A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

Chapter 6

As Flurry Heart told the group that they needed to go see Star Swirl, Celestia would calmly tell the child that they are going as soon as they get a letter response.

Luna approached Flurry and Celestia. "Flurry Heart, It is obvious to all of us that you are from the future. Why have you come to this specific period in time?"

Flurry Heart took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. "Time started to fall apart, so Sunburst and my mother sent me to what they thought was the second time there was an instance of time-shattering. At least, he hoped to get close to it. He said the first instance was unreachable."

Twilight would look to Celestia and Luna. "How would future Sunburst be able to pinpoint that?" Celestia would look to her former student and begin to reply. "Remember just before you became an alicorn? That place is called Caelum, and there you are able to view the past. Sunburst of the future must have found a way to access it and use it to view problems with the timeline."

Spike would fly in and give his input. "Thought-provoking question here, how can the future fall apart and all of us still be safe?"

Luna would think to herself. "A question best reserved for Star Swirl to answer." Suddenly, Twilight's horn would glow and a letter would emerge. "Who seems to have just responded."

Twilight would unravel the letter and read allowed. "I will be there as soon as possible, do not separate." As soon as she finished reading, Star Swirl would teleport into the room, already facing Twilight. "Forgive me for not coming sooner, Show me the shard and I will begin to-" He would be inspecting the room to see who was all inside, his glance stopping at Flurry Heart.

"Perhaps this is more urgent than I first anticipated."

The group would get Star Swirl up to speed as he sat down inspecting the shard of time. He didn't have any useful answers to the group's questions, all he could do was ponder at the moment.

Star Swirl would close his eyes and gently set the shard down. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I only know as much as all of you. However, all hope is not lost."

"Long ago, Scorpan and I used to write to each other after we banished his brother to Tartarus. One subject that always fascinated him was time travel, he would write his theories on the timeline and I would write back. When the pillars and I went to face Stygian, I made time to visit Scorpan one final time."

"I knew that I would no longer be the one to watch over time, so I entrusted that responsibility to Scorpan. I left him copies of all my scrolls and bid him farewell. I have not seen him since, for I feared he had passed away long before I returned. Though, seeing as how his brother still lives, the same case could be for Scorpan."

Applejack was the first to respond. "So, where do you think Scorpan is?" Starswirl would walk over to a globe in the room, spinning it to point southwest of Equestria. "It takes more than a week for a pegasus to get to the former Taurus Kingdom, though if all four alicorns in the room combine their strength, all of us can teleport straight there, assuming one of them has been there before."

Celestia would stand in the middle of the other alicorns. "I have been to Taurus, lend me your strength and I will send us there" The other alicorns did not waste time locking horns with Celestia. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and with a magical echo, they were there.

Twilight and Celestia would go ahead and raise the sun to end the night. When the area was lit, they saw that all around them was a red rocky desert. There did not seem to be any sense of direction, for all the distant mountains looked the same. Star Swirl would glance around and point himself in a direction. "You did a fine job getting us close, it is not far in this direction." He started off, the group catching up to walk with him.

The main six have faced worse walking trips in their life, so this wasn't so bad by comparison. In less than two hours travel, the group arrived at a small house in the middle of nowhere. Nothing was nearby except for a well out front.

Some of the group went for water, while Twilight and Celestia went to knock on the door. There was no response. She then would unlock the door with her magic and step inside, it seemed like a normal house at first glance.

Star Swirl entered behind her. "Do not be fooled, this is no ordinary house." The old wizard would magically levitate a bookcase to the side, revealing a candlelit staircase leading down. He would start down the stairs thinking nothing of the strangeness of a hidden passage, Celestia and Twilight looked to each other, and then followed after him.

What the three saw at the bottom of the stairs was a large room with books and crystals resting on shelves. In the middle of the room rested a sleeping gargoyle who was sprawled across a desk and chair. Star Swirl would approach him and magically shake his arm. "Scorpan."

Scorpan would start to wake up, putting on a pair of glasses that laid on the desk. "Star Swirl," He began, in a half-awake state. The gargoyle stood up to greet his friend. "You've been free from Limbo for some time and you only now visit your old friend?" He said with a smile across his face. The unicorn smiled back and rested his hoof against his arm. "It is good to see you again, Scorpan."

Twilight was having to keep herself together in the background, she thought to herself that she has met plenty of historical figures in her life and this would be no different. She coughed into her hoof and stepped forward to greet him. "Hello Scorpan, I am-"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, It is nice to meet you face to face," Scorpan said, cutting her off. The rest of the group would arrive at the bottom of the stairs to see Scorpan shaking the hoof of Twilight. Flurry Heart would gallop over and approach the gargoyle. "It's nice to meet you and all Scorpan, but we came to you because of a crisis."

Scorpan let go of Twilight's hoof and adjusted his glasses, taking a deep sigh. "I believe I am already aware of the situation. At the moment, I am trying to find a solution to the problem. So far, I don't have any solid answers."

The ponies would look at each other a bit concerned, but Scorpan would attempt to give them some hope. "Well, based on how old Flurry Heart is, we still have many years before a crisis takes place. With all of our minds together, I guarantee we will fix this."

"Now! Who is in the mood for some breakfast? I normally only prepare for one person but I'm sure I can get all of us something." Scorpan continued, walking up the staircase back into the normal house above. "Finally, someone with their head straight," Rainbow said, trotting after him. Luna would stay behind for a moment to talk Twilight and the others. "This is likely a good opportunity to ask him some questions. We don't want to interrupt his research."

The others agreed and accepted Scorpans offer to eat. Many of the group sat on the floor due to an understandable lack of chairs, however, the food was surprisingly good. A hermit with years of practice apparently learned to decently cook somewhere along the way.

Twilight would only be a few bites in before she spoke up. "Scorpan, if you don't mind, some of us have a few questions for you,"

"You are all my guests, ask away any questions you have." He said, stirring around his bowl of soup with a spoon. Star Swirl would go first. "You and your brother have lived far longer than most other creatures."

"Long ago, a plague broke out in Taurus. Because our nation was feared by all those that surrounded it, we received no aid. Other than Princess Celestia, who was unable to help. Tirek and I's mother, Queen Hayden, cast a spell on us. She told us that it would protect us for as long as her love would last. As you can see, we have yet to perish."

"That plague is why we came to Equestria in the first place, I simply wanted my brother and I to find a new home. Tirek wanted to expand a nation that no longer existed, hoping to earn his deceased father's respect."

The group was a bit quiet, Spike asked the question that he had been saving for a while. "Flurry says that in her future, all of time started to fall apart. How does it make sense that it doesn't affect us." Scorpan put his wrist against his chin as he thought. "It's something I do not understand, my best guess is because the event that caused time to fully shatter has yet to happen."

Flurry would stand up and walk up to Scorpan, looking him eye to eye. It was clear that she was determined to sort out this disaster. "When was the first time this happened?"

Scorpan would set his soup bowl to the side and rise up out of his chair, facing the staircase. "Long before any of us were born. If you are all done eating, I can show you."

Pinkie would frantically pull the rest of her food into her mouth, talking in a muffled voice. "Done."

Back downstairs, Scorpan would start off by saying essentially the same things that Sunburst had told Flurry Heart. "By using the more dangerous method of time travel, you are not only able to go further back, but can bypass missing segments of the timeline. However, the first instance is too far back to be reached by any method, and on top of that, it seems to be magically immune to change from past events. It is as if it's separated from all timelines, yet present at the same time."

Scorpan would be talking as he seemed to be preparing something. A few moments after he was finished, he turned around holding a strange crystal. "Using this, you can view segments of it. Since this is visual only and I have seen it before, I will narrate as best as I can."

"A long, long time ago."

Comments

[Ultra-the-HedgeToaster]

Uh... A post season 9 fic... "published September 26th, 2018"? How?

And it says "5 comments"... yet there are none.

Something's not right here.

[misterslime12]

9955729
Discord appeared IRL.

[GamePlayer64]

If Scorpan is responsible for it; BLAST HIM IN THE HEART!!!

[Starlight Nova]

You reply to comments by moving your mouse over to the right hand side of the comment you want to reply to and clicking on the >> that appears. If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[cuddlyluna]

9955865

I'd imagine Flurry having a fairly standard girl voice. For Scorpan, it's best to just use your imagination for him.

Algea however, sounds like a girl talking through a filter.

[cuddlyluna]

9955729

This story is actually a complete rewrite of an old unfinished story by the same name. I suppose when I changed everything and deleted the old chapters, the comments tied to those chapters got deleted as well.

I would have just deleted the old story and made a new story with no views yet, but FimFiction prefers if you don't upload rewrites.