Our return trip to Gregory was a mostly silent affair. We had hope that if we showed him half of the blade that apparently every griffon was talking about, he might know where the other half was. A camp made in the wilderness between the shrine and the village near where he lived served to shelter us for the night. By mid-morning on the next day, we were standing under Gregory's tree house once more. Justice once more remained below, while the three of us ascended the ladder.
The griffon was home this time, reading a book. "Hello Gregory," I greeted him.
"Good morrow, Crono," he replied, turning a page. "A pleasure to see you again. For what reason have you come?"
Copper pulled out the broken blade of the Masamune and placed it on the ground. Gregory closed his book and sighed.
"I see you've found the blade," he said. "It is a shame there are none alive who could mend such a mighty weapon. And you would need the hilt, besides."
"Do you know where it is?" I questioned the griffon. He paused before nodding, and looking away. Without even looking at either us or the chest in the room, he pointed at said container. The three of us walked over to the chest and pulled it open, to reveal a large, red hilt and bits of a broken blade attached to the guard.
"You had it all this time?" Zehan asked.
"Even if the blade were to be found and somehow fixed, I have not the right to wield it," Gregory said. "The least I could do is safeguard the part of it I have until I found a worthy bearer." He then walked over to me and clapped my shoulder with his clawed hand. "I believe that bearer to be you, Crono. You at least found the blade, and are more worthy than I could be."
I picked the hilt up out of the chest and looked at Gregory sadly. He...didn't believe in himself at all. That was...
I would have to fix this. Both Gregory's perceptions of himself, and this blade. I turned the hilt around, and read lettering in the pommel of the sword.
I-M-A-A-N. Or, deciphered properly. Anima.
It would seem we would be taking a trip back to modern times.
The four of us walked back into the griffon city and made directly for Anima's forge. Once we arrived, the crystal stallion looked over to see who it was before turning off his forge. "Ah, the brave adventurers that saved the princess," he greeted us. "Come to see my..."
That was when Copper pulled out the broken pieces of the Masamune and laid them before the smith. He fell quiet as he looked at the blade, before looking up at us. "Where did you get that?" he asked us.
"Why is your name on it?" I countered. That caused the smith to sigh.
"That...is a long story," he said. "Are you sure you want to hear it?"
I merely shook my head before gesturing to the blade again. "Can you fix it? A friend of ours needs it, because I think he's meant to wield it."
Anima whistled. "A master for the mighty Masamune? A good friend you have indeed. But alas, I cannot mend the blade without some of the ore from which it was forged." He looked at his forge and shook his head. "And that ore vanished a long, long time ago. The last time I heard of any being found was in Discord's time. Arcanite, it was called."
"You underestimate me," I told the stallion. "Would you watch the blade while we do our best to find some?"
Anima nodded, and the four of us left High Aerie, walking again to the Gate at the empty town of Truceburg. "We really need to find a closer gate than this one," I quipped. "But first, we have a pony to visit."
Our party arrived at the End of Time and walked up to Hora underneath his lamppost. "Ah," he said, greeting us warmly. "And what do you need of this old stallion?"
"We need to find a way to the Era of Discord," I told him. "We're looking for some Arcanite to repair the Masamune."
The crystal unicorn hummed as he put a hoof to his chin. "Era of Discord...Era of Discord...yes, there should be a portal to that era somewhere in the world...I think I saw it in...Ponyville, that was it! The library's basement!"
I groaned. The new year was about to roll over, though, so that gave us a good chance at getting into the library. When all the ponies were out like a light from the boozing, we would sneak in and activate the Gate, thus giving us a conduit to Discord's time.
Now all we would need to do is hope the crazy bastard wasn't in charge when we arrived, and that we also didn't run into two very important ponies while we were there.
The op went off with only one hitch. Namely, that once we saw the state the rope bridge was in, I turned around and escorted Justice back to the End of Time until he figured out how to fly. He claimed that it would be his next upgrade. Zehan, Copper, and I made our way through the Everfree until we reached Stephen Magnet's river, at which point we followed it to Ponyville. By that point in time, the sun was setting. I sat just within the border of the Everfree and waited, motioning for my friends to do the same.
When the moon was at its highest point in the night sky, that was when I motioned for my friends to follow me. We had a tree-house to find, and I preferred to do this now rather than when the building was...occupied. The three of us made our way into the town and started making our way to the tallest tree that we saw that was distinctly inside the town's borders. With any luck, that would be the library we were looking for. How many tree-buildings could there be in Ponyville anyways?
The answer turned out to be just the one. And thanks to the late hour, we managed to find a way to discreetly force the door open. Needed to leave it in good enough condition that a certain purple unicorn could move into the place, after all. A quick use of my sword as a prybar got us into the building, with another seeing us to the basement. Once we were there, the glow of the Gate was unmistakable. Zehan and Copper grouped up and I tapped the thing with the Key, whisking us back to the End of Time, where Justice awaited us.
"You have completed your mission?" he asked us. I nodded, and he walked a little closer. "Then let us travel to a new time."
I held the key up and focused my mind on the other end of the Ponyville Gate. The Era of Discord. Around us, the wind started to howl again...
When we came to again, it was to a world that just...didn't have a Ponyville. No buildings, no houses. Not a one. It was a small clearing on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Though that didn't stop there from being people nearby. Or, a pony and something else.
The pony was simple enough, an elderly unicorn dressed in a blue cape with a hat that had, in my opinion, too many bells on it. He had a decent sized beard and mustache as well. The other thing...well, the first thing I thought of was a flying ape, though that was proved wrong when it spoke.
"Star Swirl," It, no, he, rumbled to the pony. "Where did these ones come from?"
"I don't know," the pony replied enthusiastically. "But I'm willing to find out!"
My thought at the time was something along the lines of Well this is going to be difficult to explain, isn't it?