“Who I was, am, or will be, no longer matters. All that matters is that I complete my mission.”
-Kairos
The light from stars of past and future glimmered in the “sky” above and below. The Edge of Time was quiet, just as it usually was. The section that Kairos had chosen to make her home base was far away from the time pirates and Manticores of the Bleak, and even the remnants of the Forgotten Guns had been silenced.
The only thing that permeated this silence was the sound of her singularity AI informing her of a new development in time.
Ever since she created Pandora, the AI had been the only form of companionship she had. Sometimes she wondered if it was a mistake to leave behind the only people who ever truly cared about her.
She pushed the thought aside. There was no mistake. It had to be done.
“Pandora, what is it?” she asked.
Pandora’s artificial female voice came from the shieldwatch she wore on her arm, “A new set of continuums have been registered in the Legion’s database. Would you like me to observe the history of these new continuums and list every temporal criminal sorted by how much damage they caused?”
“Yes, thank you,” Kairos replied.
While Pandora was compiling data, Kairos recalled the events and people that had brought her to this moment.
First was Alya Silverwind, her mentor, the first to truly see her potential. She had been the one to find her, in the underground fight club that she had been participating in to survive. Alya had been impressed by her ability to quickly take down much larger opponents.
Apparently, the one who had been running the club had been bringing in champions across time to fight in the ring. One of the more memorable champions he brought called himself ‘Tirek’. Tirek was a big muscular man with a white beard that should have made him look like Santa Claus, but instead made him look like Krampus. Despite being a head and a half shorter, she still managed to bring home the victory.
Kairos didn’t fully realize the extent of the ringmaster’s temporal crimes until Alya arrived and told her. Together, the two of them shut down the entire operation and arrested the ringmaster.
The next thing she knew, she had been whisked off to the City Beyond Time, registered as a squire, and enrolled in Aevum Academy.
There she met the headmaster, Lycus Cerberus. Lycus always considered himself a monster, a villain. He claimed to have killed a defenseless family in the First Temporal War. That was when he started referring to himself by different names, more so out of shame than anything.
There was Lycus, the Scholar, the one who actually ran the school. There was Cerberus, the Monster, who was the one who enjoyed battle to the point where he had massacred innocents. And then there was the Captain. It was the Captain, not the Scholar or the Monster, who decided who could and couldn’t join the Legion.
Lycus had told Kairos that while others practically worshiped her because she was the squire of a Legendary Blade, he saw her for what she truly was. Because he was one too.
The two of them had fought side-by-side during the Faceless War. Together with Alya, they rallied the other Bleak and post-time nations together to fight against the incoming horde from the End of Time. She had even managed to convince the Manticores and the Sons of Oblivion to join their side, for if the Faceless won, everyone else lost.
After the war, she went in search of answers to what made the Faceless. She knew at the time that she might not return, so she gave her aeon edge to Alya for safekeeping.
It was then she met Ophion, the mad Time King, who had warned her of impending doom. She had heard legends about the Kings and Queens of Time, and how they conquered and ruled over time. She heard how many of them used to be Legendary Blades.
She had also once encountered Endymion, the Last Time King, who had tried to recruit her during her days as a fighter, but she had refused, because he didn’t promise her anything.
Ophion was the last person to travel to the Beginning of Time before Kairos herself. He had apparently gone mad as a result. There were rumors that he was mad even before that, and that he had been using singularity tech to create new life, but Kairos knew it wasn’t possible.
What he had said to Kairos was that something in Saturn City was draining time, and if left unchecked, would spell doom for all of Time. The only thing Kairos could think of that could cause this was the Temporal Singularity contained in the central spire.
It was then she came to the conclusion that Saturn City had to be destroyed, and that she had to be the one to do it.
And then there was Terra, Alya’s new squire.
Terra’s resolve was impressive, to say the least. Even in the face of someone who could easily kill her ten times over, she didn’t back down. She had broken into an enemy stronghold and wiped out the entire fortress. She had single-handedly defeated the Zeitmacht. And before any of her training, caught the attention of Alya, just as Kairos herself had.
She didn’t hate Terra. Why would she? Alya held the right to train another squire. Kairos wasn't the first, nor would she be the last. And it was Alya who had forcibly taken her from her home. Besides, hate was for villains. She wasn’t a villain.
It wasn’t hard to see how she could be perceived as one. She did kill Cerberus, after all. But everything she did was to save Time. Why couldn’t Alya see? She had to kill the worst offenders. She had to save Saturn City from themselves. She had to return the time stolen by the Legendary Blades and other rogue time travelers. Lycus was just the first step.
She was the only one who saw the truth. Alya, Orion, Deucalion, they were fools. Those who used time travel recklessly deserved to die. The danger was just too great.
“I have compiled the list,” Pandora said, interrupting Kairos’s thoughts.
“Thank you,” Kairos said. She tapped on her shieldwatch’s holoface, bringing up a list of names. At the top of the list was someone named Starlight Glimmer.
Just below her were names like Twilight Sparkle, Starswirl, Nightmare Moon, and Spike. She would consider them odd names had she not interacted with hundreds of cultures with different naming conventions. It wasn’t much weirder than “Silverwind”.
She tapped on Starlight’s name, opening a profile on her history, personality, and relationships. She quickly scrolled past the boring parts, like being abandoned by her only friend and the weird equalist cult. Then she arrived at what she was looking for.
The damage was already done. There was no point in killing Starlight before her crimes. The way time worked, someone else would likely take up her actions and make the same mistakes, making more work for her. It had to be after.
A quick analysis of some of the history she skipped over revealed that she was often in the presence of heroes. Ones who were innocent of the crimes Starlight had committed (in fact, some were the victims), yet would protect her with their lives. The nearest point in time she could go was roughly one month after the event known as “The Battle of the Bell”. By sheer luck, all six would be out of town for the confrontation.
The time she had stolen was a mere 84 years, less than Kairos’s own 110. But she was still the worst offender of these new continua and someone had to be an example.
The timecore of her aeon edge sword glowed a soft red. Her mission was simple.
“Pandora, chart a course for Ponyville, section EQ-NF, prime continuum, twenty-fourth day of Shifting Seasons, 1004 CE. We’re going hunting.”