//------------------------------//
// Equestria - 2318 
// Story: The Journeymare Project 
// by Scarlett Haze 
//------------------------------//

	Gauge wasted no time in starting the new optical memory, knowing that his quest would be far from over.

"Poseidon, I'm sending you to the deep sea installation of Norad VI, in the year 2112; where you will disrupt the unity talks by launching a Megaspell towards the Griffin Kingdom! Y-You will detonate the spell before it touches down and that will suffice... to delay world unification."

Gauge grit his teeth, making Eris squirm. She probably never saw a face so serious in many years, but what she thought or felt didn't matter to Gauge at that moment.

"I can only hope that it will not also touch off a world war. If the bureaucrats did not SCRAP the Pegasus project and instead used it for what it was meant to be used-! They would have realized that aggressors always choose the most unsuspecting victim.

Gauge was about to explode out of his chair, he wanted to find Time Turner and beat him down before forcing him to look at the destruction he would have caused if he had succeeded.

"And so I am left to do what I can! To ensure that equestrian kind is not the next victim... I'm sending you all back in history to REWRITE our future! We will not offer these... CREATURES an engraved invitation to enslave us all! And. If. You. Fail... I will be forced myself... to demonstrate personally that we are not all as docile as we seem. I know. The one place in all of Equestria that gives the best view of the capital building; and from that place... By the use of a weapon of my own creation, I will ASSASSINATE the human delegate... myself."

Gauge made his way back to the Ready Room of the TSA, his prosthesis going wild as a message from the Chief came on.

"Agent 5," Chief began, back to what he had looked like before the time wave caused by the temporal anomalies were created. "I've scanned the downloads from your Optical Memory biochip."

"Then you know who we need to find," Gauge plainly spoke, getting to the entrance and exiting the TSA.

Chief gave a solemn nod, "I'm amazed what's taken place..." A small smile came across Chief. "You did good, Gauge."

"It's not over, Chief!" Gauge angrily huffed. "Turner is out there and we need to bring him in before he causes any other damage! You heard what he said, he's going to assassinate the human ambassador!"

"I've already sent notice to the other agents," Chief said, back in his serious manner. "He was last seen in Mareis two weeks ago, but beyond that, we don't know where he is now!

"He has to be in Equestria, Chief," Gauge argued, stepping into the Global Transport pod. "I'm going there now to try and find him."

Chief gave his confirming nod, "I'll keep in contact when we receive knowledge on where he may be."

Gauge went through his motions to go back to his apartment complex, only focusing on one memory of his from early in the morning.

Gauge tapped a hoof as the elevator rose up, its on-board system systematically counting upwards. "Second Floor... Third Floor... Fourth Floor" Gauge prepared to step forward when the elevator reached his floor, but saw it continue up with a passenger. "Roof Access."

There was somepony on that elevator and only the owners could have gone to the roof... unless you're smart.

"What better plan could I have? To keep everyone reminded of WHO the real enemy is and where the real danger lies."

It would be easy to trick a card reader if you had the right things.

Approaching the torn panel, Gauge didn't need to wait for the system to tell him something was wrong as he stared down a blinking device that was jammed into a card reader.

"Warning, foreign object detected in access card slot, analyze object or attempt removal?" The platform read back to him.

"Where are you going, Gauge?" Eris questioned as he went to the elevator. "This is no time to go home and take a nap! We have a maniac on the loose!"

Gauge jammed his hoof on the 'Roof' button and watched the doors shut. "He's on the roof."

Eris did a double take, "He what?"

"This morning, on the way to work," Gauge began. "The elevator this morning went to the roof access floor, past my floor. It has to be him."

The elevator gave a ding and Gauge rushed to the end of the small hallway before reaching the door. Jiggling the handle, Gauge bashed the door in frustration of it being locked. "TURNER!" Gauge yelled out at the door. "This is Agent 5 of the TSA, if you surrender yourself now, you will be given a more lenient punishment!"

He got no response, serving to frustrate him further. He went to look in his inventory and noticed the many things that he had kept from his journey across time. A crowbar, an oxygen mask, a tranquilizer dart, a card bomb-

Gauge paused at the card bomb and brought it out. He looked at the card access slot next to the door and then back at the bomb.

Eris began to chant softly, "Do it. Do it. Do it."

Gauge activated his shield biochip and put the bomb in the card slot.

"Do it. Do it. Do it."

Activating the bomb, its light blinked rapidly as the timer went to zero.


***


This was it. With a single shot, he would change the world. Even if he was caught and brought to jail, hell, sent to death row, Equestria would be safe from these aliens and the deadly secrets that they had.

He watched as the ship began to lower in the sky and put his eye in the scope.

A loud explosion went off, making him jump. The door had been sent flying by him, making him look to what or who caused it. He reacted in horror as he saw a pony with a blue-green coat and striking orange eyes stare him down.

"Time Turner, by order of the TSA and the law, I am forced to bring you in!" the metal suited pony proclaimed.

Turner pointed his weapon at the pony and brought the hammer back. "Stay back! Don't try to stop me! I knew they'd send a TSA agent to try something like this! You may have foiled my attempts to rewrite history, but you will not stop me from writing the present!"

The pony stopped and continued to glare angrily at him. "Don't you get it? I'm going to be Equestria's savior, whether it wants it or not!" Time Turner attempted to plea his case to him, but they both knew that either of their stances would not change. He readjusted his weapon to the now landed ship and aimed for the opening hatch.

"C'mon, Turner," the pony continued. "We don't have to let this happen. Is this really what you want for yourself? Do you want to be known as the well-respected scientist that turned around and became an insane murderer?"

Time Turner reshouldered his gun, making it more comfortable against his body. "Maybe I'll be known as that, but in the future there would be others that will see that I've done the right thing!"

"And what will they learn?"

Time Turner blinked, his heart gave a seconds pause. "L-learn?"

"I can tell you what I learned about what you've done."

Time Turner remained quiet, now interested and curious to what had to be said. Besides, it would waste time before he shot the human anyway.

"I learned that the past should be remained unchanged, no matter what flaws have been made. I've learned to have faith in those mistakes, even if I think its wrong. Finally, I've learned to have faith in something, Turner."

Time Turner wet his throat, his aim now looking at a human as he stepped out. "And what's that?"

A sudden pain hit his flank and his grip on the gun faltered; looking back to see a needle sticking out. His eyes went up to the pony as he held his own gun, the same gun that was sent with Mercury.

"I have faith in Equestrian kind."

Time Turner's vision went out and the feeling of his body was lost.


***


"Whoa," Eris mouthed. "That... was pretty cool." Gauge lowered his weapon and put it back in his inventory.

"Thank you, Eris," he said, moving over to Time Turner and removing the needle filled with nerve poison.

"Th-thank-?" Eris stuttered. "For what, exactly?"

"The gun," Gauge answered, checking Turner's pulse. "I didn't pick it up, and without it, I couldn't have stopped Turner without risking a shot going off or getting shot myself." Eris remained quiet as a message from Chief came on.

"Agent 5, I just received information on where Time Turner's lab is located. It's been secured by fellow agents and they've found intel on where he is going to assassinate the human ambassador." Chief seemed worried, but a look of shock crossed his face as he saw Time Turner lying on the ground, unmoving. "G-Gauge... is that-?"

"We got 'im," Gauge grinned. "I'll need a pickup for our little pony here. Rooftop, Caldoria Apartments."

"On their way," Chief said with a large grin on his face. "Expect big things in your future, Gauge. Including the historical event going on in the square. Enjoy that seat, Gauge."

Gauge nodded and leaned on the railway as he looked on to the ship and the humans as they stepped out. He breathed gently as the wind blew in his face. He felt pure satisfaction as he looked on.

"G-G-G-G-Gauge?" Eris began excitedly stuttering. "Something down there is giving off a TSA signal!"

Gauge's eyes went wide as he tried to magnify to the site to see what Eris was talking about. He tried looking at the ship, the mailbox, the building, looking at nearly every pony and every creature. Soon his eyes locked with one particular human as he looked back at him, seemingly. The most striking thing that made Gauge curious was a number '5' on his shoulder, making him look down at his own number 5 on his suit.

"It... can't... be..."

Eris gave a whistle that made Gauge jump. "You ever hear of alternate realities, time pony? Get used to the impossible being a thing, Gauge. We're witnessing something like that right now."

Gauge kept quiet as he saw his human counterpart give a smile and nod to him before redirecting his attention to the princesses. He watched as Twilight's hoof greeted human hand and heard the loud cheer from every corner of the world. This was the future... and the future looked the brightest that it ever had been.