William, our maybe not that favorite human hero, appears in the g5.
The maybe not so spectacular third, and final chapter on the legend saga. This time William will have to face one last great lost in his life and confront his biggest fears once and for all. Sadly, to read this story you do need to read at least "A Legend Returns" although I recommended you to read "The Legend Starts" as well. I hope that you, reader, enjoy this story, even though it's not perfect.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own, nor did the cover.
DISCLAIMER: Since I've planned this story since two years ago, and I didn't have knowledge of what happened in MYM chapter 4, certain details portrayed in this story will be contradictory with some stuff presented in the series. I'm sorry if that bothers anyone, but it will be required to keep the flow of the narrative going.
The sky full of stars, alongside the ocean that mirrored it in which I was standing, told me that I was asleep; dreaming, more specifically. As soon as I realized this, I cursed myself for being so dumb. "Sure thing, William!" I exclaimed sarcastically to myself. "Shout out loud 'one thousand years' and be sure that you ain't gonna see Fluttersy or her friends ever again. Why couldn't I just say 'one year' or 'one month' instead?"
One thousand years was the quickest thing I could think of back when Opaline had me at the edge of death. It was just after I said it (now) that I realized how bad my plan was. Traveling to the future was the only way of escaping certain death that I could think of. Too bad I never learned how to teleport myself without the use of portals. If I knew how to, I'd have done it instead of launching myself into the unknown mysteries of the distant future.
This dream, even though was beautiful, had to end. Me being dreaming meant that I was unconscious inside the Celestial Archives. Maybe it was even full of spiderwebs and it was completely abandoned.
No, that's completely absurd. Celestia and Luna are still around. And if they didn't abandon human culture in 20000 years, I really doubt that they would in just 1000.
Either way, I had to wake up. I decided to hit my head with my sword, and that did the trick. When I re-opened my eyes, I was no longer asleep.
I was still at the Celestial Archives; however, the place had lost all of the beauty that it once had. As I expected, there were tons of spiderwebs all over the place. The golden, royal aesthetic that the archives emanated was no longer present. Instead, the whole place now had a creepy, abandoned, dark vibe.
There was no light source. All of the yellow lamps that decorated the Celestial Archives were off. The only light that let me see through the darkness was the one that my sword was emanating. Maybe it appeared because so I did in my dream? Who knows, I'd ask it to Luna later.
That's if she's still around, of course.
...
But what if she isn't. What if...
...
No! Thinking this way won't help. I didn't even get out of this vault yet. I still have no real reason to believe that they're dead. Opaline wouldn't have stood a chance against the elements of harmony. Everything should be just fine out there.
...
Then why is this place abandoned, then?
...
I desperately made my way to the entrance. I still had difficulties to walk since Osvaldo practically kicked my ass back then. Anyways, I resisted my the pain of my aching stomach and muscles, and got to the vault that was the only exit I knew this place had.
The vault looked completely different from when I entered here once I found it: alongside the hole for my sisters' horns, there was a place to put a human hand sculpted on the gold as well. Also, there was a carved message on the gold as well:
'William, if you ever read this, and there wasn't any welcoming party to receive you after one thousand years, that means that the Equestria as a kingdom no longer exists. Our biggest fears have come true. We cannot tell you what it is since we don't really know who's behind of all of this yet. Just remember one thing, we still care about you. However, please do not...' that part was damaged by a crack on the metal. 'With love, Your sisters, Celestia and Luna.'
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"What the hay is that noise?" I said as I awoke from my slumber.
"I don't know," replied Zipp, my pegasus friend, from her bed with a sleepy voice. "I wanna sleep, Sunny. Bridlewoodstock lasted more than I expected thanks to those weird ghost things. I'm *yawn* currently not sleeping very well recently."
The noise that I was hearing came from downstairs. It sounded like a sad voice, but very distant.
I decided to go and check if somepony was there. As I approached the source, I confirmed that it was indeed the voice of somepony. But whoever was there was crying deeply, as if somepony died or something.
It sounded towards the basement of the lighthouse, in which my father kept all of the ancient artifacts from the old Equestria. As I made the last hoofsteps towards the basement, I could hear that a male somepony was the one who was crying. The sorrowful cry came from a massive golden vault door that had the faces of Celestia and Luna carved on the metal. It sounded as if he was inside it, but that was ridiculous. Even though, I couldn't simply just do nothing about it.
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"Hello?" I heard somepony's voice from out of the vault. "Is somepony in here?" the mare asked with a really confused voice tone.
I cleared my throat before responding; I tried to wash out out some of my tears as well, "Yes, but I'm not quite 'somepony'. Anyway, who are you?"
"I'm Sunny," the feminine voice replied, "Sunny Starscout. And you?"
"Well, don't be too surprised, but my name is William, William Tyler."
Instead of a loud gasp of excitement, the pony named Sunny simply said: "Well, it's indeed a weird name, but why would I be surprised?"
"Wait, you don't know me? I mean, it has been just a thousand years since I was gone."
"A thousand years!" she excitedly screamed. You mean that you're from the times of Twilight Sparkle!?"
"Yeah," I replied. "So, you know Twilight?"
"Of course I know her!" Sunny excitedly replied. "She was the Princess of Friendship one thousand years ago!"
"Wait," I said fearing the worst already, "so you mean that she's not the princess anymore?"
"Well, no. Nopony has seen her in a millennium. Someponies even think that she didn't even exist in the first place, and that she was just a myth for young colts."
When those words came out of her mouth, I had to contain myself in order to avoid crying. The fact that she already heard me cry like a little kid was already embarrassing enough. I had to ash, though, about something even more concerning than Twilight herself.
"What about Celestia and Luna?" I spoke. "Do you know what happened to them?"
"Well, no, but, as long as I know, they used to rule Equestria together alongside Princess Cadence in the Crystal Empire until, one day, they hoofed the throne to Twilight and left the kingdom for... some kind of retirement, I think?"
"Retirement?" well, I guess that ruling a kingdom throughout all of eternity isn't something that you'll want as your life plan. "Wait, so you're telling me that Twilight ruled all of Equestria... on her own!?" That hit a nerve on my brain. I simply can't picture that unsecure purple mare in-charge of an entire nation.
"Why wouldn't she?" was Sunny's reply. "She was the most capable pony of her time. Nopony could be better suited to replace Princess Celestia and Princess Luna than her."
"So let me get this straight. You know almost everything there is to know about Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and even Cadence... but you don't know about me or humans?"
"What's a human?"
"Oh, no." I was about to cry again; instead, I redirected my sadness into anger. My thin blue sword materialized in my right hand, and I hit the golden vault as hard as I could with it. A very loud bang could be head from both sides of the golden door. However, the vault seemed undamaged.
"A-are you ok, William?" Sunny asked in a fearful voice tone.
I gave no answer; instead, I hit the golden door again, again, and again. My rage was building up. "I... lost everything... again! And all thanks to that stupid," I hit the door, "idiot," I hit it again even harder, "named," my last hit was even harder than all of the previous ones, which ended up opening a huge crack in the golden vault, "OSVALDO!"
I saw Sunny for the first time. She was an earth pony with a dark orange coat; purple hair, with a strand of rainbow hair, and green eyes. In her facial expression I saw no other thing that wasn't fear: pure fear. Probably the only thing that prevented her from running away in panic was the fact that she had a brief talk with me. I realized that I was most likely inside her home, and that appearing with a sword, filled in anger, and out of a magical vault that defied the continuity of space-time probably wasn't the best first impression that anypony could give to somepony else.
"Excuse me," I said to her. "This isn't how I'm supposed to act. Let me start once again. My name is..."
"AH!" she screamed in fear. "In the name of Equestria, WHAT ARE YOU!?"
The orange pony in front of me was terrified at the sight in front of her. I quickly understood that she never saw a human before. I get it; after all, I was the only one left even a thousand years ago.
"Sunny, I know that I look a bit weird to you but believe me: you don't have anything to worry about. I do not mean any threat to you," I tried to calm her down.
She just stood still, watching me in fear while breathing hard. After a few moments, she managed to calm herself down. "Excuse me, William; I'm not usually like this," she apologized a bit ashamed of herself. "I was just... 'surprised' by your appearance. I never saw anything like you ever before."
"I believe you," I replied while vanishing my sword.
"Out of pure curiosity, what's the name of your species? You look kinda like a dragon, only taller, with clothes, and without scales."
"I am a human, Sunny," I said to her, "a race that went extinct over 21000 years ago or so." Then I realized it. It stung deep within my heart to realize that I was probably the last one of my kind to be alive on this planet; not only that, this time, I was all alone as well.
"A human?" she said with a puzzled expression on her face. "Sorry, I don't know anything about them."
"Do you know what those badges you wear are supposed to mean? I asked her.
"Yes!" she said. "These represent some of the elements of harmony that, a thousand years ago, defended harmony across the land of Equestria. This one's from Twilight Sparkle," she said pointing a hoof to her badges, "the bearer of the element of magic; this one's from Fluttersy, the bearer of the element of kindness; and this one's from Rainbow Dash, the bearer of the element of loyalty."
"So," I said, "you're telling me that you know all of that, but you don't know anything about what a human is?"
"Yeah, exactly that." That declaration made me feel sad, but also... intrigued. I could tell by the badges she wears, and the fact that she was keeping the vault door that was supposed to be below Canterlot's castle that she wasn't exactly unaware of Equestrian history. She also knew the ponies that were my friends good enough. Most likely, she was some kind of researcher of some sort. And even so, she doesn't even know what a human is! Either way she's just starting to know about history, or something horribly wrong happened when Opaline used that spell.
"William, is it normal for a human to change its eye color in a matter of seconds?" Sunny asked.
"What? No! Why do you ask?"
"Because, when you first busted through that golden door, I'd swear that I saw your right eye was red and that your left eye was green; however, now they're both blue."
"You probably just think you did, Sunny. Humans don't do that." She had to be wrong. I remember those eyes; they were from Owlen, the nightmarish abomination that almost erased from existence everypony that ever existed. He was erased by the very elements of harmony when he tried to go back in time to alter the past. I remember very clearly how it was to have him inside my mind: I would hear voices, get painful headaches, or even faint at random. None of those things were happening right now. Owlen was not coming back... I think.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sunny spoke after a brief silence. "Do you have anywhere to go? Do you know anypony that might help you?"
"Is princess Cadence still around, perhaps?" She was the last alicorn princess that was still an option. If she also disappeared, then I was totally alone.
"Not even the Crystal Empire stands to these days." was her reply. "She's also missing from history. As I said before, alicorns are considered to be myths, made-up stories for five-year-old colts or younger." Her face suddenly changed from showing sympathy to showing a child-like excitement. "Wait! You're telling me that you met them personally!" Her eyes expanded far beyond what I considered possible. "How were they? Were they nice to be around with? Did Celestia and Luna really moved the sun and moon? Wait, did you meet the bearers of the elements of harmony?"
"Enough, Sunny!" Another voice, also feminine, said from upstairs. Both Sunny and I turned to see who the owner was of said voice. It was a white pegasus mare with a pink mane and with blue strands of hair. Due to the fact that the basement in which we were in was poorly illuminated, I could barely distinguish her features. "Don't you see that he's not exactly prepared to answer your questions?"
"Zipp! Zipp?" the orange mare said. "Since when were you listening?"
"Since the beginning. When you woke me up, I was about to go back to sleep, but then I also heard the same noise that you heard. I, the detective Zipp, had to investigate. I admit that it was a bit weird to find you talking with a vault. But when that thin... 'creature'," she corrected herself and showed a shameful expression on her muzzle, "this 'human' busted through a vault that we thought impossible to open like it was made of cardboard, I stopped with my plans of interrupting you."
Zipp glided down to our eye-level in a few seconds. With some kind of weird helmet that looked like a VR headset, she scanned me from my head to my feet.
"Fascinating." she said. "I've never seen a creature like this before."
Ponies weren't exactly my height. I'm taller than them; however, that didn't mean that I had to look down to them. They were, in average, just half a head shorter than me. Having this mare examining me so close was very uncomfortable. She took a modified magnifying glass out of her wings (which I don't know how she did to avoid from falling when she flew) to inspect me even further. I didn't oppose any kind of resistance. From what she had shown, even though she was indeed interested in knowing what I am, she had some limits; I wouldn't become her lab-rat. Even if she tried to do so, I think that if I did oppose a little bit of resistance would be enough to escape from her. In the meantime, I'd let her do what she wanted to do and see where she was going.
"Bipedal as a dragon, exposed skin with little to no fur except for the head (I guess that's why you wear all of that clothing), absence of a muzzle, and odd-looking, soft claws instead of hooves." She pulled out something I thought I'd never see somepony else using apart from me: a phone. It looked exactly like the one I still have in my pocket, only that this one had a place on the back in which the hoof was supposed to go. She started to take several pictures, and I guess that videos of me. "This is a human. Origin: unknown; current habitat: unknown; abilities: apparently, they're able to use very strong magic, otherwise I don't understand how he was able to practically obliterate that vault, also, its cognitive skills are very similar of the ones a pony would have; life expectancy: unknown; reproduction method: it seems like a mammal, so..."
"Zipp!" Sunny shouted. "He's not your lab-rat, he's my... OUR guest. Since I can save my questions for later, do you think that you could maybe save your investigations for later?"
"I'm willing to answer any questions you may have, but later. I don't know what time of the day it is, but I'm severely injured and tired. Can I just... lay down here for some hours?"
"It's 2 AM." Zipp said.
"No!" Sunny exclaimed. I was about to think of sleeping in an alley, when she added: "Not in this basement! As I said, you're our guest, and you should be treated as one. We don't have any bed available right now, but in the meantime, you can sleep on the couch that's in the living room. At least it's better than sleeping on the floor."
"Yeah, that'd be great, Sunny." I told her.
She led me upstairs and escorted me to the living room. Her house was way bigger than what I initially thought. It was some sort of huge tower very well decorated. The living room itself was massive. There was just too much space.
"How many people live here?" I asked.
"People?" Sunny asked in confusion. "Don't you mean ponies?"
"Yeah, yeah, that. Sorry, that vocabulary still comes out of my mouth sometimes." When was the last time that I used that word properly? I can't remember; it was too long ago.
"Well, I live here with my friends. You already met Zipp, but I also live with her sister Pipp, my best friend Izzy, and with my fillyhood friend Hitch."
"Hm. I almost thought that Zipp was your sister."
"Zipp? My sister? But that'd be impossible!"
"Why? As far as I know, your parents could be an earth pony and a pegasus."
Her excitement returned in minor proportions. "I forgot that you come from a time in which the three tribes didn't hate each other too much."
"Wait," I quickly said, now scared, "the three tribes hate each other!?"
"No! No! Well, at least not anymore. That's a story that I should tell you tomorrow."
Once I crashed on a sofa, she leaved. At least she was kind enough to give me a blanket.
It didn't take long for me to get asleep, after all, I was very tired; it didn't take long for me to cry, after all, I was alone.
Darkness. As far as my eyes were able to see, all I could see was darkness. It was easy for me to understand that I was dreaming. I stood up, and lighted up my sword. There wasn't very much to see; I was just standing on top of a black floor.
Now I was fearful. I remember these kind of dreams; this one was very similar to the ones Owlen used to cause me. I looked around in search for those green and red eyes but I find none. Now more calmed. I started to calm myself down.
"Hello?" I asked. "Is somepony here?"
"Of course, silly!" a cheerful voice said, waking me up. I opened my eyes and saw a purple unicorn mare with blue mane and purple eyes. "You're William, right? My name's Izzy! Izzy Moonbow!"
I still felt very tired, but I was much better than yesterday. I rose from my slumber as quickly as I could and sat on the sofa.
"Who... who told you that?" I asked her, still half asleep.
"Sunny." replied she. "We're all gathered at the kitchen to eat breakfast; I wanted to wake you up so you can get something to eat!" She walked some steps away, giving me enough space to stand up.
I took her opportunity and immediately stood up.
"Woah!" the purple unicorn exclaimed. "Sunny was right! You do walk on your hind legs!"
I took several deep breaths before continuing. I needed to calm myself. The nightmare was repeating itself again and I wasn't prepared for it.
"Where is she?" I managed to say.
"At the kitchen." Izzy said with a smile. "Everypony is there with her. They surely have a lot of questions for you, especially Sunny and Zipp... most of them are from Zipp, actually."
Great! I almost forgot that I promised them that I'll answer all the questions that they have.
"Ok. So where's the kitchen?" I asked her.
Izzy escorted me to said place in no time. When I entered, I saw Sunny cooking something on a frying pan and Zipp sitting by a table. The kitchen itself was very impressive; it wasn't as big as Canterlot's castle's kitchen, but it was surely bigger than a standard one. It was very clean and neat as well.
Apart from the ponies that I already met, I saw two more: one was as purple (perhaps a little bit less) as Izzy; she was a pegasus mare with a dark purple mane, and green eyes. Her wings were way more fluffy than any other pegasus I've seen before. The other pony was a light amber-coated earth pony stallion who had a blue-colored mane.
"Oh! I'm glad to see that you're awake!" Sunny said, smiling. "I'm sure that you already met my friend Izzy. This is Hitch," she pointed a hoof to the stallion, "and this is Pipp." She ended pointing the same hoof to the purple pegasus.
"So this is the 'human' you told me about." Hitch said. He walked towards me extended a hoof and said: "I'm pleased to meet you. What's your name?"
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I was excited about this. William, the human I discovered last night while following Sunny, was finally awake. I was about to wake him up earlier, but Sunny insisted that we should let him rest and wake up at his own pace. However, about ten minutes later, I had to stop Sunny from waking him up. We ened up agreeing that neither of us should wake him up unless it gets really late.
The others didn't mind his presence in our home that much (after we explained them what was the weird creature sleeping in the living room). Izzy acted fine, and just wanted to have him as her new friend; Hitch was the pony that worried the most, but eventually calmed down when Sunny told him that he wanted to leave the brighthouse on his own, and just stayed because of her insistence; while my sister Pipp... acted as usual. I'm pretty sure that, once William is able to give answers to the questions that Sunny and I have for him, she will do everything in her power to convince him to do a video with her.
"William." he responded to Hitch. "You act surprisingly less surprised than what I expected."
"Well, that's because Sunny..."
Hitch couldn't finish what he wanted to say. My sister ran towards the human (phone on her hoof) as fast as her other three legs allowed her, and started recording.
"Good morning, Pippsqueaks!" she exclaimed with her usual enthusiasm. "Today, I'm with somepony, or should I say... somecreature, very unique. His name is William, and he..."
Note for later: apparently, when humans get angry, their eyes can change to red and green.
William magically grabbed her phone in a blue aura (which I don't know how he did, since he has no horn) and almost slammed it in the floor. He contained himself in the last moment though, and he left the phone on the table as his eyes returned to be blue.
"What's wrong with you!?" he angrily screamed to my sister as she started to shiver in fear. "I'm not an attraction that you can display to your fans whenever you want! I'm barely in the mood to be here to begin with!"
His breathing was fast and loud. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down. His breathing started to be calmer.
"I... I'm so, so sorry, William." said my sister. "I didn't mean to offend you."
"It's ok, Pipp." he responded. "I... kinda exceeded myself there."
Sunny, who was very happy that the incident didn't go any further, started to serve the pancakes. We all sat down and started to eat. But when William took his fist bite, he immediately started coughing.
"Are you ok, William?" I asked him.
"Yeah, yeah." He coughed a bit more and then asked: "Are these pancakes alright? They taste very weird."
"What do you mean?" Sunny asked him. "These are the same pancakes that I've been making since I was seven. They have eggs, flour, sugar, milk, and hay."
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you that humans are unable to eat hay, Sunny. If you don't mind, I can do my own breakfast."
"No, no no!" Sunny replied. "I can make you some hay-less pancakes on my own if you want."
"Don't bother yourself, Sunny. I'm more than capable of..."
Sunny didn't listen to him. She immediately stood up and rushed once again to the stove. The expression on the human's face was priceless. I'm no expert, but I'd swear that he's very uncomfortable with Sunny's excessive hospitality.
"Well," he eventually said turning his face towards me, "while Sunny is cooking, I think that I could answer some questions that you might have, Zipp."
"Really? Great!" I exclaimed. "Well, first of all, I'd like to know everything you know about your species."
He proceeded to tell a very condensed tale about who he is and how was the world 21000 years ago. William was very ambiguous about certain details; perhaps he didn't think that I really wanted to know EVERYTHING about humans. His otherwise short tale ended up being an extensive explanation on how human society used to work.
"Hm... It seems like humans had a technological level that was very similar to modern pony technology."
"Yeah, I saw your cellphone yesterday." he responded. "Do you have something like cars or planes as well?"
"Well, a car seems pretty useless for a pony." Sunny said while cooking the first pancake. "I mean, we do have trolley cars that travel throughout Maretimebay, but mainly just for convenience or fun. A plane, on the other hoof, is far more useful, especially for non-pegasus ponies. They're pretty rare though. Apart from our own, I haven't seen too many of them around."
"Wow! You have a... Wait, did you say Maretimebay?" William asked puzzled. "Aren't we at Canterlot?"
"Canterlot!?" said Sunny. "I wished we were. That legendary city has been lost to ponykind for centuries. What made you think that we were there?"
"I traveled through time, not through space." was his reply. "I did it at Canterlot, I expected to reappear at Canterlot."
"Well, the vault in which you were in seems like a magical space of some sort. It seems like a normal door, but it has a whole room inside." I pointed out. "Did you vanish inside that vault?"
"Yes."
"That's it! The vault was at Canterlot and, during the thousand years in which you were absent, the vault was removed from said city and was found by Sunny's dad (a very persistent ancient history researcher). Not being able to open it, he just left it inside his basement, and now, you appeared. Sounds logical, right?"
"Wow. You're very good at deducting things!" William exclaimed. "That sounds very plausible."
"What can I say? I'm a self-proclaimed professional detective."
After Sunny finished cooking and he finally got to eat his hay-less pancakes, Sunny started to bombard him with her questions.
"Do you know why Equestria divided itself?" And: "Why did you time-travel?" Were her first questions.
A very interesting exchange of information was made. He had no clue about why Equestria divided itself into the three pony races again, neither did he know that that even happened. He got very uneasy when he found out. Fortunately, Sunny managed to cheer him up when she told him about how we reunited the pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies again.
"So, you're telling me that..." spoke William. "YOU'RE AN ALICORN!?"
"No! Well, yes. Well... not quite. It's complicated." was her reply.
The human's incisive questions started. It seems that he knows more about alicorns than Sunny, me, or any other pony that's currently alive. An earth pony that can transform into an alicorn at will (well, maybe not at will for Sunny yet, but she's getting there) sounded like nonsense to him.
We kept talking for about an hour or so. Nopony seemed to be interested in asking questions to the human, just Sunny and I.
"But I'm sure that you'd have to be mentioned somewhere!" Sunny insisted. "I mean, I'm well aware about characters as Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and even Flurry Heart! How could my father have missed you from his research?"
"Well, first of all, I don't know anything about Flurry Heart, but Spike was Twilight's companion since she was a little filly and Starlight stayed in the past to do other things; I'm pretty sire that she did something significant after I went gone."
"I have an idea!" Izzy exclaimed out of nowhere. "How about you use your magic in order to go back into your past?"
"It's not that simple, Izzy." William replied. "Time is like the current of a river. Swimming with the current on your side (traveling to the future) is very easy, while swimming against the current (traveling to the past) is nearly impossible to do. Only Starlight's time-travel spell could do that, and I don't know where could it be."
"Wait, you said that that dark purple alicorn stole the time-travel spell," I spoke up, "so why aren't we living under her rule. We even returned magic to all ponies and nothing has happened. How is that possible?"
"Well, that... is also a thing I can't explain."
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101010101010100010
101010101010010101
Analyzing...
Subject 01 has arrived to year 23022 again... as expected.
Initializing TME (Techno-Magical Emperor).
...
"How interesting!" I thought to myself. "William is awake! Let's keep up with my plan. The first thing I'll need is a new body. But where could I get a new one? I know! Canterlogic seems like the right place to start."
