As Timothy Berfield is led by his newly acquainted escort, his inner mind begins to view Ponyville with amazement. This new world is perfect, a shining example of what every human has desired out of life. The group has now approached the front gate of Twilight's castle, while Tim stares at it with open eyes, Twilight begins to ponder just where their newfound guest came from.........
Tim gazed upon the crystalline structure with awe. He had never seen something so beautiful in his life. Every time he thought he had seen everything this world had to offer, something completely new took him by surprise. His escort however, stood there waiting for him to finish sightseeing, it was beginning to become a problem. Rainbow Dash let out a big sigh.
"Let me guess, you've never seen this before either?" asked a very impatient Rainbow Dash.
"Not even once! It's like part crystal, part art piece." he said in excitement.
Even Twilight had to admit he had been making a lot of brief stops to look at things that she and the others considered trivial. She and her friends would of found it humorous, but only if it weren't scaring all the ponies in town. They didn't run away like the flower trio did, but Twilight assumed they probably would have if she and the others hadn't been keeping a close proximity to him.
"Sir, I see that this is all new to you, but we really do have some things to discuss." she said.
Tim turned his view from the castle and to her. He noticed that she was looking a bit irritated. He realized that she was wanting to ask him the questions she was promised, and it looked like he was killing time.
"You're right." he said disappointingly, "Sorry if I'm all giddy, it's just I never expected to ever see any of this stuff."
"Its fine, once we're inside and situated, we can talk."
Twilight's horn lit up as she used her magic to open the large gate. A great purple aura covered the doors swinging them open, this in turn caught Tim by surprise. He'd never seen magic until just now and looked at Twilight with a frightened gaze. She looked back and was confused by the expression he was giving her.
"What?" she asked.
"W....what the hell was that?" he asked timidly.
She was confused at his statement at first, but then realized that he was referring to her magical abilities.
"My magic? You've never seen magic before?" she asked.
"Magic? You mean that shit's real? I thought it was made up."
"What!? No! Who told you that?!"
"My........" there was a pause in his sentence, followed by Tim letting out a sigh. "Nevermind, forget I asked."
The others just looked at him with a small tinge of confusion as he entered the castle. They all picked up that something had clearly made him uncomfortable.
"Was it something I said?" asked Twilight to her friends. Her friends only gave shrugs as they were unsure themselves.
As they entered Twilight's castle, they saw Tim waiting for them inside. Taking a gander at the abundance of possessions inside, though not nearly as vigorously as before. He would have commented on it if the others weren't in such a hurry. As Twilight approached him, she directed him up the staircase down towards the left hall. Twilight was growing weary of the many distractions he was getting sucked into, yet at the same time, she was curious as to what drove him to such awe when presented with such mundane things.
When they took a right down another hallway and opened yet another pair of doors, they entered a room with a large round crystal table, with several large chairs that seemed to be made from the same material. Tim walked forward with the rest of the group, as each one took their designated seats. Once again Tim was impressed by what he was seeing, and was about to take his seat before he realized that there really wasn't a place for him to.
"Uhh…would there happen to be a seat for me?" he asked.
"Hmm? Oh! Hold on." said Twilight. Her horn began to glow again and burst of purple energy flared as a chair was summoned right next to Tim. He jumped for he still was unaccustomed to Twilight's magical abilities.
"GAH! Mind giving me a warning when ya' do that?"
"Sorry, the ponies around here are so used to it. Guess, it might take a while for you to adjust."
"Well as y'all already know, I ain't from around here, so take it easy on the magic, please."
"Which brings us to the question ...Huh? Did we ever get your name?"
The whole group suddenly realized that they had never even once asked for his name. They had been preoccupied with actually getting him to the castle without him having to stop and acknowledge something every five seconds. They never thought to ask.
"No, I don't think so." said Tim as he was taking his seat. "I don't think y'all ever asked."
"How could we? You were taking forever looking at every little thing!" said an irritated Rainbow Dash.
"Well we're here now, so what is your name?" asked Twilight. Tim got a little more situated in his seat before answering.
"My name's Timothy Berfield, but my friends just call me Tim, so I guess y'all can do the same."
"Ha! Tim!" laughed Pinkie Pie.
Taking that with a bit of insult, Tim was quick to rebuke.
"What's wrong with Tim? Your name's Pinkie Pie for Pete's sake and that's the weirdest one out of you bunch!" Tim claimed.
"No! No! I'm not laughing at your name." Pinkie clarified. "It just sounds similar like a certain "diamond" Rarity found one time! I'm, Sorry."
Rarity was frowning and giving Pinkie Pie the most distasteful of glares.
"We all agreed that we were never to talk about that, Pinkie." she said.
"I don't get it? I'm guessing I had to be there?" Tim guessed.
"Forget about it, it's a long story." said Twilight. "Now Tim, I think I speak for the whole group when I ask this, but where did you come from, what's it like, and how did you get here?
The questions came to Tim simultaneously, and he contemplated whether he should tell them where he was from, which would in turn probably lead them to ask more questions which might lead him to spill important information about The Survivors. He had a duty to protect the last of Humanity when he joined the Militia, but he also couldn't do that duty if he was stuck here.
"I'll tell you what I can, but I can't tell you everything." Tim replied. "Please don't take that as a sign of hostility, it's just................the situation back home's not the best, and I took an oath to protect a lot of people I care about. One slip of the tongue could put them in very real danger. Not that I'm accusing y'all of anything, I just can't be as forthcoming as I'd like to be. I'm sorry."
The tone of his voice was sincere, so much so that the others could relate to that sense of duty. Yet something about his response made them feel a twinge of pity for him.
"Hey don't fret." said Applejack, "We can relate to that kind of commitment, you got a family?"
"No........not anymore."
The words cut deep within, and as far as Tim was concerned, there was no need to indulge further on that subject.
"I know what that's like." AJ replied. "I'm sorry for your loss sug', I really am."
"Its fine, happened a long time ago. But I got friends, they're my family now." Tim said.
He sat forward a little, placing his arms on the table.
"Now to answer your question, I come from a place called Earth. As for what it's like, just imagine the complete opposite of here."
"So it’s filled with people who stop to look at stupid stuff every five minutes?" asked a sarcastic Rainbow Dash.
Tim wasn't laughing, in fact he was rather fed up with her little attitude towards him.
"No, smart-ass. Earth is a complete shit-hole, a barren wasteland where life is an up-hill battle on a day-to-day basis. Everything from the trees to the grass had been scorched to ash. Nothing can grow from the soil, the water is tainted, and food is hard to come by. The sky's always grey or brown, and when we're not fighting the conditions of the land, we're fighting the monsters that inhabit it."
The main six found these sort of living conditions completely atrocious. It was unfathomable, what kind of world would be devoid of any sort natural necessities or plant life.
"How can you live in a place like that, Tim?" asked Fluttershy.
Tim was a little more polite towards Fluttershy, after all she was the first one to stand up for him, so he owed her on that one.
"Well, we really don't have a choice, the whole planets like that. Wasn't always the case though. I'm told that at one time it used to be....well, kinda like this place in some ways."
"What happened to it?" asked Rainbow Dash, whose interest in hearing Tim's story had suddenly peaked.
"Can't tell ya' the whole story, but that's cause' we don't entirely know it. Lot of history was lost during the fighting. Apparently the nations of the world couldn't get along for some reason. I don't know what it was about, I was born well after it started, all I know is that they ended up fighting each other and that it lasted for decades. Ended up killing the planet, and a lot of good people. We call it, The Conflict."
Death on a massive scale wasn't something the ponies of Equestria had ever experienced, not even once. To make it worse, hearing that the massive death tolls were caused by his own species made it unrelatable to them. There were only a handful of wars that took place during Equestria's history, as most conflicts were resolved peacefully in their world. The main six were left completely speechless.
"Who would ever, EVER, be willing to destroy their own world for sake of, ANYTHING! What kind of monsters could stoop to that level." Twilight said in her mind. But she was so disturbed after what she heard, she could barely speak out her thoughts.
"Your kind.......destroyed each other?" Twilight uttered.
Tim sat silently for a moment, taking the time to read the room. This was a hard subject for him, he lost his entire family to The Conflict, and he was only a child when that happened, he wasn't accustomed to talking about it to anyone. Everybody back home had went through hell during the war, everyone had an experience similar to his. They knew how bad it was, but nobody here did. He then looked up at Twilight.
"Yes........and no." he replied.
"What do you mean?" asked Applejack.
"About twenty years ago, three factions of soldiers that were all ordered to fight one another decided to stop killing each other and call it quits. They were sick of fighting, sick of war. Their commanders and leading officers all met at the center of the battlefield, and agreed to form an alliance. Its goal would be to find any remaining survivors in the world by whatever means necessary. From that moment on, humanity stuck together, as not many people survived the war."
"Just how many died?" asked Rarity.
"Billions." answered Tim solemnly.
Each of them contemplated the number. The worst war in Equestria's long history didn't even come close to that toll.
"Billions? How......how......is that even possible?" asked Rainbow Dash, who now had a new view of Tim.
"Messed up people make messed up things, and seem to have no remorse using them." said Tim. He looked around the table, the expressions he was receiving were along the lines of scared.
"They must not have wars very often, this story seems to be scarin' them. I better clarify that I'm not gonna hurt anyone." thought Tim.
"Y'all don't have worry about me, most humans don't kill each other no more. I never had any part in the war either, lest being a victim counts."
Twilight cleared her thoughts for a moment to speak.
"Tim we're not scared of you, w-"
"I am!" interrupted Rainbow Dash.
This made Twilight a little mad, and confused. She was mad seeing that her friend was so distrustful of their new guest. But she was confused, because of Rainbow Dash being known for a lack of fear.
"Rainbow! How can you say that!" objected Twilight.
"How can you not?! Did you just hear him, his kind destroyed each other and his entire world. He might be dangerous!"
Tim was legitimately angry now. He had enough insulting remarks out of this pegasus.
"I just said I didn't have any part in it!" he yelled. "And if I'm so dangerous, why did you try to attack me first back at that gazebo place?! Well!?"
"Please, everypony! Just calm down." said Rarity. "Tim, while I do not think you are a danger to anypony, the story you just told us was rather unsettling."
"Have y'all never had a war? I know that they're terrible, but I'm just wondering, when was your last conflict."
Twilight began to recall the many history lessons she took while she was still in school. The most prominent war they ever touched in school was the Equine-Griffon War, but that only lasted less than a year and had a total casualty count of 60 ponies and 71 griffons. It ended when Celestia and Luna made peace with the griffons, which eventually turned to a peaceful relationship that's lasted for ages.
"The worst war I can think of off the top of my head was the Equine-Griffon War, but it happened thousands of years ago, and maybe about 130 lives lost."
"That's it, 130? That ain't a war, that's a battle."
Rainbow Dash now was out of her chair and flying above the table, facing towards her friends.
"You see what I mean!? What if he came here to do the same thing to our world!? And we haven't even asked what that thing is." she yelled.
"Rainbow, that's enough!" yelled Applejack with a hoof smacking down on the table. Rainbow felt a little guilty now. If Applejack, her best friend, was telling her to stop like that, it meant she was taking it too far.
"I'm sorry," she said as she flew back towards her seat. "But I'm just worried, if anything were to happen to you guys, I don't I could live with myself."
Tim's anger turned into admiration when he heard that. He realized that her sudden outburst was out of loyalty to protect her friends, rather than a hate for him. He could relate entirely. It reminded him of the loyalty he had to protect Achmed, Sarge', and the rest of his comrades in 3rd Company.
"I get it." he said, "You don't wanna see your friends get hurt, I know what that's like. But I can assure you I have no intention on bringing a war to your people, or your friends. Besides, I doubt one human can destroy the entire world by himself."
Rainbow Dash didn't respond, she obviously wasn't fond of his humor, but instead she nodded in acknowledgement.
"Now that that's over, guess I'll fill ya' in on how I got here." he said. "Me and my buddy, Achmed, we were searchin' for some medical supplies in the ruins of what we thought might have been a hospital. Suffice to say, it wasn't."
"What was it?" asked Fluttershy.
"I'm not entirely sure. But whatever it was, somethin' big was going on down in the floors below. We found an elevator that still had workin' power, and we were gonna search the whole place floor by floor. Well we get to the bottom, and there's this hallway with a big set of steel doors that were slightly open. Me and my buddy walk through, and lo and behold, was this big device that was shaped like an arch. Had wires, tubes, and computers all over it. A-"
"Computer? What's a computer?" interrupted Pinkie Pie.
"It's some sort of machine thingy from before the war, anyway, Achmed was about to call in when this mutant got the jump on him and started-"
"I'm sorry, darling, but what exactly is a mutant?" asked Rarity
"Those monsters I was talking about? We call em' mutants. They used to be animals or humans who got so jacked up from the war that they turned into these deformed monsters that'll attack ya' on sight. Hey listen, I know y'all got your questions, but try to refrain from any more till I'm done."
They all took note of that and let him continue his story.
"This thing got the jump on my buddy Achmed, and clung' to his back, clawing at his head and face. He starts screamin' and I turn and see what's going on, I try to help, see if I can try to shoot the thing off of him, but I'm too far away, I didn't want to hit Achmed by mistake. But before I could get closer to help him, the thing smashed him into one of the control panels, activating whatever that device was behind me. Next thing I know, I'm being pulled in by it, unable to anchor myself down on anything. I lost my grip and got sucked in. Must of hit something really hard on the way in though, cause' I can't remember anything after that, other than waking up. When I came to I was in that forest y'all were mentioning earlier."
Whatever he's talking about sounds really advanced, it's possible that their technology must be superior to ours. Twilight thought to herself.
"I'm guessing you can't use the same method to get back?" she asked.
"Well, that's just it, when I woke up, there was only the forest. No device, and no other humans to be found. I came to this town lookin' for help. I don't know how to get back, so I thought maybe you do."
He now looked at all of them, and sighed.
"Look, I know I've made my home sound all shitty, and made my species sound horrible, but I really need your help. This is my home were talkin' about, and as much as I think this place is great, I still have friends that need me, like y'all need each other. So, would you help a human get home?"
Twilight and her friends were unsure what to make of this. Half of the things he spoke of were completely foreign to them. Devices, computers, panels, and whatnot. Not to mention what he said about his species' tendency towards violence was still lingering in her mind. Twilight saw that he was in need. She wanted to help him, but she also needed to proceed with a careful decision.
"Tim, would you mind staying here while my friends and I talk in private?" asked Twilight.
"Not at all. Go ahead, take your time."
Twilight and the others all got up and exited into the hall, while Tim remained seated, watching them exit. Once each of them was out of the room entirely, Twilight used her magic to close the doors shut. Once they were closed they began to speak their minds.
"I can't believe this is happening. An alien from another world is asking for our help? How can we even help him? CAN we even help him?" asked Twilight.
"I feel sorry the poor thing, growing up in a world like that, it sounds awful." said Fluttershy sympathetically.
"It explains the way he was acting before." Applejack added.
"The guy's species sounds dangerous, but he sounds like a nice guy. A little loose in the head maybe, but nice." said Spike.
"Twilight, dear. I have to ask, do you have any sort of magical knowledge that could help him get back?" asked Rarity.
"I'm not sure." said Twilight. "The way he talked about it, it sounds like he came through a portal of some kind."
"Is that something you can do Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.
"It's possible, I don't know any particular spell that does something like that, but I could probably find one in the library, and as an Alicorn I could perform it if it were one of the more advanced forms of spell casting."
"He seems to be desperately wanting to go back, but if his world's like he says it is, I don't see why he would want to." said Applejack.
"I'm with AJ, why is he even asking to go back? Why not just stay here if he loves it so much? Something seems off." asked Rainbow Dash.
"I got the notion that he maybe wants to go back and see if his friends are okay. If I were in his shoes, I'd do the same." replied Applejack.
"We have to help him, what kind of ponies would we be if we turned him away?" asked Fluttershy.
"When you put it like that, I'd say Jerk Ponies." said Pinkie Pie.
"Fluttershy's right," stated Twilight. "We all symbolize the elements of harmony and friendship, and it's our duty to help those in need, and that includes him."
The group knew she was right, not to mention that it was coming from the mouth of the Princess of Friendship. They were all content on helping this stranger from another world, Rainbow Dash included. The group huddle was adjourned. Twilight opened the doors, and they each lined up under the doorway. Tim stood up from his seat to face their presence.
"Tim." said Twilight.
"Yes?"
"We talked about what you asked of us, and yes, we'll see if we can get you back home."
Tim let out a great sigh of relief.
"I can't thank y'all enough, I know ya' have your doubts about me, but I hope in time I can put them to rest."
"If we're going to find a way for you to get back home, Tim, we'll first have to see what we can find in my library. Perhaps there's a spell that can help you."
"Oh great more of your magic." he said with dread. "Wait? Your library? You got one all to yourself?"
"I sure do, it's kind of my thing. I absolutely love reading books and learning new things!"
"No foolin'? I like books too, always loved readin' when I was a kid."
That caught Twilight's attention, she was always a fan of those who enjoyed reading for fun.
"Really, how often do you do it?" she asked eagerly.
"Oh great here we go." whispered Spike to himself.
"Oh, I haven't read a book in 15 months!" said Tim, "They're ain't a lot of books where I'm from. Most of them got destroyed during the war, so we like to keep the ones we still have in one place so they don't get damaged. We're open to read them, but only if we read them where they're stored, can't take them out of the building under any circumstance. I'm never really there enough to get any heavy readin' done, but I always stop by when I get the chance."
"Even literature didn't make it in his world, what exactly did they do to each other?" Twilight wondered to herself. "If I have the time, I may want to speak with Tim in detail about his species, his world. So many questions I want him to answer. More knowledge is always good, right?"