//------------------------------//
// In the Meanwhile 
// Story: Counterclockwise 
// by AdrianJNovelle 
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1,849,292...

Once again, history - and my life - was changed. Unfortunately, as I wandered through the newly changed Canterlot, I was severely disappointed at what I had come to find. 
I entered Canterlot Castle casually, since I was recognized by Canterlot Royalty, and proceeded to Princess Celestia's chambers, where, in fact, she was alive and well, casually reading a book in front of her fireplace, where I had imagined she spent much of her spare time.
"Princess," I said.
"Twilight," the Princess smiled. "How are you? Are you alright?"
"I'm...I'm not sure, Princess."
"Is something wrong?"
"I think so...but I can't quite put my hoof on it."
"Is there anything I can do to help you, Twilight?"
I shook my head.
"Not at the moment, Princess. E-excuse me, I...I gotta go."
I didn't stay within earshot of Princess Celestia long enough to hear her reply; I just bolted from the Castle, and out onto the streets of Canterlot. 
This isn't the future I wanted! Sure, the Princess is alive, but...but the Great Disaster! It's still imminent...is it? Is the Great Disaster an inevitable, irrevserible chain of events in Equestrian history? And where are my friends? Where's Luna? Are they still gone, or just in Ponyville? No, wait. If they're in Ponyville, then where is Luna? And Candence and Shining Armor?
Scratch that. I probably just haven't come into contact with them. They're probably safe and sound and present.
I tried to calm myself down, and assess the situation. What was going on? What am I to do? And...why haven't I seen my friends?
Suddenly, two large flashes of light intercepted my stroll through Canterlot. Two large, familiar unicorns appeared in front of me, nearly causing me to bump into them.
I took a glance up at their covered faces. It was two of those unicorns I had come into contact with when that Captain guy was here last.
"Twilight Sparkle," one of them said; I was unsure of which stallion was which from voice alone. 
I gulped.
"You have once again changed your fate of time. And that is unacceptable. Come with us, or be destroyed."
Their abnormally sized horns charged an eerie, red glow of merciless destruction. I could almost see my reflection in their horns.
I stood erect, took a step back, and peeled my eyes with a rather frightening look of determination.
These bastards will find me anywhere. If I am to outrun them, I have to fight them.
Right here.
Right now.
"Magic duel," I exclaimed. "Draw!"
Not a second after my command, I was shot with two bolts of powerful, red lightning, both of which I evaded. I retaliated with a quick shot of my own right to one of their horns, blowing it up into smithereens. He was powerless.
The second guy started firing small but numerous bolts of energy from his horn at me. He had me dancing along the ground, like a stallion from those old-western movies you see where they shoot bullets at a pony's hooves to keep her off the ground and intimidate her. It was a poor strategy when the pony the stallion is shooting at is Twilight Sparkle.
I evaded his moves, and shot him in his horn, too. 
That was too easy.
With their horns destroyed, the guards were neutralized in their magic attacks. But they still had their brawn, which they intended to use.
One guard rushed me and managed to get at me. I struggled and squirmed in an attempt to free myself, but it was no avail. What the guards lacked in magic, they made up for her in strength. The other guard gave a loud whistle, and a third, smaller guard of a similar appearance lowered himself from the skies above with his magic. He beheld a strange tank of some unknown contents around his waist, and a gas mask over his nebulous face. As he approached me, I started to experience difficulty breathing. I coughed and gagged.
The last thing I remember before I lost consciousness was the image of the two goggled eyes starring back at me as they disappeared into a thick, hazy, green fog.





When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a dark, cold room. The only light visible peered in from a barred window above me. I was on an old mattress of some sort, one of no particular decoration or comfort, with a paper-thin rag over my body, and what I assumed was a pillow but was actually a sandbag under my head. I was surrounded by cold, lifeless bricks and merciless black bars which brought on a sense of isolatio, security, and immobility.
"Oh, good, you're awake," a deep voice greeted me. I recognized it: Captain. He stepped out from a dark corridor where he had been in shadow, and revealed himself in the dim light emerging from the window.
"W-where am I?" I asked, sitting up in my bed.
"Squadron Headquarters," he answered. "My home. At least...this is what I make my home, anyway."
I made no reply.
"You are under our control now, Twilight Sparkle. Thanks to my boys who managed to outwit even the smartest unicorn in Equestria - as I have read, that is - gas you, and bring you to your new home. You have committed atrocious crimes throughout time and space. And, as the protector of space-time, it is my job to condemn you. You are a deviant of catastrophic proportions. And I will not let you poison my reality."
He stepped closer to my chamber. "If you must know, I already came back from reversing time from your destruction. Princess Celestia will die before she is supposedly mandated to meet the Grim Reaper. How did I do it, you may be wondering." He chuckled. "Let's just say that, between knowledge and technology, I have my ways." He paused. "Sleep tight," he said. "Tomorrow is your trial, where we will hold you in our private court and determine your fate. Most likely, it will be death. Execution. Electrocution. Whatever it takes, we will find a way to kill you, Twilight Sparkle. Be grateful we haven't done so already. The law says we cannot convict you without the right to a fair trial. So, that's what we are giving you. And you know me," he started off back into the blackness. "I obey all rules."





I didn't sleep at all that night. Between my anxiety and my unimaginably uncomfortable bedding, I was not able to sleep. I spent the night plotting an escape. Of course I was going to break out of here! I'm Twilight Sparkle! I don't deserve this nonsense! I'm a benevolent unicorn and a marital Princess. The last thing I need is imprisonment.
Finally, at the crack of dawn, two familiar-looking figures appeared in the corridor in front of my chamber. They were the same two guards who I had dueled the day before. But something was different about them: their horns. They got them back. Between knowledge and technology, Captain could do anything he wanted to. Even restore the magic of a few beaten-up unicorn adjuncts. One of them opened my cell door with his magic.
"Follow us," he said. "And don't even think about escaping. We have guards everywhere. You won't walk two feet without running into them."
I did what I was told. I ended up being in front - since they did not trust me to follow but instead to lead - and they walked me to the courtroom, which was not so much of a courtroom as it was the command center for the building. Captain sat in his mighty throne, tapping his hoof on his armrest.
"Court is now in session," he began as the two guards who followed me here shut the door and guarded it. 
I took a quick look around. There was nopony here but the Captain and the guards. There was no jury. There was no judge. He calls this a fair trial?
"Twilight Acorna Sparkle," he continued. "You are being accused of numerous attempts - and successes - of altering the fabric of space-time. How do you plead?"
"Not guilty."
"Care to defend your case?"
"I am simply trying to undo a tragic event in my past: the Great Disaster as it is called. I don't know what caused it, but I am desperately trying to find its origins and reverse it."
"Strange. I was under the impression that you were out to find a new home to settle in: someplace far from your own time where you feel you belong."
"That was my original intention, yes. But I have since changed my course of action. I am trying to fix my life by preventing a tragedy. Is that a crime?"
"Under any other circumstances, no, Twilight Sparkle, it is not. However, it is strictly against Squadron Law to change the present time. Even traveling through time at all is setting yourself up for accusation. However, if your intentions were to simply browse or carouse the future and make no changes, I suppose we could've looked the other way. But you are intentionally trying to alter time. That is something every stallion in this room is opposing. And it is with that that I hereby find you guilty of all charges."
I frowned.
"Your punishment will be de-"
There was a knocking behind the giant, steel doors which led us into this room.
"WHAT!?"
The guards stood aside and drew open the doors with their magic. A smaller-looking unicorn, decked out in the same strange armor-like clothing as the other stallions, was seen in the doorway.
"Captain!" he called, rushing into the room.
"What is it, Squire? Can't you see I'm in the middle of convicting this delinquent?"
"You can't kill her!"
"WHAT!?"
"I said you can't kill her! If you were to kill Twilight Sparkle, you'd be changing history - in a great number of ways - and be committing the very same damage you are accusing her of committing!"
The Captain seemed to have not remembered such a fact. He sighed violently, and then groaned.
"ARRRGHH!! Very well. Now away with you, Squire! NOW!"
Squire made a hasty retreat from the scene.
"So!" Captain pounded his hoof on his armest. "It appears that we cannot execute you. Or drown you. Or electrocute you. Or decapitate you. Or drain your blood. Or simply just put you out of our misery. So, I am giving you a choice, Twilight Sparkle: you can either stay here in your teeny, tiny cell and eat rat feces for lunch and sleep in that compost pile of a bed, or you can request to be returned to your timeline...with one little loophole."
"What would that entitle?" I asked.
"We'll simply strip you of all of your magical powers. We'll bring you right back home - right to the beginning of this whole ordeal - right to the tombstone of Princess Celestia, where you are mourning her death right before Princess Cadence approaches you and you have the conversation which begins this whole quandary. And yes, we know about all that, too. You may have done a lot of jumping around, but let's just say that you leave very clear hoofsteps wherever you go, Twilight Sparkle. Anyway, those are your options. You can either keep your magic and stay under our constant surveillance, or we'll hook you up to your magic-draining machiney thing, break your horn, turn you into an earth pony, and send you back home, where you are free to do whatever you want without our further intervention, for as long as you fail to use magic in any way or in any way attempt to restore your magical abilities. You have thirty seconds. Decide!"
I know this may seem like a hard decision to make. And as much as I love my horn and my magic - it is the talent which is illustrated on my cutie mark, after all - I'm afraid I have to part with it. I made a promise to Princess Cadence, and I intend to keep it, even if I am an earth pony when I do.
I sighed. "Send me home powerless," I said softly.
"Speak up!"
"I said send me home powerless!" I exclaimed.
Captain snickered. "Very well. Since I'm in a good mood, and since you have been so cooperative with me and my guards, I will let you stay one more night, Ms. Sparkle. Unless you want to go home now, in which case, I am more than happy to fire up the machine and suck all the life-force out of you until you shrivel up like a pruny plum."
This decision was hard for me to make.
"May I remind you that it will make no temporal difference. You can stay here forever, and no time in the present will elapse. We will technically be sending you back in time, but since it is for the prevention of this whole terroristic disaster known as the time of my life following when Twilight Sparkle mastered the art of time-travel, I will overlook my disobedience to my own rules. I did so before to catch up with you, you little brat. I am not so afraid to do it again."
I had pondered my reply while Captain was babbling on about me. Then I came to my conclusion. I could spend the rest of my time in my cell perfecting and then executing my escape plan. If I go home now, I will have no choice but to be deprived of my wonderful, beautiful magic, and be forced to spend the rest of my life as an earth pony.
Something about that seems strangely familiar.
"I wish to spend another night here."
Another snicker from Captain.
"Very well. Take her away!"
The two guards instantly grabbed me and carried me back to my cell for the remainder of my sentence.
It would be another long, painful, sleepless night for me.
Though, I could not help but notice something glinting in the dim light under Captain's throne. What was under there? If I had time to explore the command center of the building during my escape, I shall discover what he's hiding from me.