Unknown date October-December, 2048

Mitchell

I walked into the radio room just behind Trey, still pissed off at him. I will admit I may have overreacted a little bit though. I pulled up a stool and switched on the radio. Luckily for me, there was still enough power for it to work and, slowly but surely, lights started blinking on. I stood up and pulled out all the plugs for the equipment that I wouldn't need to conserve as much power as possible and found the station that Stan and I agreed to use to contact each other on. There was little static noise, but definitely no attempts by Stan to talk to me.

“Stan, it's me, Mitchell, are you there?” I called into the radio, not bothering with the ‘overs’. There was no reply.

“Stan, are you there, it's Mitchell Fedorson?” I repeated and this time heard a reply coming from a stern, New Zealand accented voice.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” The voice asked, it sounded slightly like how I imagined Stan would sound, but more deep and accented.

“Stan?” I asked,

“Little brother?” His voice lit up.

“Yeah, it's me Stan,” I chuckled down the mic,

“How's it been, Mitch? last I heard you had joined a group in Cape Canaveral,” he said, eager to hear what I had to say.

“About that, Stan listen, this is important. I was with a group of scientists and engineers. They had a plan, a crazy one, but it worked and I need to tell you something,” I tried to explain without mentioning time travel.

“Mitch, what was the plan?” He asked, I could tell he wasn't going to back down from asking that question.

“The plan was, well, time travel Stan, we’re going to kill Celestia. I'm actually your age now, at least, this version of me is,” I said. Trey was glaring at me.

“What? Is this another Mitchell wind up?” He asked,

“No, Stan you can't tell anyone about this, keep it strictly to yourself. I'm from the year 2051, our base was the last one standing against Celestia. Everyone else had either took the easy way out or gotten ponified. You were caught two years beforehand, you were ponified attacking a Ponification Patrol camped in a cottage on Tuesday the 12th of January 2049 at approximately 15:10. Please, for me, remember this and don't attack the cottage.” I said.

“You serious?” Stan asked me, I could tell from his voice that he was completely dumbfounded.

“Yeah, I swear I am,” I confirmed.

“Holy…” Stan said, “So, you’re my age now?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, “Stan, we can't talk much longer, it's not safe to keep this line open, the ponies can trace us. Before you go, what is the date today?”

“Today, I think it's the 7th of November 2048,” Stan said, “the HLF over here fell about a month ago, on October 15th, it's been a few weeks since that, so yeah, the 7th of November. I've been with a group of people, ex-HLF,”

“Yes, I know. You told me, or you will tell me, it's one of the two,” I said, “so as I was saying, avoid any pony confrontation on the 12th of January next year,”

“Won't this mess up the timeline of events?” He asked,

“Yes, a bit, but for the better. Trust me, just please, I can't lose you, Stan, not again.” I choked back a sob,

“Yeah sure, little bro,” Stan said affectionately, “12th January, Jesus, I didn't have long left, did I? Well, I gotta go, but I promise I’ll do nothing on that date. Love you, Mitch.”

“Love you Stan, over and out.” I said and turned the radio off, turning round to face Trey.

Trey

“Mitchell, what the hell?!” I raised my voice at him, he’d deliberately told Stan about the time-machine and plan. He didn't even tell Stan to kill himself if he ever did get ponified. Does he even listen to me when I tell him what’s best?

“I had to, Trey, he’s my brother and last family member I have left, I won't lie to him,” he replied angrily,

“You could've ruined this whole mission! Clark would be so pissed right now!” I exclaimed,

“Clark isn't here, is he?” Mitchell shot back, eyebrows very narrow in annoyance at me, “now let's get moving. We need to get to that HLF base as soon as possible,”

“Fine,” I said, glaring at him and followed him out of the room and back to where the cell with we were sleeping in was. He knelt down and unzipped his backpack.

“But first, breakfast!” He said in a cheery tone and brought out a bottle of water and a few cereal bars.

“Fine,” I said, taking a all natural ingredients cereal bar but when I turned it over, it had all sorts of chemicals printed onto its wrapper. They didn't seem all natural to me. I unwrapped it and bit off the end, chewing and swallowing it with a slight sigh. Mitchell swigged from the bottle of water then offered it to me.

“Thanks,” I said and took it, wiping and them drinking from it. Mitchell ate his cereal bar and I finished mine. He sat there, deep in thought.

“Mitchell,” I said, trying to catch his attention but he didn't hear me.

“Mitchell!” I said again, slightly louder. He shook his head and looked at me,

“Sorry, just thinking of 2040. What is it?” He asked,

“We should go now, get as much time travelling as possible,” I said,

“Okay,” Mitchell slowly got up and picked up his BMCR rifle and shouldering his pack. I got up and followed him through the corridors, donning my own backpack. We could actually see the dull grey walls as it was getting lighter outside now so we didn't need our flashlights.

“When did you leave England?” I asked Mitchell,

“A week before the Barrier took it in 2041. I was thinking of when I used to make supply runs back in those days for the HLF,” Mitchell said with a sigh.

“What was it like out there?” I asked him. I never went outside the HLF base back before I was transferred to the Cape Canaveral.

“Horrifying,” Mitchell commented, “The things I saw happen, the things I did to survive out there. Trust me, you were lucky not to see any action. I told Stan about the TASV and all that because I couldn't bare living with what would've happened to him,”

“I understand,” I sighed heavily. “It's done now anyway, no changing it,”

We reached the exit and walked outside. It was a cold day, with many clouds in the sky. It looked like it might rain later. Mitchell shivered slightly and pulled his trench-coat tighter around himself.

“Feeling cold?” I chuckled,

“It's bloody freezing, and that's coming from a Brit,” he replied.

“It's not so bad,” I grinned, “we need a car, preferably with bulletproof glass,”

“No shit,” Mitchell said. Does your book of information have anything?”

“Well, there was a small HLF camp not too far away, they could have something,” I said,

“Is it in walking distance?” He asked me,

“Yes,” I confirmed,

“Then it's settled. We reach this small HLF camp next.” Mitchell said, “are there still people there or…”

“No, they were found. Perhaps even by the Patrol we killed, it's a possibility,” I replied.

I sighed again, so much death. But then again, us humans aren't exactly innocent. Hell, we could've wiped each other off of the face of the Earth with all our silly nukes and h-bombs.

Maybe Celestia is doing the right thing…

No, well, she’s right in that the human race is imperfect and filthy but she’s the one committing the xenocide. I suppose it's a matter of the lesser of two evils. Maybe if I went out more in the HLF and fought against them personally instead of working computers and gathering information then I’d feel the same as Mitchell, but I didn't.

“Trey, I’m sorry about all that,” Mitchell said, he turned to look at me and I could see it in his eyes that he really was.

“It’s okay,” I replied and we continued on walking. It was starting to warm up and looked like it could be a nice day, nice being a relative term considering how messed up and screwed the world is.

“Did you hear that?” Mitchell suddenly asked me, out of the blue.

I strained my ears to see if there was anything but from what I could tell there was nothing.

“No,”

“I could've sworn I heard clopping,” Mitchell replied, his eyes darting about and his hand instinctively reaching for his Glock.

“It's nothing, you’re just a bit jumpy, that's all,”

“To be jumpy is to be good,” Mitchell replied, looking very alert, “jumpy is what will keep you alive in a shootout,”

“Another piece of Mitchell gun advice?”

“Yep, don't forget it,”

I brought out my map and studied it whilst we walked, “okay, according to my map, we’re close. I don't know if there will be any ponies here but be careful. Use that rifle of yours, I’ll Hotwire the car and you check for ponies, got it?” I explained the plan,

“Got it, do your tech thing and I’ll kill anything that tries to stop you,”

I sighed, “yes, basically.”

The truck was dead out in the open, if I actually thought about it, I should've realised that it was the perfect ambush spot, but I was more focused on actually getting it open and working.

Mitchell slinked off, as silent as a cat. I knew that he was finding the most defendable place to stay and cover me so I knew he was set.

Showtime.

I hastily approached the car and set my backpack down. I brought out a pin to use to pick the lock. I shoved the pin into it and twisted it, trying to get it open. Keep calm, no pressure.

I got it open and an ear-splitting alarm started to go off! I recoiled horribly, jumping away from the car and stumbling backwards.

shit shit SHIT

I rifled through my bag and brought out my hacking terminal, which was still somewhat powered from the door. I held it against the car dashboard and coding flashed down the screen and the alarm stopped, giving me immense relief.

Mitchell suddenly appeared behind me, he was panting heavily and was red faced,

“There’s a patrol coming, a Potion one. Nearly snuck up on me,” he gasped,

“Shit! How far away are they?”

“They’re close,” he replied, “too clo-”

“Mitchell, is that you my boy? All grown up now, I see,”

We had let our guard down and we're almost surrounded, but I saw the blood drain from Mitchell’s face, which had never happened before even when facing Patrols. He looked like he was about to have a full on breakdown.

“Dad?”

Author's Note

A/N: So, dun dun duuuuun and all that. Le plot twist. Hourglass24 has left the collaboration, we haven't had a falling-out or anything, don't worry about that one. I’ll be writing this alone from now onwards unless he decides to join back. If he’s reading this now, hello!

I bet there's going to be a dislike rise in this now, but 50 likes and over 800 views has made me so happy, you guys have no idea. Thank you so much.

My writing for this story won't be as good as it was for these past chapters, that's just a heads up but I will continue updating. I promise!

Have a good day/night

MrLongSurname