Time Ticks on

by Golden Script


17. Expositional Explanations

“Come on Everypony, smile, smile, smile! Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine!” Came a cheery voice as it echoed down the street. Said voice belonged to a mare with a fluffy pink mane and baby blue eyes, though her grin was so large it hid the latter fact.

The being bounced on the ground, springing from spot to spot, only staying in one place for a moment, making the necklace around her neck bounce. This being’s name was Pinkie Pie and she was on her way to the local library, where she was going to meet her other five friends, the princess of the night and Pinkie’s newest friend, a human named Michael. From there she’d help defeat Discord.

Speaking of the big meany meanerson, Pinkie rounded a corner and saw him sitting on his throne playing with some nearby ponies when he suddenly began to speak.

“Good, my pet. Now we can begin.” The pink mare decided that this was enough incentive to listen in on his conversation, if only for a minute.

“I am no one’s pet. You promised me power. Give it to me!” Yelled a voice she knew from only minutes before.

“Michael?” She whispered to herself, her face showing confusion and her hair showing her deteriorating mood.

“Hmm… I think not.” Discord took something from Michael, something shiny… something… gold.

The Elements of Harmony.

“What?” The anger in Michael’s voice was palpable.

“I have what I want, why should I give you anything?” Discord snapped to summon a cage around the human.

“Because I did all of your dirty work! Just so that you wouldn’t get your claw dirty!” He yelled, gripping two of the bars like the prisoner he was.

‘Wait, how did he have the Elements, unless…’ and suddenly Pinkie Pie’s hair fell strait, symbolizing her loss of control. This was only emphasized by her eyes, which promptly became hollow and dead.

Pinkamena was out for blood!

“Well, I don’t care. Would you really think that an incarnate of Chaos would keep a deal? How preposterous.” The sarcasm was thick in Discord’s voice, and it only fueled the rage growing in the mare’s chest.

“I will get my revenge on you and Celestia. All who have wronged me will pay.” Michael’s rage, if his voice was any indication, rivaled her own… though for very different reasons.

“Yeah, and how’s that gonna work? You’re trapped.” Discord gestured to the cage Michael was currently in.

All he did was growl at the fact. There was a short silence that was only broken by a satisfied “hmph” from Discord.

“That’s what I thought.” He said as the cage was moved next to the throne. “Now, come watch some chaos with me.”

This was the time that Pinkamena left. She slowly avoided the clearing that the two bipedal beings were currently residing, still keeping true to her destination: the library.

When she opened the door, her heart was only smashed even further.

She was the only one to return.

“Greetings, Pinkie Pie. You are the first one back.” Said a navy blue mare as she sat in the library’s lobby. “You can just wait for everyone else… why is your mane like that?” She asked as she finally looked up at the normally excited mare.

“They aren’t coming.” She said in a near whisper.

“Pardon?” The princess’s ears swiveled towards the doorway, where the pink party pony was standing. “Say that once more.”

“They aren’t coming!” She yelled, tears falling from her face. “Michael killed them!” Pinkie rushed into the kitchen to retrieve a weapon; namely, a chef’s knife.

Returning from the kitchen, blade in mouth, she sprinted out the door. “Sho nah ah’m go’a keeuw heum!” She muffled around the handle.

“Wait! Pinkie! What do you mean ‘Michael killed them’?” The sound didn’t even register to her. She was dead set on repaying this man for ending her closest friends.

Once she rounded the corner, rushing the cage the human was in, the beings in the clearing noticed her. Discord sat on his throne, smiling evilly as Michael tried to push himself as far back in the cage as possible, the mere sight of her obviously scaring him out of his wits.

Pinkie flung the knife, spinning the handle so it would collide directly with Michaels chest, blade first.

Her smile became demonic as the knife nearly finished its journey, but at the last second the blade stopped, finding itself in the man’s hand.

The mare’s heart stopped.

She’d failed.

-----
MICHAEL’S POINT OF VIEW

‘The bitch threw a knife at me! What the hell is wrong with these ponies?’ I thought to myself as I looked at the knife in my hand. My eyes wandered from the blade to the Draconequus that was reflected in it. He had a sadistic smile on his face and gave a nod, telling me what to do without using words.

I looked back at the pink quadruped that was now kneeling in the middle of the clearing. I took the knife by the blade, holding it upside down, and threw it at her head.

Time seemed to slow down, and this time it wasn’t my fault. The sun glinted off of the metal of the blade, blinking as it flew through the air. There was a brief moment when I actually comprehended what I’d done. ‘I’ve killed the Elements of Harmony.’ After this thought I noticed the blade getting extremely close to the mare, and my eyes widened slightly at what happened next.

The blade sunk into flesh, breaking past bone, with a satisfying “crunch!”

‘The crazy bitch had it coming.’ I thought to myself as the body slumped the rest of the way to the ground.

“Well, that wasn’t very knife.” Discord’s pun didn’t go unnoticed by me, but it only fueled my rage for him.

-----
PINKIE PIE’S POINT OF VIEW

She’d lost her friends, and the bastard that had done it was still breathing. At this realization the world became icy cold around Pinkie, but she didn’t care. The world could freeze over and she would still be here, mourning her friends and regretting her failure.

A few moments passed, after which she felt something. It was a hoof… a hoof on her shoulder. When she looked up she found something that lifted her heart ten times over.

Twilight was looking down at her with a concerned visage. Pinkie tried to gasp in surprise, but no sound reached her ears. It was odd, but didn’t halt her attempt to rant about how she thought she’d never see her friends again.

The purple unicorn rolled her eyes and waved her over, leading her to a back alley which concealed her other four friends. When Pinkie was far enough back in the alley Twilight leaned out, cast a spell, and came back in fairly quick succession.

There was a group hug, followed by the cold fading away as the sound began returning.

“Girls! What happened?” Pinkie yelled. “I thought that you were all... dead.” A tear trailed down her face as Fluttershy came up next to Pinkie.

“Oh, its ok, Pinkie. We’re all ok.” She said reassuringly rubbing her back.

When Pinkie looked at her friend she noticed something that was… wrong. There’s no other word for it, she decided. It was just wrong.

Flutters had a bruise on her face, implying a form of blunt force trauma. Who, or what, would have the heart to strike the shy Pegasus?

“Oh, it’s really nothing. Please don’t worry about it.” Fluttershy hid her face, and the bruise, behind her mane. “If that’s ok with you.” She finished.

“Listen, Pinkie, this is important.” Twilight stole the mare’s attention before she could start gushing over Fluttershy, making the Pegasus curl up and cry. “I’m going to tell you the plan.”

“But wait, what happened? Michael said that he...” Her voice faltered at this, but the rest knew what she meant.

“Well…” Twilight started.

-----
EARLIER THAT DAY

“So we do this the fun way, good choice.” Michael had just finished before disappearing.

“Wha-” I was about to ask, but was interrupted.

“Don’t move.” He said, now behind me with something pressing against my head. It was cold and circular. “I’m about to dump a bunch of information on you and you need to listen to all of it.” I gave a short nod before he continued. “Good. My name is Nicholas. Michael was a disguise I came up with over a thousand years ago. In that time, I was working for Discord. He told me that I was fighting for freedom, but in reality he was using his powers to play with his subjects. Luna was captured by me and him, and when she warmed up to me she showed me the truth. After that I joined Luna in fighting Discord. The Draconequus poisoned me, showing me things that weren’t true in our universe and slipped his magic into my mind, causing me to fight for evil. Later I found out what he’d shown me was a lie, putting me back in control of myself… mostly. Discord’s magic had an unexpected effect, causing my psyche to split into two. From that point forward me, Nicholas, and him, Michael, were two different beings, mentally, but not physically. You’ve been helping Michael in his quest to help Discord bring this world to the ground. The only way I can help you is if you play along, for now.” He finished his rant of information.

“Play along, how?” The question was simple, but the answer was not.

“You need to make a three dimensional copy of yourself, but lying on the ground. It needs to be dead.” He said. “You also need to give me your Element.”

“What?” I shouted. “Why would I give you the Element of Magic?”

“Do you enjoy having friends; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and the others… alive?” He asked, implying something that I’d never thought about dealing with, and hoped I’d never have to.

“You wouldn’t!” I retook my defensive position.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t.” He waited a moment to think, letting me drop my posture slightly. “But Michael would.” When I looked back into his eyes I saw dead seriousness. He was not joking, kidding, or lying. Michael would kill my friends if I didn’t help.

I took a moment to imagine myself lying on the ground, facing away from Michael and used a simple illusion spell to make the image reality.

“Good. Now, the Element.” He said, holding his hand out.

“Why should I?” I moved a step back, keeping a fair distance between him and me.

“Because Michael would know something was up if he found a dead body and no Element.” He said, still holding his hand out.

I took a moment to think about it. I had a few tricks up my sleeve, including making a duplicate of the tiara and giving him that. I decided that this was the best course of action. I floated the tiara off of my head, levitating it over to the human, but on the way used a pulse of magic to replace it with the useless duplicate.

“Twilight, I think that Discord would know if I approached him with a fake Element.” He tossed the fake away, as if it were garbage, which it kind of was.

I was disappointed that he’d seen through my illusion so easily, but I found his words to be true. If he arrived with a fake Element or two, Discord would know right away. I gave him the Element of Magic, seeing as he could just take it if he wanted to, I might as well not anger him.

“Good, now I need you to hide.” He said simply as he stood over my fake dead body.

I heeded his words, crouching behind a large desk that had fallen from the floor, which was currently the ceiling, seeing as the building was floating upside down. There were a few moments of him staring at the dead body, holding the tiara, before he put the headwear into a pocket—somehow—and began his journey out of the levitating building.

When he reached the edge of the roof he looked out over Ponyville, taking a deep breath.

“One down, five to go.” He said as he fished something out from under his coat.

Suddenly the world froze, physically and temporally. Firstly the temperature dropped to below zero, followed almost instantly by the world coming to a halt. The breeze in the trees stopped and the ponies down below didn’t move. I also noticed there was no sound in this unusual stasis.

Something tickled at the back of my memory; a spell I’d learned a long time ago that was deemed too dangerous to use on a daily basis, let alone whenever one wants. A spell first created by a pony named… what was it again? Minuette, I think. Yeah, that’s right.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as Michael—or Nicholas, whoever he is—jumped off the roof… only to stop mere feet away, as if he’d hopped to a platform. He continued this pattern until he was safely on the ground.

I decided I’d take the safer way down and teleported behind him. Of course, he didn’t hear me, so there was no reason to turn around. He walked away, towards the Whitetail Woods. After a few minutes of walking we came upon some trees, and off in the distance I saw a white pony with purple hair. I recognized this mare as Rarity.

Michael walked towards her, me following close behind. When he stopped and sought the object in his pocket once more I hid behind a tree, predicting what was to come.

Finding my prediction to be correct, the world came rushing back, including sound. I could no longer walk freely, from there on I had to walk silently.

-----
A MINUTE LATER

Michael was creeping closer to Rarity. She whimpered something and he seemed to snap out of it, explained to Rarity what he’d told me, and motioned me over.

“Twilight, you did a good job of hiding, but try and keep a bit more distance from him. It’s for your own safety.” He said, holding a hand up to stop me when I was about to respond. “Now, do the same thing, only this time for Rarity.” I made the image of Rarity lying with her back on the ground, blood pooling around her head. I took Rarity’s Element, which elicited resistance, but after a quick glance she gave it away willingly. I gave it to Nicholas and made Rarity follow me until we were a “safe” distance from him.

-----
PRESENT TIME

“We repeated this for everyone but you, Pinkie. He told me that Michael had completely forgotten about you. Nicholas told me that it was because, and I quote, ‘Pinkie Pie just wasn’t memorable for him.’ Nicholas went on to say something about changing Michael’s memories to killing us instead of Nicholas saving us and how he took the little that Michael actually remembered of you and erased you from his memories completely.”

Everypony looked at the violet unicorn in confusion, even Pinkie, though for different reasons.

“I wasn’t memorable?” She asked while the rest of the group went “huh?”

“Point is, you were kept from his grasp and didn’t have to see what Michael was really like.” Twilight summed up. “Trust me; you’re better off this way.”

“So, what’s the plan? Ya mentioned one earlier.” Applejack asked with a serious visage.

“Oh, right. Sorry, got sidetracked.” The purple mare’s cheeks had a tinge of pink before she took a deep breath. “Nicholas is going to, somehow, get out of the cage. After that he’s going to swipe the Elements and give them back to us. Then we’ll use the Elements on Discord.” She finished.

“That’s a pretty simple plan, is that really all there is?” The cyan mare hovering beside Twilight asked as her rainbow mane ruffled in the breeze created by her wings.

“Well, the tough part is doing it in a timely manner. Nicholas will only have a limited amount of time before Michael will be free again. If that happens we’ve lost. Does everyone understand what’s going to happen?” None of them made any move to ask a question. “Good, because here it comes.” She redirected their attention to the throne.

-----
NICHOLAS/MICHAEL’S POINT OF VIEW

‘I can get us out of this cage.’ I thought to Michael.

‘Prove it.’ He thought back.

‘How do I do that? I’m just a voice in your head… or my head, this is technically my body.’ I reminded, not only him, but myself.

‘Fine, it’s not like I have anything to lose. I was thrust back into control.

‘Thanks.’ I thought to him as I flexed my fingers to make sure I was in total control.

‘Just get us out of here. Was the only response he gave before going quiet.

“Discord, is there really any reason to keep me locked up? If you really are an all-powerful god, then what am I but a measly human?” I asked him.

“That’s true, but I think you’d work against me if I did.” A pony ran by, tripping over a rock and falling face first into a pie. When she came back up her face was covered in crust and cream.

“What if I promise to not go against you?” I asked, implying something that definitely caught his interest. “I could even cause some chaos of my own.”

“You’d help me with chaos?” There was a moment where his eyes glinted with the possibilities. He then shook his head hard. “I still don’t believe you.” He looked forward once more, but still glanced at me as if he wanted me on his side.

“I, Michael Faraday, will help Discord spread chaos throughout the land of Equestria.” I said after I kneeled in my cage.

There were a few tense moments where Discord was weighing his options, then I heard a snap and the cage was gone.

The fight for control began not a moment later. I felt Michael attempting to pull control back to himself, probably so he could do exactly what I’d promised.

“King, I have a question.” I struggled out, straining slightly just to get the words out correctly. “What is chaos?”

“Well, being the incarnate of chaos, are you asking what I am, or what the word means?” He questioned. “In the case of what I am, I’m a draconequus. In the case of what the word means, it is an equivalent to randomness. Why are you asking?”

“I’m just wondering, I promised to cause chaos or randomness, like you said. So what would be the most random thing I could do…?” I paused time, took the Elements from him and gave them to the six mares hiding in the alley. We walked out to the middle of the clearing and I restarted time.

“Other than to betray you?”