The Machine

by ADRNEL

Chapter XXXVIII~The Confrontation~

July 6, 1946

At a summer cottage in the Jersey Shore, a man in his sixties wearing a business suit walked in. Inside was normally quiet and peacefully, but on that day, the peacefulness was broken by the sounds of sobbing along with an unusually morbid atmosphere. The man took off his Homburg hat out of respect and walked into the parlor.

In the parlor he saw his sister and her children gathered around, all trying to comfort her and keep her calm. The man cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. He was met with piercing stares. "I...came here as soon as I got the news, it was a long drive from Philadelphia to here." he explained, slightly ashamed over his tardiness. "When did father pass?" he wanted to know.

"He passed away in his sleep last night Edward." answered the sister. "He died peacefully, but was upset that you did not show up on the Fourth of July like you promised." she said with venom in her voice.

Edward just sighed. "Something came up at work-"

"IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT WORK!" she snapped at her brother in anger. She was stressed and on-edge as is. The room went quiet until her son James stepped in.

"Come on mother, maybe the nice ocean breezes will calm you down." James briefly glared at his uncle as she escorted his mother out the backdoor to ocean facing deck.

The emotional outburst made Edward even more ashamed. He looked at her two other grown kids. "And his body?"

"It was taken to the funeral home this morning Uncle Ed, to get it ready for the ceremony and all..." explained Edward's only niece.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry..." he apologized to both of them before he made his up the stairs to his father's room. He walked into the bedroom, door already left opened to see his father's nurse make the bed.

She noticed Edward's presence and stopped what she was doing. "I'm sorry for that loss." she told him with remorse. "I tried making his final days as comfortable as possible-"

"Don't worry about that Zelda, you did your best, thank you for keeping him company when we couldn't." interrupted the man trying to ease the nurse of her worries. "You were there for his 91st birthday when I couldn't, and I appreciate that." he gave her a sincere smile.

The nurse just nodded. "Well, if are in need of a nurse of midwife, you know who to call." she said before she left the room to give Edward some time alone.

Edward looked around the room, the place decorated mostly with old photographs and his father's diplomas and awards. It was tough living under the shadow of the Wotton name, but he did his best and is proud of his job as a scientific adviser for the Army Department of the government and mentoring the new recruited scientists from Germany.

As he looked around he noticed something odd; a journal he has never seen before on the nightstand next to the bed. He took the book and opened it, on the inside of the front cover was a message that was clearly not written in his father's hand. "You will forever be my friend, -Adam" it read.

"Adam?" it was the name of his father's beloved friend who disappeared nearly 50 years ago. He flipped through the whole book, the first half was written journal entries while the back half is an endless stream of equations. "Wait...these equations..." he knew what they meant, but did not know where they lead to. He soon reached the last page to see a crude sketch of what appeared to be a machine, soon, the long strings of equations finally made sense. "Time travel? This book is about how to time travel..." he was stunned. He quickly ran out the room trying to get to the nurse before she left. "NURSE! NURSE! Wait!"

---

In the time stream, Adam and Celestia were wrestling each other on the time machine. The passenger area was barely the size of a closet, plus add the fact that it was surrounded by a protective bubble and built to carry one comfortably, it made for tight quarters, there was no place to go or escape without leaving the bubble.

Despite being stabbed in his forearm by the alicorn's horn, it managed to miss the bone and the magic that emanated from the horn actually cauterized his wound, but it did not make it hurt any less. Adam swiftly threw a right hook with his only good arm at the princess. But seemed to have no effect.

"How cute" smirked Celestia as she kicked the human hard on the stomach, knocking him backwards and almost pushing him dangerously closed to the protective barrier. He crouch down in pain, blood dripping out of his mouth from the hard hit. "I'm an alicorn, you think you can pick a fight with an alicorn and expect to win?" she teased as her magic enveloped the human's neck and started to constrict.

The human began to struggle as he felt himself being lifted off the metal platform of his machine, he head inching closer to the top of the bubble and certain death. "You're rule...can't last...forever..." he grunted while he tried to breathe.

"Yes it can, I will make sure of that." responded a defiant Celestia as she used her magic to rip the element of harmony off his neck. "You should've taken my offer for the phoenix tears, because at least you would've escaped alive, but now I must kill you for knowing too much." she smirked.

During the struggle, Adam reached into his pants' pocket and took out his pistol. Celestia did not notice until she heard him cock the gun. "My death...is just...the beginning..." he gasped as he aimed his weapon at the princess' chest.

Celestia just chuckled in response. "You seriously think that puny weapon can kill an alicorn? You must be desperate." she continued to chuckle from sheer disbelief, extremely confident of her position in the fight. "So any last words before I throw you off this thing?" she taunted to toy with him.

"It is worth...a shot..." Adam managed to say while being choked. He squeezed the trigger and the bullet hit her square in the chest. Celestia looked down and saw a bullet hole in her chest, blue blood dripping down from it. The realization dawned on her, she severely underestimated how fast bullets fired from human-made weapons can go, it went so fast that she did not have the time to cast her shield spell.

"Well...this is so not fair." she said as she dropped Adam and the element back to the floor on the ever growing puddle of blue colored blood. "Fuck..." she gasped as she stumbled around, losing her sense of balance from the lack of blood to her brain. One of Celestia's legs missed the platform and fell through and out of the machine and bubble. She screamed in pain as her exposed back leg began to age and decay away, she lost track of where she was as the rest of her body followed suit, falling out of the machine and bubble.

Adam kept his eyes shut, to avoid witnessing such a disturbing site. After what felt like several minutes of silence, he opened his eyes and got up from the blood soaked floor, his white shirt now stained blue. He looked at the dials and quickly realized that he was still travelling forwards in time. He quickly pulled on the lever and the machine finally slowed down to its new stop; the main display read:

??? JUN 21 001 270 855 620 AD

Adam found himself in a much hotter world, the air felt like he was high in the mountains, but the elevation was still exactly the same from when he left Equestria. The sky was a sinister shade of red as the sun tried to shine through the perpetually cloudy sky. The place looked like a wasteland until he observed the valley below, down there he saw a disturbing sight; a large Changeling hive. He looked back up to the sky to see endless swarms of the creatures flying overhead, paying no attention to him. "Equestria...in the year one billion." he mused to himself.

He fell to his knees, exhausted and in pain. Everything suddenly became pointless for him, the future forever bleak. Tears landed on the dry and red ground of where he knelt, all hope gone. "What am I going to do now? I just killed Equestria's only hope in keeping this future from happening, this is just not fair..." he was unsure what to do. How was he going to prevent this happening if he could not change the past. He looked over at the Element of Wisdom still on the floor of his machine. But the then remembered what Celestia told him about changing the past and a realization dawned on him. "If I can not change the past...maybe I can change the future..." he muttered to himself.

The human quickly got up, and ran back to his machine, he must not give up now, there's still a way to save Equestria in his mind, but first he needed to make a quick pit stop to see an old friend for what he felt was the final time.

---

July 5, 1946

In a summer cottage by the Jersey Shore, 91-year-old Henry Wotton, was tucked into bed by Nurse Zelda. "Time for bed Mr. Wotton, you need your rest." she told him as she confiscated his pen and notebook.

"But I must...keep my mind...busy..." he gasped, it became harder to breathe with each passing day. "It's all I have...left..." he said before he went into a loud coughing fit. Nurse Zelda quickly gave the man a glass of water.

"Here, drink this, and slowly." she instructed as Henry took the glass and carefully drank all the water. His coughing fit soon stopped, much to his relief.

"Thank you..." he smiled as he laid back to finally rest. "...you have served me well..."

The nurse tucked his in and made sure he was as comfortable as possible. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll finish your work tomorrow, it looks like it is coming along quite nicely." she commented as she glanced and what he wrote down, although mathematical logic was a subject beyond her comprehension.

Henry just smiled. "I hope so as well...I hope so as well..." was all he said before he finally nodded off to sleep, a soft snore emanated from him. Zelda smiled, placed his notebook and pen in his nightstand drawer and turned off all the lights in the room. She left the window open to allow the cool ocean breezes and the ambient sounds of the ocean in. She looked back at her patient one last time with a smile before closing the door behind her.

But just as the door closed, a figure climbed through the open window and crawled inside. Adam looked around the room, making sure he did not wake anyone up during his climb. He could hear the nurse get in her car and drive off to her home just a mile away from the cottage. It was not easy for Adam to get here, although he was quite thankful that Canterlot would be closer to New Jersey than his home, Allentown, Pennsylvania to be exact. He hitchhiked for a better part of the day to get here, completely unfamiliar with the time period, but it needed to be done. Also along the way, he stole some clothes from a Woolworth's along the way to better fit in with the period and to cover up his blue stained shirt.

Adam went over to the nightstand and gently placed his journal next on it, for his friend to discover when he wakes up. He did not want his friend to know about this meeting to avoid potential paradoxes from sprouting. He looked at his old and dying friend before he crouched down next to the bed. "Hey old friend," he whispered, putting his hand on his friend's hand. "it's me, Adam, the man you put up with for over a decade." he joked a little. "the man who should've appreciated your friendship more..." he said. "...you were my only friend and I felt like I squandered it with my selfishness..." he admitted. "But no tears, I am happy that you still managed to live your life, lived long and stayed happy..." he then remembered an eventful night where he and Henry went to see the musical HMS Pinafore, and then went to a tavern where they lead the entire establishment into a makeshift performance of some of the songs, their favorite one was always "A British Tar". Adam softly began to sing the song for him. "His nose should pant and his nose should curl, his cheeks should flame and his brow should furl..." he sang.

Once he finished his slightly off-key rendition of the song, he stood up and walked over to the open window. "Goodbye, you shall forever be my one true friend..." he smiled at the sleeping Henry before he began his climb down the window. Little did Adam knew, but Henry would never again wake up.

---

Back in Equestria, a massive changeling swarm lead by Queen Chrysalis herself were just minutes away from reaching the castle just as the first rays of daylight began to peak over the horizon. Inside the throne room, Twilight struggled to break free from her bonds, desperate to escape before the swarm's arrival. She looked over to the spot that once had the time machine parked on, Adam and Celestia had been gone for over an hour now and she had no idea when in time they ended up. But before she realized it, the stone that encased her suddenly receded away and she was suddenly free again. "Huh?" she fell to the floor, limbs a little weak from being restricted in moving them for hours on end.

She looked over at Luna to see that she was also now also free from her stone prison. She dropped to the floor, also feeling weak. "My sister..." she croaked weakly, remembering what just happened.

"You okay Luna?" asked Twilight with concern as she slowly walked up to her, struggling to keep in balance, feeling like she's learning to walk again. "What happened?" she asked.

Luna looked at the young unicorn. "You mean to say that it was not you that reversed the petrification spell?" she asked her. Twilight just shook her head. "Oh no...that can only mean..."

Suddenly, the door to the throne room burst open to reveal Applejack, Rairty, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with their elements, ready for battle. But they quickly see that only Twilight and Luna were there. "Where's Adam and Celestia?" asked Rainbow Dash, confused at what just happened.

Suddenly, in a bright blue flash, the time machine suddenly appeared before everyone in the room. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Adam in it. He quickly got up and tied the Element of Wisdom up to the machine's gears. "Adam?" asked Twilight happy to see him again.

"Yes Twilight, I'm back." he assured as he checked over his machine one last time. He looked as if he was in hurry.

"What happened to Celestia?" she asked, not seeing her anywhere.

"I'll explain later, we have no time to waste." he suddenly pulled the lever on his machine and quickly jumped off of it before the protective bubble could trap him. As the machine started, the gears pulled the element into the machinery, jamming them and causing the machine to groan and whirl loudly.

"What are you doing?" asked a still confused Twilight. Adam ran up to the mare and suddenly kissed her passionately on the lips. She was completely stunned by that action but before she could kiss back, the human quickly broke it.

"Saving the future." he gave the mare a reassuring smile. He then turned to the others. "Luna, teleport us just outside of the city, we need to be at a safe distance." he told the blue alicorn.

"But what about the changelings?" Luna said with concern, she could see a large cloud of them heading towards them from out the window.

"Just trust me on this, get us out of here!" he urged, pointing at the machine, its protective bubble slowly collapsing in on itself. Groaning and rumbling loudly, it sounded like it would overload at any moment. Luna took that as her cue to do as told. Everyone quickly gathered around Luna as the alicorn's horn began glow. They suddenly disappear, the room now empty apart from a time machine groaning under the increasing strain of its machinery being jammed.

Minutes after the entire castle of evacuated, Chrysalis and her swarm broke through all the throne room windows, and landed inside ready to face Celestia, Luna and the Elements of Harmony. "Celestia!" the queen announced. "I have come to exact my revenge on all of you!" she cackled. But she suddenly realized that she and her swarm were the only ones inside. This worried the changeling queen greatly. "Where did they run off to?" her thought was immediately derailed by the loud sounds of a machine dying. Chrysalis and her swarm looked at the machine as it suddenly stopped and went dead.

"What the-" before she could complete her statement of disbelief, the machine exploded and it sent a shock wave across the entire castle, not only destroying the castle, but vaporizing the changeling queen and her entire swarm in the process.

On a ridge overlooking Canterlot, Adam, Twilight and her friends, Luna and the royal guards looked on in shock at the sight of the famed Canterlot castle get destroyed in a wall of flames, taking the changelings with it. Twilight looked over at Adam who watched the scene intently. She nuzzled against his hand and thigh to get his attention. "But your machine...how are you going to get home?" she asked with concern.

The human looked down at Twilight and crouched down to better face her. "Twilight, I am already home, this is my home now." he explained as he looked into her purple eyes. "Besides," he began with sincerity. "it's only a machine." he looked back at the sight of the castle collapsing completely. Twilight quietly enveloped the human into a hug both watching the destruction unfold and the rising dawn sun.

Despite losing his only means of ever going home, Adam strangely felt content, he felt more at home spending one year in Equestria than spending his entire life back in home time period. For the first time in years, he was actually hopeful about the future and what it would unfold for him.

To be concluded...

Author's Note:

Up next: the final chapter.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

**RE-WRITES COMPLETE: XIII, XIX

*RE-WRITES IN PROGRESS: -

^RE-WRITE PLANNED: XIV

By this you mean the chapters, right? I'm not stupid, I'm just making sure.