Michael’s PoV:
We had been sitting in the quiet for a few minutes until I started to get bored of it and tried to start a conversation with Triton.
“So um… got any stories to pass the time?” Triton seemed to notice my attempt at passing the time and seemed to blanch slightly at the subject choice.
“Um.. not really, besides stories about my sister she was the more adventurous of the two of us and ever since she left it been kinda dull up until this point so I got nothing” When he finished speaking Triton leaned back into his seat with a sigh probably thinking about his sister again because of me, the awkward silence reigned for a while until a sound could be heard in hallway outside the booth, a trolly cart carrying many different types of snack foods rolled past with a grass green earth pony mare with a lollipop for a cutie mark pushing it and asking passengers if they would like anything from the cart.
“I brought some food for us so were good” Triton answered for the both of us when the nice mare came up to us, she nodded and smiled as she went past and was almost out of sight until I heard someone call out to her from down the hall.
“Excuse me ma’am could I have some taffy?” I recognized the voice slightly so I leaned over and peeked behind my seat and to my surprise I saw the pegasus that I helped to free during the battle and apparently she saw me as well as she glanced over at me and her eyes seem to widen a bit before turning back to the trolly and receiving her candy then steping to the side to let them pass then turning to me.
“Oh! your the...thing that saved us, I thought you were still unconscious?” She seemed confused on what species I am so I let the thing comment pass for now and just introduced myself.
“My names Michael Mars and i’m a human, nice to meet you… “ I left the end open for her to say here name which she caught onto quickly.
“The names Eagle Eye and the name of your little fan is Terran” I was glad to hear he name but the comment about having a fan named Terran threw me for a loop and I was about to ask who, but Eagle Eye just turned and stuck her head into a booth behind us and said something into it then I heard the sound of something hitting the wall between us then the diamond dog from the town who I assume is Terran stumbled out of the booth and turned to see me leaning out of our booth and seemed to freeze for a moment before shaking himself out of whatever stupor he put himself in and speaking to me.
“H-Hello again um… you probably already know but my name’s T-Terran” He took a step closer to me and held out a paw which I grabbed and shook I also silently noted he was shaking slightly, i was about to speak up and introduce myself again but he spoke again cutting me off.
“I have so many questions for you… oh sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt you…” After apologizing for interrupting me Terren covered his mouth with his paws and stayed quiet… is he holding his breath? I stood up and walked out fully into the hallway and grabbed his paws and uncovered his mouth to which took a deep breath and panted for a bit before regaining his composure and blushing a bit out of embarrassment.
“Why don’t you two come sit with us so we can talk” I walked back into the booth and reclaimed my spot by the window with the other two following me and during the conversation Triton has been listening with muted interest and was about to go to sleep to pass the time, but woke up fully so he could be part of the conversation. Terren sat next to me while Eagle Eye just sat next to Triton who had to scoot over a bit so she could fit comfortably, when they were situated I asked the first question.
“So, where are you two traveling” both seemed to perk up at the question and turned to each other before turning back to me.
“Well it’s more like who were looking for” The one who answered me was Eagle Eye who then gestured for Terren to speak next.
“You want the short story or the long?” I was pretty interested in what could have happened, but Triton spoke up this time.
“Well we’re gonna be on this train for about a day or two so a long story is just what we need to pass the time” After ending his sentence Triton got comfortable and gestured for Terren to continue which he did.
“Well as you probably know diamond dogs live underground in colonies, but me and my sister Aurora were born runts and were abandoned by our parents above ground where we were found by a older pony couple, they were unable to have children so they adopted us and raised us as their own. We lived peacefully in their small town for years… until one day our village was raided by a group of bandits, they stole the villages valuables and kidnapped a few of the townsfolk including my sister. The only reason they escaped is because they used the townspeople as shields while they boarded one of our ports airships, the town itself suffered a bit of damage during the raid and in an effort to save my sister both my parents died along with a few others. Since the only family I had left was somewhere probably being forced to work for some filthy bandits i’ve decided to find her no matter what, along the way I met Eagle here who saved my butt from the jaws of a timberwolf pack and decided to come along to help me which was nice of her. The best way to find her for now is to goto areas with high bandit activity and once I beat them i’ll make them tell me where she is” Terren smiled confidently while Eagle just facehoofed at the plan that obviously has many large holes in it, an idea came to me when I remembered that his weapon was a wooden sword meaning it’s pretty challenging for him to inflict damage onto others and I just happened to have a new weapon that I don’t need.
“Well that seems to be a noble reason to travel, but I don’t think you’ll get far with only a wooden sword to defend yourself” I turned and reached for Lights sword that was still leaning against the wall under the window and brought it up and sat it on my lap so Terren could see it and when he did his mouth gaped open and I saw recognition flash in his and Eagle’s eyes.
“That’s Light Spire’s sword, y-your gonna give it t-to me? why?” I rolled my eyes and pushed the sword into his paws making him gaze down at it while I spoke.
“I already have a sword so I think it’ll get more use from such a noble quest like yours, also it would probably just collect dust with me” I noticed a subtle flash of fear go through his eyes when he looked at the sheathed blade, it only to a few seconds for me to realize why he was afraid of the blade so I place a reassuring hand on his shoulder and spoke softly to him.
“Hey your not him, you are your own person which means you can use this how you want meaning it can be a tool of good and not a object of destruction like Light wanted. I don’t think he ever named his sword so why don’t you?” The quick pep talk and idea to name the sword seemed to stick a cord within Terren so he slowly unsheathed the sword until all but the tip was showing and he gazed at it frowning and slowly his frown changed to a smile and he spoke.
“Empathy… i’ll name it Empathy, to remind me to be kind to others and to help whenever I can” I smiled and nodded at his newfound conviction and leaned back proud of myself for helping him, no matter how small it was.
“Thank you for this… really, you might have made my journey a whole lot easier for the both of us. We were talking for quite a while so let’s keep talking tomorrow okay” Terren nodded at me with gratitude in his eyes and turned to Eagle and signaled her to follow while carrying his new weapon and walked back to his booth down the hall with the pink pony following behind.
“Thank was *Yawn* nice of you” Triton yawned while speaking to me then started to stretch out and fill up more of the seat to get comfy.
“But they were right it’s getting pretty late so you should get some sleep, it should be about midday when we reach Appleloosa so then we can choose whether to continue to Dodge Junction or go all the way around to ponyville to get a *Yawn* connecting train straight to Baltamare when we get there *Snore*” I didn’t hear the second half of what Triton said before he fell asleep but I got the gist that we’ll be choosing where to go next when we get to Appleloosa, I looked out the window into the dark night and looked at the unfamiliar constellations until I started to get tired as well. I turned over and kick my feet up on my seat in an attempt to fall asleep, it took a few minutes of staring at the ceiling but the swaying of the train car lulled me to sleep finally.
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“Hmm thou are an odd creature… what are thou strange one?” The voice stood out to me the most in the crowded halls of my school, usually no one spoke to me in between periods and I didn’t remember anyone I know who spoke in a shakespearean accent.
“This is most strange, it is unusual that our presence does not bring thou into lucidness” I was finally able to pinpoint the now puzzled voice and shot my eyes up towards the ceiling only to see a small blue horse with space in its hair staring at me with a question in its oddly emotion filled eyes. The horse was about to speak once again but was cut off by a foreboding rumbling that slowly grew louder and louder, The crowd of students paid the horse and the rumbling no attention as the two different creatures looked around for the cause of said rumbling. The sound of rushing water made me turn around to see a flood of glowing liquid fill the hall washing over my classmates with nothing slowing it down, it reached me and the horse in mere moments sending us flowing along with it at a breakneck pace. This continued for a moment until my head was able to breach the surface for a few seconds and I was able to see where we were going, I didn’t believe my eyes for a moment as I saw that instead of flowing down the hall I was falling down a vast waterfall down into mist covered pointed rocks that spelled death for me. From the corner of my vision I saw the horse from before falling with me until her horn gave off a dull flash and she faded from my sight, I was confused by the sudden disappearance but I was more preoccupied with the rocks drawing ever closer along with my rising terror and just when I was going to fall to my death my consciousness went dark.
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I awoke with a jump when I felt the train car jump from the terrain making me bang my head on the seat, I looked up at the window to see where we were and I could see we had just enter the mountains before Appleoosa the name escapes me. I looked up at the barely visible sky and saw it was early in the morning meaning Triton wasn’t off when he said we might arrive around noon or a bit before, knowing sleep was out of my grasp I sat back up on my seat and stretched out which keeping in mind the low ceiling and was rewarded with the satisfying feeling of bones popping and settling back into place. I looked over a Triton and saw he was still deep asleep as he curled up on his side and used his wings like blankets to keep warm, I was reminded by my stomach that eating is necessary to survive but it grumbling like it hated itself and by proxy me so I reached over to my back and pulled out some apples to hold me over till later in the day where we can get or make some proper cooked food in us. As I was chewing my mind was drawn back to the off dream you were having, of course you don’t remember most of it but you do have a foggy grasp on some of the more important bits. I almost choked on some of flesh from the apple when I realized Princess Luna was in my dream and was almost swept away to her dream death, I felt slightly guilty for putting her through that but it faded when you realized you had no control over the situation and just let it drop for now or at least until it becomes more relevant. I wondered what to do in the meantime as I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep so it only took a bit before deciding to practice using my plasma a bit so I reached into my back and pulled out my old wallet and pulled out the now useless quarter and got ready to flip it, I flicked the quarter up into the air spinning quickly and when it was at the apex of its launch I activated blade time and the piece of metal slowed down immensely meaning I could see the sides clearly and it spun slowly and fell in slow motion back down to my hand. I took the chance to try and predict that it would land on heads then deactivated Blade time, the coin resumed its speed and fell down into my hand. When I opened my hand it showed me it landed on tails making me wrong in the end which I was slight upset about but I just shrugged and tried again until it was easy for me to predict how things move during Blade time.
A few hours later
“*Yawn* Michael? Your already up?” The voice of a drowsy Triton knocked me out of my concentrated state and made me miss the quarter as it dropped passed my hand onto the floor making me bend down and pick it up while I responded to Triton.
“Yeah, I woke up a few hours ago and couldn’t go back to sleep so i just sat here and practiced” Triton rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at the coin I was holding between my fingers with mild confusion and interest in his eyes.
“What are you practicing?” His question made me remember that I never told him about my abilities or where I came from so I got ready for a pretty long story.
“Well remember when I was fighting Light and when he tried to shoot everyone he along with his grunt were dead in a flash of light” Triton nodded and seemed to lean in to show he was intently listening.
“From my perspective everything slowed down to a stop giving me the chance to move the arrows and to kill Light then when it ran out you know what happens from there” I refrained from telling him about the voice in my head and went with this instead.
“While I was out I could feel the energy used to do that running through me so now that I have a sort of sensitivity to it i’m using it to try and replicate it with mild success” This made Triton grin in anticipation at the possibilities then he spoke.
“So you have the power to stop time now… thats Awesome!” I was right to assume he would be excited for me and I smiled right along with him, I resumed flipping the coin and trying to guess but this time Triton wat watching and he saw my eyes slowly grow a glowing blue circle around my iris. Everything slowed once again, but this time instead of internally I said my guess out loud.
“Heads” Speaking broke my concentration and let time resume around me letting me catch the coin and show I was correct which had Triton in awe along with a fleck of confusion which I assume is directed at the coin which showed the head of George Washington printed onto it.
“Oh yeah I should probably explain where i’m from and how I got here” I threw the coin back into my open bag and started another stony before Triton could interrupt.
“To begin with I should start with the fact that i’m not from this planet or even this dimension entirely and please save your questions till after the whole explanation” I stopped Triton from questioning me before I was don’t to which he seemed slightly annoyed but he understood why so he sat up straight and listened closely with a serious expression on his face.
“I lived in a dimension where magic and magical creatures like griffins and unicorns only exist in myths and legends meaning my species called Humans are the only sapient species on the planet maybe in our whole universe but we don’t know yet. Somehow some extremist cult on this world got their hands on some magic universe destroying artifacts or something and decided to go on some sort of religious crusade and try and ‘cleanse’ the multiverse” I made air quotes with my fingers when I said the word cleanse and decided to leave out my prior knowledge of his world and continued.
“Now this artifact works by latching onto something or someone from the targeted universe and somehow uses that link to detonate that universe and use it as a sort of springboard to bring the linked object to this world, when the linked object is living this cult tries to kill or use these creatures but i’m guessing a bit there. I don’t know what they do with inanimate objects” I stopped for a moment to study Triton’s expression and was confused by the look of realization he had slowly dawning over his features and when he realized I stopped talking and was looking at him and went to explain.
“I’ve always questioned this aout equestria, if the majority of the population is ponies then why do they have product and tools that require fingers or talons to use. My family alway got a pretty good discount on tools at the market and this might be why, they must have been brought here and recreated but they could find a way to make it pony friendly” His idea seemed to make quite a lot of sense as that had been a big question in the my little pony community so I nodded along with him while giving it some thought before continuing my story now that neither of us were speaking.
“Anyway, when it happened it me I was to be honest terrified as my world slowly turned to void and I was pulled away from everything I knew and loved” I was silent for a moment while I remembered my family and friends before continuing.
“I woke up strapped to an alter about to be sacrificed to a discount Ind… Daring do villain who didn’t know the difference between arms and the arms of my jacket” That gave Triton and I a laugh, when we calmed I started again.
“I knocked him out and cut myself free with his knife then I tried to escape, I ended up being seen by some other cultist ponies and they sounded the alarm so I just ran while the whole place was after me. I ended up finding the artifact that brought me here and tried to get it and use it to get me home, instead when I touched it I blacked out and when I woke up again I was outside on a cliff edge that had been cleaved from the side of a cliff from there I just wandered until I found a town and you know what happened from there” When I got to the part about an artifact I gestured to my sword making Triton look back and forth between me and my sword with surprise and when I finished my story he went to ask something.
“If this has been happening for a while and you have one of the artifacts does that mean there's more parts to it?” I turned to gaze at the sword as I answered him.
“Most likely and i’m probably the only one who has a chance of stopping them so was hoping we would find some clues on their locations and stop them” Saying it out loud made it sound much harder than I thought it would be, I felt a moment of dread for the road ahead of me but I was brought out of my dark thoughts by Triton hitting my leg to get my attention.
“Hey that sounds like quite the adventure ahead of you, mind if I joined?” I was actually surprised he just volunteered like that so I had to question him about it.
“Are you sure dude it’s gonna be dangerous and there’s a good chance that we might die?” I thought the prospect of death would make him question the choice a bit more but instead he just grinned more and responded with conviction in his voice and determination in is eyes.
“As if i’d just ditch you over something as stupid as dying and your only making it sound cooler by adding all those warnings so you’re gonna have to deal with me for a long time because i’m not going anywhere” I could help but smile at the show of loyalty and feel a little bit surer in myself now that I had someone to back me up so I did the only thing I could to cement this new partnership. I held up my glove covered hand and formed a fist and held it out to him, it didn’t take him long to figure out what I was doing so he brought his claw up to complete the fistbump just as the suns rays broke through the window and Appleoosa came into view.