//------------------------------//
// Story Finale - Tick Tock 
// Story: First Hoofsteps 
// by Mocha 
//------------------------------//

	“So you've been lying to us?” Applejack growled. Comet frowned again.
“I haven't lied to you at all! Where in Equestria did that come from?”
“Before, you said that Celestia gave you that mark. Said it was a case of 'you were there, so might as well'.”
There was a pause where Comet tried to remember ever saying that. He shook his head.
“I don't remember saying that at all, Applejack. You might have misheard – it was rather rowdy in here.”
Next stop was the library to meet Twilight. Comet loved magic, possibly just as much as Twilight (though that was stretching it), because it all looked just so cool. He knocked on the door of Golden Oaks Library and let himself in when Twilight called for him to do so.
He found her sitting amongst a fort of books on the floor and he came up behind her, sitting next to her.
“Whatcha doin'?” he asked casually.
Twilight looked around and nodded in acknowledgement of his existence, then carried on reading. He leaned over her shoulder to get a better look. It was some sort of spell, or at least part of one, as Twilight was in the process of writing it.
“Ooh, what's that?”
Twilight looked at him and put her quill down. She smiled as she put it away in a file and directed him away from the book fort and towards the central table. There lay another pile of books, smaller than the others, and Twilight picked the topmost one and opened it to the fifth chapter. Therein resided combat magic, which she was quick to teach and demonstrate to him. Comet wasn't really all that impressive at offensive spells, but more than made up for it on defense and status-changing. He managed to cast a Dizzying Spell on her, which of course sent her stumbling around, crashing into things; he used a Reverse All Spell to stop it.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
“What's there to be sorry about? That was amazing! I've never felt so out-of-control before!”
“That's what's to be sorry about. I didn't mean for you to lose control like that.”
“Trust me, Comet, there are much worse things to worry about in a combat setting. Now, back to practising offensive magic.”
Spike poked his head around the corner of the doorway on the second floor, looking distastefully at the mess they had created. He hopped down the stairs and started gathering books and putting them away. He couldn't reach the top shelf, or any shelves above the second row for that matter, so Comet levitated him up.
The fight hadn't stopped for that, though.
Twilight fired a disarming spell, making Comet squeak in surprise and react instinctively, throwing up a shield just before it hit his muzzle. The barrage stopped but he kept the barrier up for safety purposes, while still levitating Spike. He looked up after a while to see Twilight watching him closely.
“You're doing two things at once,” she noted.
“I'm sorry,” Comet wheezed, exhausted. He dropped both the shield and Spike, who landed on the floor with a soft fmph.
“You're apologising way too much,” Spike pointed out, getting up and dusting himself off, “even when you weren't at fault. You have to stop saying sorry so much.”
“Sorry.”
Spike rolled his eyes, dismissing it with a wave of the hand, continuing on his less-than-merry escapade into the depths of the book castle. He started to collect books from there, when the walls started to crumble and diaries and spellbooks and dictionaries fell around him. Comet snapped his attention to the beseiged castle and caught all of the books before they fell on Spike and buried him alive. The sheer amount of yellow now in the room made everything else look pink in comparison.
“You really are good at magic, aren't you?” Twilight praised, “first you pretty much master defence and status-changing, then you do two things at once, then you accomplish quick-casting!”
“Well, my talent is magic.”
“Hey, what's this?”
Spike had found the book Twilight had been writing in previously. It was one of the books Comet had saved him from being trapped under, so he plucked it out of the air and read the page it had opened to.
“Spike, no! Don't touch that!” Twilight cried, but it was too late.
A vicious wind picked up, ruffling their hair (or spines), and the door wasn't even open. It seemed to pool in the center of the table, and swirl even faster there, forming a miniature tornado. Comet could feel himself slipping, losing his grip on the floor. A bright flash of light blinded him for a moment and when he looked back at the table, it was glowing navy blue, and clock-like insignias floated around it.
“You were writing a time spell?” Comet shouted to Twilight over the racket, “You of all ponies should know that's highly dangerous!”
“There's no time to explain it now!” Twilight shouted back, “I'm losing my footing and I'll be sucked into the portal!”
And that she was. Her body stretched a little as she disappeared actually into the table, as if it were some sort of black hole, or wormhole, or that kind of thing. Comet jumped so he could be dragged in faster so he could follow her instead of leaving her and Spike in there.

Everything faded into a darkish aquamarine tinged with greenish navy, and an oddly familiar jerk to the stomach signified Comet's descent into the unknown. He looked around him and he could have sworn he saw ghostly images of clocks and stopwatches and pocketwatches and all sorts of watches. There was no denying that he was travelling through time, and that he had been thrown in at the deep end by Miss Purple Smart. He could see her up ahead, her and Spike, so he locked his arms down by his sides to help him descend faster to catch up with them.
That was a mistake.
He smashed against the ground at top speed, concussing himself on the oaken floors of the library. It took him a while to get his senses back, and when he did, he looked over at the table. The portal was still there.
Had he gone back in time at all? If he had, why was the portal still there?
“Strange... perhaps it didn't work,” Twilight sighed, venturing towards the portal to try again.
“Wait, Twilight!” Spike ordered, making her stop completely, “If the spell worked and nothing seems to change, you'll just keep going through the portal, wanting something to happen, when in fact you would've gone back thousands of years and nothing you know would exist. And what if the portal were to close then? You'd be stuck millenia before your time, and you'd die before you were born, and you'd be stuck in a paradox!”
Twilight looked at him, astonished with his conclusion, and nodded. She walked out of the door and saw...
A normal day in Equestria.
Comet appeared beside her, making her jump, and they began to roam around, looking for any differences. They checked the Square, the Town Hall, everywhere. When they got to the Schoolhouse, though, they immediately knew they had indeed gone back in time.
Foals who should have been adults were playing in the playground, albeit still with their cutiemarks. Miss Cheerliee was making daisychains with Carrot Top, and Bulk Biceps looked rather skinny, or perhaps he was normal size and Twilight and Spike were just too used to seeing him as a living ball of muscle.
“Amazing,” Twilight breathed.
Everypony stopped and turned to look at her. Change 1.
“Hello everypony,” Twilight greeted, “I am Twilight Sparkle. I've come from the future –”
“Twilight, you realise that just by being here and interacting with these ponies means that you are changing the past, right?” Comet interrupted, “Just let them be! – Oh, my...”
Comet had by chance looked over at the bench he used to sit on and, lo and behold, there he was. Or there he used to be. Or there his colt self was. Already it was really quite confusing. His colt self was sitting there, by himself, with a contemplative look on his face. And then the bullies came.
“What use are you? You haven't got any talents!”
“And your dad – what's up with him? He looks like he ought to be sucking our blood!”
“Leave me alone,” Colt-met mumbled half-heartedly.
“Clear off,” Comet growled, advancing on the bullies. They cowered in his presence and ran away. Change 2.
“Comet, you've just changed your own past!” Spike cried, biting his claws anxiously, “You have to be so careful!”
“You seem very well-versed in time magic, Spike,” Twilight grumbled, raising a speculative eyebrow. Spike shrugged.
“It's called common sense.”
“Sweet Celestia, you're right!” Comet breathed, “I was so caught up in my bad memories that I didn't think about what I was doing... stupid, stupid, stupid!”
He violently punched himself in the face for being so, as he put it, stupid. Colt-met looked at him, bewildered.
“Thank you for stopping those bullies,” he said with a small voice.
“Gaaah! No, don't say that! You were supposed to be bullied, that's how you got your cutiemark! Or – my cutiemark! Yours? Mine? Whatever!”
“I'm sorry!” Colt-met sobbed, running inside with tears in his eyes.
Comet' eyes widened as he realised just how much he had screwed up. He sat on the bench, completely dwarfing it as it was meant for little ponies, and held his face in his hooves. Spike walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Don't worry about it too much. You'll always get the same cutiemark whatever, because you're hardwired to get it. Unless of course, you encourage him to do something else he is good at doing, or prevent him from doing the thing that got you your current mark.”
“I'm good at saying sorry, and I'm not even Canadian.”
“Then don't make him have to say sorry. What would an apologising cutiemark even look like?”
“No idea. Probably a sticky-note saying 'Sorry' with a sad face.”

It was now evening, and time for the big event. Comet lead the way as they galloped to Canterlot, Spike on Twilight's back. Their only goal was to watch it all unfold, perhaps just peeking in through the doorway, but when they realised they ought to stop off, they were already right next to Colt-met's parents, who stared at them suspiciously before turning their attention back to their son. Twilight stared at Chromium Elixir, Colt-met's dad, taking in his appearance. He had fangs, tufty ears, leathery bat wings and slit pupils in green eyes. He was a bat pony.
“Your dad was a bat pony?” Twilight asked rather loudly. Comet snapped her mouth shut with his magic, and kept it that way.
“Is, Miss Sparkle. He isn't dead yet.”
Chromium looked thoroughly perplexed. He inquired as to what in Equestria they were on about, and Comet answered with a simple 'timey-wimey stuff'. He also mentioned, in passing, that he was the alchemist's son from the future. Chromium didn't answer, but kept his attention firmly on the son onstage fumbling with the egg he had to crack. Comet watched in horror as his former self practically juggled the egg, unintentionally throwing it around the room. He was convinced the colt would fail, because it certainly seemed he was getting close, but then he remembered that he never did fail, otherwise he wouldn't be here watching himself. He caught the egg with his magic just before it hit the ground, paranoid that it would crack and have him disqualified for not breaking the egg with his magic.
It was then he realised that he, the older Comet, counted as another pony.
And that he was using his magic to assist the examinee.
Change 3.
“Comet Trails, you are hereby disqualified for having non-examinees tamper with your exam in your favour. You wasted everypony's time and you should feel ashamed.”
Colt-met burst into tears and galloped out, having lost the chance to be greater. Comet tried to chase after him but almost immediately fell over absolutely nothing. He faceplanted then curled into a ball, groaning in near agony. Something was happening, he didn't feel right, he didn't feel whole. A horrible electricity sent him into spasms. Twilight and Spike raced over and knelt beside him, asking if he was OK. He wasn't.
His whole body seemed to secrete black, ghostly steam, cloaking him in darkness. They could hear his cries for help, his cries of pain from inside, until his voice trailed away. They watched, petrified, as he stood up; he was no longer distinguishable as any particular pony – he was simply a stallion unicorn-shaped shadow with disturbingly glowing yellow eyes. He squinted menacingly.
“Comet...?” Spike whimpered.
“That's not Comet, Spike,” Twilight informed him, backing away and charging her horn, “that's a Paradox. They're caused when something in the past doesn't happen that should, or does happen that shouldn't.”
“So in this case, Comet never got his cutiemark.”
“There's more to it than that. He told AJ that he'd got his mark from performing magic to get into Celestia's School of Magic. AJ told me that he had also said that Celestia herself gave it to him, which prompted me to investigate.
If he never got his cutiemark, he would never tell AJ. AJ would never tell me about it, and I would never investigate. Separately, Comet's talent wouldn't be magic, so he wouldn't come to the library to be taught more spells. He shouldn't be here strictly speaking, because he had no reason to be.”
The Comet Paradox lunged, knocking Twilight to the ground, forcing her to release her charge of magic, which ricocheted around the room several times, narrowly missing Comet's parents. Spike ordered them and the examiners to evacuate, leading the charge, showing more responsibility and leadership than he had ever shown before.
Twilight and The Comet Paradox sparred horns. TCP was cold and vibrating with a kind of energy, a kind of malice. Twilight started charging up, running around the circumference of the large circular room to keep him away. TCP had a leaping stride that at times made it look like he was flying. At long last Twilight was fully charged, so she let loose and hit him square in the chest. An explosion filled the room but didn't scar the surroundings, and unfortunately it didn't affect TCP. He was knocked back and had sprawled on the floor, but he got up soon enough and fired his own magic. At first the shot seemed easily blockable and insignificant, until Twilight could hear a rumbling and crackling above her. She looked up and her eyes widened as she saw the five black comets with navy, purple and maroon trails blazing towards her at terminal velocity. TCP had cast a Target Spell, and since he was attributed to comets, he could control them with it. The only creepy thing about this whole fight was that TCP never spoke, never made any sound, even when some of the magic he used was quite high-level stuff. Though technically he didn't have a body to tire, plus he didn't have a mouth. The comets exploded on the ground near Twilight's hooves and she screamed as she was flung across the room and slid to a halt near the stage.
TCP leapt, pinning Twilight to the ground, her head smacking against the corner of the stage and knocking her out. He charged his horn again, but was interrupted by a purple, green and cream-coloured streak barrelling into him from the side, sending them to the ground. It was Spike, and he was trying to distract TCP to allow Twilight to recover. They tumbled and fought, Spike kicking and flailing, while TCP tried to catch him in the face with a shot of magic but missing 8 out of 10 times. The other two scarred Spike's chest and his right cheek, but he was too busy laying down the law. In the end TCP kicked him aside and stood up, striding towards Twilight, his horn glowing purpleish-navy.
Spike jogged over and took hold of her hoof and bolted, dragging her behind him, TCP in hot pursuit. Spike flitted round a corner and dove through a nearby window into somebody's house, Twilight banging against the windowsill as she followed limply. Thankfully, TCP had seen them turn the corner but hadn't seen them enter the house, so he ran on. Spike held his breath as he waited for his heavy hoofsteps to die down, then hoisted himself back out of the window and dragged Twilight back the way they came. They circled around so that they didn't meet TCP as they made their way to the library, Spike's ears swivelling like satellites, trying to figure out where the Paradox was. Mercifully, he wasn't nearby. He slammed the door shut when he got inside, then turned to face the portal in the table.
“We'll come back for you,” Spike promised, directed at TCP, who was currently on the other side of town.
He jumped in, followed by Twilight.
“I want to go back to when we first arrived in the past,” he told the walls of the portal. They were flung along a tangent to the main tunnel and crash-landed in the library once again.
There already, with frightened and confused looks on their faces, were Past Twilight, Past Spike and Past Comet (hereafter known as PT, PS and PC). PT gasped in shock at Twilight's limp body and PC jumped away, horrified beyond belief. He trembled in the opposite corner.
“What happened?” PT demanded. Spike took a deep breath.
“You guys will go to the Schoolhouse and talk to the ponies and Comet will make his past self cry and then you will go to Celestia's School of Magic to watch past Comet get his cutiemark except he doesn't because your Comet will prevent him from getting it and your Comet will turn into a Paradox and he will beat up your Twilight and your version of me will drag her from Canterlot back to Ponyville and jump back in the portal then this conversation will happen all over again.”
PS and PT stared at him blankly for a moment then PT nodded once, taking the book that had started this whole mess from PS's claws.
“What're you doing?” PC asked.
“I am not risking a temporal loop. I am also not risking you becoming a Paradox. Oh, and I'd hate to be knocked out.”
PT touched the page and after a moment the portal turned a deep maroon and scarlet, signalling a change in the path of time that they were about to walk. They jumped in, and it felt like floating in space. They were dragged off, Spike merging with PS and Twilight merging with PT. She woke up then closed her eyes against the nausea of waking up to being transported through time, just before she, Spike and Comet hit the ground and bounced a little. The portal started flashing then imploded, causing a colossal bang that shook the whole town. A few loose branches on Golden Oaks Library fell to the ground, and birds that had been perched on them flew away with an alarmed collective squawk.
“What in Celestia's royal name was that?” Rainbow Dash demanded as she stormed in, followed less exuberantly by Twilight's other four friends, “I was sleeping perfectly happily on a cirrus cloud!”
“You were sleepin' on the job again, I don't think you would particularly miss anythin' by bein' awake,” Applejack scolded. Rainbow flashed her a dangerous look.
“We went back in time for a bit,” Comet told them groggily as he stood up, “now if you'll excuse me, all that falling has done neither my head nor my stomach any good at all.”
He dashed out the door holding his stomach with a green-tinged face. Rarity frowned after him, then turned back to Twilight and Spike, who were only now recovering fully.
“Falling?”
“The portal was in the table,” Spike answered, looking like he was going to be sick right there and then. He shot upstairs and they didn't see him for quite some time. He then reappeared quite suddenly.
“I've just realised something, Twi,” he said urgently, “we never got rid of the Paradox – he's still in the past – he could change anything!”
“Forgive me for asking, but... what are you talking about?” Fluttershy asked.
As she spoke, the library dissolved around them, replaced by a burning, charred, hollow tree-trunk and similarly assaulted-looking books scattered all over the place.
“I told you!” Spike spat, directed towards Twilight.
Twilight looked around for the book with the time spell in it, and found it – though it was shrivelled and blackened, and some of the words were damaged, rendering it too unpredictable to use. She growled in irritation then trotted over to the drawers in the desk on the left-hand side of the library, withdrawing a vial of ink, a phoenix-feather quill and a roll of parchment.
“Rarity – you have an eye for detail – could you make out the spell from the book? Be very careful not to touch it or use your magic on it.”
Rarity nodded and walked over, leaning slightly forward so that she didn't have to get too close to the book in order to read it. She lowered her head until her nose was barely a centimetre from the pages.
With this spell, I ask of you –
Tempus, the God of Time –
To resurrect the past and allow me to act as your servant,
As your ambassador,
As I observe what has been done,
Knowing I must not disturb the winds of time
Nor knock the hourglass askew.
“Gosh, Twilight, that's some fancy stuff!” Pinkie remarked.
Twilight touched the parchment and a portal similar to the previous one  opened in the air above her, ticking and tocking like a grandfather clock. She supposed the different, more immediate location of the portal was because she wrote it with a powerful spell-weaving quill, the phoenix feather, as opposed to her usual knowledge-collecting one, the owl feather.
“Aren't we coming with you, darling?” Raity asked.
“Better not. It'd get pretty crowded, and simply knocking over a vase could lead to catastrophe, as the spell implies.”
“Good luck,” Fluttershy wished her, before she was promptly sucked away into the bluish tunnel.

The journey felt strangely bumpy, as if she was sliding down a long flight of stairs on her rear, and she was thrown this way and that as the tunnel wound around itself. It felt like the portal wasn't sure what it wanted to do with itself, like that one awkward guy in the back of the night-club not dancing. In this case he was dancing a bit too much.

When they landed, she was able to take one step forward before The Comet Paradox froze her in place with his magic.
TCP drew close, so close that his nose almost touched Twilight's, as he investigated. He peered at her in a feral kind of way, like she was his prey. He perused her up and down, moving around behind her, making her feel uncomfortable with the notion that he might attack her without warning.
Twilight concentrated as hard as she could on the magic in her horn, which consequently dispelled the Statue Spell with a squeaky pop. She launched, firing an intense, immense beam of magic that engulfed the Paradox and injured him substantially, throwing him backwards and against the opposite wall. He was paralyzed. He slid to the floor and raised his gaze to Twilight, who advanced upon him, her horn shining with a holy light. It was dazzling, the way it emitted such a perfect white, with little offshoots spurting here and there now and then. She touched his chest with the light and TCP screeched, trying to draw away but unable to. The light was hurting him, hurting his darkness, dissipating him like the shadows. His final howl of anguish before he completely disappeared echoed around the room, replaced by loud ticking, signalling the forming of the portal. Twilight jumped into it and was whisked back to the present, where she and the others watched the library reform and fix itself around them.