The Quantum Lock

Not a single word had been spoken since Sunset Shimmer and her 'friends' sat down to dinner. It was an awkward dinner, not to mention all of the questions Sunset was internally asking herself. Frankly, none of the Mane Five could truly believe that they were dining with their previous enemies. Certainly unexpected was dining with the girl who had single-handedly destroyed most of their friendships with each other. Halfway through Sunset's dinner, there were a few comments about the food, a few trying to poke fun at the evening's events, but nothing captivated her attention.

She still couldn't believe that she had rampaged as a literal Demon, hypnotized all of the people she had to see at school tomorrow, and tried to kill the people who were later assigned to be her friends by the very pony who defeated her. Putting it all into perspective, it sounded like something right out of a fantasy movie. Everyone had finished eating, save for Pinkie, who was eating her third round of dessert. Rainbow Dash was browsing the Internet on her phone, probably disinterested about the lack of anything eventful happening around the table.

Applejack was looking around the room, occasionally outside of the window. Sunset took that as a sign that the social awkwardness was a bit too much for her. Rarity was inspecting her apparel, sometimes looking up to see if any of her friends wanted to start a conversation. Fluttershy was twiddling her thumbs, afraid to initiate anything at the moment. The only person who was missing at the table was Twilight Sparkle, who left not an hour ago back to Equestria to reunite with her friends. Looking around at her alleged friends, Sunset grew grateful that she was with them, and not with the many people who currently despised her. With this in mind, she had an urge to go home and expel some of her stress. After all, it would be a very odd and stressful day tomorrow.

“Well... this was an interesting dinner, but I think I might go home and turn in for the night.” Sunset said as she stood up, scooted in her chair, and somewhat quickly turned around to leave as soon as possible.

“Wait a minute, are you sure you don't want one of us to go with you? Spending the night could be a good chance at gettin' to know each other.” Applejack said, slightly rushed so that Sunset Shimmer would hear it before she was out the door.

Sunset stopped halfway from the door, and turned around to face Applejack.

“If any of you want to come home with me, you're more than welcome.” She hesitantly said.

Rainbow Dash put down her phone and looked up at Sunset. “I'm in, it's got to beat staying here, waiting for someone to say something.” Rainbow got up and joined Applejack and Sunset. Rarity sighed, “I'll come along, and I'm glad you're finally opening up to us, dearest. Even if it is probably the second thing you've said all night.” She remarked under her breath, not wanting to offend Sunset.

Pinkie Pie quickly muffled between bites of cake: “I'd love to, but I think I'm close to a county record!” She stuffed another slice of the cake in her mouth, barely chewing before she swallowed.

”I would love to go, but Angel needs a bath as soon as I get home, he's been left alone all night.” Fluttershy stated, a little concerned that her friends might insist she tag along.

“Oh, well that's okay, it's not like there won't be a next time.” Sunset reassured her friends. In reality, she wanted to just be alone for the night, but was afraid she might come off as insensitive to her new friends. Sunset, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity walked out of the door, and headed for Sunset's house.

They should of drove home.

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i know there's more that's out there

'Heartbeats of someone else,

golden starlight descending on a mock world.

Visual trickery made to impress,

to distract me from my distress.'

'Huh, didn't completely rhyme, but I like that one...' Thought a male voice that did not come from a body. The bodiless figure put the paper with the poem on his desk. The desk was covered with hundreds, possibly thousands of depressing poems written by him. The creature could care less about the messy state of his room, instead he felt more like taking a relaxing walk. It grabbed it's hat, and headed for the door.

Outside, the air was fresher than anywhere else on the planet. The sunlight wasn't blinding, but it shone brighter than it usually did. The figure left it's house without a care in the world, leaving the door wide open. It then traveled down a crooked paved path, and followed it all the way down to a crooked, breathing wooden sign.

"ERSU MATS LAO - 4 Miles -->"

The sign didn't make much sense to him, but it knew that it would lead him wherever he wanted to go. For an hour, at least, the creature walked down the path, admiring the wacky scenery. It wasn't often that something pleasant showed it's face in this world. When the path ended, the silhouette stopped at a tree, no different from the thousands of others that were lined up against the path. It sat down on the warm grass, leaned up against the tree, and fell asleep.

And it slept for 800 years.

He didn't dream of anything, just a void for what seemed like an eternity. When it did wake, it was nighttime, and monsters roamed the earth. These monsters scared the figure beyond reason, and the he knew that it never wanted to let a monster capture him. It ran, and it ran for what could of days on end, never tired or wanting to take a break. The monsters weren't in pursuit, but the creature ran just from the images of them. Something grabbed him anyways, and it squeezed him so hard that his entrails gushed out of his eye sockets. The pain made him scream a scream that could be heard for miles around. He sniffled, sobbed, and moaned in agony, waiting for something to end him. He could feel something else, too. Something metallic and cold being forcefully and carelessly pulled out of him through his mouth. The pain seemed slight, but when you've felt just about everything, pain is subjective. The regain of his sense of touch gave him a joy unlike any he had felt in a long long long time. And not just touch, but taste and smell. Even the unpleasant scent and taste of bile made him happy, it had been so long since he was actually alive. The next thing that happened was unimaginable, the feeling of a hundred thousand needles being forced out of your skull, not very fun.

He tried moving his arms and legs around, but nothing. He just hung there for a while, listening to liquids flow freely through his neck. Out of nowhere, an excruciating jolt of electricity shot through him. When it dissipated, he could in fact, feel air on his extremities. Just one sense was left out, and that was sight. The afterimage from the electricity was obfuscating his view, but from what he could make out, he was in the exact same room he was a few trillion years ago. He expected the door to open, a staircase to be produced for him to walk down. Instead, the warm welcome back to reality he got was the tipping of his cryogenic tomb. Face first onto cold hard metal had never felt so good, though. After a while, he regained his balance, and for the first time in billions of years, stood up. A nearby towel was placed nearby for the express purpose for him to cover his nudity, so he grabbed it and placed it around his waist. He walked into the closest room, a rehabilitation center of sorts, but he didn't stop for any help with the horrible pain, he had far too much work to do. The room had a few changes from when he last saw it, the glass was cleaner, the walls weren't stained, and the floor looked like it had been mopped sometime this decade.

Multiple sets of clothes could be seen laying out on several counters in the room, so he dressed himself in what he found appealing.  Standard undergarments, bland navy pants, with a few holes in them. A khaki button-up shirt with vintage cars on it, he wasn't much of a fan of cars, but the shirt seemed to suit him. He put on his socks and his shoes, and proceeded downstairs to Level F. Before he completely left the room, he turned back around, he had almost forgotten his black latex gloves, which was essential for these kinds of missions.

Sure that a synthesized voice would speak instructions on who to meet, like it always did, he slowly walked down the stairs to make sure he didn't miss it, but no noise came from the P.A. system. When he arrived at the room at the bottom of the stairs, he was stunned that no instructions were given that told him what to do. In any case, he still went inside the compact circular room. He thought the couch in there would be much more comfortable than standing with a sore back, waiting for nothing. He planted himself on the couch, and cracked his back into place. Perhaps a better inspection of the room was in order, he thought. He looked around, didn't see much besides the console, a countdown clock, and-- wait, the console had a paper on the keyboard. He stood up to go read it's contents, in the hopes it would dictate instructions. On the paper was some coordinates and a very vague request:

“Help her save the world.”

He sighed, a little relieved that this would a challenge unlike it usually was. He heard a beep come from the timer on the wall; 29:11:32:00. This meant he had around a month before he had to be back on the ship and put to sleep. He opened up the navigational program, typed in the coordinates into the computer, and pressed the execute button. Loud mechanical shifting could be heard outside of the walls. The door to the rest of the complex automatically closed, and pressurized. A large clunk assured him that he had indeed left the ship. The same old thing that usually happened in the room repeated itself. The machinery started whirring, the air audibly rushing up against the exterior of the vehicle.

In one way, it was relaxing. In another way, it made him nauseous. One nap on that comfortable couch later, he was awoken by a loud, padded thud. The walls were lifted up around his by hydraulic arms, to reveal the bright sun setting in the west, just like it did back on Earth. He stepped outside, and the very first thing he saw was a massive high school in front of him. “Canterlot High School.” He started to look at the nearby houses, he inspected the High School, but all he could find was some posters about their Fall Formal. Then he wandered around the campus, waiting for this person to appear. It confused him, usually his instructions were very specific, down on how to breathe. It didn't make any sense that the element of will was randomly introduced to the situation.

“But, it might be fun.” he thought aloud.

In front of the school, he could see that the capsule that brought him had lowered it's walls and started oscillating and wobbling, eventually to the point where it had moved off the ground an inch, then a foot, and soon, a mile. All left alone on another planet, with no friends or family. The only thing he did have to find this person was a piece of paper, not even a name. Then again, he couldn't remember his name either.