"So wait," Ancient Lore said while eying the Gate Key. "That device is not only responsible for dragging you from your homeworld, but from the time you landed in as well?"
I nodded while running one finger down the aforementioned device carefully. "Yeah. I mean, I probably could go back through whatever Gate exists to the year 999, but there, I don't have much. Here at least there is company and food."
Ancient Lore chuckled at that. "A fair point. But still, someone from four-hundred years in the future. What is different there? Do you know?"
I shook my head at the unicorn's question. "No idea. This is technically only my second day in Equestria. I made the ruins my first stop, and the Gate sorta just...opened. I'm either going to need to be careful around this place, or I'm going to need to accept that I'll shift four hundred years every time I enter the ruins."
Ancient Lore hummed a bit at that. "I think there are several openings in the outer walls that you could use to leave and enter besides the main one. Thus averting the problem entire."
I blinked at the logic of the unicorn before sighing. "I need to wait a year anyways, so why not do it here?"
He tilted his head at that. "Why do you need to wait a year?"
I waved a hand around while looking for the right words. "In the year 1000, a student of Celestia will move to Ponyville. From there, she will have many adventures while learning several important lessons, but most importantly, she will be highly talented in magic and have a direct line to the Princess. If the unicorn mare in question cannot aid me in returning to my own place, then the Princess herself will be able to."
Lore hummed and then asked a very pertinent question. "Why don't you ask her now?"
I thought about the best way to explain it to him, then snapped my fingers and pointed at the discarded apple cores from our breakfast. "Can you yank the seeds out of those for me?"
With a burst of blue magic, the assorted apple seeds were hovering in front of me. I snatched them out of the air and walked out of the castle in such a way to not hit the Gate. I then motioned for Ancient to wait near the castle while I crossed a bridge and looked around the other side for a glade I hadn't seen yet. It took me all of two minutes to locate one, and I buried the seeds quite carefully.
"Okay," I told the unicorn upon my return. "Assuming those took, then I'll be able to show you why I don't want to talk to the Celestia of this day and age."
With that, I pulled out the Key, walked around the monument to the Elements, and came across a shining blue sphere with a spark in the middle. Only slightly perturbed that I could now see the Gate, I shrugged and touched the end of the Key to the sphere, and transported myself four hundred years forward.
Reappearing in the slightly-older ruins, I then turned around and set out for the same glade that I'd just been to. I'd gotten most of the way there when I found that the clearing had been overrun by wild apple trees. Wild apple trees that I was sure hadn't existed until I planted the seeds. Grabbing an armful of the fruits, I turned around, walked back to the ruin, and tapped the Gate with my Key again.
I only stumbled slightly upon returning to the younger ruins, but Ancient Lore was there to see me return and gasped. "Did you just?"
I nodded and held my armful of apples out towards the unicorn, and he grabbed them in his magic before floating them over to his supplies. "I just visited the same glade where I planted those seeds...four-hundred years later. I just altered the future from the past by doing one simple thing. And think about it. How many things did I change by planting some seeds in 599? How many things are different now in 999?"
Ancient blinked a few times and rubbed his head. "By Celestia, but time travel does introduce a world of complications to the world."
I nodded at that. "Now think. Celestia is an, at the very least, ageless alicorn. If I introduce myself to her now, she'll remember me four hundred years later. Who's to say she won't pay me a visit? Who's to say she won't trample all over my time-line?"
Ancient slowly nodded at that. "True...you'd have to take your own self into account with that. So avoiding her and Canterlot is something you'd be interested in, then?"
I nodded a few times, quite vigorously. "Do you know of anywhere I could go?"
Ancient merely smiled and gestured to his gear. "I don't live here, you know. I have a place in Trottingham, one that I'd be willing to share with you as long as you'd be willing to share your story with me and help out."
I shrugged at that. "As long as we come back here in a year and change. I'd rather not come back here directly one year afterwards, because of reasons, but shortly after or before would be perfect for me."
"Ah yes," the turquoise unicorn commented as he began to pack up his things. "That mysterious mare you said would arrive at some point in the future."
"Yeah," I chuckled as I grabbed a hold of one of his bags. "Let's just say, she'll also be here in one year's time, at least, relative to my timeline, and it won't be for the same reason we, or rather, you, were."
Lore sighed as we made our way out of the ruins and I carefully skirted the Gate. "Why do the young not have any appreciation for history?"
I shrugged as I followed the unicorn out of the ruins and out of the forest entire. "Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. You're lucky, though."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, you'll get to learn from the future as well."
And we both laughed as we made our way to Trottingham.
Okay, so, something I learned once we arrived at the pony city. Apparently, bringing in a strange creature you found in the Everfree Forest that was not only armed but also sapient was something that would be odd for any other pony. Any other pony being the operative phrasing. Apparently, this was not the first time Lore had done something like this. Or even the tenth. The guards at the gate of the city looked at me with one raised eyebrow before letting us both in, with merely a few words given to the unicorn I'd been traveling with. Words along the lines of 'watch this one this time will you?'
"So, uh, that happened," I pointed out. Lore waved off my observation.
"I go exploring a lot, and when I bring some new creature or thing back to study, the guards know that I don't intend for any mayhem to erupt. The fact that it sometimes does is a terrible shame."
I rolled my eyes at his flippant attitude. "I find it even more fascinating that the other ponies also aren't batting an eyelash at the strange creature walking into town with you."
Lore looked around with wide eyes. "Strange creature? Where?" He then looked at me and shook his head. "Nope, no strange creatures here. Just my friend Crono the so-very-far-from-home human."
And at that, I merely smiled at the pony. Maybe my year here wouldn't be so bad after all.
Looking back, I really shouldn't have thought that line. Like, at all.
It had barely been a week in Lore's home. I helped out around the place, went out to market to fetch him new supplies, and generally made myself useful while we swapped stories. Mine about my home, and Lore about all the things he'd seen across Equestria. Some were amusing, some were daring, and some I wondered just what he'd been thinking before going on these trips.
"So you not only went directly to an encampment of Diamond Dogs, with a load of your archeology tools, but you also brought along gems? And you were surprised when they started to make you work?"
Lore shrugged. "I tried to make my intentions clear. Gems to barter my way in with, tools to work with, and food for myself. It wasn't my fault they took me to be some sort of gem-digging expert and put me to work in their mines for trespassing on their lands."
I sighed at that. "Dogs are highly territorial. Going anywhere near them could probably be seen as an act of aggression. As well, you were carrying around a load of their favorite food. I'm honestly surprised you got out of there alive."
Lore smiled at that. "Magic. They may have wanted me to use it to dig up gems. I dug up gems, all right, and then harassed them with the nice hard shiny rocks until they agreed to let me go. Amazing what constant head trauma will make a Dog agree to."
We shared a laugh at that, and that was when there was a knocking at the front door. Turning to it with a look of horror on his face, Lore then quickly whipped his head around to me and motioned to the stairs to the basement. "Quick! Hide!"
I moved to the door and turned back to the unicorn with a puzzled expression on my face. "What-"
"No time!" He quickly shoved me through and shut it with his magic. "Just get down there and don't make a sound!"
I hesitated for a moment to try and listen in on what was going on. "Open up in there! Lore, we need to talk to you!"
I heard the sounds of the door opening and Lore talking to the ponies on the other side. "Oh? What seems to be the issue, officers?"
"Lore, that thing you came back with. You know there's a time limit on how long you can keep creatures in town limits."
I sucked in a breath at that and carefully made my way down the stairs. I looked around to see...well, not much, it was dark. Fortunately, I'd made it a habit to carry candles and matches around in his place, and pulled out the magical, auto-igniting match that responded to a simple 'light' command and lit up the first candle I grabbed a hold of. The basement wasn't a room I'd frequented before, and it seemed that down here was where Lore stored the memorabilia that most ponies might find a wee bit...disturbing.
Like entire pony skeletons. Or weapons coated in what looked like ancient rust. Dear god I hoped that was ancient rust.
However, what got my attention was the shining blue sphere in the middle of the room. The one with a small spark at the center. The inactive Gate sitting underneath the pony I'd been rooming with for the past six days. I pondered it for a moment longer before I heard the door rattle.
"You won't mind if we check your basement, right Lore?"
With that, my mind was made up. I pulled out the Key and all but thrust it at the Gate. It proceeded to swallow me up, and I heard and felt the winds howl around me as I was temporally displaced again.
And the place I ended up...
Well, it was a goddamn nightmare.