Echo & Jules' Tales: The Beginning of the End

by Echo Montana Juliet

The Madness Continues

Chapter Two: The Rift

Having not slept through the night, Echo was completely oblivious to what time it was. If it hadn't been for the absence of his brother, he'd never of left the television screen. As he sit there he gazed off to the side of the television and a window appeared. Echo got up and went to it. It was a lovely day, more overcast than the day previous, he counted at least 20 he could see. He then directed his attention to the front area outside his house, at least 10 ponies, he could only name three of them though. He spotted Fluttershy, enjoying her animal friends. he could see a tree across the road Lyra, sitting down on a bench under the tree. Then he saw the unique Derpy flying around delivering mail to the ponies. Then he saw a dark figure barging through ponies near the bridge. The ponies were not happy about it either, the figure didn't care, and he continued to run. Echo suddenly realized it was Jules, figures since he's the only dark horse in these parts.

"JULES! HEY! SLOW DOWN! YOU'RE GONNA HURT ONE OF THESE PONIES!'

Jules didn't even look up, he continued until he made it to the house. When he made it to the front door he skidded about two feet and had to walk back the distance to the door. Echo looked to the door as it slammed open. There stood the most scared face he'd ever seen on Jules in nearly sixty years, and it frightened Echo, to the pit of his stomach he was scared. He was relieved when Jules' face straightened out, but it completely killed the horror mood. Echo frowned.

"We have a minor problem."

"What is it? You seemed scared for a moment."

"It's... it's..."

Jules had another concerned face on, and now it was starting to anger Echo that Jules wasn't answering.

"FOR GOD SAKE JULES!"

"Sorry, it's Command. They sent a small council to check the Time Rift, and have us consult."

Echo's jaw physically hit the floor, he then proceeded to produce a new jaw so he could talk. The original jaw retraced and grew back into the new jaw smoothly, like a shovel in wet ground.

"So you're telling me, that out there, is something non-pony?"

"You bet'cha."

Echo walks over to a closet that just appeared and started pulling out two suits. Both had black stripes along the sides and stomachs that joined around the tail hole in a square shape. Echo tossed one to Jules.

"Looks like we got a job to do. Suit up!"

"It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"Yeah it has, been waiting to get back out there, show up my enemies."

The suits unzip along the bottom and fit like gloves. The suits are made of high density Kevlar, yet somehow acts like a flotation device in water, even to the brothers it was a mystery. Once they got the suits on they rushed over to the Town Hall. Upon getting there, they discovered everypony for miles had come to check out what was happening. The crowd was dense, making it nearly impossible to maneuver through. Once they got to the front they discovered two human guards protecting the entrance. Wearing similar outfits to the brothers except there was three bars running along the stomach, and one line running down their weapon arm.

"State your names, ranks, and business."

The guards were in complete unison, blocking the entrance with light-based halberds. Giving the duo icy stares.

"High-Officer Jules, I am here for the council meeting about the Time Rift."

"High-Officer Echo, I am here for the council meeting about the time Rift."

The guards nodded and unblocked the entrance and let the brothers inside. The doors were closed the moment they stepped inside, and they had to figure out where the meeting was. It was fairly easy seeing as it was the only lit up room in the building, the cloud cover had increased since their arrival, and was making the building dark due to the light being removed. They walked in and found an old friend. With his back turned he started to talk.

"So, when were you going to tell me you were still alive?"

The man turned around to reveal an old friend of Echo & Jules'. High-Officer Brigadier General Yveltch Tmarv (Ye-VEL-ti-ch, Te-MA-riv)

of the Plumber High Command. He was neither human nor pony, but of a species closely related to ant, oddly his head was that of an octopus, his left hand was like a crab claw. His right hand was like a normal human's, besides the fact it was as big as a baseball glove, and everything below his waist was basically a satyr. His head was a grayed red, and the fur was of a red color, too, becoming darker as it approached his waist. The brothers Saluted, then hugged him. They could never figure out was his race was, Yveltch always insisted that he had told the duo, but they knew they would have remembered that.

"So, how did you figure out we were here?"

"I'd like to know that too."

"I found you through our tracking system. I was checking out the sector because of the Time Rift, and saw two names. Montana and Hotel, it wasn't hard to figure out who that was."

The siblings looked at each other, then back to Yveltch, then they noticed a new figure in the room behind The General. It appeared to be an Automaton, for what they couldn't be completely certain of. It had a face like some generic futuristic robot, plain and smooth, however the body was too large for the head, so they figured that had to be apart of it's function

"So who's your friend over there?"

"Does he have a name, or is he just 'The Automaton'?"

Yveltch looked back to the robot behind him.

"Oh, you mean Johnson? That's what I named him, Johnson."

"I like that name, seems fitting for a robot."

"It does, doesn't it?

"So what does he do, Johnson?"

"Well I'm glad you asked, soldier. Johnson! Front and center!"

The automaton's head swiveled around, then the body. It began to walk over, clearly not it's strong suit, seeing as he was waddling. He finally made it in front of the group and managed a salute.

"Johnson, print results."

Johnson began to rumble and shake, and a high-pitched whine could be heard. A compartment opened in the front of the robot's body, revealing a kind of printer-like machine. It began producing a complex, wide, long, paper that had a lot of graphs and statistics on it that made no sense to the dyad. Yveltch grabbed the paper and looked it over and grew an unhappy frown on his face, as apposed to his happy frown, which was as close his octopus head could get to a smile.

"What is it?"

"What does it say?

"It's where it's going to produce itself at that gets me."

The pair walked around to view the document, and saw the complicated graphs. They had been looking at those, then Yveltch pointed to the bottom where in plain text it had three parts. One of ETA of the Time Rift, about five minutes. Another indicated what time eras' it would effect. The last said where it would appear, 10 kilometers in the air, above a large Tree house. That's when they realized something, that tree house belonged to the mare Twilight Sparkle.

"I can't figure out what it means by, 'Large Tree house' does it meant like tall? Maybe Round? You live here, you should know."

Outside the door could be heard a loud commotion. The three looked up from the paper.

"Stop! You can't go in there!"

"I can't just stand by as i get removed from my house!"

"HEY! Put me down! I command you to put me down!"

A loud thud can be heard, and the hallway becomes eerily quiet. Hoof steps can be heard, then the door flies open as if an explosion went off. Standing there can be seen a lavender mare with a furious expression all over her face.

"I demand to know what is going on!"

The fury fades as she notices the alien standing next to the stallion brothers. Close behind is Fluttershy, who quickly faints as she spots Yveltch too. Yveltch waves at the purple pony, then does his best to smile, better referred to as a happy frown. The duo look to each other then to Twilight, then to the fallen Fluttershy, then behind them to Johnson. Echo shrugged, and Jules nodded, one of their few infamous completely wordless conversations.