and her friends were still waiting for me in the market. This won't take long, I assured myself as Wishful Sky led us back through his workshop and out onto the streets. Kai accompanied us, and I glanced at her every so often through my tinted lenses. She almost seemed to parallel me, with her mask and heavy clothing. She wore a faded denim jacket under her improvised armor that was probably blue at some point, but was covered in grease and stains that effectively dyed it a patchy brown. Her scrap knife was adhered to a magnet on her belt, which was also adorned with various pouches.

“A picture would last longer, you know,” she murmured with a quick glance my way. Her tone was venomous, but I could detect a hint of flirtation in her voice.

“Sorry, but I left my camera at home,” I replied smoothly. “Might as well take in what I can, while I can.”

Wishful Sky glanced back at us. “Be nice, you two,” he said sternly. “This will be over soon, and then you can pretend you never met.”

We reached a disheveled little shack near the edge of the docks, with a broken window and sagging roof. There was a faded sign out front that read “Ostentatious Oddities” that was barely hanging on by one nail, and the whole place reeked of mold. “Not the most inviting place, I know, but if you can't get something you're looking for here, you simply can't get it,” Sky explained. “Right this way.”

The inside of the shop was nothing short of peculiar. It looked like a small convenience store with wooden shelves and carpeted floors, but the shelves were lined with strange trinkets and dusty books, as well as a variety of other unusual objects. I scanned the shelves slowly, observing each item with interest. A monkey's palm, a skull with a rune carved in its forehead, and even a book labeled “Royal Courtship Rituals: Volume 2”. It appeared as though a chapter’s worth of pages had been ripped out, though, and I wasn't much of a reader, so I let it be.

“Discord?” Sky called out as he peered over the counter and into the back room. “I have those photos you asked for!”

There was a scrambling sound, and a bit of groaning, before a ridiculous-looking creature that looked like an amalgamation of a goat, dragon, eagle, lion, and who knows what other animals, staggered out and leaned on the counter. He had a long, shaggy beard, and yellow eyes with red irises. Well, one eye was this way; the other was much paler and intersected by a nasty-looking scar.

“Wishful Sky, my friend, so good to see you!” He cried fondly as the unicorn slid a thin stack of polaroids across the counter for the creature to receive. “Oh, I cannot thank you enough for this,” he said happily as he gazed at the photos with immeasurable fondness. “You and your friends may take any item you'd like from the shop, free of charge; my treat!”

Kai’s eyes lit up behind her mask as she immediately set off to find something to take, and Wishful Sky cleared his throat nervously. “Ah, actually, Discord, I was wondering if you had any more American bills? My associate here,” he explained, gesturing to me, “is planning on heading to New Phoenix, and needs some cash. I promised him one-hundred dollars for helping me with a project.”

Discord smirked at me. “Only a hundred? Honestly, the risk of lead poisoning and tetanus in that old workshop of his is so high, you should have demanded at least two-hundred fifty,” he chuckled. “Yes, I do believe I can help you with your financial situation… please, do look around; this money is worthless in Equestria, and I'd feel like I was cheating you if you didn't get something of value for these.” He continued to stare longingly at the photos as I turned my gaze to the shelves.

“Does this do anything special?” I asked, reaching out for an hourglass filled with silver sand and lined with gold.

Discord glanced up at me. “I'm actually not sure,” he said thoughtfully. “It's supposed to be an hourglass owned by Star Swirl the Bearded, infused with his legendary time travel spell, but I could never figure out how to make it work.”

I gently picked up the hourglass and studied it closer, finding that it was decorated with intricate designs that were etched into the metal. “Did you try flipping it upside down?” I suggested sarcastically as Kai came over to investigate.

Discord rolled his eyes. “I may be insane, but I'm not stupid,” he retorted. “If that were the way it worked, I would have gone back in time every time I needed to bake something. Fun fact, the sand in the glass takes exactly one hour to fall; not a moment more or less,” he added.

Kai held out a hand. “May I?” She requested. I handed her the glass and she studied it carefully. “It's beautiful,” she said softly. “Wish I had seen it first.”

I shrugged. “Take it,” I said nonchalantly. “I also had my eye on a mask around here…”

Just then, the glass began to glow a bright yellow, bathing me and Kai in a golden aura. “What the hell?” She cried, and gave me a fearful look. “What's happening?”

I looked at the girl and noticed she was beginning to fade away, her body now mostly transparent. My head began to swim as I looked at my hands, finding they had nearly disappeared, before the world vanished in a flash of gold. Moments later, everything went black as I was lost in a sea of memories.

~-~-~-~-~

You should not be here.

Well, I am.

Indeed. Tell me, where you come from, what has become of Allen Greathouse?

He's a prince or something, married to Princess Luna. He's missing right now, though.

Hm. I want to give you this; it contains a portion of my power.

Won't it just vanish when I return home?

My power extends far beyond the rules of reality; it will remain in your possession.

Uh… thank you.

No, thank you. You have given me the first chance in a long time to do some good. Now, return to where you came from, and set right what has been altered.

~-~-~-~-~

I snapped my eyes open to find myself lying on my back, looking up at a cloudy sky. My spine was aching, my bandana and sunglasses were gone, and a glance down revealed I was lying in a large trash container filled with debris from a nearby construction site. Kai was lying nearby, looking just as bewildered as I was. “What happened?” I asked.

Kai examined her body, probably searching for injuries and finding none, but was visibly confused and panicked that her armor and mask were gone. “Not sure,” she replied uncertainly. “I saw what you saw: the bright light, us disappearing, and then this.”

I nodded, and looked around. “No way,” I whispered. “This is… this is Detroit!” I cried. “I vacationed here years ago, with my family; it was destroyed during the Disaster!”

Kai looked around at the buildings surrounding us. “Huh,” she said aloud. “Maybe it wasn't?”

I shook my head. “No, I'm certain it was,” I said, leaping out of the bin. I saw a newspaper drifting down the street, and I sprinted after it. It probably isn't what I'm thinking, but I have to be sure, I thought as I pushed past a pedestrian. I snatched up the paper and frantically searched for the date. “No fucking way,” I breathed as I read the date.

April 17th, 2013.

Almost two years before the Disaster ever happened.

“This can't be real,” I told myself. “It's got to be an old paper, probably from someone who hoards them…” I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to see the man I had shoved while running for the paper. Now that I got a good look at him, though, my blood turned to ice as an uneasy feeling filled my stomach.

Drayke Blackwood was glaring at me angrily. “What in the fuck is your problem, kid?” He demanded, pushing a strand of his blond hair out of his face.