Cryogen

The sound of my feet pounding against the ground is all I can seem to hear as I run down the path that leads to the center of town. I need someone I can talk to about this, someone I know could help me find more information. There is only one person I could think of, and she is one of the last people I want to talk to right now. I stormed out of her house after telling her to basically fuck off, and never looked back. Yeah, I do kind of feel like a dick for doing that, but it was just my natural reaction from something like that. So, if I'm going to get on her good side, my only option is to man up and actually apologize to her. Then, maybe I can get some more answers.

The library comes into view as I start slowing my pace, my lungs burning from the freezing cold air. I really gotta move down south or something, this is just ridiculous.

I knock on the door, and take a step back, anticipating what might happen when she sees who is at her door. Maybe she won't be too mad. Maybe she'll still be willing to continue our little deal that we made. I think I'm more willing to talk now than I was earlier.

"He- Sweet Celestia!" I hear someone yell as the door opens. Thing is, nobody was behind the door when it opens.

"The hell?" I mumble as I look into the library. My eyes just so happen to wander down, and I can actually feel my pupils shrinking at the sight of some weird purple and green lizard staring up at me, who also has a shocked expression.

"T-Twilight!" It yells as it runs back into the library. I stand in the doorway, one hand on the frame to keep my balance, the other hand rubbing the back of my head in confusion. What the hell did I just see? Maybe I hit my head or something last night.

"Spike what is wrong with you?" I hear from upstairs, though the voice is muffled. The sound of hooves clopping against the wooden floor emits from the flight of stairs, and a purple figure becomes visible as it descends said stairs.

"Um... hey." I say nervously, closing the door behind me to block out the cold. I've never been a really emotional guy, so apologizing isn't exactly one of my strongest areas. I wasn't much of a people person I guess. Well, pony person now, but that's besides the point.

"Oh... Zack." She says as she squints her eyes at me. They don't exactly say "anger", more like "disappointment". Or maybe it's sadness? Again I'm not good at this kind of stuff.

"So about what happened earlier... I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have just stormed out like that for no reason. It was just such a heavy subject for me, and I hate talking about it, so... when you said you were trying to be good "friend", I kind of snapped, and... I shouldn't have. You didn't do anything wrong, and I'm sorry about what I did." I explain awkwardly, pausing every now and then to try and think of the right words.

"What? You're sorry? No no no, I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn't have pushed you to talk about any of that. If I hadn't, none of that would have ever happened. I'm the one that should be saying sorry Zack."

"Whatever... Are we cool now?" I ask as I pull out a chair and sit in it in a similar fashion to how I did last time I was here. I face Twilight, waiting for an answer. In response, her emotion changes from sad to what I guess is happy. She walks over to me, and sits down at the table next to the chair I'm sitting in.

"We're cool."

"Alright, now, how about I hold up my end of the deal? For real this time." I ask as I push a stack of papers in her direction, encouraging her to start writing stuff down.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I wouldn't want you to get too upset again. I don't need my friends being mad at me."

"There's that term again. Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Calling you what?" She asks with a confused look.

"You keep calling me your friend, even though I'm not. You're a nice girl and all Twilight, but I don't think we're exactly on that kind of a level of a relationship. In the future it might be possible, but right now you're just one of the few ponies I actually know here." Twilight's expression drops a little, but she nods in understanding.

"R-Right, sorry. I just assumed because you... Ah, never mind that. Let's get started, okay?"

"Yeah, hit me." I say as I tap my hands against the back of the chair. I spend the next hour or so explaining to Twilight the basics of the world I grew up in. I explained politics, the economy, military, normal social life, technology, and just about everything else that I found might be remotely interesting to the purple unicorn. It wasn't much of a problem though, as she seemed on the edge of her seat for the entire lecture, taking in every word I said like a sponge. I once again left out the part about how I got here, as well as the fact that I'm from the past. I don't exactly need everyone knowing about that quite yet, as it would probably bring me way too much unwanted press. I'm already going to probably recognized as the only human here, I do NOT need the ponies knowing that I'm from the past as well. So, when Twilight did ask where I was from, I lied and told her I was just from an alternate universe. I guess that's the story I'll have to go with for now, even if it means lying to everyone.

"So, how does it work exactly?" Twilight asks as I place the cellphone down in front of her. I wouldn't dare turn it on right now as it would only cause the battery to drain even quicker. Instead, I thought I would just explain the overall gist of how phones worked. Maybe later, if I can find a way to actually charge the phone, I'll show her how it actually works.

"It's kind of like talking to someone over a long distance." I say as I spin the phone around on the table.

"Like, a voice amplifier?"

"Well, no, not exactly. Lets say I was in the library, here, and you were on the other side of town. If I needed to talk to you, I could just put in a certain number, and it would call your phone, if you had one, and I'd be able to talk to you. This is possible because the phone sends a signal to a satellite, and is then sent back down to your phone. This would allow us to talk to each other, no matter how far apart we are."

"This is so cool! Alien technology!"

"Yeah, alien..." I say with a sigh. "Twilight, I need to tell you something." I say as I look up at her, my hands folded on the table. This whole alien from a different dimension thing just isn't going to work for me. So what if they know I'm from the past? It's not like being from a different dimension wouldn't bring me the same amount of press.

"Of course!"

"I'm... not from an alternate universe... I lied about that." Twilight gives me a confused look before scribbling something down on a sheet of paper. "I'm... from the past." This only causes Twilight to snicker, which in turn causes me to give her an annoyed look.

"Hah, from the past, good one Zack."

"I'm serious! I'm from 3500 years in the past, and I AM from this world! Don't be stupid Twilight, I'm not some alien from and alternate universe that just somehow showed up here. I grew up on this planet, I have always lived on this planet, and I plan to die on this planet!"

"That isn't possible though. Time traveling over a period of time that great isn't possible!"

"I didn't time travel though, that's the thing. I was frozen in a device called a C.F.D. This device completely froze my body, and while it caused me to become unconscious for that entire period of time, my body froze, causing it to practically stop aging. Basically I took a 3500 year nap."

"S-So, you're telling me, that there was a completely different race before us? And it was you!?"

"Well yeah, but then my race died out only about a hundred or so years after I was frozen. I guess I was just forgotten about during that time. I woke up a few days ago, and I've been just wandering around since then..."

"So... how old are you then?"

"Technically, I'm 3520 years old." I say with a forced chuckle. "But before I was frozen, I was only twenty years old, and that's what I'd like to be referred to as."

"This is... even more amazing than you being from an alternate universe! Zack, you hold the answers to the past! Just think about how much we could learn from you! Do you know how important this is!?"

"Yeah, I do... Can we not talk about it for now though? I don't really like talking about that whole experience. I think it might have traumatized me."

"Oh, of course!" She says with a nervous smile like she thinks I'm going to snap at her like last time. "So, do you have any questions for me now?"

"Oh, yeah. You seem pretty smart Twilight, do you have any idea what this thing is?" I ask as I pull out the green gem that Daring gave to me. Twilight stares at it, her face scrunching up in concentration.

"I... don't know what it is." She says as she looks back up at me. "It just looks like some old emerald."

"What if I show you what it does?" I say as I pick up the gem, pointing it as Twilight. It starts to glow faintly, which causes her to back up slightly, though she still looks curious as to what it is. "It's supposed to show you what your greatest fear is, and from what I've seen, it really works."

I place the gem down on the table, the flat side facing up. Our reflections start to waver as we stare down at the gem, and they are soon replaced by an images of Twilight standing in a dark room similar to the one I had been standing in, in my fear. Around Twilight are five other ponies which look all too familiar, especially a blue one with rainbow hair.

The ponies all give her angry looks and start yelling at her, causing Twilight to curl up into a ball on the ground, her legs over her head. Then, as quickly as the yelling started, it stops. Of course, we can't hear it because the gem doesn't produce sound, but it's obvious by the fact that the ponies all start walking away from Twilight, leaving her behind in the dust. The gem fades back to it's emerald green color, leaving Twilight's reflection in it's surface. I sit back down, placing the gem in my pocket.

"Abandonment?"

"What?" Twilight asks as she shakes her head, snapping back to her senses.

"That's your greatest fear? That your friends will leave you?"

Twilight only nods in response, her eyes glistening and threatening to release a flood of tears.

"Mine too..."