"Nope! Nope, nope, nope!" is what I called out as I quickly grabbed onto the nearest thing to me that I could hold on to and closed my eyes tight.
Time Turner... or the Doctor, or whatever he called himself pranced right in beside me and had a bit of a laugh to his voice as he piped in, "Well, I'll have to add that one to my books. Usually I get someone just saying something about it being bigger on the inside the first time they pop in. What's got him all worked up?"
Archimedes chimed in as I slid down to a squat, "Indeed, what has gotten into you, Moss?"
Hearing him flap in and find a perch further in, I held on for dear life as I shook my head.
"This is non-euclidean space! I'm not going any further! I'm staying right by the door where I can make sure I don't get lost! I know just enough about non-euclidean space to not ever want to mess with it! Tell me when we get there!"
A moment of silence passed. I wasn't sure what their thoughts were.
Archimedes gave a empathetic, "I can see why you would think that it isn't safe, partner, but I can assure you this contraption is no where near as dangerous as you might be thinking."
Time Turner gave a bit of a shocked expletive, "Ah!" followed by an unconcerned rambling, "Got just a bit more of a science brain on him than I expected, given his workshop is just about out of the steam age on Earth. Maybe late steam age. But even normal space isn't really euclidean space, not if you zoom out far enough or are near a black hole."
When Time Turner continued trotting onward into the room, Archimedes continued. "At least not in this room. I can tell from my studies that it has not so normal spacial properties to its larger structure keeping the separate rooms together, and you may get lost between them if you are not careful, but each room to itself should be safe in regards to dimensional space. Though they didn't travel through time, I've seen one or two similar structures in the millennia I waited and adventured on Toril."
"Right! If you would come here... 'Archimedes' as you are currently called, I have something that should boost your signal to Moss. It should let you two communicate without a distance restriction. Well, you'd still want to stay within the general orbit of Equis. For our needs, however, effectively you'd have no issue with range while you're hooked up. You should even be able to speak through the machine with actual sound here on the ship once I get that part fine tuned to you. And no, I can't let you take it with you when you're done. It's borrowed and I promised it wouldn't leave the ship until I return it."
Time turner then moved a little further and I heard what sounded like buttons nobs and a few levers being activated. "And with that, give me just a few more seconds..."
I heard that mechanical whining come up then die down.
"And we have arrived! Alright Moss! Eyes open! Back the way you came! go on! Scoot! I'll be monitoring you and I'll be sure to pick you up when you're done! Also, don't worry about me leaving you, I can't close the bubble while the link between you two is intact and one of you is inside and the other is outside. I'm as stuck here as you are while Archimedes stays inside the TARDIS."
With this, I found Time Turner opening the door of his blue box, pushing me out said door and onto some dirt. I looked back at the box just to hear the barely audible sounds of the door being locked.
"Can you hear me? Moss?" I heard Archimedes call out.
"I can. Are you staying inside then?" I called out, pushing on the door to test it. It felt a lot more solid than a wooden door should have been, but it did have a small amount of give.
He was slow to answer, as if forming his words carefully.
"As Time Turner said, its best if I stay put. I'll guide you as best I can from here once this device comes on. Time Turner has you on the viewing glass, but you'll be communicating with me once you leave our line of sight. Can you confirm communication telepathically?"
I paused, and realized I was in a cave, but just outside it was the middle of the day. Turning around I mentally called to him.
"Testing testing?"
"I heard you loud and clear, but I meant once you're over a hundred feet away once this device comes on."
I nodded, gave a thumbs up, and called out to them verbally. "Alright got it."
After a few "Can you hear me now?" calls, we confirmed we would be able to communicate just fine through the activated device, but that was the least of my worries. When I looked out of the cave, I was nowhere near anywhere I was familiar with. The cave was well hidden enough to where nobody would see it from the road, but not hidden enough to where the locals wouldn't know about it.
"Are you sure we are in the right time, partner? I don't think we ever left Equestria in our time here, unless this is where one of your diplomacy missions took place? I don't recall any of your missions being to broken down areas. This place looks almost war torn."
The plant life was unkempt, and a bit overgrown. The buildings of the village the path looked like it led to looked more destroyed than not, and there were a few smoke pillars over a hill on the far side of the main road of the village. I was hoping they were from some place with a few different smith shops or something, not what I was afraid they were.
"Oh, believe me, we are. But we aren't on one of my diplomacy missions. We're back in the era of the first rift war."
I got a pit in my stomach at his words. Tentatively, I asked, "You mean first part of the rift war... right?"
"No. The first rift war, thousands of years ago. Back to before we drove out the gods Angharradh, Moradin and Bahamut."
I started down the path, "I don't know those first two, but wasn't Bahamut one of the good gods? I mean, I thought he was a dragon, but a good one, right?"
"Time Turner just got the audio working. He can listen in on us now, but he will have to-"
"Good day, Moss!" I heard a chipper voice pop into my head.
"I take it back. He can speak for himself, apparently."
I shook my head as I reached the edge of the village's buildings, or rather the rubble remaining from the nearest building.
"And about Bahamut?"
Archimedes spoke up with a bit of apology to his link, "Indeed, he is considered fairly good as gods go, but shortly after they squeezed Vecna out of this world, they started bickering over who would 'watch over' us, but it was just a thinly veiled desire to use the world for its resources. Angharradh was a goddess of the elves, and Moradin was the prideful head of the dwarven pantheon. Bahamut's involved followers were largely human, though he did borrow from other gods he was allied to, but none of the races truly trusted each other."
"That Vecna chap has been a bit of a pain in my side, being another time traveler and all that." Time Turner quipped in, "Wouldn't be surprised if he just let them have this world, thinking he'd be able to have them spend more energy at each other's throats than they'd end up drawing from it in the end. He sure seemed to turn tail and run a little too easily when I was here last. I mean, he loves knowledge and I can't deny the timing was almost perfect. He stripped the place dry of all sorts of knowledge to hoard to himself right as the others came in to drive him out."
I stopped in mid tracks on the road as I processed that.
"Wouldn't a time traveling god be a dangerous thing?"
"You'd think that, but no. Turns out he has a huge disadvantage in our quarrels if we duke it out in a time he has no worshipers and twisting the timeline around even when he's powerful got a few too many gods on his back. Kinda what led to the intervention of the other three when they realized he had meddled with things subtly."
I shook my head and looked around, checking my surroundings. "We are getting distracted. What exactly am I supposed to do in this time?"
I heard nothing but silence again before Archimedes spoke up.
"Help the resistance win the war."
"Resistance? As in the natives?"
"And those that will eventually become native, as well as a few others."
A loud crash made me remember I was in a war zone. It was so loud, I could have heard it from the cave. My heart had jumped in my throat for a second, before I forced it back down to make way for my war face.
"I felt your alertness go up. If we are where and when Time Turner says we are, I recognize that crash from the first time. We need to cut off communications for now and you need to follow that sound. Get ready for a fight. Oh! And don't use any quintessence magic, not even the cantrips. Don't even use any non quintessence spell to heal wounds as they will still be laced with it. We can't let the draconiquis sense even the slightest whiff of your quintessence being activated."
While he was gabbing at me, I put my artificer glove to my thigh and called out, "magno gradu." A chill energy went into my legs, increasing my running speed. A trick I had to learn to keep up with ponies at times.
After that I was running full force. I was starting to get a little weirded out by his wording, but I responded, "Should have said that earlier, but sure! Explain more later! Running now!"
As I came closer to the noise, I found the village wasn't so abandoned, as it was an active combat zone.
I could hear orders being shouted, in thick accents thanks to my amulet's translation. It sounded like they weren't so much combating an equal force, as they were rounding up runaway slaves.
I finally saw faeries and satyrs running and flying as best they could, but nets were being tossed at them and they were falling to the ground.
I also saw what was hunting them. They looked like the satyrs, but were human sized.
As they spotted, me, they tossed me a net then turned away. At first, I thought they were tossing to capture me, but the net didn't deploy.
They thought I was on their side.
I used the tactical advantage to sabotage their efforts I could without getting caught, freeing the netted victims instead of hauling them off. I had to put a few of the large satyrs to sleep before cutting the nets with my tools, but the small satyrs and faeries gave no complaint when they saw me helping them and just ran again.
Eventually, the large satyrs had trapped the largest group of the runaways in what may have been the town square at one time.
Seeing that there was a big crowd gathering, I figured my cover could be blown and I'd need as much of an edge as I could. I quickly sprayed the ingredients of three specific potions into their vials that already had water pre-filled in them, then shook them in my hand as I added my remaining level one spell slots.
Downing them as quickly as I could without spilling, I felt the effect on my more exposed skin, covering it with a subtle barrier, augmenting my defense. I knew it was projecting past my armor too, I just couldn't feel it. My stride improved further, to as fast a speed as I dared control with my limited dexterity, and I felt a slight loss of my edginess, keeping me ever so slightly closer to a calm, "in the zone" mental state, something that would help me fight efficiently in subtle ways. They weren't viking rage potions that would risk killing me, but they definitely gave me a collective edge similar to one without the drawback.
Nets were cast and the fleeing fey were restrained on the spot, caught and unable to get free. The largest of the larger Satyr looked at the largest of the smaller satyrs in the net.
"We're supposed to take you in alive to get our reward. But I don't think they will argue with me making an example of at least the imitation satyr that started this little stunt. Should still be plenty of ale left after they account for your loss!"
His accent was thick, and strange, but the amulet managed to translate regardless. I wouldn't have the same ability in reverse, though, due to my amulet being filled with three songs of varying complexity. Even so, I didn't think he knew raw Equestrian.
I could tell that it was an undisciplined group of mercenaries from the fey realms, and a crudely organized one. An alpha hierarchy with the strongest being the leader by right of dominance. I knew exactly how I could break them up without risking the captives. Which was good, because I had to act fast.
I withdrew my rose stem from my component pouch and cocked it back with as quiet a, "Rapto," as I could. Meanwhile, I tried to step forward past the crowd as inconspicuously as possible.
The leader took a good back swing of his spiked club over his head, making an exaggerated moment to draw out the drama of the attack, clearly wanting to make the others too afraid to try to escape again. That's when I struck.
I didn't go for the alpha satyr himself, but rather his club. I caught it in my thorn whip cantrip's grasp and yanked it back towards me and out of his hand as he tried to pull it down.
He looked back at me with a mean glare, then just about pointed and called to his troops, but stopped as I pounded my chest with both open palms a few times in succession.
I was challenging the alpha and he accepted. But unlike with a previous adventure where the challenger was barely holding on and fighting for whatever kind of victory he could, I had to do more in this fight. It wasn't enough to win. This was a battle of the mind and morale. I had to dominate him. I had to show to his troops just how vast the gap between me and him was. I had to make it clear I was not to be messed with and that they were insignificant compared to me. I had to make them want to cower and flee.
I had to utterly crush and humiliate him.
"You want to keep the full bounty?" He pulled out a short sword from a sheath and used it to wave the others back. "I don't mind taking your share to make up for killing this one."
I put my hand to my amulet's settings, selected the song, and just about pressed play. I figured this was the time for number seventeen just as I activated my natural nineteen 'portent' good luck charm to not only play the song, but masterfully apply my hard earned expertise to make a total modified role of thirty performance.
Instead, I found the opportunity to dodge, sidestepping his charge at the last moment, making him trip over himself and look uncoordinated as his sword hit the dirt.
Then the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I pressed play.
I heard the rhythmic pounding, "Thump, thump, clap! Thump, thump, clap!" come from the amulet's custom instrumental sounds and couldn't help but put my hands to my belly, and then clapping with the beat.
The alpha picked himself back up and gave me a glare as he saw me starting to taunt him. I dodged again, stopping my clapping as I had to move more carefully.
I kept dodging his slashes and singing as he made his attacks a bit more seriously. One grazed my armor, being repelled and just lightly nicking it. Another I had to use my shield on.
I quickly snapped my fingers in my gloved hand and pointed to his sword, calling out "Uro!" Sparks of energy came out of my glove and practically attached to his sword like a magnet, rendering his sword so hot he couldn't keep hold of it.
At this point, my amulet activated its sound effect part I had set in the song to make it sound like others were singing along side me as long as I sang, mimicking my voice with slight differences. A not very easy trick to pull off that had multiple stages in development before I could put it into this song, activating and deactivating on its own as the song needed.
At this point, he had backed up for a second, letting me do the same, resuming my joining on the rhythmic slapping. This time hitting my thigh guards, then smacking my chest like I did when I challenged him.
Right as he tried to get to his club, the other weapon he had, I raised three fingers of my gloved hand and called out "Barata!" to call out my strongest flame spell. I ironically chose it as my command word, also being the same word for my weakest flame magic in my prestidigitation cantrip.
A five foot ball of fire, almost like a miniature sun, formed from the energy bits that shot out of my glove as I backed up. With a slight twitch of my hand, I directed it to ram into him.
I almost lost rhythm as I saw him fall on his ass, getting singed good, but the necklace kept playing and I quickly recovered.
I once again had to play keep away from the weapon as he came at me, but this time I kept the ball of heat on his back, far enough to where I could handle the heat, but he was feeling it. I did have to cast the shield spell once to keep the blade from hitting me, though, with him getting otherwise lucky.
Eventually, he collapsed from over exposure to my miniature sun. Between the exertion of the fight and the sheer heat, he was crippled on the ground. He was still awake, but he couldn't hardly move from the sheer heat exhaustion.
I dropped my flaming sphere spell and stroked my beard, as if wondering what to do with him. Quickly, I stuck my non gloved thumb in my mouth and fetched the most slimy bit of saliva as I could manage. I rubbed the saliva between my fingers, calling out "Umecto," and performed the create function of my create or destroy water spell.
With the texture of the saliva as the material component, the twenty gallons of water that appeared above him didn't have the consistency of a pale of fresh spring water, but rather a more swampy, disgusting water. It was still water, and not saliva, but it had the immediate feel of low quality water not fit for drinking and would for about an hour before it faded.
He was completely drenched and got uncomfortably refreshed with the lukewarm water still cooling him, just barely getting back in the fight and able to move.
He looked around and felt the slimy, swamp like water on him.
Looking at me, he had an absolute look of rage as the music still played from the amulet.
He just got up and ran at me with his horns, trying to ram me like a goat.
In response, I ran backwards, just matching his pace and grappled his horns.
Getting irritated, he finally lifted up his torso and I put my arms down to my side on purpose as he screamed, trying to pin me with a bear hug style grapple. His men were turned away from me and I softly called out, "Tutela!" as I fingered a small pentagram with my hand at my side, putting a blade ward between our faces to soften the blow I knew he was going to do next.
As he brought his head forward to ram mine, I did what I could to pull away and soften it further. I could still feel it pretty good, and think he got my lip very bloodied, but I did my best to hide any pain.
By this time, the ending of the song was playing with the guitar and 'thump thump clap' backing it up. I needed to do my big finish or it wouldn't fall right. I did my best imitation of a mad man's laugh and flung what I could of my arms around him in return as he looked at me confused.
He went from confused to panicked as he suddenly found himself being grapple hugged by a polar bear instead.
The hairs on the back of my neck landed his screaming attempt to get out of my grasp to a wimpy natural one through my good luck charm as I kept my grip and opened my jaws.
He batted at my muzzle with his horns, but I just pushed through the pain, knowing the damage wasn't permanent and got the grip my mouth needed. With his head squarely in my mouth, I bit down, hard, until I heard his skull crack and his body go limp.
I turned around to his men with his corpse just dangling from my mouth. Thanks to the quick release mechanism I added to the clasp of my amulet, it was still attached, finishing up the song while hanging from my bear neck.
Just as the song finished the last of the guitar, I opened my mouth and let the corpse drop.
And so I stood there as a polar bear, looking at the satyr as they looked back in horror. At first I wasn't sure if I had the right effect, but then I heard that familiar "Thump, thump, clap!"
I saw them run just as I started to look down at my amulet. It was then my adrenaline rush started to come down and I realized that the rhythm wasn't coming from my amulet, but from behind me.
I slowly craned my neck and saw a troop of well armed creatures of several kinds adopting my rhythm, pounding the ground and those that could were clapping for the final part.
I slowly raised my paws and released my wild shape, realizing I wasn't going to be able to intimidate them. My energy was a good deal spent, my potions were going to wear off soon and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to outrun their flyers, as I saw some had wings out of the corners of my eyes.
I found one of the nets being tossed over me before I could decide to run, though, capturing me instead.
I looked more closely at my captors to try to glean any information about them. My portent good luck charm was used up, but I managed to get a small boost from the last use of my flash of genus. The plus two of my feeble version of it was only a small boost, but it helped me noticed the armor they were wearing wasn't real with how it moved on them. To top it off, none of them were chasing the satyrs. I also saw a cat like humanoid in mage robes just as I had a bag put over my head.
As they started to drag me off, I mentally shook my head and called out to Archimedes.
"Partner? Are you there?"
"We're here. You have an update for us?"
"I'd say so... yea. I got good news and bad news. The good news is I found the resistance."