37
With a small smile Aegis Flare locked up the last of the display cases around her home after placing one of her latest acquisitions from the Everfree, this time an odd necklace of beads with a small skull-shaped charm. “That was a rather odd town, but pretty friendly despite what they looked like. Surprising that they had been hidden on the edge of Equestria without being noticed for so long though but that area is rather sparsely populated. Maybe I'll visit them sometimes in the future when they aren't being threatened by a pack of displaced windigos.”
Wiping a hoof one more time across the top of the case she turned to head towards her study where she relaxed for a while thinking over the recent months. Some events she wondered why she was even around other than to support her friends and some she wondered just what they were thinking when they happened.
vvvvvvvvvv
“Are you sure you don't need help with anything Pinkie? My parents never had any issues with me but I remember that Scootaloo was trouble sometimes as a filly and she was never at full strength at the time.”
Pinkie Pie just shook her head as she lightly panted from her recent efforts. “Nope, the Cakes trusted me to do this and I Pinkie Promised that I wouldn't let them down. Now if you'll excuse me I have a flying unicorn to catch. Wait! Pound! Don't touch tha-!”
-THOOM!-
Pinkie raced off leaving Aegis Flare to stare at the spot she once was with a look of concern as various sounds of destruction rang out from Sugarcube Corner.
“Pumpkin! No! Not the weasels, not the weasels!”
-SKREE!-
“Right, no help needed, huh?”
vvvvvvvvvv
“Really? Just because you didn't take first place you didn't want to return to Ponyville?” The orange unicorn looked at the orange earth pony as she shook her head at her.
“Well I told everypony that ah was going to return with all that prize money ta fix the town hall but I didn't earn anything. I just didn't want ta disappoint them all by coming home with without it.” Aegis Flare just facehoofed at Applejack's response before looking over towards Rainbow Dash for a moment before turning back to her.
“You do remember that both me and Rainbow Dash do better than you at some of the events they have here, right? And none of us do it all constantly like some of the professionals that train for it as a living. So why would we be disappointed about you taking more ribbons than any other pony there?”
Applejack froze in place as her words hit her before she started to look sheepish. “Ah guess ah never thought about it that way.”
vvvvvvvvvv
“Daww, too bad, Apples.“
“Guess you'll just have to find a new line of work that doesn't match your names quite so... perfectly.”
“Now should we tear down all these tacky old buildings and put up new ones, brother?”
“I don't see why not, brother. After all, this isn't Sweet Apple Acres anymore. How about 'Flim Flam Fields'?”
Aegis Flare stopped from where she was counting the barrels again and whipped her head around to glares at the two unicorns. “Excuse me?! I don't think I heard you there, what was that again?”
At the threatening tone of voice all the nearby Ponyvillians whipped their heads around to stare at her warily as she rarely if every openly showed her emotions to the town. Those closest even backed away as they felt a wave of heat roll off of her fur though Flim and Flam seemed oblivious to it all. “We won so all of this is now ours to do what we will with it. Those were the details of our bet that we just won.”
As his brother nodded along with him Aegis Flare's eyes narrowed before she looked over his shoulder at the ruined section of the orchard which brought a grin to her face. The two unicorns only now stepped back at the look on their faces as they started to sweat a little. “Actually if I remember it right the exact bet was for the 'exclusive right to sell cider in Ponyville' and not for Sweet Apple Acres. Of course that means you'll still have to pay for all the apples you used for the cider as well as all the trees you destroyed. If I'm adding thing up right you might just barely make enough to pay the Apple family back for everything, of course since you just tried to steal their home any future apples you need for your cider will have to come from somewhere else, but since their family owns just about every apple orchard in Equestria that may be a bit difficult.”
The two looked at each other with eyes full of worry before they turned towards their stack of cider barrels. For the next couple hours their cider was sold though over half of it had to be thrown out as it was contaminated by the trees that were ripped up. In the end they had to use not only all the money they had made to pay back the apple family but they also had to sell them their machine as well as the rights to sell cider on town once again.
As the two raced out of town to avoid any further problems the Apple family moved to thank all those that had helped them out that day. “Ah can't believe that ah didn't remember that we only bet the cider and not the whole farm. But what are we going ta do with this hunk a junk now?”
Applebloom was looking over the machine before she turned to her sister. “Couldn't we use it next year? Maybe not for everything but it sure would help with harvesting at least.”
Applejack looked ready to argue before she looked out over all the satisfied ponies before she sighed. “Ah'll think about it, but only after Twilight looks over it first.”
vvvvvvvvvv
“Wait, Fluttershy of all ponies did all that?!” Rarity nodded to Aegis Flare before Aloe started taking a file to her horn.
“Yes, the poor dear, and it was mighty dreadful during it all but everything did turn out all right in the end. I do wonder where that Iron Will character went after everything that happened though.” The orange unicorn just shrugged as Lotus worked on the scarred muscles of her hind leg.
“I'd almost thank him for helping him break Fluttershy out of her shell like that if it wasn't for her taking his teachings too far. She really does need to learn when to stand up for herself more often.”
^^^^^^^^^^
She chuckled at the last memory before going back to her reading when she was interrupted by a frantic knocking on her front door. When she answered it she found Spike breathing heavily as if he had run all the way from the library. “Flare! Quick! Cerberus! Ponyville! Attack! Help!”
The unicorn looked confused for a moment before she sighed and lifted the dragon onto her back. “Just point the way while you catch your breath. Of course something had to happen just as I get back from a difficult trip through the Everfree.”
The young dragon pointed her towards the other end of town and when he finally caught his breathe explained what was happening. Her mind was cycling through ideas on what could be done, since even Celestia would be hard pressed against the jailer of Tartarus, though it was all for naught as Fluttershy had already calmed the giant canine by the time they arrived.
As Twilight and Fluttershy led Cerberus away, Aegis Flare turned to look at Spike. “Well that was a waste of time, though I guess it is odd enough of an animal that who knows if Fluttershy could have helped. Twilight seemed much too happy about all of this chaos though, did something odd happen while I was gone?”
Spike took the opportunity to climb down from her back and cracking his back before responding. “Oh she's just having one of her moments after her future self from next Tuesday appeared and tried to tell her something. Before she could tell her she disappeared again and Twilight has been worried ever since especially since she looked all beat up.”
He paused when he saw that the unicorn had stiffened up before she moved over to a nearby tree and started lightly hitting it with her head, punctuating each word.. “Why. Does. It. Have. To. Be. Time. Travel. I. Hate. Time. Travel.”
Looking at her for a moment, Spike tried to stop her from hurting herself. “Whoa, it can't be that bad. It's not like you've had personal experience with it yourself, right?”
She glared at the young dragon for a moment at his words before she sighed and shook her head at him. “You read a lot of comic books, tell me, what happens when time travel happens in one of them?”
Spike just snorts as he rolls his eyes as everything he had read came to mind. “What doesn't happen? So far they've had the world blow up, the universe blow up, the villain becoming the hero and the hero the villain, once they even changed what species even lived in the world. Frankly those comics usually just aren't that good and end up with nothing really happening.”
By this time Aegis Flare's eye was twitching and Spike was starting to suspect she was about to have what he had dubbed a Twilight Moment. “That's not even the start of everything that can happen or you have to deal with. There's dozens of ways to actually do time travel and each of them has their own kinds of paradoxes that can happen. Will doing anything change anything? Will not doing anything change anything? When you return are you even returning to your own world after it all? Are you leaving your family behind to have to fend for themselves? Time travel is one of the biggest pain in the flank things that you can deal with and I want absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Spike slowly backed away as the unicorn stomped off towards her home again before wiping a claw across his brow. “Wow, and I thought Twilight was the only one that would do that. Maybe it's a unicorn thing.” With a shrug he wandered off back towards the library for a well-deserved nap.
<><><><><><><>
It wasn't until the next Tuesday that Aegis Flare saw any of her friends when Twilight Sparkle came pounding on her door. Now that Tuesday had arrived she was a bit more relaxed than she was the rest of the week though there was still a bit of tenseness. When she opened it Aegis Flare found herself the victim of a devastating glare from Twilight's uncovered as her friend jabbed at her chest with a hoof while still looking a mess. “You knew! You knew what was going to happen and you said nothing about it! I spent all week worrying about something bad happening just to find out that I went back in time just to tell me not to worry but past me didn't give me the time to!”
Aegis Flare let out a sigh of relief when she heard how everything went which earned her another glare. “So it was just a predestination paradox? That's a relief, I was worried that it would be something worse.”
Twilight's glare flipped to a look of confusion at her friend's words and reaction. “Wait, a what paradox? You mean there were other things that could have happened?”
With a shake of her head the orange unicorn invited her friend inside. “There are a few types of paradoxes as well as many forms of time travel. I'm guessing you probably found one of Star Swirl's safer spells since he made so many, though he wasn't that smart actually creating them in the first place and I bet that's why he disappeared.”
The unicorn librarian jerked backwards at hearing her friend say such a thing about one of her greatest idols. “How could you say something like that about Starswirl the Bearded?! He was one of the smartest unicorns of his time and was a genius what with all the spells he created for the world. Without him Equestria would probably still be in the dark ages when it comes to magic.”
The other mare had to roll her eyes at her friend's hero-worship of the stallion before she sighed. “I'm not saying he wasn't normally brilliant, but when it came to his time magic research everything he did was moronically dangerous. In fact in some of his apprentice Clover's journals she started to describe how in his later years he got more and more erratic as he kept searching for things and ponies that weren't there. I'm betting that in those years it wasn't even our Starswirl and when he finally vanished he either died during the spell or his replacement did.”
Twilight looked a combination of confused and amazed at what the orange mare was saying and her curiosity started to grow. “I'm surprised you even knew about those journals, not many ponies actually read those anymore and they just gather dust in the Canterlot Archives. But how do you know so much about his research as well as everything else about time magic?”
She regretted even asking as Aegis Flare seemed to look through her and a hint of horror entered her eyes. “I can't talk about that right now, maybe in the future but just not right now.” Twilight started to worry as her friend began to shake a little before she quickly invaded the kitchen for something to calm her friend's nerves.
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Wow. This chapter gets you a bonus point. I think this story is at.... 3 now?
7464414 All part of the plan. I think I have all of the set-up done now for a later chapter with this one. It's actually starting to get to the point that the episodes are going to start coming apart at the seams compared to canon.
Me thinks that she has experience with time travel.
after rereading this i believe she had a rather hellish temporal time thanks to a certian temple that deals with time, becuase even discords like nope not touching that with a ten foot pole strap to an alligator
I take it they were out of bearclaws?
Heh, yeah
I feel your pain... not the physical pain obviously, (rare is the time I bang my head against something) but I know the headache that time travel tends to cause
Uh-huh