Mitchell

7th November, 2048
“Dad?”

I lowered my rifle. My heart was pounding so loud it was all I could hear. My head was spinning, and I did not know what to do. Along him were four other ponies, one pegasus and three earth ponies.

How was he here? Why was he here?

“Yes, Mitchell my boy, don't you recognise your own father?” he said, “where’s your brother? Where’s Stan?” The abomination, the pony that was once my father replied. His eyes seemed loving, almost friendly but as I stared deeper into them I saw what he really felt. I saw into his soul. I’d heard it said that you could see into a person’s true self through their eyes if you looked deep enough, but I’d never believed it until now.

I could see my real father in those eyes.

And it will haunt me, for the rest of my days. The Potion’s brainwashing was strong, scarily so but it can't destroy everything.

I saw sorrow, shame and despair. My dad, my real dad, was still in there somewhere. Now, Whenever my eyes would close for rest, his opened in my mind.

“Dad, I-” I tried to speak but I couldn't. My voice was all choked up and I couldn't form the words my brain was telling me to.

“Mitchell, your mother and I have missed you so very much, she’s in Equestria.” Dad stepped towards me. his smile was wide and stretched between his cheeks in a most horrifyingly unnatural manner.

“Mum…” I trailed off. Thoughts of my parents from before Equestria were bombarding my head. I could be with them again, we could be a family again, all together once Stan joins us. Why should I do this mission anyway? Why can't I just be with my family?

“No, don’t listen to him! He’s not himself anymore dammit!” Trey warned me from behind.

I turned my head towards Trey, slowly, dazed. He had his rifle raised to the ponies. Part of me wanted to listen to him, wanted to believe him, but my dad’s voice was still ringing in my ears, cutting through Trey’s, promising me a better life in Equestria with him and mum.

“Trey,” I murmured softly. My dad still making promises and smiling the awful smile.

“Mitchell, you just need to drink this.” Dad handed me a vial of Potion and I limply held it limply. In my mind I was deeply conflicted. Drink or not drink. Pony or Human. Family or humanity.

“You better drop it, now!” Trey warned me as he pointed his shaking rifle towards the Potion squad. “All of you better back off this instant!”

“Who’s this, Mitchell? is he a friend of yours? He's very rude. We can make him like us, too. He’ll be a lot happier and better than he is now,” Dad grinned. Two of the squad members took a few steps forwards.

Trey shot a few rounds to the sky, making them stop on their tracks. “Shit, shit, shit...” he whispered.

I flinched at the noise of the gunshots and shook my head. They had brought me back to reality, the almost trance-like state I was in broken. I dropped my rifle.

“Dad,” I said.

“Yes son?”

“I love you.” I drew my Glock, shut my eyes and fired. My dad’s body fell on its side, blood dripping from a gaping wound in his neck. Just before he died I heard him rasp once last sentence.

“I love you too, son.”

He then let out a final breath and his body went limp. Dead.

I threw away the vial of Potion dad had handed me, immediately whirled around and shot the pegasus before it could take to the air, while Trey had targeted the earth ponies. They only had a fraction of a second to react, giving them no chance to make a move. Shots echoed as the bullet shells fell to the ground with a familiar metallic, clinking sound. One Potion vial was thrown our way, but it was poorly tossedand harmlessly shattered somewhere behind us.

we were soon alone again in the empty street. They hadn't put up much of a fight as they weren't very well equipped; they didn't have one Potion Launcher between the lot of them, just vials on top of vials of Potion.

“What the hell was that?! How did he find us? Did-didn’t you say he was sent to Equestria?!” Trey stammered, as he put his back against the truck they had found, resting his rifle against the vehicle.

I didn't listen to him. I walked over to my father's lifeless body and fell to my knees. Tears started to uncontrollably fall down my face and before I knew it I was curled up into a ball sobbing my heart out. I didn't care who saw me. I didn't care that Trey was standing right nearby. All that mattered was my father’s body and myself.

“I want to cremate him,” I choked out.

A few moments of silence followed.

“I’m not stopping you. Do as you wish,” Trey said. He left his things on the ground and got inside the driver seat, probably testing if the vehicle worked.

I immediately looked around and gathered some sticks to create a fireplace. I didn't need anything fancy, just a place to say goodbye.

I scrounged around for an hour or so, slowly building up my pile of sticks and kindling from the nearby wilderness until I had enough to start a fire. I dug around in my pack and brought out a box of matches. Lighting one up, I dropped it into the fire and it slowly caught alight. Once it was large enough I heaved over my dad’s body and said a quick prayer. I was never one for religion but it just seemed like the respectful thing to do. I kissed his body and then set it onto the flames.

I sat there and watched as my dad was reduced to ashes. I didn't move, I didn't eat, I didn't drink. Mum was still alive! If we succeed I can live with her again! But… I’ll have to tell her about dad…

My small fire burned out. I scooped out Dad’s ashes before they could blow away and dug around in my pack for an empty container. I found one and carefully placed my Dad’s remains inside and sealed it tight so none of them would spill out and get lost.

“Trey,” I said, trying to divert my mind from the thoughts of my Dad, “does the car work?”

Trey was on the truck's driver’s seat with it’s door open, examining his map. He turned his head as I called him. “Huh? Oh, yeah. It works fine. I guess you didn’t hear when I turned it on a few minutes ago. Tank ¼ full though.” He said, as he folded his map into his backpack. “That prison back there was Florida’s State Prison, by the way. So now we know our time and location.”

“Well at least we have some transport for a bit.” I sighed. “Let's just leave, I want to get as far from here as possible,” I heaved my pack into the back seat and clambered into the front, making sure my rifle’s safety was on before putting it in between my legs. Trey started the engine, and now we were moving. I noticed a troubled look on his face as he began driving. After a few minutes, that got me worried.

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Trey? What is it? What's wrong?”

Trey glanced at me, but then directed his attention back to the road. “Something’s not right. How- Wasn’t he sent to Equestria?”

I sighed. This was the last topic I wanted to talk about. “I guess he signed up for patrols and it was just bad luck we ran into him. He said Mum is in Equestria though.”
“You see, that’s the thing. It’s very un-” Trey stopped mid-sentence as he glanced at me. He looked back at the road with small open fields at it’s sides, giving a small sigh. “Sorry. I can’t imagine what you just went through, Mitchell.”

“I’m-” I choked back a small sob, “it was stay as a human or-or be a pony. I almost drank it, Trey. I almost sold out my humanity and jeopardised the whole mission.” I turned away from my partner and stared out of the window, watching the scenery go by. I felt the cold metal of my gun between my legs and felt slightly sick. How many people had that weapon killed in its time? How many died because of human creations?

No, I’ve got to stop thinking like that. That's how Celestia wants us to feel about ourselves. I've got to hold myself with honour and pride, how my family and lost friends would have wanted me to. How Stan wants me to.

We’ve been driving for a while now, and the sky began to clear. Trey told me we were heading for a place called Lake Butler not so far away from here. It might be a good idea to re-fuel our vehicle there since the “Events Notebook”, as Trey has come to call it, does not mention any dangers there… nor does it mention anything good. Truth is, it hasn’t been cataloged. A Hardee’s sign shortly came into view ahead.

“Trey, how much longer until we’re at this town place of yours?” I asked him.

“It’s at the other side of the country. And it isn’t a town by the way, it’s a lake. Gull Lake.” Trey said. “It would take around… what, a month? Around a month if we were to go by foot. Using a car however can take a couple days.”

“All right, is there anywhere we can fill up? That petrol meter is looking dangerously low,” I said.

“There should be a gas station here, but I’m not so sure we can fill up that easily. There might not be any electricity.”

“Petrol station,” I jokingly corrected him in an attempt to lighten my mood from the earlier… events. Oh God, I have to tell Stan I killed Dad at some point.

The Hardee’s sign was getting closer.

A sudden loud pop startled both of us. I flinched and my hand fell down to my knee, where my Glock was.

“What was that?” Trey said the moment he jumped.

“Shit! Trey, I think we just lost a tyre.”
An equally loud hissing sound could be heard, coming from below.

Trey opened his door looking down, as the car was still in motion. “Yeah, a tire popped. Maybe it can be fixed or replaced? Might as well look for another car soon.” He closed the door, as the truck began to advance slower and slower.

“Hell, we might as well just see if there’s a spare tyre around anyway, easier than getting into a whole new car,”

The truck had stopped.

Trey stepped out of the vehicle as he took his pack and rifle out.

I did the same, opening my car door and heaving out my pack and rifle, patting my waist to make sure my Glock hadn't fallen out into the car. “Watch the trees,” I said,
“ponies could be stalking us right now. Our car isn't exactly quiet, you know,”

I could hear Trey whisper to himself, “I fucking hate this”, as he began to walk forwards.

I suddenly whirled around, I could've sworn I had heard a stick snap or something in the trees. I slowly raised my rifle and pointed it in the general direction of the sound. “Show yourself!” I said with obvious authority in my voice and I had no fear to show it.

There was only silence, along with the chirping of the birds.

“I think it was only a-” Trey said before taking cover, when someone fired his gun mere meters from us.

I instinctively fired back into the air, I was used to confrontations like this, we called them Jackers back in the HLF, they were scavengers and some of them could be real nasty. We had both fired our warning shots so I spoke again before it turned into a real shootout, “We’re not here to kill you, please, we need help,”

“Uh, Mitchell… They’re coming from behind” Trey said, as he was covering my back. As he said that, people came out from the trees in front of me. Men and women of different ages in slightly ragged clothing, about half of them armed. A couple of them had noticeable eye bags and were bandaged. The armed people stepped first in front of the unarmed, which were carrying backpacks, protecting them.

“Look, everyone,” I said, “let's put our guns down, we’re not meant to be fighting each other, Celestia is the enemy. Please, we need help,”

“You put yours down first!” Said one of them, the rest being quiet.

“Fine, sure,” I said and lay down my rifle and Glock, “Trey, do what they say,” I said, as I looked back.

Trey had already left his weapons on the ground.

Trey

Our first day back in time, and everything goes to hell.

The point of a rifle poked my back. “Don’t stop.” Said the voice behind me as I kept walking behind Mitchell, both of us held hostage with our hands on our heads.

I didn’t even stop you-! Ahhhh… Great. This is just great.

“Look, we’re running an important mission for the HLF, we just want to-” Mitchell tried to say but he was cut off by an angry man with a heavy Russian accent.

“YOU SHUT!” The Russian man yelled at us in an extremely angry tone, “NO TALK! NO STOP! YOU FOLLOW US!”

“VODKA!” I yelled back, only to be hit in the stomach by his rifle’s stock, making me cough in pain.
Ok, joke wasn’t worth it., I thought. I needed to lighten my mood a bit from everything going wrong in the past few hours.

The point of a rifle once again poked my back as I briefly stopped from the hit in my stomach. “Don’t stop.”

”Don’t stop”. Are those the only words you know?

I heard Mitchell quietly snigger and my joke as he walked slightly in front of me. The group had our weapons but we still had our backpacks, thank God. Who knows what they would do if they saw the stuff that we were carrying.

“Wait here,” The Russian said, gesturing to a clearing in the thick bushery that surrounded the road.

“What’s with all the unfriendliness? Celestia wants to divide us so we should stick together and not be arseholes to each other,” Mitchell said as he stopped in the clearing.

“So, two strangers appear after having their car break down right near our camp,” A voice called. It was a female’s voice and definitely American.

“Let me do the talking,” Mitchell muttered to me and then spoke again, “yes, we’re running a mission for the HLF, top secret, and our vehicle broke down,”

“Bullshit.” The American said, “You know what I think? I think you two are part of the PER and stopped here to infiltrate and attack my camp,”

I gave a sigh.
Great, just great man. I thought, but remained quiet.

The Ponification for Earth’s Rebirth or PER for short were an organisation of rabid environmentalists who believed that all humans should convert despite being humans themselves. Their favourite tactic was Potion Bombing but they were known to infiltrate HLF and military camps then ponify them when they were off-guard.

“No, I swear hands down. I am Mitchell Fedorson from the English branch of HLF, this is my partner, Trey Miles, we need to get to the Gull Lake,” Mitchell said desperately, “look, we have no potion on us, check us if you want to,”

“Your friend is awfully quiet,” remarked the American, “what about you? Do you have anything to say?” She asked me.

I simply forced a smile when mentioned. I was getting a little pissed by the precious time we were wasting, but at the same time felt scared from what these people might do to us.

“Cat got your tongue huh? Or are you mute? Never mind, come with me,” she said and turned around and started walking.

“Where are you taking us?” Mitchell asked as he started to walk behind her,

“My tent. We can talk there. I want to know all about this top secret HLF mission and why you need to get to the Gull Lake,” she replied.

“Can we at least have your name?” Mitchell questioned,

“Fine, my name is Ashleigh, now please, no more questions until we’re inside my tent,”

“Hmph, have it your way,” I heard my partner grunt as we moved through the trees until we came upon a rather large tent with sticks and leaves crudely scattered all over it in a desperate attempt to make it look like it blended in with its surroundings.

I silently snickered at it at first sight.

It was no time to laugh however. They now knew about our mission, and they wanted answers. Not like they would believe the truth anyways. And Mitchell was wrong, we do have potion with us. Black, modified temporal potion. If we lost that, we would not be able to move around freely without ponies chasing us.

We’re now inside the main tent, slightly wider and taller than the rest. There was a wide table with a map, surrounded with small, metallic chairs.

“Now we can talk,” Ashleigh sighed as she sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table, “what are you doing here?”

“I already told you,” Mitchell said, exasperated, “we’re running a top secret, top priority mission for the HLF. Our vehicle’s wheel burst and we had a run in with your stragglers. Who even are you lot? you're not HLF that's for sure,”

“We’re just a group of ordinary survivors,” Ashleigh admitted, “I was the first one and the rest just… arrived here, I suppose,”

“Can we have our weapons back?” I finally spoke up, I need to make sure Mitchell didn't reveal anything important about the mission.

“Sure,” Ashleigh surprisingly agreed with me and right on queue, the Russian man from earlier hauled in our guns and backpacks and left them on the table as he promptly left.

Did she really just?

“So what's this mission?” Ashleigh raised an eyebrow at us,

“Extremely classified,” I replied, “Not allowed to share that information, as if someone with that knowledge got converted, it would seriously compromise our mission.”

“Besides,” Mitchell snorted, “even if we did tell you, you would never believe it anyway,”

“Huh, I see.” She replied as she extended her arm for my backpack. “We’re going to have to check your things though. You know, for safety...”

I quickly took hold of it, stopping her. “Wow, wow! Confidential, remember?”

“Fine,” Ashleigh sighed, “I get it, there are a few people here who are Ex-HLF and they were a bit like that when I wanted to check their stuff,”

She let go as she finished that sentence.

“So what now? We just leave?” I asked, half-expecting her to tell us we couldn’t go.

“If that’s what you want to do,” Ashleigh said, “you can go on your way,”

Oh

I simply nodded and took my stuff.

“Good luck,” Ashleigh smiled at us. Mitchell had taken all of his stuff back and we turned around to leave.

Mitchell looked back, “you too,” he grinned.

We were now outside the tent, back to the wilderness now slightly darker than before, making our way back through the trees and bushes. The walk was void of conversation for a minute or so.

“I was honestly expecting much worse.” I finally spoke up.

“Nah, us humans need to be friends,” Mitchell commented, “well, all apart from the damned PER,”

“Crazy people who chose the wrong side.” I said as I followed our footprints.”By the way, got any ideas for when we get to the road?”

“Well, a new car would be nice,” Mitchell said as I nearly tripped over a rock I didn’t notice.

“Shit, is it me or it’s getting a whole lot darker?.”

“Trey, we should head back. The air feels really thick and I think it’s going to rain like it did in England pretty soon. We could stay with Ashleigh’s lot for a bit,” Mitchell said, sounding a bit more worried than usual. Leaves were beginning to make much more sound by the increasing wind.

A white flash illuminated the trees and bushes around us for half a second, revealing much more detail of our surroundings from the lack of light..

“One, two, th-” I counted until I was interrupted by the strong sound of lightning, startling a couple of birds on the trees around us. “Less than a kilometer from here. We need to get back and fast!”

“Shit! Run!” Mitchell almost yelled.

We wasted no time and went our way back sprinting. I took the lead since I had my flashlight out, illuminating our way. It surprised me how quickly climate could change.

In a matter of seconds of sprinting, I began feeling the droplets of water falling on my neck with force. It wasn’t just a normal rainfall. I was beginning to consider it was a tropical storm. My flashlight was now illuminating a whole lot of water droplets as we ran.

“You know, I'm starting to think some Pegasi are pissing about with the weather!” Mitchell said in between taking long breaths.

I slipped with one of the rocks, falling hard on my chest. When I stood up again, the flashlight had broken. “Shit!” I yelled in anger as we kept sprinting back.

“Don't worry, we still have mine!” Mitchell yelled back, “we’re nearly there!”

The violent sound of the intense rain and lightning, along with the loud noise of the thousands of leaves moving from the fierce wind, made for an absolute, chaotic storm. I was now following Mitchell, careful to not trip again.

“I think it’s this way!” Mitchell turned a very hard left and soon enough, coming into view between the trees and sure enough, I was beginning to be able to make out tent shapes through the darkness of the storm.

We reached for the nearest one we could and entered without warning.

“Kurwa!” The Russian man from earlier stood up and pulled out a sharp knife with a serrated edge.

“Wait, stop! Look!” I said haphazardly as I dropped my rifle to the floor.

“What you two doing here?” He said in broken, accented English.

“T-the storm. It catched up with us.” I responded a bit more calmly.

“And we need a new car,” Mitchell butted in.

“It's cold out there, you to need something to warm you up?”

I looked around the tent, noticing other people sleeping with a few oil lamps on the corners.

‘We’re on the same side. Finally some help.’

“Thanks.” I said, nodding while chaos unfolded less than a meter behind me.

“You speak to Ashleigh in the morning,” The Russian said, “tell her you staying for a bit,”

“Alright, thanks again.” I said as I sat near one of the oil lamps for some heat.

“No problem. My name is Ivan by the way,”

“Trey” I said, shaking hands with him.

“I’m Mitchell, Mitchell Fedorson.”

After a while, they were all napping. I stood awake to “guard”, but I doubted there would be an attack anytime soon with this weather. As I sat there, beside the oil lamp, I began to gloss over the Events Notebook, specifically looking for information about this area.

Florida, Sector 4. 2048-2051. Hmm… 2048, October.

I read for a few passages with useful information.

‘The last operating generator is…’

2048, November.

‘Increase in patrol number…’

2048, December.

‘All area is confirmed to…’

Jesus christ...

I looked up to the people around me, sleeping in blissful ignorance. I looked back at my notebook in shock, heart pounding.

Jesus fucking christ.

‘All area is confirmed to be clear of any survivors. Last group reported was discovered by a Potion Patrol around July 11. Location of hideout is unknown, but is suspected to be hidden somewhere in the wilderness based on the path the Patrol took. Pegasi Patrols are highly imminent however, and seem to have adopted a tactic of erratically changing the weather and are suspected to have bases in local towns, so it’s best to avoid urban areas.’

The report then showed a satellite image of the area, pointing out potential hiding spots, vehicle locations, and other useful information.

How can we save them without altering history?!

If the so-called “butterfly effect” was real, then saving this small group can result in a domino effect of events which will render the predictions written here useless!

I closed the book on my lap and stood there, listening to the storm.

The thought of dozens of pegasi, possibly even hundreds of them, flying above us at this very moment, gave me chills.

We need a vehicle as soon as possible. Before it’s too late...

Author's Note

A/N: MrLongSurname: Wow that took a long time to write. It's pretty much double the length of a normal chapter. I believe that we will be doing this for every chapter now, having a 4000 word one. Yes, hourglass and I are writing together again. Whoopee!

By the way, RK_Striker_JK_5 edited and proofread this chapter. Go check out all of his stuff.