The Beginning of the End [Closed]

Starry stamped her hoof down as Gray Mane turned his back on her. "Now wait just a minute, Gray Mane!" Starry asserted. She may not have been in the best position to make demands, but Starry figured she wasn't already a pile of ash, so she must be making progress.

"I won't let you tell me the ponies of the wastes don't care! There's a group of ponies out there, who've probably just sacrificed all of their lives fighting monsters to give us just a chance at coming here, and saving Equestria. They didn't do it for themselves, they're already dead! They did it because they believe in something bigger than themselves. When push came to shove, they made the sacrifice necessary to save our world."

Starry took a breath. Her anxiety was clearly evident in her speech. "I haven't known you for long, but I'm willing to bet my life that you used to be that pony too. You want what's best for Equestria, but this? You're better than this! You're going to destroy all of time, forward and back. Bad things are going to happen, yes, we're only ponies, and we make mistakes, but throwing away every good thing we've done to correct those mistakes... that is wrong, and you're better than this."

"The past is set in stone Grey Mane. Like stone it can be used to either drag you down into the depths, or as a foundation for a better future." Kestrel said, his tone rather somber for once.

"You do this, you erase yourself and everything you've worked for. Time stops working, and you cause more death and destruction than all the balefire bombs and megaspell strikes combined."

Gray Mane returned his glare to the trio confronting him. Malachite at this point has not said anything, and in fact cowered back a bit when Gray Mane glared at the three.

“You’re wrong.” he hissed. “You are both wrong. I can fix this. I have always been able to fix anything I’ve come across, this will be no different.” He glanced back at the terminals, pressing a few buttons while keeping the plasma gun leveled at the trio.

“No, I don’t think he can...” muttered Malachite.

“Do you know,” asked Gray Mane “how many died in the war? How many lives were lost, especially during the Last Day where they were snuffed out by balefire weapons?” He turned back to them. “More than twice as many ponies that are actually alive in the Wasteland ‘today’. And half of those ponies are raiders, slavers, or slaves themselves. Even with the Stables, over 60% of Equestria’s population was wiped out. And those who survived? They turned into degenerate raiders and cruel slavers. Equestria deserves better than that.”

The console behind him began beeping, and the older stallion turned back to it with a furrowed brow, muttering under his breath as he pressed several more options and pulling some wires.

“I will fix this, and then I’ll make sure this horrible war never happens.”

Sky peeked from the doorway to see that things may not be going so smoothly as she thought, that grey mane was something those 3 have to face. But her attention was soon brought to Zestari, being attacked by a dog probably left her out of it which was true after she stated, she didnt know where she was.

"Zestari, were inside the school. Kes, Cross, and Starry are inside with Grey Mane, trying to stop his plan for stopping the war or something." Sky said to Zestari as she readied her 10mm smg just to wait for something to happen, but if they did defuse the situation, then she had nothing to worry about. "Zestari you don't look good, sit before you fall." Sky said as she walked next to zestari, to see if she needed any help with standing or anything else she might need.

"Point still stands. You collapse the time stream, you cause the death of everything in it. You become more than just a monster." Kestrel said again, he wanted to pull the rifle off his back and put a bullet in the ignorant stallions skull.

The only thing stopping him was the glowing aura of the plasma rifle before him.

"Then let me help you," Starry bluffed in response, before taking a single step forward. "I know how tech works. If I can't help you work this machine, then I'm not the daughter of Colt Johnson!"

"This isn't a job that can be done by one pony, and while I know you've spent your life dedicated to this cause, I know you need my help, and I think you do too."

As Starry took a step forward, the plasma gun flashed and a bolt impacted the floor directly in front of Starry’s hooves, Gray Mane didn’t even have to look, opening up a panel and rearranging some wires and crystals instead. The blast had vaporized a decent chunk of flooring in front of Starry’s hooves, and the superheated air produced by the blast actually scalded her hooves a bit.

“Stay back.” he growled. “I’ve been working with machines since before you were born. There’s nothing you can help with that I ca-” as he was speaking, the panel in front of him started sparking wildly, forcing the stallion to back up, still keeping the plasma gun aimed at the trio.

“No...NO!” shouted the stallion as the crystals inside began to cascade, glowing brightly before exploding rather violently. “NO!” once again shouted the stallion as he galloped back up the the panel and frantically checked it over, looking for something, ANYTHING, that was salvageable.

“YOU ALL STAY BACK!” he shouted at the trio, firing another plasma bolt a meter in front of their hooves/talons, to preempt any attempts to rush him while he was distracted.

Kestrel frowned a bit feeling the heat blanket over his talons and forepaws. Dammit, this wasn't getting anywhere. At least the machine that Grey Mane was working on was breaking down, maybe that would help get him to see reasoning.

"It's Over Grey Mane...just let it go. Let us go home."

Scraps was hiding behind the wall while the trio from the group attempted to reason with Gray Mane, praying that the old unicorn would listen and he could go home, and be fine. Though from the sound of plasma fire it didn't seem to be going well.

Drawing his lightning pistol but levitating it out of view of Grey Mane and any possible view from the door, he peeked his head out and tacked on a sincere please to Kes's statement.

Starry took several swift hoof-steps backward, in surprise. She quickly regained her courage, though, and put her hoof down. "Gray Mane, this isn't over. You'll have another opportunity to save Equestria, trust me. You've invented something great, but the stakes are too high. It's not too late to go back to the drawing board, reinvent your creation. Your experiment here is out of hand, you are not getting the results you wanted. Any responsible stallion of science would stop the experiment here, and refine their experiment under stable conditions."

“No...No...You don’t understand! None of you understand...” stammered the elder unicorn as his eyes wildly darted around the console, trying to divine a solution that would not come. It seemed nothing would persuade the mad unicorn.

Malachite, who had been staying behind Kestrel and Starry the entire time, nervously glanced around. His eyes set on Grey Mane, and he just stared for a moment, before closing his eyes. He knew what he had to do.

With one last audible gulp, Malachite walked past the two, slowly approaching the elder unicorn, who was too absorbed in his terminals at that point to notice. He stopped right behind him, hoof raised in the air as if to put it on the elder unicorn’s shoulder, but hesitating. He swallowed his fear of the potential reprisal, and put his hoof on Grey Mane’s shoulder.

The elder unicorn’s fur bristled from the contact, his head whipping around with a glare and a snarl towards his apprentice, plasma gun already aiming in his direction. He was met with Malachite’s face, which gave him pause. The unicorn showed no fear as he stared into the mad eyes of the older one, only sadness and worry, and it was unlikely it was for himself.

“Grey Mane, we need to stop this.” he said, his voice strong in the face of possible death-by-plasma. “YOU need to stop this. Look around, everything’s falling apart. This isn’t working, and you’re only going to hurt everyone if you try to continue.”

If the fact that the words were coming from his pupil changed anything, Grey Mane didn’t show it. He just continued to snarl as the plasma gun started to glow, the barrel pointed directly at Malachite’s head. The younger unicorn simply closed his eyes, knowing what was going to come.

Grey Mane’s magic was right on the trigger, ready to squeeze it until his apprentice’s head was nothing but a charred stump. But as everyone watched, the blasts that should be vaporising the poor colt’s head never came. Grey Mane continued just standing there, snarling at Malachite while he kept the gun leveled at him. The others may begin to notice...Things, however. Signs. Grey Mane’s body was starting to tremble, his gun, floating in a telekinetic field, was shaking, and something was leaking out of his eyes.

It didn’t take long after that, as suddenly the TK field around the gun vanish, with the weapon clattering to the floor, the glow of it slowly dying down. Grey Mane himself had fallen to his knees, his entire body trembling as tears freely flowed, greyed hair hanging over his face.

“Oh Celestia...Oh Luna...What have I done...I...I don’t...I don’t...Malachite...I’m so sorry...”

Malachite said nothing. He merely pulled the older unicorn into a hug, and let the old stallion cry into his shoulder, an old stallion who had realized he had done a horrible thing.

“I’m so sorry...” whispered Grey Mane before pulling away. Slowly, he pulled a gem-encrusted disk of some kind from his labcoat. “You know what to do...” he said as he floated the disk to Malachite. The unicorn simply nodded, before turning to the others.

“Alright, everypony, hang on, this may get bumpy!”

His horn flared as the gems on the disk started to light up, before everything was consumed in a flash of light.


Once again everyone found themselves waking up laying on the ground, this time inside the megaspell chamber. As everyone looked around, they saw that Grey Mane had already ‘awoken’. He was sitting right in front of the megaspell, starring at it.

“I’ve been a fool...” he said as the others awoke. “I thought I could change the world, make things better, stop the greatest catastrophe ever to befall Equestria...But I was wrong.” He chuckled, although it wasn’t a happy one in the slightest. “I should have realized...Should have realized that it never would work...Even with a megaspell, it just wasn’t possible...The other elders were right...”

Malachite stood up and slowly walked up to Grey Mane, sitting down beside him. The elder unicorn turned to Malachite with sad eyes, before looking away in shame.

“This megaspell...No good can come from it...” he slowly lifted his plasma gun off the ground, apparently the spell that brought them back also brought with it any loose items in the vicinity, papers and various bits of debris from the school were scattered around the chamber. Malachite backed away as Grey Mane aimed the gun at the heart of the matrix, and before anypony could stop him he fired a charged shot directly into the core. Sparks flew everywhere as the megaspell had a hole blasted right in it, and magical energy began to leave the frame as the integrity of their holdings was compromised. A cascade of colors escaped the frame and flew around the room, somehow not harming anyone before it all vanished, the frame drained of energy.

“It is done...” Grey Mane’s shoulders sagged as he dropped the gun again, before turning and walking past the others, with Malachite just watching. “All of you...The door of the bunker is open. You can leave now...Please leave, leave a broken old stallion to his misery...” he slowly walked towards the side room, leaving Malachite with the others.

“Everyone...I’m sorry for what happened...I know there’s nothing I can do to make up for it...But I’m sorry.” he looked towards his mentor’s haggard form as the older pony walked away. “Please...Leave though. Leave Grey Mane to me, I can take care of him.” he nodded towards the door before slowly following the older pony.

[There, it’s done. The blasted thing is finally done. If any of you want to post final words or something go ahead but I’m done with this thing. I’m tired with it, and I hope that I never let a thread carry on like this ever again.]

[This is Ashen Coat, signing off with his first, and rather failed, thread. Hopefully the next one will be much better...]

Kestrel looked at the old stallion before him, and for a moment considered pulling out his rifle and ending the bucks life right then and there.

The way the stallion sagged however showed that such a task would have been pointless. Grey Mane was dead enough already, defeated and broken as he sat there.

Turning away Kestrel began to walk off towards the exit. Just before he left however, he turned and said one final thing. Reminding the stallion of something. "Sink or Build Grey Mane. The choice is yours."

before an explanation of the words could be given, Kestrel disappeared down the hall, and out into the wasteland beyond. Off in search of his next trial.

Sky could see the very end to this night mare as the entire group was brought back to the room where all this started out, but in the end she didnt care, they all made it back as the old buck know as grey mane broke down in front of them. Sky could could only sigh at the sight, that was the wastes for them. Everypony was messed up or the wastes just got to them all, no matter who it was. But in the end Sky could only see Kestrel walk off and Sky followed him for only reason and that was, to give his SMG back and also cause she didnt want to be alone to get back to stableton.