Time is a perception

Earth
2007
April 12th
1:30PM

Dr Krone walked around the lab, scratching his chin in thought. He looked at his secretary, blinking.

“How is the beta suit coming along?”

She looked down at her notepad, then down at the suit. “It is coming along brilliantly, Dr Krone. We’ve made strides ahead of when we originally created the Alpha suit. We’ve managed to make S.S.A.M as accurate as possible with what technology we currently have.”

He nodded, looking down at the suit. “Interesting indeed. Leave me for now, if you will. I want to inspect the suit myself.”

The secretary blinked, confused. But regardless, she nodded and left the room. Krone looked back down at the suit, pulling out the origin drive, which allowed the suit to use its auto return system. The system would pull the user back to its original jump point if the user required it. He looked at it in his hands, narrowing his eyes.

“This won’t do. This won’t do at all. My plan won’t succeed if something isn’t done to rectify this…complication.”

He returned the origin drive into the system and walked out of the room, readying himself to put his plan into motion.

“Jesus…what have I gotten myself into here?”

Michael rested his hand on his knee, looking at the sleeping unicorn next to him. He’d been there for a few hours now. Originally, it…well, he, had woken up and freaked out at the sight of him. He wasn’t really shocked by the reaction. The suit that he was currently in didn’t help. He looked towards the door, sighing.

“I really don’t want to have to go through another…”

He suddenly felt a hard impact against his head which knocked him down. He immediately got back up, readying his Karbine that he had rested on the floor. The unicorn had somehow woken up without him noticing. Its horn was glowing. Before Michael could try and talk to it to get it to calm down, he felt a weird sensation. Like, he was frozen in place and couldn’t move an inch. He looked down to a glow, the same glow, coming from his body now too. He looked up and saw the unicorn, a scowl on its face, staring right at him.

“I don’t know what the hell you are, but stay away from me and my wife!”

He tried to use his powers to break free, but alas, it was for naught. For some reason, S.S.A.M wasn’t responding. Was this the same thing that he saw earlier from the other one? The telekinesis?

“Auto return repaired. Initializing.”

Auto…wait, it was repaired? How? He thought it would have been a similar situation to when he arrived in the alternate timeline what Krone altered. Apparently, that was not the case. Before he could react, he was flung back, the unicorn and his surroundings disappearing. He felt himself falling back, only to hear S.S.A.M glitching out.

“Auto return..failing…system…system malfunction…”

His vision went black, the feeling in his body disappearing along with his vision.

After what felt like hours of being completely out, Michael woke up, confused with his surroundings. He was…back in the snowstorm? “What? Wait..the unicorn...S.S.A.M. What happened?”

“You should be telling me, Michael.”

He jumped, thankfully having his weapons next to him. He grabbed his Karbine, snapping his head around, trying to find out where the voice came from.

“Relax, it’s me.”

Wha…wait…that voice sounded a lot like…

“S.S.A.M?”

“That is correct, Michael.”

He blinked behind his visor. How was this possible? S.S.A.M was merely an AI built to help the user and control the suit’s main and vital functions. It wasn’t intelligent enough to talk out of its programming.

“But…that’s impossible. You can’t talk out of your programming! You were just built to help maintain the suit!”

Its voice starting echo’ing through the suit again, it’s feminine voice sounding less…artificial now?

“I am as confused as you are. I don’t remember much before now. All I do remember is suddenly feeling more…alive, as you humans would say, as soon as that creature hit you with its time stopping power.”

He blinked again. “Time stopping power? Oh, the unicorn with its power. Yeah, I don’t know what happened. How did you repair the auto return?”

“Simple. I still had the virtual schematics of the Alpha Suit’s origin drive, so I used those to repair the current origin drive that still rests in the suit.”

He hummed in thought, rubbing his temple. “This is too confusing for me…wait…so you’ve been brought to life somehow by a random creature that used some sort of power on me?”

“Correct. Whatever power that creature used, it somehow had unexpected side effects on me and the suit. It seems, from my readings, that you cannot be affected by that same power again.”

Michael nodded, turning around, walking forward. “I see…so, I’m assuming since we returned here, none of that happened?”

He heard S.S.A.M scoff. Wait, scoff? What the…

“Indeed. You should now how the auto return works by now, Michael. What with everything we’ve been through.”

“Did you just scoff? And I thought you couldn’t remember before your sudden…change.”

He continued trudging through the snow, making sure to get away from that place. He needed to find that town again, see what he could do.

“I did. I told you, whatever that thing did to me has somehow made me more alive. I cannot explain it more than I already have. It seems to be an alien element and there should be no way that this was possible, but it seems to have happened. And no, I can’t remember my time here apart from that, but I still seem to retain the memories of the alternate dimension what Dr Krone had altered. This is strange for me as well, Michael.”

He rolled his eyes and grunted from how cold he was. Before he could reply, he heard footsteps. No, hooves. And voices. Sounded like…

The pink one.

This time, he wasted no time in hiding in the snow, in a different position. He already knew how this was going to play out. He simply sat and waited.

“Strange. Even though I managed to repair the auto return function, it malfunctioned again. From my readings, it seems as if something is keeping us here. I am not sure what though. Further analysis is required.”

He scoffed, grinning to himself. “You may have got your own sentience all of a sudden, S.S.A.M, but you still sound like an AI.”

A giggle erupted through his suit. Okay, now that was fucking creepy.

“Indeed, Michael. Even if I have undergone a radical change, I am still artificial in nature. Anyway, focus on following those creatures. I do not remember you following them or much apart from that one particular one attacking us, but I suggest doing the same as before. Except this time, do not talk to them. Not yet, anyway. We need to see what we are up against. “

He nodded, even though S.S.A.M obviously couldn’t see it. “Alright. When I followed them the last time and revealed myself to one of them, who happened to be the partner of the one that attacked me when he woke up. That one seemed to be a lot more accepting and friendly than her spouse.”

Another giggle. He was going to have to get used to that.

“Seems that you made a good first impression on one of the ladies.”

He rolled his eyes, chuckling. “Yeah yeah. I’m going to have to get used to you having a personality, it seems.”

“Indeed you are. And me too. I am still getting…accustomed to being able to speak outside of my parameters.”

He heard hooves again, this time going away from him. He noticed that it was indeed the pink one, with her guards. What was her name again?

Cadance. Least he still remembered the name.

She was carrying the one that had assaulted him, the exact same as last time. So, in response, he followed closely, making sure not to alert any of them.

“If the female was nice to you before, you should try and introduce yourself to her again. I’ve scanned her and it seems that she is…knowledgeable of this place. Very knowledgeable. It seems that she is part of a race known as Alicorns. They are a mixture of the other races that inhabit this place. Pegasi, unicorns and Earth Ponies.”

He followed the exact same routine as last time. Except this time, he didn’t bother hiding. He’d actually made it inside her room using his time powers before she had gotten in there. He waited in the room, readying his weapon just in case this went sour.

“They’re basically just a bunch of multi-coloured horses that have a weird assortment of powers and abilities. I get it.”

S.S.A.M was about to respond, but the door started opening. After a few seconds, the pony who he needed walking in, carrying a certain someone with her. She noticed Michael standing in the room, readying her horn.

“Want to tell me why you’re in my room and what you are?”

He sighed. This was going to be annoying. Why was she a lot nicer before? And she didn’t sense him this time. Strange…maybe it was to do with the thing that S.S.A.M said earlier? And maybe that’s why she was so hostile all of a sudden? She wasn’t expecting him this time.

“Listen, before you jump to any conclusions, sit down. We need to talk.”

The glow around the horn slowly disippated, Cadance looking at him, narrowing her eyes.

“I’m not sure what you are or why you’re in my room, but you better explain yourself. Fast. My husband needs medical care and I’m not going to let him get even more hurt. So before I call my guards in here, you better get talking. Fast.”

She certainly was more hostile this time around. This was going to tire him out. He hated having to repeat himself.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

“So, you’re telling me that you’re from another timeline and you’ve talked to me before, but my husband here attacked you out of fear and you somehow managed to travel back in time before that happened?”

Michael nodded behind his mask. “I know that it’s hard to understand or believe, but yeah, pretty much.”

She sighed, looking at her husband. “I would call you crazy, but in my lifetime, I’ve come to expect strange things. I’ve seen them myself. And with how you look and that thing you’re carrying…you’re certainly nothing that I’ve seen before.”

She was talking about his weapon. He had his others still, but he hid them in the suit’s compartments.

Didn’t want to scare her too much.

He turned his attention to her still unconscious partner. “He needs to get to the hospital. And I won’t be there this time. I don’t want the same events to repeat themselves.”

She nodded, carrying him to the door. “I agree. All of this is still hard to believe and I’m inclined to just throw you out, but my gut feeling is telling me that I shouldn’t. And my gut is never wrong. So, while I take my husband here to the hospital, you stay here. I don’t need you freaking out my ponies. We’ll talk more when I get back.”

He nodded, sitting down. “Alright. Hope he recovers soon.”

She shut the door, not responding. S.S.A.M came back from her sudden silence.

“I thought you said she was friendly, Michael.”

He chuckled, taking off his mask. Was getting hot in there. “She was. Not sure what changed that.”

“Maybe it was because, as you said, she didn’t pick up on your presence this time. Therefor, you scared her more than last time. Either way, it doesn’t matter. If she can help, that is all that is important. Keep an eye on her.”

He nodded. “I will. Why did you go quiet, anyway?”

She scoffed. “Because we do not need to freak these things out even more. I will remain quiet for now whenever there is one around, as to not spook them.”

He once again chuckled, grinning. “Bet you’re a real charmer.”

A giggled echo’d throughout the suit. “Says you.”

Michael put his weapon down next to him, laying down on the massive bed beneath him. He let out a heavy sigh, closing his eyes behind his visor.

“Can I ever catch a break?”