Honor Above All Else
Chapter 19
By Honored Service
“So um Hi! My name is Johnson. Well that’s one of the names I go by. You can call me Honored. Honored Service. Hehe.” I coughed and tucked at the collar of armored vest which was suddenly constricting and weighed a lot more than thirty-five pounds.
Smooth. That’s one way to make a first impression.
“Well Honored it is nice to meet you. My name is Galdishmessh.” The giant red and orange dragon smirked down at me. I must have seemed like an ant to him at this position. One of his talons on the end of his claw was as tall as me. Oh I hope he stays peaceful and not all stomp-y.
“Pleased to meet you Galdish –“ The great dragon raised a claw to silence me.
“Please don’t try to pronounce it. To do so correctly would require your tongue to be cut in two.” He flicked his forked tongue out for emphasis. “So please call me Gal. It will make everything a lot easier.” His mouth parted into a smile that reveled rows of pearly white, razor sharp teeth.
“Well Gal, I'm happy to meet another creature that hasn’t been trying to kill me.” I stuck out my hand for a handshake, but quickly realized my mistake once I remembered the size difference. I was about to retract my held out appendage when he gently placed the tip of one of his claws in the center of my hand. I gripped around it and gave the claw a brief shake before letting it go.
“I was resting in this cave when I felt something shift in the balance of nature.” Gal turned his head and stared off in the direction I came from. He was looking out towards the desert in the distance. The vast rolling dunes of sand reflecting the early afternoon sun as we both just stared off into the endless waves of sand.
Gal turned back to me and stared at me. “What?” I asked, shifting uncomfortably under his stare.
“The disturbance. I can feel it around you. You caused this shift in the balance of the world.” Gal spoke calmly and with a slowness of wisdom. Although I felt like he was speaking slower for my benefit.
“Um I'm sorry, but what shift?” I scratched my head and sat down taking my weapons of my back and removing the backpack as well.
“In this world, there is a balance to everything. Good and Evil. Peace and Chaos. Creation and Destruction. There cannot be one without the other.” I nodded to the orange dragon showing I was following his speech. “And I can feel the goodness in you. But I also sense something horribly evil. Something not to be trusted.” Gal narrowed his eyes at me while moving closer.
I jumped up and faced the dragon. “Listen, I stopped the evil Nightmare, and the only one left is my friend. He has changed for the better, swearing off his old evil nature and in return has helped me get back home. He is my friend, and he is most certainly not evil.” I stood tall not wavering as the dragon continued to watch me with a hint of interest.
“Is that so? Well perhaps I am wrong and am losing my touch in this old age.” He receded back a little so he could lie on his stomach and be at eye level with me. “Please at least take this advice. Keep your friends close. And your enemies closer.” He gave me a smile. “But be cautious in the future, for the natural balance of the world needs to be righted, sometimes even in the wrong way.” Gal closed his eyes and turned away from me. “Go human. Return to your home, but know that the next four months of your travel will lead down the wrong path, and will bring you to the hardest decision of your existence.”
I could only stare at the dragon in shock of what he was saying. Everything was flying right over my head. Who couldn’t I trust? Which one of my friends could I not trust? Wait. Four months? “Gal, this map here shows me being four days away from Canterlot, at the most.”
The dragon shifted up and peaked one eye at the map. “Hmm so it does. Not everything is true Honored. This I think you know. You’ll return home when the time is right and balance needs to be restored.” The golden eye disappeared under an eyelid as I stepped away from the dragon.
“Thank you Gal, I hope to meet you again under less… strange circumstances.” I walked towards the exit. I smiled and whispered, “Fus.” And looked back, but the dragon didn’t move. “Worth a shot.”
As I turned to begin my walk down the winding tunnel I heard a deep rumbling voice behind me. “Fus Ro Dah.” Suddenly I was pushed forward by a blast of air and began sliding down the tunnel at a dizzying speed while a deep chuckle sounded out behind me.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
I flew out of the tunnel and shot across the small stream and landed hard on my back. I was staring up at the rocky entrance to the cave when a thought entered my mind. “Aw shit. I left my swords, rifle and backpack at the top.” No sooner had the words left my mouth, I heard a scraping sound and looked up to see two sheaths and a rifle hurtling out of the tunnel and at my face. I ducked just in time as they landed safely behind me. I turned back to the tunnel only to be nailed in the manhood area by a fifty pound backpack.
In a slightly higher voice than normal I coughed out, “There it is.” Before collapsing into the dirt.
Ha. Maybe that restored the balance to the world. You know, because you got hit in the dick. Get it?
Honored?
You alright buddy?
**************************************************************
“So old Gal is still kicking around.” Celestia smiled and drifted off into fond memories of an old friend. “It’s been ages since I’ve visited him.”
“He’s nice, but all those cryptic messages are a tad annoying and wrong.” The human leaned back into his chair and picked up a cup, taking a sip of the water in it.
“But he’s never been wrong.” Luna said plainly. “In fact last time I though he was wrong was right before I went to investigate the ruins of Hum-Gia.”
Honored cocked an eyebrow at the dark alicorn but continued to drink.
“He said that the balance would be thrown off while I tipped it the wrong way. And I scoffed at him, turns out he had predicted or known about Nightmare Moon.” She sighed and the human lurched forward spraying water everywhere.
“But… none of my friends would betray my trust.” Honored sputtered out. “None of you would.”
“Oh we all know that silly!” Pinkie bounced up from her spot where she had been patiently listening to the story. “Maybe that big ol’ dragon was just a little confused. Happens to me all the time!”
Clearly
“Doubtful.” Princess Celestia looked at the human with a hardened stare. “Honored how long did Gal say it would take you to get back to Canterlot?”
“Four months.” Honored said nonchalantly. Then it began to dawn on him.
“And it took you how long to get back?”
“It was only supposed to take four days but… it turned into… four months, because of some things.” The warrior fell back into his seat with the realization that somepony would betray him. Somepony would make him make a decision that would be the hardest of his life.
Honored sat up and smiled. “Well there is always a chance that this is the first time Gal will be wrong.”
“I hope so.” Celestia gave a sad smile to her sister, “because I remember what happened last time I thought that.”
*************************************************************
“Now this is how the entire freaking journey should have been!” I smiled as I walked along the smooth, well worn, not dangerous path carved through the Everfree Forest. The map was held out in front of me as I made sure to triple check that I was going the right direction and making no wrong turns.
Now you always say stuff like that and then BAM, diversion or something pops up.
“Nah I have a good feeling this time.” I fist pumped into the air and hopped over a log lying on the ground. “And I'm pretty sure I'm out of bad guys to fight honestly.”
And how would you know?
“Just trust me okay?”
I rounded a bend in the path and stopped dead in my tracks. A rickety rope bridge stretched across a massive ravine in front of me. The boards on the bottom of the bridge looked rotted and broken, just waiting to plunge me to my death bellow. I looked down at the map and back up at the bridge.
So… we going to cross that?
A butterfly danced through the air and landed daintily on a wooden plank. The plank then snapped in half and fell all the way down to the seemingly bottomless crevice in the earth.
“Um fuck no. Do I look stupid?”
“Don’t answer that.” I quickly added as I checked the map again and sighed.
“Well the good news is that there is another way across the ravine. We just have to travel that way,” I pointed to the left through a dense grove of trees and vines along with thick underbrush, “for about another three days and then the ravine actually stops and from there it’s just another two days travel to meet up with the path that’s right in front of us.”
Turning this four day trip into how many?
“Nine.” I grumbled out as I tucked the map up and unsheathed Zappy. I swung the sword through the vines and branches along the new path I was cutting through the forest. Each cut created a distinct ‘zapppp’ and a brief flash of white lite as I slowly moved through the thick foliage.
“Well according to Gal it’s actually going to turn into another four months of travelling. I guess he meant to say nine days. Actually a lot of stuff he said didn’t make sense to me.” I shrugged off a vine that draped itself across my shoulders. “I mean, like what friend can’t I trust? Exactly, I can trust all of them. Even you Nightmare.”
Yeah. Sure can.
“I mean at the beginning of our little partnership I would have agreed with him, but I trust you completely with my life Nightmare. And I know that you have changed.” I took a few swings with the sword as the enchanted blade zapped against a particularly thick branch.
Thanks Honored. That… that means a lot, but I'm still evil… remember right?
“Actually Nightmare, I think you're a pretty nice mind control thing.”
Excellent!
“Yeah that is pretty excellent buddy.”
I hacked another vine out of the way as I moved along through the forest. The sun was dimmed through all the tree tops. I checked my very beat up watch to confirm it was almost dinner time.
“Wait.” I stopped dead in my tracks and ripped the backpack of my back and poured the contents on the ground. “No, no no!” I searched through the pile of miscellaneous tools and supplies. “Throwing knives, broken flashlight, batteries I could have used a while ago, shit where is it, please tell me I'm not out of… GOD DAMN IT!” I began to furiously put everything back in to the pack.
What’s wrong?
“I don’t have any food packed, that what’s wrong!” I tossed the pack onto my back and continued thumping through the jungle. I thought I had had another MRE left.
*********************************************************************
One year and three months ago-
“Hey Scoots, what is that?” A yellow earth pony filly asked the orange pegasus filly.
“Oh I found it in Mr. Johnson’s backpack. I figured we could use it for something cool. Human stuff is cool.” She flapped her wings in excitement at the tan brown package.
“Hey what’s chi-ck-en?” Asked a small white unicorn as she pointed to a label that had human language written on it.
“Let’s go ask Twilight!”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS HUMAN STUFF INVETIGATORS!”
************************************************************************
No food then? Well that’s a shame.
“Listen I'll think of something. Something delicious. Something fried. Or no maybe grilled with spices.” My mouth began to water at the idea of all the tempting things I could cook up and devour in my current state.
BWAK
“Or maybe some roasted chicken.” I smiled deviously at the bushes nearby where the sound had originated from. Luck was once again on my side as food literally walked into my lap. “Oh Nightmare I haven’t had chicken since I came here. Trust me you’re going to love it.” I licked my lips in anticipation of the succulent meat that would be roasting over a fire in few short minutes.
As exciting as that sounds, when was the last time chickens lived in the Everfree forest?
“Shut up, you're going to scare away the dinner.” I crept over to the bush, ignoring the Nightmare as I gripped the handle of my knife, preparing to catch a fine meal.
But listen to me you stupid human. Chickens don’t live here, only –
I stood up and pulled aside a thick branch to reveal the chicken, attached to the body of a snake. It was coiled up and turned to face me as I backed away.
Fuck me with a cock -atrice. God damn cockatrice.
I turned to close my eyes but damn, that thing moved fast. I looked straight up, to the sides, covered my eyes with my hands, doing anything to not look into its eyes as I heard the creature slither around my legs. “Fuck.” I said as I drew the pistol from the shoulder holster and gripped it tight in my left hand. I’d have to quicker than that thing if I wanted to live.
I ripped around and opened my eyes and locked eyes with the cockatrice as I fired the pistol.
BANG
I just stood there staring at the cockatrice. Ha serves you right, now let’s get cocking. Wait. What the fuck. I moved to holster the pistol but nothing happened. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even turn my head. But… But I could feel my clothing. I could feel it as light breeze rolled through the clearing. The cockatrice slithered off without a second glance at me.
Shit come back. I couldn’t even yell for help. But why wasn’t I turned to stone.
Nightmare?
“Yeah?”
Oh god damn it.
“Hold on, I'm trying to piece this whole thing together. You looked at the cockatrice, in the eyes of course, so you got turned to stone, but because you weren't the only thing living in this body, it froze your control of this body. Now you are just a thought in this mind, while I have,” My arm holstered the pistol and my head turned and looked all around, “complete control.”
That makes sense. Well kind off. So if it stares at you, then we both get turned to stone?
“It would appear so. But you're still alive so that’s a good thing Honored. Now we just have to either convince that cockatrice to turn you back, or kill it.” The Nightmare cracked my knuckles loudly while cracking my neck.
The second option if you will. And save it for dinner. I know I'm still hungry even though I can’t feel my stomach anymore.
“Oh this is going to be fun.” The Nightmare unslung my rifle and clicked the safety to semiautomatic. “And I finally get to use this. If only I had this back in Canterlot!”
Ahem…
“Ah right. Still a little sore about that.”
Let’s go kill a cockatrice!
The Nightmare collapsed on the ground after running through the forest for nearly two hours straight. “Oh these legs hurt. What am I feeling?” He sprawled out the ground gasping for air as he pulled off the canteen and drank from it.
That’s called running-for-two-damn-hours-at-a-break-neck-pace. Jackass. My body is tired. And not ready.
“and I have this… kind of burning sensation in my gut. Like something’s about to explode. Am I going to explode?” The Nightmare sat up and looked around and grabbed a hold of my crotch.
You better fucking not!
“What’s happening!?”
The bathroom you freaking moron. You have to piss!
“Why do you have so many straps and buttons and zippers!” The Nightmare struggled to undo the belts and buckles that zigged across my chest and midsection. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.”
You better… not. Fuck.
I could only watch as a large dark stain slowly spread down my legs. “Oops.”
Oops?
Are you kidding me?
THAT’S WHY THERE IS ONE GOD DAMN ZIPPER IN THE FRONT! JUST PULL THAT ONE DOWN AND GO NUTS! SWEET JESUS TO ALL THAT IS HOLLY YOU BUMBLING NIGHTMARE.
“Okay well now that I see where you're coming from, the yelling in my head is kind of annoying.” The Nightmare said while shaking a leg to the side.
SO IS HAVING MY BODY PISS ITSELF!
“Again, the yelling.”
Again the warm piss on my legs!
“Look I haven’t ever had control of your body for this long. I just need time to get adjusted. That’s all.”
I decided to stay quiet while the Nightmare continued on his search for the cockatrice that put us in this situation.
******************************************************************
“Wait you peed yourself?” Hammer Strike asked, after politely raising a hoof into the air.
The human rubbed a hand across his face and let out a long sigh. “So the only question you have had Hammer, was if I pissed myself?” The blue earth pony nodded his head.
“No the nightmare did that.”
“But it was your body.” Quick Strike added from the back of the group.
“Yes.”
“So you peed yourself.” Princess Celestia pointed out while gesturing to the human with a hoof.
“Moving on!” Grunted Honored.
**********************************************************
The last rays of the sun dipped bellow the tree line, plunging the forest into near darkness.
Face it Nightmare, the cockatrice is long gone. We’ll have to think of another way to get me back.
“No.”
The Nightmare sat down and looked around at the clearing. “No I won’t just give up. You never gave up on me. You shouldn’t still even trust me after all the evil I did to you, but you believed in me. So the very least I can do is get you your body back.” The Nightmare pulled the rifle up and shouldered it and continued to just sit there.
That’s really nice and all, but how is sitting here going to change anything.
“It’s going to come to us. Simple as that.”
And you think it will or what?
“I'm hoping it will.”
Awesome. I’ll just be here. Thinking.
I realized how truly boring my head was. I went through so many of my memories that I must have relived my childhood at least three times. Still just as bitter sweet. I saw my family and wondered what they though happened to me. Friends flashed before my eyes, they would all be in there second and third years of college. My army buddies cutting jokes and laughing it up while flying over sand dunes in Humvees.
More recent memories flashed through my mind as I looked through more recent memories dating to only a few years ago. My first time getting shot. Ha that was a good one. A simple 5.56 through the leg, but that was still a bullet wound to the leg. How many other guys could sport that injury and laugh it off as bad luck and a carless friend.
Then the fight I had in the backwoods property. That was the first time I truly felt scared for my life. My best friend and myself crawling through the brush tracking a deer when the trespasser on his property mistook us for a deer in the distance and opened fired buckshot everywhere. I remember the terror as a tree limb exploding inches from my head. The first burst of adrenaline that made me hunker down and do the only thing I could think of at the time. Turning around and drawing the weapon on my hip and firing back.
That sweet little .357 black finished revolver. The feeling of dread that I had just fired at another human being. I could have killed someone. But that feeling went away when another few shotgun blasts ripped away the branches above me. My friend stayed down and I got up and reloaded that pistol and gave chase after the trespassing hunters, firing that gun all the while till the two men jumped into their lifted truck and peeled off through the tall grass surrounding the property.
That was the day, that if it were possible, I would have gotten my cutie mark. I realized it was in my nature to stand up in the way of danger and protect those around me. Against anything, against any odds.
One more memory. Maybe this is how the Nightmare entertains himself all day. I wonder what else he may have looked at. God I hope not too much. Like past relationships or family matters. Personal stuff. And of course Sky.
The memory of our last night talking to each other before I ‘died’. The kind words that mare spoke to me. The feeling of joy as I heard everything she said to me. The sweet words that could make you feel as if you were on top of the world. That mare.
My heart hurt because I was missing her so badly. There was still so much we had to do. So much we hadn’t gotten to do before damned Nightmare interrupted everything.
But now. Now she would think I’m a freak. Another creature is living inside my head. The same Nightmare that attacked Canterlot and killed who knows how many ponies. She wouldn’t be able to look at me the same way ever again. In fact right now she was probably cuddling up to some other stallion in his house.
I sighed to myself. She deserves that though, she deserves to move on and continue her life. I'm gone and at the rate this is progressing I may never get back home.
“Honored. Look.” The Nightmare called out softly. Sure enough as he had said, the cockatrice slowly slithered its way through the grass across the clearing from us. “Told you. Now let’s kill it.” He carefully raised the rifle and aimed at the snake chicken hybrid as it began to slither away.
BANG
The rifle round ripped through the branch inches from the thing’s head, and just like that it vanished into the underbrush.
“Oh no you don’t!” The Nightmare screamed, leaping up from his seated position and took off after the mythical creature like a bat out of hell.
Branches grabbed and tugged at the Nightmare as we ran along, trying to slow his progress down. The moonlight was the only light now, but thanks to Nightmare’s night eyes, it may as well have been the middle of the afternoon. The cockatrice wove its way through the forest as we pounded along behind it. The Nightmare firing the rifle several times, trying to hit the slippery serpent as it ducked into an opening in the ground.
We skidded to a halt at the mouth of a hole going straight into the ground. A few small rocks slipped into the hole and fell, bouncing all the way down, till after a few seconds the noise faded out.
“Well at least we know it went down there.”
Your call. You're the one in charge right now.
“Oh yeah. Ha nearly forgot.” The Nightmare jumped into the hole and slid on my back all the way down, twisting and turning along with the tunnel. Finally the tunnel leveled out and the Nightmare stood up and brushed the dirt off my pants. “Okay it’s a little dark.”
It was actually pitch black.
Hey, there were some more batteries in the pack for the flashlight on the gun. They should last for a couple hours at least.
The Nightmare was finally able to get the batteries into the little compartment on the side mounted rail flashlight attached to the barrel of the rifle. When he flicked the switch, the tunnel was flooded with bright light.
“Come out come out wherever you are.” The Nightmare called out into the tunnel as he swept the area with the rifle. The light revealed different tunnels all leading away from the opening and deeper underground. “Well poop. Here I was thinking it would be a little easier and maybe the cockatrice would be right here.”
See how nothing is easy? Welcome to my world.
Nightmare walked towards the largest tunnel and slowly began to step into it. The flashlight showed nothing but rocks, rocks, rocks, and a little dirt. Every so often a bump would shake the tunnel and pebbles would drop from the roof of the tunnel and land around Nightmare.
I'm not really liking the bumping.
“Yeah. Me neither.” A bend in the tunnel loomed ahead.
Go quietly and maybe we can avoid whatever it is before it notices us.
“Well duuuuh.” Nightmare hit the light off on the rifle and eased his way around the bend and watched the new section of tunnel for any movement. Nothing, but the bumps still continued.
Shhhh. Wait did you hear that?
“Hear what?” Nightmare looked all around the long tunnel as if trying to see what was making the noise.
Very faintly I could make out the noise again. It was a grinding noise in different pitches. It repeated every few seconds, growing louder and louder as time went on.
“What is that?” Nightmare asked moving along the tunnel, keeping one hand on the wall to insure we were going in the right direction.
I think I know, but that’s impossible.
“What is?” Nightmare asked again, stopping at the edge of the tunnel and peering into a rather large cavern. It was dark in the cavern, save for a faint green light that was bobbing up and down on the other side of the cavern near a dark blue square rock. Nightmare slowly brought the rifle up to my shoulder and aimed down the sight, “Whatever it is, it’s about to get a little surprise.”
NO! I screamed in my head. Don’t you dare pull that trigger!
“Why not? Whatever is making that light could very well be the cockatrice, or something even worse.” The rifle stayed trained on the still floating green light. But as it moved closer, another sound was heard. A high pitched constant noise. A buzzing filled the area near the green light.
I was about to respond when something or somepony spoke. “Hello? Is Johnson there? Or is it Honored Service? Drat, I swear people need to stick with one name and use it. I haven’t changed my name. And it’s easy to call for me.”
Another voice called out from the darkness, except this voice higher pitched, a mare’s voice. “It’s both of those names. One human and one pony. And you have two name too. That one you came with, and the ones the pony’s gave you. Time Tur-“
“Don’t you dare utter it Derpy! I am the Doctor! Not this Time Turner. Because as I have explained before time is not a straight line it is… oh never mind this isn’t why we are here. Unless we are supposed to be here and argue like this so that Honored Johnson knows we are here and doesn’t run off or shoots us!” The floating green light disappeared with a click. “Derpy, throw me the gravity globe.”
Nightmare and I watched as a door suddenly opened and covered some of the cavern in a yellow glow as a gray coated pegasus stepped inside the dark blue square rock, now easily recognizable as a dark blue box. Moments later she returned carrying a circle object on her back. “Doctor his name is Honored Service. Not Honored Johnson. That just sounds weird, like he should be working at the adult shop with Sultry Sway.” She moved towards the other pony, who was a brown stallion, and flipped the circular object off her back and at the Doctor. “Here ya go, heads up.”
“Heads up?”
Thump
“I wasn’t paying attention Derpy! Ouch right in the bloody head.”
“Opps sorry. My bad.” The pegasus shuffled her hooves awkwardly as the earth pony stallion tapped the circular object with his hoof tip a few times. He reared back and bucked the object into the air where it stayed put floating above the pair and illuminated the cave in a bright white light.
“There we are. Now where is he?” The Doctor turned and scanned the outer edges of the cavern searching for us.
Nightmare scooted back into the shadows, trying to avoid the light from the gravity globe and the searching eyes of the Doctor and his companion.
What are you doing? He’s called me out by name, go over there and meet that pony. Just when I though this place couldn’t get any better and then bam run into the freaking Doctor. But wait, curve ball, I can’t talk to him, because I'm stuck in my own head!
“So I shouldn’t go out there?”
No. Stand up, sling the rifle, and go talk to him.
“Alright, if you think that’s a good idea.”
It’s a great idea.
Nightmare stood up, slung the weapon and began to walk over to the two ponies. “Um hello. I'm the Human, I mean, I'm Honored Service.”
The Doctor turned to Derpy, “See I told you the TARDIS would take us to him. Hello Honored nice to meet you at last. I got to say I’m a bit of a fan of you for protecting Equestria. Maybe not the ah… violence aspect… but still you have your heart in the right place and that counts for something.” The stallion stuck out his hoof towards the Nightmare.
Shake his hoof you numbskull.
“Oh yeah, right.” Nightmare gave his hoof a couple shakes and smiled and nodded politely to Derpy.
Now tell him that I’m a fan of his work.
“I'm actually quite a fan of your work Doctor.”
The doctor puffed out his chest a little and beamed. “Now it’s nice to finally meet someone that knows me! You forget how many people know you when you get sent to an alternate universe where people don’t exist. And yet here’s one that knows about me.” The Doctor turned with a huge grin to Derpy, who simply rolled her slightly offset eyes.
“Um Doctor, why exactly are you looking for me?”
Good, way to ease into the conversation.
“Well the future for Equestria is… how to put this… extremely dark, filled with death and destruction, and the worst part is, you're at the center of it.”
WHAT?
“WHAT?”
“Well a couple days ago, or was it a few weeks oh it doesn’t matter, we jumped ahead to a year in the future to visit the new Human museum dedicated to the current,” he gestured at me, “and ancient humans of Equestira. But upon arrival we found nothing but destroyed ruins and burning skies. And at the center of Canterlot where the castle should have been, was just a giant statue of you.”
Nightmare repeat exactly as I say.
“That doesn’t make any sense. I would never do anything remotely evil.”
The Doctor scratched his chin with his sonic screwdriver. “I know and after going back and visiting your past actions I concluded that you absolutely wouldn’t do anything like the future foretold. So I pinned it down to occurring sometime between to your return to Canterlot and a month after that.”
I stayed silent in my mind as I thought about what I was being told. Apparently this was pretty major if it called for the Doctor to intervene. Memories from my past nightmare involving me standing in front of the burning city of Canterlot flashed before me. No I was passed that. That was having to do with the Nightmare controlling my body… no. There was no way.
The Nightmare had used Chrysalis to try and get close to me so he could take my body using her. But then he changed and became good… and was now in control of my body. That nightmare hadn’t been of Chrysalis, it had been of this situation now. The cockatrice freezing me in place inside my own mind, giving the Nightmare free reign over my body, and my weapons. The royal guards were powerless to stop me.
The Nightmare was evil, still very evil. How could I not have realized it? When he was chasing the cockatrice through the woods, he missed every shot. Even when it had been standing still he had missed it by inches. It was on purpose.
As I reached this startling realization, I saw something creeping out of the corner of my eye.
Nightmare saw it too, a green snake likes body slithering out of the light and towards the tunnel we had come out of. Before I could say anything, the Nightmare spun around, bringing the rifle up at the same time and fired one well-placed shot at the cockatrice.
BANG
The cockatrice’s body literally exploded into a mist of red surrounded my white feathers. Nightmare stumbled forward and hit the ground as my consciousness rushed forward and took ahold of my body.
I bolted up right and looked around. The Doctor and Derpy were staring at me with confused looks. The Doctor quickly opened the screwdriver and began scanning me and the remains of the cockatrice as I brushed myself off.
Nightmare, I'm sorry.
For what Honored?
I thought that you were still going to use my body to destroy Canterlot. You know, the future that Doctor talked about.
Why would you think that?
Well because you missed the cockatrice a lot and I thought you were doing it on purpouse so that you could keep control and storm into Canterlot using my body and weapons.
Honored, I wouldn’t use your body to take over Equestria. No wings or horn. You’d be a burden to walk around with! Ha silly human.
“I said, Honored are you alright?” The Doctor was peering up at me with a concerned look in his eyes.
“Oh what, yeah I'm perfectly alright, just thought I stared into the eyes of the cockatrice when I shot it.” I smiled and let the rifle drop back to my side.
“You're okay? Because my sonic is giving me some very weird readings on you. Very abnormal readings for a human.” He looked up from the metallic device and narrowed his eyes at me.
I began doing my best Applejack impersonation as I gave a smile and shrugged my shoulders. “Well I'm not your average human Doc.” I turned and began walking towards the exit. “But I’ll be on the lookout for anything that seems strange and puts me in the center of destruction and all that jazz. I have a feeling that everything will be fine.”
“Well wait before you go wandering off into the Everfree,” the Doctor stepped to the side, giving me a clear view of the TARDIS, “perhaps I could offer a quicker way to Canterlot and back home?”
Why is he asking to give us a ride in a box? And what is a ‘police box’ at that.
“Doctor, I would love to!” I jumped into the air and ran inside the box that was larger on the inside than the outside. “This is freaking awesome!” I was too busy gawking at being inside of the TARDIS to hear the conversation taking place outside of the door.
“Derpy, once we get back to Canterlot, I need you on ninja patrol. Follow him, and find out what causes the destruction of Canterlot and then Equestria. I’ll keep working on these reading from the Sonic.”
“Doctor are you sure that the future is always right? I mean remember that one time with the –“ A hoof placed against her mouth silenced Derpy.
“Yes I do, and on any other occasion I would agree with you, but something about these readings and the way Canterlot looked just doesn’t seem like it can change. So we will wait and just see what is will happen, and hopefully we can stop it, or Honored can.”
“So Honored, what do you think of my humble ride?” The Doctor asked as he stepped into the time machine/spaceship.
“Its amazing!” I said, turning to the Doctor and his wall eyed companion.
“Well enough waiting,” The stallion exclaimed, jumping to the control station and bashing a few buttons and cranking some levers, “let’s get a move on, Canterlot three months from now.”
“Four!” I called out form the other side of the control station next to Derpy, who was smashing a button shaped like a muffin.
“Four months it is” The grinding nose started again and the machine lurched upwards and then downwards.
But its… its bigger in here… then it was out there. What is this. I don’t even.
“It’s alright Nightmare, you don’t have to get it.” I laughed as I realized that it was still going to be four months until I got back to Canterlot. Gal, you win this time.
The time machine ground to halt and the machine’s trademark noise stopped, I ran to the door and threw it open, stepping back onto Canterlot soil, err cobblestone, after a year of being away.
It was growing dark and I found myself looking at the Princesses’ castle and gardens next to it. I began running to the door when I stopped and listened.
“My little ponies, today we are gathered here to pay our respects to a creature that deserved more than we could have ever given him. I am speaking about the human Johnson, or by his Equestrian name, Honored Service.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. A funeral service or something. For me? Well this would be awkward to run into. I could just hide along the oust skirts and see where the night takes me.
Oh look a funeral for you. Ha I did kill you after all.
“Oh just drop it. Because I actually killed you, then saved you.”
I quickly jumped into some shadows and disappeared from view, but I failed to notice the shadow flying above me, that bumped into a lamp post and continued to watch me from a distance.