The day before the Summer Sun Celebration, not long after a certain lavender unicorn had made her way from the city of Canterlot, but long before nightfall, a metal flying machine warped into existence over the capital of Equestria. It wasn't long before the device landed near the castle and was immediately mobbed by guards pointing their spears at it. A hatch opened at the back, and five mismatched creatures stepped from it and eyed the guards carefully.
"I could deal with them," Sombra offered.
"That wouldn't help," Copper said. "We're here to see whoever's in charge," the mare said the to the guards.
There was a moment where all the guards looked at one another, before one in purple armor stepped forward and looked at them rather than their machine. "I think she'll be out to see you rather soon," Shining Armor said. "Just...don't go anywhere."
"Wasn't planning on it," Copper said as she sat back and waited.
Princess Celestia liked to think that she had a plan and a prepared response for just about everything. Griffons, Zebras, the faintest hint of crime in Canterlot, her own sister returning? All dealt with when they needed to be. At least, now with Twilight on her way.
One of the few things she hadn't put any time into preparing for was a group of time-travelling adventurers showing up and needing her help. The mare was...perplexed by the appearance of such a varied group, especially when she laid eyes on Sombra. She'd...felt the ripples in time, her memories changing. If she expended a little magic, she could recall when Sombra had taken control of the Crystal Empire, when she and Luna had done battle with him...
Now, apparently, the Empire had always been there, and Sombra had never really happened to it. Somebody had meddled in the very timeline. "And may I ask where you all came from?" she said as she arrived.
"The more accurate question would be 'when' we have arrived from," the metallic looking one replied.
"...Very well then, when have you all come from?" Celestia asked, every inch the proper ruler.
"Well," the one wearing a metallic harness said. "Me and the robot are from the future, the griffon is from around 600 AD, the zebra is from around these times, and Scorpan and the unicorn are from around the era of Discord."
Silence descended after that claim. Celestia shook her head before she opened her mouth again.
"And I swear," the mare said. "If you say something along the lines of 'prove it,' I will point at this machine to act as my proof."
Celestia looked at their machine and sighed internally. It was true, that device of theirs was highly advanced. There could be few explanations than what they were claiming.
Though she supposed that there was always the possibility of a rather gifted unicorn making them all hallucinate this. Still, best to test the waters. "And what knowledge do you bring of the future, then?"
"Oh, everything is going to go great up until a thousand years from now," the mare said. "That's when it all comes crashing down. A disaster nobody can prevent will basically turn the world into a hollow shell of itself, if that."
Once more, silence gripped the area. "And you?" Celestia dared to ask after a while.
"We're the ones trying to stop it," the Zebra spoke up. "But we've lost someone on the way."
"I see," Celestia said. "I may be mighty, but I cannot undo death."
"No, but we have a way," the mare said. "But we need your help to find the missing part."
"My help?" the solar mare asked.
"Once, when he was just starting on his journey, our friend met a pony," the griffon said. "A stallion known as Ancient Lore. Our hopes lie with his line to help us provide a copy of him."
"I...suppose we can check the records," Celestia said. "Though, you did sort of arrive on a highly important day..."
"Then lead us to the records," the griffon said. "We will check them ourselves to remove any strain we might be providing."
The regal mare assigned a contingent of guards to watch over them as she led them to the Archives. Especially the not-quite-Sombra they had with them. She didn't quite trust him, even if these other five were watching over him.
She wasn't even sure if she trusted half of these travelers, but they'd been harmless and peaceful so far. So long as they kept being as such and the guards didn't have to forcibly restrain any of them, she could give most of them the benefit of the doubt. Celestia still discreetly cast a tracking spell on Sombra, though. After what she'd recalled him doing, it was an elementary precaution.
If the records were all these travelers were after, then hopefully she would be able to see them out of the castle before nightfall.
She didn't even want to imagine her sister in her current state with access to any sort of ability to freely travel the timeline...
Just as dusk settled in the castle, the group of six finally found the records they were looking for. Ancient Lore had married a mare and had children, and those children had gone on to have children...the scroll went on and on, and ended with a single name.
A mare known as Lyra Heartstrings. Further investigation turned up that she lived in Ponyville these days; at least, if the deed they'd found in her name was any indication. The six of them packed up their things and returned the records to how they'd found them, more or less.
Then they were escorted back to their machine that they'd used to get here. The six buckled themselves in as Copper came up with a plan.
Rather than fly down to Ponyville and have to explain where this machine came from, they would 'park' it at the End of Time itself, then use the Gates to appear in Ponyville and seek out the mare they were looking for. It'd be faster, especially if it was only Copper was searching, while she wasn't wearing her harness. She'd get less odd looks than the others.
They weren't happy with her logic, but the rest of her party agreed to her reasoning. They decided to sit and chat with Hora while the mare was off on her little adventure.
"So," Sombra said. "You're really the Guru of Time, stuck here at the end of time itself?"
"Yup," Hora said. "Been here so long, I made it a bit more homey. Took a brick here, a brick there. The railing was hard to get, as was the lamppost and bucket, but I did it. The door wasn't easy either. Maybe in a few years, I'll have a bed."
"Or we could take you out of here," Gregory offered. "Once our adventure is done."
"...I'd like that," the stallion sighed. "I really would. And you wouldn't even need me here anymore to watch over your adventures."
"Out of curiosity," Sombra asked. "Why did you stay?"
"I can't leave this place on my own," Hora replied. "In order for anypony to leave this place, they need the Gate Key that Crono carried. It's the only thing that can pry apart the Gates."
"Or start up our time-machine," Zehan pointed out. "Or open the doors that Vis used to have that were sealed by the energy of Lavos."
"That Key really is important," Scorpan observed.
"Almost as important as the one that held it," Justice commented. Silence fell then, only to be broken a moment later as Copper reappeared on the platform where all the Gates led, holding a lifelike replica of Crono on her back.
"Copper!" Gregory said. "You were successful?"
"The mare Lyra was absolutely obsessed with humans, and had made this," Copper said before shrugging the doll off of her back and starting to put her battle harness back on. "Based on the description her great-to-the-nth-degree grandfather wrote down about Crono. It's...well, it's a little inaccurate, but it's not like she'd ever seen him to know. He doesn't have eyes like ours, for instance..."
"It will serve," Hora said as his horn sparked and touched the doll, warping it to be nigh identical to the one that had so recently passed. "And now you have to climb the mountain. I wish you good luck."
The Wings of Time warped into existence above Mount Canterhorn, just as Copper directed it to fly to the peak and land nearby. "Yeah, no, screw that noise," she said once they were all out of their machine. "I saw what was waiting for us. They looked like mini-Lavoses, each one willing and ready to tear us to pieces."
The mare brought out the doll of Crono and nodded to Sombra. The unicorn nodded back and floated the egg the Guru of Time had given them out of his mane before hoofing it over to the mare, who stood next to a rock and a lone, dead tree at the top of the mountain. She held both things close and bowed her head, trying to think of the right things to say for this moment.
"To those who would stand against the dark," she said. "To those that would be a beacon when all other lights go out. To those that inspire their allies...we call on you, we call for you. Help us now, when we need you the most. Help us...please."
The egg shuddered, wiggled...cracked in her grasp before light shone from it and it flew into the air. It hovered for a moment, shining brightly, like a star in the sky...before the shell shattered and it vanished altogether.
The others were stunned. Copper just started crying more.
"No," she choked out. "Not like this. Please, no. Not after...everything we went through together. Not after everything he meant to me. Please...let us try..."
The endless cloud cover above parted, and the others gasped. The sun was red in this day and age...and there was something coming at it from one side. A dark circular object slowly sliding in front of it. Copper looked up to see this spectacle that she had never seen before. None of them had seen this before.
And when the eclipse finally was completed...the six of them found themselves somewhere else. Somewhen else.