Of Fire and Ice

by Thunder_Bird

Chapter Seven - Brave's Brave History Trip

Brave sat in his tent, a single bed in the center and a candle burning over a book, his grandfather “found”, open for a time traveling spell. Brave closed the entrance to his tent. Luckily for him, he was out of the way of the main camp, and all his neighbours were already sleeping. Brave looked at the battered yellow page. The center had an inscription of a magic circle. The caption read, “The spell caster should make the circle as shown, stand in the middle and resight the spell. WARNING, this spell has the effect to change the world as you know it, avoid using it at all costs.”

. It glowed, begging for its master to use it. Brave could feel the black magic creep into the world. The hair on his neck stood on end. He had to be quick. He placed himself in the center. “Time, bend to my will. Bring me to the past, allow me to escape present day. I seek the 30th of the 7th, the year 2015!”

Brave’s eyes flashed white, forced open by the magic energy, and his horn glowed black. The circle began to rise around him. There was a blinding purple zap that covered the hillside.

---

The night was a thick curtain of black, covering the train,. Brave knew, due to the time of day, that the train was halfway to its destination. He had 12 hours to cover an entire train and talk to everypony he saw. The task was colossal, but something told him that the information he needed would be found on this train. Maybe it was the spell bringing him to this exact time, when Brave expected to be dropped off at the station the train departed from.

Brave was in a broom closet.. He had no idea. But it was a start! He knew that the pony he talked to wasn’t in there! He heard no voices outside his closet, signaling the coast was clear. He slowly opened the closet door and poked his head out. Brave looked to his left, then his right. He recognised this corridor. He couldn’t place it, though. He looked at the clock directly ahead of him, the time was ten to twelve, then it clicked. Deja vu.

He was going to walk down this corridor in about… now. His—another pony’s shadow was turning the corner, about to see another version of himself standing in the same hallway. Brave jumped back into the broom closet. The other Brave walked on, past the closet. Then he stopped, thinking he heard something from the closet. The other Brave’s magic aura enveloped the handle. The door opened… then there was a pony calling him over, and the other Brave walked away.

When Brave was sure the past Brave walked away, he stepped out of the closet. Making sure to go the opposite way of his past self, he proceeded down the corridor. The other him was heading to bed. That was good. Less chance of bumping into him.

---

A couple of hours passed, the moon was beginning to set. And Brave was still nowhere closer to finding what he wanted to know. Until he walked passed a open door, light was coming out of the doorway. Brave stood outside, he heard two familiar voices. Grey, and the pony he spoke to on the train.

“Listen Grey, we can’t do it now. it’s too dangerous!” the first pony protested, to little effect.

“Are you trying to say you don’t want to bring peace? You want this war to carry on? Thousands more to die?! We have the last chance to end the war, the government has put everything on this mission. Do you want all your life's work to be in vain?!”

“No, of course not … but the Unicorn i was supposed to get, I don’t know if he can be trusted. I could feel something about him … like he will kill us-” The Earth pony was interrupted

“Can you acctually hear this bull shit? we will get him on our side when the battle goes down … if it goes to plan he will see how the south don’t care about the soldiers, just a victory. Why do you think they just stand there when the tower moves, they never do anything! they just stand behind their wall … If the army’s plan is right, the war will be other in a week … but we need Brave and Thunder. They have the potential to end the war. the South can’t find this out”

Brave began to walk away, he was right, Brave was using him … he needed to send them a message. But how? They was one way … it was risky, but it might work. As Brave went down the hall, the voices got quieter; not wanting ponies to know their true intentions.

---

Brave rode the train for the rest of the journey, waiting, fine tuning his plan. The Vlyk Mountains came into view, Brave knew he would have to act fast. A dagger in a crowded would be effective, but he would be found out. They was one way, go to the Earth’s room and kill him then.

Brave knocked on the door he heard the voices coming from.

Lucky Brave’s guess was right and the Earth pony showed himself. A golden mane, skin the colour of coal. Mare’s would call him ‘eye candy’, but to Brave he was a target. He spoke in a relaxed tone “Hey, you’re him from that glass carriage. How did you know this was my compartment? “

Brave acted calm, despite the thoughts in his mind he kept his cool, “I saw you come into here last night, decided that i should talk to you about what you meant before we get off the train”

The Earth nodded “Well come on in”. He moved out of the way for Brave to enter. “So what do you want to know?”

Brave entered the room and closed the door. His plan worked, “Nothing … I’m from the future, used a spell to tell you that would were going to get killed and get some information … I got the information, the South is using Me and Thunder?” Before the other pony could reacted Brave used a spell to paralyze the pony, “Now, tell me everything”. The pony spat in Brave’s face. “sir, you have just signed your own death warrant”.

Brave unsheathed his dagger, the steel shining in the morning sun. He raised it above his head. Than sank it down into the Earth pony’s chest, puncturing his heart. Brave stabbed him multiple times, all over the Pony’s body. The blood was everywhere.

Brave looked at his work, the pony was dead, no way he could life through that. But Brave knew that the body would be found, and soon. Good job he could go back to the future.

---

The light flashed, Brave was returned to the exact moment of his departure. He was safe. He cleaned himself of any of the blood and started to get into his sleeping bag, he noticed a note. It wasn’t there before he went back in time. it read. “I know”

Brave decided that he was seeing things, and when he woke on the morrow the note would be gone. So he slept.