The Great Transition

by Bronyfordays

Chapter 9

I opened my eyes and found pitch blackness. Everywhere I looked, there was darkness. Panicking, I started to shout for help. No answer. Eventually, I calmed down, this must be a dream. But nothing was happening, which was odd for one of my dreams.

“Well, well,” I heard a deep, almost sinister voice. “Look who finally decided to show up, on my doorstep no less.”

I turned around to see a dark shadowy figure with red piercing eyes. It was around the same height as me, but that didn’t make it any less scary.

“W...who are you?” I stuttered.

It chuckled, “Names are not important. All you need to know is I am very powerful, beyond your imagination.”

“What do you want with me?” I asked, scared to know the answer.

“I’ll get to that, first let’s sit down and have a drink, shall we?”

Suddenly, a table and two chairs appeared right in front of me.

“What the?!” I said, “How did you do that?”

“Also not important, now sit,” it said that last word very sternly, so I complied.

“So,” it started. “What do you like to drink?”

“Um...water,” I replied.

“Ah, that’s right, humans haven’t had anything but water in over 400 years. Karma, I suppose.”

I raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean? And how do you know all this? Wait...are you an alien?” I said the last question excitedly.

“So many questions,” it said. “I won’t answer the first two, but as for me being an alien, I guess you could say yes.”

“Gee, thanks a lot, real helpful,” I said sarcastically.

“I’m not here for your needs,” it said angrily.

“Then why are you here?” I asked.

“To tell you something,” it said.

“What might that be?” I said, this guy was a jerk.

“Stay away from those ponies,” it said.

“What? Why?” I said.

“I’m warning you right here, right now,” it said. “Stay away. Or there will be consequences.”

I snorted, “Like what?”

“I told you I am powerful, I could destroy your village in a heartbeat.”

Now it was my turn to get angry, “What?! What did we ever do to you?!”

“Lots!” It yelled back. “You wouldn’t understand!”

“Yeah, but whatever it is, we don’t deserve to be killed!” I argued. “We’re the last remaining descendants of humankind and you’d just kill us off, like that?”

“I’ve done it before, I can do it again,” it said.

“Before?” I said confused, then the realization hit me. “You didn’t!”

It laughed, “You’re smarter than you look. Yes, I was the one who decided humanity’s fate.”

“But the Terrors were the ones that launched the nukes,” I said.

“True, but tell me, do you have any records on the leader of the Terrors?”

I thought back to all the history books that I’ve read, not a single one mentioned who exactly the leader was, unless...

“Catching on now, are we?” It said.

“You bastard!” I said through gritted teeth. My fists were clenching.

“Anyways,” the figure started walking away. “I’m warning you, stay away from them. Or I will make your life a living hell.”

And then, it vanished. I stood there alone, then dropped to my knees. As if I didn’t have enough problems on my hand. First my Dad and now these stupid ponies. The blackness didn’t leave, why wasn’t I waking up? That’s when I started to cry. Eventually, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and drifted off to sleep…


The first thing I heard was talking, or it seemed more like arguing.

“For the last time, I’m telling you! They’re not a threat!” I heard a voice say, it sounded familiar.

“I don’t know,” another familiar voice said. “That Anthony dude seems suspicious, he hasn’t said a word since we got here.”

“His friend is hurt really badly,” the first voice said. “He has the right to stay silent.”

“Twi’ does have a point,” a voice with a thick southern accent said. “They haven’t hurt us so far.”

“Yeah!” A high pitched bubbly voice said. “And they saved us. Ooh, we should throw a ‘thanks for saving us’ party!”

“Now’s not the time, darling,” yet another voice said. This time another accent I didn’t recognize. It kind of sounded like one of those old world accents from the recordings we had on the spaceship. “As for me, I don’t know if we can trust them, but we have a bigger problem to worry about.”

“Fluttershy…” the original voice said sadly.

At this point, I finally opened my eyes. It was definitely bright. But we weren’t outside. That much was for sure.

“Oh thank god finally,” I heard a voice I knew all too well say. “You’re awake!”

“Anthony?” I turned my head to the right and saw my friend sitting up in a chair a bit too small for him. He had a look of pure happiness on his face. “Where am I?”

“On a spaceship,” he said.

Brain fart, “What?!”

“Just what I said, we’re on one of the ponies’ spaceships,” he said.

I remembered what the disturbing figure said. It didn’t feel like just a dream. I could hear the ponies conversing outside the room still. “We have to leave,” I said, getting up. At that same moment, I started getting dizzy.

“Woah there!” Anthony ran over to me. “You’re still recovering Jack! Why are you in such a hurry?”

“It’s complicated,” I said, biting my lip.

“Jack,” Anthony looked straight into my eyes. “I can handle it.”

I sighed, I was about to talk when I noticed something odd. The ponies outside the room had stopped talking. It was quiet.

“Anthony,” I whispered. “Open the door that leads outside.”

Anthony, as perceptive as always, realized what I meant and quietly walked over the door. As quick as lightning he opened the door and the five ponies, who must’ve been leaning on the door, tumbled in, almost comically. Anthony walked back to me as the ponies got back up.

“Well, should’ve figured that,” he said.

“Why were you listening in on us?” More suspicious than anything else.

Twilight looked at me, red with embarrassment. “W...well, we just wanted to know what you were talking about.”

“So, instead of coming in, you decided to eavesdrop?” I said.

“Well...yeah,” she said.

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever.” Then I sighed, “Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but we should really be going.”

I quickly stood up and immediately fell face first onto the floor.

“Dammit, Jack!” Anthony said. “I told you not to get up! You okay?”

“Just dandy,” I said picking myself up off the ground. “My leg was asleep. Now, can we get going?”

“Why are you in such a hurry?” I heard another voice say. Coming into the door were the two bigger ponies I had seen at the attack site. There was the dark blue one, slightly smaller than the other one. The other one, as I recall, was named Princess Celestia. Celestia was the one who spoke, she had a suspicious look. But the other one, who I also assumed was a princess as she wore a crown, just looked kinda sad. I looked at her and she immediately looked away. Whatever.

“Yeah,” that damn rainbow haired one said. “You got something planned?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anthony said, narrowing his eyes. “Why the hell would we attack you in the first place?”

“Because that’s what you do!” Rainbow hair said. “You killed your race, how can we not know you won’t do it to us?”

“She has a point,” the white one with purple hair said.

“While y’all haven’t hurt us yet,” the orange one with a stetson hat said. “Ah still don’t trust you.”

“I could care less if you trusted us!” Anthony yelled. “I’m starting to understand why Jack wants off this wretched ship!”

It was coming to a boiling point when I realized something, “How do you know what happened to the human race?”

The ponies, plus Anthony, looked at me. I looked at the ponies, none of them answered. Twilight and the blue princess looked especially nervous though. “Did you watch it happen?”

Still no response, “Twilight,” I said. I couldn't believe I was saying this. “I’m willing to trust you, but you gotta answer me.”

Twilight was silent for a second, finally she spoke. “Alright, but on one condition.”

The other ponies in the room went wide eyed. But said nothing.

“Go for it,” I said.

“You tell us what you were gonna say to Anthony,” she said.

Oh boy, this was it. Anthony shook his head, looking at me. Sorry man, but I gotta go with my instincts on this one.

“Fine.”

Anthony sighed, but didn’t say anything either.

“Ok,” Twilight said. “Who goes first?”

“I’ll go,” I said. “Might as well get it out of the way.”

So I told everyone the story of the figure, how it threatened me and my village, how it said to stay away from the ponies, and it’s part in the destruction of mankind. I left out the part where I cried myself to sleep. No point in telling them that.

The room was silent for quite a bit. “Then again, I could just have been dreaming.”

“You were dreaming, but that figure wasn’t just a figment of your imagination,” the blue pony said.

“You know this how?” Anthony said. “And who are you anyways?”

“I am Luna, Princess of the Night. As to how I know, my magic allows me to enter one's dreams and rid them of nightmares.”

“Question,” I raised my hand. “Did you just say magic? As in, spells and such?”

“Indeed,” Luna said, confused. “Why?”

Anthony and I looked at each other for a moment. But I decided to play along, “Alright Princess, what else can you do?”

She looked even more confused, “Well, I can do all basic spells as well as all the more advanced ones. And I raise the moon.”

I blinked a couple times, Anthony looked like he was going to burst out laughing. Originally, I’d think she was joking, but the way she said that…

“Is something the matter?” Luna asked, tilting her head.

Then Anthony couldn’t take it anymore, he laughed. “P...princesses, magic and talking colorful horses?! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we were on drugs. Or at least in a kids show!”

The ponies just stared at him. The rainbow one looked very upset, “It’s ponies not horses!”

“Whatever,” Anthony calmed down. “You really expect us to-”

“Anthony!” I yelled angrily. “Stop!”

Anthony jumped at that, he knew he’d screwed up. “Y...yes Jack?”

“Can I talk to you for a second?” I said sternly. Anthony was as loyal to me as possible, so without arguing, he shuffled on over.

“I’m gonna get straight to the point,” I whispered. “I brought you over here for two reasons. One, you’re acting like a child. Two, we can’t afford to antagonize them. Not after I told them all that. While I am insanely skeptical on this whole magic thing, I don’t doubt they have the power to overtake us and our village easily. I mean, they have freaking spaceships with God knows how many other reinforcements in each one.”

“But we didn’t do anything to them!” Anthony seethed. “They don’t have the right!”

“I know that,” I said calmly. “But you’re not making the situation any better. Now, they were gonna tell us important information, we’re gonna listen to what they have to say, then we’re gonna leave and tell them to never bother us again.”

“What if they don’t care, and attack us anyway?” Anthony asked, calming down, but still pretty tense.

I looked at him, then at the ponies. They all had various expressions on their weird pony faces. Nervousness, anger, suspicion, confusion. Twilight had a concerned expression, Celestia had a poker face, and Luna looked sad. But as I looked at their faces, I understood something. They were just as scared as we were. Something in my gut told me they didn’t know we existed until that fateful day. But how did they know what happened to the human race? Unless...someone told them! As I made that realization, I remembered Anthony had asked me a question.

“Unless we do something harmful to them, they won’t,” I said. “So I’m going to ask them a question. Please don’t do anything rash.”

Anthony stared at me for a second, then nodded. We both turned to face the ponies. Then Twilight spoke.

“So, I am assuming-”

“Who told you?” I interrupted with a question.

Twilight blinked, “What do you mean?”

“Who told you what happened to the human race?”

Immediately, they all started to sweat. I knew it. I spoke up again.

“What did he look like? I wanna know if he was part of my village.”

Twilight shook her head. “He wasn’t a part of your village.”

I raised my eyebrow, “How do you know?”

“Because he wasn’t a human.”

I scoffed, “Impossible, there weren’t any other sentient life forms on the planet, nay, the solar system when the bombs were launched. The original volunteers would’ve known.”

“It’s true,” I turned to Luna who spoke. “I was in Twilight’s dream when it happened.”

“Here we go with this dream entering magic shit. How do you expect me to believe a word you say, when you keep spouting this magic nonsense.” I said.

“Hold on,” Twilight said. “You don’t know what magic is?”

“Magic is the stuff of mythology, and I doubt you guys have things like dragons and minotaurs.”

“Actually, we kinda do have those, plus magic.”

I raised my eyebrows for the umpteenth time, “Really now? Until I see proof, I am not gonna believe you.”

I ate my words real fast when Twilight’s horn started to glow. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and saw a cup float towards me, also enraptured in the glow. My jaw dropped at this. Of course! I remembered something, when me and Twilight first met, she had levitated my gun. Levitation, how was this possible? I was starting to really believe in this magic, but not just yet.

“What else can you do?” I asked, still suspicious. I couldn’t see Anthony’s face, but I was sure he was just as curious.

Twilight's horn started to glow and I was shocked to see her disappear and reappear five feet to the left. Teleportation?! I remembered when Twilight appeared right in front of me and Anthony at the attack site.

“I...impossible…” I heard Anthony mutter.

“You really didn’t know, did you?” Luna asked.

Anthony and I shook our heads.

“How did you get by without magic?” Twilight asked.

“Easy, we-” Anthony started. But I cut him off with a hand.

“I do believe we are getting off track here,” I started. “Let’s say I do believe in this magic, what did you see in Twilight’s dream, and who or what told you?”

Twilight looked at Luna, and Luna nodded. “Well,” Twilight started. “We basically saw first hoof what happened the day the bombs fell.”

“Y...you mean you saw the bombs fall?!” Anthony said, shocked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, we saw a bomb fall from this really fast aircraft, and how it obliterated a city near an ocean. All those humans...we saw a lot of those humans just die instantly.”

“...”

All was quiet, until I had the nerve to speak up, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

Twilight gave a halfhearted smile. “It’s ok. But that’s not all. After we saw that happen a tall black stallion with red eyes showed up. He told us the gist of what happened, but…”

“But what?” I asked.

“He said that humans were evil, and that they deserved to die,” Twilight said sadly.

“He what?!” Anthony shouted. “How dare him! If that’s what he thinks about the human race, then he doesn’t know shit about us! Sure we have our problems, but everybody does! Just because we have bad eggs doesn’t mean the whole race needs to be destroyed!”

“Anthony’s right,” I said. For some reason, they all looked guilty. “Is that why you attacked me? Because you thought he was justified in saying we were evil?”

They didn’t say a word. I knew it hit them that they were wrong. I really wanted to get angry, I really did. But I knew they were scared, while that doesn’t really justify what they did, I couldn’t do it. I just wasn’t that kind of person. Anthony seemed to be mulling some things over in his head too. Finally, Twilight spoke.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I realize we were in the wrong, I’m sure you probably never want to see us again. So, I guess-”

“I forgive you,” I said. The reaction was instantaneous. Everybody, including Anthony, said ‘what’ at the same time. I managed a smile, “I forgive you, I’m not sure if I trust you, but I forgive you.”

Anthony looked at me for a second, and smiled. “Well, if this guy forgives you, then so do I.”

Twilight stuttered, “B...but what we did was beyond reasonable and you should hate us for it!”

“Well,” I said. “You’re right, I should. But I’m not that kind of guy. You realized your mistake and apologized for it. Doesn’t really take much else for me to forgive than that.”

“I...I don’t know what to say,” Luna said. “We are all very grateful, I’m sure.”

Luna looked at the rest of the ponies.

The pink one said, “Super duper grateful!”

“As much as I hate to admit it, I am too,” the rainbow one said, which surprised me, she didn’t seem like one to admit they’re wrong so easily.

Then the small white one spoke, “Of course dear!”

Twilight spoke next, “Definitely.”

The orange one then said, “Darn tootin’!”

And lastly, the pony known as Princess Celestia said, “I am too.”

“Great!” I said.

All seemed like it was going well, I remembered what the figure said about getting too close with the ponies, but you know what? Screw him. Sure, I didn’t know if I could trust them completely, but if they were gonna stay on Earth, we were gonna have to get along. In spite of myself, I actually smiled.

You have made a powerful enemy today, Jack Stephens. Remember this as I tear all you hold dear apart.

I put the strange voice into the back of my head, I was scared of what was to come, sure. But at this moment I was happy. I felt that we could take on whoever this being was, I knew it, in fact.

But, all good things come to an end. As another pony I didn’t recognize ran in, he was a stallion, I could tell as his body shape was different than the others.

“What’s wrong, Green Leaf?” Celestia asked.

“I…it’s Fluttershy!” He cried. “Something’s happening!”

“What?!” Twilight said.

“Who’s Fluttershy?” I asked. No one answered as they all ran out of the room. Then I remembered, she was the pony who got hit by one of the mutants! If she had radiation in her, she could be in serious danger! Quickly, I sat up.

“Whoa!” Anthony exclaimed. “What are you doing Jack?!”

I didn’t say a word as I sprinted out of the room. Hopefully I wasn’t too late.

Author's Note:

Holy cow! I honestly cannot believe how fast I did this chapter. I just had the right state of mind at the right time, you know? Anyways, I think I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Jack may be too forgiving, but he just wants to follow in his father's footsteps. Everyone friends with everyone. As usual, constructive criticism welcome. Thanks!

Comments

[CelestAI]

I am tracking this.

[Bronyfordays]

7787750

Glad you like it!

[Fireheart 1945]

That Terror thing needs to be defeated. And it has no right to make demands.