Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

End of the World - Part 1

A set of clicks, and the door slid open.

Twilight stood up from the bench, and looked at the pony in the doorway.

A stallion, as she'd guessed. A unicorn, which was not surprising, given what she'd seen him do. He wore a featureless dark grey cape, tied around his neck, a little tattered at the edges. Stuck too close to his back to possibly be hiding wings by itself, though it did show hints of stuffed full saddlebags hanging from his sides. His coat was a light, dusty shade of brown, his mane short and messy and a touch darker than it. He did have a few grey stripes in there, particularly noticeable in his tail which was fully grey towards the end, and it seemed like there was a hint of some reddish colour to his coat underneath his cape. His hooves were also closer to red than brown.

His expression was a bit tired, maybe a bit worried, but seemingly friendly. He gave off a noticeable impression of looking older than he probably was, though Twilight still wasn't sure exactly how old that made him. Perhaps a little younger than her, but probably a little older. His eyes were deep blue, and she could tell they'd seen their fair share of what a regular pony wouldn't. She confirmed he was the same pony she'd seen in her laboratory when he finally spoke, and said to her, "Princess Twilight Sparkle. A pleasure to finally meet you. A shame about the circumstances, though I suppose we might not have met at all otherwise."

"And you are the one who snuck past our defence systems and dug a hole in the wall behind my desk," Twilight replied. "I do hope this meeting will clear up some things, and answer all the questions you've been raising with everything you've done so far. Who do I have the pleasure of talking to, exactly?" She kept her horn ready for use, studying the other carefully.

"My name hasn't gotten any more relevant," he replied. "And I haven't grown any more willing to share it, if you'll forgive me. I apologise for the commotion I caused in your castle as well. I could have approached the whole thing differently, perhaps, but that's not quite something I can fix now. As for our talk, I'd say we don't have much time, but, well..." He had a look around the room, with its walls full of clocks, and chuckled. "It's rather space we're lacking here. Speaking of which, if you could join me. I'll have an easier time explaining things out here." He stepped back out the door, motioning for Twilight to follow.

Still uncertain about the situation, Twilight carefully did follow him outside. "I was meaning to ask why you'd chosen this place, actually." She stepped through the door, and had a look at the mostly black and empty void surrounding the lone chunk of rock on top of which the shop was built. "I suppose I will get an answer to that." It was always weird to stand there, and she tried not to think about how the place shouldn't have had gravity in the first place. She was still a little afraid acknowledging it would make it go away. It would have been a shame to ruin the shop like that.

The stallion looked into the distance, towards what if anything Twilight couldn't tell. "Do you know how this place became like this?" he suddenly asked.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

... I feel like I missed something. I may have to look back at the backlog.