//------------------------------//
// CH 4: The Land Before "Discord." 
// Story: Meta Gamer in Equestria Bonus Chapters: Archimedes's promise 
// by reflective vagrant 
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I couldn't really focus on a conversation at first as I was dragged along the ground for a while.  I didn't have any injuries of major concern, but  the back of my shirt above where the leather of the work gear protected me was shredded.   I was going to need to take a while with two mirrors and my mage hand spell at some point to get the small rocks that found their way into my skin out.  I was lucky they were going so slow, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to work my shoulders around the big rocks.
I was eventually put in a crude sled, which helped with the rocks, but it still wasn't all that smooth a ride.  Once I felt they weren't going to throw me off the sled soon and I could relax, I continued my conversation with Archimedes.
"So what do you mean, getting captured was a good thing?"
"It's what happened last time.  Just collect your thoughts.  You're doing fine so far.  You just saved the first leader of the fey refugees."
"...I know, I know.  I had to be 'surprised.'  But is there anything you can tell me before I get in over my head?"
"There is one thing.  Don't say the draconiquis's name.  Not even over our link.  For all we know, he may be listening in right now and just never told anybody.  You know he has a knack for listening in."
The path turned and I felt the sled hit a rock, nearly causing me to tumble out, but I felt several small hands push me back onto the sled as I was on the brink.
"OK... So why shouldn't we say that name?"
"Because if he discovers it early before it is given to him, even by accident, it will become invalid.  He has to hear the Animus Mundi of this world use that word as his name, or the second true name won't stick.  If that name, as a name in reference to him, reaches his ears by any other means first, it won't ever be able to have the magical properties associated with a true name that he would crave."
I breathed for a few seconds as we stopped for a moment.  I had to because I was being spun around several times and I had to steady myself from the nausea of slightly upside down spinning.  Probably to throw off my sense of location and not let them know where they were taking me.  Practical, if I had even been trying.  I knew I wouldn't have had a chance even if I had focused on it. 
"And there goes the leverage for his cooperation if we do, corrupting the timeline.  Is that why we can't let him sense the quintessence inside me in a dormant state?"
"No.  Not exactly.  While it does involve the timeline, the quintessence is for a different reason.  While he will no doubt be able to sense the quintessence sitting in you, he won't be able to sense its signature specifically unless you call upon it.  It is important he does not recognize it in this time, though.  Eventually he will find out and cause us endless heartache when he does.  That, however, will be in our first adventures in the future that we've already lived through, not right now."
It felt like the rest of the day was spent traveling on that sled.  At one point, the sled stopped for a few minutes and I just laid there, cooperatively.  I heard hushed whispers I couldn't quite make out, a campfire's crackling and what I suspected to be the sounds of eating.
At one point, I felt one of the fairies bounce on my belly, getting a little grunt out of me.
"Hello?"  I called out almost as softly as the others did.  The fairy was off of me quickly, but then I felt it rustling to my vial holder, and to the waterskin within.
Two or three of the little satyrs pushed me up to a sitting position.  I then found a griffin putting a blade like talon to my jugular gently, just enough to let me know I could be killed at any moment.  One of the little satyrs untied and lifted the bottom of the sack off my head for the opened end of my waterskin to touch my lips and dribble just enough water to cue me in I was being allowed a drink from my own supplies.
Thankfully, that waterskin was secure, being the water intended for my potions anyway.  So I was happy to guzzle the clean drinking water.  It was probably the cleanest in the group.  Most the time in my adventures, I had to purify the water from whatever source we could find.  Clean spring water was a rare treat out in the field, and basic water purification was a must for any party.


After the break, we traveled for a few more hours.  Some of the fairies even sat down on me, taking a break from the march.  They didn't "say" say anything, but just the fact they were resting on me showed they were grateful enough for what I did to trust me to at least not toss them while they rested.
Finally, after a while, I was stopped and sat up.  It felt like everything except the bag on my head and the ropes binding me was systematically stripped from me as we had gotten to our destination.  There were worried murmurs again, but again in hushed voices.
Even if I had my amulet, I wouldn't have been able to hear them, but I did hear a door open, then a familiar voice not from the group.
"And hello again, resistance fighters!  I told you I'd come with reinforcements, and I delivered!"
I could hear Time Turner trotting up to me as I was pushed down to my knees.  He put a hoof on my shoulder and called out,  "Doesn't this one pack a wallop or what!?"
My bag was loosened and suddenly ripped off by Time Turner, who pranced back and seemed full of himself.
I blinked to what I saw and could hardly believe my eyes.
I was in the same cave Time Turner had parked his blue box, hardly ten minutes away from where I had gotten captured.
My jaw went slack as I stared around the cave in the not quite sunset, evening light.  I could hardly believe the irony of having to travel half a day just to reach this location, but after a few seconds, I did realize they had to make sure they weren't being followed.  Many smuggling routes in my world's past rarely ever consisted of a straight line but were rather a carefully constructed set of opportunistic movements, especially for people.
The anthropomorphic cat mage I saw earlier came up to me and placed a staff to my lips, casting a spell.
She then turned to Time Turner and "One mage is not going to turn the tide in our favor, little meddler.  The sheer size of their forces is too great for such a small trinket to make significant change on the grand scale."
It hit me that she had a more advanced spell for translation aid.
I could also tell that the air was getting thick as the war had dragged on for a while.  Not surprising considering every rift in the world was still open and the armies could move reinforcements and supplies through them easily.
"He does not even have your ability to speak multiple tongues at once, unlike most of your blue box associates.  We could not understand his blithering while he fought.  But he has aided us in our smuggling operation when it went wrong, so we will allow him to at least speak with us."
She shook her head and added one last quip,  "Even if I have to fuel the spell myself now that you seem to be running out of even that trick."
I heard a familiar voice call out in a sinister tone.  "In spite the fact we now know he is associated with you and your outlandish, empty promise."
Looking up just as he put his talon and paw on me, I saw Discord.
...
Or rather, the draconiquis that would eventually earn the name Discord.
"Ah, you would normally be right, but this one has knowledge of how the war is won, draconiquis."
The Fey seemed hopeful, both the fairies and smaller satyrs, as they seemed to perk up at this.  Yet several of the resistance that looked even remotely hardened gave exasperated sighs.  
"You keep saying that, how the war will end, but you will not even allow us into your box to prove it." 
Time Turner looked at the draconiquis and gave him a glare that had absolutely no warmness, and a strong sense of being on equal grounds as the immortal before him.
"That's because while I may be trying to help, I don't trust any of your ranks with the delicate instruments or sheer chaos and destruction they could do if I let them in, or at least any of those that have asked.  You're all too desperate.  You'd jump at the first thing you would think could give you an edge in your fight without understanding the ramifications and end up hurting yourselves."
The draconiquis looked back at him with eyes so alight, his pupils were literal flames.  I had seen him this determined only once before.
"Mind you, should your box's defenses ever fail, our next assault on it won't.  We will win this war by any means.  I've staked too much on it already."
Time Turner didn't even flinch as he snickered, "Like I said, desperate."
With this, he turned around and trotted back to his box.  "And don't talk to me about having too much at stake in a war.  This little thing is nothing compared to the wars I've been in.  Now he is what you're getting from me.  Use him or don't."
With this, the box opened and he quickly tumbled back in as the door closed faster than any troop could get to it, though one of the griffins still tried and got a bonk to the head on an invisible barrier as a reward.






A little while later the cat like mage, Diary, as she so alias-ed herself, was drawing answers out of me.  She couldn't give me her true name, naturally, as she also was not a native.  I gave no real resistance, though I could tell she was taking more than a grain of salt with every word I said.
"Yes, if what the guy in the blue box says is true, I'm from thousands of years in the future.   Not sure how many thousands, though.  Not a big history buff.   So I have some rough outlines, but definitely no exact details on exactly what happens when.  Also, this is pretty new to me too...  So I apologize if it isn't too helpful."
"And what god do you serve, priest?"  I could see the draconiquis squinting at me intently.
With this, I did my best to do the not lying lie I had been preparing for him.
"See my quintessence, do you?  Funny thing about that.  Not actually a priest.   Kinda a scar from an old immortal.  We bitterly went back and forth with each other for a bit."
Technically, I actually wasn't a priest.  I was a phaux-cleric.  Cleric and priest could overlap, but they weren't one in the same.  I dodged a bullet with his wording on that one.  It was a scar from an immortal, just his scar, not mine.  And we did go back and forth bitterly after we met, until we finally came to respect each other, just not in combat.
"Speak the truth."
I laughed in as calm and friendly a manner as I could, letting his effect take hold with the overwhelming force like I knew he could do.  "I am speaking truth.  I'd say you should see the other guy, but his body was kinda destroyed in the process.  The last little bit in me is all that's left of his quintessence."
The draconiquis and the mage looked puzzled, dashing their eyes from me to each other.
I resisted the desire to smirk and squelched it to a simple smile as I pulled my ace out.  "And if it's any consolation, let me show you something else.  Something that will assure you that you will have plenty of chance to have your vengeance on me should I betray you."
Pointing to my heart, I looked to the draconiquis.
"Look closely at my heart with your ability to sense magic.  There's a curse heavily wrapped around it.  A curse that could kill me dead instantly if it was ever triggered." 
I saw him look closely at my chest, and sniffed it with his nostrils as they came out from his snout like the eyes of a snail.
"You recognize that style, don't you?  The one that created it?"  I turned to give him access to my back as he moved to get around me. I knew where he wanted to look.
"The you I know in the future made it to ensure I-"
And there went that talon of his, magically delving into my back as uncomfortably as the first time I experienced it.  I winced and pushed through it as he poked around. 
"T-to en-n-nsure I d-d-didn't becom-m-me a threat to y-you."
I could feel his magics doing the rounds through my veins all over, around my internal organs and around my brain.
"That's definitely my handiwork.  It has my style, signature and sheer potency."
With this he dropped me and gave a questioning tone.  "Though I must say it is a rather restrained, timid version.  A single trigger of learning my Torilian name?  I do say, it's a solid reason to kill, but just that reason alone?  Why in this world or any other would I keep it so plain and simple?"
I didn't know the exact details of the curse, so I didn't have a quip ready for that.
I paused, thinking of how to answer.  Making sure to tell the truth but still make it believable.  He didn't know Fluttershy yet.  He wouldn't understand friendship and respecting her wishes for the sake of respecting her wishes at this moment in history.  I had to word it carefully.
"We... We have a common ally in the future.  One whom staying on the good side of was incredibly vital to both our... interests.  You kept it short, sweet and to the point specifically to get the job done but not lose her favor with unnecessaries.  You also don't apply it until the moment it is absolutely necessary.  The moment that I learn you even have a... true name that can be exploited against you here on Equis."
A cold flame touched my shoulders as I realized I struck a nerve.  "And you probably had the means to extract my name from me?  Like that blasted rival of mine, Bunny Angel did!?"
Bunny Angel... like Angel Bunny?  It didn't take me even half a second to connect the dots and realize he was speaking of Archimedes's old alias.  No.  The hard part was keeping a straight face as my cheeks burned red with the desire to laugh.  It took all my will power to not telepathically call out to him, lest the draconiquis overhear and make the connection of just who was in the blue box and where my quintessence came from.
I had to just shuffle it away by thinking to myself, 'Oh, you have a lot of explaining to do when we get back in contact, partner.  Bunny Angel,'  With particular note to not message him as I thought it.

"Come now.  Do you honestly believe such an alias is deserving of humor?"  I heard a calm voice call out from the entrance.  Turning to see the source, I found what looked to be a perfectly chiseled specimen of a human just as slim as myself.  More particularly, I saw his particularly reflective, nearly glowing golden eyes.  I also saw him sporting a set of plain brown, but otherwise impressive wings on his back.
"Your own alias simply means the slime that grows on a rock, does it not?"  He set a small mouse down and allowed it to scurry to Diary.  I instantly recognized a mage's familiar when I saw a mouse willingly going into the palm of a cat, calmly letting her kiss it on the head, then drop it to her pocket.
"I didn't ask you to bring him."   The draconiquis hissed at the mage.
"Nor did you ask me to not bring him.  If my patron shared knowledge with me more often, the level of loyalty needed to go above and beyond like that for them wouldn't lapse, master!"  She mockingly bowed, lifting her robes like a dress in a courtesy.  "Instead I have to fend for myself half the time and learn my own magic through wizardry!"
She gestured to the Fey that had sat quietly, almost forgotten.  "Besides, we needed him to transport the refugees safely.  A heavy hitter is needed both inside and out during a refugee jump.  As skilled as you are, each of us can only cover one of those effectively on our own, and one of us two have to do the jumping, which leaves Bunny for the outside heavy."
Her master put his paw to his face and stretched it like rubber, rubbing it downward in frustration.  "Oh the way our forces are stretched thin as it is...  Was there really no other heavy hitter nearby?"
"None."  She looked at me hesitantly, then gestured to me.  "At least not any in the resistance."

The draconiquis simply shook his head and looked at Bunny Angel. "Keep things together and keep a close eye on our guest from the blue box.  I'd say he doesn't have clearance but just being from that blasted box kind of makes clearance levels moot."
With this I discovered what they meant by a refugee jump as the draconiquis snapped his paw, causing him and his warlock to vanish.
A few seconds later the draconiquis was back, grabbing the refugees in his arms, which stretched to accommodate all of them, looped his talon loose and disappeared with them in another snap.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I still agree with him that he has the facilities to make jumps on his own.  I wish the collective counsel would approve of his soloing of jumps."
With this, Bunny Angel turned to me and gave a cheerful bow.  "I understand you have a common friend with us in the blue box.  The Doctor may be odd and secretive, but we all are to some degree in this rag tag group of ours, and he has always delivered on his promises in the past so far."
I could only nod and focus on keeping my composure, knowing who I was really speaking with.
"Bunny Angel is it?"  I called out, making a point to the blue box as I said it, just turning as I finished.
"That is the alias I have been assigned, yes.  While we wait for them to speak to get clearance for you, let us chat more freely than an interrogation would allow for.  Surely a little company on unimportant matters will ease stress. Though, with the tone you speak my alias... Tell me, do you know of me?"
I had a migraine from all the selective wording I had been having to do in such rapid succession on the fly and near fly as he asked this.
Carefully, I chose my words again, once again making sure it was loud enough for the blue box's sensors would pick it up, shaking my head.  "I can honestly say I have never heard of that name before now.  But anybody who is considered that jigsaw puzzle's rival surely must be potent.  You seem rather interesting.  Lets chat."