A forgotten breeze from a lost era fluttered the Clock Wraith's ragged cloak. Without any cry or warning, it swept towards Ace, the largest and most immediate source of Flux in the room. The wraith didn't pounce, so much as flow, briefly twisting into an intangible form before it materialized in front of the scrappy cyborg, and sunk its all-too-tangible claws into her belly.
Ace choked out a pained cry, and went for her sword, but a dismissive sweep of the Clock Wraith's hand sent the blade clattering to the floor. Another twist of the beast's claws sent Ace collapsing to the ground, but yet the Clock Wraith still pressed its savage attack, blood splattering with each pass of the terrible talons.
Carrie had her Colt Peacemaker out in a flash, and Becca was a heartbeat behind her with her 1911. The cowgirl and detective opened fire, pumping round after round into the hunched over Clock Wraith until their guns ran dry.
Each bullet kicked up a puff of ephemeral fabric and near-translucent gore, but the Clock-Wraith showed no signs of stopping. Abandoning Ace's ravaged body, it stood back up. Spindly arms stretched out, each one delivering a savage blow to Carrie and Becca both.
“Beast!” The Contessa de St. Germain snapped. “Get away from them!” She flicked a slim, filigreed dagger into her wrist, and hurled it across the room. The blade struck true, embedding in the center of the Clock Wraith's chest, though to little effect.
The time lost creature raised its claws to strike again, only to stagger slightly as a beam of light struck it in the side. Slowly, it turned towards the source of the attack.
Ace pointed one smoking finger towards the Clock-Wraith, clutching her belly wound with her other hand. “Get outta here!” She said, and snapped off another blast from her cybernetic weaponry. “I can totally take this guy!”
“We ain't leavin' you here!” Carrie shouted.
“Wait!” Becca slapped a fresh magazine into her pistol and pulled back the slide. “Where's Tara? We can't leave without--”
Six inches of steel suddenly sprouted from the center of the Clock Wraith's chest. Its mask tilted down to peer curiously at the unexpected growth. Steel rasped on bone as the blade was yanked out. Steel flashed again in a savage arc, and the Clock-Wraith's head toppled from its body. The rest of the thing collapsed to a pile of ectoplasm and rags on the floor like a deflated balloon.
Tara Sterling stood behind the felled creature, clutching Ace's katana in a surprisingly knowledgeable grip. Her friends just gaped at her.
“How did you … “ Becca began.
“You guys did most of the work, honestly. Clock-Wraiths can be killed, or … dispersed, at least, they just soak up a lot of abuse. Since my Flux is so low, I was able to sneak up behind it and get in the killing blow.”
“But … the sword stuff,” said Carrie.
“What, this?” Tara looked down at the katana in her hands. “I've been in the Time War for awhile. I've picked up a few tricks.”
“Hey, one question.” Ace sat up. “Am I dead?”
“Try to stay in character, please.” The Chrono-Minion noted. “And … here, can I see your character sheet?” He noted a few figures on the piece of paper, and then consulted the die-roller app on his phone. “Okay, so you're not dead, but you're mortally wounded. You'll die if you don't receive medical attention. And … game on.”
“Oh. Uh. Right.” Rainbow Dash laid back down, and mimed grabbing at her stomach. “My guts! He punched out all my guts!” It was the sort of performance that at least had enthusiasm behind it (if nothing else).
“What do we do?” Fluttershy clutched at her apron. “I know a little first aid, but not enough to fix, uh … that.”
“So much blood!” Rainbow Dash suppressed a giggle as she writhed on the ground. She'd apparently decided if her character was going to die, she'd at least have fun in the process. “Blarg!”
“There's only one thing that can help her, now.” Twilight crouched beside Rainbow Dash's head. “Here.” She fished the vial of blue liquid from her hoodie pocket, popped the cork with her thumb, and poured it into Rainbow's open mouth.
The multi-haired girl's hammy death-spasms switched to entirely genuine sputtering and coughing. “Hey!” Rainbow squeaked. “What was that-- like, blueberry kool aid or something?”
“Reset.” Twilight said, and patted Rainbow's shoulder. “It'll take your body back to a previous point in time … before you got mauled by that Clock Wraith.”
“So I'm alive?” Rainbow said.
Twilight nodded.
“Score!” Rainbow bounded up to her feet. “Are there any more of those ghost dudes? 'Cause I'm looking for some payback!”
“More likely they'll eat you first,” Sunset said. “Especially since you've got the highest Flux score. That's how that works, isn't it?”
“Actually,” Twilight mused, “as long as the Reset's in her system, it'll conceal her Flux rating as if she were--” Twilight's eyes went wide in terror and she slowly stood. She raised the empty vial to eye level, staring at it. “Oh. Oh no.”
“What's wrong?” Sunset said.
“Look.” Twilight glanced around the conference room. “There's no flux rift, is there.”
The Chrono Minion silently shook his head.
“That's a good thing, ain't it?” Applejack mused. “I mean, we was supposed to stop one of them whatchamacallits.”
“We didn't close a rift.” Twilight said. “There never was a rift. This was a trap!” She shook her head, and pushed her way past her friends, heading back towards the main ballroom.
“Not a very good one, if you ask me.” Rarity hitched up her skirts to keep up with Twilight. “I mean, we survived, right?”
“It wasn't supposed to kill us. It was just supposed to keep us busy.” Twilight said.
From the other side of the ballroom doors, a woman screamed.
Twilight put her hand on the doorknob, and turned back to her friends.
“We've been set up.”
The ballroom was in chaos.
Clock-Wraiths wound between the tables, bringing death with them. Their wicked claws of unmade steel flashed out, cutting down one hapless time traveler after another. Like the hands of the clock masks they wore, the wraiths circled around the edge of the ballroom, slowly spiraling in to contain the survivors of the initial attack.
Once the time travelers realized what was happening, they formed a rough circle, fending the Clock Wraiths off as best they could. Aliexares of Thebes smashed a Clock Wraith to the ground with his stout club, and then leapt nimbly to the side before a second wraith could sink its claws into him. Bertram had produced a long-barreled shotgun from somewhere, and blazed away at the circling monsters, as casual as if he were shooting grouse on a country estate.
Captain March was at the center of it all, standing guard over the dead and dying of the Council of Eons. Even the Observer's gurney had been upended in the struggle, though the madman's gibberings only grew louder and louder amidst the battle.
Captain March pulled back the bolt of her heavy rifle, sighted down the scope, and fired at a circling Clock-Wraith. The creature staggered, but did not fall.
Meanwhile, across the hall, Tara burst in, with her newest friends hot on her heels.
“We've got to help them.” She said, grim.
“But how?” Francine, the Contessa's maidservant, said.
“She's right,” said the Contessa de St. Germain. “We barely managed to handle just one of those monstrosities. There's got to be at least a dozen in there, maybe more! They'd rip us to shreds!”
“If we were working alone, yes.” Tara said, grim. “But if we hit the Clock Wraiths from behind, there--” she pointed to one point in the room, “you can hit them from behind, that just might be enough to create an opening for the others to push through."
“You?” Becca said, level. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“I won't be going with you.” Tara tightened her grip on her borrowed katana. “I'm the only one with a Flux low enough to sneak past the Clock Wraith, but still have some chance of stopping this madness.”
“What're you talking about?” Becca grabbed Tara by the arm. “I'm from the same time … thingie as you are. That means I've got the same Flux, right?”
“Yes, but they're going to need you.” Tara nodded to the rest of her friends. “Trust me. I know what I'm doing.”
“But--” Becca said.
“No.” Tara shook her head. “We don't have time to argue. Now go! The longer we wait, the more people will die!” And with that, Tara strode towards the ring of survivors.
Becca took two steps after her, but Carrie stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“You heard the gal.” Carrie said, and thumbed back the hammer of her Peacemaker. “We got work to do.”
“You.”
Even over the screams and the gunfire, Captain March could recognize that voice. The sudden flanking attack by the new recruits had diverted the Clock-Wraiths' attention, and slowly, the battle began to turn.
“Tara?” said Captain March. Sure enough, the young, hoodie clad grad student picked her way over bodies of friend and foe alike, carrying a long curved sword loosely at her side. The Captain let her rifle slip out of her hands to dangle on its sling. “I didn't want you to see this.”
“I didn't want to see you turn traitor either. I didn't want to believe it. But here we are. How much Reset did it take before the Clock-Wraiths stopped trying to kill you? Or have you been working for them this whole time?”
“That's your problem, Tara. You're smart … but you know just enough to get yourself in trouble. I'm not working for the Clock-Wraiths. They're working for me.” The Captain said with a giddy, half mad laugh. “Don't you see? It's so simple. The Clock-Wraiths … they're not evil. They just … are. They're the universe's antibodies, designed to hunt down us. The virus.”
“So you're just going to let us, let me die?”
“No!” Captain March pushed her goggles up to her forehead, revealing the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “I'm using the Clock Wraiths to wipe the slate clean. No Quantum Collective. No Council of Eons. We're not here because time is broken … we're here because we broke time! This, all of this, is the Council's fault! They just haven't done it yet! I was there. Or … I will be there. That's what I told myself.” She laughed, and spread her hands. “So I did what I had to do. I've gathered the best and brightest of the Endpoint Nexus here … without their leadership, everything else will collapse.”
“Good god. You've killed us all.” Tara's voice cracked.
“Not all of us. No.” Captain March reached into her combat vest, and pulled out another vial of blue liquid. A larger one, this time. “I set up a distilling plant in a pocket dimension-- It's been churning out Reset for relative decades. If you return to your home juncture, and take a large enough dose … it's like you never left at all” She tossed the vial to Tara. “Once the rest of the time lost are either dead, or back in their home junctures, time will finally be able to fix itself.”
Tara stared at the heavy glass vial. “But if you dosed yourself with that much Reset, you'd … “
“Forget everything since I got unstuck in time.” The Captain said.
“So you'd forget me. Just like that.” The words stung Tara's lips as she said them.
“Don't you see? I'm doing this FOR you! You're one of the smartest, bravest, most resilient people I've ever met. You deserve better than an eternity of senseless war!”
Tara looked across the room, to where her friends, new and old, fought for their lives against the savagery of the Clock-Wraiths. “How much Reset did you make?”
“Even with the pocket dimension, just enough for about a half dozen doses. Maybe more if I find a way to tweak it.”
“Six people. Out of everyone you've ever met. Six people get to live.”
“It's the only way, Tara.” Captain March held her hands out, and walked closer. “Please. I … this could be the last time we ever see each other. I don't want it to end this way.”
Tara whipped the point of her katana upward, and leveled it at Captain March's chest. “Not like I'll remember it anyway.”
“Tara. You can't stop this. You can't stop me, even with that sword. We both know that.”
“You're right.” Tara narrowed her eyes. “I can't stop you. But I know who can.”
And with a flick of her wrist, Tara slashed through the leather straps that held the Observer in place.
“Hey, am I dead again?” Rainbow Dash asked as the last few rounds of combat wrapped up.
A much-harried Chrono-Minion rolled his eyes, and then leaned over Rainbow's shoulder to peer at her character sheet. “No,” he said, “but you've lost a leg”
“Really? Sweet!” Rainbow Dash began to hop on one foot. ”That just means, like, I can get a new robot foot, right? Like, it could be a ROCKET FOOT so I could fly, and then do super amazing mega-kicks! BOOSH!”
“I guess we can do that later. Um. Let's just get you with the rest of the wounded, okay?” Fluttershy said, and guided Rainbow Dash to the corner of the ballroom that had been set up as a makeshift imaginary triage center-- one that was depressingly full.
Fluttershy sat Rainbow Dash in an empty chair, and then bustled off to find more wounded.
“Ace! My friend!” Alixiares of Thebes said from where he lay on the table itself. “What a battle! Did you not see me there, in the thick of the fray?”
Rainbow winced. “I'm sure it was cool?”
“It was not cool! It was, in fact, it was hot! Hot with the glorious thrill of battle! You shall have the honor of being the first to hear of my latest exploits!
Rainbow Dash began to scream inside.
“Where's Twi--” Sunset Shimmer shook her head, “where's Tara?” She realized she was never going to get used to that.
“Looks like she's over there, talkin' to them 'portant lookin' folk.” Applejack pointed. Sure enough, Twilight huddled around the Cardinal, Bertram, the Observer, and a few other important looking time travelers. Finally, she exchanged a few grateful bows and handshakes, and pried herself away from the group.
“So that's that.” Twilight said. “Captain Jennifer March is dead. I think she even died before she could send herself a message from her future, so there's another branching paradox … nothing that the Council can't deal with.”
“Dead?” Sunset blurted. “But I thought you two were … “
“We were.” Twilight said, and wiped the corner of her eye. “Not anymore.”
“Are you … are you okay?” Sunset Shimmer said. While the battle, and the whole game was pretend, the tear tracks lining Twilight's cheeks looked entirely too real.
“Don't worry.” Twilight pulled the large vial of Reset out of her pocket, and popped the cork. “I will be.”