Fuck, what was he supposed to do now?
Spark paced around the room he'd been given, The Princess correctly assuming that he would be exhausted from hatching the-Spike's, egg.
Unfortunately how tired he was paled in comparison to his COMPLETE MENTAL BREAKDOWN!!!
He didn't even mind becoming part of the main cast, hell, while he would have been mad at it, replacing one of the main cast was still pretty okay, things could still have worked out! But there wasn't a main cast anymore! It was just him, filling in for an entire group who was infinitely better suited for the job of saving a world that he knew nothing about!
What was he supposed to do, say no? Refuse to attempt to be the hero of the story when he was, quite literally from the looks of it, the only one left to even try? This world needed the Elements of Harmony, if only so it didn't implode because of every villain his friend had talked his ear off about.
He needed to think up something for the Elements, those things had saved Equestria more times than he could count in the show, but they only worked for ones who suited their respective element.
'I'm obviously magic, but I could probably do Loyalty too if the Elements work like I think they do, Laughter as well, but that one's a gamble.' So he needed to find Kindness, Honesty, and Generosity, because he didn't really have a chance with those.
He was needlessly cruel to ponies he didn't like, his entire life was basically one big lie, and he was a greedy little thief when it came to stuff he wanted. Still, he loved to make people laugh and was loyal through hell and back, so at least he had those going for him.
Still, this was all based on the first two episodes and everything he remembered from his friend's ramblings, and for all he knew they ran on happy thoughts and pixie dust!
He tried to think back to all the info about the show his friend had shoved in his face, but it had been several years by now, and his memory was sketchy at best. Trying to remember the specifics on something? No way.
Still, something was nagging at him, the situation seemed almost eerily familiar, didn't his friend say something about an episode where the rainboom didn't happen? Something about a table, Cutie Marks, time travel, alternate universes, and a chick named Starlight... something. Shimmer maybe? Or was that the other one?
He grimaced. For once he regretted not listening to his friend drone on about the show, it would have saved him a lot of hassle in the long run.
God damnit what wasn't he remembering? There was something big he was forgetting, something important, something that changed the whole equation. Something about a map maybe? Star... something or other. A star map? But even before all that he had to deal with the dozens of villains that tried to wreck this world.
He paced, thinking. There was Nightmare Moon, Celestia's nutty sister who tried to shut off the sun. Discord, the Chaos god played by John de Lancie. Chrysalis, the... bug? Thing? He couldn't remember. And Tirek, the magic eating guy who basically wrecked house.
That- that was a lot, and he had to stop all of them? With nothing but a bunch of magical MacGuffins that weren't even garanteed to work? It- that-
Silver whined as he covered his head with his hooves, it just- it was too much, too fast, and he could feel a panic attack coming on as he sat there, hoping beyond anything that this was just some convoluted joke from some god, or that he was stuck in a hospital somewhere hallucinating all of this, because honestly that seemed like a good way out at this point.
A glint of blue at the top of his vision caught his eye, and he froze, his panic attack stopped dead as it sank in. Panicking and fearing the inevitable and dangerous was a human emotion, because humans couldn't to anything to stop it, except...
Except he wasn't a human anymore, was he? He wasn't subject to the whims of something greater than him. He had Magic! He didn't have to lay down and do nothing, all he had to do was use that glorious thing sticking out of his forehead to solve whatever problems came up, simple.
He felt a bit silly about panicking now.
Still, he'd looked, and there were next to no combat spells, which made sense considering that this world was pretty peaceful.
He could probably enchant something, but that was costly, in both time and resources, neither of which he had much of.
He yawned, stumbling, blinking his suddenly dry eyes, noting that he'd zoned out for a second.
He'd get started after he got some much needed sleep, any plan made now was likely to just be stupid and mess up at some point down the line.
Silver dragged himself over to his new bed, sliding up under the covers and closing his eyes, doing his best to put all of his questions and issues out of his mind. He'd think of something in the morning.
Celestia smiled as the magical window showing her Silver Spark's room winked shut. As much as she didn't like it, it was a good way to get a grasp of how her new student was dealing, and from the looks of things the young colt was doing fine.
He'd looked on the verge of a mental breakdown for a bit, (She had kind of rushed things in her exitement, so it was understandable) but that expression had eventually melted away to reveal a look of realization, before he stumbled, causing her to chuckle as he dragged himself over to his new bed.
Most colts would have been more hesitant to leave their parents house, or sleep in an unfamiliar place, but as she was hopefully coming to expect of her new student, he had a way with defying expectations.
She'd nearly given up hope before he came along, and like nothing he'd blown everything she'd expected out of the water. He had performed a spell that she'd never seen before, Haste truly was fascinating in how it was somehow both complicated and simple, and it had drawn her attention.
Then he goes and performs a power-amplification spell on a level she'd never seen successfully done before, succeeding, if just barely, at the test she'd known was next to impossible-forcing a dragon egg to hatch.
Heck, using magic on a dragon egg at all was incredibly difficult, let alone actually pumping full of enough magic to get it to hatch, and Silved had done it without complaint.
She'd finally, finally found what might be the key to getting her sister back, and regaining the Elements of Harmony for Equestria.
She smiled, closing her eyes and letting herself hope that maybe this time she would get it right, that her new student would never turn out like Sunset Shimmer, that she wouldn't make the same mistakes.
Silver Spark didn't seem to have the magical intuition that Sunset Shimmer had, and in truth no matter how she looked at it he just didn't fit the role of the Element of Magic as well as her old student had, but she supposed he might grow into it in time, 'Close Enough' was fine for now, there was still several years for him to grow.
She just hoped he didn't turn out like Sunset, but to truly know, to truly see how her new student thought...
Let's see if she couldn't remember what little her sister had taught her about dreamwalking.
He was here again, laying in the grass as he looked up at the stars that he rearranged with but a thought.
He had this dream every night, his friend had said something about it being somewhere along the lines of lucid dreaming, but not quite. It wasn't always this place, but it was always the same sky, always stars, and honestly SJialcvkeyr wouldn't change it for the world.
He payed no attention to when his pony parents laid down next to him to look up at the sky, that happened some days, mostly when he was missing them, but they always faded away eventually.
Celestia popping up was new, but he supposed it was to be expected, she had just become a suddenly major part of his future, but she would fade in time, everyone in the dream did except him.
Celestia blinked as she took in the scene around her, they were in some sort of field, but not one she'd ever seen, and laying on the ground between two trees was her student, her magic told her that much, but he was... changed, a bit older perhaps.
She watched as Silver's parents faded away, Silver staring at her curiously with his oddly piercing blue eyes, and her eyes softened.
Celestia walked over and sat down, draping a wing over her new student as she looked up at the stars, smiling at the little shapes she could see if she connected a few of them.
"I'm scared."
She blinked, looking down to see Silver with a frown plastered across his face, and she hummed lightly as she pulled him closer with her wing. "What of my little pony."
He hesitated, before sighing. "Lots of things, most of them minor, but there's just been a lot happening and it's- it's hard to ignore. Meeting Celestia- the real one, not you -becoming her student when I really shouldn't be, getting a little brother in the form of a dragon. It's just... it's a lot."
Celestia nodded. She got it, she really did, it was quite a bit of pressure to put a single colt under. "I understand, but why would you be afraid of me?"
"Afraid of Celestia? Well, i know that she's super nice, and that she's basically the entire pony race's mom, but I think... I think it's just cause I can't tell what she'll do next, or what she's thinking. She's... you know, sun moving and immortal and all powerful, and I'm..." He gestured to himself. "I'm just me. Big difference."
Celestia nodded, waiting a moment for anything else, before getting up and walking away when Silver stayed quiet. It was best to leave her student alone for now, she had a lot to think on.
Silver watched as Celestia faded away, smiling as he went through the conversation in his head, happy that he'd confronted a few of his issues and figured out the cause behind them, before shrugging and going back to looking at the stars.
He wondered why his mind had conjured her up, but he supposed it didn't matter, it was all in his head anyway.
Silver cracked his eyes open, rolling himself off his new bed and giving his head a good shake to wake himself up.
He stretched, groaning happily as his spine and neck gave out several loud pops, in that moment he could have sworn he was two inches longer, at least.
He jogged in place for a few minutes to get the blood flowing, using his magic to get a glass of water from his new bathroom sink.
'Everything is new.' He mused. It was a bright, clean room, with white and blue abundant, but no other colors. It was painfully obvious that despite being in immaculate shape, this room hadn't been lived in for quite a while. The pristine, well, everything kind of gave it away.
It honestly made him feel amazing, he hadn't had a room like this since before... well, everything, and it was nice to get a touch of that life back.
He jogged out of his room into the utterly massive hallways of Canterlot Castle, pausing to give a jaunty wave towards the guard outside his room, chuckling as he realized that not even the dude's eyes were moving, just blinking occasionally.
That could not be healthy.
Still, not like, they would actually have to do... anything...
"Dude, Tirek totally wrecked Equestria! Right along with every other villain. The guards are next to useless!".
... Okay, he'd see about training some of these guys up to human standards once he got the chance, but for now his goal was simply breakfast. Can't start a new day on an empty stomach!
After a few questions towards a passing maid to figure out where the kitchen was he set off, a spring in his step and a smile on his face.
It took him a minute to find it even with some instructions, but eventually he was standing before two wooden doors, both way too big to be to a kitchen in his opinion.
Still, he was hungry, so open go the doors and what the hell did he just walk in on.
"Ah! If it isn't my new student. Would you care to have breakfast with me?" Asked Celestia. She was sitting at a table absolutely filled to the brim with all types of breakfast food, muffins and pancakes and all sorts of things.
She was also without her usual royal ornaments, and had the cheeriest smile he'd ever seen on a living being.
He'd never been more terrified.
He took careful, measured steps towards the seat opposite Celestia, eyeing her warily as he sat down, using his magic to absently grab a few muffins and a pancake, though he did his best to sneak a few sniffs in to see if they had anything odd in them.
Celestia just sat there, a smile on her face as she ate her own breakfast, and Silver eyed the fork she was holding in her magic, absolutely sure that something was very wrong with this situation.
Still, he decided to ignore it for the most part. Even if he did figure something out he doubted he'd be able to do anything about it. The alicorn in front of him moved the freaking sun on a daily basis, it'd be years before he could probably even slow her down.
He bit into one of his muffins, determined to ignore Celestia as best he could and hope she went away, before freezing mid chew and looking down to stare at his muffin, splecifically the black splotch on the inside of his bite.
He promptly took another bite of the Cherry muffin in his magic and put all the other food he'd gotten away, digging through the basket of muffins to find those fruity masterpieces, slowly but steadily amassing a pile of cherry muffins nearly the size of his head, before digging in with gusto.
Celestia watched in veiled amusement as Silver scarfed down muffin after muffin, making a mental note that he liked cherries, quite a bit it seemed, and to get more cherry based recipes for the royal kitchens.
Silver on the other hoof was busy eating as he ran through a quick plan for his day, with his first stop being the library so that he could get more info on time spells, see if he couldn't develop a theory for a counter spell for time travel.
His eating stopped as he ran that sentence through his head one more time, before sighing as he resumed. He really had his work cut out for him didn't he? At least he was able to skip a bit due to already developing Haste.
As he swallowed his last bite of muffin he turned to Celestia, giving a quick bow and a quiet 'thank you' as he exited the room with a massive amount of relief, not spotting Celestia's smile all but shrivel up and die as she watched him go.
She looked over the mini banquet that was in front of her, perfectly pristine save for a few missing muffins and her small stack of pancakes, before snorting and gesturing over a nearby guard.
"Take this to the guard barracks. Might as well make use of all of this, I can't eat it all myself." The guard nodded, calling over some help from his fellows as Celestia got up and started to walk to the throne room, levitating her regalia onto her as she walked.
She sent one last look towards where Silver had disappeared to, before sighing and continuing on her way. She would see if she couldn't talk to him at some point when she had free time, she was already pushing it with that breakfast.
Best let him get used to the castle first, that way he'd feel more at home here and be more relaxed. Maybe then she could get him to stop being scared of her.
"'Time Dilation', already know it, 'Time Recursion', that sounds unpleasant, 'Utility spells', that's... let's put that one in the read later pile, 'Magic and it's affects on the physical world', that sound useful, 'The Repercussions of High Level Spell Misfires', here we go!" Silver flipped open to the first page, reading all of a few lines before his face fell, he couldn't understand half of what was being said, the entire thing was written in broken and outdated English.
Still, it was a good start on getting into some of the higher level magics, and he had a feeling that those books would be just as hard to understand.
He had a long, long way to go if he was gonna stop, or... prevent? Or... whatever he had to do when the time came. Point was, he really need to study if he wanted a chance to make a difference.
He brought his hooves up to rub at his eyes, feeling tired despite it only being the morning.
This was gonna take a while...
Interesting, looks like Celestia can Dreamwalk, which is interesting as that is normally seen as Luna's thing. Part of the consequences of controlling the night for 1000 years?
I smell a time skip in the near future.
huh I expected him to call Tirek "the bodybuilder, metalhead, ball Z guy"
here are some suggestions,
1) transmute some dirt/small items into small minions and use the "come to life" spell as seen in winter wrapup for some quick cannon fodder.
2) Mix a simple cutting spell with a wind spell and you get a blade tornado.
3) Use a mind control spell, mixed with a similar spell used on the parasprites to control the timber wolf population and get a guard dog.
Also turns out Accelero was already a spell that makes you go faster, but I doubt it uses time magic so yours is more impressive.
I still say small enchantments could work
enchant for life
That and he has years to go before the summer sun celebration, so he would have time to study.
Wait why does the chapter say it was posted in may?
I rather like this so far. It seems to me that he just showed up early and didn't learn to keep a low profile. I'm curious to see what happens when Twilight shows up. How badly did he screw up major events, I wonder.
Hopefully this story will last for a long while. I have enough dead or abandoned stories in my watchlist to last me a lifetime. Watched with the utmost interest.
9199366
I remember a fic where starlight messing up the timeline resulted in sunset becoming the princess of friendship, and Twilight needs to decide whether or not to destroy this new timeline where everything is fine just to get to her old one it might end up like that.
But will it be the human hero having to decide to return the timeline to normal and give up his current life as Twilight's replacement? Might be an interesting story to explore. If he IS just early, does that mean the sonic rainboom still happens? Will it trigger Twilight's power still or since she wouldn't be trying to hatch an egg, will it not do anything? Alternate timelines are interesting.
*blinks*
That was a rather dramatic leap in quality, in a very short span of time.
Kewl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX45pYvxDiA
I loved what you did with his name, btw. Awesome.
Another excellent chapter. I'm quite curious how the Rainboom not happening will change or affect things this time around. Not to mention if we'll see a certain time displaced alicorn and dragon pop up later in the story.
A little rough around the edges but a solid core to the story. I like it so far. Genuinely interested to see how this goes.
I'll be severely disappointed if this turns out to be a rewrite of the episodes, though.
You know I was just looking at the date for this chapter and it says posted 28th May???
For some reason I never got the notification for this. Still, it was a good chapter.
Also while I like the new cover just fine I will miss the old one too :P
Hes going to go back in time and plant spike after the magical surge isnt he? (fake egg)
9200227
The release dates for the chapters seem to have messed up.
For me it says it came out may of last year... You would have gotten the update, but itd be realllyyyy far back in the tracking list
9199946
Well, none of the main six are on the right track so if it is he would have to find completely new ponies to be the elements, but remember the elements were made by ponies so, in theory, he could make a magical artifact just as powerful or at least find a way to force their magic out or use them while circumventing the rules.
More please
9199301
Luna taught her dream walking over a thousand years ago
You need to look over the chapter again. Lots of errors. "silved" instead of "silver", etc.
9199533
Depends how the whole timeline shenanihans turn out, whether it's one timeline getting changed or multiple being created. I'd say the latter makes sense as otherwise there'd be massive paradoxes past the first change.
9199352
You could make a pretty effective projectile weapon with a line of carefully alligned and timed repulsion spells though, bit like a railgun.
laid down
The magic
...
MORE PLZ
I didn't get a notification for this.
9199533
Just remember the author made a point of the fact this story doesn't have a AU tag.
9200534
Too early to tell, just yet. Mary Sue is a very commonly misused term these days.
Shortest version: a Mary Sue can be likened to a black hole to a story. Everything the Mary Sue does has higher gravity than it should, or more significance, while everything else done by other characters is less relevant, regardless of the actual merit of those actions. The Mary Sue has more "weight" in the minds of other characters, and they give disproportionate amounts of attention to the Sue even when off-screen. The Sue's friends are the best and most important people (regardless of who they are as actual people), and the Sue's enemies are the worst possible individuals by sheer virtue of not liking (or not being liked by) the Sue.
Mary Sues are often given positions of significance, even when by all rights they shouldn't deserve it. But a character can be shoved into a position of significance for other reasons, and still be an interesting character that doesn't warp the story around themselves. It isn't even difficult, and is a common theme in several professional works. Watching a normal person grow and develop into a role is classic, and in many ways relatable.
What it really comes down to is the quality of writing. What makes a Sue isn't necessarily the character itself, but how the world and other characters react to, and interact with, that character. You can have a character with all the classic Sue traits, but if the world doesn't play by their rules and all their attempts play out logically and realistically, then that character isn't a Sue. Ironically, it becomes a tragic character.
At this point? We've seen the main character find himself in a position he didn't want to be, for what seems like pretty decent reasons. It's how everything plays out after this that'll answer the question you're asking.
9200494
That is interesting but I was thinking more along the lines easily repeatable/ modifiable enchants. For example, they mention cooling enchantments for food like fridges so a modified ice pouch could shoot ice or explode in a freezie cluster. Though he could use something less deadly like a dart version of that railgun. Then again I think they showed a spear gun in one episode so there essentially halfway there.
9200491
hate to be the one to tell you this but a paradox doesn't matter if you time travel you are already in the past nothing will stop you from existing. The idea of a paradox makes no sense and it was just made by people who have no idea how logic works, if you go to another dimension you don't suddenly disappear because you didn't exist in that timeline a few minutes ago so why would a paradox do anything to you if you are already in the past.
Before you say "You don't know because you haven't time traveled before." I have to remind you that we never cloned a dinosaur before but if you told me that it would jump kick out of its cloning tube and scream "kung fu dino posse for life." I would have some questions.
Combat spells?
You don't even need combat spells.
Teleportation? Teleport someones heart out of them.
Portal spells? 2 portals in a vacuum, a pebble accelerated to 1% the speed of light.
Levitation? If you're strong enough, slam them into walls and ceilings. If not? Half brick to the back of the head. Or a puddle of water surrounding their head.
Shield spells? A cloud of monomolecular blades to crash upon your foe! Or just a 1mm width one in a main blood vessel in the brain.
Thermal Energy? Freeze someone or dump enough heat to make them the remains of a steam explosion.
Gravity? Crush someone to degenerate matter.
An apex predator in the right mindset is the most dangerous thing.
9200852
Ah but let’s not forget about final fantasy: doom spell. Once the counter hits 0 you’re dead.
I'd have to argue that alternate timelines still count as an alternate universe. It's just to what degree and where and when the split occurred. Like stories where Celestia was evil and Luna had to banish HER instead is very AU because the timeline diverged much farther back. In this story, it SEEMS to me that the split occurs just before Twilight could become Celestia's student instead. Now by the time you get to season one you only have a split of...oh let's say ten years. Things won't be THAT different but they will be different. Does that constitute an AU tag? Maybe not but for me, that's splitting hairs and seems to be AU.
So Sunset had already left, that gives us some idea of the timeline and it does give some hope that he's merely a year ahead of canon. It's possible that after a year or two the rainboom and Twi's exam will happen, giving him the opportunity to be a student but less burden to prepare.
It's not good for him to worry so much, canon events are years from now, and he's magically illiterate to higher level texts at the moment. Take your time kid.
9201109
He doesn't know that though.
9200852
The thing is, we aren’t apex predators... at least not as far as the food chain is concerned, we are just very smart and evil creatures made via persuit preditation and the ability to adapt to almost any situation.
9201198
That depends on where you live, and what you eat. Coastal/island cultures who eat lots of secondary or tertiary carnivores/predators (fish) are very much the apex predators of their habitat. Most city-goers who eat plants or primary herbivores would not be, though they could be just as dangerous.
A suggestion, unless a major time skip is imminent where anything sexy or violent, gory deaths are happening anytime soon, then I recommend dropping the M rating to T and the sex tag for now.
9200852
Generally speaking, combat spells would be the tricks that counter those things. Followed by the tricks that counter those counters. Then finally being refined into spells meant purely for combat applications, and thus better at doing it. Arms race, that sort of thing.
It's... there's a really good quote I know that discusses scenarios like this, where it's (weirdly) common to assume people in a given setting don't do something seemingly obvious because they're too stupid to have thought of it. Rather than, you know, there being actual reasons why characters don't do the seemingly obvious thing. Some nuance of technology or magic that would be too banal to explain on-screen.
I mean, I could go down the list you made, and give reasons why each of those might not be valid as combat spells. It'd be pedantic though, and I have to draw the line somewhere.
It'd be easier to point out that ponies share a continent with dragons, griffins, minotaurs, and other aggressive, warlike tribes who would steamroll their civilization if it didn't have some means of fighting back. And that Celestia is not at all as good in a fight as she's cracked up to be, and frequently depicted as such.
And that the vast majority of real-world predators are not actually very good fighters, contrary to popular belief. Carnivores live and die on cost vs benefit; if the cost is too high, they can't risk hunting something.
And they tend to have very specific hunting patterns that they don't veer from, because the risk of trying something new is too dangerous when it could result in starving to death.
And that most predators can't risk taking injuries while hunting, since being injured means you can't hunt and will starve to death.
Or that prey animals don't have to consider any of this whatsoever, and will fight back with literally everything they have, with no consideration to personal injury or even risk of life, since they're fighting for their lives in the first place.
(Predators employ ambush and control tactics in a hunt specifically because they can't afford to actually fight the things they're trying to eat.)
You can probably guess which of these is more useful in an actual fight.
There's a very good reason why the biggest, strongest, most consistently dangerous animals on the planet are herbivores, not carnivores or even omnivores. I'm going to quote wikipedia directly here, from the page on African Buffalo. Note that hippos and elephants are also referenced, despite not being meat-eaters or, supposedly, needing to kill for survival:
Though... it's possible none of this matters, depending on how the author chooses to interpret the show. But, if this does end up being just another "Humanity Fuck Yeah" type thing, where the main character does all of that because humans are violent or whatever and ponies aren't, then I'll most likely end up losing whatever interest in the story I'd built up to this point. Unless it's done really well. But I can't imagine HFY being done well, since it starts with the premise of all non-human species being too dumb to have survived the basic rigors of evolution.
How come this didn't show up in my tracking?
9201945
Same
I like the idea, just don't ruin this by turning it into a Gary-Stu self-insert story.
Hmmm... This story of yours has caught my interest.
I look forward to what else you have to add.
I wish for more, this story is really good so far!
Alright... I'ma keep it real with you, chief; this story has a great premise and at this point still shows a lot of promise, but if you're not careful about how you proceed to write it you can still very well kill it.
What you need is to a) slow down and make damn sure what you're writing is an overall positive contribution to the plotline, and b) get a prereader or three, not only so that you have individuals to make your editing life just a little bit easier but also so that you have some external feedback to reinforce point a.
Trust me, taking some precautions like this will definitely pay off in the end...
9197634
Nah, man, the dude's right. Celestia is NOT a god... she's a goddess
Beware, Helioplot: that way be
dragonsmadnessshenaniganshuman strangeness....see? He's already got you grinning like a crazed clown over a dragon's hoard of breakfast pastries!
9200852
This my friend, is why I am glad magic doesn’t exist in our world.
9201109
i don’t know...how the main character worded it, he made it sound as if the sonic Rainboom never happened. Not hasn’t happened yet, never happened. Like the story is taken place one year after the Sonic Rainboom was suppost to happen, but never did. Which lead to our main protagonist to “fill in the gap” as per say. Though I do agree that it’s too early to make such assumptions on when exactly he is pre-season one. That being said, makes you wonder why Twilight is on the main cover.
9200852
That's why normal balance factor for rpg game magic is that precision requires effort and energy, though way more crude spells can become weapons if combined with physics.
9209085
There is like half of hundred such of references in show, some limited to a single frame with poster on the wall.
9210588
I personally love the more obscure ones, like the title of the episode "Twilight Time." It has no relevance to anything within the episode, but they made a reference anyway. I can't remember any more off the top of my head, but there were definitely a few.