Prologue: The End of Time
This is where it all begins. Or more fitting, this is the end. Quite literally. The end of Time. Everything that can happen has already happened.
Equestria as most knew it, was no more. All that remained was an empty landscape, and fast winds.
But there's something out of place.
In this baron land with nothing but harsh wind, and dry dirt, there was one thing of interest remaining.
A stone statue of a pegasus filly. Laid on its side, half buried in the dirt. The wind rushed by, yet the statue was seemed immune to wear and erosion. The statue laid there, lifeless. As it had for an unfathomable amount of time before.
But finally, after all of this time, something was about to happen. There was an unexplainable thrust of magic through the land. Particularly unusual, the land had not seen anything like that in forever. But that tiny burst of magic was just enough to touch the statue, and make something noteworthy happen.
The statue started to glow. First from top, and then to bottom, as the glow swept the statue.
When the statue fully glowed, the magic was complete.
The glow dissipated, and what was left was a live pegasus filly.
The filly woke up suddenly, in a startle, shocked to be in such an unfamiliar location. But also shocked to be awake at all. They gasped for air in the harsh conditions. It didn't seem right. Where was everyone? Where was anyone at all?
But suddenly, she heard something that sounded distinctly like a voice.
"Where are we!?" a fierce, but distant voice cried out.
Cozy raised her head when she heard the voice. Surely she was hallucinating.
She looked off in the distance, and she saw two purple unicorns, standing around a big crystal mass. They seemed familiar. It was difficult to see anything in this weather condition, but as their voices arose, and Cozy's vision cleared, she knew who they were.
But just as Cozy Glow gained awareness, the table started to glow. It seemed like they were about to leave. Cozy was alerted, and she kicked up her legs, and ran towards them.
"WAIT! STOP!!" she cried.
But before she was even halfway there, and before any of them had a chance to hear her, the table, and everyone surrounding it disappeared into thin air, and vanished forever.
Cozy's jaw dropped, and she ceased running and let herself fall to the ground.
She was too slow. She missed her only chance to find somepony who could help her.
She pressed her face into the ground and let out all her frustration. She cried angry tears. It was about all she could do, while she waited for nothing to happen..
.
.
.
But fortunately for her, something did happen.
Cozy heard steps in the dirt. She looked up.
A... pony? It was tough to say. Her dust filled eyes could barely make out a figure in front of her, though they were definitely quadruped.
They poked her with a stick, which brought Cozy to life, and irritated her.
"Quick poking me with that stick!" she shouted.
The pony panicked, and pulled out a blaster and pointed it at Cozy.
"AH!" Cozy cried.
"Are you hostile?!" the figure asked.
"Hostile? No. Manipulative? Uh... no." Cozy answered.
They were a pony in a hazmat looking suit.
"Who are you?" Cozy asked.
"I think you better come with me." they said.
Against better judgement, Cozy followed them. They led her to a seemingly random spot in the landscape.
"Okay, I have about a bajillion questions. For starters, who are you? Where are we? Where is everyone? Is today No Cozy Glow Day? Because if it is, I think they overdid it by HIDING ALL OF EQUESTRIA!!"
They did not answer any of Cozy's bajillion questions. Instead, they found what they were looking for, when their hoof tapped something invisible. Using a device attached to them, they revealed their large craft, which served as their base.
Inside their ship, Cozy was offered some sort of liquid, but it smelled weird, so she didn't drink it.
"Golly, thanks, mister." Cozy said.
The creature removed their helmet, revealing they were a rather typical looking stallion pony.
"My pleasure, little one." he said.
"Who the heck are you?" she asked.
"My name? It's been so many years since I've spoken to anyone else, I don't remember what folks would call me." he replied.
"I know how that feels..." Cozy said.
"I've just been traveling, through time, and space, searching for answers." he said.
"I see. Well at least you still got your eyes set on some kind of prize. I can't say I got much going on..." Cozy said.
"Say, you seem pretty lost. How'd you like to join me for some company. Could benefit both of us." he said.
"But, I don't wanna investigate what caused the apocalypse. I wanna return to the Equestria I knew!" Cozy said.
"Well unfortunately, that's just about impossible." he said, much to Cozy's shock and disappointment. "At least it would be impossible, if I didn't have access to time travel." he added.
"Time what?" Cozy asked.
"Yes, you heard me right. Time travel. Just downstairs and inside the leftmost door is the controls to activate this vehicle's time travel capabilities. It's been a cornerstone to investigating what caused the disaster." he explained.
"The disaster?" Cozy asked.
"Mmm. As in, whatever turned your once thriving land, into this wasteland of extinction." he said.
"So you've been zipping around all different points in time all willy-nilly searching for what caused this disaster?" Cozy asked.
"Not just willy-nilly. Using the machine is extremely energy costly. I can't just check one year at a time and find the one where the apocalypses occurs. So I've been traveling long periods of time, using clues to narrow the year that everything went sour." he said.
"Sounds like a tedious game of trial and error." Cozy said.
"Oh, but it is. Too far back, and there's no clues whatsoever. Too far forward, and it's already happened. But also, if I'm too dead on, then I'm dead meat myself potentially." he said.
"But you could use the machine to travel to any point in time you wanted?" Cozy asked.
"That is correct. It's just a matter of picking a time, and going." he explained.
"Such as the point in time before I was turned to stone?" Cozy said.
"In principal, yes. In actuality, eh." he answered.
"Eh?" Cozy asked.
"Helping you would have to go so far down my list of priorities. I still have to check the late Ponaceous period, the rise and of Eqeustria's various leaders."
"But, you must help." Cozy pleaded.
"No can do. I only have enough energy for one time travel. And if we go too far back to a point before advanced technology, then we'd be stranded for a while." he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to log my findings for the day. Do you know how much stuff occurs out there over the span of 25 hours? Not much."
The stallion went downstairs, leaving Cozy Glow alone to herself.
Unfortunately, Cozy Glow was not the kind of pony who sat around waiting for others to formulate a plan. She was the one who formulated the plans. So, she took matters into her own hooves.
Cozy Glow snooped around the lower deck herself, searching for this alleged time machine. If what he said was true, this could be Cozy's ticket back home. She found a where all the power led too. This had to be it.
As she reached her hoof to the handle, she heard a loud shout.
"STOP!!" he shouted.
The stallion ran for Cozy Glow, but quickly rushed into the room, and slammed the door in his face, and locked it tight.
"Open this door now! You don't know what you're messing with!"
Inside the mechanism was quite complicated, but Cozy figured she could figure it out.
Outside, she heard the muffled screams of the stallion, so she picked up her pace.
"Now then, which knob controls the... huh. How does this thing measure time anyway? I guess these are years, but how far in the future are we? And what year am I from? How would it even describe my year anyway.
Cozy pulled the lever, and the machine made loud whirling noises.
"That means it's on, right? That means it's working, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-
There was an intense vibration, and the room quickly heated up. Everything started to glow white, and before Cozy knew it, everything turned white, and then black.