//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: A Simple Wish // Story: For Want of a Better World // by Lunafan1k //------------------------------// “So, what’s this all about?” Jeff asked Twilight. He was strapped to a table in the library’s basement. A number of wires were connecting him to a large machine off to the side. The machine in question was making a number of strange sounds and dispensing long sheets of paper. The paper was covered in a numerous lines, letters, and numbers for every type of calculation. “I have never heard anything about your kind, and this type of discovery needs all the data I can gather!” She giggled as she examined the readouts. “This is simply amazing! Your power level is off the scale, yet your biology is fairly simple. The organs and their layout are generally the same as a pony.” “And I am strapped down because…?” Jeff asked as he tested the strength of his bonds. “Oh, I just need you to stay still for a bit while I run some tests.” Twilight said as she examined another readout. “You’re not secretly the crazy mad scientist type are you?” Jeff asked tentatively. “What? No of course not, don’t be silly.” Twilight giggled. Spike poked his head out from the other side of the machine, shaking his head woefully. “And besides, everypony else had stuff to take care of until tonight. Trixie is getting fit by Rarity for a new outfit, Rainbow is helping Pinkie, Applejack is making food for the party, and Fang is helping Fluttershy tend to the animals. So that leaves you, me, and Spike. You promised that I would be able to learn more about your kind and the old world anyway.” “I remember promising to tell you about it, not volunteer to sate your insane lust for knowledge. Besides, you can only learn so much about an entire species by just examining a body. What about the history, the culture? There is far more to human society than I revealed in my short backstory.” Jeff said. “Oh? And how do you suppose I go about doing that? According to Pre-Equestrian literature, you do not exist.” Twilight stated. “Well well, for being so smart and studious you have forgotten just what I am.” Jeff said with a mysterious undertone. “And you, for being what you are, have forgotten my name.” Twilight retaliated. “What? No I haven’t.” Jeff said. “Oh really? You have not once said my name since last night.” Said Twilight. “There was no need to, that’s all.” Jeff said as calmly as he could. “Oh? Then lets here it, just say my name and this will be all over. If you can’t, well, I don’t think you’ll be missed for a few hours.” Jeff smiled toothily at her, Shit. He thought. He cast his mind out, searching the energies for his familiar. Fang! I need your help! You need help? Came the reply, I’m getting bossed around by a rabbit and you’re the one asking for help? Yeah, fine, whatever! Just tell me the purple unicorn’s name or she’s going to experiment on me! Jeff begged. She’s named pretty much after her color like every other pony we met, it should be obvious. “You do realize I know exactly what you’re both saying?” Twilight informed as she held up some freshly printed paper. Jeff was shocked to see his private message with Fang printed in solid black and white. “So if my name is so easy, what is it?” “Umm… Lil Blue?” Jeff went out on a limb. “No! My name is Twilight Sparkle! How dense are you to completely forget?” Twilight said angrily. “OOH! Now that makes sense. I kept thinking, purple unicorn is a crappy book, and glitter.” Jeff said proudly. Twilight was fuming, steam was literally coming out of her ears. “Ok, I’m sorry, let me make it up to you.” Jeff offered. “If you think you can. But you’ve got one chance, so don’t mess up or the experiments will double.” Twilight threatened. “Oh, trust me, you will not be disappointed.” Jeff said, he sat up on the table, his restraints snapping to pieces as he removed himself from the table. “You were pretending to be strapped down?” Asked Spike. “Well, yeah. More fun that way.” He turned to face Twilight, “Now, what I am about to show you is a direct memory from my time as a child. This way, you will be able to witness first hand all of humanity in just a few hours. Scales, what I am about to show her is not for children, so your task is to watch over us.” “Spike.” Corrected Spike “What spike?” Jeff asked looking around in confusion. “My name is Spike. What do you mean watch over you?” He asked, dumbfounded. “I’m going to cast an illusion just for Sparkles and myself-” “TWILIGHT! SPARKLE!” Twilight yelled, interrupting Jeff’s safety speech. “That’s what I said, Sparkles. You don’t like it?” “I like MY name just fine, not whatever you keep calling me.” “Ok, fine.” Jeff pulled out a sword from behind him. “What are you-?” She asked, fear evident in her voice. “Just sit still.” She did. “I hereby dub thee, Lady Sparkles of Ponyland. There, you no longer have any right to complain, as Sparkles is now your name.” Jeff’s eyes went wide. “Huh, I spoke in rhyme. Hope I don’t do that all the time.” He said with a smile. “I don’t care about your rhymes, what do you think you’re doing?” Asked Twilight. “Tsk. Fine, ‘Twilight.’ As I was saying, the illusion is only going to affect us. We will appear to be just sitting here staring at the wall for a few hours, so Spike, if you need us for anything important just shake me like you’re trying to wake me up. Twilight, time will move slower for us while in the illusion, about an hour in the illusion is about five minutes in reality. Neat huh?” He paused and waited for any questions or comments. “Alrighty then, let’s begin. Twilight, sit in a comfortable spot in a position you can stay in for a few hours without getting sore.” Spike grabbed a pair of cushions for Jeff and Twilight, upon which they sat facing each other. Jeff stretched his arms out to his side, the light in the basement dimmed as a large orb of energy condensed before him. He brought his arms together, closing his palms onto either side of the orb. With a grunt he began to compress the energy further, squeezing the orb smaller and smaller, the color changing from a dull yellow to a white hot as the energy fought back against him. His hands slowly clasped around the orb, blocking out the blinding light, with one last look around him, he asked, “Are you ready?” “Will it hurt?” Twilight asked, observing the massive amount of condensed energy. “Only if you want it to.” And with that, the light bled through his hands, quickly enveloping the entire basement and forcing Twilight to cover her eyes from the blinding light. Twilight opened her eyes as the light faded to nothing but pure blackness. The darkness pressed in from all sides as she panicky looked around in vain. She tried to move, only to find her limbs were as cement. “Jeff?!” She called out in a panic, “Jeff!” She screamed to the darkness. No reply came; her own voice seemed to be swallowed by the darkness. Just as she was about to give up all hope of salvation, her world grew blindly bright as her legs returned to normal, earth spread out from her hooves and the sunny sky shone brightly. Grass grew from the dirt as the clouds soared past overhead at an incredible speed. She watched in amazement as bushes, trees, and eventually an entire forest grew around her. The growth of the forest slowed down as time seemed to return to normal. Oh there you are. Twilight looked around for the source of the voice, but she failed to pinpoint its source as it seemed to come from the very world itself. Sorry about that, my mind is a bit fragmented and you fell through, uh, let’s call it a crack. “Where am I?” Twilight asked as she meandered through the dense woods. A place in my head would be a more accurate description, but everything you see is an illusion. Just sit tight while I make an avatar. Twilight stopped her wandering as a large number of vines grew straight out of the ground in front of her. They twisted around and in between themselves, forming the rough shape of Jeff’s body. With a quick jerk it ripped one, then the other leg from the ground. Feet formed under the appendage as the entire form shimmered slightly, the appearance of flesh and clothing covered the earthy construct. “There, all better.” The newly grown Jeff said. He held out a hand to Twilight, “Come on. Let me show you my world.” Twilight reached out a hesitant hoof, which the not Jeff grasped gently. The lush forest faded to white as a strong wind whipped her mane around her head. As soon as it began, the changes ended. When Twilight looked around this time, she was in a place she had never imagined before. Under her hooves was solid cement, walking past her on all sides were hairless apes, much like Jeff but so different at the same time. They seemed to ignore her, some even walking through her before she remembered that this was an illusion, and assumed they could not be seen anyway. She quickly noted that the ones with longer hair must have been the females of the species, while the short haired ones were male, much like pony civilization. To her right, she heard a strange rumbling sound, much like that of a hungry beast. She went stiff with terror before forcing her head to turn and look at the cause of the offending sound, ready to teleport or run away should she need to. What she saw instead of a hungry beast was more cement, darker in color and painted with lines of yellow and white. Upon which noisy chariots drove themselves this way and that. She noticed the apes wave to a few, the yellow ones in particular, which would slow to a stop as the apes opened a hatch on the side and climbed in before the chariot would drive off again. “Those… Those are just like the taxies in Equestria…” Twilight half whispered in stunned amazement. “A bit more advanced I would think.” Jeff said, startling Twilight out of her stupor. “Now do you see what I was talking about the other day regarding the relation of your world and my past?” Twilight slowly nodded, she felt his previous outburst was entirely justified. “Now come on, we need to keep up with past me or the illusion will break.” “What do you mean? I thought you were in control of the illusion.” Twilight asked in confusion. “This illusion is actually a memory of mine when I was a younger child. I chose this memory because it was the most intact, but that is because of the events that are to come. You wished to see the whole of humanity, but for future reference, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” “What? But I thought that’s what wishes were for, to get things.” Twilight asked as Jeff led them through a crowd. “For mundane wishes like toys at a birthday or for rain. But real wishes, ones that actually affect lives, they can come true, and at a great cost.” He said as he pushed his way past more people, right behind a shorter human with a blue bag on its back. “What do you mean, where are we going?” Twilight asked as she weaved between the many legs in her path. “You will see soon enough. Allow me to introduce you to my younger self.” Jeff said as he gestured to the short human with the blue bag. “That’s you? How old were you then?” Asked Twilight. “Let’s see… If I recall correctly, I was around twelve.” Jeff said. “Anyway, all around you, the buildings, the cars, the fashion, what you see can be considered the more brilliant and passionate side of humanity. The world’s engineers making the mundane world so much easier to live each and every day. We have elevators, machines that pull large amounts of people straight up to the tops of the largest buildings in mere seconds. We have hand held devices; you can see a few in that group of people there, called phones. They can wirelessly send electric signals to anywhere in the world, imagine, talking to someone thousands of miles away as though they stood right next to you.” Jeff went on to explain a great deal of things, Twilight listening intently as he explained such things as fast food, airplanes, indoor plumbing, television, movies, microwaves, and even space travel. “Back in 1969, mind you the date seen here is 2001, we sent men to the moon. Not as punishment, but as a new frontier of space exploration. A number of years later, scandal broke out, saying America faked the moon landing. Once we get back to Equestria, do me a favor and send a letter to the moon princess asking if she ever found a flag with red and white stripes on it. If she did, then we really made it to the moon with less technology than can be found in a modern cell phone.” “That’s a touchy subject, why don’t you ask her?” Suggested Twilight. “Well, I would, but after the banana incident I don’t think they would want to speak to me for a bit.” Jeff said as he scratched his head. “Wait, what incident?” Pressed Twilight. “Oh look, we’re here!” Jeff said, changing subjects as he led a frowning Twilight into a brick building with a large number of shorter humans, children she assumed. “You might like this bit, a human school!” Twilight was surrounded by running, screaming children as they made their way to their classes or spoke with friends. The madness of the flurry of activity was overwhelming. During her years in the School for Gifted Unicorns, there had never been this many students in her school, or any school she knew about or had the honor of visiting herself. “This is a large number of students…” She casually remarked as they followed past-Jeff into a classroom. “Not really. If you don’t mind, what is the world population of ponies in general?” Asked Jeff. “Umm…” Twilight pondered, “We as a species are almost to the billion mark, I think we’re at about nine hundred million and some, why do you ask?” “Human population is at six billion seven hundred million and growing by about a thousand each day, possibly more.” Twilight’s jaw hit the ground. “In reality, this is one of the smaller schools with only a thousand or so students. Some of the bigger ones have almost ten thousand students a day. Our population has outgrown our food supply, forcing us to engineer food that grows much faster and produces more in quantity than was originally produced, just to feed the growing world. Our cities, instead of growing and expanding outward, we began to grow into the sky.” “That’s terrible.” Twilight said. They stood there in silence, observing the English class. Twilight was making mental notes about what she was hearing. After some time, Jeff interrupted her thoughts, “Now, you are about to witness the dark side of humanity. Are you ready?” “I stood up to a tyrant attempting to make eternal night and the god of chaos, I think I can handle anything at this point.” Twilight said confidently. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The entire building shook as a massive shockwave struck the school, past Jeff fell from his desk, appearing to writhe in pain. “Wha-What’s going on?!” Twilight yelled in panic, Jeff grabbed her to prevent her from running off in fright. “Calm down, nothing can hurt you here, this is just a memory. Just calm down and watch the events unfold.” Past-Jeff had recovered and ran out of the class room after his peers, Jeff and Twilight following closely behind. Once Twilight was out in the open air once more she was able to calm down a bit. All around her she saw the humans crying and running in a panic, some pointing to a place just above her head. She turned and looked to see for herself, the upper part of a building was billowing turrets of thick, black smoke; much like the dragon near Ponyville did while he was sleeping. “What happened? Is there a fire?” Asked Twilight as she watched various emergency response vehicles fly past. “Just… Just watch.” Twilight looked up to see Jeff’s face, red with anger as burning tears ran down his face as he watched the fire. Without another word, Twilight sat on her haunches and watched the burning building as well. Her ears perked at the arrival of a new sound, like a distant screaming. She scanned the skies just in time to see a large metal bird, an exact form of what a plane was from Jeff’s description. It must be here to help. She thought, but her eyes widened in horror as she watched it crash into the adjacent building, creating another large billow of black smoke. “Wh-what happened? Did it not see the other building? How could it not see what was hap-” “Shh!” Jeff cut her off. Twilight bit her lip and returned to watching a true disaster unfold before her eyes. Even Discord never physically harmed anypony, is this the true darkness of mankind? An actual war, the murder of thousands of innocent lives? Her questions remained unanswered as the towers collapsed into a cloud of dust, innocents fleeing in terror were consumed by the cloud, most not returning. “We blamed something called terrorism.” Twilight looked back to Jeff. “This was labeled as an act of war, and so we sent our armies in retaliation.” The world faded to white again. The light dimmed as Twilight found herself in the middle of a downpour, the water seeming to pass through her body. “This is about five years later, I was seventeen. This is the marine boot camp I mentioned the other day, that’s me getting yelled at for not crawling correctly. Apparently my butt was too high in the air and was touching the wires.” The world faded again, when it came back they were in a vast desert, riding in a metal carriage. “This is a very important part of my life. I am this one,” Jeff pointed to one of the humans. “Don’t lose sight of the past me, no matter what you see, okay?” “Um, okay.” Twilight had no idea what was about to happen next. We’re in the middle of nowhere, what happens that is so important? Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted once again as a massive explosion assaulted her ears. The carriage stopped suddenly, her momentum throwing her forward as the marines quickly got to their feet and jumped over the side. She looked around hurriedly and saw past Jeff just as he leapt over the side. Twilight quickly followed after him, another human was running alongside him. Twilight heard a soft clicking sound, past-Jeff and the other human stopped dead. Twilight dug her hooves into the sand and stopped just on the other side of past-Jeff, present-Jeff was nowhere to be seen. “I think it’s you!” She heard the gruff voice of the other human shout as he turned to flee. As he did so, another explosion ripped apart the ground, Twilight saw the human get torn to ribbons in the blink of an eye. Past Jeff was sent flying over her head, then slammed into a boulder before landing in a heap in the sand. She watched as the sand turned red with his blood, drinking it in like a thirsty beast. The desert faded to black. “This is where my life ended, you cannot see anything because I do not remember the events going on when I was dead, and what I do remember is not meant for mortal eyes.” Jeff said, once more standing beside her. “Is this the darkness of mankind?” Twilight asked. “This is only scratching the surface.” Jeff replied. The darkness faded away, revealing the desert once again. Past-Jeff’s body was enveloped in darkness for a brief moment. Once the darkness lifted, past-Jeff was glowing with a bright white aura. The aura split off and fused into the boulder his body had hit. Using his finger, he traced out an image of a wolf, the stone falling away as he did so. Twilight watched in fascination as Fang was born from stone. “Let’s fast forward a bit.” Jeff said. Suddenly Twilight was standing in front of a shed. “This is the very shed that innocent people were taking shelter inside of.” Twilight cringed from the explosions emitted by the metal sticks the humans were pointing at the shed. A large number of holes and screams erupted from the slaughter. “This was the beginning of my journey, to root out the corruption of the world. My wish, Twilight Sparkle, was for world peace. I sought out to make it so.” The world faded into another room, the walls covered in monitors as humans were working at various terminals. “This is where I found out the truth. I used my powers to possess a high ranked employee to look through the archives. Here I found out that America was responsible for the attacks in New York, and that they used that as a reason to go to war over the dwindling resource, oil.” “And that was when you decided to…” Twilight trailed off. Instead of responding, Jeff changed the illusion. They were back in the desert; all around them raged massive walls of fire and smoke blocked out the sun. “Then it was…” They were standing in another city, different from the first one. Toward the horizon, long white lines filled the sky. Some split off, but one seemed to turn toward the city. There was a bright flash, then a deafening roar. Once the noise died down, Twilight found herself standing in the middle of a crater. To her left was past-Jeff and Fang, holding each other tightly under a green shield. “What was that?” “A nuclear weapon.” Responded present-Jeff. “All over the planet, they destroyed every major city. I was faced with a decision, stop as many missiles as I could, saving the lives I could save, or let them fall, using my power to protect the planet. At first I tried to save their lives, but the radiation would kill them anyway. So in the end, I kept the planet from being destroyed while the civilizations burned. I finally got my wish. World peace was achieved through the lives of over seven billion people, innocent and guilty.” “That’s… That’s terrible. Everyone died from the missiles?” Twilight sobbed, the reality finally taking effect on her emotions. “That would have been better, but there were survivors. Not just humans, but plants and animals as well. Unfortunately, nuclear fallout had poisoned the air.” The world faded and returned, they were in a makeshift hospital ward. “The survivors,” Jeff pointed to a bed, laying on top of it was a human covered in boils, the stench of death and decay emanating from it. “All died slow, painful deaths from the radiation.” He finished solemnly. “Now, this finishes the tour. What say we get out of here and back to your world, yeah?” Jeff said all too cheerfully. “How can you just say that? How can you live with what happened?” Twilight almost yelled as she became more distraught. Jeff kneeled down and hugged her, letting her cry onto his shoulder. “It’s not easy. It never is. But at the same time, the past is irreversible. I got through this by looking to the future, a future filled with a new, wonderful species that does not know the horrors of war. With that to look forward to, why would I dwell on something that cannot be changed?” The world faded out for the last time, they stayed in the comforting darkness, clinging to each other as emotions ran through them. With a final sniff, Twilight broke the embrace. Her face and muzzle were matted with tears, “Take me home… Please.” Jeff nodded his head, his body shimmered and the illusion of flesh dispelled around the earthly body as it turned to dust. Twilight felt herself spinning and closed her eyes to fight against the sensation. When it stopped, she opened her eyes to see that she was back in her basement surrounded by her friends. “Twilight dear, are you alright? You were sitting there crying, is everything okay?” Rarity asked. Without a word Twilight lunged at her and pulled her into a tight hug. Twilight sobbed with renewed vigor into her friend, both from the experience and the joy of being home again. Her other friends, including Trixie, soon joined in on the group hug in an attempt to comfort Twilight. “I-I’m sorry everypony.” Twilight said after some time. “The past… it was both wonderful and terrible at the same time. I guess it was a bit much for me.” “It’s not your fault.” Jeff said. “My past is truly terrible, and you were strong enough for me to share a bit of my own inner turmoil.” Twilight thought for a moment, “You must have had that bottled up for a long time. Do you feel better now that you have shared your experience with someone else?” “A bit, yeah.” Jeff said with a smile. “Are you still up for the party here in a bit?” “Are you kidding? It’ll take more than a mere history lesson to make me miss a party.” Twilight said cheerfully, doing her best to ensure that at least her friends will have a good time tonight. “Mind if I borrow Spike for a bit? I wanted to get a letter to the princess really quick.” Said Jeff. “You’re not going to prank her again, are you?” Spike asked as he followed Jeff up into the main part of the library. “No, I just need to ask her something. Let me borrow some paper and ink.” Spike retrieved the requested items in a flash. “This is to be considered top secret, so no peaking.” Spike nodded his head slowly. For the eyes of the Reagents of both Sun and Moon only, I, Jeff, God of the former civilizations, have taken the student of the Sun Princess, Twilight Sparkle, into an illusion of my past for learning purposes. While most of the event went without a hitch, the initial entrance of the illusion faltered due to high levels of magical interference. After a close examination of how her emotions threatened the stability of my illusion, it has become clear to me that Twilight Sparkle is no ordinary unicorn. She has a great power within her, power she is yet unaware of. Should that power awaken, she will need a guide to help her control it. Fortunately the power will remain dormant for a long while. Yet I felt another magic, I assume yours, suppressing the latent power. My only hope is that my presence here does not forcefully awaken the power, a newborn berserk god may destroy this planet. P.S. Luna, during your time on the moon, did you ever find an alien artifact? Namely a cloth rectangle of red and white stripes? A/N: Once again, I am terribly sorry about the delay. First it was Skyrim, then after quitting I take a spill on the ice. Typing with one hand and a few fingers takes a bit to get used to. Edited by Bodaciousbabe22 P.S. To those who are wondering, Twilight's power level measuring machine goes up to nine thousand, implying that Jeff's power level, by being off the scale, is over nine thousand.