Aeon Legion: Starlight

by NightFlame389

Chapter II: Shadow Cohort

Wait, blue? What just happened?
Sunset Shimmer blinked a few times. She was nowhere near Canterlot High. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Starlight were all standing around her. The burn mark on Starlight’s arm was completely gone.
There were two men wearing armor similar in design to the masked swordswoman’s standing over her. They were, however, different in color, being white and blue instead of black and red. And neither wore masks.
“Are you alright?” the shorter one asked.
“She got you pretty good, didn’t she?” the taller one said.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay,” Sunset said. The shorter one held out his hand. Sunset grabbed it and pulled herself up. “What just happened?” she asked.
“Your friend, Starlight, was targeted by the temporal assassin known as Exile,” the shorter one explained. “Exile tends to only go after other temporal criminals, and usually only the ones with serious crimes.”
Starlight’s face went pale.
“Do you know what she did?” the taller one asked. “Minerva doesn’t have much information registered about your continuum and Orion didn’t brief us enough.”
Starlight’s eyes made contact with Sunset’s. Her eyes begged Sunset to stay quiet.
“No,” Sunset replied, “I don’t.”
“Are you some sort of time police?” Rainbow Dash asked.
The shorter one replied, “We do a lot more than police time travel. We map out locations in time, keep post-time threats in check, and–”
“Crashing end, Abhinav, stop boring them with endless explanations,” the taller man interrupted. “All you need to know is that you’re safe and Exile can’t hurt you when our boss is around. He’s one of the Legendary Blades, for Aion’s sake.”
“Arad, I really wish that were true,” Abhinav sighed. “Orion is nowhere near as strong as Cerberus, and look what happened when he fought Exile.”
The device on Abhinav’s wrist made a beeping noise. A voice came out from the device, saying, “I have things under control for now, but just in case, I need you to get those girls as far away from here as possible.”
“Well, you heard the Strategos,” Abhinav said with a shrug.

“How do you join the Legion?” Rainbow asked. Abhinav had continued explaining everything about the Legion, including a quick overview of the Faceless War, and Aevum Academy.
“Simple,” Arad replied. “A legionnaire finds you, and if you impress them enough, they squire you, then you go to Saturn City and attend Aevum Academy.”
“Squire me,” Rainbow Dash said with a look of determination in her eye.
“Why?” Arad asked, raising his eyebrow.
“I want to be awesome and have a cool sword,” Rainbow simply replied. Sunset had to admit, that sword was pretty cool for an attempted murder weapon. To be completely honest, she wanted one for herself, too.
“We first have to talk to your parents and teachers,” Abhinav said. “Also, if you don’t have a military background, it’s pretty damn hard to get in.”
“Didn’t stop me,” Arad said.
“That’s only because you kicked that old west outlaw in the nuts when he tried to rob a bank with a samurai sword.”
“I was gonna rob that bank! He stole my opportunity! It’s not my fault Ezri thought I was being a hero.”
“Hold on,” Twilight said, interrupting Abhinav’s next few words, “How exactly did an old west outlaw learn how to time travel? That’s not even possible by today’s standards!”
“People have been building temporal devices since the age of exploration,” Abhinav explained. “It’s the Temporal Accords that forces everyone to keep it a secret.”
“The Temporal Accords...?”
“They’re like the Geneva Conventions of time travel, I guess. All kinds of rules about time travel, including registering your time travel device with the nearest Post-Time Nation, whether that be Helcia, Kavacha, Saturn City, or any of the other ones that I didn’t bother to learn the names of.”
Saturn City... Post-Time... Some memories stirred deep within Sunset’s mind, but she pushed them aside for the moment.
“And why were these Temporal Accords implemented?” Twilight asked.
“Simple. Before the First Temporal War, time travel was public knowledge across all continua. Then the Kalian Empire bombed Saturn City, we went to war, then made them sign the Accords. Now, everyone has to follow them while time traveling, which includes keeping time travel a secret for as long as possible.”
Starlight Glimmer nervously whistled.
“That sounds like a treaty you made to control and cripple the Kalians,” Twilight noted. “What exactly is in them?”
“For one, you can’t use time travel to change anything big. You can observe events and do research, but you can’t assassinate a world leader, for example. Another thing is that traveling to a nexus event is strictly forbidden. I would tell you what a nexus event is, but just listing a few should tell you enough. The Punic Wars, the Eastern Industrial Revolution, and the Mongol Rebirth are all nexus events.”
“So they’re important moments that changed history forever?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” Abhinav replied. “Traveling to one and changing something can lead to several lifetimes in Tartarus.”
Starlight fiddled with her fingers.
“Are you gonna make me a squire yet or what?” Rainbow Dash asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Abhinav, you got us off track again!” Arad said. He turned to Rainbow Dash. “Sure, I’ll be back in a month or two.” Arad tapped something on the hologram projected from the device on his wrist. A glowing ring formed around him, rotating as it moved upward, creating a glowing sphere of blue light. The sphere dissipated.
“A month or two?” Sunset said, mildly confused.
“Time travel,” Abhinav replied. “Watch, he’ll be back in five seconds.” Just as Abhinav said, the glowing ring returned after five seconds. Arad appeared at the center once the sphere vanished.
“I talked to your parents, your teachers, your coach, your principal, your next-door neighbor who had several choice words about your band’s music, your rival school, and your sports teams,” Arad said. “I think this will work. Congratulations, you’re in.”
“Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her fist in the air.
Arad then turned towards Sunset. “Abhinav probably wants the benefits that come with finding a squire too. Do you want to join the Legion?”
“... why?”
“Of all your friends, you’re the most qualified! You have almost all the qualities of a good squire! Determination, bravery, leadership, you could graduate as a Tetrarch! You’d be perfect!”
Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but a ring formed around Arad. He continued, “Yes, I did talk to the Princess. She didn’t object, but based on the smile she had I think she’s hiding something.”
Sunset tried again to say something, but this time, Abhinav said, “You can visit any point in history! You can meet Starswirl the Bearded!” Starlight was about to mention the limbo thing when Abhinav interrupted, “Okay, maybe we should have done more research on that guy.”
A glowing sphere formed around Abhinav. Once it dissipated, he spoke, “You once sook immorality? Our shieldwatch can make you immortal!”
“Are you using time travel to win this argument?” Sunset finally said. Never mind the fact that she wasn’t actively seeking alicorn ascension anymore, but shieldwatch immortality seemed to be a very different form from alicorn immortality.
“That’s another benefit! You’ll never lose an argument again, because whenever you find a good point to make, whether it’s ten seconds after they leave or three years later lying in bed at night staring up at the ceiling, you can go back and make that point, whenever you want!” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Work with me here! I just want my month of paid leave!”
“We will take all eight of you back in time to the founding of Equestria just for our paid leave if we have to,” Arad said.
“Wait, you know about Equestria?” Sunset asked.
“As members of the Shadow Cohort, we know things that most other legionnaires don’t, such as the existence of Equestria,” Abhinav explained. “Also, I thought mentioning the Princess would have clued you in. Or maybe Starswirl.”
“Which princess?”
“There’s multiple princesses?”
Sunset facepalmed. Clearly, though they had done their research, it wasn’t enough.
Arad held up his shieldwatch arm, pointing at something projected from the glass sphere embedded within. “Look at this! Do you not see how overqualified you are?” Sunset couldn’t read a single word on the projection.
“I’m pretty sure you’re a crashing Qadar! If we don’t get to you, then Silverwind will!” Silverwind. Another familiar name. Pegasus. Silver mane, tan coat. Fairly reckless, if Celestia’s stories were to be believed.
“You can avoid crowds by arriving before them!” If needed, Rainbow Dash could always beat the crowds for her.
“You will never need money again!” Being close friends with a princess had its benefits.
“You can get drunk without fear of hangovers!” There’s a spell for that.
“Consequences will no longer apply to you!” That wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“You can kick ass at ten thousand times your normal speed!” There it was.
“You son of a bitch, I’m in,” Sunset said, pointing finger guns at Arad and Abhinav.
Arad glanced at his shieldwatch holoface. He scrolled down just a little bit. His eyes widened, then became filled with disappointment. “Well, looks like someone else squired her,” Arad said.
“Crash! Now I have to spend an entire month figuring out who else to recruit!” Abhinav pointed at Twilight. “You! Yes or no?” Twilight shook her head.
Abhinav continued with each of the girls. Each of them turned down the offer. Abhinav then pointed to Starlight. “You won a war while severely crippled and with only untrained civilians and former criminals by your side! You’re just as overqualified as she is!”
As Starlight opened her mouth to ask a question, Abhinav interrupted, “Yes, you will be protected from Exile. She wouldn’t dare show up in Saturn City with all of the Legendary Blades there.” Abhinav held out his hand.
“You know what? Sure. I’m in.” Starlight took Abhinav’s outstretched hand.
“Wait,” Sunset said, “I heard you say I’m already registered as a squire?”
“Yeah,” Arad replied. He inspected her information on his holoface. “By... Praetor Corona. I think she was a Legendary Blade. She disappeared a couple hundred years ago.”
How did she already get squired? To her knowledge, this was the first time she had ever encountered the Legion, or anyone from the City Beyond Time, for that matter. Maybe it was a big case of wibbly wobbly timey wimey, as Time Turner put it.
Abhinav shrugged. “We can still bring her to the City. She’s already been squired, they’ll let her in.”
“If she doesn’t consent, that’s called kidnapping,” Arad pointed out.
“Kidnapping girls without consent is tight,” Abhinav said.
“That doesn’t sound any better in context,” Sunset said.
“Are you in?”
“Might as well go to make sure those clowns”—Sunset pointed at Rainbow and Starlight—“don’t blow up the entire city.” Starlight nervously giggled. “Yeah. I know about the time you and Trixie set off fireworks in the newly rebuilt Castle of the Two Sisters.”
“Okay, I get that one, but what did I do?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You just seem like the type to blow stuff up for shits and giggles,” Sunset replied.
Arad gasped. “You too? We should totally blow stuff up together some time!”
Rainbow Dash squeed.
“Oh Aion now there’s two of them.” Abhinav sighed, putting his hand on his forehead.
“We’ll monitor this point in time to make sure Exile doesn’t come for you again,” Arad said. “After graduation, be ready for us to pick you up.”
The device on Abhinav’s arm beeped. The same voice from before, the Strategos, said, “Kairos has been dealt with. She’s not coming back to this Canterlot for a while. No guarantees on Equestria, though.”
Kairos? Wasn’t the assassin’s name Exile?
“That’s a relief,” Starlight said.
“Oh, and I noticed that you two just registered squires. I’ll give you your month off after you bring them to Saturn City.”
“Yes, Strategos,” Arad and Abhinav simultaneously said. They did some sort of strange salute, placing their right fists over their hearts.
Glowing rings formed around them, and soon, they were gone.