Login

Just Roll With It: Future Chronicles

by sunnypack

Chapter 1: 1 - Fun

Load Full Story Next Chapter

Chapter 1: Fun

For the millionth time, I woke up after having blacked out. I didn’t like the fact that I was steadily getting used to being knocked out in some fashion or another. Of course, when one dabbles in Tempora’s magic and my father’s invention, one must be prepared for unexpected departures… and arrivals.

It’s been a while, but it looks like my botched up translation spell was still functioning, though I had to tap into a few crystals to make sure they weren’t fritzing up. Temporal distortion was a major problem with my type of magic. I snapped my fingers experimentally. A small mage-light floated above my palm. I snapped my fingers again, dismissing the small magical aid. Seems like my magic was working fine.

Around me were the comforting smell of books. Even though I preferred computers, there was something I liked about the feel of turning the pages with my fingers. Curiously, I picked out a book from the shelves at random and flicked through a couple of the pages. It seems to be something about the founding of Equestria. Huh. Okay so I haven’t shot egregiously into the past. I was some time after the founding of Equestria… I tapped a finger on my chin as I thought. Where was I? More importantly, when was I?

Suddenly I became aware of a peculiar sound, almost like the skittering of mouse footsteps, or perhaps… whispering.

I whipped around to spot a purple blob disappear up the staircase with the clatter of hooves evident. Curious, but suddenly aware that I might be intruding in somepony’s home I cautiously stood up and walked backwards towards what looked like the entrance. It was hard to tell since everything seemed to be made of wood but I managed to fumble at the handle and get it open without looking behind.

Ducking at the low frame (the one thing I could never get used to in this world). I strode outside to get my bearings. I glanced back in mild surprise as I registered that I had just left some sort of tree-house. And I don’t mean one of those trees with houses in them, I mean the tree was a house/building/thing. It was disconcerting.

I backed away slowly from the building.

Where was I? There wasn’t a tree-building as far as I knew in Equestria. Was this the future? The past? I shook my head. Perhaps I should ask around.

I caught a pink-coated pony as she strode past me with a wide grin and a carefree looking attitude.

“Hey,” I called out as the mare trotted past me. She took a look at me, waved and then whiplashed her head with an amusing crack.

“Hiya there!” she babbles, trotting up to look up at me. “Are you new around here? Of course you are, if you were I’d know you and if I knew you I wouldn’t have asked that question. My name’s Pinkie Pie, what’s yours?” She gasped. “Let me guess… is it Apple? Is it Sugar? Is it Flour? Oh wait, silly me those are the ingredients I have to get to bake a pie, like my name, Pie!”

I burst into laughter. That was probably the best reception I’ve had in Equestria since I had came… well barring Celestia and Luna, they were pretty cool. I decided to introduce myself.

“Hey there, woah! That’s one heck of a motor mouth you have there. I’m Harmony. What are you baking that pie for?”

The pink mare threw her arms out wide as she did a couple of impressive backflips.

“Hiya there! Harmony,” she repeated grinning stupidly. “I’m the premiere pink party pony of Ponyville. I have to bake a pie for a pie eating contest. But it’s not just one pie, it’ll be hundreds!”

I laughed again, caught up by the pink one’s antics.

“Oh you’re crazy, but in a good way.” I gestured around, awkwardly shifting my feet. “So… this might sound like a dumb question, but bear with me.”

Pinkie nodded, bounding up to me. I noticed that her cutie mark was three balloons. Huh, that really suits her.

“What country are we in?”

Pinkie cocked her head and paused as if waiting for a punchline. When I remained serious she giggled and gave me the answer anyway.

“You’re in Equestria of course, you silly filly!” Her eyes widened as if she suddenly remembered something.

“Oooooh! Wait here for a second. I have to fetch somepony,” she told me and I remained rooted to the spot as she disappeared. After a couple of minutes with nothing really changing, I flopped down and sat cross-legged on the street, trying to ignore the weird looks I was getting from everypony.

“Ahem, you over there!” I heard from behind me. I turned around, shifting on my backside.

“Yes?” I answered, recognising the shades of purple immediately.

“Discord,” she hissed venomously. “What are you up to?”

Huh? Why does she think I’m Discord? I really didn’t like the tone she was taking with me, not to mention that she looked like somepony who’d dislike Discord. Nopony talks to Discord like that.

“I’m not Discord,” I replied testily crossing my arms in front of me. “And I don’t like the tone you’re mentioning of Discord.”

The unicorn eyed me sideways, her tail was swishing from side to side in agitation. Finally, she snorted.

“That’s a good trick, Discord. Almost had me going there, but your magic proves it! I saw you snapping your fingers in my library!”

I rolled my eyes, giving the surly mare a pointed look. “And how am I supposed to perform magic, with my non-existent horn?” I waved my hands around. “These are the only focal points I have on my body.”

The unicorn was silent for a while. She opened her mouth several times but then eventually kept it closed.

I gave a dismissive wave. “I thought so,” I sniffed, shifting around so that my back was to her.

“Hey–” she started but was interrupted with Pinkie came back from her jaunt.

“Hi again!” she greeted cheerfully. “I’m super glad you waited for me, sometimes someponies leave when I ask them to stay in one place and then I have to go find them and then we play a small game of hide and seek and then I win! Isn’t that exciting? If they wanted to play hide and seek they should have told me! What’s a game of hide and seek if somepony doesn’t know they’re playing, you have to tell them first! That’s okay though, I’m really good at hide and seek– hey are you listening?”

I nodded.

“Seems logical. Hide and seek should be agreed on by both parties.”

Pinkie looked at me curiously as if I was a new enigma to be unwrapped.

“Funny, usually somepony clamps my mouth and tells me to stop talking by now. You’re different! I like you!”

I chuckled as she gave me an awkward hug. Awkward mainly because I was cross legged on the ground. The purple unicorn behind me was starting to get annoyed at being ignored.

“Hey! I was talking to you!” she huffed indignantly.

I spared a sharp glance at her before returning it to Pinkie.

Without looking I replied, “Correction. You were interrogating me. I don’t even know your name and you’re accusing Discord and I of being up to something. You don’t even have evidence. Until you do, I won’t listen to you unless you decide to be polite. Now go on. Shoo.”

I looked back at the last moment, flipping my hand nonchalantly. The unicorn looked absolutely incensed. She gave me a glare before growling and stomping off back to her library. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. What was she, five years old? What a foal.

Pinkie gave me a disapproving look.

“You shouldn’t be so mean to Twilight. She’s only worried that meanie-pants Discord is up to something.”

I frowned at the pink pony but I took a deep breath and thought about this logically. The way they are talking about Discord points to him being alive. The way they were addressing me meant that I was no longer a Prince or… I shuddered at that thought, feeling a brush of mortality whisk past my soul. Did Discord do something bad? I shook my head. Of course not. He would never do something to hurt anypony.

“Well Discord is a dear friend of mine and it sort of upset me when other ponies start talking about him like… like he’s some kind of monster!”

I paused and drew another breath to bring myself down a notch or two.

“Discord is one of the kindest, happiest, playful, innocent and thoughtful people I know. Whenever I hear somepony get so disparaging of him I feel so angry and frustrated. If they got to know him, it would all be different!”

Pinkie gave me a sympathetic look.

“You really like him, don’t you?”

I sighed again.

“Yeah, and you would too if you met him.”

Pinkie gave me a small giggle at that. “Here I got something for you,” she said pulling out a small treat in her hooves. I studied the cupcake. It was a rainbow cupcake with blue and red sprinkles on top. At the sight my stomach growled.

I gave her an appreciative smile.

“Thanks,” I mumbled through crumbs as I shoved the cupcake into my mouth.

Pinkie grinned as I moaned in pleasure.

“What did you put in this cupcake? Rainbows? It tastes reeeeally amazing!”

Pinkie bounded on the spot nudging me with a hoof.

“I wouldn’t use Rainbows, silly! It’s too spicy. Yuck!”

I shook my head at that, what a crazy thought process.

–––––

After I devoured the cupcake, Pinkie bounded off, saying there were pies to be made. I nodded and waved after her, concentrating on getting my bearings. I stared at my hands. How was I going to get back to Equestria? At least, the Equestria from my time? Should I go see Celestia and Luna? Maybe say hello to Discord? Was Celestia and Luna still alive?

Ugh, too many things swirling around. I better get my bearings. Maybe I can ask these questions to somepony who’d help, but Pinkie had already dashed away and I did not want to get help from that purple pony.

I walked around aimlessly until a voice called out to me.

“Oh my,” the soft voice said shyly. “You seem lost.”

I turned around to see a butter-yellow pegasus mare with pink hair pawing at the ground. I smiled at her winningly.

“Yes, I’m kind of lost,” I admitted, a hand on the back of my head in mild embarrassment. “Do you know where I could find Celestia, Luna or Discord?”

“Oh my,” the pegasus repeated. “I-I might know where Discord may be, but I don’t know if I can help you find the Princesses. I think they should be in Canterlot castle, if you need to see them.”

“Princesses?” I wondered out loud. “Is Tempora still alive? Man she lives a long time…” I trailed off at that, thinking about Tempora and my Dad. I wonder what they were up to. I hope I get back before they returned from the griffon kingdoms. “Well, I don’t really know where Canterlot is,” I continued, looking at the pegasus. Her face scrunched up with the incredulity of my statement. “Is this Canterlot?”

The pegasus giggled quietly. “Oh goodness, no. This is Ponyville. Canterlot is North-East of here, you can get there by train.”

I nodded, perhaps I would visit them later and they could help me with the temporal spell. “Hmm, it seems I’ll have to postpone seeing Celestia and Luna,” I said disappointed. “But at least I can see Discord!” I smiled cheerfully. “Can you take me to him?”

“Um, if you don’t mind,” the pegasus said nervously. “What do you want with Discord?”

I looked at the pegasus as if she had asked me if the sun would rise tomorrow.

“Discord’s my friend,” I replied easily. “What other reason would I have to see him?”

At that the mare smiled warmly at me. “Oh,” she said timidly. “No reason.”

Her tail flicked and she looked up at me. “Discord might be at my home. He usually comes visit during the afternoon.”

I smiled. “Sounds like a plan. Oh, I’m Harmony by the way.”

The pegasus gave me a shy smile. “I’m Fluttershy.”

–––––

On the way to her abode, we talked about Discord.

“So,” she said slowly. “You’re friends, then?”

“Not exactly. More like family, if I think about it. He’s a great fella, I’ve known him since he was a foal.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened comically at that. “Oh my,” she said. “Discord as a foal. Somehow I can’t imagine that.”

I laughed. “So I’m assuming he’s all grown up now?” I must have gone forward into the future.

Fluttershy nodded. “I’m not exactly sure how old he is, but I think he’s as old or older than the Princesses.”

As if that helped.

“Sorry, I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Can you give me that in years?”

Fluttershy pondered that statement, the concentration making her stop in her tracks. I waited patiently as she cocked her head and silently tallied.

“I’d say about two thousand years at least, maybe more?” she hedged while I gaped at her.

“Two thousand years?!” I cried in disbelief. “That’s wha–“ How far into the future had I gone?

Fluttershy looked confused. “You said you had seen Discord since he was foal. That would make you around the same age, I think.”

I shook my head. “I used magic to get here, accidentally of course. I just… wow… two thousand years old…”

“At least,” Fluttershy added helpfully. I just shook my head again.

“Well let’s hope he still remembers me,” I said in shock as we approached a small wooden bridge that spanned across a stream.

Author's Notes:

Weeeeeee!

Next Chapter: 2 - Is Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 8 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch