Counterclockwise

by AdrianJNovelle

The Great Revelation

"I've got you now, missy!" snarled a dark, familiar voice. It was the voice of Captain. And, though I could not see him, he sounded right behind me.

I gasped and leapt up from my position on the rock. He was here. I could feel his presence. His voice made my fur stand on end, the horror of this scene excaberated by my lack of identification in regard for his location. I held my book in my grasp as a heavy wind began to pick up and flow through my mane wildly as the sun began to peer over the horizon in the distance.

Suddenly, he seemed to appear spontaneously on the rock in front of me.

"How did you get there?"

"I've been here all the while," the mighty unicorn hissed. He seated himself on the rock. "You know we're all capable of time-travel. Well, spells like that take some time to learn. And, in the meantime, I've learned invisibility-" He vanished in a flash of light and appeared right in my face. "And teleportation." He stalked closer to me; I stepped backward in retreat. "And you're nothing but a weakened little parasprite, feeding endlessly in a world in which you don't even belong."

I began to shiver with apprehension.

"Do you know what we do to parasprites in this time?"

Captain charged up his horn, and shot a great bolt of lightning from the tip.

I evaded the attack, leaving a big, black mark in the earth.

In a nanosecond, I got a glimpse of Captain's backside. There, strapped to his back, was a large, dusty, brown leather book. I had to get away from him with the book in my possession.

Captain seemed to know a thing or two about high-level magic.

Well, let's see how much he knows.

I ran behind a bush and hid in the shadows.

"I saw where you hid!" Captain shouted, charging up his horn.

A flash of light came from behind the bush.

A moment later, a Twilight Sparkle hopped out into sight.

"Hey!" she shouted. "You wanna piece of me?"

"Grrr...ARRRRGGGHHH!" roared Captain, blasting a huge bolt of lightning to the Twilight. She inflated like a balloon and exploded into dust.

"Heheh," he chuckled. He slowly walked to the bush. "Who's high and mighty with your knowledge now?"

Captain reached the bush and peered behind it, seeing nothing but a black mark of ash in the grass.

"What!? What be of this-"

I guess he then felt the absence on his backside.

"What's this now?" He turned around to find me in retreat from the area. His horn glowed, and in a flash of light, he vanished and reappeared in front of me. "Give me that book!" he hissed.

"Never!" I protested. "I know you're hiding something important from me - and I'm gonna find out what!"

"You do that, and you could end up throwing the entire space-time continuum into oblivion!" His horn glowed a violent red. "I will not let that happen!" He stared daggers at me through the shades he wore over his eyes. "I am giving you one last chance to surrender the book and return to your cell for prosecution and the drainage of your magical powers, as we agreed. Or, you can not surrender the book, and I will have no choice but to tear you apart!"

Several dark clouds began to crawl along the sky. A quiet thunder kissed my ears.

"GIVE ME THAT BOOK!"

"If you don't want me to read this book so badly, why don't you just destory it?"

"I can't do that, you imbecile!"

"What? Why not?"

"Because! That book is all I have left to remember her by!"

"Her? Her who?"

"Never you mind!"

The dark-red aura around Captain's horn began to illuminate. It also surrounded the book in my hooves. He was attempting to nab it right from my grasp. I reacted by pulling the book in the opposing direction, yanking it as hard as I could away from him.

"I swear to Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, if you don't surrender to me that book, I will put you through so much pain and turmoil, you can't even imagine! And you can forget about going home anytime soon. I can keep you here forever. I can take you back anytime I want. I would do so immediately after your drainage. But the longer you resist and provoke me, the longer you stay here and rot in your puny cell!"

I sighed. "Here you go, sir," I said, outstretching my hooves and lightening my grasp. Captain's magical grip on the book finally overpowered mine, and he placed it on his backside once again. "I had no idea it was so important to you."

"Yes, well, most ponies don't understand me..." Captain suddenly had calmed now that he had claimed victory over me. "Since you are so cooperative, I might just send you right home after your drainage, Twilight Sparkle. I never knew prisoners and deviants could be so...cooperative."

"I may be your prisoner, but...deep down...we're a lotta like, you and me...with being not easily understood and whatnot."

"You don't have to pity me, Twilight Sparkle. Nor must you go on with your explanation. I know we are alike in our demanors, and our personalities. Before I became a police officer and, well, bascially whatever I'd be called today, I was a scientist and a bibliophile just like you. Then Claire died, and...well...that really turned my life around."

Captain turned around and began to step back to his headquarters, assuming I would follow behind. I remained where I was.

"And how long ago was that?"

"Pfft! Phooey with details! Why would you-" He gasped. By the time he could turned his head around, I was already out of sight.

"BASTARD!" he cried as the skies grew dark and hazy overhead. "Well, she still doesn't know when Claire died. And nor does she know the one thing I am trying my hardest not for her to know, and that information is kept safely here, in my own personal book of-" He gasped when he read the title, Twilight Sparkle: Equestria's Most Significant Unicorn. "NOOO!!! BASTARD! CHEATER! DEVIANT! I'VE HAD IT!!!"

---

I appeared in an instant somewhere in the past. The exact location, I was unsure. But I had managed to outsmart Captain and his keen sense of magic and perception with a few magic tricks of my own. He had technology on his side, however. And I knew that it would only be a matter of time before he found me again. That, or he would send one of two of his useless comrades after me like the coward he has proven himself to be. Either way, I had the book he was concealing from me, and I was finally able to reveal the information I had been so desperately seeking.

It was weird, though: I was in desperate need to find this information, for I believed that if he was keeping it secretive, claiming I would desecrate the fabric of space-time, then it must be important, right? But, I had no idea what information this book could ever contain which would ever be of any use to me. This is just Captain's...diary. Or, journal, or whatever. He referred to it as his memoirs; I guess to sound more professional and less...well, girly. Like there's anything wrong with that!

After resting a moment to catch my breath and let the pain in my head abate a little, I finally sat down and flipped open the book. I read a few pages. I got the information on Claire's death I sought, but I knew that wasn't all of it. There was something more.

Another turn of the page, and all was revealed.

Captain is a time-traveling unicorn being from an alternate timeline which is not necessarily concrete. He was not a duplicate or a paradox, but, since I became a time-traveler, I was a pawn in the temporal game he was playing. And now I controlled his two fates.

I had apparently already met the other Captain of the alternate timeline.

And his name is Luis Zimmermare.

Comments

[AdrianJNovelle]

2225537 How about you wait until the end...then come talk to me, okay?