'Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.'

Martin Luther King Jr.

That was the last thought I had while I plummeted to the ground. I knew death was inevitable. Falling from near one hundred and fifty meters towards solid ground - there was no way to survive.

But still, I have awoken. I am unsure of where I am. I don't even know if I'm anywhere. All I can see is black. I can feel my eyes blinking but nothing ever comes into view.

I tried to move around but I found no solid ground upon which I lay. It was like I was suspended in mid-air. Even so, I managed to struggle around and lurch myself forward. At least, I think it's forward. I don't even know if I've moved.

I couldn't believe she jumped with me. I was going to save her, considering if the paradox worked or not. The last thing I heard was Minute's rage-induced voice scream at us before she pushed me over the edge, clinging to me. The world rushed past us and then...boom. That was it. I didn't feel a thing. I guess death must have been instantaneous.

Once again, my voice echoes until it dies down. Nothing responds. I keep shouting again and again, hoping someone or something can help me out of this place. I once again lurch myself forwards. It was like trying to doggy paddle in mid-air. After a while, I stopped. Nothing came into view. Nothing was here.

Then a thought occured. I fell from an incredible height and splatted on the ground. My body should have exploded like a watermelon filled with dynamite. I felt my body over and it was strangely still in once piece. Everything was where it should be and nothing seemed out of place.

There must be a reason for this. I didn't believe in religion, therefore, I didn't believe in heaven, hell or purgatory or stuff like that. I believed that when we die, that's it. Done. Finished. No afterlife.

But this. I don't know what this is. It's definetely not heaven. It could be hell. Being stuck in a dark place with no-one else around for eternity would be hell enough for anybody.

Did I really do that many bad things to be sent to hell? I mean, sure I wasn't the best kid in the world but that's how I grew up. It took me until my late teenage years to realise it was all wrong. There was the fights I got into...boy, they were a bit gruesome. I did swear a lot...

Maybe I do deserve this. But I did good things as well! I treated my foster families well...most of the time. I got myself a job and became independent. I suppose when I was on benefits I was a little lazy. Quite lazy in fact.

But what about Equestria? I've made friends with so many ponies, I helped a princess out of a depression and fell in love with her, I even sacrificed my life in an attempt to save the world! Was that good or bad?

I didn't know. I remember once something Abigail told me. She and her partner were deeply Christian and tried to invoke their views onto me. I remember her saying that one bad thing can stop you from going to heaven. You need to apologise for all the bad things you did in your life at Purgatory. 'Confess your sins' I think it was.

"Um...if anyone can hear this. If...ugh, God, can hear this, then please listen to what I have to say." I waited for some form of reply but it didn't come. "Alright. I'll start anyway. I'm sorry for the way I treated my foster families. You understand thar right? Sometimes they were mean but...I only reacted out of anger and I apologise for that."

Still no answer. "More? Right, I'm sorry for fighting in school. It was only out of self defence! I never meant to break thay guy's nose!" Still no reply. My breaths became ragged as I started recalling memories of my youthful times. "I...I'm sorry for not trying hard enough in life! I tried! I...I really did!"

The darkness that engulfed me proved nothing to my pleas as they still went unanswered. Now, I was panicking. "Come on! Someone please! Do you want more?! FINE! I'm sorry I ruined Equestria! Is that what you want to hear?!" I screamed out, tears now streaming from my eyes.

Silence reigned. The only sound was my sobbing. I curled myself into a ball and just wept. "Please...I don't want to be here."

I don't know how long I've been here. Nothing has changed. I can't see a thing and my aplogies went un-answered. So much for the Purgatory.

I lay still, musing my own thoughts. Mostly about whether the plan worked. Whether my sacrifice caused a paradox. I bloody hoped so.

I closed my eyes and breathed slow shallow breaths. At least there's air here. Don't know how long for though. I might not be even breathing. I guess--

The sound of twinkling caught my attention. The first sound I have heard since awakening here. I opened my eyes and saw a faint white light in the distance. A sign! Maybe a way out of here!

I lurched myself forward and slowly approached the light. The closer I got, the bigger it got. The sound was getting louder as well. I started to laugh uncontrollably as I made my way towards the shining beacon. I was approaching it more and more but it suddenly moved rapidly to the left. I turned and started my struggling once again. The light moved to the right.

The light remained still. I heaved myself towards it again and it launched itself upwards, out of reach.

"HUH?!" It spoke. That light spoke to me. The voice was angelic almost. Definetely female but not familiar. "Hello?" I called out.

I recoiled in shock. It really did talk! The light was no more than a meter in diameter and it hummed with a twinkling sound. Like wind chimes ringing in a summer breeze.

"I have been observing you during your duration here. You are a strange individual. Apologising for all your mistakes in life."

The voice spoke to me in a calm and soothing manner. It sounded like Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. I loved her voice, even though she only spoke a few words.

"Yes, you are dead, but not fully. You are a resident in my domain. The plane between life and death."

This was all too much to take in. The fall did kill me but I'm not dead - how the hell does that make sense? I wonder if...

"How your mind works, it's funny." The voice laughed softly, causing me to smile. Smiling in the face of my so-called non-God. "You are here because your life ended. Every creature that dies in the world - their souls are brought here. I look over these souls and reintroduce them to the world as a lower form of life. Say if a pony died, I would bring them back as a manticore or a cow or chicken. Then that creature, into a lower form such as a fly or a slug. And so on until there is nothing more to revert back to."

"That is correct. But in your case, it is different. Your entire body is here, not just your soul." The light circled me a few times, as if it was observing. "I am aware of how you arrived here. I am amazed at your courage and bravery in the face of certain danger. Your sacrifice was extremely noble.

"The moment your body arrived here, the world changed dramatically. As you predicted, your death meant that Minute Hand could not take your body in the future. Everything that he had caused was undone and the nullifcation spell was erased with everything returning to normal."

"No she didn't. Even without magic, Alicorns have immense body strength and integrity. She did suffer major damage but she survived. With the paradox in effect, that never happened. She is in perfectly good health."

I sighed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." I needed to know more. "So exactly what happened to the world when the paradox worked?"

"This will be hard to explain so I suggest you listen well. The magic with which I live and work affects the whole world. When you died, that exact moment was erased from time, leaving every creature in limbo."

The light rested on my shoulder. It really did feel like there was a hand on my shoulder. "Do not worry. They were not dead, they just had no place to go. I placed them back into the world with their lives intact. I even put Minute back in Equestria."

"Do you want to know why he did it? Minute said that it was Celestia's fault, correct?" I nodded. "That 'fault' that Celestia made was a simple request. Minute approached the Princess asking for funding for growing crops in his home as his family was struggling. Celestia said no which caused Minute to argue with her. He eventually left and in the following years, his family suffered many problems with money and ill health. It nearly destroyed him."

"Yes. But! When I put Minute back in the world, I may have altered Celestia's decision."

"My power allows me to alter the timelines of the lives of every creature. Every decision that had been made, every action they committed. I know of them all and can change them at any time. Normally I would never do such a thing but that needed to be done."

"Now, Minute would have received the funding and lived a happy life with his family."

"Do you realise how important your actions were?" I answered with a 'huh?'. "When you apologised earlier for destroying Equestria. Dear human, you did not destroy it. You saved it."

"Those actions were not of your own accord. You were under Minute's control. It was not your fault. I stayed silent as the voice comforted me. "Your body arrived in this plane because I made it so."

"So you may live again." I brought a hand to my mouth at the voice's words. It was going to bring me back! "I feel your emotions. You long for your friends and for a certain pony in particular. Do you want to go back?"

I didn't even need to think about this at all. "YES! PLEASE YES!" The voice laughed heartily at my outburst. "Sorry but...it would be amazing if you could do it."

"Then it shall be so. I will place you in current time, the day the paradox was made. The memories of those forgotten times will be remembered only by yourself, the Princesses, the Elements and the dragon. I have given every other creature it's own life events for all of the time that the spell was in place. Nopony will remember - a good thing."

"I do not want to cause mass panic with the citizens of the world. If you could keep those memories with each other, that would be safe. A lesson learned from the experience."

The light began to expand and fill the darkness, stretching in every way possible. To every corner and every nook and cranny, the world was a sea of white.

The light intensified and I shielded my eyes. I had to ask one last thing. "Who are you? What is your name?" I called out.

"I am...what you think I am. Use your best judgement. Enjoy your life Owen the Human. And one more thing. A reward will soon be with you. Farewell Owen, saviour of Equestria."

The light enveloped my body as I felt my body go weightless. A shrill piercing ring sounded as I felt myself falling. Just like when I first arrived here.

I landed with a thud. My focus came back to me to see where I had landed. I was somewhere familiar and thank god I was. I looked around to see that I was in an alleyway. I got to my feet and walked out of the alleyway into the hustle and bustle of a busy market street.

I began to walk up and down the market street, touching various surfaces to see if I was here. I got a few odd looks but I didn't care. I even saw unicorns using magic and a pegasus flying. Everything was back to normal! I was happily walking until I bumped into a pony.

It was him. Minute Hand. He looked up at me with an honest smile. "Excuse me? Aren't you the human that everypony was talking about?"

'He doesn't remember a thing!' "Err, yes, that's me. Sorry for bumping into you."

"That's quite alright." He held out his hoof. "Minute Hand. Expert in watchmaking."

I gripped his hoof and shook it. "Owen. Err...human." I said, causing a laugh from both of us. I looked up from him and saw a glorious sight. "Oh my...I have to go! So sorry!" I called back to him after running away from him.

I couldn't believe it, the world had gone back to normal and Minute forgot he did anything. I approached the familiar sight and marvelled before it. Canterlot Castle.

"I'm coming!" I shouted before running towards the entrance. Two guards quickly stopped me.

"I haven't got time for this. CELESTIA, LUNA! ARE YOU THERE?!" I shouted, hoping to catch their attention.

My vision became blurred. The next thing I knew I was tackled to the ground by an unknown force. "Look you pair of idiots. I'm trying to get into the castle to see the Princesses because I--"

My vision returned to see what I was being held down by. My eyes began to water as I saw the object of my desires.

"LUNA!" I screamed at her, pulling her close and planting a deep kiss on her lips. Tears from both mine and Luna's eyes flowed as we embraced. After all of this mess, after everything that went wrong, we still ended up back together.

Luna broke the embrace and helped me to my feet. I looked around to see that I was in her bedroom. Luna put her hooves around my shoulders again and hugged me. "You're alive! You're really alive." she said through strained sobs.

I returned the hug and nuzzled her. "Hey come on...I'm here now. Everything's back to normal." We stayed like that for a while, just listening to each other sob quietly. The sombre embrace broke and we both sat on the bed.

"I don't know. I woke up in a void of nothing. Literally nothing. Until I was met by a voice. The voice told me that I was dead but she brought me back to life. I found myself in an alleyway not far from here. What about you? And Celestia and the girls and Spike?"

"We all found ourselves in the throne room about four hours ago. We contemplated what happened and figured your paradox idea must have worked. We didn't know if you were alive..." Her eyes became watery again.

I placed my arm around her. "I'm sorry. Should we go and find them? I can guarantee I'm gonna be dog-piled by the lot of them." I said with a laugh.

"Wait here." Luna teleported away and I was left alone on the bed. I lay back, contemplating the idea of everything that happened.

The sound of approaching hoofsteps gathered my attention. It sounded like the Epsom Derby approaching the door. I thought I'd play a prank on them and hide so I quickly stood in the space which the door would conceal when it is opened.

"But...he was here. I swear it!" Luna sounded upset. OK, time for the scare. I put one foot forward, ready to pounce and--

"BOO!" I shouted as I leapt from behind the door. Everyone jumped but immediately charged me after they realised I was here. I was in the process of an eight-pony-one-dragon-dogpile-hug attack. Kisses included!

After everyone had their fair share of me, we all sat down and huddled together. I had to tell them what happened.

"OK...Luna told me what happened to you but let me tell you about what happened to me. When I woke up in complete darkness...

"Not a clue." I remembered something else. "The voice also said that only us would remember what happened the past few weeks. No-one else knows - it never happened. And we have to keep this to ourselves - we can't tell anybody."

"Well, the voice said that it didn't want to cause panic among the ponies so she made up their life events for the past six to eight weeks or so. They all think that the past two months were just going as normal." I replied.

The girls all nodded and we sat huddled together until something brought us out of it - my belly complaining.

"Come now my little ponies. I will prepare us a feast!" Celestia ordered. She exited the room, with everyone bar me and Luna following.

Luna turned to me and gave me a quizzical look. "Who do you think the voice was?" she asked.

She was being ridiculous right? "Something the matter? Think of what happened over the past few weeks. It was hell. It's just...what if happens again? I don't mean the same magic but something different...something worse."

She draped a wing over my shoulder and kissed my cheek. "Celestia and I are already into it. We are gathering all of the forbidden spell books and tomes and destroying them."

Luna walked past me and stopped, turning back to face me. I stood firm and gave her a certain look. "Aren't you coming Owen?"

"Yeah I will but..." I walked up to her and whispered in her ear. "That gurgle wasn't of hunger. It was of...something else..."

"Something else? Whatever do you...OH! Oh I'm sorry! Um...meet me downstairs yes?" Luna said with a blush on her face.

Luna quickly shut the doors and walked away. I walked towards her en suite door and opened it up, revealing my porcelain god. My stomach grumbled again, even louder this time.

*A/N* - Well, there you go. I was going to finish it here but I have a few more ideas up my sleeve. If you would like to see the alternate ending to this story, please say and I will make type it up. All the best!

Good Things Come

by Sweet Tale

22. Time Is Of The Essence (Part 4 - Finale)