I realize that it has been a long time since I last wrote here, but so much has been happening as of late. I have been building a web of my own portals across the planet to enable faster long distance travel to the Warped Zones. Teleporting can only move one so far, and the Rebel is sending his fiends to this world at a faster pace this second millennium.
After a rather long battle against his attacking hoards at multiple Warped Zones, I had time enough to recover, but not before one disastrously curious zebra wandered in to a Warped Zone. The Enemy must have been waiting, for as soon as she was in range it opened and she was dragged through. He always seeks to destroy that which was made by the Creator.
I quickly hid my wings and ran to her. I did not want to seem like some strange monster to her since that was the first time I had to come into contact with those I protect and since I was the only one of my kind. I took hold of her just as she was taken completely through. This, somehow, pulled me through as well. I looked around quickly. Tartarus seemed exactly the same as the normal world, except for the color scheme. The sky was a bloody red, the trees as black as pitch, the ground itself a sickly blue. I knew as soon as I saw that world that I needed to get the little mare back to the normal world, no matter the cost to me.
There were still a few demons around after they went back through the zone from that last fight, and some of them were bloody and were not even fiends that I yet faced in combat. I felt for the flow of magic in Tartarus. It was no different than in the normal world, to my surprise. The bloody demons were standing in a circle and chanting something. I realized that it was similar to the spell I used to make the portals across the planet in the normal world, but I do not waste the time to transfer the spells from thought to word before summoning forth the magic. This spell of theirs, however, had a twist, which I assumed let them cross between realms.
I figured that I would try an experiment of my own before the filly was taken from my grip. I cut my hoof with a spell and drew a similar, but smaller circle of my blood, assuming that doing so was necessary to cross through the Warped Zone. I shoved the demons away with a kinetic spell and then, to make sure I did not make a mistake with the different part of the spell, began to quickly chant the spell with the demons’ additions. Surprisingly, I felt that we were going back to the normal world.
The spell succeeded, and I cast a spell of physical healing on the filly and myself once we were through to the normal world and the hole in space closed behind us. Something felt odd though, like time picked up years later than when we entered Tartarus. I voiced my concern to her and asked what her name was.
Her response was unique. She said, “The name Zecora belongs to me. A change in time I also see.” She was quite startled, and I was strangely amused. She then said, “I have never spoken in rhyme before. Is this from our passing the temporal door?”
“Zecora,” I said, “I have never attempted any spell with another pony involved. I am looking into the part of your mind that deals with language and communication. I see that there appears to be nothing wrong with your mind on any level, so this rhyme speaking does seem to me to be an effect of crossing through the portal going into and out of Tartarus. It seems that everypony is affected differently by contact with that evil world and its denizens. For I feel a bit of unreasonable doubt of things I know to be true growing in me, and yet I can still overcome it. Stay with me and we will see what may have changed if we are in a different time, most importantly language.”
I reached out to sense where the nearest community was and then set out towards it. I asked her what she did before this incursion through time and space occurred.
“I used to be a potion master,” she said with a sigh, seeming to not enjoy this rhyming quirk, “working to make my potions faster.”
As we neared the edge of the forest I said, “Well maybe you still can work your craft. This forest seems the same, if but a few millennia older. Stay here and I will come back for you. I need to discover what language is used now and if I need to copy it for myself and then teach it to you.”
I was surprised that anypony would chose to live so close to a Warped Zone. Nevertheless, I used an invisibility spell and made my way to what seemed to be a library in a tree. I searched the mind of the keeper of the library and went to the lexicon. I pulled it out and used a spell to speed read the book and memorize anything that was different or new in this language. It was quite different, so I made a copy and returned the book to its place and returned to Zecora.
I told her that I would teach her of these new words later and asked her not to be too angry, but the only time travel spell I know only works on the caster. I told her that as soon as I left back to our original time I would be right back to her.
She gave me a confused look and I told her, “I sense another me that is waiting for me to return home so that he can take care of you.” She seemed even more confused, not realizing that I was an alicorn hiding his wings, not just a unicorn. I told her, “I will explain later,” well at least later from my judgment of time.
Time is such a difficult matter to contend with. If one thing is out of place the course of ones very existence could be altered, or even nullified. I pray that nopony ever discovers this time travel spell or any like it. I only sought out this week temporal spell for just such a situation as this and for nothing else.
Well, I am finally back in my time, and Zecora is in a distant future. In a few millennia, I will need to prepare a place for her to work as a apothecary, so, for her to still feel at home, I must gather some items from her zebra kin. I can cast a preservation spell on them so that they don’t decay, but for ingredients and recipe books I will need to work on that over time. It seems that my mission will get more interesting as the centuries pass. When something else arises, I will be sure to write of it, my little ones. Farewell.
-Paladin