//------------------------------// // Painted sky // Story: Time, Space, and Paradoxes // by Christophe //------------------------------// Dust clung to the air around the newly formed crater. At the bottom of said crater lay the body of a man scared by long life and many battles. For a moment he lay still and suddenly he gasped back to the realm of the living from the void. His body lay broken in a heap. Bones split from flesh and entered vital organs, deep gashes spread over his sides and limbs, and a his weapon pierced his chest. An old familiar agony assaulted his senses as bone met bone and flesh met flesh. His body was regenerating in its usual manner. This broken man rose up from his makeshift grave and pulled the weapon from himself. An average body withheld an immensely powerful individual as he ascended the crater. The man stood proud on the rim of his crater and his reformed sanguine eyes surveyed the surroundings. His brown hair, reminiscent of Edward Elric sans the pony tail and cow-lick, swayed with the breeze. His clothes began to reform as well, an average bartender's uniform complete with arm bands, black gloves, red bow tie, black dress shoes and red tinted rimless glasses. "Why do I make a crater every time I end up somewhere new?" He said with a sigh. After his pointless question he reached into his inner vest pocket and produced a small metallic object with a red light at one end. As he used it to check his surrounding further a particular reading peaked his interests. There was a few life signs nearby and one of them was in serious distress. He nodded as determination filled his eyes and took off towards the group weapon in hand. ------------- Twilight Sparkle stood in the midst of a group of frothing timber wolves. Slowly they circled her waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike at the frightened mare. Finally the moment arrived and one of the wooden wolves leapt at her. She braced for impact and slowly became aware that nothing had touched her yet. She opened her eyes to a shocking sight, all of the wolves had been ripped and torn to pieces. The creature that had done it was looking down at her cowering form. It was at least six feet tall and holding the silhouette of a horrifying and large weapon. The scythe he was wielding frightened her to no end, in the shadow he looked like the reaper himself ready to claim his next soul. He stepped into the light and Twilight was relieved to see he wasn't some sort of skeletal monstrosity or hideous amalgamation of pony parts. The weapon suddenly dissipated into black fire and the creature knelt down and extended its arm towards her. "Hello there little one, did those blighting' wolves hurt you?" he said with a soothing air even if he had a very strange accent, she couldn't place it. It was like soothing mix of Trottingham and Southern style. It was strangely calming but not enough to ease the rattled pony. "N-no," she replied clearly shaken by the creature speaking her language. "Haha! Isn't that brilliant! You can talk! Oh, I can already tell today is gonna be interesting." He chortled as he spoke, "Whats your name little miss?" "I-I'm Twilight Sparkle…who and what are you?" "Now, that is the spirit. I'm Paradox but the last part is a little more complicated." Paradox took this opportunity to scratch Twilight as he sat in the grass of the clearing. She flinched at the contact but slowly began to push back into his hand as he scratched her behind the ear. Paradox smiled and looked to the sky to check the time. It was still morning but rapidly nearing noon. Paradox sighed and looked at Twilight. "I am an abomination Miss Sparkle." "Wh-what!?" Twilight twitched at Paradox's words. "That is the truth, I am something that should not exist, but here I am and no matter what I do I will always be the bad guy." "…I don't think you're a bad guy… I mean you did save me…" "If ya say so love," He said patting her head softly, "now point me to your home so I can get ya outta 'ere." Twilight pointed a hoof to the West. Paradox nodded and scooped her into his arms. Twilight squeaked at the sudden action. The next instant he took off at alarming speed bounding through thick forest, dodging limbs and leaping over fallen debris as if his clothes didn't constrict him at all. Amidst the whistle of the wind Twilight felt a something magical and was further shocked by what she saw when she looked down. With every step the ground beneath Paradox's feet erupted in a small gout of black and gold fire. Once at the edge of the forest Paradox knelt and set Twilight to the ground. They had come out near a small cottage with the village not far. Paradox looked fascinated by what he saw. 'A race of sentient and colorful equine, WITH houses and a village oh this is FANTASTIC' his thoughts were beaming with excitement. They moved toward the back of the little cottage where a little picnic was being held. "Hay, Girls!" Twilight yelled as they neared the group. They ponies turn to her voice with cheery smiles. Those smiles quickly turned to shear horror as they noticed the tall creature behind her. The cyan blue pegasus pony leapt into action quick as lightning and rocketed towards the creature. Paradox saw this coming a mile away and decided to poke her pride with his proverbial middle finger. At the perfect moment Paradox kicked off the ground and pulled his body horizontal and spinning like a corkscrew right above the cyan pony. As she passed he gently puckered and kissed her forehead causing her to blush and skid to a halt on her hooves behind him. Before any words could be said the orange stetson wearing mare was hurdling at him with intent to kill. Paradox had just enough time to react and threw his hands up almost like he was trying to block her. A block was not his intention though, the pony writhed as she was lifted into the air by a black and gold aura. "Are you ladies quite finished?" Paradox smirked. "PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT YA VARMINT!" the orange pony raged. "As you wish…" Paradox bowed and the orange pony was gently set on the ground with a look of confusion on her face. "GIRLS! He is not doing anything wrong why did you attack him?" Twilight asked after breaking her shell-shock. "But he looks so weird though and kinda menacing." The cyan one remarked now hovering around Paradox. "I take offense to that, I'm 'Dead' sexy if I do say so myself, aaaaand modest." "Ah can tell but what are ya?" "Isn't it obvious though he's a multidimensional mage with a sharp wit and devilish personality!" the pink pony exclaimed without batting an eye. "Exact…wait HOW IN THE ENDLESS VOID DID YOU GUESS THAT!" Paradox was speechless (by his standards thats quite a feat unless it involves beautiful females or delicious food). "Easy silly the guy out there told me," she giggled and pointed to nothing. "You can see him too!" Paradox gasped and hugged the pink pony causing her to giggle like crazy. The others just looked at the pair and shook their heads. ---------------- After introductions and an explanation of where Paradox had come from the group sat enjoying the picnic. Paradox was showing off his "magic" while Twilight and Rarity looked on in awe. Finally after Paradox had summoned up sundaes Twilight couldn't contain her curiosity. "Paradox what kind of magic is that I have never seen it before." "Well, Twilight what you call magic is just manipulation of energy both elemental and meta-physical. My 'magic' is actually a very intricate combination of negative and positive energy into one pure and balanced energy, one very prevalent in the void. This pure energy, when correctly controlled, can do anything and I mean anything." "You said void…as in the ever expanding nothingness?" "Yep, it is a realm beyond comprehension everything and nothing all at once a place where the laws of existence mean nothing and knowledge can be found in infinite quantities but that much knowledge would not only destroy a mortal body but drive a normal mind insane." "Ok… so how do you make and harness that energy?" "Well, I am lucky to blessed with fonts both positive and negative energy." "Wow, so you have this pure and powerful magic at your hoo…..umm fingertips." "Yep," Paradox said matter-of-factly. The entire time the others had stared at the man. He seemed to understand the nature of magic better than they did, but was it really just energy and nothing more? "So you're saying our entire whole lives that were based on magic…was a lie?" Rainbow Dash said almost sullenly. "No, you can call it what you want and the shear fact that you all evolved to use it in you bodies as normal is magical indeed. In fact with having such a power I'm proud to see that your species uses it for good and fellowship and not war and suffering like back in my universe. That is nothing short of magical." The girls smiled at his sentiment. He had told them of the world he was from and some of the things he had seen. They shuttered remembering some of the pain and suffering he had told them of. Paradox sighed and looked to the sky, the sun was setting. "Well, girls as much as I'd love to stay I need to find a place to hide away for the night." "Oh, well umm… you can stay at the library I have an extra bed and you did save me after all… and I'd love to learn more about your world and race," Twilight said not sure of herself. "Ah, Excellent." With that the group said their goodbyes. Twilight and Paradox walked around Ponyville to avoid passerby's. They moved in silence for some time until Paradox spoke up. "You know Twilight, you said you wanted to know more about me and my world." "Yeah?" "Well, I just want you to be aware that I won't tell you everything or even most of it." "Wha…but why not?" "I don't want to take your innocence away." "You don't have to look out for my well being you know," Twilight said with a huff. "Thats what they all say until its almost to late, I just don't want such a pure place to be sullied by something as terrible as me," by now they had reached the library. "Fine… by the way my assistant is at Applejack's farm for a sleepover so don't mind the baby dragon in the morning." "I wouldn't worry about me." Twilight and Paradox moved up into the bedroom. Paradox took the spare bed and placed it near the window. After the bed was in place and he used his magic to conjure some pajamas Paradox laid down in his bed with Twilight not far behind in her own. A few hours passed and Twilight fluttered back into the waking realm to see Paradox staring out the window at the moon. "Paradox?" "Yes, Twilight?" "Why are you awake and just… staring at the moon." "I don't need to sleep and I was just admiring the night sky in all of its majesty. You said that a goddess makes it like that right?" She nodded. "Well, she is truly an artist, this is so much more beautiful that any night sky I had seen on Earth and somehow almost more than the infinite majesty of the open expanse of space. Almost like a painting that ebbs and flows with life on the canvas of time and space." "Wow… That was beautiful Paradox." "Huh, oh yeah when your as old as I am and all alone you have plenty of time to think about these things." "…How… how old are you Paradox," Twilight gulped, "I mean you don't look that old but I don't know how your species ages." "You wouldn't believe me if I told you love." "Please." "…Three-thousand six-hundred forty-two years old." "Oh, oh my your species lives so long." "No, honey they don't only I do." "What?" "I told you I'm an abomination. I'm an Undead. An unnatural creature created from a corpse but I was special. I was made to house the soul and mind of a lord of time, one who had already fallen to the curse of undeath. They made me Immortal, indestructible, and powerful beyond belief." Twilight was slack jawed by this point. "They operated on my while I was still alive. They tore out my veins and gave me a second heart, my body regenerates from nothing, and now I have all of that time lord's knowledge and memories. They cursed me to live forever so I decided to do something meaningful with my power and eternal life." "Oh. My. Celestia… You… you poor creature I'm so sorry I didn't… I didn't mean to make you relive those things." "Its fine love, you would have found out sooner or later anyway. I am very death prone." Paradox giggled. Twilight left her bed and walked over to him. She got up behind him and hugged him. Paradox sighed and placed his hand on her foreleg around his neck. "I won't ask anymore, I pinkie promise." "Don't worry Twilight it just feels good to have friends again."