“You call that 'taking some time'?”
“Why are you complaining? Didn't you say 'we need to inform them as soon as possible'?”
“If you would have taken one more minute to prepare, you could have teleported us directly to the castle, instead of the empties end of Canterlot City. And I would have heard Tempa's explanation.”
“Is that really what you worry about right now?”
“As the Spirit of Knowledge, of course I worry about lost knowledge.”
“Ah didn’t knew Canterlot had an empty end,” said Applejack, part because she wanted to stop the argument before it escalated, but more because the empty streets around them genuinely irritated her.
“Celestia had ordered the city’s evacuation shortly after we left,” explained Homer.
Tempa took a deep breath. Travelling as far as to the beginning of time, her birth, was exhausting, such was being this close to a younger version of herself. Slowly the Spirit of Past exhaled again and took another breath. The Cradle’s smell of ink and paint as well as the shiny green tiles, which covered walls and floor, made her nostalgic. It’s been quite a while since the last time she was here.
The cradle was unsurprisingly quiet, since there was no one else who existed in the past so far, after all there hadn’t been a past before. Homer once mentioned to her that the cradles present used to be pretty lively thanks to the regular arguments between Chrysalis and Celestia. Some things never change.
As Tempa took moved forwards, the sound of her claws scratching against the tiles echoed through the empty hall. Most of the people she met, (which weren’t exactly many, since Tempa had promised Homer to keep her interference with history at a possible minimum), didn’t like that sound. The dragon couldn’t quite understand that, since it was the second sound she had ever heard. The first one was the idea’s voice. This soft and warm voice, like an acoustic down pillow that makes you feel comfortable, no matter what.
“Tempa, my dear, that’s a rare view. What brings you here?”
Exactly that voice. Tempa looked around, trying to find something she could fix on while talking, since the Idea only appeared as a bodiless voice. At least in the past. In the present she usually had the shape of a fist. For some reasons it was necessary for the Idea to do this. Since she stands above the world her past actions are constants, and her past therefore cannot be altered. As a bodiless voice however the Idea is able to appear outside her body, which enables her to change the past, without changing her past. Or something like that. Not even Homer fully understood that.
“There’s a Shadow, killing of Spirits!” explained Tempa, still turning on the spot.
“A Shadow, you say?”
The Idea’s voice had changed. Everything soft had suddenly vanished and now she sounded … normal.
“Y..Yes.” stuttered Tempa. This sudden change in the Idea’s voice somehow made her feel uncomfortable.
“Killing Spirits, you say?” The Idea’s voice had changed again. Now, it was filled with anger. Tempa began smiling. There’s no way the Shadow could stand a chance against an enraged Idea.
“Listen Tempa, you have to do something for me!.”
“What?”
Shining Armor quickly walked through Canterlot Castle, checking every room for remaining ponies, as he closed in on the throne-room. As Captain and the last remaining member of the Royal Guards it was his duty to inform the Princess about the successful evacuation and to guide them out the city. Why the Princesses were the last ones to leave the city was something he never understood. Shouldn’t the most important ponies spent the least time in a dangerous area? But all of his attempts to change the evacuation protocol were turned down by Celestia without any explanation.
As he entered the the last corridor towards the throne room, where the princesses should be waiting, he could see Cadance through the half open Door, sitting on the the ground, apparently lost in her thoughts. Shining sped up checking on the last few doors and then hurried on towards the throne room. He lowered his head, as it was disrespectful to meet the Princesses eye on.
“Princesses, I am here to report the successful evacuation of Canterlot’s residents, as well as to escort you out of the City. Do not worry. I will protect you.”
Midway while talking, the unicorn had opened his eyes again and thus spotted Queen Chrysalis. Without pausing his speech, Shining positioned himself before cadence and charged his horn ready for combat.
“For a peaceful nation you ponies are quite resentful.” Chrysalis shook her head in disbelief, while silently smiling. Shining Armor answered that with an angry snort. With a quick movement of his head, the captain scanned the room for Celestia and Luna. While the later one laid in a corner of the room, apparently knocked unconscious, Celestia stood by a window, close to the Queen.
“Whatever you have planned, as long as I am here, you won’t succeed.”
“I’d love to see you trying to fight me.”
“Enough, both of you.” Celestia finally interfered with a tone more serious than the Captain had ever heard, “Shining Armor, Queen Chrysalis is not here as our enemy. In fact we invited her here.”
“Why would you do that?” It didn’t made sense, except if Celestia wasn’t Celestia, but a Changeling imitating her. Shining would have to be …
“This is an highly dangerous matter of international concern. We must ask you to leave the city without us and as fast as possible.”
“But the protocol says I must stay until the Princesses are safe.”
“It also states that a princess’ order outranks everything else.” Luna had finally recovered and arisen again. Now she slowly moved towards Shining Armor, looking at him angrily, as if he had done something wrong. “You’re not disobeying a direct order from a Princess, are you?”
“No.” Of course Shining Armor would never disobey the Princesses. However, he had no problem with disobeying a changeling's order. But if Princess Luna was a changeling as well, why was she knocked unconscious? And if she was the real Princess Luna, why did she team up which the changelings, and why was she knocked unconscious if they were allies? None if it made sense. Shining Armor's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as he felt a hoof on his shoulder. Instinctively he turned around and pointed his still charged horn at the attacker, only to see his wife's surprised face. What if she was a changeling as well? Shining Armor realized, that if that was true, they would easily outnumber him, so fighting was no option. With a resigning sigh he let the Magic in his horn fade away. Playing their game would be the best thing he could do for now. Once he was out of the city, maybe Shining Armor could organize a counterattack with the other Royal Guards. If they were still alive. Again his thoughts were interrupted by Cadance, who pressed her face against his.
“Please understand. We don't know what exactly is going on ourselves, and we don't want anything to happen to you.”
Cadence had barely finished her sentence, as the doors to the throne room were loudly swung open. Startled by the noise everyone in the room jumped into position, ready to defend themselves, but were immediately relieved when they saw the furless biped which stood in the door. Cadance and Shining Armor, who had never met Homer before kept their positions a little longer, until they realized that Shining's little sister and her friends were following him.
“Well,” the biped paused for a moment to enjoy his entrance, “Tempa claims there's a Shadow going on.”
“A Shadow?” Chrysalis replied, irritation clearly hearable in her voice, “But they are nothing but an old Changeling’s tale. I ...” she paused to rethink her words, “I mean, the Changelings just made them up.”
“That's exactly what I told Tempa,” Homer answered before any of the antendens ponies had the chance to ask anything about the Shadow, “but she insisted on her story and, since I have no reason not to believe her, that's the best explanation we got thus far. Yes, the stories describe the Shadows as the undefiable doom for every world they visit, BUT,” he stressed the last word and paused, eyeing everyone in the room to make sure they understood how serious he meant it, “I already have a plan!”
“He has a plan!” at least that’s what Tempa was trying to convince herself of. It made her task much easier to accept.
“You Spirits won’t be able to defeat the Shadow just like that. Only an Idea’s power is capable of such. Sadly I am unable to help you.”
The Idea never had been a being of many words, so Tempa was used to not getting many explanations from her. That’s why she didn’t even ask why the Idea could not help against the Shadow
“Yet I am sure Homer will know a way that the Shadow can be defeated. But he will need time to prepare his plan. Time he doesn’t have if the Shadow is let to roam free. Time, you will have to give him. I will strengthen you for this.” With those words a warm sensation went through Tempa’s whole body. Asthe Idea loosened its grip, the sensation quickly faded away, leaving Tempa’s body strengthened and her senses enhanced. She had grown, not to the size of a fully grown dragon, but enough to be capable of fighting the Shadow. With her new senses she could now feel the Idea’s energy, the creativity, that was all around her. In addition Tempa’s perception through time had improved as well.
“The Shadows drain worlds of their creativity, thus you should now be able to locate it.”
Tempa decided to confront the Shadow at a time not to far in the past to avoid weakening herself. And so she was now walking through the Everfree Forest, not far away from Canterlot. As the Spirit felt the Shadow closing in, memories of her life flashed before her eyes. By shaking her head the dragon tried to shake off those memories as well. She know she wouldn’t survive meeting the Shadow, the Idea made that more than clear, but her end didn’t need to be such cliche. Tempa tried all she could, but the memories kept pushing themselves into her thoughts. Memories that mainly consisted of observation, since Tempa once promised Homer to keep historic alterations to a minimum. Those few times she actually interacted with another living being could be counted with one claw. And now she was supposed to sacrifice herself, just so that Homer could come up with the ultimate plan to defeat the Shadow and save the world. But no one would know what she did, no one would miss the Spirit of the Past. Realizing this, Tepa got angry. Angry at Homer, angry at the world, angry at the Idea.
“Screw this!” She thought to herself, “I have the power of an Idea. I can leave this all behind and create a better world for myself!”
Her rage vanished as she felt a cold chill running down her spikes. Everything around her had turned absolutely silent and still. Only a few meters in front of her Tempa made out a black figure, barely visible between the trees. The Shadows body was thin with long,slim limbs. Its hand consisted of four short but sharp claws, yet his legs were stumped and footless and the way it slowly moved towards Tempa seemed rather uncoordinated. The head of the Shadow somewhat resembled a triangle pointing downwards, except for two catlike pointy ears on its top. As imaginable for a being named Shadow it was flat, almost two dimensional. Now it was too late for the Spirit to flee and without thinking about it she ran towards the Shadow, screaming and trying to land a punch with her left hand. Unlike the way it walked the Shadow now suddenly moved incredibly fast to avoid Tempas attack and start a counter attack by scratching her arm which its claws. Surprised by the Shadow’s fast movement Tempa almost tripped, but managed to hold her balance with her dragontail and turned around to face the Shadow again. She had clearly seen that it touched her, yet she hadn’t felt a thing. In the corner of her eye, Tempa tried to see the damage the Shadow had done to her arm. The area which the Shadow had touched was covered in the same black fire Tempa had already seen in Morus’ and Vito’s castle. But this time it wasn’t cold, but neither was it hot or hurt or anything, it was just there. With her new abilities Tempa could feel that the flames weren’t burning like ordinary fire, but nothing that burned the essence of everything it came in contact with. Trying to counter it, the Spirit breathed a flame of pure creativity onto her left arm. They both neutralized each other and now Tempa could see the real damage the flames had done. It was a shocking view. Those parts of her arm that were covered by the flames had simply vanished. There was neither pain nor blood, it had just turned to nothing as well. In the time it took the dragon to save his arm, the Shadow had closed in to her again.
Suddenly Homer cringed, holding his head and screaming in pain. For a moment his whole mind had gone silent, an unknown and painful experience. At the same time, his knees got weak, and everything around him went completely silent. He understood why in the moment his knowledge returned and he learned what all the others in the room saw. But before he had the chance to react, the black figure had already grabbed him and thrown him out, through one of the stained windows. Luna immediately tried to fly after him, screaming his name, but the Shadow’s black flames, which now engulfed the window, blocked her path. While all the others were still shocked, the Princess of the Night quickly charged her horn and shoot a magic bolt towards her enemy, punching a small hole in its body, which didn’t seem to bother the Shadow in any way and almost immediately healed again. Applejack was the second one to join the action. With a long jump she closed in to the Shadow and turned around, using the remaining speed, to throw her strongest buck at it. But instead of hitting the Shadow, her hooves went right through it and the earthpony fell to the ground. Unimpressed with all of this, the Shadow now faced towards Cadence.
“I won’t let you hurt them.” Shouting this Shining Armor positioned himself before his wife, while charging his horn as well. But other than Luna he didn’t attack the Shadow. Instead he created a shield around himself and Cadence, just like he did to prevent the Changeling’s attack. By now, Celestia and Chrysalis started shooting magic bolt at the Shadow as well, still without any visible effect. As it stood almost before Shining’s shield, the Shadow, who until now had stooped, brought itself to his full size which surpassed even Celestia by half a meter, and raised its right arm. With a fast movement it shattered the barrier.
“Step Back!” In the meantime Twilight had coordinated the Elements of Harmony. The six ponies were hovering in midair, their necklaces glowing ready to use. Shining Armor and Cadence took a huge leap away from the Shadow and a giant colourful beam shot from Twilight and her friends towards the black figure. Sure of their victory the six sunk back to the ground, but their joy quickly faded as the smokescreen cleared and the Shadow still stood there unharmed. As fast as her wings could carry her Luna flew towards the Shadow and hit its face with her hoof. Unlike Applejack’s Luna’s attack now send the Shadow flying through the throneroom. Quickly Celestia and Chrysalis surrounded the Shadow, and simultaneously the three of them shot a continuous magic beam at it. That seemed to work, because under their combined attack the Shadow wound, apparently in pain.
“LEAVE!” Ordered Chrysalis. “NOW!” Added Celestia. Quickly the others made their way for the door, which still stood open. They had almost reached it, when the Shadow suddenly disappeared into the ground. The three magic beams, that now hit each other, exploded, leaving behind another smokescreen and Celestia, Chrysalis and Luna struggling to stay on her hooves. In the same moment the door started burning with black flames, blocking that exit as well. From the fire the Shadow emerged and headed for Cadence again. Frozen by fear the eight of them just stood there, watching the black figure coming nearer and nearer. It had almost reached Cadence again, when a white flash appeared and the Shadow suddenly was covered in chains.
“Well, well, well, what have we got here? Are you trying keep me from having fun as well?” sounded a familiar voice, and with another white flash suddenly Discord appeared behind the Shadow. “That’s not very kind of you is it.” The Spirit of Chaos was a surprisingly pleasant sight in this situation, but not even his magic could hold the Shadow. With apparently no effort it tore the chains apart and raised his arm again, for an attack against Cadence.
Mere second before the Shadow could attack Tempa again, she spit a ball of her fire against it. The Shadow, who now stood in flames, stumble a few steps back, hitting itself to put out the fire. The Spirit used this chance to throw another punch, this time with her right arm. The Dragon’s fist hit the Shadow with full force and send it into the air, where Tempa spit another flame at it. As the burning body fell to the ground it made a loud noise that shortly broke the silence. The fire jumped back up a little before coming to a complete rest at the ground where it kept burning for a short while. After it burned out Tempa could see that the Shadow had disappeared. She felt another cold draft at her spines and turned around just in time to deflect the next attack from the Shadow. There they stood, their claws intertwined, black and and white flames shooting from them, fighting to get the upper hand. The Shadow drained Tempas power, rendering her unable of spiting more fire, making her weaker and weaker with every second. Tempa stared into the Shadow’s featureless face and she could swear that it stared back at her.. It was only a matter of time before the Shadow would defeat her. Memories started flashing before the dragons eyes again. Yet this time they didn’t made her angry, but sad. All those happy faces, all those sad faces, all those emotions she couldn’t share with anyone because of Homer, the few times Homer contacted her in the Spirit suppressing room, only after she did something in the past that altered the present and only to complain. With her strength the memories faded as well, and she was about to give up, when an image of the Idea appeared among her memories. It will be better the Idea’s voice could be heard. It will be better. I promise. Weirdly, although this was clearly part of her memory, Tempa could not remember that it ever happened. It will be better. I promise. Just make sure he has enough time. The Idea’s voice sounded clear in Tempa’s mind. Did she put that fake memory in the dragon’s mind as a last message? Using all her remaining strength Tempa pushed the Shadow back, but it immediately started the next attack, which Tempa didn’t even try to block. She had to get as close to the Shadow as possible. The black claw of her opponent easily pierced through the Spirit’s chest, but like the fire it didn’t hurt. Again, the area that the Shadow touched had simply vanished. With a smile on her face Tempa grabbed the Shadow’s arm to keep it from getting away, while pulling it close with her other arm. The Shadow struggled, trying to free itself from the Spirit’s grip, but failed. With her last breath, Tempa covered the both of them in a gigantic hot flame of creativity.
The Shadow wound again, yet for no apparent reason this time, breaking off his attack against Cadence. It was again Applejack who jumped into action, trying to buck the Shadow again, even though she clearly knew it wouldn’t work. To her surprise this time the pony’s hooves didn’t pass right through it, but hit something solid instead, throwing the Shadow towards the other end of the room, where Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis still stood. The three of them, who had already recovered from the blast, quickly surrounded the Shadow again. Instead of constant beams this time each of them just shot a single magic bolt towards the Shadow, ripping new whole in its body. Unlike before, they didn’t heal instantaneous. Instead the Shadow wound and flailed and even screamed in pain. Though the Shadow’s voice didn’t consist of a sound, but of an ear shredding pain inducement. Everyone in the room covered their ears, trying to avoid the pain the Shadow caused them, leaving it with enough time to start recovering. As it stopped screaming the Spirits charged their horns again, but the Shadow would not let that happen. Before they had the chance to attack the Shadow jumped towards Celestia, moved through her and disappeared. With a quiet sight the Princess fell to the ground.