TLHoE: Prologue

by ChillPill

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 10181

When the truth is revealed. Who will be left to rule?

When Fizz Whistle shows up in PonyVille, in a way nopony would have guessed, it results in him having to take shelter in that small town. He meets some new ponies and settles in. However, he has a few secrets that result in a drastic uproar in Ponyville.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-20 06:17:24 UTC

Sound of the Whistle

In the middle of Ponyville everypony was going about their business. All was taking place as if nothing irregular would come about. A sudden crackle and arc of electricity appeared in the air, building up. In a blinding flash of light and thunderous burst of power an earth pony stood in the black crater the blast left behind, wearing a pair of goggles.

"Oww...", Not moving at all, the earth pony began to speak, "I appear to be paralyzed…", shaking his neck around, some ash came off of him. His purple, spiked up mane sprung up, "…And blind.”

The ponies stood and stared at the pony with the purple mane.

“Is anypony there? Aaaanypony at all?”. Soon, an entity tackled into the paralyzed pony, leaving a rainbow streak in its wake and sending both of them into a wall.

“Oh, heheheh. You okay?”, the blue coated, rainbow maned Pegasus mare asked.

“More or less.”, the ash covered earth Pony replied.

“You need some help?”

“Well, I seem to be paralyzed… and blind. I think I might need to go to a hospital.”

“Well, I guess I could bring you there.”

“Much obliged.”

Rainbow Dash propped the pony up and laid him over her back as she flew over to the hospital. “Wow you are really heavy.”

“Oh that’s not me, that’s my bag. It has a lot of… I’ll tell you later. Just, please don’t drop it.” They made their way to the hospital and after an hour or so the pony was fully recovered. “I forgot to ask. What is your name?” The Pegasus landed. “Oh right, I’m Rainbow Dash.”

“Lovely name, I’m the Wizz Fissle, Flizz Gizzle, Giss Listle, Fo Shizzle…” He slapped himself across the face which was followed by a momentary pause.

“Fizz Whistle.”

Rainbow Dash looked at him in awe with head cocked to the side, “Is that normal?”

“Is what normal?”

“What you just did there?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.” He looked at the Rainbow Pegasus in a sort of ‘You’re crazy’ sort of way. “And why does my face hurt?”, he questioned whilst rubbing his cheek.

“Oooookay, well you have fun in Ponyville, I have to go practice some more.”

“Practice what, might I ask?”

“Flying. I’m practicing some moves so I can someday join the Wonderbolts!”

“Flying? I love flying, or well at least I’d like to fly, but seeing as I’m not very aerodynamically inclined I have much trouble gaining enough velocity to gain altitude, as well as sustain it for any extended amount of time other than in some sort of vehicle.”

“Uh… Wha-”

“But that is all going to change! I’ll invent a device that will enable myself to fly alongside the Pegasi! All I have to do is observe somepony like yourself long enough to understand how it works.”

“Okay, well le-”

“Come on! Let’s go!”, Fizz began walking outside before Dash could finish a sentence, however he had no clue where he was going. Dash started following him, wondering where he was going. They left the hospital, went out of town, kept going for a few miles and ended up in a big empty field. “This will be an appropriate place to start and with that cliff over there, I can do a few tests on my own for this.”, he proceeded to drop his saddlebags and throw down some tools and an assortment of other devices that seemed to serve no purpose other than waste space. “Okay, now I need you to take off and show me how you fl-….”, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. She had actually stopped following Fizz right as he left Ponyville. “Well… Looks like a proper time to set up my shop.”, he enthusiastically stated as he cracked his neck.

Over the next few days, nobody had seen or heard of the new and eccentric earth pony. Not until the disturbances at least. First it started off as a small column of black smoke. Then it was the noises: big crashes and booms rolling across the land. There was at one point a bright light that flashed like lightning but had no thunderous aftershock. It came to the point where Twilight Sparkle was wondering what was going on, so she set out towards the smoke on the horizon. Upon her arrival she was shocked to see several craters in the once green grassy field that used to be there. There was a decently sized building about 3 stories tall. She walked up to the small door on the side of it. She knocked only once before the was a loud metallic crash and then silence. “Hello? Is anybody there? Are you okay?”, Twilight shouted at the door, expressing concern for the stranger within. After a moment there was a few seconds of metallic objects sounding like they were being pushed aside and then a slit in the door opened. “Yes, Who is this, Who are you, What do you want, Are you trying to steal my research, Are you a spy? Answer quickly!”, a sound of paranoia was on the pony’s breath. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, I’ve come here to ask about the noises and light coming from here, because, you see it’s causing a bit of a disturbance to the town.”

“Oh… Well, I’m sorry. One moment.”, The slit in the door closed and then sounds of several locks being undone ensued. “You may want to get away from the door right about now… 3... 2... 1...”, a purple light came from around the door frame and there was a whirring sound of something powering up. The door disintegrated inside a large purple blast. An earth pony walked out with purple mane and coat and bluish green eyes. “Greetings, my name is Fizz Whistle, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”, He paid no attention to the baffled look on Twilight’s face from witnessing him blow the door off his building in such a nonchalant fashion. “Hellooooo? Anyone in there?”, he questioned whilst waving his hoof in front of the unicorn’s face. Twilight regained her composure, “What did you just do!?”, she asked in a rather alarmed tone while pointing at the now no longer existing door. “Well I needed to get out, and I have been meaning to test my laser, so I figured I’d hit two birds with one stone and blast the door off.”, The earth pony seemed rather proud of what he just did. “Then why did you bother unlocking  the door?”

“Well I didn’t actually think of it until I was done unlocking it.”

“So you would rather test some crazy and dangerous thing than open the door and not have a hole in your wall?”

“I’ve been getting to the point of wanting a new door and now this will force me to get to it.”

“Right… Well still, I’ve come on behalf of those ponies at Ponyville to ask that you try not to be so noisy.”

“I think you’d prefer me to be noisy out here than to destroy your town with one of my crazy ideas.”

“Crazy ideas? What exactly are you doing here?”

“Science! Of course!”, he exclaimed rather enthusiastically. “It is my job to advance what we know of the universe and technology with my research and inventions. It’s been sort of a family legacy thing ever since my great great great grandfather Stone Whistle and his invention of the train. So sad that nowadays the average pony still can’t figure out how it works and they make other ponies pull it around but I guess we can’t all be so talented with machinery. Wanna see some of the stuff my family has come up with?”

“Ummm… Sure, why not?”, Twilight hesitantly said as she was lead into the workshop of Fizz.

“Would you like something to drink? I have some of my brother Steam Whistle’s special elixir.”

“Yes please, that sounds delightful.”, she said in a polite manner.

“Hope you like it, it’s pretty much all I ever drink.”, He poured a glass full and put in a straw which Twilight floated over to her direction.

“Thank you for the drink.”, she said as she took a sip and immediately sprayed it out of her mouth. “What is that stuff!?”, she screamed.

“This is my brother’s elixir ‘Wuh-high-sky’”, he pointed to the bottle it was in that was labelled ‘Whiskey’.

“What’s in that stuff?”, Twilight asked curious about what she was about to ingest.

“I think it was ‘Ee-thaw-nawl’, made from grain and I believe I heard him say something about putting battery acid in it for flavour. It tastes like fire and amazing and makes you forget your worries and makes pain and inhibitions a thing of the past, a very necessary thing for being a scientist.”

“And you drink this on a daily basis?!”, She exclaimed a sound of concern.

“More or less an hourly basis. I guess it is a bit of an acquired taste. You should try again, maybe I’ll try mixing it with something like… Fizzy pop.”

“Please don’t tell me that it tastes like that other drink.”

“Well it has a minor sensation but other than that it has no effects. I make it using the air that we breathe out and put it into water then add syrup and sugar and bam, a new drink is made. Already I have several ponies trying to steal my idea with their stupid ‘sars-paw-ree-law’, as if they could make one better than the original!”, he opened a bottle of his invented drink with a pop sound coming from the bottle and put a straw in it. “This should be more to your liking.”, he said as Twilight floated the new drink towards her hesitantly. She took a sip and to her pleasant surprise enjoyed the taste of it. “Yes, this is a lot better, thank you.”

“Not a problem. Now, let me show you some of my shop.”, he began walking in the direction of the main work area while Twilight followed.

“This is where I keep my prototypes that have failed.”, he pointed to an empty corner of the shop.

“Well if anything was left of the one’s that failed.”, he moved on towards a large contraption made from bronze. Riddled with gears and looking like it would be menacing or do something terrible. “What does this do?”, Twilight asked, curious if the machine was meant to blast things out of existence. “Oh, this was something I made when I first got here. I call it… Well I don’t really have a name for it but ask me a math question, any math question.”

“Okay then… Ummm, what issssss… four divided byyyy… zero?”

“NO!”, the machine started making noise as it sprung to life. It began to spin gears and then started making grinding and gnashing noises until the whirring got more high pitched and seemed to be getting higher.

“Hit the deck!”, he tackled Twilight to the ground and covered her like a meat shield. At the pinnacle of the whirring there was a bell that went off. ‘Ding!’, Twilight had a rather shocked look on her face while Fizz had his eyes shut tight as if he was about to receive a blow of monumental proportions. He opened on eye and looked toward the machine, ignoring the unicorn underneath him. A slip of paper popped out of a slot in the machine. “Strange…”, He walked over to the machine.

“A question like that would usually make this thing-”, he pulled on the slip of paper only to have the entire contraption explode, leaving a crater in front of the unsurprised and charred inventor. “-Explode… Well let’s move on.”, Twilight followed feeling a bit freaked out at what she felt she just caused.

“I-I’m sorry I made your invention destroy itself…”, she sincerely apologised to Fizz.

“Think nothing of it, as you may have noticed it’s a rather frequent occurrence around here. Oh, and I’m sorry I had tackled you to the floor like that, it’s that I couldn’t allow somepony to be injured by my own contraption, I hope you understand.”, He turned around and kept walking before Twilight could really thank him and/or forgive him for what he had done.

“And this is one of my more recent inventions.”, he stated as he came to the door way into a tiny room and went inside.

“Where? I don’t see anything.”, Twilight said as she looked around in confusion.

“Well come in here and see.”, Twilight then walked into the small room with him. Fizz proceeded to press a button on the wall. After Fizz pressed the button, a pair of  glass sliding doors closed in the doorway and room began to shake slightly, throwing the unprepared unicorn off balance. Seeing that Twilight was about to fall, Fizz helped steady her. “Careful now, the room is moving up towards the roof. I call this my elevating room.”, The two ponies came to the roof to see a decent view of the field the building is on and a weird device with a steel frame in the shape of wings and canvas covering it. “Ah yes, this is my latest project. It is the first model and I’m hoping it won’t be the last because I have some good ideas for it. All I have to do is strap it on and leap off the roof and I should glide safely to the ground.”

“Isn’t that a little… Dangerous?”, Twilight asked with some concern due to their height above the ground.

“All science isn’t without it’s risks.”, he stated as he was tightening the leather straps onto him. He prepared to jump by going to one end of the roof. He then charged towards the other end and made a great leap off. He glided for a few seconds which felt glorious. Twilight was watching him do this almost admiring the fact he got this far without wings or magic. She thought he would go places, until she saw him fall face first into the ground and roll a few times before stopping. She cringed at the painful display and when she opened her eyes after about 3 seconds, he was up again, completely un-phased and jumping for joy. Twilight concentrated for a second and vanished in a purple light and reappeared with the same purple light next to Fizz. Shocked by this sudden appearance of Twilight, he gasped. “How did you do that!?”

“You mean teleport? Well it’s a spell, I can do it because I’m a unicorn.”

“Amazing, that’s another thing I have to work on doing now.”

“I don’t think that is possible…”, Fizz put his hoof to her lips gently so he wouldn’t strike her, “Nonsense, I can do anything equipped with science and time.”

“Well okay, but I’m feeling pretty hungry right now, and I should probably head back to Ponyville right about now.”

“Hungry…? Oh, right, food, I need that. I’ve been so busy I haven’t actually noticed that I haven’t eaten since I got here!”

“What? How long have you been here?”

“About a week or so I believe.”

“Well I think you should come with me into town for some food or you are gonna be having some health issues”

“Very well… To the Fizz-Mobile!”

“The what-now?”, Fizz took off towards the shop and large hanger doors opened, revealing a vehicle much resembling a purple mars rover. He pushed the car out of the shop, then began to pour his brother’s elixir into a hole in the side of it. “You see, this one time I accidentally discovered that the ee-thaw-nawl in my brother’s elixir was flammable and at some points explosive. So I put it in a tank and use the energy created to power this vehicle to carry me places. Pretty cool, huh?”, after his quick and not so thorough explanation he hopped into the Fizz-Mobile. “Is this safe?”, Twilight was hesitant to climb onboard due to the brief but violent history of some of Fizz’s other inventions.

“Just trust me.”, He smiled and winked at her while holding out a pair of goggles.

“Also, put on these goggles.”, He told the unicorn as he revved up the engine. “This is going to be fun, I’ve never tested it with a partner before.”, Twilight strapped in and put on her goggles then braced her self for whatever she could expect. Fizz slammed on a pedal marked ‘Go’ and the vehicle drove on forward in the direction of Ponyville, a loud roaring sound coming from the engines as they raced across the land, arriving in Ponyville within minutes. “We’re here!”, Fizz said excitedly as he removed his goggles. He turned towards Twilight to see her frozen with fear. “Uh oh…”, He gently grabbed her by the face and looked into her eyes “Hmmm… Doesn’t appear to be any damage…”, he stated as he examined her. He gently slapped her in an attempt to snap her to attention. “You okay there?”, Twilight was coming to suddenly as she shook her head.

“I guess Princess Celestia was right when she said nopony would be ready for such a thing yet.”, he chuckled. “Did you say you know Princess Celestia?”, Twilight asked with disbelief in her voice.

“Yes, I am advisor to her and Head of the Science and Technology department of Canterlot. As well as Chairman of C.O.G., the Coalition Of Gearheads.”, Fizz had stated with an immense amount of pride.

“The COG? Never heard of it, and I’ve never heard of you until now.”, Twilight was caught off guard at what Fizz had claimed who he was.

“Well, she tends to consider me rather… what’s the word…? Too odd to be seen with but just odd enough to be worth investing in the future.”

“I only ask because I am a student of hers.”

“Fascinating, it must be nice to be able to be known as an official and not as a wing nut.”

“Right, well I’m going to go now.”, Twilight tried to come up for a reason to ditch Fizz but nothing came to mind. Fizz began to walk around Ponyville for a while, looking for somewhere to get some food. It took him a few minutes but soon he stumbled upon a rather cheery looking bakery, “Sugar Cube Corner, huh?”, he read aloud to himself looking at the sign above. He walked into the store to find a rather excitable pink earth pony at the counter. “Hello, I was wondering if I could buy some food here.”

“Hi, I’m pinkie Pie, are you new here? Well, Duh you must be new here because I know everypony, do you like parties? I love parties especially the fact that it makes everypony happy and smiling and having fun. What’s your name?”

“Yes, Yes, Fizz Whistle. You seem like an interesting pony. You say you like parties? Well I have the idea of throwing my own little get together in the middle of the night at my field in front of my shop. There’ll be Fizzy Pop and music and dancing and a surprise I’ve prepared but don’t tell anyone that I said that because it won’t be a surprise if you tell anypony. So spread the word of the party, and tell them to follow the bright lights on the horizon, bye.”, whilst this conversation was going on Fizz was picking out almost everything in the shop and loading them into a crate then paid twice as much as they were worth then leaving as soon as he said ‘bye’, giving Pinkie no time to respond.

“That went rather well, but I don’t think I have enough food for tonight…”, he looked around on the street and saw a mare with a grey mane and a pair of glasses. “Excuse me, I was wondering where in this town I would buy some food? I’m new here and I was going to throw a party for everyone in town at my shop outside of town.”, he was not aware that he was talking to the Mayor of Ponyville. “Well I believe that Sweet Apple Orchards may have a god amount of apples for you to buy.”

“Kay, thanks, bye.”, Fizz left before the mayor could say anything else.

“What a nice young stallion.”

Fizz got back to his Fizz-Mobile and loaded the pastries in and strapped them into place so they would not fall out. He drove over to the fruitful orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. He stopped at the entrance and took a look around, not seeing anypony. “Hello, anypony there?”, he proceeded to drive towards the barn in the distance. He saw a large red earth pony and drove up alongside him. “Excuse me, are you in charge here?”

“Eeyup…”, the large earth pony said rather plainly.

“Fantastic, where might I buy some of your apples for a party tonight.”

The large earth pony pointed towards a stand that was next to the Apple house that was being looked after by another earth pony with an orange coat, blonde mane and green eyes that just screamed ‘I’m too friendly’. Fizz marched up to the stand.

“I’d like to buy enough apples to feed all the town for one night.”

“… Ah beg yer pardon?”, she questioned, not expecting anypony to make such an order.

“Ee-nuff, ah-pulls, to, feed, the, whole, town.”, Fizz spoke in a slower manner seeing the mare in front of him is probably one of slower mind than him.

“Okay, jus’ checkin‘. Mah name’s Applejack, and the feller over there is Big Macintosh, in case you were wonderin’.”, she started punching in the numbers for Fizz’s order.

“Fascinating, however I would like to invite you two to a party going on at my shop on the outskirts of Ponyville.”

“Why we’d be delighted.”

“Excellent.”, Fizz paid for the apples he had bought and gave Applejack a map scribbled on a napkin. “This is where I need the apples delivered.”

“Delivered? Ah thought you woulda just tried takin’ em your self.”

“No, my dear I have some science to do before guests start arriving.”

“Uh… I guess we can try to get all of it done.”

“Marvellous. See you at the party.”, Fizz left back to the Fizz-Mobile and drove back to town.

“Hey, Big Mac, yer gonna need some help deliverin’ on this order.”

“Eeyup.”

“And ah reckon ah know just who to call.”

Fizz drove into town in search of more things for the party he was planning. “Let’s see here: I got the food, I made the drinks. Now I need music and atmosphere. I need somepony with some taste, and style..”, He stopped in front of a beautiful building. “This looks like the place to look.”, He walked into the building seeing a sign inside that read, “The Carousel Boutique, hm?”, as a white unicorn mare with a dazzling purple mane walked in. “Ah yes, I came here to inquire about hiring somepony to decorate for my get together tonight, I must say that you seem to have a refined sense of style and taste. Interested?”

“Why thank you for noticing, and I must say, you too have a very refined look about you.”

“Now about the task I’ve come to hire you for. Do you think you can come up and spruce up the place before dark, and by that I mean now.”

“I’m sorry, but art takes time. I couldn’t possibly hope to finish before nightfall.”

“Ah, well that is a shame. Will you attend the party though? if you are not too busy that is.”

“Of course, I’d love to attend this little Suarez of yours.”

“Excellent, just look for the lights on the outskirts of town.” Fizz left before Rarity, the purple maned unicorn, could respond. Fizz had everything he needed from the outside. Now it was time to work at home. “This will be an event to remember. I’ve spared no expense to prepare for this.”, Fizz hopped back into his Fizz-mobile and took off towards home.

A few hours later, it was getting to be a dark evening in summer. The air was warm and all was silent in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was in her library trying to read up all she could on Fizz and his family. It turns out there were no records as they were probably either not preserved or destroyed for some reason. “This seems strange. I’ve found nothing that I can account for their beginnings. It’s almost like it’s been erased or hidden or maybe existed if I didn‘t know otherwise. A family like his wouldn’t just vanish and stop doing things like the does… I wonder why.”, Twilight was talking to herself, trying to figure out this mystery.

“Spike, find me a book on a family history of the Whistle family.”

“You mean that new weird guy?”, spike questioned her, the subject piquing his curiosity.

“Yes, now help me look.”, she ordered him while searching through the stacks of books lining the walls.

“Why do you need to know about his family?”, Spike asked, seeing the unicorn’s behaviour being rather unusual for taking such an interest in a family history.

“Somepony like Fizz is not the kind that wouldn’t make news at almost a weekly basis. He also mentioned something about Princess Celestia talking to him about things, but she has never mentioned him before, nor have I ever seen him in all my time in Canterlot.”

“Well, Twilight, it’s not as if you were really looking up from your books long enough to notice him walk in front of you if he did. You didn’t even really make friends until you got to Ponyville.”

“That may be true, but still.”, Twilight found a book that had been in a rather unlikely place in the library, the How-to section: where somepony looks for books on how to performs a task or make things.

“Ah, here a book by one of the Whistle family. ‘How to construct a locomotive engine, By Stone Whistle.”, Twilight blew the dust off the what seemed to be ancient book. She opened it up and looked at the published date that read it was 220 years ago. At the back of the book there was a drawn portrait of the author. It had a striking resemblance to Fizz, which could easily be taken as he just looks a lot like his ancestor. However, the fact that his cutie mark looked exactly like Fizz’s was way too unlikely.

“It’s almost as if he is the same pony from back then… but how…?”, I’ll have to ask him when I arrive at the par-”, she snapped a glance to the horizon, visible through her window. On the horizon there was a myriad of lights and lasers of a multitude of colours. “What the-, what is he doing over there?”, Twilight put the book in her saddlebag and started walking towards the lights, as did everypony else in town. Some seeming more excited and others more intrigued and mystified by the lights.

As Twilight neared the home of Fizz, music that was compiled of a multitude of digital sounds that had both fast paced blips and slow booming sounds that combined into an electric symphony. Twilight went into the yard where the party was apparently being held. She saw Applejack, Big Macintosh, and a large Black Stallion Pegasus, even bigger than Big Macintosh, the Pegasus also had red and green stripes in his spiked forward mane. “War Heart, what are you doing here?”, Twilight asked the large Pegasus.

“I was paid to help bring a load of apples here. This guy has got to have a lot of bits to afford all this, eh?”, the Caneighdian stallion spoke in a low growling voice.

“Yes, he must, but I wonder where he got it all.”, Twilight was getting rather suspicious of Fizz now. “Ah, you’re here! Ummmm… whatsyername… uhhhh…”, somepony behind Twilight was trying to talk to her, although the voice was familiar to Twilight already. As she turned around, she saw Fizz Whistle in a new outfit which consisted of a black tuxedo coat with a small stainless steel rose in the chest pocket. On his head he wore an iron top hat made of metal sheets of iron bolted together and painted black. He wore a pair of small circular glasses that only added to his distinguished look.

“Fizz.”

“Don’t be silly, that’s my name, I want to remember yours.”

“I’m Twilight.”

“Yes, of course. Twilight, I totally remember now.”

“Fizz, I need to ask you something.”

“Of course, is it about science? I do hope it is.”

“No, it’s about this book I found.”, she levitated the book out of her bag and showed it to Fizz.

“Ah, that old thing, I remember giving that away some years ago when I wrote that only copy. However, since then I have learned a lot more and would like to rewrite it.”

“Wait… Are you saying that you wrote this?”, Twilight thought he was either meaning that he had scribed the book and wanted to rewrite it to make it better.

“No, of course not. That’s ridiculous.”

“Okay, because that would be ridiculous.”

“My assistant unicorn did. Their name was… ummm… something Sparkle. You actually look a lot like her.”

“Where is she?”

“Oh, she passed away a long time ago, after we parted ways when she said she wanted to have a family. Always said I was the most interesting pony in the world, but when she left me, she had left me a slip of paper that said being around me is dangerous and that starting a family requires her to change her lifestyle. I still have a portrait somewhere in my home of the both of us.”, He showed Twilight to a room filled with old portraits and photos. “This is a record of my life. The only way to remember everything if I happen to forget.”

“It looks as if you have a taste for paintings, what’s wrong with photos?”

“It doesn’t have the same value to me as a painting. It holds more emotion within a canvas than on a photograph.”

“That sounds touching, a new side to you that I haven’t seen, or expected of you.”

“Not many ponies decide to go as deep as you have. You are the first in a long time.”

“Why?”

“It was because I have not seen the outdoors in a long time. I was considered too dangerous because of what I was capable of, and they said I was… unstable.”, Fizz took a sip from a drink that was green and looked as if it had a viscous texture to it.

“what is that?”, Twilight asked weirded out at what he was drinking.

“My medicine, I need it to treat my ailments.”

“What ailments?”

“Age.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve been the keeper of secrets for too long, holding all this knowledge is blissful at first but is eternally taxing on my mind. I start to develop side effects. But, I know what lies beyond, and I’m afraid of it. I’m imprisoned by my own doing.”

“What are you saying?”

“Did you not notice I do not get hurt easily? How I stood next to my machine that exploded and remained unscratched? Or the crash of my flying machine?”

“I assumed you were just very resistant to things but apparently now I know there is something more to it than that.”

“I am the author of that book, I am Stone Whistle.”

“So that potion makes you immortal?”

“It enhances my natural ability to heal, giving me almost instant regeneration and eternal youth.”

“Being alone for that long would be awful…”

“It has been. I was supposed to be keeping a low profile when I was released from my prison lab where I was supposed to develop new things for Celestia but not let anypony know I exist. The only person I knew in confinement was the princess and only asked what I needed to keep working.”

“That doesn’t sound like her.”

“I’ve been fuelling the fires of science and technology for the last 200 years alone. Equestria depended on me, how could I let everypony down when I had so much to offer when I constructed my first locomotive engine. I had to find a way to make my gifts last. I eventually discovered how to make myself immortal. I have done only a bit of what I can for Equestria and I will continue to work until I am ordered to stop, or until I fall someday.”

“It seems to me that you went a bit above and beyond what was needed of you. Surely somepony else would have taken your place eventually.”

“I know that if there are not new developments for everyone to enjoy, ponies will not be distracted with new things and begin to covet other ponies things, seeing them as new things to acquire. Envy goes to theft, theft to assault, assault to murder, murder to war, and eventually our race will be gone and all that will remain is a few skeletons of ponies fights over a piece of junk. I work to keep that from becoming a reality.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“There isn’t anything for you to say. However, I know what I have to say, ‘Back to work.’”, during the conversation and explanation he was looking for the portrait of him and his assistant. He found it somewhere in the back of the room. “Here it is.”, the portrait revealed a unicorn that looked almost exactly like Twilight.

“So you knew one of my ancestors?

“She was my closest friend.”

“If you were locked away for so long, how did you get out?”

“I told Celestia that if I was not allowed to build my shop somewhere else, or I would bring Canterlot to the ground. A bluff, of course, luckily she didn’t call me out on it.”

“You threatened to destroy Canterlot?”

“Yes, I did.”

“you must have been desperate.”

“I am.”

“It seems like you need to settle down and just live for yourself.”

“I can’t, I must do all I can for the betterment of pony kind.”

“Nopony asked you to do this, and I’m pretty sure if everypony knew about it, they would want you to stop because you have done far more than you have to.”

“Nopony can know I’m this old, they could use that against me, but I’m trusting for you to keep it a secret. For my safety and yours.”

“Why would it be dangerous to know?”

“Loose lips with this secret makes ponies disappear.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There are secret police that keep ponies from doing bad things and knowing the wrong things.”, there was a knock on the door of the room. Fizz jumped at the noise. He then walked to the door. He opened it slightly and saw a plum coloured pony with a pink mane that had a light streak in it and green eyes. He quickly slammed the door. “They’re here!”, Fizz said in a hushed but worried tone. Twilight had saw who it was at the door, it was Cheerilee, the elementary school teacher. “She can’t be one of those police people, she’s just a teacher.”

“And what a better way to control the learning of the new generations than to teach them.”

“This seems a little crazy.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“Oh, okay, never mind.”, he opened the door again and Cheerilee was gone. “If anypony asks, we were spending alone time together.”

“Excuse me?”, Twilight seemed almost insulted at the idea.

“Nobody will probably ask, or make up a new excuse now.”

“You were showing me some new machine?”

“Why didn’t I think of that? Good idea, Miss Sparkle.”

“What did you call me?”

“Oh, sorry, that’s what I used to call my assistant.”

“You miss her, don’t you.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know if I can miss anything… It’s strange. Another side effect of the medicine or perhaps part of my two centuries of drinking has had a psychological effect on me, or perhaps the tides of time have affected me so. But that is for another time. Now we should get back to the party.”

“All right then.”

Fizz walked her outside where the music was still going and everypony was having a good time. Fizz was happy to see that his work is for once appreciated and they know who is responsible. He took out a whiskey bottle and drank about 1.5 litres in one chug. In mere minutes, his perceptions were dulled and his reflexes slowed. He danced in a strange way by just trying to keep his balance. At some point he blacked out. He passed out near the edge of the party on the grass. Twilight saw that he was unconscious, and being the only one he could call a friend, found a blanket in his shop and put it over him. “You deserve this courtesy at the least.”, Twilight whispered as she put the blanket on him. She left him to rejoin the party, not noticing the dark figure in the shadows near the shop.

Fizz opened his eyes to an absolute black silence. “It wasn’t this dark when I passed out…”, suddenly a bright light clicked on, nearly blinding him. “Wasn’t this bright either…”, he tried to move, but was bound at the joints. “It seems you were there for more than just keeping tabs on me…”, he spoke to the pony in the darkness, which, to him, was much darker than it really was. “You were ordered to keep a low profile… A party for the whole town? What were you thinking?”, the mare speaking in a serious tone.

“That I’ve done so much that I should deserve a bit of time to make ponies happy with them knowing who was behind it.”

“Still, you can’t do that, you’re going back to the prison.”

Fizz smirked. “You know what’s a little funny?”, Fizz chuckled. “I think you people underestimate my abilities.”

The mare walked towards him slowly. Cheerilee walked into sight. “Is that so?”

“Sure you wanna try and stop me from getting out of here? I don’t think I can be held responsible for what I’ll do to you if you don’t help me instead.”

Cheerilee smiled and looked Fizz in the face. “Then let’s see it.”, Fizz inhaled deeply. “Dammit…”

“Nice try, you bluffed the first time. We won’t fall for it again.”, Cheerilee walked to the door and exit the room. “Well… This is not good.”

Fizz’s sudden disappearance caused a bit of a stir among the ponies of Ponyville. They all had seen him and what he could do. This worried Celestia, ponies disappearing suddenly makes ponies ask questions, something that she wanted to avoid. Knowing the darker side of the Equestrian government was something she did not want to get out. “We let him leave, and he escaped his escort by teleporting to a random location that we didn’t know. Luckily, he didn’t keep a low profile or would never have found him. However, it ended up as a double edged sword here, he let everypony see him, and worse, he told his secret, and our secrets to somepony else. This is a real mess, and we need it dealt with.”, Celestia was talking to her sister Luna, who was scarcely able to believe her sister could be capable of such things. “What do you want me to do?”, Luna asked, awaiting orders from her older sister.

“I want him to get back to work, and you to find out who he told everything to and make them forget everything.”

“Doesn’t this seem a little… excessive? For just one Earth pony inventor?”

“You don’t understand, he is a threat unless we keep him under control. He is over 200 years old and can be made to live longer. I don’t know how he does it, but he is old and very clever.”

“How long was he here for?”

“Around sixteen decades. He was the only one pushing our technology forward at a slow pace.”

“How did he get here in the first place?”

“He actually came to me personally and asked if he could work for the good of Equestria. He prolonged his life to keep working, and when he said he wanted to stop and settle, I magically implanted in his mind that if he stops creating new technology, the world will end in war. His fear is what keeps him working.”

“That’s so… cruel.”

“But necessary.”

“I’ll try to talk to him, but I don’t know if I can promise anything.”

Fizz was waiting in the darkness of his cell. “What can I do when I get out of here? I can’t go back to Ponyville, that agent knows my face now… I don’t want to be responsible for what will happen if I stop working on things. Perhaps I can go back and change things… Maybe Ms. Sparkle was right… What I was doing was dangerous… She had the foresight to get out while she could… I guess I’m running out of options here… The blackness for myself and risk war over all Equestria, or start a war and change this land for the better.”, The door opened to his cell and a silhouette of an Alicorn. “Have you come to gloat over my capture then?”

“No, I haven’t.”, Luna turned on the dim lights and brightened up the room enough for Fizz to see but enough not to hurt his eyes.

“Oh, I thought you were Celestia, who are you?”

“I’m Princess Luna.”

“I’ve never seen you.”

“I’ve only come back recently from banishment.”

“Banishment?”

“I was sent to the moon for 1000 years.”

“That must have been fun.”

“Indeed?”

“Yep… So what did you want?”

“My sister wants to keep working for her, and the name of the pony you told your secret to…”

“I’ll never say, I’m pretty sure they can keep their mouth shut, besides, like one pony knowing will make a difference.”

“I somepony who could.”

“Really now, and who might that be?”

“You. I’ve heard of what you can do, and I believe we can dethrone my sister and her tyrannical rule will be broken.”

“I guess with somepony that has blood of the royal family backing a revolution could at least pull together some kind of force.”

“And you can make our technology be superior to hers, make us weap-”

“I can’t…”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t want to be responsible for the death of somepony else. I made a promise.”

“An honourable Stallion, admirable.”

“I’ll make anything you need that won’t be used to cause death.”

“Very well.”

“Now that I think about it, I want to be able to have a normal life afterwards. Give me your word that you will not keep me against my will.”

“Granted.”

“Thank you. Now you may want to start gathering support. Gain a base of operations, some supporters, some resources, much preparation is needed for this.”

“You seem to know a lot about how to go about this.”

“When you have nothing to do but think inside a dark room being kept against your will, your mind tends to wander to dreams and scenarios.”

“Well, I’ll go get this done then.”

“If this is not done right, more blood will be spilled than needed.”, Fizz warned her as she left the room.

Luna spent the next few months talking to certain ponies that she had become friends with in Ponyville. She made sure not to be obvious about what she was planning but tried to get certain ponies opinions on Celestia and the way things are run. Not many ponies knew much about the way things are run, being completely uneducated of government other than the princess was in charge, more or less they just concentrated on their individual jobs and social lives. Luna was growing weary of everypony treating her with a half feared response, as if she were going to harm them some way. However, a young earth pony was not at all afraid of her at all. A small colt from Trottingham, named Pip. Luna had not seen him since Nightmare night. “Princess! I have not seen you in for’evah, how’ve you been?”, the colt spoke in an excited tone with a Trottingham accent.

“Ah, it’s you, say, how would you like to work for a princess?”

“Really!?”

“Yes, you will do little jobs for me when I need you to.”

“Any adventurin’ we gonna be doin’?”

“Pip, if we play our cards right, we’ll have a real grand adventure and maybe land you in the palace as a steward.”

“Wow!”

“Are you in?”

“Yes, Princess.”

Luna walked off with Pip following behind her, off to talk to more ponies about the state of things.

Over the course of several months, Luna had become a big part of the community of Ponyville. Volunteering for working at a hospital and just generally helping out almost everypony in Ponyville. She had become admired among the ponies of Ponyville. On her return to the palace, Celestia had been wondering why Luna spends so much time in Ponyville. Celestia confronted her about it. “Luna, why have you been spending so much time in Ponyville?”

“I’ve been wanting to make a new image of myself in their eyes, I’ve been sick of being seen as a sort of evil.”

“Oh, just public relations… very well.”, Celestia left to check on Fizz in his cell. He was remaining motionless in his room. “What do you want, Princess?”, Fizz spoke from dark corner of his room in a weary and downtrodden tone.

“I was hoping you reconsider working again.”

“No…”

“I can keep you in here as long as need be.”

“I’ve got time…”

“But only so much time before you’ll begin to lose it totally.”

“I’m already too far along to worry about my sanity.”

“Fine, be that way.”, Celestia left to attend some other matters while Fizz was left to brood on his own.

“It should be soon now…”

Luna came in to see Fizz in his room. “Whistle.”, Luna called to him.

“Yes?”, Fizz’s ears perked up.

“It’s time to leave. I’ve gotten some followers in Ponyville who’d be able to hide you there while you work on some things that are needed.”

“Good, I’ve been working on a dummy to take my place in this corner since I’ve been talking less and less now, she will probably think I’ll just have stopped talking altogether. It’ll work for at least a few days, she doesn’t check in very often.”, he explained all this while dragging out the dummy and setting it up in the corner. He then went over to Luna. “I’ll teleport out of here to my shop, meet me there, but be warned, I’ll be paralyzed from the neck down so bring somepony to carry me away.”

“Very well, Fizz, Good Luck.”

“You too.”, He stood in the middle of the room while he took a small device out of his mane, and activated it. He vanished in a white and blue flash of energy but totally silent. Luna walked out and headed for Ponyville, to the cave of Ursa Minor. She approached the opening of the cave and called into it. “War Heart, I need your help with something.”

“Oh yeah, like what, eh?”, the Caneighdian stallion Pegasus asked the Alicorn.

“Heavy lifting, and help of a friend.”

“Sure, I’ll help.”, He followed Luna to Fizz’s workshop.

“What are we doin’ here, eh?”, War Heart asked.

“Picking up Fizz. I want you to hide him in your cave while he does work for me.”

“Of course, but why does he need hidin’?”

“Celestia has been keeping him imprisoned for a long time and forcing him to work against his will.”

“That’s really messed up.”

“Exactly, that’s why I want you to help and join our revolution.”

“She’s not my queen, I’m in.”

“Excellent.”, after their conversation, the buzz and crackle of energy in the air broke the short silence and electric arcs forming in mid-air. A sudden burst of light revealed the partly charred Earth pony. “Ow…”, Fizz was stuck in pose. “Luna? You there, I’m kind of blind at the moment.”

“Yes, Fizz, I’m here. War Heart, take him to your cave.”

“Yes, ma’am.”, War Heart walked over to Fizz and without trouble put him on his back. They headed over to War Heart’s cave and laid down Fizz on the floor in the back part of the cave. “You’ll be fine there, need anything while you’re here?”

“I’d appreciate if you got me the stuff on the list in my jacket pocket.”, War Heart grabbed the list and nodded.

Over the next week, Fizz recovered his ability to move as well as his vision. He was working on a tunnel underground and around the outside of Ponyville. Luna had asked him what he was working on several times but the only response she would get is “It’s a surprise, a much needed surprise.”, which Luna just accepted, putting absolute trust in him. At this point, about half of Ponyville had joined Luna’s underground movement against her sister. Now was the time to address the public about her sister and her reign. Luna had her followers gather up everypony to the center of Ponyville.

“I have gathered you all here to tell you something. You are being lied to! There is a darker side to your great Princess Celestia’s way of running things.”, Some of the Ponies in the crowd started whispering amongst each other.

“Your Princess has been keeping somepony in captivity for most of his life, forcing him to work in a laboratory against his will and magically affected his mind to put the fear that if he stops, that it would cause the death of everypony. In fact, she told me herself that she wanted the pony he told this all to should disappear. He wouldn’t give up their name to me or anypony else even after enduring solitude for weeks. This is a call to arms, a beginning of a rebellion to end the reign of tyranny and take the fight against corruption and show that we can’t just be made to disappear on a whim of anypony. We will become the New Lunar Republic and take the fight to her Solar Empire. Who stands with us?”

Almost instantly there was a young colt who walked forward and stood at attention next to her. “Good, Pip.”, Luna whispered to herself. More ponies whispered among themselves as War Heart stepped forward and took his place at Luna’s side. Next it was Fizz who stepped out of the crowd, wearing a hood which he took off after taking his place beside Luna as well. At this point some other ponies walked to her side as they started flocking towards Luna, there were a few who left town square, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity among them. Those three met in Twilight’s house. “How could this be happening?”, Twilight said, not quite sure what to believe. “They aren’t being very loyal.”, Rainbow Dash said in a spiteful tone. “It seems that the lower ponies are too uneducated to know what propaganda is.”

“You mean they are spreading lies about the princess?”, Twilight asked

“Of course.”, Rarity stated matter-of-factly.

“I guess there is only one thing we can do now.”, Twilight said as she held her head up and looked at her friends, “We need to inform the Princess about what is happening. Spike, take a letter. We must inform her about what just happened here.”

“Okay, Twilight”, Spike said as he wrote a letter to Celestia and sent it in a puff of green flame. Within minutes, Spike burped up a new letter from Princess Celestia. Spike opened the letter and read it aloud. “Twilight, it is good that you inform me of what has happened. I’m coming over to Ponyville to deal with the situation. Your Teacher, Celestia.”, Spike looked up from the paper at the ponies in the room who were nervous about what was happening. War was not something they were familiar with. The three walked outside to see Celestia descend upon the town and land in the center of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle went to her teacher. “Princess, they said you held Fizz against his will, and forced him to work. Is this true?”, Twilight asked her teacher, expecting an honest answer.

“My Dear Twilight, I did keep him against his will, but that was because he is a very dangerous pony. I had to have him away from everypony else for their safety.”, Celestia made it sound as if Fizz was a horrible criminal, a danger to society. “Come with me back to Canterlot, you three are going to be at my side during this revolution.”, Celestia ordered them to follow her. As they were leaving, Luna called to her sister, “It seems that your secret is out now.”, Luna stated looking at Celestia with hate in her eyes.

“This little rebellion isn’t going to do anything except get ponies hurt, stop now, or else.”, Celestia threatened, returning the same look to Luna.

“Step down from power, and disband your secret police, then this revolution will stop.”, Luna had stated her terms, Celestia scoffed at her ridiculous demands and very plainly stated, “Very well, little sister, you’ll be responsible for their pain.”, Celestia walked outside the town of Ponyville toward Canterlot.

In the dead of night, Fizz had been working on his project underground. He finally finished with pressing a button. Suddenly the ground began to quake as the borders of Ponyville erected walls of metal with insignias resembling Luna’s cutie mark in the gates. Everypony awoke and walked into the streets to see these new structures from out of nowhere. “I have constructed walls to protect us from any advancing armies of the Solar Empire”, Fizz announced as everypony walked into the streets before him. “I am sorry if anypony was alarmed at the erection of the walls.”, he stated to them  in a sincere tone.

“You’ve done well for your surprise.”, Luna congratulated him on a job well done.

“Thank you, Princess.”, Fizz bowed to Luna.

“Soon we will march on Canterlot. The fight will be hard, but we have more troops than they.”

“However, they will be better equipped, and better trained.”

“Numbers and spirit will win it for us.”

“and you got me, eh?”, War Heart walked towards them.

“Of course, You will probably turn the battle in our favour.”, Luna chuckled.

“Still, I hope not too many ponies get hurt.”, Fizz said in a concerned tone.

“Such is the cost of war, ponies will get hurt, possibly die.”, Luna told him trying to look like a strong leader.

Fizz went into his new workshop which was inside what used to be Twilight Sparkle’s library. “What in Equestria have I done?”, he asked himself with a burden of guilt for everything that is happening. “It will be all my fault for everypony getting hurt.”, he walked toward the table with his last project underneath the white polyester sheet. “After this ends, it’ll all be over.”, he stroked his hoof along the sheet. “One last machine that will end it all.”, he said to himself as a tear rolled down his cheek. He saw a flash of light come from behind him. He quickly spun around to see Twilight standing there, who had just teleported into the room. “What are you doing here, Twilight?”, Fizz asked wiping away the one tear on his face.

“I came here to make sure you didn’t end up hurting yourself.”

“Now why would I do that?”

“Well you tend to act like you’re invincible.”

“You got a point.”

“I came to tell you that Celestia is planning on leading an assault on Ponyville tomorrow morning.”

“Very well…”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll think of something…”, Fizz said as he turned away from Twilight. She looked back at Fizz, “Please don‘t do anything stupid.”, then teleported away. Fizz lifted the cloth on the table. “I guess it’ll be time soon… Better prepare for it.”, he said as he picked up the contents of the table and walked to the Fizz-Mobile outside the Library and started working.

As dawn came, Celestia could be seen on the horizon with a large army behind her golden chariot being pulled by two Pegasus stallions. Twilight was not there on account that she did not want to partake in fighting. All the ponies in Ponyville lay sleeping in their homes except for Fizz. “I have no idea if I can pull this off, but I guess there is no time left.”, he told himself as he finished working on the Fizz-Mobile. He added a large metal contraption that had a multitude of buttons, lights, and tubes. It also featured several metal arms pointing toward the front of the vehicle. He started up the engine and slowly cruised toward the gates of Ponyville, which opened automatically at his approach. He got to the outside of Ponyville, with Celestia’s army dead ahead. He clicked a few buttons and switches. The engines of the vehicle revved as the machine on the back sparked to life. He stomped on the gas pedal of the Fizz-Mobile and raced towards Celestia. Celestia saw him speeding towards her and ordered the charge. In mere seconds the army was to collide with Fizz. He lifted up the protective panel on a switch and pressed it. The machine on the back of the vehicle began to glow red and sparks of energy flew about between the arms of the machine. A digital voice counted down slowly.

“Three.”, Fizz’s vision was blurring from the effects of the machine as well as the speed he was going.

“Two.”, Fizz was closing in on Celestia. He then remembered something his old assistant had said to him while she was with him.

Fizz was working on a new fuel for his locomotive engine. He figured he could burn his brother’s elixir to make it go faster. His assistant Ms. Sparkle walked in and asked, “What are you doing?”, in a rather concerned tone. “I am about to check a new fuel source for the engine I made.”, he explained as if he weren’t doing anything important.

“Okay, well I was going to go out and get us some lunch, did you have anything in mind?”

“Surprise me.”, he said as he readied himself to do his experiment.

“Okay, Please don’t do anything stupid.”

A tear rolled down Fizz’s cheek as he thought of that one moment with his assistant.

“One.”, the machine began to shake violently and make a loud rumbling sound like thunder.

“I’m sorry…”, He whispered to himself just before the bright flash of light and boom of the explosion echoed throughout Equestria. A shockwave of force blowing over trees within a kilometre and everypony in Celestia’s army instantly vaporized. Upon hearing the explosion Luna charged outside the city to see a gigantic crater on the outskirts.

Black turned to grey, and grey turned to fuzzy lights and shapes. His eyes opened to see a familiar building. Fizz walked inside to see a unicorn leaving a message on a desk. As she turned to him she jumped in surprise. “Oh, Mr. Whistle, I was, uh, just leaving.”, the mare said as she put on a bad poker face.

“I was hoping I could join you, actually.”, Fizz said to her, realizing what he really wanted all along.

“I can’t settle down with so many dangers around.”

“That’s why I’m giving up my trade.”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely, I’ve had a long time to think about this, and I’m done.”

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that.”, she smiled with tears in her eyes.

“Ladies first.”, Fizz said as he held the door to the shop open for her. Miss Sparkle walked through the door outside with Fizz following her. About ten seconds after they left the room, Stone Whistle walked into the room and read the note left by Miss Sparkle.

Dear Mr. Whistle,

I am sorry I have to leave in this way. I didn’t think I could say goodbye face-to-face. I wanted you to know that over the years I had developed feelings toward you. I know that you are not prepared to leave this dangerous life behind you, something that I would need of you to settle down and have a family. With this, it will be the last time you hear from me.

With love, Farewell.

Midnight Sparkle