"Crono!" Copper called out as the beam ripped through the chamber, leaving only the Gate Key behind. It fell to the floor and tinged a few times, before rolling to a stop in front of her. She cried as she pulled it close to her, knowing what it meant. That her friend...was gone.
"You...you monster," Zehan said, trying his best to get up and failing miserably.
Then the world around them glowed and faded, to be replaced with that same scene of the Malus Machine they had seen not five minutes ago. Only this time, the remaining party members, and Sombra, were joined by Lumina, who panted and hung her head.
"The last of the power in my pendant will see you all to safety," she said, tapping the glowing stone. "Please...please don't hate my mother, or our kingdom," she said.
"But if you spend the last of your power," Sombra said, and Lumina smiled softly.
"I made my peace with this situation already," she said. "There is no hope for me. But for you...you must live. Live, and try to stop him."
The six only had time to start their protests before they glowed and vanished from the room. Just in time, as it started to rumble ominously. Lumina sighed again and looked at the machine.
"I will not go quietly into the darkness," she said.
After a short delay, the remaining party members appeared within the underground village of ponies, looking around at their new surroundings. Once they realized where they were, Copper started crying again. "He's...he's gone," she said. "Killed by...by that thing."
"This can't be the end of his adventure," Zehan added. "He's done so much, changed time itself in some areas..."
Then the mare gasped. "That's it," she said. "He's changed time before. What if we found a way to change that moment? Stop him from dying?"
Then there was a mighty rumble and crash, similar to when the Floating Mountain came down from its seal. Only far louder, because something far more massive had fallen.
"What is this?" a pony near them asked. "Is everything going to fall out of the sky today?"
The five looked at one another and all but dragged themselves to the entrance of the cave that housed the underground village. What they saw was stunning, and not in a good way.
A short ways away, there was a massive rift in the earth. From it, periodically, beams of light would be emitted, to strike at the floating continents of Vis above. They knew this because they saw one falling through the sky, like a wounded beast would fall to the ground. An island with a small city impacted not too far away, and they all barely managed to get back underground before the shockwave hit.
"That...was Quietus," Gregory softly said. "Is...Is Lavos destroying Vis, now that it is awake?"
"It looks like it," Scorpan rumbled. "It has no more use for them, now that it has the queen of that land as its vassal."
For some time, the lands above continued to just fall and crash back to the earth below. Each one caused a shockwave as they impacted the earth, throwing up dust and dirt for some time and over some area. It was only when no other lances of light came from the rift that the five knew that Lavos had stopped. The rumbling continued for a little while yet, before that too gave out, signalling the end of the era of Vis.
"Now what?" Gregory asked.
"We take our time-machine," Copper said, brandishing the Gate Key. "And we go back to the End of Time, and we ask, no, demand that Hora help us fix this," the mare said, with more than a hint of steel in her eyes. "We get Crono back."
Of course, that plan was delayed by an old foe showing up once again. With a monstrously loud din, a massive metal machine landed nearby, resembling a bird with its wings outstretched. From a hatch in the side, three crystal ponies emerged. One of them was far too familiar.
Praefactus.
"Behold, the end of the age of Vis!" he said. "Now begins the reign of Praefactus! Bow before your new lord!"
The five of them were thoroughly unamused.
"Seriously?" Copper said. "I could set you on fire with my mind."
"And I still have my golems as well," Praefactus retorted. "I'm only here for two things. That machine over yonder that looks like work of Ratio, guru of reason. And this small village of ponies, so that I have subjects to lord over."
Gregory drew his blade and growled at the would-be tyrant. "You'll get both over my dead body," he vowed.
"A pity," the stallion said, before his horn glowed and he fired a fireball at the lot of them. Something the griffon easily deflected with his blade. "Wait, what?" the orange stallion said, looking bemused.
"Is that all you've got?" Zehan asked with a smirk. "We can hit harder than that."
"Grrrr," the stallion actually growled, before looking behind them and slowly looking shocked and horrified. "Wh...what is that?!" he asked them. Foolishly, the five time-travellers actually turned to look, to see nothing at all back there.
That was when they were knocked out by a second, stronger volley of fireballs from the orange crystal stallion.
When the five of them next came to, it was to an unpleasant surprise for three of them.
Gregory, Copper, and Zehan had had their equipment removed from their bodies.
They were also in an unfamiliar location, that of a small metal room.
It took them all of a minute to burst the door down via a combination of their magic, which hadn't been taken from them, and Scorpan and Justice's sheer strength. The crew of the ship that had been holding them suddenly realized what a foolish error it had been to try and hold a party of adventurers against their will.
"BURN!" Copper bellowed as fire raced through the halls. A combination of grief and fury drove her actions. She was still suffering from the loss of one that had given her so much hope, and these fools delaying her from finding out if it could be fixed did not help her emotions any.
Each one fell with a cry as magic and a combination of sheer brute force from either Scorpan or Justice found their marks. "Protocol engaged - disable all hostiles," Justice beeped as his hooves rocketed out to touch ponies at high velocities.
"Those that stand in our way shall be tossed aside," Scorpan agreed.
"Or frozen and stuck to the walls," Zehan added as he did just that with one pony.
"I'll settle for washing them away," Gregory added as he did just that to a set guarding a door, before his eyes widened. "Look!"
Above the door was the sign 'ARMORY,' and the five quickly rushed inside to find the missing armaments of Gregory, Copper, and Zehan.
Now they were fully dangerous once more, and searching for the one that had taken them away from their goal of returning to the End of Time. They rampaged through the metal interior, brushing aside all the soldiers that dared to stand in their way, before finding a rather large door.
And a rather large golem standing in front of it.
"Stay strong," Copper barked. "Scorpan, you'll have to sit this one out. Everypony else, we'll stagger our magic. Justice, you're first."
The robot beeped and fired off his most powerful attack, the one where he physically tackled the offending creature and fired up his wide-range taser systems. The golem howled as it took the brunt of the electrical attack, and started to softly glow yellow.
"Gregory!" Copper barked out, and the griffon pointed his sword at the construct blocking their way, causing a massive, torrential downpour to appear and attempt to wash the golem away. It growled as it started to glow blue now, switching out the magic it had been charging to mimic the magic it had been hit with.
"My turn," the mare said, before the golem was forced to face the full fury of the mare's magic. Fire erupted around them, before it condensed onto its form and burned it horribly. The golem howled again, now glowing red as its innate defense system changed it from Water to Fire magic.
"And now your turn, Zehan," Copper said. The zebra nodded and pointed his staff at the creature, before a blue spark jumped between them. Once it impacted the massive construct, the golem froze solid inside a huge chunk of ice. Then the zebra shattered it with a single blow, and the golem roared again once it was free, glowing bright blue as it prepared its own ice magic.
From there, the battle fell into a pattern, as their foe was never allowed to charge up any magic whatsoever. The tactics that Crono had them use for the past few golems really came into use here against this supposedly mighty, strong guard. Surely, Praefactus would be behind this door.
Once the golem was destroyed and washed away, literally thanks to Gregory landing the last blow with his water magic, the five of them entered the door and were...stunned.
The far wall was open, revealing the sky out of it and the ground far below, revealing to the group that they were in fact in the air. That fact took second fiddle to something they found far more important. Namely, Praefactus sitting in what had been their time-machine, but it had clearly been...altered.
After all, it didn't have wings before. The stallion was sitting in the captain's chair, clearly trying his hardest to work out how to work their machine. "Launch, damn you!" he cursed out the machine.
"It won't work without the key," Copper said, oddly calm. "And I have it. So if you'd kindly get out of that chair, I won't have to toss you off this machine."
The stallion merely turned to them and growled. "I will not relinquish the likes of this to you!" he said. "I spent far too much time making it capable of flight! It will be my personal throne! It will be-"
Praefactus didn't get the chance to finish that declaration, as Scorpan walked up to him, ripped him out of the seat, and threw the crystal stallion out of the machine. "You talk too much," he said simply, as the stallion now realized he was dealing with five powerful individuals.
"Fine," the stallion said, before lighting his horn up. "Come, Golem Boss! Destroy these fools!"
A dark void appeared above the stallion, and he slowly realized something terrible.
His spell called out his golems from where they were to where he was, swapping their locations. And if these adventurers had truly bested the Golem Boss...
Then there was nothing left to call...
And he was about to be...
"No!" the stallion said, trying to hold onto the deck. A futile endeavor.
The void would have its due.
It howled as it pulled him into itself, before closing up and leaving the five alone with their new flying machine. Copper walked up to it first and sat in the pilot's chair, pulling the Gate Key out and inserting it to the hole that could only be for it. There were a few...interesting controls now, and the wheel had been replaced with a massive stick.
"We're in for a learning experience," she muttered. "I think we're about to learn more about flying than most Pegasi."
The other four, wisely, buckled up at that statement.