//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Outstanding // by TheGuyWithAPen //------------------------------// “She’s a nice home, and seems to be relatively unaffected by Discord’s magic,” proudly stated the realtor. The house actually seemed out of place, comparatively; it was right-side up—although still floating, there were no weird animals hanging out around the property, and the thatch roof didn’t spontaneously combust every three minutes. “How much?” asked Heartsong. “Four-hundred ninety-nine thousand bits per year, ma’am. And that’s a discounted price these days, what with the recession and all!” he replied. “Oh dear, I’m afraid we don’t have enough for that, it’s rather, um, out of our budget.” “Not a problem Miss. If you and your lovely daughters will follow me I’ve got some other ones that you might find very interesting!” We walked around town, looking at homes. I believe this town was called Hampsterdam or something like that. Luna was enthralled by everything, be it the foals playing in the streets, the occasional unfortunate pony who had had their gravity switched up and were suddenly walking upside-down, or the cobblestones that were playing slide-puzzle. I didn’t like the look of it. “Heartsong, why do we have to buy another house? It’s not like we’re going to be staying here for long." My voice dropped to a whisper as I leaned in closer. "Besides, he's totally ripping us off!” “Well sweetie, we want to—” “Not staying for long eh?” interrupted the realtor, “Well, I just so happen to have some lovely temporary establishements up for rent, if you’ll just follow me.” He beckoned for us to follow, and promptly strutted off. I just . . . I just desperately wanted to just get away from it all. I wanted to fly away forever and never have to deal with another pony again! I flexed my wings against my vest designed to hide them. I looked up at the pink sky, my longing heart about to burst. “HEY ‘TIA!” Luna shouted as she launched onto my back. “What the—?!” I reeled and tripped over my hooves, having been yanked out of my stupor; I fumbled around, desperately trying to regain my footing, but ultimately failed, ending up face-first on the cobblestones. “Ugh! What is it Luna?!” I shouted, getting back up onto my hooves. Luna, who had been catapulted from my back when I fell over, rolled out of the cotton-candy bush she had landed in, giggling. “I just wanted to say hi!” she exclaimed, grinning. What a brat. “Boy, I oughta wring your tiny little neck! When I get my hooves on—” “Oh, girls!” Heartsong called out in a singsong voice. “I think I may have found one! What do you think?” I gave it a once over. “It looks . . . dangerous,” I said. The windows and doors kept rearranging themselves to look like a face, and it seemed to be very expressive. The “face” would give us a welcoming smile, beckoning us in, only to glare at us in a furious way a second later, and then give us a look of utmost shock after that. I was pretty sure the house was completely insane. After successfully managing to grab hold of the door and vault inside, what we saw before us was not very reassuring. The floorboards kept pulling themselves out and jousting with each other, the stairs were playing leap-frog, and I was pretty sure I saw a spider about to be mugged by a couple of grasshoppers when a praying mantis with a tiny cape swooped in, grabbed the spider, and flew out the window. “I—I don’t think—” “I LOVE IT!” Luna squealed. She ran further inside and began dancing amongst the floorboards. “Well, it sure seems rather exciting, doesn’t it?” Heartsong remarked, giving me a hopeful smile. “I guess so . . . I think.” Come to think of it, the prospect of living in this house was starting to become actually kind of appealing to me. It almost looked . . . fun. “We’ll have to be careful, but I think it’ll work,” Heartsong said. “Excuse me sir? I think we’ve made up our minds. We’ll take it.” “Great! I’ll let you ponies explore a bit more while I get the paperwork ready,” said the realtor, “and so long as you’re staying here, the city is having our next 'Demonstration' in about a week, so you should stop by! Being the closest to Discord’s Palace, our demonstrations are quite a spectacle to behold!” He proudly walked off, obviously happy that he had made another sale, even if it was a small one. Meanwhile, we explored what would be our new “house” for the time-being. It was certainly going to be an interesting stay for the next few weeks. “I just don’t understand how you’re saying that my race, the pegasi or whatever, can control the weather. Like, how?” “Magic or something, don’t ask me, I’m just an earth pony.” The heck with all this magic crap. Marshall was sitting with Rho in the quarantine facility’s cafeteria, eating a bit of lunch as they tried to sort things out, as well as familiarize Marshall with his new body and the pony culture. It had surprised Marshall to find out just how heavily the ponies relied on their magic, or whatever it was. Firefly was awake now, and had accompanied them to the cafeteria. She stuck closely to Marshall, and almost seemed to be paying attention to the conversation they were having. She seems more . . . intelligent than usual. “Anyways, what we’ll probably have you do is talk with the princesses on where to go next. Now we know you’re not an immediate threat, they’ll want to know more about your species, culture, you know, foreign relationship stuff.” “Oh boy,” Marshall sighed. Suddenly, Twilight Sparkle burst through the doors of the cafeteria and teleported in front of Marshall and Rho. “Rho! We need your help as soon as possible! One of the monsters in the cell block 6 broke out and is eating everyone’s sandwiches! We need you to come right away and calm the thing down!” “Sure thing!” Rho responded. “What about Marshall here? I’m not okay just yet with having him on his own.” “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him while you’re gone!” Twilight responded. “You gotta go now, though!” Rho jumped up and cantered out of the cafeteria with a semi-concerned look on her face. Twilight exhaled a few times before sitting down with Marshall. She visibly decompressed. “Whew, that was close. So, how are you adjusting?” “Pretty well,” Marshall replied, “I think? Everything is kind of strange and all, but you know, whatever.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “That’s good. Anyways, how’s the ferret? What’s her name?” Firefly jumped up and ran a loop around Twilight’s neck before burying herself in her mane. Twilight giggled. “Her name’s Firefly,” Marshall said as Firefly poked her head out. Then she looked at Twilight and nodded. Wait, what? There was a moment of silence before Twilight looked at Marshall and gave a sigh. “Look Marshall, by now you probably know that I’m a princess of Equestria, and I have a lot of responsibilities. Right now I have a gigantic project that I have to be a part of right now, and you need to have somepony to supervise you while you get adjusted. So it looks like you’re going to be tagging along with me for now.” “Okay.” What else was he supposed to say? The trio exited the cafeteria, Firefly having latched onto Marshall’s back, and proceeded to meander through the halls of the castle. Marshall struggled to keep up with Twilight as she bustled around, addressing ponies with friendly greetings as they passed by. Soon enough, Marshall found that they had left the quarantine facility and were now in the main section of the castle. The ponies hustling through the hallways now consisted of less scientific-looking ponies and now featured a more varied selection, such as servants, maids, and cooking staff. After a few minutes of following Twilight, they approached another laboratory-esque section of the castle. Instead of high security guards and security checks, however, there was now lots of laboratory equipment and professorly ponies mulling about in the corridors. They turned down a side hallway and found themselves inside a very, very large room. “Woah.” “Yep,” Twilight responded. “Welcome to the Winter Breeze Project.” Marshall was standing in a room nearly the size of a warehouse, surrounded by hundreds of ponies checking and rechecking devices, calibrating measurements, writing down observations, and bustling about in general. He could see row after row of pieces of equipment lining the walls, whatever their purpose, he had no clue. Behind him, he saw many more ponies behind a glass window, looking at monitors and talking through headsets. However, the main attraction of the room was in the very center. It was a large—very large—ring situated vertically, with large tubes and wires stretching out from the base. Engraved on it were all sorts of runes and mystical shapes and things, glowing faintly. It looked like a mixture between a stargate and an arc reactor. Well hello nerd. It’s nice to see you again. I hate you. Firefly still hung out on his back, which he was grateful for. Normally she would have been gone in a ferret’s heartbeat (those are faster than a human’s, you know), exploring all of the new sights and smells, but she seemed to understand that what was going on was important and if she were to disrupt it, she might be separated from him. Instead, she opted to stare excitedly at everything around her. When did she start understanding concepts like that? Either way, he was glad he wouldn’t have to chase her around in this giant room, and gazed at the large ring again. He had made enough of a scene as it was. “It’s really beautiful, isn’t it?” came a new, younger voice. He looked to his right and saw yet another strange looking pony. This one was pitch black, with turquoise eyes and slitted pupils. She had both wings and a horn, dark purple hair tied into a ponytail, and a tattoo of a blue shield and a crescent moon. (He had learned later that the tattoos were called cutie marks and that a pony received one when they came to realize their special talent in life. Strange.) “Sorry,” she responded after seeing Marshall’s quizzical look, “I just saw you standing there staring at it and couldn’t help but say hello. My name’s Nyx.” She put out a hoof, prompting Marshall to shake it. “Nyx Sparkle.” That sounds familiar. “Marshall Bradley,” he said. Do you happen to be related to a Twilight Sparkle?” “Yup. She’s my mother.” “Ohh.” That would explain both the horn and wings. But why the eyes? Marshall turned back to the large ring in the center of the room. “So what is it?” “It’s a portal. Well, a gateway really. The portal hasn’t been opened up yet.” Oh no, not another one. He chuckled. “To be honest, I think I’ve had my fair share of gateways and portals lately.” “Oh? What for?” “Well, technically I’m not actually from this planet.” An awkward silence ensued. “What?” He rehearsed to her about how he had found a gateway and stuff, blah blah blah whatever. Yeah. Portals and stuff and being stuck here transformed as a pony. “Huh. I know what it feels like to be out of place in a world you were never meant to be in.” She looked down at her hooves, a pang of sadness apparent in her eyes. “Huh?” “Well, see, I’m not actually supposed to exist.” Her eyes glanced at Marshall, then rested on the gateway. She took a deep breath. “I was created by a spell intended to bring back one of the greatest tyrants Equestria has ever seen. I was supposed to be the worst of the worst, the cream of the crap. When the spell failed however, I—Nyx—was ‘born’, so to speak. Twilight found me in the woods and took care of me for a time.” “So that’s why the dragon eyes and stuff?” “Yep. A bunch of horseapples happened afterward and I kinda turned into a tyrant anyway and plunged the world into perpetual night”—she blushed—“but we were able to fix that. Now, seventeen years later, things have finally seemed to smooth over and most everyone is okay that I’m around. There was even a pony named Pen Stroke who wrote a book about it a little while ago, although he had the tendency to embellish the more dramatic parts.” “Huh.” “Yup,” There was a moment of silence. “Anyways,” Nyx continued, “the gateway here isn’t meant to travel to other planets. Heck, we have no clue how to even do that kind of crap. No, this one is meant to travel back in time.” “Whoa, really?” “Yeah. It’s been in the works for nearly two years now. It’s been cool to stay at the university next door and get all the scoop and updates on the progress of the project. The princesses have been pretty open with what’s going on, which is cool. Plus, being the daughter of a princess kind of helps when you want to know about what’s going on. Most of the ponies have been pretty excited about it! And you just happen to get to be around when the big stuff is going on! Looks like destiny’s on your side today, eh? “Yeah . . . sure.” Suuuurrrrrrre . . . Something about it all felt contrived, like he was part of a storybook or something. “Hey you two, I see that you’ve met already.” Twilight Sparkle stepped up beside them. “Getting along well?” “Yep!” “Good. That’s good.” Twilight looked back at the gateway. “So I’ve just received word that one of the generators is acting up, so we’re going to have to postpone things for a couple of hours while they get it up and running again.” Nyx heaved a sigh. “Again?” “Again,” Twilight responded. “But hey, why don’t we grab something to eat while we’re waiting? I know of a really great café just on the edge of the castle, and it would be nice to sit down for a second and ask Marshall about his world. Besides, I think I need a break too, my nerves are getting pretty jittery as it is, considering what’s happening this evening.” Marshall stared from across the balcony of the café over the surrounding landscape around the mountainside city he learned was called Canterlot. Vast stretches of hills, fields, and forests extended from the base of the mountainside below. He could see a small town just to the southeast and a dense forest extending beyond that. Off in the west, almost obscured by the blinding sun, was a large cloud structure, or something, that looked almost like a floating city. It was the first time Marshall had been outside since arriving on this planet, and while he knew he should be paying attention to the conversation going on between Nyx and Twilight Sparkle, he just couldn’t bring himself to stop looking at the scenery. The ponies sure had figured out a good way to preserve the natural beauty of the planet, or this was a nature preserve, or they had figured out a way to control the climate or something. It wasn’t that Seattle wasn’t beautiful, what with all the greenery, but nearly every square mile in the Sound seemed like it was packed with houses and factories and stuff. A twinge of sadness hit him, thinking about home. What was he going to do now? Was he stuck on this planet forever, trapped in a foreign body? How would he let his family know that he was alive and well? What would his little sister think? She was only in high school, and that’s hard enough as it is without losing the only sibling you have. He hoped the community wouldn’t freak out too much, knowing full well they would. Gah, if only there was a way to send a message or something. He wondered what that blasted fan would do when his apartment was flooded with FBI agents. Probably nothing. “Marshall? You okay?” It was Nyx’s voice. “Huh?” Marshall jerked his head back to them. “Oh, yeah. Sure. Just a little scatterbrained.” He looked down at Firefly, curled up on the table. “Can’t quite seem to get my thoughts together.” “Well, I certainly know what that feels like,” Twilight said. “It’s taken all of my focus to keep it together today too.” She let out a breath of air slowly. “Big project, huh?” Marshall commented. “Yeah.” Twilight nodded. “If everything goes as planned, it should be the biggest scientific revolution of the century. That is, if everything goes as planned.” “If you don’t mind my asking, just what are you planning on doing? I mean, I know it’s about time travel, but other than that . . .” Marshall shrugged. A large grin crept across Twilight’s face as her eyes widened. “Oh no,” Nyx quipped. “Buckle up, buddy, it’s lecture time.” The trio was now walking back to the palace, Marshall having survived one of Twilight Sparkle’s infamous lectures. So far, he hadn’t understood much of it. Stuff about going back quite a ways to study some sort of extinct creature with a name that started with a W, he couldn’t remember the rest, and they were going to use a spell made by some old wizard guy to do it, but they needed to amplify the crap out of it with a bunch of mathematical mumbo-jumbo, and frankly he barely managed to wrap his brain around it. He was a political science major, okay? Rocket science was not his forté. “Come to think of it, if we managed to pinpoint your home planet,” Nyx remarked, “we might be able to apply the same principle to a teleportation spell and send you home!” Marshall’s ears perked up at that notion. Funny, his ears did that sort of thing now. Twilight gave a thoughtful look. “Hmm. You know, that just might work. Of course there would be an astronomical amount of calculations and calibrations to make, and we’re not sure how Marshall, an alien, would react to a spell like that, not to mention the part where we have no clue how to find his home planet, especially when he calls his home star . . . what was it again?” “The Sun,” Marshall said. “Yeah, super specific. Anyways, we’re kind of going in blind here. But theoretically, it could work.” By that point, they had entered the castle and reached the large room housing the gateway and all of its components, and Twilight was immediately swarmed by a group of scientists. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, there you are! We need you to double check the calibration field!” “Ah, Princess! Your final checkup with Butterscotch!” “Generator number six is back to optimal condition, we might want to check the others to make sure there are no problems, do we have the go ahead?” “Princess, head engineer Forrest Branch needs to speak with you!” “Hello Twilight.” The crowd fell silent. The last voice uttered was one of benevolence, dignity, and held an air of speaking to an old friend. Marshall looked in the direction of the speaker. Then he looked up. Whoa. The pony in question was nearly twice as tall as him, with a brilliant white coat that nearly radiated light, long rippling hair (no really, literally rippling), and a small but sincere smile on her face. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight cantered over and gave the large pony a nuzzle. “I’m so glad you came!” “Anything for you, Twilight. I wouldn’t miss the big breakthrough, now would I?” So this is Princess Celestia, Marshall thought. No wonder these ponies seem to think of her so highly. Kind of intimidating, but also not. Strange. An engineer cleared his throat. “Twilight, it’s time to suit up. Everything’s ready.” “Okay.” She let out a deep breath. “Let’s do this.” Twilight Sparkle stood in front of the now operational gateway, making last minute preparations. She was outfitted with twin saddlebags, packed with a variety of testing equipment fit for a pony who would soon be living in an arctic environment. The head scientist, Butterscotch, a pony with an unusual monochromatic caramel color scheme for both her mane and coat, talked her through the process. “Now, we’re not sure just exactly where you’ll end up, but it should be in the same vicinity as the palace. We’re giving it approximately a mile radius. Once you get there, if there are ponies around, either come up with a really good cover story as to why you just appeared out of nowhere, or distract them with a flash or something. Make sure you stay inconspicuous, we don’t want history being rewritten.” “Got it,” Twilight said. “Also, you’ll only have two weeks before the signal will open up again, so try and be as efficient as possible. Set up the emitter around the spot that you came and the portal should open up automatically. We’ve set up the return time for thirty minutes from now.” “Can do.” Twilight looked back around. There stood Celestia, Nyx, and Marshall, as well as all of the other science ponies. A deep sense of love and respect for all of them surged within her. They have all done so much! I only hope that I can repay them someday . . . “Are you ready?” asked Butterscotch, as every pony in the room put on a pair of goggles. “You’re going to want this,” she said, handing Twilight something. It was a scarf. “I’m ready,” Twilight said, putting on the scarf. She took a deep breath, looked back, waved to Nyx and the rest of the ponies, and stepped through the Gateway. Marshall watched Twilight Sparkle walk through the Gateway. There was a blinding flash of light, making him glad he was wearing goggles, and then everything was quiet. Firefly poked out from under the lab coat that had been given to him. “Okay,” Butterscotch clapped her hooves together, “we’ve got thirty minutes before the princess gets back with the most important samples of the decade, so let’s get to work!” Marshall watched as the ponies shuffled about, getting things ready for Twilight’s arrival. Something felt wrong. Something wasn’t right. He noticed something growing out of the corners of the room. It looked like . . . like that awful black mold that grows in old bathrooms. “Uh, what’s that?” He asked, leaning over to Nyx. “What’s what?” She looked at him quizzically. “That.” He pointed to various spots where it was growing. “It’s like some sort of mold or something, it’s spreading pretty fast.” “Uh, Marshall, you do know the room has been completely sterilized, right?” He looked back at her and gasped in horror. Her face was covered in it. “It’s all over you!” he yelled, scrambling back. “What? I don’t see any—“ Suddenly, she exploded into a cloud of black smoke. “Nyx!” he cried. Ponies everywhere were being consumed by the mold and bursting into smoke. Why were none of them noticing? No, no, no, nonononono NO! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? It was over. The room had been entirely consumed. Every pony, including Nyx and Celestia, had vanished. In the wake of the mold, the room had been changed into a twisted version of itself, something darker and grimier. The Gateway was no longer elegant; it was crude looking, made of brass and was close to falling apart. Gears and pistons littered the outside of it and the surrounding control stations. He sat there, alone. Something soft touched his leg. He looked down and saw Firefly, looking up at him with a pair of too-sympathetic eyes. She curled around his hoof, rubbing it with her face. Goodness creature, what are you? Marshall took in a deep breath, and relaxed just a tiny bit. “What now, girl?” She jumped up, sniffed around for a bit, then squeaked in alarm and attempted to drag Marshall towards a doorway, whimpering. He soon discovered the reason for her distress when the sound of thundering hooves coming from an opposite doorway reached his ears. Before he could make it to the end of the room, they were surrounded by ten or so guards. Each one levelled a rifle at him. In each of their left eyes was some sort of an implant, glowing red with faint crosshairs in the pupils. They were wearing orangish-reddish segmented armor, with an insignia of a burning sun painted on their breastplates. Most of them looked similar in appearance, with the exception of one particular stallion, decked out in gold braids and a polished rapier. The stallion in question stepped forward, looking Marshall and Firefly up and down with a critical eye, implant in his eye flickering. He must have only been an inch taller than Marshall, but the way Marshall felt, it might as well have been ten feet. When he spoke, his voice was cold, calculating, and hard as stone. “Pony, type 2, by royal decree of Her Majesty, Queen Solar Flare, you are under arrest for trespassing in a priority one restricted section. Identify yourself and that creature of yours.” Firefly hissed at him, arching her back and baring her teeth. The captain scowled at her. “Grab the rodent.” “No, wait!” Marshall cried. Immediately, two guards snatched Firefly up and stuffed her into a sack. She screamed and writhed about, smacking one of the guard’s faces in the process. “Hey!” Marshall yelled. “What do you think you’re—oof!” His face hit the ground as he was tackled by three more guards. He struggled, but he still wasn’t very used to his new body and was pinned in a matter of seconds. The captain’s hooves stepped into view and he could feel the barrel of a gun pressed against his skull. “Now, let’s try this again.” The gun barrel jammed harder into his temple. “Your name.” “M-Marshall,” he grunted, cheekbone grinding against the concrete. “There we go,” the captain said. Styre!” “Yes sir?” “Results.” “Nothing is appearing on the records, sir. Wings haven’t been clipped, but strangely he doesn’t have the muscle mass to fly anyway. For all the database can find, this pony doesn’t exist.” Marshall couldn’t see anything, but he could feel the captain’s glare on his skin. “So he’s one of them.” The words dripped with hatred. “Get him to the Warden.”