Compilation of Miscellaneous Typed Scribblings of A Random Guy

by A Random Guy

Changing the Things That Came (Part 1)

Changing the Things That Came (Part 1)
(That title is not supposed to be sexual)
By A Random Guy®

Blackness filled the world. No stars, no light, there was only the nothingness of a void. No cataclysms, no disasters, no pain or suffering, no little pleasures that make it all worth it. Nothing to illuminate the world, nothing to cast a shadow, nothing to be seen. It was all blackness. Yet, a rumble was present, followed by a distant whistle.

Then the train came out of the tunnel.

Sweetie Belle found herself staring out of a window, watching green hills roll on by and trees breezing past her vision. In the window itself, she saw a reflection of a unicorn, a wrinkled face staring back at her, dull eyes filled with the twinkle of past memories.

The vista outside of the window switched to a blurring village, its buildings streaking through the world. A steeple drifted in the horizon, standing out from the streaking buildings, something impressive that nature could not produce, something that only a pony could create. Above the rumble, the unicorn could hear a bell ringing in the distance, notifying everyone within earshot that the local time was two in the afternoon.

It’s brighter than Sweetie remembered.

She pressed her face against the glass, soaking in the visual experience. Ponies built that village, she thought, and in the grand scheme of history, they built it just as fast as it came into my view.

Just as the experience was fully sinking in, the town flew out of view, being replaced by the rolling hills and breezing trees.

They destroyed it just as fast, too.

A masculine voice interrupted Sweetie Belle from her trance. “Alder Sage, did we do it?”

The unicorn looked in front of her to see a pony shrouded in a black cloak trimmed with yellow silk. She grabbed the hood of a similar cloak that she was wearing with her magic, flicking it over her pink and silver streaked mane.

“Yes, Summoner, we did it. Welcome to the past.”

The Summoner looked around at their surroundings, which consisted of rows of benches lined along a wide hallway. “It is much more colorful than I expected.” He jumped a bit on the cushion of the bench he was sitting on. “We wouldn’t happen to be on a train, would we?”

“I believe we are.” The Alder Sage ran a hoof along the oak seat of her own bench. “If I remember correctly, this should be the line that runs through the country.”

The Summoner continued to jump on the cushion. “How could they afford these cushions? I did not think they would waste cushions on such a mundane thing.”

Sweetie Belle smiled at his observation. “You’ll find that there are many luxuries in this time that ponies take for granted like that, such as cushions.”

“Oh, and chocolate cake?” a similarly cloaked mare sitting next to the Alder Sage inquired.

“Paladin… I didn’t think you knew that existed.”

The mare grinned as she pulled out a book from under her cloak. “It’s mentioned in the first passage of the Diary. Look!” She flipped to one of the early pages of the book and showed it to the Alder Sage. “The Flu mentioned it in the middle of the passage. It says that it’s her favorite flavor!”

“So you did bring the Diary,” the unicorn grinned, “That was good thinking on your part.”

Sweetie Belle took the book from the Paladin’s hooves as she pulled out a pair of reading glasses from her cloak and put them on her face. Her elder eyes squinted as she tried to focus through the think lenses on the tiny words written in the pages. When she had a somewhat clear view, she began to read those words out loud.

“Today was a good day. I don’t know how many birthdays I forced my parents to ignore. I know it’s supposed to be a happy day, or at least that’s what I’m told. It’s just something I can’t celebrate, not since… Well, birthdays are a rather sensitive topic for me. I know that this diary is private, and I can jot down whatever’s on my mind in it. But it’s that one particular day… I just can’t bring myself to write about it.

But Ether, bless her little heart, was rather persistent in celebrating my birthday. How can you tell a four-year-old that you don’t like birthdays when she spent half the day prepping a party just for you? When I got back from work, there she was, in the dining room, showing off her creation.

It was really cute. She didn’t know how to set up a party, but she tried her best. She didn’t know that balloons needed helium to float, so the floor was covered in balloons she tried to make float with her breath. She decorated the walls with streamers, but they were only four feet off the ground, since she could only reach that high, and nailed into the wall. But that’s fine, the walls needed repainting anyways. The game of Pin the Tail on the Pony she set up was fun, though.

Oh, but the cake, that chocolate cake. I don’t remember telling her, but somehow Ether knew what my favorite flavor of cake was. Imagine my surprise when she brought me into the kitchen. I think she spent most of her time that day trying to make it perfect, or at least in her eyes. The thing was smothered in brown frosting. I didn’t even know we had that much to begin with. Plus the cake itself was all goopy and thick, as if she just threw the cake mix and chocolate bars into the oven and let it cook.

And it was the best chocolate cake I ever had.

I’m proud to have her as a daughter.”

Once Sweetie Belle finished, she passed the book back to the Paladin. “That’s a cute passage.” She took off her glasses and put them back under her cloak. “Reminds me of when I was raising your mother, Summoner. I can remember the time when she took down her first Bronxican Captain.”

The Summoner crossed his forehooves as he leaned back in the bench. “I remember you telling me the story on several occasions, each one becoming more outlandish than the last. So, since we are on a journey through time and space, should we not create ground rules so that we don’t cause a paradox, such as killing our grandparents?” He threw a smirk towards his Alder Sage as he finished that sentence.

The Paladin chuckled as she flipped through the pages of the book. “Your laziness is your bane, Summoner. If you bothered to read the Diary, you would have known that this trip will not create a paradox.”

“Yes, I suppose my biggest weakness is procrastination,” the Summoner replied as he leaned his head against the window. “However, my weakness does not matter in this case, for I cannot read a book without being told that there was even a book to read in the first place.”

“You were supposed to read two days ago. How could you not have been told that the Diary existed?”

“Two days ago you told me that we were going on a long trip and we were not coming back. I did not even know we were time traveling until we crossed the border.”

The Paladin shook her head. “None the less, you should have known. Our Alder Sage lent you the book to skim over. Is that not right, Alder Sage?”

Both disciples turned to Sweetie Belle, expecting her to answer. But she didn’t pay attention, instead losing herself in the passing scenery of the outside world.

The Paladin tapped her on the shoulder, causing the unicorn to snap out of her daydream. “What is it?” she asked as she returned to the conversation.

“It is the matter of the Diary, ma’am,” the Paladin said, “Did you not give it to the Summoner so he could look over it? You said that you would take care of it.”

The disciple only received a blank stare from Sweetie Belle, who had seeming lost herself in the question. It took a moment for the Paladin to realize that the Alder Sage was, in fact, out of it again, so she gave her another tap on the shoulder, and the elder snapped back to reality, again. “What happened?”

“Alder Sage, did you give the Diary to the Summoner?”

Sweetie Belle looked at the Paladin, then looked at the Summoner, then looked back at the Paladin, then back at the Summoner, and then back at the Paladin. After going through every action she did in the past few days, she drew a mental blank. She shook her head like a school filly being asked if she knew the answer to a difficult problem.

“So you did not give the Summoner the Diary?”

The unicorn shrugged. “What do you expect of a mare my age? I can barely remember what I had for breakfast.”

The Summoner leaned forward and rubbed his hooves together. “Okay, our Alder Sage is obviously going senile, so Celestia knows what else she has forgotten.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged again, accepting the comment as true. The Paladin, however, took more offence to his remark. “How dare you disrespect our Alder Sage! Do you wish to anger our Nightly Mother?”

“I will let her personally take a bite out of me if she is angered by that. But I believe she would be angrier if we cannot complete our task if you do not tell me anything about it.”

“I believe I should not tell you anything if you are going to insult our elder!”

Sweetie Belle interrupted the exchange with a large yawn, stretching her forelegs and opening her mouth wide to allow the yawn to pass. “I think you should tell him, Paladin. We only have so much time before we arrive in Ponyville.”

“Ponyville, like the Monster Graveyard Ponyville?” the Summoner asked. “Out of all the forsaken places in the world, why would be going to the Monster Graveyard?”

The Paladin tapped the book in response. “According to the Diary, Ponyville is where most of the events occurred that led up to the war.”

“That diary says that?”

“I am paraphrasing, but yes. It specifically states that the events written about in the book caused the war, and not just big political events. There are events written in here that nopony would have noticed going on without being able to look back in time.”

“Go back in time, like what we just did?”

“Yes, in fact, thanks to the notes in the Diary, we were able to travel back just like the Flu did.”

“The Flu? See, that is why we should not time travel. We bring back diseases that would not exist in the first place without being sent from the future.”

“Oh, the Flu is not a disease, not in this context. She’s actually the author of the Diary.” The Paladin held up the book cover, tapping underneath a line of golden letters that spelt out “Flu”. However, half the cover had been torn off, taking an unknown set of other letters with it.

“Alright, the Flu is a pony, but my fear of spreading future disease still stands. So, who was the Flu, then?”

The Paladin reopened the book, and began skimming through the pages. “The Diary does not say much about the Flu herself. There are only a few passages about her personal life, even then she does not write much about herself. But she does bring up her daughter a lot.”

The Summoner reached out, gesturing for the book in the Paladin’s hooves. “Let me see it. I would rather read the diary myself than for you to give me an incomplete summary.”

“That is ironic, coming from you.” The Paladin passed the book over to the Summoner’s hooves. “I recommend reading from the top of that page.”

He brought it up near his face, keeping it open to the page where she left off. His eyes fell to the top of the page began to look through the letters written on the paper.

“I want to say goodbye, for good this time. But I can’t.

I need to find a way, an actual way to travel back, to make everything permanent, to make my actions more than just dust in the wind.

I tried warning myself, but it never helps. Nothing changes after I visit myself.

I tried stopping the bombs. It’s so hard stopping them, though. I tried to catch them in midair, but I always end up back in my time.

I can never stop those bombs, those awful bombs.

Ether’s always underneath them. I can never get her out of the way...” He stopped at that line, seeing that the next sentence was hard to read out loud.

ETHER! GET OUT OF THE WAY! WHY CAN’T I GET YOU OUT OF THERE?!…

“Well then, she lost a daughter in the war. Why is that important?”

The Paladin pulled out another book from her cloak, one that was almost identical from the diary the Summoner was reading from, except the book was less tattered and the pages where whiter. She opened the book and flipped to a certain page. “This is a copy of the Diary that I made a month ago,” she explained as she handed the book to him. “Read those last two lines again.”

“Why in the world would you have a copy of”-

“Just read it.”

The Summoner abided her order, and looked at the lines a second time in the new book. “River’s always underneath them, I can never get her out of the way. River, get out of the way, so on and so forth. Again, I don’t see… Wait…” The Summoner checked the original Diary and read it aloud again. “Ether’s always…” He looked back at the copy. “River’s always… I think you made a mistake in your copy.”

The Paladin shook her head. “Not possible. I used a spell to replicate each and every word from the Diary, creating a magical duplicate. An error is not possible.”

“Looking at this, you did make an error. Magic duplicates do not change the source material.”

Sweetie Belle interrupted him with a cough. “Unless the source material changes outside of time.”

“Uh, what?”

The unicorn leaned forward, lowering her voice to be heard only between her and the disciples, even though there wasn’t anypony else around to hear. “The thing is, they both said the same thing two weeks ago, but for some reason, the copy, a magically protected document, changed, but the original, also a magically protected document, did not.”

“Again, there is an error with the copy. Why should it matter?”

Sweeting Belle nodded towards the Paladin. “Because her written notes, which aren’t magically protected, match up with the original, not the copy. But she based all her notes on the copy.”

“That… does sound odd. So you think the source material changed, which changed the notes, but not the copy?”

“Exactly, and I don’t think something physical changed it. It had to be something literally beyond our time.”

“That is an interesting theory. I will guess we are on this adventure because of it?

“Yep, the Flu couldn’t change time, yet somehow the Diary changed. I used the same mechanic to allow us to travel back and make changes.”

“And what is this mechanic?”

A sly smile came across the unicorn’s face. “It’s quite simple. We created a paradox.”

“How does a paradox help? Do the stories of time travel not dictate that we are not supposed to create paradoxes? Other than the big intentional one, of course.”

“The Flu goes on about how time is set so it repairs itself, such that when a pony time travels, any paradox the pony causes is immediately fixed, usually by making the pony have no effect on the future in some way. However, she never mentioned what would happen if a paradox causes a pony.”

“Ponies caused by a paradox?”

“Yes, like how a paradox may have created a new version of the Diary. It’s what I did when I drank the potion with the Breezy wings. Breezies are highly toxic to anything that consumes them, but the toxin has an interesting way of killing its victims. By drinking the wing particles, I had the universe target myself for a lethal spell, so to speak. But by casting a time travel spell right as it struck, I created a void in the universe that it tried to kill. The universe declared me dead, and the time travel spell sent me back to the past alive.”

“That potion killed you?!”

“Yes, and in the instant that I was both alive and dead, I sent us back in time.”

“So by being alive when you are supposed to be dead, you created a paradox. And since you set the base of your time travel as a paradox, the universe will fix the paradox. And I assume that since you lack a the paradox you created, the universe cannot fix the other paradoxes you create during this time travel.”

“Almost exactly, except I didn’t create the paradox, the paradox created me.”

“That...” The Summoner tried to think of what to say, but anything that he thought of only sputtered within his mind. He could only think of how convoluted it actually sounded. “That only makes sense if you disregard all physical properties of the universe.”

“It’s the same vein of magic that you use for summonings. I’m just taking advantage an exploit in the universe’s physics system.”

“Right,” the Summoner said, doubt wavering through his voice. “And how did you figure this all out?”

Sweetie Belle shrugged for a third time. “Experience, that’s it.”

“Well then, I am glad to know your experience pulled us through. I was beginning to think you were just a lunatic who thought she is a know-it-all showoff.”

The Paladin wasn’t very fond of his statement, and promptly kicked him in the shin to show her displeasure. The Summoner wasn’t fond of the shin-kicking, and promptly held in a scream of agony to hide his pain.

The unicorn only smiled. “That’s a good one, coming from a well-respected member of a cult.” She patted him on the leg that was sure to bruise later, forcing him to wince with every touch. “As they say, takes one to know one.”

Before the Summoner could reply, the sound of an opening door interrupted him. The trio turned their heads towards the front of the train, where a pony in a conductor’s uniform had entered. He took a few steps forward before he noticed that the train wasn’t as empty as he thought. The conductor puzzled over the ponies in the bench as he walked over to them, their gazes from under their hoods following him as he got closer.

“Good afternoon,” he said as he reached their benches. “I didn’t realize that there were ponies in this carriage. I apologize for not being able to be of service to you folk.”

“Oh, don’t trouble yourself over it,” Sweetie Belle replied as she held her hoof up. The conductor interpreted the hoof gesture as reassurance that no harm was done, when in reality the unicorn did it because she felt she needed to signal the disciples to hold back and not fillet the stallion. “I’m very glad that we were able to find an empty cart in the first place. My grandson always gets nervous in crowds.”

The conductor didn’t notice the scowl the Summoner directed at his grandmother, and smiled knowing that he wasn’t going to receive complaints over lack of service. “And where is your destination on this fine day?”

“My grandchildren are taking me to Ponyville. I was raised there, long ago, and it would be nice to see my hometown again.”

“Well, thank you for choosing our humble train to take you there today. We should be there in a few minutes, so if there’s anything you need from now till then, don’t hesitate to call me.” The conductor began to walk off to the next carriage, but froze midstep. “I almost forgot. I didn’t check your tickets. Better late than never, as they say.”

“Ah yes, tickets. Wonderful things those are, excellent for getting you into places.”

“Well, you just need tickets to get onto this train.” The conductor’s positive demeanor started to slip. “You do have tickets, don’t you?”

“It’s rather funny, really. We actually don’t have tickets.”

“Not to worry, you can pay for your ticket right now. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Actually, that is a problem. As you can see,” the unicorn pulled out a coin purse from her cloak, squishing it to show the emptiness of the bag, “We’re sort of broke.”

“I see.” At this point, the conductor’s had disappeared and a serious frown took its place. “I hope you’re aware that boarding this train without a ticket is a form of thievery.”

“I’ve been known to do such illegal things.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to stay on the train when we get to Ponyville, where the local police will escort you into custody.”

“I’m sure we can work something out before then.” Sweetie Belle noticed the Summoner’s hoof inching down into his cloak, going for the twisted blade hidden within his vestments. The Alder Sage coughed, drawing his attention towards her, shaking her head to tell him to hold. The Summoner nodded, but kept his hoof where it was. She turned back to the conductor with a soft smile. “How about I sing for you, as a trade?”

“We only accept bits. Do not try to wiggle out of this.”

“But I know such a lovely song. I used to sing it for my grandchildren all the time.”

“A song is not going to buy you a ticket, ma’am. Please remain here while”-

Sweetie Belle ignored the conductor, clearing her throat, prepping her voice for a song. She began to create a soft melody with her lips.

“You can forget the day, my darling. It was nothing but sorrow and pain.”

“Yes, that’s a lovely voice, but I don’t think you’re fully grasping the seriousness of the situation.”

“Tomorrow will be bright, my darling. Learn from today and know what to gain.”

“Ma’am, please, I require your full cooper… coopera…” The conductor’s mouth stopped in midsentence. His eyelids started blinking individually with each note of the lullaby.

“Troubles will leave and come, my darling. Just remember our love will remain…”

Seeing that the conductor’s body was swaying with the song, the Paladin held out a hoof to stabilize him and keep him from collapsing on top her.

“… Forever, my darling.”

As the Alder Sage’s lullaby last note decayed into the air, the conductor’s irregular actions halted. His head jolted as if he had awoken from a dream. His gaze bounced all over the train carriage as he tried to regain his bearings. “Wha! What… What happened? Where am I?”

“Oh, you had us worried there for a moment,” Sweetie Belle said with a little relief in her voice. “You blanked out on us. We were about to send for a doctor.”

“I did? Uh… what was I doing before that?”

“You were punching our tickets.”

“Ah, yes.” The conductor put his smile back on. “And where were you three going?”

“Ponyville.”

“Ah, Ponyville, what a quaint place. We should be arriving in a few minutes. I hope you enjoyed your ride.”

The unicorn smiled as the conductor started walking away. “Trust me, it was quite eventful.”

When the conductor was out of earshot, the Summoner leaned in with a hushed tone. “Are you crazy? We had the money to pay for the tickets. None of that was necessary!”

“Says the guy who was reaching for his sword.”

“Well, you put us into that situation.”

“But I wanted to sing you your favorite lullaby. You loved it as a kid.”

“I don’t remember you singing it to me.”

The Alder Sage winked. “Exactly.”

To be continued...

Author's Note:

What? There's an overarching plot being established? Who mixed plot with my randomness?

Written for plot purposes. It's random because who would expect me to break away from the weekly WTGs and do this?

Anyways, who's tired of the picture of the stack of books as the story heading picture? I know I am. That's why I'm asking anybody that's reading this if they could come up with a new image for the cover art, as volunteer work! Your work will be displayed proudly on the front page of an underrated compilation of randomness! To participate, first make a drawing or a painting or something that I can use (Must incorporate something that happened within a combination of any of these chapters), then PM me the drawing/painting/mural/sacrifice gone wrong. Make sure it's decent, I am looking over it to see if it's somewhat decent. So no stick figures or Pony Creator images, unless they're really good.

Payment will be in 5 internet cookies.

Comments

[New Spark]

This was glorious. Loved the song.

[A Random Guy]

4096594 I think the song is the highlight of the fic. Made from scratch. Might expand it later.