The train ride gets more and more tense as the train approaches Griffin Gorge. Sam has updated Lero’s herd, as well as the other ponies that joined them. Lyra had called them the Element Bearers. Which leads to even more confusion, when the ponies explain to him what the Elements of Harmony are. Though the one called Pinkie Pie did tell him that the Elements of Harmony had turned Discord to stone for a thousand years.
Rainbow Dash perks up as the train’s brakes squeal as it slows down. She hops off the bench and trots quickly to the door. She waits impatiently as the train finally stops and the rest of the ponies join her. The door opens and she immediately takes to the air. They get onto the platform and Rainbow Dash rushes over to a… Sam takes a step forward as he tries to understand exactly what he’s seeing.
“A real life griffin.” Al murmurs, “Sam, if I wasn’t seeing this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.”
The griffon and Rainbow Dash embrace and they both turn towards Sam, “Dr. Beckett, This is Gilda.”
The griffin extends a claw, “Nice to meet you, I received a letter from Princess Celestia, letting you know we were coming, and it was related to the lost Princess Twilight.”
Sam looks at the claw for a long moment, Gilda leans over, “You are right, he looks exactly like your Lero, are you sure it’s not him?”
Rainbow Dash nods as Sam finally breaks from his fugue to grasp the extended claw, Sam smiles, “Yes, I’m just trying to find Twilight.”
Gilda smiles, something that Sam would have sworn impossible in a creature with a beak like the griffin, but it’s quite unmistakable, “Then, let’s get going. But where, exactly?”
Sam looks at Al, who is working the comlink as quickly as he can, he looks at Sam bleakly, “According to the report, her time of death would be within a few days of today, Sam. And the report specifically states that an exact date or time of death was impossible to determine due to the condition of the body. I can’t say for certain if she’s alive or not right now. But her body was found in the caves outside the city.”
Gilda looks at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, “Are you thinking the same place that I am?”
Rainbow nods as she spreads her wings, along with Gilda, “We’ve been there before, Pinkie, lead the rest over there. We are going ahead!” Rainbow Dash zips over to Sam, and she gently wraps her forehooves around Sam, who gasps as the compact pegasus lifts him off the ground like he’s nothing. He watches in amazement as she zooms into the air with the griffin. He turns his head to watch her wings furiously working as they fly along. There is no way that wings that small can lift this much weight that easily. He closes his eyes, once again, these ponies treat physics like it’s a plaything. No wonder that pink pony can do everything she does.
Rainbow quickly shifts as they fly, he watches a city populated by griffons flow by, he has to catch himself mentally, Twilight’s life hangs in the balance. He can’t be gawking at everything he sees. She shifts to change direction again, and she starts to descend. A cave entrance seems to be her destination. And in moments they land.
Sam holds out a hand to keep Rainbow Dash quiet, and Al appears. He looks at Al and gestures, Al smiles and taps his comlink a few times, causing him to disappear. After a few moments, Al’s voice floats back, “Sam you had better get in here.”
Sam leaps up and sprints through the entrance to the cave. He quickly takes in the scene before him. Twilight is unconscious, a violet unicorn is standing with a griffon.
“Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow Dash screams as she streaks towards the griffon, Sam pumps his legs as he rushes the unicorn, unheeding the potential of magic from the pony. He crashes into the pony and they crash into the ground. As they roll, he can feel something he’s only felt twice before. The pony melts and changes shape in his grasp. And in moments he has a unicorn in his grasp, though this one is pure white with a black mane and tail, and he can see the cutie mark on his flank, a stop watch with a lightning bolt through it. He scrambles to hold onto the unicorn as he starts to squirm in Sam’s grip.
“A leaper.” Sam murmurs.
“Another jumper.” The unicorn whispers.
“Hold on!” Gilda says, she’s standing before Twilight, keeping her body as a block to keep the others from getting to her, “That was a unicorn mare just a second ago.”
Sam wraps his arms around the unicorn’s neck, and his legs around the stallion’s barrel as the unicorn tries to squirm away. The unicorn’s horn lights up, and Sam remembers something that Lyra had told him, he reaches and raps on the unicorn’s horn sharply, getting the magic to extinguish and the unicorn to growl in pain.
“Hold him.” Rainbow Dash says as the griffon she had tackled bats her hard with sharp talons. Her blood drips on the floor as she scrambles away.
Sam keeps a hand on the unicorn’s horn as he watches the pegasus and griffon fight. Rainbow Dash flashes forward, hitting the griffon impossibly fast before leaping away as the griffon attempts to swipe at her again. Rainbow leaps into the air and does a short loop in the air, before landing on the griffon’s back, she uses a hard hoof and smacks the griffon repeatedly in the face. After several devastating hits, the griffin’s body goes slack. Rainbow stands up, her chest heaving, “How is Twilight.” She pants.
Gilda works to get the purple alicorn onto her back, “She’s alive, but I don’t know why she’s not waking up.”
The unicorn in Sam’s grip chuckles, Sam hits the unicorn’s horn, hard, the unicorn flinches, “So, you are stuck like me. But then, I’ll jump out of here, and continue to disrupt the harmony of Equestria in somepony else.”
Rainbow Dash gasps, “Jump, as in a leap, like what you do, Sam?”
Sam nods grimly as the unicorn attempts to squirm away once again, “Yeah. I hope the rest get here soon.”
Rainbow looks back at the entrance to the cave, “Yeah, they’ll be a couple of hours. I think we need to get going, now. We’ll head towards town.”
Sam wrestles the unicorn, snapping his horn as it glows again, the unicorn growls, “I’ve failed. Why am I not jumping?”
Sam growls right back, “I think it’s because I’m holding you.”
“Well, let me go!”
“Are you kidding me? You’ve got my herdmate, and because of you, Sam here had to leap into my stallion. So don’t you start whining about your leaping.” Rainbow Dash snarls.
“Sam, ask when he’s from.” Al says, tapping his comlink.
Sam repeats the question, to sullen silence from the white unicorn. Rainbow Dash extends her wings, then remembers that an unconscious Twilight is on her back, she subsides and simply glares at the unicorn in Sam’s grip.
They walk in relative silence for a while, every so often the unicorn squirms in Sam’s grip. He keeps an eye on the horn, snapping it forcefully if the unicorn tries to use his magic.
Finally, Rainbow perks up, “There they are!” She says as she breaks into a gallop. Gilda stays with Sam, her carrying the unconscious griffin on her own back.
Lyra’s magic lifts the alicorn off of Rainbow Dash, then she turns to the unicorn in Sam’s grip, “And what do we have here?”
Sam frowns as the unicorn is gently lifted from his grip. Lyra’s green aura enfolds the unicorn’s horn. She smiles at Sam, “I’m a member of the Royal Guard, I’ll hold him.”
Sam keeps a hand on the stallion, “I think I’m somehow preventing him from leaping.”
Lyra looks at Sam, surprised, “He’s like you?”
Sam nods, “I think so. When I touched him, his form changed. I’ve only had that happen when I’ve had to deal with another leaper.”
“It’s over, right?” Rainbow Dash chirps, “We’ve caught him, we’ve saved Twilgiht.
Sam looks at Al, “What does that do to the history?”
Al starts to walk around, tapping away at the comlink, “It’s really weird, war still happens. This unicorn seems to be dedicated to disrupting Equestria.”
Sam turns and hits the unicorn’s horn, hard. The unicorn flinches, “Hey, I wasn’t doing anything! What gives?”
“You are going to tell me why you are doing this?”
The unicorn cocks his head to the side, “And why would I tell anything to a monkey man like you?”
Sam growls, “Because Twilight is still unconscious. And I don’t know what you know about humans.” He glances at Rainbow and the other ponies, “But I’m getting hungry.”
“Oh, wh-whatever.” The unicorn stammers, “I k-know that humans don’t eat ponies.”
Sam grabs the unicorn’s muzzle, staring into the unicorn’s eyes, “You know about Lero, you don’t know about me. I’m human, and I think you’ll be a good snack.”
The white unicorn visibly blanches and tries to shy away, Lyra holds him fast in her magic, “You can’t kill me. It’s wrong to kill.”
“Does that include those that have been killed by your creating chaos?”
He flinches at the heat in Sam’s voice, “That’s different, I’m merely disrupting the harmony. The consequences of that are outside my control!”
“Ah, but creating chaos is my job.” Comes a new voice. Sam turns back and looks, he knows that voice.
“Discord.”
With a white flash of light, the draconequus appears, his mismatched forelegs spread wide, a red fez on his head and wearing a bow tie around his neck, “Ta-daa.”
“Sam, something changing, I don’t know what yet, but I think we are changing things.” Al calls out.
Discord steps up to the unicorn, “Well, White Knight, I didn’t know you were jumping around in my domain.”
The unicorn flinches, “Discord, since you’ve gone all namby pamby on the ponies, there is not enough chaos in the world. Everything ends up…” He sticks out his tongue, “Predictable.”
The yellow and red eyes of Discord narrow as he leans down, “I am the seeker of balance, the injector of chaos into the harmony of the ponies. If the balance goes the wrong way, I will know. You…” He flicks the unicorn’s horn, “Have no right to decide differently.”
Discord turns and looks at Sam, “So, your mega computer has a solution?”
Al steps forward, “A quantum surge through the chamber at the right phase, if it’s transmitted when Sam and this unicorn are in contact.” He taps his comlink, “it should disrupt the other’s ‘quantum signature’ and knock him back to his correct time, locking him there.”
Discord glances at Sam, then back to Al, “Go on.”
“The problem is it risks cutting the connection to Sam, or worse, getting Sam ‘stuck’ in Equestria and have him continue to leap here.”
Discord brings up his lion’s paw to his chin and plays with his beard for a moment, “Dr. Beckett, I’m guessing you need to make the decision?”
Sam sighs and looks around at the ponies, “Yes. There is a chance I’ll be leaping up and down your history and timelines.”
Discord smiles, “And what is wrong with that?”
Sam’s hands flutter a bit, “Well, the only human I would able to leap into would be Lero.” That gets a gasp from Rainbow Dash and from Lyra.
“And?”
“Well.” Sam gulps, “I’ll likely be turned into a pony by the surge. And the Quantum Leap institute would lose track of me, forever.”
Discord’s eyebrows raise up, completely off his forehead. He notices and grabs them, placing them back where they belong, “Well. Make your decision.”
Sam looks at Rainbow Dash for a long moment, her standing there with Twilight Sparkle on her back. After a long moment, he looks at Lyra, “Give him to me.”
Her magic floats the unicorn over and Sam grabs him, “Go for it, Al.” Sam says softly.
Al starts tapping on his comlink, “Okay, yes, this does it Sam. Here we go.” Al comes forward and taps the link a few times, Sam can hear the sound of the Quantum Leap starting to take effect, Al continues, “The war is averted, Lero, along with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Lyra all end up getting married and they live a long time together, happily.” Al continues to talk, but the words are drowned out by the effect of the leap. He closes his eyes and lets the energy of the leap take him.