//------------------------------// // Time Out // Story: The Reason to Smile // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "This is the Ruined, eh? Well, it certainly lives up to its name." All Might and Twilight stood before a large city, one that was a masterpiece of stone and metal, creating a place that looked like one, massive fortress. It would have been the most impressive place All Might had seen since arriving in Equestria, except for the fact that it was completely abandoned. Cobwebs hung everywhere, the wind whispered through the streets and an eternal grey hung overhead. Creepy. "It was once was of the greatest strongholds in Equestria. A literal castle city. But then a dark wizard descended upon the place and turned it into a hive of black magic. Celestia and Luna managed to eventually evict the wizard, but the hum of dark magic has hung over the place ever since," Twilight explained. "No pony has wanted to move back here since. No pony except for Sombra, apparently." "Dark magic...wasn't that what you were going to use to hunt down Sombra?" All Might asked. "The keyword there is "was". I was gathering all my books and artifacts on dark magic, but before I could truly get started, Warp Drive showed up and told us what we needed to know. Funny how things work out," Twilight said with a shrug. "Now come on, we have a dark king to stop." Twilight and All Might walked into the abandoned city, both of them on full alert. Twilight used her magic to try to scan the place, but the echoes of dark magic screwed with her readings. All Might kept his eyes peeled, but the darkness constantly moved in ways that made it look like someone was in the shadows, even when there was no one there. He hated this place. "Hang on, I'm getting something," Twilight said. Her horn glowed violet and for a moment the shadows slithered back, her magic illuminating the area. All Might pretended not to notice that the shadows began to creep forward a moment later. "There's something down below. Something that feels like...tunnels. Yep, this is where his base is. I can feel it." "Then shall I make us a path? Or would you prefer to try this quietly?" All Might asked. "Sombra most likely already knows we're here. So smash away." "With pleasure. Albuquerque...SMASH!" All Might spun in a circle and drilled his way through the stones. Twilight raised an eyebrow before she followed after the hero, finding him at the bottom of his hole in a large tunnel. Her horn flashed to life and she scanned the area. "Seems you deviated a bit. You wanted to go left," she told him. "Can never seem to get that one right," All Might lamented. Using Twilight's horn as a light source, the pair advanced deeper into the dark tunnel. The pair eventually exited the tunnel and came into a large room, one that was connected to numerous smaller tunnels and rooms. A quick look around told the pair that this was the place. There were plenty of areas that showed them were beings had been living, and from some of the clothes and discarded items, All Might could tell that humans had been here. "Well this is definitely where Sombra has been hiding. I can sense his evil magic all over the place," Twilight informed All Might. "But I can sense more of it coming from that room up ahead. Ready to go in?" "So is it just me or is Sombra being a far less gracious host than the first time I encountered him?" "How so?" "The first time I met him, he had a whole speech planned out, numerous giant monsters to attack me with and met me face to face...kinda. Now it's just all silence and darkness. Why no traps? Why nothing?" All Might asked. "Unless he's waiting for us up ahead, this has been...odd." "Agreed. Be on guard. We have no idea what's up ahead," Twilight warned. All Might nodded and the pair moved ahead. All Might placed his hands on the giants doors and pushed them open without any issue. The pair walked into a large chamber with a circle of water surrounding the outer area. Twilight held out a hoof and stopped All Might in his tracks, while she narrowed her eyes into the darkness. "We're not alone." The moment she said this, blue fire erupted to life on torches that encircled the entire room. Twilight threw up a shield while All Might crossed his arms, each waiting for the attack that never came. But with light to see by, the pair of them observed the being that had been waiting for them. He wore a brown cloak that was old and worn. He had white hair that barely covered the top of his head. Numerous watches were on his right wrist. But what caught the heroes attention were his eyes. Eyes that were completely white and devoid of any consciousness. "Chronos. So we finally get to deal with the boss, do we?" Twilight asked. Chronos didn't respond. He barely even moved. Then he slowly lifted his head to look at Twilight. The man reached into his cloak and pulled out a small, green stone that radiated dark power. A stone with an hourglass on it. And Twilight knew what it was. She shot a blast of magic at the stone, but time flickered and by the time it normalized the stone lay shattered at Chronos' feet and his body was radiating with black magic. His body pulsed with power and time started to go funky all around the two heroes, with torches going out and then blazing back to life as they were rewound then sped up. Then a pulse of time erupted from the man and everything in the room came to a screeching halt, a death sentence for all trapped within the temporal freeze. Twilight had been ready. The moment she had laid eyes on Chronos she had encased herself in a spell, a spell that she had spent over a month perfecting. A spell that was designed specifically to make her immune to the effects of a time stop. A spell that would perfectly counter Chronos. All Might wasn't so lucky. Twilight glanced next to her to see the hero frozen completely in time. She narrowed her eyes before turning back to face Chronos...who was nearly on top of her. Twilight's instinct kicked in and she threw up a barrier around the both of them, watching as Chronos slammed his fists into the barrier. She gritted her teeth in determination as her barrier began to flicker, not from the force of the punches, but from a side effect of her spell. She shattered the barrier to push Chronos back before she flew over to All Might, wrapping her arms around one of his and dragging him across the room. After a moment of holding onto the hero her spell began to encompass him, allowing the symbol of peace to smile once more. "Twilight? What happened?" All Might asked. "Chronos got his groove back," Twilight explained. The human raced over to the pair with a speed that even marathon runners would envy. Twilight tried to create another barrier, but her magic nearly shorted out. All Might covered for her and threw punches with enough force to create giant gusts of wind. The gusts of wind were frozen in place a moment after they left the protective barrier, but their placement force Chronos to leap out of the way and back off. "He's moving like he did back in the day...except he's holding the time stop far longer," All Might noticed. "I think that stone thing Sombra made for him is allowing him to move like his younger self while also boosting his quirk," Twilight said. "But luckily with your spell we will be immune to his time stop, right?" All Might asked. "Yes, but there's a catch. It's taking everything I have to keep this spell up. It's taking beyond that to have it blanket you as well," Twilight replied. All Might looked closer and realized that sweat was dripping from Twilight's brow and she looked to be on the verge of passing out. "If I try another spell while in this stay I may just pass out. And then we're done. All I can do is keep us from being brought to a halt." "Which means that it's up to me," All Might smiled. He took Twilight and placed her on his back, where she gripped his back like a backpack. If you were to look at All Might from the front, it would look like he had tiny, purple wings sticking out of his back. "You focus on your spell, Twilight. Leave the fighting to me." All Might then kicked off, racing at an unbelievable speed towards Chronos...only to stop when he heard Twilight scream out. He slammed a foot into the ground to bring himself to a hard stop, before he looked over his shoulder at Twilight. "T-to fast," she stammered. "Nearly tore my arms out of their sockets." All Might narrowed his eyes and turned back to Chronos, who had been watching the pair. All Might didn't know how much of the man's mind was left, but he figured Sombra would keep his processing power intact. So All Might had to assume that Chronos knew that All Might couldn't go all out without hurting Twilight and losing the shield that was allowing the hero to move. Meaning All Might was going to have to fight in a very limited way. "Hmph, well that could be a problem...if I wasn't the number one hero," All Might smiled. He dashed towards Chronos once more (much slower than usual) and threw a punch right at the man's head, figuring that his physical strength would be more than enough to take the man down. Chronos ducked under the punch and flashed something towards All Might's neck. All Might snapped his body back just in time to watch a knife flash by right in front of his throat. All Might took a step back and noticed that there were now a knife in each of Chronos' hands, ones that were covered in a black aura. "Careful," Twilight warned. "There is some serious dark magic coming off of those. They might be able to cut through even you." "Noted," All Might said. He slowly began to circle Chronos while the villain did the same. All Might just needed one good hit and this battle would be his. But he also knew that all Chronos needed was one right stab and All Might would be dead. Neither could afford to make a mistake. All Might made the first move, throwing a haymaker at Chronos head. The man stepped back and raised a knife towards where All Might's fist was, forcing All Might to snap his arm back to keep from impaling himself. Chronos lunged forward and slashed at All Might, who was able to easily dodge out of the way of the attacks. That was until Chronos threw one of the knives at All Might at speeds that the hero had never seen before. Only with his unmatchable speed was All Might able to twist his body out of the way of the knife, which vanished from his sight in an instant. "What the hell?" All Might asked. "He sped up the knife the moment he threw it," Twilight said. "How does that make sense? Time is stopped, shouldn't the knife just..." Then it occurred to All Might. He glanced around to notice that the torches on the walls were burning and the water was moving. Time wasn't stopped at the moment. And all the hero needed was this moment. "Do you trust me?!" All Might yelled at Twilight. Before the pony had a chance to respond All Might ripped her from his back and hurled her towards Chronos for all he was worth. The moment Chronos saw All Might move he froze time once more, freezing the hero in his tracks. However, Twilight was still completely incased in her barrier...and had just been rocketed towards Chronos with All Might's full might. Even with his enhanced reflexes and dark magic coursing through his veins, all Chronos could do was register what All Might had done right before the magic missile crashed into him and send both him and Twilight crashing across the ground. The blow nearly knocked both Twilight and Chronos out, but it had the effect All Might had been wanting. The time stop came to an end and Twilight was no longer holding onto All Might, meaning he was free to cut loose. All Might was on the stunned Chronos in a moment, slamming a single fist into the old man's face. His head snapped back and he went limp in All Might's grip. All Might placed a finger to the man's neck to feel for a pulse, sighing in relief when he felt it. "Well, that went well," he laughed. "Ugh, what happened?" Twilight groaned. All Might helped her to her hooves, giving her a moment to shake out the cobwebs. She then encased Chronos in a barrier. "Stasis barrier. Think of him as frozen in time until you need him to wake up. Consider it payback, because the last thing we need is him waking up." "Actually, I think there are several things that you don't need at this moment." All Might and Twilight spun around to see Sombra standing behind them. Or at least, a magical projection of Sombra. "Like me, for instance." "Sombra. Still running from us, are you?" All Might asked. "You call it running. I call it being strategic. But first, Twilight, settle a bet. Who am I?" Sombra asked. "Oh no, Canterlot is being invaded and my thousands of years of experience and alicorn magic are as useless as me. I need to quick find six civilians to entrust the most powerful magic in the world to who can fight all the evil forces for me so I can continue to keep sitting on my fat ass and stuffing my face with cake. So go on, who am I?" "You think that you're doing an impersonation of Celestia," Twilight spat. "HA! She got it first try!" Sombra said. Then the project warped into the scene behind Sombra and it made Twilight gasp. Canterlot was burning, the Negastone giants were rampaging through the city, and, worst of all, laying defeated at Sombra's hooves were Celestia and Luna. "Hear that, Celestia? Told you I could do a killer impression of you." "No..." Twilight whispered. "Well, you better hurry back, Twilight. It's Celestia's turn for an impression next and I hear she's going to be doing an impression of a corpse. And I just know she'll be really good at it."