Nausea hit him immediately, and the taste of static filled his mouth. Copper shook his head before looking around at the town they had apparently walked into. The rift behind them closed with a thunderous CLAP. For a brief moment he felt the cascade of it all coming to an end and then the emptiness behind him. Many batponies were being sick, having barely gotten more than a dozen hooves away before they could no longer stomach it. Pog helped him back up into a standing position. He had not even realized he had fallen over. “I did not close it...” she muttered to him, looking at the fading shimmering line in the air.
“It is fine. I expected that,” he replied as he guided her away from the group of batponies. It was midday and there was a large crowd of ponies gathered. Oh how Copper felt such relief to see the more familiar shapes. There was murmuring and shouts in the distance, but Copper was determined not to let himself be dragged into it. They would sort it out themselves.
Pog had felt the cascade as well. “And it all-”
“Yes,” Copper interrupted.
“That entire universe-”
“Yes,” Copper interrupted again.
“You knew?”
He hesitated. “It was the most likely outcome. That universe was not strong enough to withstand the force of the rift being open, let alone being shut.”
“So all those ponies left-”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?” her tone was rather scolding.
“What would you have had me do?” he responded in a harsh whisper. “I saved as many as I could.”
“But-”
He looked at her, the uncertainty on her face. “There was nothing that could be done.” Pog still held the same look. “I made the choice,” he said softly to her. “And I was never going to bring up the subject, but yes; I ended that universe and all those left in it.” He stared into the distance, though he wasn't looking at anything in particular.
After a moment Pog gave him a soft nudge. “Let us find the Doctor...”
“Yes...but where is he...” he muttered as he peered around the crowds of ponies. “Surely he would be present at such an anomaly...he'd be drawn to it like a moth to a flame...”
“He may have a different appearance,” Pog said softly. She was getting a lot of stares herself, but most of the attention was on the batponies. Somehow they stood out more than her. “The Doctor may be in a different regeneration from when you knew him.”
It occurred to Copper that Pog had far more knowledge of the Doctor than he did. “That makes this difficult...will you be able to spot him?”
“No. He is a different Doctor than mine, his regenerations will most likely appear different.” But despite her words, Pog was still gazing out at the crowds of ponies.
“He must stand out...he always does...” He was dreading the thought that he may have to become involved in order to make progress. The thought of having to come out from hiding already, and bring all attention back to- he stopped and stared at a pony. Immediately he made his way over, Pog having difficulty keeping up with him through the crowd. “You stick out like a sore hoof, Doctor.”
The white pony had been watching the batponies with a look of interest and surprise, much like the rest of the crowd. Yet, there was this odd look that he had that had gotten Copper's attention...like he had been expecting it. The pony pushed back the large hat on his head, revealing more of his brown mane. “Do I know you?”
Copper hesitated, his mind trying to quickly work out explanations and scenarios. “Blast. We haven't met yet, have we? I hate time travel.” He looked back at Pog making her way through the crowd, and when he looked back the pony he assumed was the Doctor had pulled out a strange device...he had seen similar to it, but it was quite different.
“Did you come through the portal with them?” he asked as he put the device away.
“Yes. Now, please. We don't have much ti-” the word caught in his throat. “Well, no, actually I suppose we have all the time in the bloody world, don't we. Oh Celestia this day is far off plan...”
“Celestia?” The pony took a step back, looking Copper up and down. “You're quite a ways off from her era...uhm...what's yer name?”
“Copper Feather,” he replied, trying to keep his thoughts organized as they started to flit away from him.
Suddenly the other ponies eyes lit up and he moved forward, shaking Copper's hoof vigorously. “Well now isn't this a surprise! Copper Feather. The Copper Feather. We've done some real big things together, haven't we? Oh, and yes, I'm the Doctor. Good spot.”
Copper was caught quite off guard by everything about this Doctor, from his mannerisms to the way he spoke. “I...er...” He took a deep breath. “Are you a you from before or after we've met?”
“Oh, I'm before. Come, this way. Things are about to get a little...crazy around here,” the Doctor said as he turned away and looked around.
“They're not going to hurt the batponies, are they?” He couldn't help but look over at the crowds.
“Well, it depends on your definition of hurt. There's quite a lot of rough waters ahead for the batponies...but it all works out in the end. Just takes a few generations.” Copper frowned at this. All that hard work that he had done, and they were still going to suffer...but at least they would live. “Now, if we just- whoa. What's this?”
Copper looked at what had gotten the Doctor's attention: Pog. “Ah...this...hrm...how to explain this...”
“I shall,” Pog said as she moved towards the Doctor, giving him a very scrutinizing look. The Doctor was clearly a bit uncomfortable by that piercing gaze, which gave Copper quite a bit of satisfaction at his craftsmanship. “I am the Pony of Gears.”
That was all she said.
Copper cleared his throat. “Pog for short. I'll explain as we go. Shall we?” He gestured for the Doctor to lead the way.
“Ah, right. Yes, let's go.” He turned once again and began walking away from the crowds. “I'm quite surprised to see you here...how'd you manage that?”
“That...is a rather long story. One that I can't really tell you many of the details.” Copper was looking at Pog, trying to figure out what she was thinking. “But the important question is can you get me home? Back to the Celestia Era?”
“Well, of course. Shouldn't be too hard to do that.”
That was the biggest relief that Copper could imagine. The thought of seeing familiar ponies...but there was still work left to be done.
They rounded a corner and in an alley sat the very familiar blue box. Copper glanced at Pog, and then at the Doctor. Neither of them seemed worried. But then again, why would they be? They did not know the extent that he had gone. The Doctor entered first, followed by Copper. He glanced hesitantly at Pog as she approached and she herself hesitated before crossing the threshold. There was the soft release of tension as Copper moved away from the door, towards the controls. But the Tardis shuddered and he stopped.
The Doctor looked up at the large center construct. “That seemed...odd.”
“I'm sure it's fine,” Copper said as he continued to move towards the console, but the Doctor moved into his path, looking at him.
“Suddenly an expert on this sort of thing, Copper?” his tone was thick with suspicion.
“Yes,” he said flatly as Pog moved up beside the Doctor. In effect, she now also blocked Copper. “I have had months to study it, in ways that I am sure not even you have done.”
“I-” he stopped and looked at Pog. Suddenly he held the strange device, waving it vaguely at Pog who watched it with a strange understanding. “You...” His stare turned to Copper. “What have you done?”
“What I had to.”
“She's...but that's not possible. You shouldn't have been able to even comprehend such a thing.” The Doctor stood in front of him with a defensive posture.
But Copper remained relaxed. “It was difficult, to say the least. Much of the knowledge I had to tear out of the deepest recesses of her mind. Had I more time, or the willingness to spend it, I could have done it far more elegantly, but the Heart took to it's new body quite efficiently, so I have no complaints.”
The Doctor stood silently, staring at him.
“Now, Doctor, I am going to ask you to move, so that-”
“You built...” he interjected, but hesitated. Copper waited for him to finish. “You turned her into a paradox engine.”
“Her very existence is a paradox. The fact that I am standing here, is a paradox. All that I have accomplished is a paradox. One that I am determined to keep going, for my own sake, and those that I have influenced.” He felt...oddly cold. “All that needs to happen now, is for us to make a simple jump through time, and she will exist as the Tardis once more, with her influence spanning all of existence.”
The Doctor swallowed. “I...can't allow you to do this.” Pog looked at him, and he flinched at her gaze. “The results of this could be catastrophic...you could force us into a time loop, and everything will fall apart.”
“The fact that she can even enter the Tardis is proof that she is stable. That the engine is stable. That my timeline. Is. Stable. You wont stop me now, Doctor.”
“You're willing to destroy the entire universe?”
“It would not be the first time I have done so today,” Copper said coldly.
“You...” The Doctor stared at him, with the look of somepony who could not even comprehend what they had just heard. “You destroyed...that universe...”
“I did everything I could. It would have all faded away without my intervention.” He was watching the Doctor carefully, though the Doctor he knew was not the kind to lash out physically, he did not know this one. “It was...necessary.”
“Necessary? What kind of excuse is that? You ended an entire universe. You killed everypony who remained.”
“I saved all that I could.”
“And how many did you kill?” the Doctor snapped. “Can you even answer that? Do you even-”
“Eight-hundred, and forty-seven,” he said, trying to keep what little patience he had.
The Doctor remained silent, staring at him in a mixture of shock and disgust.
“I tried. Whether you want to believe me or not, I tried...so hard. I tried for months. I tried to convince them...to explain to them. To every single one of them. I spent months trying to keep them alive. To convince them to save themselves.” He took a step towards the Doctor, who he was surprised didn't so much as flinch. “Some were content to die, believing they would be useless. Some believed that it was a trap, despite all the evidence I could provide to them that it was not. And the rest-” the words caught in his throat. He took a deep breath before continuing, “The rest, would rather die in their homes than leave.”
“You-”
“Those are the ones I will remember the most,” he interrupted, not sure if he would be able to continue if the Doctor managed to get a word in. “And yet...despite it all...despite the two-thousand, four-hundred and eighty-two ponies I managed to save, they will fade. It's the ones that I couldn't save that will stay with me.”
There was a brief silence before the Doctor spoke, “You should have found another way.”
“And what way would that have been?” He could feel the Doctor shrink under his gaze. “I was out of time, out of tools. And out of food. If I didn't do something, ponies would begin starving to death. The planet was long past dead, a rotting husk of rock. No food, no water. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there would not be any pony to save if I tried to figure out something else.”
“And who are you to make such decisions?”
“That is extremely hypocritical of you, Doctor,” Copper said as he did his best to not strike him. “You of all ponies, saying that to anypony is...” he stopped, unable to find the correct word.
The Doctor shook his head. “This is completely different, Copper. Just how...how do you expect to live with yourself after all this is over?” Copper actually had to stop and think. He had not thought about it. “You don't feel it yet, because you continue to pile it on. I know. I do the same. But if you stop, if your goal is truly to live a normal life...you'll be crushed by all your past.”
He looked past him at the console. “I am...numb, Doctor.” This actually seemed to catch him off guard, with the shift of Copper's tone. “I have caused the deaths of so many...but I never had a number to put to it. This is a first. And yet, when it happened...I felt nothing. No remorse, no sadness, no regret. Nothing. I have shouldered so much, that I did not even notice the weight of this.”
“You're going to break yourself.”
“I'm already broken,” he said softly. “I have been for a very long time, and I've come to accept that; to even use it to my advantage. And I will continue to shoulder it all without hesitation, because somepony has to.”
“Copper, you can't live like that,” the Doctor said, trying to match Copper's tone more, to alleviate the tension that had been filling the room.
“I don't have any other option. Now, Doctor, please move out of my way.”
The Doctors brow furrowed as he stared at Copper. “There has to be a different way. We can work out some other way than...this. There has to be more options.”
“Doctor. I will not ask again.”
“I wont let-” Thud. The Doctor crumpled to the floor, Copper standing over him.
“You will not stand in my way.” He turned his gaze towards Pog. “Nor will you, if you want to continue existing. It has to be done.”
She hesitated, looking from Copper to the Doctor and back again. “Was there not a gentler way of doing this?”
“I am out of patience,” Copper said, rubbing his face with his bare hoof. “I tried words. I tried to explain where I am compared to him, but he did not want to accept it. I am tired, and I just...want to go home. This did not go how I wanted it, nothing how I planned...”
Pog stood in his way for a brief moment, before stepping aside to assist the Doctor. As much as Copper wished for her to comment, or say anything, she remained silent as he moved over to the controls. There was so much in his head now about all of this, and yet it was not enough. It didn't matter, he just needed to make it move through time. Forward, or backwards, it didn't matter. All he had to do was fiddle enough with the controls to make it go somewhere.
Everything jerked, and shuddered and he let out a soft sigh of relief. Now it was done. His timeline would continue, and all the paradox's that had been caused would be fine. He looked at the Doctor. “Is he-” the words caught as suddenly the room began to spin. Everything all at once looked weird, and it was a moment before he realized he was sliding towards the door. “What...” He looked, or tried to look, at Pog, who was standing over the Doctor.
“You are no longer useful,” Pog said harshly, knowing the exact words to say against him.
“Wait, Pog. Tardis, stop this.” He risked a glance back, through the open door, at the swirling storm of colors outside. “Don't do this!” he shouted at her.
“I will continue to exist,” her voice seemed so strange, echoing and reverberating as Copper tried desperately to stop himself.
“Please! I just want to go home!” Shink, he tried to dig the blade into any surface he could, but it could not penetrate. He looked at Pog, and she returned his horrified gaze with one of her own; one of satisfaction.
“Goodbye, Copper Feather.”
“You will regret this!” He screamed. “I will make you regret this!” The pull lessened slightly, though not enough to the point he could fight it any better.
“You do not understand half of what you have done. Nor will you ever.” She struck him in the chest, hard enough that he heard ribs crack. He swing outward with the blade in desperation, for a moment no longer caring for his own safety. The blade dug into her arm, and as she pulled away there was a loud crack.
“I will kill you!” He swung again, but she was out of reach. In one last desperate attempt the save himself he slashed at the doorway, the blade biting deeply into the wood. “You will suffer far greater than I, Pog!” he screamed, desperately trying to get back inside.
But she was blocking the doorway, unaffected by whatever force was attempting to be rid of him. “Your words are as empty and meaningless as you are. This has all gone exactly according to plan.” She slammed down on his leg, causing the blade to pop loose.
Then it was gone. He screamed into the storm of colors around him until he was out of breath. His chest hurt from his broken ribs, his leg hurt from the force of striking her, and her striking it. Colors swam from over his eyes into his head, filling it with soundless noise and a pain like nothing he had ever experienced. How long had he been drifting? He couldn't be sure time existed anymore. He wasn't sure if he existed anymore. Was this a sort of death? One that was perpetual pain and noise? Or had he just ceased to exist and was nothing but a vague consciousness floating around this vibrant hellscape? His thoughts were so muddled it felt like it took forever to complete a sentence in his own head. All the emotions he had had were gone. All the words he had in his head were gone. Everything he had experienced was gone. All that was him was gone. All that there was now was color and pain.
Suddenly he was laying on the ground, gasping for air. Had he been breathing for the last eternity? Thankfully his body remembered how to breath, because he was quite sure that he had forgotten. Slowly the fuzz in his head faded away to a dull throbbing. He did his best to roll onto his back, and stare up at the clear blue sky between leaves. It was beautiful. His sky had been gray and bleak for so long... Here the sun shone bright, warming his chest. He looked off to the side, trying to get some bearing of where he was, though he really didn't care. He could see trees, a sparse forest of some sort where there were large spans between.
His body felt hot and tingly from the light. The pain of his chest barely registered, yet he could feel every blade of grass on his back. Over his body rolled a cool breeze, carrying the scent of flowers. It was spring, just after the rainy portion where it starts to shift more to the summer season. It was the most peaceful he had ever felt. The numbness had been replaced by a softness that was beyond somehow beyond his comprehension. He could not put it into words, despite putting in the little effort that he could manage. “Am I dying?” he muttered softly. It sure felt like he was dying. It was the kind of dying they described in books, or the kind you wished upon loved ones. The kind where the pain fades away and all that's left are the beautiful things. The only thing it was missing was the 'surrounded by loved ones' cliché...
Of course, all he could think of was how it was too good of a death for somepony like himself. He deserved a more extreme death. A brutal one, though he hoped quick. Not this slow fade out in comfort. Yet here he was, feeling it all fade away. His eyes feeling heavy, making him think about when the last time he had slept. But sleep meant death, he was sure of it. If he let himself succumb to the comfort he would not get up. He would never get up. But why should he?
Slowly he became aware of a noise of something. It took him a moment to register the soft crunching of something approaching. Yet there was something off...as though it were walking through something. It made him think back to when he walked through Chrysalis' garden, though it was...familiar. He knew what they were walking through, but could not put a hoof to it. His mind wandered until it grasped what it must be. “And so, death comes to claim me once again...” he muttered.
The noise grew slowly louder, and he became aware of other steps, softer ones. The kind of steps he would expect to hear walking through such a place. They were so close, but Copper could not see them. His eyes had closed, despite his best efforts. “Another dead one, my lady.”
“Such a shame...” the voice he heard was soft, but cold, and so familiar. “He appears to have suffered quite a lot.”
The voice filled him with a strange strength, one that he could not explain. He forced his eyes open, but all he could see was shapes and blobs of things. “It's rude to assume somepony is dead just because they are unconscious,” his tone was quite a lot more condescending than he had intended.
“Strike my hoof, he's alive,” some other pony whispered harshly.
“Barely,” Copper responded, turning his head slowly to look at the sky through the leaves.
The crunching hoof steps slowly approached. “My lady, be careful. We do not know if it is some sort of trap.”
“He has a weapon,” somepony whispered harshly. He realized that he had not retracted the blade. There was a general murmuring among what Copper realized must be a rather large group of ponies.
“Who would give something like him a weapon?”
“Maybe he stole it?”
“I've never seen a weapon like that”
Words cascaded around him, until suddenly the light was blocked out, and he saw a pony over him. “Where does it hurt?” she said softly, which silenced everypony.
He stared at her, unable for the moment to comprehend what was going on. “Mo-” the word caught in his throat and he closed his eyes, trying to ignore the impossibility of what he had just seen and fight back tears at the same time. “My ribs...are broken...” he muttered.
There was a cool sensation that washed over him, it was so odd how the touch of her magic seemed so familiar...his mind wandered away for a brief moment, back to something Celestia had said. When he opened his eyes, he stared up into those shifting snowflake eyes. “The first unicorn...” he mumbled, and her eyes went from his chest to his, locking him in her stare. Or at least, she tried. He gave her a soft smile before closing his eyes. The blade returned with a shnikt before he put a hoof over his face. He still felt sore, but his ribs weren't broken now. “Thank you.”
There was a silence that rolled in, a soft silence as Copper settled back in to the sun warming his chest, and the cool breeze. He felt surprisingly content, something that he rarely got to feel. She had brought a familiar scent with her, one of crisp snow, and it was oddly comforting. “You are content to lay here and die?” she said softly as she laid down beside him.
“It seems the best course of action at this point...” He did not open his eyes to look at her, despite the odd feeling that he should.
“So young to be giving up so easily...”
He gave a harsh laugh, looking at her. She actually flinched at his gaze, which had not been his intent. “Hardship and struggle is the name of this game we call life.”
“Everyone has struggles, little one.” Of course she would see him as a child... “But that does not-”
The look he gave her actually caused her to choke on her words. Though it was not one of hostility, or anger. It was one of misery. He could not stop the gentle roll of tears down his cheeks as he stared up at the sky. “I want to die... I can't keep going... I can't do this anymore... Some other pony can take this weight, somepony with a stronger back...” He was sobbing now, shaking and whimpering as he curled up away from her.
Gently she placed a hoof on his back, rubbing it softly. “Are you hungry?” she said softly.
“Mhm...” he managed through choking sobs.
It did not take long for food to be brought to him, the large group of ponies doing their best to comfort him. Though the only one to calm him in any manner was the Snow Queen. She had calmed him enough so that he could eat, though he had given himself the hiccups from crying so hard.
She did not leave his side and he watched in a sort of trance as the ponies set up their camp. It was not yet dark when he put his head down and tried to sleep, the tears not letting up, even in his sleep.
~
It was dark when he awoke. He wasn't sure what had woken him, but a few hooves away lay his mother, her chest rising slowly with the soft breaths of sleep. Not far away on the other side of Copper there was a campfire, where several ponies were having a conversation in low voices. “Things are getting worse if that's the kind of thing they do to foals.” They were talking about him?
“Poor thing...nopony deserves the amount of abuse he's probably gone through...”
“Do you think it was his parents that did it?”
“They'd have to be awful sort to do that to their own.”
“Better than killing him. Lots of ponies are doing that.”
“We're all lucky to have survived this long.”
“First horns, now wings...what's next? Flippers?”
There was a sort of murmured laughter from some of the ponies.
“But there's no denying that it's getting worse. Just wish we could have an explanation...”
“Magical anomalies,” Copper said as he moved into the circle, trying to get warm by the fire. It had been the cold that had woken him. “An inflow of magic has caused a mutation within ponies to try and make use of it.” They were all staring at him. “Our bodies are tainted and changed by magic, and you get unicorns, and pegasi, as well as a sturdier base species re-enforced by magic.” He had read a lot of magical theories on the origin of the three types of ponies.
There were a lot of confused stares from the crowd of ponies, which Copper noticed were all unicorns with a few pegasus mixed in.
“To put it simply, there's too much magic in the world and it's changing things.”
“Well, I don't know about all that-”
“I think the kids on to something,” one of the unicorns to his left said. “Makes more sense than anything else I've heard.”
“I still say it's some kinda curse.”
“If that's true, than what put it on us, eh? And why? What did we ever do to it to deserve this?”
There was a general muttering.
“How are you feeling?” a rather scrawny green pegasus beside Copper asked softly.
“Better...” he mumbled, his eyes felt swollen and puffy and he was sure they were probably very red.
“Good. I'm Poplar, do you have a name?”
He thought that was an odd way to word that question. “Copper. Because of the color of my feathers.”
She smiled at him. “It's good you have a name. Lots don't get that lucky, but then again it means we get to pick our own.” Her smile widened.
Copper couldn't gather the strength or energy to return the smile at all. He just looked at her brown eyes, trying to think of what to say.
But thankfully, she was better at conversations than he was. “What happened to your wing?”
“Someone didn't like how I flew.” He figured a vague answer was better than no answer.
She nodded. “Me too.” She turned slightly and flexed out her wings into the light, and he saw how most of her feathers had been pulled out. His eyes wandered across the scars covering her back...like somepony had taken a knife and just...started hacking. “A couple of us have been put through this, but...nopony is actually missing a wing, like you.”
He looked around the fire, noticing how some of the unicorns had cracked horns. “The world is cruel...” he muttered.
“Not really,” Poplar said, still smiling at him. “Just some of the ponies in it.”
“Yeah, and those ponies have all the control they could ever want with that damn flying fortress.”
Copper looked at the gray pony, seeing his cracked horn. “Flying fortress?”
“Have you been living under a rock?” Somepony said, though they were immediately scolded by another nearby pony.
“He's talking about the Bastille. Back when you didn't need a horn to use magic, they built a city in the sky. That was a couple hundred years ago...”
Copper looked at him a moment, his brow winkling. “I...don't know about it.”
“For somepony so smart, you don't seem to know a lot about the world.”
Some ponies chuckled, while others scolded.
But he continued, “Supposedly it united the ponies. Until some of them started being born with horns, and regular ponies lost their ability to use magic. But they were stronger, and tougher...so they made slaves of the unicorns using what little magic they had left.”
“The Shattering,” Copper mumbled.
The pony nodded. “Any unicorn that disobeyed...well, take a look at some of our horns and you can see.” He sighed softly, shaking his head. “And then about fifty years ago, ponies started being born with wings. They did the same thing, but when they disobeyed...” His eyes went to Poplar.
“They make an example out of you,” she said softly, still smiling, though Copper could tell it was a bit forced.
Copper rubbed his face, taking a deep breath. The pony cleared his throat, “I was sure you were from there, tossed like the rest of us.” Copper tilted his head slightly. “Your leg. That looks like something you woulda gotten from there.”
All eyes were drawn to his metal leg that shined in the firelight, somehow it seemed so large... “No...I have never even heard of the Bastille...” He turned and took a few steps away, laying back down. But I know everything about it...