//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight- ASS-WHOOPING BY A MARE OF TIME // Story: Beyond Infinity // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Chapter Eight- ASS-WHOOPING BY A MARE OF TIME!? Marcus' glare intensified as the mare's own gaze matched his own. Everything around them had completely froze in place, from the littlest raindrops all around them, to the ponies rushing to get out of the rain. Everyone was frozen except him and this unicorn. “We need to talk, huh? Really doesn’t feel like it, you know?” Marcus said, as if choosing the wrong word would get him killed. Well, that might’ve been a fairly accurate interpretation. He found himself unable to pry his eyes away from the mare in front of him. “That all depends on how you answer my questions,” she began, slowly trotting around him. “Do you know what is in your possession, Obsidian Coal?” “Yes, I do-” “Then you know why I can’t allow you to have it, correct?” She asked, extending her hoof out. “Give me the stone, and you can go back to living your mundane life.” Marcus really wanted to walk away and pretend this conversation never happened, but the infinity stone that was hanging around the neck of this stranger was calling to him. The way it sounded, continued to hum to his ears, tempting him to just take it, it was almost too much. But his own instincts were screaming at him to just walk away before he did something stupid. He looked away from the stranger for a moment, let out a deep sigh, and turned back to her. “I don’t think so,” Marcus replied bluntly, figuring that the stranger was willing to hear him out. “I have a lot riding on finding these stones, so forgive me if I’m not so willing to give up this stone to a stalking stranger like you.” “I’d really reconsider if I were you, Obsidian. The last thing you want is to make an enemy out of me,” she warned him, her eyes beginning to change colors from icy blue to bright green. It reminded Marcus of those poison dart frogs from back on Earth. His eyes darted to the stone around her, as it gave off a dim glow that began to get brighter. “Sorry, short stuff, I ain’t gonna change my mind-” He was cut off as he noticed that he was falling to the ground suddenly, landing face first. Quickly, he sprang up to his hooves frantically and began to look for the stranger, finding her behind him, her body covered by a green aura that began to dissipate. I didn’t even see her move!? What the hell! He thought, glaring at the mare in front of him. Deciding it was time to stop messing around, he took off his jacket and tossed it by a nearby bench that was near the fountain, before facing the stranger in front of him. “RUDE!” “I’ve been quite courteous to you, but you’ve forced my hoof.” “Courteous?! Sure, showing up out of nowhere, threatening me when I haven’t done anything wrong, and attacking me is definitely courteous! You haven’t even introduced yourself!” Marcus argued, before realizing it was kinda stupid to argue in this current situation. “Faerie Tail. Satisfied?” “Well, Faerie, if you think I’m going to give you the stone, you have another thing coming,” Marcus declared, smirking as the stone on his brace began to glow brightly, suddenly falling backwards into a cloud of blue smoke and vanishing from sight. “Amateur,” Faerie said, letting out a sigh as she stepped to the left, letting the alicorn reappear where she was standing. Her body was surrounded by a green aura, her hoof raised and she immediately struck the alicorn as hard as she could in the face at a rapid speed that he couldn’t follow and sent him tumbling into the fountain. Getting up quickly, Marcus let out an annoyed growl and immediately charged at Faerie, leaping up into the air as his wings flared up. Feeling the power of the stone flow into him, his hooves were suddenly surrounded by a blue aura and he tried to hit her, but she had vanished from sight once again. Striking the ground, he ended up making a small crater in the ground near the fountain. Is she teleporting? Wait-No, if she was teleporting, I would have noticed that… maybe she's increasing her speed, but that can't be it either. Whipping his head around, he tried to backhoof her with his left arm, trying to predict where she would be. Instead, he was met by a yellow bolt of energy that struck the side of his chest, sending him crashing to the ground. He groaned in pain. Despite feeling his body healing, it was slow, unlike the time he was roasted by Midnight’s flames. “Shit!” “Language…” Faerie warned in a parental way. "I'm sorry?! Did you just say ‘language’?" He asked, trying his hardest to suppress a laugh, holding his side as his regeneration began to kick in. “Didn’t realize you were my mom!” "Ugh, at least try to act like an adult if you want me to treat you like one," Faerie Tail groaned with a roll of her eyes. “You don’t exactly look that much older than I am!” Marcus argued, popping the back of his neck before dusting himself off. Not wanting to be on the defensive anymore, Marcus decided to charge at the mare once more. He knew that she’d try to appear behind him again, so he figured that he could surprise her with a swift kick from behind. “Predictable…” Faerie Tail sighed as she glowed green again, leaving Marcus to find himself surrounded by a bubble of the same green and unable to move. No… he was moving, just super slowly. “You’ve had your stone for only a short time, it is worthless in your neophyte hooves. Whereas I…” She whirled around and focused a spell into her horn as she bore her frigid gaze into the arrogant alicorn, “I have had all the time in the world.” A burst of raw magical power sent Marcus hurtling through the air like a frisbee. He was so dazed and dizzy he didn’t even notice the streak of green light zoom past him, and there Faerie Tail stood, on thin air itself, as she manifested another green bubble right in the path of Marcus. Not this time! He thought, activating the space stone. He fell backward and landed back inside the fountain again. “Pfft… Gotta work on the landing and placing.” “So you managed to use the stone to pull off a mediocre teleport,” Faerie Tail peered over her shoulder and literally looked down upon the stallion. “I’d hardly call that an accomplishment. Any unicorn could achieve teleportation if they applied themselves. And it won’t be enough for you to prevail against me. Not by a long shot…” “Look, I’m not in the mood to fight, it’d be a lot easier for both of us to just drop this whole thing and start over. I’d rather just talk than fight you, shorty,” Marcus said, his voice almost pleading with her. “Can’t we just talk?” “Unless the next words out of your mouth are ‘here, take it and leave me alone’, there’s really nothing to talk about,” Faerie Tail responded coldly. Marcus sighed, “Well, can’t say I didn’t try the peaceful approach.” “When it comes to the Infinity Stones, peace is regrettably not an option,” Faerie Tail retorted though there was a subtle softness in her eyes as she said so. “I am sorry, Obsidian Coal, but I cannot risk the potential catastrophe of that stone in your possession…” “And I’m sorry too, but if things were different, or in some parallel universe, I’d give you the stone no questions asked. However, I need all of them… So that I can live!” Marcus shouted, narrowing his eyes at Faerie as he felt his heart beat faster. Baring his teeth, he teleported once more. Narrowing her eyes, Faerie Tail thought, You won’t get far! as the Time Stone propelled her towards her right, and she was behind Marcus a split-second before he appeared. However, Marcus seemed to have anticipated that, as he lashed out, striking Faerie Tail straight into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. That, combined with Marcus’s alicorn strength, nascent though it was, sent Faerie Tail hurtling through the air this time. Teleporting again, Marcus appeared behind her this time while she was still in the air to try and land another blow. Hoping to knock her out and take the time stone, and also get some answers. However, despite the pain, Faerie Tail maintained her focus, and uttered, “Time out!” Marcus found himself frozen in a layer of green magic yet again, while Faerie Tail managed to maneuver herself and put some distance between them. She then glowed green, reversing her own time in a physical sense, the pain and bruising from Marcus’s blow vanishing completely. However, this had the side-effect of freeing Marcus from his temporal lock, which did not escape his notice. Hold on, she can freeze me but not do… whatever she just did at the same time? Groaning as she took a few deep breaths, Faerie Tail threw another chilly glare at Marcus, beginning to seethe, “You’re making this harder than it has to be…” “You want to know something? I haven’t done anything wrong since I first arrived here in Ponyville. But here you are, acting all ‘holier than thou’, making me seem like a bad person, but really, it’s you who’s acting like a villain! You’re trying to take something that doesn’t belong to you!” “Said the one who’s already admitted he’s seeking all of the Infinity Stones…” Faerie Tail retorted with an edge in her tone. “I could tell even before you said that, that you had eyes on my Time Stone. So don’t take that tone with me, boy…” “I won’t deny that I am also seeking the Stones, but I’m not the one antagonizing anyone here. So, stop pretending you're the good guy! As far as I can tell, you only care about yourself and no one else!” Marcus shouted, narrowing his eyes at Faerie as she looked aghast. Something inside of Faerie Tail was pushed over the edge by Marcus’s words, causing her to shake with barely-contained fury as she uttered, “How dare… you…” Her eyes flared with icy mana while her lips pressed together and her whole body shook as she was losing control. “You don’t know me, you don’t know what I’ve sacrificed, the choices I’ve made!! I didn’t ask for this wretched stone!” Marcus almost took a step back. But the fire in his heart grew about as quickly as Faerie’s tone. When bright wisps of green flame leaked out of the edges of her eyes at a rising rate, Marcus’ frown deepened and he steeled his nerves. “If I could, I'd throw it into the deepest, darkest hole and forget it ever existed! But I can’t be so selfish… nor can I allow an insolent brat like you to flaunt that stone around like some damn prize!!” The raging inferno erupted.. “Well, I can’t exactly get rid of it! And it’s you, who doesn’t know what I’ve been through! I’ve lost everything, and I’m trying to move on, and I can’t unless I finish my mission! If you want to fight for my stone, then fine, but I’m not giving up! I’ll never surrender to evil! And I don’t care what you see in that future you predicted! You can beat me down. Over and over again, but I'll always get back up. And that's why you won't win... Cause real heroes never back down!" Gasping, Faerie Tail stared at Marcus, utterly shocked by his words, as for a moment she was reminded of somepony who’d spoken almost those exact words to her a long time ago. ‘Cause real heroes never give up!’ She reached up, placing her hoof over her heart, which began to pound with a familiar hurt she thought she’d moved past. But now… now it was back, and every beat pained her deeply, like a dissonant echo agitating every fiber of her being. It made her shake, it made her angry, but most of all, it made her despondent. Marcus noticed it, but he also noticed a tear trailing down Faerie’s face. She stood there, stupefied, taking shuddery soft panting breaths, and she began to shake. She was in pain, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and that pain was overwhelming her state of mind. Her stunned expression began to tighten with a boiling fury on the verge of eruption! Uh-oh…! Marcus suddenly felt a chill of forewarning when a surge of magic spiked in the air around them and he knew it was Faerie Trail. The unicorn’s eyes glowed an intense cold blue, different from the green glow of the Time Stone, her brows furrowed, and she let out an enraged scream as her magic, reinforced by the Time Stone, burst forth in the form of a surging blast of mana aimed directly at Marcus. Marcus quickly dove to the side, but it was then he saw the blast of magic was headed straight for… The fillies!! he thought in alarm, seeing Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, the Cutie-Mark Crusaders in the wagon pulled by Scootaloo on her scooter, probably on their way to their next crusade. “NOOOOOO!!!!!!” Marcus put everything he could into propelling himself towards the Crusaders, desperate to intercept the blast, regardless of whatever happened to him. In that moment, nothing else mattered. He had to reach them in time. There was no other choice. It had been three days since Marcus had arrived in this new world, trying to be careful as to not drop the several boxes of cupcakes Pinkie had tied to his back. “Um… Pinkie, are you sure you guys don’t have a cart I can use, I mean, can I even make it out the door with this many boxes of baked goods?” Marcus asked, before he was suddenly pulled outside by the pink mare. With everything still tied to his back… and it fitting through the doorway… not a single box fell. “Pinkie, are the cupcakes okay?” he asked, looking back to her, but failing to find any sign of the color pink. Instead, the weight on his back pulled his gaze upward. “Nope! Everything is A-Ok!” She said, tying the boxes back up. How does she do that? “Now! Get those cupcakes over to The Ponyville Express! They need to be delivered to the Conductor so he can take them to Canterlot, for a Big Banquet! Oh, if anything happens to those cupcakes… You’ll have to bake them again… by… your…SELF!” She said, glaring at him ominously, before going back to her cheerful smile. “Okay?” “Y-Yeah… No problem.” He said, a sense of dread washing over him suddenly. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be that simple. “Now, get going, don’t want to be late!~” Pinkie sang as she hopped back into Sugarcube Corner. Marcus blinked a few times as he tried to process everything that happened. He had only been around a few days and was starting to remember his surroundings. However, he never actually been or even seen the train station here in Ponyville. Shit, forgot to ask for directions. He thought to himself as he decided to head towards town square where he remembered he saw a directory of the town. Figuring that would be his best bet, he decided to make his way there, while also being careful. Last thing he wanted to do was drop the cupcakes. It took about ten minutes to reach town square just to look at a board. Just to find out where the train station’s at. Normally like any stranger who is new to a town, they’d ask for directions, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Marcus since Princess Twilight decided it was best for the townsfolk to know that he was an alicorn. He couldn’t really argue with her since it was her way of helping him get used to attention since his eventual meeting with Princess Celestia was going to be a big deal. She also made sure to have everypony keep his identity as an alicorn a secret for the next few weeks until he meets with Princess Celestia, but that fact didn’t put ponies’ mind’s at ease now that they knew what he was. “Alright, so if I-” “Excuse us, are you Mr. Obsidian?” He heard behind him, turning to find no pony there, until he looked down to find three adorable little fillies staring up at him in awe. “Uh, yes… is there something I can help you with?” Marcus asked. “Yeah! We were just wonderin’ why ya’ll don’t have a Cutie-Mark?” The yellow filly with a red mane and tail and big red bow said. “A Cutie-Mark?” “Yeah, we’re trying to earn ours, but we noticed that you don’t have one.” The white filly with two colors said, pointing at his flank. “What’s a Cutie-Mark though?” He asked “You don’t know what a Cutie Mark is?!” the three of them shouted. “I’m assuming not having one is a bad thing?” “A Cutie Mark is something that everypony earns, it shows what they’re meant to do in life!” The orange little pegasus said, dramatically. “Oh, well, I never had one before, where I come from you don’t really need one. Personally, I don’t think having a mark will decide who you are. It’s better to make your own destiny, you know?” Marcus explained, trying to be honest about what he felt about Cutie-Marks. “Anyways, sorry girls, but I really need to get going, I have to head to the train station.” “We can help you! We know where it is!” One of them said. “Oh, that would be really helpful actually, I am still new here,” Marcus explained, smiling at the three fillies. “So, who are you three anyways?” “I’m Applebloom!” The yellow filly said, grinning at him “Scootaloo’s the name!” “And I’m Sweetie Belle “And together… We’re… THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!!” All three of them shouted while somehow lifting into the air. “Heh, well it’s nice to you three, you can just call me Coal, okay?” “OKAY!” The desperate cry of concern and care from the stallion reached Faerie Tail’s ears, snapping her out of her raw emotional malaise, and she realized her folly in abject shock. Not wasting a moment, Faerie Tail harnessed the Time Stone, and just as the rainy day had earlier, everything else came to a halt in frozen time. Faerie Tail looked on in an emotional stupor of confusion, shock, and awe. She flashed herself closer and stood between Marcus, her own blast, and the fillies who she had endangered in her blind fury. Looking over at the stallion’s face, she saw something she hadn’t before. Or perhaps what she’d refused to see. It was the look of a stallion willing to give everything up to save those in need. Desperation to help those in need, even if they never asked for help. No hesitation, no concern for his own well-being, only the sincere act and will to protect. Right then and there, Faerie Tail was overcome with shame. She’d allowed her emotions, her arrogance, and her self-righteousness to overcome her, and now she saw how far she’d truly taken it. Coal’s words washed over her and she realized he was right… She’d confronted him, fought him, threatened him, and now she had endangered innocent lives! Lives that he had made the choice to protect… and she could see that even if she hadn’t frozen the moment in time Coal would never have made it to protect these fillies from her wrath. I know what I have to do. The future is clear now, she thought. Faerie Tail closed her eyes and focused, picturing the face of a clock and the second hand going backward. The Time Stone glowed as everything that occurred up to that point (minus Faerie Tail herself) was reversed. The magic blast retreated, and the alicorn stallion went back to his prior position. The blast then vanished leaving Faerie Tail to see Coal back where he was prior to her freak-out. Sighing, she went back to where she was at that same moment and released her hold on the flow of time. “And I don’t care what you see in that future you predicted!” Faerie Tail was reluctant to hear this again, but she knew it was the right thing to do. “You can beat me down. Over and over again, but I'll always get back up. And that's why you won't win... Cause real heroes never back down!" The pain in her heart made her wince, but now instead of anger and outrage, she felt the bitter sting of shame and the burden of guilt. Her eyes squeezed shut in a vain attempt to hold back the tears, but they came just the same. Marcus’ eyes widened and he took a few tentative steps toward her. That’s unexpected. “Umm… Are you okay? I didn’t think you were gonna cry, uh… Need a tissue box or something?” “N-No, I don’t need anything *Sniff* I-I’ll be fine,” she sniffled, wiping away the last of her tears as she managed to compose herself again. Looking up at the stallion, she let out a deep sigh. “Let me ask you something… What’s your angle?” “Angle?” echoed Marcus, taken aback by her sudden shift. She still looked suspicious but not accusatory, confronting or even self-righteous. “You mentioned that you’re seeking to collect the Infinity Stones,” she brought up, “Why? You already have a stone, the Space Stone! Even one should be enough for anybody! These stones carry immense power, the potential of which can be used for great good… and evil. Saying they’re dangerous is putting it lightly, but to want more, let alone all of them?!” Faerie Tail reeled in her emotions, not wanting to get riled up again, before she gave the alicorn a new kind of look. Baffled yet focused, like she was trying to figure him out. After a moment she finally uttered, “Obsidian Coal… just what is it that you want?” Marcus regarded Faerie Tail solemnly and for a long moment he considered telling her the truth, despite Death’s warnings. He juggled his apprehension with his desire to share one of his deepest secrets if only to have someone else in on his burden. To understand. He sighed deeply, and answered, “...a future. A life! I can’t give you the full story, as much as I want to, but I can promise you that I don’t want these Stones for myself. If anything, I’d have nothing to do with them if I could! But I have a… task, I guess you could say. A debt I have to pay. If I don’t… any hope I have left is gone. I’m sorry, but I can’t stop, I have to complete this mission and if I have to fight you, then so be it. But I swear that I am not doing this with ill intentions.” “...You said that you’re not gathering them for yourself. Who is it that really wants them?” Faerie Tail raised a brow. “Someone who gave me this second chance,” was all he could say without revealing anything that could jeopardize his new lease on life. Faerie Tail and Marcus held each other’s gaze for a long moment, before she sighed, “Alright, I believe you… but I’m not giving you the Time Stone. Not unless you can prove to me that you deserve it.” “Well, how do I do that?” “That’s your problem,” Faerie Tail responded sternly. “I believe you, but I still don’t trust you. So… I’ll leave you be for now, but I’ll be keeping an eye on you until you surrender the Space Stone to me, Obsidian Coal. Keep that in mind.” “Now hold on, can’t we just-” *BOOM!* “GAH! What the hell!?” He shouted, startled as the rain started to fall on him. When he turned back to tell her it wasn’t necessary to stalk him, she was already gone and everypony that was frozen before had begun to move again, trying to get out of the rain. Seeing that the townsfolk didn't really pay him any mind as they rushed past him. It showed that he still wasn't trusted by them. “Great, now I get to have a stalker watching me. Just what I needed… Well, it could have been worse, but my god, she’s on a completely different level. I gotta start learning magic and fast.” Picking up his jacket that he left by the bench and putting it on. Marcus began to make his way back to Sugarcube Corner, groaning as he made his way back after a long fought battle. Now feeling the after effects from those spells and attacks Faerie had casted and having to regenerate. He had a feeling he wasn't going to sleep well at all that night.