//------------------------------//
// Second Verse 
// Story: Space-Time Requiem 
// by Red_Eyed_Mynx 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 5

Twilight was still in a trance as she and Pinkie wandered through a mysterious rocky snowfield. Pinkie Pie, with her usual hopping stride, was merely following alongside Twilight and respectfully remaining quiet, as Twilight seemed to be getting pulled along by some invisible puppet strings through this blizzard-ridden, never ending, grey sky blanketed, snow covered wasteland.


After what seemed like hours of aimlessly wandering, they came across an old man wearing a large, wide-brimmed straw hat, a red cloth vest, tan fishing shorts, simple flip-flops, and despite his age his muscle tone was notably distinct, and he was sitting by what seemed to be the only river anywhere, and he was fishing. As the girls approached  him, he turned his head in their direction, revealing his face to be that of a man in his late seventies, with calm, wise, blue eyes, a small nose, deep set wrinkles, and a large, grey mustache, and when he looked directly at Twilight she instantly snapped out of the trance she was in. “ Ahhhh...” He said calmingly, and in a slow and relaxing tone continued, " Anata wa koko de yattoda. Watashi wa, anata ga shitte iru matte imashita." (“You're finally here. I've been waiting you know.”) he added, " Watashi wa chōdo watashi no jikan no tsuri o watashite kimashita. Sugu soko ni matte, watashi wa sugu ni modorimasu." (“I’ve just been passing my time fishing. Wait right there, I’ll be right back.”) and after that statement he stood up and performed a very high jump into the river which caused a surprisingly small splash. 


Ever since the strange old man jumped into the river what felt like at least ten minutes ago, the lavender unicorn and the pink pony were curiously and patiently watching the river where the old man had entered, and as they were about to make their leave of the area the water began to boil and bubble violently, and from it emerged the old man, albeit he wasn’t so old anymore, rather he looked like a teenager now, no longer were his blue eyes wise and calm but rather they were ambitious and energetic, his mustache now gone, his face wrinkle free, and he no longer wore a hat and in it’s place was long, dark, flowing hair, and as he climbed the slope alongside the river he loudly declares motioning to himself and then the ponies, " Watashi wa modottekita! Anata wa watashi o minogashimashita ka?" (“I’m back! Did you miss me?”) and when he finally reached the two ponies he stopped in front of Twilight, gently placed his left index finger on the tip of her horn, knelt down in front of her without moving his finger from the tip of her horn, looked deep into her eyes and said, " Yami no watashi no ryōiki ni modo~tsu yōkoso towairaitosupākuru." (“Welcome back to my realm of darkness, Twilight Sparkle.”) after this strange display he looked over at Pinkie, who was watching intently, gave a grin, and stood up saying, " Watashi wa anata o oboete imasu. Pinkīpai." (“ I remember you. Pinkie Pie.”) he walked slowly towards the unflinching pink party animal while a concerned Twilight could only stand where she was and watch, due to a combination of the cold and the gaze she just received from the strange man.


The man was now looking Pinkie directly in the eyes from a mere inches away and yet she still didn’t show any sign of concern. With a laugh and a tone of general friendliness that caught Twilight off guard he said, “ Watashi wa mada anata ga towairaito no kage to shite no watashi no yosōi o koete miru koto ga dekita to kanshin shite imasu!" (" I'm still impressed that you were able to see past my guise as Twilight's Shadow! ") to which Pinkie replied while laughing with him, “ I know! It just looked so strange that I just couldn’t help but notice!” then immediately he stopped laughing and was down on one knee next to Pinkie resting one arm on her back saying, "Shikashi, kage toieba, watashi wa tasukeru koto ga, genzai anata ga ketsuraku shite iru koto ni kidzuku koto wa dekimasen. Kokoro ga setsumei suru?" (" But speaking of shadows, I can't help but notice that currently yours is missing. Mind to explain?") which made the pink pony cease laughter as well and look over to her lavender companion and say, “ Twilight, you might wanna come over here. You’ll be familiar with this story.” to which Twilight readily complied with since Pinkie was the one asking, “ So Pinkie, you can understand what he’s saying?” Twilight asked the evidently multilingual pony, “ Well duh!” she answered, “ I grabbed a book on japanese before we came here silly!” she said waving around the book she evidently had hidden in her tail, “ I thought that you being you, you had read it already and henceforth I thought you also understood him.” she stated motioning to the now perplexed man, "-Machi ni matte machimasu. Anata wa kono zentai no jikan wa anata ga kore made ni watashi ga itta subete o rikai dekiru koto o itte iru?" (" Wait wait wait. You're saying that this whole time you could understand everything I've said so far?") he asked very much so perplexed, “ Well yeah!” Pinkie answered with a large smile, " Wareware wa koko ni topikku o ofu ni shutoku shite iru, no wa chōdo kono chīsana pinku no jibun no fusoku shite iru kage no hanashi ni modorimashou." (" We're getting off topic here, let's just get back to the story about this little pink one's missing shadow.") the man demanded, “ Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie agreed, and with that Pinkie Pie recounted the tale of how she met Twilight on her shopping trip, how she left to wash her shadow, how she left her shadow out to dry, how she went to Twilight’s house and how on the way there she thought up new sweets, and how she helped Spike and Twilight figure out Mynx’s puzzle and how they got here.


“ Ah, that does clarify things for me.” the man admitted now speaking english, “ Wait a second. You can speak english?” Twilight asked surprised, “ Well of course I can. I thought it would be fun at the time to speak in a language neither one of you could understand. But that was quickly shot out of the air by this one.” he stated pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the happily grinning Pinkie, “ Yeah! I guess I got you there!” Pinkie happily praised herself, “ Don’t pat yourself on the back yet.” he reflexively interrupted the pink pony who was in the process of literally patting herself on the back, positioning her front left leg at a seemingly impossible angle, “I have ways to crack one’s mind to the brink of insanity if not at least confusion!” he furiously continued, and with that he jumped back and away from the two ponies at least ten feet, and raised his right hand into the air. A white light pulsed over his body and in it’s wake his appearance changed, he was still humanoid but he now had a very long, blonde, ponytail, so long that it almost touched the ground, he still wore a vest but this one was a much darker red, much like the helmet he now wore with the exception of the two white horns protruding out and back on the sides and the black in between the “horns” and the red of the helmet, he also donned knee high boots of the same shade of red, on his forearms he had bracers that went from his wrists to his elbows which were also dark red, his face was young but the most striking feature was the evil red eyes, over the rest of his body he wore what looked like a black, skin tight, rubber body suit. “ AGHHH!!!” he violently screamed as prepared to smash his fist into ground, and as he did said act he shouted, " Yami no mon ga hiraku!" ("Gate of Darkness open!") and with that act an explosion of snow flew high into the air, obscuring him from sight.


When the snow dissipated, the man was standing there with a smug look on his face, standing over a black rift in the ground that was absorbing the entirety of this world, not affecting the three creatures within it, “ What’s happening?” Twilight asked in terror, to which the man answered, “ Ware wa meshia nari!” (“ I am the messiah!”) and as the world was being sucked into the rift, he arrogantly asked, “ How do you expect to save this world without my help?” he then disappeared in a manner akin to crumbling away in the wind. 





Chapter 6

The void which Twilight and Pinkie found themselves trapped in seemed to be composed entirely of madness and insanity, movement also seemed to be impossible in this realm as walking seemed to only move each other in their views. Neither one could speak as it seemed that their voices were literally stolen from them, as they gaze in awe at the distant and large images that were animating themselves, surrounding the two from every direction, behind these images was an endless vortex of white, red, and black chaos. Among the images was nothing either pony could recognize, including a blue creature wearing red shoes, and white gloves, and spikes on the back of its head, running at speeds Rainbow Dash would bat an eye at. Another image showed a boy in a black suit wielding a weapon that resembled a key fighting off a massive swarm of creatures that reminded Twilight of Mynx. Whilst Twilight and Pinkie were distracted by these images a prominent and ominous voice that Twilight recognized burst in from what sounded like above the two ponies, “ Memories. Precious be they to many most no?” it declared, “ But help it sometimes cause for one to know that another.” it continued, and this statement caused Twilight to somehow regain her voice and then shout, “ Mynx! I know that’s you! Come out and show yourself!” and after that demand was made, a splash of shadow appeared before Twilight’s face and then began reforming on itself to form a large eye gazing right at Twilight all of which happened in a matter of moments, “ Think who be you now to demand anything me of?” questioned Mynx, the eye then split into two with one eye going to Pinkie Pie, “ What’s matter be now so, Miss Pinkamena? Have now finally I mind blown your’s be case?”  he asks the speechless pink pony, “ A ha ha ha, ahhh now that feel better do I me...” he adds as the world of memories begins to fade and shift into the pitch black room, “ I believe do me now that you two of count wonder why here me bring you, yes?” he inquired in the guise of a surprisingly friendly and cartoonish in appearance cat-like creature complete with a smile rather than a grin, although his teeth were still showing, and like most of his forms it possessed a deep red scar over its left eye, “ Actually yes Mynx. Yes we would, considering you haven’t told me or Pinkie why you brought us here or why you wanted me to come back here in the first place.” Twilight confirmed slightly annoyed, “ Ah yes, apologies mine be they.” Mynx calmly apologized, his face no longer donning a smile, “ But being outdone at game ability own mine horfolo cause being he me lose cool.” he finished, “ For that I apologize!” A voice called out which of course belonged to Pinkie, “ I didn’t mean to anger you like that.” she continued to apologize, “ But you gotta admit, learning japanese did come in handy, eh?” she asked whilst nudging the now bird-like black entity, “ When that way put you do, making sense being do thee.” a smile almost cracked on his face, “ Appreciative be me for unconditional your’s hospitality Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie, but explanation Twilight’s given be for so now.” he explained, “ If you say so Mynx!” agreed the pink pony as she turned around and walked a few steps before abruptly facing Mynx again and asked in confusion, “ Wait a second, how do you know my old name?” and Mynx without skipping a beat, swiftly replied, “ Tell you later will I.” to that answer Pinkie could do nothing but shrug and sit down to listen, and Mynx looking back to Twilight began, “ Now know I that know you so do that my existence is that of a freeform, dimensional wanderer yes?” he half asked and half stated, “ Yeah. You made that quite clear last time.” answered the lavender unicorn, “ Good, good. Wait moment of equals one. I’ll easier make shall do matters.” he responded with a pleased look and tone. 


He then looked skyward, then to his left wing which began to slightly spasm and then morphed into a slender but large arm which he swung into the air and snapped his fingers, which in turn made the pitch black room become an illusion of Ponyville. After a few moments a black void generated itself beneath Pinkie Pie, from which a corruptor simultaneously emerged and hoisted the pink one just off the ground, the suddenness of which had caused her to begin flailing her legs around in surprise and in an attempt to escape it’s grasp which only lasted for a few seconds, and after the few said seconds the corruptor began to vibrate minutely, which tickled Pinkie, and then it shattered like glass and vanished, dropping the pink one on the ground, who now had a shadow, “ Now that shadow returned be her’s, one still thing be remain I to do.” he declared, “ But be was what it so...?” he asked himself, tapping his chin with the index finger of the wing-turned-arm he now possessed, “ Ah yes.” he declared to himself adopting a “Eureka!” pose. After he remembered what he was going to do he reached his arm past and slightly above his right hand side and gripped what should have been thin air, but instead where he gripped distorted like he was grabbing cloth. He held this position for a brief moment before pulling his arm back and spinning counter-clockwise in a tandem action, which caused reality to tear like paper around him and entirely obscure him from view behind a void similar to the one that encased the realm of memories. “ Ah yes, in this form communications between us should be that much easier.” a new voice declared from within the void, as this voice continued, a vague shadow began forming within the said void, “ Now as to why you’re here again.” it continued as the shadow became clearer, it seemed to resemble a pony, “ The biggest reason is that you’re the only one in this world whose met me before and knows of my existence.” the shadow’s form was definitely pony, “More important though is why I’m here.” the shadowy figure was approaching now, “ Your world, the world of Equestria, is soon to end unnaturally. Well on a technical scale it is natural.” the voice finished as the shadow stepped out of the void revealing itself to an above average size stallion of jet black coloration with red eyes and a cutie mark resembling Mynx’s sinister grin and a pair of erie red eyes, “ I observed this world for a short amount of time.” the Mynx-pony admitted, “ And within that short timeframe I felt a sense of tranquility and... perfection that I have felt within very few worlds.” he continued whilst slowly circling around Twilight and intently looking up and down her body as if searching for some unknown item or sign, “ So in exchange for your world pleasing me, I shall do my best to prevent it’s unfortunate end.” he said directly to Twilight’s face, with a sinister grin, “However... there’s one problem.” he finished while he and his grin disappeared.


When Mynx fully faded from view Twilight and Pinkie found themselves suddenly floating above the ground and flying rapidly without control to their own homes, which to their shock and terror, were on fire like an endless blaze with everyone they knew and cared about inside, trapped and unable to now avoid their dark fate, when suddenly it seemed like time screeched to a halt and Mynx’s voice cut in albeit very erratically as the pitch, speed, tone, volume, and syllables being pronounced were all being chaotically changed, “TeeEErrRererERoroRerOROROOOrrrRReR. TERROR!” Mynx’s grin appeared very prominent and large in the sky as the world around the the two ponies began to darken as if the sun was being eclipsed, then Mynx’s voice seemed to encase the entire world as he hysterically screamed, “ The energy is mine!” and with that statement tendrils made of shadow came from everywhere directly targeting the ponies and as it reached the point where it seemed that the tendrils would impale the two, the tips of the tendrils split and began encompassing the two ponies in a cocoon of absolute darkness which then began to contract to the point of pain and then some. When it seemed the two would be crushed to death the cocoons disappeared and the ponies found themselves standing in the pitch black room with pony Mynx standing there as well but with a strange air of elegance about him, “ You two should thank me for being alive right now.” he strangely declared, “ Why should we thank you Mynx? You just tried to kill us!” both ponies furiously and simultaneously shouted at the black stallion, which in response he merely looked at them, closed his eyes and in a somewhat poetic manner stated, “ Come from darkness I may, but spare ones life I usually don’t.” he then followed up with, “ Please remain silent, I just wanted to tell you through example what would happen if I didn’t have messengers to help me. You see I instinctively act like that around strong negativity like fear, hate, rage, evil, and maleficence and such things like that. However since I was giving an example I was actually in complete control during that, but if that were the real thing... let’s just say you wouldn’t be here right now.” as he was explaining this, he was slowly sinking into the floor, and when he was gone from sight the two ponies began conversing between themselves as to what they should do,  “ What do you think of Mynx, Pinkie?” Twilight asked her friend, “ I don’t know Twilight, but he kinda reminds me of Discord.” she replied, “ Same here. But do you think he’s trustworthy?” inquired the lavender unicorn, “ Do we really have a choice? I mean we’re kinda trapped here and he’s been saying he wants our world to NOT be destroyed.” she answered in an upbeat tone, “ Yeah Twilight! You should listen to your friends.” Mynx cut in, now looking like a small dragon, “ I mean have I done anything to imply ill will?” he asked with his arms to the side, “  Well there was that display not that long ago.” Twilight answered aggravated, “ Okay, okay I admit that was a little out of line, but didn’t that leave a much stronger impression than just telling what would happen?” he asked with a surprisingly happy tone, “ But you know what? Since I’m going to pretend to like you two, I’m going to tell you what it is that’s going to end your world if you can’t help me help you.” and with that he grabbed his jaws and pried them open and from within his mouth an image of a dragon-like creature clad in strange blue armor which had what looked like ethereal energy leaking out of the openings in it was being shown, “ This here is a Time Eater.” came Mynx’s voice from another head that was floating behind his current one, “ These beings are a rival race of my own, so you can imagine we don’t like each other very much. You see these things are capable of manipulating and destroying time on a direct scale unlike my species, the Spacial Renders, which like the name implies, are capable of controlling and erasing space on a direct scale.” he told them, “ And no Twilight, you will not ever find a book containing information on either race.” he stated as if he was reading Twilight’s mind, “Now you’re probably wondering why I can’t just cut the Time Eater off on it’s way here right?” he asked the two ponies who only nodded, “ Well you see both races travel in a, I repeat, A inter dimensional void. Each race belongs to a different void, the Time Eaters live in the void known as “The Phase” and my race dwells within a void known as “The Slip” and neither race can enter the others void due to the dimensional make up of each would quickly destroy a non-native race.” he added with a sarcastic shudder, “ Well Mynx that does answer why you’ve been hanging around and why you’ve been going on and on about messengers.” Twilight admitted, “ Yeah Mynx! If you need messengers I’ll be one!” Pinkie shouted enthusiastically, “ Woah woah woah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, you don’t know everything necessary yet.” Mynx quickly shot down her offer, “ There’s still more for you to know. Now a major difference between Time Eaters and my race is the way we travel and how our treatment of worlds tends to differ.” Mynx continued, “ Time Eaters haven’t mastered traveling in the inter dimensional void, instead they just aimlessly drift about mindlessly consuming worlds they make contact with, while my race has mastered the ability to travel within the void and we never consume worlds. However we have destroyed, created, and manipulated worlds we’ve come in contact with.” he stated with a slight tone of pride, “ Wait a second. You’re saying you’ve destroyed entire realms of existence?” Twilight asked shocked, “ Well at first it was regularly scheduled demolitions, but I quickly found myself eradicating worlds I was pretty fond of. With that and other things I went rogue started only destroying worlds that seriously irked me or were full of negativity.” he clarified for Twilight, “ So don’t take me as a bad person because it’s my race’s job to regulate dimensions!” he defended himself, “ I’m with Mynx on this Twilight. You shouldn’t brand anypony like that!” Pinkie Pie also defended Mynx, “ But Pinkie! He just flat out admitted to destroying who knows how many planes of existence!” Twilight shouted out enraged, “ Actually, planes of existence are different than worlds.” Mynx somewhat quietly corrected Twilight, “ My kind refers to those as “alternate versions” or “alternate worlds”.” he finished, “ See Twilight? He’s not such a bad guy when you get to know him. Besides he said it himself, he only erases worlds that he doesn’t like.” the pink one continued to defend Mynx, “ And our world still exists. So obviously he doesn’t dislike our world!” she declared with finality, “ Alright Pinkie I’ll take your word for it.” Twilight disdainfully submitted, “ Ah finally you see that I’m not always such a bad guy.” Mynx cheerfully praised the lavender unicorn, “ Now about that black hole from my vision that I showed you Twilight...” Mynx started as he shifted his appearance into that of a large reptilian creature, “... you may have already figured out that it wasn’t a black hole at all, but rather it was a roaming Time Eater yes?” he asked Twilight, “ I guess.” she answered with a “I kinda did” tone of voice, “Ah gooood. Then I don’t have to tell you that it was a roaming Time Eater consuming your world.” he sarcastically eased himself, “ Well either way I still need at least three messengers to lessen the panic when both the Time Eater and I make an appearance. And I’m pretty certain you know what would happen if there was a mass panic.” he clarified for the ponies and on the last sentence he began to drool, “ If that’s all it means to be your messengers why didn’t you let Pinkie be one when she offered?” Twilight demanded to know from Mynx while motioning to her sad faced friend, “ Nothing personal I assure you. It’s the tradeoff for becoming one I’m concerned about.” Mynx answered her while his body was turning upside down, the only part that didn’t rotate with it was his face, which remained at the same orientation, and he was now walking around on an invisible ceiling-floor only he had access to, “ You see becoming a messenger for me has some risks...” he was walking past Pinkie Pie while looking at her, “ ... the most notable of which is that it is guaranteed to alter your essence-based appearance, although this is pretty minor as only the only ones who can see this change are what you would call the “spiritually honed” and beings like me. Another affect is that it can end up subtly or extremely altering your personality, and third...” he was standing on his hind legs now, “ ...it could possibly destroy your soul, but this extremely rare, the chances of that are about one half for every eight-hundred-quadrillion-ninety-seven, but that’s just a rough estimate.” he doled out those chances like they were nothing special, he then high-five’d another one of himself who appeared out of nowhere, “ And again this isn’t a big problem. I’ll just recreate your soul from a back-up copy.” the other Mynx was standing on the ground explaining this to Pinkie and Twilight, then the first Mynx punched the other causing him explode and shifted himself to the ground before he continued,  “ Remember I said I’m capable of creation? But that aside who wants to be a messenger now? Oh don’t worry, the effects disappear as soon as I relieve you of duty.” the ponies were speechless, “ Aw jeez, did I blow their blow minds again? Just great now I have to wait for them to recover.” with that impatient statement he morphed into another humanoid form with black, slick backed hair, a pale red open-front trench coat, dark brown heavy-looking pants and a plain green shirt, “ Alright let’s speed this up.” he raised his right hand into the air and snapped his fingers, which caused “time” in this realm to speed up and allowed him to see through their eyes as he waited, which in the top-right of each of their views was a fast-forward icon, the actions he performed in fast-forward during this time included pacing back and forth, looking at a wristwatch he didn’t have, and splitting into two entities and playing ping-pong with himself. 


“ Alright that’s good enough!” he declared while snapping his fingers in front of their eyes, returning “time” to normal, “ Soooo what’s your answer?” he inquired of the two mares, “ Mynx, what just happened?” Twilight asked Mynx in a daze, “ I thought you said your race couldn’t control time.” she continued to wonder, “ I never said any such thing Twillie my dear.” he denied in a Sherlock Holmes fashion, “ I merely said we can control space on a direct scale, you see time and space are intertwined with one another. Without one the other cannot exist.” he was somewhat lecturing Twilight while examining a stopwatch he procured from his coat pocket, “Since that is the case, I do have somewhat limited control over time, but you don’t need time control to alter the speed of things, all I did was accelerate space, simple concept no?” he finished his lecture on temporal-spatial laws, “Uhh what?” Twilight asked completely lost, “ I think he said he made us... faster?” Pinkie was scratching her head, “ See? This is why characters like her are so useful. They're practically impossible to confuse.” Mynx praised Pinkie while leaning towards her with his arms extended in her direction, but he then withdrew this pose, “ But that’s also why they tend to bug me.” he said notably annoyed while swatting a large insect off his shoulder, “ So Miss Pinkamena, you wanted to know how I knew your old name, correct?” he was now talking directly to Pinkie Pie but he now looked like her albeit for him the mane and tail were straight and hung down and his pupils were shrunken and asymmetrical and he wore an insane smile and he continued in her voice, “ Well if you’d be so kind as to remember that room of memories that I oh so conveniently used to blow your mind...” he told her, “... you’d realize it’s name says a lot about it, Self describing even. Well while you two were in there I was able to look through your memories to find effective means to scramble your sense of reality and thus, blow your minds!” he finished while morphing his face to a more beastial one that had a larger snout and jaw with teeth that looked like they could bite through just about anything, and it had very hungry-looking black eyes, to this display Pinkie merely looked in his eyes and joyfully shouted, “ Nice trick! Seriously even I couldn’t do that!” to this Mynx just sighed, slapped himself in the face and rested his hand there asking, “ Why do I even bother?” he then fell backwards and when his back hit the ground he sunk through it as if the floor there was a flippable panel and he immediately came back looking like a large griffon and then declared in mental defeat, “ Alright, alright I give. Instead of dragging ponies here I’m gonna come with you two to your world.” he was shaking his head in his hand, “ So that means we can leave?” Twilight gleefully asked and jumped with joy but upon landing she fell shouting, “ OWW!” she was on the ground holding her back-left leg, and Mynx was scratching the back of his with a somewhat guilty look on his face,” Sssss yeeeaaah, about that. I may have slightly fractured a few bones with that squeeze I gave two earlier so, um, yeeeaah.” and Twilight began furiously shouting at him, “ Why didn’t you tell us?!” and Mynx in response could only give a wry smile and say, “ I was hoping we’d be out of here by then since that would’ve healed up instantly once you two left.”  Twilight was screaming at him at the top of her lungs, “ Then get us out of here!” she was rolling on the ground, “ Fine, be that way.” Mynx snapped his fingers and a white light formed beneath them and like that they were in Equestria. Location: Twilight’s house.