Space, the void of nothingness that exists between every star, every planet, and everything in the universe. No air exists, no sound travels, and nothing lives. This ubiquitous vacuum never relents and will always have it’s day. But with a little help from other elements, unexpected things can happen. Some ponies call them miracles and others call them anomalies. Whatever you call something it still will exist, a truth I have accepted. This is the story of an anomaly that was once a captive of a time, both in mind and soul, and this is the story of its' freedom.
===The Center of the Galaxy===
The black hole swirled rapidly, drawing in asteroids and warping light. Sagittarius, the center of the Milky Way, quickly pulled in asteroids and stars near it, before throwing them back in a violent manner into their place. A shockwave ruptured from the sudden change and upon it was a materializing grey cylindrical capsule. It careened into asteroids and broke them to dust without showing a hint of giving way.
Inside, a pony glowing with yellow energy worked the controls. He veered his craft out of the gravitational pull of the black hole. The pony grabbed at the lever and pulled it down as a pained grunt escaped him. The Capsule dematerialized as a large asteroid floated right through where it once was, and fell through the temporal vortex. He attempted to set a location to no avail. He had nothing left. With a weak hoof he grasped the monitor. His furious eyes turned to the energy pouring from his hoof. The golden rays seem to set fire to every inch of his limb. A defeated sigh escaped him, as he knew the end was nigh. The pony flipped on the stabilizers and backed up. Across the hexagonal console was two ash piles slowly being shook around to nothing. His mouth opened, begging for any semblance of apology to come out. Instead only more golden light. He was burning from the inside out, slowly.
Tears streaked down his grey face as he felt the unbearably scorching heat. Finally, he could take it no longer and was thrown up onto his hind legs with the quick and painful movement. The pony stood on his hind legs as golden light exploded from him. He flew back his limbs, letting the energy set fire to him as it burned every cell in his body. The capsule groaned and the interior sparked and shook as it appeared over a blue planet in the solar system.
===13 Years Prior, Lower Manehatten===
The sun rose slowly over the sky as the day began in Manehatten. Shops opened and the school bells rang. From one shop however, came the sound of a very loud and angry pony. As some ponies walked by, they saw a small earth pony running outside of the store. He carried the bag of fruits and vegetables on his back, and behind him the enraged shopkeep gave chase with an insurmountable amount of curses coming from his foul mouth. His furious eyes were locked on the blue colt running off with a basket of food on his back. “Get over here you little fool!” The old pony yelled, as he gave chase after the colt. The thief dodged into an alleyway, but only to figure out that the alley was a dead end. Panicked, the young colt slowed down. The shopkeeper walked into the alley behind him, hearing him hyperventilate. "Alright you little thief, this is the last time you steal from me!”
“Honestly when it comes to items like this you are better off losing a few stock occasionally rather then have them mold up the back room. You are going to throw these away soon, anyway…” The colt took on a air of rational explanation, struggling to catch his breath as he moved his ragged black mane away from his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s because it's produce! Now give it to me!” The shopkeeper continued his march towards him. He stopped when his keen ears picked up the sound of a hiss, coming from above him. “What was that? One of your little friends trying to help with your theft?”
“No… that’s something else. I think it might be.... the sewer beetles.” The colt said with a wavering voice, as he looked behind the towering pony.
“Your pulling out urban legends to distract me? Come on, this is poor form, especially for someone like you.” The shopkeeper grabbed the basket from him. “Let’s get you to the station, and out of my mane.” The shopkeeper turned right as a forelimb hit him on the head. He fell to the ground as Opal looked in terror. He shrunk back against the fence as his eyes glimpsed the horror of a shadowy creature coming close to him. It's eyes glowed purple and fangs gleamed white. He felt it's chilling breath as it hissed at him, mere inches from his face. Two others came from nowhere and grabbed the unconscious shopkeeper, pulling him out of the colts eyesight. The creatures horn glowed purple, and Opal fell to the ground. In his fleeting vision, he saw the creature quickly turn away from him and follow it's brethren.
Hours passed before any sound in the world entered his mind. “O….pa...l… Opa...l… Opal! Opal wake up!” A beige colored brown maned earth filly shook him as Opal woke up. He put up his forelimb weakly to block the sun from his eyes as he looked to his side. The pony stared down at him with piercing blue eyes. The pony let go of him and backed up. "Good, your up."
His stuttering fear turned quickly into an attempt at a calm and charismatic demeanor. "Oh good morning Prism, how are you on this fine day?" Opal sat up, rubbing a bruise on his forelimb. For some reason, he could not pinpoint why he was so terrified. His head felt like a blur.
“Why do you have a basket of food?" Prism stared at the basket behind him. "Where did you get the money?”
“Well I uhh, I bought it. Yes I bought it and was going to prepare an elegant lunch for you and your mom as a present. But then I must have fell.” Opal said, slowly sitting up, wiping off some dirt from his coat.
“Bought it with what bits Opal?” Prism asked, helping him up.
Opal turned his eyes away from her as she flatly looked on, waiting for an answer. Her appearance did nothing but assist her critical gaze. Her light brown mane was cut very short in a proper and clean fashion, as was the regulations for her more combative extracurriculars. Even for a filly, it was obvious anyone looking to fight her was not going to have a good time. Everything about her said strong and stubborn. Opal rolled his eyes and relented. “Fine, I may have lifted them from a nearby store. But I had fully altruistic motives!”
Prism looked out the alley looking for anyone watching, and turned back to him. “Altruistic, new word."
"Well of course, I learn more in a day from the books in my library then anyone could ever achieve at school." Opal proclaimed proudly.
"How would you ever know that if you don't go?" Prism pursued his claim with a calm tone.
"You might have a point." Opal put a few of the fallen vegetables back in.
"You're going to get caught and they are going to put you in a home." Prism checked the entrance alley. "At this point, I think it would be better for you.”
Opal grabbed some of the food. “Don’t say things like that. There would be nopony to watch my parents house.”
Prism picked up the remaining food and Opal’s saddlepack. “You can't live by yourself."
“It’s mine, and it is my right to live there.” Opal said, helping her out.
“You're just a foal, you don’t have any rights to anything yet." Prism responded.
“We're going to be late for school.” Opal walked out the alley. He turned back and saw Prism pointing up in the sky. Opal saw the sun far west, and realized what time it was. "A bit late to be late, as it were."
Prism smiled and walked towards the end of the alley. "Want to come over and have some dinner?"
Opal nodded excitedly. "Your mothers cooking is so much better then cold soup and raw carrots."
Prism started walking towards a shop covered in planters and flowers a couple blocks down. “What’s the excuse this time?” Prism waved her hoof at a passing cart and crossed a street. "How did you fall asleep in an alley?”
“I.. I don’t remember really. There was this purple light, and hissing.” Opal said, shaking his head for a moment.
“Sounds like the sewer beetles.” Prism laughed, making ghost sounds. Opal laughed, looking back at the alley for a moment, a sense of dread growing within him.
===The gravitational orbit of Sol-3, 12 years later===
After what seemed like an eternity, the machine's lights turned back on. Monitors flashed and the top rotary console chamber spun, forever looping in its series of checks and power routing to keep the untouched machine ready to activate at any moment. The yellow coil lights wrapped around the 4 pillars on each side of the console deck. Yellow neon tube lights spread on the walls like veins, as they continued to flash with a pulse like rhythm against the dark grey and silver walls. Roundels flashed white in a pattern around the hexagonal room. The console itself was a curious balance of ornate and industrial. The steel grey panels holding the controls were covered in silver accents and white grates. A yellow rotor column spun slowly along in the center.
The whole machine felt alive. The pulsating rhythm felt almost tense. It was waiting for something. Only one thing was in the room, not yet put away by the mechanisms, or by the small bots that continued to circle around the floor cleaning whatever dust and debris remained.
The one thing was a being collapsed on the ground. He remained in a state of lifelessness as cables from the console attached to his chest and temples slowly collected bio-metric readouts and displayed them on the monitor. It had not moved in a long time upon the glass floor of the machine, but burn marks extended in 3 ways around him on the floors and walls were still there. The figure was a pony, or something that at least looked like and earth pony. Sandy brown mane on the verge of becoming blonde was tattered and overgrown. His coat was a rusty orange, with hints of brown. A perplexing cutie mark adorned him; A large bright orange orb.
The pony stirred a bit and the whole machine suddenly grew silent, holding its' own breath in anticipation. The ponies eyes shot awake. They were an intense pale orange, and he looked around with the fear and surprise of a cornered animal.
“Aaarrrhhhhhhh!” The pony bolted up only to immediately double over in pain. He slammed a hoof to his chest repeatedly. “Come on hearts!” He takes a few short breaths and looked around. The machine spun more than before, the backup lights turning bright as the pony cringed and withdrew his face beneath his hooves. “Stop that, I’m not even fully alive yet!”
The pony shambled to the console and flicked a few switches. “Where is.. where are we, when are we, why are we? Who am I?!” The pony held his hooves up to his temples and thought hard. He saw basic images of flying in the ship he was in. Ship. This is a Ship. That's good, who am I? He closed his eyes and grunted in pain. More images of a orange sky and cities in domes flashed past him. Home.
He saw a memory from his perspective, of his hooves setting on golden fire and exploding. The image was blurry and he couldn't see his appearance. Going further back he saw himself flying this ship, with other blurry creatures like him. I am a.. Pilot? I'm a leader? He looked harder before opening his eyes and nodding. "That's enough for now. I'm a pilot, I died, I'm back, and I am going home. Home right?"
He looked up to the console and threw a couple levels. A monitor on the console loaded up a picture of a blue planet, with text below it in a mysterious circular writing. The pony looked it over as it slowly translated in his head. "I suppose that is my species language?" He took a look at the planet and sighed. “Safe, I think. Sol 3 right? Thanks Darling. Hey! I call you Darling, right?" He spun around and saw a mirror. Staring at himself, he gasped. "I'm not wearing any clothes!"
He charged into a side room and looked over a wardrobe that spun around showing a seemingly endless line of different jackets, hats, shirts, and other items of clothing. “No..no.. too colorful… far too civilian… too little pockets.. Ah! There we go.” The pony grabbed a decades old variant of a brown flight jacket and put it on, along with a pair of blue tinted silver rimmed square glasses. He flicked them open and turned on the glasses. Symbols and graphs showed the atmosphere of the room, and nearby life signs popped up inside the lenses. "This should be useful."
Running back to the main room, the pony winced in pain and slowed down. As he ran his hooves over the control console, he felt skill return to him. The machine's engine awoke as he flipped on the main power. He picked up a burnt old pistol-like weapon, as a green light activated. “Alright then, I’m awake, I’m ready. Lets land and find help.” The pony hit a few buttons, bucked a large lever underneath the console, and pulled a lever with all his weight, leaning off the end of the console. He coughed as the machine activated and shook, careening through the vortex of time and space towards its unknown destination as sparks and screeches encompassed the room in a bizarre light show.
===Manehatten, Present Day ===
The sun rose upon Manehatten, and the city woke from its slumber. On the south side of downtown Manehatten, the sun's beams started to illuminate the buildings and streets. In a floral shop, the owners started to awake. Two earth ponies, one a light blue pony and the other a beige one, got up and started the day.
The beige pony sat up as blue pony threw the curtains back. "Good morning Opal."
Opal smiled and looked back to her. "Good morrow Prism." He walked to mirror and took a look at himself. His once barely controlled black mane had finally gone fully wild, trimmed chaotically in a failed attempt to keep it under control. His light blue coat was a bit better, but still nowhere near perfect. His tail was possibly the worst though, as it looked like it had been electrified and frozen at the same time. He shrugged, content with his near-wild appearance. After a few useless combs of his mane he walked into the kitchen.
Prism got up and proudly trotted to the mirror. Her strict workouts and meets meant her style usually ended up being short and clean, as when she was young. Her mane was trimmed down to an almost clean cut length, even down to the bottom of her mane. Her beige coat was cut and kept under control in a very practical way, keeping it functional if nothing else. She looked over herself, satisfied with her appearance, and followed Opal downstairs.
Opal set the kettle on the oven started a pot of tea. Prism walked over and put a couple slices of bread on a pan. After the kettle piped up and the toast gave off its warm aroma, both ponies got some toast and tea and sat down at the table. “So, did the Daffodil shipment come by last night?” Opal asked, taking a sip of the tea.
Prism scoffed and nodded. “The deli down the shop tried to pick a fight with me over them. Kept saying they weren't supposed to be arranging flowers, but eating flowers. On and on about how they have to pay so much and it’s not fair and on and on.”
“Ahh well they always have been short with the other shops, ever since they lost in the best independent business competition the Manehatten Reporter had a couple years back.” Opal said, taking a bite of toast and looking over at the skyline out their window.
The two ponies looked outside as the sun's shimmering light flew down across the horizon. "The north side hospital is reporting another unknown malady, and are trying to make it out as no big thing. Even though this is the second hospital to report it." Prism gave a worried frown and looked over the second page of the paper. “Stocks are down too, why now?”
Opal shrugged." Griffinstone is apparently supposed to release information about a supposed huge gold mine and it might devalue bits a little.”
“You limitless guesses of how money works always puts me in a good mood.” She looked at him with a snide smirk. “Also, don’t you mean.. just a “bit”?”
He laughed as he tidied up the remains of breakfast. “Sure Prism, just by a bit.” As he finished cleaning, he looked outside as the sunlight hit the many skyscrapers of Manehatten. He set the final cup in the dish rack and trotted to the window. He stared towards the skyline. “You know, I have stared at these same towers every day of my life, every morning.”
Prism walked over as well and sat next to him, putting a foreleg around him. “Me too.” She looked at him, and broke the silence again. “It never stops being beautiful.” She leaned on Opal.
Opal put his head on hers. “Yeah.”
Prism nodded and scanned the horizon. She peered over towards the theatre down the road, as it opened up for the actor's rehearsal. “How about we check out the theatre and volunteer again? I heard Sapphire Shores has a play on about her life in Manehatten and rise to fame.”
“As well done as the writing is, it is too modern for me. I enjoy it in small doses but the best plays to me take you other times. Just being able to replicate the past of future with sound, costumes, and actors gives a play so much imagination. My favorite plays are the ones that I come out of fully immersed in the story and setting, and you are just going to let me drone on and on aren’t you?” Opal asked, nuzzling her.
“Well you do love to talk sometimes, and you're rarely boring.” Prism responded, before she took a sip of tea.
“Oh, rarely huh? You spoil me Prism.” Opal said, looking out the window as wagons started to pull up to the door. “Time to open up shop.”
Prism scarfed down her toast and put on her uniform, a odd mix between a tool belt and an apron, and threw Opal his as well. “I'm the manager you, I get to make the orders.”
Opal put on his own and straightened his name tag. “Oh but the best managers do not need to order!”
Prism turned off the kitchen light. “Nopony's perfect.” Prism and Opal walked downstairs and Prism flipped the sign to open. Opal unlocked the door and the customers ever so slowly poured in.
Their morning turned to afternoon as the Crystal’s Boutique opened, selling floral arrangements to the citizens of downtown Manehatten. The shop got more crowded as more and more ponies got off work to grab some flowers for their loved ones or friends. Towards the end of the day, the customers slowly bought the last of their items and left.
Opal walked to the door. "It's restaurant night, what are you thinking for dinner?"
Prism took her uniform off and hung it besides a few planters of roses. "That build your own salad place is really good."
Opal nods. "Oh yeah, by the way did our best customer show today?"
Prism chuckled. "Yep. No idea what he does with the roses he buys every day."
Opal grabs the door and takes a look outside. The streets were eerily empty, with the exception of a frantic jogger on his side of the street. He shrugged and was about to close it right before the pony barged in, clad in a brown flight jacket. Opal stepped back as he ran in towards the watering station and turned on the sink. Opal looked at him, and piped up. “Hey! We’re closing sir!” The stranger made no attempt to respond as he continued to drink. “Sir, please if you could just-” Opal went and touched his shoulder. The stranger grabbed his forelimb, and slammed him to the ground.
The stranger put a hind leg on Opals neck, and looked at him. “One second, I exploded recently.” The stranger continued to drink before he felt a strong impact on the back of his head, which knocked him out.
=== 1 Mile Below Manehatten===
The cave, previously pitch black, was lit up by the illumination of several monitors. The sound of water trickling was drowned out by repeated alarms and beeps. In the middle of the cavern was a huge dish, which powered on and revealed enormous size of the monstrosity. A low humming sound permeated the cavern.
3 oddly shaped pods glowed with a dull green color, as they lowered from the ceiling. One by one, they shook and cracked, as fluid spilled upon the floor. After one final crack, the pods opened fully and three beings fell upon the floor. One of them, tall and lanky, spit out some fluid and took a breath. “I pray for the day I don’t have to go in there for more than a few weeks at a time. Never had to deal with anything more disgusting than this.”
The second, looking quite like the other, spoke up. “You're the only one of our kind I have ever met that can’t handle suspension. It’s completely natural!”
The first one scoffed. “So is death and illness, what is your point?”
“My point, brother, is that you need to stop complaining! We aren't in the best of situations so we have to make do.” The second one looked to the third, who was wiping herself off. “M'am, how are you fairing?”
The third stood up, as her horn glowed in a purple light. “Check the subwave frequency for life forms.”
“Yes ma’m.” The two walked over to the dish and switched on buttons and switches on it. Not unlike a unicorns magic, the dish started to glow with a murky purple essence.
The leader walked to the pool of water nearby and washed out her mane. The first one looked back and yelled. “We have something new!”
“Something… new?” She turned, her eyes glowing, giving off an unnatural presence about her. The two looked away.
The first responded. “Yes, something new, very interesting. It seems to be caked with artron energy!”
The leader almost smiled as she walked over, hooves pounding subtly against the caverns floor. “Artron energy hmm?” She looked over at the screen. “Not only artron energy, but regenerative energy. I have never seen that in my life, only heard of it.” She pulled a key card from the machine and put it on her necklace. "Keep this on high security until we find this new energy source."
“What does this mean ma’m?” The first asked, while the second looked at the power levels.
“It means it’s time to finally accomplish the mission. Get ready, and pick a form. An important form.” The leader walked away, towards the tunnels.
===Crystal's Flower Shop, Dusk===
The stranger groaned, as he opened his eyes. Opal and Prism sat in front of him. “Where am I?”
“Hey, we ask the questions!” Prism yelled at him.
Opal joined in. "So dispense with the questions!" Prism looked over. “I mean… you answer the questions we are.. answering to.. you?”
“I can interrogate myself better than thi-” Prism dealt the stranger a quick uppercut, making the chair fall on the ground.
Prism grabbed the chair and lifted it back up. “Why are you here? Why our shop!?” Prism asked, ready to strike again.
“I would like my effects back.” The stranger looked at her with an uninterested gaze.
Opal looked to the desk where they were, next to the glasses. “Are you not able to see without them?"
The stranger, about to speak up, hesitated when he heard a ringing of the bell from the door. “You have visitors. I will wait.”
Opal and Prism walked out of the back room and locked the door, and trotted to the front desk. A light purple pony walked into the shop as a couple ponies in formal wear followed. Prism looked up in amazement as the pony who had walked in. She smiled wide and introduced herself to her. “Welcome!"
Greetings and good day. Please enter our humble shop Sheriff Shine! May I help you find your arrangement today?” Opal walked out with a charismatic tone and smile.
“You and your friend are ponies of interest in a case of ours.” The two larger ponies walked over and cuffed them.
“Wait ponies of interest in what case? I must admit you haven't the foggiest of what your talking about." Opal chatted at the two as they pulled them towards the door.
We’re just a couple of florists!” Prism yelled as the two Officers dragged them outside.
“A couple of florists have no use for artron energy or regeneration, a couple florists is a good cover, a couple of nobodies. But we saw right through that, and you two “florists” are going to show us your source right now!” The sheriff yelled, a second voice almost noticeable behind her range.
“What is artron energy? What the hay is a regeneration?” Prism asked in panic.
“Prism we should tell them, we should tell them now. There's a pony, a strange pony in our back room. He had a weird weapon and these glowing glasses, he may know what you're speaking of!” Opal stammered, as the Officers turned to the Sheriff. A crash was heard in the back.
“Retrieve the fugitive.” The sheriff demanded, the others walking to the back.
“The papers are going to hear about this, guaranteed.” Prism glared, the sheriff shooting a glance at her.
“Ma’m there is nopony back here!” One of them yelled back.
“He must have ran off. No matter, we have bait.” He pointed outside to the wagon. “Backseat, now.” They dragged them to the car.
The stranger ran outside to the alley and ran to a nearby dumpster, and opened it. He jumped inside and fell on his side. “No Artificial gravity when I park you horizontally! Alright then, scan!” The stranger opened up his glasses and rewound a minute or two of footage back. With a stroke of luck, he got a small picture of whoever captured his captors. He tapped the left side of his glasses, as they brought up a active scan of the Sheriff and her Officers.
As they downloaded they flickered between two active forms, the trio and something else. “Interesting... But we don't have time.” The stranger walked to the console, and activated the helmic regulator, as a loud an ominous bell rang. “We have no time to spare!” It rang again as he turned a gear on the console. “Darling stop this, we have to get in contact with the others.”
The bell rang once again, and the locking down mechanism spun tight. The stranger grit his teeth and yelled. “Oh fine! Fine fine fine, we will help them, but you have to tell me why!” The monitor loaded a diagnostic sheet. On the faults page, it only read "Crew". The stranger stared back at the column. "Them? You need them for a crew?" He walked over to the monitor and the input device and started to type, only for all the keys to stick.
The stranger sighed and turned towards the door. "You want me to risk you and my life to help these two ponies that we don't even know?“ The machine hummed. "I wish I could know your thought process." He ran to the other side of the console and started up the machine. "If we are going to drift through this space we need a better disguise, a trash receptacle isn't the most dignified when we aren't hiding. Now then, let's get this going. We have a problem to solve.” Suddenly, the dumpster glowed with a white light and took off into the sky. The stranger pushed the monitor away to get a hold of the time handbrake, just as it finished the scan of Opal and Prism. A warning flashed over them, reading "PARADOX"
===Hoofway 478===
“No wait this.. No! We didn’t do anything of this sort, I demand a lawyer, I demand my rights!” Opal yelled out and repeated at an ever raised speed. Prism sighed and sat back.
Looking out the window he saw wagons and other ponies pass and something on the horizon. “Opal.” Prism said, with a quiet voice.
“I want an attorney and a lawyer! I will make sure you never- What Prism? I’m negotiating.” Prism said nothing as she pointed outside, at a spinning Gazebo that was catching up to them from the side. Opal looked back as well. "What in the tartarus?"
The sheriff looked back and extended a hoof, as one of the suited ponies attached a odd looking magic cannon-like device. The dark black weapon beeped and blinked with green lights, with a stalactite shaped barrel. “We got a bite, I will take care of it.” She slowly rolled down the side window and opened fire, huge green beams hitting the side of the box.
It stopped spinning and continued to pursue. The door opened to reveal the stranger, holding a metallic white pistol on his hoof. The Sherif fired once more. With a quick reflex, he dodged the blast. On his glasses, the system targeted the carts wheels. He extended his hoof and fired. A neon blue laser with the speed and momentum of a cannonball escaped the barrel of the weapon and set its sights on the wagon. It hit dead on and sent the vehicle careening off the freeway. The sheriff grabbed her two officers and teleported the three of them away quickly.
Time slowed as the adrenaline and sheer panic of Opal and Prism's situation set in. The wagon jerked and spun violently. Opal and Prism were knocked against each other with furious speed. Opal gasped in the pain of being thrown against the door and having Prism fall on him at the same time. He could feel the window crank dig into his shoulder blade. Prism attempted to find a way off of him only for it to spin once again. She was thrown against the other door. The glass shattered as she landed back first onto it. Opal landed on her a moment later with equal force. With all the energy she could muster, she took a hold of the cushion to prevent falling out the window and through the remaining shards. Once more the wagon spun, and landed upon it's top. The two battered ponies were sprawled out on the ceiling of the cab, battered and bruised. From the corner of Opal's green eyes, he saw the gazebo land hard cross the beach, kicking up sand and planting itself firmly.
The trio teleported in front of it, this time all holding blaster. The harmonious sound of multiple blasters charging up sang through the air. "Come out, hooves up!' The leader shouted towards the gazebo. The doors opened and a layer of thick black smoke rolled out. The sound of hoarse coughing could be heard. The pony slowly walked on the beach, his hoof out, aiming his blaster. Immediately the three fired towards his figure with panicked speed. Once again, the stranger seemed to dodge with little to no difficulty. He fired and blasted the two Officers back. The knockback sent them flying and hitting the ground.
“Who are you?!” The Sheriff yelled in rage. He blaster slowly reloaded it's power as he stepped out of the smoke.
The pony's orange eyes were locked on to the leader, following her every move. “That's a very good question, I'll work on that. But I have a question for you.” He looked at her, as his glasses flashed with circular lettering. “Why are you pretending to be the Sheriff of… Manehatten is it?” He raised a confident eyebrow as he turned on his blasters charging pack. The leader roared and her form shimmered, as the leader's dissolved into their true forms. "Wait, I know what you are. Starts with a 'C' right? Perhaps an 'Z'?"
“Changelings! We are Changelings! What are you?" The leader's tone was short and bitter.
Of course Changelings, how could I forget. Shapeshifters that can feed on-" The Captain tapped his hoof to his chin. "-love is it?"
"The very same!" She fired her blaster but the stranger quickly dodged.
"Don't insult me with your terrible aim." The Captain holstered his weapon inside his jacket. "Why are you here?"
"You dare intervene in a situation you don't understand?" The leader took a step back towards the wagon, eyes fixed on the stranger.
"Well your skulking about and taking people. I think that would be cause for investigation in any respect." The Captain followed her slowly and calmly as she walked back to the cart.
“Well, it's a shame I am not in the mood to divulge the secrets of my plan.” The lead changeling looked to her left and nodded. His eyes shot open and he aimed his primed weapon at the stranger. The stranger noticed and took aim. They both fired at the same time. Unfortunately the stranger ended up being the unlucky one. The beam connected and threw him against the gazebo. As he writhed in pain he raised a hoof and tapped the gazebo. The doors closed a moment before another shot was fired. He was hit square on with another shot of the green weapon.
===1 Mile Below Manehatten===
Opal and Prism awoke. They could see nothing but darkness. The room smelled musty and damp. Water droplets fell from above and hit the ground, causing a wavering echo. Opal's mouth opened and tried to speak to Prism. Nothing but a pained grunt came out of him. Prism slowly turned her head to look at her battered partner. A weak smile grew across his bruised face. From behind them, a golden glow illuminated their surroundings. Thick brown rock was carved out in a circular pattern, making a tunnel. They were inside a cage of steel, lifted a few feet off the ground.
Prism looked back and saw the stranger with his hooves glowing yellow. He touched Opals forelimb and a loud "pop" was heard as Opal's limb was realigned. The bruises receded and the cuts shrunk into small scars. He looked to Prism, covered in scratches and shards of glass, and put one hoof on her torn up back, and another above it. The glass slowly left her wounds and she grit her teeth in pain. The hovered up and levitated around his hoof. The wounds slowly closed, and Prism could feel strength returning to her. The Captain looked at his hooves and they dimmed. "40."
"What?" Opal slowly rose up and sat down. His hooves still shook from shock. "What did you do."
"Ponies in your time would call it a spell I guess. If I am correct about this time." The stranger watched as Prism slowly got up on her hooves. "Good."
“Who were those ponies?” Opal shifted his limb, testing out his healed shoulder.
"No." The stranger went to the barred door of the cage and pulled a screwdriver. He wedged it in the plating of the lock and with some force broke the plate off of it. He turned the dial, turning the head into a smaller size. He felt around for a screw.
"No, what do you mean no? I demand answers mister!" With a confident stride he walked up to the stranger. He ignored Opal and set the head on the screw and turned. Opal tapped his shoulder and the stranger dropped the screwdriver.
The stranger looked at his screwdriver and sighed. He swore under his breath in an unintelligible language.
"Hey! Don't ignore him!" Prism shouted at the stranger.
Finally, the stranger turned. "A deal. Let's make one."
Opal was dumbfounded by his words. "A deal? What deal could be made. What are you talking about?!"
The stranger pointed at their scars. "I healed you, so now you do something for me."
Prism's voice was curious yet careful. "Alright, what do we do for you?" Opal turned back and gave her a look of disbelief. She turned to Opal. "He did save our lives. I think."
"It's very simple. Until we get out of here. You two are on my team. You will help me get out of here and figure out what is going on. After that, you will have all your questions answered. Deal?" The Captain's tone was rigid and impatient.
Opal started to speak only for Prism to interrupt him. "We accept."
"Good, now let's figure out how we will get out of here first. Unfortunately my only multi-tool just fell out of reach. My 'magic' doesn't cover levitation. They also have my pistol, so I can't just shoot the lock." The stranger closed the pocket on his jacket. "Also where are we and when?"
"Why do you keep asking about when? We are right now, it's not like we could be anywhere else." Prism set her back hoof against the door and gave it a slight push. "I could probably.. let's see." She gave the door a strong buck straight on the lock with all her might. The door creaked and shook from the force but did not move.
"Again." The stranger took a step back.
"But it didn't work." Prism looked at the door, that showed no hint of buckling. The stranger motioned towards the door. Reluctantly she aimed once again.
The stranger put on his glasses and investigated the door for faults. He put a hoof to the lock, right under a cracked segment. "Right here."
She kicked once again, but this time fell over as the door flew off from her might. Opal grabbed her hoof to prevent her from falling out. She looked at him curiously. "What are you doing?"
"I just thought, I didn't want you to fall." Opal looked at her as she stood up on her hind legs.
"We were only a half a meter off the ground." Prism went back on her four limbs.
"Oh, right." Opal laughed at his mistake with a hint of embarrassment.
The stranger hopped out and looked around the area. "You two are new to the game of near death by "otherworldly" things, so let's do Lesson 1: Observe and deduce. Notice anything yet?” He asked as he walked down the hallway.
Opal quizzically looked towards him. "Lesson 1 of what?"
Prism was taken aback by his comment. "What do you exactly mean by otherworldly?"
The stranger looked back at her with equal confusion. "Well things that don't exist in this world."
"Wait are you telling me that there are things that exist outside of this planet?" Opal was equally confused and intrigued.
"I must be really far back." The stranger started off down a nearby tunnel. The rock was etched into a half moon to give way for many pipes running towards the exit through the tunnel.
"So you are telling us that aliens exist and this is is something alien?" Opal followed along with him.
"Of course not, our enemies come from this planet. If this is Equestria. It's their tech that is otherworldly." The Captain stopped and looked up at the pipes. One of them was louder then the rest, and the sound of churning liquid came from it. "Like this. Observe and deduce, give it a try." He pointed up at the blue and gold accented pipe.
Prism and Opal both examined the pipe. They both seemed stumped and lost about what they were supposed to see. Opal finally piped up with a guess. "That pipe looks… different?”
“Different is a good word, impossible is a better phrase. That is not gold, it is Impervium. Or at least an alloy, mixed with something else. Normal Impervium is, well-" The Captain waited for his team to guess.
"Impervious?" Opal chimed in.
"Yes, there is those context clues I was hoping you would pick up. This alloy seems to be made for liquid magic, while normally it is used for hulls. Here is the problem. Impervium is something you ponies don’t make for around a few hundred centuries. If my idea of where I am in time is correct. Now if someone has that, imagine what they..” The pony trailed off as he continued down the tunnel.
He followed the piping until reaching the end of the tunnel. The trio walked into a large cavern. The cavern was littered with entrances and exits, reminiscent of an ant hive. The room itself was spacious and hollow. The rock walls were charred and chipped with obvious signs of heat. Instead of water droplets, water was pouring onto the rock floor. Dozens of small pools were full of cold water on the floor. Despite the water, the cave was unbearably hot, with the majority of the heat coming from a singular source in the center. Inside the cave was a dish, roughly the diameter of a city block. It's mass was covered in piping, wires, and plating. The dish was aimed up above The heat coming off of it was enough to melt smaller metal corners, giving it stalactites of it's own. The stranger upon the machine. “Now that, that is quite an anomaly. Lesson two, from what you deduced, think of it's purpose.”
Prism looked it up and down. “That thing is used for heating?”
Opal shrugged and looked over it as well. “Well maybe it's for some form of power?”
“Not quite. It's a dish. In the future they are used for communication. Sending and receiving messages. Scanning the cosmos." Water dropped down onto the trio from a leaky piping above.
"Did you just say the future?" Opal looked over. "Are you from the future?"
"Here is the thing, this is no communication device. This is used for receiving. But this is not used for-Oh! Yes of course!” He shouted.
Two figures entered the cavern from the other side. Prism took notice and pushed them both behind a stalagmite for cover. Prism hid behind as well. "Continue explaining future stallion, quietly."
He collected his thoughts an looked up at the piping. “This place is giving off all that heat for a reason. All this power is used to run something on a massive scale. But all we see is this dish, which means the dish is doing something massive, but what?"
"To be honest you are talking complete gibberish, but continue." Opal tried to make sense of what he was saying.
The Captain closed his eyes. “If it is for receiving, it can no doubt sense our presence. Like radar.” The Captain got up. "Time to go."
Before they could get away the two guards took aim behind them, the sound of humming from their blasters was barely audible from the water. One of them spoke up. "You will be coming with us."
The trio stopped and turned. The Changelings motioned down the stairs and brought them over to the leader. The head changeling interacted on the dish before she turned. “So our little surprise returns to us. I didn’t think that cell would hold you, what with your unseen advantage.”
“A simple to escape prison, in which you knew I would escape from. I'm not dealing with the top brass am I? Who controls you and why are you here?” The stranger stared down the leader. Opal and Prism hid behind their strange co-conspirator.
“I am the soon to be Queen of the Royal Changeling Caste, Division 652! You may call me Net!” She exclaimed proudly, pulling out a keycard from the machine and putting it on her necklace.
He took a breath after a moment of thought. “You're not from this time, your tech denotes it."
"Obvious, but what more can you pick up?" Net's voice had the air of fake interest. Behind her, the dish's hum was slowly rising.
The Captain looked around the room. He saw the dish, covered in metal and piping. Down the cavern were broken pods. He then turned his gaze to Net herself. Her stance and body language showed the charisma and confidence of a natural leader. Her two guards were following her orders without question. On the corner of her horn however, was a single symbol. A changeling wing. Gotcha. "I don't know much about this planet, but I know a lot about what came from it. You are from the time of the Changeling Colony War, at the dawn of time travel and machines. I remember my species holding you back in the invasion of the Reverie. So with time travel in your possession, you can go anywhere. Escape your loss. Yet you come here of all times and why would you? You're coming back to change the past of course, or else my machine wouldn't care about you. But this device is the biggest problem. What is it?"
"Something that will help me get ahead of my enemy." Net cackled. "You are really interesting, you know that?"
"So you hide here and you use plasma to melt a cavern big enough to house this thing. You feed on ponies and stay hiding. Obviously you have had a run in with my friend back there, considering his heart rate is through the roof." The stranger looked back at Opal, who was absolutely terrified.
Opal's voice was weak and his confident tone was gone. "I always thought I dreamed it." He grabbed his head, shivering in pain.
"On top of all that you used memory magic on him? How sloppy can you get?" The Stranger scoffed at her.
The Changeling behind Prism spoke up. "Excuse me high and mighty, I was after someone and he got in the way, I didn't want to leave any trace."
Net shouted at the Changeling. "Silence!"
The Stranger continued. "So that leaves two big questions. What is this dish for and why can I remember things now?"
A sly smile spread across Net's face. "What was that last one?"
"Why can I remember where you are from and what these things are I couldn't remember before." The Captain looked up at the dish as a small headache formed. She made calm steps before she was within a few inches of him as he stood there. He attempted to move only to find that he couldn't. He wasn't in control of his own hoof, or any of him for that matter.
Net tapped his head, as he stood motionlessly. “You think your so smart. But you missed the biggest thing staring in front of you. This machine you see, literally gets me "a head" of my enemy. It's a scanner. Got it now?"
So... your.. scanning.. me?" The Stranger's words slowly left his frozen form.
"Allow me to have a turn. You show up covered in Artron energy. You are a time traveler too. Why come here is a good question. But the answer evades even you. You are a pilot of some sort, and your jacket shows badges of the pegasus fighting force and other symbols. But you have no wings. This is quite a puzzle." Net opened his jacket and looked in his pocket. "Dimensionally Transcendental jacket." The two guards shrugged at her. Net rolled her eyes. "It's bigger on the inside. You are an alien too. Let's see what the machine has to saw to confirm my theory." Net levitated a nearby helmet to her. She plugged in a cord and connected it into the dish and set it on her head. Her horn glowed with purple energy and Opal whimpered behind the Stranger.
"Ru..le.. Three. Surv.." The Captains voice dimmed as his mind was scanned through by the dish.
Net took off the helmet quickly and took a breath. "There is a lot in there, mostly useless. But I was right on a few things. You are an alien. Your lost and you don't remember why. But the fun part is I was almost right. Your name.. is gone. But you have a title." She leaned in near his ear and whispered. "Don't you, Captain." Net threw the helmet against him. It bounced off his head and landed on the ground. "Welcome to a hive mind. Everything is shared." Net looked at the guards. “Dispose of his friends, we have no use for them. I now have all I need.” The Guards pulled them away as the Captain's mind continued to be uploaded to the dish.
Prism looked at Opal as they were slowly taken to a waterfall inside a cavern. The Guards stayed behind them as the Prism looked at Opal. She tapped his shoulder, and got no response. Opal's gaze was lost among his own fear and memory. Prism tried again, this time lightly slamming her left side into his right, nearly knocking him down. He suddenly looked at her and yelled loudly, pulled back into reality.
"What!?"
"Quiet back there!" The left Changeling bellowed at them.
Prism spoke in a low whisper. "Opal, you home?"
"Yeah, I am home." Opal stared down at his hooves.
"Look I know your having a difficult time, what with the evil insect shapeshifters clouding your memory, but if we don't come up with something now, that might be the last thing you ever remember." Prism ducked down to get in Opal's vision.
Opal nodded shakily. "Maybe we can use that device."
"What device?" Prism gazed around the room.
"I mean the stranger, that Captain. He had that handheld cannon that shot light." Opal noticed that the Changeling on the right was holding two blasters. "That one is holding it. If we get it to work maybe we can get an advantage.”
Prism nodded. “Yes, but how would we get it from him?"
Opal took a slow breath to calm down. "I have an idea. I think we can take these guys. You feel like acting?.”
"Of course." Prism whispered back. "Do you know what you want to do?"
Opal thought for a moment. "No, I don't know what we can do."
"How about some "Star Crossed Fighters" , scene 23." Prism offered. "You ready?"
Opal stretched out his forelimb slowly. "Yes, that would do well. You play Top Contender."
The Changeling Guards took them to an underground waterfall and pushed them near the edge. Prism looked down and gulped as he saw stalagmites out of the water in the pool below. She looked at Opal, and then at them. “I know we are going to die but please, at least give me a moment with Opal.” The two Changelings looked at them and then at each other. “Please… I’m begging you.”
They nodded as Opal and Prism hugged each other. Prism nodded slowly as Opal grabbed onto her side. "Ready."
After a moment the Changeling Guards came closer. The changeling holding the blaster spoke up. "That is enough." It charged up the cannon and aimed at them.
With all the force she could muster, she swung Opal 180 degrees in the air and used him as a blunt object. Opal extended his hind legs as his hooves came in contact with their heads, the impact throwing them back on the floor. Prism used the momentum and carefully threw Opal away from her and towards the second Changeling. He landed hard next to the dazed Changeling and reached for the weapon. They both grabbed it and pulled. Opal couldn't match the strength of the creature and let go, causing the weapon to be thrown against the wall. Opal attempted a few blows to it's head, screaming obscenities at it. "You evil despicable creature you piece of garbage beetle!"
The Changeling hissed and gave Opal a hard right hook. Opal fell to the floor, tasting iron in his mouth. He and the changeling locked eyes before looking at the gun. Opal spit out some blood and ran towards the gun, along with the Changeling. Opal tried his best but the Changeling was faster. Before he could get his hoof on it the changeling picked it up. The changeling smiled as he took aim at Opals head with the blaster. "Nice try pony."
As the blaster charged, the changeling was suddenly grabbed by Prism and thrown against the wall. "Wrong move Changeling." She deftly kicked the blaster towards Opal. He grabbed it as Prism slowly backed up as the Changeling got up and started to stalk towards her, it's comrade joining. “Come at me then!” Prism charged them head on as they did the same. With a confident roar, she stood up at the last second, clothes-lining them back onto the ground.
Opal fumbled with the blaster and rapidly shook it. “Come on.. come on.. help me!” After a few more random movements, the blaster glowed white and emitted a high pitched whining noise, causing the Changelings to cover their ears and shriek.
Prism took this situation to grab each of their heads and bashed them together, knocking them out. She picked up both their weapons. “We need to turn off that dish thing!” Prism walked over to him, brushing some dirt off herself.
Opal shook his head. “We need to save the Captain first!”
Prism shook her head. “No we have to stop the machine first!”
Opal sighed and turned off the blaster. “No, this Net pony stopped everything to focus on one pony’s head! There must be something dangerous he knows!”
Prism walked down the hall. “You're right, but your point means nothing if we can’t stop the machine either way.”
Opal followed. “This thing must do something, it can screw up a Changeling, maybe it can screw up these pipes? Lesson 1, observe and deduce." Opal looks around and saw the same piping on the side of the wall. "These things move the magic that powers the machine about. The pipes must store magic and circulate it in some form of liquid form. But why not just have that inside of the machine? Why can't the machine hold it all.."
Prism looked at the liquid magic flowing through a transparent piece of pipe. "Why not.... liquid. Ooh! Oh I got it, I got the answer!"
"What do you got?" Opal asked.
"Why can't a sewer hold all the overflow water?" Prism exclaimed.
"Overflow! They can't hold it all at once. This is an overflow pipe! But with magic! Hun your a genius!" Opal shouted.
"We're a genius." She smiled as Opal stood back. Prism ripped off the transparent panel, which revealed a steady stream of pure magic in a plasma-like state. “How did you make it work before?” Prism asked, tossing the panel off to the side.
“Well.. last time I concentrated on finding a way to help you. If only I could get it to help me again.. Wait that's it! If I focus on it maybe I could make it change the direction?” Opal smacked the blaster against the pipe a couple times. “Maybe it has some sort of mind reading spell on it. I will think about making the liquid shot through the pipe and into the dish. Then all I have to do is aim and fire!” Prism backed up as Opal aimed and closed his eyes, and started to pull the trigger. He fired and the laser arced into the pipe. It glowed with electric energy and it all started rushing into the dish. "We did it!"
Prism extended her hoof. "Here, let me take that. You use this one." She switched the Captain's weapon for one of the changeling's weapons.
Prism looked towards the caverns main area and ran. “Lesson 3. He didn't get to tell us so let's make it up. I say Lesson 3 is we save the Captain."
Opal put the weapon into one of the pockets of his dirty uniform. "I will distract Net. You tear that dish apart, make sure that it stops working. Then save the Captain.”
“My specialty is destruction, other than spring arrangements.” Prism ran off towards the cavern and Opal followed.
In the main cavern the Captain sat, looking pale and weak, mumbling to himself, eyes locked upon the large dish. Net cackled in delight at his plight. “Enjoying the machine? Built it myself, and was it complex."
Behind Net, Prism sneaked onto the dish and pulled out the screwdriver. She opened a plate and went inside.
"I must say though, I am impressed your mind hasn't already melted. What kind of alien are you?" Net smacked the Captain. "Not like you could tell me." Net trotted over to the panel and examined it. All the warning alarms were suddenly going off in front of her, and the red lights of the panel covered her face. Enraged, she grabbed the Captain by his jacket collar and shook him. “The power, it's draining! How is this happening? What did you do!?”
Opal ran into the room and stopped. “It’s over!"
Net glared at the small earth pony. "Ah, the coward comes back."
"Whatever you are doing, you won't be doing it ever again!" Opals words were shaky and full of fear.
"Wow, you idiots haven't figured it out yet?" Net turned and looked at the tunnel. "Where are my Guards?"
"We took care of them." Opal took a deep breath and pushed back his fear.
"Who are you?" Net slowly went for her weapon.
“Oh me? I am nobody, just a florist, and I'm pulling the roots out of this operation.” Opal smiled, distracting himself with his silly pun,
Net roared and opened fire on Opal. Her blasts hit the ground on his ledge. He jumped off and aimed back at her. The blaster fired at her and missed repeatedly. Opal fell to the ground with a rough thud.
Net laughed at Opal heartily. "You are pretty bad at this." She trotted towards him, and aimed her weapon at his head. "Sorry it didn't work out for you. But I must say it was quite a funny failure." The gun charged and Opal closed his eyes and whispered something quietly. Net leaned in. "What was that?
"I said that.." Opal coughed and smiled.
"Spit it out." Net pushed the barrel against his temple, leaning his head up.
Behind Net Opal could see Prism climb out of the machine as it powered down. She silently shook the Captain and handed him a weapon. He looked back up a Net. "I said that you are quite stupid if you think I was the hero in this."
"What are you talking about?" Net's weapon was almost fully charged.
"Don't you know a distraction when you see one, you bucking fool?" Opal smiled, his teeth stained with blood. He leaned his head behind her and looked at Prism. "Ready?" Net looked back and Opal ripped the keycard off her necklace.
Net roared and turned around to see the Captain and Prism aiming at her. She fired at the Captain, who dodged and fired back. The light hit her gun and blew it up in her hoof. She pulled back her forelimb and held it in pain. The Captain walked over. "You're right about one thing."
"What is that?" Net looked down at her burnt hoof.
"In a hive mind, everything is shared. You use this dish to latch onto the magic of the ponies in town to power it. Using this immense power you harvest the subconscious thoughts of the town, as well as drain their magic doing it. Perpetual motion of magic, ponies powering their own mind reading. Using that massive amount of magic you can sift through thought and find patterns and like traits." The Captain sat down next to her. "When I found that I asked myself why you wouldn't just drain love? But that is short term thinking. You don't need a quick meal. You need a farm. The greatest edge a changeling can have to assimilate into pony society and sap the love they need for energy is knowing what's inside every head of every pony. Put this dish under, let's say an enemy camp. Suddenly you know battles plans, tactics, who is a coward and who is the weak link. Of course though, it all starts here. This is your genome project.”
Net spoke through her bared fangs, halfway hissing with every word. "So you read my mind, big deal. I know more about you then you will ever know."
The Captain took a breath. "That doesn't matter right now. I will destroy this project, because I know full well why your doing this. What you are messing with is a fixed point in time, and even if you do harvest the city, the power you will gain will still not be enough to win the war against the Ponies. I can guarantee it.”
"What is a fixed point?" Prism asked, perplexed.
"A moment in time that cannot be altered. A timelines anchor if you will. She wants to attempt to change one because her kind and your kind war centuries from now. It doesn't end well." The Captain looked at Prism's confused gaze. "Time rules."
Net scoffed at him. “What I am doing is for the survival of our species! I knew we couldn't win, the ponies had an ace in the hole nopony could ever of accounted for. This will be enough to turn the tide! Even a soldier like you could understand, Captain.”
"Bring that up again I dare you." The Captain fired at her hooves. She jumped back quickly and narrowly avoided getting hit. The dish started to crack and creak. The pipes lit up with a intense blue light and the final alarms were set off. The room was filled with constant sirens. "Now what?"
Net peered up to the dish. "The systems gone critical. You have overloaded my safety systems. You didn't ever think that would be a problem when you ripped it apart? You have doomed yourself and this whole planet.”
"It's not like you have it any better." The Captain callously responded.
Net smirked and turned to him. “Oh I have a trick up my sleeve. Me and my crew have a fail-safe.” She pulled out a small device from her bag. “Goodbye, and see you in Tartarus!” She teleported away in front of them.
The Captain cursed and ran towards the console. He pulled out his glasses and examined the remains. "Big mistake."
He ripped out the panel and flipped some switches. The entire machine started to teleport in the same way Net did.
“What are you doing!?” Prism said as she helped Opal up.
“I’m saving the city.” He continued as Prism got closer. "Just have to use the remaining magical energy to send the entire system up to where she went. That was a long range teleporter, which means she probably has a ship. I connect the code to this and boom."
Prism yelled and grabbed him by the jacket. “You're going to kill her!?”
“I may not have the time to reroute the teleportation signal. We're wasting time.” He powered the transport.
“Stop, now.” Opal and Prism stood up, Opal grabbed a discarded changeling weapon and took aim.
The Captain looked at the dish and back at them. “You're going to attack me to save the creature who just tried to murder the town?”
“She retreated, and you have no right!” Prism advanced.
“She will just go somewhere else and do the same.” The Captain casually waved off their concerns. "Opal, you want the creatures who messed with your mind to get away?"
"I just want them gone." Opal kept the weapon trained on the Captain.
“You're just getting vengeance on a retreating foe.” Prism stood her ground.
The Captain glared at them before throwing the switch, as it started to teleport. "I don't have a choice"
"There is always a choice." Prism moved to the side as Opal fired the Captains weapon into the panel. The weapon overloaded and exploded, causing Opal to throw it to the ground.
The Captain grabbed the smoking controls. "Now what do I do? What have you done?" He shimmered with the same light and in that instant The Captain and the machine both teleported at the same time.
Another quake of the cave shook as the dish fell through the ground before being teleported away. Opal and Prism fell to the ground from the shockwave. The cave floor tilted and fell through the hole as Prism grabbed Opal's hoof and pull them both back into the waterfall cave.
He fell down upon the ground and Prism ran over. “We have to get out of here!” Opal ducked as a few stalactites fell down.
Without hesitating for a second, Prism grabbed Opals hoof and ran towards the waterfall. Opal yelled as they grew close. “What are you doing!?”
“Saving our hides!” She jumped down the waterfall, holding tight onto his hoof as the cavern fell into itself. Opal and Prism were pulled away from the chaos through the river, as the cave was no more.
=== The Captain's Ship: Mess Hall, 7th Floor===
The silver capsule was slowly going through deep space, in drift mode. The Captain was asleep at the bar of the mess hall. He woke up suddenly and looked around. In his mind he heard whispers slowly fade away. This will do for/His blood contains/I do hope. He looked to the ceiling, and then doors. "How did I get here!?" There was no answer as the ship was quieter then normal. "How am I alive?" No response once again around him.
"Fine, I will look myself." He opened up the flight history of his ship as he poured a glowing yellow beverage into a glass.
He stopped, seeing some sort of tubing in his forelimb. He yanked it out with a wince and a few drops of blood spilled out. He took a look at the tube. It looked to be an IV tap. Suddenly the ship felt much less safe then before. He opened up the radar systems. Nobody was shown on screen. He took a careful drink.
"Load me any events up until me waking up. I want to know who did this and put me here." As they load he sat back and looked at the music interface terminal box on the other end of the hall. He took a drink, grimacing a bit and spun his chair to face the box. The Captain rolled up a ice cube in a napkin and threw it across the room, hitting the “on” switch and making the old player crackle to life, playing a somber, but upbeat jazz number.
The Captain stared at the logs. “What… is this?” Holographic text appeared near a monitor in the bar, showing more strange alien lettering. “These are not the logs I requested.” The computer attempted to load them but failed, showing more spinning words. "What do you mean deleted? I am the only one who can touch the data files!" Suddenly there was a noise behind him. The Captain spun to his right, seeing an old journal fall upon the counter.
The Captain pulled it over, immediately recognizing it. “My old log.” The Captain sighed and opened the log as another upbeat dance number played. He slid some photos around before he picked one up, seeing himself and other Time Lords dressed in the same red and yellow robes in formation. Putting them and some other sketches aside, he read.
-Logbook of the Captain of the Royal Gallifreyan Fleet Ship 9815
Sentinel Mission 23
Report 1442
Location: Raxacoricofallapatorious
Galactic Century: 76
Summary: The Slitheen again attempted to cause trouble, as my new recruit Found. We INfiltrateD a galactic black arm’s deal, in wHich the SlitheEn happiLy sold out the defense weaknesses of their neighboring Planet in exchange for cyber weaponry for their hostile takeover. Yosidra and I posed as Cyber Units within the group, and waited to strike. Very quickly We were found out, ANd without the keen eyes and ideAs of our new duo, we would have been deleted in seconds. They were able to remotely disable the emotion chips, which disabled the cyber army and made it all the easier to reveal ourselves and neutralize the Slitheen. A century or two in Stormcage for Our Perpetrators was bArgained with the nearby cLeric forces, and we were off without a hitch. I would never be able to do such a thing without the new members, full commendations are recommended. Over and out.
The Captain stared at his logbook for a long time, in silence. The jazz faded out and switched to a gentle melody. The Captain wiped the tears from his eyes and looked up. “Who are these ponies?" The silence continued. "Who was I, before this. Before this me?" The monitor flashed with "No Data", instead loading other ponies in different images with "Time Agent" captioned below. Time... Agent?
The Captain opened his archives and spoke. "Show me Time Agent." The archives flashed images of a middle aged pony, with yellow fur and a short greasy black mane. His eyes stared through the picture with almost fearsome aura. Why does this pony make me so uneasy?.
Captain swiped past his images and the pictures of the other ponies from his log. "I've seen those already. Does that mean they were Time Agents?"
The computer responded with a positive chime.
"I'm a Time Agent, aren't I?" The Captain stared at the pony next to the dark maned pony in the center.
The computers chime once again was accurate.
"What is a Time Agent? Who am I?" The Captain studied the picture closely.
The computers logs switched to a mechanical voice. "A Time Agent is a integral group of the Gallopfreyan Corps. The second oldest group in Gallopfreyan history. Description available."
The Captain nodded. "Play description."
A video loaded on the monitor, showing a elderly time pony in the traditional red and yellow garb. "Hail, my Time Ponies, lords and ladies."
The Captain watched the video intently. Lord and Lady must be titles.
The video continued. "You have been selected for the most noble cause of being a Time Agent! For as long as time manipulation has existed, time has been used and abused. Corruption, hatred, revenge, these are not reasons to use the gift of temporal knowledge. This is the act of a coward or abuser of time. Your job, your task, your life's purpose is to root out injustice caused by misuse of time, revert remade timelines, and prevent and remove paradoxes. Your TARDIS' has the tech to find them-"
The Captain looked around his ship. "TARDIS."
"-and when your done with training, I am sure you will have the heart to stop them. This is Lord Rassilon, and I wish you all a good education." The elder laughed faintly and the video ended.
The Captain stared at the kind elder in the video for a long time before turning around. "Gallopfrey. Darling, do we have the coordinates to Gallopfrey on our computer?" The computer loaded an image of an Orange and yellow planet on the screen. "Perfect! We got it!" The Captain ran quickly into the console room and primed the circuits.
"Reroute temporal power, I want to be there the moment we left. We're going home!" The TARDIS swayed through the vortex as the Captain controlled the descent. The TARDIS landed with a rough thud, knocking his coat rack down. The Captain ran up to it and set it right before going to the door. He took a deep breath. "I got knocked off course, crew is missing, sorry sir yes sir." He took a hold of the door handles and swung them open
===Two months later, Manehatten Downtown===
Opal woke up and yawned, the sun's light illuminating inside the room. He walked over to the mirror and looked at himself. He opened his mouth, taking a look at his chipped tooth, and set his jaw back in place. He turned to Prism, snoring loudly on the bed. He opened the curtains just a bit to not wake Prism and took a look at the skyline. The dull grey buildings shined back in his face. He leaned on the window frame and watched the ponies line the streets, heading off to work and down the street to the theatre.
He closed the curtains and turned to see Prism awake. Prism leaned over and picked up her glass of water. "Hey 'hun what's up?"
"Just checking." Opal closed the curtains.
"Well howse about we check the shipments. Big festival soon." Prism rolled out of bed and looked inside her nightstand. Inside were two of the changeling's weapons and the Captains weapon, charred and torn apart. She closed it back up and locked it. The entire building shook suddenly as the ceiling buckled. Opal and Prism looked at each other and sprinted up to the roof.
The Captain slowly exited the TARDIS, still in it’s Gazebo Form. His once ragged maned was now layered and cut, combed back. His tail was cut short and his jacket was cleaned. His cutie mark of an orange circle was partially hidden by the pilot jacket itself. He took off his glasses and stared at them. They stared right back in silence. The Captain cleared his throat. "How is this going to go down?" “The generator was sent to deep space. Net was not targeted in the blast. You two saved her.”
Prism slowly walked up to him, and hit him with a left hook to the jaw, which made him fall back a bit. “You abandoned us, in a COLLAPSING cave you bucking fool! Were you trying to kill us?”
“Well that was your fault actually.” The Captain rubbed his jaw. “That really hurt.”
“What do you mean our fault?” Opal walked up.
"I didn't teleport myself out of there. That was your doing." He looked to Opal. "You overloaded the power cells of my laser pistol. It sent the machine and operator away. That means me."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Prism looked at her hoof and took a step back.
"You were right in the end. As much as I wanted to, she would have no way to repeat what she did. It was over but I didn't let it be over." The Captain looked at Opal's uniform. "Where is my pistol?"
"Ill go get it." Opal ran off back downstairs.
The Captain pulled a glass flask out of his jacket pocket and took a sip. "I do know one thing."
"What is that?" Prism sat down on the ground.
"I saw you guys argue, survive a wagon crash, almost get killed twice, and have no idea what your doing. Yet you figured out how my blaster worked and saved me. You faced changelings and won. Teamwork. You two acted as one almost, working together. Through the whole thing, you two subdued enemies and solved problems outside of your understanding. All you two needed was each other to win. I need a crew like that.” The Captain picked his glasses back up and put them on. "You even did it without compromising your ethics and surpassing mine."
“What do you mean crew?” Prism leaned and looked behind the Captain. "For your Gazebo?"
The Captain turned and looked as well. "Is that what it is?"
"You don't know what your own flying Gazebo is?" Prism gaze was of confusion.
"It can be anything. Hold on." The Captain fumbled around his pockets and pulled out a small key. He shook it lightly and aimed it a shed in the yard over from their building.
The Gazebo shone with a white light and turned into an exact replica in front of Prisms eyes. She stared in awe as he put the key back in his pocket. "How did you..?"
Opal walked out holding the blaster. He looked up and gasped. "Where did your flying Gazebo go? Who put that there?"
"I.. It's not." The Captain, exasperated at his misunderstanding, pointed at the door. "Just come in."
Opal and Prism crammed themselves through the small wooden door of the "shed". The lights were off and it was pitch black. Opal felt around the area. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Just this." The Captain ran to the console in the darkness and switched on the power. The large room opened up before Opal and Prism's astonished eyes. "She isn't a gazebo. She isn't a shed. She is a TARDIS."
"A TARDIS?" Opal leaned down and saw a huge power core funneling under the console deck.
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space." The Captain closed the doors behind them and looked at the monitor.
"Time? As in time travel?" Prism slowly trotted across the grated floor of the console room.
"Time, space, anything." The crystal inside the main tube of the room swiveled slowly.
"What are you?" Opal examined him for any signs of difference to a normal earth pony. Nothing tipped him off.
"I am an alien. This is my ship." The Captain leaned on the console and a small smile escaped him, seeing Opal and Prism's wonder at his machine.
"Where are you from?" Prism walked up to the main control and took a look at the dozens of dials, switches, and buttons.
"If I may, you have asked questions all throughout our adventure. May I ask one?" The Captain interrupted Prism calmly. She nodded and he continued. "I need a crew. There is an infinity of sights to be seen and battles to be won out there. I can't possibly do it all alone. Come with me?"
"But the shop?" Opal offered.
"Time machine. Anywhere, anytime. We can be gone for a month and be back in five minutes. So, come with me?" The Captain put his hand on the door switch. "Your choice."
Opal and Prism looked to each other. Prism and Opal spoke at the same time. "Well?"
Prism laughed. "You owe me a carrot soda."
Opal looked back at the city skyline from the door. "I say yes. If you promise not to be so vicious."
Prism looked back at the Captain. "Looks like you have a crew. Where to Captain?"
"Everywhere, I think." The Captain closed the door and activated the engines. The shed slowly dissipated from the roof and into the cosmos.
