This story is a sequel to A million tries and a million more
(Not necessary to read the prequel. It's more like flavor text.)
He is older than many stars in the galaxy, and yet he endures the torture. Many times he has tried, and every time he has failed. Every timeline he visited suffered the same fate under different circumstances. All to help 'his' kind defeat the one enemy nopony has managed thus far in any timeline. With technology that seemingly defies the laws of physics and resembles magic to many, the Weary Traveler is determined to help 'his kind' push forward.
In the wake of this, the princesses and the Elements of Harmony are thrust between two worlds completely alien to them and have to make a decision on how to carefully approach this...pony. His offers are confusing, leaving Celestia as the sole decider for the potential future of not just her ponies, but the rest of the world. How is a pony to decide for the whims of what could be seen as a god by many?
This is his fifty-eighth try.
this timeline might be a failure, but then, it seems as if this betentacled Machinator has poorly studied the modalities of his failure.
8510714
Heeeyyy. Haven't seen you in a while.
I would hella read more c:
8510745
i lost steam
you might think it seems silly that it takes energy to enjoy things... actually come to think of it, you of all people probably understand that better than most; my bad!
Haven't sat down with one of your stories in awhile. Bout time I make up for that. I've always loved your works
woops, forgot to hit tracking. fixed.
8511390
Then you've got a lot of lost time to make up for.
Perhaps the weary traveler should work on his opening lines, or have some kind of systematized way of taking different approaches and seeing how each one does. Instead, I get the feeling the major differences aren't him, but the timelines he travels to.
8512000
There's a reason he's 'weary'.
8510745
I gotta know, who's the artist behind that cover art and where did you find it?
8512121
If I knew I would've put it in the source. I found it on a blog after searching for 'future cities' or 'sci-fi' city' in google.
Funny how I often find cover art that people love but can never refind the place where I first...found...it...
Good follow up. Can't wait to see how this pans out
Well at least we now know the princesses won't (hopefully) do anything too rash.
8517992
OR WILL THEY?!
*stress inducing*
I'm looking forward to seeing how Twilight handles all the technology she's about to get her hooves on. I can imagine she'd faint if she was allowed onto the ship
Celestia is suddenly no longer the biggest pony in the room, first this awakens the "colloquial fear of god" in a pony who has long been trained to put their faith in themselves and that which is theirs, second this awakens the anxiety of "necessity denied" as Celestia has long used her "isolation by sole-qualification" as a foundational crutch to justify to herself the behavioral adoption of self directional planning and the masks of selflessness, but now that there is someone higher up the food chain with proof of higher accreditation for administration, her "tower of the self" is leaning mightily towards falling down into the temptation to allow her heart-of-hearts to give up these personal responsibilities in the name of her chief core vices, sloth of the heart and pride of the mind.
8520102
Are those tropes? *claps* I'm learning stuff too! Makes me hopeful that I might one day get a tvtropes page for my stories and learn of the tropes within (Would also help to spot clichés that could be avoided and of which I'm unaware of).
8520102
i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0384/47/1425512881599.jpg
8520217
for the love of god NO, dont do that to yourself!?!?
Thats how you commit muse-author murder-suicide!
also your stories are usually entirely trope free, coincidentally your more successful stories are the ones where you included tropes on purpose.
tropes are tools, not evils, and cliches are the spokes by which the audience can invest in a work.
penny dreadfuls and their ilk are infamous for pandering to the lowest minded rung of literature in a copy-paste fashion, but that is precisely how they gained such success.
8521104
I meant repetitive clichés. The ones everyone uses.
But if you say so. Still. I'd love to see all the tropes in these stories, especially this one now.
8521416
like i said, your stories generally use few tropes, cliched or not, as all tropes are defined as recognized patterns of literary elements (in a character, in a span of time, in a plot outline, in a presentation method, in a story event, in a description, etc.) which are notable for their repetition across stories within a genre or across a greater sphere of common convergence in evolved storytelling patterns.
Your stories are peculiar, in that they are internally consistent (or author-vision accurate) to the point of defying literary pattern matching; your works are unpredictable, your characterization is logically (not illogically) complex, your story's events and settings all possess their own ontological inertia that applies an audience-invisible causality that effects on the audience-visible narrative.
In short, your stories are guilty of one (and only one) greater trope cliche: Reality Is Unrealistic, Inverted.
8521535
That's because I'm, like, totally underground. You wouldn't understand.
8520217
in specific reply to your comment here, those are not literary tropes i listed, those are philosophy tropes, which is a whole-nother barrel of scorpions, but are useful for discussing fictional characters.
8521543
Ooooooh. Philosophical tropes. That explains a lot.
8521540
You know what they say, "One man's punchline is another man's broken jaw!"
To clarify, illogically complex characterization is much like drawing a shipping diagram between a dozen characters using character traits alone as the basis for each connection: there is lot of lines of interaction which produces complexity, but no causality to produce depth.
8521559
You sayin' I'm a pond?
8521571
You are a pond of time, in time, outside of time.
Guess that makes you an 'amy' pond, eh?
8521581
I don't get it.
8521583
thank goodness for that, because it was an awful, terrible, lynch-worthy reference-joke i did not resist making.
8521587
I can tell this perturbs you...which is why I shall now make this reference with you whenever I can. Why, I might even put it in the story now :>
8521595
-ok you know what fine go ahead a random semi hidden doctor who reference joke like that will probably make the views and comments skyrocket with mis placed expectations so its your funeral buffet buddy guy pal friend 
uhhhhhhhhjjjjgggassss
8521600
Good good. Let the jimmies rustle through you.
This chapter is good but contains pathetic traces of heresy, let us hope that it does not happen again, mortal author.
8521878
You have no power here, red potato!
What do we want?
SCIENCE!
When do we want it?
NOW!
Explain it, bitch.
8536515
Ehhh, dunno. You didn't ask it on Steam.
Why bother asking them all to come if you wanted to focus on general public announcements first? Really Traveler, you are bad at planning these things.
explanation! The mechanics of a universe are my favorite to read!
8536822
It's more to show who he is and demonstrate what his tech can do.
What good would come of this? I mean, seriously, what good would come of it? These beings seem to be adrift and keep traveling to new timelines over and over again. Can they get back to their own? Why would you want to abandon your world for another if you can't control the outcome? Starlight couldn't, and these travelers can't either. It's a crapshoot, and probably a one-way journey at that, so why would it be taught except as a variation of a suicide technique? Because that's effectively what it is from the timeline's perspective.
8539306
Remember: He mentioned 'attempts' at something, but not specifically what they were, only that the thing he was trying to prevent is the 'decay' of the ponies. It's the reason why he left his world.
Sounds confusing, sounds like I should just time travel willy nilly without a care and say fuck it to everything
Same here rainbow, same here.
Does the Weary Traveler sound like Professor Paradox from Ben 10 Alien Force?
8561342
If you want him to. His voice is in your head.
But normally, he has a weary, tired, low-tone of voice. It goes higher in baritone to his normal voice when he speaks at higher volumes.
Ponies as Shoggoths confirmed!
8801676
Shoggoth?
Interesting (and slightly disturbing) idea. I have no idea where it's going, so I look forward to more chapters.