//------------------------------//
// Journey 
// Story: Killing Time 
// by JohnnyNorthrain 
//------------------------------//

	Through the woods and over the mountains to the Changeling Queen’s house we go. Sure I’d changed the lyrics a bit but the song was appropriate. We’d set out that morning after I had commissioned Rarity to make a back pack for me the day before. While I waited for her to finish the job I gathered Lyra and Derpy and explained to them my intention of going deep into the badlands. They offered protests saying that it was too dangerous but I wouldn’t be swayed away from what I felt needed to be done. Within an hour they agreed to come with me and we gathered what gear and food would be needed. The next day Lyra had her saddlebag, I had my back pack and Derpy had a small belt with pouches to keep her light enough for flying. 
As the first day drew to a close we had reached the far edge of the Everfree forest. My shoulder was not quite good enough to haul the weight of the pack without protest and to help I had used a broken branch as a walking staff. We made camp in the shadow of a large oak tree and helped ourselves to a cooked dinner. Sweet potatoes baked in the coals of a small fire were delicious. It had been years since I had gone camping. As a kid it was the thing I did with my cousins every summer in Michigan. Out here it still held a bit of the same thrill having to sleep outdoors and gather your own wood for a fire. After the meal Derpy quickly fell asleep and I lay down on my back using my pack as a pillow. 
The stars were beautiful. I couldn’t tell you if they were the same ones I’d seen in Chicago. I never really bothered to learn any of their names or patterns. That was business for Astronomers and living in a city that always had so many electric lights I never understood what they saw in the stars or why they wanted to study them. Here in Equestria I’d looked up a couple times but never really paid attention. They were simply gorgeous. So many of them sparkled and every time I focused upon an area of black after a couple seconds I could see other dimmer stars there. The band of the galaxy was clearly visible and a few meteors streaked through the sky and burned out. I had completely missed this living in a city. Even as a kid I never really looked up at the sky preferring to look at the flames of the camp fire instead.
“You haven’t told me your intentions.” Lyra spoke up breaking my concentration on the stars. 
“I told you where we are going.” I shifted around to look at her. 
“What happens once we get there?” She sat up and planted her front hooves on the ground. 
“Did I ever tell you about being a cop?” 
“Yes you have and don’t change the subject.” 
“I served on the Chicago Police Force for almost two years.” I continued on seeing her roll her eyes. “There was a lot to deal with. Corruption and murder were nearly a daily occurrence. This bright eyed young man entered into the department about a month after I had started. He was going to change the streets and make them safer for everyone. He lasted a week until he was gunned down in a random act of violence. His little brother decides that he’s going to become a cop and find the people responsible. A year and a half later he joins and gets posted with me as a partner. Both of us are walking the streets for the next four months. The kid was good and we ended up cracking a lot of skulls in that time. We finally find the guy who put a magazine into his brother and we arrest him. 
“I was running late one evening for the start of a shift and the kid decided to go on ahead without me just to the first area where we usually talked to an Italian grocer. By the time I caught up to my partner the grocer was dead, his wife was bleeding out and my partner was nowhere to be found. His body was floating in the river two days later with a thousand cuts and his eyes plucked out. I followed what leads I could and ended up putting three people in the hospital and another in the grave because of what they did to my partner. The police knew it was me but they couldn’t prove any of it. I was let go and put under watch for a while. The guy they assigned to watch me was a detective and he started teaching me how to be an investigator. 
“I’ve told you how violent the city was. How much blood had been spilt in three decades. I hope Equestria and Ponyville never see anything like that. That’s why we are going to the badlands. I am pretty sure that the Changeling Queen won’t be satisfied with just imprisoning ponies in cocoons. She’ll want to start a war against Equestria in the hope of bringing it all down. If I have to lose everything I have left to stop her then that’s what I will do. I’m going to walk up to her and stab her directly in the heart.”
There was a long period of silence from Lyra. She looked down into the dirt and moved her hooves from side to side pushing it around while she struggled with her inner thoughts. If she left my side now and never wanted to speak to me again I wouldn’t blame her. Making a decision to actually kill someone was not something to be taken lightly. I’d done it once before to a street rat yet this time it would be different. The guy back then only had a gun in his hand. This Queen had powers I did not even comprehend. I could play her desires to my advantage if I could just get close enough to use my switchblade on her. Then of course there was Nickolas to contend with. I had something in mind for him but I wouldn’t tell either of the ponies about it. Once the two of us had shared a bond as deep as brotherhood but now I did not know where we stood. He’d shot me, he’d taken my girl that I did not really care too much about and now he was serving the Queen I had decided to kill. 
“I don’t want you to die.” She said in a whisper her voice choking.
“I don’t want to die either.” I sat up using the staff to help me. 
“You are so set on going in there that you can’t see that’s exactly what will happen. She’s not going to play it safe. She will end up killing you. You… you don’t… she was not inside your head. You don’t know what she’s like in that twisted mind of hers.” 
“No kiddo I don’t. What happened to you and what’s happening to me I don’t want to even chance that on another pony. I’ve got the watch. If it comes down to it I can freeze time and stab her. Then it will be done.”
“What about the Princesses?” She looked up with tears in her eyes. 
“What about them?”
“This isn’t the city Johnny. If you kill somepony they won’t just lock you up and give you trial. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will… will… I don’t even want to think of what they will do to you. If you kill her you can’t live in Ponyville. They won’t let you even live in Equestria. They may banish you to the badlands as punishment. Where will we be then?” She stamped her hoof and Derpy woke up.
“I told you I’d give up everything.” I stated. 
“There’s got to be another way. We can make another barrier or trap her in a dungeon or something else than you being exiled. We could get the Doctor to take her on the Tardis and put her someplace where she can never hurt another pony.” Lyra wiped away her tears. 
“You could but muffin won’t work that way.” Derpy stifled a yawn and stretched her wings. 
“I forgot about the Tardis. Why doesn’t the Doctor help us jump in time and stop her before any of this even happened?” I focused my attention on Derpy. 
“Because it’s never that simple. He already knows what happens and he’s been pretty quiet about it. All he told me was to fly fast when I saw you with a rock. My muffin won’t change the time line if he can help it.” 
I wanted to protest and tell her that he could have given us something useful as a hint but I kept quiet. The Doctor was in so many damned places in time that I couldn’t keep any of it straight. Derpy seemed to have no problem sorting any of it out. She had the reputation of being a little slow and very clumsy but the fact that she could keep everything straight about the Doctor showed a great well of intelligence within that brain of hers. I laid back down on the pack and sat the staff aside. A couple times over the next hour I started to say something but it never came out. The three of us slept under the stars and just after dawn we resumed the journey towards the badlands. 
A small mountain range lay ahead of us and it took another day to reach them. That night under the stars there was an even smaller fire than before and we all slept quickly after the meal. I had restless dreams of spiders biting my arm and when I woke I expected to have a hundred new bites. The only marks were the old ones from Chrysalis. The patch of skin that had changed was a few inches long. Progress was slow but eventually in a few months or even a few years I’d be a Changeling. I was determined to kill Chrysalis before that happened. I was doomed either way to be exiled and not live with my friends anymore. Better a fate that I chose myself then one that was thrust upon me.  
I pulled on my coat and we gathered our gear. The path leading through the mountains took us a few hours to cover. There were no trees here and the tallest thing was scrub brush that came up to my knees. The land was hot and arid with little water to be seen. This was just the mountain ring that ran around the true land to the south. The border was not marked and the mountains gave way to cracked desert devoid of plants and any life that I could see. There was no wind and it felt like an oven. Lyra had her hat to shield her eyes and Derpy used her wings. I took off my coat and rolled it up putting it into my pack. The heat was unlike anything I’d ever encountered. Horrible for a Human and two ponies. 
Figuring this was good enough I pulled out the three bottles from Zecora handing one to Lyra and another to Derpy. Unstopping the cork I smelled a foul mixture within that had not smelled this pungent when it was being brewed. I downed it as quickly as I could tossing the bottle aside as soon as the last drops were in my body. It tasted worse than it smelled but I felt a tingling around my mouth and down my throat. Suddenly the heat did not seem so bad anymore and my body was not quite as warm. I saw the other two gag on the potion then toss their bottles aside. 
It had been two days of walking to get here and it looked like it may be another two days until we reached our destination. Somewhere within this place was the means to an end. Celestia forgive me if I screwed this up. Using my staff as a support we three headed into the heart of the badlands.