Chapters Author's Note
Imagine if you have to that you have a healthy baby nine months old... after only three of four months. yeah, that's why it's less realistic than most premature or otherwise births at first.
Premature
Everyone just stood there, staring at the older Flash. On hands and knees, he was balling, begging Shining to forgive him.
“Didn’t I forgive you already!?” Shining yelled. “Stop torturing yourself over how it could’ve ended and start living!” Sentry looked up at him in shock. “You’re here to change that right? Then get off your flank and start working for that, forget about the personal stuff and do it for everypony else!” his yelling gave me a headache and I covered my ears.
“Calm down man! Geez!” I said.
“Sorry…” Shining said. Then he went quiet… and then flinched and scuttled backwards pointing at me. “What is with the ears!? And the hair!?”
“Huh?” Soarin pulled me to one side.
“Uh boss… you have pony ears… and a ponytail… and wings…”
I felt my head and noticed he was right… but if these were mine… were the wings mine? And if THAT was the case how was I flying if they were unusable!?
“They healed when you fought Jetstream,” Sentry said. “It required willpower… don’t ask why I couldn’t tell you as well as my wife.”
“W-WIFE!?” Twilight yelled. The blush on her face was enough to steam a carrot. I smacked my future self across the head.
“OW! What happened to ‘respecting thine elders’!” He yelled. I glared at him. “Not there yet, eh? Okay, I won’t ruin the surprise.”
“Surprise!?”
“What’s a Zero!?” I shouted to avoid the topic a little longer. “What’s a Zero?”
“Basically a sentient regenerating zombie pony,” He said with a smirk.
“Z-z-z-z-zombie Pony!?” Pinkie said.
“Okay, maybe the urban definition of ‘Zombie’ is the wrong word to use seeing as they were never alive to begin with. Basically, Tirek, Sombra, Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon (Not Luna, that’s a different story) created them to instill uncontrollable chaos, and sadness. It didn’t work out so well for them.”
“So time travel was the only way to stop them from creating Zeroes!?”
“By cutting off their resources, yes.”
“Why you?” Jetstream asked. “Why did you come back and with everyone else?”
“Because I had the least to lose.” He let that sink in. then I realized what he meant. His wife was dead. His child wasn’t with him. His friends were gone. He had nothing to lose so he came back to get it back. But that left a lot of questions, one of which…
“Who were the other contenders?”
“The Shoehorn Brothers, Emil and Victor, the elements of Thunder, and Earth among the Guardians of Chaos, respectively. They had eachother to lose, so the council chose me.” Flash came up to me and said something that made me feel… awkward.
“Chief, I think it’s time you and your friends went home.”
“What!? We’re not welcome anymore!?”
“Oh, you’re always welcome here,” Twilight from this side of the mirror said. “Just not when your world needs you more. This is hard for us too.” I looked around and saw that they were having a hard time agreeing with this. But nonetheless they were agreeing with it.
“Okay… we’ll head back right now. Thanks for having us here.”
“No problem.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Just promise ya’ll‘ll come back.” Applejack said.
“Oh Thank Celestia your back!” Spike said when we got back. “Something weird happened and Cadence went into labor!”
“What!?” Shining said. “She’s only been pregnant three, four months!”
“Like I said, something weird happened!”
Spike explained on the way out the door (To those who were listening which Shining was not, as he was already gone), a cloaked pony came to the castle and somehow endorsed labor with a single touch.
“That certainly sounds like how I was born,” Jetstream said. “And the same could be said for Inferno.”
“Did they ever leave?” I said. Spike didn’t seem to know. “Oh, boy.” It was just about then that I heard Twilight scream in agony We didn’t see the cloaked pony, but Twilight’s stomach was swollen much more than it was before.
We rushed to the hospital and checked Twilight in. thanks to the human Flash’s memories I know that the father of a human would be in the room, but ponies don’t really do it like that. I was just outside the room whereas everypony else was back in the waiting room. I was praying to Celestia that Twilight and Cadence would survive (I mean how often does a mare reach nine months pregnant and go straight to labor in as short a time period as they did?) when someone came up to me. I looked up and saw a mare in a black cloak.
“Hullo Flash,” She said. “Your final gift awaits.”
“You did this!” I realized with a snarl.
“You don’t want to hurt me…” She said. She lowered her hood and showed a unicorn with a face much like mine. “My name is Medica, I’m Inferno’s younger sister.”
“I didn’t know Inferno had a sister.” I said, my snarl reduced to a slight scowl.
“Keep making faces and your it’ll stick like that,” she said. “For now can you turn into a human for a second?”
“Um… Why?” I had a horrifying thought that pushed my mind deep in the gutter. “You’re not gonna induce labor on me are you!?”
“What!? NO!” she said. “Just transform so I can give this to you! Twilight will die if you don’t!” I had to take her word for it, so you can guess I didn’t have a lot of options. I transformed into my Guardian form right after she said twilight would die, and she slipped a bracelet on my left hand. There was a sharp tug and a bright flash of what I can only describe as a combination of white light and rainbows (Please don’t correct me I know white light is technically a rainbow, but it just looked this way from my point of view). When I was able to pull my arm back into place, I had a gold-colored metal sleeve… I guess, but it only covered my forearm. Adorning this gauntlet were six indentations which formed the shape of, in order from wrist to elbow, an apple, a butterfly, a balloon, a gem, a lightning bolt, and a star. I recognized them alright, The Elements of Harmony… but the Elements themselves were missing.
“What is this thing?” I asked.
“The Harmony Bracer,” Medica said. “Made from the necklaces and tiara of harmony. It should give you power with each Element you collect.”
“But Twilight and the girls used the Elements to restore the Tree of Harmony! As far as I know they’re still in there!”
“Not anymore.” I heard the doctor call me into the room. “We’ll talk again.” And with that she used a warp spell.
Flash Sentry
“Mr. Sentry? Why do you look like that?” the doctor asked. I realized I was still human, but decided to stay that way until I was sure the delivery was done with.
“No important reason,” I said. “Is the foul okay?”
“It’s a boy,” the nurse said.
“Healthy as can be,” the doctor said. “What’re you gonna name him?”
“Aside from the fact that he goes back in time and all that, I always wanted a kid named Inferno Gateway.” Twilight smiled at the point but didn’t say anything. When I exited the room, I tried to change back… but something was keeping me from being a pony… then I remembered the Harmony Bracer. I just wheeled Twilight out to the waiting room with young Inferno snuggled to her chest.
Everypony was surrounding Cadence and Twilight in the common room. Shining, Soarin, Ironsparks, Glacier and I were keeping our distance from the group to have a bit of a chat, I asked where my future self went and Ironsparks said he went to the bathroom. I didn’t buy it, and would’ve asked further but out of nowhere (at least it seemed like it anyway), Shining stopped shooting the breeze and asked the most embarrassing question you will ever hear you marefriend’s brother say.
“You told me that Twilight *Beep*-ed you in her sleep to make Inferno, right?” the guys all looked at him funny and then started laughing.
“Don’t. Remind. Me,” I said. “That was the strangest morning of my life, and considering we live in a land populated by talking ponies and various mythological monsters that’s saying a lot… why are you bringing this up!?”
“ Well, back to that night… Can you make me a promise?”
“Does it involve Inferno’s sister?”
“Wait did I hear you right?” Glacier asked. “Inferno’s sister!?” I told them about the meeting with Medica.
“I thought you said you trusted me,” I said with a smirk.
“I do. But she’s my sister, and I can’t be too careful in that regard.”
“I’d punch you right now, if I didn’t think it’d be animal abuse,” I said with a smirk. “Alright, Pinkie Promise.” I did the motions for the Pinkie Promise with my finger. I noticed Medica in the corner of the room. “I should go. Soarin, tell Twilight I had a meeting.”
“Should I tell her with whom?” he asked.
“Yeah, go ahead,” I left them there, and followed Medica out to the Everfree Forest.
Medica was in a clearing when I caught up with her.
“So, you plan on telling me where the elements are?” I asked almost like a joke.
“First you have to promise me something…” I waited, mentally willing her to continue. “Even if you do forge the Alternate Timeline, my future will still be infested with Zeros, and there will always be more until someone kills the Queen.” She turned around and with a serious face finished her thought. “You need to kill the Queen. Before you come back I’ll tell you where the Elements of Harmony are.” It took me a while to realize this, but she looked almost as old as, if not older than Inferno.
Pinkie Pie
I couldn’t believe this. Twilgiht told me to follow Flash and see if Soarin was being honest about that Medica Pony. But now… what would I tell Twilight? She was one of if not my best friend I was thinking about this when I stumbled on a mushroom. My tummy was rumbling and the mushroom did look tasty. What? I like mushrooms on my heyburgers! Sue me! So I took a chomp of the Mushroom before falling asleep. I woke up to the sound of somepony shouting/singing “what is love!? Baby, don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me! No More!”
Author's Note
If you've played "Don't Eat the Mushroom" from Knytt's Story, you know what i'm doing.
Flash Sentry
The three of us landed in the middle of a field of flowers. Not one of them was alive. The sky was blotted out by a greyish-red smog that seemed to be coming from a destroyed castle on the side of a mountain… wait… that’s where Canterlot should be.
“What has she done!?” I asked Flash and Medica. “Why didn’t Celestia or Luna stop her!?”
“They tried,” Medica said. “It didn’t end well for either of them.” I had to cover my mouth in horror. The immortal Princesses of Equestria couldn’t even survive her… what chance did I have? I voiced this fear.
“I gathered a variety of sword-based styles over the years,” Flash said. “I can’t bring myself to use one of them against the Zero Queen… but the Devil Style can grant a healing factor.”
“Then why do you need me? I don’t have that yet.”
“I got mine from the future too,” Flash said. “I know where to find it.”
We went to the remains of a small town surrounding a giant crystal tree stump… oh no… don’t tell me!
Pinkie Pie
I couldn’t get away from that song. And that only added to the madness. Floating chunks of earth, pink sky and clouds, chocolate rain (which was probably the best part of the walk home), and random popcorn explosions (though I couldn’t even touch that if I tried). There were even some parts that felt like I was wading through cake and frosting was floating over the town. Speaking of which, it looked like the town was set on more of the floating islands and when I looked down into the chasm below… I saw more of the pink sky. There was a flapping of wings and a flutter of butterfly scales… and then… I woke up in Fluttershy’s cottage with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and, of course, Fluttershy.
“What happened?” I asked. “I remember floating islands over a pink sky, a ground made of cake and… somepony constantly singing ‘what is love?’”
“You ate the mushroom didn’t you?” Dashy asked.
“So? It looked tasty!” everypony in the room sighed.
“Did you at least confirm that he was meeting somepony for legitimate reasons?” Twilight asked.
“What?” She used smaller to explain. “Oh! Yeah, but I can’t remember the reasons.”
“Why did you eat that mushroom?” Twilight said in exasperation.
“The author wanted a drug trip in this story.” Everyone just stared at me and a baseball flew through the window and hit me in the head. There was something written on it.
“Don’t do that! G.S.”
Flash Sentry
Flash and I were at the ruins of Canterlot Castle. Even with the training I got with the Devil Soul (it was amazing what this form could do) I still didn’t think that I had it in me to kill the Zero Queen.
“You ready for this kid?” Flash said.
“Not at all,” I responded. I walked up to the door and kicked it down. Pulled out my guns and looked around for any sign of the Zero Queen. There was a slight shadowy movement behind a smashed-in-half throne. And then I saw her face.
“Hello, Twilight,” I said. She didn’t say anything, instead reaching to cup my face with her hooves. I felt a sharp pain in my chest as she impaled me on a giant stinger. She launched it towards the far wall. With me on it. “You improved your distraction methods…” I said as I pulled myself off the wall. Something in me snapped when I saw her full form. It was a giant bloated insectoid with wings and eight legs, all grey and purple. “Whoa… you let yourself go!” I said with a crazy smile. She let out a loud roar and started stabbing at me with those insectoid legs, which I used to jump off and around like I was high on caffeine. When I finally landed on a ledge in one of the walls she came face to face with me, looking very angry and roared at me. “Whooee,” I said. “And your breath ain‘t much better!” I revved Sinhunter and slashed through the nearby legs in a fluid, circular motion, as she flew away. I pulled out my guns (which I named after Celestia and Luna) and started firing at her. I noticed a red glimmer in one of the bullet holes. It took me a while to realize that glimmer was from something I myself tried to make once. The Alicorn King’s Rock… otherwise known as the Philosopher’s Stone. It took that realization to snap me out of this battle hype.
“What did they do to you!?” I asked for no reason other than to ask. I was so distracted by the stone that I didn’t notice a green glowing stinger. When Flash (in his own Devil Soul) jumped in the way of it, blocking it’s path to me, I realized that it was Twilight’s method of Killing Celestia and Luna. Now furious I revved Sinhunter up three times and spun it around me whilst spinning around the body of the Zero Queen. When I found the stone… I fired a bullet straight through it before slashing it with Sinhunter, shattering it.
“Kid…” Flash said as I laid them next to each other. “I should’ve told you this sooner, but when I did this… the future me didn’t save me from that.”
“Then… why are you dying just now!?”I asked.
“I caught it… Last time… I guess we succeeded… in making that Alternate Timeline now.”
“No! Don’t you die on me!”
“It’s too late kid…” he smiled at me, then whinced, the smiled at Twilight. “I only have one regret anyway…”
“What’s that!?”
He looked at me very seriously. “Don’t… let Twilight… try… to study… the Alicorn King’s Rock... Destroy it, when you get the chance!”
Author's Note
Yes most of Flash's actions and attire were inspired by Dante from Devil May Cry.