Restart: After it all.

by Netap

Chapter 2

Do you know how it feels to be buried alive?
Zephyr does, he died that way several times.
Not because of Discord surprisingly enough.

It was in one of the earlier loops, His plan at the time was to kill Discord by giving him a poisonous Milkshake.

Now problem is, Zephyr doesn't know how to make poison, so he had to learn.

You might be surprised to find out, but learning how to make poison is Illegal, So he had to find somewhere to learn it Illegally.

Good news, The local crime family was recruiting new members.
Bad news, They're a crime family.

You don't just simply join a crime family, you first need to pass a test.

"I want you to take this bag and hide it somewhere nobody will ever find" The scar-faced Earth Pony told Zephyr while pointing at a large, pony sized bag.

Zephyr might not have been the smartest pony in the room, But he knew a body-bag when he saw one.

Now, If this was Zephyr from a few Resets ago, he'd be freaking out.
"You want me to hide a BODY!? I can't do that! If I get caught I'll be killed, I won't be able to save my adorable cutesy-tootsie big sister FlutterButter!" And then he'll try to get somepony else to do the job for him or something along those lines.

But not this time, Zephyr already died more than enough times to get the memo.
If he wants to get out of this loop, he's going to have to dirty his hooves.

And so he took the job.
He was caught by the police soon after disposing the body in a lake.
After telling the police he was in a time-loop which broke one of Discord's stupid game-rules, Zephyr had his Eyes roll into the back of his skull over and over like the wheels on a carriage, before they ground themselves to ash and floated out of his empty sockets.

He died again soon after.

So next loop he tried again, this time knowing not to hide the body in the lake.

Good news, The Police didn't catch him this time.
Bad News, A rival crime family did.
And the worst news, The Pony he was tasked to bury was none over than the husband of the daughter of the brother of the nephew of the cousin of the crime families head honcho.

Zephyr was fucked.
Before he could break the game-rules and reset the loop, He was knocked unconscious with a hit to the back of the head.

The next few minutes of his life might have been some of his worse.

When he regained consciousness, He tried opening his mouth to tell someone, anyone, that he was in a time-loop, and thus making him reset.
But he couldn't, His mouth was tied shut, and as he tried to move his legs or wings, he found them tied as well.

Looking around him, he saw nothing but total darkness, he tried moving his head but he couldn't see anything.
He was panicking.

"Discord, Reset me right not, I need another try" He tried saying, but with his mouth shut all that came out was gibberish and noise.

Luckily as soon as he tried saying that, the Chimera popped in.
The Chaos Spirit shrunk himself to fit in the enclosed space with Zephyr, a snap of his finger providing a small oil lamp, providing light to his surroundings.

"Zephyr my boy, Good to see you called. Now, Usually If you broke the game rules or died before stopping me I would reset you, But as you can see, You aren't dead" The Horse headed, Eagle Clawed, Dragon tailed, mish-mashed freak said smugly as he looked at the tied up Zephyr.

"You remember the rules, don't you? If you tell anypony about being stuck in a loop, You lose. If you tell anypony that I'm going to escape my statue in Canterlot castle, you lose. If you die, you lose. If I capture all the elements of Harmony and the Princesses, you lose." He said, each time he spouted a rule, he inched closer to Zephyrs angry face.

"And as you can see, Zephyr my boy, you didn't break any of the rules yet." He whisper into his ear, "And since you didn't break any of the rules, you didn't lose. And since you didn't lose, you don't Reset" A wide smile splits Discord's face as he spoke those words.

For the first time since the chaos-spirit's sick twisted game began, Zephyr was terrified.

He won't Restart until he died.
That was usually fine, When he reset it usually came after Discord killed him in a bizarre way.
It might have been painful, but it was fast.

Looking at the now lit space around him, Zephyr could finally tell where he was.

He was in a coffin, with a lit lamp burning the little oxygen he had left.
Maybe that oil lamp was a weird, sick way of Discord making his time easier.
He might be a monster, the worst thing in existence, the chaos-spirit that ruined the world several times over.
But he wanted entertainment, in his own sick way.

And seeing a pony lie in a coffin for five hours wasn't that entertaining.

"I'm not resetting you Zephyr, The game isn't over until you win.
You get how many tries you want, But you won't reset until you lose.
And you haven't lost yet" And with a poof of glitter and the smell of rotten eggs, He disappeared.

Leaving Zephyr to slowly suffocate to death, being buried alive by one of the crime families of Neigh York, for wanting to learn how to make poison.

That was the first time he was buried alive.

---

Reaching his new home, A small Cabin near the town of Rockville, Zephyr took a deep breath before inserting his new key into the lock and opening the door.

The Cabin was big for the price it was sold at, It had a single Bedroom, a single Bathroom, and a large open area to act as both the Kitchen, The dining room and the Living room.

It needed repairs, most of the furniture was old, covered in tarps collecting dust.
The only appliances that worked in the house were the stove and the toilet.

It seems he's going to need to buy a new shower-head and fix some water pipes, Buy an entire fridge as well.

But that didn't matter to him, He could afford to hire someponies to fix everything for him, he wasn't short on cash in any way, not after winning the lottery.
And if that also runs out, he knows some crime-family hideouts, those guys always have money.

But he wouldn't be hiring plumbers.
Zephyr Breeze came to Rockville to get away from the stress of the time-loop.
He's going to do as his Cutie Mark tells him, and take things easy.

And if that means he needs to buy a fridge and carry it all the way to the cabin and also install a shower by himself, then so be it.

He's been through worse.

Author's Note:

Yeah, Chapter 2.

A bit of a look at one of Zephyr's loops, and also the rules he had to follow.

This story does not have an upload schedule, so please don't complain if I don't update for a while and then hit you in the back of the head with an update several months later.

Hope you enjoyed this little Flashback chapter, I'm planning to put a flashback every two or so chapters, just to give a little insight into what Zephyr went through.

Hope you enjoyed :)

Comments

[Justalad 45]

Ok so, despite some misspellings here and there this Looks interesting. Good job.

[Netap]

11402259
I apologize about the misspelling.
English isn't my first language so I need to use google translate and autocorrect on words I don't know the spelling of.

Thank you for the compliment 😊

[suijin228]

This is legit a solid chapter and concept. Love the idea of Zephyr trying to live a quiet life after.... everything. GOod job, I"m excited for more.

[Cheshirek4t]

No dislikes
Congrats

[Netap]

11484130
Thanks.
I'm still surprised about it.

I guess people like reading a story where Zephyr doesn't act like an asshole to Rainbow Dash, or something like that.
I'm not sure actually 😄