Music of Time

        Music has always been the one thing that drives me forward in life. If I didn't have music, I wouldn't be the man I am. The man I am, you might ask, is a new-found father and a composer. My name is Zachary Akins, I am married to my beautiful wife, and I play the saxophone.

        Ah, but you're probably here to figure out why I am important enough to get a book written about me for the Royal Archives. Well, I'll get to that, but first, as with every great story, we have to start from the beginning.

“Zachary Akins.”

        I walked forward towards the podium and shook the principal's hand. We both turned to my left and smiled. The was a couple of flashes as our photo was taken. As the last of the light died down, I turned back to her and smiled.

“Congratulations, Zach. You are now officially out of high-school.” Mrs. Brown said to me as she handed me my diploma.

“Thank you, ma’am.” I responded. I turned and walked off the stage and sat back down in my seat as they continued with the graduation ceremony. I clapped as my fellow classmates were called up, and hollard when my friends got up on stage. Just as they had done to me earlier.

“Thank you. And now, we would like to announce the class of 20110’s students who have received scholarships.” She cleared her throat as she lifted the list. “Lilly Able, to the University of Texas in Austin for excelling in English. John Argile to the Texas Tech, also for English. Zachary Akins to the University of Texas for musical education. Andy…”

I stopped listening as I tried to make sense of what I heard. I’m going to UT? My friend Daniel Brown, Mrs. Brown’s son, slugged my in the shoulder as he flipped out in joy.

“Dude! You got into UT!”

“I did… I got into UT… UT! NO FREAKING WAY, DUDE!” I shouted as we started going mental right in front of the everyone’s parents. Of course, no one said anything. I mean, are you really going to deny to guys from celebrating from knowing they were going to a university?

“Now, would all of you whose name was called please come up onto the stage.” Mrs. Brown said. I jumped up from my seat and all but ran onto the stage.

“First off, I would like to congratulate all of you on your acceptance into your respective schools.” The audience applauded. “Second, I would like you to know that you will all be added onto the Wall of Honors for your acceptances. Congratulations.”

This day cannot get any better!

        As I finished signing the final document, I started to stretching my hand to get circulation back into it. My god I hate paperwork. Oh well, at least now I own a house. I looked over to my left at my friend, now roommate, Daniel. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Totally worth it though.

“Well, thank you gentlemen. Here are the keys to the house and all the paperwork you have to keep. Have a nice day.” The Realtor said to us. He was a kind, older man. The kind of, ‘Cool Grandpa’ type. He had been very tolerant and helpful with as we looked around for a house.

“Thank you, sir. You too.” I said as I rose from my chair and shook his hand. I turned and walked to the door as Daniel did the same. Once we were back in my car, we turned and looked at each other. Then, as if reading each other’s minds, we screamed the same thing.

“WE JUST GOT A HOUSE!”

Either it was mind reading, or maybe we had just known each other for about nine years. Mind reading sounds cooler though.

        Now, around this time, we were both seniors in college. So, around 21, almost 22. I almost had my degree in Music Education and Daniel almost had his in Electrical Engineering. Now, I know you’re all excited to get to the part where I do the interesting stuff, but worry not! This is all important and related to the interesting part. Which happens to be this next part right here.

“Yeah man, just call pizza place or something. It’s not like we have the knowledge nor the supplies to make stuff ourselves…Yeah that’s fine…Large, not medium...Alright...Okay, later.” I hung up the phone as I turned onto the main street that leads to our house.

It had been about a year or two since we bought the house, and I was driving home from work. I was a band teacher at a local middle school and I had just finished our weekly rehearsal. It had gone smoothly, and I was feeling good. We had gotten a lot done and I had some rewriting to do one of the Jazz Band’s songs.

It should sound much better with just the bass playing that part instead of the entire trombone section and the bari sax.

I quickly grabbed my phone again as I remembered something I needed to tell Daniel. As I started the message, I heard a horn. My head shot up as I tried to swerve back into my lane, only to over-do it. I slipped and skid off the road and through a barricade and into a drainage ditch. The last thing I remembered was looking down at the fence post in my stomach. The odd thing was, I felt no pain. I just felt, sad. I was sad and scared that I was dying. That much I could remember. But that was it. After that, I was gone.

        I awoke to the sound of panicked shouting and the click of hooves on stone. I didn’t want to open my eyes, for I was afraid I might see what death is. Though, as I lay there, I realized something. The dead don’t feel pain. So why do I? I thought. Maybe you do feel pain in death. A spike of pain went up my spine from my stomach as I felt something come out of my chest. I opened my eyes, fear of death gone, and let out a shout of pain. ‘Shout of pain’ meaning I screamed out in pain like the wimpy band teacher I was.

“GRAH!”

“The patient is awake! Hold still, creature! You are gravely wounded and require medical attention!”

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! THAT IS A TALKING PEGASUS TREATING ME!

        I continued to squirm until two guards came over and somehow restrained my wrists to the cot. Suddenly, I felt an insane amount of pain again as they put some sort of herb into my wounds.

“GRAAH”

Is this death? Am I being tortured in hell? I don’t think it is. Besides, there was that one quote, “He who know not of sin, shall be forgiven by God.” or something like that. Then again, I also kind of knew about-

My thoughts were cut short as I felt a calmness rush over me. The pain was gone, and I felt exhausted. I opened my eyes again to see a white wing drape over me. Before I could questioned it however, a voice spoke to me.

“Sleep now. You have gone through a lot of pain.”

I could not respond due to me feeling like I’d been up for three days straight. I felt my eyelids droop and my muscles relax. That’s when the darkness took over.

I awoke, but I did not open my eyes. I could tell by the light coming through my eyelids that it would be hell to do so. However, I heard some shuffling around next to me. I tried to ignore it, best I could, but curiosity got the better of me. I opened my eyes to prove my earlier point.

Ow, that hurts.

        I blinked several time to allow my eyes to adjust before I looked around the room. I was in what looked to be a castle, as hinted by the view of the giant courtyard with towers on all of the vertices to my left. I shifted my head to the right to see a white canvas blocking me off from the rest of the room. Seeing as that was the only place to the noise could be coming from. I sat still and listened.

“...spy from the griffons.” A voice said.

“You and I know that griffons aren't smart enough to do that. Not only would they never think of it, if they actually did somehow, they wouldn’t send another creature to do it.”

“How about the Minotaur's?”

“Even less so than the griffons.”

“Well then where is he from? He seems sentient as we could gather from his clothing. Unless he was clothed by his master and he is just a glorified golem.”

“No, he felt pain. That much is obvious from his cries of pain.”

“Yes, there was a lot of that. Should we check on him?”

“It would be best. Two weeks of being comatose, I hope he’s well.”

Two weeks?! How the hell was I out for two weeks?

My thoughts were cut short as the canvas was tied back and two winged creatures walked in. Well, I say walk, I think the correct term would be ‘trotted’, but my mind wouldn't accept that at the time. The creatures must have seen me looking at them because their demeanor changed completely.

“Creature, can you speak.” The blue one asked.

“...eugh?” I couldn't form words, as my head was full of mush from trying to rationalize recent events.

“Is that another language?” The white one asked. I recognized her now. She was there when I passed out. My brain had started to understand enough to from words at this point.

“I...speak...English.” I responded.

“Ah, so thou can speak. We are Princess Luna of Equestria, and this is our sister, Princess Celestia of Equestria. Does thou have a name?”

“...uh. Zachary...Akins, of Austin, Texas, in the United States of America.”

“Where is this, ‘United States of America’?” Princess Celestia asked.

“The continent of North America, planet Earth.”

“There is no such place. This is the continent of Nominum, on the planet Equis.”

“...What do you mean?...I can’t have gone to a different planet from a car crash. That would be impossible.”

“We have never heard of a planet named ‘Earth’. The only time when ‘Earth’ is used is to refer to the soil.” Celestia informed me.

“...No, there is no way in hell I was transported to another planet. Not from a car crash. There is just no way.”

“Are you implying that there is another way?”

“No…I…” I sighed in defeat. “It can’t be the same planet either. The only way every human on earth would disappear would be if they all died. The only way THAT would happen would be if we had nuclear warfare. But I guess the whole ‘other planet’ thing is all that makes sense.”

“Excuse us, but what is ‘Nuclear Warfare’?” Luna asked.

“...Death.”

“It is a weapon obviously, but what does it do?”

“It turns paradise into literal hell. A burning, scorched, death-filled wasteland.”

“How?”

“No. I’m not telling. One, I don’t know what you two are, nor would I tell two leaders of a country that information.”

“And why not?” Luna asked with slight malice.

“The only time it was used on my world, it scarred the world and killed 225,000 civilians! If it is banned on my world, I’m making sure it never exists here!”

“What gives you the right to decide what goes on in our country.”

“IF IT WAS BANNED ON A WORLD THAT HAS COMPLETELY REVOLVED AROUND WAR FOR FIFTY-THOUSAND YEARS, THEN IT IS THE BIGGEST EVIL YOU CAN IMAGINE!” I shouted.

The two were shocked. I turned away from them and faced the window. I heard some shuffling as I assumed they were leaving. I stared out the window and started to cry as I faced  the facts.

I’m all alone… No more humans...