The Great Multiverse Theory: Repairs and Recordings

Last Life.

Beeeeeep!

I sighed, leaning on the car horn. Blasted idiots I thought to myself as I swerved away from the vehicle popping out of the driveway. I had just left my home, which really looks more like a large shack. It had a kitchen, a “living” room, and a bedroom with a small bathroom attached. It had been a decade since I last wrote a book, and was grumpily living off my retirement money and spending most of my days reading books or playing old video games.

Of course, I still needed food, and finally convinced myself to go for another grocery run. Money was rarely a concern whenever I went out to buy things. Partly because I almost never do. Ten percent of the things I had were sewed or patched with duct tape unless I really had to replace it. Heck, I still had a computer that was two generations behind.

Only one thing money couldn’t buy, though. Companions. I do occasionally accept invitations to parties from old friends, but really, what was I supposed to do? I just hung in the back and pretended. I was always good at that.

I shoved the unpleasant memories (I had lots of them) to the back of my mind. My throat felt a little dry, and so I accepted the cup of water from my passenger. I set it down in the cup holder and continued on. I turned into the parking lot and after a bit of help from my passenger, found a passable spot: in the middle but underneath a tree.

“Alright, now that we have some time and little chance of me freaking out and smashing into a tree,” I said, wringing my subtly shuddering hand together, “who the hell are you and how did you get in my car while it was moving?”

The passenger chuckled, his voice seemingly not using air to transmit his sounds. Recognize this? he asked, tilting the edge of his black cloak. A bit of bone poked out.

“Uh, a skeleton zombie?”

He turned his head to look at me with his dark, eyeless sockets. Seriously? Can you not recognize this cloak? Do I really need  to wave a scythe in your face? He reached into his cloak, pulled out a small toothpick dispenser, pulled out and waved a two inch scythe at me.

“Ooo. A Grim Reaper.” A twiddled my thumbs awkwardly. “Any reason why you’re here or why your bones look like a horse?

Pony, he corrected automatically. There is another reason why I’m here, besides the fact that usually sightings of a skeleton usually mean death is near. Two actually.

The first reason is that this happened to be the body I took most recently. The second should be very clear once you see this...

“Hold on, hold on,” I said, holding out my hands. “Is this big? Like, mindblowingly big?”

He paused for a moment, then nodded. I guess it could be.

“Then give me half an hour, I want to buy my groceries first before I collapse of shock or something.” I stood up without giving him a chance to reply and pushed open the door. As I left, he somehow formed an amused grin. It kinda worried me.

I sat down in the car. I just dropped off the groceries in the trunk. I stared blankly out the window as for some reason, I realized that I couldn’t remember what I did in the supermarket. Receipt? Check. Food? Check. Memory of Food and Check? Strangely lacking. My passenger was grinning like a lunatic, somehow making the rows of teeth on his bare skull bend upwards.

Maybe this will help, He reached into his cloak and pulled out...my god, is it? A steel grey handle, scratched yellow paint on the barrel. An eight round belt wrapped around an octogonal rod held in place by superconducting electro-magnets. My mental voice surprised me. Now where did that... oh right. I’m the author

I sighed, pinching my nose. “Ugh. It was actually real? I made it up and started splurting it out after friends encouraged me to, but I never actually got much money from any of it.”

He shrugged. “Well, it was enough to create me.”

“I’m just gonna go home. So, your coming heralds my imminent death?”

He nodded as I started the engine and backed out of the parking lot. He glanced at a wristwatch floating an inch above his wrist. I guess it stopped it from bouncing all over the place whenever he waved that arm. “I believe you still have around 10 hours or so left. So about the rest of the day.”

“Agh,” I groaned, banging my head on the wheel before actually checking the road for cars before driving out. “Then I needn’t to have bothered buying groceries. I still have plenty of junk food to gorge on.”

My passenger looked impressed. That’s what you’re worried about? I will admit, that is one of the strangest final words I have ever heard.

“Eh, after reading so many stories about death and contemplating on it whenever I get depressed, which is quite often, I got quite used to it. I’ve been expecting it by now, I’m over 80 years old. The only thing going for me is ironically a large well of apathy, with which I roam around in life with.” I shrugged. “I’ve been told I go off on strange tangents. I guess this counts as one.”

A few minutes passed in silence. “So...I guess that means I’m the origin universe for everything?”

Not everything. he corrected. Just one multiverse. You’re not that important.

“Ah,” I paused for a moment to navigate through traffic. “Well, at least that means my death won’t kill everything.” I thought about it a little more deeply. “Still sucks though.”

He shrugged. It happens all the time. He snapped his ... hoof things. There, someone probably died. There goes a lifetime of memories, creativity, and imagination. It kinda sucks, but that’s what happens when you are unable to care about a group of people over 80 or something.

“Huh. That’s what I thought for a long time too. Never really forgot it.” I sighed. “Well, anything cool to show me?”

Let’s see. I have recordings of some of the adventures we saw-

“Ugh. Videos,” I interrupted. “I know its unjustified, but for some reason they seem to create a deadline. Like ‘oh, you can only go through three things before time’s up’. Something else, please?”

He scratched his chin. Well, how about the equipment you so generously created.

I contemplated the proposition for a moment. Definitely unique. I grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

I spent the rest of my time dining on junk food and messing around with some of the smaller ordinances that was hanging around. I got to drive a tank out of the deal, which was really, really fun. I also got to fire a sniper rifle and several machine guns. I occasionally visited a firing range, but I could only get my hands on small arms. Obviously, there was no way in hell that I could find someone willing to let me shoot a mingun for a few seconds, seeing how its freaking expensive and the fact that there aren’t many of them in the public domain in the first place.

I will admit, some of the weapons weren’t built for the human body due to the massive recoils some of them produced.

At the end of the day, I could feel the pain of old age wrapping around me. I still exercised a little bit, but it was nothing compared to what I did in a six hour fun spree. My joints ached, my muscles burned, and my breath was lost. But it was the most fun I ever had, though ironically it was with someone who was practically myself.

Right now, I was sitting in the edge of the Everfree Forest, just watching. I thought that it would be funny, seeing how this was supposedly the “brony dream.” I just wanted it as a cool vacation spot, and he said that he could open a portal here. We sat together, just watching the sun go down and Luna’s night begin.

“How much time left?”

He checked his watch. Five minutes.

I chuckled weakly. “Heh, makes sense. I think I can feel them organs dying too...”

Another moment of silence passed between us. “Hey,” I asked. “With all of your powers and all, why can’t we just make me a new body?”

He shrugged. Well, I guess it can’t hurt to try. Nothing to lose at this point.

Black fluids swarmed my body until there was just an amorphous blob. Well, when in Equis...

The fluids elongated, then settled. After a moment, the fluid settled into the shape of an equine. The fluid retreated back into his bony hoof. In my place, there was now a dark green pegasus with unruly brown hair.

“Woah,” I muttered, raising my ....wings? I looked at my back, confused as to why my arm muscles got shifted to my back. “Well, this is awkward.” My legs were still in the back, but I now had to figure out to move more forelegs with limbs that I never used.

Hey, he called out, We’re past the time. I think it worked.

“Really? Haha, destiny! Who said you can’t fight fate?” I leaped into the air, awkwardly punching the sky with clenched wings. I fell to the ground, breathing lightly.

He chuckled with me, leaning back onto the ground. Well, that’s probably another decade at least, hmm?

“......”

He frowned. He glanced back at me and noticed that there was nothing behind me in a 180 degree circle. No.... He screamed, You cheated! into the sky, even as his body started dissolving. That was a Deus X Makkimmm His jaw fell off and melted into the ground. Trees bleed as if it was a watercolor, slowly draining out its colors into the grass until it was just an outline. Within a few minutes, the entire town was just an outline. And then the lines erased themselves.