22. Time Is Of The Essence (Part 4 - Finale)
'Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.'
Martin Luther King Jr.
That was the last thought I had while I plummeted to the ground. I knew death was inevitable. Falling from near one hundred and fifty meters towards solid ground - there was no way to survive.
But still, I have awoken. I am unsure of where I am. I don't even know if I'm anywhere. All I can see is black. I can feel my eyes blinking but nothing ever comes into view.
I tried to move around but I found no solid ground upon which I lay. It was like I was suspended in mid-air. Even so, I managed to struggle around and lurch myself forward. At least, I think it's forward. I don't even know if I've moved.
"Luna?!"
I couldn't believe she jumped with me. I was going to save her, considering if the paradox worked or not. The last thing I heard was Minute's rage-induced voice scream at us before she pushed me over the edge, clinging to me. The world rushed past us and then...boom. That was it. I didn't feel a thing. I guess death must have been instantaneous.
So if I'm dead, where the hell am I?
"Is anyone here?!"
Once again, my voice echoes until it dies down. Nothing responds. I keep shouting again and again, hoping someone or something can help me out of this place. I once again lurch myself forwards. It was like trying to doggy paddle in mid-air. After a while, I stopped. Nothing came into view. Nothing was here.
Then a thought occured. I fell from an incredible height and splatted on the ground. My body should have exploded like a watermelon filled with dynamite. I felt my body over and it was strangely still in once piece. Everything was where it should be and nothing seemed out of place.
There must be a reason for this. I didn't believe in religion, therefore, I didn't believe in heaven, hell or purgatory or stuff like that. I believed that when we die, that's it. Done. Finished. No afterlife.
But this. I don't know what this is. It's definetely not heaven. It could be hell. Being stuck in a dark place with no-one else around for eternity would be hell enough for anybody.
Did I really do that many bad things to be sent to hell? I mean, sure I wasn't the best kid in the world but that's how I grew up. It took me until my late teenage years to realise it was all wrong. There was the fights I got into...boy, they were a bit gruesome. I did swear a lot...
Maybe I do deserve this. But I did good things as well! I treated my foster families well...most of the time. I got myself a job and became independent. I suppose when I was on benefits I was a little lazy. Quite lazy in fact.
But what about Equestria? I've made friends with so many ponies, I helped a princess out of a depression and fell in love with her, I even sacrificed my life in an attempt to save the world! Was that good or bad?
I didn't know. I remember once something Abigail told me. She and her partner were deeply Christian and tried to invoke their views onto me. I remember her saying that one bad thing can stop you from going to heaven. You need to apologise for all the bad things you did in your life at Purgatory. 'Confess your sins' I think it was.
So I thought I'd give it a go.
"Um...if anyone can hear this. If...ugh, God, can hear this, then please listen to what I have to say." I waited for some form of reply but it didn't come. "Alright. I'll start anyway. I'm sorry for the way I treated my foster families. You understand thar right? Sometimes they were mean but...I only reacted out of anger and I apologise for that."
Still no answer. "More? Right, I'm sorry for fighting in school. It was only out of self defence! I never meant to break thay guy's nose!" Still no reply. My breaths became ragged as I started recalling memories of my youthful times. "I...I'm sorry for not trying hard enough in life! I tried! I...I really did!"
The darkness that engulfed me proved nothing to my pleas as they still went unanswered. Now, I was panicking. "Come on! Someone please! Do you want more?! FINE! I'm sorry I ruined Equestria! Is that what you want to hear?!" I screamed out, tears now streaming from my eyes.
Silence reigned. The only sound was my sobbing. I curled myself into a ball and just wept. "Please...I don't want to be here."
I don't know how long I've been here. Nothing has changed. I can't see a thing and my aplogies went un-answered. So much for the Purgatory.
I lay still, musing my own thoughts. Mostly about whether the plan worked. Whether my sacrifice caused a paradox. I bloody hoped so.
I closed my eyes and breathed slow shallow breaths. At least there's air here. Don't know how long for though. I might not be even breathing. I guess--
"What the?"
The sound of twinkling caught my attention. The first sound I have heard since awakening here. I opened my eyes and saw a faint white light in the distance. A sign! Maybe a way out of here!
I lurched myself forward and slowly approached the light. The closer I got, the bigger it got. The sound was getting louder as well. I started to laugh uncontrollably as I made my way towards the shining beacon. I was approaching it more and more but it suddenly moved rapidly to the left. I turned and started my struggling once again. The light moved to the right.
"What is this? Are you toying with me?!" I shouted at it.
The light remained still. I heaved myself towards it again and it launched itself upwards, out of reach.
"Oh come on! Stop doing that!" I stopped and hung my head. "Please..."
"Please relax."
"HUH?!" It spoke. That light spoke to me. The voice was angelic almost. Definetely female but not familiar. "Hello?" I called out.
The light descended and hovered in front of me. "Hello Owen."
I recoiled in shock. It really did talk! The light was no more than a meter in diameter and it hummed with a twinkling sound. Like wind chimes ringing in a summer breeze.
"W-who are you?"
"I have been observing you during your duration here. You are a strange individual. Apologising for all your mistakes in life."
The voice spoke to me in a calm and soothing manner. It sounded like Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. I loved her voice, even though she only spoke a few words.
"Are you God?" I asked, nervously.
The voice chuckled. "No human. I am not a God."
"Where am I? Am I dead?"
"Yes, you are dead, but not fully. You are a resident in my domain. The plane between life and death."
"Like 'in limbo'?"
"I guess you could call it that. You are neither alive nor dead."
This was all too much to take in. The fall did kill me but I'm not dead - how the hell does that make sense? I wonder if...
"Why am I here? Do I do some kind of ritual to be dead fully or something?"
"How your mind works, it's funny." The voice laughed softly, causing me to smile. Smiling in the face of my so-called non-God. "You are here because your life ended. Every creature that dies in the world - their souls are brought here. I look over these souls and reintroduce them to the world as a lower form of life. Say if a pony died, I would bring them back as a manticore or a cow or chicken. Then that creature, into a lower form such as a fly or a slug. And so on until there is nothing more to revert back to."
"So you reincarnate the souls of ponies?"
"That is correct. But in your case, it is different. Your entire body is here, not just your soul." The light circled me a few times, as if it was observing. "I am aware of how you arrived here. I am amazed at your courage and bravery in the face of certain danger. Your sacrifice was extremely noble.
She knows how and why I died. "Did it work?! The paradox?!" I shouted back.
"The moment your body arrived here, the world changed dramatically. As you predicted, your death meant that Minute Hand could not take your body in the future. Everything that he had caused was undone and the nullifcation spell was erased with everything returning to normal."
"I knew it! I-"
What about Lu...
"What about Luna? Princess Luna? She died with me!"
"No she didn't. Even without magic, Alicorns have immense body strength and integrity. She did suffer major damage but she survived. With the paradox in effect, that never happened. She is in perfectly good health."
I sighed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." I needed to know more. "So exactly what happened to the world when the paradox worked?"
"This will be hard to explain so I suggest you listen well. The magic with which I live and work affects the whole world. When you died, that exact moment was erased from time, leaving every creature in limbo."
"So wait, everyone else died?!" I asked with worry.
The light rested on my shoulder. It really did feel like there was a hand on my shoulder. "Do not worry. They were not dead, they just had no place to go. I placed them back into the world with their lives intact. I even put Minute back in Equestria."
"Why? He did all of those awful things!"
"Do you want to know why he did it? Minute said that it was Celestia's fault, correct?" I nodded. "That 'fault' that Celestia made was a simple request. Minute approached the Princess asking for funding for growing crops in his home as his family was struggling. Celestia said no which caused Minute to argue with her. He eventually left and in the following years, his family suffered many problems with money and ill health. It nearly destroyed him."
"All that from a simple request?" I asked.
"Yes. But! When I put Minute back in the world, I may have altered Celestia's decision."
I was speechless. "You can do that?!" OK, maybe not that speechless.
"My power allows me to alter the timelines of the lives of every creature. Every decision that had been made, every action they committed. I know of them all and can change them at any time. Normally I would never do such a thing but that needed to be done."
"So why didn't you do it before all of this mess?"
"Because something Minute did restrained me from doing so."
That left me speechless. I really didn't know what to say.
"Now, Minute would have received the funding and lived a happy life with his family."
"That's great."
"Do you realise how important your actions were?" I answered with a 'huh?'. "When you apologised earlier for destroying Equestria. Dear human, you did not destroy it. You saved it."
"But...it was my future self that caused this mess. Surely it's my fault as-"
"Those actions were not of your own accord. You were under Minute's control. It was not your fault. I stayed silent as the voice comforted me. "Your body arrived in this plane because I made it so."
"And for what reason?"
"So you may live again." I brought a hand to my mouth at the voice's words. It was going to bring me back! "I feel your emotions. You long for your friends and for a certain pony in particular. Do you want to go back?"
I didn't even need to think about this at all. "YES! PLEASE YES!" The voice laughed heartily at my outburst. "Sorry but...it would be amazing if you could do it."
"Then it shall be so. I will place you in current time, the day the paradox was made. The memories of those forgotten times will be remembered only by yourself, the Princesses, the Elements and the dragon. I have given every other creature it's own life events for all of the time that the spell was in place. Nopony will remember - a good thing."
"Why?"
"I do not want to cause mass panic with the citizens of the world. If you could keep those memories with each other, that would be safe. A lesson learned from the experience."
The light began to expand and fill the darkness, stretching in every way possible. To every corner and every nook and cranny, the world was a sea of white.
"Thank you." Tears were now freely falling. "I can't thank you enough."
"You saved the world. I should be thanking you."
The light intensified and I shielded my eyes. I had to ask one last thing. "Who are you? What is your name?" I called out.
"I am...what you think I am. Use your best judgement. Enjoy your life Owen the Human. And one more thing. A reward will soon be with you. Farewell Owen, saviour of Equestria."
The light enveloped my body as I felt my body go weightless. A shrill piercing ring sounded as I felt myself falling. Just like when I first arrived here.
"I HOPE I DON'T HIT ANOTHER CLUBHOUSE!"
I landed with a thud. My focus came back to me to see where I had landed. I was somewhere familiar and thank god I was. I looked around to see that I was in an alleyway. I got to my feet and walked out of the alleyway into the hustle and bustle of a busy market street.
'Oh my god, I'm really here aren't I?'
I began to walk up and down the market street, touching various surfaces to see if I was here. I got a few odd looks but I didn't care. I even saw unicorns using magic and a pegasus flying. Everything was back to normal! I was happily walking until I bumped into a pony.
"Oh I'm so sor--" I said, looking down at the pony.
'Holy shit.'
It was him. Minute Hand. He looked up at me with an honest smile. "Excuse me? Aren't you the human that everypony was talking about?"
'He doesn't remember a thing!' "Err, yes, that's me. Sorry for bumping into you."
"That's quite alright." He held out his hoof. "Minute Hand. Expert in watchmaking."
I gripped his hoof and shook it. "Owen. Err...human." I said, causing a laugh from both of us. I looked up from him and saw a glorious sight. "Oh my...I have to go! So sorry!" I called back to him after running away from him.
I couldn't believe it, the world had gone back to normal and Minute forgot he did anything. I approached the familiar sight and marvelled before it. Canterlot Castle.
"I'm coming!" I shouted before running towards the entrance. Two guards quickly stopped me.
"Halt! What business do you have here?" one of the guards asked.
"I haven't got time for this. CELESTIA, LUNA! ARE YOU THERE?!" I shouted, hoping to catch their attention.
"You will address the royalty as such. I must ask you to--"
*POP*
"leave? Where did he go?"
My vision became blurred. The next thing I knew I was tackled to the ground by an unknown force. "Look you pair of idiots. I'm trying to get into the castle to see the Princesses because I--"
My vision returned to see what I was being held down by. My eyes began to water as I saw the object of my desires.
"LUNA!" I screamed at her, pulling her close and planting a deep kiss on her lips. Tears from both mine and Luna's eyes flowed as we embraced. After all of this mess, after everything that went wrong, we still ended up back together.
Luna broke the embrace and helped me to my feet. I looked around to see that I was in her bedroom. Luna put her hooves around my shoulders again and hugged me. "You're alive! You're really alive." she said through strained sobs.
I returned the hug and nuzzled her. "Hey come on...I'm here now. Everything's back to normal." We stayed like that for a while, just listening to each other sob quietly. The sombre embrace broke and we both sat on the bed.
"What happened to you?" we both asked together. Luna nodded for me to go first.
"I don't know. I woke up in a void of nothing. Literally nothing. Until I was met by a voice. The voice told me that I was dead but she brought me back to life. I found myself in an alleyway not far from here. What about you? And Celestia and the girls and Spike?"
"We all found ourselves in the throne room about four hours ago. We contemplated what happened and figured your paradox idea must have worked. We didn't know if you were alive..." Her eyes became watery again.
I placed my arm around her. "I'm sorry. Should we go and find them? I can guarantee I'm gonna be dog-piled by the lot of them." I said with a laugh.
"Wait here." Luna teleported away and I was left alone on the bed. I lay back, contemplating the idea of everything that happened.
"Thank fuck it's over." Yep, that pretty much summed it up.
The sound of approaching hoofsteps gathered my attention. It sounded like the Epsom Derby approaching the door. I thought I'd play a prank on them and hide so I quickly stood in the space which the door would conceal when it is opened.
The door swung open and the hoofsteps stopped.
"Where is he Princess?" I heard Twilight ask.
"You said he was here!" Rainbow. Feisty as ever.
"But...he was here. I swear it!" Luna sounded upset. OK, time for the scare. I put one foot forward, ready to pounce and--
"BOO!" I shouted as I leapt from behind the door. Everyone jumped but immediately charged me after they realised I was here. I was in the process of an eight-pony-one-dragon-dogpile-hug attack. Kisses included!
After everyone had their fair share of me, we all sat down and huddled together. I had to tell them what happened.
"OK...Luna told me what happened to you but let me tell you about what happened to me. When I woke up in complete darkness...
"...and then I was teleported here by Luna and here we are." I finished.
"That's astounding!" Rarity chimed.
"Indeed. Just who was this voice you heard?" Celestia asked.
"Not a clue." I remembered something else. "The voice also said that only us would remember what happened the past few weeks. No-one else knows - it never happened. And we have to keep this to ourselves - we can't tell anybody."
"Why?" Spike asked.
"Well, the voice said that it didn't want to cause panic among the ponies so she made up their life events for the past six to eight weeks or so. They all think that the past two months were just going as normal." I replied.
The girls all nodded and we sat huddled together until something brought us out of it - my belly complaining.
"Somepony's hungry!" Pinkie said, pointing at my stomach.
"He sure is!"
"Come now my little ponies. I will prepare us a feast!" Celestia ordered. She exited the room, with everyone bar me and Luna following.
Luna turned to me and gave me a quizzical look. "Who do you think the voice was?" she asked.
"Honestly? I think it was...no that's rubbish."
"No please, do tell." she insisted.
"It's not even worth saying." I replied with a neutral expression.
"Is something the matter?"
She was being ridiculous right? "Something the matter? Think of what happened over the past few weeks. It was hell. It's just...what if happens again? I don't mean the same magic but something different...something worse."
She draped a wing over my shoulder and kissed my cheek. "Celestia and I are already into it. We are gathering all of the forbidden spell books and tomes and destroying them."
That perked me up. "Good. That's good."
Luna walked past me and stopped, turning back to face me. I stood firm and gave her a certain look. "Aren't you coming Owen?"
"Yeah I will but..." I walked up to her and whispered in her ear. "That gurgle wasn't of hunger. It was of...something else..."
"Something else? Whatever do you...OH! Oh I'm sorry! Um...meet me downstairs yes?" Luna said with a blush on her face.
"Yeah sure."
Luna quickly shut the doors and walked away. I walked towards her en suite door and opened it up, revealing my porcelain god. My stomach grumbled again, even louder this time.
"Alright already! Sheesh..."
*A/N* - Well, there you go. I was going to finish it here but I have a few more ideas up my sleeve. If you would like to see the alternate ending to this story, please say and I will make type it up. All the best!
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........ Huh. You know, I've seen a few "brought back to life"s in the many HiEs ive read. Few did it as well as you.
Short but awesome, Hope this isn't the end.
Id be interested in an alternate ending, what would it be like a sad ending to the story?
Oh no you don't! This WILL be a 300k word epic... won't it?!
I'm kidding, I kind of liked how pathetic he seemed when he was apologising, it made me laugh. Anyway, now that I'm pacified because there will be more, I can safely say I eagerly await the next installment.
Great ending to the arc. I would like to know what your idea for the other ending would be (just the basic outline). As I figured, Minute felt Celestia had ruined his life when in reality he's freaking out over something fairly trivial. Even without the funding, it was likely his own choices that led to the true difficulties. One action by one individual is never truly enough to ruin a life.
I hate it when you gotta take a shit at the most inopportune times...
Might as well as make that alternate ending too. I'm interested.
maybe you could continue the adventures in another fic, part two if you will.
The ending should be a retrospective of his life just a few weeks after the incident and how they have all adjusted to life after it.
No alternate ending for me, thanks, I like this one. but it's not the end, there must be more written, MORE OWEN FOR THE LUNAR GODDESS.
All I have to say........and i cant believe you have more
viceland.com/viceblog/49928236clap.gif
More writing, the better! :D
Alternate ending, huh?
Is that suppose to mean write a sad story?
Please dont!
Cause all this story about is Comedy and Romance!
No sad ending please no!
Actually, no one cares about my stupid opinion.
So, yeah, buck me....
Was it discord... Huh was it, was it, come on you've got me im on the edge of my seat here! I WANNA KNOW DANGIT!!!!
Anyway hope there will be a sequel once you run out of ideas for this
Make a funny ending where he lands in a clubhouse instead
Many Lulz ware had.
1552727>>1552806>>1552814>>1552941>>1554189>>1554429
I've been trying to type up this alternate ending but I can't really find the words for it. The basic outline was the same until the 'voice' asked if I wanted to go back. Owen would have thought about it and denied the choice, opting to be remembered as a hero. The voice would ask why and the reason would be that Owen didn't want to go back because of the risk of that kind of disaster happening again as there were more forbidden spells in that book, as Minute explained. The voice would have discussed his choice with him before he faded away into nothing. Then a POV from Luna would have followed, explaining the events of when they woke up in the throne room. Owen's body was never found and he was commemorated posthumously and remembered a hero with a statue being made in his honour.
From that, I can say that I will be continuing this story as I have many more ideas. And as for the identity of the voice? I can confirm 100% that it was NOT Discord. I left it open to interpretation so you can identify the voice yourselves - there is no confirmed answer.
1554436 That would be hilarious but it wouldn't fit in anywhere
1555251>>1562894 that's the whole point
1562894
What if when he choses not to revive as a human he just revives as a pony that Luna and the Girls recognize as him having all of the memories of him as human changed into a pony, he would go to Luna's room and just tell her everything they did and then he would live hapily ever after... until the next great disaster strikes and he has to go and put his flank in danger in order to save his friends.
1563109 That could have been another option, yes. But I do not plan on turning Owen into a pony at all. From most of the HiE fics I have read, the human changes into a pony but I haven't seen many at all in which the human stays human. So that's what I'm gonna be doing.
1562894
Hmm was it Lauren Faust then?
1566795 No idea. If you think it is then yes
1566801
Wha... but I must know or i will keep guessing... but since you have given me a choice it shall be the Observer
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I guess I (we) cant get what you gonna plan for Mr Owen after he came back to life....
Or can we.....?
Great you just had to mess with the two greatest taboos in writing. Time and Death. When someone includes those it becomes really annoying for me to read. They just have so, so, so many holes in them and the explanations never satisfy. If someone goes back in time they cease to be. They are from a different time zone and cannot exist in the past. Death is even more of a mystery. It's always very annoying to read about a 'almighty being' it really kills the story as no one could possible stop what it wants.
Anyway, I just get REALLY irked when someone writes about anything to do with time and death.
Still pretty good work I guess. Prob try and erase those chapters from my mind and continue reading later.
Hey you dealt with the whole 'time travel/paradox' thing better than just about every other story/novel I have ever read. Props
I was crying in this chapter. Bloody good job, mate.
For dealing with the paradox issue better than i have ever seen, allow me to crank the mustaches up to, not 10, but 11.
(Did I just make a Spinal Tap reference? Yes I did.)
owen
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So, the white light he saw in his vision was just his longing for a bowl of food?
I'm also surprised that Owen's body and mind are even able to function in Equestria, if the rules are really so different from Earth's that the soul actually exists as an entity within someone.
I'm guessing that the voice was one of the following:
Deus Ex Machina, Lord of Time and Space
Lauren Faust
The Angel(/Alicorn) of Death
"... revealing my porcelain god."
LOL
Sorry, but, most of what I've been reading lately has all just been kinda sad or depressing or just plain out annoying (FAR TOO MANY WRITERS HAVE PINKIE BREAK THE FOURTH WALL, CONTINUOUSLY, THROUGH A CONVERSATION WITH THE WRITER; SERIOUSLY, KNOCK IT OFF), and that's the good stories I find. It's been too long since I've have a nice laugh and that one almost made me tear up a little.
Anyway, pretty good story. *continues on!*
This was it. I was wondering when the story would really impress me. I was confused at first at the number of likes and views. For a pretty decent HiE story. It didn't add up. But now I know you have it, because you're a genius. Best time paradox situation I've ever read, you did it masterfully
...
What the heck?
That killed the story for me. It was never mentioned before and was never hinted. The story came up so well, chaos and all, and then this. Why?!
Or, more important, where did it come from?!?!?
And what does it mean??
I really liked where the story was going and expected Own to be turned into a pony by that female voice (Lauren Faust? Impossible, MLP doesn't exist in his universum... even though she is an alicorn, it wouldn't work) so he and Luna could finally marry... but nope. Instead, a good explanation and a mindbreaking "end".
owen just took a victory dump
