A million tries and a million more

by The Psychopath

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure, Tragedy, Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe
Length: 1690

A 'pony' looks over his attempts at elevating pony kind in the dozens of timelines he has gone to, and he feels his fatigue growing.

Many people have dreams. Some have small dreams that are easily accomplished, and they are satisfied with it. Others have dreams so big it requires a lot of time and effort to accomplish it, but many do so if they have the conviction.

One such stallion has actually bent the laws of time and space to travel between realities just to accomplish this. He just wants one success after the millions of years he's tried. He is currently at his fifty-fifth try.

This is the prequel to the story I'll write in the future called 'The Weary Traveler'.

Published 2017-09-22 10:40:07 UTC
Last updated 2017-09-22 10:40:07 UTC

No More

High above the skies of Canterlot was a massive black object replete with angles and turns. The citizens in the streets were galloping around, screaming and yelling about the object in question. No entity that ever attacked Canterlot was bigger than the castle itself, and nothing before had ever resembled it. Guards and self-appointed protectors of Canterlot were running about to-and-fro, unsure of what to do. The object moaned loudly as its metallic body rotated slightly, terrifying more of the cowardly ponies around. Some of the pegasi at Canterlot charged into the object, lances under hoof, but they only bounced off and were met with non-lethal bursts of electricity, casting them to those on the ground below. Some spells were cast as well, but they fared no better than the pegasi, and the same results came to be.

The object opened up, creating a bright white light from which a tiny object could be seen descending. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna awaited in front of the beam of light landing in front of the castle's entrance. Upon seeing the unwelcome guest, the ponies present were overcome with shock and cringed at the appearance of the figure.

"What manner of creature are you?" Luna asked before covering her mouth. "What foul magics have caused such an appearance?!"

"No magics," the figure calmly stated. "I am a pony, like you," he added. "I just differ in appearance, but I haven't come here to speak with you about fashion sense. I've come with an offer."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "So you say, as an alien, to us." She looked up and bared a tooth. "Yet you come to my home in a massive metal monstrosity, without warning, and terrify us."

"Well, I figured you would all see it from the distance and be well prepared."

"How could we prepare for something we've never seen before?"

"I--"

Luna stepped in. "Furthermore, you tell us of an offer. I would like to know what it is."

The armor of surrounding guards crumbled noisily when they readjusted themselves.

"I'm a traveler from many, many timelines and millions of years in the past. My purpose is to prevent you from following in the hoofsteps of my own people and ascend beyond the decay that nature gives, be it natural or fabricated."

"And how are you to accomplish this goal?" Celestia wondered. "So far your actions haven't exactly been passive."

The visitor's eyes narrowed. "How so?" he asked in a less joyful tone.

The white alicorn pointed to the monstrosity in the sky. "That thing of yours. Quite the warmachine brought under the guise of a peaceful being."

"Am I not entitled to protect my only home beyond the stars and time?"

"It was clearly capable of resisting the attacks caused by the guards, yet it still electrocuted them and nearly killed the pegasi from their drops."

"It is but a self-defense mechanism, to do as I have mentioned."

"But such 'spells' are excessively powerful," Luna noted. "One could consider them as 'overkill'."

"I assure you, my only intentions of destruction are towards the possibility of your civilization being destroyed. I don't want this to happen again."

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and nodded. "Detain him and deconstruct his alleged 'home'," Luna ordered her guards.

"But, princesses!" the visitor pleaded. "You needn't do this! I know how you feel about the situation, with the versions of you I have encountered before. You are so very much alike! You only wish for the peace and prosperity of your people. I can bring that! I can let them see a world the likes of which their dreams could never fashion."

"Most likely to control us," Celestia spat. She approached the visitor and poked him in the chest with her hoof. "I've seen enough of you so-called 'Bringers of prosperity', and that metallic abomination in the sky tells me all I need to know." She waved at the guards around. "Detain him, deconstruct the machine, and bring the Elements of Harmony. One cannot be certain enough."

When six guards tried to detain the pony, the visitor used their own 'brand' of magic to repel the the guards far away, unharmed save perhaps for their destroyed weapons and armor.

The visitor was quite malcontent, and by what Luna could see, at his wit's end. "You think your 'scary face' frightens us? You won't harm our subjects!"

"I tried to reason with you passively, but I see that this timeline is overly aggressive," the visitor hummed.

Several beams of red light shot at the lunar alicorn, disintegrating everything around and scorching what wasn't directly hit. All that was left of her was a massive black crater. The guards stared, mouths agape, as Celestia cried out for her sister. The figure displayed a face of apathy and fatigue at the sight and walked away from Celestia.

"DON'T YOU DARE WALK AWAY FROM ME!"

Her whole body was surging with energy and sun rays, but the visitor didn't care.

"Thrice I was rejected, and thrice have I tried again. Many times before was I betrayed. Many times before had I been attacked. I've grown tired of it. I cannot stand it anymore." The figure looked behind their shoulder and focused on Celestia. "Goodbye, ponies."

The metallic construct in the sky started to shoot beams of red and purple in every direction facing the ground. Spells were fired at it to no avail. More ponies charged at it, only to be singed by the electrical field. The visitor was taken back in a beam of light, but during this moment of vulnerability, Celestia tried to strike him down. She was taken down herself by a deafening thundercrack of a cannon shot impacting her point-blank and casting her into the castle, destroying it with a massive explosion. In the cockpit of the vessel, the visitor looked on angrily. They were absolutely livid.

"Millions of years have I spent trying to help them, and I have tried so hard. Why are these ones so ripe with anger and betrayal?"

"Perhaps because they advanced this way?" a feminine voice explained. "It's just a theory." She walked to the window and clapped her hooves. "Oh, goody! You finally resorted to killing them until they obey!"

Several beams of light scorched the lands below, and a single missile made of pure magic impacting the lands spread out a plague of destruction. Everything was turning into a dull, dusty landscape accentuated by the beams of light created by the vessel. The mare's joy turned to abject horror.

"No. They die. I've lost billions of friends and family over my lifetime, and they are just one timeline. There are others where I haven't done this, and they should be grateful. I know what to approach." The visitor's voice cracked when he tried to stifle a crying fit. "Many times...Many times I ask myself how I can go on. That I should just let it go and seep into the streams of life where they all await. Then I remember why I'm doing this, and I carry on."

Another city came into view and was evaporated by several joined beams of red light.

"And yet you kill them all?"

"They refused me, attacked me, threatened me, and were going to destroy my only home where my very few remaining friends lie." The visitor looked out to see warmachines pitted against their home, to no avail. "They will pay for angering me so. Every time I tried to help, THEY TRIED TO KILL ME!" he yelled. "WE'LL SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN YOUR ENTIRE FUTURE IS TAKEN FROM YOU!"

A few days later, and the ship was being attacked by six ponies lambasted with rainbow magic enhanced by a tree of crystal. The criticisms did not register, and the magic was overpowered by the vessel and its eldritch tech. A massive crater was all that remained of the ponies and their tree.

The visitor grumbled and spoke with a low tone of voice. "And thus the feudal ponies were shocked at the magic of the sorceror before them, but the ponies of the future saw this to be technology. Just as now, any technology advanced enough is the same as magic to those who never learned to use them."

The lands of ice to the north tried to protect themselves with magic shields and stubbornness, but much like a hammer to an anvil, the superheated, pliable metal was bent downwards. Beaches and sand were turned into little more than transparent graves for those who lived there, and mountains were flattened into rubble.

Much later still, the planet had been turned into a barren ball of dust. No magic, no myth, and no curse could stop the visitor's anger and rage. Only contaminated skies that let through nary a shred of pure sunlight could attest to the visitor's actions and intentions. The pony looked on with a face of regret, yet they were more disgusted by their own feelings of apathy than their actions.

"Let us go to another timeline," the pony said with a calm and rough voice. "Note this as the fifty-fifth attempt, but color it red and in a black box, that I may know what I have done."

"Whatever you say," a male voice answered. "I just hope that your anger at these frustrating events have subsisted."

The visitor twitched a bit, their back still turned to their friends. "No. I am still filled with rage, fury, a tremendous sadness, and low expectations. Do not expect me to be lenient with the next ones if they behave in the same manner..." The visitor huffed. "I just want ONE attempt to be successful." Their breathing was uneven and fractured. "So many ponies have died in front of me and in my forelegs, and I can never see them again. I want it to end, but that would mean the end of every single pony of every single potential reality."

"So you continue on. We're aware. That's why we went with you. We won't leave your side either."