//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Clock Blockers // Story: Vinyl and Octavia Break The Timestream // by DoctorSpectrum //------------------------------// The day was bright and sunny. A slight breeze was blowing through the air, although it was barely noticed by the residents of the land, which consisted of a large, grassy plain. Many, many years from now, this area would eventually rise into a mountain, which in turn would spawn a city where the rulers of the land would reside, but for now, it was just a large plain with some very nice weather. All in all, it was a beautiful day. At least, it would have been a beautiful day, if a portion of the local scenery hadn’t suddenly been ripped in half to create a hole in space-time. Hovering a few metres above the ground, the air somehow twisted itself at a violent angle, distorting the scenery. A blue spiral, spinning rapidly, emerged from the air, and grew to a radius of a few metres. From it, two quadrupedal figures were spat out onto the grass. “Oww!” said one of the figures as it landed. “That hurt a lot more than I expect- hey! Where are we?” Behind the figures, the spiral shrunk down in size, and the air returned to normal. “This isn’t Canterlot!” “I guess that that spell must have – argh!” The second figure, which was a white unicorn with a blue mane, briefly got up from the ground before wincing in pain and buckling down to her knees. “…Oww, getting up then really hurt my head. Anyway, I was gonna say, that spell must have been a teleportation one.” “That stands to reason, Vinyl,” agreed the first pony, who was of course Octavia, as she helped Vinyl up. “Now, the only question is, where have we ended up?” She briefly looked around at her immediate surroundings. “Someplace boring with lots of grass and not a lot happening,” said Vinyl, also looking around. “Anywhere you know?” “Ponyville, maybe?” suggested Octavia, after considering it for a minute. “Nah, Ponyville doesn’t have dinosaurs,” said Vinyl, pointing a hoof. “Ponyville doesn’t – what?!” exclaimed Octavia, following Vinyl’s hoof. Sure enough, less than two hundred metres away were large quadrupedal dinosaurs with long necks – possibly apatosauri, although it was hard to tell. They were peacefully eating grass, apparently not having noticed the two ponies who had teleported into the middle of the field. “What in Equestria are they doing there?!” Octavia exclaimed, still recovering from the shock. “They- those are dinosaurs!” “Really?” asked Vinyl sarcastically. “You’re sure they’re not ponies in elaborate costumes?” “…They could be,” Octavia said, thinking it over. “Dinosaurs died out something like, what, seventy-million years ago? I think the possibility of those creatures being elaborate costumes is more likely than us somehow having time travelled. After all, time travel is scientifically impossible.”   “Err… is it?” asked Vinyl. “How else could we have gotten here? Think about what we were doing just a few minutes ago…” ===============================   “Pew! Pew, pew, pew!” said Vinyl as she shot each laser from her crossbow. “Take that, mysterious CHIELD Agent!”   “Vinyl! Would you take this seriously?” asked Octavia, who was currently grappling with another CHIELD Agent. He was holding her down and trying to bring a knife to her throat as she in turn attempted to throw him off her.   “Oh yeah, sorry Octavia!” said Vinyl as she turned around. “You know how often I get caught up in this. Pew!” A laser fired from the crossbow she was levitating and hit the CHIELD Agent in the head. He frowned, looking up at Vinyl.   “Was that supposed to do something?” he asked. A moment later, Octavia had gotten enough leverage thanks to his being distracted to throw him off her and into a bookshelf, knocking him out.   “Man, I love it when they fall for the old laser trick!” Vinyl exclaimed, helping Octavia up. “Best one in the book!”   “It’s also the only one in the book,” said Octavia, checking her body for injuries and readjusting the crossbow strapped to one of her legs. “Our lasers suck, remember?”   “Yeah, but it’s still super cool!” said Vinyl enthusiastically. “I’m all like, ‘Oh hey, don’t mind me, I’m just shooting you with this laser which won’t hurt at all,’ and then they’re all like, ‘Nah, it’s cool, but why?’ and then you totally take them out with those… those very strong legs of yours…” Vinyl’s voice drifted off as she spoke, her eyes staring at Octavia’s thighs intensely.   Octavia giggled. “Vinyl, love, you know I love the attention and all, but we’re in the middle of a mission for COBRA, our employees. Serpent Superior asked us – and the rest of the COBRA Troopers – to break into this library, and steal a particular scroll for him, and as long as there are CHIELD Agents here, that mission is at risk of failure.” “Who are you, Exposition?” asked Vinyl, sticking her tongue out at Octavia. “I know all that! I’m just saying… we could take a quick break to have a roll around in the hay, y’know what I mean?” She wriggled her eyebrows at Octavia a few times. “…Were you about to say something else?” asked Octavia, confused. “You just went really quiet.” “Oh yeah, I was totally making this seductive face at you below this Trooper mask,” said Vinyl, feeling slightly embarrassed. “Sometimes I forget I’m wearing it. Anyway, about my offer…?”   “We tried that on that mission to the Neighgyptian tomb, remember?” said Octavia. “It was really uncomfortable with our costumes and we just gave up before anything really happened.” “Oh yeah! Well, how about after the mission then?” offered Vinyl. “Why not?” said Octavia, chuckling slightly. “But for now, let’s focus on getting that scroll.” Silently, the two mares switched their demeanours to more professional ones, checking their crossbows and gear. Cautiously moving around a bookshelf and into a larger area, with couches and small tables set up, Octavia led the duo whilst Vinyl covered their rear, looking behind and above them for threats. “Did Serpent Superior say where the scroll was situated?” whispered Vinyl. The chaos that had first erupted when COBRA had arrived at the library had mostly subsided, but there was no telling where any conscious CHIELD Agents could be, nor how many of their COBRA allies were still in fighting condition. “He said that we’d have to just check room by room,” whispered Octavia back. “And nice alliteration, by the way.” “Thanks.” Quietly, the two mares moved around the mostly empty library, with its towering bookshelves and soft carpet. There were unconscious bodies of CHIELD Agents and COBRA Troopers here and there, but Vinyl and Octavia had no time to attend to their allies – time was of the essence on this mission, and they had been instructed, just like the rest of the Troopers, to prioritise the mission above all else. “Vinyl! I think that might be the scroll we’re after,” breathed Octavia after a minute, pressed to the side of a door. She was pointing into a room where a group of unconscious COBRA Agents were lying, one of them holding a scroll. Although it appeared innocuous, looking at it carefully revealed that it had a subtle blue glow to it. “So why aren’t we just running in and grabbing it?” asked Vinyl, savvy enough to question Octavia’s logic rather than following her instincts and stepping into the room. “There are unconscious COBRA Troopers…but no unconscious CHIELD Agents, at least that I can see,” replied Octavia. “So what knocked out the COBRA Troopers? And why is the scroll just sitting there? I can only think of one reason –” “Aliens!” blurted out Vinyl. “…I was going to say a sniper, since this room has a second storey balcony,” Octavia said bluntly. “Oh yeah…but aliens could be behind it too, right?” asked Vinyl. Octavia smiled below her mask. “If it’s not a sniper, I’m sure that’s it, Vinyl. Mind levitating the scroll out of the room?” Vinyl complied, surrounding the scroll with her magical blue aura and taking it out of the room. “Do you think it’s the right one?” she asked, studying it, but not opening it up. Some scrolls contained spells designed to activate once they were opened, and the COBRA Troopers hadn’t been instructed on what this scroll was for. “It certainly matches the description,” said Octavia after inspecting it for a moment. “I suppose now we just need to get out of here without being detected, and –” “Stop right there, criminal scum!” bellowed a voice from behind the two ponies. Slowly, hesitantly, they turned around to find themselves facing several CHIELD Agents, all with crossbows aimed at them. “You do realise we’re not criminals, right?” Vinyl said, knowing that it would probably do no good. “Yeah, we just work for a pest extermination company,” added Octavia. “Although we were framed for – wait, don’t listen to me.” “Not criminals – yeah, I’ll believe that when my name’s no longer Hunter,” said the apparent leader of the CHIELD Agents, spitting in disgust. (The agent to his left gave him an annoyed look). “Do you idiots know what that scroll contains? Why your boss sent you to get it?” “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just recipes or something like that,” said Vinyl, completely seriously. “That’s the sort of mission he’d send us on.” “He does enjoy serving everyone afternoon tea,” Octavia confirmed, nodding as she spoke. “You’re really that naïve?” asked Hunter, walking up closer to the ponies until he was right in their faces. His voice was gravelly; low and rough. The CHIELD Agents behind him still had their crossbows aimed at Vinyl and Octavia, ensuring his protection. “That scroll, which you’ve broken in here to steal –” “We didn’t break in! We walked through the front entrance!” exclaimed Octavia. “Yeah! And the only reason we fought you guys is because you attacked us first!” Vinyl said. “-the scroll, it has an amazingly powerful spell encoded on it,” continued the CHIELD Agent. “There’s no way that we Agents of CHIELD will allow COBRA to take it, so unfortunately…I’m afraid that this is the end of the road for you two.” The crossbows of the other CHIELD Agents were all cocked. “Octavia, we’re screwed…unless…Unexpected Vinyl Maneuver!” exclaimed Vinyl suddenly. Knowing that they were going to be shot regardless, she leapt over and grabbed Octavia as she simultaneously unravelled the scroll. A blinding blue light shone out from the ink on it. “Hold your fire!” growled Hunter. “The energy of the scroll is about to be unleashed – there’s no knowing what could happen if it’s disturbed!” “Let’s see how I go at casting this thing…not sure about that bit, or that one…Tiid Klo Ul? No idea what that means…” As Vinyl rushed to read the scroll, her horn lit up with magic as she prepared to cast the spell as best she could. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Octavia, wincing from the intensity of the light. “Nope, but since when has that ever stopped me?” asked Vinyl, grinning. “Let’s spin this!” Her horn was by now glowing with an intensity to match that of the scroll, and as she spoke, the air around her and Octavia distorted, giving them a literally twisted appearance to the CHIELD Agents. A moment later, a blue spiral appeared around the duo – and then they were gone. ===============================   “I can sort of see where you’re coming from, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve time travelled,” said Octavia, staring off absentmindedly at the dinosaurs, still obliviously eating grass. “Maybe that spell could have… could have…” Vinyl put a hoof on Octavia’s shoulder. “Sorry, Octavia, but unless we get more evidence, I think you’ve got to conclude that we’ve time travelled. Where else could we be but the distant past of Equestria?” Octavia didn’t reply, instead staring blankly as she thought intensely. Could that really have happened? We’ve travelled several million years to before our friends – to before we existed! “What does this mean?” Octavia asked, her mind still somewhat reeling. “Are – are we trapped here? Trapped without any ponies, any allies at all? Doomed to spend the rest of our lives-” “Whoah there, no need to be so dramatic!” interrupted Vinyl. “I got us here with a spell, and I can get us back home with the same one! I really doubt that the scroll was designed with a spell to transport ponies to this specific time period – that’s way too specific.” “So you think that it’s just a generic time travel spell?” asked Octavia. “Yeah,” said Vinyl, nodding. “It was pretty complex from what I could understand of it – I guess more skilled ponies than me could subtly manipulate the web of magic to transport them to a specific time. Since I didn’t know crap about it, I unintentionally randomly threw us here. At least, that’s my theory.” “And you think that you can manipulate the spell well enough to get us back to our home time?” Octavia asked. She was starting to feel calmer now that the situation didn’t seem as dire as it was a few minutes ago. “Well, it won’t hurt to try!” said Vinyl enthusiastically. “I’ll just grab the scroll, and…hey, where did the scroll go?” she asked, looking around. “I swear I had it in my telekinetic grip when I cast the spell…” Octavia then noticed something that she should have immediately upon them going through the time travel portal. “Our COBRA uniforms and gear are gone,” she commented as she scanned the ground for the scroll, fruitless as she suspected it would be. “Huh? How didn’t I notice that?” asked Vinyl, frowning by now as she looked for the elusive scroll. “…Everything’s gone,” she realised half a moment later. “Our gear, our weapons, the scroll…it’s just us that travelled to this time period.” “Maybe it’s because you were only focusing on us when you cast the spell?” Octavia suggested. “Or…I don’t know, only organic matter can time travel?” A tone of dread was starting to creep back into her voice as the possibility of them being stuck here returned. Vinyl shook her head. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I think I can remember enough of the spell that I can try casting it from memory.” “Is that the safest thing?” Octavia asked. “Best case scenario, won’t we just end up in some other random time period since you don’t know how to adjust the length of time being travelled?” “You’d rather stay here?” Vinyl asked, gesturing around them. “At least if we go to another time, there might be ponies there…or,” she added, suddenly getting excited, “ponies might have evolved! Evolved, into two distinct subtypes – one, a hideous race of beasts living underground during the day, and the other, a beautiful but weak race of –” “There’s already three different races of ponies,” pointed out Octavia, interrupting Vinyl Scratch. “Four, if you count alicorns.” “…My idea is still cool,” said Vinyl, sounding slightly annoyed. “Anyway, I’ll give this spell a try, and let’s see whether we can get a bit closer to home.” “Define ‘closer to home’,” said Octavia as Vinyl’s horn began glowing blue. “What would you consider an acceptable length of time separation?” Although it was subtle, Octavia could see as Vinyl spoke that Vinyl’s teeth were gritted, and she was having some difficulty speaking as the spell grew in power. “Well, let’s just say that – that I wouldn’t say no to buying some rare, I dunno, comic books or something, in the past, so that we could sell them in the future for a tonne of bits.” The glow faded slightly as Vinyl thought it over. “That is… the past relative to our time…but the future relative to our time is still the future here? This is confusing.” “Don’t forget that we might not be able to transport items between different time periods,” said Octavia, watching with concern as the spell’s power continued to increase. “Bah!” grunted Vinyl, sweat visibly appearing on her brow now. “There you – go with – your logic and stuff! How about – I just take us to a time where- my dad – argh!” Last time Vinyl had cast the time travel spell, her horn had lit up brightly moments before a distortion sucked the two ponies into another time period. This time, her horn lit up brightly moments before the glow disappeared and Vinyl fell to the ground, screaming in pain as her hooves grasped as best they could at her forehead. “Vinyl!” exclaimed Octavia, leaning down to her friend and examining her as best she could. “Are you okay? What happened?” It took Vinyl a moment to answer. She was breathing heavily, and looked much more exhausted than she had a minute ago. “I- I guess that the first time I cast the spell, it exhausted most of my magical e-energy,” she said, her voice shaky. “My head… it just hurt so badly. I might be able to cast the spell again, but not for a few hours, maybe…it’s pretty taxing.” “Crap, that’s not so convenient…” said Octavia, running a hoof through her marefriend’s mane as a small way to help stabilise her. Looking around, Octavia spotted a small outcrop of rock atop a hill, several hundred metres behind them. “Can you get up and walk, Vinyl? If we’re going to be killing time, we might as well do it in a bit of shelter and protection. I don’t know what the odds of there being carnivorous dinosaurs around here are.” “Yeah, I should be right,” said Vinyl, slowly climbing to her hooves, shaking all the while. “Let’s head up there.” ===============================   “…no, Vinyl. We can’t time travel to the past, meet our past selves and then get them to hook up,” said Octavia. It was several hours later, and the two ponies were sitting by the outcrop which Octavia had spotted. About an hour ago, clouds had begun to appear in the sky, and it had been lightly raining ever since. Although both ponies had been excited for a short while that there might have been pegasi in the sky, it soon turned out to be a natural phenomenon, something which weirded the two of them out.   “What makes you so sure?” asked Vinyl. The two ponies were in good spirits after a small meal of grass, and had just been sitting around talking since they had gotten to the cave.   “Have you ever, at any point in your past, been approached by your future self, who has tried to convince you to hook up with a grey pony who happens to be me?” asked Octavia. “Because if you have, then yes, maybe we can try it, but if not, then logic shows that we can’t do that.” “Well, not yet, yeah,” agreed Vinyl. “But once we travel to our pasts, then we’ll be there, so we can do it then! You know what I mean?” “…But our pasts have already happened, Vinyl,” said Octavia, starting to feel as though she was going insane. This was at least the third time that she was explaining it to Vinyl. “So since it never happened, we will never do it. Does that not make sense to you?” Vinyl frowned. “But I thought that the past was in the future? Since it’s not going to happen for several million years?” There was a loud smacking noise as Octavia facehoofed. “Look just…don’t worry about it,” she groaned. “Anyway, you said you can’t control the time travel spell for now, so it’s not like we could go to our pasts even if we wanted to.” “Hey…I can’t control the time travel spell for now…but maybe in the future I can!” said Vinyl, suddenly excited. “If I ever can, I could come back to now, and save us!” “…Sorry, explain that again?” Octavia asked. “So, like, right now, I can’t control the time travel spell, right?” Vinyl said. “But one day, maybe I’ll be able to, and when I can, I can time travel to wherever – no, whenever – I want!” “Celestia and Luna help us the day that happens,” muttered Octavia under her breath.   “So anyway,” continued Vinyl, not having heard Octavia, “if I get control over time travel, then I could just come back to here, rescue us, then take us back to the present! Wait, I mean future.” “I get it!” said Octavia. “So we might be rescued by your future self!” “Exactly!” said Vinyl. There was silence in the cave as both ponies waited for the distortion in space-time which marked the time travel portal opening. “…Vinyl, don’t take this the wrong way, but your future self sucks,” said Octavia glumly after realising that Vinyl’s idea wasn’t going to happen. “Great, guess I never master using the time travel spell then,” said Vinyl. As she spoke, a new thought occurred to her. “Do you think that means…maybe we never get home? We just…bounce around the timestream, hoping that one day we travel to our home time…but never getting there?” Octavia bit her lip. “Let’s…not consider that possibility,” she said. “Let’s- maybe we should get out of here – this time period, that is. If you’re feeling up to it.” In spite of feeling nervous, Vinyl grinned. “Yeah, let’s. But first –” Levitating a small rock from the floor, Vinyl scratched a quick drawing into the wall. “- declare this the cave of Vinyl Scratch, the most awesome pony in prehistoric Equestria! After her amazing marefriend Octavia, of course.” Sketched onto the wall was a crude picture of Vinyl’s head, with the caption ‘Awesome’. Octavia shook her head. “I’m not even going to question why,” she said, smiling. “Hay, in a way, we’re the first ponies in Equestria,” said Vinyl. “Might as well place a monument to that somewhere, since nopony will ever believe us.” “Heh. You’re a funny pony, Vinyl Scratch,” said Octavia, giving Vinyl a small peck on the cheek. “You ready to give this time travel thing another go?” asked Vinyl. “If you’re feeling up to it, sure.” Vinyl was, and so once more, her horn glowed as she gathered power. Octavia felt the air distort and grow thicker as the spell continued to charge, Vinyl’s horn once more glowing brightly. “You’re feeling alright?” asked Octavia, putting a hoof on Vinyl’s cheek. Vinyl nodded, her teeth gritted. Octavia held herself close to Vinyl, supporting her lover as she continued to pump magical energy into the spell. There was definitely a different feel in the air now, as Vinyl’s horn continued to light up. Then, with only a single word of warning – “Ready,” – the spell was cast. Octavia and Vinyl briefly got a shot of a blue spiral encompassing them before they disappeared for good. Or rather, the world disappeared around them. To the two mares, it was as though someone had thrown them through a door – the scenery around them changed instantaneously. One moment, they were within a rocky outcrop, the next they were in what appeared to be a large city, full of bright lights and lots of noise. But there was no time to take note of their surroundings – Vinyl and Octavia had their focus on something more important. “Hello, Vinyl,” said a voice. “Hello, Octavia,” said another. “You!” gasped Vinyl and Octavia, at the exact same time.