He wondered if his choice of words had been correct. For one moment there had been a completely shocked silence as they simply stared at him with open mouths. Then, all hell had broken loose. He observed in silence as the ponies unloaded all of their shock upon him and once again, time slowed down to an eternity.
Between a fainting Fluttershy and a fuming Rainbow Dash and Applejack he could see Rarity wail in terror. He saw Pinkie's hair deflate considerably and Twilight Sparkle's magic light up. He saw Luna shout questions at him using her best royal voice, the shock waves carrying like ripples through the air and shattering tea cups and plates alike, making the glass of his mask vibrate softly.
And he saw Celestia. Motionless. Still and silent. Looking at him with those ageless eyes as he returned her stare, ignorant to the pandemonium around them, seemingly frozen in time. Time returned to its normal pace.
He heard their accusations and felt the air tremble with their shouts and anger. Still, he simply ignored them as he and Celestia watched one another in silence.
“ENOUGH!” Celestia's voice thundered above all else, making the walls shudder at her outburst. It was a rare occasion for her to use the royal voice, he had not heard it in centuries but she still outclassed her sister by lengths. Always the big sister...
As quickly as the commotion had started it was ended by her outburst, all of the ponies looking at her with shocked faces. None of them had ever heard Celestia raise her voice like this before. He had, but what surprised him was the strange expression in her face as she approached him again.
She stopped only a meter away from him, staring into his face with an expression he had not seen since the day of Luna's banishment. “How long?” she quietly asked.
He remained silent for a moment, this certainly wasn't the reaction he had expected. “I do not know.”
“How will you know?”
“I will hear it coming.” it would start with a soft murmur, a sound only those that were connected to the void could hear. Then, it would slowly grow louder, until it was like a thundering wave crashing down on them. Then, it would be time.
“And then?”
“Then, I will take what I need.”
“Explain.”
“No new life can be born within the void, and nothing that is created within it can escape it.” he started, “A long time ago, our kind had its own world. But just like all creation, it was destined to die. When we saw that our end was near, we made a desperate decision...”
“And you stepped into the void.” Celestia said with an even voice.
“We did... but it came with a price. We could no longer have children and there was nothing to sustain us within the endless darkness, so we had to find another way. We learned to create life within the void, bonding our technology and old flesh, infusing the new bodies with the old memories of our dead... but one component was missing.”
“What was missing?” Twilight asked with horrified fascination.
“Life.” Celestia's voice had become very quiet, “This is the reason of your presence, isn't it?”
“Every form of sentient life collects through its actions and words something you would consider 'karma'. It is a reflection of how its life was spent, whether there was purpose to its existence or not. When that being dies this form of energy is set free along with the soul, creating a single, short spark of light that echoes through all the dimensions before vanishing again. It is the last spark of life. It is my duty to collect these final flashes before they vanish, and to keep them stored until the time has come to send them... home.”
He looked up at Celestia, “This spark... this last flash of life is what allows us to survive. It is both food and birth to us. Without it, we would simply starve and vanish from existence.”
“Those are millions of lives...” Celestia said with concern, “How do you 'store' something like that?”
He carefully reached out with his hand and placed it on the cold floor, “When we arrive on a new world we consider promising we immediately start to imbue it with the void...” he slowly drew up his hand again, black shadows seemingly escaping the stone to follow the motion of his hand. “It takes us millenia to create it, but when we are done a thin web covers every inch of your world. Invisible to you, nothing more than a shadow to this existence but there nonetheless.”
He waved his hand slowly and watched the shadows disappear again, “It catches those last, precious flashes of life as the souls pass through it. And as time continues, it slowly starts to fill.”
“Wait.” Twilight interrupted him, “If nothing that is created within the void can escape it, how can you be here?”
“He was born outside the void.” Luna said with a strange voice, “You saw your own world die, didn't you?”
“I did. There are others like me, born before our step into the void. We are the purveyors. We supply our kind with what they so desperately need.”
Luna paused for a moment, “If you so desperately need this form of life why wait all this time? Why not send it to your kind the moment you collect it?”
“The transfer...” he began, “Can only be performed once.”
“Why?”
“The transfer of something so pure and untainted requires to tear open the very fabric of space and time. It requires a direct connection to the void itself, but creating this tear...”
“It would shatter this world to pieces...” Celestia finished quietly.
“And that, is why I wait. When this world ends its last moment will bring forth a flood of new life among my kind.” There was a moment of gloomy silence as he finished his words, all of them trying to digest what he had told them.
He looked outside and checked the position of the sun, it was time. He slowly started to get up. “Where are you going?” Luna asked as he rose from his place.
“The reason for our conversation has become irrelevant.” he replied, “Until this moment, you could always have found me with the blood I left in your throne room. Any attempt of mine to evade you would have been futile. But by now, enough time has passed and you will no longer be able to track me... I will disappear... and you will never see me again.”
“How many?” Celestia spoke up quietly, “How many worlds have you watched die?”
“Enough to know that every world will come to an end sooner or later.”
“Did none of them fight?”
“They all did, all of them trying desperately to outrun the inevitable.” his voice sounded tired, “And I know you will fight too. It is in your nature... but ultimately...”
“Will you help us?”
He froze, “What?”
“Will you help us save our world?”
He turned to her and studied her for what seemed like minutes, “Why? What makes you different from all those other worlds? What makes you better or worth saving? Why should I dare interrupt a circle that has existed from the beginning of time?” he let his words sink in for a moment, “What makes you different?”
She eyed him with a sad face, “Nothing.” her voice was so quiet the others had to strain their ears, “Our lives are not worth more or less than any others... but life is always worth saving.” she took another step towards him, “There is nothing that makes this world special among all those others your kind has seen, I am sure... but it is our home, it is my home... and it has been your home as well. So please, help us.”
He simply stared at her, shocked at the weight of what she was asking him to do. In all the years of his tormented existence he had never found himself in such a situation. It scared him. Without another word, he vanished.
---
When he reappeared inside his cave he let his mask dismantle itself with a soft hiss before drawing in a shuddering breath. Help them... the idea left a sour taste in his mouth. They still knew only half the truth. They didn't know yet what would happen if his kind grew tired of waiting.
They did not know what he would have to do, should the hunger of the humans demand it.
He let out a long sigh, help them... what a strange request.
So Celestia just asked him to doom his race to starvation and/or possibly death in order to save Equestria. I don't actualy think Celestia realised how selfish she sounded. Also, please don't make him a "stick it to the man/humanity is wrong and evil" kind of character. Please?
FIRST COMMENT MUHAHAHA...
Also, The flying specs of fecal matter have gone from the fan and into the surrounding areas. This is starting to become creepy.
*Twilight Zone Theme plays*
Man, this keeps getting better and better.
Also, I bet when he says they all fight, half the time it might be when they fight his kind but always loose.
This is very interesting indeed...
I wonder though, what causes the world to end?
Will this be explained later on?
You really keep the readers on their toes. Ever think of (if you haven't already) submitting this to EqD?
Please don't tell me he's going to go native and betray his kind to help the ponies, its just been done so many times before.
2320399 Fail.
And also.
''So Celestia just asked him to doom his race to starvation and/or possibly death in order to save Equestria. I don't actualy think Celestia realised how selfish she sounded. Also, please don't make him a "stick it to the man/humanity is wrong and evil" kind of character. Please? ''
I totally agree with Darthpony
2320395 I can't exlain anything but the fact that i totally agree with you.
2320395
DAMN YOU, YOU STOLE THE FIRST COMMENT FROM ME!!!!!!! GAAAAAHHHHH!
TASTE CROWBAR!
You are keeping me at the end of my seat.
First time a Fanfic ever done that to me...
I dunno if I should hope that he will help them or let the circle continue.
2320395
IKR? The race that advanced the farthest gets to (sadly) reap all the spoiles. It is sad, but it's not like he's dooming them all to death, they will die naturally, and then we will step in. Or it might just be that I hate Celestia...one or the other.
So, he just waits for a world to die off naturally, before claiming what's left/what comes after?
Sort of like a carrion bird waiting for that struggling desert nomad to snuff it.
Interesting take.
¬
Mike.
"Hunger of the humans?"
Hey, at least we're waiting until they're dead... most of the time anyways.
2320395
He doesn't have to throw away what he already have though, so if he's ordered to collect now he might as well pull the ponies with him.
That'd be just like us, always fighting against fate... or thinking that we are fighting. Really, though? We'll die eventually-- whether by our own hand or at the hands of fate...
2320395
They have multiple worlds. The failure of one would merely cause a contingency to another world. Seriously though, we need to escape the void. I don't care if it's impossible, tearing space and time itself looks like that to us currently, but if they've already done it, I'm sure they could persevere eventually...
humans are historys greatest monster because no matter what happens you cant fully kill off the human race c:
"Why should I dare interrupt a circle that has existed from the beginning of time?”
Humans broke it by escaping to the void, right?
2319961 The issue there is, if it isn't going to agree with canon, then the story needs to establish its own canon. It doesn't. There is no world building or setting to grow from. It starts with the canon world and throws a monkey wrench into it.
A story must maintain it's own INTERNAL consistency. If it doesn't even do that, then it doesn't work.
2320473>>2320902 Well that may be true. Still I hope he desn't go native, it's just so overdone.
2319631 "That being said, if you don't like it vote it down and don't continue reading it. If the story really is that bad the rating will reflect it."
From my ample experience, that is absolutely not true. I have read far too many poor stories with inexplicably high ratings.
A certain vampire Vinyl Scratch story comes to mind. It was a disaster from a literary standpoint, but since it was vamponies and wereponies, somehow used as a rather ill-fitting metaphor to the gay rights movement it garnered huge numbers of fans due to it being 'edgy' and 'provocative'. Never mind that nothing in it made sense and it had several glaring self-contradictions.
Also, you do know that any true critic must also view bad and mediocre works as well as masterpieces. It is a critic's job to critique all works he or she comes upon and decides to read/watch.
2320902 Also if they trully escape the Void where will they go? Equestria? Do you realy think a whole race of nigh imortal beings far more powerful than Celestia who can harness the power of the Void are just going to be able to land in a world and settle there without bringing forth titanic changes. And then what, when that world is gone will they and the Alicorns walk through the worlds jumping from one to the other like some sort of parasite for the rest of eternity. Well either way it would make quite the interesting story.
2320938 Eyup. Just contradicted himself 180 degrees. And doesn't even realize it. So much for superior intelligence.
And that was the last straw for me.
2320938 The humans left their world, but it did not survive.
As a species, the humans are still dying and therefore are not outside the cycle. They are simply prolonging it by harvesting life from other worlds.
2321071
Thanks. I hadn't thought of it that way. That makes much more sense.
2320411
I'm not the author, but from what he said maybe he meant when the world naturally died? or maybe that void net they make speeds up the death of the world as it is anathema to life. Just throwing those out there.
2321019 See my response to waityamihere.
2321090
Hmmm, all very good causes...
There's gotta be an better way even though they lost their homeworld that doesn't mean that every world needs to suffer the same fate!
Called it! The Purveyor is there to collect something! In this case the last flicker of life... harsh.
Anyway, can't wait for more!
2321478 Meh, at least he waits until they're dead before collecting.
Some people aren't so patient.
2319121>>2319631
Don't even bother with that guy. This website is dedicated to fanfiction for a little girl's show. This is a place where anyone, regardless of talent or experience, can post their stories relate to MLP. This website is like mom's fridge where you can put your drawings up there and it does not have to be professional grade, if it was professional grade you are wasting your time here you should go and actually write for money instead of green thumbs.
But then you have jackasses like Alondro stroll up in here, who try to compare those drawings to Michelangelo, and apparently doesn't understand that he does not make himself look smart, he just makes an ass of himself. Don't try debating with him, I have tried that, his head is too far up his own ass to properly hear you.
2322354
Well said, have a vote up.
i sence a shitstorm a brewin
Eh, I wouldn't help them. You can't fight the inevitable, so why bother? I mean, if he did manage to save the world from whatever disaster might be coming, I think it might be safe to assume that another end-of-the-world scenario would come and take it's place. Sure, you might be able to extend the life of that world for a time; a year, a hundred years, a thousand, a million, who knows? But sooner or later, that world will die.
So yea, fuck that shit. I wouldn't help them at all. In fact, I wouldn't even bother entertaining a conversation with them. If anyone saw me, even by accident, I'd kill them. And to be honest, I'm not a very patient person. I'd destroy the planet and have done with it there and then. What's the point in waiting if they're going to die anyway? It seems kind of cruel just to sit there and leave them to their inevitable fate anyway.
2322749
2322749 You saw the end of this chapter. If somehow this world is going to live for longer than in suppose humans probably go to action and.... bring end to Equestria.
Woah, now things are getting really interesting!
2319100
Not so much Nightingale Armor....i was thinking something like this :3
i2.ytimg.com/vi/actZumishxQ/mqdefault.jpg
Obviously minus the obscenely intimidating horns and red eyes with an obscenely intimidating Hood+Black glass face combo...
Would be interested to see what the authors take on how the watcher should look...
2323753 I'll draw something up when I have the time ^^
2319421 Good, now condense that into a single, short, and understandable paragraph so people are actually willing to read your cynical rant. Media tropes exist for a reason, and many times they're unavoidable for amatuer authors. Stop being so harsh about it.
2321010
Build a planet. Or a Dyson sphere. Problem solved.
2324675
I think by 'worlds' they mean a universe... unless humans could have just moved on to a different planet.
2321071 But they're still delaying it. Meaning, they're fighting against it. Meaning they have no excuses nor arguments against another race doing the same.
I'm also totally at odds with the concepts in this latest chapter. The soul-life power mumbo-jumbo has simply broken any limits to believability I could hold onto. It's just gone way over the top.
2295674
Awesomeness!
2325219 Nobody is forcing you to read it. We get it you don't like the story. I know you are trying to help but you are just coming of as anoying. No need to reply to my coment realy, just stop reading it and start reading something else.
2325219 You're reading a fanfiction about My Little Pony, where horses talk, preform magic, fly at super sonic speeds, and control the weather and that is what breaks your suspension of disbelief? You must be a riot at sci-fi conventions.
As for the cycle thing, their world is still dead. They didn't save it. The only difference between the Humans and the Ponies is that the Humans are able to persist in the void.
Prolonging the cycle is not the same as ending it or changing it. Whether or not you have personal issues with that doesn't matter.
2320921 I dont know what you said, but it sounded misanthropic.
2325855 They changed it by entering the Void and somehow surviving. That shouldn't be possible. Yet they did it.
Also, it begs the question: If nothing can leave the Void, how are communications getting through? Communications are ENERGY. And if you recall, matter and energy are inter-convertible. If energy can pass through, it follows that a being capable of manipulating matter-energy states would be able to get matter through as well.
For that matter, if nothing can leave the Void, how can something enter it? A void has no gravity like a black hole. There is no logical foundation either fictional or factual to prevent escape from a Void that can be entered.
Why the fear of death if souls exist? If all the souls are released upon the death of the universe to go.. where ever it is they go, that implies that the souls are immortal and tangible in some respects. There is no need then to fear the death of the body or even the death of the universe. It makes living as some semi-corporeal entity in the Void rather pointless.
And finally, if the Watcher was born on another world that died, why did he end up serving the 'humans' in the Void? It implies he sold out his entire universe for a chance at a scrabbling, miserable survival in a realm of implied emptiness... making him inherently even more cowardly and unlikeable.
Essentially, why were all these needless mechanisms included? It's conceptually cluttered even though it's still quite a short story. It would be more sound to simply say that the things in the Void (which I shall not call humans, because the cliche of humans being the only things to ever survive the destruction of everything is also cringe-worthy and inherently narcissistic) absorb the energy of a dying universe. No need for the philosophical clutter of souls, and it makes death a more permanent and thus disheartening thing.
Or, the soul concept could be used for darker effect: The Void creatures could steal the souls and consume them, thus setting up a conflict of the Watcher coming to the realization that these creatures are omniverse parasites, selfish and wicked. he could become a REAL character with a genuine decision to make: join the evil ones and live, or rebel against them and die, but save countless innocent souls. Instead, we're given this very milquetoast and bland explanation of a little poof of yummy life force being generated as the souls pass through all the universes at once...
It obliterates any possible tension, drama, or philosophical depth that could be developed from the situation by creating an artificial-feeling Rube-Goldberg mechanism by which the Void creatures don't have to harm anything to survive and thus avoid looking like villains simply for the sake of convention. It feels phony.
2322749 Plus, he's watched 35 worlds die already, and he clearly has intense loyalty to his own. Him having conversed with the inhabitants of this one means nothing, they're nothing but food.
Of course, that may be my inner sociopath coming out again
2328650
Woah, no need to apply relativistic logic to a fan-fiction unless it explicitly brings it up. If I wanted to apply theoretical physics to a fan-fiction, I would have to be very bored out of my mind. However, I agree with you on the communications part, which is why I don't apply science to a sci-fi story-- it'll ruin the legitimacy of the plot (which never really existed in the first place-- it's a story about talking colorful horses for crying-out-loud, that's pretty far from realistic)
(Also, if one thinks of a void as a blackhole of sorts, trying to escape that event horizon is impossible as far as we know. Of course, a void ~= a blackhole, but you get the gist. Once, entered, not even light itself can escape...)