Slave of Eternity

by Secrets and Lies

4

Author's Note:

Revised December 28th, 2013

(4)

At around high noon, Pinkie Pie and Zachary had safely made their way back to Ponyville. The morning fog, at last, had lifted and the sun had faded the overcast skies away. It left only behind a blue sky, which gave Zack hope for a better future. As they walked through the middle of the pony village, the markets were once again clamoring with activity. Their wild morning the two had been apart of kept their senses giddy with adventure. It was difficult to cope with the serenity and peace of Ponyville.

Zack’s house was now in sight as they turned the corner around the Ponyville Library. Pinkie halted at the sight of Valiant Steed, who was filling a large chest full of Zack’s belongings. She had no clue it was Zack’s at the time, so she came to the conclusion that Valiant was spending the night over at Zachary’s. She approached him in a springy gait and hugged the pegasus stallion.

Valiant replied to the affection, “Hey there, shortie. How’s it going?”

“Just terrific, Mister V! Me and Zack had the funniest time this morning!” She hopped around and eyeballed the luggage saying, “So, what’cha doing? Are you Zack having a sleepover? Are you not going to invite me? How could you?”

As Zack approached, Valiant calmly stated, “Chill out. Zack’s... well... Going to stay in Canterlot for a while.”

Pinkie looked away with a slanted frown. She had completely forgotten about what she had heard the other night and what Zack told her in Everfree Forest. Her flamboyant attitude fleeted at the resurfacing emotions she hid in the woods so well from Zack. Zack rested his hand on Pinkie’s shoulder and gave a reassuring smile to her. After seeing Zack’s smile, she surfaced a grin back towards him.

“It’ll be okay, Pinkie. I won’t be gone forever. Remember what I told you, I’ll be back. I just need a little vacation, that’s all.”

She turned her body towards Zack and replied, “You promise?”

Zack leaned down to hug the mare and assured her, “I promise.”

Valiant butted in, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad cupcakes, but I can’t stay here for long, ya know? Some of us have jobs.”

“Right,” said Zack as he got back up on his feet. He approached the chest Valiant had been packing and asked, “Is this everything I told you to get?”

“Yep, everything you told me. All the clothes, books, crap like that.”

Zack closed the chest and looked up into the sky. He pressed two fingers into his lips and gave a loud whistle that echoed through the empty air. In a few short moments, Zachary’s pet thunderbird, Nox, came swooping down and made a light landing on Zack’s right shoulder. The tall bird of prey puffed its upper body out, showing off its vibrant yellow chest and jet black feathers with gold wing tips. It was a beautiful bird and a very rare specimen of mythological magic birds.

Valiant clapped his hooves together and said, “Good, we’re finally ready to depart!” Zack helped Valiant move his trunk of valuables onto the back of a pegasi chariot. Valiant strapped himself to the chariot and replied, “Climb on back and we’ll be off.” Zack placed his arm up next to Nox’s legs and the bird stepped up upon his forearm.

He petted his pet and replied, “No thanks, I have my own ride.”

Nox flapped his large, coal wings and jetted off into the sky. The bird left behind an ever increasing plume of smoke with an electrical current flowing through it. The smoke soon formed into thick storm clouds and filled the space around Nox. Nox had become a great ball of lightning and cloud coverage in the blue sky above as he slowly sailed back to the ground. A thunderous cry filled the ears of everyone in the village below and out from the ball of electricity and plume came Nox once again. Only this time, Nox had emerged as large as a roc and with eyes burning with raw, electrical energy. It swooped back towards Zack and landed next to him. Now the large bird was big enough for Zack to climb on and ride.

Before Zack mounted his bird, he looked back towards Pinkie who couldn’t hide her swallowed emotions any longer. She looked up at him with a crestfallen appearance. She didn’t want Zack to leave, she never wanted him to. Zack couldn’t think of any good way to leave without her bursting into tears.

But before Zack could say anything, she breathed out with high hopes in her tone, “See you in the funny papers...” and with that remark she mustered up a courageous smile. He couldn’t tell whether she meant it or not, but supposed that she did mean it and didn’t just fake it for him.

He waved back at her and replied, “Never forget that I love you.” At that moment, they embraced one last time and gave each other one last goodbye hug. Zack dug his fingers into her fur as Pinkie wrapped her hooves around the back of Zack’s head. Her emotions seeped out and she began to pant and sob. He could feel the tears in her eyes roll down her cheek and onto his. He closed his eyes as tears welled up in his. Before Zack could pull off of his friend, Pinkie gave a quick kiss on the cheek for her friend and finally made eye contact with him. Her smile warmed his soul as he tried to muster the courage to let go. As he felt his fingers slip away from her, he spent no more time wallowing in his own sadness as he looked back towards Nox. Nox gave a worried expression and brought its long neck and head around to nuzzle his master. It gave Zack a small static shock, but he didn’t mind or express the discomfort.

Zack chuckled and said with eyes still blurred with tears, “Oh, stop it, you goof ball.” He hopped onto the bird ready to leave. Valiant took a head start into the sky and made his way to Canterlot Castle. Zack gave one last look towards his pink friend. He slowly raised his hand up and gave a simple wave to her. She gave a slight grin and waved a hoof back. Zack kicked the sides of Nox and away they flew into the air, leaving the pink pony behind. She sat there on her flank, watching the three fly away back to Canterlot. She watched until they disappeared into the horizon and until she could cry no more.

In a few short minutes of air time, they were already above Canterlot. It appeared as regal and clean as ever when Zack looked down below. After closer inspection however, he realized that many of the old shops he once knew of in the city had been reconstructed into larger businesses. It also appeared that there were more ponies out and about flocking the streets, he figured it was most likely from Summer Sun Celebration visitors. Besides the city growing taller and the increased population, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary from what Zack remembered.

Valiant began to descend when approaching the front court of Canterlot Castle. The Royal Guards below knew what was going to happen today and did not worry about their abrupt arrival from the skies. As Valiant landed and came to halt near the castle doors, Nox made an upheaval of wind when landing just behind them. As the thunderbird folded its wings up, Zack dismounted him and hopped onto the front lawn of the castle. He looked up at the castle, noticing that it seemed the same as always as he made his way to the front door. Valiant unhitched the chariot behind him and stretched his wings.

Valiant said loftily, “Nothing like a good flight to stretch the wings a bit, eh?” Zack smiled and continued onward. Valiant caught up and added, “Oh, and don’t worry about the luggage, I’ll fly it up to your room. The Princess will probably want to see you–so go right into the court room, that’s where she should be.” Zack nodded and pressed the heavy doors open.

He felt as if he had stepped into a time machine. Every detail of the castle remained the same to him as it did six years ago. To every table top, rug, hall, chandeliers, to even the workers around the castle, everything was just as he remembered it. He wasted no time admiring the castle interior like he did years ago, he just made his way straight to where the Princess would be. As Zack turned the corner to the Throne Room hall, he accidentally bumped into a familiar mare. Twilight Sparkle was her name, and just by her appearance, Zack’s heart rested easy. She had grown a lot in six years; no longer a filly, but a young mare and a powerful unicorn. As they bumped into one another, not a single book she was magically levitating was disturbed. Her concentration was impeccable.

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry–” she replied while regaining her composure. She abruptly stopped in mid-sentence when she realized whom it was that she had bumped into. “Zachary,” she spoke with a change from embarrassment to surprise. She hopped up into his arms and gave him a joyous hug.

Zack rubbed the back of her mane and asked, “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been doing great! The Princess will be so happy to see you!” She nodded her head towards a chamber door ahead of them and she suggested, “I was going to go check up on Spike, wanna come?”

“Oh, no thanks. I need to go and see Celestia, but maybe later, okay?”

The purple unicorn smiled and responded with a parting wave, “Alright! See you later!” She clopped on out of the hall and into the chamber ahead. Zack turned and went onward to the throne room.

Upon entering, light from the gleaming stain glass windows sprawled over the chamber floor. The room was well lit with the sun’s light and just ahead was the Princess herself, whose attention was on another stallion by her side. Zack approached and the two ponies took notice of him.

Zack greeted, “You rang, my liege?”

She gave a smirk and responded, “I’m glad you could make it, Zack. Had no trouble getting in?”

“Not a trouble in times like these.”

The stallion beside the two immediately recognized Zack and exclaimed, “Zack! It’s been ages! How’s it been, bro!”

Zack curled his fist and hoof-bumped Shining Armor saying, “It’s been good, yourself?”

“Never been better! Like you said, with peaceful years like these, there’s been no trouble whatsoever.”

Celestia spoke up, “Shining Armor, I would like to speak with Zack alone for a while. Will you make sure no one enters the Throne Room while we are in here?”

“Yes, my Princess.” He bowed and exited the room, promptly sealing the large double doors to the chamber closed. Zack stepped beside Celestia, overlooking the sun bathed valley below.

She turned and asked, “Did you accomplish the mission with the hydra successfully?”

“More than successfully. Had to play a little game though to get him to move. I didn’t even have to use the Prevailer.”

She chuckled, “That’s good. Yes, hydras can be intelligent creatures sometimes...” Her mood softened to a more somber approach, “Valiant Steed has told me about your condition. I am more than happy to accommodate you for a short time if need be, although I would like to know why you would want to stay here instead of Ponyville.”

Zack crossed his arms and assured, “It’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure it will be over with in a few days.”

“Well, I want you to know that for a few days I’ll be extremely busy.”

Zack remembered and stated aloud, “Oh yes, The Summer Sun Celebration.”

“That... and something else.”

Zack raised an eyebrow and questioned, “What might that ‘something else’ be?” The Princess’ expression turned grim as she looked onward out the window, the sun veiling her face and mane with light.

“Luna’s return. It’s been one-thousand years since I sent her to the moon... She’ll need some time to recuperate and I’ll be there to help her. Once the Elements of Harmony eradicate the chaos inside of her, she’ll turn back into her pure form...” She lowered her head and sighed, “If only I could have found a better way to help her instead of banishing her...”

Zack wondered, “Perhaps I could help the Elements when they show themselves? They’ll need all the help they can get.”

“Not this time,” she spoke in a cold tone, “they need to do this together, without anyone else helping. It has to be done this way. Om would have wanted it done this way.”

“True,” he replied. “So what shall I do?”

“Stay in the castle and wait for me and my sister to return.” She turned towards him and stated, “I’m sorry, but now you must leave, Zack. I still need to make preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Unpack your things and stay out of the way. It’s going to get pretty busy around the castle floor tonight and tomorrow.”

Zack agreed and replied, “Understood.” He left on that final word and made his way up the Western Tower where his old room was.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the castle, catching up with Valiant and staying out of the Princess’ way. The night was a different story however. When the castle was locked up and the lights were all darkened, Zack lay awake in his bed. He knew that if he went to sleep, those visions and night terrors would happen again. His eyes stared up at the dark ceiling, the only light was from the moon's radiance which poured through the thin, silver curtains that hung from his balcony door. Outside, Nox had curled up into a ball of black fluff and perched himself on the porch railing. He only wished he could sleep as still and eased as his pet.

Zack dreaded the idea of having to deal with another tormenting dream, so he kept his mind occupied on staying awake as much as he could. He didn’t know how much time had past and didn’t care, his only concern was making it through the night without sleeping and waking to the morning sun. A steady mountain breeze rolled by the castle, it whistled as it made its way through the balcony railing. The gust pushed up against the glass of the bedroom window, softly shaking it.

Slowly, Zack’s mind began to drift. His eyelids started to grow heavy with the weight of sleep and soon he was fighting back the coming fatigue. From all the violent and horrific dreams he had had so far, he had to keep fighting. Though weariness was powerful and was calming his body into a state of rest. He finally gave into the soothing shadows of the night and closed his eyes. In mere moments, his mind fell in defeat from the exhaustion of the day. He didn’t know how long it took for him to dream, his sense of time eluded him once his dreams took over. He could hear something strange, but did not open his eyes to see what it was. A distant screeching, something that sounded vaguely familiar. Almost as if a noise he had known back to his earliest memories sounded again. The night had captured his mind once more.

The noise grew louder and soon found his vision flooded by light, his mind swept of any curiosity of the situation. He stood on the edge of a sidewalk, bundled in a light sweater and wearing hand-me-down jeans. He felt like he was carrying something on his back, like a backpack or something of that size and shape. Another feeling he had noticed was that the world had grown around him, trees seemed to be taller and the blurred houses in the suburbia he was in seemed larger than before. Yes, he knew this place; yet it seemed so alien to him at the moment. His coming thoughts were soon suppressed when the screeching noise came back into earshot.

He turned his head towards where the familiar noise was coming from. Yes, now he remembered upon looking at the old sight. The Old Cheese itself came to a slow halt in front of him, or what the adults called it, the school bus. Bus one-one-seven of Rowan County District, the oldest bus in the fleet that transported the children of the town to school and back. The hum of the old rig’s motor rattled and clanked like he remembered it. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for Zack as his face beamed with a smile. It was his first day of school after all, what child wouldn’t be excited?

The double doors opened wide and the sound of rowdy and hyperactive children seeped through. Zack hopped up the bus steps and made no interaction with the bus driver, in fact, he hardly even noticed the driver. He slowly made his way down the row, but stopped and held on to one of the seats when the bus began moving again. Kids of all sorts bounced and laughed in their seats. To Zack, this was exciting. He grabbed hold of each leather seat and pressed himself forward and towards the back of the bus. The vehicle was nearly full and it was difficult even finding a seat for Zack to seat in. He felt something forcefully tug the back of his backpack, which halted his progression to the back of the bus.

A teasing voice from behind him spat, “Nice book bag, faggot!”

Zack turned and couldn’t see who it was. Too many laughing children to see whom called him the by the offensive name. By this time he realized he was a child himself, but it seemed nothing out of the ordinary for him. He tightened his grip around the straps of the book bag and carried on. He couldn’t think of why the school kids thought his book bag wasn’t cool, it was themed after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Zack thought that they were cool.

As his head turned back towards a seat where he thought people were sitting at, he saw a vacant spot. The seats could hold two children and only one sat by the window. The little girl next to the window seemed his age, though he couldn’t exactly tell since she was looking away from him and out the window. He sat himself down on the brown, cheaply upholstered seat and placed his book bag on the ground and between his legs. The girl turned to see who had sat down next to her, her long, red curls flinging about. She took notice of Zack and smiled, revealing a missing baby tooth that had fallen out not long ago. Her freckles and pink cheeks glowed in the morning light that shimmered through the bus window. The ethereal glow bewildered Zack, who only smiled back at her.

She greeted, “Hello there. Is this your first day of school too?”

“Ya!”

“It’s mine too." She stuck out her open hand and properly greeted, "My name’s Caroline. And you happen to be?” Zack thought, but didn’t know why he had such a hard time remembering his name.

“Zachary,” he finally said with slight hesitance.

They shook as she replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She looked down and examined Zack’s book bag. She informed him, “I don’t know why the kids are teasing you about your book bag, I thought it looked cool.”

Zack sighed and replied, “Me too... Do you watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?”

“Is that what it’s called? My mother doesn’t allow me to watch cartoons, she thinks they're rubbish.”

Zack breathed, “Bummer...” The conversation had died there in that spot. He felt like he could have talked for hours on end about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than anything else.

Caroline spoke up, breaking the silence between the two, “But I do like to watch ponies on the animal network, and sometimes I’ll even draw them with my special crayons.”

Zack questioned, “What’s so special about your special crayons?” Caroline tossed her pink book bag between them and unzipped it, pulling out a yellow box of crayons and out of the box, six sticks of colored wax. She held them up in front of her face, Zack studied the crayons closely as she rotated them in her fingers.

Zack asked, “Only six crayons? I thought crayon boxes came with more crayons?”

“They do, I just took the ones I don’t like out. I only draw with blue, yellow, purple, orange, pink and white.”

Zack lightly chuckled and asked, “Who draws with white?”

Caroline held them closer to herself and said with pride, “Artists like me, of course!” The pink crayon she was holding seemed to slip from her grasp and roll onto the floor in the middle of the bus row.

“Oh, I got it,” Zack said while bending over to pick up the stick. He reached over and plucked it off of the ground with ease. Upon turning around, he fell off of his seat with fright. He jumped backwards and nearly had a heart attack at what he saw. Caroline’s face was no longer the face of a cute little girl, but dramatically altered. Her eyes and mouth became three black voids in her face. The monster slowly crept towards Zack and out of her chair. As Zack looked more around in panic, all of the other kids slowly began looking over at Zack with their faces changed much like Caroline’s. Even the bus driver was morphed into one of the monsters the kids had changed into. Their black holes for eyes seemed affixed on Zachary as he tripped over another kid’s book bag and banged his head on the floor of the bus. He quickly rose upward and pushed a child’s hand off of his shoulder. They all seemed reaching out towards him with their mouths gaped open.

Zack turned and tried to make a run for the emergency exit at the back of the bus. He fought against the suppressing hands holding him back and latching on to him. He fought to escape and pushed through the rising crowd of children. With a final heave, he broke free and pushed on the emergency door with all of his might. The door flung open and he fell face first in a field of some sort.

The sudden change in sensations halted his former panic. He found himself face first and sprawled out in a pasture of hay. The field was more like a hill or wide mound of earth than an actual field for farming; it was odd landing in a field when one was just on a bus, but even more odd that he was in an untamed field than anything. He looked up from his former spot and eased himself upward. His body was back to his original age as he checked himself out to see if everything on his body was back in order. High winds from the distance blew the stalks gently. Zack could see the pattern of the wind against the hay like a coming wave in the tide. The sky was as blue as the brightest sapphire and overhead sailed towering cumuli being blown westward in the powerful updrafts. The hay did not itch or irritate Zachary in any way, in fact, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of worry at all. All of his discomforting emotions sank into a pool of peace. He took in the windy breeze and blew out a relaxing breath of fresh air. The only noises he could hear was the wind blowing against the straw and his own breathing.

He turned back to maybe see if the bus was still there, but of course, he was alone in a sea of hay stalks. The straw came up only to his waist and the ground beneath him was the green grass; though he would have never known at a distance and could only tell there was grass in the field from the small diameter of sight he could see of it. Following what his curious nature told him, he began walking across the hill. It steepened in front of him, but only at a gentle angle. His legs felt surprisingly tired, as if he had been walking for hours. This sensation made it a little more difficult to venture up the slop, but he pressed on against his aches.

After a few peaceful minutes, Zack soon recognized an off sight in the distance in front of him. A large, dark oak tree with outstretching branches stood like a guardian of the hill. He wondered why he hadn’t seen the sight until then, but this thought soon drifted away like the clouds above. A slight shimmer could be seen reflecting the sun’s rays below the tree. The flickering light seemed natural in a sense, but still very strange. As he proceeded towards the large tree, the oak seemed much bigger than Zack predicted. He thought that it must have been there for hundreds of years to have grown the size it was today. Zack could tell from its width that if he had an ax and decided to hollow out the tree’s trunk, he could make himself a small, one room cottage in the base of the tree. The tree’s height was quite impressive as well and stood at least half the size of Canterlot Castle. The twinkling speckles of light Zack saw at a distance was now visible. The light’s came from what appeared to be shards of glass hung from the tree itself. Hundreds upon thousands all appeared to hang from strings from the tree and blew in the breeze as it came by. Like chimes in the wind, they clinked and made beautiful music as they wavered all about.

Zack began to slowly walk through the atmosphere of soft edged glass, admiring the sight. The pieces of glass were not all the same color, but were an array of colors which shinned down on Zack and the trunk of the tree it hung from. Zachary was bathed in a mixture of hues and light while maneuvering his way under the branches of the tree and towards its base. He stopped for a moment to let his legs rest and realized how numerous the shards of glass really were around him. He no longer even saw the tree or the field around him, he was surrounded in an array of light and color. It was a very relaxing atmosphere that Zack had found himself in, and for a moment, he didn’t want to leave its safety. He began to notice patterns in the colors, patterns he knew of and had seen before. The colors of glass were in six shades, six very familiar hues he soon recognized.

“The Elements...” he said aloud and slowly as he discovered the pattern. Almost instantly the shards slowly subsided, almost as if hovering around his perimeter. The glass gave way to an opening in the branches of the tree as Zack looked upward into it. Descending slowly toward Zack, with no strings attached to it, floated The Elements of Harmony. They shimmered and gave off a slightly colored aura from each six gems. It nestled itself in front of Zachary and floated like a phantom in arm’s reach. Zack made no attempt to immediately grab it, but only to gently touch it. He moved an arm upwards to try and touch the magical artifact in front of him. He was a mere inch away from feeling the jewel until he felt a sudden push against his body.

He awoke not startled, but calmly. He found himself back in bed and it still late at night. He had never woken up from a dream so peacefully in a very long while, so he took his time swinging his legs out of bed and stretching his body. A cool wind blew against his skin as he uncovered his blankets–something wasn’t right. He turned to see that the patio door was wide open to his balcony. He arose from bed and at a quick pace, walked over and out onto the high porch. He saw that Nox was still sleeping, which was very odd. Nox couldn’t have opened the door and he remembered closing it tightly before going to bed; no light breeze like this could push the doors open, so someone or something had entered his room without him knowing. What was even more odd was that the door was opened so silently and the thing doing it was so quiet that it didn’t even alarm his pet. Nox was a predatory bird with heightened senses; if anything, he could have heard the intruder coming a mile away, but there he perched on Zack’s balcony railing, deep in slumber.

Zack walked back inside to inspect his room and see if the intruder was still lurking about. After much searching, he couldn’t find a single thing moved or out of place to suspect anyone from being in his room. He walked out on the balcony to close the double doors once again, but stopped his progression when he noticed a leaflet hung on the outside door hinge. A small, square piece of parchment fluttered in the breeze with a strange insignia on it. Zack took the worn piece of cloth off of the hinge to inspect it closer. The symbol on the letter seemed to be something he had never seen before. It looked something like this:

Below the symbol, something had hand-written the words in dark ink, “We’re watching you, always."

Comments

[Diabolic Gnome]

oh so thats what i means

also yay update

[ponyclaws]

Skyrim reference! WHOO

[ForgottenBackgroundPony]

Almost all of the images in this story seem to be broken. Could you find a fix please?

[Secrets and Lies]

7571237
I'm not sure if they've found a way around posting images in stories or not, but this blog post here explains why most of my links are broken. I can tell you that most of the images in the story aren't very important to the story itself. With or without them the story pretty much reads the same. But I would like to relink the images if FimFic found out a way or had their own image client to upload through the site.

Sorry for the inconvenience

[DerpTape]

Next you will get notes informing you that :

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

[Secrets and Lies]

9924040
That's so funny you mentioned that. I'm currently reading 1984. Are you... watching me???