A Better Place, A Better Time

by Mental_Zero

Out of the Frying Pan...

I didn't wake up for several hours, and when I did, I found myself in what appeared to be the deepest, darkest, most secure prison cell in Equestria. The cell was completely bare, save for a single torch on the wall. The walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to have been dug out of a single piece of sandstone, with a single small door on one side. I went over to the door and felt along the edges,

"Hermetic seal..." I leaned some of my weight against it, but it didn't seem to even give the inclination that it might move, "And it's not getting broken any time soon. Fail, Safe, you there?" They appeared on my shoulders, looking battered and bruised. Fail sat down, one of his arms in a sling,

"Yeah, we're still kicking, Boss." He let out a few pained coughs, "Albeit pretty weakly."

Safe leaned against my neck, staying silent, "Safe, you alright?"

"He can't talk for now, broke his jaw in that crash, had to wire it shut. I'll be speaking for him until he puts himself back together. But hey, maybe it's for the best that I get to talk instead of him."

He chuckled for a moment before dissolving back into another coughing fit. I sat cross-legged across from the door, "Alright, what can you tell me about Evil as of now?"

Fail got back up and hopped down to the floor, "Well, so far as we've been able to tell, he was resurrected by the Nightmare maybe a month after we got here. Going off of the readings we got from the copy he possessed, he's been taking in a whole lot of biomass since he got a hold of it. How he got it without Luna noticing, we're not sure. He's not to your levels yet, but he's still got a hell of a lot of oomph in him now. As for what happened tonight, Safe managed to pick up on him a few minutes after he pinched Celestia. Best guess right now is that he took her to the Castle of the Two Sisters to be taken over by the Nightmare."

I leaned back against the wall, "What would you say our chances are of taking him on?"

Fail shrugged helplessly, "If it was a one-on-one, purely physical fight to the death, we'd tear him apart. But, as it is, he has the psychological advantage, he's backed up by the Nightmare, which may or may not have already taken control of Celestia, and we just got a royal ass kicking by Luna. So, without some major-league backup, our chances are pretty shit right now."

Safe disappeared and started quietly tapping away at a terminal, I looked at Fail, "So what do you suggest we do?"

He turned to the door, "Well, right now we have to find a way to convince Luna to let us go, as there's no way in hell we're escaping this hole. Problem is that we're currently under roughly two miles of quartzite and magically sealed doors, and that even on our best day, neither me or Safe would have a chance of communicating with Luna if she didn't want us to, or get to our own bodies, let alone right now. So, as of right now, we are up Shit's Creek with no paddle, no boat and concrete shoes."

I let out a bitter chuckle, "Gee, thanks for the pep talk, Fail."

He shrugged again, "Just telling you how things are, Boss. Right now, best thing we can do is hope that Luna cools down and figures out that we're legit." I sat in silence for a moment, mulling over his suggestion, "I'm gonna go help Safe get things back in order upstairs. I'll talk to you soon, Boss." He disappeared back into my mind, and it was silent in the cell once again.

I spent the next few hours devising escape plans, scrapping them, recreating them using elements from the other plans, all to the quiet white noise of Fail and Safe getting the inside of my head back in working order. After what felt like the fourth hour or so, my planning was interrupted by Applejack suddenly appearing in my cell wearing, I kid you not, an honest-to-God suit of battle armor. There was no flash, no sound, the room was just empty one second, it wasn't the next. Needless to say, I nearly jumped out of my own skin when she made her entrance,

"A-Applejack?"

She looked at me squarely, I could practically feel her eyes burning into my soul, "Howdy."

I got up slowly, pushing away from the wall, "What are you doing here?"

She began to circle me slowly, "Y'all don't need to worry about that. What y'all need to worry about is why yer here."

I felt the strength in my knees and spine get cut in half at those words, "AJ, you have to liste-"

I was cut off by another sudden appearance, this time featuring Rainbow Dash, who was also clad in armor, accompanied by said pegasus shoving me back against the wall at around 80 miles per hour, "What have you done to Princess Celestia, you monster?!"

I frantically tried to push her off of me, "Dash, AJ, wait! I didn't take Princess Celestia, she was taken by Evil, this thing that was brought back by the Nightmare and-"

She cut me off, "We know, Princess Luna told us all about your little visit to her earlier, and how Celestia just happened to go missing minutes after you left. How do you explain that?"

I glanced over her shoulder and saw Fluttershy and Rarity standing behind Applejack, "Boss, what's happening?"

I quickly silenced Fail and looked back at Dash, "If you know about my visit to her, then you know why I visited her. That abomination has been revived and empowered by the Nightmare. She seemed the best person to see about it, as she dealt with it before and is also the freaking vanguard of dreams."

Now Twilight had joined the group, watching from the far corner. Rainbow Dash still seemed more than a little skeptical, "Okay, let's assume you are the real Ryan. How do we know that you haven't been taken over by this Evil guy, or the Nightmare?"

Thinking on my feet in interrogations has never been my strong suit, so I decided that I had to go all or nothing to convince them. I wiped all traces of fear off of my face and snapped my hand out, grabbing Rainbow by the throat, forming a Blade out of my other hand. They all took a half step back, Applejack getting ready to charge, Twilight and Rarity's horns bursting into light. I looked at them all and spoke in a deadpan growl, "Because, for all of your strength, for all of your speed, and for all of your magic, I could still slaughter the six of you without breaking a sweat if I was Evil." I brought the Blade up to Rainbow's throat, keeping an iron grip on her neck "And I would start with her for treating me so harshly. You all know that the real, unpossessed Ryan wouldn't do that. So, Elements of Harmony, make your choice."

Rainbow kicked and squirmed as viciously as she could, but she wasn't going anywhere. I met their eyes, one by one, finally settling on Twilight. She somehow maintained a scholarly face, studying me. After maybe ten seconds of eye contact, she spoke, "It's him."

The rest turned to look at her, Applejack spoke up first, "Are ya sure, Twilight?"

She nodded, "Only the real Ryan would make a gamble like this."

Rarity chimed in next, "But what if it's just a ruse to get us to let him out?"

Twilight shook her head, "If this Evil character Princess Luna told us about is anything like she said he is, he wouldn't have gotten caught in the first place. Stand down, girls."

They hesitated for a moment, then kneeled, making it clear they didn't plan on fighting. I retracted the Blade and put down Rainbow Dash, who fell to the ground, gasping and coughing, "Good to see that there are still good judges of character around." I kneeled down by Dash, "You okay, Dashie?"

She took in a few more wheezing breaths, "Buck...you."

She coughed some more and I helped her to her feet, "Oh, don't be such a baby, I didn't squeeze that hard."

She looked at me incredulously, "You nearly broke my neck."

I shrugged, "Well, consider it payback for last Nightmare Night."

She nudged me, "Jerk."

The others got back up, looking relieved. Twilight trotted over and hugged me, "Thank Celestia that it's really you, Ryan."

I returned the hug, "Come on, Twilight, not even something that came from me can replace the real me."

That got a small chuckle out of her. They all moved into a small pack, "Come on, we should get you back to Princess Luna." I nodded and walked over to them.

Princess Luna was waiting for us there, also decked out in armor. She looked over at us, then to Twilight,

"Thou hast confirmed he is genuine?"

Twilight nodded, "Yes, Princess, it's really him."

Luna nodded in return, then looked to me, "We apologize for our treatment of you, Ryan, we were not acting with reason."

I waved her off, "It's okay, Princess, I've been through worse."

She looked at me sternly, then back to a projection she was making with her magic, seemingly detailing an assault on the Castle of Two Sisters. From what I could gather, it seemed to be a pretty solid plan, despite the enormous risks of sending the Elements of Harmony and Princess Luna up against a now surely corrupted Celestia and Evil. Luna looked around the table at the other ponies, "Alright, my little ponies, you all know what we must accomplish. Retrieve our sister from the Castle, destroy the Nightmare and Evil. You know the risks of this mission, but we must do so, lest Equestria is taken over by a corrupted Celestia. We have only one chance at this plan succeeding, and if we fail to bring our sister home by morning, then we are doomed. Prepare yourselves, we leave in one hour."

I looked at the plans again. All of the Elements and Luna were going up against Celestia and the Nightmare, leaving me to fight Evil on my own. "Well, we don't exactly have an alternative." I nodded slightly and went to retrieve my things. When it was time to go, I grouped up with the others, braced myself, and teleported into the middle of the Everfree Forest, less than five miles from the Castle,
"This is going to suck so much."

Comments

[Broovian]

Pretty good but one thingf that I would change was that last line. Wel not change it but have it said by both fail, safe and... whatever his name is. It was so long ago that I was up to date on this that I forgot his name... wow. Well I'm off to reread the story, toodles.

[Mental_Zero]

5090303 Yeah, I'm going to go back and rewrite the old stuff, probably going to axe that element

[Trevor12300]

5090403 safe cant say anything remember

[Broovian]

Yeah I know. I also wanted those two to come out looking slightly better so they could all be together when they got to the forest.

Like I said its just something I thought would have been cooler, maybe he has something 'planned' for them. Maybe they get bodies too and join the fight, maybe they unlock a new weapon that no one else has ever thought of. I don't know what I do know is I can't wait to see the fight.