//------------------------------// // The Time is Now // Story: A Second Chance // by Tridon2951 //------------------------------// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” -Ayn Rand ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “So yeah, after we get the...” “Shhhhhh!!! Someone might be listening now! And quit talking so loud Travis...” “Sorry but I just don’t see how...” Just then the other creatures in the cages began making a fracas, giving Travis and I warning that someone was coming in. “We can go over this later, now we need to get some sleep, okay Travis?” It had been a long day fro him and I both, I just hoped that Mist had managed to do what I asked him to do, and that everything would go as planned tomorrow with the escape and all, I didn’t want any further complications than the bite on my leg, which would hinder my getaway speed. “Alright then, goodnight Taylor.” Travis said, giving off a yawn before laying down on the uneven floor. “Night Travis.” It was quite hard to get in a good position to sleep, but I managed to do such a thing eventually, I slowly let my eyes close after a long day, letting all the thoughts of the day collect in the back of my head. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “How’s tomorrow going to turn out?” ................. ................. ................. “Will the apeshit rage ever happen again?” ................. ................. ................. “Where’s Twilight? And what happened to her?” ................. ................. ................. “Why are you not sleeping yet?” ................. ................. ................. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was slowly walking down a long hallway, going nowhere, being nowhere, just there with nobody but me, myself and I. “What art thou doing?” A familiar voice asked me, but nobody was to be seen anywhere. “Trying to get back.” I said keeping my eyes on the horizon, where the sun and moon spun in a concentric circle over the mountains in the distance. “Back to where may I ask?” “Back to what used to be.” “Back to what had once been?” “What had once been before.” “Before what?” I stopped walking as I looked up to watch the sun and moon dissolve into the background, mountains and all left the scene as my gaze turned towards the dark water below my feet, which was rippling to reveal many distorted and demonic faces looking at me through the lightless scene, as soon as I saw them reach out to grab at my ankles, the large metal door below my feet slammed shut, and I looked up again to see nothing but the darkness of my mind. “What in all of Equestria was that?” The voice was shocked and concerned the dark figures disappeared from view “Some things are really better left unsaid my dear friend.” I replied in a lighter tone than was my surroundings. “The many things that are swept under the rug for later eventually pile up, and must be cleaned out at some point.” The voice said back in a resistant voice, as if my response wasn't’ enough. I gave a largely exasperated sigh as I stopped in my thinking of a good response, and I just gave in right there. “Alright, I’ll make you a deal, when I get back, I’ll tell you, okay?” “Such words sound fair to me, but I still shall worry about it...” “You really mustn't worry about such things as of right now, and you taking time out from your duties to come and find me is more than enough for me.” “I shall not worry, but ponder it, despite what thou art saying, I shall still think about such the topic you are speaking of.” I chuckled to myself as I shook my head slowly, back and forth. “Pray tell, what is it that be so funny to thou?” “I just don’t understand you Luna, I only met you not even a day ago and you’re acting all caring and whatnot, which I don't understand.” I continued to chuckle at her a bit more after talking. “There are more reasons why my mind contains thoughts of thou, being it mainly the fact that you have only been the first species to have been seen and have yet to be studied further in, being it your species is very intelligent to our standards.” “I’ll find out soon enough when my friend and I come back, I’m sure he’ll need a introductory greeting too.” I informed her. “Be it another of thy species?” Luna asked with massive interest now. “Yes it is, in fact it’s someone I’ve known for quite some time, I think you’ll like meeting him.” “Interesting...” Luna drifted off in thought right there I’m sure, pondering how Travis got here too. “Well, I shall speak to thine soon, that is... I do hope...” Her voice had degraded to more sad tone. “It’ll take much more than what we’re up against in order to keep me down.” “That is very good to hear.” Luna’s voice was now sounding more reassured after my happy comment. I found it now appropriate to end the conversation there, I did have a lot ahead of me again tomorrow, as usual it seemed now. “Nice talking to you Luna.” “Same feelings.” “Good night, dear princess of the night.” I said playfully. “No my dear subject, good morning to you.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke to the smell of damp clothing and the stench of not having any hygienic items at my disposal, I slowly lifted myself up to find Travis snoring away to my left, apparently, like a rock, I realized one thing today, something that Travis, Mist and I all wanted for a while now. Freedom... I turned around and shook Travis lightly on his shoulder to get him up for everything to fall in place as planned. “Just another hour please...” He was only half awake, but I needed him fully awake right now, I gave him another shake on the arm, which ended up putting him in a foul mood now. “I said another hour!.. Oh.... Hi Taylor...” He laughed a bit while scratching the back of his head in a slight bit of embarrassment after realizing it was me. “Hi and good morning, are you ready for today?” I asked him in a hushed tone, not wanting to stir up the uproar of the others, as Travis almost just did. “No plan for ‘death and anguish’ I hope?” “Real funny, now all we have to do is get their attention, you ready?” Travis only gave me a devilish smile, which I then returned to him in the same manner, and I stated before it commenced. “Let the fun begin...” Travis and I began howling like complete animals, stirring up any and all of the others in the cages nearby, growls, roars and barks alike could be heard from up and down the hall, by now somebody had to of noticed, Travis and I stopped and let them do all of the work until someone came along. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Odds stirred from his cot in a room along one of the other halls from the new commotion in the containment room, which had aroused him from his ever-so-needed sleep. He slowly got up and pushed open the metal door to his room for his ears to be greeted by the sound of countless animals howling in whatever emotion it may be in, one thing was for sure, it was early, there was still a good two hours before the arena opened up again, and he wanted to enjoy all the sleep he could get. “This has to stop now...” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “You think someones coming?” Travis asked quietly. We had been waiting for a good minute or two and nobody was coming to see what was happening with the loud animals and all. Soon, the loud doors flew open, screeching and banging against the walls, and an angry voice, a loud booming yell had filled the room. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” The voice of Odds filled the room, all of the animals immediately quieted down, whereas I began groaning and yelling out in pain. “Who’s that?” I heard as Odds’ hoofsteps got closer and closer to our cage, I began clutching at my bandaged leg and rocking back and forth, moaning in pain. “What’s wrong with you now?” Odds sounded irritated from being woken up it appeared, I just looked at him with pain in my eyes, trying for him to bring me out. “Oh Celestia, you’re not lookin’ too hot are ya now? I better get you to Mist, hopefully this time he’ll get it right.” I watched him pull a key ring from his side to open the lock, after the lock came undone, he fit them back onto a hook near his flank, he pulled open the door to get me out. “C’mon now, lets not have you die on us without us knowing about it, that would be tragic.” He said sounding rushed, he probably wanted to get back asleep. I limped out of the cage and he locked it back up after shutting it, replacing the ring on his flank again, I gave him a good look up and down, he looked really tired, and eager to get back to bed, so he’s probably half asleep right now, where he wouldn't notice me taking them, once I took care of him... “C’mon I haven’t got all day, lets go now...” He rushed me down the hall and towards Mist’s operating room. Odds gave a loud series of angry knocks on the metal door, the sound of metal ringing bounced off the walls as he continued to beat on the door. “Mist! Get out here!” Odds was sounding like he was gonna really beat the living hell out of him, which would really complicate some things. “You know... you don’t have to be so loud... some ponies need their sleep...” Mist rubbed his eyes with his hooves after he opened the door, sounding a bit groggy as he spoke. Odds immediately pushed the door open and had Mist by the neck as he pushed him up against the wall, knocking over multiple pieces of equipment for Mist’s medical purposes and lifting him up so that he couldn’t breathe, Mist gasped for air as Odds spoke. “I have had it... This is the LAST time, that I go without sleep because YOU couldn’t do your job right! Even if I have to BEAT it into your thick skull!” Words of death and torture flew from Odds’ mouth as he choked the young stallion. Mist’s eyes now gazed upon me, pleading for mercy and for me to help him out in any way shape and form I could. I looked around to see a large jar of gauze and bandage, I picked it up and positioned myself behind Odds as he now readied himself to beat down on Mist, now holding him with only one hoof, the other back as if readying for a satisfying punch, Mist only choked out a few gasps before Odds spoke. “Oh... I’m REALLY gonna enjoy this...” He was now smiling as he readied the first blow. “No, I think I’ll enjoy this more.” I made him turn around just in time to see me bread the large jar over his head, Mist fell to the floor gasping for air as Odds fell to the floor in a heap, a small trickle of blood ran down his snout as broken bits of glass surrounded him and some of which even resided in his mane. “You okay Mist?” I asked as the unicorn coughed to the floor and took in great gasps of breath in between. “Yes... I think I’ll live...” He stuttered as he responded to me. “Alright then... with him out of the way... the plan can now unfold as we wanted it to.” I said triumphantly, nudging Odds’ body to make sure he wasn’t awake. “This... just might work...” Mist had now formed a bit of confidence within himself, and mustered up a small smile. “It will work... and these will help...” I said as I picked up the keys from Odds’ flank and dangling them in front of my face with a large smile plastered on it. “Wait... we can get into the storage room now... they keep all the useful things there... they wont let me in though... but now we can get in...” Mist stated. “Looks like it might be easy street from here on in...” The door opened behind us, revealing the black earth pony who had worked the cranks to open the door to the arena. “Oh easy street my flank.” he said as he cracked his neck, trying to make himself look more intimidating before us. I stood firm as he cracked his appendages, however, Mist had now turned a lighter periwinkle color and was now breathing heavy again. “You really think that nobody’d notice that you would be missing? That nobody’d hear the glass breaking? Well that is where you’re...” He was cut short, as he was struck in the side of the head with a large club, which sent him reeling to the wall before falling to the floor unconscious, revealing Travis behind him, smiling devilishly. “God that was starting to get annoying!” Travis said as he heaved the club onto his shoulder. “Thought you’d have all the fun without me?” he beamed. “How did you get out?” I asked, shocked that he did get out, for he had no key. “You forget I keep a torsion wrench and feeler pick in my wallet.” He said as he held up the two small tools in his free hand. “That would have been nice for me to know!” I was getting aggravated now from all of the interruptions. “We... better get going... somepony’s bound to come...” Mist stated quietly. “Mist’s right, we need to get moving, but first, Mist can you lead us to the storage room?” I asked in urgency, in fear of somepony coming our way right this moment. “Well yes... but I’m sure it’s guarded...” “Problem?” Travis stated as he smacked the club a few times in his hands. “Let’s just go now, Mist, lead the way.” Mist gave a small nod as he led us out of the room, we carefully stepped around the body of the earth pony, Travis however, gave a swift kick to the ribs, making him groan a little. “Why?” I asked for an explanation, “He was already out cold.” “Let’s just say he deserved it for some... ‘actions’ that were taken by him against me, lets leave it at that.” We both ended up following Mist down the hall, taking ever so many turns and long halls until we came to a large door with a sleeping guard in a chair, leaned back against the wall, sword and hilt and snoring, I was not ready to wake him up. “Keep quiet we don’t want to wake him up, we need to... Travis where are you going?” Travis was now casually walking towards the sleeping guard, club twirling on his wrist, with his pen spinning skills, he made it look pretty cool though. “What the hell are you doing Travis!” I whispered loudly. Travis didn’t respond, he kept walking up to the guard and promptly prodded him in the shoulder, which made him stir a bit before speaking. “Ehh? Is my shift over now?” He said gruffly. “It sure is, and you’re being let go too.” Travis swung the club from the side with full force, when it connected with the guard’s skull, I saw his body just fly from the chair and connect with the wall, there was a slight groan before silence set in. “That’s how you get shit done around here.” Travis said while twirling the club around, I on the other hand, wasn’t too happy about it. “What the hell was that Travis? You wanna get us killed? You can’t just beat the fuck out of everything you see as the enemy!... Sometimes you really need to take a better approach...” His beatdowns were beginning to become too predictable, and overused at that... “New high score?...” He said trying to lighten the situation with gaming references. “Shut the hell up.” I said giving him a small punch to the back, which he promptly ignored. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Let’s see what she holds.” Travis said while rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Calm yourself.” I said, pulling out the keys and trying each one until I found the one that fit in the lock before turning it and hearing a satisfying ‘click’. The doors slowly creaked open to reveal multiple shelves with food,equipment and all the like within it’s hold. “Oh yes, now this is what I’m talking about...” Travis waltzed in like a kid in a candy store, looking through every bin and container, Mist had too, skipped in joyfully and began rummaging through it all. “Look at all the medical equipment! They’ve been holding out on me! I mean, all of this from bandage to antiseptics of all the like, and...” “MIST!” I said in a quiet but firm tone, getting the unicorn’s attention and snapping him out of his euphoric happiness and overjoyed feelings, he quietly gave me a sheepish smile, then proceeded to rummage through the bins. I ended up finding things that ranged from raw meat, that was probably bad from how it smelled, to weapons of all the like, I myself, favored a small, concealable dagger, with a black tinted blade that was encrusted with sapphires on the hilt, Travis found a belt of throwing knives, as we clipped on our weapons, Mist rejoined to have found a saddlebag and filled it with medical supplies, some food, a grappling hook and some other survival potpourri. “We have what we need?” I asked to make sure we didn’t have to make two trips for more supplies. “Yes... I think so...” Mist responded, levitating each individual item out of his pack to make sure he had everything. “These are all I really need.” Travis said, showing off his new array of knives on his belt. “Well good for you then, lets get going if we want to make our leave ever-so-entertaining.” I stated factually, we really did need to leave before the worst came. We took what we grabbed and left the room, making good time as we jogged, (I somewhat limped.) down the hall and towards the main entrance. As we stopped in the main room, the plan was near completion, just the ‘optional’ part remained. “Alright, we’ve made it this far, now lets have this escape go down with a bang...” I said smiling at the other two. “You’re... not gonna REALLY blow it up... are you? What about the animals?” Mist said concerned for the safety of all of the creatures he has helped nurse to prime condition. “Mist, it’s alright, we’re not gonna REALLY blow it up, we’re just gonna have some fun, and the animals will be a big part in it, cmon lets go.” We jogged down the hall to the containment room, prepared for what was going to happen next in the big scheme of things, when we opened the door, the uproar of all of the creatures began again. “We need to work fast, Travis, start unlocking all of the cages and letting the animals out, Mist, direct them out of the room, I’ll help Travis get them open, got it?” They both nodded in response to my game plan, and began going to work, Travis and I got one cage after the other open, letting things from wolves to what I thought was a manticore, the large orange coated, maroon maned beast with the scorpion tail and wings bounded out of its cage and out of the hall, it’s roar could be heard as it got farther and farther away. As the last of the animals got out, Travis and I stopped to admire our work, Him and I had released every creature out of its containment and was now roaming the halls of the arena, any unlucky pony would be met with those they have held captive and the table will have turned. “Wanna let him out?” Travis pointed to a VERY large door at the end of the hall, which I failed to notice upon my first coming here. “Who’s he?” I asked Travis as I looked at the door, wondering what could be behind it. “You’re... talking about the Ursa Minor?...” Mist said in a shaky tone, almost sounding as if dreading the name of it. “What else!” Travis threw his hands in the air, as if to say ‘no duh’ . “This could be interesting...” I said advancing towards the large door, pulling out the key to unlock it as I did so. “Let the real fun... begin.” Travis said with a slightly evil smile as he and I opened the doors to reveal complete darkness. Something very big and very lightly colored blue made it’s way out of the shadows, poking it’s head out of the dark, it was a bear alright, but bigger than anything I've ever seen in my life that roamed the earth. I watched as it’s yellow eyes scanned the room as it came out, the eyes eventually transfixed on me and Travis, and soon Mist, he then proceeded to ignore us as he stalked out of his cage, towering over all of us by a good couple of feet before stopping in front of the smaller door, and by raising one of it’s gargantuan paws up and bringing it down on the wall and door, they both broke with a loud rumble as the wall and door came down. The Ursa then roared and bounded out of the doorway it made, leaving the three of us to watch in awe at it’s pure power and strength it just demonstrated to all of us. “DAYUM!!!” Travis exclaimed after that scene. “You... can say that again...” Mist responded quietly. “DAYUM!!!” “Alright we’ve had our fun, now lets get out of here, we still need to get out of here if you guys didn’t remember.” I got them back into focus, and we made our way out. As we raced down the hallway, we saw the not so very pleasant scene of many ponies being attacked and killed by the animals we released, I recognized Skies and Silver in the commotion, fighting off anything that came their way, Silver’s eyes then met mine with a look a ruthless murderer would have, I waved back before running down the entrance hall. “Go go go!” Travis yelled out to us, prompting us to move our asses and not stop to look at the gruesome scenery. Silver and Skies tried to get through the commotion, but to no avail when the Ursa suddenly appeared and growled a low growl, making all things, ponies and creatures that were still alive turn tail and run out of the room in fear of total obliteration from the Ursa. “This isn’t over!” I heard Silver yell at us while they ran down the opposite hallway for safety. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We made our way down the entrance hall and approached the now unguarded door, I fumbled with the keys a bit before hearing a rumbling sound. I turned around to see the Ursa charging at the door we were going to open, we couldn’t dodge it we had to get out now. “Hurry up and open the damn door or we’re all dead!” Travis was frantic in all of this, I still fumbled with the keys a bit and the Ursa was losing distance...fast. “OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!” “I’M TRYING QUIT RUSHING ME!!!” “QUIT YELLING!!!” Mist yelled at both of us, he just wanted to get out of this alive, so did we, and I went back to the door. Soon enough, I fit the right key into the lock and it opened up, we all ran like we had never done before, the adrenaline rushed through my body as we ran to the side and dived off to the side. There was a loud crash as we looked to see the Ursa smash through the wall like it was styrofoam, we then watched as the large beast ran down the dirt trail, making the ground below us tremble less and less as it gained distance. “We... we actually made it out...” Mist quietly got out. “And doesn't that fresh air smell just WONDERFUL?” Travis took in a deep breath from his nose and exhaled just as dramatically. “Well there’s no use in us sitting around here now is there? Let’s just go, we’ll find our way back.” I started down the dirt trail that was our only lead to civilization. “Where to though?” Travis asked, uncertainty present in his voice. “Why, to Ponyville, where else?” I smiled and continued to walk down the road, letting my friends catch up. We had just stopped the illegal actions of ever so many ponies, and saved many lives of the innocent, and helped two friends get out with me today. “I feel very accomplished today.”