//------------------------------//
// 19: Forbidden Sorrows (Pt 1) 
// Story: Constant: Time Guardian 
// by TimeSpawn 
//------------------------------//

	Princess Luna stood on a balcony at Canterlot Castle. She was contemplating what she had seen of Constant and Jethrek. She had not been able to help them solve all of their problems, and it was not just out of respect for privacy. Since she had never been in their universe, she wouldn't have been able to help them as much as she helped Sweetie Belle. She explained all of this and their plan to Princess Celestia, who could only sympathize with her. After an hour and a half had passed, she turned back, intent on taking a nap, when she saw light flickering in front of her. It soon shaped itself to Costant's perception filter image. "Can you see me?" he asked, "Princess Luna, this is Constant. I'm using my perception filter image to contact you. Can you see me?"

"I can," she replied, turning to face the projection completely, "I assume your companion is safe?"

"For the most part," Constant replied, "but he lost his behavioral regulator in the process of waking up. Don't ask. It would not be a description you'd want to keep in your head. For a minimal description, it was made to limit his thoughts and keep him from doing things which his race would not find acceptable."

Princess Luna nodded. "And what about you?"

"Me?" Constant asked.

"I sensed that you were still troubled by your own past," she replied..

"Ah," Constant said, "I see...Well, honestly...I don't know. So much has---" he stopped when he heard a rush of wind outside, and the room he was in shook lightly. "Uh, stand by," he said. When he walked to the entrance door to see what had happened, the isomorphic projection showed only the tip of the tail of his perception filter avatar due to the visual range of the communication system he was using.

Princess Luna tilted her head slightly to the left, wondering what was happening. "Were you discovered?" she asked.

"No, thankfully," Constant replied, coming back into view. "According to my sensor logs, that would have been Rainbow Dash, I think that's her name, flying into the library." He turned to look at Princess Luna again. "Where was I?"

"You were talking about your current state of well being," Princess Luna reminded him 

Constant's eyebrows raised slightly. "That's right. As I was saying, so much has happened, even before I came here that I can't get over all of it at once."

"Understandable," Princes Luna stated. She paused for a few seconds. "I told my sister about your... situation. She agreed to secrecy as well."

Constant nodded. "Thank you, your majesty."

"Please," she said, "'Princess Luna' is acceptable to me."

"So noted," Constant said, "Alright, I'm going to sign off now. I'm actually going to send more probes back in time further than I already did. I think going to the beginning would be beneficial because I only started a thousand years ago. I'm telling you this now so neither you or your sister will worry about my activities."	

Princess Luna smiled. "Ah yes, your quest to preserve the natural flow of events."

"Yes," Constant replied, "and again, thank you for your assistance." Princess Luna nodded. "Good day, Princess Luna."

"Good day, Constant," Princes Luna replied before the isomorphic projection faded.



Constant sighed as he finished programming several more time probes for use farther back in time than he did before. Jethrek came into the control room, and went to a console to to extend the search parameters for a way back home. Constant was concerned. "Jethrek, what are you doing? You should be resting."

"I have rested long enough," Jethrek replied, "I will not stand around doing nothing for  the remaining 290 kilorels."

"Well, you still need to give yourself time to adjust to your new conditions," Constant pointed out.

Jethrek snapped his eye stalk toward him. "I have had to adjust to new conditions twice before. Nothing fatal will happen if I start working now." He looked to the holographic screen at the console Constant was working at. "I see you are planning to bury more time probes. I will assist you."

Constant looked down, worried. "Fine. You can observe the probe activity while I bury them."

"No," Jethrek spoke back, "I will help you bury them."

"Jethrek, I am not playing games with you," Constant snapped.

"Neither am I," Jethrek replied, "I do not wish to remain stationary during recovery. If we work together, we can..." He paused abruptly. 

"We can what?" Constant asked, looking up at him.

Jethrek's eye stalk looked slightly right, slightly left, then straight back at Constant within a second. "We can get the work done faster."

Constant raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Is there something you are not telling me, Jethrek?"

"No," Jethrek replied. At this moment, if Pinkie Pie were here, she might as well have been counting the seconds for a nonexistent staring contest.

"Sounds like you're in more of a hurry to get back than before," Constant said finally, "We cannot rush this, Jethek. We need a solid plan, which we do not have." Jethrek's eye stalk shifted up momentarily. Constant walked up to him, and he faced Jethrek through the eye stalk for a few seconds, making Jethrek back up slightly. "Alright, Jethrek, you win." he said, "I'll let you help me."

"Good," Jethrek replied, "Then I shall prepare a console for probe observation."

"Okay," Constant said. He gave himself a moment to think before he spoke again. Jethrek was definitely hiding something, and there was no way to tell for certain what it was, especially with the fact that he no longer had a behavioral regulator. The only possibility that fact could imply was that Jethrek was hiding an emotional state, most likely fear or sadness. While Jethrek's attitude at the moments Constant just witnessed also supported that possibility, as it was common in many life forms, it was still not enough. "But listen," he went on, "At the first sign of trouble, I'm sending you back to your charging station. Is that clear?"

"I comprehend fully," Jethrek replied.

"Alright," Constant said. He did a calculation in his head as he worked. "I'm almost done here. We'll start in about three kilorels."

"Understood," Jethrek said. He went to another and brought up the display interface for setting up and retrieving data from time probes.



Twilight came downstairs a few minutes after organizing her notes. She saw Rainbow Dash looking out the window nearest to the false tree branch, which was the Monitor. Looking at the clock, Twilight realized that she had been there for over an hour now. "Have you been looking at the Monitor for the past hour, Rainbow Dash?" she asked, startling her a bit with the first few words.

Rainbow Dash folded her wings back in. "Uh, heh-heh...Yeah," she admitted nervously, "I have been."

"Well it's a good thing you were doing that in here rather than outside," Twilight said, with a half-deadpanned look. 

Rainbow Dash could only flinch, seeing Twilight's point. If anyone else had seen her doing that, chances are her reputation would have changed dramatically. "Still, what's Constant doing in there?"

"Searching for a way home," Twilight replied.

"That's it?" Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow, "That's all he's doing in there?"

Twilight closed the book she was reading and looked to Rainbow Dash again. "It isn't really our business, Rainbow. He wanted us to keep his secret and go on with our lives as if we never met him unless he actually needs help. Don't you remember talking about that with Spike, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle?"

Rainbow dash sighed. "Yeah, I remember. Still, time travel sounds so cool." Her face brightened up a bit and she poked her 
head out the window hole she was looking through. "Maybe I can---" She was cut off by a quick warbling sound followed by the Monitor fading as it shifted through time. Shocked, she turned her head back inside. "AWW!" she groaned, "There went my chance to meet him in person!" 

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, looking to her.

"He just left in his timeship!" Rainbow Dash answered, "I can't believe my luck!"

Twilight looked back at her book. "He'll come back. He probably went to correct a time paradox, or something."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Yeah, without somepony to go with him."

"Uh, actually," Twilight pointed out, "he does have someone going with him."

Rainbow Dash looked to her. "Who?"

"That...Dalek, I think his species is called," Twilight replied, looking up as she thought about it, "His name is Jethrek. I think Constant made a travel machine for him to replace his old one."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Why would he do that? Aren't...Time Lords and Daleks sworn enemies?"

"They are, from what I've heard," Twilight said, "I think it's Constant's way of gaining Jethrek's trust so he can cooperate and not try to kill him."

"Oh, okay," Rainbow Dash said, seeing how it would make sense, "Anyway, I'm going to go out and practice some more maneuvers. Wonderbolts training is getting tougher."

"Alright," Twilight said, "good luck."

Rainbow Dash nodded a thanks and bolted out just as Spike came down and greeted the Cutie Mark Crusaders in for Twilight time.



Constant and Jethrek were halfway through their trip setting up probes. These new probes also had current data in them to help calculate what events they were recording lead to events further into the future. Everything was going smoothly until now. According to information Constant read, the location they were at right now was soon to be a dragon settlement. In fact, the dragons in question were going to be there within five minutes. However, Jethrek did not seem to be concentrating entirely on the task at hand. Every so often, Constant saw him standing stationary, not even moving his arms. "Jethrek?" he said, "Jethrek! We need to hurry!"

Jethrek's eye stalk jerked to look at Constant, "Yes, sir," he said, and sent the signal to the probe so it would dig. The probe dug 
down quickly until it reached the appropriate depth. "The probe is transmitting the confirmation signal," Jethrek reported.

"Alright," Constant said. Then he heard the sound of dragon roars in the distance. "Jethrek, get inside now! I'll finish replacing the soil!"

"Affirmative!" Jethrek replied, turning and rushing back inside the Monitor.

Constant replaced the soil quickly, making sure there was no evidence that a possible excavation was taking place. He pounded the ground hard with his shovel to make sure the density of the dirt was the same all around. When he saw the shadows of several dragons approaching, he sprinted back to the Monitor, and typed quickly into the navigational console. When he started the temporal drive, the cylindrical timeship disappeared moments before the dragons landed, and since it was disguised as a boulder next to a pile of boulders, it seemed to them like their landing caused the pile to collapse, which it did when the Monitor faded.

The rest of the trip ranged with stops that were almost as eventful as what had happened there, with Jethrek seemingly distracted at times. In between stops, Constant would take a break and continue working on the unknown number of building projects he had been working on. Jethrek always wondered what it was Constant was working on. Several possibilities came to mind, one being the stun weapon that Constant promised him. When they reached the last time and location they would need to go to, which was where and when Constant started setting up probes by himself when Jethrek still did not have his new travel machine, he did not have to set up a new probe, but he did have to collect the last probe moments before the very first one would arrive. Luckily for Constant, he landed the Monitor exactly where it needed to be so he would collect the probe directly from the entrance door. Once he finished replacing the dirt, he set a course back to Golden Oaks Library about two and a half hours after they left.



Rainbow Dash had finished training for the day, and was taking a break sitting on a cloud above Ponyville, looking at Golden Oaks Library through a pair of binoculars. "When is he coming back?" she thought to herself. Despite the agreement not to dig into Constant's activities, her curiosity got the better of her. Not even her dream to join the Wonderbolts could overcome this. "Come on, come on!" she whispered to herself. After a few seconds more, she sighed, and put her binoculars down. "I should be training more, not staring at the library for the slim chance that Constant's time machine will come in sooner than later." 

She stood up and prepared to fly away when she heard the slight whooshing sound that the Monitor made whenever it arrived or departed. She quickly grabbed her binoculars again and looked through them to see the extra branch on the tree once again. "Finally!" she thought, "Now to see if he'll---" She saw blue light inside the library. "What's he doing now?!" She dropped from the cloud and let her wings spread out so she could fly straight to the library. Her landing, however, ended up making her skid on the ground and roll end-over-end until she reached the entrance, as she was in quite a hurry to find out what was going on. Shaking off the dizzy spell, she looked up to see Constant's avatar being projected in front of Twilight. 

"And I just wanted to make sure that---" Constant was cut off when he heard Rainbow Dash crashing into the library. He looked at her for a few seconds. "Rainbow Dash, I assume?" he asked.

Rainbow Dash stood up, holding a hoof on the right side of her forehead, "Yeah, that's me," she said, smiling despite the pain she was feeling all over. It was not much, as she had not broken any bones or suffered any injury of equivalent or more severe nature. "So you're Constant, huh?"

Constant raised an eyebrow. "You came rushing in just to get a chance to see me?" he asked.

Rainbow Dash could only laugh nervously. "Yeah, I---"

"Constant," Jethrek said, still invisible to Rainbow  Dash and Twilight.

Constant looked left. "Yes, Jethrek, what is it?"

"Would you allow me to leave the Monitor and explore?"

Constant raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Why?" he asked.

"I wish to know more about the culture," Jethrek replied. He paused for a moment, "And I wish to observe activities which are unusual to us so we can expand our knowledge of the physics of this universe."

"We can read books in the library for that, Jethrek," Constant replied, "I was actually planning on going back there, anyway."

Rainbow Dash could not help but smile at that idea.

"So noted," Jethrek replied, "But I would rather see some of the concepts...in person."

Constant looked at him carefully. Jethrek's recent behavior, especially now, was indication enough that he was hiding something. Whether or not it was a result of the lack of a behavioral regulator, he was not sure. After a few moments, Constant made a decision. "Okay, Jethrek, but keep your tracker on in case something happens." He was not sure if he was making the right decision, but he decided to go along with it anyway.

"Thank you," Jethrek replied. 

Constant was surprised, but that only showed for a moment. Jethrek never said "thank you" before. "Uhm, alright, let's go. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, I'll be with you in a moment." He turned off the isomorphic projection, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash slightly confused. A few moments later they heard a clunk from the branch, followed by the sound of sliding doors. The sounds repeated in reverse order seconds before Constant entered the library with his perception filter active, followed by Jethrek with his perception filter also active. "Alright, here we are," Constant said.

"Welcome back, Constant," Twilight said, "And...hello, Jethek."

"Greetings," Jethrek replied. Recalling recent history, he made his perception filter avatar bow to her, "Your majesty," he added.

Twilight smiled. "Rise, Jethrek," she said, "I don't feel I've done quite enough to receive that kind of treatment despite my title."

Jethrek made his avatar rise. "Very well, I'll keep that in mind," he replied.

Constant turned to Rainbow Dash. "So why were you so eager to see us, anyway?" he asked.

"Well, since I didn't get the chance before," Rainbow Dash replied, "I thought I'd get it now."

Now it was her turn to get a suspicious look from Constant. "Is that all?"

"Of course it is!" Rainbow Dash said, as Spike cam downstairs, yawning.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash," he said, "In case you're wondering, the next Daring Do book is here, in case you want to read it."

"Really?" Rainbow Dash asked, shifting her attention to Spike, "Which shelf?"

"To your left," Spike replied, "Second from the bottom."

The name sounded strange to Jethrek. "Daring Do?" he asked.

Rainbow Dash looked to Jethrek. "Only the coolest adventurer ever!" she replied, getting the latest copy, "Why don't you two take a look for yourself?"

Constant, out of curiosity, looked at the collection on the shelf. Seeing the first book, he took it out of the shelf and flipped through the whole book in about five seconds. "Goodness," he said, "She lives dangerously."

Twilight looked to Constant, wondering how he could make such a quick judgement.  Jethrek looked at the book curiously. "Let me read it," he said. Constant handed the book to him, and he flipped through the pages slower than Constant, primarily because he needed to use the translation matrix in his travel machine to be able to understand the language. "This story takes the main character through situations where she should have died," he said, making Constant raise an eyebrow, "The Daleks have had few enemies who have survived such situations."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. She had been told what Constant had said about the Daleks. "'Few', huh? No kidding. If you Daleks weren't such brutes and monsters, you wouldn't be in the situation you're in now."

Jethrek's grip on the book loosened, letting it drop. His perception filter flickered for a moment, letting everyone in the library get a small glimpse of what his travel machine looked like. Rainbow Dash backed up, her eyes wide, as was Twilights, but only for a moment before she deadpanned to Rainbow Dash. Spike flinched, looking toward Jethrek, saw the insulted look on his avatar's face, and then also looked to Rainbow Dash. "Really, Rainbow Dash?" he asked, "Really?"

"Pardon me, please," Jethrek said as he "walked" out of the library. Once outside, he looked down, and tried to keep himself from showing a sad face at all with his avatar, which failed. "Elevate," he said quietly, and his avatar flapped it's wings as he flew off, not knowing where he was going. He just wanted to be somewhere else at that moment. Anywhere he could try to forget what Rainbow Dash had said. He felt hurt by it, and he didn't know why.

Constant looked down and sighed. "Well, at least his tracker is on in case something happens," he thought to himself as he picked up the Daring Do book which Jethrek had dropped. He didn't go after Jethrek because he felt that he needed time to cool off if he got angry. Either that, or he needed more time to adapt to the lack of his behavioral regulator. After putting the book away, he started looking for another book that would have information on magic and physics. 

It wasn't long before the awkward silence behind him was broken. "What's his problem?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight glared at her, and Spike sighed, going to the table and sitting down at it with a book in hand, waiting for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to return. "What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Constant stopped ignoring the situation at this point. "I think you struck a nerve on him, Rainbow Dash," he replied.

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Yeah right," she said, "It's not like---"

"Jethrek has gone through two nightmares," Constant said, "Now I don't know if that's normal for a Dalek or not, but the last one caused his behavioral regulator to overload, so there's no way of knowing for sure how he will react to certain situations. Your remark about Daleks was just one of those situations, and his reaction surprised me."

"You?" Rainbow Dash asked, "It surprised you?"

"You heard correctly," Constant replied, walking to the table Spike was sitting at with a book in hand, and taking a seat himself, "As far as I know you gave him a bad start." He opened the book and started reading. 

After a few more minutes of silence, Rainbow Dash's face was that of someone saying "huh?" in their mind. "Okay, I'll take your word for it," she said. 

"I think he's implying that you should apologize," Twilight said. She was hoping that Rainbow Dash would figure it out by herself.

"As a start, anyway," Constant added.

"What?!" Rainbow Dash spluttered, "But---but...Oh, alright. I'll do it." She was starting to feel bad about what she had done, but did not want to show it so easily. She ran out and flew to try and find Jethrek.

Constant watched as she did so. Twilight did as well, but then the fact that Constant read the Daring Do novel very quickly came to mind. "Constant," she asked, "Did you really read the book that quickly?"

Constant looked to her. "Yes. Yes I did."



Jethrek had stopped flying around after exploring for a while. He had stopped a few times because he found himself getting distracted by some heaviness he felt inside. He did not know why it was there, but he did know that it was breaking his concentration. Because of this, he found himself bumping into buildings. This was not normal for a Dalek, and even he knew that. All he wanted now was to be somewhere quiet. Somewhere where he could contemplate his situation. Normally, he would have countered something like what Rainbow Dash had said with another insult, or just shrugged it off, but now it was different. Now, he didn't have his behavioral regulator, so he reacted in a way he never expected. "Why?" he asked himself.

Looking around, he realized that a few ponies had already taken notice of him. Questions like "What's wrong with him?" or "Where did he learn to fly?" were whispered among them. Now, he felt heavier. At this moment he realized what it was he was feeling, and there was only one word he could use to describe himself:

Pathetic.

Daleks were not supposed to give in to misery. That was one of the reasons for the behavioral regulator. In addition to adjusting and controlling their thoughts, it prevented them from acting too far based on an interfering emotion. But now, he was thinking back to his nightmares, and all that he had done in service to his race. He remembered the cries for help, the look of fear and sadness on every enemy soldier and civilian killed by either him or a fellow Dalek. All this, and every other detail was enough for him to break down inside as everypony went back to their normal activities. Everypony, that is, except for a certain pink-and magenta blur rushing to him at a good ten miles per hour and stopping perfectly in front of him. 

"HI!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly, happy to see a new face in town. 

This action actually startled Jethrek, making him reverse a few feet. "Do NOT do that again!" he half-shouted. 

This startled Pinkie Pie. "Whoops, sorry. Did I scare you?"

"Yes," Jethrek replied. He could not believe he was admitting that. 

"Didn't mean to," Pinkie Pie explained, "I'm just happy to see a new face in Ponyville!"

"Noted," Jethrek stated, starting to move past her. He was expecting to get away from her and not show himself in his sorry state, but the sound of hoofsteps told him it was not going to be that easy.

"Hey, wait!" Pinkie called out, catching up to him, "Don't go running off yet! Don't you want a tour of Ponyville? Or a party to celebrate your arrival? Oh, wait! How about I introduce you to everypony around town? Speaking of which, I never got your name, yet!"

Jethrek was getting more irritated by Pinkie Pie's antics. He was having a hard enough time as it was trying to get past the sorrows he was feeling right here and now, but getting past them and this crazy mare was a different story. "I would prefer to memorize the layout of this town by myself."

Pinkie Pie did not give up. "Aw, come on!...You know, I've never seen someone as unhappy as you since Cranky Doodle Donkey." 

Jethrek stopped and turned his avatar's head to face Pinkie Pie. The face was that of somepony who was not just unhappy, but also annoyed, with extreme sadness deep inside. Pinkie saw this, and stopped dead in her tracks, no longer smiling, but rather with a face of curiosity. "I do not know this 'Cranky Doodle Donkey' you speak of," Jethrek stated, "Whoever he is, whatever he has been through, I have been through much worse. I have done much worse." Pinkie Pie's face now showed concern as Jethrek went on. "I have done things that, even if they never happened to you, you would still find unforgivable. Now please, leave me alone."