"What do you mean, 'go back'?" Derpy asked.
"Go back to Earth. To where I was born and raised."
"Why though?"
"Because this will go on for likely a few months, and it would take too long to make full scale weapons."
Celestia stepped in. "Wasn't coming here a one way trip?"
I thought. Then I had a brilliant idea and I smirked.
"Not necessarily."
I explained my idea.
"Impossible! We don't have nearly have the technology you have." Luna exclaimed.
"Well, why do you think I carry this around? Exercise?" I held up the HoloCube.
"I need materials; silicon, steel, iron, copper. Give me a day. In the meantime, try to evacuate the rest of CloudsDale and anyplace else within a 30 mile radius."
"If anypony has any injuries, you bring them to me." I sighed. "I'll make it quick."
Celestia stuck by as everypony else ran around to either assist the evac or get the things I asked for. Derpy went back to Dinky.
"Do you really think you can rebuild your machine?"
"Dunno. Even if I make it right, I hope it takes me back to where we need to go."
"How do you even plan on making it work? You faintly regarded that it takes large amounts of electricity to operate."
"I don't know. Okay? I don't freaking know!" I screamed'
She does not shut up does she? Damn, you'd expect a ruler to at least be optimistic SOMETIMES.'
"Look, I'm your best chance of surviving. For EVERYPONY's survival. So shut up and let me freaking work."
"You should be more careful about speaking to your ruler like that." she spoke violently.
"Or what? You'll shoot me?"
She stepped back.
"Thought so."
I went back to accessing the HoloCube, and put all the designs for the transport machine in my head.
"Tell me…" I turned back to the 'sun goddess' "How does pony government work? Is it a democracy or does everypony do what you say."
"I suggest strongly what our subjects should do." She flatly stated.
"Sounds like a tyrant's work."
I found myself enveloped in yellow light, levitating in front of the princess.
"NEVER, call me a tyrant."
I raised an eyebrow, showing I was not amused.
Instead of backing away like it was an empty threat, I touched her horn.
There I learned something amazing.
I could access a pony's mind. As weird as it sounds, I could hear her thoughts.
In short, they weren't pretty.
But I delved deeper, finding her memories.
And I found a memory thousands of years old.
She was with her sister and (what I assume to be) her mother. Just playing in the leaves of Canterlot. She looked a way I never could have imagined: happy. Joyous even.
Their mother had a pure white coat and a light red mane that shone out beautifully. For a moment, I could have sworn it was my own memory by how real it seemed.
I retracted from her mind and heard her calling me.
"Flash! Flash! FLASH! How do you use these things? FLASH DRIVE!"
I came to and there were four zombies behind me. Celestia was desperately trying to use the Desert Eagle, but missing terribly.
"Gimmie that!" I snatched it from her magic, simultaneously reaching for my other holstered gun.
I flew at the zombies and shot a continuous line of bullets both left and right, making holes in the hallway.
I counted the blood-splat noises as they came.
One,
Two,
Three,
Click.
'Celestia must have emptied most of that clip.' I thought. 'Goddamnit.'
Feeling the adrenaline in my veins, I dropped both weapons and unsheathed my combat knife.
Without hesitation, I used my wings to push of the ground, 5 feet in the air, before throwing myself at the ground, my knife-wielding arm first. It moved slightly left and I missed. I did a recovery roll and stood on two legs. I yelled and charged the pony. The knife sunk into the eye.
There was a thud as the once again corpse fell to the ground.
I huffed as I felt my heart rate turn to normal, my pulse settle, and my breathing slow.
And I felt it again. That sensation I had at the Mirror pool. Yet I couldn't yet put a finger on what it was.
Rainbow Dash returned first.
"Hey. Ponies were loaded with this 'silicon' stuff. You said you didn't need a lot so he- woah. What the hay happened here?"
I retrieved my knife and wiped the blood off on the wall. "Nothing, it doesn't matter anymore."
The other ponies followed with the materials I needed and all asked the same thing.
"Oh my goodness, what happened?"
"Is the princess okay?"
"Did you get hurt Flash?" Derpy was the only one to ask about just me.
Celestia explained what happened while I began working. I found she left out the part of me calling her a tyrant.
'Wonder why...' and I harshly chuckled at my sarcasm.
I kept working and Derpy came over and started watching.
"Hey Derpy. How're you?"
She smiled. "Good. Dinky's playing with her friends back with the town. How about you?"
"Just ducky."
"Hmm. What does that mean?" she asked, her eyes wide open.
"Means that you're calm on the surface, but paddling like crazy underneath." I looked at her eyes. "God you look cute when you do that."
'Ah crap. I said that out loud.'
She blushed. "R- really?"
"I, uhh, need to focus. Yeah." I felt my cheeks turn bright red, which had to show up against my blue coat.
She was interested "Was it when I did this?" she rolled her eyes in opposite directions.
"Or was it this?" she opened her eyes very wide again.
I saw her out of the corner of my eye and blushed again.
"Aha! So it was that!"
I ignored her for the fact that I couldn't say anything else.
"Well is it cute when I do this?" She kept her eyes crossed and stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth in a smile.
Although I tried, my face started to really burn.
"Alright, enough is enough, i'll stop." she chuckled and looked over my shoulder.
She pointed to the biggest piece. "Ooo! What's that one do?"
I picked it up and handed it to her. "This, is what the motherboard. Without it, i'd never be here."
She nodded. "And that one?"
"That's an intake valve. That's where all the juice will need to go."
I stepped back from the project and she stood up with me.
"That should be it. I just hope it takes us back to my world."
Then an invasive thought hit 'Is the code the same? Maybe if I reverse the code we'll wind up where we need too...'
Feeling certain, I rewrote the code backwards and put the last screws in.
"This baby's ready for power, bring it on!"
Luna came over and inspected the device. "Are you sure this will work?"
"Nope."
I stood towards everypony there. "Alright. I need a team of five including me. Any volunteers?"
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight's hooves shot up.
"Alright, that's three. Anypony else-"
To my surprise, Derpy's hoof went airborne.
"Are you sure?" I had to ask.
"I want to see what Earth is like, even if it's mostly gone." came the simple reply.
I nodded. "You four meet me in an hour."
They nodded and all walked off except Derpy. She smiled at me before catching up around the corner.
Again, my face burned.
When the sensation faded I looked back to the princesses.
"Let's get this show on the road."
"Tell us why we are doing this again?" Luna asked.
"The guns we have right now are relatively small, and if we are going to hold Canterlot, we will need many more powerful weapons."
"Now, where's that power source you said you had?"
"Right this way."
She led and I followed, device in hoof.
The area was incredible. The walls were long and the ceiling tall, almost as if they planned it's purpose to hold a giant. At the end of the hallway was a massive Golden machine that pounded the earth every few seconds. As we got closer and closer, the ground would shake with every pound. With every earth shattering smash were sparks that lept off into massive wires.
'Defying physics. Why am I not surprised?'
"It's self powered, so the output is relatively low." Celestia noted.
I took a look and noticed several things wrong with the construction designs.
"Want me to fix it?"
"Fix it? It's working at maximum capacity currently." Celestia was curious. "But go ahead."
I put a hoof on the side of the machine for two seconds and the shudders slowed down, but the amount of watts per minute quadrupled.
The bursts of energy in the cables were now a constant stream of energy.
"Which one connects to Ponyville?" I asked, seeing as how they didn't need it anymore.
Luna gestured to the far left cable. I walked over, pulled out my pistol and fired till the cable was blown clear of the export. The wire died.
"See? He ruined it." Luna said to Celestia.
"Nope, just disconnected it. It'll work when I need it to."
With that I sat down, and before I knew it I was out cold.
I awoke to faces over mine, some poking me in the stomach.
"Aghh. I'm up, I'm up." I groaned.
"That was a nice nap though." I added. I stretched out my limbs and shook my head.
"Okay, everypony on the team here?"
"Here."
"Here."
"Present."
"Hi!"
"Alright that's everyone. Oh one thing." I reached into my pack and tossed them each a holster belt like mine, but with only one Eagle, plenty of mags, and a knife.
"Put these on."
They did, some with difficulty.
"Alright, now to pull it out it's simple; just reach back and grab it, then aim and shoot."
"Seems easy enough." Applejack said.
"You girls ready?"
They nodded. I turned back to the princesses.
"Let's go over how this thing works." I jammed in the cable in and hit the 'ON' switch.
Like before, nothing happened.
"Hmm. Oh, I remember!"
I gave it a swift kick, and the colorful portal suspended itself in the air once again.
It was nice to finally admire it. The swirling oval of color suspended itself a foot of the ground. It was about three feet tall and 2 feet wide at the longest.
I thought to myself 'The device won't cut it. This needs a name. Geo, geo something. Geo, PX? GeoPX could work!'
"Now that you know how to turn it on, close it." Celestia used her magic to hit the off switch.
"After we go through, you will have to close it. Otherwise dimensional space-time holes will open up, destroying both of our dimensions and all life between them. Yeah, so don't leave the portal open."
"Then how will we know when to re-open it?" Celestia questioned.
"Give us 72 hours. Three days should give us more than enough time."
"Alright, but after that we will have assume that you've failed."
"Understood." I turned around "If you want to back out, now's your chance."
Nopony moved.
"Well if that's the case, we have no time to waste!"
I set the HoloCube timer and stepped through the GeoPX, followed by my friends to the place I promised myself I would never return.
Home.