The Machine

by ADRNEL

Chapter XXXIII~The Journey~

It was a dark and stormy night in Ponyville, tonight was the scheduled thunderstorm hit the town, just outside in a large house, the town's sole human tossed and turned in his bed. It wasn't because of the storm outside that kept him awake, but the bad memories.

Flashes of Starlight raping him often, himself snapping Fluttershy's neck and subsequent funeral would just not go away. "No! No!" he mumbled to himself in his sleep. "NO!" he shot awake, grabbed a nearby desk lamp and threw it across his bedroom as if being attacked. "No..." he breathed as he was now fully awake and just realized what he did. He sighed, it has been a month since her death and it still haunted him. He lost too many lovers already, maybe it was best for him to no longer feel love.

---

Chapter XXXIII
The Journey (Part One)

---

The next morning, Adam got to work as he scribbled equations on the many chalkboards littered around the living room. Piles of books and papers also filled the place, making the room hard to navigate without knocking something over. Work was the only thing that kept his mind off of what just happened. He could not stop least having those bad memories pop up again.

A knock interrupted the busy silence as the human reluctantly stopped his work to answer it, he assumed it was just the mailpony. He opened the door to see that it was Twilight, the last pony he wanted to see. He swiftly began to close the door on her, but she barged in before he could do so. "Look, this isn't about reviving Shy, I've given up on that like you said." she pleaded to him to hear her out. "I just wanted to check-up on you is all."

Adam just looked at her with suspicion but decided to play along with it. "I'm fine, just working is all..." he lead the mare to the living to show her his progress. "Trying to plug in destructive interference into a probabilistic polynomial time problem...but as you can see, I have hit a snag since it is beyond my knowledge, I think only a computational machine can solve this now." he explained as he sat down on the only non-paper covered part of the couch, physically and mentally exhausted from trying to figure it out.

"Did you take into account the presence of closed timelike curves?" Twilight asked the human.

"Of course I did." he pointed to another chalkboard. He then turned to the mare. "I still haven't found a way to change the past..." he admitted. "I...I want to save-" he was swiftly cut off by a hoof placed on his mouth.

"I know Adam, I know you want to save the ones you loved..." she explained. "But just because you can't save them does not mean that you should give up on love." she urged. "Besides, I am Mary, when I sleep I start to remember my life with you when I was her." her hoof brushed his cheek. "I even remember the more intimate parts that we shared..." she admitted with a blush.

"Maybe if I had been with you instead, Fluttershy would still be alive." he said to her, looking into the mare's lavender eyes, an exact copy of Mary's. The human held her hoof close to his face, nuzzling it, while he saw Twilight give a smile, enjoying this intimate moment.

Next thing they both knew, but they both leaned in and kissed each other passionately. The human had no idea what compelled him to do this, maybe as a way to forget what he went through? He had no idea, but it felt right to him.

---

Almost an hour later, Adam found himself starring at his bedroom ceiling, completely naked, Twilight's head rested on his chest, her mane a frazzled mess and coat matted in sweat. Fourth time since he came to Equestria that he made it all the way with a mare. He felt a wave of uncertainty hit him as he was unsure whether they made love out of long suppressed lust, or genuine love. The thought troubled him. He slowly got, taking care to not wake the mare from her slumber, but it seems like she was in a deep sleep.

After he got off the bed, he put on his pants and shirt before going downstairs to the kitchen. Once there he began to brew himself some tea to calm his nerves and mind. "We shouldn't have done that..." he said to himself. "But why didn't we stop?" just as the tea kettle began to shoot out steam to signal that the tea was done, a bright green flash of light enveloped the room. Adam quickly looked to see to his surprise a black hoodie wearing Lyra in the kitchen. "Lyra?!" he said with disbelief.

"You must come with me, there's something you must see, no time to explain further." she ordered. She looked around as if to check that the place was secure. "Grab my horn!"

"Uh...why?"

"JUST DO IT!" she yelled. Adam quickly obeyed in response and grabbed the mint colored mare's horn. They suddenly found themselves in a small hut in the Everfree forest.

Unlike the first time the human experienced teleportation, this one went smoother, only experiencing slight dizziness. He remembered Lyra explaining that teleportation gets more smoother and less disorienting with each subsequent trip. Adam looked around the hut. "What is this place?"

"You are in my hut my human friend, a place where they can not go apprehend, they want to capture Lyra for she knows, too much over something that she'll expose." a zebra walked in to explain the situation.

"What? Who's after Lyra?" asked a confused Adam.

"The Brotherhood of the Fourth Sphere," answered Lyra looking out of every window. "I entered the forbidden zone in the badlands bordering Dragon territory and saw something that shouldn't have been seen, I am being hunted down by my former team." she explained.

"And this has to do with me because...?" asked the human, still confused.

"This has EVERYTHING to do with you, trust me." explained Lyra. "Which is why I need you to go there to see for yourself."

"But what is there?" Adam demanded. Tired of the unicorn being vague.

"Your destiny." said Lyra. Suddenly, a beam of magic shot threw a window, Lyra quickly pulled Adam down the floor for his safety.

"Lyra Heartstrings." yelled a voice from outside. "Come on out and cooperate, you have been charged with trespassing on private royal property and blasphemy, your sentence is immediate assassination, now come out peacefully so you can face your sentence!"

"Crap, they're here." mumbled Lyra. She then turned to Zecora. "Here, take the map," she took out a piece of paper from her hoodie pocket and slid it to the zebra. "and help guide Adam out of the forest, he needs to see what I saw."

"I'll try and do my best my friend Lyra, I'll take the human through my Palmyra." Zecora pointed to a pile of Palmyra palm leaves.

"But what about you?" asked the human to the unicorn with concern. He was met by a deep kiss on the lips from her.

"Don't worry about me stud, I live for this." she giggled and teased slightly, before she slowly headed to the door. "Now go." she ordered.

Adam was a bit stunned by all the things that are happening, but was quickly pulled over to a secret trap door that was hidden under a pile of palm leaves by Zecora. "Let us go my human friend with much haste, we must surely leave before we are traced." implored the zebra as she pointed down the trap door to reveal an underground tunnel. Adam looked back one last time at Lyra before he reluctantly climb down the tunnel.

"Godspeed Lyra, Godspeed." he muttered under his breath as the trap door was closed.

---

Outside the hut, four ponies in black hoods stood, one white, one red, one black and one ghostly white. They saw Lyra calmly walk out the door, head bowed down to show that she was coming out peacefully.

Lyra looked to see who they were. "Of course it would be you four. You four did kiss her butt a lot during training together." she said at the quartet.

"Why would you turn your rump on us Sister Lyra?" the four said in unison. "I thought you enjoyed being part of the Brotherhood."

"Because I met a human and found out that not all of them are monsters." she explained with defiance. "And he's more of a lover than a monster!"

"Wait, did you make love to him?" spoke one of them, completely stunned.

"Yes? Why do you ask?" said the mare with a raised eyebrow, confused.

"You have been irreversibly contaminated, and that requires a new form of punishment." spoke another.

"What new form of punishment?!" Lyra was much more scared, since they usually just turned ponies into statues and then shatter them to pieces, she heard nothing about this new punishment they spoke of.

"Death by fire." was also they said before the red one fired flames at the mare. A blood curdling scream echoed across the forest.

---

At another part of the forest, both Zecora and Adam emerge out of a trap-door buried underneath a patch of artificial grass. They climb out, with Adam trying to make sense of it all. As he brushed off the dirt off of himself he looked to see Zecora bowing before him. "Uh...what are you doing?" he asked.

"In my homeland me along with fellow tribe-mates worship humans with a bellow." she explained as she got back up. "For the longest time we thought you're a myth, but I see you're real like a monolith." she explained as she walked around the human and began to rub her body against his legs as if she were a cat. "Your scent is more alluring than I thought, it makes me yearn for pleasure and whatnot."

The human just backed away from the zebra mare, slightly weird out by that statement. "I just want to know what in the name of Hell is going on around here!" he urged desperately. He wanted to straight answer and know what he just got himself involved in.

Zecora gave Adam the map that Lyra gave her. "This map should lead you to all your answers, but the path is littered with much lancers."

The human took the map and looked at it, there was a dotted line that meandered its way out of the Everfree forest and into the desert badlands before finally crossing into dragon territory. To his surprise, in the almost full year he has spent in Equestria, he has never once left its borders. "What am I going to find there by the way?" he asked Zecora.

"That location houses your destiny, but once you get there please tread carefully." she explained before she walked back to the trapdoor. "This is a journey that you alone must, make now I must go and relieve my lust." a slight blush colored her cheeks as she climbed down the trapdoor and closed it behind her.

He looked around the place, her was just at the edge of the forest and could see large grassland before him. But he also saw a water canteen and a bag of dried food hanging on a tree, both looked like they were prepared by Zecora. This will be one long journey.

---

"What do we do with the zebra?" asked one of the four ponies to the other three.

"Leave her be, she's a foreigner, no one will believe her." explained the white pony, the clear leader of the quartet.

"And the human?"

"Don't worry, she has personally taken care of it."

---

At the semi-arid shrub lands entering the badlands, Sasha the caribou calmly walked along with nothing but a canteen and his prized sniper rifle. All he cared about was to complete the mission Celestia has sent him on, and he will not be satisfied until he personally sees that human's head vaporize into a cloud of red mist. He soon saw two dragons fly overhead, circling him, a warning that he's about to enter dragon territory. Sasha was not phased by that fact, he knew full well that dragons do not appreciate non-dragons entering their territory.

He continued his walk, completely ignoring the two dragons above until they finally swooped down and landed in front of him. They appeared to be young dragons by the looks of it, saddled with the thankless job of border patrol. "Turn back now non-dragon, this is as far as we'll allow you to go." spoke one of them.

The caribou just blankly stared at them, clearly unimpressed. "I'm on an official mission of Princess Celestia of Equestria, I suggest you let me through." he explained.

Both dragons just erupt with laughter. "Your princess has no authority among us, your missions means squat to us." the dragon explained. "Now turn back or we'll be forced to use force." he warned.

"So it's hardball you want, then it's hardball you'll get." was all the caribou said as his horns began to lightly glow.

---

The sounds of bones breaking could be heard emanating from the Dragon Lord's lair, followed by a scream of pain. "Is this the best you males can produce?" snarled Dragon Lord Ember, disgusted by how easily she was able to outmaneuver and outsmart this larger and stronger male dragon. She grabbed his arm into a lock and swiftly broke it, she then forcibly pushed him down to the ground. "You have proven yourself unworthy to be my mate, now leave before I break another appendage." she warned to him.

The other dragon got up as quickly as he could and flew out of her throne room in shame. Ember just gave a sigh of disgust, the winner of the yearly mating tournament was no match for her. She sat back down on her throne, bloodstone scepter leaned up against it as usual, annoyed and unfulfilled. According to tradition, those who defeat a female in battle have the right to mate with her, sometimes she just wished to forget traditional to get the instant gratification she wanted, but she's the new Dragon Lord, she needs to set an example of putting traditions and the Dragon lands before her personal needs. "If only there was a male than can equally match me in combat." she yearned to herself.

A messenger dragon ran in. "My lord, we have a creature of unknown origin entering our territory." he announced as he bowed down to her.

"What does this creature look like?" asked Ember.

"He kind of looks like a hairless monkey my lord, walks on two legs as well." he described what he saw from his scouting mission.

Ember was intrigued. "So the fairy tales are true...the mythical enemy of the dragons actually do exist." she mused. "I want this creature brought to me, I must see it, I want it here as soon as possible, understood?!" she ordered the messenger.

"Yes my lord." he bowed one last time before he flew away at high speed.

"Who knows..." Ember said to herself as she picked up her scepter. "...maybe this creature will be a perfect match for me." she mused.

---

"Adam?" asked Twilight as she searched the entire house for the human. "Don't tell me he ran off again." she sighed with worry for him. "Sure what we did was wrong, but it felt so right..." she said to herself. "Maybe that's why he ran away, he felt as confused as me about what just happened." she walked around the house. "I just hope he'll come back soon..."

Twilight, with great sadness and worry, decided to walk back to the library, she's been gone for several hours now and Spike must be getting worried about her. She soon returned back to her home at the library, still worried for Adam but putting on a front so Spike wouldn't ask her any probing questions. "Spike! I'm home!" she announced only to see to her great surprise Princess Celestia sitting in the living room drinking coffee.

"Oh hey Twilight, I've decided to send Spike away for the day so we can have some...alone time together." Celestia smiled at her student.

The unicorn was stunned. "Oh, well this is most unusual Celestia, you hardly ever personally visit me, what's going on?" she asked with surprise as she sat down in the chair across from Celestia. "What is this about?"

"Well, I just wanted to check up on your studies and on how your human friend is holding up after all that torture he went through." the princess explained in a perfectly calm demeanor that perfectly hid her cold calculating side. "By the way, where is he?" she asked. "I must speak to him as soon as possible for he needs to testify at Starlight's treason hearing."

"I don't know where he is Celestia, he was at his house this morning when I came over to check-up on him, we talked and ma..." she quickly caught herself. "...took a nap, and when I woke up he disappeared." she explained.

The princess nearly spat out her coffee right then in there in shock, but managed to keep herself calm and stoic. "So my most faithful student mated with a member of the most deplorable and dangerous species I have ever known...no matter, Sasha will take care of my little monkey problem, and hopefully before Adam discovers my most biggest secret." she ranted in her mind, she felt like Twilight betrayed not only herself but all Equestrians by what she did. Luckily things are still going to plan.

In the basement, Spike was bound and gagged on the floor, screaming for help, struggling to break free.

---

In the badlands, Sasha calmly walked into the Dragon lands, behind him were the carcasses of two dragons who were hypnotized into literally tearing each other up. Dragons, especially teenage ones, are extremely easy to psychically manipulate, the caribou smirked proudly of that fact.

At another part of the badlands, Adam hiked along under the blaring sun. He looked on to see a large dragon skeleton, twice his size. Attached to the skeleton was a wooden sign that read "Ponies turn back, here be dragons, keep out." The human carefully examined the remains to see that it was killed in battle from the broken and chipped bones along with a severely cracked skull. Suddenly, he sees a dragon land in front of him, also twice his size. Adam was in complete shock having never saw a fully grown dragon before, he back away from the remains slowly.

"The Dragon Lord requests your presence immediately." announced the dragon, Ember's messenger.

"And if I refuse?" he nervously stuttered in response, clearly intimidated, he knew full well he can't fight something that large.

"Then we'll force you." he answered with contempt for the human, and clearly belligerent.

It did not take time for Adam to make his choice. "Take me to your leader then." he nervously laughed. "Like I have any other choice..." he muttered under his breath, he was not looking forward to this.

To be continued...