//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Time Travel Bitches 
// Story: A New World, And A Better Way 
// by Recteik Shade 
//------------------------------//





"Alright!" Sparkler declared as she walked through the double doors, fixing a glare on Time Turner The Doctor.  "What's the trick!?  How in the world did you manage to do this?  Did a unicorn help you?"  She had just been outside circling the box for the last ten minutes trying to wrap her head around what, in her opinion, had to be an unknown field of magic.

If the Doctor was bothered by Sparkler’s hostility, he did a marvelous job concealing it.  Instead, he just grinned at the pink mare.  "Oh, it's not a trick," he said casually as he turned back to continue his conversation with Allen.  "And it's not magic either!" he called out, sensing her next question.  "So Mr. Swans, where were we?"

Allen dug his hoof at the metal walkway beneath him. "Please don't call me that.  It makes me sound like an old man."

The Doctor laughed, "Trust me Allen, age is just a state a mind.  I'm eight hundred years old and still kicking." 

Allen gave the Doctor a skeptical look, "Pull the other one."

The Doctor only shrugged. "Believe what you want.  But anyways, what can you tell me about this Arceus character?"

"Not much," Allen said as he shook his head.  "I was just a Trainer back on Earth.  All I know is that he was supposed to be the Archetype from which all Pokemon descend; a God whom set Time and Space into motion.  A mythologist could probably have told you more."

"Though," Nova said in an amused tone, “after everything that has happened, I doubt very much that anyone will call him a myth now."





Some Distance away in the wilds of Equestria, and aged Conkeldurr was searching for explanations of his own, as well as any remnants of the Ranger Union.  Suddenly, a shiver ran up his spine and he sneezed , sending Pokemon and animals scurrying away from him.  " Someone's dancing on my grave."  He mumbled before resuming his trek.






"Fair point," Allen said while nodding.  "I always just thought he was an extremely powerful Pokemon.  But now..." he trailed off as he brought a hoof to his face to examine it once again.  "Now I'm not sure what to think of him.  With people like Team Plasma out there, I can't blame him for wanting to protect Pokemon, but there must have been a better way than this."

"What's Team Plasma?" Sparkler asked, climbing the stairs up to the time machine’s control console.

Allen sighed, "Criminal group that was centered in the Unova Region.  They claimed they wanted to free Pokemon from abusive Trainers.  Their real goal was to keep others from using Pokemon to stop them from taking control of the country, by using Pokemon."

"They don't sound very nice," Dinky observed as she gripped Sparkler's hindleg in an Ursa hug.  

"They are many words that could be used to describe Plasma," Nova growled.  "Nice is most definitely not one of them."

The Doctor seemed to catch onto the grim tone in the Fire-type's voice.  "Speaking from experience, I see."  

Nova only snorted in disgust so Allen elaborated.  "I had seen one or two of their 'public demonstrations' where they would release Pokemon, but I never really thought much of it.  I never made Nova or Dawn stay in their Pokeballs and I knew they were happy.  So when I got to Mistralton City to challenge the Gym Leader and a member of Team Plasma was there spewing their usual idiocy, I didn't pay him any mind.  Later that same day, Plasma kidnapped over a dozen Pokemon, including Nova."

Ditzy gasped. "That's awful!! What did they do to you?" She asked, turning a sympathetic gaze to the Volcano Pokemon.

Nova was scowling at the far wall.  "They tried to convince me that Allen was an abusive Trainer, and yet when I refused to cooperate they beat me.  I likely would have died if a Trainer and his Gardevoir hadn't rescued me and the other Pokemon that survived the conditioning." (1) In a blurred motion of pale lavender, Dinky had released her affectionate grip on Sparkler’s hindleg to wrap her little forelegs around Nova.  She said nothing and just kept up her Ursa hug.  Allen had to resist the overwhelming urge to d’aww, while the two mares felt no such inhibitions as they cooed at the scene.  

Nova for his part just looked uncomfortable.  Leaning over, Allen whispered to the Doctor "He gets nervous around kids, afraid he might hurt them."

"Aww, look who's turning into a big softy," Loki sneered as he then cackled at Nova's angry glare.  "Gonna let her braid your fur next?"

"Loki!" Allen snapped, trying to head off another fight.  "Go be a nuisance somewhere else."  The ghost blew another Razzberry as he faded out of sight.  "Really wish I had a pokeball to cram him into."

“You’re not the only one” Nova grumbled to himself as Dinky released him and moved to stand between her mother and aunt.

Sparkler had began to look over the the box's interior again trying to figure it out.  "So tell me the truth, how does it work?  You can't really expect anypony to buy that 'it's a Time Machine' line."  

This seemed to be the first thing she'd said that actually got under the stallion’s skin. (2) "Oh you think this is just some parlor trick do you?"  He actually glared at Sparkler before turning to the console and wildly flipping switches and tapping at an antique typewriter.  “Let’s see what you have to say in a thousand years!"  

As he reached out and took hold of a lever, Dinky leaped forward and cried "Daddy, wait!"

Her warning came too late as the Earth Stallion threw the lever back, and with an almost gong-like sound the mechanisms whirled to life.  An alignment of crystals began to work itself up and down in the central display, which was accompanied by an eerie groaning, wheezing sound.  The little filly went wide-eyed and seemed to brace herself.  For a moment it seemed as though her concerns were unfounded; but then, with a deafening metallic clang, the room began to shake violently.  Those present who had wings made full use of them, Ditzy grabbing her daughter and lifting her into the air as the whole room began to spin wildly.  Tally took to the air as well while Sparkler, the Doctor, Nova, Veevee, and Allen had the floor pulled out from under them.

Sparkler had her fall cushioned as she fell on top of Allen who was still uneasy on four legs and had gone down first, the Doctor was less fortunate as he was what broke Nova's fall while Veevee slid off the upper catwalk and fell a short distance.  Groaning, the Doctor pulled himself out from under the toppled Fire-type and pulled himself back to the control console.  With a lung he threw the lever that had set the machine in motion and the mechanism began to wind down, the violent shaking began to die down as the wheezing noise stopped.

"Does it always do that!?" Sparkler asked glaring at the Doctor as she jumped off of Allen's back.

"No."  The Doctor said as he fiddled with the controls.  "That was definitely NOT supposed to happen."  He continued to  tap at the typewriter and stare at the monitor, after a moment he smacked the screen away and gave a frustrated growl.  "System's fried!  It'll take hours to get it back up!"

"I don't get it," Nova said as he pulled himself up.  "What was up with the roller coaster ride then?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" Dinky pouted as her mother touched down.  "Daddy, think about it: we were just in the future..."  She looked from one adult to the next hoping they understood what she was saying.  "There weren't any Pokemon when we went to the future last time, so that means that time is all twisted up now.  It’s probably why we crashed in Fillydelphia too."

The three adult ponies present all dropped their jaws.

"Of course!" The Doctor groaned.  "Time can be rewritten, but there are those fixed points that are in flux now too!  No wonder the T.A.R.D.I.S. is getting sick!"

"So..." Allen raised an eyebrow as he turned to the stallion, "if the future is a no-go then, just whe-"

"I swear, if you ask 'when are we,'" Sparkler glared at the Fire-type, "I will smack you."

He chuckled, "It's still a valid question.  We are not where we were before, are we Doctor?" He turned to watch as the Earth stallion continued to work at the typewriter.

"No, definitely not.  The trick is figuring out where exactly we ended up."  His attention was back to the console as he squinted and muttered under his breathe "Let's see if I can figure out what planet we're on."

"Planet!?" Sparkler asked in a panicked tone.  "You're kidding, right?  Ditzy, please tell me he's not serious!"  The grey mare gave her sister a nervous chuckle that did very little to ease her escalating panic.

"If you want to know where we are you could always look outside," Loki said in a snide tone as he reappeared in the room.  "I mean, the ponies living in that castle over there would probably be willing to tell you what planet you crashed into."

"I didn't crash!  The Vortex collapsed around us and-  ...  What castle?"  

All eyes moved to the Ghost who just grinned.  "You know, the one that's outside, something like twenty yards from your front door."

"Ghost-types don't need to breathe do they?" The Doctor’s tone was flat and amused.

"Nope," Loki laughed.  "Figured I'd pop outside and take a look at what there was to be seen.  You really oughta see it, it's a pretty awesome-looking castle."  The Doctor was glaring at Loki as all the passengers made their way outside.

Allen gave an impressed whistle as he looked from one spire to another, "I bet that's what the Relic Castle looked like before it got buried."  The outer ramparts stood about twenty feet tall, the masonry had a weathered look to it but it was clearly still in fine condition.  Beyond the outer wall there was little that could be seen from the ground, but Allen could just make out the roof of a large central structure, likely a dining hall or perhaps a library.

"Wait, I know this place," the Doctor and Ditzy smiled.  "This is the Palace of the Royal Sisters.  Well, at least we're still on Equus and that gives us some clue as to what year we ended up in too."  

"The Palace of the Royal Sisters?  You mean the one that's been abandoned in the Everfree Forest for the last thousand years?" Sparkler asked incredulously.

"It's not empty right now," Ditzy said with a smile.  "Celestia and Luna are still living in it.  It hasn't been abandoned yet."

"Everfree?" Allen looked to the pink mare.  "Isn't that the place where Arceus said he had set himself up?"

"Well, yes" the Doctor replied, "but he and the Pokemon won't arrive on Equus for at least another thousand years."  The Doctor's eyes widened and his jaw fell open.  "THAT'S IT!!!  I know how to get us back to our own time without having to deal with all the shaking and falling over!  All I have to do is-"

"Allen, look at that!" Nova butted in with an awed tone.  

The former Human turned his gaze skyward and gasped.  Following his gaze, the ponies all looked up and made their own exclamations of shock.  The sun was set high in the sky, shining brightly, as the group watched the large silvery mass of the moon move across the sky, destined to pass in front of the sun in moments.  "Well would ‘ya look at that?  Looks like we're about to see a Solar Eclipse."