A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter Three – Hunting Down a Rogue God
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“Ghost, ghost, I know you live within me
Feel as you fly
In thunderclouds above the city
Into one that I
Loved with all that was left within me
Until we tore in two
Now wings and rings and there's so many
Waiting here for you”

- “Ghost” by Neutral Milk Hotel

~ ~ ~

“Alright, does everypony understand?” asked Twilight, the meeting now over and everypony ready to depart and attend to their assigned tasks.

“Ah'd really like ta go with ya,” sighed Applejack, shaking her head, “but Ah'm not that dense. Y'all got yer job an' Ah've got mine. Heh, restin' up and healin'. Ah understand.”

“I don't!” shouted Amy indignantly. “You need me with you, Doctor! Why do I have to stick behind and watch the TARDIS?!”

“Because, Pond,” replied the Time Stallion, smiling, “she's alone in a strange place and hurt. She needs someone that she knows right now. She needs you.”

Pouting up a storm, the ginger pony relented and said, “Okay, okay, I'll stay with the TARDIS. But I'm not calling her 'Sexy'!”

“Good,” smirked the Doctor with a wink, “she'd prefer for Rory to say that too.”

“I'll walk her to your box, Doctor,” said the Mayor, inclining her head. “I don't know if I'm willing to accept what you've told me, that it's a time machine, but I'll walk her there all the same.”

“Thank you,” replied the Pony Lord gratefully. Then, turning, he knelt and repeated himself, “and thank you too.”

Shrugging nonchalantly, Spike retorted, “Yeah, I already threw in my two bits and asked Twi if I could come, but she shot me down pretty quick. Maybe if I were a little older and scarier, I'd be more help, but whatever. I might just be a baby dragon, but I'm smart enough to accept that, yeah, I'd probably just be a burden if I tagged along. I'll be sure to keep a good eye on your friend while you're gone, all I need to do is lock up the library first once everything's done here.” Pausing hesitantly and chewing his lip, the baby dragon added, “Just make sure she's safe in return, alright? She's... she's all I've got.”

Off to the side, Big Macintosh shook his head as he looked to Twilight and sighed, “Ya sure ya don't need me? Ah'd be a liar if Ah said Ah didn't want a shot at this guy fer roughin' up my sister the way he did.”

“To be frank, I'm not sure that they need me,” answered the unicorn. “I helped come up with our battle strategy, true, but I'm not sure I'll be all that useful on the battlefield itself. My magic isn't what you would call 'locked and loaded'. Another pegasus pony or two would help a lot more than I would.”

Nodding, the red work pony chewed on his wheat and replied, “Ah understand, Ah do. Ah just want a crack at him is all.”

“Don't worry about it,” said Spitfire, her voice full of enthusiasm. “We'll be sure to give him a couple of smacks for you too. And as for you, your magic is the whole reason we can even locate our boy, Razzy, so don't even think of beating yourself up over your lack of wings.”

Off to another side, adjusting the new pair of aviation goggles that the Wonderbolt captain had given her, Rainbow Dash pondered aloud, “This is closer to being a Wonderbolt than I've ever been. Pinkie, if you could see me now, would you be proud?”

Trotting up to her prismatic friend, the lavender unicorn leading the charge consoled her, “Rainbow Dash? I, um, don't know if this is enough to ease your mind, but the fact that the tracking spell is even working means that Pinkie Pie is still alive.”

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Rainbow murmured, mostly to herself, “Alive is better than nothing, right? Hold on Pinks, I'm coming.”

As the Mayor and Amy departed for the town square, Zecora approached Applejack and motioned for the farm pony to put her foreleg over her striped shoulders so that they could head back to the cottage together.

“Could ya wait a sec, Zecora?” asked Applejack urgently. “There's still somethin' Ah gotta do.”

Unaware of the blonde pony's intentions, Zecora nonetheless nodded her head and paced back over towards the tree-library.

“Doctor?” called Applejack, grabbing the Time Pony's attention from afar. “A moment 'a yer time?”

In a tone softer and quieter than the sound of a single leaf falling from its branch, the apple farmer stated, “Ah just want ta make one thing crystal clear, alright? Ah've already had one friend stolen from me today, Ah don't want ta lose three more. Now Ah'm a simple pony, but Ah'm not an idiot. Judgin' by the things ya say an' the way ya say 'em, danger is a close friend 'a yers. If'n ya put my friends in any danger that ya can't outsmart, Ah won't forgive ya.”

“There are two things in this world that Ah'm afraid 'a,” said Applejack, licking her lips nervously, “an' one 'a them is losin' the ones Ah love.”

Pulling away, the Doctor closed his eyes and concurred, “That makes two of us then.”

Before he had a chance to return to Twilight and the others, Applejack questioned, “Doctor? What's the other thing that yer afraid 'a?”

“Can't say Ah'd jump at the chance ta walk in the hoofsteps 'a the sorta fella what says somethin' like that,” stated the farm mare as Zecora trotted back over to her.

Raising one eyebrow, Applejack smirked, “Now Ah know Ah got a concussion. That didn't rhyme at all.”

Laughing, the zebra shook her head and said, “I do not rhyme because it is law-enforced. I simply enjoy it.”

“Of course,” chuckled Applejack, finishing that last rhyme for her. “Alright, let's get outta here. Fluttershy may have been in better shape than Rarity an' insisted she could handle things while we were gone, but I doubt that unicorn had a mind ta make things easy on her once she woke up. Heh, Ah just hope she hasn't tuckered herself out tryin' ta decorate the place or somethin'.”

“It would point us into there, wouldn't it?” sighed Twilight as she and the other three approached the edge of the Everfree Forest.

A glowing compass surrounded by the purple aura of her unicorn's horn levitated in front of the frowning pony. Just as she said, the directional device's needle pointed straight ahead, right down a darkened trail.

Taking a moment to experiment with his wings, the Doctor performed several loop-de-loops and jetted past her. Predictably, the flight trail that the Time Stallion left behind him looked as though space and time were fluctuating in his wake.

“Hmmm, if it comes down to it, I suppose I might not be too shabby in an aerial fight,” he mused, observing the reality ripples that followed him whenever moving at top speed.

“Ahem!” alerted an annoyed Twilight, drawing attention to the matter at hoof by clearing her throat.

“Oh, right, sorry about that,” stated the Doctor as he landed. “So, judging by your enthusiasm, I take it that this forest isn't exactly a pleasant place to be?”

“Not in the slightest,” answered Twilight, shaking her head. “Over the past few centuries all sorts of nasty creatures and animals have made these woods their home. Manticores, hydras, will-o-wisps, ursa majors and minors, snatching shadows, cockatrices, and snare spiders, just to name a few.”

“And the plant life ain't much to write home about either,” added Rainbow Dash impatiently. “Now can we go already?”

In an effort to look annoyed at Dash's haste, the purple unicorn rolled her eyes. In actuality, she was relieved that the pegasus had reigned in her emotions and reemerged as the Rainbow Dash that they all knew and loved.

“Not just yet,” said the Doctor, an inquisitive look stenciled across his face. “Snatching shadows?”

Raising an eyebrow, Spitfire retorts, “Yeah, heard of 'em? Some call them 'shadow hands' or 'returners'. They're not really dangerous, just sort of annoying. Anypony caught by one suddenly finds themselves back at the edge of the forest. They got me once when I was a little foal. I was trying to show off to a few friends, made my way into the woods, then BAM, all of a sudden my head was spinning and I was back to square one right where I'd started.”

“Oh, well if that's all,” sighed the Time Stallion, visibly relieved. “I hear the word shadow and instantly think of the vashta nerada. Nasty bunch, those buggers. Infinitely glad that they're not what you were talking about. Wouldn't want to end up a stripped drumstick on my first adventure out and about here.”

Shooting uncertain stares back and forth, Twilight, Spitfire, and Rainbow Dash simply nodded in agreement.

“Well, I should say so!” exclaimed the Doctor as he approached the forest all on his own. “Now, to parrot Rainbow Dash, can we go already?”

Looking a tad confused, a feeling that the unicorn felt she was getting far too familiar with while in the Time Stallion's company, she shrugged and started towards the dark woods right behind him. Trading cautious glances, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire swiftly flew up beside them to take guarding positions. The flame-colored pegasus took the rear while Dash herself took point. Perhaps it was perfectly natural for the strange and magical forest or perhaps it was because of its newest nearly-omnipotent resident, but a mere ten minutes of walking later and the four ponies found themselves immersed in almost complete darkness. Calmly, Twilight stopped in her tracks and signaled for the rest of the group to do the same. Before the Doctor could reach for his trusty sonic screwdriver, she closed her eyes and focused on the tip of her horn. Moments later, a spark of magic erupted from it and coalesced into a soft and steady glow. With a bit more effort, that soft glow grew brighter, soon enveloping a whole 20 square yards around them in a radiant veil of fuchsia light.

Blushing, Twilight looked the other way and said, “Heh, it's just your basic lighting spell, nothing that complicated really.”

Dash and Spitfire looked at Twilight for a second and then back at each other. The two pegasi rolled their eyes and continued along ahead of the group, stopping where Twilight's magical light ended and the shadows once more began.

“C'mon, you two can get a room later, let's go!” shouted Spitfire as the prismatic pegasus next to her suppressed a chuckle.

Eyebrows lifting, the Stallion Lord objected, “What, hey, don't I get a say in that?”

“Nope, not in that or this, now get your hooves in gear!” answered Rainbow Dash with a smirk.

They continued on like that for a while, a soundtrack of lighthearted conversation carefully camouflaging their growing tension. The darkness surrounding them seemed itself very alive, as though the creatures hidden within it weren't as great a threat as the shadows themselves. Mysterious noises echoed from every direction, ranging from the mightiest of bestial roars to the quiet crunching of the fallen leaves beneath their hooves. Too many times did the woodlands' sentient, monstrous obstacles ward the adventurous group of ponies off into the middle of nowhere. Thickets of living trees made some paths utterly unreachable. Swarms of blade bats made some paths simply undesirable. Despite Twilight's best efforts, the compass needle guiding them seemed dedicated to only one task, taking them to their destination via the longest and most maze-like route possible. Even when their way wasn't completely blocked off, twists and turns plagued their course as they forged ever onward, deeper and deeper, into the most dangerous reaches of all of Equestria.

Twilight, the only pony present without a set of wings, was nearly crushed by an avalanche of boulders at the bottom of a deep ravine; saved from the fate of a rocky tomb at the last minute by Dash. However, the three pegasi all found themselves stuck in a massive spiderweb when they'd all inadvertently flown into it at the same time. It was only because of Twilight's magic that they had managed to escape and evade the enormous fangs of the snare spider prowling nearby. As they retreated, a mountain of bones encased in a blanket of sticky silk told them that more than a fair share of others hadn't been quite so lucky. Not that the forest's large spiders were even remotely the worst of their troubles. After coming upon a small clearing and catching their breath, the four ponies found themselves ambushed by a pack of a dozen manticores. The beasts circled them slowly for more than a minute, gradually closing the gap between them and their pray whilst also remaining alert in case the ponies tried to mount their own offensive. Had it not been for Spitfire blasting off and creating a huge cloud of rolling fog on the ground, it's possible that instead of quietly sneaking away, they would have each ended up in several pieces in several different stomachs.

After hours upon hours of hiking and narrowly avoiding certain death, Twilight's certainty was starting to wear thin. She was beginning to think that her perfect tracking spell hadn't been so perfect after all.

Hovering just a few feet ahead of her, Rainbow Dash was thinking the exact same thing.

And it's for that precise reason that the party of four stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they exited the pitch-black tangle. Dash and Twilight beheld what stood before them with what appeared to be awe.

A long rope bridge stretched onward ahead of them, its length spanning a massive chasm. The opposite end of it disappeared into a cloud of thick fog like a halfway eaten spaghetti noodle.

Confused, the Doctor and Spitfire both tilted their heads and raised their eyebrows.

“What, are we missing something?” asked the Wonderbolt, her tone brusque but inquisitive.

“Apparently,” stated the Doctor, “Raszagal's disguised himself as a bridge. I should have given him more credit, that's quite clever.”

Taking a moment to glare daggers at the sarcastic pair of pegasi, Rainbow Dash turned to face Twilight. Her expression was an apprehensive one, but behind that was something else, something... hopeful. The purple unicorn nodded affirmatively, licked her lips, and then stepped forward, hesitating for a moment before setting one hoof down on the first set of worm-eaten boards. They creaked as she applied the rest of her weight, but stayed strong and held her as she trotted to the suspended structure's center.

It really was. It was the same bridge, the very same bridge that they had crossed that fateful night when the moon was fuller than it would ever be again.

Twilight turned to face the others, particularly Dash. The sky-blue pegasus didn't bother to hide the grin that was slowly spreading from cheek to cheek across her face.

They were both thinking the same thing. Apparently all evil gods thought alike.

Placing the magically imbued tracking compass back in her saddlebag, the lavender unicorn narrowed her gaze and announced to the group, “We've wandered around in circles for long enough, it's high time we ramped up our pace. I've got our destination pinpointed now, so is everypony ready?”

“Thought you'd never ask,” replied Rainbow Dash immediately as she zoomed forward and stopped in midair just above her purple friend. “Now get on and buckle up.”

By way of reply, the fiery pony shot up into the sky and said, “Super fast time!”

In no time at all, the four ponies were rocketing through the clouds. Sporting Rainbow Dash's spare pair of goggles, Twilight Sparkle held on for dear life as the prismatic pegasus carrying her zoomed above the ocean of lush foliage like a rainbow bullet. In the distance, the dilapidated ruins of an old castle could be seen, its hazy image coming further and further into focus as they encroached upon it. Weathered and worn, the stone structure looked as though it hadn't been home to anypony in centuries.

“There!” shouted Dash, pointing with one hoof at the familiar set of stone arches that had greeted her once before. “We land there!”

With a collective, nonvocal nod, they all came down from their high altitude, slowing their swift pace until they were but a foot or two off of the ground.

Hopping down from her perch atop Rainbow's back, Twilight surveyed the surroundings before shuddering a bit and saying, “We should have known from the beginning.”

“Yeah,” Dash concurred, “it just sort of makes sense. Still, never thought we'd be back here again.”

“It's as though we just can't escape this place,” said the unicorn, suppressing a shiver, “at least not permanently.”

Stepping forward, the Doctor placed a hoof on both girls' shoulders and inquired, “Been here before?”

“Once, yes,” confirmed Twilight, closing her eyes as the memories came surging forth. “There were six of us, the Elements of Harmony, and our task was to rescue the sun and prevent the fall of an everlasting night.”

With a whistle, the Time Stallion stated, “You certainly don't start off small with your quests, do you?”

“It wasn't easy, but it had to be done,” said Twilight, her smile weary but steadfast.

Smiling back, the Doctor nodded his head and insisted, “The things in life that are worth doing are rarely ever easy.”

Though she said nothing in response, Dash thought to herself, “Trust me, I know... or at least now I do.”

In the same defensive formation that they'd maintained while marching through the forest, the four ponies made their way into the castle ruins that stood before them. The structure, having once been a home to the princesses over a thousand years ago, certainly looked old. The stone arches that once stood tall and erect many eons ago could be found strewn across the overgrown courtyard. The weather-worn bits and pieces only partially blocked off the path that they'd once been vital components to, their jagged edges where they'd broken off eroded by the relentless dirge of time.

After 15 minutes spent navigating the labyrinthine maze of rubble, what stretched onward before the pegasi and unicorn was the castle's main hall. Beyond that, the rest of the ruins could be accessed with comparative ease.

“Okay, is everypony ready?” questioned Twilight, her tone strong and authoritative.

Ready to take off like a rocket down the stone corridor, Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and replied, “Oh yeah, more than ready. Give us the go-ahead, Twi.”

However, before the purple unicorn could, something unexpected happened. Of all of the monsters, creatures, beasts, and baddies to pose a possible threat to them, the adventurous ponies hadn't been expecting the pack of feral wolves that were suddenly surrounding them. From behind fallen stones and through holes in the walls and floor, snarling wolves appeared as though through teleportation; fangs bared threateningly and eyes narrowed. Stranger still was just how many of the beasts were involved. Sure, a small pack wouldn't have ranked very highly among the forest's many threats. Furthermore, even a fairly large pack of wolves would've preferable to, say, the manticores that they'd been forced to flee from hours earlier.

To make matters worse, the wolves had cornered them at the entrance to the castle's main hall, which made an aerial escape all the more unlikely. In fact, the more Twilight scanned their location and their many canine foes, the more she realized that the forest wasn't what was directing the assault.

Turning to face the others, a simple nod from the Doctor confirmed her assumption. Like a rocket, the lavender unicorn's mind then zoomed into action. Her first order of business was to figure out exactly why Raszagal needed to employ a bunch of wolves to do his bidding when he himself would be much better-suited to the task, especially when considering his pure, unrivaled power. It was then that she remembered the Doctor explaining the very nature of the Eternals, how they lived to amuse themselves and nothing more. While fangs and claws were far more inefficient than his bulldozing might, they were likely infinitely easier for the evil alicorn to enjoy from afar, free from dirtying his own hooves in the murderous process. With that theory well-supported and in place, her analytical gaze swiftly switched to cataloging and scrutinizing everything within sight. There were more than four dozen wolves in the hall with them, two packs at their rear and another two directly in front of them. Running down both sides of the hall were two sets of massive granite windowsills, each one populated by a growling wolf of its own.

Twilight gulped audibly after crunching those numbers for a second. Her advanced level of intellect wasn't really necessary to deduce the direness of their situation, she'd simply held out hope that there was some kind of advantage to be gained in their surrounding environment.

Not only was there no such advantage, but even if there had been the wolves would have already abused it.

“Don't worry, they won't even get within 20 feet of you,” assured Rainbow Dash as she stepped forward and spread her wings, puffing herself up to look bigger. “The moment they move is the moment I start kicking butt.”

Raising an eyebrow, the Doctor commented, “I would really, sincerely like to believe that it's going to be that easy.”

“Well... maybe it is,” offered Dash, her wavering grin thoroughly uncertain. “Maybe they've heard of me and don't wanna risk stepping up to the plate.”

Cut off before his thought had a chance to run its course, the Doctor watched as the wolves standing before them parted like a furry sea to reveal their pack leader. An elderly wolf, covered in as many scars as there were stars in a clear night's sky, padded forward. His pace was slow, hampered even more by the fact that he appeared to be blind.

“You,” spoke the old canine, his voice coming out in a rasp of gravel, rock salt, and ruined vocal chords. “You... with the aurora mane.”

“Me?” she asked, confused. Having been ready to fight them a second ago, stopping to chat first had thrown a wrench into her mental works. She was at a loss.

“Come closer... so I might see you,” spoke the ancient wolf. His eyes, unfocused and layered in a sickly milky film, narrowed.

Turning to face the others, Rainbow's eyes pleaded for an answer. She wasn't necessarily afraid to approach the raggedy, old beast, but she still wanted to be certain that it was the correct course of action. When they all nodded to her in unison, that was all she needed.

“Yes,” said the aging wolf after several impossibly long minutes elapsed, “I can... I can feel it there. Just barely. But... it is there nonetheless. It cannot be... refuted.”

Perplexed, the blue pegasus tilted her head and questioned, “What? What's there?”

“No... no... am I wrong?” continued the battle-scarred canine as though he hadn't been interrupted. “It... it isn't there yet... but it will be. It will be there... very soon. Something of the wolf.”

If her eyes hadn't been wide already, they certainly grew wider after hearing that.

And not only Dash's eyes. The Doctor, too, reacted as though he had just seen a ghost.

“Where have I heard this before?” pondered the Stallion Lord. “It... it feels so important, I couldn't have forgotten. Did I make myself forget?”

“Wait, what does that mean?” called Dash as the old wolf staggered away. “I'm not a wolf, I'm a pegasus!”

Signaling for the rest of his massive pack to leave, the battered and bruised beast shook his head and said, “You are right... Aurora Mane... you are not a wolf. Not... just yet. You are not ready. The world... is not ready.”

"W-why? What happens if I become a wolf?" asked Rainbow, now both thoroughly confused and intrigued at the same time.

“Something beautiful. Something... terrible. An amalgamation of the two. You are destined... to do that which cannot be done.”

With that said, the wolves departed. Just as quietly and sneakily as they'd arrived, they disappeared, seemingly vanishing into the mist itself. The guttural growls and snarls that had echoed back and forth down the stone hallway only moments ago faded like the details of a bad dream. The silence that rolled in was unnatural and carried with it an air of stress and fear. Twilight, Dash, Spitfire, and the Doctor were left alone in the dilapidating ruins of Celestia and Luna's past to ponder over that mysterious message's meaning.

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space

by Joseph Raszagal

Chapter Three - Hunting Down a Rogue God